You are correct Paul - but let's be clear - I don't know my ancestors beyond, say, 3 generations - I know there were some O'Briens from Ireland and some Absalons and Rios's from Mexico and Pfluglers and Josts from Austria and that's all I know.  But if I investigated, I could find out more.

If you're black in America, you can, as I did, investigate and if your investigations lead you to someone coming voluntarily from Africa, then problem solved in terms of missing culture and history.  If your search ends at someone's plantation, you're part of what Malcolm X was referring to. 

But let me clarify something else - I hinted that Malcolm X possibly coined the term?  I was wrong - I started poking around to find the history of it, and the term dates back to the 1850's - coined by former slaves - it was just Malcolm X who clarified the use of the term by means of how I'm explaining it.

If you think about the term, it makes sense that the origins are what I describe - if you're really using it to describe your homeland, why aren't these people calling themselves "Congo-Americans" or "Ethiopian-Americans" or "Libian-Americans"?  Because they don't know what part of Africa their ancestors were stolen from.  That's the point of using the "African" in the descriptor.

Again - the term has been muted and homogonized now, and it doesn't mean what it used to.

Well - right.  That's my problem with this idea that Obama's tax plan will ruin America - it's been proven NOT to!

We were in a recession in 1992, too.  Again - it's proven to not ruin things.

Al and Wayde, make up the spare bedroom and pull some sheets and blankets out for the sofa...

"Sure...we're in a recession and the best thing we can do is raise the price of groceries even more."

Why do people keep insisting that a tax increase for big businesses automatically means a price hike on groceries and the like? A huge tax cut for low income families (without a corresponding tax hike for the "rich") would be much more likely to automatically cause such a price increase.

Businesses will always try to charge the maximum of what they think the consumer is able to pay (for necessities or "monopoly" items) or willing to pay (for everything else).

If consumers have no more money to spend, their local supermarket isn't going to be able to squeeze more money out of them. And too much of a price increase might drive them to competitors who seek to make up for their reduced profits with higher volume sales rather than higher per unit price points.

I fully agree that Obama's tax plan will cause a rise in the price of groceries, not because he's taxing the rich, but because he's giving people with lower incomes a tax break that gives them more disposable income. They can pay more and "The Rich" will make damn sure that they do pay more.

This is how it's done even when there is no tax increase.

Brian Talley said:

So.....who won?

**

I only skimmed the last couple of pages, but I think it was Charlize Theron.

Knut's brings up a good point - my experience working in the business world was that when times were tight, prices didn't go up - instead, workers were cut.

It's a false boogeyman.  The prices certainly didn't go down when Bush dropped the tax rate 3%, they're not going to go up when he raises it 3%.

http://blogs.tampabay.com/media/2008/11/local-radio-hos.html

Well... in all fairness ... had McCain won, I would have gone to work in white-face...

But, no, seriously...

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/obama_win_causes_obses sive

I feel so moted.  I actually have Obama buttons on my messenger bag...

Still... always funny.  This is humor you can believe in.

D'oh - upon thinking about it - I made a stupid point a few posts back - while I don't think the 3% tax increase on mega-corporations will raise prices, I did note that that 3% would instead come out of payroll.

Oops!

But let me clarify - and I say this as someone who was an operations manager - a loss of 3%?  Wouldn't cause either a raise in prices NOR a loss of staff.

My point was - if there was a huge loss of income (at least 10%, say - usually more) the prices wouldn't go up - instead, our first course of action was to cut costs - there is almost always waste in a business - and then payroll - but never raised prices.