Bickering over Scraps

The dollar is losing value, China rises as the US empire crumbles and Pakistan shuts down supplies to NATO. Meanwhile americans bicker amongst themselves, preparing to vote for the politicians that will oversee the last gasps of the empire. Let's roll.

Fall 2010 Tab Dump

Allah Akbar! The UN has appointed an ambassador to greet aliens. This issue has kept me up at nights for decades, wondering just who will speak to the Greys when they come. Now we know it's Mrs. Othman. And not a minute too soon, since former military men are coming forward to tell us that aliens deactivated our nukes. Are the aliens trying to save mankind or are they protecting their livestock?

That's what I'm talking about. These guys know what the hell they're doing. Petroleum deals, money and a future for their nations. Stupid americans will be shivering in the dark, begging the Chinese to buy their scrap cars, factories, high rise buildings and such. But americans will be green, until they turn blue and finally a putrid green. Shutup... we no want american chicken.

Banks are still failing right and left. So far 279 banks have failed in this depression with no end in sight. Some believe that of the 8000 banks in the US at the start of the depression, only 5000 will survive. Why so many? Banks don't lend nor do they pay interest, all we need is one bank for the Fed to "loan" money to the government. The rest are redundant.

Middle aged men are killing themselves in record numbers. Let's ponder why? So you're in your 50s, you lose your job, pension, savings, house, health, wife and dignity, forever. It's crowded under the bridge and you know that you won't make it through the night, let alone the winter. Why not step in front of that Peterbuilt on the interstate?

The US retirement deficit is $6.6T. Every US household is $90k short. Better get a second job. If I make 10% earnings year over year on my stock investment for the next 8 years, I can easily make up the shortfall. Oh well. Maybe I'll just wander in traffic when I run out of retirement savings.

Graphic photo of Obama's torture of  Gitmo detainees below. Don't look if you have a weak stomach.

Yes. They only get one ice creme treat per day! Obama is a war criminal! Next thing you know, Obama will deprive them of their conjugal visits with comely Cuban goats. The horror!

Obama the Absorber

In Woodward's new book "Obama's Wars" he quotes the Kenyan-Indonesian as saying  

"We can absorb a terrorist attack. We'll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever . . . we absorbed it and we are stronger." 

Technically speaking, the long legged mac daddy is correct. The nation's worst terrorist attack cost the lives of 0.001% of the nation's population. More americans die each year from murders, abortions, auto accidents, drug overdoses and sexual behaviors (whatever the hell that is) than terrorism.

The US could "absorb the loss" of 10-15% of it's population, like the Soviet Union and Germany during WW2. We could lose the ten largest cities in the US, even Washington DC, Obama and the congress and still carry on. Hell the nation might even thrive afterwards. That's not the issue.

We ought to be standing up to the enemies that harm us and be killing them in droves until they can no longer threaten. Germany and Japan were defeated because most of their young men were dead and their cities were rubble. We should be doing the same now in the islamic shit holes. But the metrosexual president wants to be loved by the people who would kill him. So he will stop and do police reports after we "absorb" the next attack.

My only hope is that Obama the Absorber gets to take the next terrorist attack to demonstrate that he is a man of action and not just teleprompter rhetoric.

Healthcare and God's Plan

Modern health care is expensive. Perhaps medical technology has outstripped our ability to pay for it. In any event, america is torn to the solution.

The average individual health care policy runs about $600 per month with a $600 annual deductible. If all 300 million americans purchase health care insurance, that's $2.16T per year in health insurance costs as a nation. That's roughly 15% of national GDP. Sounds reasonable for the best quality care in the world.

But only half of americans work. The other half are too young, too old, too sick or just plain too lazy. So the burden of paying for health care falls on half of americans. But it gets worse. Of the half of americans that work, half don't make enough money nor is their work valuable enough to pay health care insurance premiums. So basically 1/4 of americans will have to foot the bill for all americans to get health care insurance.

So basically we're asking 25% of americans to pay $2400 per month for health care insurance to cover everyone in america. So take $28,800 per year from each of the upper 25% tax bracket income earners ($57,600 for a couple) and see what that does for the nation's economy. Try crash and burn!

The awful truth is that some of us just aren't worth enough to society to fix when we're sick. No one wants to hear that but it is just the truth. None of us want to hear that our labor isn't worth $36 per hour but we hear it quite often.

No one would spend $8000 fixing a wrecked 1990 Pontiac Grand Am that's worth $1500. Why would society spend $1,000,000 on a crack baby, the garbage man with cirrhosis of the liver, a shot up gang banger or an 84 year old woman with chronic congestive heart failure? You make them comfortable and let nature run it's course. Just as always been for 150,000 years of mankind. It's not cruel, it's God's plan.

You lied to me. I'm gone.

It looks like the Fed will be printing up to $3T late this year or early next in their final attempt to halt deflation. Bernanke and crew prefer a little inflation but quantitative easing is a hammer, not a trimpot tool. We may end up with deflation and hyper-inflation concurrently.

Investors are pushing gold and silver prices higher as they see the Fed preparing to fire up the printing presses again. The recent run up of stock prices reflect investor desire to own equity more than good economic news. As the Fed prints money and buys treasuries the interest rate on those instruments will fall to zero.

This is a huge gamble by the Fed but nothing else has lifted the economy out of depression. I suppose the Fed hopes that the unwashed masses see changes in the economy that they mistake for improvement then start spending again.

But what has been lost is trust. The Fed printing an unimaginable number of dollars is not going to restore the confidence of people who have lived through the collapse of their way of life. For most people, looking back, it's all been a lie. The safety of banks, investments in GM, home equity, your pension, your job all just vanished overnight without explanation. While you cut back your spending the government prints, borrows and spends two, three, one hundred times more.

Where did all the money go? Was there ever that much money at all? What else is a lie?

You can love your spouse with her pimples, odd habits and bad days so long as you can trust her. But if you start finding money missing from the checking account you begin to wonder if the zits are really herpes, the oddities are madness and the bad days are because she is the biggest mistake of your life. Love goes and then you go because trust is gone.

Everyone and everything starts out with a measure of Goodwill. It will carry you through the bumps and blunders of life. But once the Goodwill is gone, it mostly never can be restored. One can forgive but not forget.

The leadership elites of this country and the world have utterly destroyed all Goodwill. People wonder "what else have you lied about?" Buffett, Obama, Republican and Democrat politicians, business leaders and such just don't get the common man's anger. The trust is gone. Why are you still visible and talking? You lied to me. I'm gone.

Lost Worklife

Most of us get 45-50 years to work and build wealth to live on in our last years. We can't roll back the clock or work until we're 80 to make up lost time or money. That's just the way it is.

Many of us lost 33% of everything in the depression that started in 2007. That works out to be 15 years or a third of our worklife. If you're about 60 years old, you can never recover the losses. There just isn't time.

Some lost everything. Those who leveraged their homes to put a child through college, moved up to a house they could barely afford or put off saving for old age then lost their job often lost it all.

Most companies don't want to hire workers near 60. They don't have the energy that companies want, they have health issues and most just are thinking about retiring soon. Why hire an old guy when you can get a vigorous, healthy young guy who will work for another decade or two if you need him?

My situation is fairly typical. My home value has lost 33% of it's value, my investments lost about a third of their value, one third of my pensions were lost when turned over to PBGC and the replacement job I was lucky to find pays a third less than I was making before. I'm back to where I was in 1995, losing 15 years of the fruits of my labor.

