Comments on: Something to get your Friday off to a good start — and a riff about bad movies and bad education

By: Bookworm Room » Is this the most regressive tax in America?

Bookworm Room » Is this the most regressive tax in America? — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 23:28:51 +0000

[...] much better, of course, if we would fall back on a non-religious version of tithing, as Dr. Carson so gracefully suggested in the speech he gave before a manifestly bored and uncomfortable President [...]

By: Book

Book — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 06:14:25 +0000

Oh wow, President Obama doesn’t have a good poker face, now does he? That was a stellar speech. I like the good doctor’s suggestions. Also his parables. “enough said” indeed. Heh.

(BTW- in case people missed my earlier comment, I comment as Book on a lot of sites- including Ace of Spades, Patterico’s and Neocons, but I’m not associated with Bookworm. Sorry if this is confusing. I tried to think of another nickname when signing up, but wasn’t feeling too creative at the time.)

By: Ron19

Ron19 — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 04:15:40 +0000

Having seen Verhoeven’s ‘Starship Troopers’ movie in a theater, I was astounded a few years later to find out that ithad several sequels.

By: Ron19

Ron19 — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 03:46:41 +0000

Because I have ADD-Inatentive I prefer reading a speech to listening to the same speech. I can stop, pause, backup, look around when I notice my attention wandering. I don’t listen to Rush, but I do read his radio show transcripts on his web site most every day, sometimes a few days late.

For instance, I’m halfway into this speech at this moment, and was playing my favorite computer games for a bit, and I’m still getting more out of the speech than if I just had to sit there watching the good Doctor Carson with the rest of the people. Because of this I get very little from the sermon on Sunday, unless the priest is talking about something that is just totally fascinating to me. It took me a few years to learn how to look interested in weekly staff meetings at work. Eventually I got good enough at it that when I was getting glassy-eyed about a topic that didn’t concern me, I started watching other attendees that didn’t have an interest, either, in the topic of the moment. Like me, most had perfected the look straight ahead without the thousand-yard stare rigid stare. One of the indications is that they would look straight ahead at empty space in front of them with the one- or two-yard rigid stare. I have also ordered the Kindle sample of the book he wrote, without missing anything Dr. Ben said. This meeting technique helped me and others to be alert enough to respond promptly to things like questions from my boss when he thought I wasn’t listening attentively enough.

So for the most recent eight minutes of this speech, which only took me about twenty minutes to listen to, I have been watching one of the attendees at the speech demonstrate his rather poor ability to hide his lack of interest in the speech, while sitting between two people who look like they are interested in the speech. For instance, they applaud and he doesn’t. They watch the speaker, and he is looking somewhere else, like examining the tablecloth. They laugh at the jokes, and he laughs after he has enough time to notice that people are laughing, and he gives a slight smile. Bill Clinton could look interested in a speaker even when he was having a whispered conversation with the person sitting next to him. Maybe that comes with more experience in executive situations. Or maybe being able to look like you’re interested happens by caring about the other people.

Just noticing.

By: Mike Devx

Mike Devx — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 23:01:19 +0000

shirleyelizabeth, you wrote: wasn’t too into his HSA from birth idea. Was he referring to the HSA money coming from the gov/state? or from people saving their own? Because I’m all for the latter.

I’m reasonably sure Dr. Carson meant an HSA that you could voluntarily contribute into each year, tax free. In essence “people saving on their own”, which you do favor. I’m sure something similar to current law would apply, where there would be yearly limits restricting how much you could put into the HSA per year. A key to current HSA law is that what you do not lose is not lost; it simply accumulates to be used in subsequent years. I’m fortunate enough to be allowed an HSA by my employer (and by the state of Texas) and I’m making use of it.

By: Danny Lemieux

Danny Lemieux — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 22:51:54 +0000

Dr. Benjamin Carson – what a totally awesome man! I will now go and buy his book.
I had fun watching Obama’s features evolve as the speech unfolded. Every 4-minutes, there was a major change (at about 20-min., I think he began checking his Blackberry).

By: shirleyelizabeth

shirleyelizabeth — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 21:41:47 +0000

After listening to the speech…
“If you don’t accept excuses pretty soon people stop giving them and they start to look for solutions.”

That woman had a 3rd grade education but was a genius. Other takeaways: there’s a difference between knowing things and being informed; I do not like the idea of having to put kids “on a pedestal” to show that learning is important; I love his tax blurb, wasn’t too into his HSA from birth idea. Was he referring to the HSA money coming from the gov/state? or from people saving their own? Because I’m all for the latter.

By: Mike Devx

Mike Devx — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 21:21:07 +0000

I enjoyed Dr. Carson’s speech! Mostly I was listening, not watching, which may be why I failed to notice that President Obama was in attendance at the table. Dr. Carson’s speech was notably free of obvious political content, yet it contained many strong conservative values within its message.

By: JKB

JKB — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 20:58:19 +0000

I feel bad for President Obama. Having to sit there while Dr. Carson rebuts everything he stands for? It must have been infuriating.

That’s the way to do it folks, politely agree there is a problem and then offer solutions that promote freedom and individuality without even touching on the Leftist solutions, good or bad.

By: shirleyelizabeth

shirleyelizabeth — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 20:53:32 +0000

I have not seen the Wicked musical (though I do enjoy the music itself), but I could not get through the book. It was smutty. I was physically nauseated.

I never understood why the teachers in school had us sit and watch movie adaptations of books we had just read. Is it because you think we didn’t get it? Is it a “reward” for being so good and reading? From my experience, the teachers always chose an R rated version, if available. I never bothered to even take the permission slips home. For spanish class we read Como Agua Para Chocolate (I think I was the only one in the class to actually read it, even though half the class were native speakers) and had a subsequent movie day. Why are they so invested in exposing the students to sex?