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| Question | Answer |
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| Display name: | trouble... |
| Gender: | male |
| Location: | The S.E. U.S.A. |
| Website: | : None really |
| Date joined: | June 17th, 2007 |
| Last seen: | February 16th, 2012 |
| About me: | Everything I have ever told you is a lie, including this. When I was young I used to pray for a bike. Then I realized God doesn't work like that. So I stole a bike and prayed for forgiveness. I am a heavily medicated, well armed, recluse that is cleverly disguised as a responsible adult with controversial political and social views. Colt: The original point and click interface I'm not at work today because the voices in my head told me to stay home and clean my guns. By the way, the voices don't like you very much. Of all God's creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the leash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat. People believe what they want, reality is an inconvenience. Delusions are often functional. A mother's opinions about her children's beauty, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keeps her from drowning them at birth. Knowledge without understanding is a dangerous thing. For a little knowledge entices us to walk its path, a bit more provides the foundation on which we take our stand, and a sufficient amount can erect a wall of knowledge around us, trapping us in our own ignorance. "Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end." The populist authoritarianism that is the downside of political correctness means that anyone, sometimes it seems like everyone, can proclaim their grief and have it acknowledged. The victim culture, every sufferer grasping for their own Holocaust, ensures that anyone who feels offended can call for moderation, for dilution, and in the end, as is all too often the case, for censorship. And censorship, that by-product of fear - stemming as it does not from some positive agenda, but from the desire to escape our own terrors and superstitions by imposing them on others - must surely be resisted. ~Jonathon Green, "Did You Say 'Offensive?'," as posted on wordwizard.com I fear for our nation. Nearly half of our people receive some kind of government subsidy. We have grown weak from too much affluence and too little adversity. I fear that soon we will not be able to defend our country from our sure and certain enemies. We have debased our currency to the point that even Ithe most loyal citizen no longer trusts it. – A Roman Senator in A.D. 63 "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." A.E. Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state. -Thomas Jefferson. The following is a little dated now and I'm a natural born procrastinator but I'm going to update and tidy up very soon... yeah, right. Government Math: 700,000,000 = 2,000,000,000 and rising. Somewhere around 3.7 trillion dollars now. A trillion dollars = $1,000,000,000,000. Probably more, we may never know for sure. That's 12 zeroes to the left of the decimal point. A trillion is a million million dollars. Just to put that in perspective for you... If you spent one million dollars a day, every day, from the time of the birth of Jesus Christ until today you would not have spent one trillion dollars. If you laid one dollar bills end to end, you could make a chain that stretches from earth to the moon and back again 200 times before you ran out of dollar bills! One trillion dollars would stretch nearly from the earth to the sun. It would take a military jet flying at the speed of sound, reeling out a roll of dollar bills behind it, 14 years before it reeled out one trillion dollar bills. Welcome to my Lecture Series. This series will be limited to one, just this one (I can sense some of you thinking "that's one too many!") What has happened in Washington, and on wall street will be affecting you for the next ... hmmm ... lets say ... decade, maybe two! Maybe longer! Nobody knows! First, let's face some facts and go beyond the denial stage: 1. We live in a global economy. What "We" do affects "Them" and what "They" do affects "Us." The value of the Euro, Yen, Pound, etc. is correlated to the US Dollar. 2. Our Dollar, as many other countries, is Fiat money or Fiat currency. This means that it is only worth the amount printed because the government (we) says that it is so. It has no intrinsic value. In other words, it has no value in and of itself. It is just a piece of paper - Nothing Else! In days past, it was on the Gold Standard, meaning it was composed of a physical commodity, i.e. gold coins. Today, not so much. 3. We have, in general, lived in excess and beyond our means and continue to do so. We bought McMansions and used the equity in our homes to buy boats, 2nd and 3rd cars, and vacation in exotic places, etc. We must have the latest car with the heated cup holders, the latest plasma Hi-Def television set to watch American Idol, the latest version of the iPod because the last version is so "Julyish" today. Fortunately, no problem - just put in on the plastic. By the way, plastic also has no intrinsic value. 4. One day we find out that we owe more than what we are worth, a negative net worth! Again, not all of us, but our society or comrades in general. 5. We no longer produce anything here as a nation. The best selling cars, electronics, fashions, and everything else are made elsewhere. Even what we still do, service-oriented, is outsourced to places like India for customer service. 6. We have sold vital portions of our infrastructure to foreign countries. Many may not realize that bridges, toll roads, highways, and even buildings have been sold abroad. A large portion of the Chrysler Building in New York is OWNED by foreign entities! The Bottom Line: 1. Those who were responsible and lived within or below your means, worked hard, paid off debt, and saved what you could - YOU ARE BEING PUNISHED! 