I went through another economic train wreck in the early 80s, damn near losing everything and set back a decade. But I was 30 years old and could retool myself and recover. Now that I'm 60 my options are limited. I feel vulnerable and exposed like never before in my life. At the same time, I don't have the trust in america that I once had.

Bad things happen to good people. But american leadership has wrecked the lives of a good portion of my generation. For 40 years we got up every morning, went to work, lived modest lifestyles and tried to do the right thing. Now that we are approaching old age, we find that we lost a third of the fruits of our labor that we can never make up.

Instead of being self-sustaining retirees we are old people competing with our children for jobs and resources. It won't be long until the young clamor for us to retire and die as we are just consuming more resources than we are worth. The resentment is there simmering just below the surface even in polite society.

The damage inflicted by american leadership elites cannot be undone. But we can put the blame where it belongs, on the business and government elites that have run this country for the last three decades. The same crew that lectures us that we shouldn't be angry. Fuck them all.

Bruig na Boinde Celebrates Six Years

This week Bruig na Boinde celebrates six years and 429 postings. I have enjoyed the research for my off and on postings on geopolitics, culture and the economy. Mostly I just vent my frustrations on the aforementioned topics.

Blogging has provided discipline to my intertube wanderings and forces me to pull my thoughts together in a coherent manner just in case someone might read them. But it's all for me really. If someone else reads this blog and finds it useful, then all the better. Even if they just enjoy my angst.

Bruig na Boinde is but one of the estimated 50 million plus blogs and 55 million social network users on the internet. Never in the history of mankind has a common person had the capability of reaching so many people with their ideas. I am in awe of it all.

Slainte.

Something is rotten in america

Lately I've noted a stunning development that is just beyond comprehension.

I drive through one of the wealthiest communities in my state on the way to work every day. The cheapest homes go for $400,000, everyone drives a Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, et al and they look down their long patrician noses at me in my Buick driving through their Mexican slave manicured fantasyland.

Our state offers vanity license plates for those who must boost their egos by displaying their affiliations. There is a Career Professional Firefighter license plate which is quite popular with the unionized firefighters.

Lately I've been seeing Lexus, Mercedes and BMWs with Career Professional Firefighter vanity plates. WTF? Since when did an blue collar fireman start driving Mercedes? Do they all marry professional women who can afford to purchase these luxury automobiles? Or is it the $82000 annual salary of unionized firefighters that puts them behind the wheel of the BMW?

An engineer with 30 years experience is lucky to make $50,000 in this economy but we're paying fireman $82,000? Something is rotten in america these days.

Warren Buffett Lectures Americans

Warren Buffett thinks that americans need to get over their anger against Obama and the congress for deficit spending.

“Sentiment has turned very sour in the last three or four or five months,” the chairman and CEO of Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said in an interview broadcast Thursday.
“I hope we get over it pretty soon, because it’s not productive,’’ Buffett said. “We will come back regardless of how people feel about Washington, but it is not helpful to have people as unhappy as they are about what’s going on in Washington.”

Just who is this "we" that you speak of Warren?

Buffett has been an Obama man since 2008, and he still backs the Kenyan-Indonesian  so I have to wonder if the "we" in his comments are referring to the big-government elitists like Obama, congressional democrats and billionaire socialist elites like Soros and Buffett.

Americans have every right to be angry about the elites destroying the American Dream. Debusman writes that "an opinion poll this week showed that 43 percent of those surveyed thought that 'the American Dream' is a thing of the past."

It used to be that if you worked hard you could get promotions, move up the ladder, make more money that you could use to buy a house, make a better life for your children and create wealth to pass on to your heirs. Wages have been stagnant for decades, inflation has eroded wealth and for the first time our children will probably live poorer than us. Meanwhile self-styled royalty like Buffett, Obama and the democrat elites are plundering the middle class.

Angry? You bet your ass americans should be angry. In my estimation, americans should be lynching angry. If Warren Buffett wants to redistribute wealth, he should start with his own wealth. And he should shut the pie hole because no one wants to be lectured by a billionaire.

We will not "come back" from the destructive processes unleashed by Warren and his democrat pals. At age 60 I will never earn a decent income ever again, I will never make up the losses to my savings, home value or pensions nor will I leave anything of substance to my heirs. Warren and his pals looted it all! Worse yet, my daughters and grandchildren probably won't live a middle class lifestyle, even with college educations, because the whole goddamned system is stacked against them and for the crony capitalists and their government pals.

Don't tell me not to be angry Warren. Just go sit in your vault and count all the money you earned impoverishing decent people who just wanted to take care of themselves and their families.

Ambush

Democrats won't vote on extending the Bush tax cuts until after the election. This is not good news! Asking a bunch of lame duck democrats to extend tax cuts to the people who put them out of office is like asking an ex-wife for post-divorce financial relief. It ain't gonna happen.

Anybody want to play this game. Without tax cut extension we're looking at a depression hurricane in 2011.

Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern called opponents of Obamacare "fuckers" at a union meeting. I think this is a new low for politics in this country but clearly demonstrates the contempt that democrats have for anyone who disagrees with them. Maybe jimmy carter was right, we could easily have a civil war in this country.

Unemployment is up, housing sales are awful and the Fed will print more dollars but the pro-marxist cheerleaders are out in full force today spreading the good news. Investors dumped stocks in response, fleeing to bonds and gold for safety. Shameless lies!

The government will have to get $134 per share of GM stock in the post-election IPO, according to Czar Barofsky and his bought-and-paid-for analysts, to get their money back. Ok. I wouldn't pay $34 per share for GM stock in a depression let alone $134. But that's me.

I can't put my finger on it but something is very wrong. The economy, the election, the mood in the country. I feel like there's an ambush up ahead.

Epic Fail

This billboard tells you the one worst thing that you need to know about public schools in america.

Working the Problem

US household wealth has declined almost $11T since the depression began and $1.5T in the last quarter. As de-leveraging continues expect more losses. The DOW sucker run will fade after the elections.

The US falls to 4th place in the world for investment. The stagnant economy and over-regulated investment climate is causing investors to seek better environs to put their money. Hell, even communist China is a better investment than america these days.

The US government is hiding it's debt. Beyond the $13T in government debt reported to the press is $60-200T in unfunded obligations such as social security and Medicare. Congress mandated that companies show pension obligations on the books. Why wouldn't the people's government show it's social security obligations on it's books? Maybe because we'd lynch them from Washington lamp posts if we knew.

One fellow thinks chaos and war could result from currency devaluation like we saw from the Japanese last week. Exports are the lifeblood of nations that keep the peasants from revolting as the ruling class loots and plunders all wealth. The currency valuation race to the bottom could trigger a war abroad or within a nation. Buckle up.

Orlando cops broke a 84 year old drunken veteran's neck after he touched a cop. Many police are working very hard at destroying public empathy with heavy handed tactics. If you or I broke this old man's neck for touching us, we'd be facing aggravated felony charges and jail time. But unionized public servants deserve respect and operate under a different set of rules.

Apparently aliens in flying saucers are interested in our nuclear weapons. Maybe they're just charging their batteries using tractor beams to remove fissile material from the warheads. Dont' worry though...

The government has their best minds working the problem.

Megaregions:The Future of Post-America

So you thought you lived in a city, county, state or country? Maybe not so much. You may live in one of 11 megaregions in what may someday be the former US.

