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Post by Julia, wrought iron-y on Nov 8, 2008 21:48:19 GMT -5
Thing is, most farmers are not subsidized; the closest thing to a universal farm subsidy is the refund on the federal part of fuel tax for vehicles used exclusively on-farm. Some people get some disaster payments some time; crop subsidies and price supports are payed mostly to the biggest, richest, "farmers" who are often corporations, some of them multi-nationals.The kind of payments which started in the New Deal and were meant to keep individual farmers in business have been gamed so well by the big guys that they became a tool to drive small farmer's out of business. The biggest FDA administered pay-out program is food stamps; I doubt even Grover Nordquist thinks this is the time to cut that program. Julia, although eligibility for food stamps and WIC have both been cranked down in the past eight years. So you'd be okay with stopping subsidies? Would there be a huge outcry about causing the cost of food to go up? See my answer to Liz. My family is very much in the "receives no subsidies as currently defined" column (do get the gas tax refund, but the federal gas tax is a tiny chunk of fuel prices these days). I haven't looked into the current farm subsidy situation, but I do know that the amount and availability of crop subsidies per se is much less than it was thirty years ago. It's too far from my current set of interests for me to go beat my head against google and read enough of the recent coverage to get a precise answer to that question. There are a lot of other issues- globalization, especially, and the security and public health issues assorted with importing food- which have both government spending and individual cost-of-living consequences, and adding that to climate change issues and transportation costs and my ears start ringing. Julia, food policy has never been easy, and it's much harder now
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Post by SpringSummers on Nov 8, 2008 22:55:19 GMT -5
RE: The Aristocrats - "The final line may simply be seen as the end of a rather bawdy joke rather than a punchline." So - saying the punchline is a request to laugh off the last 8 years of the Bush administration. I can agree that it's bawdy, and that it doesn't really have a punchline. But I can't see where it's a joke, because (and yeah, I know it's totally subjective) to me, it's not funny. Whenver I hear it, I look for the funny, but nope. Can't find "clever funny," can't find "slapstick funny," can't find any funny, much as I want to.
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Post by Sue on Nov 9, 2008 8:17:26 GMT -5
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Post by SpringSummers on Nov 9, 2008 10:00:42 GMT -5
I can't find it . . . ETA: I found it, but for some reason your link took me to the wrong spot . . . I had to get to 538 myself . . . wierd . . . anyhow, interesting article, thanks Sue. ETA2: I see why. There's a typo in your link, Sue (on the word thirty). But instead of taking you to a "can't find this" message, it takes you to this confusing site . . . wierdness.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Nov 9, 2008 10:40:18 GMT -5
I can't find it . . . ETA: I found it, but for some reason your link took me to the wrong spot . . . I had to get to 538 myself . . . wierd . . . anyhow, interesting article, thanks Sue. ETA2: I see why. There's a typo in your link, Sue (on the word thirty). But instead of taking you to a "can't find this" message, it takes you to this confusing site . . . wierdness. I found it interesting that the site that url ended up going to was politically related. Could have been a porn or gambling site.
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Post by Sue on Nov 9, 2008 15:28:23 GMT -5
I can't find it . . . ETA: I found it, but for some reason your link took me to the wrong spot . . . I had to get to 538 myself . . . wierd . . . anyhow, interesting article, thanks Sue. ETA2: I see why. There's a typo in your link, Sue (on the word thirty). But instead of taking you to a "can't find this" message, it takes you to this confusing site . . . wierdness. I found it interesting that the site that url ended up going to was politically related. Could have been a porn or gambling site. Oops. So sorry.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Nov 9, 2008 16:21:57 GMT -5
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Post by Sue on Nov 9, 2008 17:03:11 GMT -5
NPR also report that while much of the yes vote on Prop 8 was from blacks and latinos that 45% of the money was directly traceable to Mormons (mainly located in Utah, of course).
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Post by Sue on Nov 9, 2008 17:12:57 GMT -5
Nicholas Kristoff writes about intellectuals: www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/opinion/09kristof.html?emIncludes this interesing bit of trivia: Global Language Monitor, which follows linguistic issues, reports that in the final debate, Mr. Obama spoke at a ninth-grade reading level, while John McCain spoke at a seventh-grade level. Also, here the French take our election as a role model.
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Post by SpringSummers on Nov 9, 2008 17:52:14 GMT -5
Nicholas Kristoff writes about intellectuals: www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/opinion/09kristof.html?emIncludes this interesting bit of trivia: Global Language Monitor, which follows linguistic issues, reports that in the final debate, Mr. Obama spoke at a ninth-grade reading level, while John McCain spoke at a seventh-grade level. Also, here the French take our election as a role model. Interesting articles. I see the Italian-born French first lady took a little dig at Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi - I know my cousin over there does not care for the Berlusconi either (though I don't think he'd ever consider becoming French in response ), and that Berlusconi is considered something of a clown. I don't know much about him, though. It will be interesting to see how the election affects Europe. It wasn't so long ago that European natives were leaving Europe in droves, trying to find opportunities denied them there, in part because of entrenched and oppressive class systems. Now they have growing non-white populations, it seems to me, while they're still struggling with the some of the weight of that very long-term, very non-egalitarian past, just among their own native peoples.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Nov 9, 2008 18:09:29 GMT -5
Nicholas Kristoff writes about intellectuals: www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/opinion/09kristof.html?emIncludes this interesing bit of trivia: Global Language Monitor, which follows linguistic issues, reports that in the final debate, Mr. Obama spoke at a ninth-grade reading level, while John McCain spoke at a seventh-grade level. Also, here the French take our election as a role model. The first article is sobering. And the "Obama Effect." Hmm.
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Post by Karen on Nov 9, 2008 19:19:36 GMT -5
Nicholas Kristoff writes about intellectuals: www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/opinion/09kristof.html?emIncludes this interesing bit of trivia: Global Language Monitor, which follows linguistic issues, reports that in the final debate, Mr. Obama spoke at a ninth-grade reading level, while John McCain spoke at a seventh-grade level. Also, here the French take our election as a role model. Huh. Their Yes We Can policy is being driven by the President's singer/wife - who is from Italy.
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Post by Rachael on Nov 9, 2008 19:23:51 GMT -5
NPR also report that while much of the yes vote on Prop 8 was from blacks and latinos that 45% of the money was directly traceable to Mormons (mainly located in Utah, of course). Ayup. There's a call on for a boycott of Utah in these parts. Most particularly, the Sundance Film Festival.
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Post by Karen on Nov 9, 2008 19:29:04 GMT -5
RE: The Aristocrats - "The final line may simply be seen as the end of a rather bawdy joke rather than a punchline." So - saying the punchline is a request to laugh off the last 8 years of the Bush administration. I can agree that it's bawdy, and that it doesn't really have a punchline. But I can't see where it's a joke, because (and yeah, I know it's totally subjective) to me, it's not funny. Whenver I hear it, I look for the funny, but nope. Can't find "clever funny," can't find "slapstick funny," can't find any funny, much as I want to. Heh. Bush use of the punchline is the joke. Funny in a ridiculous way.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Nov 9, 2008 19:49:44 GMT -5
NPR also report that while much of the yes vote on Prop 8 was from blacks and latinos that 45% of the money was directly traceable to Mormons (mainly located in Utah, of course). Ayup. There's a call on for a boycott of Utah in these parts. Most particularly, the Sundance Film Festival. I think it would be sad to boycott Sundance. And it doesn't have any affiliation with the Mormon church, right? I heard something on NPR that the Mormon Church campaigning for Prop 8 violates their tax exemption or something. I'm not clear on the details.
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