On
the subject of the
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Quote: |
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Chapter 1 |
It would be hard to imagine how things
could have turned out worse in
-Walrath
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On the subject of John Roberts
vs. Julia Roberts
Times and things change. Slavery at one
time was legal in this country and the right to hold slaves was upheld by the
Supreme Court. Most people--but not all—would say that decision by the Supreme
Court was wrong.
I think Bush picked the wrong Roberts.
Instead of John Roberts, he should have nominated Julia Roberts. She had lots
of legal experience as a law student in The Pelican Brief and she would have
kept the woman's seat Sandra Day O'Connor is now vacating.
I wonder how much time the Supreme
Court justices spend arguing and discussing law before making a decision. I
think when they sit down to go over a case; they know how it's going to come
out.
-Walrath
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On the effect revaluing Chinese
currency would have on the trade deficit
I think about the basket of currencies
that
They're going to kick it way up 2.1%! I
wonder how much of an effect that's going to have on the United States trade
deficit of nearly $700 billion this year.
In the meantime, Kodak and HP are laying off 25,000 employees.
-Walrath
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On what it would take to unite
the Democratic party.
The Democrats are never going to have
an issue to unite them until Roe V. Wade is overturned. That may be enough to
rev them up. That would give the issue back to the Democrats. But I don't think
the Repugnants will ever do that.
The way it is now, they have the issue
and they're smart enough to realize that over-turning Roe V. Wade would cost them votes. They don't want to overturn it--the idea is just
to keep talking about it and let the dumb right-wingers think that's what
they're going to do.
-Walrath -07-21-2005
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On the latest medical scandal
in
New scandal in ahia. BWC has been
over-paying hospitals for years for the injuries suffered by workers. Hospitals
have been kicking back hundreds of thousands of dollars to state officials for
their political campaigns.
Watch for breaking news!
-Walrath
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On the subject security in
I think even right-wingers are
beginning to get the picture. The idea now is to give people the impression
that the Iraqi are ready to take over the government and provide the security
the country needs.
If 135,000 trained American troops have
been unable to provide security for
But as long as Bush can come up with
some face-saving slogan, that will be enough for his right-wing base. They are
never going to admit that they have been totally wrong from the beginning.
Item now on Drudge Report says that
secret plans are now well advanced to pull out British and American troops from
I think this will happen before next
year's election.
-Walrath
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On the subject of the
How long have British troops been in
I wonder what Tony Blair says? British
troops are fighting the terrorists in
-Walrath 07-09-2005
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On the increase to the DJI
after the London bombings
Terrorists blow up the London subway
killing dozens of people and injuring 900 others, and the United States stock
market has its best week in about a month or longer.
Bush invaded
Go figure.
-Walrath
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On the subject of the VA budget
shortfall
Are only veterans eligible for health
care at the VA? I suppose that makes some kind of sense with a billion dollar
short fall in the VA budget. But I think that means that most dependents of
veterans probably have a tough time paying for their own health care
Unless you're in a group plan, you're pretty
much out of luck. Individual plans cost a great deal of money and the benefits
don't amount to that much. There's at least a $1000 deductible and after that
it's an 80-20 split.
If you have any pre-existing
conditions, for get it--you can't afford the premiums. Unless you're young and
healthy, you're out of luck.
-Walrath 07-07-2005
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On the subject of the Fed
interest hikes
Rates have been going up every time the
Fed has met for the last nine times, so that is/was not too hard to figure. The
thing is getting into a fixed means a couple of thousand dollars of closing
costs, not to mention, you're starting all over again with almost all of your
payment going for interest.
-Walrath 07-07-2005
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On the subject of what's not
taught in school
Kids are taught to memorize and when
they can't remember, they don't know what to do. They never learn the why of
anything.
Why is almost always more important
than what.
-Walrath
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On the subject of the water
shortage in
This is the hottest part of the summer in
I don't know how anybody lives in a
place where the temperature is 100 F day after day even with AC and water. Half
of the country is unemployed which means if they are anywhere they're in their
homes with no water and not even a fan.
Once in a very great while the power
has gone off here in the summer for maybe an hour or so. The first thing you
think about is the food in the refrigerator and the freezer. What do they do in
You never see anything on TV about how
a family manages to stay alive assuming they aren't bombed or shot.
-Walrath 07-04-2005
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On the subject of equal pay
Do you think anyone believes that, even
adjusted for inflation, George Bush should be paid eighty (16) times as much as
George Washington whose salary was $25,000?
What is that guy getting paid 16 times
as much as George Washington for?
Babe Ruth was getting $50,000 a year
when Herbert Hoover was president and he was getting less than $50,000.
When asked about this, Ruth said, Yeah, but I had a better year than he did.
Come to think of it, I bet all of Babe
Ruth's years were better than those of
-Walrath
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On the reason why the national
debt increased significantly during the last two days of June 2005
The 30th is the end of the month, and the
end of the quarter. For many firms, it's
also the end of the fiscal year--not the government fiscal year, but for
others.
That may have had something to do with
it. But it's hard to tell. I don't think we’ve had straight numbers in the last
four years.
It's probably to buy water. Water by
the jug for 24 million people costs a lot of money, especially in the summer in
I don't really see how that situation
can go on much longer the way it's going now.
People can live without electricity and
AC even in temperatures well over 100 F as they are now. But they can't live
without water to drink. Trying to bring in water for millions of people is not
possible.
Something is going to have to change
very soon.
Bush has already proven that there is
no way the
Now the insurgents are cutting off the
water supply in
This country can't afford Bush and his
war very much longer. He should resign.
-Walrath
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On the subject of attacking
There might not be anybody left to
vote, but there would definitely be somebody left in the government. They've
all got bunkers, and safe, secure places to hide in, or planes to fly away in
with Bush leading the way.
-Walrath
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On the subject of Americans
supporting the troops
Sounds like they hired extra readers to
censor emails over the holiday--especially ones containing articles about
burning gas and oil.
The insurgents in
And how are Americans supporting the
troops over the holiday? AAA has just announced that Americans will set an all-
time record of miles traveled over the three-day holiday. Price of oil and
gasoline may be at an all-time high, but that's not going to keep Americans
home. Support the troops by traveling that extra mile this weekend.
