The History of Money

(Disclaimer:  You might not want to cite this in your bibliography for an economics paper.  So for that reason, just feel free to just steal any or all of this without any credit whatsoever…you’re welcome)

We’ll skip over all the boring stuff from ancient civilizations up to the 1600’s, the main point is that currency in some form or another was developed to represent a given amount of goods or materials, such as grain or wheat, or whatever.  Then man developed coins, each coin was made out of gold or silver and was literally worth its weight in that metal. 

Then, in the 1600’s in Europe, people started saying “Ya know, carting all these heavy ass coins is a real pain in the ass.  And we gotta carry them in these faggy little purses (Europeans in the 1600’s were very insensitive toward homosexuals, sorry).  Why don’t we store all this shit somewhere and get paper certificates for it instead?”  

And so it was.  All the gold and silver went to the banks and the government and the people didn’t care because they didn’t have to lug all that stuff around anymore. 

“Can we come redeem these notes for the gold they represent?” the people asked the government.

 

“Well yeah”, said the government, “but you can also trade them for ale and wine, so why would you?” 

“Ahh…good point…can we buy weed and hookers with them?”

“Sure, why not?”

“Ahh…ok then”

And so the people were happy.  And the governments started amassing stockpiles of gold and silver.  And then the governments had to defend those stockpiles, so they had to pay Soldiers to defend them and buy equipment for the Soldiers to use.  

So…in the 18^th century they just started printing more of these certificates, paper that was not truly backed by gold.  As more currency was injected into the economy, the value of it fell, causing inflation.

“Hey government…what the fudge is going on (18th century people never actually swore.  That practice never caught on until the advent of video games)?  These notes don’t buy near as much ale and weed as they used too”

“Yeah we know.  It’s called inflation.  It’s all Jimmy Carter’s fault.”

“Jimmy Who??”

“Never mind…sorry…gotta run”

By the beginning of the 20^th Century, just about everyone was on the “gold standard”.  But for generations the people spent their whole lives trading currency for their ale, wine, and weed, and really didn’t care what the currency represented.  Governments around the world realized “hey, screw this gold standard mularkey.  Let’s just print as much or as little money as we want, then we can manipulate the economy!”.  

Surprisingly, the US was one of the last to abandon the gold standard, when Nixon took us off of it in 1971.

“Dude, can we still buy our Schlitz and our Night Train and our weed?”

“Not the weed…you know better than that”

“Ahh right on…well we’re gonna do it anyway”

“Yeah Yeah we know”

And of course since the dollar really wasn’t worth anything anymore, inflation skyrocketed in the 1970’s. 

“Dude…it’s that inflation thing again…”

“We told you before…it’s Jimmy Carter’s fault”

“But he’s not even going to be president for a couple more years”

“Doesn’t matter, still his fault”

“But beer and wine is still cool right?  How about online poker?”

“It’s 1975 for crying out loud”

“Oh, all right man….peace”

And so it has gone.  These days we rarely even see those pieces of paper anymore.  They have been mostly converted to numbers stored in computers.  We buy something, swipe a card, and our number in our banks computer goes down a little and the store’s number in their banks computer goes up a little bit.  Seems pretty stable to me.

By the way, the man did let the dude use his money for online poker for a few years, but then in a brilliant move, swept in and shut down all the websites and took all the money.  Doesn’t really matter though, since it’s all imaginary anyway…

American Sniper and heroes

Well I haven’t opened up the Rant Box in quite a while, much to the dismay I am sure to the dozens of people who would accidentally stumble on it while searching for something else on google, but I thought I would today.  My reaction to American Sniper didn’t really quite fit into a Facebook post so this seemed about as good a spot as any.

So here’s the thing, I don’t see what the anti-war, anti-gun, anti-Clint Eastwood anti-everything, left-wing extremist hippies are all upset about.  I walked out of that theater thinking “what the hell were we doing over there in the first place?”  I saw a lot of busted up, broken people, broken lives, broken psyche’s, broken families, and lives lost and/or destroyed.  And for what?  So that now we have a group running around the middle east that’s even worse than the ones we tried to sweep out of there.  The place is a bigger mess than we found it, that’s what we have to show for the sacrifices that Chris Kyle and all of the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and their families have made over the last 14 years.  What a goddam waste. 

I want to be crystal clear…I have the utmost respect for all of those I served with during that time.  The same to those who made those ultimate sacrifices.  When I chose to go back into the Army it was because I believed the line of bullshit I was being fed by our government.  I still believe the cause was just, but back then I also believed that going to war over there was the best course of action.  Now, hindsight as clear as it is, I realize that while my intentions were good, as were those of all who volunteered, the goals of the government were NOT peace and prosperity in the Middle East and the safety and security of our citizens and interests.  It was to perpetuate the chaos over there that so many profit from.

