The War Tax

I am totally outraged. Start the Revolution.
Remember way back when folk singers would refuse to pay the portion of their taxes that were spent on war? Well we can call Joan Baez and tell her it's time to rebel; The Obama administration is proposing a " War tax" to finance the war in Afghanistan . Won't that make it easy to know what taxes NOT to pay? How about the next trillion to ... " finish the job ".
What are you getting for your Trillion dollars, America ? Is " finishing the job", whatever that line of crap means regarding Afghanistan, more important than America's infrastructure, health care, or securing our own border with Mexico ?
Another trillion dollars and a war tax for Afghanistan, while America's currency, property, and standard of living all decline in value and quality? Is Obama crazy, or are we stupid enough to allow it? What are you getting for your trillion dollars America..........reamed!
I expressed my view on this " finish the job" line of crap previously, (Here's the Deal, 02AUG09)
if the Obama administration continues the same Imperialistic policies of the Bush administration, which I might remind you are based on lies and a Zeitgeist, then he is just another puppet, and one puppet is the same as another, no better.
Thirty thousand more troops in Afghanistan ,.... for what? Finish the Job.
What job? Catch Osama? ...............No, the job is to clear the TAPI * pipeline route. Nobody's looking for Osama. Money wants to start the project in 2010.
TIME TO SCREAM NO ! SCREAM BECAUSE THE BASTARDS CONTINUE TO REFUSE TO LISTEN TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE !
LET OBAMA KNOW -----MORE TROOPS EQUAL ONE TERM ----BRING THE TROOPS NOW !
*The Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline (TAP or TAPI) is a proposed natural gas pipeline being developed by the Asian Development Bank. The pipeline will transport Caspian Sea natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan into Pakistan and then to India. Proponents of the project see it as a modern continuation of the Silk Road. The Afghan government is expected to receive 8% of the project's revenue.

PS KNOW WHY THE ADMINISTRATION CAN'T TELL YOU THEIR "CLEAR CUT PLAN" FOR AFGHANISTAN ? BECAUSE THEY CAN'T BE HONEST AND THERE IS NO ACCEPTABLE LIE FOR THEIR ACTIONS . THEY WANT TO BUILD A PIPELINE. FORGET THE BULLSHIT ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS, THE AMERICAN WAR MACHINE RUNS FOR MONEY. PERIOD. NOBODY IS WEARING A WHITE COWBOY HAT ON THIS TRIP

Nothing

The weather is changing here today. The warm sunshine and tease of spring is being replaced by a north wind, black clouds, cold rain and dropping temperatures. Winter is returning for the latter half of February. The driveway is returning to mud. Wood consumption is rising quickly.
Finally, California may get some rain. More importantly, the mountains on the California-Oregon border are getting snow. My property needs the water.
Watching CNN today, I see that citizens that have lost their homes are protesting in front of the homes of CEOs of various lending institutions guilty of predatory lending. The idea is to 'personalize' the victims to the culprit. Remember this desperate day; the victims are forecasting an attitude and frustration that is going to explode nationwide.
As one friend put it, "This $900 billion give away is the grease that will send this fine country into the big black shit hole. The poor will be in the streets looting. The folks with anything left will retreat." Predatory Bankers better hide now. It would appear when the guillotines are dragged out their heads will be the first to roll.
If this was China, their greed and crimes would have already brought death. Maybe we can learn something from our Pacific rim partners. Misuse of public trust and power should be punishable by death. We wouldn't have to kill many politicians before Washington straightened itself out. Think if we killed just a few and all of the lobbyists.
It's only the beginning, too. As the race downhill proceeds (like a snowball) people will get angrier, hungrier, more unsatisfied. Public unrest is coming. Tax-payer revolt is coming. The ball gets bigger and rolls faster every day.
Americans have lived fat and sassy, and will not be satisfied by a simple subsistence survival. For awhile everybody had money, and everyone got a taste of having a little wealth; watch how we revolt against being poor.
And why shouldn't we? It's the people's money keeping the whole system afloat. Why don't the people now own the system? The banks, the automakers, insurance, housing, They should all be the people's now, and so should their profits! The privatization of profits and socialization of losses is plain robbery. These bailouts are just continuations of the robbery. A few heads should roll, literally. No, a lot of heads should roll.
As the house of cards falls the terror from within will begin. Eventually there will be no good or bad guys; people will fear both the government and the enemies of the state. I guess the retreat part comes into play about then.
The world is changing. America can no longer afford to support the rest of the world with her unbridled consumption, just as America cannot afford to police the rest of the world. Maybe it's time we focused on saving ourselves.
The sky is black now. Snow is starting to fall, swirling in the winds, carrying the latest storm into southern Oregon. It's late in the afternoon. The sky will only darken, the day become night, and the cold deepen before the storm passes.

