Fort Hood, A Profile of One

I read this article by Steve Chapman, cautioning folks to not denounce the Muslim community because of extremists, and I think it bears repeating. 

America has over 900 hate-based organizations.  One of the major categories includes “Christian-based” hate groups that cause violence at abortion clinics, harass non-white ethnicities, and tell gays and lesbians, “God has a place for you in hell.”  Do we say,”Oh man – those Christians are crazy! Better condem the WHOLE lot of them!!”  No.  If I disagree, I don’t disagree with all of Christianity… I disagree with the organization and its members.

If it is not the act of an organization, then it could just be the person has broken  down.  This, IMHO, is what I think happened in Florida and at Fort Hood.  Don’t bother trying to blame the military, the Muslims, the employer, the high school these guys came from or whatever…  these people just went nuts, and need to be held accountable for their actions.

Every group, every race and every politcal party has individuals who go off the deep end. If there is an organization behind the activity, be my guest to condemn the organization; otherwise be prepared to accept the individual as repsonsible for their actions, and leave the blame where it belongs: on the person who made a poor choice!

“Losing His Edge”

Oh fiddlee-poo. I have seen some stupid headlines in my time (noooo, really?), but there is this recent proliferation of “Obama is losing his edge” headlines. Bu-duh! Listen here, I didn’t vote for the guy, but he won. He is the President of the United States of America. And in so far as I can find the good in that, and support his endeavors, I am going to do it.  So, using the power of my blog, which reaches between two and four Americans every day (staggering, isn’t it?) let’s get a few things STRAIGHT, shall we?

First, no one person is going to fix this.  I’ve already had that rant when I was trying to decide which of the two competing suckers to stick with the task of helming  the Titanic after it hit the iceberg.  The only way for our government to get fixed is for people to participate in it.  And I am still guilty of sitting on the sidelines, so until we are all actually PRACTICING government, we cannot expect it to fix itself. Period. That goes for everyone in the entire country.

Second, the problem has little to do with government.  Yeah we have all seen the videos about “the biggest game in town,” and arguably that is part of the government – but not really.  The root cause of the problem is economic terrorism.  I’ve already had THAT rant, as the economic terrorists (AKA “The best and the brightest”) haven’t even tried to change their spots – they are just switching their funding sources from consumer markets to taxpayers (and since BOTH of those are the SAME people, nothing has changed).

So there it is. This isn’t about Obama. This isn’t about McCain. This is a battle between consumers and “the best and the brightest.”  This is a battle between the American people at large, and the American elite -who seem to remain untouchable despite of their gross management of financials, their lack of ethics, and their addiction to rape.   This isn’t about State, about Religion, about Race or about anything other than Greed.

Greed. Lets call it what it is.  I was reading some comments on artwork on DeviantArt, and an artist acquaintance of mine stated how she was sick of capitalism and religion enslaving people.  I replied to her, and for the life of me I cannot find my reply on the site.  But the answer holds true here.  At the root of greed is ignorance. I am not kidding.  What is greed? www.dictionary.com defines it as “excessive or rapacious desire, esp. for wealth or possessions.” Odd that the term “rapacious” is used, because I used the word “rape” earlier before I had read this definition. 

What would motivate someone to aspire to greed? Fear. People fear what they don’t understand, they fear the unknown, they fear the future, they fear death, they have a lot of fear.  Fear drives us, even on our best days.  Fear, and how we manage it, is part of life itself – it drives religion, it drives science, it drives the arts…and yes, it drives the economy.  Fear is always there, and it NEEDS to be there.  What the “Best and the Brightest” represents are the ultimate financial warriors.  They surround themselves with “intelligence”, they exploit every possible venue and amass their wealth because, like it or not, they are scared and don’t know how to deal with it any other way.

I am not saying it is right.  I am not endorsing their choices.  But what I am putting forth is the notion that their greed is ignorant. I told my fellow DeviantArt member that the only way to fix things would be to educate both the slavers and the enslaved.  But what would we teach?  Ahhh. The light is on, and that is a topic for another blog entry.

Please comment.  There are as many perspectives as there are people, and I only lament my human incapacity to absorb them all.  But please, share!!

