Velociworld

I hope this gets the attention it deserves . Nicely done .

Salon. Where hydrocephalic morons go to empty their drool cups.

I say this was a fine umbrage, finely tuned. And so satisfying I could light the obligatory after-cigarette by the light of Ray Bolger's burning ass.

There's a long history of virtuous North rhetoric in our political tradition. You're dead on about pompous Yankee writers. That's all there. As to the economic facts, it is interesting that several Southern states cut unfavorable tax deals to draw foreign carmakers, then stand athwart the big three now saying STOP. Are you telling me Alabama wouldn't rather see Ford go down instead of BMW? Talk to the people in West Point GA about the tax base versus infrastructure raping they're taking from Kia-Korea. Or the poor saps in Pooler who thought that the Germans were coming to bail them out. Methinks the ripple effect of the big three collapse will bring about chaos quicker than the Pakistanis. Just put Warren Buffet in charge, and don't let them build a vehicle that gets less than 40 mpg. Then give them a fraction of what we're paying to the "banks". Fair is fair.

Fair's got nothing to do with it. If the Germans' business model don't work, they can go under too. Alabama spent Alabama taxes to lure Benz. Michigan should do likewise. Except they're already broke. Since when is this a national crisis? It's a company crisis.

As long as someone has a hankering for an SUV or pickup truck, someone else is going to make them. Lib policies which mandate ridiculous standards such as the 40 mpg minimum only make the automakers more desperate.

If someone, somewhere down the line does succeed in passing mandatory standards such as those you suggest above, well I can tell you now what my next career will be:

Automotive reconditioning.

Because, as long as there's a junk yard anywhere with an old pickup truck sitting idle, someone will want to drive it.

Lind has a long pedigree of idiotic buffoonery.

He thinks that the Nazi regime was the greatest thing to ever happen to the world, were it not for the unfortunate genocide. He hangs out with holocaust deniers, but doesn't deny the holocaust. He does, though, believe in an international Jewish conspiracy to destroy western civilization.

He's such a poltroon. And he is really stuck on himself. I'm sure he'll be citing his article being published in Salon for years to convince other people how important he is.

He's got more than a few screws loose.

What's stopping the "Big 3" from relocating to the South? I'm sure Birmingham would love to have a Ford plant.

putrid like Gacy's date in a crawlspace.

admire... ideas... newsletter.

I'm a northerner but my very first consideration in buying a new vehicle is going to be disqualifying those that are made by the UAW. After that, my preference will be non-UAW American made/assembled vehicles and if I can't find one I like then I will go foreign.

The only way the UAW can get off my "never buy" list is if they accept significant wage and retirement cost cuts as part of any bailout scheme. Otherwise this stipulation will hold for the remainder of my life.

and the Southern model, based on low-tax, low-service government

Down here we call that limited government, an idea bequeathed to us by an assortment of guys in powdered ponytails.

An idea that seems to be outperforming the Michigan model. Not surprisingly it is an idea that some of us are rather quite fond of.

I have been to the Honda plants in Ohio. If I lived in Detroit working for one of the Big 3, I would gladly move to Marysville or Anna and work at Honda. Those people love those jobs. They seem to be a great place to work.

That was amazing, Velociman! And I agree, even though I've never set foot in the South: Them's fighting words!

Inasmuch as slavery is obviously immoral, I can understand why some Southerners utilized it back then: the system had been in place in the Americas since before the United States was formed and the agrarian economy was built on it. Slaves were the machinery that made agriculture possible. When you consider that the economy of the South was forcibly dismantled by a US government that was unsympathetic to their business practices ... and everyone suffered as a result including, in many ways, the emancipated ... it is amazing to me that this individual has the gall to compare Detroit's self-inflicted - soon-to-be-government-subsidized - woes to the Reconstruction.

Thou hast been Instalanched, my friend.

What "the big three" lack is market share, which they could gain back only by becoming competitive; and being competitive means do it the Southern way. If they had the market share they had only a couple of decades ago, they could afford a lot of the pay and benefits their employees desire, but not all of them. Without that market share, they are goners.

