Sarah Palin and the Tea Bag Party - Page 4

So break the US up into sweden-sized administrative districts. Oh, wait a minute. We already do that. This is a tired and old excuse for the failure of supply-side economics.

And we all know that big kitchens are what make people's standard of living high. Just like big cars, big TVs, big bellies...

How about infant mortality? How about evictions? How about panhandling and homelessness? See any of that in Europe? I've lived in Europe, and traveled extensively as well. What I saw were families with food on their table and good conversation.

I also lived in the States for 25 years. What I saw were beggars, fear of gun violence and lots and lots of hatred.

Uh, yeah. Pretty much. And you don't know much about China, for that matter. Modern China is not run as a socialist nation, though they still have their fucked up political system.

You should come visit Hong Kong some time. I'll show you around.

Yes, material possessions are how the developed world measures standards of living.

Take out illegals and drug addicts, and I'll wager our infant mortality rate is on par with other developed nations.
What is wrong with evictions? Thank god we don't have squatters rights, like the Netherlands and Holland. Our homeless are generally addicts. alcoholics or mentally impaired. I'm all for warehousing them in asylums or jails, like many European countries do. Get them off the streets. How is it you never came across the Roma in your extensive travels?
You must have lived in Detroit.

I try to avoid 3rd world countries; even ones with nice cities. The smell and threat of disease just don't do it for me anymore.

What exactly does "Christian born" mean? Christianity is a decision, not a birthright.

The more you talk about Hong Kong, the more I want to visit and perhaps figure out how to get a job there.

He means he was born to a Christian family and probably raised that way. It may or may not imply that he no longer believes, but it's kinda silly to pick a fight over that phrasing.

LMFAO. Astounding ignorance.

Hong Kong is part of a "Third world country!" OMG I'd better get out quick!

Um... Steve. Hong Kong is not a "nice city" in China. Hong Kong is run as a completely separate entity. Separate government (representative democracy just like the US, and gaining full democracy soon -- though not soon enough), separate economics, separate border. You really don't know much, do you?

We've got clean, fully regulated supermarkets, 7-11s and McDonalds on every street corner, virtually no homelessness (every city in the US), almost no rats (NYC), relatively inexpensive housing (though tiny flats I do admit) and very low cost of living if you know how to live in that way. We've got FTA HDTV in English, 100M broadband services for most areas, five internationally acclaimed universities. Great infrastructure. Disneyland. World renowned Ocean Park theme park, public and private housing, public and private hospitals, almost all physicians trained in the US or UK, no crime, no guns, no burglaries, no car-jackings, no knife muggings, no car break-ins for the radio, almost no panhandling (a few buskers and crippled panhandlers).

It's a great place. Like I said, you should visit.

And it's the world's freest economy for you Friedman lovers out there.

Thank you. I was indeed born to a Christian family (father raised Protestant, mother raised Catholic) and went to Sunday school as a kid, before being given my own choice and deciding in the way of science thanks to a very good education.

Oh? So both the Netherlands and Holland have squatters' rights? That's quite an achievement! I don't think those two countries have much more in common than that!

LOL... How could I not have caught this before?

Another American geography flunkie. Thinks Hong Kong is a "nice city in China" and knows very very little about Europe, despite having been there (so he says).

Obviously believes the false propaganda that the US has the best health care and education systems in the world. North Koreans think their country is the best in the world too.

Hey steve.

Can you please list these 'many' European countries that 'warehouse' the homeless and addicts?

Please. PLEASE.

I really, really want to see a list of those 'many' countries in Europe.

Or just, like... one.

Yet by your own reasoning, such a place can't exist.

I'm siding with Tonton here. Hong Kong is a great capitalist place. No one can be sure it would scale well because it is pretty darn vertical and small (7-8 million people.) It is also very homogenius in terms of the population. However I'm of the view that what is being done there doesn't suck.

What should happen though is that Tonton should wander back to California for a while. Then he would see that all the public transportation funds and infrastructure monies have been ransacked to pay for wealth transfer systems and thus the infrastructure in a heavily taxed, heavily blue state like California is complete crap. Then he could watch his daughter get booted out of UCLA and several other U of C schools even with what I'm sure would be amazing test scores and grades due to them redlining Asian Americans. He could see that Jerry "If you don't build it (infrastructure) they won't come" Brown is running for governor again. Finally he could watch industry flee due to the the lack of power and lack of ability to build or create anything related to one environmental challenge after another.