2. Those of you who bought houses you couldn't afford, drove new luxury cars every year, had the latest electronic gadgets, and maxed out all of your credit cards - well, you guys get the last laugh. The responsible are punished and the irresponsible are rewarded. It seems so ... wait for it ... ... not yet ... wait for it ... Unfair! Ha! well life is unfair, no? "From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need." -- Karl Marx So what now? Well, we are where we are, it is what it is, and we have no choice but to to deal with it. $3.7 trillion dollar "bailout". Hmmm ... where does this money come from? YOU! Each person in our nation will pay approximately $10,000 for this so-called bailout. Where did you think the government gets its (our) money? And by each person, that means infants, teenagers, assisted-living residents, the homeless, etc. So not all will pay. That means that your $10,000 contribution equates to about $36,500. Dudes, you are so generous! But that's not the bad news, not even close. The real bad news is that it will really amount to about $59,500 for each person because the bailout will be closer to $8 Trillion than the $3.7 trillion being quoted by government "experts"! That means, since everybody doesn't pay, as stated before, that your originally projected $10,000 contribution rounds up to about $128,000! We are screwed either way. With the "bailout" we lose. Without the "bailout" we lose. Imagine that we are on a plane at 36,000 feet and over the ocean. Two of our engines are on fire. We are 1,200 miles from land, but can only fly about 100, maybe 500, more miles. We can keep heading in the same direction, or turn around. Does it really matter? Either way, the financial industry, the auto industry, the airline industry, the trucking industry, the xyz industry, etc., will be taken over, I mean "bailed-out", by the government. Thus the government will have ownership of the industries, get it? Controlled by a central government entity "for the good of the people"? Sounds like the old U.S.S.R. The Ministry of Ground Transportation The Ministry of Air Transportation The Ministry of The People's Car The Ministry of Finance I think I've seen this movie before and did not like the ending. A tea party once occurred for similar reasons. Something about a tax thing without a say, I dunno, too long ago. Of course, I am in no way, shape, or form suggesting that this needs to or will happen again. You have a voice and representation in this, right? Please, research your history. Research your future. Please! "Democracy is the road to socialism." -- Karl Marx By the way comrade, where are your papers? You are out past curfew. Just a few questions, please come with us. Anyhow, the "bailout" is approved and grows, and grows, and is growing still. At least we know that the government is financially responsible, right? Somehow that doesn't comfort me. "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson. Founding Father, Patriot, American. "Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes the law." - Mayer Amschel Rothschild. Founder of the Rothschild family international banking empire. "If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so." - Thomas Jefferson We took an oath. "I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic". "all enemies, foreign and domestic". We must honor the solemn oath we took long ago, and answer this final call to defend our country by defeating the traitors at the ballot box. We cannot die, and surrender our country to a ruthless Communist-Fascist government. A criminal cabal of government and corporate officials of both parties has usurped our government, passing countless unconstitutional laws allowing them to enrich themselves and to destroy us. Phony Free Trade Laws, exploited illegals, and ten different worker Visa programs took our jobs. Using the private Federal Reserve Bank, owned by private banks gave them ability to cause the Great Depression, and now this Greatest of all Depressions when they reduce us to poverty and slavery with the bailouts. The American People objected to the unconstitutional bailouts by a ratio of about 95 to 1, as did hundreds of independent Economists, but legislators ignored the people and gave the money to their corporate benefactors who caused the Meltdown with their criminal greed. These traitors must be defeated. We allowed this to happen by permitting our schools, institutions and government to be taken over and run by greedy, power mad, felonious, politicians who were too good to work, and too cowardly to serve their country as we did, they chose instead to undermine it. Our Constitution describes the actions of Leaders of both political parties, a majority of congress and many government officials as Treason, pure and simple. When in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation. We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpation, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now. ======================================================================== ================================================================================================================================================ I have become a "political atheist". NONE of these people are looking out for my best interest! 545 vs. 300,000,000 Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.. Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits? Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes? You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does. You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does. You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does. You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does. One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair. If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red .. We won and we lost. Obama winning helped to put one piece of injustice to sleep. But injustice is still with us. Discrimination is still lurking in the laws. Liberty is still for the select few. Freedom is still not for all of us. Inequality still hunts us down like we were on cotton plantations. Because “they” are still not allowed to get married. “They” are still held as second class citizens. Tell me? Who the hell are “they”? Bullshit. Bullshit I tell you. It’s like playing that whack-the-mole game. You hit one piece of bigotry on the head and another one