Unless we are going to go down the Smoot-Hawley path again, thereby wrecking the world's economy along with our own, the change to competitive manufacturing has to happen.

I don't expect many Yankees to understand this on their own, but aren't there enough Southerners wandering around up there to explain it to them before they go completely nuts on us?

Why don't you tell us what you really think? (Oh OK, that line's been used before.)

I gave up on NR when John O'Sullivan took over and transformed it into a mouthpiece for xenophobia. I guess it still hasn't recovered.

I'm intrigued by the fact that neither you nor your commenters (apart from Samuel, who spoke of the UAW) has used the word 'union'.

When you live in Kentucky like I do and can compare the Corvette and Camry plants side by side its pretty easy to see the difference. My wife and I were amazed at how many "workers" (and I use the term loosely) at the Corvette plant seem to serve no function other than standing around with thumb in ass watching someone else work.

Lind also supports raising minimum wage to $12 an hour so he is obviously an idiot if he thinks that would help anyone.

This isn't apropos of your post, or any of the comments, but it's something that has bugged me for a long time, so I have to say it somewhere.

Slavery wasn't a uniquely Southern, or even a uniquely American, institution. It was routine everywhere in the world until roughly the start of the 19th century, and still persists in some Muslim countries. A lot of the glorious figures of history made their names by ravaging and conquering other peoples, and the consequence of it, widely accepted without question, was that the lucky (i.e. not yet dead) ones were enslaved. The Arab Muslims made a business of it, which of course was OK since it didn't involve any of the nasty things that the Jews did, which is how we ended up with a large population of African slaves, whose descendants are for the most part thankful that they grew up in a country where one of their own (more or less) could be elected President. I suspect that it is yet another occurrence of the Law of Unintended Consequences.

"Southerners, who fondly recall Reconstruction as the time the bayoneters forcibly removed their families from their lands and possessions, eviscerated their franchise, and plunged them into four generations of poverty. Think of it as a never-ending series of disastrous Soviet five-year plans, replete with famines and murder, and a handful of bureaucratic cocksuckers with political expediency and power by fiat upon their minds and you get the gist of it."

Give us some evidence that the Reconstruction Republicans did any of this for the years 1865-73.

I do have a few books on what the anti-Reconstruction Democrats did after that: the "Redemption" period. The Colfax Massacre. The roving Knights of the Camillia moving from state to state, slaughtering blacks who tried to vote. The annual race riots in New Orleans. The stolen election of 1876.

Somehow I suspect that the Democrats didn't steal the election of 1876 for the Republicans. It's true that the South was poor for a long time -- you can't destroy an economy any other way. They started to come out of it during the Depression, when many Northern companies discovered the virtue of non-unionized labor.

Wow! Great post. Thanks for hitting back at the wacko at Salon. That kind of thinking is what gave us the Big Three mess in the first place. Free market principles, a fair wage, and benefits that don't act as a parasite on a company are just common sense. Something liberals don't have a lot of. Government interference in everything just creates more problems -- politicians know nothing about business, they're mostly lawyers who only know how to suck the life out of businesses. They create nothing (except trouble). Look around, every problem we're currently dealing with is government created.

Great read. I'll be sending it to every liberal douche I know with just enough of my own snark it doesn't take aqway from your excellent writing.

One thing not mentioned is the regional makeup of those federal troops. I do believe they are non union too! and mostly from the south.

I gave up on NR when John O'Sullivan took over and transformed it into a mouthpiece for xenophobia.

It's a conservative magazine, supposedly. Xenophilia is distinctly un-conservative.

Detroit's death, if indeed that's what we're seeing, is a result of the confluence of union greed and an insistence on producing inferior products.

A tow truck driver once told me - as he was towing my corporate Chevy Impala, which wouldn't start - that the only time he saw Nissans and Hondas on tow trucks was when they had been in wrecks. That oughta tell you something right there.

putrid as Gacy's date in a crawlspace.