I live in the Great Lakes megaregion which is one of the largest in land area and population. With ample land area, water, agriculture, industry and population the Great Lake megaregion can be a successful nation all by itself. The mostly conservative Christian culture is sturdy and self reliant, not wont to rely on a central government to redistribute wealth and babysit it's citizens.

I like this idea. Perhaps some lose confederacy with other megaregions and the interstitial places in between. If only there was some way to trade the dopers, slackers and losers to other parts of the world for other sturdy people.

Of course you'd have to go into the region's central cities with nets and capture the animals that infest the area then load them on ships for Somalia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Gaza and other similar places where they'd feel right at home. Then enact some zero tolerance laws using Singapore as a model to keep the place livable. Voila! Great Lakes could be a wonderful place to live when the US divorces.

DOW Surges on...Bullshit

Great news from the NBER, the recession that started in 2007 ended in 2009!  I think what the NBER banksters meant to say is that the recession is over for them. The rest of us peasants need to suck it up.
But as Tyler asks, when is the depression going to end? Well, some think it could take 10 years to deleverage before recovery can begin. Or never.
Meanwhile the Fed is mulling over printing another $1T dollars to buy government bonds. Somebody has to buy US government junk bonds.
The DOW rose 146 points, with below average HFTbot trading, on news that the longest recession is over.
Gold rose higher as many called all this news bullshit, buying the ultimate hedge against economic collapse.

Have banksters been illegally foreclosing on homes when they don't have clear ownership?  All those tranches sold here and there, only God knows who owns what. But that won't stop Snidley from getting his grubby little fingers on Nell's deed.

September 19 Tab Dump

The BP well is sealed but the fate of the Gulf offshore oil industry is unknown.

The EU is discussing regulations for the $700T shadow banking system commonly known as hedge funds. Just as in the US, governments think they can control investment. More likely the funds will just move to friendlier environs that don't try to restrict human nature.

US standard of living is in peril from simultaeneous deflation and inflation effects. The jig is up.

Texas is fighting Obama's EPA attempts to regulate CO2 in 2011. I wish them luck in this effort although I think federal courts will side with the omnipotent federal government. Besides, since when did Obama ever care about laws.

The Taliban have wised up and are waiting for the West to declare victory and get the hell out of Afghanistan. Smart move goat fuckers.

Wall Street banksters are hurting, the poor babies!  I guess that what comes around, goes around. Ironic.

Corruption in GM Bailout

Sometimes people ask stupid questions and sometimes people pretend to investigate something even though the results are predetermined. WaPo aks if politics was behind the government's decision to preserve the UAW pensions while turning GM and Delphi salaried pensions over to the PBGC.

Neil Barofsky, special investigator for bailout funds, is looking into whether politics played a role in the pension fiasco at GM and Delphi.

Delphi salaried pensions were funded at 86% and PBGCs threshold for terminating pensions was 81%. The UAW pension fund had to be topped off with $200M bailout bucks to get it to the required 81% threshold. These facts suggest something was very wrong.

Obama invoked class warfare and political payoffs to the UAW by maintaining UAW pensions at 100% while dumping GM and Delphi salaried bourgeoisie into PBGC with reduced pensions. He trampled the Constitution, law and fair play with this tyrannical criminal behavior. The thug may as well have handed out bribes at the polls with taxpayer money.

Barofsky will pretend to investigate this abuse for awhile then report to his boss that nothing was wrong. The media will claim justice served and the matter will be forgotten by most people. Except the thousands of GM and Delphi salaried retirees and their widows who will remember this betrayal until their eyes close for the last time. Before they die, they will tell friends, family and neighbors about this shameful treatment and a taint will cling to GM, Delphi and socialist thugs for decades.As it should.

Let us pretend that you are a valued employee who gave years of faithful service and I am a good employer who kept my promises to all my employees. It is a pleasant fiction, is it not?

Macondo Prospect Well Plugged

BP is testing the cement plug that renders the Macondo Prospect well dead. Once the well passes the 15k pound pressure test, the relief well will be plugged and the work gets turned over to lawyers the buzzards who will pick the corpse dry.

The lasting question will be, is the US deepwater, offshore oil business dead. The moratorium on exploration expires on November 30th unless Dictator Obama extends it. Meanwhile 8200 jobs and $2.1B in revenue has been lost and oil exploration companies are reconsidering whether it's worthwhile to pursue new exploration in US coastal waters.

The Gulf was wounded but didn't die. Increasing america's energy independence may have been mortally wounded.

Jesus Weeps into the Cesspool

Western corporations and governments are handing the Keys to the Future over to the totalitarian Chinese government. This does not bode well for the future of the world.

Western automakers, who have abandoned any allegiance to Western economies and people as they run their business straight into the ground, are reluctant to provide electric drive technology to Chinese partners. The Chinese are demanding technology transfer as a condition for access to the Chinese market. This is smart business by the Chinese and the fact that Western automakers are even considering it shows just how weak and greedy these klepto-corporations are.

The Chinese do not recognize Western patent and copyright law having consistently stolen Western intellectual property for decades. The West doesn't have the legal or military power to force compliance so it bleeds financially as it invests to develop ideas only to see the profits from those ideas go to China. In the past this kind of activity might lead to settlement or war but now it just leads to Western whining. Westerners won't boycott these pilfered products so we hear the vast sucking sound of China vacuuming all wealth from the West.

I've worked with enough Chinese people over the years to know one thing about them. All Chinese are Chinese first and everything else second. Even Chinese born in America are always Chinese first. They know this but we don't. The Chinese are smarter than Westerners in this respect. Any Chinese in this country would hand over technology to the Chinese in the twinkle of an eye. But Westerners have this false sense of national patriotism while the Chinese have a real sense of cultural patriotism. The Chinese know who they are. Exactly who or what is the West these days?

The Chinese will rule the world one day because the West will give them the keys for a few coins and promises that mean nothing. There is no such concept as individual freedom in China. A world dominated by China will be a totalitarian world like China is today. Greed and ignorance will end individual freedom for mankind.

GM, Ford, Chrysler and the rest of the remaining Western automakers will give the Chinese what they want because they are desperate to survive. The Japanese and Koreans will be smarter because they understand the Asiatic culture and mindset. Westerners, and americans in particular, are ignorant, arrogant, feckless, greedy peoples that would sell their own mother for a penny and one more day to live in the McMansion.

This is not just a failure of leadership in the West, the fault lies with ordinary people who shop til they drop buying unnecessary Chinese crap to fill their McMansions and the their empty fucking lives.

Culture has always been king in this life. Success always follows a people who have a strong culture. The West has become a consumer culture with no value but buy now, pay later and pretend to be something that you are not. Jesus weeps into the cesspool that the West has become.

This is a pleasant fiction, is it not?

In the movie Gladiator, Marcus Aurelius tells his daughter "Let us pretend that you are a loving daughter, and I am a good father."  Lucilla takes his arm and says "This is a pleasant fiction, is it not?"

History never records that this exchange ever occurred but this is one of my favorite lines in any movie. And it is pertinent to life as well. I wonder how much of this life is purely pretend as it makes a pleasant fiction.

In the past, when life was short, brutish and nasty I suspect that just surviving often required pretending. One had to pretend the fiction that they were safe, warm, well fed and loved just get through the night. During the day they pretended the fiction that the meager fruits of their endless labor would get them through the night. I suspect that pretending a fiction was once a necessary survival skill.

