Its 2011, Mr. Suh.

A brief whiskey-fueled post to Mr. Suh.

You are a genetic freak. You are one of the strongest players in the NFL. However, its 2011, not 1971. You cannot rip players helmets off (no matter what your D-line coach teaches you). You can't stomp on opponents on the ground. Being obvious in trying to hurt people doesn't fly anymore. And remember, you might be on the same team one day.

Mr. Suh. The NFL is going to fine you. Again. And possibly suspend you, helping to effectively screw the Lions season. You are a top-tier player. You have the potential to be great. You won't be great if you get suspended for being dirty.

Be a strong player, an intense player, a great player. Not a dirty player.

Remember this. Julius Peppers is great without playing dirty. You could be too.

Signed

An insignificant fan of football

Oh, you expect US to train them?

An interesting look at the facts behind companies claims they can't find qualified workers. From the Wall Street Journal.

The long and short of it is this: Employers want employees who are fully trained to do the job they are being hired for, immediately, with years of experience already behind them. They don't want to spend any time or money training new hires even though there is an ample amount of trainable people for the jobs.

Interesting read.

We Come in Peace (Shoot to Kill)

Not that anyone important (or more probably anyone at all) cares about my opinion, but when has that stopped me before?

The US attempts to portray itself to the world as a champion of democracy (assuming a democracy would elect our guy), freedom, and human rights.

However, I don't see how we can do that with any hint of honesty as we continue to carry out raids, both human and drone on foreign soil without any sort of permission.

We claim its in the "War on Terror" and that we are killing "bad people." Ok, maybe we are. Maybe we are killing Al Qaeda terrorists one at a time.

But at what expense? We've pretty much destroyed our relationship with Pakistan (as tenuous and full of lies on both sides as it was), Yemen holds no love for us as we continue to kill on their soil, Iraqis have been ready for us to go home for years. How many future terrorists are we creating by killing in this manner?

Look at it this way, if a terrorist group was based in the US and was giving attacks in another country, would we be ok if that country flew a drone in or dropped a Special Operations team in to kill them? Of course not!!! (The most recent drone attack in Yemen killed ~7 people. This is [i]roughly[/i] equivalent to 80 odd Americans.)

Even if it was "justified" we'd be outraged at foreign attacks on our soil!

Apparently, its ok because the countries we do it to can't fight back. Might makes right.

I must say I'm greatly saddened by the Obama administration continuing the Bush policy of "screw other nation's sovereignty, we're the US." Granted, the killings are on a far smaller scale of magnitude, but that does not make them any more right, just slightly less horrible.

How can something as simple as "Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you" be so difficult for us to grasp? I'm not saying we shouldn't do anything about the terrorists, merely there is a right way to do it and our way of doing it. We're only continuing the cycle of violence and adding to their real and imagined reasons on why we're evil.

Americans: Exceptional in Our Minds

Great article on the (mostly) mythic idea of American Exceptionalism. Its the same story nationally, we think we're better as a nation than we really are, as it is personally for people when they are asked if they are generally a good person.

USPS-A Fascinating Expose

The USPS is failing!!! The headlines have been screaming this and I, like probably most other Americans, believed this to be true to some extent.

I couldn't exactly figure out how it was losing as much as it was, I knew pensions, less letters being sent, etc. were all hurting it, but the numbers were pretty staggering.

Well, this article explains the REAL reason the Postal Service is facing such huge deficits, tricky Washington accounting.

The USPS is being forced to make payments for the next 75 years of health coverage over the next 10 years. Yes, the next 75 years in 10 years. The money is being siphoned over to help out with the Federal deficit. Money can go from the Postal Service, but not too it.

The article points out if it wasn't for the insane payments, the Postal Service would've posted a $1 billion profit instead of a loss last year.

A fascinating read and a nice honest look at why this venerable institution is struggling.

RIP- Steve Jobs

Today, a man who's vision and ideas impacted millions of people around the world died. Steve Jobs, one of the founders of Apple, the man who was turned to again later to revive a struggling brand lost his battle with pancreatic cancer.

Jobs, as many brilliant and powerful people are was often a polarizing figure. If you have even a passing interest in computers you've probably run into a moronic Mac v. PC argument on a forum.

I grew up using Apples. My family had an Apple IIe around 1988 or 89 and I used Apples and Macs almost exclusively until the early 90s.

While I haven't cared for Apple's ad campaigns or their turn to pushing consumer products people are supposed to replace on a yearly basis, the impact of the brand, and their CEO and founder, Jobs, can't be overstated in the American market.

All cancer is horrible, and sadly pancreatic cancer is worse than most, being unbelievably difficult to treat and defeat. Mr. Jobs fought hard and survived much longer than many who battle the disease, perhaps a testament to the will inside a man who took a company from a garage, to the top of the industry, and years later returned to bring it from the brink of collapse to one of the most powerful corporations in the world.

RIP Steve Jobs

Two Wrongs are Not Right.

I'm not sure when America started believing two wrong make a right?

After 9/11 we certainly did, starting two wars in our anger over being attacked. One passed the "ok" test, if war is ever ok, on a slim end around technicality.

The other, as unjust as Iraq's invasion of Kuwait a decade before.

No, we've long believed two wrongs make a right, even though it goes against anything the Bible states. And you know, we are a country founded on Christian values.

The "war against terror," much like any other war, has proven once again why you don't want to fight wars. Stories about war are nice and simple. There are good guys and bad guys. Heros and villians. Good versus evil.

Lies.

Real war is horrific. Instead of dark and light its mostly a muddled field of gray, occasionally stained with the blood of innocents and warriors alike.

True war is murky, and try as "civilized" man might to put rules towards it, they are cast away in the heat of battle. Adrenaline fueled brains reacting on impulse and fear. The basest of human emotions bared daily, causing scars both physical and mental on all normal people who touch it.

Do not think I'm attempting to equate us with those who attack civilians around the world. The cowards who kill and maim in some twisted believe their "god" desires this.

However, I cannot and will not be silent when my country does wrongs. President Obama ordered as singular a wrong as possibly any President has: he ordered the cold blooded murder of an American citizen.

Don't think I find Anwar al-Awlaki a sympathetic figure. The man incited violence and hatred that has contributed to scores if not hundreds of deaths.

However, what kind of a country do we live in where the President can order a citizen of this country killed, without trial, without due process, without any legal proceeding whatsoever, merely because of "treasonous" acts against our nation?

If we are supposed to be an example to the world, an image of what nations should be (and trust me, I don't think we are that at all) what does this show? That due process, a judicial system, laws, are nice? EXCEPT when things are dirty and inconvient. Then its ok to just kill the person because well, they are "bad."

I'm not a crazy talking conspiracy nut now. I don't think government death squads are going to be formed hunting down dissenters. No reliving of the "Red Scare" only with suspected insurgents gunned down instead of taking to court.

But the precedent, to say nothing of the havoc we've been creating in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, set by this is bad. Very bad.