We’re all such sheep.  Myself included.  We bicker politically amongst ourselves under the illusion that we are advancing one ideology or another when in fact all of that has already been decided for us.  Our political arguments are brilliantly orchestrated by the Democrats and Republicans to keep us occupied and blissfully unaware that at the end of the day shit’s gonna go the way they want it to.  We’re like 3 year olds whose parents turn on Sponge Bob to keep us occupied and out of the way.  We will keep having wars that cost money and lives because that is how they stay in power.  That’s how their wealthy buddies stay in power.  The politicians and those they work for (which isn’t us) will keep finding new enemies to fight and if they run out they will just create them.

I think those of you who know me know that I am far from a tree-hugging, peace-nik who just blindly hates war and therefore all who are involved in it.  The military has been a big part of my life, I acknowledge the many benefits I have derived from it personally and that our country has benefitted as well.  I believe in a strong military force to defend our nation and protect the lives, property, and freedoms of our citizens.

Well this is getting long and boring as shit but I want to leave off with one point.  The next time we start thinking about intervening in foreign affairs, we need to tally up the costs of doing so before we take action.  How many American lives are we willing to destroy?  How many of our sons and daughters are we willing to watch get maimed and crippled?  How many families should we allow to be torn to shreds, how many great young minds turned to broken, PTSD crippled mush?  How much is it worth, especially if the true agenda is lining the pockets of the wealthy rather than truly defending our nation?

Chris Kyle was an American hero.  So are all of those who served in combat, risked their lives, and made all the sacrifices that were made in hopes of protecting each other and our nation.  You got a problem with the wars, attack the wars.  Attack the politicians that got us into those wars.  But don’t ever attack those who risked everything to protect us.

Back by popular demand (OK, my sister asked if I still did this lol)

Yeah so I decided to revive the Rant Box.  And if you're thinking, "damn, Rick must really have something important to say, on some crucial issue that significantly affects all of us as Americans" then you are absolutely right.  Obviously I'm talking about the Trent Richardson trade.

I'm not a Browns fan, per se, but I follow them and want them to win.  A lot of my friends are Browns fans and I used to be one too, until they were stolen from me in 1995 and then the cheif architect of said larceny became the owner of the new Browns in 1999.  None of that has anything to do with the Richardson trade, though, I'm just giving a little background on my point of view in this whole thing.  I'm not really emotionally invested like hardcore Browns fans are, but I am interested.

So I've gotten into a few facebook arguments over the trade, and many have thoughfully pointed out to me that I am an idiot for saying the trade is a good deal for the Browns.  Of course they are wrong, there are much better arguments for my ignorance than that. 

But here's why I think it's a good deal for Cleveland.  First off, having a great RB really just isn't that important in the NFL.  The Browns should never have drafted Richardson, or any RB, with the 3rd overall pick, and getting a first rounder back for him after he's basically been a bust is a fucking steal.  Not as high as the one they wasted on him, but overpaying for something does not raise it's value.  They recouped as much as they could from the draft blunder of the old regime, and they got back a lot more than they should have.

Second, he's been banged up and when he's played he only averaged 3.5 ypc, which to put it in perspective is fucking awful.  Make whatever excuses you want for his shitty numbers:  the line sucks, the passing game sucks, Trent's ribs suck, LeBron James is an asshole, but in the end it is what it is.  For a third overall pick he's been a bust, and to make sure I'm beating that dead horse into oblivion he's a bust at a position where even if he wasn't a bust it really wouldn't have mattered much.  Again, a first round pick for a bust of a RB.

Third, the Browns are doing something else here.  They are stockpiling picks, and draft picks are how you build a team in the NFL.  The Packers have done it that way, so have the Pats, the Niners, the Ravens, etc.  Ever notice how it seems like every year the Patriots have 112 draft picks?  That's not by accident.  Teams that try to ride a few superstars always fail, ask the Jets, the Eagles, the Redskins before RGIII.  Ask the Broncos (shit, wait, don't ask them, but ask any other team that's tried to do it that way lol).  You build a winner by drafting a shit-ton of quality players and hoping most of them stick.  You don't win by going all-in on a handful of stars or highly touted picks.  That was the Heckert/Holmgren strategy, and that's why you had Weeden and Richardson and basically not shit else trying to win football games. 

And Browns fans, if you're still not convinced that this deal was a steal for the Browns, let's look at what Packers fans think.  On the Pack's blog at SB Nation. 

