Never trust a computer you can't throw out a window - Steve Wozniak

Reeeiiiiiiccchhhhe

by Hal_10000

I don’t know what it is.  I am a pretty easy-going person.  I rarely even raise my voice.  There are only three things that can take me from zero to foaming at the mouth in seconds:

1) The Atlanta Braves blowing a lead in the 9th inning (especially if it involves walks to .230-hitting shortstops).

2) Computers, especially computer games.

3) Robert Reich.

I don’t what it is about America’s Smallest Marxist that enrages me.  Maybe it’s that someone so wrong about everything is taken so seriously.  Maybe its that smug condescending way he has of talking.  Maybe I’m a heightest and dislike him because he’s only slightly taller than my 16-month old.

He was on The Daily Show tonight, spouting his usual gibberish and repeated the line—which we’ve heard quite a bit lately—that “thank God Bush wasn’t able to privatize Social Security!  All the retirees would have nothing!”

This is, to put it mildly, complete and utter categorical bullshit.  The Bush plan would only have applied to younger workers (who would therefore lock into the long-term upward trend the stock market has enjoyed for its entire existence).  The Bush plan would only have allowed people to invest a small portion of their Social Security (see Balko’s argument for SS Privatization here).

Social Security privatization is a completely dead issue, probably for good.  To be honest, I’d be nervous about complete privatization.  We’d probably be bailing out people left, right and center.  But that doesn’t excuse Reich telling an absolute contemptible lie, one he almost certainly knows is a lie, to prey on people’s fear.

God that guy infuriates me.

Comments

Posted by on 10/16/08 at 09:03 PM from

1) The Atlanta Braves blowing a lead in the 9th inning (especially if it involves walks to .230-hitting shortstops).

So I probably shouldn’t bring up the 1991 World Series, then (thanks, BTW).

Posted by Hal_10000 on 10/16/08 at 09:15 PM from

I was living in Minnesota at the time.  It was agony.

Posted by on 10/16/08 at 11:31 PM from

to prey on people’s fear.

Wow, wonder where he learned the utility of manipulating thst emotion?!

Posted by on 10/17/08 at 06:32 AM from

I was living in Minnesota at the time.  It was agony.

I worked as a fueler at the MSP airport then.  Every flight I dealt with that went to Atlanta, I taped a Xerox copy of a Homer Hanky to the inside of the fuel panel door.

Posted by Santino on 10/17/08 at 06:32 AM from

So I probably shouldn’t bring up the 1991 World Series, then (thanks, BTW).

And I probably shouldn’t bring up the 1992 World Series, but I will.  Where would the Jays be without Jeff Reardon and Charlie Leibrandt?

Posted by on 10/17/08 at 07:22 AM from

America’s Smallest Marxist

I saw him out at a deli in Boston one time.  I swear to God his feet didn’t even reach the floor when he was sitting down.

Of course, the booster seat might have had something to do with it…

Posted by Ed Kline on 10/17/08 at 04:11 PM from

Wow, wonder where he learned the utility of manipulating thst emotion?!

Right Beano, Rove and Bush actually invented that tactic. It was never practiced before that....ever.

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