- Image by ulalume via Flickr
On Wednesday, my friends and I were in the WoW battleground of Wintergrasp fighting away in PVP (player versus player). During the course of the battle, my friend Dave noted that many other players were not working together against the enemy players. Worse, rather than providing any useful strategy or plans, they were simply criticizing and saying hateful things. Naturally, I replied that they were just like the Republicans. Of course, the players who were running around aimlessly were compared to the Democrats.
While this was a usual cheap shot at the GOP, I do think it has merit. While WoW is a game and PvP is a fake battle, there are some analogies to real life.
In a PvP battle the players on one side have to work together to achieve success in the face of adversity. In the real world, the same basic principles hold: we are in a state of great adversity (two wars, economic trouble and so on) and dealing with these problems requires planning and cooperation.
Unfortunately, the Democrats do not seem to be working together very well and their plans need some work. But, it can be said that they are at least trying (mostly). In contrast, the Republicans seem to be intent on merely offering criticism and hateful remarks about those who are at least making an attempt to address the problems we face.
While legitimate criticism is a positive and useful thing, the Republicans seem to be mostly devoted to blocking the Democrats and making things go badly until they are able to get back and power (and have the Democrats spinelessly go along with all their plans). This is, of course, rather like the PvP situation: having folks who are doing nothing useful clog up the chat channels with useless criticism and hateful remarks does nothing to help win the battle. Providing useful strategy while taking positive action helps win. This is true in both WoW and real life.
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“While legitimate criticism is a positive and useful thing, the Republicans seem to be mostly devoted to blocking the Democrats and making things go badly until they are able to get back and power (and have the Democrats spinelessly go along with all their plans).”
I assume it’s your responsibility to define for us what is responsible and what isn’t. And you keep saying it’s so, but what exactly are you implying: That Republicans should just play nice even if they don’t believe what is being done is right. Do you really think conservatives would be for what has been done with our economy?
What is it exactly that you think Republicans should do differently? Just say YES to “free” health care? Maybe you should look at the differencein survival rates for most cancers in the US as compared to Europe. Especially prostate cancer:
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2009/08/5-yr-cancer-survival-rates-us-dominates.html
5 year survival rate for Prostate Cancer in US 99%. In Europe: 77% Other cancers show similar trends.
So, ok–I’m not cooperating and ost Americans don’t want it. Next.
You use conservative and Republican interchangeably here. I commend you for your honesty.Interesting. Some of your compatriots are trying to create a difference. Where you apparently don’t see one. I know I don’t see it. It’s being done to distance conservatives from the Bush Republicans. That’s political flimflammery. You ask. ‘Do you really think conservatives would be for what has been done with our economy?’ Uh. Yeah. And they had eight years to do it. Those republican conservatives passed Medicare Part D unfunded. They lowered taxes during a war. They didn’t cut spending. The left Wall Street run amok. They didn’t get SocSec under control. Their idea of bargaining then was to put everything on the table. Everything.But private accounts couldn’t be taken off the table. So really it really wasn’t on the table. In the sense that it could be bargained. So they got nothing done.Which was their goal. A few years later the Wall Street debacle. Now that conservative private account idea doesn’t look so good anymore.BTW For anyone out there who’s been complaining about Obama’s use of the teleprompter. You should take a look a Sarah Palin reading from notes she wrote in her palm.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/2/7/834684/-HandPromter-Hilarity:-Read-The-Words-on-Palins-Hand
Well, for whatever generalisations you’d like to make about the two parties, I think you’d agree there’s more conservatives in the Republican party than Democrat.
“You should take a look a Sarah Palin reading from notes she wrote in her palm.”
Wow. What is our world coming to…
Oh yeah, and I guess what happened in Mass. was Republicans just trying to gum up the works.
Actually it was just Republican good fortune. If Kennedy hadn’t croaked Coakley/Brown would have never happened. So I guess it was just God or Fate that gummed up the works.
How quickly we forget.
Reid Says Iraq War ‘Lost’
April 19, 2007 4:56 PM
ABC News’ Dean Norland Reports: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., declared the Iraq war lost on Thursday, calling upon President Bush to stop the American troop escalation plan in Iraq.
“You have to make your own decisions about what the President knows, this war is lost, and that the surge is not accomplishing anything, as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday,” said Reid, referring to a series of bombings in Iraq Wednesday that killed almost 200 people — the deadliest wave of violence since the start of the American troop escalation plan that began less than two months ago.
