Are we running our military on borrowed money? If we can’t borrow money can we still run the military? If we can still run the military without borrowing money where would  the money to run the military come from? Internally? Taxation or entitlement cuts? If we were in a war with no money and no way to borrow any could social security or medicare be cut? Is there a way we could ever, like, drill for oil? Make a lot of money drilling for oil right now. Or are we doomed to a new perpetual  pauper’s class in order to finance a never-ending war on terror, or drugs, or whatever?

We need to think about turning up our military might alongside our diplomatic efforts with our foes around the world.  Make some deals that they can’t refuse.  We need to deploy the big guns while we can still afford to operate them. The most powerful military in the world isn’t worth a damn if the hardware is all in mothballs because we don’t have money to maintain it or buy fuel to run it or pay soldiers to operate it. You can’t buy parts and  fuel with worthless printed money so unless we can convert jet fighters and battle tanks to run on $100 bills we will be shit out of luck.

Maybe the new owners will be able to run it. Hopefully they will be friendly.

We send brave kids to die but we don’t expect any courage whatsoever from the people we elect to run the country.

Everyday we have young men and women who are sent off to horrific shitholes to fight and possibly sacrifice their lives for our country and yet our politicians in times of great economic despair can’t summon the courage to cut $100 billion  from a budget that is almost $4 trillion in fear of sacrificing a vote? That’s like a quarter of one percent.  Family budgets lost more to fuel cost increases which could be fixed if only we would have the political courage to develop our own energy.

The number of huge problems that developing our own sources of energy would solve is worth the risk of an oil spill or a some radiation.

• Cheap, available energy
• No dependence on the OPEC
• Deny our enemies oil revenue to fund terror operations
• Lots of jobs and money stay at home

If we would have become energy self sufficient 20 years ago there would be no war on terror right now. There would be no Great Depression II. The US would not be a debtor nation.

Every day that the coward politicians fail to do what is right for the country instead of what is right for themselves and their political benefactors,  every day they fail to correct the economic and energy problems is another day we have to send our best and brightest to die for oil so greedy, double-dealing, cowards can live on in the luxury of state sponsored splendor while the rest of the country eats cake. In other words, political cowardice and corruption causes war abroad and destitution at home.

Remember, our enemies in Saudi Arabia and Iran are using our own money to make war against US. We give Pakistan billions every year and they proliferate nuclear weapons, harbor our enemies, support the Taliban, and make war on our allies. Its like we are paying Pakistan to proliferate nuclear weapons and kill our soldiers with their Taliban.

The only people our politicians have the courage to fuck over is the people of America as we are the only ones stupid enough to tolerate it. Whats wrong with this picture?

Wal-Mart: Our shoppers are ‘running out of money’

Who’s been fucked over by the IRS? I know it’s embarrassing to talk about, but go ahead, raise your hands.

My advice: Don’t try to deal with them yourself if you owe them money.  And who but the poor and the rich do not owe them money, right? I don’t care how smart you are, you probably will not win if you don’t pay someone who is in on the scam.

I am unhappily watching a lawyer that we just paid a shit load of money file a form 433a, the very form I just recently completed and sent in with the exact same documentation, and spent 3 months on the telephone talking to the useless pricks at the IRS about. There is something not right when a highly paid lawyer can send in the same form and same documentation that I sent and supposedly,  according to the lawyer, get better results.  If he does half of what he says he will have been well worth his fee, I must admit, seeing as my efforts resulted in more levies and a garnishment on my wife’s paycheck.

In a just society, a capable citizen ought to be able to file the same forms and get the same results as a lawyer. The over complication of the tax code  is purposeful and is designed to keep the middle class, the ones who can’t afford a lawyer, slaves to Uncle Sam.

Repeal of the 16th Amendment is probably the best thing that could happen for our country as far as freedom of the middle and lower class.  I know we got to have taxes, just not an income tax. Make whatever kind of taxes needed to raise money–something very simple would nice for a change–but get out of the people’s private business.

The power to  “lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived” gives the government the right to know everything you do if you make any kind of money and they don’t mind using violence to gain compliance. If you earn money, the government owns you if you can’t afford to pay a lawyer to keep the IRS off your back.

Alleged Deodorant Thief Busted

Was reading where  Aaron B. Tobey was recently arrested at an airport security checkpoint for stripping to his skivvies in protest of the molestations and x-ray invasions going on in the name of national security.  I don’t really see how the authorities can equivocate between someone getting down to their briefs and the actual gropings performed by the security staff. If it is disorderly to wear underwear in public it most certainly must be disorderly to grope a freakin’ nun.