-Walrath
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On the subject of Valerie Plame
Karl Rove is being fingered as the guy
who spilled the beans to Novak two years ago about Valerie Plame
being a covert CIA agent. What I want to know now is where is
the story about Bush knowing for two years who it was in the White House
who gave out this information?
Can't anybody in the media even go back
to see what Bush is on record as saying about this? Words like, "how much
he wanted to get to the bottom of it. He was having a complete investigation,
cooperating with the Justice Department.
What a joke he and the media are!
-Walrath
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On the subject of
VA funding
There was an item in the news today
about the VA being a billion dollars short in their budget. Congress is going
to pass a "supplemental" to make up for the shortage. Nobody stated
what caused the shortage, but 40,000 wounded soldiers in
That was never anything mentioned about
that.
-Walrath
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Meanwhile, Back in Ahia...
Things are going just great in ahia -- er,
Democrats are running ads already about the Noe rare-coin investment scandal. The Repugnants,
for now, don't have too much to say. They've followed the Taft plan of cutting
income taxes and raising property taxes, which will cut funding for schools.
But, hey -- when you're trying to come up with a plan to bring
business into Ahia, what's a few schools here and there? Something's got to
give.
Right after graduation, far too
many of the smart kids cut and run anyway. People can't
get out of ahia fast enough as population barely stays the same.
There are a lot of old people in Ahia who don't have much
else besides their homes. A property tax hit them the hardest. What they ought
to be doing is raising income taxes on top incomes in order to provide services
to the state.
People might be willing to stay in Ahia if they did that.
I'll turn out the lights when I leave...
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Help Yourself to the Good Times
It's always been amazing to me just how little amurkans will settle for. A fill-up at the gas station when
gas was around a dollar a gallon, or less, meant trading stamps, a glass or a
mug, getting your tires checked, your windshield cleaned, free cup of coffee,
and you didn't even have to pump your own gas.
Big Bidness figured out a long
time ago that amurkans don't need special care; they
don't need to be waited on. They are can-do, do-it-yourself- types. Now, when
people go grocery shopping, Big Bidness has them not
only buying their groceries, but checking them out, bagging them and hauling them
to their cars.
Can it get any better than this?
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Is There a Doctor in the House?
More and more, people see doctors, not when they're ill,
but when it's convenient for doctors to see them. They dutifully queue wherever
they're told to, and like a bunch of dumb sheep they just head in any direction
they're pointed. Without even a murmur, the sheep, especially the sick ones do whatever
they're told to do.
A doctor's visit used to be a low-expense item. I had a
doctor once who charged on the basis of how long it had been since his patients
had last paid him a visit. The longer it was, the more he charged. His reason
was it would take him longer to find out what was wrong with them. He may have
been right, but the idea didn't seem to catch on.
Now, a visit to the doctor's office may cost as much as
$100. Medicare won't pay this much, so doctors look elsewhere to pick up the
difference. Insurance plans won't pay this much, either, so the "elsewhere"
ends up being poor people who don't have insurance or Medicare and don't have
the $100 either. They solve the problem by waiting until they have to go to the
ER of some hospital.
Sometimes we wonder how many tests and drugs are really
necessary. The
The system is all backwards and will still be backwards
whether or not I have a doctor, see a doctor, or never see a doctor. I don't
see much change happening in the future because most people just won't speak up
or speak out about the inequities. And, until people realize just how back- wards
our health care system is, it will remain all backwards.
If a person needs to see a doctor, it should not be a
choice between going to the ER or waiting two weeks.
That's what we have today, and that is just plain wrong.
It doesn't have to be that way, but I don't expect it
will change. If it does, I'll be at the head of the new line to change things.
I hope you will join me.
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Things are Looking...Up?
It is almost funny to see what passes for news on TV and
then read about the deals the Republicans are pulling every day that never make
it to the little screen.
Big news in Ahia for the second week in a row is all
about rare coins. Seems like the director of Workers'
Compensation has been investing the $50-billion fund in rare coins--not
considered one of your safer, conservative types of investment.
But it gets worse -- millions of dollars have been lost
or are missing -- $10 to $12 million, it seems. That's bad enough, but
Republican campaigns have been funded, would you believe, from the coin fund?
Some folks have suggested that I get out of Ahia while
the getting's good, but the way I see it, Ahia has been down so long that
people who live here think they're looking up. I thought we had touched bottom
last November, but this may be it. The Columbus Dispatch made some
liberal noises during the campaign, and then settled down and endorsed Bush. It
will be interesting to see if the rare-coin scandal hangs around for the
election next year.
I can't leave Ahia now -- I keep telling myself that
things have been bad so long, they have to start getting better. Besides, with
all that's happened here since the last selection, there ought to be enough for
the Dems to sweep all state offices next year -- if they
can find some bodies to run. For example, if the same people who voted for Gore
in 2000 had voted for Kerry in 2004, that would have been enough to beat Bush.
Actually, less than that would have done it. Kerry picked up votes in Ahia this
time and a switch of 60,000 votes would have done it.
Where Democrats are really weak is in state and local
elections. They ought to have a sweep in Ahia next year, but it's hard to win
without somebody to run. Currently, they don't hold a single state office. It's
hard to beat somebody with nobody.
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The Feds' "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Economic
Policy
Sometimes it's difficult to tell what the Fed is up to. Or, more important -- why. Right now, it looks like it's
dealing in something called "monetization," which is like paying off
your credit cards by check, and then being able to cover the checks with more
credit card debt (cash advances). That's considered to be inflationary -- not
something you would do while raising interest rates, like
Alan Greenspan has been doing a nudge at a time -- at least you wouldn't
think so.
But nothing seems to make sense anymore. For example, how
do you plummet from creating 273,000 jobs in one month to just 78,000 in the
next month? How does unemployment go down during the month that created only
78,000 jobs? I think we've had smoke and mirrors for the last four, now going
on five, years. It's sad, but it's getting harder and
harder for Americans to believe anything put out by the Bush administration
anymore.
