…sometimes I fall behind. So to catch up, I just dump a lot of stuff with short commentary and reboot the browsers so my computer can think again.
Here goes…
First up is an acknowledgement of the change to Arizona law. This took away the worst of it, but I’d expect the rest to be bad enough to fall on its own.
If you’ve missed the ICP hilarity over the past few months, you can catch up here.
Shaggy 2 Dope: Come on, a rock that pulls metal towards it or pushes it away? Yeah, it has to do with the magnetic polar caps and [stuff]. But for real? Come on, man. You’re just holding a U-shaped thing that pushes metal away or attracts metal or something. The North and South Pole makes a rock magnetic, and if you touch a piece of metal with it, that becomes magnetic? That’s crazy.
For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?
That’s some pretty good Bible, eh? It’s the next verse after the Byrds sing.
One of the big problems facing our country now is the internal division in the choice of directions to go. This causes a problem, as in times of crisis NOT ACTING is an act, and it is an act that can cause many more problems than acting (even if that act turns out to be foolish). And BTW, we are face more than just an economic crisis. That’s a big one, but there’s a few more coming along in the next little bit that we still need to deal with (social security and the retiring boomers, the global climate change that simply refuses to act like isn’t solid science, a global war on cave-dwellers wondering why they keep getting bombed (and the few people who run the show who know), and some others, that’s just off the of the head.)
So there’s a bunch of stuff, big stuff, going on. Quite frankly, it would take a “Messiah” to see us through this thing. I think we are pretty lucky to have the team at the top we do, but I have no illusions about super-powers in human beings. Obama is mortal, and will make mistakes. He already has, and has owned up to them. This is a useful trait for a leader, IMHO. Particularly one faced with as much, as quickly, as Barry.
So anyway, I voted for the guy, so I’m going with it. The problem with the opposition here is that there is no sense, yet, that we need to act, and soon. There is some soul-searching that is headed right back to the same place we spent 20 of the last 28 years. We are seeing more generally empty rhetoric about “fiscal conservatism” which, after 20 years of watching it, seems to be cutting taxes, and increasing spending. The only question is about which spending to increase.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. congressional Republicans, having vowed to return to the conservative ideals of limited government, denounced President Barack Obama’s $3.55 trillion budget on Thursday as excessive and misdirected.
—
“I have serious concerns with this budget, which demands hard-working American families and job creators turn over more of their hard-earned money to the government to pay for unprecedented spending increases,” said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.
Umm, I’m sorry, but the only people getting a tax increase are the rich. And it’s not even a tax increase, it’s letting Bush’s tax cuts (the ones he made to pay for the war…wait…what?) lapse. Only in the rhetorical realm does a temporary decrease expiring equal “OMG, HE’S RAISING THE TAXES ON THE RICH?! Honey, do we clear a quarter million a year?” [From the other room comes laughter. Loud, continuous laughter].
“Hard-working” and “hard-earned” money, no doubt. However, I have yet to see anyone who makes that money simply by standing there and working hard. Most people who clear that kind of dough on a regular basis worked on Wall Street. Ya’ll remember them, right? Hard-working, no doubt…but working hard at what?
My building is currently being torn apart and rebuilt (long story, involving rotting wood and water), and there are 100 or so hard workers out there each day, firing up the powertools the second the clock strikes eight. They are earning hard money, and they get to keep every bit of it (many of whom quickly send it south, but that’s another story). Under the tax plan as I am aware of it, it is the workers on main street that get the help, and the folks with deep ties to Wall Street (either through direct action, banking work, or just having assloads of money to give to investment bankers) get to pay for it.
O.k., sorry, got off on a rant there about deregulating the credit industry and how we can try to fix the country. The whole derugulation kick used to be part of the “fiscal conservative” model, for some reason, but now it’s been dropped…I think.
Regardless, let’s continue with the reaction…
“I think we just ought to admit we’re broke. We can’t continue to pile debt on the backs of our kids and grandkids,” said House Republican Leader John Boehner.
I’m sorry, what? Where was this attitude when it was Repbulicans spending like mad on a war? And cutting taxes to pay for it? I mean, I hate to sound like a broken record here, but we’ve been running huge deficits for a while now, and it was the Republicans pushing it.
“The budget outline shows a half-hearted attempt to reduce the trillion-dollar deficits we face, largely through more tax hikes that will only hurt the economy, when it should take this opportunity to exercise aggressive spending restraint,” said Gregg, the top Republican on the Budget Committee.
Right! No money for Americans, but we’ll spend like drunken sailors on killing folks. Unfortunately, “aggressive spending restraint” isn’t what gets an economy moving. The economy is money moving around, people busy, buying, selling, shipping, making things happen. Not spending slows things down and sometimes they stop.
This is why I brought up the Byrds and the Economic Apocalypse. We really are that close, folks. We need to be working together here to get this thing re-started. Even the “fiscal conservative” Democrats realize that.
A group of 49 fiscally conservative House Democrats, whose commitment to deficit reduction has at times put some of them at odds with Obama’s economic program, hailed Obama’s budget for presenting what they called an honest fiscal picture.
“To begin to set our nation back on the right fiscal track, we must first understand and acknowledge how big of a hole we are in,” said Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, a leader of the Democratic “Blue Dog” Coalition.
And we’re in a damn, big, hole.
Reuters nails it on the head with this next statement.