Being President has to be one of the most difficult jobs on earth. However, no matter how difficult it was to say yes to the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, apparently saying "no" was even harder. President Obama needed to say no. He needed to uphold the ideal that American law is sufficient (though we still kill our citizens yearly in a highly inequitable legal system) no matter how imperfect it may be.

Killing begets more killing. While a nation cannot turn the other cheek, it does not have to respond to a slap in the face with a machine gun.

I don't know where or when it will end, but a line needs to be drawn somewhere.

Relaxation Day- September 27

We woke up at 6:45, a late morning so far. Today we decided to take a rest day. Between the Hermit's Rest hike and the bike ride, a break for our flatland muscles was in order.

We had a nice breakfast at the Cafeteria and relaxed at the campsite for a little bit.

We then took the Blue Route to the Visitor's Center and caught the Orange Route out to the Yavapai Geological Museum. It was pretty interesting.

To me, the majesty of God is not lessened a bit if it took billions of years and the formation of the canyon took millions. Its still awe-inspiring in its majesty.

We had an Englishman (or at least spoke English natively with an accent) take our picture. He asked where we were from and we said Peoria, IL. He'd been to Chicago (of course) and asked how far it was.

We said about 2.5 hours. He laughed and said "You American's measuring things in hours. In two and a half hours I'd be out of the country."

We walked the Rim Trail, nice and paved and smooth, back to the Visitor's Center a caught the shuttle out to Yaki Point.

I sat on a rock and jotted some notes as a squirrel begged for food. (I didn't give him any.)

It was a beautiful view of the canyon. I'm not sure language, at least English, can capture the beauty of the canyon anymore than a camera can capture the true beauty of the sunset.

After doing some laundry and reading for a bit we caught the shuttle back to Yaki Point to watch the sunset. We walked out to some rocks and as we sat waiting for the sun to set some packrats kept attempting to get into our backpacks. They obviously thought something tasty was inside.

The sunset was gorgeous, though I get gipped with the whole "colors" aspect of it. Katrina learned a $200 digital camera can't begin to capture the beauty of a sunset.

We got back to camp after dark and I cooked up some Dinty Moore beef stew for supper. Its amazingly tasty when you are camping. Not really any other time though. Bed happened around 8:30.

The Bike Ride- September 26

This day we rented a couple of bikes from the rental place at the Visitor's Center. We headed out towards Hermit's Rest, a 21 mile round trip. We had the bike's rented for 4 hours.

It started out mostly downhill to the Blue/Red transfer and then greeted us with a 6% grade for about a half mile. After that, it wasn't too bad out to Hermit's Rest, this was a bit of a warning for the return.

I admit that I lied to Katrina when she kept saying "Won't it be harder coming back?" I said "No" knowing full well it would be. What were our options? I hadn't realized that she wasn't thinking that "relatively flat" routes at 7000 feet up on a plateau is different than "relatively flat" in Illinois.

Coming back was pretty brutal. The Haro bikes we were given were just 7 speeds, but it wasn't from a lack of gears that made things hard. It was a lack of oxygen and the fact we'd had a difficult hike the day before. Katrina was struggling but making it and it was far from a walk in the park for me.

We stopped at the Blue/Red transfer to rest and I inquired about putting the bikes on the shuttle buses as each had a rack in the front. It was allowed and we rode back to the Visitor's Center in comfort, exhausted.

Katrina kept trying to apologize for not making it, but I assured her I was not looking forward to the climb back. I wasn't exhausted, but I was tired.

All told we rode ~14 miles with plenty of hills.

We headed back to camp. cleaned up and had hot dogs and mac & cheese for supper. Katrina crashed out around 6:00 or so and I probably made it until 7:30.

I did have a couple of very tasty brews, Grand Canyon Brewing Co. of Williams, AZ, makes some wonderful beers. So far I can attest to the tastiness of their American Pilsner, think in the style of a Budweiser or Miller, except it tastes good, and the Sunset Amber Ale. Both are excellent brews.

The Nimbus Brewing Co. from Tuscon, Arizona, had a great English Style Ale called Old Monkey Shine. I didn't drink much of it as it was 8.2% abv (i didn't realize this until after I opened it) but it was delicious.

First Hike- September 25

We got up about 6am, make a nice breakfast of bacon and eggs and prepared for our first hike. We'd looked at the Guide and decided to do part of the Hermit's Rest trail. Walking up to the shuttle stop we climbed aboard the Blue Route shuttle and rode to the Blue/Red transfer below the Bright Angel trailhead.

Transferring to the Red shuttle we rode out to the Hermit's Rest trailhead and overlook. A cute little curio/gift shop designed by Mary Coulter sits there. She was an architect for the Fred Harvey company and while I didn't get any books on her while out there, I do want to do a bit more reading as she seems like a very interesting person.

The trail was exceptionally rough. Its an unmaintained trail, very rocky, both big and small rocks, and fairly steep. It changes 1000ft of elevation in 1.5 miles.

We pushed hard and did a 3 mile round trip in about 3 hours. We noticed that we descended about the same speed we climbed. Mainly because descending is harder on our joints while climbing is harder on our lungs and muscles. Lungs recover, muscles can be stretched, aching joints, well, those are just miserable.

We did a bit of shopping in the visitors center and at the General Store. I'm interested in learning more about the history of the canyon. Both the Native Americans who lived in and around the Canyon (the Havalupai for one lived in the Canyon, hence Indian Gardens rest area on the Bright Angel Trail) and the early white settlers to the area.

Hermit's Rest gets its name from Louis Boucher, "the Hermit." Who lived in the area apparently.

Its interesting, I'd say 40-60% of the people at the canyon are foreign. Its so cool hearing all the languages and accents. Germans were thick, but I could hear French, both France and Quebecois varieties, various Asian dialects, various eastern European dialects and even some Middle Eastern language. Plenty of various accented English speakers as well, England, Australia and probably other places as well.

Two English sisters in their early to mid 20s flew into Portland and drove to Las Vegas before heading to the Canyon. They were on their way to Phoenix see their uncle. The younger was going to be driving back to Portland to fly back so she could go to school.

A German couple flew to Phoenix and the biked up to the campground! It was interesting as their bikes had internal rear hubs. I hadn't seen touring bikes that used those before, but I suppose it makes as much sense. I'm just a luddite who is scared of internal stuff I can't fiddle with. Sure, if my rear derailleur goes out, I can't shift, but I can at least have one gear. If that breaks, you're sort of toast.

This night had the first fire of the trip. It was small, but nice.

The Drive- September 23-24

The plan was I get off work at noon, Katrina wakes up and packs the car, I get home and we leave.

Well, does anything ever go as planned?

Katrina had a million screenings the night before (actually both Wednesday and Thursday) and so things moved a bit slower than planned.

While, running to the store to pick up a few last minute food items, Katrina locked herself out. Fortunately work took pity on me and allowed me to leave at 11:30 instead of 12:00.

