Saturday, February 17, 2007, 05:12 PM - Random Thoughts
My opinion on the Bush presidency is this: he lied every time he opened his mouth. I read in MSNBC this week that the Bush advisors were bemoaning the president?s apparent ?credibility gap? -- a newfangled euphemism that means ?nobody believes anything he says?. And then I thought to myself, ?why SHOULD anybody believe anything he says??
We?re in our 4th year in Iraq. It?s a war he lied to Congress about in order to get authorisation for the war. Bush said Saddham had nuclear (?nuk?u?larr?) technology -- Saddham didn?t. Bush said that Saddham had weapons of mass destruction -- he didn?t. He said that Iraq had fully re-armed -- it hadn?t. Bush said that the global community was behind us in this endeavour -- it wasn?t. Bush declared ?Mission Accomplished? six months into the war -- nothing was accomplished. Bush said that the Iraqi people would welcome us as liberators -- they greeted us as an Infidel occupation army. Bush said that the war would ?pay for itself? due to increased Iraqi oil exports -- energy prices doubled because of this war.
Bush lied about the extent to which favoured contractors like Halliburton would defraud the taxpayers (for projects in Iraq and New Orleans).
Bush lied to the American people when he said that gay couples wanted to ?destroy the traditional American Family?. Gay couples just want equal protection under the law and equal access to the services their taxes pay for.
Bush lied when he said that Homeland Security would make America safer. All it did was create a branch of Secret Police that operate outside the bounds of the Constitution.
Bush lied when he said that the huge tax cuts for the nation?s millionaires would somehow benefit the middle class. In reality, the gap between rich and poor grew wider under Bush?s watch than under any other president.
But if I took the time to list all of Bush?s lies, it would fill an entire book. The legacy of George W. Bush is this: Because he lied, thousands died.
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( 3 / 1238 )Wednesday, January 3, 2007, 08:36 PM - Random Thoughts
It’s been a drag this week. Doug is visiting his family this week, as he usually does after Christmas, so it’s just me and the two cats this week. Gigi is lounging on a cushion to my left while Scrunchie is perched on the arm of the couch. The cats are just too cute.
At least I’m not too depressed this year. Still, it will be nice to have Doug back next week.
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( 3 / 1065 )Monday, January 1, 2007, 10:17 PM - Random Thoughts
Stolen from Larrytronic's Blog!
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1. The phone rings. Who are you hoping it is? Doug (my Partner), Ed (a close friend), or mom.
2. When shopping at the grocery store, do you return your cart? Always. Lazy people REALLY bug me.
3. In a social setting, are you more of a talker or a listener? A little of both. It depends on how much the other person talks.
4. If abandoned alone in the wilderness, would you survive? No. I’d get lost and then freeze to death while walking around in big circles.
5. Do you like to ride horses? I haven’t had much experience. They seem like nice animals.
6. Did you ever go to camp as a kid? A Christian summer camp in PA. I only went one summer, when I was 8. Just ghastly.
7. What was your favorite board game as a kid? Monopoly.
8. If a sexy person was pursuing you, but you knew he/she was taken what would you do? I don’t purposefully hurt people, so I would not pursue.
9. Are you judgmental? Yes. I loathe cheaters and deceivers. I hate laziness.
10. Would you date someone with different religious beliefs? It depends on the other religion.
11. Are you continuing your education? I’d like to, but I don’t have the $$.
12. Do you know how to shoot a gun? Yes. I own a Browning Buckmark .22 pistol.
13. If your house was on fire, what’s the first thing you’d grab? My USB hard drive.
14. How often do you read books? Probably 20-30 books/year. I also have one novel in print and am 155,000 words into writing a second book.
15. Do you think more about the past, present or future? Some of my past is sealed off to me. Most of what I do remember is unpleasant. So I think about having a good present and a better future.
16. What is your favorite children’s book? I enjoyed many of the Redwall books. Mice as heroic figures… too cool.
18. How tall are you? Five foot ten inches.
19. Where is your ideal house located? I don’t know.
20. Last person you talked to? My partner.
22. When was the last time you were at Olive Garden? Probably in November. It’s always SO CROWDED!
23. What are your keys on your key chains for? My car, partner’s car, our house, back door, desk drawer, locks to my old company that went out of business, five or so keys that I have no idea what they go to.