Now we have crooks pretending to be bankers, lumpen sluts pretending to be celebrities and empty suits pretending to be presidents. Basically everyone pretending some fiction until they have no idea who or what they really are.

As a child I pretended that I was a cowboy or a soldier. Later, as a teen, I pretended to be a rock and roll singer and a great lover. As a young man I pretended to be a cinema manager, a construction worker, an autoworker and a husband. Eventually I pretended the fictions of father, engineer, community volunteer and philosopher.

Am I really any of these things? Sometimes. But mostly I'm just faking it, just role playing and hoping the fiction plays well, that someone plays along with the pleasant fiction. Having been married for 37 years I often wonder if our marital success is because I get up every morning and say "Let us pretend that you are my loving wife and I am your good husband" to which my wife replies "This is a pleasant fiction, is it not?" Perhaps this is how successful marriages persist.

In fact, maybe this simple idea is how civilization endures. "Let us pretend that this life is worth living and I am a happy citizen." This is a pleasant fiction, is it not?

Cops Kill Good Guy

This story is just awful. Medical sales rep Erik Scott was shot dead by local police after Costco employees reported he had a gun in the store. But his gun was legal and he tried to comply with police orders. This tragic story highlights many problems facing modern america.

Erik Scott made a career of helping people with medical technology but because of the places he had to go it was necessary to carry a weapon. Since he was on call 24/7 he had to carry a pistol whenever he went out. This put him in a store where an over zealous employee made up a rule, probably due to his fear of guns, that resulted in store security calling the police. The police are in constant fear of death and injury so they got trigger happy and blew Erik away. He died because of fear.

The defibrillator company feared for their employees, the Costco employees feared for their lives and lawsuits if customers were hurt and the police feared for their lives. The breakdown in trust in america has made everyone fearful. Everyone overreacted to mistrust and fear so Erik had to die.

I have a lot of respect for most police officers. Hamstrung by endless rules they go out on the street every day and night where they must deal with fucked up people that most of us would cross the street to stay away from. They must make decisions constantly that most of us would run from every time. And some of the people that they deal with would kill them without cause in the twinkle of an eye.

This police shooting was absurd. Three officers with pistols drawn, backup everywhere and a suspect who was trying to comply with multiple instructions was not a situation that required one shot, let alone several. Read this account by a witness. This was a murder by terrified, untrained police officers. The blame goes from the cops who killed this innocent man all the way up to the incompetent chief who runs this department.

Officers William Mosher, Joshua Stark, Thomas Mendiola and Chief  Joseph Chronister need to be charged with homicide and if found guilty go to jail. The city of Las Vegas should be sued for wrongful death and pay a hefty settlement if found negligent. The city needs to get their department trained and weed out trigger happy cops like these three.

I hope the Costco clerk that made up a rule, his manager who overreacted and the security kid who called the police realize that they killed Erik Scott as much as the trigger happy cops who pulled the triggers. I hope they think about it every night when they close their eyes. 

There is a lesson for us normal folk here too. If you are going to conceal carry, do so discreetly. Erik was complacent about revealing his weapon and the safety of his permit. Most people are afraid of guns and will act stupidly if they see one. Cops are people too.
Erik blundered when he moved one arm. If a cop draws a weapon on you, get your hands up and freeze. Never move at all. Let the cops move you. You're better off being tased than shot.

Carrying a weapon is a dangerous business. Never carry unless you absolutely have to and realize that it can get you killed, even if you are the good guy.

Falling So Far, So Fast

I ought to be teaching my children and grandchildren about this wonderful civilization that me and my ancestors have built and explaining how to operate it. I should be proud of my generations improvements and how we have planned to tweak the system to fix the problems that invariably arise.

The civilizational manual should provide useful information that helps the young people become who and what they want to be, with tips on the right education, how to apprentice for your dream as well as the proper etiquette for any situation.

Fuck that. Apparently. The civilization is being systematically dismantled and the control system is disabled. My generation burned the operation manuals in shame then went to the fridge for a beer and a joint. There is no road map for dreams, just be a drunken, stoned lumpenslut and stumble around like the rest of the zombie mob. If you ain't one of the hoi polloi you ain't shit and if you have to ask if you are, fuggitabodit.

In my studies, I don't think I've ever encountered a civilization that fell so far, so fast as ours.

No Wonder Everything Is a Mess

It's all stops out now for politicians as they vie for the votes of the great unwashed masses. I'm always amazed that americans will listen to these lying sacks of shit and then vote based upon their words. A politicuan will say anything to get a vote. The only way to assess is a candidate is to look at his voting record.

The pols and their friends are driving the DOW higher on no volume and bad news to buy votes. They say LOOK, THINGS ARE GETTING BETTER even though foreclosures are up, unemployment is the same and manufacturing activity is declining. Meanwhile everyone in DC is for extending the Bush tax cuts. Really? Then STFU and vote to extend the cuts.

Look for the pols' bankster buddies to take back the DOW bribes (your earnings) right after the elections  when they send the market south of 10,000. The HFTbots have their programs loaded and running.

Meanwhile, two of the biggest congressional assholes in history, Waxman and Weiner, are holding hearings to see how they can prevent ordinary americans from protecting their wealth in the coming crash by giving the government even more control over gold and silver.Oh, and gold hit a new high today as we are finishing 19 consecutive weeks of mutual fund equity outflows. The rats are jumping ship so Waxman and Weiner want to hand out lead life jackets.

At my work we're putting 2011 CapEx budgets together with no business guidance whatsoever. Just shooting in the dark! I've never seen anything like it in my 41 years of work. I wonder if this is how everything is run in this post-modern world.

No wonder everything is a mess.

Plodding Along

Small is good in these times. It might be the difference between survival and not. We've been downsizing everything and making some progress.

The house is pretty much ready for retirement (or economic apocalypse). We've replaced the roof, the furnace and some odds and ends that should never need to be replaced again, even if I live to be 85. It feels good to have that crap behind me.

I'm downsizing chores as well. I used to be very particular about the yard, garden and house. Now I look for maintenance free solutions around the homestead. Less is better as I get older, I don't have the time or inclination to work for hours on the weekends.

The two things that would be good to be larger are salary and return on investments. But I don't see that happening in the remaining 5-8 years that I will work. I'll consider myself lucky to work a few more years and I don't see investments appreciating in a deflationary economy.

I feel myself getting smaller as well. I imagine myself as a quark in the universe, 1/6th of an electron and the smallest known mass in physics. As a quark, I'm essential in the makeup of God's universe but just one of many, with no particular, individual significance.
I think that when we're young we're full of pride and dreams that make us oftentimes feel big. But age slowly erodes pride and dreams until we become miniscule parts of the universe soon to be annihilated. It is a wonder how God prepares us for eternity.

I've learned a lot during the sixty years that I've lived but most of it will go to eternity with me. In this modern age people just don't have time to listen to the old folks. Our civilization is poorer for it. For all of our computers and cell phones and vast data banks, we can't communicate how to live a decent, honest life that raises up civilization.

God tells me to keep plodding along for a while longer, He tells me to try everyday and He gently urges me to be tiny. I listen and obey, for that's all I can do.

Meet Christine

She's an outsider who defeated a nine term moderate, a conservative, she's Irish, a Tea Party member and she's easy on the eyes. What's not to like about Christine O'Donnell?
It sure would be nice to take our country back from the swine that have run it into the ground the past 40 years.