Nice. Dennis Miller would be proud.

Hey, didn't Jim Crow laws start in the north? Why is everyone always hating on us sisterfuckers.

I am a South African who has just bought a 09 Cadillac CTS- its engineered by American engineers in Detroit and is made by the UAW in Lansing, Mich. Its a superb piece of engineering and manufacturing. Its also Right Hand Drive so that it can be sold in the former colonies. I bought it not only because its a superb car, but because I like Americans and thought I'd do my bit to help the US car industry, which I consider to be vital for the US. Theu US car makers do most of their R&D and engineering of NA sold cars in the USA (most transplants do their engineering and R&D outside the US). They also employ hundreds of thousands of manufacturing workers, lawyers, marketers, accountants, janitors etc etc they employ. Also, during World war II they were the arsernal of Democracy and after 911 they kept the US economy rolliong with discount deals. So imagine my disgust to see you Americans slate your own industry like you do in this blog entry. Don't you morons realise that in almost all business endeavours Americans are considered to be USELESS- when is the last time you have seen a US brand/made TV or other electronic device- other than Chinese made AppleiPods and Taiwan made HP printers? You add NOTHING to a consumer's buying list- other than Ford, Chevy, cadillac and Ford cars. And that you want to throw away because you think that they are failed car-markers despite having almost 45% of US market share, probably as much as 20% of European market share and the second biggest market-share in China! Damn you are Morons- but at least they will love you in Pusan, Frankfurt and Tokyo- maybe it will make you feel better while you stand in the unemployment cues or when you hear foreigners laugh at useless Americans that can't make anything!

Nice essay. (Less profanity would be nice -- but hey, it's your blog.)

The only thing I substantively disagree with is your analysis of Detroit's woes. Understand, most of my adult life I've owned foreign cars. I've owned Datsuns and Mazdas and Nissans and BMWs. But now I drive a Mustang GT. And it is, hands down, the best car I've ever owned. My inlaws own a Chevy HHR and they love it.

So I think Detroit's problems cannot be reduced to the stereotype that they make crappy cars. Instead there is a complicated and frankly boring -- financial-statement boring -- confluence of decisions and obligations they have made over the years that resulted in a fiscal house that was not depression-ready. The marques that built factories in business-friendly states are in slightly better shape -- but, look, today's Drudge headlines suggest even Toyota is headed for a year with a net loss.

But hey, thanks for exposing Lind's thumbsucking. A great read for a Friday morning....

BBB

Great commentary. Now I have to go to work in my Alabama-made Honda Pilot.

Well done!

Well said friend, damn well said!!!

I was with you until you said 'dimfuckwittery'. That type of over-the-top crude language should only be used for describing truly heinous ideas, like something Jimmy Carter might say.

Funny thing is, it's the liberal northerners who buy the Nip and Kraut cars that are bankrupting Detroit. You should see my NY neigborhood. I'm the only one with with a Buick ... strike that ... GM ... strike that ... American car.

These rednecks, caught up in all their false consciousness I guess, are the ones supporting the Union (and unions).

Glenn finally popped your cherry, Vman!

See? You won't go to your grave as an old maid now.

Only took him, how many years?, to discover your fine madness.

Certainly well-deserved.

Ah, it's always "in season" to bash the south, belittle it's culture and to derisively comment on things regarding southerners. Interesting to find that we are the cause of the economic ills this country is facing. Imagine what would befall the entire country if we all had GM pensions, wages, healthcare and other entitlements. I daresay, we'd have hit this crisis ages ago.

bbbeard is correct, and even Patrick has a valid point about the recent quality of Detroit products. He also unintentionally points up a common misunderstanding among the Sloth Defenders: that Chapter 11 bankruptcy equates to dissolution of the enterprise.

If Detroit's products are really as acceptable as many claim, their defenders should welcome Chapter 11 as a means of enabling Detroit to compete without the sucking chest wound that is UAW contracts and pension obligations. I don't see you getting that kind of necessary structural reform from a Democratic Congress.