24. What did you do last night? Watched the Clint Eastwood marathon with mom.
25. Where is your current pain at? Got a bit of a headache thanks to an allergy.
26. Do you like mustard? All Kinds! I love mustard, tolerate ketchup, and loathe mayo.
27. Do you like your mom or dad? I like mom. My dad was an abuser who enjoyed hurting me. We don’t talk.
28. How long does it take you in the shower? Monday-Friday: 10 minutes. Saturday-Sunday: Until the hot water runs out.
29. What movie do you want to see right now? I’m reading a Star Trek novel while watching Miss Marple.
30. Do you put lotion on your dog or cats? Where? They are all so furry!
31. What did you do for New Year’s? I watched the Clint Eastwood marathon with mom/
32. Do you think The Grudge was scary? I never saw it.
33. Do you own a camera phone? Yup! A SonyEricsson W810i.
34. What’s the last letter of your middle name? None of my Alters have middle names. The body’s legal middle name ends in “R”.
35. Who did you vote for on American Idol? I've never watched an episode!
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( 3 / 1130 )Saturday, December 23, 2006, 05:35 PM - Random Thoughts
Too nice to be a Bush Conservative
I actually have a friend who is a complete and utter “true believer” when it comes to George W. Bush. He really doesn’t think Bush has done one single thing wrong throughout his “presidency”. It’s a shame, too, since my friend is a really nice guy who otherwise seems educated and reasonable.
I do try to get him to understand that our president is a stupid, lazy, arrogant ass. But he has somehow been programmed by the Far Right.
Here’s a sample of what it’s like:
(me): “You know, the Republican party lost because of how badly the Iraq war is going.”
(him): “But we’re WINNING in Iraq. And the Iraqi people are GLAD we are there.”
(me): “But what about how Bush lied in order to get us into war?”
(him): “Just because they never found WMD’s doesn’t mean they were never there.”
(me): “What about how only 17% of the Iraqis want us there, and how this war has cost the lives of over 600,000 civilians in Iraq?”
(him): “Those are just media lies from folks who hate America.”
(me): “What about how Bush has been illegally tapping into phone conversations and email? And what about how Homeland security illegally tracks all citizens’ credit card purchases?”
(him): “Bush has executive privilege, so that’s okay.”
(me): “So, what do you think about global warning?”
(him): “It’s a media hoax by people who hate America.”
(me): “What about hybrid technology”
(him): “It’s just a fad.”
(me): “What about conservation?”
(him): “The world will never run out of oil.”
(me): “What about overpopulation?”
(him): “The world can easily handle 100 Billion.”
Yeah, it gets pretty frustrating. He pretty much sees it in the same way except he can’t turn me into a Right Wing believer. Oh well, what can you do?
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( 3 / 1153 )Wednesday, November 29, 2006, 06:33 PM - Random Thoughts
To put Bush's mishandling of the Iraq war in context, let's imagine how he'd do as a tour bus driver instead of as a president.There's a bus with 100 people on it. Two of them are millionaires, while the rest are middle class or working class. All of the passengers have paid the bus fare in order to ride the bus, and Bush's salary comes out of that bus fare.
At some point, there's a fork in the road. Bush gets out his map, but he's just not quite smart enough to read the map in order to determing the right direction. Without telling the passengers this, he simply guesses and then turns hard to the RIGHT.
Before long, the road gets bumpy. Someone pushes a huge boulder down the side of the mountain and it hits the bus really hard -- killing one of the passengers. Bush could have swerved out of the way, but he was asleep at the wheel. He spends the next half hour saying that anyone who accused him of being asleep at the wheel is lying and traitorous.
Meanwhile, the road continues to degrade. Some of the passengers start grumbling and a few of them ask Bush if he took the correct turn at the fork. Bush replies, "I've made up my mind. We're going to STAY THE COURSE!"