Greenspan is not looking well these days. I mean
physically. But he doesn't look good, either, on any of his economic
predictions. Bondholders the world over are saying that a recession is on the
way. We're getting very close to an inverted yield curve when short-term and
long-term rates are equal to each other.
Greenspan says not to worry -- all that means something
different this time around. But the thing that is worrisome this time around --
is that he doesn't say what it means. Or how it's different.
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You Can't Handle the Truth!
You really wonder just how bad the news would be if you
got the real numbers. For March, the job numbers came in about half of what had
been predicted and the previous month's job growth was revised downward.
I think the idea is getting through to everybody that
they want us all to stay home -- easier to watch people and keep track of them
better when they stay home
Just how bad is it when they reveal only 100,000 or so
jobs for March? Bad as that is, is that the real number? Or, did they feel that
was the worst news that the economy could stand?
Who knows?
-Walrath,
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If Only...
If there had been a Democratic majority in the House
after 911, I 'm sure booosh would have been impeached. At the very least, there
would have been an investigation by a House committee controlled by Democrats.
All the stuff that the Repugnuts
and the media have swept under the rug would have been shown on TV day after
day. Likewise, the same thing if the Democrats had been in control of the
Senate.
Control by the Repugnants of
the House, the Senate, the White House, and the Supreme Court amounts to a
dictatorship. They can do almost anything they want to because they're in
control. On top of that, they're in bed with Big Bidness.
Only in amurka.
-Walrath
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No Place Like Home -- Especially
if You Don't Have One...
That drawdown on home equities that we're reading about
accounted for as much as 25% of consumer spending last year. This is 1929 all
over again except it's homes and real estate. People
are buying and flipping homes, just looking for the bigger fool.
This activity is concentrated in the east and west coasts
in blue states except for
Red states, except for
When the bust comes -- and barring a miracle it will come
-- I guess the idea is that only the people in the blue states will suffer.
-Walrath
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The Best Laid Plans...
This is not working out as the Repugnants
expected. And, it just keeps not working out more every day. Polls show people
think that Congress should have stayed home and not gotten involved in the
Terri Schiavo case.
The next step was to have been to use the Schiavo case as
a lever to get the Bush conservative judges appointed. That doesn't look so
likely now, either.
It may not even be necessary for the Democrats to use the
filibuster to stop the Bush appointment of right-wing judges. The Repugnants may decide it's too risky to try to change the
rule of 60.
Or Not. -Walrath
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Where Have All the Good Guys Gone?
If Bush has done nothing else, his war on
To field 150,000 troops in
One dimwit on a call-in show today pointed out that the
Army was not meeting its quota because it has raised the number needed by 20%. Duh? Troops are being withdrawn from
But just what would the right-wingers do if
Including the costs of the war in
But now that the threat of nuclear war with the
And for this, the
One can only hope... -Walrath 7 April 2005
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Sometimes the Domestic Product is -- Really Gross...
GDP is the value of the sum of all goods and services
produced within a given accounting period--month, quarter, or year. Producing
those goods or services with fewer employees increases
productivity. In theory, you could produce everything with robots and reduce
payrolls to, effectively, zero.
But somewhere along the way, you have to find somebody to
buy and pay for all the crap, junk and stuff you're producing. That's where
people and jobs come in. Or, in the case of amurka, where jobs get exported to other countries.
We're about at the end of the line. People who have money
don't have room for any more cars, and the price of homes has begun to level
off. Holding down the number of jobs has kept inflation in check, but I don't
see inflation as the problem.
I think we're headed the other way. -Walrath
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On the bill to allow oil drilling in the Artic National
Wildlife Refuge
If they pass the Alaska Dig bill tomorrow which they
won't, it will be five years before anyone will ever see a drop of oil from
ANWAR. Any oil coming out of
We don't have any refinery capacity, anyway. What would
we do with it? The whole idea is another booosh sop to Big Bidness.
Walrath 03-18-2005/pj
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On the rising price of gasoline
It's not up to $2.50 yet in ahia, but it's over $3.00 now
in
Why would anybody be interested in doing more work and
making less money? Corrected for inflation, the price of oil would be about $90
a barrel.
Idiots keep talking about the need to produce more. The
answer is to use less, and get busy on alternative fuel research. Digging holes
in
It makes about as much sense as the boooosh
plan for private accounts to save Social Security. – Walrath 03-18-2005/pj
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On Tom DeLay
If they really keep up the pressure, they might actually
accomplish something on DeLay. If he is indicted, he
has to give up his position as Majority Leader.
That's not enough of a payback for beating Daschle, but
it's a start. 03-17-2005/pj
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On raising the
Social Security cap to tax those making over $90,000.00
If people making more than $90,000 don't object to the
tax, how many people can there be who aren't in favor of it?
Extend the benefits, too. Tax them, as well, when they
reach the upper limits. What you don't want to do is make Social Security a
welfare plan by providing it only to lower incomes.
If the rich are receiving the benefits, they won't call
it welfare. –Walrath 03-17-2005/pj
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On the lack of news about Bill Clinton's recovery
Bill Clinton hasn't been in the news much since he got
out of the hospital. I haven't seen or heard anything at all about him. Hillary
is going head-to-head with Greenspan who now wants people to believe everybody
was wrong about the surplus and the tax-cuts.
Not everybody, said Hillary to Greenspan. He would have
you believe that everybody was in favor of those trillion dollar tax-cuts for
the rich and Bid Bidness. –Walrath 03-16-2005/pj
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On credit card debt owed by members of Congress
Some of the House members make more than $150,000. But
the thing is why would you carry a balance and pay interest on it? Interest
rates on
credit cards aren't cheap.
Some of the members of the House carry some pretty hefty
balances on their cards. If they're paying interest on these balances, they are
really in bad shape.
But these may be interest free balance transfers where
the card companies try to snooker you in with offers too good to be true. You
take the money and then can't pay it back when the time comes. Then, it's no
longer interest free.
This is the modern check kiting deal that cost the
Democrats the House in 1994. –Walrath 03-16-2005/pj
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On the 15% COLA reduction for the European troops
I would think there would be screams. When I was in the
military, there were not that many men who were married. Those
who were always having a tough time even before the war.