Then he could return to his beloved Hong Kong and realize what some of the views he espouses amount to when applied in the grand ol'U.S. How do you even have health care in HK ,Tonton? Aren't those greedy capitalist doctors just making up ailments to test you for so they can profit needlessly at your expense?

I think you're overlooking the fact that Hong Kong has an excellent socialist public housing policy, and almost free socialist health care.

"How do you even have health care in HK ,Tonton? Aren't those greedy capitalist doctors just making up ailments to test you for so they can profit needlessly at your expense?"

Let me tell you. We have great, cheap health care here because we have both a socialist system and a private option. The socialist system ensures that the industry's minimum pricing and quality of service is kept well in check by the government, rather than by the insurance companies (which do a thriving business, by the way, because many people still prefer the comfort level and convenience of private hospitals and clinics) so there is no conflict of interest. Meanwhile private practitioners who are not part of the public system need to keep their prices down to attract patients and contracts with insurers, lest patients choose the public option and insurers go with someone else. Big pharma has very little say because the government buys generic whenever necessary. The best private specialists can raise prices due to word-of-mouth reputation. It's win-win for everyone except big pharma and underqualified doctors who want to overcharge, which is alright by my book.

Oh, and because the system is inexpensive for patients (and employers require sick leave certificates), everyone in HK goes to the clinic whenever they get the slightest sniffle. Which keeps our doctors extremely busy (and profitable).

Unfortunately, this system can never be accepted in the US because once you say "public option" the jerks think it's the second coming of Mao H. Stalin.

A little OT, but are phones still free? When I visited HK back a few years, cell phone service was free, if I recall correctly.

HK is an awesome place. Spent a few days there; loved Lantau.

Phones can be fully subsidized, even with plans costing as little as US$11 per month for 1000 unrestricted minutes with carry-over, and no credit card pre-payment. So, almost free. Oh, and they are all fully unlocked GSM and HSPA phones. If you have a handset already, you can get a prepaid sim and pay as little as US$0.02 per minute.

My phone bill was $13 today (I paid it at the 7-11 downstairs with cash) because I have an SMS package.

To get a 16GB (unlocked) iPhone free you have to pay $51 per month and I think you would need a credit card for that. I just use a dumb phone and an iPod Touch with citywide Wi-Fi service that I get free with my $20 broadband TV/internet subscription.

Even if I needed 3G broadband with My iPod Touch, I could get a 3G to wi-fi egg that comes free with a $45 unlimited data plan. Combine that with Skype and you could theoretically use an iPod Touch as your main phone, with unlimited data to boot. But that doesn't make sense if you're only paying $11 for phone service and can find Wi-fi that you've already paid for on almost any street corner.

A member of the Tea Party, who sometimes told people she was a Teabagger, finally Googled the term, and was a little surprised..

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-b..._b_460769.html


The new name they came up with: Donkey Punchers.

They had better learn to Google better, they're taking a turn for the worst...

All that, and you still have 3rd world diseases, like outbreaks of the bird flu. You can only polish a turd so much.

LOL yeah... it's just a cess pool of disease.

Any place that gets routine outbreaks of avian flu, dengue fever, encephalitis and other 3rd world diseases is a cess pool.

I guess that makes us a cess pool, too. Swine flu anyone? Methinks that Steve's statements are just absolutely ridiculous and aren't worthy of any more response. I'll believe Tonton's first hand knowledge of Hong Kong over Steve's conservative fairy tales.

And steve, you never did tell us how big your friend's house was nor what sort of cars they drive. The self-imposed poor living paycheck to paycheck because they can't control their crazy spending.

Good then, put me on the ignore list.

Have you ever been to Japan?

Is that a third world polished turd, do you think?

What about Australia? Is that a third world polished turd?

Have you ever been to Sweden, or Norway? I know that Norway is the richest nation in the world, but it is a third world polished turd?

Actually, fuck it. Lets just cut to the chase.

Have you ever fucking left America?

I doubt he's left his mommy's basement.

Sarah Palin and her entire family enjoys 100% public, government provided health care.


Nice one, eh!

