Slouching Towards Oblivion

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

The New Hoover

Vote Romney - 2 Escalades for every wife and an elevator in every garage.

From Prof Krugman via NYT
So, about that doctrine: appeals to the wonders of confidence are something Herbert Hoover would have found completely familiar — and faith in the confidence fairy has worked out about as well for modern Europe as it did for Hoover’s America. All around Europe’s periphery, from Spain to Latvia, austerity policies have produced Depression-level slumps and Depression-level unemployment; the confidence fairy is nowhere to be seen, not even in Britain, whose turn to austerity two years ago was greeted with loud hosannas by policy elites on both sides of the Atlantic.

Just A Thought

We keep hearing about what a horrible problem the National Debt is, but do we know for sure what all has contributed to it? Why is it such a huge number?

Obviously, there're plenty of factors, but I think we can identify 3 main things:
1) Direct Revenue Reduction - aka Tax Cuts
2) Recession - higher unemployment equals fewer tax payers equals lower tax collections
3) Wage Stagnation plus Speculation-Driven Inflation - a multiplier effect

But it seems like we never stop to consider what we've had to borrow in order to spend at least $2 Trillion on a couple of wars, plus an amount we don't even get to know about that's been sucked up by all the Black Ops / Homeland Security boondoggles over the last 10 years.  If you borrow $2 Trillion, you're gonna have to repay it to the tune of about $6 trillion when it's all over - if we get that far.

Anyway, here's a thought:  Let's call it "Bush's War Debts".  But only for a little while - just long enough to squeeze out all of the Sunshine Patriots like Cheney and Giuliani and Bolton, and anybody else who was married to the NeoCons' bullshit fantasies.

Pin the word "debt" to their lapels and let's see how long the rubes stay in line behind 'em.

After a while, it'll naturally evolve to The War Debt, and we might have a chance to get back to where we understand that we don't get to do anything without paying for it - sometimes in ways we hadn't anticipated.

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

The Greatest Scam

Religion tries to tell me that my life is meaningless without an AfterLife©, and then proceeds to tell me I can obtain this Heavenly Glory only if I believe in this or that brand of god.

Religion is a scam that gives you a disease, and then sells you a cure.

History New Found

"I join you therefore in sincere congratulations that this den of the priesthood is at length broken up, and that a protestant popedom is no longer to disgrace the American history and character." --Thomas Jefferson

From a site called Liars For Jesus, and a lady who knows her shit.



This David Barton guy is running a typical play from "conservatives".  Take a guy like Tommy Jeff, who practically personified The Enlightenment and who was pretty representative of The Founders' near-unanimous rejection of "princes and popes" - you take that guy and you turn him into something he's not, using revisionist bunkum and outright lies.




Monday, April 30, 2012

Today's Quote

A golden oldie:
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."  --Steven Weinberg, quoted in The New York Times, April 20, 1999

Uh Oh

At least one headline writer at one media outlet has had a sudden attack of conscience or integrity or truth-telling - or something - I'm not sure we even have a word for it anymore.

hat tip = Democratic Underground


Not to worry tho'.  I'm sure it was just a momentary lapse.  A little Paycheck Reduction Therapy should straighten that guy up and make sure he doesn't run the risk of becoming Fact Addicted or anything.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Today's Oxymoron

Cool Republican

Do you knuckleheads really think you have any chance to compete with this guy?



Atta Boy, Willard

Because it's just a universal absolute that their parents have all the money any kid will ever need to start a business or go to college or spend a coupla years in Europe or whatever.

The sense of entitlement on the part of way too many "conservatives" is like having a whole family of dead rotting rodents stuck in your wall space.