Yep, 62% of Pack fans (including me) would not have dealt a first rounder for Richardson, even though we need a RB.  The sharp reader will also note that this poll reveals that 38% of Pack fans are fucking idiots, but that's not the point.  The point is, no matter how bad you need a running back, you don't burn a first rounder on one with a 3.5 ypc average and a history of being banged up.  And if somebody offers you a first rounder for a guy like that, you jump on it.

Sequester...It's all your fault...

Well it's been a while since I've launched into a rant...let's fix that...


So now everyone is freaking out about this "sequestor".  And as usual our politicians are trying to tell us how horrible life will be if their agenda isn't followed.  Liberals are telling us how the poor are all going to suffer and die, and the conservatives are telling us that our national security will be shot in the ass.  Democrats are saying that if the wealthy aren't asked to pay a little more that the middle class and poor are fucked.  The Republicans say that if we tax the wealthy more the whole economy will collapse and we're all fucked.  And, as usual, they're all full of shit.  Kinda.

But both sides are dramatizing this for political gain, which is what they wanted in the first place.  What's basically happening now is both parties have allowed the sequester to kick in so they can point their fingers across the aisle and blame the other side for it.  Because of course it's much more important to figure out whose fault things are than it is to actually work to solve the problem, right?  Yeah, that's what I thought too...when I was 10 fucking years old. 

Well, politicians, let me save you some time.  I'll tell you whose fault it is...it's our fault.  It's "We the People", who voted all you assholes in office in the first place.   We've sat back and watched you run this country into the ground for years.  And yet we keep putting you in office.  We keep rehiring you incompetent self serving assholes to run our government.  And the worst part is, we all agree you are assholes.  Take a look at this:

That's congress's approval ratings.  Stays right around 80% disapproval, which only makes me wonder what the fuck the other 20% are thinking, but anyway...  Here are the re-election rates for the House of Representatives since the 1960's:

Umm...wtf exactly is going on?  How this is even possible boggles my mind. 

I am as guilty as anyone.  I haven't voted for a long time, because frankly nobody who ever runs for office really excites me.  And in the past, I've never been a fan of voting "against" someone I don't like, I always felt I should be voting "for" someone I like.  So if I don't see someone I like, I don't vote.  Well, frankly, that shit is going to change, and I'm asking all of you to join me.  Let's fire these assholes, every single goddam one of them.  I don't care if they're Democrat, Republican, Communist, Libertarian or what the fuck they are.  Vote em out.  Clean house (literally) and start over.

First of all, that would send quite a message, don't you think?  Part of the reason these people never do anything is because they know they don't have to.  80-90% get re-elected no matter what kind of job they do, no matter what their approval ratings are.  I'll bet the new batch of senators and representatives will come in knowing that if they don't get the job done, we have no problem at all booting their asses out.

Second (or maybe first), we'll get rid of those responsible for this mess.  All those career politicians will have to go find real jobs.

Yeah, they'll just become lobbyists and be better off anyway, but hey I can't solve every problem dammit...    

King Obama

from obamacartoon.blogspot.com

Well I promised to go find some funny or happy shit to post but I just can't get past this whole Obama drone thing...so it's time to rant.  Given my position as a member of the US Armed Forces, I'm treading into some delicate territory, so I should make a few things clear right now.

This blog represents my personal opinions, and my opinions only.  They do not represent the opinions of the US Army or any branch of the military, nor any members thereof.  Hell they don't represent my wife's opinions half the time, but that's ok. 

I should also point out for the record that I am by no means anti-government.  I am, however, very pro-Constitution and can't sit idly by while it is shit all over upon by our government officials on both sides of the aisle.  We have a Constitution for a reason, and that Constitution also contains provisions to amend it if we find it no longer suits our needs.  What it doesn't provide for is the President or anyone else simply ignoring it or circumventing it every time he finds some provision in it inconvenient.

Basically, Obama has declared that he can order the killing of anyone, including American citizens, wherever he wants to and whenever he wants to.  This is fucking chilling, and I am not exaggerating one bit.  So if Obama decides that you are a terrorist, you can be assassinated without any trial or due process.

Yeah, this is kind of old news, except that now we finally know the Presidents reasoning for proclaiming this right.  A memo leaked to NBC claims that (quoting Judge Napolitano here):  the law reposes into the hands of any unnamed “high-level official,” not necessarily the president, the lawful power to decide when to suspend constitutional protections guaranteed to all persons and kill them without any due process whatsoever.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/02/07/obama-gives-himself-permission-to-kill/#ixzz2KHkdFEBv

Oh but Rick, it's not like he's going to send a drone over to your house for writing this blog post.  You're overreacting.  No, I'm not worried about Obama sending a drone over to kill me, or anyone I know, I'm not even worried about him using this self-proclaimed authority in a haphazard way.  But what I am really worried about is the precedent this sets. 

