Comments on: NY Magazine Vulture Blog-Soulja Boy On How One Superman’s a Ho

By: Slav

Slav — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:25:30 +0000

“disturbingly catchy–though attempts to turn on my own swag have been lamentably dim.”

LOL.

BTW. Looking forward to seeing your views on U-N-I. I’m still waiting on my copy of “Remind Me in 3 Days” to arrive in the mail so I can give it a proper, objective listen or three.

By: DocZeus

DocZeus — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:02 +0000

Well, yeah. I agree that total regulation isn’t exactly the best medicine, either because anti-regulators aren’t completely insane when they suggest that overzealous regulation can stagnate growth. We need to find balance, of course. There’s moderation in everything. I’m not near enough of qualified to say what that is but basic logic suggests that less regulation is obviously the wrong way to go. Smart and balanced regulation combined with a certain amount of flexibility in the rules seems like a perfectly.

I just have a problem with dogmatic ideologies when basic human behavior is far too complicated to be predicted with any such accuracy over time.

By: Tray

Tray — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:37:34 +0000

Why Doc, I didn’t say that was the lesson I learned from the crisis. We obviously need some regulation, like, honesty in lending regulation, regulating the rating agencies who said these mortgages were sound regulation, maybe some regulation of leverage, so on and so forth. And I don’t think there are any libertarians who are such wack jobs that they’d disagree. The question is more, what type of regulation works, and Weisberg doesn’t talk about that of course because he’s not expert enough to know. When I hear that the magic bullet is decoupling brick-and-mortar banks and investment banks, or putting caps on executives’ salary, that’s when I get extremely skeptical, because none of that crap has anything to do with why we’re in a crisis.

By: DocZeus

DocZeus — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:58:59 +0000

Even if it were remotely possible to institute pure libertarianism on any level much like communism (or any of these fantastic, utopian ideologies for that matter), libertarianism would inevitably fail because it relies on the idea that humans act rationally and in the best interest of all. Which is an insane notion since 200,000 years of human history have basically pointed out that’s completely and unequivocally untrue.

I mean human beings as a species willingly commit suicide, an act that is profoundly irrational, so asking them to behave in a manner that is a benefit to the greater society on any level beyond the personal (and at best, the familial) is beyond asinine regardless of ideology. If we aren’t willing to preserve ourselves, why would we preserve others?

The problem is your trying to force a perfect system on an imperfect world. Even if you could somehow manage to institute the system even for a little while, it would inevitably collapse because the world is full of free-loaders, liars and other scam artists. It’s going to inevitably occur to somebody that they can get by and to their own advantage by not holding up their end of the bargain just fine and when that happens, the whole house of cards collapses. I feel all ideologues need to take a basic course on human behavior and world history before they make any decisions.

If the lesson you learned from the sub-prime mortgage crisis was that we need LESS regulation because we weren’t in a truly libertarian system than you learned absolutely nothing.

By: Passion of the Weiss

Passion of the Weiss — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:49:03 +0000

Interesting articles with some valid and not-so-valid points. I still ride with Weisberg. I give charity points to people with similar nomenclature. And yeah, agree, Ezra Klein is very good.

By: Tray

Tray — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:39:35 +0000

By: Tray

Tray — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:37:39 +0000

Yeah, without even clicking I know what you’re talking about, that’s the dumbest article Slate’s ever published. The Weisberg shit where he says, “see, we tried libertarianism, and it didn’t work, we’re in a crisis,” except… we never tried anything close to libertarianism, we deregulated a few things, mostly under Clinton, and most economists, even liberal folk like Krugman, will admit to you that repeal of Glass-Steagall, etc. is not at fault. Yeah, the article itself has been ethered* far more successfully than it ethers libertarianism (not a theory I subscribe to but a respectable one nevertheless). Weisberg’s a nice writer and commentator on Bush but not really a respectable policy thinker. If you want some intelligent liberal policy writing on the nets, start with Yglesias or Ezra Klein.

* http://www.reason.com/blog/show/129561.html

By: DocZeus

DocZeus — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:01:53 +0000

I guess I’m of the opinion that the things you choose to release as art is a greater reflection of who you are than what you say. Like I’m sure Soulja Boy isn’t actually retarded but his music is so he only really brings it on himself. I don’t buy into the excuse that because he’s a teenager it’s somehow ok. Nas was 17 when he wrote “Live at the BBQ.” Although, I get what he’s trying to do in some of this is Dave Chappelle like satire but I don’t think he’s talented enough to pull it off which is why it comes across as some Stephin Fetchit shit.

As for Shyheim not blowing up. One of the great mysteries of our time. Although, to be fair, he was competing with some of the greatest rap albums ever released in 1994 and while “AKA The Rugged Child” is really, really good. It’s not on THAT level.

By: Passion of the Weiss

Passion of the Weiss — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:18:14 +0000

Tray: I’m with Jonathan. This Slate article pretty much ethers libertarianism as a tenable philosophy.

http://www.slate.com/id/2202489/

Christine: You’re one step away from Super Mario Bang Bus Bros.

J-Mass: Agreed. I can honestly say I like more Soulja Boy songs that Ice-T songs.

Doc: I won’t argue that Shyheim is much better at rapping than Soulja Boy. Obviously. But there is something to be said about the fact that Shyheim was backed by the entire clan at their peak in 94 and still couldn’t blow up. All Soulja Boy had was a computer. He might not boast an intellectual intelligence but he’s definitely got smarts.

By: douglas martin

douglas martin — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:36:40 +0000

although i’m not much of a fan of his music, this is a smart kid. my favorite part? “i found out about taxes. that wasn’t fun.”