I have to say that I am very much in awe of your writing. Your sister turned me on to it about a month and a half ago, and I have to say that I've been impressed with it so far. Thank you. And if the South rises again, we won't use foreign cars to wage our war, we'll use the guns we keep in those foreign cars.

Nomennovum (8:22) has a big, big point. What kind of car does Lind drive?

But it's deeper than that. Ralph Nader published Unsafe at Any Speed, and the liberal establishment went wild over it, catapulting Nader to national prominence he has never lost (or deserved). You can probably count on your fingers the number of people who even know that there's a second book, about the Volkswagen beetle, which used the same technology built lighter and cheaper -- and, unlike the Corvair, was not incrementally improved. (All of the design flaws of the Corvair that Nader pointed out had been corrected by the 1964 model. The last Bug sold in the world still had the same problems.) But the Arbiters had all bought Bugs for their daughters to take off to Bryn Mawr, and didn't want to hear it.

It's been the same for forty years or more. American products, particularly American cars, are crass, crude, and common; the Sophisticated Elite knows to patronize the elegant French, the detail-minded Germans, and the clever Japanese.

Have the American manufacturers done stupid things? Damn straight, starting with GM sending J. Edwards Deming off to Japan to help set up their car industry, on the grounds that he was too disruptive and disrespectful of the established methods. But there's much more to it than that.

Regards,
Ric

Toyota in Georgetown, KY makes fine products. So does the GM plant in Bowling Green, KY - which produces the Corvette and Cadillac XLR, two of the only profitable products in GMs lineup. So does Ford Heavy Truck in Louisville, KY which produces F-250 through F-650s, which remain profitable for Ford even in the current downturn, and which is undergoing expansion. So does Ford's Louisville Assembly Plant, currently retooling to a flex line to produce both SUVs and smaller cars like the Focus on the same production line. Toyota, GM and Ford all benefited from state tax incentives to build or expand their plants.

The difference is, Kentucky, like other southeastern states, has been able to take advantage of the economic weakness caused by captive, corrupt one-party political systems of failed states like Michigan - even for plants run by the Big Three.

V-Man - you or anyone reading this need to get in touch with Denny at GOC Central in beautiful Dunwoody. It appears someone has hijacked his site.

Don't forget the part where Michigan pretty much ran businesses out of the state with the huge tax burden they imposed.

Yes, the Big Three screwed themselves, and the unions only made things worse. Just don't forget the massive federal and state legislation that turned it all into a perfect economic storm.

Don't buy into that north vs south crap. It's a logical fallacy meant to distract you from the real deal. Although there is something to be said about urban/megalopolis vs country. In the latter case, country 'wins' 'cause we have all the raw materials, all of the food, all of the water, the dams, the oil, the coal, the powerplants... Them big city folks really don't wanna piss us off.

Patrick,

Caterpillar, Colt, Boeing,Dow,Wheat,Corn,Rice,Lockheed,the US Marine Corps, Hollywood, Ronald Reagan, Texas football, McDonalds, Wal-Mart,99% of top Universities, medical imaging, Exxon,Pratt and Whitney, welfare homes bigger than EU/JA middle class homes, T-bills, Civil Rights, Oldest political regime in existence.

So, what does that make you?

ps. How come I meed so many SA's in Florida? What are you doing here? On a tour of the ruins?

Dear Patrick (0644),

"Damn you are Morons- but at least they will love you in Pusan, Frankfurt and Tokyo- maybe it will make you feel better while you stand in the unemployment cues or when you hear foreigners laugh at useless Americans that can't make anything!"

Funny you should mention Korea, Germany, and Japan. I believe those countries know quite well we make 'things' that work quite well. We have been teaching that same lesson, lately, in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Guns and weapons?! No silly twerp.

Democracy.