Republicans have long touted themselves as champions of limited government, but surrendered that claim in approving a series of big-deficit budgets during the administration of Obama’s predecessor, Republican George W. Bush.
We got big government left, right, and center with Bush. And somehow that spending was o.k. One thing Obama is doing that Bush did not (and part of the reason the Wars are going to cost us so much) is putting the War Budget in the actual budget. Bush went through a special spending rigamarole that added another $150,000,000,000 or so a year on the ole company credit card. It’s a big part of our big hole.
The problem with military spending, and it is a problem, is that at the end of the day you end up burning that million dollar missile. Every loss of life is tragic and I don’t mean to downplay that side, at all, but we train the ever-living shit out of our soldiers. We have the best trained army in the world, no doubt, and each loss has a human side and an economic one. Sorry to be cold, and I’m trying not to be, but the cost of war is dramatic and not over when the guns stop shooting.
We’ve had a time for war, and now is a time for peace, and rebuilding. It’s a time for coming together. We can argue about it in a few years, if we are still talking, and have not become the Beasts of Ecclesiastes.
And just a quick primer, for those that don’t follow human nature…it’s a beast when things gets rough. If you can feel it at the top, trust me…they feel it at the bottom, multiplied be each economic ladder you move down. It’s kind of a primal thing actually.
Luckily, we can vote on things and don’t have to settle them in the schoolyard like they did in the old days. The votes, BTW, have already been cast. Trust me, my internet friends…those not on this wondrous network, have been feeling the pangs of the economic downturn since it first happened (generations ago), are about ready to burst. There’s a lot of them, and they have hope now that change is on the way.
Let’s keep it that way, and keep the beasts at the gate. Republicans shoud be like canyon water now, giving, fast, and learning. Going with the flow a bit, but always remembering that during a downpour, it doesn’t pay to be ice. The time for a change in course will come, but not next week, and not even next year.
There comes a time for everything, and given the economic and political situation, Obama is now a juggernaut. It’d be best to get out of the way for a bit. Rick Perry, I’m looking at you and your hair.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama singled out Texas on Friday as a state that could lose out under the newly enacted $797 billion economic stimulus package because Gov. Rick Perry hasn’t totally ruled out rejecting some funds.
That’s what they call a pimp slap on K Street. Obama wields the bully pulpit, and he actually knows where that term came from. Watch yo’self.
A’hem…
The huge stimulus bill includes a provision that allows legislatures to override governors and accept funding even if a governor objects.
“I haven’t spoken to the governor about it, but I hope that all Texans, regardless of politics, will make sure we maximize the use of federal funds available to the benefit of our taxpayers,” said Houston Mayor Bill White, a Democrat.
And that, boys and girls, is why the thing is 1,000 pages long. The long arm of the pimp slap, in legislative reality.
I would HIGHLY recommend you catch up before joining in, this is a conversation that had been going on for a while, and it would behoove one to read up before joining in.
I just thought of another good one, “Philosophy is an Action.”
If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. I’ve already written down some predictions of what people will think of it, and I want to check my work.
Here’s the story so funny it can only come from China.
Axl Rose isn’t exactly the renegade rocker he was in the late 1980s, but he’s still rock ‘n roll enough stir up a controversy.
An article in a Chinese newspaper today blasted the singer’s new album “Chinese Democracy”as a “venomous attack”on the nation and suggested the long-awaited Guns ‘N Roses release “turns its spear point on China.”
The story was printed in a publication put out by China’s ruling Communist Party, and quoted unnamed sources from Internet message boards that suggested the lyrics were inflammatory and critical of China.
Excerpts from these online chats slammed the album as a plot by Western adversaries to “grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn,”the Associated Press reported. The new album dropped Sunday after fans held on through 17 years of myriad false starts and production delays after Guns ‘N Roses began recording in 1994.
Also as a quick note; when a whole government is reduced to quoting “unnamed sources from Internet message boards” you know they are stretching. And you know without a doubt this is propaganda.
The funny part about this for me is that I recently ran across a far more inflammatory (ha!) bit of anti-Chinese propaganda in American pop culture.
This one comes in the form of “Liberty Prime” a giant, nuke-throwing, Chinese-hating robot.
Here you can see him in action, and set to some lovely classical music. Listen for the robot’s voice. He’s rather agressive in his feelings toward China and Communism (understandable, as a nuclear war with China causes all the “Fallout” in 2077).
Here is the first part of my new weekly feature. I had to split it into two parts because of youtube limits (still working of finding a better place that works well. Enjoy. I should have the second half availabe in the mornig.
Doing the video stuff is easy. Doing the editing is taking a while, but I am getting better at it. You’ll probably want to view these in full screen to read the text.
Sept. 4, 2008 — Chemicals in marijuana may be useful in fighting MRSA, a kind of staph bacterium that is resistant to certain antibiotics.
Researchers in Italy and the U.K. tested five major marijuana chemicals called cannabinoids on different strains of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). All five showed germ-killing activity against the MRSA strains in lab tests. Some synthetic cannabinoids also showed germ-killing capability. The scientists note the cannabinoids kill bacteria in a different way than traditional antibiotics, meaning they might be able to bypass bacterial resistance.
At least two of the cannabinoids don’t have mood-altering effects, so there could be a way to use these substances without creating the high of marijuana.
Robot Pirate Ninja 