Shoots assortment of cheep checks from supercooled nitrogen to superheated liquor….

Here are some Gini indices (something economists use to meausre inequality, the higher the number, the greater the inequality – for example, sweeden’s is 25 and the U.S.’s is 40.8):
Brazil 59.3
Colombia 57.6
Chile 57.1
Argentina 52.2
Peru 49.8
Venezuela 49.1
Bolivia 44.7
Ecuador 43.7

(From the UN Development Program, http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/)

What I objected to was the Chávez = Limbaugh comment. Reg stated rather eloquently why that’s so ridiculous.

Warm regards,

Randy

No need to post three times in response.

Is this what passes for intelligent debate for you?

First you comment approvingly of a sexist ad hominem simply because you dislike the person at whom it is directed and you admire the person who made it.

Then when I call you on it you invent a strawman argument that I’m saying that Chávez equals Rush Limbaugh.

grow up.

Ad hominems, like strawmen are politically neutral: they are not the exclusive provenance of either the left or the right.

Chávez’s comment is ad hominem and has no place in a serious discussion of policy. Your attempt to paint my comment as my equating Chávez with Limbaugh is a strawman argument and serves merely to attempt to deflect the discussion from the relevant issue.

Ese perro no cazará.

Randy, I was going to make a joke about “Big Fat Idiots”, but thought better of it…

Justin – “That’s the sort of thing one expects from…” doesn’t = an “=” sign. It’s a figure of speech, sort of like when Dick Durbin said “Torture’s the sort of thing one expects from dictatorships, not Americans” (or whatever the exact quote was) and got jumped on for supposedly equating Bush with Hitler. He didn’t. His point actually made it fairly clear that they shouldn’t be equated, because he held one to a much higher standard. I don’t know where Randy rates Chavez on the official Rush Limbaugh “Plus-Size Idiot” scale, but I think his point was that we just might expect better than such comments from heads of state than we do from Drug-Addled Hate Radio Vermin. Chavez should leave the low-blow, sarcastic invective to Rush…and, uh, me.

No Chávez doesn’t equal Limbaugh, but witless, sexist comments are not the exclusive provenance of the right (just listen to Jackson Browne). No matter how much Chávez gives you the warm tinglies, his comments about Rice were pure ad hominem and have no place in a serious discussion of policy.

Mores the pity that you don’t see that.

Well, no, but I still laughed, and so did millions of other Venezuelans.

Besides, Condosleeza isn’t just a right winger. She’s George Bush’s right-hand woman. She’s a neo-con with a whole hell of a lot of power, who has condemned a lot of innocent brown Iraqis to their deaths. It’s hard to have any sympathy for such a woman.

Well, not really with drinks in their hands…it’s still morning where I come from. All I’ve had today was high-protein cereal, yogurt and tea. I’m a very good boy. Really.

The only reason I’m posting crap like this is because I know Marc’s on a plane and has absolutely no control over his comments section. Otherwise I’d show more restraint.

Now…to work.

Randy, I was going to make a joke about “Big Fat Idiots”, but thought better of it…

Justin – “That’s the sort of thing one expects from…” doesn’t = an “=” sign. It’s a figure of speech, sort of like when Dick Durbin said “Torture’s the sort of thing one expects from dictatorships, not Americans” (or whatever the exact quote was) and got jumped on for supposedly equating Bush with Hitler. He didn’t. His point actually made it fairly clear that they shouldn’t be equated, because he held one to a much higher standard. I don’t know where Randy rates Chavez on the official Rush Limbaugh “Plus-Size Idiot” scale, but I think his point was that we just might expect better than such comments from heads of state than we do from Drug-Addled Hate Radio Vermin. Chavez should leave the low-blow, sarcastic invective to Rush…and, uh, me.