I still don't know why it's NBA "World" champions

[MyInsatiableOne]

As to our German poster's pontification about Obama's Marxist predilections, I used to live in Europe and I was always amazed about how adamant Europeans were in their opinions of American politicians, given their very limited understanding of said politicians--including their capabilities, positions and backgrounds.

Huh? We met each other? Or are you generalizing a bit?

I agree though that Europe was very single-minded regarding your elections. But I still don't see how Karl Marx would agree with Obama's program.

^^You're right, he wouldn't. Marx would think Obama isn't doing enough and should do more!

[MyInsatiableOne]

^^^ I do. The election of Obama marks a move towards socialism. Socialism is something Karl Marx would support of course. I am not saying this is all bad - that's just how it is.

The people have spoken and the want more european style socialism. It's a huge shift from my days as a kid. I remember Reagan said - "Government is not the solution to our problem - it IS the problem."

Nowadays the younger crowd think the government can fix everything. In my experience they mostly piss away alot of money. That's the basic problem with socialism - governments are too slow, too inept and too inefficent. That seems to be the essence of Obama's change. He wants the government to do more - alot more.

There are some things government NEEDs to do for society - and some things they are GOOD at it. But I am old school and still favour limited federal government. Neither party has been true to this ideal. Bush (and the Republicans) have expanded the federal government and in my view pumped way to much money into the military industrial complex as well as the prison industry. (Yes it's so big it should be called in industry).

Libertians - while i support some of their ideas are so extreme that they don't get taken seriously. I think rather then mimic countries like Sweden we would be better served by trying to maximize the good our spending dollars do. And this involves limited government because as I explained before the government sucks at doing lots of things.

Pete

Pete, could you be a conservative, like me?

The *ONLY* thing I want the government to do, honestly, is protect us with the military and uphold the laws and the Constitution. Otherwise, I want to be left the **** alone to live my life as I see fit.

Find me one thing, other than the military, that the government runs well/efficiently and better than anything in the private sector:

-Public Schools? No, privates are way better in terms of performance and cost efficiency

-US Postal Service? No...if you NEED something to be there at a certain time, in one piece, you will pay extra for UPS/FedEx/etc every time

-Amtrak? No...has never turned a profit in it's almost 40 yrs of existence, inefficient, obsolete technology, etc

-Airlines? No...inefficient, no profit, etc

-Banks? No...Freddie and Fannie...nuff said

-And look at the employees who work at a post office, passport office, DMV, any state/government job...lazy, they do a **** job, don't care about getting it done quickly and doing it well...why should they, it's **** impossible to be fired unless they catch you in bed with a live girl or a dead boy...


I could go on and on but you should get the point...

And why on Earth should we aspire to be like Europe? Stagnant economies, no growth, no production, poor health care (but everyone has it, yipee!), high crime, etc...

No thanks...I'll take the USA pre-2000 anyday

[sully00]

As you may have heard, earlier this week Popovich vented to the Dallas Morning News with the following tirade: “In the middle of the Celtics’ [banner] it says ‘World Champions’ in giant letters and ‘Boston Celtics’. In the middle, in little teeny letters, ‘NBA’. In brackets. What is that? Ashamed to be in the NBA? Or, I know it’s really the NBA championship, but I’m going to go ahead and say world championship, anyway. I don’t understand it.”

I can't let this one go. This is perhaps the dumbest thing I have read in this discussion. First of all the "brackets" are a basketball and the was the original NBA logo. The "NBA" was in its 7th season when the first banner went up after being the BAA. Didn't this **** mope think that maybe the Celtics would have their 17th championship match the other 16? We wonder whey players don't have as sense of the history of the game then we have this turd "venting."

[GuyClinch]

-Amtrak? No...has never turned a profit in it's almost 40 yrs of existence, inefficient, obsolete technology, etc

Amtrak's problem - as I understand it is that they have to pay for the track and the trains. Cars OTOH get massively subsidized roads. So it's not a huge mystery why Amtrak never makes money.

No - I am probably not nearly as conservative as you. But I am wary of governments trying to fix everything. The big 3 automakers are ALL going to get bailed out in the next couple of years IMHO. The problem with them of course is that they have to had coddled legions of union workers for years now. Yes it's their own damn fault they got so unionized but it's a hole they can't dig out of - and likely never will be able to.

Every time you buy a GM or Ford car your paying about $2K more compared to a Japanese or Korean. And this cost difference really does show up. I rent a crap load of cars as I live in NYC and every single time I rent a Ford or GM I find them somewhat disappointing. Ford's for example - look fine drive fine but their interior is almost always cheap crap..

Anyway - Banks, Unions - what will be left? Like I said before pretty much half of everything is the government. That's more then enough for me. After we bail out the car companies we all know they will limp along and then need another bail out years from now.

The government fixing everything plan is essentially marxism. It just doesn't work that well.

Pete

[MyInsatiableOne]

As you may have heard, earlier this week Popovich vented to the Dallas Morning News with the following tirade: “In the middle of the Celtics’ [banner] it says ‘World Champions’ in giant letters and ‘Boston Celtics’. In the middle, in little teeny letters, ‘NBA’. In brackets. What is that? Ashamed to be in the NBA? Or, I know it’s really the NBA championship, but I’m going to go ahead and say world championship, anyway. I don’t understand it.”

I can't let this one go. This is perhaps the dumbest thing I have read in this discussion. First of all the "brackets" are a basketball and the was the original NBA logo. The "NBA" was in its 7th season when the first banner went up after being the BAA. Didn't this **** mope think that maybe the Celtics would have their 17th championship match the other 16? We wonder whey players don't have as sense of the history of the game then we have this turd "venting."

No kidding. Popp needs a big warm dish of STFU.

[MyInsatiableOne]

-Amtrak? No...has never turned a profit in it's almost 40 yrs of existence, inefficient, obsolete technology, etc

Amtrak's problem - as I understand it is that they have to pay for the track and the trains. Cars OTOH get massively subsidized roads. So it's not a huge mystery why Amtrak never makes money.

No - I am probably not nearly as conservative as you. But I am wary of governments trying to fix everything. The big 3 automakers are ALL going to get bailed out in the next couple of years IMHO. The problem with them of course is that they have to had coddled legions of union workers for years now. Yes it's their own damn fault they got so unionized but it's a hole they can't dig out of - and likely never will be able to.

Every time you buy a GM or Ford car your paying about $2K more compared to a Japanese or Korean. And this cost difference really does show up. I rent a crap load of cars as I live in NYC and every single time I rent a Ford or GM I find them somewhat disappointing. Ford's for example - look fine drive fine but their interior is almost always cheap crap..

Anyway - Banks, Unions - what will be left? Like I said before pretty much half of everything is the government. That's more then enough for me. After we bail out the car companies we all know they will limp along and then need another bail out years from now.

The government fixing everything plan is essentially marxism. It just doesn't work that well.

Pete

I agree essentially with everything you've said. For what it's worth, I avoid American cars like the plague, both from a quality standpoint and a sticking-it-to-the-unions standpoint.

And your last sentence is correct, minus the word "that" and change "doesn't" to "NEVER"