Just curious. Has the Iraq War been won? I know we won WWI and WWII and signed an armistice for the Korean War. Do we even have an Iraq Armistice? Is ‘not winning’ losing? Or just not winning?
I can tell you that I wouldn’t have wanted to be fighting on the side of al-Qaeda.
Good point. I never enjoy fighting when the odds are many thousands to one. 🙁
Why would anybody be worried?
Behind closed doors and with no cameras present, President Obama signed into law Friday afternoon the bill raising the public debt limit from $12.394 trillion to $14.294 trillion.
The current national debt is $12.3 trillion. Check out the National Debt Clock, which tells you your share of that — roughly $40,000 per citizen, $113,000 per taxpayer.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/02/president-obama-signs-law-raising-public-debt-limit-from-124-trillion-to-143-trillion.html
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/history.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/faq.html&h=471&w=474&sz=6&tbnid=TkQVNmRtf3BBbM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnational%2Bdebt&usg=__b7537mRW8MAOXCGq31yz6hlMWXE=&ei=_mZ4S6DSDdX_8Aa4tuDBCg&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=10&ct=image&ved=0CC4Q9QEwCQ
Let’s turn the clock back.Look at the red or blue bar graphs here. Here we go again. Hitting a panic button that should have been hit a l-o-n-g time ago. If the graphs are accurate that is. So why scream now? Is it the typical American tendency to wait until a problem is almost beyond control before recognizing it and doing something about it? Is it pure crass politics? One party calls for tax cuts and spending cuts. But won’t enact spending cuts. Another party calls for increased taxes and spending cuts. But can’t stomach spending cuts. One addicted to defense and one to entitlements. And both addicted to the pork that helps them keep their jobs. And a public that’s also addicted to pork.Because it brings money to their districts.That wants lower taxes. And all its favorite programs. A public that’s dumb. Too dumb to understand that governments run on money. National. State. Local. And too blind to see through the politics. So. Let’s assume national debt is a potentially devastating problem. I’ll make a prediction. Paraphrasing Lincoln.’ This government of the people, by the people, for the people, SHALL perish from the earth.’ And we’ll deserve it.Because it’s the fault of us all.
Trillion is the new billion.
I guess only the people who actually pay the taxes are worried.
You’re missing or evading the entire point of my reply. Sure they’re worried. But why now? Why not 30-20-10-5 years ago? If you looked at the graph you noted that ‘trillion [has become] the new billion’ since 1980. The line has shot up sharply since then with a brief respite 1993-2000. The debt increased from $8T to $9T from 05-07.Since then we’ve had a financial crisis of near cataclysmic proportions. We still have major troop levels on two fronts. Why the sudden and I do mean sudden apparent surprise that the national debt is still rising? If 10M people were not unemployed would anyone give a damn? Soooo the bottom falls out of the labor market because of the financial collapse and NOW the national debt means something? IF that’s the case God save us all from the wisdom of the ‘people who actually pay the taxes’. BTW: I believe many many people pay sales tax. Fuel taxes. Tobacco and alcohol excise taxes. And FICA taxes. And- depending on the state- property taxes if they own property. Or wage taxes.
Again, how quickly we forget.
Yes. We the American people apparently forgot about the soaring national debt even before the ’92 election votes were even counted. A nation of Homer Simpsons. Here’s a tidbit.From wikipedia ‘Reform Party of the United States’ History section
‘A Gallup poll showed Perot with a slim lead, but on July 16 he suspended his campaign, accusing Republican operatives of threatening to sabotage his daughter’s wedding, and was accused by Newsweek Magazine of being a “quitter” in a well-publicized cover-page article. After resuming his campaign on October 1, Perot was dogged by the “quitter” moniker and other allegations concerning his character, to the extent that on Election Day many voters were confused as to whether or not Perot was actually still a candidate. He ended up receiving about 18.9% of the popular vote, a record level of popularity not seen in an independent candidacy since former President Theodore Roosevelt ran on the “Bull Moose” Progressive ticket in 1912.’
Ironic. We might have been refocused on the debt. But, alas. I suspect, given the GOP’s history with dirty tricks that Perot wasn’t lying. Lee Atwater . Dead by then but his legacy lived on.Karl Rove.
“I suspect, given the GOP’s history with dirty tricks that Perot wasn’t lying.”
Again, even when in power, they can’t stop blaming.
So Perot was a lying whacko then? No wonder his chicken little scream about the national debt didn’t have the effect it should have.