On a single day in 1865 wealthy Southerners lost everything they had invested in Confederate bonds and in slaves which was everything and were poor for generations. This was caused by holding on to slavery. But just because Southerners were wrong then doesn't mean they are wrong now. Limited government, strict construction aren't only a secret code for racism. Maybe now is the time for those words to be accepted in their wider meaning again. Who wants unlimited government? Who wants Blagojevich purchasing an interpretation of the Constitution?

Brilliant... er... FUCKING brilliant!

Never have I read righteous indignation so finely crafted and righteously expressed in modern American vernacular. Expletives perfectly balanced with the poly-syllabic evocations of profoundly deep umbrage, and ad hominem fusillades - finely wrought - backed up by fact.

Very nicely done. *golf clap*

Now, if those foreign manufacturers could only make a decent pickup to replace my aging 2003 RAM 1500 Quad Cab 4x4 Sport.

Lind's article just made my head hurt. I am reading Atlas Shrugged right now and I swear some of his lines and reasoning (if I am being generous) is lifted verbatim from the looter mouthpieces. I am southern and living in Atlanta. It appears to me that the South is much more prosperous than it use to be and that largess isn't limited to just a few greedy well connected. Fact is the vast majority of my neighbors in Alpharetta are from the north. They made their opinions on this North/South tripe known by moving. To this god forsaken region. The South. Why? Freedom and opportunity with less pinhead nanny I know how to run your life for you better than you do. Another observation. Ford had a plant in Atlanta. GM had a plant in Atlanta. HAD. If they want national political support those moves seem kind of DUMB. But they are teetering on the edge of oblivion so no shock concerning their bad judgment.

"From 1997 to 2007, the overall growth in SREB states was 17% as compared to 13% nationwide. The four fastest growing SREB states from 1997 to 2007 were Georgia (27%), Florida (24%), Texas (24%), and North Carolina (22%)"

The guy is darned straight that the bailout is about saving the union.

But what about those Democrats that voted it down? How come your allies who vote against you get a pass, but the Southern senators, whose electoral opponents you fund anyway, get all the blame?

Jeff Davis was a finer man than most, but the reason he worked unsuccessfully night and day for twelve years to prevent the War was that his business model was flawed. The South knew very well they were weaker by the year and the North stronger, both economically and in population. They even acknowledged the reason as slavery. But the South was determined to stem their political losses by expanding slave states, and their representation in the Senate. That was their war of aggression.

Bravo!

Excellent writing. I think you should submit it to Salon.

No, it's not a North v.s. South thing, at least not in the classical Mason-Dixon definition. I'm afraid the lines of this one will not be as easily defined.

It is States and municipalities with an economically unsustainable model v.s. those that are economically viable. The difference being that the economically unsustainable ones are the ones who prop up the political status quo, and are therefore in line for a Washington bailout. A bailout that, through unfairly subsidized competition, inflationary forces and pure blood sucking corruption, will harm the economic interests of the truly viable States and municipalities.

It is the same with the bailouts for the banking States of the Northeast as compared with the ongoing suppression of economically productive extractive industries (coal, oil, forestry, hard rock mining) across much of the nation.

There is a war being waged here, Lind just has it ass-backwards. It is the productive being taxed to ultimately prop up a political power base that otherwise cannot be supported.

If the fight comes it will not be nearly so pleasant as the last go round. Think Bloody Kansas on a continental scale.

Having escaped the welfare plantations of the North, after reading this post, I've never been prouder of being a SOUTHERN Kaleefornian.

Saw this article yesterday, and had some thoughts on it then. For one thing, the First Reconstruction was forced down our throats by an army. Does this idiot really think the current military forces will support such a thing again? I suspect over half of the troops would refuse to obey such an unlawful order.
Many of the commentors on the original article were in favor of "throwing the bums (the South) out", and then presenting us with some kind of "bill" for services rendered. Lord, Yes! Throw us out! As for your bill, forget that. You will be too busy begging Canada to sell you enough heating oil and gasoline to keep you alive (the refineries are all in Texas and Louisiana, remember?) to be worrying about that bill.
As for using force to collect it, or to demand anything else, I would mention that fully two-thirds of the privately owned firearms in this country are in the South. Do you really think we couldn't defend ourselves against a bunch of unarmed Yankees?
My ancestors left the United States twice, in 1822 to move to Texas, and again in 1860, with the Confederacy. In more modern times, however, we have fought for this country in every war since WW I. We have shed blood to defend the United States, as have hundreds of thousands of other Southern families. Now this fool thinks to pound us down with another "Reconstruction" as if we were just "poor white trash", beneath his lordly Northern notice? I wonder how many dead he expects in this Civil War.

