Some comments on how and why I write

WHY I WRITE

Naturally I do this out of order from the title.

I write because I have to.  I see SO MUCH WRONG out there today.  I mean, the world is a pretty screwed up place with A LOT of screwed up people making A LOT of screwed up decisions. Now understand, I put myself at the top of that list.  I do not claim to have cornered the market on anything other than being screwed up.  And that gives me a pretty good perspective, I think, to say something.

My politics are kinda confusing at first.  One, I am not what you’d expect, given my background.

Retired Navy, small business owner, from the south.

Pretty much a recipe for a Conservative Republican, right?

Nope.

I was a CR for awhile, a faithful follower of Rush, et al, but I kept finding myself at odds with about half of the republican platform, and with about 100% of how they were saying things.  Problem was, I felt the same way about the Democrats and Liberals.

If only there was some way to combine what I considered to be the best of both sides.

Viola, LIBERTARIANISM!

Well, sort of.

See I don’t fit ANYWHERE smoothly.  But that’s ok, especially in the LP.

I’ll go into my specific beliefs another time, but basically I’m a kinda sorta social liberal, a kinda sorta defense hawk, kinda sorta fiscal conservative, but mostly a ‘You stay out of my personal business and I’ll stay out of yours” kinda guy. That is definitely NOT the message of Ls, Cs, Rs or Ds,

But I am compelled to point out and comment on the BS that is floating around.  Sometimes, I even spout some. But I just can’t leave things unsaid when they affect so many.

My writing style is mainly conversational.  I write generally the way I think.  I deciding a while ago that I wasn’t going to write in a way that felt wrong or alien to me.  I have to express things in a way that allows me to flow.

Part of this comes from my being quite a bit ADD. I get distracted by all sorts of bright shinys out there. So I have to jump on the flow and ride it as long as possible. This results in my writing being a bit disjointed, much as conversations with me get on occasion.

I guess more on this later.

Bill

Katrina, FEMA, Bush, Brown and Emergency Response

Watched Lewis Black’s Red White and Screwed special on Comedy Central.

Failure was at state and local level.  Unrealistic expectations placed on FEMA….criticism of their response time wrong because people don’t bother to read the doctrine that governs how and when FEMA can respond, and what their function is.   State and local EO plans were not followed.  Having a plan is pointless if you don’t use it.

Much as I DETEST Bush and a signicant number of his appointees, I have to admit; you can’t fault FEMAs response. They did WHAT THEIR MISSION CHARTER DIRECTED ahead of schedule.  The problem was and is at the state and local level.  Politicians.  Emergency Management isn’t a sexy field to be in 99% of the time.  It’s kind of like flood insurance.  Its a cost you resent, and it’s a pain in the ass to deal with, and 99% of the time, it’s money paid out with no return.

BUT.

Ask those who have it, and who have had to make a claim ‘Is it better to not have it?’

EM is the same way. The Village Idiots Whom We Elected (TVIWWE) a) don’t want to take the time to read the damn plans BEFORE the emergency; b) don’t want to spend ANY money on EM; and c) When the balloon goes up, they don’t want to be bothered executing the plan, they want EXPOSURE TO THE LIGHTS AND CAMERAS and more importantly they want to be SEEN DOING SOMETHING, which usually seems to result in overriding the Emergency Manager in charge of execution and then ignoring the plan and misallocating resources resulting in a worse respone.

You may have picked up that I don’t like the Village Idiots, AKA politicians.  I don’t, because they screw things up, making decisions based on politics instead of what ACTUALLY NEEDS TO BE DONE!

So, it pisses me off when I see one of the left (or right for that matter) torpedoing the wrong people just to get a laugh.  Go after that NOLA Village idiot who didn’t think to tell the bus drivers that they were a VITAL part of the PLAN TO EVACUATE PEOPLE. So NOLA had buses to evacuate LOTS of people, BUT NO DRIVERS!

Village Idiots hard at work

Yet more idiocy.

