Mental Health Support Thread (NOT for giving medical advice, or debating)

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by Scattercat, Sep 8, 2008.

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  1. NaCl

    NaCl Contributor Contributor

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    If a patient who smoked all his life comes to a doctor about lung cancer, the first priority is to save the patient. The lecture about the dangers of smoking can come later.

    I am a staunch proponent of letting people suffer the logical consequences for their behavior. In this case, however, the people who SHOULD suffer have gotten away with murder. They made billions by leading uninformed people into financial failure. Yes, the government needed to stop the financial hemorrhage and to put in place protections against a repeat of such theft, but I will not feel satisfied until they hunt down every person who benefited from the violation of their "fiduciary responsibility" and fine each of them an amount equal to their ill-gotten gains!

    As far as government power, it is the proper role of government to regulate commerce sufficiently to create a fair system for trade and capitalism, but government should be limited to prosecuting those who violate the rules, rather than providing enormous amounts of taxpayer money. Such prosecution should include recovery of the funds stolen by deceit OR incompetence! Heads should role!
     
  2. sfr

    sfr New Member

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    Heads should never roll, we value human life over almost everything and for good reason. You should pain no one else unless desired. That being said, some rehabilitation might be in order.
     
  3. NaCl

    NaCl Contributor Contributor

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    "Heads should roll" is a metaphor. I would think an aspiring writer would recognize that. In case you've never heard that expression before, it means that those who seriously harm others should be subjected to severe penalty . . . in this case, perhaps forfeiture of all their assets or even spending some time in federal prison (which is euphemistically called the "country club" - that's another metaphor meaning that while it is a jail, the conditions of incarceration are mild at worst.)
     
  4. Speedy

    Speedy Contributor Contributor

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  5. EyezForYou

    EyezForYou Active Member

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  6. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    bush hands over a trillion bucks of taxpayers' money to bail out a bunch of bad businessmen who did a bad job of running their businesses!

    ...while millions of homeowners have no one to bail them out and keep them from being put out on the street................

    if you have any money left to invest, folks, i suggest you put it into homeless shelters... the newest growth industry!
     
  7. lordofhats

    lordofhats New Member

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    Don't forget the home owners who didn't read their morgage contracts (Survey's showed less than 10% of the people who signed them even read them), or those really silly investors who bought up shares of debt like hot cakes. There's plenty of blame to go around for this disaster and no one group is totally to blame. The Businessmen may have been the designers but the people who believed them are the fools and co-conspirators.

    And it's hundreds of billions not trillions. If it's suddenly more than the $500 Billion the Bush Administration proposed, then Congress has screwed the tax payers again.
     
  8. NaCl

    NaCl Contributor Contributor

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    Your hatred of Bush sure blinds you to the complete truth. Bush is nothing more than a lightning rod in this deal. Congress must write, pass and fund the bailout . . . from what I've read so far, they are ALL very willing to spend OUR money.

    I am an equal opportunity politician hater.
     
  9. EyezForYou

    EyezForYou Active Member

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    Again, if you heard the audio snippet I provided for you--you will know that it was the government (starting during the Carter era) that enforced the bad loans, that allowed the risky loans, that forced the banks and insurance to hand out corrupt loans to people who could not afford it, nor pay them back.

    CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) is a Federal Law that requires banks and thrifts to offer credit throughout the entire market area, and it prohibits them from not giving loans to poorer area within their community. If you violate this law, it is called Red-lining. And the purpose of this act is to provide credit, including home ownership opportunities, to under-served populations and commercial loans to small businesses. The law was passed in 1977 under Carter, as a result of national grass root pressure from groups like AKORN for affordable housing to the poor. It was opposed significantly and vehemently by the banking community, but they had no choice. It was enacted into law 31 years ago. The law mandates that each banking institution be evaluted, to be determined, if it has given enough loans to people who can't afford it. So this s**t has been going on for a long time, until it crashed and burned and became evident to the American public just now.

    The laws enforced by the federal government allowed this fiasco to occur in the first place, and yet the same government is supposedly "bailing" them out? The same corrupt officials they nurtured and groomed?

    The idiocy of the liberal policies enforced by the American government makes me laugh.
     
