I inadvertently deleted a response by a Mr. Kitchen to my Katherine Clark blog

I caught the name too late and the question this person had asked quickly passed before my eyes to get a good look at just what he was asking.  So if Mr. Kitchen sees this I hope he knows I would have answered his question had I not deleted it too fast.  Apologies for that.

Often, I do not answer and simply delete responses to my opinions because I consider them hostile or rude and because those responses often come from the right wingnut fringe.   I refuse to respond to insulting verbiage and answer questions that are posed not for discussion but for hostile embarrassment and assaults.

However, in this case, I think what Mr. Kitchen asked was not hostile but a question that deserves an answer.  So I will try to do that as simply as possible.  In essence the part of the question I caught was something like why do liberals like to use or appropriate other people's earned income?

My answer is that I do not know of a liberal, including me, that wants to appropriate other people's money.  Rather, government is designed by our Founders Constitutionally to serve the people through their elected representatives and the presidency. 

I try to elect people whose values are similar to my own so that the tax revenue collected will be spent on things that reflect my values. Left of center political beliefs often want government which rightfully collects something called TAXES to spend the money collected to help human beings who are its citizens and through no fault of their own are in trouble.  I do not consider that appropriating other people's money but rather spending tax revenue duly collected by the government and mandated by the Constitution to do exactly that.

The military of which Mr. Kitchen, I think, has been a part uses MY money from tax revenue to protect and defend us all.  I advocate for that, of course.  I am not suicidal.   There surely have been times, however,  that our nation has waged war and killed innocents in the name of democracy that I did not approve of that tax revenue appropriated for a foreign policy which demanded they kill for which reasons I did not approve.  Many wars this nation has waged have been either unnecessary, lied into or aggressively fought and MY tax dollar went to support it all.

However, that is the essence of our democracy.  We get the polices of those whom we elect.  Elections matter.  While defense is absolutely necessary for the life of this republic, I believe wars waged based on lies, or war waged to aggressively fight for the interests of the 1% are NOT wars to which I want my tax dollar to go.

Defense and homeland security dollars are absolutely necessary to spend but fighting wars based on lies as both Vietnam and most especially Iraq II were fought I believe it my duty to try to end those wars by electing those who share my beliefs to not spend my tax dollars in such a way.

Conversely, I would rather spend less on aggressive imperial war and MORE on, for example, health care, Wall Street regulation, food stamps for the poor, the NIH or unemployment for those who are out of a job through no fault of their own.  I am for many other tax dollars -- MY tax dollars -- to be spent for those things which can create jobs, save an economy, help the helpless and give health care to those who never had it.

So, Mr. Kitchen, I would say I am NOT spending other people's lawfully earned income but rather trying to elect those to Congress who would spend money collected by the government through the collection of taxes on things I deem better spent.

It is a matter of values, Mr. Kitchen.  Your wing always talks about values.  Well, the aforementioned are mine!

Grim Fairy Tales

I urge readers to read the NYT editorial entitled "Finally the Volcker Rule" below.  Just like Newtown it seems, God forbid, the ONLY way to thwart the forces aligning against us is to have another great catastrophe, Great Recession OR worse another Great Depression. The country simply, like Hamlet, cannot act when it should. We can only hope it will act on the Volcker rule now.

It seems the nation cannot act UNLESS and until catastrophe has shown its ugly face in the moment and, oh yes, this applies to climate change as well. Why is this so? Easy one word: money. It's all about the money and its Washington influence in Congress as it has been since the beginning. One might argue that in the developed world it was all about the money as well. That may be true but at least the rest of the developed world (NOT including the US) learns something, believes history's lessons and can change course when experts deem it necessary.

When will this country ever learn to trust those in the know whether about guns, Krugmanesque economists who predict correctly the truth about the boom and busts of the economy and what to do about it or the scientists who have been screaming climate change for a decade or more?

But no, our country goes with the right wing tooth fairy believers and science deniers who think Jesus with God at his side will come down on a magic chariot and lift all those who believe as they do to heaven. What proof of that is there? Answer: NONE. It is a Grim fairy tale -- emphasis on the grim -- but it makes a kid feel oh so much better. Unfortunately it will kill us all.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/opinion/finally-the-volcker-rule.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0