When I got home it didn't take us long to get loaded and we were on the road by 1:30. We forgot a few items, bowls, butter knife, can opener, sandwich bags, etc. but it was nothing insurmountable.

The drive was LONG. We drove straight through with minimal stops for gas and breaks. The longest stop was ~1 hr for breakfast in Tucumcari.

Breakfast was at a Denny's in a Love's Truck Stop. The pay at the pump was disabled so even with a credit card you had to guess how much fuel you were going to put in, and then they'd credit back if you went over. Strange.

Katrina caught a couple hours sleep in the back (4 hours total) and another 2 hours up front.

I caught about an hour's worth of sleep in the back and maybe one more up front After that point, I didn't get to drive anymore.

Prior to that I'd driven most of the way from Oklahoma, across Texas' panhandle, and through pretty much all of New Mexico. Since it was night traffic wasn't bad and there wasn't even too much road construction.

We got into Grand Canyon's Mather Campground about 3:00 and quickly set up camp. We were using my parent's tent that they were so kind to lend us and it was easy to set up. Its roomier than my tent and better suited for a week of camping. After spending $2 a piece for showers (8 minutes of as hot water you want) we went up to the Yavapai Cafeteria for supper as we were too exhausted to cook.

A young kid from E. Peoria was manning the register. What a small world it is!

Getting back to camp we headed to bed about 6pm and slept straight through until 6am. Nothing like 12 hours of sleep after a long long drive.

All told it was about a 27 hour trip. It would've been a bit less except for the extended breakfast and a little bit of time lost in Flagstaff due to missing a sign.

Vacation! Grand Canyon

The next few posts are going to be versions of my daily journals of Katrina and I's recent trip to the Grand Canyon. It was a wonderful trip, beautiful weather and traveling was great and getting to spend it with my lovely wife!

Pictures may be forthcoming, but some will eventually be up on Picassa or G+.

Ban the NCAA.

Oh my goodness. Have you seen what happened down in Miami? What a scandal! All those players being paid off, gifts, corruption! We can't let this go on in college sports!

Pardon me while I puke.

Honestly, if you are even remotely suprised by this sort of thing anymore you're either dumb as a stump or a diehard college sports fan. Wait, I'm pretty sure those might be the same thing.

Anyway, college football and basketball are corrupt. Completely and totally corrupt. And who suffers? Is it the coaches who were paid millions (or at least hundreds of thousands prior to being caught) no.

Is it the schools? Not really with the massive TV deals being thrown around.

Its the "student-athletes" the NCAA holds so dear. Funny thing is there are always more disposable student-athletes coming in to be the new stars and who cares who got their future ruined along the way.

College football bores me to tears. I guess some people like watching "high powered" offenses throw idiotic schemes against slow defenses. I don't. Its terrible football.

College basketball pretty much bores me to tears anymore, though if the NBA locks out this year I may break down and watch more than just a few games of the tournament. (Though last year's championship game was possibly the WORST played basketball game I've ever suffered through.)

The problem is colleges are supposed to be institutions of learning, not entertainment centers for hillbilly mouth-breathers.

I don't know what it will take to make the NCAA get "serious" about cleaning up college athletics. But as long as its a multi-billion dollar industry, don't hold your breath.

What a joke.

"Corporations are people"

Ah, Mitt. So, apparently you really want the Republican choices to come down to an extremist from Minnesota and yet another ex-Texas governor.

Mitt, you're correct, Corporations ARE technically people thanks to the 14th Amendment. However, they have none of the responsibilities of a person.

So, you might be right, but many of us Americans are upset that what you say is true, especially in light of how so many corporations act completely selfishly and irresponsibly on a scale that few individuals could dream of doing.

Mitt, I hope you realize you completely suck at public speaking. However, sadly, you're the only sane option among current Republican candidates. Yes, that is pathetic.

Please, wake up and realize that no matter what your personal views might be, much of America is pretty upset with corporate fat cats who have done everything to get gov't bailouts, raise gas prices, lay off thousands, and continue to move jobs overseas all while reaping record profits.

If you really want those who might vote Republican to have to choose between Bachmann and Perry, well, keep up with gems like this. But please, for the sake of us Americans who might actually be open to voting for the GOP get your head out of your rear and start listening to what the majority of Americans want. A leader who can bring about prosperity again.

Protecting corporations and other rich entities while the average American is suffering is a good way to lose out to the real crazies in your party who not only want to protect them, but reward them.

This is an average joe begging you, be an option for me. Please.

America the Stupid

I'm going to post on two completely separate topics, yet ones I feel illustrate just how dumb the average public is. Yes, I just called most of the people in our country dumb and I believe it. You can be highly intelligent and still be dumb sometimes. I'm living proof.

Anyway, first. Why do middle class Americans feel this desperate need to protect the wealthy from higher taxes? I understand, no one likes taxes. I can accept that.

I also understand we cannot tax our way out of our current spending problem. Ok.

I do not understand why average people, people who's real wages have been steadily declining since the 60s, are protecting those who are making them have less money. When the super-rich, not the 500k-1 million a year people, the REALLY REALLY rich, pay less taxes than ever, and our economy is still spiraling downward with rising unemployment, why can they not see that cutting taxes has nothing to do with spurring economic growth anymore? In the pre-global economy maybe that worked (I don't know) but I KNOW it is not working now.

I'm fairly certain that raising taxes on the ultra-rich, changing capital gains laws and trading laws so that big brokerage firms can't just churn stocks to make fees, and creating true incentives for job creation in the US would all do more to benefit the economy than anything currently being done. If you knew the government was going to take 70% of your income in taxes, might you not lessen your income? Might more of it be available to pay employees and hire new employees?

Maybe stocks would go back to being used to raise capital for companies instead of currently being used as a gambling tool and a way to make $10 off someone else's $1.

But no, apparently a vast segment of middle class America thinks this is bad. They appear to think that the relatively small cabal of ultra-rich that do essentially control our economy (this is NOT crazy conspiracy talk, its a simple fact that a tiny percentage of 1% of our population controls the VAST majority of wealth, hence, they essentially control the economy) is a good thing, that they should be left alone, and that all of them deserve every last penny they made. Sure many of them didn't make it by building factories or doing anything more than coming up with a new way to shuffle imaginary money around inside computers, but hey, that's something right?

Now, an interesting thing I've noticed about many of these same people is a dislike of immigrants and a borderline (if not outright) racist attitude towards certain minority groups, usually hispanic and black. They blame the hispanics for illegally coming here to take our jobs, traffic drugs, and ruin our health care system. They call blacks lazy, gang bangers and worthless.

Well, let me point out a few issues with those thoughts.

