Are the protests spreading across the U.S. the sign of an 'American Spring'?

The US was a far more liveable place 30-60 years ago before government and taxation ballooned out of control. I'll leave it to Ambler and others to comment on the UK in that connexion.

Erica Ambler wrote:

"Congress = slaveowner
Taxpayer = nigger.'

Dale Robertson's placard is unpleasant, badly spelt and inflammatory, but only a public sector worker with a massively subsidised final salary pension plan could disagree with his basic point. For example:

*I work until June each year just to pay the British taxman. Only after June does any of my money go to me.

*There’s 20% VAT on almost everything I buy to pay for unelected and unaccountable EU bureaucrats.

*I pay £2K a year essentially to get my bins collected by local government. You sure the private sector couldn't offer me a better deal?

In Britain, we pay taxes or go to jail, even though we have no guarantee of efficient use of those taxes, and despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.

Slavery seems a fair comparison to me.

The comparison is an insult to those who actually experienced real slavery and to those who still do today.

And for someone who has been known to complain about the fact that I reveal very little about myself, you are very cavalier in using the little information I have shared against me.

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Taxation in Old Europe is insanely and unnecessarily high, and with Obama and his crowd running the show, the US is on the fast track to that same kleptocratic end. But at any rate, there is nothing fundamentally barmy or extreme in questioning the scope of the government and the tax rate. Pulling this issue off the table by labeling it "extreme" and drawing equivalence between Tea Partiers and Occupiers is just another means of bannishing fiscal conservatism from the table of polite discussion, just as Leftists have done with cultural conservatism by labeling it "racist."

Yawn. Excuse me for not wanting to follow a bunch of intellectually light-weight wing-nuts (with an extremely warped world view) down into the abyss, whether they be right-wing or left-wing.

Salomé wrote:

Erica Ambler wrote:

Slavery seems a fair comparison to me.

The comparison is an insult to those who actually experienced real slavery and to those who still do today.

And for someone who has been known to complain about the fact that I reveal very little about myself, you are very cavalier in using the little information I have shared against me.

You need to get a dictionary. Should anyone who has used the expression wageslave apologize as well? Don't be so bloody self-righteous. As for the rest of your whinge unless you're saying you're a slave I've no idea what you're moaning about.

Incidentally, Kennon, the fact that the average Westerner lives better today than kings 500 years ago can hardly be attributed to the extortionate taxation policies of the present. Indeed, this taxation could very well destroy the engines that made Western prosperity possible.

Perilagu Khan wrote:

The US was a far more liveable place 30-60 years ago before government and taxation ballooned out of control.

And how much of that glorified past is really down to plain old sentiment of the old geezer? I'm often feeling that way too, golden days of my youth in the 1970s. But the fact of the matter is things overall weren't that much better than today. Different, yes. But hardly better. Sure, some things have become worse, plenty of. But others also have improved, often much more than those things we feel have become a good deal less fine. Overall things have changed and that's what things are supposed to do with time. It's important we try to control I which direction developments are heading but in the end even that control owes a lot to self-delusion, nobody knows what's waiting around the corner.

Naw, taxes aren't the engine of prosperity. But they come with prosperity and ever have. None of the so-called tax oases could exist without 'proper' states that raise taxes.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Salomé wrote:

Erica Ambler wrote:

Slavery seems a fair comparison to me.

The comparison is an insult to those who actually experienced real slavery and to those who still do today.

And for someone who has been known to complain about the fact that I reveal very little about myself, you are very cavalier in using the little information I have shared against me.

You need to get a dictionary. Should anyone who has used the expression wageslave apologize as well? Don't be so bloody self-righteous. As for the rest of your whinge unless you're saying you're a slave I've no idea what you're moaning about.

Don't pretend your petty little dig at public sector employees wasn't aimed at me. Someone so easily offended as yourself should not dish it out so readily.

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Incidentally, Kennon, the fact that the average Westerner lives better today than kings 500 years ago can hardly be attributed to the extortionate taxation policies of the present. Indeed, this taxation could very well destroy the engines that made Western prosperity possible.

Interesting. I don't really see what you are basing this speculation on, or what you see the engine of Western prosperity as being, but interesting nonetheless.

HJackson wrote:

Interesting. I don't really see what you are basing this speculation on.

Ummm, a history book? Are you making the argument that people living in 2011, in general, are no better off or have no ability to be better off, than people who lived in 1511?

Salomé wrote:

The comparison is an insult to those who actually experienced real slavery and to those who still do today.

And for someone who has been known to complain about the fact that I reveal very little about myself, you are very cavalier in using the little information I have shared against me.

I'm not sure why the guy with the sign chose to spell it the way he did. I can't imagine he was illiterate enough to have misspelled it. My feeling is that people who freely use the word are at least aware of how to spell it.

