Recent Comments

1. about 7 years ago on Pooch Cafe

   I thought it was “Bolton”?

2. over 8 years ago on Monty

   Platonism in art?

3. over 8 years ago on Monty

   You’ve all read Ayn Rand’s “Anthem,” right? Anyone find it ironic that that whole mindset of “we can’t replace candles with high-bulbs! It would put the candlestick makers out of work” is actually being propagated by American style Capitalism? Let’s take roads in the Northeast as an example. Up here roads take a hell of a beating. I mean, just as far down as Connecticut, the roads aren’t half as bad as the rest of New England. Down in Pennsylvania they’ve got it easy. Now, this means that roadwork is very lucrative up here; this means that all of the viable, superior materials and road design are simply ignored so that local politicians don’t lose the support of the companies who get contracted to repair the roads. Additionally, these contractors take no less, and often considerably more, than twice the time it would take to do any major project that doesn’t interfere with interstate travel. On top of that, they do the work so badly that they have to do repair or maintenance work every 2-10 years (depending on the type of project; obviously they couldn’t “intentionally” [ and legally] make a bridge so bad it needed work every 2 years).

   How about something that relates to you?I was speaking to a South Korean woman. What she told me was that our appliances, while larger, are made to considerably lower standards (indeed, they are built to break [like your house and your car]). Additionally, our top level appliances with ALL the fancy doodads and whatnots… lower-midrange appliance features in South Korea, but with cheaper construction. This includes South Korean brands such as LG and Samsung, because why should they bother investing in quality when Americans will buy junk? Why is this so? Why, to keep the company in business! You realize why so few of the machinery and appliance companies which existed back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries actually survived is because once you bought one of their appliances, so long as parts were available, you never needed another one. It’s just getting worse; 20 years ago, your appliance would last you 20-30 years. Now? 7-10.

   You know what I want? I want South Korean quality appliances! I want Japanese level and quality public transportation! I want more bus lanes, bike lanes, carpool lanes, subways, light-rail, and interurbans! If Newark, New Jersey can have a brand-spanking new light-rail system, so can the rest of the Northeast!

4. over 9 years ago on Big Nate

   @exoticdoc2I would hesitate to call the emotional traumatization of a child a “piddly little matter”…

5. over 9 years ago on Big Nate

   Actually, Union soldiers were eating one of my favorites; Necco Wafers.

6. almost 10 years ago on Big Nate

   Adolescent Ethanol Intoxication from Vanilla Extract Ingestion: A Case Report

   https://ispub.com/IJFP/4/1/3199

7. over 10 years ago on JumpStart

   I would have asked to be taught an instrument and be given instruction in formal logic.

8. over 10 years ago on Get Fuzzy

   Who’s Karl?Not Carl Kassell?

9. over 10 years ago on Non Sequitur

   Oh, they come up with new ones all the time… just look at the bloody Tea Party…

10. over 10 years ago on Non Sequitur

    Holy moly, people! Did any of you actually READ Smith?!Smith was against pure laissez-faire economics. He essentially said that such a system leads DIRECTLY to a sort of neo-feudalism…