First, the reason illegal immigrants come here is because for years now jobs have been made available to them. How do you think so many of those massive homes were built so inexpensively during the housing boom? Union labor? HAH. Much was with cheap, and often illegal, immigrant labor. Same with farming, landscaping, meat processing and a large number of other industries. To keep prices low, use cheaper labor! Its not that Americans won't do the jobs, its that American's won't do the jobs for the wages the companies are willing to pay. Nor do I blame them. The rush of illegals has slowed during EVERY economic downturn as there are less jobs. The vast majority don't come to mooch, they come to work. And if there is no work, they don't come.

Second, to drug and gang violence. Mexico is currently in the midst of a war. The drug cartels kill thousands every year and some northern cities are practically under siege. Now, often, it is Mexicans or other hispanics bringing the drugs in and distributing them. But who's buying them? White people.

White people are the biggest consumers of most drugs out there. Partially its because there are more of them, but its also because they can afford them. Cocaine is pricey. Good weed costs money. Its supply and demand. There is a demand for drugs in America, therefore someone is going to supply it. I'm not condoning the drug trade, its horrible, but if you want drug violence to stop, stop buying drugs. Pretty dang simple really.

Finally, the "black" situation in America. Its far from simple. I'm not going to excuse the behavior of too many blacks in America. However, I can understand it. We have treated them as second class citizens, then created well meaning laws that enabled them instead of helping them. There are no simple solutions here, but it is far beyond a "black problem." It is an American problem and prejudice and blame do nothing to move our country forward.

Americans are stupid because they refuse to ever point the finger at themselves. They continue to elect crooks. They continue to allow judges to destroy our electoral system. They continue to protect the wealthy who give back a fraction of what they consume. They refuse to see why people come to this country illegally. The refuse to stop buying illegal drugs, or allowing the legalization of certain drugs to help stem the constant violence. They refuse to take accountability for past issues and see how those issues can still be affecting people today. They refuse to care about how their actions effect other countries and then are incensed when those countries say negative things about the US.

America is not a city on a hill. We aren't the pinnacle of civilization, shining for the world to see. We are a unique nation that can do much good, but we also do much harm, both inwardly and outwardly. Until we accept that we aren't special, we aren't inherently better than others and begin to work on our own problems, things will continue to get worse for the vast majority of the nation.

But, if we want to keep pointing fingers in every other direction, well, we can do that too.

Did I ramble enough here? I'm just tired of people being idiots. I'm not saying I'm always right, but I am saying too many people are never right. And they can't even see that.

"F" is for Failure

About a month ago I posted on how the GOP is broken. At that time I commented on the failure of leadership shown by our President and our Congressional "leaders."

I'm going to take a moment to expound on that.

I've been disappointed in Obama since he appointed his cabinet. Yes, before he even was inaugurated. I saw who he was appointing and as one political hack after another got a post I realized it was going to be business as usual. Change was not going to occur.

I continued to be disappointed in Obama as he caved on every issue dear to his left-leaning base. Conservatives blast him as a "socialist" but that's mere name-calling. His policy suggestions have by and large been centrist if not blatantly right-wing.

*Consider the ill-fated "stimulus." It is essentially trickle-down economics. If we pump money into banks and insure that rich people's taxes stay low, well it will trickle down to job creation.

No, it won't. That failed when Reagan, yes, Ronald Regan about as far from a socialist as one can imagine, tried it. It has failed now.

Consider "Obamacare." While right-wing news attempts to paint it as a massive government intrusion into people's lives, essentially its a massive private company intrusion into people's lives. Granted the gov't says everyone has to have health care (a provision just struck down by a Federal Court, we'll see where this goes), but there was no public option. No alternative to the predatory practices of private health insurance companies that are crushing the American medical system. Obama essentially said to private industry "here, you take care of our health care problem" not a very socialist idea to me.

Also on taxes. Oh those darn "tax and spend" Democrats. Wait, hang on. Obama extended the Bush era tax cuts, and switched around other expiring credits so that they are credited on Social Security taxes. He hasn't raised taxes at all, but the spending that Bush started (and many administrations before him) started keep chugging right away.

Then we get to the national credit default. Obama displayed zero leadership. Well, let me give him his due. He appeared to be leading with the meetings with Boehner until the crazy anti-tax nuts got involved. Then he basically curled up in a ball and cried about those nasty mean ol' Tea Partiers spoiling the plan. A plan that already was essentially a centrist if not right leaning plan!

Did he go on the offensive? Did he instantly roll out a comprehensive plan showing what he felt needed to be done? Did he attack and show the American people he knew how to LEAD and that he wasn't going to let the Grover Norquist robots destroy America?

Nope. He said how upset he was and after a couple days the Democrats rolled out a plan. But honestly, you didn't have a contingency plan going on in case talks broke down? Really?

Obama is essentially Jimmy Carter. A nice, intelligent man who surrounded or allowed himself to be surrounded by party hacks who has NO idea how to lead. He focuses on one issue at a time, and even then not very well, and appears to have no plan, no ideas, no WAY to better our country.

It terrifies me because there is a distinct possibility a Michele Bachmann could end up in the White House.

President Obama, you have about 6 months to show America you know how to lead. You have 6 months until the campaigns kick off in earnest and actual governing falls by the wayside. All is not lost, but if any of that "Change" you talked about is going to occur, it needs to occur NOW.

You can't complain the GOP won't work with you. That's ok. You need to sell your plan, whatever it is, to America and let the American public see that you can lead us back to greatness. However, if you continue to cave, if you continue to waver, if you continue to believe in trickle-down economic policies, you will lose those who supported you in the past, you will not gain new supporters, and you could leave the country in the hands of some very disturbing people.

You have the power. Show us you know what to do with it.

*As was kindly pointed out to me by my brother, I was meshing TARP (which began under Bush, but did have Obama's tacit support during Bush's final days) with the 2009 Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

These are two very different stimulus programs that worked (or failed) in different ways.

I still hold that, as evidenced by Obama's support (or at least lack of will to fight against) for the Bush Era tax cuts, and how much of the stimulus came in the form of tax cuts/refunds/shifting money around etc. that he is far from socialist and often crosses towards the middle right in the policies he supports.

Is some of that pragmatism?

Possibly, but too much pragmatism is what keeps the status quo going.

Thanks to schmichael for pointing out my glaring error.

Freedom of Religion, Right?

So, one of the Republican presidential hopefuls believes towns should have the right to ban mosques. Really, this is the sort of person the Republicans allow to challenge for their ticket?

Last I checked, the United States allowed freedom of religion. One would think that would allow the building of places to practice your religion in wouldn't it? Or, should we go the China route? Maybe make some official state approved mosques for them to go to or else they can just have "home mosques."

He states his concerns center around Sharia law. Ok, I agree. We can't allow religious laws to trump state laws. Certain Muslim sects, and nations, practice versions of Sharia law that are abhorrent and cannot be tolerated in our country. However, those nations are set up as Islamic Nations! It is PART of who they are. It is NOT part of what America is. If practicing aspects of Sharia law, breaks American law, well I'm sorry, the freedom to practice your religion only goes so far. Just ask David Koresh.