Families left at home now taking a 15% pay cut won't be
able to survive. They'll be the first ones up for the new booosh bankruptcy
bill.
Support the troops!!! –Walrath 03-16-2005/pj
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On incentives for voting yes on the bankruptcy bill
Well, the bill passed by the Senate was going to pass
whether or not any of the Democrats voted for it. After the House passes its
version of the bill, the bills go to conference where a compromise bill has to
be agreed upon before it goes back to both bodies for an up-or-down vote.
There may very well be some kind of deals that have been
made or will be made because 37% of the Democrats agreed to vote for it. I
don't know what they are or what they could be.
Maybe we'll find out later on.-Walrath 03-13-2005/pj
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On profits made by credit card companies
banks and credit card companies have been raking in the
dough in the past four years. Consumer spending as well as consumer debt is at
an all-time high, and people are stretched to the breaking point.
One reason given for passing the bill now is that
bankruptcies were expected to explode in the coming months even before the bill
was passed.
Ahia had more bankruptcies last year in its history. Even
more are anticipated this year. Over half of the household are a paycheck or so
away from being broke. –Walrath 03-13-2005/pj
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On the bankruptcy bill vote
Recapping --there were 55 Republicans and 18 Democrats,
and one independent voting for the bill making a total
of 74. The 19 that voted for the bill are Baucus, Bayh,
Biden, Bingaman, Byrd, Carper, Conrad, Inouye,
Jeffords, Johnson, Kohl, Landrieu, Lincoln, Nelson (Fl), Nelson (NE), Pryor,
Reid, Salazar, and Stebanow. Twenty-five Democrats
voted against it.
Why, in particular, did the Minority Leader, Reid, vote
for the bankruptcy bill when the majority of Democratic senators did not? What
kind of wimpy leader is that? –Walrath 03-13-2005/pj
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On the win for credit card companies and loss for
consumers
An industry makes $30 billion, that’s a Billion with a B,
a year on its credit cards, and it's got to tighten up on people who go
bankrupt except for those who have lots of money.
REpublicans and wimpy Democrats pass a bill that's going to put the screws
to the people who go bankrupt because they lost their job or ran up huge
hospital bills just for the fun of it and then went bankrupt because they
didn't have any health insurance.
Same bill lets millionaires park their money in asset
trusts in some states so their money is protected. Why would anybody be for the
bill except those I've just named? –Walrath 03-13-2005/pj
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On the lack of legislators to fully read bills prior
to voting on them
Senators are able to get a copy of the bill to read if
they want to, I think. But they don't read most bills, anyway. Their staff does
that and tells them about it.
But you can read about the bill and its provisions even
if you don't have a copy of the bill. You can find out that all the banks and
credit card companies have lobbied for it for the last eight years.
You can find out that the bill has "asset protection
states" in it where you can put your money in trust and then go bankrupt.
You can buy a house for a million dollars which remains free and clear when you
go bankrupt.
You can look at the wimps and flakes--19 of them--who
voted for the bill. The bill was going to pass whether or not Democrats voted
for it. They voted for it because they need the money for their next election
campaign. –Walrath 03-13-2005/pj
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On the nine SC justices that determine the law for the
entire country
The Supreme Court is supposed to rule on the law. They
decide the same way everybody else does.
The only difference is if there are five of them who
think the same way that becomes the law.
Then their law clerks get the job of coming up with
material to support the decision. Sometimes, like in 2000, the decision is so
bad there is no precedent for it. But that doesn't change anything.
Boooosh still got into the White House.-Walrath 03-13-2005/pj
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On the Brazilian oil company Petrobas
Petrobas is making money with 1.7 million bpd--that's more than they're
getting out of
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On raising interest rates to eliminate the budget
deficit
Greenspan can raise interest rates all he wants, but it's
not going to get rid of the booosh budget deficit. Getting rid of the booosh
tax-cuts for the rich and Big Bidness would do that.
–Walrath 03-12-2005/pj
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On Fidel Castro and
The United States has been trying to starve Castro for
the last 50 years. He's an old man who just refuses to die. –Walrath
03-11-2005/pj
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On the prospect of a sugar shortage
Price of coffee is going up, so that may reduce the
amount of coffee that is consumed. If so, sugar consumption will go down. Seems
like a bad time for sugar producers to raise the price of sugar.
What do people use sugar for? Nobody bakes anymore--that's
what cake mixes are for. Cereals even for adults come loaded with sugar now.
Sugar costs as much as it does in this country because of
agricultural subsidies to the farmers who produce it in this country.
If everybody goes out and buys up all the sugar they can
find, I think they may be able to create a shortage. –Walrath 03-11-2005/pj
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On the perfect world
The Perfect World is here. It's as bad as I've ever seen
it, but to right-wingers, it's perfect.
Drug companies in the
These are people who don't have a lot of money and they
don't have insurance that pays for drugs unless you count the rinky-dink booosh
prescription plan that starts next year designed to funnel more money into drug
manufacturers.
But nobody says a word. –Walrath 03-11-2005/pj
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On the seizure of drugs purchased from
Of course, the seizing of the drugs by Federal agents is
pay-back for the way
I'm sure the media will just keep this new under wraps.
Wouldn't you think that the Democrats or MoveOn or George Soros could
organize all the people in all these states who were trying to do something
about the incredibly high cost of drugs?
I watch the news, and read through three newspapers everyday
plus time on the net and I never even saw anything about this.
Why is something like this allowed to be buried? –Walrath
03-11-2005/pj
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On interest rates
The
rich always make money, but most people aren't rich even if they have
investments. Interest rates are beginning to move up pretty fast. The housing
boom is not going to last. That is where a lot of people have been putting
their money. Buying and selling houses even before they are built.
The average price for house is now getting close to
$200,000. That tells you that middle income people aren't buying very many.
Income tax time may be the breaking point. –Walrath
03-11-2005/pj
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On Bush and
The turnaround in ebonyavalon,
as booosh calls
Then the people supporting Syrian troops being there
started showing up, and there were twice as many as they were the first time.