Grand Theft Auto 4

Coinciding with oil reaching another record high of $123 a barrel today, the new video game 'Grand Theft Auto 4' generates $500 million in sales in it's first 1/2 week. That's half a BILLION in three and a half days in video game sales.
At the same time Myamar loses 100 thousand plus people in a cyclone (hurricane), and a good portion of Asia's rice crop is destroyed or threatened, unfotunately and coincidently, the week after experts predict world food shortages. Yet there is still $500,000,000 paid for this one new video game in 3 and a 1/2 days worth of sales. I underline this point because I wonder what the total game sales will in a week, month, year?
Now, I'm no Reverend Wright, and I won't claim to know anything about the divine plan, or how God really thinks. I'm not even going to claim there is a GOD, but supposing there is... then what the hell would you guess the Almighty is going to think upon her appraisal of the current state of affairs: "Things can't be that damn bad" or "How bad can it get"? Might depend on how many shares of Microsoft God owns.
Half a billion in retail sales has to be good for the stimulus package. Let me do a little research on that game and see if the money is going to China....
And just back from Google... Xbox is Microsoft. There you are; the rich get richer. And using theological criteria of appraisal for logic, God has to own a piece of Microsoft, otherwise no way in hell they could have that kind of success. Anyway, if the world falls apart, Americans don't think they care. They're stealing cars on the computer, and getting life's lessons from the perverted wisdom of Wall Street, graphic designers and the thrills of cyberspace.
What are life's lessons? I would guess for every life they are different. In America, where the vast majority of the now living population did not experience the Great Depression, where Baby Boomers have lived their entire lives in what, for the most part, was the expanding economy of the richest nation on earth, the lessons of life already learned may not apply to the world of the future. A world with a shrinking economy and the comforts and luxuries of yesteryear gone.
In a shrinking world, new lessons of life may be necessary to learn and, for Americans, it won't be easy. A world where property depreciates and today's pleasures can't be paid for with tommorrow's equity. How the hell are Americans going to pay for all those $35K SUVs, and put gas into them all $5 a gallon, if we can't refinance our homes every 3 to 5 years? That's why SUV sales are down in the billions and my Jeep has 235 thousand miles. Lessons learned.
A world where people go hungry. Everybody I know that has ever 'starved', afterward they could never be rich enough. Being hungry for food to sustain life, survive, must leave a long and lasting impression/fear. Today's native born Americans, for the most part, have never known real hunger. And the mass production of food depends on fuel and petrol chemicals and the weather. Absurd, Americans hungry! Not in our lifetimes. Hopefully.
Furthermore, in America (in our lifetimes) opportunity has always been available. Why save, just go make more money. Buy it on credit, pay for it with future money. Future money may not be available in the future. Opportunity may disappear. If you can't afford it now, forget it. Learn the value of a dollar and save. Damn, am I talking to the past, or what? I'm talking to the future, too. Too bad I can't afford to save. Anyway, I just thought the juxtaposition of current world conditions and video sales might explain why I think when the Almighty shows up she might be a little bitchy. Half a billion dollars. I wish I could afford that game and see what I'm missing.