I wouldn't have used it. It's a no-win situation. It creates a diversion when trying to discuss really important issues. Having said all that....I'm not going to shed any tears that it was used, either. It's been liberally used by millions of black people for decades. I can't even turn on Comedy Central on a Saturday night and not find at least one black comic endlessly using it (like Katt Williams for example) in their stand-up routine. Furthermore, too many liberals, Democrats and assorted left-of-center activists and race hustlers have made quite a nice living off of calling good, innocent people "racist" for the silliest of arguments:

NAACP urges Hallmark to remove "black-hole"/space-themed greeting cards:
http://www.mediaite.com/online/hallmark-cards-space-metaphors-demeaning-to-african-americans-says-naacp/

Dallas County officials spar over 'black hole' comment
http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/07/dallas-county-meeting-turns-ra.html

The race card has been played out. It's time for these hustlers and race pimps to come down off the cross; other people need the wood.

HJackson wrote:

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Incidentally, Kennon, the fact that the average Westerner lives better today than kings 500 years ago can hardly be attributed to the extortionate taxation policies of the present. Indeed, this taxation could very well destroy the engines that made Western prosperity possible.

Interesting. I don't really see what you are basing this speculation on, or what you see the engine of Western prosperity as being, but interesting nonetheless

I speak of free market enterprise and scientific/technological innovation, both of which are imperiled by the leviathan taxation/regulatory state.

oppers wrote:

Don't pretend your petty little dig at public sector employees wasn't aimed at me. Someone so easily offended as yourself should not dish it out so readily.

Your bust is most impressive.

I hope this is the start of a new American Revolution!

The only way to solve the Economical Crisis and Unemployment is to get rid of Big Government; get Money and Lobbying out of Politics; regulate Wall Street, Banks and Big Corporations!!

j7wild wrote:

The only way to solve the Economical Crisis and Unemployment is to get rid of Big Government; get Money and Lobbying out of Politics; regulate Wall Street, Banks and Big Corporations!!

Talk about wanting to have your cake and eat it too.

Getting rid of Big Government and yet asking for more private sector regulation, doesn't make much less. Back to the drawing board on this one.

j7wild wrote:

I hope this is the start of a new American Revolution!

Yeah, that androgynous, yellow-toothed hipster on Page 2 is the new George Washington.

j7wild wrote:

I hope this is the start of a new American Revolution!

The only way to solve the Economical Crisis and Unemployment is to get rid of Big Government; get Money and Lobbying out of Politics; regulate Wall Street, Banks and Big Corporations!!

Uh, no. The Tea Party movement was the start of a "new American Revolution". The Occupy Wall Street movement is the start of a new French Revolution.

We've seen this movie play out back in 1968 and we all know how it ended for the Democrats that year.

CJB wrote:

j7wild wrote:

I hope this is the start of a new American Revolution!

Yeah, that androgynous, yellow-toothed hipster on Page 2 is the new George Washington.

All of the billionaires living on Wall Street stole his/her tooth brush.

Down with capitalism. Long live Charles Marx and stuff.

Dentistry is so bourgeoise.

Perilagu Khan wrote:

HJackson wrote:

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Incidentally, Kennon, the fact that the average Westerner lives better today than kings 500 years ago can hardly be attributed to the extortionate taxation policies of the present. Indeed, this taxation could very well destroy the engines that made Western prosperity possible.

Interesting. I don't really see what you are basing this speculation on, or what you see the engine of Western prosperity as being, but interesting nonetheless

I speak of free market enterprise and scientific/technological innovation, both of which are imperiled by the leviathan taxation/regulatory state.

Scientific innovation is also threatened by the questioning of the scientific method that the belief in creationism entails.

Salomé wrote:

Scientific innovation is also threatened by the questioning of the scientific method that the belief in creationism entails.

Said the Catholic.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Salomé wrote:

Scientific innovation is also threatened by the questioning of the scientific method that the belief in creationism entails.

Said the Catholic.

You aren't familiar with the Vatican's position on the theory of evolution, are you?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/4588289/The-Vatican-claims-Darwins-theory-of-evolution-is-compatible-with-Christianity.html

Salomé wrote:

Perilagu Khan wrote:

HJackson wrote:

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Incidentally, Kennon, the fact that the average Westerner lives better today than kings 500 years ago can hardly be attributed to the extortionate taxation policies of the present. Indeed, this taxation could very well destroy the engines that made Western prosperity possible.

Interesting. I don't really see what you are basing this speculation on, or what you see the engine of Western prosperity as being, but interesting nonetheless

I speak of free market enterprise and scientific/technological innovation, both of which are imperiled by the leviathan taxation/regulatory state.

Scientific innovation is also threatened by the questioning of the scientific method that the belief in creationism entails.

It's more imperiled by postmodern Leftists who wish to foreclose all inquiry into genetic and other non-sociological differences between the sexes, races and ethnicities. The pomos are worse than flat-earthers, they're obscurantists.

Salomé wrote:

You aren't familiar with the Vatican's position on the theory of evolution, are you?

No. I prefer bears to Popes.

Now - does anybody here really consider creationism seriously???

Kennon wrote:

Now - does anybody here really consider creationism seriously???

No, though Drax rejects evolutionary theory, and goes with more of an intelligent design model.

I remember he once had an epic thread back on the old site, with Harms, Tux, Sykes and myself duking it out with him, over that.