From the 1%

[Atheist-Lite]

The banks job is to make money not become a charity free for all because of others poor judgment. I do detect a certain amount of jeolousy and envy here at the good fortune of those who have money like bankers.

Exempli Gratia my erudite chump:

An elderly woman with some small wealth stashed away lives on her own of the money she's put away her entire life. A suave and savvy confidence man comes along, plays on her naivety and makes off, legally, with all her money and the title deed to her house leaving her poor and destitute. Now who is to blame?

By your logic, the elderly woman.

Special cases, makes me want to cut my heart out in sorrow

It's the same principle applied to something you might be able to comprehend. You're ducking it because you can't answer it. Your logic is faulty and your argumentation is garbage.

There is no difference in the case of the banker or the confidence man - they're both taking advantage of their higher knowledge to abuse people. It is possible to be an honest banker and earn a good living you know.

The bankers job is about making money, he would be out of his job if he was dishonest. What is your idea of honesty? Something about giving money away free and not asking for it back?

[Jason]

The banks job is to make money not become a charity free for all because of others poor judgment. I do detect a certain amount of jeolousy and envy here at the good fortune of those who have money like bankers.

Exempli Gratia my erudite chump:

An elderly woman with some small wealth stashed away lives on her own of the money she's put away her entire life. A suave and savvy confidence man comes along, plays on her naivety and makes off, legally, with all her money and the title deed to her house leaving her poor and destitute. Now who is to blame?

By your logic, the elderly woman.

Special cases, makes me want to cut my heart out in sorrow

It's the same principle applied to something you might be able to comprehend. You're ducking it because you can't answer it. Your logic is faulty and your argumentation is garbage.

There is no difference in the case of the banker or the confidence man - they're both taking advantage of their higher knowledge to abuse people. It is possible to be an honest banker and earn a good living you know.

The bankers job is about making money, he would be out of his job if he was dishonest. What is your idea of honesty? Something about giving money away free and not asking for it back?

Are you simple or just a bad sophist?

This is all about bankers who misrepresent property values in order to dupe potential buyers into buying them and profiting from it. Misrepresentation is dishonest. Cognitive dissonance much?

[Atheist-Lite]

A bank is a business. It is not a moral agent. The function of a business is to maximise profit for itself or its shareholders. You may be mistaking a bank for a charitable mission? that is the naivety of the mob who are occupying here and there, expecting something for nothing.....blaming the rich because they've lost their shirts.

[kiki5711]

The banks job is to make money not become a charity free for all because of others poor judgment. I do detect a certain amount of jeolousy and envy here at the good fortune of those who have money like bankers.

I have never heard of anyone coming to get a mortgage for free as a charity. The general public trust what their banker advises them will be in the best interest of the buyer. That's not jealousy. That's believing that your bank will give you advice based on their "professional" knowledge and you trust them and you make a decision based on that professional trust.

[Atheist-Lite]

The banks job is to make money not become a charity free for all because of others poor judgment. I do detect a certain amount of jeolousy and envy here at the good fortune of those who have money like bankers.

I have never heard of anyone coming to get a mortgage for free as a charity. The general public trust what their banker advises them will be in the best interest of the buyer. That's not jealousy. That's believing that your bank will give you advice based on their "professional" knowledge and you trust them and you make a decision based on that professional trust.

Quite obviously there'll be some sharp practice when money is at stake. It is for the buyer to beware, don't take advice from someone who'll profit if their advice turns out wrong. Is it the dealers fault that there's a sucker born every day?

[Hermit]

Seems Ayn Rand was right about a lot of things.

Agreed, once your atrocious grammar has been corrected: Seems Ayn Rand was on the right on a lot of things.

[Hermit]

A bank is a business. It is not a moral agent. The function of a business is to maximise profit for itself or its shareholders.

Thanks for pointing out the obvious, Crumple: Honesty in the financial sector is purely optional. It's a pity that so many people are too trusting to realise that.

[Atheist-Lite]

A bank is a business. It is not a moral agent. The function of a business is to maximise profit for itself or its shareholders.

Thanks for pointing out the obvious, Crumple: Honesty in the financial sector is purely optional. It's a pity that so many people are too trusting to realise that.

Sheep are always trusting. That is why it is so easy to make lambchops out of them.

[Hermit]

A bank is a business. It is not a moral agent. The function of a business is to maximise profit for itself or its shareholders.

Thanks for pointing out the obvious, Crumple: Honesty in the financial sector is purely optional. It's a pity that so many people are too trusting to realise that.