I'm also curious as to what he thinks about Judaism after reading this quote from him.

In reference to allowing towns to ban mosques Cain said. "They are objecting to the fact that Islam is both religion and (a) set of laws, Shariah law. That's the difference between any one of our other traditional religions where it's just about religious purposes."

Well, Orthodox Judaism is exactly that. A set of laws. And interestingly enough, they've worked their way into our society with only occasional hiccups. But those problems are dealt with by our legal system.

Finally, Mr. Cain apparently wants to insure any possible radicals stay heavily underground. What's easier to check up on? A mosque where the clerics are known in the community? Or should we force them to practice their religion underground where no one has a clue how radical their teachers might be?

I find it interesting Mr. Cain has chosen to take this route. I guess its easy to prey on fear-mongering among the bigoted and weak-minded, but that's, hopefully, not a path to our Presidency.

I firmly believe that Muslims have as much right as any other religious group to build places of worship. (Sometimes subject to local codes, etc, but the basis for denial of a building permit should never be the faith.) I also firmly believe that we have the laws in place to protect those who could possibly be harmed if some of the more extreme and unfortunate varieties of Sharia were attempted to be followed in the US.

What happened to being FOR allowing people to be free instead of taking rights away from them?

No One Cared

Its a moot point now, but I'll say it anyway:

If you didn't live in LA, or weren't traveling to LA this weekend, you didn't care in the slightest about the "Carmageddon" Interstate shutdown for repairs.

People whine and cry about the media being too biased. I'm whining and crying about the media being too stupid.

This WAS NOT NEWS. It might have been news in LA, I understand. But the coverage it has been getting (seeing the bylines on Google and Yahoo news, from sources as varied as Washington Times to the New York Times).

Now, I understand, lots of news organizations have bloggers that post under the umbrella of a newspaper or whatever.

I still respond, "So? How was this something relevant for a blogger in NY or DC to have a comment on it?"

Yup, here's a blogger in IL commenting on it, but no one cares what I think anyway.

Its a pathetic statement of our news organizations that the have pretty much given up truly covering events overseas or even events in the US anymore due to cost cutting and instead serve up pseudo-news tripe to get click throughs on the web and ad dollars on TV.

Its sad. We have the freedom of the press and we waste it on "Carmaggedon" and Casey Anthony.

Edit: I actually clicked on one of the links last week as I was curious as to what LA had to do with Carmaggedon.

Intriguing...I may have options...

Mitt Romney has declined to sign a second hard right, social conservative "pledge."

First he declined to sign the Susan B Anthony list hard-line anti-abortion pledge. (Anti-abortion in all circumstances, no possible option for rape, incest or life of mother threats.)

Now he has declined to sign the "conservative marriage vow" put out by the Family Leader which in its first iteration stated that more black families had 2 parent homes during slavery than they do today. Talk about complete context fail. Wow.

They changed the language after black pastors complained about the wording, but Romney still declined while stating he supported "traditional marriage."

I'll admit that Romney's Mormon faith makes him a hard candidate for me to accept. I need to see more of his economic policy suggestions to truly overcome my concerns, but it looks like the Romney might emerge as a possible alternative to wasting my vote to keep some far right candidate being elected.

I'm pretty sure 15 months from now when the election is happening, I'll look and laugh or cry at this post, but oh well. Its here. Laugh.

The GOP is broken...and the Democrats are missing out.

Leadership. Its a word that's bandied about in various walks of life. Its something that is completely and utterly lacking in too many facets of life. Our current president has lacked it, as have the leadership in the House and Senate both under Republican and Democratic leadership.

The GOP however, are broken. The Democrats are a joke to a large degree, but the Republican party which is completely beholden to Grover Norquist's "we can't raise taxes at any cost" mantra are broken.

Did you read about the GOP's suggestion on how to raise revenue? It can't be taxes, we'll sell some gov't land. What? Seriously? This is the same joke that states with "balanced budget amendments" (like Illinois) have been doing for years.

We don't want to raise taxes, so we'll sell something that is finite. Brilliant.

People can disagree on how to cut the deficit. Its fine to compromise, but the GOP refusal to allow taxes to be raised, at least to pre-Bush tax cut level is moronic. (Oh, and to the point of lack of leadership Obama's caving on extending the Bush tax cuts is but one of many examples.)

You cannot cut spending out of this. Let me put it this way, you would have to cut EVERYTHING THAT IS NOT MEDICARE, SOCIAL SECURITY AND DEBT PAYMENTS out of the budget to balance it. EVERYTHING.

I'm not saying cuts don't need to be made, they do. I'm not saying tough decisions don't have to be made, they of course do. I'm not saying I'll be happy with where some of the cuts come from, I won't. But tax increases (which are actually closer to a normalization to the pre-Bush era) have to be part of this. And serious tax law changes must happen so that hedge fund managers cannot pay less % in taxes than a doctor or engineer.

If the GOP wants to seriously contend for the presidency and have any sort of legitimacy not built on fear and hatred then moderate party members must stand up and speak out. Currently we have a GOP that is controlled by the moderately far right and the really far right (just stopping short of the extreme far right). This hatred of all things "tax" related while they were happily spending away during the Bush years MUST END. Oh, and yeah, it'd be nice if the President had stood up on that issue when the Bush tax cuts came up for extension last year. See, I'm not just one sided on this.

The GOP desperately needs some members who can still stand for traditional Republican values without being borderline crazy. I'd prefer to have an option to vote for besides Democrat or no one.

Ooops-Wrong Again!

As the hub-bub dies down around Mr. Campings' silly prediction of the end of the world today, I figure I'd point out a few things.

First, the word rapture doesn't appear in the bible as its always bandied about. There are allusions to something like what's been termed "The Rapture" but that word just doesn't appear.

The logical problems brought about by the idea are many. First, a goodly percentage of the bodies of Christians are dust, their atoms now constituting living people. Is it merely going to be souls going to heaven? If so, then you're back to the Platonic idea of duality of the body and soul.

Second, the Bible specifically states NO ONE, but the Lord knows the day or the hour of the end. That would mean, not Mr. Camping. Not Mr. Koresh. Not Jimbob Two-Toothed. Nobody. So, you can come up with some hilarious crackpot mathematical code to the Bible, but in doing so you have to ignore a fairly pointed statement warning against what Mr. Camping (and many others) have tried to do.

Third, this goes back to the rapture problem. As so lovely illustrated in the awful Left Behind books (ok, I saw the first movie and have never even opened one of the books, nor will I) if "the Rapture" would happen chaos would be unleashed upon the earth. Thousands, if not millions would die as planes crash, cars crash, accidents of all sorts occur at jobs.

Now, those in support of the idea say this is all part of the awful things that will happen during "The Tribulation."

