Reason Writers Around the Web: Peter Suderman Talks New Infrastructure Spending, Stimulus Politics, Medicaid Reform and More on Bloggingheads

Why is Obama proposing more stimulus? Is it likely to pass, or create jobs? Is the new health care law a liability for Democrats? On Bloggingheads, Reason Associate Editor Peter Suderman and The Washington Independent's Annie Lowrey discuss these questions and more.

Comments

[David Lambardo]

Ohh, she's a cutie

[sage]

Dude, why the hell did you leave Slayer? The next drummer was OK, but man you had the gift.

[Episiarch]

Could you stay on topic, please, sage? Address the man's comment, not his name.

[sage]

Sorry. Yes, she's cute. Great smile, tank top, on a webcam, what's not to like?

[Episiarch]

That's better. Try and focus from now on, OK?

[sage]

Humble apologies. Only the important stuff from here out.

[sloopyinca]

She may be cute but she must not have the brains God gave a piss-ant because she's dating.......wait for it......

Ezra-Fucking-Klein

[Episiarch]

I guess she has a fetish for lizard men then, if she's dating a Sleestak.

[sloopyinca]

That guy must have a foot-long cock.

I mean, he writes for Newsweek and has a blog in WaPo, FFS. That should carry about as much gravitas as writing in Parade Magazine and having a blog on Perezhilton.com, or even worse, Urkobold. This hardly allows someone with his C.H.U.D.-like appearance the ability to pick up chicks looking like her.

Meh, maybe it's the hundreds of people who see him every night on MSNBC that gets her panties all moist. Either way, I have to be suspicious of anything that comes out of this woman's mouth, simply based on what she's willing to put in it.

[alan]

Let's not over due it. She is pretty enough, but not so exceptionally so that you should be inflating Ezra's ego about it. If he happens to cruising through here and reads that he is gonna think he is 'hot shit in a champagne glass' whereas, no matter what, he could even be Katie Couric's fucktoy, he is still 'cold diarrhea in a dixie cup.'

[sloopyinca]

True, alan, but any women north of an aborted mongoloid fetus is out of this guy's league so he's gonna be stoked if he gets any pussy. It's just that this girl is actually kinda cute.

And I'm actually pretty sure he'll be on here monitoring these comments. He comes across as that kind of prick, so beware of sock-puppets today.

[Drax the Destroyer]

That 'dixie cup' line was used on The Venture Brothers by the Monarch. That show is almost my new religion.

[SugarFree]

For those into Rock Band... I have discovered that singing "Epic" by Faith No More in the Monarch's voice works surprisingly well.

[sloopyinca]

What the fuck are Venture Brothers and Rock Band?

[alan]

Sloopy, google Venture Bros. and be prepared to have a new reason to live.

[sloopyinca]

I know. I know. I'm just afraid hipters watch it, and I'd rather be associated with Juggalos than fucking hipsters.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Sloopy... I don't have the money to be a hipster. Plus, their music is shit. I think Venture Brothers appeals to foul-mouthed violent nerds more or less.

[sloopyinca]

Works for me. Adult Swim doesn't look like they have early episodes on it, so I'll have to track down the older seasons elsewhere.

Ideas?

[Drax the Destroyer]

Unlike most of my nefarious generation, I actually paid money for the DVDs. The creators need to eat, and I need to see Triana Orpheus rogered by Dean Venture at some point. I know amazon.com had the discs on sale a week or so ago, but I think that was labor day related. Regardless, don't buy them at Borders. That shit is jacked at least 50%. No wonder they are in trouble.

If you are opposed to paying and/or stealing, occasionally adult swim will load entire seasons of its shows. I guess if you feel like being vigilant and waiting an indeterminant amount of time, you can catch them for free there at some point.

[alan]

hey . . . but? . . .wtf? . . . okay, you got me. Just be a sport and pull out the nail with the other side that hammer will ya?

[alan]

that ^ was in answer to

Sloopy... I don't have the money to be a hipster. Plus, their music is shit. I think Venture Brothers appeals to foul-mouthed violent nerds more or less.

Threading pooped out.

[alan]

I just happened to be flipping through the channels back when I still had cable and saw a scene where a giant Swedish looking guy was being popped with tranq darts while choking some twerp named Speedy to death. Decided that looked cool, never looked back. I use to watch episodes on Hulu I believe, now I just buy the DVD's.