pops up. Whack! Whack! Whack! It never stops. But unlike the game, we can’t pull the plug on bigotry. Their batteries get charged by their own hatred. Look. I am REALLY getting sick and tired of this. There is no “they”. There. Is. No. They. There is only us. “They” are you who are bigots. The only people who are “they” are those who preach hatred. Hatred for gays, hatred for Africans, hatred for African-Americans, hatred for rednecks, hatred for Jews, hatred for Muslims, hatred for Christians, hatred for… and more hatred and more hatred and more hatred. You! Yes you! Bigot! That one who hates gays. Or who doesn’t want “them” to have the same rights as everyone else. All that separates you from burning “them” on a cross is some wood and matches. All that separates you from strapping a bomb to your chest and blowing them up is a book in your hand and a different language. Bigotry is bigotry. Hatred is hatred. It’s only the degrees that differ. You think you are so different from those who kill innocent people elsewhere in the name of a jihad? You think you are so different from those policemen who killed Biko? You think you are so different from the Christians who murdered during the Crusade? You think you are so different from those who flew those planes into the twin towers? You think you are so different from those who kept slaves on the plantations? Who burned people at stakes? You think you are better than a Hutu or a Tutsi? You think you are better than the priests leading Jesus to the cross? You are not. You are no better. You are separated only by the degrees of action. You speak the same language. You spew the same hatred. You can cloak it in nice words. But so did Hitler. So did Pontius Pilot. So did PW Botha. So did Mao. So did Stalin. So did everyone who believed they were better than “the others”. You are no better than those who killed and murdered. You are them. Separated by a small degree of heat. A small step. One action separates you. Just one. They are your brothers. Your keepers. In thought and prayer. Don’t ever call me straight. I am not straight. I am me. Who I sleep with and who I love has nothing to do with you. It has nothing to do with my bad fashion sense. It has nothing to do with my anger. It has nothing to do with defining who I am inside. I have no choice about who I am. I am because we are. I have no choice about being straight. I have no choice about being gay. I am just me. Like the color of my skin is not my choice. And my gender is not my choice. Or where I was born as not my choice. It is who I am. We should not be defined by these parts of who we are. We should be defined by our love and compassion for others and for ourselves. Hell, if I had a choice I would not have chosen to be a pale heterosexual male. Except for the fact that it helped me find the love of my life it is nothing to be proud of. It is nothing special. In fact, I don’t like many of those who look like me. Hitler, Bush, Stalin, Verwoerd - all white males proclaiming to be straight. Too many bigots wear the same “clothes”. I don’t ever want to be defined as heterosexual. I don’t. Because I am not. I am just a person who met another person and who loves. It could have been anyone. It just happened to be someone from the opposite gender. I didn’t make the choice to love her. It just happened. That’s all I want the world to have. Just to feel the same love I feel. I don’t care who you are. Jew, Christian, gay, Muslim, straight, male, female, black, white, Chinese, Russian. I don’t care. I. Don’t. Care. All I want is “us” to all feel love. And see a better future together. As us. Not as “them” and “us”. There is only us in this world. All of us. There is no such thing as a “gay issue”. Any injustice is my issue. Our injustice. Any limitation on freedom is a limitation of my freedom. Our freedom. Any inequality takes away my equality. Our equality. Any time the liberty of others are restricted then my liberty is restricted. Our liberty. Any place love is threatened my love is threatened. Our love. There can be no “others”. There can be no “gay issue”. There is only my issues. And our issues. We all have freedom, liberty, equality, justice, life, love and opportunity. Or I have none. I am not gay. But I am gay. I am the “gay issue”. We are all the “gay issue”. Because… I am because we are. All of us. I am us. I am the “we”. We will not fail each other. Because there is no gay issue. There is only an us issue. © The Angry African ================================================================================================================================================ "Out of every 100 men, ten shouldn't even be there, Eighty are just targets, Nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back." - Hericletus, circa 500 B.C.E. A United States Military Veteran -- whether active duty, discharged, retired, or reserve -- is someone who at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to: 'The United States of America,' for an amount of 'up to, and including his life'. Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimal food or water, in austere conditions, training day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon and he made his web gear. He doesn't worry about what workout to do -his ruck weighs what it weighs, his runs end when the enemy stops chasing him. This True Believer is not concerned about 'how hard it is;' he knows either he wins or dies. He doesn't go home at 17:00, he is home. He knows only The Cause. I excerpt a small portion here, without permission, of The Bulletproof Mind, written by Lt. Colonel Dave Grossman, in the hope that some of you who are serious about surviving things like Katrina and 9/11 will go here (http://www.amazon.com/Bulletproof-Mind-Prevailing-Violent-Encounters-After/dp/B0029OMK62) and buy it. Lt. Colonel Grossman, a far better man than me, writes in his introduction to The Bulletproof Mind: One Vietnam veteran, an old retired colonel, once said this to me: "Most of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt one another by accident." This is true. Remember, the murder rate is six per 100,000 per year, and the aggravated assault rate is