All of a sudden, ebonyavalon
has dropped off the radar screen. –Walrath 03-11-2005/pj
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On cutting welfare programs in order to continue farm
subsidies
In
a way, The U.S. is like a family that has financial problems because the father
drinks and gambles and there's not enough money to pay the bills. So the man
decides the answer is not to buy bread anymore.
Farm subsidies are in the billions. The food stamp money
for hungry people cost millions of dollars.
There just aren't enough savings in the places that help
people. To cut the deficit, cut the subsidies golng
to the rich and Big Bidness. That's where the money
is going. –Walrath 03-11-2005/pj
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On raising interest rates
Boooosh wants to extend the tax-cuts and add to them. The deficit is
going to keep getting bigger, and we're going to have a financial crisis before
he gets out of office.
Greenspan keeps raising interest rates to keep the dollar
from falling which continues to fall because of the huge boooosh
budget deficits.
At some point not far away, rising rates are going to
cause a recession. The answer then will be to start lowering interest rates.
Greenspan hopes rates will be high enough by then so that he will have room to
start lowering them. –Walrath 03-11-2005/pj
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cutting the deficit by cutting expenses
At
some point, the growing booosh deficit is going to get some attention. Cutting
expenses like food stamps, Medicaid, education programs, and Medicare don't
even get close to solving the problem.
The only thing that will do is to increase taxes on those
who have the money to pay for them. Re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titantic would not have prevented its sinking, and adding a
National Sales Tax won't solve the booosh deficit problem, either.
The market seemed a little worried this week---Dow down
nearly 200 points. –Walrath -3-11-2005/pj
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Articles
and Answers
Articles and Answers is a beacon, a lighthouse, for all our readers to
show them the way, to guide their thinking and keep them informed about where
they are going.
Articles and Answers keeps people from drifting into
rocks and dangerous shoals where their minds can be mired by false and
misleading words and thoughts.
Articles and Answers lights the way for you today
and every day. -Walrath 03-07-2005/pj
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On how legislators pass bills
I don't think they ever read any bills. They depend on
their staff to do that and advise them on how to vote. They talk to other
senators, and their leaders--Majority and Minority-- tell them how they want
them to vote.
What they're all thinking about now is how this Social
Security bill is going to play in next year's election.
I don't think whatever they pass,
it's going to help Social Security, assuming anything at all gets passed. –Walrath
03-07-2005/pj
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On lack of planning for war
Not
being ready for war seems to happen every time the
But the
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the Hagel plan to raise
retirement age from 67 to 68
The
idea that people can work longer because they're living longer is specious at
best. It depends on a whole lot of factors including the health of the person,
what kind of work they've been doing, as well as how the employment situation
is.
If you're a Senator, you can hang around until you're
100--Strom Thurmond did—and somebody will prop up in a chair so that you can
continue to draw your pay.
There aren't a lot of real jobs like that.-Walrath
03-06-2005/pj
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the election in Iraq
The Shiites got a majority of the votes in the election,
but it takes two-thirds to form a government according to the interim
constitution. The Shiites have been trying to form a government with the Kurds.
So far, no luck.
I think the way it works is the Shiites would get the
prime minister position, and whoever they form a government with, get the
position of the president.
That sorta leaves the
Sunni--the ones who are the insurgents--to continue to fight the war.
Was that the plan? –Walrath 03-06-2005/pj
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On working past retirement age in order to collect
higher benefits
Waiting almost always is a bad idea. People die while
they're waiting, and after they wait, they may die before they make up the
money they could have had by taking the lesser amount sooner.
If you wait and if you live a long time after waiting,
maybe you can come out ahead.
Then, again, maybe not. –Walrath 03-06-2005/pj
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On raising the Social Security earnings cap
Raising the cap above $90,000 does not cost people making
$90,000 and below anything.
Something like 60% of the households--not individuals,
but households—have incomes below $50,000. Less than 10% of the households in
the country have incomes above $90,000.
They're never going to raise the cap to $200,000, but it
would not hurt 90% of the people in this country. It wouldn't hurt the other
10%, either. They can afford it. It would just take a little of the edge off on
the boooosh tax-cuts for the rich and Big Bidness.
The plan that gets the highest approval is to raise the
cap on earnings above $90,000. The only people against this plan--would you
believe--are those who make more than $90,000. That's less than 10% of the
people.
I'm sure booosh wishes he had never mentioned the idea
and the Repugnuts wish Lindsey Graham who suggests
capping it off at $200,000 would go away. Come to think of it, I haven't heard
much about Senator Graham lately and his idea.
Imagine taxing people who have the most money! –Walrath
03-06-2005/pj
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the Bush Social Security Plan
What the booosh plan is really all about is a way to scam the amurkan people. The money they contributed to FICA through
the payroll tax--particularly, since the big increase Greenspan presided over
in the eighties--has all been spent, most recently for the booosh tax-cuts for
the rich and Big Business.
The idea now is wipe that debt away by adding trillions
of dollars more to pay for the start-up costs of the so-called private accounts
which do exactly nothing to make up for the Trust Fund which has been spent and
the funding necessary to continue Social Security payments in the
future. -03-07-2005/pj
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the release of the Hagel
Social Security plan
Last week it was going to be released Monday, today.
Today is Monday, but now it's going to be released Thursday. I think they
leaked enough of it out to find out he doesn't have much of a plan.
The only plan worth talking about is one that puts money
into Social Security to make up for the Trust Fund that was spent to give the
Rich and Big Bidness tax-breaks.
That means tax increases for somebody-- a lot of
somebody’s. Anything else just amounts to more bush bu**sh*!!! –Walrath 03-07-2005/pj
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the ability to relate to those in need
Not having money to buy the things you need is only
understood by people who are going without or have gone without the things they
needed.
That's something booosh will never understand. –Walrath
03-07-2005/pj
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the subject of brainwashing
Part of the plan is to heavy up
the news on
The amurkan tax-payers are
paying for all the boooosh propaganda about his SS
plan and Chuck Hagel is going to come out with his
idea on Monday.
So far, booosh is losing big, but I don't think it's over
yet. –Walrath 3-05-2005/pj
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the lack of security in Iraq
You really have to wonder about security over in Iraq
when they assassinate the judge who was going to try Saddam Hussein. –Walrath
03-01-2005/pj
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the subject of private insurance
This is the whole idea behind private insurance--cherry
pick the people you want to cover and leave the rest to fend for themselves.