Sheep are always trusting. That is why it is so easy to make lambchops out of them.

Yes, but how do we go from there to blaming sheep for what is done to them?

[Atheist-Lite]

A bank is a business. It is not a moral agent. The function of a business is to maximise profit for itself or its shareholders.

Thanks for pointing out the obvious, Crumple: Honesty in the financial sector is purely optional. It's a pity that so many people are too trusting to realise that.

Sheep are always trusting. That is why it is so easy to make lambchops out of them.

Yes, but how do we go from there to blaming sheep for what is done to them?

See things as they are and you are less likely to be turned into lambchops.

[Hermit]

A bank is a business. It is not a moral agent. The function of a business is to maximise profit for itself or its shareholders.

Thanks for pointing out the obvious, Crumple: Honesty in the financial sector is purely optional. It's a pity that so many people are too trusting to realise that.

Sheep are always trusting. That is why it is so easy to make lambchops out of them.

Yes, but how do we go from there to blaming sheep for what is done to them?

See things as they are and you are less likely to be turned into lambchops.

That's about a trite a truism as anyone can construe. Also, it's evading the question, which was: How do we go from calling people sheep to blaming them for what is done to them?

[Svartalf]

Mmmm.... long-pork chops.

Eat the rich?

[Atheist-Lite]

Mmmm.... long-pork chops.

Eat the rich?

Lamb-chops, eat the poor and the middle class.

[redunderthebed]

That's something you don't read every day.

It's something I read every day, on my google feed.

I notice that none of these people ever take all that money they don't need, and give it to charity every year. They're happy for there to be a solution - as long as they don't have to be part of it.

Charity isn't a solution it's a band-aid solution to stop people from being destitute and starving and it sometimes doesn't even do that.

[Seth]

Survivors avoid the normalcy bias and get off the sinking ship before it capsizes.

And they buy guns and ammunition to protect their families when the police and military abandon their posts or become tyrannical despots...oh wait...you're all completely fucked over there aren't you? Too bad, the sheeple are the first to be eaten.

Me, I had a great weekend shooting guns and watching probably more than 100,000 rounds of ammunition being expended punching holes in old cars and barrels full of gasoline at the Knob Creek Machinegun Shoot and Gun Show. You could rent a machine gun, including a 7.62 NATO electric Mini-gun that fires 6,000 rounds a minute ($5,000 for one minute of firing), sub-guns, .50 cals and everything in between, or just watch them being fired on the main range. The finale is the Saturday night shoot with tracers and explosives and gasoline. When the Minigun goes off it sounds like an incredibly loud zipper being pulled and it puts out a nearly solid stream of tracers, which doesn't look like much until you realize that there are five non-tracer rounds between each tracer round. Spectacular!

Scored big time on a U.S. Optics 3.5-22 power scope for my Sako TRG-42 and a used Eagle plate carrier for my Level IV body-armor plates. Couldn't get the TRG sighted in as the only "open" range was less than 50 yards and there was no opportunity to set up paper targets as it was being used by the sub-machine gunners as well, but I did get the Sig 556 semi-auto with the Eotech holographic sight dead-nut on target at 50 meters...I was bouncing soda bottles all over the range with each shot.

Tomorrow or Wednesday I'll head to Bowling Green, KY, where I hear tell of a shooting range that has targets out to 2000 yards, where I can really wring out the Sako and get some dope on it's ultra-long range performance.

Met up with a bunch of nice guys at the show, all friends of my host Hunter, who had a booth selling top-end night vision equipment. We were invited to a helicopter/night shoot feral pig hunt in Texas in the coming weeks, which should be a gas. There's an estimated 3 to 6 million feral pigs in Texas and other parts of the south that are devastating croplands and forest lands, so there's a permanent no-bag-limit all-methods, any time kill-a-hog rule in effect in Texas. These guys lease a helicopter, put three shooters in it and kill hogs with machine guns. Lots of fun!

There's also night-vision assisted night hunting from the levees, which should work out my TRG-42 and AN-PVS 14 gear.

I love freedom!

Should be a lot of fun, if I can get my truck fixed in time. I hauled a load of gear out for my friend and blew a gasket in the engine pulling into Fort Knox, so it's in the shop in Louisville getting fixed, giving me a week or so to fritter away in central Kentucky. I'll head to Bowling Green and likely hit Mammoth Cave National Park on the way by, and maybe hit Music Row in Nashville...and perhaps the Grand Old Opry while I wait.