Gloom And Doomer

What the ...?

Why does it seem like the most vocal homophobes always have secret issues.

I guess it is not really fair to say that Bush has been "most vocal" but he has definitely sought the approval of those who fear the gay menace including indicating tepid support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

The whole "defense of marriage" business is quite confusing to me. How does the ability of two individuals to codify their union effect my 18 year marriage with my wife. Oh, wait a minute, I get it. If I were a closet homosexual like George W. Bush it could threaten my marriage. Societal approval of gay marriage would mean that he could finally dump Laura and get hitched to that fetching young Canadian political advisor.

Now the whole thing makes sense.

Thoughts on Pensions / Social Security

Here comes another bailout. This time for private Pensions.

I was talking with one of my co-workers today about Social Security and he said that it was a joke anyway. I said it may be a joke to you now but for 20 million people retiring in 2010 it will be their only source of income because they have no savings, 401k's or Pensions. The government has promised that they will get paid - that means you have to pay them from your paycheck. He didn't believe me. He thought he heard that we can reduce taxes, eliminate social security and somehow by him going shopping money would go into the economy and somehow to these old people. Amazing. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Social Security is a debt owed by workers to retirees, period; unless we as a nation are willing to watch old folks die in abject poverty.

With so many pension plans going belly up, even with backup from the broke Pension Guarantee Credit Corp, payouts will be substantially less than what these retirees were expecting. This means that even folks, like my co-worker, who felt that they would not need to rely on Social Security will absolutely need that Social Security check every month even if it is a paltry $1200. My kids' taxes, and mine since I won't retire until I am 70, will be astronomical to pay for today's greed and stupidity. Our future is being stolen from us.

Pensions

This is a subject that has been kind of an obsession for me over the past year. There are plenty of reasons to worry about the state of pensions in this country. Take a look at this bit of news - more to follow.

How Can You Kill Women and Children?

Easy, you don't lead them as much. - "Full Metal Jacket"

Paul O'Neill

The predictable slam of Paul O'Neill for betraying his old boss has begun. This article is particularly ridiculous.

The author slams the former Secretary of the Treasury but does not refute a single thing that he actually said.

Surprised?

From Baghdad

Again this article is kind of dated but for anyone who has not read Riverbend's web log you are missing a very interesting inside account of an Iraqi perspective on the occupation. Click on this and scroll down to the 8/28/03 entry. Clearly I have not figured out how to link to a specific line on a web page so I send the reader to the top of the page and make you work from there.

Political Correctness

This is a little dated but I liked this quote from ESPN sports writer Ralph Wiley in a piece on the Rush Limbaugh vs Donovan McNabb story. Sorry I lost the link.

Being correct has gotten a bad name, because all somebody has to do is shout "political!" in front of your correctness, and suddenly it's a bad thing.

From Bernard Chazelle

Thanks to Atrios (atrios.blogspot.com) I read an interesting piece from Bernard Chazelle (a Princeton Computer Science professor) entitled "Bush's Desolate Imperium" where I gleaned this little gem.

------- The war had one positive consequence—removing Saddam from power—and will have countless adverse ones. But the case against it is not in the numbers. It lies in the near-certain prediction that the world will be worse off for it. As CIA veteran Milt Bearden reminded us recently, in the 20C "no nation that launched a war against another sovereign nation ever won. And every nationalist-based insurgency against a foreign occupation ultimately succeeded." Why should the 21C be any different? Bush is building a world of mistrust and desolation that will not be easily mended. A fresh new wave of anti-Americanism is sweeping the planet today. No one should rejoice in this, for America matters and its estrangement is good for no one. This grave setback in international relations will be Bush's lasting legacy. Once "the worst president ever" retires to his ranch in Crawford, the world will be left to pick up the pieces of a broken trust. ------

The Worst President Ever

I started this web log partly with the intention of keeping track of the horrors of the Bush Junta. I quickly realized that this would be a full time job and alas I already have one. It is so difficult to know where to start in describing what an abomination this guy has been. If someone were to ask me why I don't like Bush I would probably just sputter and smoke would come out of my ears. It kind of reminds me of the ridiculous, often repeated, scene in so many bad TV shows or movies where a protagonist overwhelms a computer by asking it questions with millions of answers. The computer begins to answer, then smoke pours out of it and it explodes. This is how I feel when I dwell on all things Bush.

Paul O'Neil on George Bush

Here is a little of what the former Alcoa exec. and Treasury Secretary had to say about his old boss. I cannot wait to see the whole interview.