Comments on: Editors note: Don’t like our politics? Then write for us

By: Skip

Skip — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:39:45 +0000

Just a heads-up: Christopher, your email address doesn’t work–I tried twice and got a daemon response. Please contact me on your own email so that I can respond. Thanks!

By: Skip

Skip — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:40:38 +0000

I’d be pleased and honored to contribute to this website. Thanks for the invitation–or was it a challenge? Anyway, I’m in. Tell me who to kill ;-)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:05:39 +0000

@Prof: Exactly. He (Marx) completely modified it in order to suit his world view.
It’s also cold comfort that America is only taking the beggining steps towards communism. To paraphrase “Don’t worry, this is only the beggining…” doesn’t exactly warm my spirit, thanks all the same. Your logic to relate the reply, jestful as it was, to travel, points out the very same twisted logic by which Janice Hough tried to justify her post. Again, by that logic, physics papers should be a mainstay here, because without an understanding of areodynamics, or gravity, planes couldn’t fly. It seems to me, in hindsight, that Tripso was going for the political jugular the day before the election. So it seems it was allowed if the term can be used, as a gimmick. There’s a reason poltical posts aren’t a mainstay here outside of election season. Do you know why that is? The bloggers at Tripso would have a very difficult time justifying their bias (one way or the other) to their readers.That they don’t is proof enough that most readers come to this site for one thing: Travel news.

By: Prof B

Prof B — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:54:30 +0000

Hey Anonymous: Here’s Adam Smith — “The subject of every State ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the State” (An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations).

Karl Marx moved to London in 1859, where he spent the remainder of his life. While there, he read everything that was known about capitalism and political economy at the time and composed a three-volume history of economic theory, focused primarily on the work of Adam Smith and David Ricardo. Most of what appears in Marx’s Grundrisse and Das Kapital consists of an extended series of essays reacting to adapting the work of Smith and Ricardo to the theory of class struggle that Marx and Friedrich Engels first elaborated in The Communist Manifesto.

In any case, people misinterpret the political significance of the phrase. Marx argued that “from each/to each” would characterize the final stage of socialism. Income redistribution in a capitalist economy, “socialistical” though it might be, precedes that stage by many, many years. So don’t worry — the Reds aren’t coming for you just yet.

Incidentally, the phrase itself isn’t Marx’s either; it appears in the work of the French Utopian, Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon, who lived from 1760 to 1825.

And since this is a travel posting, let me point out that I learned all this by reading. On a plane.

By: A former reader

A former reader — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:48:27 +0000

‘Freedom of speech’ only applies to government control – not to what a blog controlled by a private party asserts or displays. Edna no more has ‘freedom of speech’ on this blog than I can call up President Elect Obama and actually reach him to express my personal opinion. Every has a right to their opinion, where and how they express it is subject to regulation – in this case by the blog owner.

The poster who left, clearly was NOT trying to control other peoples thoughts, opinions or expressions. How could ANYONE get that from the post? He thought it was inappropriate to post about denigrating one’s President outside the country. He further thought it was inappropriate to do so on a travel blog.

As for what Germans and others want to talk about – great. Interact, give them your personal opinion. You want to wear an anti-Bush shirt, go ahead. It is inappropriate for a blog on travel. It would have been perfectly fine to opine that when traveling overseas other people are interesting in American politics when they determine, easily in most cases, you are an American. go ahead, talk, criticize, cajole, disagree with, listen to them. Just remember that they have a different focus than Americans have.

And try to also respect the fact that people do not want to be reminded of the current situation

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:47:48 +0000

Wheeeeee! I love this one from Alan:

Pssst! Don’t look now, Alan, but Karl Marx stole that from Adam Smith….

I think that’s probably a false statement Prof. and you are just trying to be funny.
Even if it is some sort of historicical truth however it doesn’t prove anything.
The tenents layed out by Marx are diametrically opposed to those of Smith.
Communism and socialism are not friends to freedom. Freedom is what makes humans who we are.The freedom to be free from politics is one I quite enjoy.
I don’t enjoy having that freedom disrupted, by reading some socialist supporting rant on Tripso. Clear enough? I sure hope so.

By: Prof B

Prof B — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:50:05 +0000

Wheeeeee! I love this one from Alan:

Pssst! Don’t look now, Alan, but Karl Marx stole that from Adam Smith….

By: Max Hartman

Max Hartman — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 23:12:12 +0000

Here in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, where Costa Rica received her name meaning “rich coast” in 1502, over 90% of the population wants to see an Obama win, while at the same time, they are awaiting ratification of the TLC (Free-Trade Agreement), a replacement for the CBI (Caribbean Basin Initiative). With the current economic status, I like to tell travelers and tourists in the Northern and Central USA and in Canada, “Fly South for the Winter” to Costa Rica. We’ll be waiting!

By: edna

edna — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 21:58:07 +0000

Who cares who votes for whom? The big picture is will they work with the FAA to make air travel safer, will they stop the madness that is the TSA, and will they restore our First and Fourth Amendment rights that are being tromped on like old corn stalks?>

By: Gracie

Gracie — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 20:42:46 +0000

People just need to learn….EVERYONE has a right to their opinion!!
I don ‘t go to any forum and voice MY opinion on the issue and expect anyone to agree with me, but….it’s called “Freedom of Speech”.
I listen to you….you listen to me….then we part ways shakin our heads…lol.
Keep up the good work here on Tripso!
What’s the next topic to whine about going to be? lol