Interesting read. I value a truth that can be logically validated above a desired ideal, i.e. political correctness. We are taught that all people are equal. That is a stupid concept.

I've been told, from someone who worked extensively with Saudis in the circa 1980s oil business, that they never consider a signed contract to be the final word. If they want to change things at the drop of a hat, it doesn't matter what your previous arrangement was.

The blog you've linked to explains a little more about why that is. Footnote: Does anyone cringe at my use of the word "they" as a generalization? Sorry, we can't function in the real world without stereotypes, which exist for a reason.

And ultimately, that is how our brains are designed. We are estimation machines.

I suspect and hope that I am digging a hole here that someone will take exception with.

This section and the corollary following it were the most illuminating to me. There have probably been any number of graduate papers written on the cultural effects on the slave-owners from living in a slave state--but if there aren't, there ought to be.

There have been quite a few historical studies looking into the effects of slave ownership on American slave owners in the Ante-bellum South.



[eta] There are other aspects to Arab culture and different variations on those themes. I have a good friend who spent several years as a VSO worker in a few different places. I also have some friends who are regular visitors to the West Bank. The idea that they don't view obligations as running both ways does not correllate in anyway with anything that any of those friends have reported back. Far from it. What comes through from their anecdotes is a complicated network of mutual obligations and a cultural leaning towards individual and familial generosity: not at all unusual for a family in the West Bank to offer what little hospitality they can and the last or best of what they have to these western visitors. It was the same in the Sudan when my friend Les was there in the late 80s.

If you read the blog linked to here, they cover all that; and it is mutually exclusive from the subject of honoring agreements.

ahhh agreements, as in contractual obligations? Rather than obligations in a more general sense...sorry, I misunderstood UT's post.

I personally witnessed the obligation-as-oneway-street phenomenon during my time in Saudi.

So, basically, what we're saying here is... the Ferengi?

Actually that was very interesting. More so than I had expected.

No double standard here? Why isn't the press looking into her past to see how many abortions she had or whether or not her children are really her own?

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...onY5QD95JUK4G0

The real boss moves in. :lol2:

Mrs. Robinson in da house... boom, shhseesh, boom, da la, boom, shhseesh, boom boom...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...9_obama10.html

This is a good one, Neil smokes em..

IS THERE A BETTER IDEA? YOU BET!
By Neal Boortz @ January 9, 2009 9:16 AM Permalink | Comments (16) | TrackBacks (0)
So we now have the benefit of PEBO's* general position on a plan to stimulate our economy. Government shall be our savior. We shall not want. More specifically, government spending. About $800 billion (probably more) will be created out of thin air and then spent by politicians and their cronies in an effort to get our economy moving. PEBO has decided that our economy can be stimulated by purchasing computers for teachers and building windmills.
Obama's stimulus plan is very little more than a plan to enhance and solidify the power of the Imperial Federal Government over our economy at the expense of the private sector and free markets.

Is there a better idea out there? You bet there is, and it came from the 1st Congressional District of Texas. We've talked about this great idea several times on the show ... and after Obama's speech its time to bring it up again.

Texas Congressmen Louie Gohmert notes that the federal government collects about $100 billion in income taxes every month, plus another $60 billion in Social Security and Medicare taxes. If those of you who are government educated have a calculator handy, you'll see that this adds up to about $160 billion a month. Now if you divide Obama's proposed $800 billion stimulus plan by $160 billion, you'll come up with five. This means that our government will collect $800 billion in income and payroll taxes from February through June of 2009.

So, Gohmert asks, instead of bureaucrats and politicians deciding how all of this money is going to be spent, why not let the people who actually worked for this cash make their own independent spending decisions for this money. How would you do that? Simple: declare a five-month tax holiday. From February through June everybody keeps their paycheck. No income tax withholding ... no payroll taxes. No income or payroll taxes owed. What will the people do with this money? What, are you crazy? They'll spend it, that's what. And they'll spend it on the stuff that they want! Not the stuff Obama promised during his campaign. Talk about stimulating the economy!

Let's just wrap this up with a handy little chart. Politicians just love charts.

http://boortz.com/nealz_nuze/2009/01...a-you-bet.html

That is an interesting idea and to think I was one :lol2: from the ignore button. I'd appreciate it if you would try to improve your ratio.

I'm working on it, but there are a few out there that will just not get along, no matter what I say or because of it. That is the way of the Cellar I guess.

Because she's pro-choice, and isn't a scolding political "family values" moralizer. What issues could she be called out on for hypocrisy? Hard to say, since just about her only political "qualification" is her name. and the press is certainly calling her out on that.

Patterson doesn't appear to be buying into the Kennedy franchise. He has the only vote that counts.

Both Palin and Kennedy had a press pass for a little while, but then they started talking.