[alan]

I use to watch anything that was an adult cartoon. My taste are now a bit more discriminating. I dropped Family Guy maybe two years ago when they gratuitously turned Lois into a Jew. I knew it was going to happen, surprised it took as long as it did, but at that point it had officially nuked the fridge, even though in reality it probably did that in the second season.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Yeah, I hear ya alan. I stopped watching family regularly since I gave up cable (pretty much tv altogether). If I watch anything it's on hulu, southparkstudios.com, or adultswim. Regarding Family Guy, my problem with Lois is that they turned a damned cartoon character (a fairly normal one at that) into an unlikely sex symbol even dogs would want to fuck. I guess that had to have the obligatory sexy character despite the fact most average New Englanders are anything but(no offense my swarthy, accented, pasty, bretheren).

[alan]

When they comment how hot Marge is on the Simpsons at least everybody is in on the joke and they are not actually trying to sell the idea to you like the nimrods on Family Guy do with Lois.

Still, I like The Simpsons in small bits and pieces, usually the set up before they delve into a plot is better than the main plot. Worth a few laughs even today.

[sloopyinca]

What the fuck is Family Guy?

(Does the joke make more sense now?)

[joshua Corning]

I know. I know. I'm just afraid hipters watch it

Nerds are not hipsters...though hipsters have tended for the last 15 years to copy nerds this should not take away from the quality of an epic nerd work.

[Ska]

I have Rock Band and love the Ventrue Bors. I really appreciate this comment.

[meh]

Whenever there's a decent looking woman speaking or writing on Reason it brings out all the mouthbreathers and pervs. Pathetic.

[alan]

. . . and I just lost my lunch.

[sage]

Geez, what a waste.

[Mr Whipple]

Yeah, she's cute, but she looks like she slept on a park bench the night before.

[Mr Whipple]

...not that there's anything wrong with that.

[Tim]

Focus!

[snark]

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[hmm]

76% think taxes should be increased on high earners.

Welcome to an excellent reason for a republic, because a tyranny of the majority sucks. I wonder if she is in favor of other retarded populist shit like immigration, gay marriage, and so on.

[Rich]

On a somewhat related topic: Would someone *kindly* point me to an analysis of why $250K is a magic figure?

[Citizen X]

It's 2X what my wife and I make combined.

Is that a good enough reason?

[hmm]

-bend over
-take right hand
-reach around behind yourself
-take forefinger and thumb and make a pinching motion while firmly jamming them up your ass
-pull out number

I'm guessing, and this is a pure guess, that there is some sort of breaking point with respect to population at 250K.

[Rich]

Well, yes. What I am trying to ascertain is whether the administration has any serious justification/rationalization for this $250K breaking point. I find stuff like: Households in the top quintile ... had incomes exceeding $91,705 [in 2007]; and
The estimated [FY2009] U.S. median income for 4-person families is $70,354. So I suppose the administration believes "most people" would consider $250K as such fabulous income that "most people" would not object to that breaking point. But why not tout, say, $100K?

[KPres]

Because of the Laffer Curve? (Just a guess)

You get diminishing returns as you raise taxes after a certain point. So you find an optimal tax rate on the rich, and you define rich by whatever amount you need to pay for all your planned spending increases.

[KPres]

What I don't get is why they raised the highest rate to 39.6%.

Why not just make it a straight 40%. Perception? Then why not 39.7% or 39.5%?

[Rich]

I do think the Laffer Curve has something to do with it. I'll dig further.

FWIW, I once asked a congressional aide how much (qualitative) analysis went into policy development. He admitted "almost none". Of course, this is anecdotal, but I suspect hmm's first idea above is not far from the truth, since "we can always amend the legislation if it's not working the way we thought it might". 8-(

[Rich]

Argh, *qualitative quantitative.

"It's only a movie!" Out.

[hmm]

I mean there is a naturally occuring breaking point. That it's possible at 250K there is a significant deviation from other incomes, a jump if you will. So maybe there's a gap just before 250k. So you end up with a lot of people below 250, and fewer above (which is obvious) but if that gap is large with respect to other gaps for pay or pay ranges then it could be a breaking point.