  10. EyezForYou

    EyezForYou Active Member

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  11. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    i'm blind to niente/nada/tipote, salty!... and i 'hate' no one...

    as a philosopher, i see all sides, while as a thinking being i can come to conclusions... and i don't fault only bush for the whole disastrous system, was only referring here to his wanting to hand over a trillion [when you add in the previous 'saves'] bucks after the fact...

    i simply haven't time nor the inclination to go into all the scheiss that created the problem and list all of the perps, which does include mortgagees who were too stupid/lazy/greedy to read the fine print and borrow 'responsibly'...
     
  12. Gamecat

    Gamecat New Member

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    Hmmm, I don't quite understand what you're trying to say here. Are you suggesting that Bush and his policies have had nothing to do with the crisis we're facing? Are you thinking that his fat friends are suffering? Some politicians don't just want to spend money. Take a good long look at how much Clinton put back while he was in power, then compare that with how much Bush has spent.... that's where your problem comes from.
     
  13. lordofhats

    lordofhats New Member

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    I think the statement is more pointed at how the President takes more heat or gets more praise (in Clinton's case) than they deserve in economic matters.

    Read the Constitution. The President doesn't spend taxpayer dollars, Congress does. I'd like to point out that the Republicans had Congress during the Clinton administration, and the Democrats have it now. All the president can do is organize and propose spending it has to get through congress first (And Congress usually bloats the proposal with more than was asked for and with irrelevant funds for irrelevant projects). EDIT: As I remember the last budget for the DoD that congress passed contained over $20 Billion dollars that the Bush Administration and the Military had not asked for. Congress added it in there when it was not requested (some of it was pork barrel spending but why Congress would give the Air Force 3 C130's it didn't want is beyond me).

    Bush/Clinton did little in the long run. Congress is the group that has power in these matters.
     
  14. NaCl

    NaCl Contributor Contributor

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    It's about honesty in government. Too many biased people get caught up in Bush-bashing instead of laying blame where it belongs. Congress (both parties) spends money and controls the national budget. As far as the present financial crisis, the ENTIRE federal government failed to track and regulate the excesses on Wallstreet. They should ALL be fired . . . including Bush.
     
  15. EyezForYou

    EyezForYou Active Member

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    And all those before hm...
     
  16. TWErvin2

    TWErvin2 Contributor Contributor

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    This video may assist in directing where some of the blame is misplaced and where some of the blame should be placed...so that it does not reoccur:

    Burning Down The House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis?
    It goes pretty quickly, so you may have to pause on occasion.

    Terry
     
  17. Gladiatus

    Gladiatus New Member

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    Oh well done congress, make everything worse why dont you............
     
  18. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Ummmm. Says the guy in the UK?

    Granted, the effects of failing to come up with a plan are global, but the greatest impact of all the nitty details will be on people in the US of A.
     
  19. Gladiatus

    Gladiatus New Member

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    Ahh yeah but the news that the Dow Jones fell by nearly 500 points in a few minutes is scary. My dad said that if that happens again tommorow the shares we own will plummet. They already lost over £1 since July!
     
  20. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    terry... i got this when i clicked on your link:

     
  21. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I declare twisty-ties (you know, the kind that keep the plastic wrapper on the loaf of bread closed) to be the new US fiat currency. I've a drawer full, so I know I am good to go. :D

    Prime rate on loans will begin at one twisty-tie for every hundred which are borrowed, unless the twisty-tie interest is paid with ties from whole wheat bread. We've a discounted rate on those until Jan of 2009 for well qualified applicants.
     
  22. lordofhats

    lordofhats New Member

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    Bottle caps are better. ANd my dad has a collection of Samuel Adams and Bud-Light as part of a life long experiment to see how much beer he drinks in a lifetime.
     
  23. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Hmmmm, not too many healthy things come with a bottle cap on top. Plus, I don't want to end up being a citizen of the United States of Budweiser. :eek::D

    I'm sticking with Twisty Ties. Maybe we can split up the states, west and east, and use the currencies on either side.

    What would the exchange rate be? :p
     
  24. lordofhats

    lordofhats New Member

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    I don't want to live in a country where the currency regulary chokes animals to death :p.

    The exchange would be 1000 twisty's for a bottle cap btw :rolleyes:.
     
  25. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Hold on a second. I'm willing to concede that bottle caps might be less prevalent than Twisty-Ties, and therefore more valuable per each, but 1000 to 1 exchange rate? I think not.

    We in the Western States shall sell no grain to the Eastern States until we have economic justice!


    *I hope everyone else is getting the scathing satire that Lord of Hats and I are playing at...*
     
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