But hell, this isn't even a precedent.  Bush snubbed his nose at the Constitution also with the so called "Patriot Act".  You know, the one that says the government can spy on your phone calls, emails, what web pages you visit, library records, and all that shit without a warrant.  So the government has no need for warrants anymore, and apparently now it has no need for evidence or due process either.

The Constitution may not be perfect in bringing guilty people to justice.  The fact that people like Ray Lewis and Casey Anthony and OJ are walking free are proof of that.  (Well ok, technically OJ is in jail but not for the murder he committed).  But the Constitution is intended to protect the rights of citizens, and deliberately makes it difficult for the government to convict them and sets specific processes for convictions.  Just because the President finds the Constitution to be a fucking nuisance doesn't give him the right to circumvent it. 

Forgiving Ray Lewis...

Earlier this week I promised to rip Ray Lewis a new asshole on Super Bowl Sunday.  But honestly, I'm just not feeling it.  I really thought I hated they guy.  I thought that because every time I see him worshiped and glorified in the media I want to puke, cry, scream and yell, punch shit.  But I realized that it's not him that makes me so sick and pissed off, it's the media and you Ray Lewis lovers that do.  Does this country really not give one tiny fuck about what this guy did?  Is football so important that even if a guy is involved in a double homicide as long as he's a beast on Sunday on the football field it's all good? 

And make no mistake, he was involved.  That much is fact.  We can sit and argue whether he actually killed anyone or helped kill anyone or at what level he was involved, but he sure as shit was involved.  So let's establish that first and foremost.  Blood in his limo.  A disappearing white suit that he wore that night.  How the fuck do you lose a suit?  I lose shit all the time, ask my wife.  I've spent 10 minutes looking for a cell phone that I was holding in my hand, but I've never once lost an entire suit.  That right there is all I need to know to know Lewis must have had some role.  And it doesn't matter to me what role it was, because to me there's no difference if he actually stabbed those guys himself or if he saw it and didn't say shit about it.

But all that's been hashed through enough.  This rant isn't about proving he's guilty or what he's guilty of.  It's not even about how much I hate the guy, because like I said I thought I did but I don't.  I don't like him, but it's not him I'm mad at either.

He has gone on to live out a life that few of us could even begin to dream about.  He's made millions off of everyone who goes to his games, buys his jerseys and the products he endorses.  He's done all that when his ass should have been in jail and long forgotten.  He's done all that while two people are dead, two families devastated while their loved ones' murders have gone unpunished.  That's what pisses me off.

So when you fawn all over this guy, you spit in the face of those families.  When you talk about what a hero he is, you piss on those people's graves. 

It's one thing to forgive someone.  Even a murderer.  He didn't kill me or anyone I knew, so in a way it would be arrogant of me to even say I forgive him, because he doesn't owe me shit as far as an apology or remorse or restitution.  But what the hell is forgiveness, anyway?

Forgiveness is a weird thing.  Most religions preach it.  Some even require it.  And if you look up the definition of forgiveness it means "to grant free pardon and to give up all claim on account of an offense or debt".  But what the hell exactly does that mean?  Act like it never happened?  Hell no.  Never hold the offense against the person?  If that's the case then some offenses are not totally forgivable.  Maybe there comes a time when you can say ok, you've paid enough of a price.  But that doesn't mean it's forgotten.  Doesn't mean I can't still hold it against you and say you are not a hero.  You sure as shit aren't a role model.  You damn sure don't deserve the fame and fortune and adoration of millions.  So if I'm in any position to forgive Ray Lewis, then I don't forgive him, and I wont.  But I don't hate him either, at least not anymore.

I hope people will stop and think about all this shit for a minute before they start congratulating him on such a great career today.  Fuck that, it's a career he never should have had.  There should be no tribute, no grand retrospective on Ray Lewis today.  Don't make him a hero.  He's not a hero, he's not someone to look up to, I don't give a shit what he's done in the years since.  Forgiveness doesn't mean justifying the act, and by making Ray Lewis out to be a hero that's exactly what you do.  Go find a real hero, they are all around you.  Go find a fireman or policeman (or woman, I just think that fireperson or policeperson sounds stupid as hell).  But anyway find one of them, who go to work every single day knowing they might not come home that night, because they might have to give their life to save another.  Find better heroes in sports, you know, maybe somebody who has done all the wonderful things Ray Lewis has for people and kids and hasn't been involved in a double-homicide.

OK, I'm done, now go watch the Super Bowl.  Oh and do me one favor...either watch the damn game or leave the people alone who want to watch the game.  Don't shush me so you can hear some stupid ass commercial and then be all loud as fuck talking about the stupid ass commercial while I'm trying to watch the game.  That totally pisses me off.  But if you do, I'll forgive you...