Ah, yes. Civil Liberties.

Civil liberty groups oppose new U.S. air screening

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6034TA20100104   Accessed 1/4/10

“…Michael German, national security policy counsel with the ACLU Washington legislative office, said that singling out travelers from a few specified countries for enhanced screening “is essentially a pretext for racial profiling, which is ineffective, unconstitutional and violates American values.”

“We shouldn’t complacently surrender our rights for a false sense of security,” he said in a statement. …”

You know, I am a big fan of Civil Liberties.  I suppose that it comes from Raising my hand and swearing to defend the Constitution against All Enemies. Foreign AND Domestic.  Not saying that you have to do that to be able to be a big fan of CLs, nor to be a staunch defender.

But, it does tend to give one a bit of perspective.  On a lot of things.

I’m not going to wax philosophical about what the knuckleheads at the ACLU are saying.  I’m going to stay a bit more pragmatic.

Let’s talk about PROFILLING!

I know that profiling is a sensitive topic.  I know that there are valid arguments against it.

Is it wrong?  Not really. Not when you have a reasonably good reason to suspect the members of a group.  This idea of profilling just being wrong is bullshit.

This idea comes from a mistaken idea that it is always wrong to assume that members of a group are predisposed towards a certain behavior.  Crap. Utter C R A P.

We already profile.

If we hear a rape was committed, we automatically look for a male perpetrator.

If we hear a murder was committed, we automatically look for a male perpetrator

How often do we assume that Grand Theft Auto was committed by a woman?

Violent crime?  we automatically look for a male perpetrator.

Pedophile? we automatically look for a male perpetrator

So we already profile.  It’s just that when it’s PC then it’s ok. Assuming a Black Male Perp is bad. Assuming a White Male perp or a Male Perp, well, that’s ok.

So, if someone is coming from the insane crescent, well in MY humble opinion, they DESERVE a little extra attention.  It’s not like you get a lot of Jihadists from Iceland. I’d be a little (smidge maybe) supportive of the Muslims if they’d, I dunno, MAYBE COME OUT AND EN MASS SAY THAT MURDER IS A BAD THING AND THAT TERRORISM IS A BAD THING! NOT ONE EFFING FATWAH AGAINST TERRORISTS HAVE I HEARD OF OR SEEN.  So, I’m just not very concerned about the feelings of the muslims.  it’s THEIR people who are the cause of all this mess.  So until THEY decide to take some action and help solve the problem, well I really don’t care how much they dislike or are offended by sensible precautions.

Just Remember:

18 of the 9/11 highjackers were from Saudi Arabia.

1 of them was from the UAE.

100% of them said they were  Muslim.

All of them were Al Quida

None of them identified themselves as Al Quida.

BUT ALSO REMEMBER, ALL OF THEM WOULD HAVE BEEN CAUGHT IF THE BUREAUCRATS AND INTEL EFFERS HAD BEEN DOING THEIR JOBS!

Or, to put it another way. In other words, now I am going to throw lots of numerical assumptions and conclusions at you to prove, I hope, my point.  I do this at the end of the post so your eyes hopefully won’t glaze over viz math.

In Country X 100,000 murders are committed in a year

Group x =~50% of the population

Group y = ~50% of the population

Group z  = ~ 10% of the population

Group a = ~ 30% of the population

Group z commits 75% of the murders

Group y commits 90% of the murders

Group x commits 10% of the murders

Group a commits 15% of the murders

80% of the victims are from group z

20 % of the victims are from groups a or x

80% of the victims are not from group y

SO, should people who are members of both Group Y AND Z be looked at closely?

CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING.

A given event X was comitted by persons who are  members of  group Y.

The event X was committed against members of group Z

Group Y states that members of Group Z are evil and deserve death.

All members of Group Y are members of Religion Q.

Group Y calls for all members of Religion Q to kill All members of Group Z.

Group Y has taken responsibility for numerous acts against Group Z

Members of Group Y have mostly been from Country A, B or C.