Economic Terrorism

Think about this.  We all know about terrorism, although there is no standard definition for it, we generally accept that an entity, representing a very small and radical set of the larger populace, employs terror as a means of achieving their goals.

 

I unwittingly realized today, as several thoughts came together within my stressed little brain, that terrorism is being practiced in our economy. In the military there is a “deck of 52″ – the most wanted terrorists.  But in our economy, I think we would be hard-pressed to limit the deck to such a small number of names. In the US, I would venture to estimate that there’s a deck of 208? 624? 8,320?  (pull a number out of…well, you can guess) They are practicing economic terrorism.

 

Yes, I would bet a dollar-two-ninety-eight that this group of financial extremists, operating under the alias of “the best and the brightest” has deployed weapons of mass economic destruction by leeching decades of profits out of every possible venue into their own pockets.

 

Now, most people would say,”But that is just greed. Not terrorism.” Oh no-no, my friends. Greed might be the idealogy behind these extremist’s actions, but it runs far deeper. For, now that they have unleashed this unholy, monetary-mutilating beast upon the people of this country — indeed this planet — they have also coerced the government into trillions of dollars worth of bail-out.  What does that mean? That their reward for screwing over the entire planet is, they get MORE MONEY!!

 

And who pays for that? As millions of people (millions, if you caught that) lose their jobs and experience the terror of “the best and the brightest,” these SAME economic terrorists are LEECHING yet more money out of the future via the people who still TRY to remain employed.

 

AND (oh yes, it does get richer, my fellow lemmings) – what DO YOU THINK happens when this planetary implosion reaches its peak? YES! Demand goes down.  When demand goes down, prices go down. AND WHOOOOOOO will have all the money to MOP UP the failing businesses, failing real estate, and FAILING GOVERNMENTS that have over-extended themselves??? “The best and brightest” will.

 

There’s no military to stop them.  There’s…nothing…to stop them. No punishments in place. No tribunals or hangings for their weapon of mass destruction or the terror they have caused.  There is nothing but a street lined with gold, and they will be repaving that in platinum – because gold is passe.

 

That’s my little theory. Some days, it is good to be wrong.

 

Cheers!

 

I Label Thee… “Nonbeliever”

ARE YOU A NONBELIEVER?
 Apparently, according to the political world, if you are not Christian, Jewish, Hebrew, or Muslim, you fall into this nifty little category called “Nonbeliever.”  Did you know this? On one hand, I suppose us nonbelievers should be thrilled at the thought of at least being somewhat recognized. On the other hand, the statement is blatantly erroneous on so many exciting levels!

BLATANT ERROR #1: HELLO, EVERYONE IS A NONBELIEVER
The fact is, organized religions tend to be mutually exclusive.  So, if you are a Muslim, Christianity will label you a nonbeliever.  This is true. Muslims do not subscribe to beliefs of Christianity. Another example? Even within these overarching definitions there is exclusion.  Looking a Christianity, a Catholic cannot walk into a Mormon church (oh, sorry, I meant “temple”) and say they are Mormon.  Using a binary approach, to the Mormons, a Catholic is a nonbeliever.

BLATANT ERROR #2: HELLO, EVERYONE IS A BELIEVER
Everyone believes in something. Even if they believe in nothing, that is something.  I have one friend that I know is a true atheist. I myself am in the wondrous agnostic camp. I believe strongly in a higher power (because if we are the best this universe has, then well, that’s probably the most noir joke in all space-time).  There are people who are very spiritual, but do not subscribe to an organized religion.  For atheists and agnostics to be grouped in the phrase “nonbeliever” implies that to “believe” requires membership in an appropriate religion.  Not so!

SOAP BOX CONCLUSION
For atheists, the term “nonbeliever” may be an acceptable fit, because even thought they believe in nothing, they truly don’t subscribe to any religion or to spirituality.  Maybe that’s OK – Idunno.

For agnostics, “nonbeliever” is misnomer.  If I had to address the nation, maybe I would use “We are a nation of many religious and spiritual beliefs.” If asked to recognize various camps, it could be “Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, agnostics, and atheists.” 

I am not going to lose any sleep over it.  I’m just saying. . .