F*&% Compromise...

So I found out that my mom reads this blog.  And apparently she's not a big fan of all the f-bombs in my posts.   So in the spirit of compromise I will attempt to make this an f-bomb free post.  No promises, mom...but I will do my best.

But anyway I opened up Fox News this morning because hockey hadn't started yet, and I see an article where President Obama is bitching that the Republicans wont compromise on gun control.  Apparently he seems to think that Democrats are willing to compromise but Republicans are not, which of course is total bullshit.  Nobody wants to compromise, and that's why nothing ever gets done.

Compromising is un-American.  We don't compromise with our enemies, we bomb the living shit out of them until they succumb to our desires.  We don't even compromise with our allies, we tell them what we're gonna do then we go out and do it.  And if our leaders do try to compromise with allies or enemies they catch a bunch of shit from We the People...because we don't compromise dammit!


We hate compromise because we hate to lose and we hate ties even worse.  It's our competitive nature.  Look at sports.  We used to have ties in sports.  There were all kinds of ties in hockey, the NFL didn't even have overtime until the 70's, and college football didn't until the 80's or 90's.  We used to be fine with ties, but somewhere along the line we said fuc....err...we said the heck with that, we need a winner.  Now ties never happen in college football or the NHL and rarely happen in the NFL.  Baseball commissioner Bud Selig had to apologize once for "a very regrettable situation".  If you're guessing it was about a lockout, or about steroids, or gambling or cheating or some horrible off-field incident you're wrong.  No, he was sorry that the fu....the darned all-star game ended in a tie.  We hate ties because we hate compromise.

The rest of the world isn't like that.  Soccer is the most popular sport in the world outside America, and every single game ends 1-1 and nobody gives a shit.  They're perfectly happy with ties.  Of course maybe that's because if one team wins then the losing team's  fans will burn the stadium down and trample everyone to death, but whatever it is they don't mind ties at all.  They love to compromise, hell the Europeans all even agreed to use the same kind of money.

We used to compromise in politics.  Back before the internet and youtube and pointless blogs like this one, there weren't too many outlets to use to try to sway public opinion in your favor so you could bludgeon your opponent over the head with it.  So we compromised, our leaders actually sat down and discussed issues with each other.  Of course the compromising usually meant we got tax cuts and spending increases and now we have 100 bajillion dollars of debt, but hey, we were all happy.

We hate compromising and now we don't have to.  We can go bitch on the internet instead!  (it's fun, you should try it sometime).

So maybe we can learn a little something from the rest of the world.  Not in sports of course, screw that I hate ties in sports.  But maybe we can set aside our competitiveness a little bit when it comes to politics.  I really think politicians (and us in general) argue so passionately about issues not so much because of how much we believe in them, but because we fffuuuuuu...we really hate to lose.  That fiery competitiveness is what got us to where we are now...an economic and military powerhouse and a complete shit sandwich when it comes to government.

Guns!

Guns Guns Guns.  That's all I see on my facebook anymore.  For whatever reason about 98% of my facebook friends are diehard conservatives and all of you are all riled up about gun control laws.  I think it's time for some common sense analysis of the Second Amendment and how it should apply in modern times.



The Second Amendment says the right to bear arms shall not be infringed.  Okay, what are "arms"?  Well, a nuclear weapon is an "arm" right?  I believe we had an arms race with the Soviet Union that involved nuclear weapons, it certainly didn't involve handguns.  So should we allow anyone who would be so inclined to own a nuclear missile (an arm) to have one?  Of course not.  Do you want to allow Donald Trump or Bill Gates or some other rogue billionaire to start stockpiling nuclear weapons?  No, of course not, so the question then becomes, where do you draw the line?

When the Constitution was written, the most powerful weapon in the world was a cannon.  A cannon could fire about 800 yards.  Now we have intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles.  Beyond cannons, in the late 18th century there were muskets, rifles, and pistols, and that's about it.  Bearing arms meant you had a rifle, musket, or pistol and could fire maybe 1 round a minute and could be effective at a range of about 50-100 feet.

So when they wrote the Second Amendment, they had these muskets, rifles, and pistols in mind.  Plenty enough to defend yourself but not enough to wreak havoc. 

The scale of weapons has changed quite a bit in the last 200+ years.  Weapons and ammo have advanced to the point where it is relatively easy to acquire an arsenal capable of inflicting massive casualties in a short period of time.  This wasn't the case when our founding fathers declared that the right to bear arms shall not be infringed.  Sorry, but the right to own such an arsenal should be infringed upon just a tad bit.

So what do we do?  On one hand, I get the argument of the gun rights advocates.  All gun laws do is take guns away from those who abide by the law.  You disarm the good guys and the bad guys gain a significant firepower advantage.  These weapons are out there it's just a question of who ends up with them, the good guys or the bad guys.