Blog Visitors

The US State department visited my blog today after searching "Nail Idiatullin" (our foreign visitor who was trying to dig, hack and cut his way into the Effingham County Energy Complex at midnight). Is Hillary trying to find Nail, information about Nail or is she looking to see who took interest in the story about Nail?

I've also noted a lot of interest in my postings about the BP oil spill from unusual internet addresses, especially law firms. All of my information is from the public domain but the lawyers seem to want to know if I possess insider information.

If I suddenly stop blogging and disappear, someone check the State department. Hillary might have me tied up in the basement under torture. I hope she doesn't do it topless. Yuck.

House of Cards is Shaky

The DOW made a nice run at 10600 today before stalling and falling at the end of the day on less than average trading. Is there hope in the air or are the HFTbots practicing for the market run up before the elections?

The IMF fears explosive social unrest if the West doesn't find jobs for 30 million unemployed and worries that young people will lose faith in institutions.

John Williams sees the Fed dancing on a landmine as they have tried to stabilize the US economy. He fears that monetization of government debt will trigger hyperinflation when the world realizes that the US is broke and flee from the dollar.

According to one consultant the top 100 pension funds lost $108B in August and are underfunded by $480B.

Grim stuff.

Societies have always struggled to keep young men busy and engaged because idle young men are just trouble. Think of the Vikings. Hordes of young men stuck indoors for months at a time drinking, brawling and trying to screw Harald's daughters. So the adults arrange raiding adventures to keep the young men busy somewhere else.
The West is letting it's young men sit around doing drugs and screwing young women. Many never learn a trade then spend a lifetime as drifters in society. These young men never buy into modern civilization and act like barbarians within the walls.

Government and business elites have experimented with society and economics for the past 40 years while building a global economy based upon wild theory. Now that everything has been disassembled, nothing works.
For two years the government has been trying to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again but nobody is convinced that it can be done. The lies were exposed when the thing fell off the wall. Now the Fed and government is trying to walk a tightrope between deflation and inflation without a balancing pole. If they fall, everyone panics and runs away from the dollar to commodities. Then comes hyperinflation, apocalypse and then some rebirth of some kind.

Those of us who have counted on a defined benefit pension may be in the same boat as those who planned on getting a social security check. Totally fucked.
The funds are in dire straits since the 2008 economic collapse. All of the funds lost fortunes and with weak to non-existent investment returns, cannot makeup their losses. So many funds may have to be turned over to the PBGC, which relies of government funding to pay benefits.
If Uncle Sam goes bust there won't be any social security or PBGC pension payments. For that matter, you won't have any 401k or other savings either, because the whole shebang will collapse. It sucks to be old right now.

This house of cards looks awfully shaky right now.

It's On

It's on! Local farmers are harvesting corn and soy beans early this year. In my neck of the woods, corn is at 54% maturity and beans at 69% maturity. For you city folks, that means they're done growing and dry. And it has been dry in these parts for the past six weeks.

Farmers have been harvesting since this weekend with about 12% of corn harvested and 7% of beans. Still a lot of long days (and nights) ahead of these folks. In a field I drive past on the way to work they were working at 0545 hours and still working when I drove home at 1720 hours.

The deer are being spooked out of the harvested fields so you have to be prepared, especially at dusk and dawn. A 160 pound deer can put a world of hurt on you and your car.

But Mo is gonna be pissed......

the hogs got in the korans again.

Nobody Knows

Doomsday warnings of US economic collapse. This article worries about some minor incident causing a run on Treasury bonds then americans making a run on banks to buy commodities. Sound familiar. This scenario is gaining traction beyond pessimists like me. It's bad to put yourself in a difficult situation where you can be easily manipulated by your enemies. We are there.

David Rosenburg lists his 13 signs that we're in a depression.Check out the slide show. Nuff said.

The capitol of Pennsylvania almost defaults on general city funding bonds. Harrisburg already went balls up on an incinerator boondoggle that the city backed. Now they can't make interest payments on a routine bond unless they borrow from next year's budget. Have you ever tried this at home? How did it work out for you?
How many other cities are in this situation and how will it affect the municipal bond market if these guys start defaulting? It can't be good.

Calpers unfunded pension liabilities more than twice as large as it's assets.Yeah. Unfunded liabilities are over $240B and the fund lost over $70B last year investing in hedge funds that went tits up. California state retirees won't ever get what they were promised, the land of fruits and nuts is bankrupt. Will they deal with it? Probably not, they haven't ever tried before. California will go into the abyss with their foot on the gas pedal.

Economists decrease US GDP for third time in three months. GDP growth will be significantly less than forecast for the last quarter and my guess is, below 1%. But the cheerleaders keep chanting, what else can they do. Cry? The truth is nobody knows and even if they did, they'd lie to us for our own good.

And finally, a Fourth Turning Perspective by Jim Quinn. How america will face the coming crisis.

What Happened in Georgia Last Weekend?

Last Sunday Rincon, Georgia police detained, arrested and then released three Russian and Kazakistan muslims with shovels, bolt cutters, a machete and ski masks outside the security fence of the 480 megawatt Effingham County Energy Complex at midnight. The three men were here on a legal visas and were "leaving soon".

Perhaps they were just digging for worms or maybe performing reconnaissance for a future terrorist attack. The government should want to know why these fellas were there and exactly what they were doing. 

Don't expect to hear anymore about this "non-event", just go about your business americans. Nothing to see here. The Russian and Kazak tourists didn't get inside the wire so no harm, no foul. They're going home "soon" so no need to worry. The government will increase security by detaining and performing a full cavity search on the next grandma and 4 year old granddaughter walking on a road a mile away from the plant on a sunny afternoon.

I can tell you this, if three americans were caught in similar circumstances anywhere in the world, they would not be free or going anywhere "soon". The entire global media would bump this story to the top headline and howl for days about american aggression.

Some things just make one go hmmmm! Are all the recent energy "mishaps" just accidents? Was the 2008 financial meltdown just an accident? What's the real story here? What is the government hiding?

Read this background by Subotai from comments in linked article:

Follow Up to 'names of Russians arrested' above
By Subotai Bahadur | 09/11/10 - 05:47 pm
I have been contacted by my friend. 1) I had Ibragimov dead on. 2) Nail Idiatullin is an obvious Central Asian by first and last name, one of the various turkic peoples, the Idia. The ..."tullin" is a give away, a cognate form of Allah in Russian. The name was originally rendered as "Idia-tallah". 3) Evgeniy Luzhetskiy is an ethnic Russian name, and about 1/3 of the population of Kazakhastan bears
ethnic Russian names and carries some Great Russian bloodline. But they are almost all Muslims. 4). My friend does note that if it is not "freelancers", there exists a division called "Voyska spetsialnogo naznacheniya attached to a number of Russian organizations. Further, that there have been a number of energy related incidents of late affecting the US, two in the Gulf of Mexico, that have the effect of enhancing Russia's economy and foreign leverage. Given my friend's specialization, such is an obvious train of thought. I would note that politically and ideologically, it would be to the benefit of the administration to hustle these people out of the country before any investigation could take place,
regardless of either origin. Both my friend and I agree that if there are further energy related incidents that the power of coincidence would be stretched beyond credibility. Once is chance, twice is coincidence, three times is hostile action. We should keep our eyes open, for our government will not.
Subotai Bahadur

Wonders

As I sit here at my computer I'm traveling at 766 miles per hour as the earth rotates about it's axis. Only the 21 mph gravitational pull of the earth keeps me from spinning off of the planet into space. Meanwhile the earth races around the sun at 67,000 mph with only the gravitational pull of our star keeping me and the earth from flying off into the galaxy. Our solar system circles the center of the Milky Way at 568,000 mph while the galaxy itself speeds away from the center of the universe at 159,000 mph per megaparsec.