So.  Should people from Country A B or C deserve a little extra scrutiny?

The Founding Geniuses – They Rock, we SUCK!

I like to call them that. Mainly because, time and again, they show that they were WAAAAYYY smarter than we are.  They had a much better grasp of cause and effect, history and human nature than we ever have.

Now, don’t think for a minute that I believed them to be perfect.  They had their flaws.  But when you consider them in the context of their times they were AWESOME!  Simply put, we aren’t.  Not Rs, Ds, Ls Cs, or any other group.  We are, to the Founding Geniuses, the village idiots. We are not fit to wipe their arses.

They don’t deserve us as their descendants.  We humiliate their memories and sacrafices and piss away what they gave us. Why?  For the most venal of reasons – power and glory. Ego. Riches. They rock – we suck.

See, I’m a Libertarian.  We are a distinct minority.  We believe in silly things like personal rights AND personal accountability.  We believe in the idea that the Government is NOT our mommy and daddy.  We believe that the best government is the least government.  We believe in dangerous things like: You NEED to be in charge of your own destiny; You NEED to make the hard decisions in your life; You NEED to balance your check book and live within your means; You NEED to think for yourself.  We feel that it is WAY past time for the government to live by the same rules we do, especially when it comes to finances.

But, sadly, The Village Idiots whom WE’VE elected don’t seem to understand that eventually, THE BILL COMES DUE.  See, we the people KNOW that.  Some of us don’t live by it, and end up paying the price.  Some people try to live by it, but random chance circumstance hits them. But by and large, we all live by the balance sheet.  Income minus expenses better equal a positive number.

The Founding Geniuses did miracles. We do reality TV.  Need I say more?

We SUCK!

Why I have a problem with Islam being presented as a religion of peace

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6080MV20100109 accessed 1/9/10

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Arsonists in Malaysia struck a fourth church on Saturday as the government tried to soothe tensions arising from a row over the use of the word “Allah” to refer to the Christian God.

I get really pissed off when I hear yet more instances of muslims getting their panties in a bunch over religion. They react WAAAY out of proportion to what went on. And here we have it yet again. And I felt compelled to comment on it.

I was going to go through and list all these Koran passages that support Jhizya and Dhimmitude, and then I realized it was pointless.  What is said in the Koran isn’t important.  It’s what the Islams do which is important.  And what they do is instructive indeed.

Political Cartoonist draws a cartoon that the muslims are offended by.  They go berserk. World wide. Killing and destroying people and stuff not even remotely connected to the original offence. Much like LA after the Rodney King verdict. Or was it OJ? Dunno.

Abu Ghrab.  Atrocious actions.  What do the muslims do?  They go berserk. World wide. Killing and destroying people and stuff not even remotely connected to the original offence.

About the only thing that muslims seem to do well is murder people. Most of them people who have done nothing against muslims.

Now, I know that some will say that I am confusing the actions of a small group (they are usually called ‘Extremists’ or ‘Radicals’ or some such crap) with the benignity of the larger group of ‘Peaceful’ muslims. CRAP!

If you aren’t against it, you are for it. PERIOD.  You are either AGAINST murder, or you are supporting it. It’s like being pregnant. You either are, or aren’t. There is NO middle ground, or almost or sort of pregnant. If you aren’t denouncing murder, you ARE supporting it. PERIOD. And muslims as a group are strangely silent when it comes to being against murder.

I have YET to hear of ANY Imams call for FATWA against murderers.  That is what the ACTIVE muslims are doing by the way.  It’s murder when done by individuals.  Only Nation States can wage war.  Individuals commit murder.  When the Imams PUBLICALLY and JOINTLY denounce ALL forms of terrorism, then I MIGHT start believing that they don’t covertly support the wave of murder, chaos and nihilism that happens to be committed lately by MUSLIMS!

