Ferrari Mailing List: Re: OFF TOPIC - RE: Related to Business Banking

[Dennis Liu (BigHeadDennis]

BWAHAHAHAAHA!!!!

Man, I'm actually chuckling out loud here, for a multitude of reasons.  The
leading two of which are:

1.  I'm prescient!

2.  Can't avoid it, it's a socialist sentiment.

3.  Dr. Steve, wrapping himself in the flag and his own righteous
indignation, has resorted to the "chickenhawk" argument, the last refuge of,
well, fill it in how you will.

==========

Back in September, I wrote a (mostly) humorous summation of Flist threads
disintegrate.  Therein, I wrote that Brian Buxton and SteveJ would start a
totally off topic thread:

>Which invites a round of comments from the usual suspects (me included, all
too often).
<snip>
>Dennis will take the time to write an incredibly long-winded, detailed,
footnoted 17 page dissertation, demonstratively showing how
Tom/Lashdeep/Paul/Mark/Brian much, categorically, absolutely, papally must
be wrong about the conspiracy, but no one reads it because it's much too
boring.
>Handa, who actually does read it, goads Dennis on.
>Dr. Steve writes an even longer, more right-wing response, bringing up some
aspect of warfare, policing, self-defense or explosives.

Hah!

==========

Re: "Communism"

Now, now, Dr. Steve, don't be so thin-skinned.  Anyone with an IQ above
ambient New England temps today knows that no one REALLY believes that
you're actually a "communist", in the "student of Marxist/Lenist/Maoist
theory" and "advocate of the overthrow of the bourgeoise" vein.  I was just
teasing you because you, Mr. Right winger, are actually, nevertheless,
advocating a SOCIALIST position.

Socialism = an economic doctrine which expresses the struggle for the equal
distribution of wealth by eliminating private property and the exploitative
ruling class.  In practice, such a distribution of wealth is achieved by
social ownership of the means of production, exchange and diffusion.


Dr. Steve, you expressed dismay that you could not get a specific type of
service from the post office.  

I responded that you could, in fact, get EXACTLY the type of service that
you wanted.  Indeed, you could get the service from not just one, but two
competing private companies that are slugging it out against each other in
the free market to provide these services.  Capitalism.

But Dr. Steve doesn't like having to pay $10/month or $100/year for these
services.

Instead, he is advocating that the GOVERNMENT instead provide these
services, at no (PERCEIVED) cost to the consumer.

Let's repeat - he doesn't like the free market providing the services (that
meet not only a consumer need, but Dr. Steve's OWN PERSONAL NEED).  Nope.
He wants the government to UNDERCUT (or cut-off!) these two free market
companies, so that it can provide the service itself.

Dude, no matter how many VC you may have shot in Vietnam, that's a socialist
proposition.

The IRS has a monopoly on collecting taxes.  I can get their publications
and forms for free, and spend weeks trying to figure it all out myself and
calculate my return by hand.  OR, I can hire a tax accountant, or H&R Block,
or buy a version of Turbo Tax and have my taxes done for me.  Wait a minute
- those bastard Henry and Reggie Block must be special interests living off
of the taxpayer's teats!  How dare they try to make money by providing a
service that the GOVERNMENT should be PROVIDING to taxpayers for free!  I
don't CARE that if the government DID try to provide those services, it
would cost hundreds of billions of dollars, all of which would have to be
paid with HIGHER TAXES on everyone.  I just don't like to see anyone making
money at this!  



Dr. Steve, take a deep breath.  You're saying that Pitney Bowes is something
like Halliburton, profiting from no-bid contracts awarded due to old-boy
relationships?  Just what are you smoking?  (wait, did that bastard Dennis
just call me a drug-user??)

Pitney Bowes is a private company that is slugging it out in the free
market.  It has large market share in some sectors, and it has gotten
CLOBBERED by competitors in others.  For postage meters, it competes against
at least three other companies.  For digital postage, it doesn't even
compete - Stamps.com and Endicia clobbered it.  So, if by your theory,
Pitney Bowes is somehow a special interest favored by the shadowy powers
that be, how could it lose - and lose so badly - in the rapidly growing
market for digital postage, one that Pitney Bowes should OWN??


Ok, now see the next email for the chickenhawk reply....

Vty,

--Dennis




  



________________________________

From: BRIGANDBAR [at] aol.com [mailto:BRIGANDBAR [at] aol.com] 
Sent: Monday, December 04, 2006 6:54 PM
To: BigHeadDennis [at] earthlink.net
Cc: ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com
Subject: Re: OFF TOPIC - RE: [Ferrari] Related to Business Banking


Dennis:
 
I have to say that since the days that I worked as a student in Barry
Goldwater's campaign, through the time that I slugged through the jungles of
Vietnam, to years of work in counter-terrorism no one has ever called me a
"Communist". Fascist once or twice, but never a Communist. I am sure you
earned the right to do that by fighting in either the jungles with me, or in
Somalia and a few other places, or in the desert country of the Middle East,
or some other diligent service to the country either first in the Cold War
or subsequently in the Middle East or in our struggle against terrorism and
terrorist attacks upon U. S. interests. Maybe you will enlighten us on how
and when you earned the right to attach that label on anyone. I know all
about free speech, but there is also the responsibility to temper that right
with sound judgement lest you become all that you seem to oppose.
 
Frankly, I don't give a damn if the U.S. government runs the Postal Service.
I just hate special interest contractors who profit at taxpayer's expense.
Remember, it is not voluntary taxation. I'm not sure how self-publishing
postage for packages differs from self-publishing stamps for first class
mail, but I'll explore that possibility and if it is in fact a free way to
get postage at my computer without paying Pitney Bowes or some other company
for the privilege of saving the government and taxpayers the costs of
printing and publishing stamps, etc. In the meantime perhaps you can perhaps
explain how disagreeing with your interpretation of free enterprise makes me
a Communist? Nor do I believe I am one of those Viva Cuba Libre. In fact
when I was out there attempting to control the adverse effects of the
Marialito invasion of the U.S. by Cuba I don't remember you participating in
that anti-Communist sparring event either.
 
And, you deliberately mischaracterize my comment that when the government,
for better or worse, decides with public ratification to provide a public
service it should not facilitate the creation of industries that piggy-back
off of that service and through a cooperative effort with the government
agency involved whether it is Haliburton or Pitney Bowes.
 
But I sincerely appreciate your concern for fighting my brand of Communism
with great risk to your carpal tunnel processes. That is probably what true
American patriotism and the Minuteman spirit is really about.
 
Dr. Steve 
 
1964 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III    1975 Pontiac GV Conv.
1980 MB 450SL                            1982 RR Corniche
1988 Rolls Royce Silver Spur         1994 F-350 Powerstroke 4x4          
1996 Bronco                                 2000 Lincoln Town Car
1995 Ferrari 348 Spyder                2004 Excursion
+ Audrey's 3x MB's
 
Dr. Stephen B. Spies, CES, CFI
Director, Forensic Sciences Laboratory
Explosives Engineering Technologies

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