Drugs in Baseball

Can you imagine? Now imagine what can be done about it...
First and foremost, all season ticket holders, from the moment they had a documented junkie playing on their team till the present, should be refunded all monies paid to watch ATHLETES ON DRUGS. Why?
Without those stars (those supermen on drugs slapping homeruns, those stoppers, the young award winners, the MVPs, etc) baseball would not have drawn the crowds it did. The fans bought a false product; the supermen were ATHLETES ON DRUGS! Not that we can tell the difference between the two except every once in a while superman forgets he's a role model and murders a few people, usually culminating in a suicide. But the point is: we'll pay to see the best an individual can give naturally, but we want to believe in fairness. Nobody is going to pay to see an unfair contest (unless it's big time wrestling), therefore season ticket holders should be refunded their money. They were sold an fraudulent product.
Secondly, all steroid users should be put in the witness protection program. Barry, Roger, the runner, the bicyclist... make them all disappear. Then wipe the record books clean. Only fair records! We shouldn't be reminded, as we go through our more and more demanding days (cheating on taxes, speeding, overcharging, lying, and hustling to make ends meet) that the world isn't fair. It's not like any of us would do whatever we could to win. Those cheating bastards giving us what we wanted and then lying about how they delivered. And the money they were paid! I wouldn't do a few drugs for tens of millions.
Third, and most important, let's establish the steroids league. Players can do any drugs, steroids, hype they want. Fans can be sure they are getting the max in the athletes that they support. Everybody will be superman, or get on the shit, and since everybody will be involved, it's fair.
If your team is a loser you can change pharmacist. The athletes can be housed in special, luxury living 'areas' so that when they occasionally lose track of what is really important (winning) and start killing, we can confine the damage.
Additionally, it will be easier to study the long term affects of steroid use and see if the money is worth the damage?
Do they prolong careers? Do they grow hair? Can I be nineteen again? Huh? Pony up!

The News

I see the the U.S. Army has built a base at 8000 ft in the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It's a well fortified castle, complete with helicopter pads, the big guns etc. A command center high in the mountains for The War on Terror. This reminds me of boot camp mentality; "If we're going to fight them, lets do it at their house, burn their land, kill their women and children." This is all good and fine, I guess. But is this border patrol really necessary when I can't afford it? If we elect not to defend the Afghanistan border might there be enough money to defend America's borders? And dare I say it? Isn't it cheaper still to keep our southern borders porous and source our illegal drugs from there, rather then spend so much money to control Afghan poppy fields and do nothing to prohibit their cultivation? Oh, that's preposterous!... Is it?
From what I've seen the Taliban are now the gunmen for the poppy fields. Seems the local boys would like to continue to grow Opium. Something about 'earning a living' (Seen American Gangster? I wonder if the Armed Forces are checking the coffins. It wouldn't be original to use them for smuggling). How much is the worlds opium trade worth? I dare say, with all the other graft going on, would it be crazy to think that somewhere in the military/intelligence hierarchy an influential man might be making money on drugs connected somehow to those Afghan poppy fields, and maybe even... the War on Terror? I wonder what the shit in Harlem is like these days. Fucking good? I can't afford these wars.
For the money it cost us to kill each Taliban per kill, it would be cheaper to contract their asses out to Hitmen and BIG-GAME hunters. How many bona fide Taliban are we going to kill this year? Now how many BILLIONS are we going to spend? Those motherfuckers are the most expensive hit in the world!
If we just contract them our, for the number of Taliban killed this year versus dollar paid, Uncle Sam will be way ahead! We should close are borders to control our world, keep the shit out of the country, but that ain't happening. No. Ain't No Fucking Profit in that, is there? And at the end of 200 years of isolationism, the Chinese will invade our technologically backward country just like the British invaded them 200 years ago.
We can't afford the tarnish. Don't forget these are 'the lands of the grudge.' They haven't forgotten the Crusades. I try remember 'to save myself; the world don't wanna be save.'
Bring our troops home and let those people go back to chopping each others heads off in the middle of the desert.
Nobody wanted a War of Occupation.

I look out the window and right across from my property reminds me of what's important. America.