"Dumb and Dumber"- Are Americans hostile to knowledge?

[Cato]

But that's part of the myth of the Wrights as ordinary country folk. The Wrights weren't just going on gut instincts and hunches. They spent a lot of time painstakingly researching the effectiveness of different wing profiles on small models attached to a bicycle before they went ahead and built the first Flyer. That is empricism in action. Also, remember that the field of aeronautics didn't exist at universities at that time.

As a former Daytonian I can agree: the point was that they went ahead and applied their theories, rather than trying to gather academic credentials.

Drogulus is quite correct in his assessment as well.

Class-warfare taxation rates will shoot themselves in the foot: you will actually receive less money via taxes with that rate.  This has been proven definitively again and again: when John Kennedy and the Democrats cut (??) tax rates in the early 1960's, revenue actually increased with lower rates, because more people were more prosperous with more money to invest and spend, rather than sending it to D.C. to be wasted and/or redistributed by bureaucrats.  It has been proven again with the Reagan tax cuts, and most recently with the W. Bush cuts.

When England had a Robin Hood tax rate of 90% per million (we will teach you to be a success!) in the 1960's, the Beatles - not being dullards in economics - filtered all their new overnight wealth via Switzerland to avoid having the British government take most of it away.  Result: less money for the British government.

General rule of economics: when something is taxed, especially at an unreasonable rate, you will end up with less of it.  If you want fewer doctors, business people, lawyers, scientists, inventors, etc. tax them at 95%: why stop at 75%?   It really is unfair to the great unwashed that these people were born with so many talents: they probably do need to be humbled and taught a lesson that life is unfair.

[Iago]

TO IDIOTS, Henning, O Mensch and Chambernut.
Certainly, I started this thread. But I didn't name it.
However ANY excuse to take a cheap shot at me is pounced on by the three idiots named above.
I reprinted the article (complete with title) as it appeared in the NY Times on Feb 14. The author of the article is Patricia Cohen,to whom I gave full credit
If you putzs don't like the title, argue with her.

[Cato]

TO IDIOTS, Henning, O Mensch and Chambernut.
Certainly, I started this thread. But I didn't name it.
However ANY excuse to take a cheap shot at me is pounced on by the three idiots named above.
I reprinted the article (complete with title) as it appeared in the NY Times on Feb 14. The author of the article is Patricia Cohen,to whom I gave full credit
If you putzs don't like the title, argue with her.

Rather hostile and impolite!   0:)

Despite all of America's defects, the country has been able to end slavery, defeat German militarism, Russian Communism, advance to the moon and beyond, and show that even hicks and hillbillies can indeed create a free country which many people risk their lives to enter, legally and illegally, because the life here is better and freer than elsewhere.

[karlhenning]

Gosh. It means so much when Cuddles calls anyone an "idiot."

Edit :: corrected subject-header

[PerfectWagnerite]

Rather hostile and impolite!   0:)

Despite all of America's defects, the country has been able to end slavery, defeat German militarism, Russian Communism, advance to the moon and beyond,

I will give you everything you said except able to end slavery. You are not suppose to pat yourself on the back for putting an end to something that is wrong. That's like if are German and saying how you ended Nazism.

[karlhenning]

Well, and the Russians had something to do with the defeat of German militarism and Russian Communism, too.

[MishaK]

I will give you everything you said except able to end slavery. You are not suppose to pat yourself on the back for putting an end to something that is wrong. That's like if are German and saying how you ended Nazism.

Ditto. Also, it's not like other countries hadn't already abolished slavery earlier. 

Well, and the Russians had something to do with the defeat of German militarism and Russian Communism, too.

And ditto to that, plus add a few million Eastern Europeans into the equation who weren't exactly meaningless for the defeat of Communism either.

[PerfectWagnerite]

Ditto. Also, it's not like other countries hadn't already abolished slavery earlier. 

Exactly my point. I am not a history buff but I think slavery ended in European countries like Britain at least 50 years before it ended in the U.S.. It is not like the US was a pioneer in the quest to end bondage of fellow human beings.