I say, it doesn't seem a very loving God who would bring this upon those who He wants to bring into his fold. It might be because I'm a stubborn contrarian, but I sure wouldn't be turning to the God who is unleashing chaos upon the earth. I'd be pissed. But, again, that's just me.

A final issue that ties more into the general problems of reading Revelations in any sort of literal sense is the idea of the final battles between "Good" and "Evil."

In the immortal words of Star Trek V, "Why does God need a starship?" In this instance a starship being an army. I'm pretty sure the slaughter of millions isn't "good" and that God isn't too keen on the death of innocents at the hands of his "holy army."

I could be wrong and I know people would point to the OT to prove me wrong. I'd say that its because the Jews were specifically interpreting God's commands to benefit themselves....but hey, what can ya do?

Inception- Was it really 12 hours long?

Continuing a recent trend of ripping into movies, here is my take on Inception starring Leo DeCaprio and written/directed by Chris Nolan.

I don't know where to begin with this movie. Tons of people loved it, but I'm not sure why. It drags on for 2 hours and 28 minutes that feels much longer than that. The plot doesn't make a ton of sense and wastes tons of time on things that don't actually matter.

Character development is non-existent except for Leo's character to a degree. But, since from the start of the movie you realize the "development" about him you end up wondering how his partner hasn't noticed it before.

A good 3 hours (ok, maybe 20 minutes? it seemed like forever) is spent explaining how they develop the "dream" they are going to be using to go into someone's head. The problem is, they more they explain it, the less sense it makes. This whole process needed to be skipped as it didn't add anything but confusion to a plot that was already hanging by a thread.

Basically, this movie could have been great, it just tried too hard. If Nolan had cut 45 minutes from it, cut out plot development that went nowhere interesting, and focused on making a movie that actually moved faster than molasses, it could have been wonderful. Instead....you got what you got.

The CGI special effects were gorgeous and I give their team full credit for that.

Also, why Ellen Page was cast for her role I don't understand. I liked her in Juno and I think she can do certain roles well, but she seemed horribly miscast for this role. Especially since her character was sort of "forced" in my mind. Of course, most of the plot seemed to exist only to justify other points of the plot existing. You might think that's how all plots are, but...if you watch this movie, it feels very very very contrived and not cohesive or flowing in the least.

I'll give it a 2.5/5 as it wasn't awful, but man, it sure wasn't good.

Salt- WTF?

So, I remembered seeing previews for this movie and then hearing how most of the critics hated it. Ok, I thought, that must mean its a decent action movie. They usually hate those.

Well......

If you go into it wanting to watch an action movie with a nonsensical plot, this is it. To fully enjoy the movie, don't read the box/netflix blurb as it isn't really what the movie is about exactly.

I won't spoil it for you, but prepare to say "what the heck is going on" and "why did they do that?" and "this makes no sense at all" and "come on, really?" a lot.

The action is, well, modern action. Its enjoyable enough. The normal hilarity of 120lb Angelina Jolie (hun, get back up to Tomb Raider size please) being able to go toe to toe with 200lb men. The regular "everyone can hit a bullseye with a pistol while sprinting/leaping through the air" gunplay. Just normal action movie fare. The plot is what did this movie in for me.

Honestly, the movie had lots of potential to be a fun action movie. Instead, someone decided they needed to make the plot ridiculously convoluted and bad instead. Why? I don't know. Its like Hollywood has decided that action movies need lots of plot. No, they don't. More plot just gives a higher probability the movie will suck as the inherent plot problems of action movies come more and more to the forefront.

By the end, the movie I could most compare it to plot-wise was Mission Impossible II. Now, it wasn't as bad as that travesty of a movie (seriously, few movies are) but if you watch Salt and have seen MI II, you'll know exactly what I mean.

So, I'll give it a 2/5, but say that for 99 minutes of your time, there are far worse movies you could waste it on.

Inspired Play?

Really. The Memphis Grizzlies (which is about as stupid a name as you can have) are playing such good basketball because they are inspired that Memphis is underwater.

WHAT!? I know idiocy like this makes for a nice article, but think about the implication: They wouldn't be playing as well if Memphis wasn't flooded.

Whether its the Saints doing well for the city of New Orleans, something good happening in Detroit, or whatever woebegotten city has a sports franchise that is succeeding, the plight of the city has nothing, hear me, NOTHING, to do with how well the team is playing.

Sure, the players might think it does, but realistically, they're playing good basketball because they are peaking and playing together as a team at the perfect time.

So, please. "Real" journalists out there. Next time a struggling city has a sports team doing well, don't say the city's plight (or blight) is inspiring the team to succceed. Its just stupid.

It ain't college anymore Mark

I have no idea if Mark Z approved of this hairbrained scheme, or even had any knowledge of it, but..this is hilarious.

So, Facebook, that bastion of user privacy (I laughed as I read that) was trying to plant stories about Google? All because they're pissed off that Google's social networking was using FB contacts as secondary connections?

Man, this is funny stuff.

The Alternative?

So, I've been mulling this over for a bit and while its not the hot button topic at the moment, it will be again soon.

The Republicans want to pull all funding for Planned Parenthood (even though none of the Federal dollars go to providing abortions, which account for approximately 3-7% of provided services). However, since PP's services are directed mostly at the poor, what is the Republican plan to step up services for those who would be effected by this change?

PP gets ~1/3 of its funding from the Federal gov't. Any group losing 1/3 of its funding would necessarily have to cut back services significantly. And who would this affect? The same people that are normally affected whenever social services are cut, the poor.

Now, if we had an actual national health insurance system (not this abomination that we ended up with) I wouldn't be as upset by this. The poor would still be covered with insurance that would be accepted at any clinic (oh yeah, didn't you realize not everyone accepts Medicaid? And lets not get into the quality of care....).

But, we don't have that and nothing like that is suggested in any way shape or form.

I'm sure this is coming across as I'm "pro-abortion." I'm not. I'm ideally pro-life, but am realistic that life isn't as simple as I'd like it to be. I'd love to get the number of abortions lowered. However, I don't see how this would happen by essentially cutting back by 1/3 an organization that helps PREVENT many surprise pregnancies by giving out low cost contraception.

The gist of my argument comes back to this. Outside of a couple of radical ideas (attempting to cut trillions off in one year..good luck with that) the Republican budget ideas have essentially been attacks on social services. Those are not what are bleeding us dry as a nation and the handful of billions saved are truly meaningless as anything except "moral" victories. Which is what the Republicans are back to trying to do: legislate their version of morality.

Funny how it doesn't apply to how corporations act, how banks act, how our nation acts in respect to military spending. In their interesting view of correct morality, well, those darn gays and abortion rights people are the lowest of low. Odd.

Black Swan

So, Katrina and I watched Black Swan this weekend. Since it won best picture I had certain prejudices against it from the get go. (To me, about 50% of "best picture" movies are utterly and completely crap, even if well made.)

I'd love to say that Black Swan transcended that, but really it didn't. It was a well made movie with good acting and phenomenal dancing by Portman who purportedly did about 85% of her own dance scenes.

