Former Head of the DEA Gang-Banged by Six Reporters and a Pot Head

And he manages to blurt out that the United States could be making a lot of money by legalizing marijuana.

Indecent Proposals

Biden appeals to G20 protesters

At a news conference in Vina del Mar, Mr Biden said 'I would hope the protesters give us a chance listen to what we have to say and hopefully we can make it clear to them that we're going to walk away from this G20 meeting with some concrete proposals.'

I've known many people who had some concrete proposals. Some of them later discovered those proposals really didn't mean anything. Others found themselves wishing such proposals had never occurred.

When a proposal is made, the intent is that someone is going to get screwed.

Obama's Grass Roots

Grass roots is, of course, a double entendre. I feel certain the Salon writer realized this when he titled the article.

Obama goes back to the grass roots | Salon News

As President Obama walked to the East Room of the White House Thursday morning for what was billed as an 'experimental' online town hall meeting aides passed him a message. The 3.6 million votes cast on the 104 000 questions people had submitted on the government s site had yielded a bit of a surprise The most popular questions in several categories including 'financial stability' and predictably enough 'green jobs' asked not about the economic collapse or about healthcare but about legalizing marijuana. But don t worry the president was told the event s moderator administration economist Jared Bernstein wouldn't be asking any of them.

Democracy in action. The people of the nation are told they get to ask questions and vote for which ones they want the President to address. When the people ask about marijuana legalization, Obama's staff decides he does not have to answer those questions.

But he took a stab at it without being directly asked.

"I have to say that there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation," Obama said, as Bernstein laughed over in the corner of the room. "And I don't know what this says about the online audience, but I just want -- I don't want people to think that -- this was a fairly popular question; we want to make sure that it was answered. The answer is, no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy."

Of course the people who voted for those questions feel otherwise. And they were the top questions in multiple categories.

I guess if free speech can be vetoed, so can the free market.

Big Numbers Again

The numbers are big. Really big. I mean look at the size of those numbers!

US unveils $1tn toxic asset plan

The US has announced details of a plan to buy up to $1 trillion worth of toxic assets to help repair banks' balance sheets.

Would you rather the bank buy up all this debt from banks that failed to manage our money properly in the first place, or a $3,000 handout for every US citizen? That would be $6,000 for the average household.

Of course the truth is that we, the US citizens, will end up paying that $3,000 each plus the interest on it. All to keep banks solvent.

Seems to me that if we are going to get screwed, $3,000 would pay for a real high class hooker. (see above) And that seems like a better use of $1 trillion.

Absent

For folks who listen to the podcast, sorry for my absence the last two days. I've been busy building and trouble shooting two new computers. I'll be back on track for next week.

Babies-a-Go-Go

Bad news, folks.

U.S. Births In 2007 Break Baby-Boom-Era Record : NPR

Forget the baby boom. More babies were born in the United States in 2007 than any year in the nation's history — and a wedding band made increasingly little difference in the matter.

Despite my constant squawking encouraging women to get abortions, the call went unheeded.

On the bright side, these little crotch droppings should be hitting their earning potential stride right as I start drawing Social Security, if it doesn't go bankrupt by then.

Income Disparity

As we all get really pissed at Wall Street and the rich bastards who gambled with our money to the tune of getting our tax dollars as bonuses, it has become clear that the class war rages on.

As Kris Kristofferson once said, "Cuz everybody's got to have somebody to look down on. Who they can feel better than at any time they please."



It's part of the American Dream®. Multiple surveys have shown that people would rather make $80,000 a year and be richer than their neighbors than to make $100,000 per year and be the poorest man on the block. So of course we are all going to yell and scream when someone gets more money than we do yet we will continue to refuse to tear down the system that allows such huge disparities in (futile) hope that we may some day be on the winning end of things.

I've brought this up before and I'm going to hound on it again. Let's at least reduce the gap.

I propose doing away with the minimum wage. That's right. All you hard core Republicans can cheer. I want to see the minimum wage abandoned.

In its place let's institute a maximum wage of no more than ten times (x10) what the lowest paid worker gets. Can we really make the case that any one person deserves to earn the same amount of money in one hour that it would take ten people at the bottom of the scale to earn in that same hour? Does the fact that some woman inherited a multi-national business make her 400,000 times the human that the guy who manages one of her stores is? How much more is she worth than the mother stocking the shelves or the old man greeting the people who have helped her make that fortune?

For the folks at the bottom, they will grudingly concede that a person might be worth, maybe, ten times what they are. After all, doctors have to do a lot of things that they never could. And if there was a cap of 1000%, it wouldn't be long before those folks at the bottom were getting paid enough to make ten times more seem less dreadful.

And it's a damn site better than what most people would like to see them get right now.

NSFW: Representing the People

In a representative democracy one has to ask what is meant by representative. Do they mean someone who is tasked with the job of speaking for a larger group or someone who is an example of the kinds of people who make up their constituency? Not that the two are mutually exclusive.

If we assume the former and admit that quite often the latter also occurs, what does that say about Florida?

Florida lawmakers consider ban on bestiality

Rich's legislation would target only those who derived or helped others derive "sexual gratification" from an animal, specifying that conventional dog-judging contests and animal-husbandry practices are permissible.