I don’t per se hate or even dislike muslims.  I don’t trust them until they give me reason to.  Which is rarely.  They don’t come out against Sharia, subjugation of women, or dhimmitude. They don’t scream against murder.  And I do not forget that 9/11 was committed exclusively by muslims. The burden of proof is on the muslim.

We dare defend stupid here in Alabama

Ah yes. I love Alabama, BUT loving it, does NOT mean I get to ignore stupid.  And, like every other state, we seem to have stupid in abdunance.   And it seems to reside in two major places: Montgomery and Birmingham/Jefferson County.

What’s got me worked up today, is our fearless leader (Gov Riley) who, rather than worry about minor things like increasing state income and reducing expenses, so that we can actually balance our budget and escape the ills of proration, is staunchly looking out for our morality and ridding us of the evil bingo parlours (which on a side note, PAY TAXES).  Receiving helpful moral advice from the Mississippi gambling interests that are rumored to have donated to his campaign, he moves against one of the industries that GENERATES TAXABLE INCOME.

“

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A former member of Gov. Bob Riley’s Cabinet said today that Riley received campaign contributions from Mississippi Indians who operate casinos, with the money intended to limit their competition in Alabama.

Bill Johnson said a senior official in Riley’s 2002 campaign, Dan Gans, told him the tribe promised $3 million in donations, but didn’t deliver all of it. He was unsure of the exact amount, but felt it has influenced Riley’s fight to shut down electronic bingo operations in Alabama….“( http://blog.al.com/live/2009/11/former_aid_says_indian_donatio.html accessed 1/9/10)

I cannot and am not saying that BR took money to attack bingo halls.  What I am saying is a) there ain’t no smoke where there ain’t no fire and b) there are a lot better ways to spend time money and effort than killing off businesses that are PAYING TAXES.  It IS NOT THE GOVERNORS JOB TO POLICE OUR MORALITY.

When will they learn out there on the stupid coast?

No Kalifornia, there isn’t a Budget Claus.  You are in a mess of your OWN making.  Wanting to do everything for everyone, without regard to the realities of fiscal management, is going to bankrupt your state. THEN you will be able to do NOTHING FOR ANYONE.

Kalifornia is a GREAT example of how a state gets destroyed from within.  DeTouqueville I believe it was, said that when the people in a democracy learn that they can vote themselves bread and circuses, then democracy in that place will die shortly.  Kalifornia shows the truth of that.

To illustrate how Kalifornia continuously shoots itself in the foot, consider this one example.

A few years ago, a certain aerospace company was put in a situation where they were going to have to double their production of a certain product.  They were in Pomona CA.  When they did the financial analysis, it was cheaper to close the Pomona plant and build a new facility in another state, than to merely expand the existing plant in California.  Reason? Unreasonable business climate, unreasonable environmental requirements.

Does this mean that I am against environmental protection? Not at all.  But there has to be BALANCE in the world.  Kalifornia goes overboard in some areas.  And the problems in Kalifornia go beyond just environmental.  The entire regulatory environment is the same.  Bottom line, if you aren’t already doing business there, it is just too expensive to go there to do business. If you are already there, it’s getting to the point that Kalifornia is anti growth and anti business. Which has and will continue to drive businesses away from the state.

And that will FURTHER REDUCE receipts…i.e. tax revenues. Which makes the current situation even worse.

So what does Kalifornia do?  Well, instead of what mature grown ups do, which is cut expenses to the bone, and cut out EVERYTHING that isn’t absolutely vital, they a) increase taxes on the groups that actually provide growth and jobs, (which incentivizes LEAVING the state) and b) runs to the fed with their grubby hands out.  If I were the fed, I’d give Kalifornia not a dime, without some major strings.  I would dictate the conditions for getting cash which would be a) STRINGENT and EXTERNALLY managed austerity measures, and b) giving prime state land to the fed for sale to private interests.

DON” REWARD INCOMPETENCE AND STUPIDITY. STUPID SHOULD HURT!