PSEUDO-SPOILER ALERT:

The problem was if you've seen any movie, EVER, involving someone with paranoid schizophrenia, A Beautiful Mind, American Psycho, then you've seen this movie. Oh sure, it had its own unique aspects, but ultimately, you knew what was going on and the movie lost any real suspense for you.

Also, reflecting on the movie, the plot just sort of happens. You never get stuff fleshed out, which is sort of annoying because I, personally, LIKE things fleshed out more.

So, ultimately, it was an ok movie, that was well acted and directed but the plot was the weak point. I'd give it a 3.75 out of 5 I guess. Definately not "Best Picture" quality in my mind.

Edit: Upon reading this "review" I realize I will never be a critic.

Solidarity

Echoing my thoughts of yesterday I've been thinking more on it. I honestly do think envy and jealousy are the reasons behind much of the support of stripping decent pay and benefits from public employees.

How many times in coversation have you heard "I wish I got what they get" in reference to pay or health care or pensions or vacation.

So, the American way is the path of least resistance. Rather than grouping together and fighting for workers rights as happened in the first half of the 20th century, politicians have fractured the middle class which instead of raising up to the level everyone would like, brings everyone down to an unhappy but "equal" level. (Equal??? Isn't that communist!?)

Workers today need unions badly. Not the clunky old, inefficient for modern problems, unions of yesteryear, but agile, flexible and intelligent unions for the future.

The sad thing is too many people have been brainwashed that unions are what caused American jobs to go to other countries. That is true to a limited extent, but that completely disregards the massive spike in executive pay and bonuses that has been going on for decades. The union mentality of "defend everyone equally at any cost" needs to go. They need to look at things case by case and defend everyone, but understand that some workers are useless.

But American workers need to stop the jealousy at those with decent (and they are only decent because being a public employee has as many pitfalls as perks) pay and benefit packages and start striving to get them for themselves. And if a few million or billionaires have to bring in a bit less money, why is that a bad thing?

Feeding Frenzy

Why does part of the middle class hate another part of the middle class?

The current feeding frenzy whipped up mostly by Republicans against public sector employees is bizarre. Well, ok, politically its not bizarre. Its right up their alley of cutting things they don't like rather than actually attempting to deal with difficult issues that might upset voters.

However, while public sector employees can have it pretty darn good, it seems mostly jealousy from workers that have seen their companies move away from pensions, they have no unions to join to fight for their rights, and are constantly forced to do more with less knowing they will be replaced by someone cheaper if possible.

I was thinking about this as I was at the DMV yesterday. Those people have to be saints to put up with the constant stream of crap that's flung at them. How on earth is them getting a decent paycheck, with decent benefits (not nearly what they once were relatively, its only because the private sector has done all its can to shove costs on employees that it seems good), and a pension, bankrupting anyone?

I guess lots of American's are confused by the industry funded bait and switch going on. Our states and country are in debt! Its a disaster! Obviously we must fix this! What's the problem? Well, obviously all those decent middle class wages and pensions! Thus the people turn on their fellows instead of looking to the rich who are fiddling as middle America burns.

Oh, FYI, those pensions that are so horribly underfunded? That's not the workers fault, that's the states/towns/whatever's fault for not paying their share. Its also the fault of the stock market manipulators who have destroyed the market the past few years.

So, please, before you go whining about how someone has better benefits than you and that they have a pension, check the envy at the door and really think about it. I bet after you do, you might think differently about things.

I feel a post from someone at a forum I frequent sums up the situation nicely:

Originally Posted by Yarbicus: A public union employee, a tea party
activist, and a CEO are sitting at a table with a plate of a dozen cookies in
the middle of it. The CEO takes 11 of the cookies, turns to the tea partier and
says, 'Watch out for that union guy. He wants a piece of your cookie.'

Interesting thoughts

Read a great column today that brought up some interesting (and oft discussed and ignored) points about Evangelical Christians in the US.

Now, please, get past the intentionally provocative title to read the content of the article. Also, yes, all Evangelicals (a highly diverse group) are lumped together here, but that is because he is discussing trends reflected from research on the subject.

The jist of what he is claiming is true. At least to my eyes.

Jesus the Savior is easy. Jesus the man is difficult. So they tend to ignore him.

Something light and musical

So, I love music. Lots of rock and metal, but I can find something in most genres I can appreciate if not seek out.

Classic NWOBHM, New Wave of British Heavy Metal, is something I've been getting into recently. Iron Maiden in particular is a band I've come to love.

Mashups are a where two songs are "mashed" together. Something DJs have been doing for years but with the advent of youtube its been getting highly popular.

Here is a mashup of the Monkees song "I'm a Believer" with Iron Maiden's "The Trooper." You all know "I'm a Believer" so I'll just post the original The Trooper and the mashup.

I personally find this to be brilliant. Oh, and I WILL be able to play The Trooper on guitar one day. Well, maybe not the solos, cause they're just silly.

Wisconsin Update

Well, as of this writing the blatant assault on worker's rights continues in Wisconsin. Not sure how its being reported nationally, but the Democrats and union heads have agreed to the pension and insurance concessions, if the Governor would budge on pretty much stripping the unions of any union power.

He has refused.

According to the Democrats he has refused to even bother to return phone calls on the issue.

As if it wasn't apparent before this is a politically motivated move, this proves it as the economic aspects have been worked out.

He just refuses to discuss the non-economic sides of the issue. Lovely.

Politics as budget policy

If you're following the situation in Wisconsin right now you're probably feeling a surge of emotion. Most likely you feel a surge of sympathy for the state workers who are unfairly being targeted as the source of all the state's budget woes.

Or you are excited by the crusading Governor who's going to reign in those unions and right the ship!

Well, hang on. Let me illustrate for you how this is nothing but a power grab and will do a little, but not much to help fix their budget.

First, this is nothing more than a chance to essentially destroy the unions in Wisconsin that primarily vote Democrat. By stripping unions of the power to collectively bargain on anything but wages, taking away their right to collect dues, and forcing them to apply for recertification every year they are pretty much saying "We want you to go away."

Interestingly enough, the police, firefighter and state trooper unions aren't going to be effected under this law. Those unions tend to vote Republican in higher numbers. Oddly though, those are the unions that also wrack up the most money in overtime as teachers and most state employees (outside of DOT employees and a few others) generally do no get paid any overtime at all no matter how many hours they work.

Second, this smacks in the face the Republican ideal of "people's rights to make decisions." There is no effort being made to go to the unions and work with them and letting the union's members speak. Its an all out assault on them, stripping away what was agreed too, rightly or wrongly, without actually attempting to work out the issue.

Remember back when everyone was upset the AIG bankers were still getting their multi-million dollar bonuses as AIG was bailed out. But Obama said that they couldn't break the contracts? Well, apparently Wisconsin has no such qualms. And this isn't about multi-million dollar bankers. This is about average everyday people. People who are being unfairly targeted by those jealous that the economic situation hasn't struck them as hard.