That last provision tripped up Miami Democratic Sen. Larcenia Bullard.

"People are taking these animals as their husbands? What's husbandry?" she asked. Some senators stifled their laughter as Sen. Charlie Dean, an Inverness Republican, explained that husbandry is raising and caring for animals. Bullard didn't get it.

"So that maybe was the reason the lady was so upset about that monkey?" Bullard asked, referring to a Connecticut case where a woman's suburban chimpanzee went mad and was shot.

I've got nothing against sick perverts getting their kicks fucking goats as long as they get the goat's permission. The incident that sparked this controversy does not meet those criteria.

Florida is one of only 16 states that still permit bestiality -- a fact that animal-rights activist and Sen. Nan Rich learned to her horror three years ago when a Panhandle man was suspected of accidentally asphyxiating a family goat that he held by the collar during a sex act.

Unless the goat was really into BDSM, this does not sound like a consensual act. The man should have been brought up on rape charges.

While I make exceptions for the sexually deviant domesticated primate (human) sick bastards to form relationships with other domesticated animals, I have very little tolerance for stupidity. Sen. Bullard should be forced to stick her hand up a goat's ass so she can learn first hand what animal husbandry is all about. There is no romance in it. Not even with a chimp.

Though buying it dinner may help relax it.

Chuck Norris Joke

There is one thing you can always count on when playing MMORPGs; Chuck Norris jokes. Here is the latest straight from the man himself.

I may run for president of Texas

On Glenn Beck's radio show last week, I quipped in response to our wayward federal government, "I may run for president of Texas."

That need may be a reality sooner than we think. If not me, someone someday may again be running for president of the Lone Star state, if the state of the union continues to turn into the enemy of the state.

From the East Coast to the "Left Coast," America seems to be moving further and further from its founders' vision and government.

And if Chuck runs and wins I'll be happy to meet with him as the newly elected President of Freetopia. Mostly just to ensure an export of Austin based musicians and film makers and a steady supply of Lone Star beer.

Chuck goes on...

John Adams declared that, 'Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.' Yet we've bastardized the First Amendment, reinterpreted America's religious history and secularized our society until we ooze skepticism and circumvent religion on every level of public and private life.

How much more will Americans take? When will enough be enough? And, when that time comes, will our leaders finally listen or will history need to record a second American Revolution? We the people have the authority according to America's Declaration of Independence.

Freetopia will be founded in the idea that religious people need to keep that stuff separate from the government. It will incorporate all current American states west of the Rockies. It will also fully decriminalize if not legalize all things currently considered criminal that primarily affect the individual, meaning drug use and prostitution. It will also change marriage into an agreement between persons wishing to consolidate household resources thus ending the draconian ban on gay marriages, polygamy, and polyamorous relationships.

Go for it, Chuck. If the people of Texas associate more strongly with you than with the current centralized government of these United States, you have a moral and possibly religious duty to do such. Just don't tread on me.

Possible Solution

I am lifting this from a friend/co-worker. I know he reads here so I hope he doesn't mind. It's a great notion and is worth spreading.

Maybe now people can get back to their roots. They can start thinking more as a collective, asking, "What will benefit the whole?"

Now would be a great time to start cooperatives and community gardens so we can grow our own food.

Now would be a great time to do less buying and more bartering.

Let the bankers screw up their world economy, we can build our own economy.

Or as the Dead Milkmen put it...

Why should we buy postage stamps?
We can make our own!

AWPC: Words of Comfort

In a meeting at work today my supervisor said something that at the time was of little comfort. Reflecting on his words, it was exactly what I needed to hear.

This isn't just our company. It's everyone. It's this whole economy. I think it's safe to say we are no longer in a recession but a full blown depression.

He's a normal guy. Exceptionally normal. As someone who is far from it, normal people are easy to pick out.

To hear a normal, average American finally face facts allows me to breath a sigh of relief. People are getting it. Of course it takes some extreme circumstances for this to come about, but it is happening.

Later I was talking with the manager.

Him: I just don't understand why we have to keep throwing money at banks who mismanaged the money in the first place. And then they give them thousands of dollars in bonuses. For what?

Me: Maybe it was the sheer scale of it all. "You didn't just screw over our bank but completely tanked the entire world economy. Wow. Here's a bonus. Hell, here's a Congressional Medal of Honor!"

To kill a man is murder. To kill thousands or even millions takes world class leadership skills. Perhaps theft follows the same logic.

Ten Years

On a totally different topic it was once said that it would be done ten years after people stopped laughing about it. I think it applies here.

Legalizing marijuana? The politicians have stopped laughing.

New York Times
Salon

Who Should Pay for This Crisis?

If we don't stick taxpayers with the bill for the bailout, who should pay for it?

Why isn’t the oil industry bailing out the auto sector?

Just one year’s worth of profits for the oil industry is approximately three times what the auto industry is asking for in their bailout package. If these five companies bailed out the US auto manufacturers, they would still be able to report billions in profit.

Sounds like a natural pairing to me. Conservatives are always saying that private industry can do the job better than government. Put up or shut up.

So many novel ideas. Adversity inspires creativity.