Then an hour later, huge potholes appear in the road. Bush radios ahead and asks maintenance crews to fix the problem. Unfortunately, he sends almost EVERY repairman to the WRONG ROAD. It turns out that there isn't even anything wrong with the other road. But because of bad instructions, the repairmen destroy the other road while allowing the current one to keep degrading.The people who live alongside the other road start killing the repairmen out of anger.Bush, however, says that he won't recall the repairmen either. He says, "I've made up my mind. We're going to STAY THE COURSE!"
At this point, Bush decides to give a big refund to the millionaire passengers, but makes the middle class passengers pay out of their pockets for the refund. Bush says this will somehow make the view better.
Three hours later, the bus starts careening down a really steep hill. The brakes start making noise as the pads begin to overheat. The passengers are now getting really upset. They start murmuring about wanting to CHANGE DRIVERS. Bush recruits one of the passengers to kill some of the other passengers who are making too much protest. Then he briefly stops the bus to let in 20 OUTSIDERS who haven't paid their fare to ride the bus for FREE. Now the bus is cramped and overloaded. The brakes are now about to fail as the bus heads down an incredibly steep incline.
At the base of the mountain, a sign reads "Bridge Out" and "5000' drop". The passengers scream for Bush to change directions, but Bush simply says, "I've made up my mind, and I'm going to STAY THE COURSE!"
As the bus careens into the mile-deep abyss, Bush jumps out of the bus into his daddy's SUV. the rest of the passengers plummet to their doom.
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( 3 / 1169 )Sunday, November 26, 2006, 10:59 AM - Random Thoughts
If I called the shots, things would be a whole lot better in this country almost overnight. Here are my ideas:
Convert the Middle East wars into a psychological warfare campaign. Basically, our CIA operatives could infiltrate the opposing Muslim factions and stir up enough hate for the Muslims to kill each other in mass quantities. Muslims Killing Muslims is NOT a tragedy.
Use “theatre” nukes when pulling out of Iraq. Unlike strategic nukes, theatre nukes only destroy small pieces of land. This allows the Military to cauterize certain trouble spots without contaminating the entire country.
Redeploy our military for border patrol. While this would be bad for Wal-Mart, we could be rid of illegal aliens very quickly. The Military could be given the authority to shoot intruders on site.
Employ the Charter of Workers’ Rights. That piece of legislation would end outsourcing and poverty overnight.
Revoke tax-free status for “Social Disease” religions. Some religions only inspire hate, fear, and violence. Those religions should NOT have tax-free status. Islam, Mormonism, and the Assemblies of God are examples of social diseases because they only inspire their follows to act violently and to hate others. Members of these religions should also be overseen by social workers (at their expense) when raising children in order to prevent the children from being brainwashed.
Impose yearly fees for gas-guzzlers. Depending on the price of the vehicle, any SUV that gets under 25 MPG should have a yearly fee of $1,000 to $5,000 for ownership. The fees would be used to develop advanced hybrid and electric vehicle technology. People who insist on owning SUVs would have to have red license that bears the caption “this driver supports terrorism”. Moreover, there should be a 14-day “cooling off” period between applying for a SUV and actually signing the papers for ownership. All SUVs would hare to be registered with the FBI as “Weapons of Environmental Destruction”.
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( 3 / 1124 )Sunday, November 26, 2006, 10:58 AM - Random Thoughts
Proposal for a Workers’ Bill of Rights
Preface
Our country was founded on the premise that all human beings have the right to the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. Until the 1990s, this universal dream was one in which all Americans could follow. In what historians will undoubtedly call the Age of Corporate Feudalism, the major corporations and their allies in the Republican Party began embarking on a curious path of legislation and tax incentives that have created a work environment in which the working class experiences a spiralling degradation of income and benefits while the executives of major corporations become exponentially wealthy.
This document outlines suggestions for correcting this pattern of corporate exploitation while there is still time to remedy the problems caused by the Republican-Corporate alliance. To do nothing will invite a new era of feudalism in which a handful of individuals will ultimately control close to 100% of the available wealth while the working class will be relegated to poverty and serfdom.