But here's where that argument falls apart.  There's no reason for assault weapons to be available to the anyone at all.  Good guys, bad guys, law abiding citizens, terrorists, nobody.  Weapons intended to produce mass casualties should only be in the hands of law enforcement and military personnel.  Look, the government already has more firepower than you do.  The idea that people should be allowed to have assault weapons to defend themselves against a government gone mad is mad itself.  The government has nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, biological weapons, an Air Force and Navy capable of unleashing all manner of wrath on your ass if it wants to.  You having an assault weapon is not going to protect you from that.  So drop that argument.  It's not 1776 anymore, the government, the man, has superior firepower over you and can squash any rebellion it wants, no matter how justified it may ever be.  So arguing that the Second Amendment protects citizens rights against a belligerent government no longer holds water.

So what about the rights of citizens, law abiding ones, to arm themselves to protect themselves and others against bad guys?  Not such an easy question.  If we allow law enforcement and the military to have such weapons, and therefore these weapons continue to exist, then these weapons will also fall into the hands of the bad guys.  To me, it's all the more reason to just ban them altogether.  Fuck trying to figure out who's a good guy and who's a bad guy.  Tough shit, nobody gets them.  End of story. 

I don't want your handguns, I want you to have them.  If you know how to use them, I want you packing and ready to protect yourself and myself and others.  I don't want your rifles.  But I want your assault rifles, your mass casualty producing weapons that no person has any productive use for.  You collect them?  Tough shit...collect stamps instead.  You need it for protection from the government?  Give me a fucking break, the government has plenty of ways to kill your ass that your assault weapon is useless against, so give that shit up too. 

There's one more aspect of gun control to address, and it's a legit one.  It's the slippery slope argument.  Take our assault weapons today, and you're just gonna come back after my rifles and pistols tomorrow.  For that, frankly, I have no answer.  For me, personally, getting assault weapons out of the hands of everyone is all the farther I would ever go, I can't promise that the anti-gun faction wont just use that as the beginning of a massive gun-snatching movement.  But I'm a huge advocate of individual rights and I admit that it is a legitimate concern.

The Constitution, as I said, is a brilliant document but it is not flawless and timeless.  This is why the framers of the Constitution included the provision to amend it.  The original Constitution allowed slavery and counted blacks as 3/5ths of a person, and denied them and women the right to vote.  We amended the Constitution to correct these provisions when we found that they no longer suited our attitudes and the realities of the times.  Times change, technology changes, societies enlightenment changes and the Constitution in its brilliance allows for that through the process of amendment.  It is a living document that was always meant to be changed as necessary to adapt to the circumstances of the times.

Politics, Politics, Politics...

The political rhetoric in this country has gotten completely out of hand.  I'm sure this rant is going to piss some people off but I'm gonna say what I gotta say without holding anything back, just like all of you do.  The shit that I see every day from politicians and from friends and others on the internet and facebook is out of control.  You wanna know why there's gridlock in Washington and nothing ever gets done?  Because you can't have a fucking normal decent political conversation anymore, that's why.  What passes as political discourse is nothing but insults, accusations, lies and exaggerations mixed with slander that results in nothing but more division and animosity.

I don't agree with almost anything about President Obama's political views or ideology.  I strongly oppose the forcable redistribution of wealth, socialized medicine, pretty much all of the things Obama and the Left stand for fiscally. But I don't think the guy's an asshole.  More importantly I definitely don't think he is deliberately trying to ruin the country.  Maybe you think his policies are detrimental to growth and to solving our problems, and in most cases I would agree.  But to question his intent is outrageous and totally uncalled for.  Show some respect, like it or not he is our President.

I'm not just picking on conservatives, liberals are just as bad.  No, the Tea Party doesn't want children dead just because they support the second amendment.  Conservatives don't oppose socialized health care because they enjoy seeing the poor and elderly die in the streets.  The tone of the last presidential campaign was so antagonistic and disrespectful that it just fueled the already widening gap in this country that makes any real intelligent political conversation impossible anymore.

I'm a Libertarian, so I have plenty of issues and disagreements with both liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans.  Now I could just sit back and focus on those and rip both sides to shreds and call them names.  I don't, because I realize that a vast majority of people on both sides do want what's best for the country.  Their intentions are just and good.  That's what political discourse should be based on.  Mutual respect.  Finding common ground, working through differences through intelligent conversation and debate.  Not name calling, personal attacks and paranoia.