Those left out either can't find anyone who will insure them and if they do
find a place, they can't afford the premium.
If they, somehow, scrape up enough to get insurance, the
rates keep going up until people drop the insurance because they can no longer
afford it.
About that time, they have an illness and end up bankrupt
because they can't pay the hospital and doctor bills.
Only in amurka –Walrath
03-05-2005/pj
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On old age and Greenspan
Old age may be catching up with Alan Greenspan. Don't tax
the things, he says, that are bought mostly by the poor. What in hell is he
talking about? What does he think the poor buy? The same things everybody else
buys-- food, clothing, shelter, transportation to get to and from a job--if
they have one.
Does that mean no tax on gasoline? How about cars? TVs
are in the homes of 99.5% of the people--no tax on TVs?
What I think Greenspan was trying to say is, Don't tax the things that the poor have to spend most of
their money on.
Make sure that the poor work and eat and save their money
for their old age because their social security plan is about to go up in
smoke, if he and booosh have their way.-Walrath 03-05-2005/pj
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the Republicans backing off from the Bush Social
Security Plan
Grassley and Frist are backing
off, and Delay sounds very doubtful. I think they realize that they would have
to raise the cap on earnings above the $90,000 current figure as Lindsey has
been suggesting right along.
That's an increase in taxes of 6.2% on the richest people
in the country--a very high price for the REpugnuts
to pay.
My guess is they'd rather just drop the whole idea now
and go on to something else--like bombing
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Bungling Social Security
Well before 911, there were all kinds of opportunities
for George Bush to implement his Social Security "plan," and it would
have easily passed. All he had to do was take the so-called surplus as far as
the eye could see, and put it into Social Security.
Bush would have been a hero. When the recession came, he
still could have had a tax-cut -- but, hopefully, not just the $1.4 trillion
tax bonanza for the rich and Big Bidness -- and he
could have been a hero again.
When you think about it, few people have had as many
chances as Bush has had to succeed -- and bungled them so badly. -Walrath
02-27-2005
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the subject of little things
A good example of why things are so bad in this world is
people let the little things go, and the next thing you know, the little things
have become bigger.
Just think how much better the world would be if all the
little things suddenly became better.
We aren't going to do much about the big things, but we
can do something about the little things - Walrath 02-27-2005/pj
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Iraqi rations
I wonder how many people in amurka
know that weekly rations in
Lots of publicity about tomorrows
election, but no mention of where the people are going to vote, or how they are
going to find out.
According to an NPR interview with an Iraqi election
official the polling places are where people pick up their weekly rations.
After two years of occupation, the Iraqi people are still
on weekly rations - Just like they were under the brutal dictatorship of Saddam
Hussein. -Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the aborted railroad track suicide attempt
How
did they catch this guy who left his car on the railroad tracks? Did he just
happen to pick a train that was being pushed by instead of pulled by the
engine? If the engine had been in front of the cars, the damage and loss of
life would probably have been much less. –Walrath 01-29-2005
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the number of government jobs under Bush
I wonder just how many more government jobs are today
than there were four years ago. Then take a look and see how much bigger the
government debt is today than it was four years ago. –Walrath 01-28-2005
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the P&G buyout of Gillette
P&G is buying Gillette for something like $57
billion-- but P&G is off the hook so far as having to give away razors
because New England beat Pittsburgh. Gillette is headquartered in the city of
That's bad news for all the Gillette folks who live in
That's if you get to keep your job—6000 jobs are going to
be cut.
Just another example of Big Business--merge and cut
costs. Best way is to cut the payroll. You don't need two headquarters for one
company.
There go a lot of jobs at Gillette that pay a lot of
money. –Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the election in
The Kurds are against whoever
wins the election on Sunday--they don't like the Sunni or the Shiites who don't
like the Kurds who want their own country.
Only an idiot would think Iraq could be united and form a
government –Walrath 01-28-2005
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the columnists on the White House payroll
Today, we find another paid mouthpiece for boooosh-- you have to wonder just how many there are still
buried in the woodwork and under the rocks.
Maureen Dowd ran a column this week in the NYT saying
that she had a lot of Christmas bills to pay, and she could use some extra
money--her column, she said, was for sale.
She offered to write about all kinds of things if the
price was right. –Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On
The state has fewer college graduates per capita than any
other state. Where did all the booosh votes come from?
How do Repugnants continue to
get elected year after year when the state
continues to down hill? –Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On legislation to charge .17 for plastic grocery bags
in San Francisco
BYOB--bring your own bag. That
may be the idea behind this seventeen cent charge for a plastic bag.
Stores could save a pot-full of money if they did not
have to furnish bags. Convert 100% to self checking and customers can do
everything themselves. Shop, check out the stuff, bag it, and carry it to their
cars.
Business has got customers doing most of the work
now--might as well go all the way. –Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On how to win a war
I think the thing to do is wait
for Castro to die and then invade
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the Senate vote on Rice's confirmation
Thirteen (13) is a respectable number of dissenters --
that's about a third of the Democrats in the senate. I'm sure all Repugnants voted for Rice -Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On
There's not much that is cheerful in the news anywhere you look. If
you're in
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On market fluctuations
The
price of oil is a big factor. OPEC may decide to produce less,
Then on top of that you have the speech boooosh gave on Thursday. -Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the war on drugs
Looks like we’re spending over 50 billion dollars a year,
state and federal. That figure probably includes the cost of keeping a million
or more people in prison. It costs more to keep a person in prison for a year
than it does to send him to college.
There's not enough money for school, people can't afford
to send their children college, millions and millions of people are without
health insurance, but we can spending billions of dollars every year chasing
drugs. –Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How stupid can amurkans be?
We can't afford to continue wasting money that way.
People are going to do drugs whether they're legal or not. It just costs a lot
more to make them illegal. They gave up on Prohibition after thirteen years, I
think.
How much longer is it going to take before they give up
on drugs? –Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the 80 billion supplement
for
Lawrence Lindsey was right on the money saying the
initial war costs in
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the media
We have a right-wing propaganda machine in this country
made up of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh for examples. The rest of the media are
bought-up, bought out, or bought-off. Newspapers are read by only one out four
person -- the other three either can't or don't read.