four per 1,000 per year. What this means is that the vast majority of Americans are not inclined to hurt one another. Some estimates say that two million Americans are victims of violent crimes every year, a tragic, staggering number, perhaps an all-time record rate of violent crime. But there are almost 300 million total Americans, which means that the odds of being a victim of violent crime is considerably less than one in a hundred on any given year. Furthermore, since many violent crimes are committed by repeat offenders, the actual number of violent citizens is considerably less than two million. Thus there is a paradox, and we must grasp both ends of the situation: We may well be in the most violent times in history, but violence is still remarkably rare. This is because most citizens are kind, decent people who are not capable of hurting each other, except by accident or under extreme provocation. They are sheep. I mean nothing negative by calling them sheep. To me it is like the pretty, blue robin's egg. Inside it is soft and gooey but someday it will grow into something wonderful. But the egg cannot survive without its hard blue shell. Police officers, soldiers and other warriors are like that shell, and someday the civilization they protect will grow into something wonderful. For now, though, they need warriors to protect them from the predators. "Then there are the wolves," the old war veteran said, "and the wolves feed on the sheep without mercy." Do you believe are wolves out there who will feed on the flock without mercy? You better believe it. There are evil men in this world and they are capable of evil deeds. The moment you forget that or pretend it is not so, you become a sheep. There is no safety in denial. "Then there are sheepdogs," he went on, "and I'm a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf." Or, as a sign in one California law enforcement agency put it, "We intimidate those who intimidate others." If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen: a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath--a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? Then you are a sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero's path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed. He continues: Let me expand on this old soldier's excellent model of the sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. We know that the sheep live in denial; that is what makes them sheep. They do not want to believe that there is evil in the world. They can accept the fact that fires can happen, which is why they want fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers, fire alarms and fire exits throughout their kids' schools. But many of them are outraged at the idea of putting an armed police officer in their kid's school. Our children are dozens of times more likely to be killed, and thousands of times more likely to be seriously injured, by school violence than by school fires, but the sheep's only response to the possibility of violence is denial. The idea of someone coming to kill or harm their children is just too hard, so they choose the path of denial. The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The difference, though, is that the sheepdog must not, cannot and will not ever harm the sheep. Any sheepdog that intentionally harms the lowliest little lamb will be punished and removed. The world cannot work any other way, at least not in a representative democracy or a republic such as ours. Still, the sheepdog disturbs the sheep. He is a constant reminder that there are wolves in the land. They would prefer that he didn't tell them where to go, or give them traffic tickets, or stand at the ready in our airports in camouflage fatigues holding an M-16 . The sheep would much rather have the sheepdog cash in his fangs, spray paint himself white, and go, "Baa." Until the wolf shows up. Then the entire flock tries desperately to hide behind one lonely sheepdog. As Kipling said in his poem about "Tommy" the British soldier: While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind," But it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind, There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind, O it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind. Understand that there is nothing morally superior about being a sheepdog; it is just what you choose to be. Also understand that a sheepdog is a funny critter: He is always sniffing around out on the perimeter, checking the breeze, barking at things that go bump in the night, and yearning for a righteous battle. That is, the young sheepdogs yearn for a righteous battle. The old sheepdogs are a little older and wiser, but they move to the sound of the guns when needed right along with the young ones. Here is how the sheep and the sheepdog think differently. The sheep pretend the wolf will never come, but the sheepdog lives for that day. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, most of the sheep, that is, most citizens in America said, "Thank God I wasn't on one of those planes." The sheepdogs, the warriors, said, "Dear God, I wish I could have been on one of those planes. Maybe I could have made a difference." When you are truly transformed into a warrior and have truly invested yourself into warriorhood, you want to be there. You want to be able to make a difference. While there is nothing morally superior about the sheepdog, the warrior, he does have one real advantage -- only one. He is able to survive and thrive in an environment that destroys 98 percent of the population. ================================================================================================================================================ “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” - Albert Einstein. "What goes on around you... compares little with what goes on inside you." - Ralph Waldo Emerson "You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself." - Galileo ================================================================================================ Ignorant generalizations - just what any debate needs! |
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