If at first you screw up, blame someone else

Well, I’m referring to the mess in Newark where the guy kissed his girlfriend and everyone went apeshit…because he went through security, NOT because the effing dumbass guard left his post.  One of the elected nutbags went on a rant about it….funny, didn’t seem incensed about the guard LEAVING HIS SECURITY POST. No, let’s pick on the chinaman.

Just more C R A P from the morons who inhabit the halls of power.

“…His actions might have seemed innocently romantic to him, his friends said. But the incident was yet another lapse in airport security that frustrated harried travelers in the wake of the failed plane bombing on Christmas and incensed one New Jersey lawmaker over the leniency of Mr. Jiang’s potential penalty. …

In an interview on Saturday, Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, of New Jersey, said he was hoping that the United States attorney’s office would consider bringing federal charges because the penalty Mr. Jiang is facing, “is hardly noteworthy and would not discourage people who want to break through the perimeter.”

The senator said the trouble the security breach caused far outweighed the punishment: 1,600 people stuck in the airport for six hours; flights delayed and an “incalculable” loss of money. And then for five days after the incident, New Jersey law enforcement officials searched exhaustively for the man caught on a grainy surveillance video, one which Sen. Lautenberg had released on Thursday.  …”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/nyregion/10newark.html  accessed 1/9/10

We are SO Screwed!: Part One

We are so screwed.  I mean, gigantically screwed. Bent over the desk and rammed home by an elephant.

Wow. That is some REALLY over the top imagery.  What gives with that? What has me soooo pessimistic?

• National Debt
• Health Care system takeover
• Out of control congress.
• Out of control bureaucracy
• Too damn many lawyers
• Out of control Lobbyists
• Out of control Defense Contractors
• Lack of an adversarial, objective press
• Out of control educational special interests
• Apathetic and under educated populace

Now, I will submit that the last item is primary cause of all the rest. IMHO at least.

NATIONAL DEBT

I don’t know about you, but $12,000,000,000,000 seems like a shit pot of money to me. What exactly do you get for that kind of money?  I ain’t seeing a whole lot.  To be that much in debt CANNOT be good. Especially when you consider that the 2009 estimated GDP for the United States is only (God, I never thought I’d use THAT phrase before) 14 TRILLION dollars.

In other words we are in hock for about 85% of what we made last year. That’s not what the Government made, thats what the ENTIRE COUNTRY made.   Am I the only one who sees a problem with this?

This site describes this stuff better than I, so I’m just going to repost what they’ve already said

(Defeat the Debt http://defeatthedebt.com/  various pages accessed 1/2/10)

“We talk a lot about our federal deficit and our national debt, and it’s important to understand the difference between the two words.

The deficit is the difference between how much the federal government spends and how much it collects in one year. If the government “earns” $2 trillion in taxes in one year, but spends $3 trillion, that’s a deficit of $1 trillion. In order to pay for the difference, the government has to borrow money from itself, American citizens, foreign countries, and other sources.

The federal budget deficit for 2009 was a record-breaking $1.42 trillion.

The national debt, on the other hand, is the total amount we owe. Every year that we borrow more money, the debt grows larger.

The difference between the deficit and the debt is especially important because when politicians talk about reducing the deficit, all that really means is that our debt isn’t growing as fast. It does not mean we’re getting out of debt.

In more personal terms: If you have an income of $50,000 per year, and you spend $60,000, that’s a deficit of $10,000. You would need to borrow that $10,000 from someone, maybe with a credit card or a home equity loan. If you reduce your spending the following year, to $55,000, you have “halved the deficit”, but you’re still spending $5,000 more than you’re earning, and going further and further into debt. After two years, despite halving your “deficit spending,” you’re $15,000 in debt .”

And

“Our national debt is more than $12,147,478,386,030.78.

That is how much the United States has borrowed, and how much we have to pay interest on. To put $12 trillion in perspective, our national debt is larger than the total economies of China, the United Kingdom, and Australia combined.

The combined gross domestic products of China, the United Kingdom, and Australia, as estimated by the International Monetary Fund in 2008, are $10.89 trillion.

