Quote:
Originally Posted by revstriker
I don't consider personal attacks and name calling to be "merely correcting" one's grammar. I've also been reading this forum for a number of years and have seen many of Alex's posts, and I can't recall him ever correcting someone's grammar using such tactics.
|
All bets were off after Kevin went off half-cocked on Samer in the same fashion, except his facts, as usual, weren't based on reality. He gets the same courtesy from me going forward as he shows others in this area of the forum. Namely - anything at all that is stated as true but can be easily shown not to be will be loudly pointed out, along with disparaging remarks about his upbringing, his fashion sense, and his table manners.
Quote:
Originally Posted by revstriker
As for backing things up with data, the information is out there for anyone to look up. While Alex can play the spelling and grammar Nazi, and try to turn a discussion about increased spending into whether a number is 5.716 or 5.176, none of this changes the point of the discussion.
|
The difference between those two numbers isn't much at all when it comes to these discussions, but it shows a lack of attention or understanding about how all of these items fit together. And - neither of them had anything to do with him misunderstanding the discussions of yearly deficit and total deficit. He picked the wrong numbers to even try and correct.
Quote:
Originally Posted by revstriker
Spending and debt has increased, and is increasing.
|
See - that's something that we can all agree on and start to have a discussion on. Doesn't it work better without adding made up and provably false statistics like "Obama has increased spending 84%"? Especially 1 second after chastizing someone with:
Quote:
Originally Posted by revstriker
You've got to be either kidding, or very uninformed.
|
It doesn't play well when people actually check the numbers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by revstriker
By the way, this is an interesting read.
|
Agreed.
From p. 24:
Quote:
The one thing that has disillusioned me is the discussion of fiscal policy. Policymakers and far too many economists seem to be arguing from ideology rather than evidence. As I have described this evening, the evidence is stronger than it has ever been that fiscal policy matters—that fiscal stimulus helps the economy add jobs, and that reducing the budget deficit lowers growth at least in the near term. And yet, this evidence does not seem to be getting through to the legislative process.
That is unacceptable. We are never going to solve our problems if we can’t agree at least on the facts. Evidence-based policymaking is essential if we are ever going to triumph over this recession and deal with our long-run budget problems.
|