Entire document here.

Well let's hope you never travel to the 3rd world cesspools of New York City or Hawaii:

Urgent Update: Outbreak of St. Louis Encephalitis in NYC

West Nile (WN) virus infection identified in New York City during the 2004
mosquito season

Swine Flu Outbreak At Queens School

Dengue Fever, Hawaii, 2001-2002

Just the first few results from Google searches.

Hate to break it to you but Hong Kong IS just a nice city in China. Yeah, yeah, special administrative region or not...and much prettier than Shanghai perhaps but honestly, do you really believe that the SAR status means a whole lot if push comes to shove?

Constitutionally guaranteed until at least 2047, yes. It absolutely means a hell of a lot. I suggest you do some research.

Hong Kong's Constitution? I doubt it makes one bit of difference if it gets right down to it. But China would never violate the rights of a group of people right? After all, your happiness with them is their top priority.

Well, then you would be ignorant in such doubt.

When the UK agreed to return not only Kowloon, which was leased, but Hong Kong Island as well -- which they had every right to keep forever -- they did so on the terms that Hong Kong would have a completely separate and autonomous government made up exclusively of Hong Kong people, for the benefit of Hong Kong people. This was ratified and guaranteed by the PRC government. To renig on that guarantee would be tantamount to invasion in the eyes of international law.

Perhaps, but it would be interesting to see anyone try to stop the Chinese Army and Navy. Would the UK and US go to war over it? If China wanted to do something different than agreed to it would create a very precarious situation to be sure. However, I don't think China would actually do that.

Would the US and UK go to war if China invaded Taiwan? What's stopping that from happening?

China will neither invade Taiwan nor nullify the Basic Law (Hong Kong's 'constitution'). It's just not going to happen, and the implication that it 'could' happen is ignorant.

Here again seems to be more condescending attitude. Are you a liberal by chance?

Which banned person are you with a different user name?

I got asked the same question by a number of people when I first joined. What a welcome.

Watched some clips from the Tea Bag gathering, er, CPAC convention held recently. The ignorance portrayed was astounding, as was the listing of "enemies" that included practically every American not at the convention. I'm sure much of the country loves being labelled as an "enemy" by a convention featuring the likes and whites of Coulter, Beck, Palin (who backed out), Romney, Darth Cheney and others.

Loved Beck's rave against progressivism, which he called "evolution" (thought they didn't believe in that). He also bashed taxes and said he learned about them at the library, where books are free. Nobody in the crowd of Pure Ones™ thought twice about this one.

It was frighteningly funny to watch. All great material for the next elections.

These people seem to take glee in publicly, and at every opportunity, proving beyond any doubt that they are not quite operating on all four cylinders.

I think it's involuntary_serf / sslarson.

Might be dmz, too. Fond of fonts and uses philosophical terms eccentrically.

It would be enough to say "I'm sorry, but as an Ameerican who has lived in Hong Kong for 15 years, and who also spent a year at a factory in PRC, I think I know a little more about this than you do," except, you speak as though you think you have a great understanding on the matter. To be honest, not so much yourself. You seem rather civil in tone, which I appreciate. But posts like those from "stevegmu" -- with the astounding amount of ignorance they display while they concurrently throw out labels and sarcasm in an attempt to belitle and ridicule -- absolutely deserve their fair share of condescension.

sslarson is a bit more knowledgeable about capitalism and the free market. It's not him.

Look, you have attributed a 0% probability to something with 100% confidence and dismissed anyone who has suggested anything that disagrees with your assessment as ignorant. That seems a bit smug to me. So you have lived in Hong Kong for 15 years, this also doesn't seem to stop you from commenting with equal confidence and assurance about the goings on in the U.S. One could level a similar claim against you.

Furthermore, you previously accused me of using a misleading non sequitar, ironically you appear to be doing the that very thing by suggesting that since you have lived in a place for a long period of time, it follows that you know more than those who don't about the motives of the ruling government and what its future actions may or may not be. This might be true and it might not. Sometimes those from outside have the ability to see things more clearly (as people who live outside of the U.S. seem to feel when they comment on and offer their analysis of things like the health care debate in the U.S.)



Thank you. I try to be civil and respectful.



Perhaps, but I'm not sure it bolsters your argument.