And under current policies, our national debt will continue to grow by hundreds of billions every year.

According to the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget, our national debt will grow an additional $9 trillion over the next decade, to more than $20 trillion.

During that time, the United States will accumulate $2.5 billion in new debt each and every day. That’s $1.72 million per minute, for the next ten years.

Using the projected addition to national debt based on the August 2009 Mid-Session Review Budget of the U.S. Government, we find that the United States government will accumulate an average of approximately $905.1 billion of debt per year for the next ten years. [9,051,000,000,000 / 10 = 905,100,000,000 (per year)] That means that every day, the government will accumulate an average of $2,478,079,632.02 in additional debt. [905.1 billion / 365.2425 = $2,478,079,632.02 (approx. $2.5 billion per day)].Accordingly, more than $100 million of debt is being accumulated every hour. [$2,478,079,632.02 / (24 hours) = $103,253,318] And every minute, the U.S. government accumulates approximately $1.72 million in additional debt. [$103,253,318 / (60 minutes) = $1,720,888] That’s $28,681.48 a second. [$1,720,888 / (60 seconds) = $28,681.48 per second]

• The Treasury Department estimates that our debt to China is approximately $776.4 billion, having grown more than $240 billion in the last year. That is more than $10,000 in debt for the average American working family.

  According to the Department of the Treasury and Federal Reserve Board, China held $776,400,000,000 in Treasury securities as of June 2009. http://www.treas.gov/tic/mfh.txt The total estimated population of China was 1,338,612,968 in July 2009. The estimated population of the United States at that time was 307,212,123, according to the US Census Bureau. Therefore, China’s per-capita debt holdings to the United States is $580.00. [Total Securities Debt /Total Chinese Population = $580.00] Each American’s share of that debt is $2,527.24. [Total Securities Debt / Total US Population = $2,527.24] This means that every American owes $580 to 4.36 people in China. [$2,527.24 / $580 = 4.36]. According to the 5th National Census taken in 2000, the average Chinese family size was 3.44 people. [Handbook of World Families, Edited by Bert N. Adams and Jan Trost, pg. 93]. This means that an average Chinese family of 3.44 people is owed about $1,995 USD. [3.44 people x $580 per person = $1995.2] The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the American civilian labor force was 154,504,000 in July of 2009. Each working American’s share of that debt is $5,025.11. [Total Securities Debt / Total US work force = $ 5,025.11].

  [Close]

• Over the course of the next decade, the government will borrow approximately $1.72 million every minute. That’s the equivalent of 5,733 flat screen HDTVs it cannot afford.

  [Prove it…]

  Assuming that the rate of debt accumulation is constant, the U.S. government will accumulate approximately $1.72 million in additional debt every minute. According to a major electronics retail chain, a 26 inch LCD HDTV costs about $300.00 ($299.99) which adds up to 5,701 TVs for the $1.71 million of new debt per minute. [$1,720,000 / $299.99 = 5,733]

  [Close]

• From 2010 to 2019, the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget estimate the cumulative deficit will be $9 trillion. This means that over the next decade $9 trillion will be added to our existing national debt, creating a total debt of more than $20 trillion.
• According to the August OMB report, this year’s projected deficit alone is almost $1.58 trillion (11.2% of GDP). Next year’s deficit is projected to be $1.5 trillion (10.4% of GDP). These are the largest deficits relative to GDP since 1945.
• From 2008 to 2009, public debt rose from 41% of GDP to 56% of GDP–about $8 trillion). According to the March CBO report, under current policy, public debt will rise to 82% of GDP by 2019, equaling approximately $17 trillion.
• About $4 trillion of the total debt is money that the government has borrowed from itself, by writing IOUs for huge sums taken from Social Security and Medicare surpluses.
• In July of 2009, the United States paid more than $19 billion in interest on the public debt [$19,812,486,187.83, Office of the Public Debt]. In 2009, according to the CBO, $177 billion of taxpayer funds will be used just to pay interest on the debt—not to pay off the debt, just to pay interest on it.
• Every American worker’s share of the national debt is more than $75,000.