Reconstruction was terrible with all those darkies getting to vote and getting elected to legislative positions and demanding their rights. Dear Lord, I'm glad we stopped that nonsense (You're welcome, President Garfield; sory, Mr. Tilden). What we need is all of America to look like Alabama or Mississippi...a two-tiered economic system where our betters own everything and we get to work in their casinos.

Thanks, Mr. Capitalist for bringing back wage-slavery. I want to be a share-cropper on Velociman's plantation!

What we need is all of America to look like Alabama or Mississippi...a two-tiered economic system where our betters own everything

Hate to break this to you, you simple-minded little fuckwit, but the parts of America with the highest wage inequality are the Democrat fortresses, places like NYC and LA. You could look it it up, if you were even one percent as smart as you think you are.

I have only one disagreement here: hydrocephalus can be treated. BTDT.

Whatever Lind has, there isn't a cure for.

"all those darkies getting to vote and getting elected to legislative positions and demanding their rights"
Yep. because it was those evil republicans who were responsible for Jim Crow laws and who even now use race as a tool to keep the black man down.

No, wait, that was the democrats too. Guess timb is just a screaming fucktard. IN addition to being a coward and a moron.

a two-tiered economic system where our betters own everything

Sounds like Che's Cuba. And if we keep nationalizing everything, it'll be the U.S. before long: kleptocrats and peons.

Way off-off-topic, but, who whitened Tuco's teeth?

:o)

Fine. I was sloppy about 1876. 1876 went to Hayes because of a backroom deal. Southern reactionaries had stolen - actually, mugged, with force of arms - several Southern states for Tilden. (For instance: Mississippi, a black-majority state.) Rather than let this man win, various powers-that-be agreed to give the votes to Hayes on condition that Hayes end Reconstruction.

My point stands that the whole mess wouldn't have been necessary were it not for the violent Redemption movement. And what was the propaganda of the Redemption movement? Barring a few anachronisms, it was identical to what Velociman has posted here: that Reconstruction was tyranny, and by extension that southern whites (excuse me: "the Southerners") had the moral right to end it by force.

I'm still waiting for Velociman to explain why Reconstruction was so bad that it legitimates, for instance, the White League dropping by Coushatta in 1874 and murdering the six white Republicans there and all the black witnesses. Or any of the other acts of terrorism which upended black voting rights.

og: I'm not talking partisanship here. Our esteemed host would be right at home defending Democrats in the Cruikshank case of 1875. Just read his rant. Lincoln Republicans need to stand up and defend the original Reconstruction against KKK sympathisers like Velociman.

Now I'm a Klan sympathizer because I don't agree with the premise that the South is waging economic war against the North? Nice attempt to tar me, Tenuous D. And for what it's worth, I did not mention Coushatta, whatever the fuck that is, because I was replying to Mr. Lind's screed, not your psychotic ravings about Samuel Tilden, the White League, or Bourbon Democrats in general. Try the Leagueofextraordinaryfuckfaces.blogspot.

Well now, David. It appears you might have just crossed the line and while our 'esteemed host' may not care enough to bitch-slap you for the KKK remark, there are plenty of his readers who will gladly take up that fight.

You have an opinion, fine. You've stated it. When you drop in at someone else's place and defend your arguments by going on the offensive-offensive, well...you can shove it where the sun doesn't shine.

Fucking typical. Backing out the door and slinging insults the entire way.

I get the feeling that if you were face to face with anyone who were able to speak as openly and eloquently as our 'esteemed' host, you'd crap your pants.

