Your description of my way is inaccurate, but I could certainly argue some of the elements that you listed.

That was a dissapointing answer, followed with another David presumption (knowing my way). Your stated intention is to get people to think. Yet, you seem to respond poorly to well thought opposition. Are you sure your intention is not simply to get people to think like you?  

@Robert- you and I will continue to disagree. The reality is, you have the right to make as much money as you want- if it’s your money you are playing with. If the company is private- go for it. The moment you sell stock- and take it public, there need to be controls, especially since so much of our financial system is hinged on it indirectly.

Your way is to return to a gold standard, eliminate all financial instruments, end taxation and depend on anarchy. Good luck with that.

Let me explain. Ken Lewis has never asked me nor taken money from me. I dont like BoA and have never invested with or worked with them. However, he has my money in the form of bailouts. How did this happen? The US Federal government demanded that I pay them a portion of my earnings and they chose against my wishes to give $$ to someone who already had their chance to earn it in the market. Ken Lewis acted with no force nor coercion towards me, yet the US federal government certainly did. Ken Lewis does not employ people with guns and the authority to take from me, as a matter of fact, he was given my money by people with authority and guns that could take from him.

So, while I agree that he is certainly an opportunist, I do not see how you proclaim him a criminal. I would however call the group that used force and coercion to make Ken’s opportunism criminal. That group would be the Federal Government.

If it is the amount of wealth that he earned according to his contracts and employment by shareholders, well, that is between them. They do not have my investment and it should not be my concern, nor yours.

So you see, you are so busy believing that control and government is the answer to solutions you get angry at the person who has your money, yet you are always looking past the gun in your face (and the party holding it) that is making it possible. 

So what inspiring response where you seeking? What element makes him a criminal? How much should he been allowed to pay himself? Is that amount arbitrary and open to discussion? What if you and I disagree? What about others like him that dont run the company into the ground as much? What about the successful ones? If BoA can get the same work done with less people, is that criminal? If he gave half to charity is he still criminal? 
 
How many of those above questions would you like the government to control? In a free market with a simple constitutional government, you dont even have to answer those questions. Nor, do you have to waste dollars and production to employ people to make those decisions. Each individual casts a vote every single day with the money they spend and invest and where they choose to do so.

There are so many elements to your response that I could analyze and digress into, from the attitude of entitlement to lack of knowledge on where most tax dollars come from. Even to your argumentative attitude and immediate dismissal to someone who may disagree.

Regarding me being an idiot savant. Even if I felt that I argued poorly on one topic, why would you imply that dismisses the ideas on all others? You are so obviously wrong here, but I would not imply that you have never been right simply from your current state of wrongness.

@Icebandit- I’ll let you write the checks to the lawyers next time, OK?

  Please David. The view might be great from that cross but those nails have gotta’ be agony. Granted, you got caught in the crosshairs of a vengeful city for what was basically street theatre, but you prevailed and prospered. But enough with martyrdom.  Puleeeeeese. Those 72 virgins are the sole property of the muslims……….

   Sir Isaac Newton was inspired by the apple knocking him on the head and Einstein by the drunk leaning on a New Jersey lamp post. So you’re right Dave, there is potential inspiration hiding in every crack and cavity. But what, dear David, was the inspiration you hoped to glean from one with the checkered, criminal and hypocritical history of one like Angela Davis? Agreed, she was acquitted of murder. But for that matter, so was OJ Simpson and John Holmes but I don’t remember either one of them hitting the lecture circuit. So assuming, as you must, that the death of Judge Harold Haley was one big misunderstanding (perhaps the judge grabbed Angela Davis’ gun from his abductors and blew his own head off) what other inspirational actions in her history did you find potentially inspiring? Was it her flight to Cuba after the acquittal, where she was the English language mouthpiece for that famed humanitarian Fidel Castro? Or her dalliance and defense of Jim Jones before and after the murder of a US congressman and the mass suicide in Guyana? Or her refutation and denunciation of the victims of the “Prague Spring” uprising in eastern Europe after they appealed to her for help because of her supposed interest in prison reform?  Yes David, inspiration is just about everywhere, but some are inspired by Mother Teresa and others by Charles Manson. And if you tell the world that Angela Davis left your inspirational fuel tank on “E”, the Old Bandito says “good”………..

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120201560&ft=1&f=1048

For you to call her a murderer discounts your argument. The courts found her not guilty. Our justice system is far from perfect, I agree- but, it’s the only one we have.

I too, walk bearing the legacy of the legal system gone haywire- I’ll assume that you still believe me to be a terrorist for protesting the secret, illegal meetings of the city commission, even though 5 courts found me not guilty.

As to what Ms. Davis was offering- apparently my expectations and her delivery were like comparing the issues of genocide with jaywalking. Inspiration can come from anywhere, it’s just so many people put too much credence in traditional sources and ignore much of what surrounds them.

I believe in equal opportunity inspiration, apparently you do not.

I call that selling out.

I wrote an e-mail to Ms. Davis- I’m awaiting a reply.

I refuse to stand idly by when anyone ever says “you can’t fight city hall”- it’s not in my constitutional make-up. It was an open floor- in an academic setting- this wasn’t a courtroom, or during her presentation.

The issues of our society locking up a disproportionate number of minorities and lower income people is crying for a champion- a force, instead- we got this namby-pamby presentation with big words- and little substance. I expect more.

Shoot the messenger- but, what are you doing to keep people out of jail/prison and turning them into contributing members of society? I spent the morning talking to the future Mayor of Dayton about many things, including how we can put “criminals” into a diversion program rehabbing homes and deconstucting them.

We have serious problems in this country. We’ve sold our political offices to the highest bidder. The politicians in turn have sold us out. I expected Angela Davis to be the anti-sellout. This post wasn’t about Ms. Davis- it was about what I took away from it- she just happened to be the catalyst of the idea.

Sorry you don’t like it- or my reactions. The thing is- I’m not doing any of this to please anyone- but to make them think- and if you think I’m an arrogant asshat- that’s what I am. I’ll live with it.