  The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the American civilian labor force was 154,504,000 in July 2009. Each of these U.S. workers’ share of the $12 trillion national debt is $77,667.89.

• According to the Department of the Treasury, foreign holders of our national debt are owed a combined total of about $3.3 trillion.
• As reported by the Treasury Department, the top ten countries and entities holding U.S. debt are: China, Japan, the United Kingdom, Oil Exporters, Caribbean Banking Centers, Brazil, Russia, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.”

Do you have $77,667.89 laying around?  I don’t. And if I did, I surely wouldn’t want it going to the government.

Does that not WORRY THE SHIT OUT OF YOU?  IT SHOULD SCARE THE HELL OUT OF YOU.

And it makes sense to take on AN ADDITIONAL Trillion dollars of debt?  That’s what the health care is ESTIMATED to cost. I emphasize estimated, because I want to call attention to the FACT that the government has a LOUSY history of correctly estimating costs of things.

Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965 – they’ve had 44 years to get it right; they are broke.

Medicare was supposed (i.e. the Govt ESTIMATED it) to cost $9,000,000,000 – to date, it has cost more than $67,000,000,000.  Thats like 740% OVER BUDGET.  Are you feeling worried YET?

Now, how many of you have read everything so far?  If you have, GOOD FOR YOU! I mean it, I’m not being sarcastic.  It means and shows that you may actually care about what is going on.  Most people will not make the effort to dig and find out.

I am worried. So many people who know about this stuff have NO idea what might happen.  Buffet says we are in uncharted territory.  We CANNOT sustain this level of debt.  So what happens when the bill comes due?  Beats me, but it CANNOT BE GOOD.

And what is our vaunted congress doing about it? NOT A GOD DAMNED THING!  No, they are more interested in doing things that will incur MORE unsustainable debt and getting their faces and names in print.

Consider

• With everything else going on, congress decides that it needs to worry about steroid use in baseball

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4540278(Accessed 1/2/10)

• During the time in which they were looking into health care reform, the critters felt the need to reform college football season, by mandating a playoff system (I am NOT kidding you)

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-390 (Accessed 1/2/10)

And some others, courtesy of http://www.stupidvotes.com/ (Accessed 1/2/10)

• House Resolution 298: Congratulating the on-premise sign industry for its contributions to the success of small businesses.
• Senate Resolution 67: A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that providing breakfast in schools through the national school breakfast program has a positive impact on the lives and classroom performance of low-income children.
• House Resolution 210: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that providing breakfast in schools through the National School Breakfast Program has a positive impact on classroom performance.
• House Resolution 154: Honoring John D. Dingell for holding the record as the longest serving member of the House of Representatives. (Not an accomplishment that I’D be willing to admit to)
• House Resolution 60: Recognizing and commending University of Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford for winning the 2008 Heisman Trophy and for his academic and athletic accomplishments.

And my favorite,

• S.Res.94: A resolution designating April 2009 as Financial Literacy Month.

That one is priceless!  If there is one thing that the senate of the United States is NOT competent to comment on, it is financial literacy.

So what we have here is a shit pot of money going out, not nearly as much coming in, and a bunch of congress critters who don’t seem to see a problem.

Damn. We are SOOOOO Screwed.

When does a failure equal a system success?

Not anywhere that real people live.  This mess with the terrorist getting on the plane.

1. Guys DAD goes to the US Embassy and says “Hey, I’m this kids dad and I’m worried that he may do something whacko” and the US says that they don’t have enough to put him on the no fly list?  Get real

2. Guys dad lets us know that he’s whacko, and he gets on the plane ANYWAY, and tries to blow up the plane, and the ONLY thing that stops him are the PASSENGERS AND POOR EFFING DESIGN, and the Head of DHS says The System worked as designed?  Are you kidding me?