[karlhenning]

Ditto. Also, it's not like other countries hadn't already abolished slavery earlier. 

A good point;  and yet, a lot of countries which abolished slavery did so under conditions which did not make that change in social policy an extreme economic upheaval.

Similarly, it was probably no great exercise in economic sacrifice for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to abolish slavery;  extending that policy to parts of the country which depended on that source of cheap labor, was another matter, and of course, the cause of a fierce and internally disruptive war.

Edit :: typo

[karlhenning]

And what kind of putz doesn't know how properly to pluralize putzes?

[head-case]

Exactly my point. I am not a history buff but I think slavery ended in European countries like Britain at least 50 years before it ended in the U.S.. It is not like the US was a pioneer in the quest to end bondage of fellow human beings.

Slavery was abolished in the British empire in 1834.  There were a small number of slaves held in Canada until this time.  The slave trade was halted by the British in 1807.  Slavery was abolished in Massachussetts in 1783, in New York in 1827.

[Ephemerid]

And what kind of putz doesn't know how properly to pluralize putzes?

Putzi?

[PerfectWagnerite]

Slavery was abolished in the British empire in 1834.  There were a small number of slaves held in Canada until this time.  The slave trade was halted by the British in 1807.  Slavery was abolished in Massachussetts in 1783, in New York in 1827.

When did the US halt the slave trade?

Putzi?

I think it is simply puzzie, rhymes with a female body part.

[karlhenning]

Putzi?

Why am I thinking Anjelica Hustn and Jack Nicholson?

Putzi's Honor?

[head-case]

When did the US halt the slave trade?

The British ban effectively ended the import of slaves to North America, so no explicit US action was necessary.

[Sarastro]

Well, and the Russians had something to do with the defeat of German militarism and Russian Communism, too.

Well, the Russians defeated Adolf Hitler, losing 27 million people, and made their way to Berlin, expanding the influence on Eastern Europe and becoming a superpower. However, everything is over.
And the only present superpower in the World is USA. With millions of immigrants working for its wealth.

[Cato]

I will give you everything you said except able to end slavery. You are not supposed to pat yourself on the back for putting an end to something that is wrong. That's like if are German and saying how you ended Nazism.

In fact I would think the Union soldiers deserve a pat on the back, along with the Germans in the anti-Nazi underground, and, as Karl Henning points out, the Russians working against Communism in their underground, etc.

I should have been more specific about "slavery" i.e. in America itself.  British reformers certainly led the way against the slave trade internationally.

Concerning Russian losses in WWII, a good percentage can be laid at the feet of Gensek Stalin: one broad estimate has him killing 6-14 million Ukrainians in the 1930's.  But "history by body count" leads to a trivialization of evil.

[head-case]

Well, the Russians defeated Adolf Hitler, losing 27 million people, and made their way to Berlin, expanding the influence on Eastern Europe and becoming a superpower.

I'm not sure what this number has to do with the defeat of Nazi Germany.  To quote General George S. Patton, "No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."

A more relevant statistic, of the 7 million Germans killed in the war, 4.3 million were killed on the eastern front.

[bwv 1080]

Slavery was abolished in the British empire in 1834.  There were a small number of slaves held in Canada until this time.  The slave trade was halted by the British in 1807.  Slavery was abolished in Massachussetts in 1783, in New York in 1827.

And the US banned the slave trade the same year as Britain (it went into effect the following year)

[Sarastro]

I'm not sure what this number has to do with the defeat of Nazi Germany.  To quote General George S. Patton, "No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."

Well, the number was mentioned in by-the-way manner.

What about the arrogant statement...Maybe Mr.Patton is right, but sometimes people die for their fatherland having no time to think of strategies, especially when the enemy is treading the land and killing women and children.
I wonder how the Japanese felt when Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been bombarded with nuclear weapons. "Poor dumb bastards" are still struggling with consequences.

Stalin was evil, true.