People in
TV is free in amurka, but then
look at what you get for nothing. Someone said that you get what you pay for,
but you really don't. You almost always end up paying more for what you get. TV
would probably be better in this country if we had to pay for it.
$200 a year to find out what is happening in this country
and the world seems like a small price to pay. -Walrath 01-24-2005
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the inflated number of Iraqi voters
They can tell people in this country anything they want
to about the election in Iraq. People don't know anything about it. The
election will be called a huge success regardless of how few people vote.
There will be a total of a million votes
altogether, maybe, including votes from the
But even that is really stretching the numbers. There are
no UN observers scheduled to be present in
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I haven't heard anybody mentioned.
Who's going to know the difference? Who's going to tell
them? The media? They are bought-out, bought-up, and
bought-off.
But the war will continue to go on.-Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the never ending list of US casualties
The
number who died on 911 was under 3000. I wonder at the rate that soldiers are
being killed in
There is no way out now except to leave. –Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the
There's been a draft going on in this country (reserves and National
Guard) for at least a year,—the only people who can get drafted, though, are
those who have already served.
If you've never been in, you don't have to worry about
being drafted. All you have o do is stay home and support the troops. –Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the strategy of marketing a name
The New England Patriots play in Foxboro Stadium which is
located approximately 30 miles south of
Calling the team New England instead of Boston Patriots
probably gets more people to come to games as all six states, Vermont,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Maine claim the
Patriots as their very own.
A marketing strategy, for sure. -Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the subject of Flu vaccinations
For
a place as large as the
announce they have no flu vaccine when other states are
facing an oversupply is a scandal of epic proportions.
You do have to wonder what amujrkans spend their time
thinking about. It's against the law to import drugs from
The United States is the same country that came up with
about half as much flu vaccine necessary and now some states are reporting that
they have an over-supply which they will have to throw away while other states
like Ohio still report shortages.
In fact, if you call the Ohio State University Clinic,
the first thing you will hear is their recorded announcement that they don't
have any flu vaccine, so don't bother to ask.
What kind of nonsense is this? How can this be possible?
And how can there be newspapers and TV channels and networks that don't report
this?
Why isn't this a lead story
around the country? This is the state that decided the election. This is the
state that is on the front-page of the Dispatch this morning about the
incredibly poor job picture in ahia. This is the state that is run by
Republicans forever.
This is the state where people stood for hours in the
rain to vote and were unable to because of a shortage of voting machines. This
is the state that can't even get flu vaccine for its people when it's about to
be thrown away in other states.
Where is the outrage?
It appears that private physicians have access to flu
vaccine. It's state and public agencies that don't have any.
Is the idea for ahia to save money by not making flu
shots available to those on Medicaid and those who would normally receive the vaccine
through state agencies? -Walrath -01-22-2005
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the Bush inauguration speech
I didn't listen to it, read it, or watch it, but it's
hard not to hear bits of it even when you try to avoid it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the DJIA
January gets a bad name with the stock market is down the
first month of the year. In most years when that happens,
the market is down for the year. We'll see what happens next week.
The outcome of the Iraqi elections may be hanging over
the market. -Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the Bureau of Land Management decision to OK oil
drilling in
http://www.articlesandanswers.com/v-cgi/feeds.cgi?feedid=13&story_id=598533
It won't produce even a barrel of oil in the next four
years, but I expect that booosh will end up by drilling holes in
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the January snowfall
It’s really nice to look out the window and see all that
white snow with the blue sky and bright sun. It's all I can do to hold myself
back from going out there and shoveling it.
Compared to every other place, we didn't get that much
snow--six inches at most which is a lot for Cowlumbus,
ahia, but nothing like the two feet or more other places got.
I think the weather is trying to tell us that four more
years of boooosh are going to be as bad as if not
worse than the last four. -Walrath
Editor Note: Two feet? I personally shoveled 30"....
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On VA Healthcare
This is the cover Story featured in the January/February 2005 issue
of the Washington Monthly.
It doesn't sound much like what is really going on in VA
hospitals.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0501.longman.html
-Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On closing the borders from the 29th to 31st
Closing the borders? Why wouldn't the borders have been
closed long ago? Why would you wait until not to close the borders?
The insurgents are already in
Even if they could. -Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the upcoming elections in
All
eyes are going to be on the elections in
It's like pain-- you can stand just so much, and then you
don't feel any more pain. You forget your toothache because your headache is so
bad.
I'm sure they're going to make as much noise as possible
about the Iraqi votes here in the
People there are going to stay home by the millions.
The media will tout the election as overwhelming success,
but there's no way that is going to happen.
They are going to be a disaster. –Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the swearing in ceremony
There's a swearing in ceremony for boosh on
Thursday. When are they going to hold the swearing at booosh ceremony? –Walrath
01-17-2005
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Bush's plan for Social Security
Everything booosh has touched so far has been a disaster,
and still the amurkan people cry for more. The
biggest disaster of all may be his plan to abolish Social Security as we know
it. –Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the possibility of war with
There will be less oil coming out of Iran if the United
States invades Iran.-Walrath 01-17-2005
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On military assistance from the UN
The United Nations doesn't have an Army as such. Member
nations can volunteer troops for specific missions and there is a small force
available.
I don't think the
He wants to go it alone, and alone is where he's going to
be. –Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the unveiling of the 555-seat airbus
Full load is 555 passengers--20% more than Boeing's
biggest. That's a lot of people if one of those planes goes down. –Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the possibility of war with
It's hard to believe that the
On second thought, that is not so hard to believe after
all. Maybe a war with
War with
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the Abu Gharib investigation
Congress held hearings with Rumsfeld present, and that
was the end of the investigation. Some enlisted men will spend several years in
prison--I think their sentences will be reduced after this dies down--and
whoever thought up the whole mess will go Scot free.
After all, if Generals were involved, they might tell who
gave them their orders, and the next thing you know there might be a knock on
the White House door.