.-=o=-. .-=o=-. .-=o=-. T h e    E n d .-=o=-. .-=o=-. .-=o=-.
Reference: The Inaugural Address

CASE STUDY: How Bailed-Out M&I Bank Screws The Little Guy

Of course, not long after shelling out cash to the banks, I am sure momma government is wishing they had given some thought ensuring the money actually got USED to make the economy better, right?  I own a small, beat-to-hell business that is suffering, and let me tell you, the problem is  NOT my mortgage rate.  The problem is my unsecured lines of credit!

Is anybody LOOKING at these? Here is a perfect example – I owe money to Swift Financial (who gets their money from M&I Bank).  M&I just went to the feds during these hard times and got 1.7 BILLION dollars.  BILLION.  OK, my business owes them x,000. THOUSAND.  They’ve heard my complete story about 5 times: losing my biggest customer (their parent went bankrupt to the tune of 3.2 Billion), about how I am going to try and cover payments from my personal income, about how I am trying to get my shopping engine back on line (and no, AuthorizeNET and IPayment have not made that possible yet, over a $25 balance that went unpaid… so I cannot collect what little money I am owed because of $25 – that is real SMART guys, thanks alot!), and yet M&I still calls me 1-2 times a day to try and squeeze blood from me.

Recently, even though I told them that my personal credit scores are important to my ONE PAYING GIG, they decided to put a 30-day late on my credit!  So, with one hand M&I Bank is stashing 1.7 BILLION dollars of OUR PAID TAXES in their pocket, and with the other hand they are strangling those same tax-paying people that owe them thousands of dollars!  They are jacking up their customer’s interest rates, charging late fees, and damaging our credit.  Did anyone ever read them the story about KILLING THE GOLDEN GOOSE?

Does M&I think this is what will HELP THE ECONOMY?? Well, it is NOT helping me or my business! And if the government wants to look for opportunities to helps us little guys out (the employees and micro-businesses out there who are actually still lucky enough to be employed, still be paying taxes, and still trying to do our part to move through this nasty economic storm), maybe they look at some rules for lines of credit:

• Mandate that interest rates be capped at, say, 7.9% for a period of 12-24 months.
• Allow borrowers to set their own minimum payments, as little as 1% of the total balance due, during the next 12-24 months.
• Mandate that, although accounts can continue to accrue interest, there shall be no late fees assessed and no 30-day lates issued against a borrower’s personal credit file until further notice . 

How many people would benefit from that? I would!  I have some creditors with interest rates over 20%, which is killing my ability to make the minimum monthly payment, and causing them to punish me further!

In summary:

• Jacking Up Your Ability to Process Credit Cards… $25.
• Line of Credit…$x,000. 
• Loss of Customers… $ -x,000
• The irony of M&I Bank using tax dollars to save its skin while screwing its tax-paying borrowers to the wall is…well… Priceless.

I would like to take a fluffy moment to thank American Express, because as a DEBIT card that is due in full, they have offered a repayment option at 5% interest.

I would also like to thank Compass Bank’s SBA program – no late fees and no changes in my interst rate.  Thank You – in the end it helps both of us!

NostraTedmus Says: “All Hail Chief Isle of Capri!”

I promised a cohort of mine I would post this.  Not that he wanted me to, or that it is a good idea…because it certainly is NOT a good idea.  It is PURE UNEQUIVOCAL GENIUS BABY!!  I have SEEN the future.  Want to know where the economy is headed?  This is it! (And if you believe that, I can also sell you a bridge…to nowhere…)

UBER BLAME STORM

All the .COM companies that went belly-up in 2000 are going to rise up and start a class-action suit against the US government for discrimination!!  Once lawyers catch the blame-wave, ANY company that failed in the last 30 years will jump on to the growing list of corporate welfare lawsuits!

 

 

INVESTING IN THE BLAME-STORM

Oh yeah, baby!  Watch the DOW spike as people invest, like mice drooling at the moon (OK, real mice know it is not made of cheese, but the simile holds for investors at large).  People will buy stock in companies, just to cash-in on the winning lawsuits.  11K will be nothing.  The DOW will blow through the 20K line like a teenager blowing through cell minutes.