Articles of Workers’ Rights
I. Fair Wage Ratios
Currently, the executives of major corporations pay themselves exorbitant salaries and bonuses while cutting their employees’ pay and benefits. In a fair compensation system, no employer shall be able to set up corporations for the sole purpose of robbing the employees and customers. To this end, there shall be limits on executive compensation. The highest paid employee shall not be permitted to be paid more than 1,000 times more than the lowest paid employee. If the executives desire more money for themselves, they merely have to give their employees a raise first. It is the employees, not the executives, who earn money for the corporation.
II. Limitations on Corporate Size
The advent of Wal-Mart and other “Big Box” stores has brought the leading edge of modern feudalism to America. These mega-stores drive down wages, stifle competition, depress innovation, and eradicate local cultural. “Big Box” stores cause smaller, local business to go bankrupt. These mega-stores then rehire the people whose businesses have been destroyed – at pennies on the dollar. This is how Wal-Mart and their ilk “create” jobs. To protect workers from predatory capitalism, no business shall have more than 100,000 employees. Companies already above this limit shall be broken into regional companies of 100,000 employees or less. Mega-corporations deemed to have destroyed local culture shall be assigned a monetary penalty, with the proceeds going toward community revitalization.
III. Penalties for “Off-Shoring”
Currently, the executive-class fattens their own accounts by sending high-paying American jobs to Third World countries like India and Costa Rica. The Americans whose jobs are replaced often end up with a steep decline in income while the executives earn multi-million-dollar bonuses. For America to remain competitive in computer science, manufacturing, and technology, the practice of off-shoring must stop. To that end, American employees whose jobs are off-shored shall be paid a full-year severance pay. The corporation in question must pay a $250,000 fine, per employee, adjusted for inflation.
IV. Limits on Corporate Bribes
To prevent future “corporate wars” like the Iraq war (in which America started a war with a Third World country, followed by a corporation favoured by the Administration being awarded an exclusive contract to rebuild said Third World Nation), there shall be legislative restrictions on corporate executives who later become politicians. No elected politician may vote either for or against any bill, act, charter, amendment, or edict that pertains to any corporation that he/she has ever served as an executive. Moreover, said politician may not accept campaign donations from the corporation that he/she once served.
V. Limits on Predatory Profit-Taking
Given the current climate in which executives plunder their customers for the enrichment of themselves alone, there shall be limits on profits by corporations that act as either a monopoly (i.e. the cable television industry) or collectively (i.e. the oil industry). In these cases, the corporation(s) in question shall be limited to 200% profit. Any additional profit must be either reallocated into higher payroll for non-executive employees (i.e. workers), or into community revitalization programmes.
VI. Special Taxes for Very Rich
Contrary to reasonable logic, taxing the poor is not a good way to raise revenue for the government. And yet, the Bush Administration created a huge tax cut for the very wealthy while at the same time giving the middle-class and poor only a single, one-time, $300 tax refund. Because this tax break for the wealthy came at the expense of Federal-State fund-matching programmes, many states had to raise taxes to compensate. It was the poor and middle-class that paid the brunt of these tax increases. Thus, the President effectively commanded the poor to give huge sums of money to the rich. This predicament must be reversed. To accomplish that end, any American earning more than $1 million per year must pay 70% tax on the excess income. At income above $10 million per year, the tax rate shall be 90%. By levying the tax burden on those most equipped to pay, the taxes on the middle-class and poor shall be then reduced. No American citizen who makes under $25,000 shall pay a penny in tax. (These figures shall be adjusted yearly for inflation).
VII. Tariffs for Predatory Third World Nations
Part of how the executive-class has enriched themselves at the cost of American Workers is by running factories in Third World nations that essentially practice slavery. Wal-Mart and other “Big Box” stores import their wares almost exclusively form China and other nations that have appalling human rights violations. To level the playing field for local manufacturers, the tariffs on good imported form Third World countries shall be 250% of the value of the product. These fees shall be used to revitalize Social Security.
By enacting these seven articles, the trend towards American Corporate Feudalism may yet be abated.
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( 3 / 1084 )Saturday, November 25, 2006, 09:28 AM - Random Thoughts
I was enraged at Bush yesterday when I was at the gym yesterday and I saw an ad for 5th anniversary Twin Tower gold coins. It got me thinking how lazy, incompetent, and misguided our so-called President has been (and continues to be).
