Our Moderate/Liberal/Marxist/Socialist friends here

[William Thornton]

[Stephen Fox]

I didn't buy Jesse Jackson's reparations initiative a few years ago. Uncle Fremont opposed it and Uncle Fremont was a poster child for North Georgia boy done good. He worked hard, punched in the time clock in the Pentagon and Civil Service till he was 70 no later than 7am every morning. Aunt Donna slept late so on Saturday morning in the 80s Uncle Free in Northern Virginia would find his neighborhood Hardees and get gravy and biscuits like he remembered from Conasauga Tn before the family moved to Rome Ga.

Personal story so Thornton will know I'm not out of school on this

But if you look at Cotton economy in the ante bellum south, and the super rich slavery created, one gets to thinking. Then and I repeat, Norm Ornstein THE CONSERVATIVE SCHOLAR AT THE AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE doesnt buy what Thornton is selling above.

Thornton is spewing what he learned as a sophomore in High School at Statham High when Richard Russell of Winder was a national figure and Strom Thurmond in nearby S.C. was having a hey day chasin women of all color and smiling about it in Sunday School on Sundays because, well, he was just Ol Strom

Roger Milliken whose son was a good friend and with whom I maintain annual contact was in charge of the South's ideology. Thornton signged on cause it worked for the Cooperative Program and well, Millken shut down the plant in Darlington without ever settling with the workers for 20 years. Rode it out till he paid members of the family that didn't starve 20 dollars on the barrel head for settlement.

All the while giving scholarships and donating a lot of money to Furman even much more to Wofford. Some of my friends in Gaffney beneifitted as children of his textile workers to higher ed.

But was it all a Just system. Was it fair. Much less so than Willie would leave you to believe in his statement above.

Two books William

Its Worse than it Looks

The Servant Economy

Make it three. You are 30 years late and counting on Tom Edsall's The New Politics of Inequality

[Stephen Fox]

William, be a Christian on this one

take a close look at the timber industry in the black belt of Alabama. Absentee Land owners keeping taxxes down for Nick Saban and Hartsville Ga Mike Hubbard of the Auburn Network; collusion of the wealthy and the SEC commissioners to have extravagant huntin clubs at the expense of the extended families that are the base for the football teams they field each year.

Ask Bruce Gourley's PHD advisor Wayne Flynt about that one with an Open Bible, some flow charts, and Marilynne Robinson's insight on Moses in her book When I was a Child I read.

You ought to have a copy by now William cause you missed a few things from Charles Stanley and AMWAY in the Moses Justice Lesson

[William Thornton]

Didn't go to HS in Statham, Stephen. Went to public HS with college prof's kids and football coaches' kids, a bit higher standard and product than that of Gafe-ny, bro, but nice try.

And timber companies are selling all their land but if you knew about the kaolin industry in the "Black Belt" of Georgia you would have a nice example there.

[Stephen Fox]

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013 ... -canadians

[Stephen Fox]

Maybe you went to school with Wyche Fowler. OTOH I think he was an Atlanta boy, but proud UGA grad and fan of Richard Russell.

I'm sure your County HS at AThens had lot of smart folk while I was going to GHS with the first cousin of Ben Bernanke, and the granddaughter of the Atty General of S.C. who was the niece of then Atty for S.C. Baptists. Her cousin Melissa Callison married Rhodes scholar nominee Richard Kremer, my friend. so be careful when you diss Gaffney Indians!!!!!

And recently been having great discussions with my Beta club friend from GHS the Presbyterian minister's son who got his Doctorate in rhetoric from MIT; witty chats on Gaffneyites facebook wall.

He and the Callisons can hold their own with any grad of Clarke County High School.

BTW, I never said I was smarter than all the grads at CCHS, I just know more than you do!

[Haruo]

[William Thornton]

I don't know about all this "sharia" stuff either, Haruo.

My thinking here is that if someone signs on, specifically and verbatim, to Karl Marx's most notable statement, I'll call him a 'Marxist' just for fun. I recognize there are nuances, provisos, and caveats in all this and I fully recognize that Marxism is usually coupled with "Lenininism". Come October, I may find someone here to call a Marxist-Leninist in celebration of the October Revolution.

The problem with quoting Scripture on this (and the hymnody as well) is that unless you are a theocrat, the anticipation of statism in the implementation of someone's idea of what Jesus meant.

Private property is a nice Biblical presumption ("thou shalt not steal") but I have said here that no modern economic system, not even capitalism, is to be seen as given by divine fiat. Capitalism does, seems to me, lead the race if one is looking for wealth creation.

[Tim Bonney]

Liberal yes William. Socialist, well I have some agreements with socialist ideas and some disagreements. Marxist never. My problem here is that you connect the dots where they don't connect. Liberal does not equate to socialist and socialist does not equate to Marxist. The three aren't interchangeable at all.

I know you do this kind of thing tongue in teach to take a fun jab at us William. But really should I title a thread "Conservative/Fundamentalist/Fascist/Nazi" and expect you to take it seriously?

Lets talk about this when you can quit calling us "commies."

[William Thornton]

[Tim Bonney]

Agreeing with a single statement Marx made does not make me a Marxist William. That's total bull and you know it. I occasionally have agreed with John McCain but I'm not a Republican. I've occasionally agreed with Gandhi but I'm not a Hindu. I have occasionally agreed with you but I'm certainly not a Southern Baptist. If you'd look up Marxism you'd find that Marxism and Communism are much closer to being synonyms and I'm neither.

Nazi and Marxist are pretty similar in tone. Both are inflammatory and not worthy of use in discussion here.

But any time someone here displays signs of being stanch liberal democrats you dust off the Marxism or accuse us all of being socialists. Please William, if you want to discuss politics how about we discuss what each of us actually believes rather than these silly attempts to claim liberal democrats believe something other than what we believe and then trying to argue with things we don't believe.

How about I get so to say what I believe and you get to say what you believe? Is that so hard?

[Sandy]

[William Thornton]

[William Thornton]

[Sandy]

[Tim Bonney]

[Tim Bonney]

[Ed Pettibone]

[Tim Bonney]

Thanks Ed!

[Haruo]

[William Thornton]

Timothy quoted those line from Marx some time ago, unknowingly and agreed with it now. Why?

Wards of the state get free health care. Should they get liver and heart transplants. Probably not but I'm unsure. Should they get Viagra and sex change ops? No.

The question was about those who had money being able to obtain health care everyone else cannot. One cannot answer yes to that without being a socialist, at least o health care, but I'm open to persuasion.no one has attempted it.

[Tim Bonney]

[Stephen Fox]

Should a military person who retires at 50 get upwards of 50 thousand a year for the rest of his life even though he has estimated personal worth of half Million or more.

Four star general retires at 60; 125,000 or much more annually the rest of his life.

Do you support that kind of entitlement welfare for the wealthy?

[William Thornton]

[Dave Roberts]

I posted this in the social compass thread, from which this originated. William, what do you say to this one?

When William is rolled into the emergency room with his coronary, we will have to discuss with him about his means to determine whether we call the head of cardiology or just let the "hertz rent a doc" on duty in ER handle his case. William, is that what you want? I think not. Obviously, if someone with means wants to have multiple plastic surgeries or liposuctions, let them do it on their own nickel, but if you come in fresh from an accident or a heart attack, then you want the best care for that person regardless of their ability to pay. Likewise, if someone wants concierge medical care, let them pay for it, but don't deny care to the 17-year-old rolled into ER in labor with her baby when there is no father to pay the bill.