No problem for you though. Is there? I mean, afterall, you can sling around words like 'KKK sympathizer' from the safety of your dark, damp little world.

Right?

Thank you, flynny.

Now, about those choppers: that is the best picture extant of Tuco's fine mother of pearl canine. Primeval grille: The Good, the Bad, and the Nacred.

WTF? Who said that Slate writer could co-opt MY family history? [Ok - my Mom's family history - Union - Ill. 22nd Volunteers; and my Wife's history - Virginia Cavaliers all going back to the first white people in america]. Unless Michael Lind wants to adopt a Latin American model - which I am qualified to point out....DOES NOT WORK!!!!!
P.S. - Lind and his ilk should stay stay stay in the American Northeast to "rebuild" it - and never come to my homeland - the (now) American Southwest.

I'm still waiting for Velociman to explain why Reconstruction was so bad that it legitimates, for instance, the White League dropping by Coushatta in 1874 and murdering the six white Republicans there and all the black witnesses.

It takes a liberal to be that obtuse. What always fascinates me is that these people, with all the thinking ability of a hamster, always imagine themselves to be exceptionally intelligent.

"Guess timb is just a screaming fucktard. IN addition to being a coward and a moron"

timmah is a moron where ever and whenever he vomits out his nonsense. Ask him how his homemade Jeff Goldstein blow up doll is doing. I guarantee he's holding it right now. He stalked Jeff for months. It's a sad creature, indeed.

This northernor (Cleveland) is frantically trying to move on down south (GA, SC). BTW, this is a great blog, velociman. Keep up the great work.

Kiss your mom with that mouth, Smithereen?

If you're from the South, I bet you do!

Anyway, joking aside, prove it. Secodnly, do it with mean figures not average. Thirdly, show me how Marin County being wealthy means there is a master/serf relationship between the programmers makeing 150,000/year and the venture capitalists making several million.

Lastly, don't be angry 'cause you're stupid. You couldn't help it. Lashing out at your social betters never solves anything. By every sociological measure: income, education, mobility, etc the North is a better place to live than the Confederacy. Sorry about ya

Vman, you always get the best trolls. Is it legal to hunt them over bait? Because I'm gonna put up a treestand over your blog.

Great essay, every bit of it. This isn't North vs. South. It's free people and free markets vs. people who need 5,000 pages of union rules to tell them how to tie their shoes.

I got here via Instapundit, but I'll be back.

Timb,

I tolerate silly little fools like you because, unlike you and your kind, I actually revel in the free exchange of ideas.

Having said that, if you don't act like an adult, instead of a snot-nosed cunt, I'll fucking ban you. So man up or go away, please.

Anyway, joking aside, prove it. Secodnly, do it with mean figures not average.

First off, I love it that you think that your infantile insults were jokes.

Secondly, I notice that you are reverting to the tried-and-true technique of all moonbat trolls: you toss out baseless assertions yourself without any "proof", then demand that anybody who disagrees with you "prove" that your idiotic fantasy is wrong.

Lastly, you seem confused about the meanings of "mean" and "average". I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you're a liberal arts major, and speculate that you really meant "median". Assuming you don't get banned, stick around and you may learn some basic math.

Not sure how to post a link here, but if you google "Study Finds Third of City’s Income on the Top Rung" you will find a report which contains the following information.

"The top 1 percent of New York City tax filers now receive more than a third of the city’s adjusted gross income, according to an analysis released today that looked in part at tax returns.

This reflects an overarching trend that income inequality in New York State continues to be the worst in the country, echoing previously released census figures, according to a new edition of the report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute, Pulling Apart: A State-by-State Analysis of Income Trends [pdf].

An analysis provided by the Fiscal Policy Institute [pdf] on New York showed that the average income of the top fifth of New York families is 8.7 times as great as that of the bottom fifth. That means for every dollar earned by the top fifth, only 11.5 cents is earned by the bottom fifth. This is the biggest gap in all the states, and like those in the rest of the country, it has been growing for the last 20 years. (Though the disparity is growing fastest in Connecticut, as an article noted today.)