Furthermore I don’t see anything whatsoever being offensive about this young man stripping to his skivvies.

Anyway there is nothing I can do about the police state except snark at it and submit to it when necessary — the government will get its way because they monopolize violence; disobey them and go to jail.  However the story made me think of a better idea for conducting these screening sessions if they absolutely must be done. Here’s how it works: If you are singled out for screening you go to a private room with no cameras and strip down nekkid or maybe just to your skivvies, citizen’s choice. There is only one highly trained screener allowed inside the room who will see and touch your naughty bits and the screener is bound by civil contract and law not to reveal anything inside the screening room which is not pertinent to national security. That includes anything said and any displays of self touching.

Now it is important that there be a nice assortment of screeners available because the deal is that the citizen gets to pick which screener they want to feel their naughty bits– er, I mean screen them — and the screener must get nekkid or down to skivvies as well, citizen’s choice, prior to the screening. There would be an area where the available screeners can lounge so the citizens flagged for screening can peruse them and decide which they prefer to feel them up.

The screeners get to pick their own “uniforms”. I’m sure there would be the occasional standard security screener uniform (and the occasional passenger who would choose that screener) along with the inevitable schoolgirls, construction workers, maids, power executives, leather, lingerie… whatever enhances their ability to perform their job to their utmost efficiency. Me, I kinda like white stockings.

For the screening positions I would suggest hiring college students, male and female strippers, hot wives, horny teachers… you get the picture. Hire only those who are the most enthusiastic about the type of service they will be performing foe their country. Just make sure there is something for everyone. In addition to a small base salary, perhaps minimum wage, screeners are allowed to take tips up to $25, negotiable of course, but get paid $1000 for every  serious threat they root out. Screen 6 to 10 people an hour and find the occasional perp on a no-fly list or carrying a bomb and that is some serious scratch.

Model the whole airport security area on Lady Suzy’s House and the cream of the crop of security screeners would quickly rise to the top and and our national security would be firmly in hand and all but the most puritanical would quit bitching about being groped. People would start to arrive at the airport early so they can mingle in the Parlor and have a drink or two and maybe flirt a little around the piano.

A Happy Ending at airport security for 25 bucks. What a bargain.

UPDATE: Or you could just Fly Naked. Or maybe not.

There is so much wrong with this picture. If there are infinite universes, this would be wrong in every one of them

Do you feel safer now. And if you do, at what price?

If this is the new norm, what, exactly, are we fighting for? Certainly not freedom.

I know of a few people who smoke the legal weed aka, salvia, Spice, Spike, K2, etc. so I looked into a bit to see what it is and if it is safe. There are of course a lot of varied information from the positive to the prohibitive and there has been very little research.

Here are a few of links I looked at:

• Wiki: JWH-018 (1-pentyl-3-(1-naphthoyl)indole)
• High Times: Synthetic Cannabis Mimic Found in Herbal Incense
• Effects of JWH-018 and Why is it Dangerous?

In the comments  a lot of people like it, some people say it really messed them up the first time they tried it. Based on the number of people I know who smoke it or have tried it I would say that bad reactions are somewhat rare, except for maybe the first time someone tries it.

Is it safe? Should it be outlawed?

The bottom line is that there are a very large number of people in society who want to get high. Always have been, always will be. Check history; this has been going on a long time — probably since humans became self-aware that life sucks. Every culture past and present as well as all mythologies of which I am aware include inebriation or hallucination. Intrinsic human behavior I would suspect.  Some people over do their drug of choice as we all know and ruin it for everybody else.

On the flip, in every authoritarian government there is a group of politically correct people who want to control what other people can and can not do. Its for our own good you see. The ruling elite see it as their God given duty to protect us heathen from ourselves. And they are willing to use violence and incarceration to see to it that their wisdom is adhered to.

Personally, I’ve tried it  once  a good while ago to see what all the hoopla was about.  I don’t think the stuff back then was as powerful as it is now but it was OK– nothing to write home about. I don’t prefer it and don’t use it even though it is supposedly legal. [UPDATE: Cities and counties have pretty much outlawed these substances. ]  Many of the bad trip reports in the linked articles above complained of paranoia and panic attacks. Well, one would expect, it seems, a little bit of paranoia after ingesting a chemical that is so similar to and quite a bit more powerful  than THC. Especially if you over do it the first time you smoke it.  The main reason I don’t smoke it though is because I believe smoking kicks my blood pressure up and I am getting too old for that. The damn nicotine is bad enough.

Tough times for friends across the pond:  Queen Cancels Christmas

Another story abut not counting military votes.