We want our elected representatives to solve problems and accomplish things.  We don't want them sitting up in Washington bickering and posturing while the country goes to hell in a handbasket.  Well maybe we all need to set an example for them, since they can't seem to figure it out themselves.  Maybe we need to start debating the issues of the day in an intelligent, respectful manner.  A liberal is no less a patriot than a conservative.  Not by ideology alone anyway.  Maybe I'm naive, but I believe all but a select few subversives do care deeply about their country and their fellow countrymen, we just all have different ideas on how to make it a great country. 

Happy New Year Fiscal "Cliff" rant...

This whole "Fiscal Cliff" bullshit is driving me insane.  Let me first make sure I understand exactly what the hell is going on here.  So Congress set itself up with a deadline to get a budget done by making this Fiscal Cliff clause in order to motivate itself to get something done.  If not, a whole bunch of crap happens that nobody wants to happen.  Makes a lot of sense.  I might try this myself.  How about this:  If I don't lose 20 pounds by the end of the year, I'm cutting off my arm.  I'm guessing that's about how much my arm weighs...problem solved.  I suppose if I'm going to be true to Congress' model, I'll wait til December 15th to start dieting and exercising.  

So anyway, now we've supposedly gone over this cliff.  This "cliff" cuts 109 billion in spending from the 3,795 billion that we spend now.  That's a 3% cut (and probably spread out over 10 years, so whatever).  We should cut 109 billion in spending, maybe not in the way this cliff does, but we should.  We should cut 3 or 4 times that.

I could cut about 55 billion of it in one stroke...get rid of foreign aid.  All of it, every dime.  I know a lot of it goes to fight AIDS and starvation and poverty but sorry, we can't afford it.  We're broke.  If my buddy is in a jam and comes to me for help, if I have the money I'll give it to him.  But, if I'm broke, then I'm broke.  Tough shit bro, guess you gotta go find someone else.  Especially if that "buddy" aided and abetted a guy who blew up my house.  Yeah, I'm talking to you, Pakistan, and the 4 billion we give you alone...

Next step, stop sticking our nose in every single foreign conflict that comes along.  We've created our own enemies by doing it in the past and I'm all for squashing those enemies, but in the meantime stop going around making more enemies at the cost of money and more importantly lives.  We could easily save 50 billion a year (out of a 800+ billion military budget) just by doing that.

Next, end this "War" on drugs.  We spend $15 billion a year in order to set up a system where drug demand is met by violent drug cartels in foreign countries and gangs in the US.  You don't see any beer cartels, do you?  Nobody's going to middle schools and high schools trying to get kids hooked on Crown Royal.  There's no money in it for violent criminals because it's legal.  We have laws to deal with those who use alcohol irresponsibly but we don't spend billions criminalizing its responsible use by private citizens in their own homes.  So we save 15 billion more and eliminate drug gangs and cartels all in one shot, not to mention the tax revenue gained.

I'd tell every single government agency, every organization that gets any money whatsoever from the government that they're getting 5% less from now on.  Deal with it.  Fix your own budgets.  Get rid of the waste.  I guarantee you there's not one government agency that doesn't flat out waste at least 10% of what it spends.  I'm only knocking off 5%.

So there you go...5% across the board (190 billion) and 120 billion by cutting out foreign aid, foreign meddling, and the drug war.  And I did that in an hour while watching football.

By the way, Congress...congratulations on your raise...

WTF is going on?

I'm rattled.  I'm honestly shaken up by the horrible tragedy that took place in Connecticut today.  So first off, another fair warning, some of the language I use in this rant will not be "PG" or PC for that matter, but I'm gonna say what I gotta say and I'm not going to labor forever to figure out the best, nicest, cleanest, least offensive way to say it.  So if naughty language or bluntly spoken thoughts offend you...you'll probably want to leave now.

This shit just doesn't make any sense.  We've seen a lot of heinous acts over the years.  But at least in the past there's been some reason, some cause and effect.  When I say reason, I don't mean justification by any means.  Sept. 11th was radical extremists who hated America and attacked us.  Unjustifiable and unforgivable, but for fucks sake at least there was a reason we could connect the dots with.  Columbine...2 fucked up kids who were retaliating for being picked on, bullied, and outcast.  Unjustifiable and unforgivable, but there's at least a cause and effect.  Dude hates Sikh's for whatever fucked up reason and goes and shoots up a Sikh temple.  Dude hates his boss or co-workers and goes and shoots up the place.  These are all horrible fucked up totally tragic events that AT LEAST HAVE SOME FUCKING CAUSE.

This one has no cause.  The guy shot his mom because whatever, ok I get that.  Well no I don't but at least there's some sort of relationship there.  But then he hops in her car, goes to the school, and...  There's no reason.  There won't be a reason, there can't be one.  I don't know why that makes it more upsetting but it does.  It's not like the other shit I mentioned before is any less upsetting because we do have some sort of fucked up reason. 

