Could the government decide to take 25% (or, pick your %) off the top of every 401(k) worth more than $500k?

Seriously.

If everyone spent almost everything and had no more than $100 in reserves the economy would be seriously booming right now.

Saver wrote:

Throwing away your right to be a terrorist in protected secrecy reduces the cost of identifying and monitoring terrorists.

Remember those high school math classes when you asked when you were ever gonna need the stuff?

Well, there are 300 million Americans. Several million die every year. Once, in the increasingly distant past, terrorists accounted for a couple thousand of those, but on average, far less.

Hundreds of thousands die of cardiovascular disease, about 200,000 of them preventably.

But your failure to retain 2nd grade arithmetic convinces you that somehow terrorism is the bigger danger. Would you let government spy on your meals and force you to exercise, to save you from heart disease? But when it comes to imaginary dangers, you go all-out nanny state. Your personality quickly inverts, your independence brushed aside by childish fear.

The saddest part is how you cling to that fear like teens to roller coasters and zombie movies. You seem to get a thrill from it. Or maybe a thrill from watching your government "fight" the danger. Makes you feel patriotic. It's one of the oldest propaganda tricks in the book, and you know it, but it fools you just the same.

B.W., you tend to lose some (not all, however!) of your credibility when you start with the personal attacks. (Just an fyi.)

I like balls in and around my mouth.

Well well well. You go on clinging to your fear of government and your paranoid dilutions. Yes, you are so important that jack booted thugs are preparing to take you down. Out of the 300,000,000, they have singled you out, and they are after you.

While you're hunkered down why don't you pull out the old number 2 and let us know how the deaths of the millions affected the gdp and the economy and the great spirit of this nation (outside of the liberals who converted to Islam) as compared to the deaths of the thousands. Sometimes counting on your fingers and doing your "bigger thans" doesn't reveal the whole truth. Some lives and crimes have more importance and a bigger impact on this country.

Like the constipated mathematician, you can work it out with a pencil.

Saver wrote:

Bad Wigins wrote:

The saddest part is how you cling to that fear like teens to roller coasters and zombie movies.

Well well well. You go on clinging to your fear of government and your paranoid dilutions.

You go on clinging to your second-grade debate skills. You can ape my language. You can fight straw men like liberals and muslims. Big deal.

Nobody with any knowledge of history thinks governments are harmless protectors. Comparing the real havoc they wreak, and the hundreds of thousands, often millions they kill every year, to the phantom threat of terrorism is ridiculous and can't be sustained by infantile rhetoric.

Guarding against government tyranny is not about fear, it's about common sense and self protection. Terrorism is about fear. Those who fear it, both media and media consumers, actively participate in the creation and maintenance of that fear. In so doing, you give terrorists exactly what they are after - attention. If you simply ignored them, they would get nowhere and give up.

Why don't people ignore them? As I explained, it's the thrill of the fight. A common enemy that unites them and makes them feel good. Winston Smith after his cure, cheering the Oceanian army's imaginary victory in Africa. Americans mostly know it's bogus, but they also love to root for the home team, so they play make-believe.

fdsafdfds wrote:

B.W., you tend to lose some (not all, however!) of your credibility when you start with the personal attacks. (Just an fyi.)

you can talk when you get a name other than "fdsafdfds"

Bad Wigins, can you tell me more about yourself. Your posts are very unique with interesting ideas. Where do you live? Age? Were you a runner? If you don't want to answer that's fine. I want to learn more about one of LR's greats.

Why would they go to the trouble when they can print money and have the same effect?

I agree with you Bad Wigins, except that while I'm not afraid of terrorism, I'm also not afraid of government tyranny. You don't need the thrill of that fight either.

The government has a role to play in national security. And yes, they go too far when people are afraid. But we hurt ourselves when we fear our own government.

Government can be transformed and elections do matter. Don't vote for someone who promises to tear down the government. Vote for those dedicated making government serve the people .

Bad Wigins wrote:

fdsafdfds wrote:

B.W., you tend to lose some (not all, however!) of your credibility when you start with the personal attacks. (Just an fyi.)

you can talk when you get a name other than "fdsafdfds"

Down you go, one more step.