I am being continually bombarded by particles forming the cosmic wind traveling near the speed of light at 671 million mph. When the earth faces our star, I am bombarded with particles forming the solar wind traveling at 811,000 mph. Only the earth's magnetosphere protects me from being cooked by solar and cosmic radiation. The tiny dipole magnetic field measuring 0.3-0.6 Gauss is all that stands between me and oblivion.

If you ponder all of this, it is a wonder that we puny carbon based creatures can even survive in the maelstrom of this universe. Surely God made a way for us in His creation and holds us in His protection by gravity and magnetic fields.

Stand, Fight or Fall

All of this burning, tearing and protesting strikes me as silly. I've never attended a protest, preferring to write rather than burn, tear or chant ideas. My letters have been cited in congressional testimony, I've been interviewed by CBS and the WSJ and met with a US Senator to discuss policy. I am a humble man of letters, well thought and hopefully articulate. I have tried reasoned debate for nine years only to realize that it is a fool's errand. The other side doesn't want to discuss or compromise, they want to shout down, issue edicts and crush their opposition utterly.

As a thoughtful man it strikes me that the time for words and the pen has long been over, the time of the sword has been upon us for some time. But before we use the sword over there, we must use the sword here. We have to clean house in this country as it is full of treason to our founding ideals.

I submit that there is a large number of americans who no longer share the ideals of our forefathers that founded this country. I will not mince words here. They must change, leave or submit to the sword. There is no alternative if we are to continue the ideals of our forefathers.

Some ideas are just superior to others. A Constitutional republic founded on God given rights is clearly superior to any other form of government in the world. Devolving to some other form of government, even by degree is unacceptable. In this case, it is all or we are left with nothing.

I wish there was an alternative, but sadly there is none. We must stand, fight and fall or go into the memory hole. Let there be war.

America Loses War on Poverty

The government is preparing to release 2009 census data next week that shows that the US poverty rate exploded last year with 1 in 7 americans living in poverty. This is the highest number of americans living in poverty since the US started recording poverty data in 1959. About 45 million americans made less than $22,025 annually last year, making them eligible for government assistance.

I suspect this data will surprise the Obama administration and economists, who insist that we are not in either a recession or depression. The administration will blame Bush and continue wrecking the US economy as they accumulate and consolidate government power.

Post-American Slaves

The local electric utility decided to get in front of the global warming tax steamroller and built one of the world's cleanest coal gasification electric generation plants. The 618mW generator is an engineering marvel producing 10 times the power with a smaller environmental footprint, produces useful agricultural byproducts instead of toxic waste and uses 10% of the water required by the plant it replaces. All good stuff.

But the construction costs are a half billion over initial estimates and it still isn't complete. Ratepayers will pay for the $3B plant through increased electric bills. The utility says that we will see a 20% rate increase phased in over the next few years. My average electric bill will increase $32 per month or roughly $384 annually. The state will rake in an additional $27 per year in sales tax as well.

I'm going to have to reduce our electric usage or cut something from our budget to pay for this increase. I haven't seen a wage increase in years, have seen my wages decline and don't expect any raises in the foreseeable future. So something has to go.

It's nice to produce cleaner energy but how are people going to pay for it? An extra $411 is a lot of money these days for most people. Folks on a fixed income will be hurt badly by this "green project". I suppose that the utility figured that congress was going to clobber us with a cap-and-trade tax so they decided they may as well tax us themselves. The state government agreed with them and approved the project. But can we afford it?

This is just another example of government, business and activists treating the people like slaves. They decide how we'll spend our money because they believe we are incapable of making good decisions.

Unity My Ass

Today Obama said that the US was not at war with Islam. I can understand the president saying that, but it doesn't change the fact that Islam is, and has been at war with anyone who is not muslim since it came out of the eastern Arabian desert 1400 years ago. It is not just a "sorry group of men who perverted a religion" that is at was with dar al-harb.

Obama said that americans gather in unity on this day. Bullshit. I won't stand in unity with anyone who gives his blessing to a mosque anywhere near Ground Zero. Those who would bless the Cordoba Center, or whatever Rauf is calling it now, piss on the memory of those who died in the shadow of this horror. Body parts of victims were recovered within 100 yards of this mosque-shrine. It is just wrong.

Half of this country has walked completely away from me on too many issues for me to believe in any unity in this utterly failed nation. I'm not compromising my principles to be part of the vast nothingness that this country has become. I'll just stand apart with some modicum of dignity and honor rather than crawl into the cesspool under the banner of unity. Obama and his filthy crew are on their own now. I owe them nothing.

HT: NY Daily News for the graphic

The Ages of a Man

A man's life has four distinct phases and I've been pondering them for awhile as I try to understand myself and those that I interact with on a daily basis.

The Boy
From birth to about 20 years old a boy's life is mostly self-centered and focused on painfully learning how the world works. He really doesn't want to learn from books or talking but by trying and doing. A boy knows no bounds and has infinite hope that tomorrow will be better although he usually lives for the minute. He can't wait to be just a bit older so he can do the things that his elders do thus he squanders much of his youth wanting to be a man. Oftentimes a boy will ruin his life by focusing too much of his attention on the fairer sex before he is able to pay the bills that his body creates. The boy loves the glances and attention of a comely lass, seeking and getting them often.

The Young Man
Age 20 to 40 years the young man grows to his full physical strength then begins to fade. This phase of a man's life is characterized by building. The man builds a life, his career, a house, a family and a personae. He fine tunes his understanding of how the world works by learning any way that he can. The man begins to understand his bounds but still has high hopes for tomorrow. He is a very social creature who develops bonds with friends and family, transitioning from self-centered to other-centered being. If he is lucky he will find a good woman then be a good man to develop a lifetime relationship with his spouse. The young man finds glory in the attentions of the fairer sex and watches them come then fade as he ages.

The Adult Man
Age 40 to 60 years the adult man begins to feel that  he is slipping even though he knows he is much wiser than ever before in his life. In this phase a man is finishing his career, his children and fleshing out his personae. Often the adult man will pursue deep learning and understanding oftentimes to dispell his nagging doubts about himself. The bounds are well established and closing in and hope for tomorrow fades as health and financial concerns limit his future.Uusally his social network narrows as family, parents and work consume most of his time and energy. Mostly he is losing control and worries about how it all will end. The attention of women fades then ends as the man approaches old age. He becomes invisible to most women eventually except for his wife-friend who holds him dearer still.

The Old Man
From age 60 to death the old man fades into oblivion. Wise but often ignored the old man closes his career and begins living vicariously through his children and grandchildren. The old man comes to terms with his life and ponders the past, wondering what became of those he encountered during his life journey. Everything becomes dearer, even his troubles as he recalls them. New hard limitations arise daily and he knows there is no hope but Jesus' promise for life after death. He grows tired of life and troubles and pain. Slowly, every day he fades to become the child he once was until he just slips away, usually leaving his wife-friend alone and heart-broken.