Are certain state contracts stupid? Yup. 30 years and then you can instantly start collecting your pension doesn't work. (Note, that's not teachers, who work as hard if not harder than pretty much anyone outside of law enforcement. They have to work between 35-36 years to get their full pension.) However, making radical attacks on these union contracts (and actually the unions themselves) with no attempt to negotiate is 100% political, because let's get to the numbers.

The Republicans claim that by doing this they will be saving the state 300 million over the next two years. Ok, that's nice, but the financial concessions are being accepted this goes way beyond that.

Let me put this out here: Wisconsin, Illinois, many states, and our federal gov't, are in ugly financial condition. The states even more so as they have fewer options on what to do about things.

The "budget cutting" in Wisconsin is every bit as much a political ploy as the Texas redistricting of 2003. However now, it directly effects people's lives, every day working folk, simply because a legislature wasn't able to control itself in the past.

Now, I'm not blindly pro-union. They too often are ancient behemoths, out of touch with reality. They need to reform themselves to the new way of the world. But we the worker NEED them. We need them as almost as badly as we did in the 30s. This blatant political assault on public unions is a BAD THING and sadly just another case of the two-party system utterly failing its constituency.

*Edit:Fixed a numbers mistake

Spring

Well, its not here yet, but today, its sunny about 50ish out. I'm stuck inside working, and the sun will be preparing to set when I head home, but that's ok. Its a taste of what's just a matter of weeks away.

I'm trying to prepare for spring. My goal this year is to ride at least 2,000 miles on my bike.

If you're not a cyclist, that may sound like a lot. Its not really, because if you do even a few longer rides the miles add up fast.

As of today with a guesstimated average of 10mph on my indoor trainer I'd done a paltry 37.7 miles or thereabouts in the last 8 days.

I'm hoping to have a few hundred under my legs by the time it gets nice enough for me to ride out regularly.

I've missed biking the last few years and not only because I've put on more than a few pounds. There's a peacefulness associated with it that I don't get from any other form of physical activity. Its very theraputic, which while my life isn't overly stressful is something we can all use.

Looking forward to the coming time when its in the 50s every day. Then instead of getting up early and wandering to the basement, I can wander outside and put in a few miles.

We'll see how close to my goal I get.

We ain't broke

The current whining and handwringing in Congress over the US being so far in debt, the deficit, and other financial woes isn't a bad thing except they keep saying we're going broke.

They need to shut up and stop fearmongering. The US isn't close to broke. They just don't want to do the necessary things to help right the ship.

Here is a lovely column on the subject, but what the Republicans in Congress (and our President who suddenly has moved amazingly centrist when it comes to fiscal policy) need to understand:

You look like horrible evil people when you're attempting to cut subsidies to help pay poor people's energy bills in the winter and yet a man who made 5 BILLION, yes, 5,000,000,000 last year paid only 15% federal tax on the bulk of it. (To say nothing of wanting to cut all funding for the CPB which helps fund PBS and NPR.)

Is there wasteful spending in Congress? Of course! Are there programs that can be cut/merged/etc? Of course! Should we make some higher tax brackets on the super-rich? OF FREAKING COURSE!!!!!!

Why someone who makes millions of dollars a year pays the same percentage of tax as someone who makes hundreds of thousands is nonsensical. They may even pay less, percentage-wise, depending on how they made most of their money.

I'm all for attempting to reshape the Federal budget, but what is killing us right now is not the social safety net programs.

Its two wars that went un-funded for most of their terms.

Its a defense budget that keeps gobbling more and more money (oh, wait, they're going to try to cut $12 billion a year for the next few years...that's 1.8% a year off the DoD budget).

(An aside on defense spending. "The U.S. Department of Defense budget accounted in fiscal year 2010 for about 19% of the United States federal budgeted expenditures and 28% of estimated tax revenues. Including non-DOD expenditures, defense spending was approximately 28–38% of budgeted expenditures and 42–57% of estimated tax revenues. According to the Congressional Budget Office, defense spending grew 9% annually on average from fiscal year 2000–2009.")

Its the lowest tax rates in 50 years on the richest 1% of the people in America.

Its the corporations that are sitting on a collective 2 TRILLION in cash but aren't hiring new workers, opening new plants, or generally creating jobs that would get America working.

I completely understand that we must be cautious because whenever a dollar is allocated its almost impossible to unallocate it down the road. However, just because bad decisions were made in the past, they don't need to be compounded by bad decisions now.

Also, a personal note on the article. Its written pretty fairly , but I must point out that while the last budget surplus we had was under a Democratic President (Clinton) he was a very moderate Democrat and actually fell more towards the right fiscally. He had a Republican majority in Congress when they did more than just cut taxes and spend as well. Just wanted to add that clarification.

So America, wake up and stop panicing. We aren't on the brink of federal financial meltdown. The people in power just don't want to derail their gravy train of donations from Wall Street in implementing sensible tax rates for the super-rich or a tax on large financial transactions.

An Old School Republican's take on the last 30 years

Mother Jones did a great article based off interviews with David Stockman, Reagan's first budget director.

He's a fiscal conservative, but he's a true fiscal conservative. He understands that just cutting taxes while spending the same amount, more, or with tiny spending decreases doesn't work.

He's appalled by the continual military spending going up and up (his suggest chop 100-150 billion off the Pentagon's budget in one year, currently we're aiming to lower it by 78 billion over a total of 5 years) and was against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Also, he views the "casino" that is Wall Street as bad for Main Street and the US economy as a whole. He supports the "Tobin tax" which would tax financial transactions and could generate 100 billion dollars a year. It also might have the effect of making the market a place where middle class people might actually be able to make some money. But yes, a Republican who supports a tax!

Its a very interesting and informative read and I just wanted to share it.

Opinion meet Fact

Just a nice article on the "massive spending" Obama has done. Well written, explains their methodology, good stuff.

You can read it here.

Not that this is a surprise

Glenn Beck is an idiot.

Seriously. I don't know what's happened to him over the last 8-9 years where he went from an intelligent person with a more right-wing, but not lockstep view, to the current incarnation of Beck where facts have no more bearing on anything he says than they do for Rush.

Its quite bizarre and disturbing.

Is it ego run wild? Has he really been this insane all along?

I'm referring to these 2 instances where he appears completely out of touch with the reality of American history.

This weird far right movement of turning the Founding Fathers into pseud0-religious figures is creepy and terrifying. They were very human men, with very real flaws, firmly set into their time. That's simply fact, not a knock on who they were or what they did.

But to attempt to say the 3/5th clause was an attack on slavery is simply insane, or to use a term that the right has used so often "revisionist" to the point of lunacy.

I still wonder though, what's happened to him. He used to be able to at least discuss and listen to other points of view. Those skills appear to have left him. Strange.