[kinnath]

Slate has been running a series on income inequality.

http://www.slate.com/id/2266025/entry/2266030/

They include a caculator that tells you the percentile for any given income level. For example $150K is the 92nd percentile across the country; $250k is the 98th percentile.

For some reason, the Democratic party has decided to define "rich people" to be those 2% that make more that 250K.

[kinnath]

corresponds to 2% of the population. a small enough group that all the proles can agree they don't deserve the money they earn.

totally ignores the fact that the truly rich make money through investment not income.

[R C Hospital Lawyer]

Why is Obama proposing more stimulus?

I can only think of two reasons:

(1) Because he's a fucking idiot.

(2) Because he wants to stuff more money into the pockets of his supporters.

[hmm]

LoL she has trouble understanding the health care law. No shit. People who write shit like that for a living don't understand it.

You gotta' have one hell of an ego to say something like that.

[P Brooks]

snark|9.10.10 @ 11:24AM|#

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No kidding; I feel like I'm back on dial-up.

Dear Webdouche-

Please load some more useless crap on every page. I'll get a lot more done while I wait. Or when I finally just leave in disgust.

xoxo

[dbcooper]

Use noscript - you can block about half of the script domains and reduce page load time.

[snark]

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....
Please load some more useless crap on every page

I'm glad I'm not alone. Misery loves company.
Tried the noscript thing and found that I then had to "allow" every stinking site I visited. Disabled noscript. What did I do wrong?

[sage]

Off Topic: Hipster Doofus Slide Show

Check out pic #6. The "layers of black" look like they get that clown to *almost* 100 pounds.

[SugarFree]

If not for my commitment to libertarian ethics, I'd beat them all to death with a length of pipe. The baby, too.

[sloopyinca]

I think there's an exemption in the libertarian ethics for just what you propose.

If we put it to a vote, I imagine it would pass.

[Episiarch]

According to some, they are lowering your property values by just existing, so you are justified in using force as they have "used force" against your property values.

Beat away.

[SugarFree]

I like your style, Internet Commenter.

[mr simple]

I'm surprised nobody's put the old bolsters out o their misery yet.

The baby, too.

It's really the only humane thing to do.

[mr simple]

Bolster should be hipster. I guess Apple doesn't like the term and auto-corrects.

[Logan 3]

Maybe Seattle is Sanctuary...and the baby's still a yellow. Many years to go. Should be with the cubs.

[sloopyinca]

Really? No "Logan's Run" fans here?

Shocking.

[Gray Ghost]

The book was a little obscure. Doubt Hollywood would have been down with 7-14 year olds fucking anyways. Besides, I thought yellows spent all their time in one of the State Nurseries?

[sloopyinca]

In the movie a lot of the yellows went to Cathedral, but they may have been blues or greens.

As far as the fucking, in the movie, they left it sort of up in the air as to what age it all started, but I can't remember anyone that young in the bar orgy scene or on the circuit. Also, they upped the age for carousel so there could be more adults walking around to avoid a pedo-vibe.

[sloopyinca]

Is the guy in #7 going for the kamikaze look?

[SugarFree]

Dildo seppuku.

[sage]

Who'd have thunk that pulling Grandpa's checkered hat with earlaps out of the attic would get him a spot on the coveted "street fashions" segment of an irrelevant online news publication?

[sloopyinca]

It took more than the fudd hat. Without the man-purse and the water bottle which he's holding with what appears to be a hook (where the fuck is his right hand?), the ensemble wouldn't be complete.

[alan]

True story.

After spending fifteen minutes making out with a woman (same one I mentioned in the . . . The Bishop! thread), I had to go to the courthouse for an assignment for the rest of the afternoon. I was in my twenties, the lady in her forties, and while driving to the courthouse I realized I had only played with her left titty, and she kind of kept the other covered. All that afternoon I was anxiously wondering have I got involved with a woman with one breast? Fortunately, that was not the case.

[Episiarch]

This is the kind of story I enjoy.

[alan]

Thanks! I was in a state of panic and misery until I got back to the office in the early evening, went straight to her office and popped that second titty out.

[sage]

Did she have it in a box?