911 would never have happened in the first place if Bush actually did his damned job once in awhile instead of hanging out at the “ranch” for weeks on end (and his “ranch” is in actuality a suburban multi million dollar mansion).
Instead of doing the smart thing- closing our borders – Bush just keeps letting terrorists slide right in through Mexico and Canada. He figures that the terrorists are good for some cheap labor until they get around to killing another 5,000 Americans in one fell swoop. See, Bush has been in the back pocket of Corporate since the day he vote-scammed his way into office. In Bush’s paradigm, it’s much more important to let illegal immigrants steal American jobs at pennies on the dollar than to secure our country against foreign invaders. But when the GOP gets their Kickbacks from Corporate, money talks and the Constitution walks.
Of course, most of our military has been bogged down in Iraq for three years. We could have been fighting terrorism, but Bush had to “finish Daddy’s war”. So our “coalition” of forces (90% American, 10% British and no one else) has managed to kill over 600,000 civilians while stoking up terrorism to the boiling point. The world is a much less safer place today than in 2000, and there is no way that Bush can possibly give a damn.
Meanwhile, Al Qeda is in ascendancy once again.
Bush is also completely incapable of learning from his mistakes, and even admitting he’s made any. I can just see Bush as a truck driver who made a wrong turn at a fork in the road. The signs read “Steep Grade”, “Road Ends”, and “Bridge Out” and Bush would just say “I made my decision and I’m going to STAY THE COURSE.”
Of course, Homeland Security is a joke. It’s just away for Bush to pass out bloated no-bid contracts to his cronies. Sure, the Department of Homeland Security is great at illegal wiretaps and opening private citizens’ mail, but have they ever caught one single domestic terrorist? Or are they just Bush’s secret police?
January 20, 2009 is Bush’s last day in office. It can’t come too soon!
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( 3 / 1173 )Tuesday, November 7, 2006, 11:59 AM - Random Thoughts
Doug and I voted today. We did our anti-Republican vote, since no one who is not a millionaire should EVER vote Republican.
The touch-screen system workers well. I was happy that it had a high-contrast zoom feature so that I could make the text really big.
I gave Erhlich and Steele their walking papers. Anyone who is against gay rights and against stem cell research (while trying ram gambling down our throats) deserves early retirement.
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( 3 / 1129 )Saturday, October 7, 2006, 09:45 AM - Random Thoughts
The Halloween List
I got tagged, so here’s my answers!
1. What's the scariest movie you've ever seen? “The Ring”. It took mea couple of weeks to recover from that one. People with dissociative disorders should NOT see that movie.
2. What was your favorite Halloween Costume from childhood? I didn't have a favorite that I can remember.
3. If you had an unlimited budget, what would your Fantasy Costume be for this Halloween? A very authentic “Lord of the Dance” outfit.
4. When was the last time you went Trick Or Treating? Age 15. I dressed as an angry Viet Nam Vet.
5. What's your favorite Halloween Candy? Miniature Reces Peanut Butter Cups.
6. Tell us about a scary nightmare you had. I had a dream that the color was draining from the world and as everything faded to grey, the spirit of life died in everything living: I remember looking at the slate-grey ocean and knowing everything was dead.
7. What is your Supernatural Fear? I fear that I will somehow become the Incarnation of Darkness and Death Magic.
8. What is your Creepy-Crawlie Fear? I really don’t like flies.
9. Tell us about a time when you saw a ghost, or heard something go Bump in the night. After seeing The Ring, I had for two weeks the irrational notion that mirrors connected to the spirit realm and that malevolent entities were going to emerge through then at night.
10. Would you ever stay in a real Haunted House overnight? No.
11. Are you a traditionalist (just a face) Jack O'Lantern Carver, or do you get really creative with your pumpkins? I’m pretty bad at carving.
12. How much do you decorate your home for Halloween? We’re pretty minimalist, thanks to vandalism.
13. What do you want on your Tombstone? Pepperoni and Sausage! Yum!
Now, I tag Choir-Joan, Jeff, Jay, and Matt.
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