day 16: i got nothin

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committing to a blogpost a day for a month is a fine idea. committing to abstinence from alcohol for a month is also a fine idea.  doing them both in the same month has turned out to be a really, really bad idea.

day 15: and the world hangs breathless on our fate

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Playing poker is part of politics, as is theatrical posturing. That's fair enough. But what America is currently exhibiting is the worst kind of absurd theatrics. And the whole world is being held hostage.

some german newspaper

it's fascinating to watch as a fat, complacent government grown used to kicking the can down the road is finally forced to deal with the consequences of decades of political expediency and make damned-if-it-does, damned-if-it-doesn't decisions.

and this is just the warm-up round, folks.

day 14: propaganda shot of the week

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this little tableau struck me for a couple different reasons:

(1) its utter absurdity; and

(2) the fact that, while he was one of the early cheerleaders for the full-body scanners the TSA currently employ to keep every innocent man, woman and child in america safe from one another, ol' rummy obviously isn't about to step his wrinkled ass into one.

(and while i could be wrong about this, i'd be willing to bet he's never allowed so much as a sip of diet coke to cross his lips, either.)

day 13: if you only watch one video today

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make it this one, in which the man who singlehandedly dictates U.S. monetary policy reveals his complete and utter misunderstanding of the nature of money.

[and in which representative ron paul reminds us of what the nation will have lost when he's no longer around to speak truth to power come january 2013.]

or if you just want the cliff-notes version,

day 12: why are we over there, again?

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so after ranting on the subject just last night, i wake up to the following headlines:

a decade ago, we committed our military might, the lives of thousands of our soldiers, our treasure and our national prestige to the dubious tasks of waging war and nation-building in afghanistan and iraq.

and for what--so that these countries can descend into chaos as soon as we withdraw, leaving their region far less stable than had we done nothing?

if there's a god up there, may he damn to hell the foolish, arrogant men who foisted these follies upon us.

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update:  i can be a little cranky when i first get up.

day 11: chart of the day

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so, as the red and blue teams in congress continue their bickering about how best to rearrange the deck chairs on the titanic, i would ask you to take a look at the following chart, courtesy of the st. louis fed--i've put it up before; it's one of my favorites--

and, as you contemplate the more-or-less straight line in which federal spending has increased over the last 10 years--a doubling, from $1.9 trillion when dubya took office to $3.8 trillion today, during a period of relatively low inflation--i ask you, my readers, the following question:

is your life better or easier than it was 10 years ago?

and i'm not asking whether your quality of life has doubled like the federal spending; no, i'm just asking if all this debt creation has benefited you, mr. or ms. average joe or ethel, in any material way.

no?  you must not be a banker or a federal employee.  how about this question:

do you feel safer than you did 10 years ago?

i remember back when bush and his cronies initially estimated their glorious iraqi adventure to make the world safe for democracy would cost a mere $60 billion, and afghanistan a fraction of that--and scoffed when it was suggested the cost might go as high as $100 billion.  today, of course, such numbers seem quaint when compared to the $1.2 trillion we're at today.

but hey, small price to pay to make us safer, right?  no?  well, something the government's doing has gotta be working, doesn't it?  how about this question:

is all the stimulus money at least creating jobs like it's supposed to?

well, yeah, it is.  of course, these new jobs are costing us an average of $278,000 apiece--but hey, if it gets people back to work then it's worth it, right?

no?  well, here are a few more:

are we a stronger, more powerful or more prestigious nation than we were 10 years ago? 

is our industrial/manufacturing base stronger?

is public education better than it was 10 years ago?

is our infrastructure better than it was 10 years ago?

are there fewer poor people?

is social security better funded? 

are healthcare or college more affordable?

no, no, no, no, no and no?  then, if creating and then spending all those trillions of dollars didn't solve any of the problems mentioned above, i have to ask all you taxpayers out there:

as its catalog of failures and voracious appetite both continue to grow, are you still willing to continue to feed the beast of big government in whatever quantities it demands?

and if the answer to that question is yes, then can somebody please tell me

why?

day 10: an eleventh-hour non-post

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i've been sitting on this video awhile--if you haven't seen it, and you like vintage photos of gay couples as much as i do, you'll enjoy it.  you'll have to endure a 30-second ad first (probably, ironically enough, from coors), but it's worth it.

back to regular content tomorrow (maybe), and i'll catch up with the comments.  sorry, it's been a lousy weekend.





h/t gaycast