So WTF is going on?  It's not guns.  I'm not trying to spark that debate, but look, Connecticut has tough anti-gun laws.  That school was a gun free zone.  No gun control law would have stopped what happened today.  You may disagree, honestly I don't think it matters, because here's the real point:  This shit just didn't happen 20, 30, 40 years ago.  We had guns then, we had fewer gun control laws then.  And yet this kind of thing happened very rarely.  Almost never.  So the gun control laws aren't stopping this kind of shit or even slowing it down.  So maybe we need more gun control or maybe we don't, but getting too wrapped up in that debate is distracting from the real cause of all this.  There has to be something else.

That's the question that has to be answered, WTF is going on???  I honestly don't know.  But we need to figure that shit out sooner rather than later.  What is different now than 30 years ago, when guns were just as abundant (probably more so) and yet we almost never heard about shit like this?  We felt safe going to school or sending kids there.  We felt safe going to work or going to a movie.  We could go fly somewhere without worrying.  Shit maybe, until we figure out what's causing all these people to go wacko, we need to get rid of as many means of carrying out these violent acts as we can, I don't know.  But that still doesn't solve the real issue.  And it might not even put a band aid on it, because if we take away all the guns these fuckers will probably just go Tim McVeigh and start bombing shit with fertilizer and gasoline filled trucks.  Do we ban all that too?

This rant is filled with questions and has no answers because...I fucking have no answers, just a bunch of questions.  But we better all start asking these questions, and coming up with some answers. 

The Grand Illusion - The "Debate" Rant

Yeah so it's been a while.  But Wednesday's debate at the reaction to it got me going again..

So I watched the "debate" and read the transcript of the "debate" and read all my friends reactions to the "debate", and that classic Styx song kept on running through my head:

"Welcome to the Grand Illusion
Come on in and see what's happening
Pay the price, get your tickets for the show..."

You know the song.  Well that's pretty much what you saw Wednesday night.  Two candidates representing two supposedly different parties basically holding a joint press conference disguised as a real political debate.

What we have in this country is basically two slightly different versions of the same ideology where differences are exagerrated in order to present the illusion that we have political choices in this country. 

And deep inside they are the same.  Romney and Obama.  Republicans and Democrats.  They want to borrow and spend, maybe on different things, but that doesn't really matter.  One wants a little higher tax rate than the other.  One wants to pour money into the military, the other into health and social programs. 

"Someday soon we'll stop to ponder what on Earth's this spell we're under..."

But the list of "differences" between Romney and Obama pales in comparison to the list of similarities between the two.  Everything from military intervention in foreign affairs to continuing the wasteful "War on Drugs", deficit spending, foreign "aid" to nations that harbor our enemies, immigration laws and the list goes on and on.

You're being duped into believing that you actually have a choice in this election. 

I leave you with the words of Judge Napolitano...

What if the whole purpose of the Democratic and Republican parties was not to expand voters choices, but to limit them?

What if the widely perceived differences between the two parties was just an illusion?

What if the heart of the government policy remains the same, no matter who's in the White House?

What if the biggest difference between most candidates was not substance but style?

What if those stylistic differences were packaged as substantive ones to reinforce the illusion of a difference between Democrats and Republicans?

"Just remember that it's a Grand Illusion
And deep inside (they're) all the same..."

Never trust a wizard...

Iranian police are looking for a phony sorcerer who conned a man into believing he was invisible and could rob banks, the Jam-e Jam newspaper said Thursday.

Customers at a Tehran bank quickly overpowered the deluded robber after he started snatching banknotes from their hands.

Appearing in court, the repentant thief said he paid five million riyals ($625) to a man who gave him some spells and told him to tie them to his arm to become invisible.

"I made a mistake. I understand now what a big trick was played on me," the would-be bank robber was reported as telling the judge.

His name was not released.

I swear I didn't make any of that up.  Somebody else might have, but all I didn't...but just the same there's gotta be video of this somewhere to prove it's true.  Don't they have security cameras in banks in Tehran?

This is why you can never trust a wizard.  They always pull shit like this.  Witches too.  I just took my kids to see the movie "Brave", and  basically the story goes that a princess wants to marry who she wants, but her mother wants to arrange the marriage for her.  So the princess does what any rational person would do, she goes to a witch to have her cast a spell on her mother to "change" her.  Well the witch changes her allright...changes her into a (spoiler alert) freakin bear.  So screw you, wizards, witches, and sorcerers...you're never getting any of my hard earned riyals, I know what you bastards are up to...

Cy Young Winner and Terrible Bank Robber Randy Johnson

By the way...Don't tell me that's not the Big Unit in that mugshot.  I am 100% convinced it is.