Of course, the income disparity is even more pronounced in Manhattan, which as Sam Roberts has previously noted, was comparable as of 2000 to that of Namibia, in that the poorest fifth of families made only 2 cents for every dollar made by the richest fifth of families."

Chew on that, you bigoted moron.

"comparable as of 2000 to that of Namibia"!!

that is the best picture extant of Tuco's fine mother of pearl canine

Insufficient attention to historic detail, I think. I doubt anybody from that era had teeth that nice.

My guess is that Lind studied the election map and couldn't believe that a few of those retard states didn't vote for Obama. Time to wage war upon them. He no doubt feels that he just fired the first shot at Fort Sumter from the Charleston battery. Which, of course, makes him the un-American here.
Nicely put, V-man.

"So man up or go away, please."
LOL! Vman you moida me. Like Timb could man up. ROFLMAO!!!!

It is the sign of a weak mind to hark back to the election of Rutherford B. Hayes as an alibi for imposing Socialism in the USA.

By every sociological measure: income, education, mobility, etc the North is a better place to live than the Confederacy.

Then by all means, stay there. We neither want nor need your advice down here. Enjoy the fruits of your "superior" intellect and leave us the fuck alone for once, you arrogant, meddlesome prigs.

Ya know, I heard some jack-off (Robert Reich? Sp?) on Rachel Maddow say something similar, calling the North/South automotive comparison a "war between the States."

My jaw hit the floor.

Yes, I think it will soon be coming down to this, questioning the South's patriotism if not outright accusing the South of traitorous behavior.

Ya know, I heard some jack-off (Robert Reich? Sp?) on Rachel Maddow say something similar, calling the North/South automotive comparison a "war between the States."

My jaw hit the floor.

Yes, I think it will soon be coming down to this, questioning the South's patriotism if not outright accusing the South of traitorous behavior.

The future for Michigan is Subsistence Farming. Already vacant lots in Detroit have been converted to Cabbage Patches.
Experience gained from this Enterprise will allow some of the more daring Michiganders to emigrate to California and reclaim the Jobs formerly held by Okies and stolen by Illegal Immigrants..
Seriously I do feel for the good people of Michigan, a group that do'es not include the UAW.

The sad thing is, judging from the comments to that reeking piece of crap, lots of northern libs actually believe what the idiot Lind is selling. Sad.

John Dec 19: I DO support GM going into Chapter 11 in order to try and bust the unions. I have owned Japanese, German, Belgian, Swedish, Italian, and American cars. The most fun for the dollar was Italian. The worst junk was German, specifically BMW. From the standpoint of twist-the-key-it-goes, mile-after-trouble-free mile, my "Detroit iron" has been the best.

Those who find it so fashionable to knock American cars remember the Vega they had in college, or the Torino they bought out of high school. Or they never actually OWNED one, but read about them in Consumer Reports, or listened to apocryphal stories. Were those cars junk? Yes. But what were the Hondas that rusted so easily that they rusted even in California? Folks go all nuts about the Pinto gas tank issue, but, why not for the exact same problem in the predecessor to the Corolla, a car that was contemporary to the Pinto? Why so prompt to forgive them but hold the grudge on GM and Ford year after year? Chrysler is another matter entirely. Our family gave up on Chrysler in the 90s after buying them for over 40 years.

On about the fourth or fifth time in three months that I picked up a friend at the Toyota agency's service department, he was still on and on about how bad my truck must be (a Chevy Silverado that now has 170K on it) because it is a GM. I just turned to him and asked him now many times he gave ME rides from the repair shop. When I got no answer, I just said "Keep going on and on about GM. Say it often enough, and you know what? You just may start to believe it".

I sold that Silverado to my boss-lady, and it soldiers on in the company fleet. I now am running a Caddie CTS I bought from my mother. In six years of family ownership it has taken a battery and a set of tires. To me, that is good enough.

People just need to start using a little common sense

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