And so goes the life of a man, from child to the crown of creation and back to child. Some do so gracefully and others painfully. If we can just not create problems in our lives we can have a good life, a life worth living.

Recalling a Bright September Day

It was a Tuesday morning, I had gotten off work at 0615 hours after working 12 1/2 hour shifts for three straight nights. I was tired and went to bed at 0700 hours, falling to sleep quickly.

My wife woke me up at 0850 hours, saying that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. As I was waking up and trying to comprehend her words  I remember she said "It's on fire on TV now".  I got out of bed and stumbled into the family room, expecting to see a small fire from a small aircraft.

Instead, I saw a conflagration and soon learned it was a passenger jet. I thought, WTF, how does a passenger jet do that? I sat down and listened to ABC reporters breathlessly discuss the scene. The wife and I discussed the accident and wondered if the tower would fall.

As the wife and I watched TV the second tower was struck by Flight 175. We were both dumbstruck by the surreal attack. For the next 34 minutes we followed the live chaos and confusion, evacuations and false alarms culminating in the Pentagon attack and the crash of Flight 93.

By 0959 hours the south tower collapsed and 1028 hours the north tower was gone. Thousands dead. For what? The dead were mostly civilians, just living their lives, going to work and looking forward to enjoying the perfect late summer afternoon.

At some point I walked outside and saw the clearest blue September sky. Not a cloud in sight. I wondered how such a beautiful day could turn into a nightmare.

Basic Laws of Economics and Fools Errands

Sebelius is madder than hell at health insurers for raising rates and spreading "misinformation" about Obamacare.
Health insurers responded to the criticism by saying premium increases reflected “a basic law of economics."

A pox on both their houses! The congress passed Obama's legislation without even bothering to read it. Who knows what's hidden in the 2000 page bill? The administration hasn't bothered to publish much of anything to explain the socialist program. People are going to try to figure it out and many won't understand what they read. And exactly who can understand 2000 pages of lawyerly writings?

Health care insurers were right in there with congress, feathering their nest and covering their asses. All people want is health care, not bureaucrats deciding who gets what and how doctors treat what ails them. No one asked for this bloated, inefficient and increasingly ineffective health care system that has burrowed itself into our lives like a goddamned parasite.

Insurers pleading to this administrations understanding of "basic laws of economics" is a fool's errand. Obama's thugs neither know nor care about economics, except as it relates to tax, print, borrow and spend. Of course businesses hate uncertainty and will cover their asses until the impact of Obamacare becomes clear. This legislative horror has probably caused many businesses not to hire. And sure unemployed young people have dropped health care, they can't afford it. People who don't understand human nature are fools.

And as Tigerhawk said, who the hell is Sebelius to threaten anyone they better watch out what they say? We still have a Constitution with a first amendment in this country even if the Obama crew despise it. Sebelius can just go fuck herself with zero tolerance for free speech. Goddamned Nazi!

We gonna pay and pay til it all be gone. Then what fools?

Go Team Go

The cheerleaders were out in force today. Growth slowing and to slow further, but no recession in sight. How can anyone claim that growth of 1.2% to 0.7% is growth at all? Especially when we know the numbers are always revised upward AND in consumer based economies where the consumer is either unemployed, underemployed or afraid of losing their job.

The OECD says that growth will weaken in the US to just 0.7% the last two months of the year. That's the former Christmas holiday that retailers count on for their annual profits. If growth will slow, and consumers retrench further, then how can the economy not slide deeper into depression (forgetting the silly recession moniker as ridiculous in this non-normal business cycle).

Isn't it just absurd when the cheerleaders are all perky cheering when their team is down 60-3 in the fourth quarter with 3:54 on the game clock?

What Would mohammed Do?

Burning a koran would just be wrong, and insensitive. We all recognize mohammed and islam for what it really is. Burning their "holy book" wouldn't change anything. Consider this, what would mohammed do?

I Got Mine, How You Doing?

I have a lot of time to think, driving an hour to and then from work every day. The morning is particularly good for thinking, as traffic is lighter in the dark at 0545 hours. This past week I've been considering if maybe everything that I've been told for my entire life was a lie.

My dad was a WW2 combat Marine. He always said that Semper Fi really meant "I got mine, how you doing?"

I was taught that if you went to school, learned then went to work, worked hard and looked out for the company that you'd get ahead in the world. I did those things for four companies for 38 years but rather than getting ahead, I got put on the doorstep like a sack of garbage by three of them. The verdict is still out on the company I'm working for now.

I didn't ask my employers for a pension or medical benefits, they offered them to me. They said it was part of my compensation package in lieu of more wages today. If I worked 5 or 10 or 30 years that I would get a defined benefit every month for as long as I lived. I did my part, working for 10, 17 and 8 years for each then they handed my pension over to the broke US government.

I was raised to save money for retirement and rainy days. I was raised to buy a house. I paid my bills and my taxes, doing my share for my country, my state and my city. I never asked for more than common defense and some roads to drive on. I donated to local charities to help those less fortunate through no fault of their own. The government took the taxes from my work, gave them to klepto-corporations and lazy fuckers that intentionally ruined their lives. Then that same government calls me greedy, racist, oppressive and a potential terrorist that can't be trusted in any way.

I was raised to be humble and patriotic, to defer to the great men who earned the right to be corporate, academic and civic leaders. I was taught to respect our country and flag and those who sacrificed to give me my freedom. I did those things even when I disagreed with particulars, always counting on my fellow countrymen to look out for our common welfare. Now I have leaders that spit on my welfare by not even bothering to read the legislation that they pass or sending our work out of the country for a few extra pennies of personal profit.

I was taught to give my children an education so they might have greater opportunities than me or my ancestors had. That the cost of their education would be worth little compared to the gains of it. Now my college educated daughters work in retail making barely more than minimum wage because our economy is in shambles.

I was taught that I lived in a representative republic, under God, where each man's vote counted and everyman was entitled to his God given rights. Now I live in an oligarchy, under nothing, where votes are bought with lies and everyman is entitled to whatever our leaders decide on a whim. I'm merely a prop in the elite's play, a thing to manipulated like a fake fence post.

Looking back it all seems to be a lie. All that's left is my personal sense of honor, that I did the right thing. Mostly no one did right by me, instead they lied to me and feathered their own beds. Now they say "I got mine, how are you doing?" Well, not so good. But I do have my honor and dignity. I never intentionally lied to anybody and everybody. Except when I believed your lies and repeated them, like a sucker.

It seems to me that there will be a price to be paid from this lifetime of lies. There must be. One day our leaders are going to need guys like me for something. They will come sincerely, hat in hand, and ask for my trust and help. But they won't get it. Oh, I've forgiven but I will never forget. I will turn my back on them and just walk away, just as they did to me all these years. I'm over it.

I'm teaching my grandsons that this country is full of liars and cheats, just like the rest of the world. I'll teach them to carefully scrutinize those who call themselves leaders and defer to no man, lest he earn it in plain view. I'll teach them to refuse future offers, take cash in the hand today and don't sell yourself cheap. I'll teach them that I was lied to for my entire life by men I trusted and never should have.

Ouch

Goddamned government lying to us again about unemployment. Why hide the truth? What are they hiding?
Stocks surged on fake optimism as the government pumped up a weak market with mediocre volume. 