Only in amurka.-Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Social Security
The
year 2018 is the date they estimate when pay-in will no longer equal pay-out of
Social Security benefits. But they don't want to talk about the hundreds of
billions of dollars that people have paid in over the years that are in the
so-called Trust Fund in the form of Treasury Bonds.
The reason they don't want to talk about that is because
that money has all been spent. Currently, the deficit would be 200 billion more
than the published amount if Social Security contributions were deducted.
That's about the amount of the yearly Social Security surplus.
What are they going to use to pay Social Security
pensions when the pay-out is greater than the pay-in?
Where do they get the money from? They have to borrow
it--they can't use the money they've already borrowed-- that money has already
been spent.
If they don't borrow it, they have to raise taxes, or
just print it. –Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More on Social Security
The government will need real actual money to pay Social
Security pensions just as it does now. Now contributions come in each month and
the government uses them to pay the pensions.
What's left, the government spends as fast as it gets it
and puts IOUs in the Trust Fund in the form of Treasury Bonds. When
contributions no longer are enough to meet the pension pay-outs each month, the
government is going to have to either raise taxes or borrow more money. They
can't use the Treasury Bonds in the Trust Fund. They already spent the money
they got for those bonds.
Currently, Social Security contributions are running
about 200 billion dollars more each year than the pay-outs. The boosh government reports the contributions as income and
the pay-outs as expenses--no change in this procedure.
As a result, the reported deficit under boosh is approximately 200 billion dollars less than it
would be otherwise. The "crisis" being talked about is what is going
happen when Social Security is no longer kicking in 200 billion dollars a year
for the government to spend.
Even worse, when that happens
Social Security checks will still have to be paid out of the "trust"
fund which has nothing in it except IOUs in the form of government bonds. That
means the government would have to either borrow the money or raise taxes or
use some combination of borrowing and tax-increases.
That's what the two trillion dollars they are talking
about is for--to cover pensions when contributions no longer are enough to pay
the pensions.
If you can't trust the government with the Social
Security Trust Fund, why would you trust them to set up individual accounts for
you?
How do you know they won't spend that as well?
I think boooosh will give up on
his plan for Social Security and swap it for something else. The Democrats will
be so happy they will given him whatever it is he
wants. I don't think booooosh can win on his idea for
Social Security. There is no way he can borrow the two trillion dollars
necessary to do it.
This is a cause for the Democrats to fight to the last
man or woman left standing, but I don't think they will do that.
The bought-up, bought-out, bought-off media--Armstrong
Williams, for example-- will help boooosh out all
they can. –Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the Abu Gharib dogs
The
very presence of dogs in Abu Gharib says that they were there for something
besides somebody's pet. How much of a reporter do you have to be to raise the
question, What were the dogs there for?
The thing that bothers me on this scandal is the obvious
cover-up that is going on. If I can ask a page full of questions which have yet
to be answered on Abu Gharib, where are the media?
Can't they ask any questions at all?
From day one, I could see where this show was heading.
There has been an obvious cover up from the beginning. Even the trial of Graner was a farce. His lawyer was afraid that Graner might get 15 years instead of 10. That's supposed to
make you think Graner's lawyer did a real bang-up
job.
Wouldn't you think somebody could see this farce and
start asking questions?
How did attack dogs with nice new leashes get into the
prison? Did anybody ever find out? Were they used to keep prisoners from
escaping? Whose idea was it to have attack dogs in Abu Gharib? Where did the
dogs and leashes come from?
What funds were used to buy the dogs and their leashes?
Were these dogs trained when they arrived in Abu Gharib? Who trained them? Did
they receive compensation for training these dogs?
I would very much have liked to have been on the defense
team for Graner. These are a few of the questions
that I would have asked.
The thing that bothers me on this scandal is the obvious
cover-up that is going on. If I can ask a page full of questions which have yet
to be answered on Abu Gharib, where are the media?
Can't they ask any questions at all?-Walrath 01-16-2005
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Bush becoming a lame duck
The entire House is up for election in 2006. The in-party
usually loses seats in a president's second term which in this case could mean
losing both the House and the Senate--we hope.
So, at most, boooosh has two
years, before he becomes a lame duck, but even that point of view may prove to
be too optimistic for the Repugnants.
A lame duck can't do much and soon becomes what is known
as a dead duck, or a gone goose. –Walrath 01-16-2005
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the chicken wing fad
Now that everybody and his brother is selling chicken
wings, what are they doing with the rest of all those chickens?
If everybody is selling wings, and
everybody is eating just wings, who is eating the rest of all those chickens? –Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On how to self-diagnose Alzheimer’s
Men who are in the early stages of Alzheimer's start
losing weight--possibly because they forget to eat.
If you’re still eating, you probably don’t have
Alzheimer’s. –Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On FDA endorsements
The FDA is in the news again because it approved Celebrex which is
still on the market and Vioxx
which has been shown to increase heart attacks.
Taking drugs that haven't been approved by the FDA may be
a good thing--kind of an implied endorsement. -Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On drug companies discontinuing shipments to
If
the people who are getting prescription drugs from
Why do people just allow themselves to be pushed and
shoved around? –Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the definition of a wimp
To
me, it takes more of a man to denounce war than it does to go get
your brains blown out or blow somebody else's brains out.
There are a lot of men who would rather go blow
somebody's brains out than to be called wimps.
If it's a choice between being called a wimp and getting
his own brains blown out, that's a little different.
The ones doing the wimp calling are usually the ones that
aren't going anywhere. They just stay home and "support the troops."
–Walrath 01-13-2005
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On our all "volunteer" Army
They couldn't get away with all the crap they're pulling
if this were not an all-volunteer army. Just what is voluntary about being
called back from the reserves or the National Guard is hard to say.
All the Generals insist a volunteer army is best--and it
is, for the officers and generals. Draftees go back into civilian life and tell
people just how screwed up everything was.
Volunteers don't do that. –Walrath
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On problems with
The
problem probably goes back more than 100 years. What this country has been
doing for generations is bragging about its freedom, its democracy, and the
right of its citizens to vote.
Lottery tickets have more control over them than votes
do. A lost lottery ticket gets more attention in this country than a thousand
lost votes.
Elections in this country are a joke to the rest of the
world. -Walrath
© 2005 Richard E. Walrath