[alan]

To be discreet we slipped between a filing cabinet and a wall, she scurried me in and then followed, forced to turn away from each other while making out. One arm was up against her right tit, the other arm was connected to her hand that was in my pants. Later, I wondered if it was just a matter of circumstance that I couldn't get to that right tit, or did she manipulate the situation where I couldn't get to it.

[SugarFree]

I always inspect both of the boobs. If you only get a look at one, the other might have an eye where the nipple is supposed to be or something.

[alan]

Nipples were fantastic, like inch long pencil erasers with an upward slope. Could not have been happier on that score.

[sloopyinca]

+10. That had to be some scary shit. Closest thing I can come up with is when I was 18 some girl told me not to put my finger in her asshole when we were fucking because she had Crohn's Disease. The whole time I was fucking her (of course I kept going), I wondered what the hell it was. I finished and went home and asked my mom what Crohn's was and she told me it's when you can't shit and it was contagious. I told her what happened but said I had used a condom, and white-faced, she told me she was kidding about it being contagious.

Mom was not too happy about that.

[sage]

Nice one, sloopy. Commit to the shag. Always commit.

[alan]

It sucks to have a cool mom, believe me I know. She still pulls shit on me to this day.

[sloopyinca]

Mine still brings that story up every other Thanksgiving when I bring a new girlfriend over and don't have my kids with me. My family thrives on shaming each other.

[alan]

You should have never went to her about a sexual matter, that is why you have retarded friends. They give you worse advice for sure, but at least they are not your mom.

[SugarFree]

Be careful around the ass. It has ways of defending itself.

[sloopyinca]

I saw a girl's ass explode like a claymore once. Now I rarely venture to the back door after eating Chipotle.

[sloopyinca]

Well, this was 1988....the height of teh AIDS. My mother, a nurse, was still the right place to go. My friends would have told my brother or sister who would have told mom anyway. I actually eliminated a lot of the shame by going to mom instead of my friends since the girl went to another high school.

[hmm]

#7 is Data from Goonies. Go Wang Go.

[Butts Wagner]

came to Bumbershoot to watch Hole and Drake.

Wait...Courtney Love and some Canadian actor who apparently pals around with Justin Bieber? This is what hipsters like?

Their favorite performances were Bob Dylan and Mary J. Blige

This sounds like the worst festival ever.

Oh right, Hipster Doofuses.

[The Angry Optimist]

"J Kuu" from number 7 is the worst - I thought that asians had more self-respect than all that.

[alan]

Justin Beiber, phshaw, that is one ugly little beaver faced fuck. When I was a 'tween, they marketed hot guys like Leif Garrison and David Cassidy to us because we at least had taste back then.

[sloopyinca]

While those guys were hot, they also marketed "hot" guys like Scott Baio and Danny Bonaduce to you.

No homo

[alan]

MMM . . . while true of Baio, I don't think Bonaduce ever made the cover of Banana or Tiger Beat. He was always thought of as an ugly and annoying kid brother.

[sloopyinca]

Actually, Tiger Beat put out an "Official Partridge Family Magazine." But looking back at the covers, it appears Keith and Laurie were the focal points.

Still, Scott Fucking Baio?

No homo

[alan]

You don't think his monobrow, Stalone-sh nose and squinty eyes are hot?

[sloopyinca]

Sorry, alan, I don't. Now, if you wanna talk hot, you had Leif, the Cassidy's, hell even Willie Ames was hot compared to Chachie.

No homo

[alan]

ooh, yeah, that Sean Cassidy, almost forgot how gorgeous he was back then.

No homo.

[sloopyinca]

John Travolta.

And this one will probably make you cream your pants (no homo).......

RICK SPRINGFIELD

[alan]

Oh, the husky voice of Dr. Noah Drake.

Whew.

No homo.

[sloopyinca]

Well, I caught the tail end of that group. Mine were more the Duran Duran through Grieco and Depp. I'm sorry, but you can't tell me for a second Sean Cassidy had anything Simon LeBon didn't have. They did a fucking James Bond song!

No homo

[sloopyinca]

Ahhh, the early 80's. When Sarah Jessica Parker was considered a pig and the Cory's roamed in packs.

My, how times have changed.

[alan]

I have a thing for goblins. A sick fetish if there ever was one. Put Sarah Jessica and Shawnee Smith naked in the same bed making out while waiting on me, and my dick would be all like breaking down brick walls to get them.