The US has dropped to 4th place in the world for competiveness. Switzerland, Sweden and Singapore kicked US ass according to the World Economic Forum (aka the Davos klepto-corporatists). Funny how these pricks caused this drop then turn around and blame you and me for the drop. Maybe the anarchists will blow them all up one of these years.
WEF likes US innovation, universities and flexible desperate, underpaid workers but they hate our huge government deficits, debt and our lack of faith in our leaders. Oh just kiss my very white ass you Nazi-banksters and klepto-corporations.

Treasury bond yields this week suggest trouble is brewing. Remember, if the tendency continues, that signals more quantative easing (printing money). Then somewhere down the road, the full faith in the US government collapses. Ouch.

American Stupidity...Again

WP reports that the last US incandescent light bulb manufacturing plant is closing next month. Thanks to congress' 2007 green legislation americans will be buying all of their "lamps" from China from now on. And they won't be those bright, warm incandescent bulbs that you grew up with, but those goddamned compact fluorescents.

So america loses another industry, created by American Thomas Edison, and more manufacturing jobs...to the Chinese. Can americans be more stupid?

I bought some of the CFLs in the 60W, 75W and 150W species. They are awful. The light is sickly and they don't immediately come up to full power. It takes the 150W outdoor spot lamp a couple of minutes to reach full power, and longer if it is cold outside. The light from CFLs remind me of a garish, dim light bulb hanging high in a tenement hallway. Perfect for post-America america, kinda like our future.

My vision has gotten worse as I age and I need about 450W of incandescent light when I perform detail work in my shop. I'm gonna need eight freakin 75W CFLs hanging together in a two square foot area to see. So much for saving money and reducing my "carbon footprint".

Read The Lights Go Out for America for more insight into this tragedy.

Obama-Legacy of Debt...and more

The US is trillions of dollars in debt, yet Obama and his congress have managed to add more debt in 19 months than all previous presidents from Washington through Bush. What do we have to show for Obama's debt? Nothing. The economy is in shambles, U6 unemployment over 20% and no way out but "hope that something changes".

And now we have a Asian Carp Czar. Yep. A Caesar of the Asian Carps. Dick Durbin has declared war on em. If only he had the same passion for fighting banksters, debt or Islamic jihadis.

"This is a serious challenge, a serious threat," Durbin said. "When it comes to the Asian carp threat, we are not in denial. We are not in a go-slow mode. We are in a full attack, full-speed ahead mode. We want to stop this carp from advancing."

Durbin is a regular George Patton eh?

Queers and rapists will be happy though. San Francisco jails have installed condom machines in the jail. But wouldn't it be embarrassing if your cellmate, Tyrone, made you go buy a rubber so he could safely rape you every night to the jeers of the whole cellblock? 

Castro-Voice of Reason in an Insane World

So now Castro is the rational, responsible voice of reason in the world? Now I know that the end of the world is just right around the corner.

Or maybe en jeffe just wants to go out as an elder statesman.

Soros the Monster

Roger Simon with other links on Soros the Monster. I called him hellspawn, he is the real deal. Evil incarnate. Read it and the links, nuff said.

How to Defend your Loved Ones Without Getting Arrested

The headline reads Man Arrested for Defending His home from Gang. In reality, he was arrested for recklessly discharging a weapon.

The guy went about the whole thing wrong. Here's the legal approach.

He told them to leave then called police. Ok so far. He retreated inside his home. Good. He got a weapon. Ok, he's still operating within the law.

Then he blundered by going outside, threatening the gang and eventually discharging his weapon. Bad.

The law in most states and cities requires you to ask the assailant to leave, retreat inside and if the assailant follows you inside, ask him to leave again as you retreat to your final refuge. If the assailant continues to advance, and you feel your life is threatened, then shoot him until he stops advancing.

Secure your weapon afterwards, call the police and tell them what happened, cooperate with police when they arrive. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, always. Do not embellish. Do not disturb any evidence. The truth will come out of the police investigation.

Never shoot someone outside the home, always retreat to your keep before firing. And if you must shoot, empty the magazine at the center of mass of the assailant. If the assailant continues to advance or you suspect more assailants, you can reload and fire. If a lone assailant is down and not advancing don't reload and continue to shoot him. Never shoot at a fleeing assailant, as that makes you the assailant.

Pointing a weapon at a thief is risky business, shooting a thief will usually get you arrested.

Ask your lawyer about specific laws in specific locales. They vary and you need to know your rights.

Get regular range time to learn to use your weapon naturally. Think about having to shoot someone, it's not as easy as it sounds, especially in a very stressful situation. Remember that 70% of all shots fired in anger go high because people really don't want to harm people. Aim into the center of mass and smoothly pull the trigger. Pulling a weapon is dangerous business, especially if you are not prepared to use it. Remember too, the assailant may be a career criminal who has beaten, stabbed and shot people before. He is ready to hurt you, are you ready to hurt him? Weapons in the hands of an untrained, unprepared, frightened person who has not thought through shooting another person often are useless. Do your homework.

Disclaimer:
I am not a lawyer or law enforcement officer and the opinions expressed here are my own based upon conversations with both local lawyers and cops. Local laws vary widely so seek local legal guidance before following my musings.

Never Recognize Israel's Right to Exist

Mahmoud Abbas will not recognize the Israeli state's rights to exist. Ok boys line em up and get ready to clear those arabs from the camps. Line abreast, scoops down, let's roll.

Hibernating Bears Rule

Dangerous defeatism has taken hold in america? All of america has gone into hibernation because the economy is stuck in Depression 2.0?

With interest rates stuck at 0%, equity losses in the stock market, falling real estate prices and US government junk bonds the best investment to be had, why wouldn't americans park their cash in a safe place and go to sleep. We're stuck in a liquidity trap and no one knows how to get us out without printing even more money.

Better let the bear sleep until we can get some new leadership that knows how to arouse a sleeping bear. Otherwise, somebody is going to get hurt badly.

Peacemaker

For the 43rd time in my life diplomats are trying to bring peace between the Jews and Arabs. They always fail. I usually don't get involved in lost causes but I figured, WTF, I'll offer my own peace plan.

I call it the D9 Peacemaker.

The armored 108,000 pound Cat D9, nicknamed Duby (Bear) by the IDF, delivers 410 flywheel HP to push it's massive 18 square yard Blade of Peace. As the Duby creates and clears rubble, it creates a Zone of Peace where only the stupidest Rachel Corrie or Abu al-Roadkill will attempt to wage war.

Since arab women can't bear and raise children in a field of basketball sized rubble, they will uulate away to better conditions. Thus the arab men, otherwise known as Hamas and the PLO, won't have anyone to hide behind and they too, will flee into the desert from whence they came. The imbeciles that stay behind can be pacified with the 50 caliber Barrett Paradise Ticket.

In my peace plan, the IDF gives the arabs 24 hours notice that they will bulldoze the arab camps then line up the D9 Peacemakers. After 24 hours the IDF bulldozes the arab camps, with or without optional arabs in them (natural selection is in play here, those who fail to flee are not naturally selected and don't get to pass their genes on to the future). The now homeless arabs are escorted to the deserts of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon from whence they came (optionally the Mediterranean for the Phoenicians among them). Then the fences go up and peace breaks out in the Israeli neighborhood. Life is good.

After the arabs of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are reunited with their arab brothers, they can either live in peace with Israel or find a modern Saladin to fight Israel to the death. I think we already know how THAT would turn out.

I believe that my D9 Peacemaker plan has legs. If you like my plan then call the US State Department, write your UN representative or call CNN. Leave me out of it, I'm just a dreamer.