And Barack Obama is supposed to save us from ourselves?

This "man" has a column because people read it.

People agree with this.

We have become a truly dark nation.

That may be one of the saddest things I have ever read.  IS he really that shallow and depraved that he cannot enjoy an act of kindness?  Really?  I know the old bumper-sticker "Piss off a conservative - Share." but this really does go well beyond that.  Would sharing actually kill this guy?  Acts of kindness need to be berated?  Pathetic.

I hope he looks at this incident as written, looks at himself, and has a POSITIVE revelation.   I really do.  This is loathsome behavior.

Failing that, I hope his fiance has a good look at him and has a revelation before SHE gets too immersed.

And yes, in response to many of Jerome's recent discussions, how the hell do you make us drink the water I think we all agree we need.  Obama has lead us to the water and guess what?  Most of us do not seem to want it.  We have our fingers in our ears, screaming at the top of our lungs, wishing that all the crap would go away and we could eat those old McD's burgers and fries, using the non-biodegradable syrafoam containers, in our huge revving 5-mile-to-the-gallon cars, and it would all be super healthy.  We are spoiled brats, and when our society acts like it, and refuses to "eat our peas" the extreem liberal end of the Dems goes off on how we need to FORCE those damned peas down our throat because they are GOOD for us...never mind the damage being done otherwise, especialy those of us who are much more close to the moderate end of the range. 

The way things are being written by the beyond-liberals is..., we should grab the damned horses head and shove it in the lake...even if it means cutting the head clean off.  (What a lovely picture, eh?).  "Mutter, mutter, mutter...Damned horse should drink the stupid water, it really needs it, won't do what I tell it to do will it, well FINE, then you'll get your water, just trying to save you from yourself and look what you make me do....mutter, mutter."

I am sorry to say that the only way this country that we love, as a society, will ever mend is if we go through a lot of pain...that is just the way it seems.  I am unsure if that was the way of the 20's and 30's, that the depression broke us of some of our "bad habits".  I would not say we need "tough love" (yuck...only a boomer could turn helping a kid into a spotlight on themselves...) but that the pain will come from breaking bad habits.  Comfort, consolation, and compassion need to be grown, I guess, if we cannot abide by them.

It is a pretty cool thing to have a memory of actually making a buck or two selling juice you made in a sink on the corner. I was pretty jazzed, but yea, it can be free sometimes too!

all of nature is just a big bunch of suckers for giving away everything for free.  Food, forests, ore, sunlight, water -- nature just doesn't get that you've got to charge something for sustaining all life and beauty.  The whole point is to make money.

Giving stuff away?  That's no way to live!

it's been a long time since I read a column that actually made me sick to my stomach to read.  This one did it.  What is wrong with these people ("these people" being conservatives)?

The absurdity of the so called 'conservative' columnist's point of view is that it is not conservative in the least.  A real conservative , instead of trying to tell someone else how to run their business, or whom they are allowed to marry, or what sort of choices they need to make for themselves, bla bla bla...

Wouldn't sit there and try to tell you how to run your business. A real conservative , presented with free lemonade .. they'd get out of their damn car and put up a sign further along the road selling the free lemonade they're getting at a profit.

Do you think the little girls would learn their lesson after 50 people walk in there getting lemonade and someone else takes the money? You bet they would. And even better, after a real conservative would make the money - he'd probably let the kids take the sign and the new customers that come afterward, and walk off fat and happy.

It's the power of the free market. It's not ripping anyone off. It's taking a good business idea and running with it. If you gave me free Mercedes Benz SLK's, 50 of them.. I would sell them at a profit. Eventually you'd figure out not to give them to me for free. Or we'd work out a deal where I give you a nice shiny quarter for each one of them.

The lesson of Deepwater horizon is similiar. Republicans are running all over DC trying to get the government to clean up a corporation's mistake. Why? Is this conservative. No.

It doesn't even have to do with ideology. It has to do with a single, toxic perception - and a high stakes game that someone will win.  The toxic idea is this: that we need lobbyists to run the government. So the republicans, instead of pretending to be conservative (the last time they had both the house, senate, judiciary and the white house they spent more money than in the entire history of the united states) - or tell you what to do with your personal life - will be elected on the strength of being able to eliminate redundant and unneeded government in the age of electronic communication.

And the Democrats, instead of taking more money than ever before (up to 1.4 million dollars A DAY from health care lobbyists in the past reporting periods) ... to deliver half baked legislation, will get down and dirty and start delivering what their DEMOCRATIC CONSTITUENCY wants..... and end up looking responsive, alert, and alive.

Deepwater horizon and the lemonade stand teach us that when you have GOP senators running around asking for government handout money , and a so called conservative trying to tell small business what to do ...  that ideology would be agreat thing. Neither of these actions are actually conservative, in the least.  Its not that we have too much ideology. Hell, that would be "Mr. Smith goes to Washington". Its that whatever gets to DC ends up like a seagull trying to land in the gulf, and we end up constantly trying to clean it all and make it fly... when the better thing to do is just finish the job of draining the swamp

Before I comment on Savage's stridency (living up to her name?), I am glad to see that Savage's sex/gender is being correctly identified as female.  I used to live in Chicago and remember her from her on-air finance stories.  I didn't want to see valid criticisms of her stridency diminished because a basic but irrelevant fact like her sex/gender was incorrectly identified.

Having said that, welcome to the dictatorship of, umm, not the proletariat, but Terry Savage's free market capitalism where you MUST take advantage of other's predicaments ("I'm really thirsty!).  The sad thing is that by toning down her stridency ("You must..."), not assuming facts (giving away their parents property), and finding out the purpose of the stand (maybe they're saying thanks to their neighbors!), she might have found an excellent opportunity to teach these children how to fundraise so that they could truly share with people in need (this did occur in an upscale Chicago neighborhood).  At a time when there are lots of people who would value the chocolate bar or lemonade because they can't afford to buy a meal or a bottle of water, how refreshing it would have been to have taught these children not only how to care for themselves financially but also to give and share with those much less fortunate.  I wish I would have had such lessons when I was a child.

In our reactions to her "Savage" capitalism, we would do well to not dismiss her point about being able to pay for it.  One of the reasons why the Clinton economy was successful was because his administration addressed that issue, and we developed a budget surplus that helped reduce our debt and strengthen our economy.  The Bush administration squandered that surplus, pushed us further into debt, and ruined our economy because they didn't want to do the necessary things to pay for it.

As long as tea baggers and the right buy into the fierce and unrealistic concept of "free-market capitalism" (with little to no government) and the stridency of Savage, conservatism will never be able to demonstrate human compassion.  But please don't let that be justification for progressives showing no business sense when providing effective and needed assistance to those who are truly in need.

It's too bad that a Terry Humanitarian didn't also drive by these kids and give them a real lesson in both finance and compassionate sharing.