coun·ter·pro·duc·tive adj. – Tending to hinder rather than serve one’s purpose (link) (11:18:26 AM) doinkicarus: well, the argument is that “If Lebanon cannot control the radicals within its own borders, and those radicals are attacking a sovereign, said sovereign has the legitimate right to defend itself against the radicals.” But Lebanon either cannot, or will not restrain Hezbollah – doinkicarus: and that’s a problem. (11:19:12 AM) fatneck68: because they are re building country that essentially just gained autonomy and independence in 2000; that’s when the israeli occupation ended, and Lebanon was able to start to rebuild government, military, [civilian] infrastructure. [How is a] 6 year old nation (for all practical purposes) … supposed to rein in a group like hezbollah The United States is looking at a double edged sword here, … Read entire article »

In my local paper today, the front-page online carried several articles, two of which seemed to stand in glaring contrast to one another. The first suggests that Detroit-based automaker, Ford, much like Homer Simpson in “Behind the Laughter,” is “spending money like a teenage Arab,” and is on pace to burn through its $24B in cash by the end of FY2007. Buried towards the bottom,which is usually where the Freep sinks their AP feed, is an article bearing Barak Obama’s picture, chastising our “dependence on foreign oil” as the nation’s “Achilles’ heel,” and urging higher fuel economy standards for all vehicles. If Government really wants to do something about the ailing domestic auto industry, and I’m not sure that they do, a good place to start would be eliminating … Read entire article »

Kip first tuned me in to the flawed logic of presuming that normal prices are “like taxes.” So, one of my missions is to point this sort of thing out when I see it. The New York times is reporting the frightening popularity of the Ghetto Tax, the hidden “extras” that urbanites and poor people pay for any number of things, including car insurance and loan interest rates. Drivers from low-income neighborhoods of New York, Hartford and Baltimore, insuring identical cars and with the same driving records as those from middle-class neighborhoods, paid $400 more on average for a year’s insurance…. Citing other examples of the ghetto tax, the report found that nationally, 4.5 million low-income customers, defined as families making less than $30,000 a year, paid an average of two percentage … Read entire article »