[Gray Ghost]

Ahh, Shawnee Smith. That's someone I haven't thought of in a long time. Best part of, "Who's Harry Crumb."

[sloopyinca]

Shawnee Smith was that cute knocked-up girl in Summer School. SJP was the fucking pig on square pegs. Your fantasy would be better-served by replacing SJP with Fairuza Balk or perhaps Lori Petty when she was in her Tank Girl phase, although that may be more a troll-fantasy as opposed to a goblin-fantasy.

[sloopyinca]

And if I had to put a pair of 80's chicks together, it would have to be 1984 Madonna with Debby Harry ca. 1980. That, my friend, would be a sight to see.

[alan]

yeah . . but dudes can respect Duran Duran especially when your first exposure to the band is your friend's laser disk copy of the uncensored Girls on Film. To be a true 'tween star, the dudes has gots to loathe you.

[sloopyinca]

True, but could they respect George Michael? Wham! were panty-droppers if I recall correctly. So were NKOTB.

[Dagny T.]

Oh, Bumberdorks were thick on the ground last weekend. With the hipsters oozing from Seattle Center and the geeks at PAX (bonus fun: scroll down to see the Myth of the Gamer Girl forum!), it was a veritable sartorial wonderland.

[sage]

I can't click that link from work. Is it worth checking out when I get home?

[Butts Wagner]

no

[hmm]

So check this.

[SugarFree]

I watched about 10 minutes before I figured out neither were going to strip and I got bored and stopped it.

[alan]

Too bad for you, bro. You missed Suderman's nipple slip.

[SugarFree]

DAMMIT!

[P Brooks]

Grandpa's checkered hat with earlaps

like this?

[Anonymous]

Sure is *male gaze* in here.

[SugarFree]

The Male Gaze is everywhere.

[P Brooks]

She may be cute but she must not have the brains God gave a piss-ant because she's dating.......wait for it......

Ezra-Fucking-Klein

They say everybody needs a hobby, but how (and, more importantly, WHY) would you even know this?

[Drax the Destroyer]

Because he is part of the 35,000 point plan fueled conspiracy to destroy Ezra Klein. The next step involves giving her chlamydia so he gets it. Warty, get on that shit.

[SIV]

I googled to see her resume/vita and before I could finish "lowrey" it autocompleted to Lowery Ezra Klein.
Figured there were better things to read on the internet after that.

[SIV]

I'd guess the commenter did the same thing

[sloopyinca]

You got it. Although Drax's story would sell better on MSNBC.

[Lefety]

She's definitely a hottie. My imagination can run wild just from the screen shot. No need to see her open her mouth....

[sloopyinca]

Meh, what kills me with her is the name. Every time I see a chick named "Annie," I hear it said like Jar-Jar Binks said it is Episode I-II. There is no way in the world I could fuck a woman who reminds me even remotely of Jar-Jar, Annakin or George Lucas fucking up Star Wars.

[joshua Corning]

I think reason is under utilizing this "blogging heads" thing.

Why is the other side always a lefty?

and more importantly why isn't URKOBOLD on it debating with RC Dean?

[Joshua Corning]

WTF?!?!

Peter said something to the effect of:
"Libertarians don't hate this stimulus bill as much as the other stimulus bill because it actually will be used to build things."

WHAT THE FUCK?!?!

Libertarians hate this bill less for one reason only...50 billion is less then 800 billion. And that is it.

[J]

"I'd vote for that. Willy-nilly loans, you know."

I don't think she was joking. I think he wasn't sure if she was joking or not either, why he paused.

Ugh.

[GHrtasuy]

What's a "libertarian type", Peter?

[Joshua Corning]

First the pitchfork list is totally fucked.

Pavement gets #1 and Sonic Youth does not even make the top 20. WTF!?!?

Also i now feel sorry for Annie. She honestly believes that even if the health care was not changed and it did what it is supposed to do as written it would actually work and not turn into the bureaucratic cluster fuck disaster which it is going to be.

For example she thinks that real income did not rise for the past 10-20 years because of health care costs and that Obama care will fix that by lowering costs.

What fucked up fantasy world does she live in thinking that this boondoggle can lower costs?

Sad.