I don’t know if his statement is even supportable; the term “super-rich” is particularly vague. But it’s not nearly as stupid as you tried to say it was.
It’s irrelevant anyway. The statement that most X lives in Y is not equivalent to a statement that “Y is populated by X.”]
Well, a majority of the Forbes 400 Richest Americans of 2004 seem to live in California, New York, and the other Northeastern states. I don’t know what percentage of them are Republicans, though.
That super rich mayor happens to be so liberal that he could be a Democrat in almost any other place. In fact, Bloomberg seems mostly to have run as a Republican purely for reasons of primary convenience.
We should have taken the left turn at Albeqwer…Albeqirk…New Mexico.
My own experience leads me to call BS on what is being reported as the conclusion of that book. I worked for two years in a position in which it was customary that I recieve tips. At this job, I was also in a position to see the back of the car of each customer I served. With reliability bordering on perfect predictability, if there was a mark of christianity on the back of the vehicle, I knew I was not going to be recieving a tip from them. If this is true, then it’s difficult for me to believe a set of statistics which characterizes conservative christians as more charitable or giving than others.
This was disappointing to me especially in light of my own profession of the Christian faith (though I’m not conservative). I was embarrassed.
Well, that’s just my experience so it’s not compelling to anyone else. But still…
-FrL-
Gives new meaning to the phrase “the mark of the beast”, doesn’t it?
I should clarify something:
I’m not saying all christians are uncharitable, nor am I saying all conservative christians are uncharitable. What I am claiming is that the particular kind of christian (who in my experience is always on the conservative side of the aisle) who puts christian bumper stickers or little fishies on his or her car, for some reason, tends with great regularity to be the kind of person who does not think to tip under a particular circumstance in which most people do find it appropriate to tip.
(To be specific: I was a driver of a shuttle bus to and from an airport parking lot.)
-FrL-
Because **Carol ** has no brain. You could argue with her all day about why 1 + 1 = 2 and end up with a 5 page hijack and her still trying to claim it’s 11. At some point somebody NOT HELPING AT ALL would feel compelled to mention that in some non-decimal base system it does equal 11, and Carol would say “AHA!” That’s essentially what happened here.
Anyway we’ve long since left the original statistical argument which caused me to bring up the super-rich in the first place. Carol’s complaints were completely unrelated - they weren’t even in the same galaxy as what I was talking about. Not that anybody had a chance to even read that post - it was immediately buried by a page of Carol’s Stream of Bullshit.
I’m a she by the way. For beech, read “bitch.” The mods put the ixnay on uglybtch years ago, and don’t think I’m still not bitter about it.
Thanks, yes.
Of course.
I suspect this is a case of money going where it is needed most. More people will donate money in a place like Mississippi because more people in Mississippi are in poverty than in, say, Minnesota.
Check the ranks of those same states ranked on health:
Mississipi - 49th
Arkansas - 46th
South Dakota - 19th
Oklahoma - 40th
Alabama - 43rd
Minnesota - 1st (yay!)
Massachusetts - 6th
New Jersey - 17th
Rhode Island - 14th
New Hampshire - 2nd
With the exception of South Dakota, there is a very clear difference in the level of health between those groups of states.
Compare them based on poverty rate (year 2000):
Mississippi - 19.9%
Arkansas - 15.8%
South Dakota - 13.2%
Oklahoma - 14.7%
Alabama - 16.1%
Minnesota - 7.9%
Massachusetts - 9.3%
New Jersey - 8.5%
Rhode Island - 11.9%
New Hampshire - 6.5%
The states listed highest on the Generosity index have higher poverty rates than those listed lowest. I suspect this is simply a case of people donating money in areas where money most needs to be donated. If the poverty rate in New Hampshire is very low, then it doesn’t need as many donations to charity (all else being equal) than Mississippi. (Although the smart-ass in me wants to suggest that maybe charitable giving creates poverty and reduces health. ;))
(Obviously this isn’t a sophisticated statistical analysis. I’m not pretending that it is. I do think it’s very suggestive though. I wonder if Brooks’ book mentions this or takes it into account.)
I haven’t bothered to try to find any instances where any of his legislation, amendments, or earmarks have directly brought money and jobs into the state. I sincerely doubt that he is any less effective than any other Senator at doing so.
Of course, you don’t have a cite.
Of course, let’s make sure the needs of the wealthy Cape Coders? Cape Codians? Capers? have their “seasonal needs” met. Boy, is that important to the nation.
Um, he’s concerned with a provision requiring half of the Head Start teachers to have a bachelor’s degree? Shouldn’t all teachers have a bachelor’s degree, as a matter of course? Talk about dumbing down standards.
As for the last item, I don’t know enough about Medicare prescription plans to form an opinion.
I do think that the Senator is well outside of the American mainstream, though.
You asked about the people of Massachusetts, and he fucking answered.
Yeah, the kids in those Head Start centers would be way better off if the centers had fewer people and less funding.
But you knew enough to suggest he hadn’t done three good things for the people in his state. How can you say he hadn’t done anything good without knowing the major issues?
Whoop-de-shit.
Ms. Stream, morbid curiosity impels a question: do you consider yourself as part of the “mainstream”?
I would bother to investigate this issue with you if you were smarter than a retarded chimp. Or if it were even remotely related to the discussion - or even the highly tangential point that caused me to bring it up. Or if you bothered to even try and understand any part of what anybody’s posts say - including the fucking parts you fucking quote which you obviously don’t fucking read you fucking twat.
Speaking from ignorance does your position no good.
The bill affected small family businesses on Cape Cod. Cape Cod is not the preferred residence of the wealthy (who tend to hang out on Martha’s Vinyard and Nantucket). The small family businesses (poster children for most Republican campaigns) are the family businesses, catering to the tourist trade for three months a year and holding on to their finances by the skin of their teeth for nine months of the year, and the cranberry farmers who need seasonal help to bring in their harvest just as farmers anywhere do.
Head Start is a pre-school program that does not necessarily need the same level of education to conduct a class as formal schooling may require. No “dumbing down” is involved in an effort to raise standards, but in a way that will not force out of business people who are currently providing a service.
At least you had the decency to not flaunt your ignorance regarding Medicare.
Do you actually know anything about Head Start? As it happens, I’ve actually done some work with Head Start. I do have a BA but few of my colleagues did because it wasn’t really necessary. Head Start is a PRE-school program. It doesn’t involve teaching reading and arithmatic, it involves throwing nerf balls around with three-year olds. Everyone in the program did have specialized training in working with young children but there was no need for BA’s.