 

 

BLAME-FAIL

The courts will of course rule that the US government was indeed discriminatory (for whatever flavor of reasons, we can only imagine…as 31 will seem trite compared to the number of discrimination flavors available  to justify these claims).  But, since the pay-out will undoubtedly be some number like…5T or 10T (we are talking 30 years of corporate bankruptcy requiring immediate stimulus), the government will concede to its inability to pay – in effect the the government will be unable to honor the judgement against itself!  And the world will watch the weirdest inversely-proportionate line trend ever…. the DOW will come plummeting down and the suicide rate will skyrocket.  Mice will be jumping into traps on purpose, just because there is no cheese to be had, and the moon will remain in the sky – untouchable. (Again, no real mice were harmed in this rendition of our future, because real mice can’t buy stock.  Sorry, Mickey, and those options Walt left you…yeah, you can’t exercise those either, bud.)

 

 

THE CIRCLE OF LIFE

This turbulent unrest will leave the government open to all kinds of strangeness.  It is during this time that the American Indians will rise up, unify (the 1700s are over, baby!), and using their new socialist-casino model (It’s capitalism, only the house keeps 8%), they will nationalize the entire United States as the Usurped Sociocasino States Reformed.  The military will be retrained, and the “USSR” will launch a massive scalping at the United Nations, followed by a complete succession from the global economy (like the US probably should have done – well, less the whole scalping thing).  You know the line, “Just say no!” applies to most the stuff we’ve done since the 1970s, or probably even earlier, but I digress.

 

CHIEF “ISLE OF CAPRI”

Chief Isle of Capri will reign supreme over a closed economy based solely on a “house keeps 8%” model, all businesses will be nationalized, both the Sicilian Mob and Yakuza will be retrained with the tomahawk to protect the casinos, and the “USSR” will flourish!  Although, your 401K is definitely effed. Yeeeee-Hawwww! (Roll Music: “Back in the USSR”).  I’d better brush up on my Ute….

 

 

BAY OF PIGS 2

Of course, the next time “Bay of Pigs” comes around, the “USSR” will be talking pigs, literally.  They will be parking them all over the place.  Except in Haiti, because a pig only has a half life of about 4 seconds in Haiti.  Will people PLEASE tell me how we can get those people some FOOD? Meh, that is a whole different diatribe.

No Camp Vote Here

I am really getting frustrated. We live in the information age and we aren’t USING the technology, from what I can tell. Has anyone found an UNBIASED comparison between Obama and McCain? Please, don’t post “McShame” this or “Osama” that – I want real answers without the hype, please. All I have found everytime I search is the two camps pointing fingers at each other and saying they are liars.

If I cannot find what I am looking for, I might just “throw away” my vote (they call it that when a person doesn’t vote with the mainstream). Serious… I am sick of hearing, “My friends…”, and I am sick of hearing “Believe…” Neither website lists their plan… and I mean a real plan that isn’t fluffy like “We will make this the best country ever!” WTF is that?

So I visited the sites (www.barackobama.com and www.johnmccain.com), and started wading through the additional verbiage on each issue.  Both are ultimately unclear to me, and part of the problem I want to make a decision in 15 minutes, but these issues, each one of them, is worthy of an hour or two of study at MINIMUM.  Nobody has that kind of time.

Ultimately, I am not going to ride the media sensationalism that IS the Obama campaign, founded on an engery and hope that, although heartfelt by its followers, is typical of the Democratic zeal.  Zeal and hope will not fix our problems anymore than “experienced mavericks.” C’mon, haven’t we as a species graduated this kind of BS yet?  “Say anything for the win” doesn’t earn my vote.

As it stands… I have gotten opinions from folks close to me (see the Rolling the Dice post and comments) and if anything, I am close to not voting for EITHER of them.  Plus, it’s not like THEY are going come in and DO everything… it’s not like America is an empire. Oh…it got kind of quiet… it’s not an empire, is it?

Out of all of this, I think the big take-away is I have ignored my country and left it to some pretty effed- up people.  The President has very little to do with it, ultimately. It’s become much bigger than that, and I am not sure how the American people are supposed to work their jobs, have their families, and sort out their government…but this I do know.  If we keep expecting the people we vote for to do it, it won’t happen.

Seriously. It’s a Democracy (or at least a Republic) – so we need to be more involved, and we need to use all the marvelous technology out there to become more educated and get more involved.  So let me see what I can find out about that approach, since this election is prettymuch a wash for me.