Ugly. Criminally Ugly.

In less than 18 months forty percent of global wealth has evaporated. Poof!

http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSTRE52966Z20090310

That makes me think that forty percent (or more) of global wealth was pure bullshit.

In basic terms, this global economic crisis started in the U.S. housing market. Back during the late nineties, Phil Graham, a Senator, wrote legislation which majorly reduced regulation in the mortgage industry. This paved the way for the housing bubble.

People's income started going flat back around 2000. This meant that the housing party was going to be over and that housing prices would stop their meteoric rise and start to fall a bit as demand cooled. ARM and NINJA to the rescue!

ARM, as most people know, stands for Adjustable Rate Mortgage. This is a loan where you initially pay a lower interest rate. At a later date (2 years later, usually) the rate would increase, making mortgage payments as much as double in some cases. Designed for house flipping and speculation, many people were caught with these loans when the housing market started cooling off. Unable to sell, the higher interest rates kicked in and their payments went through the roof. Foreclosures by the millions followed.

NINJA is a less known type of loan. The acronym stands for No Income No Job Applicant. This initially started as a way to sell homes to illegal immigrants who could not legally be employed in America. They had jobs, they just couldn't claim them on the paperwork. The NINJA loan became a way for mortgage brokers to sell to any-old-body. Make a terrible loan, get your commission, and let the recipient of the loan deal with the fallout.

All of this was bad... oh, yes... but the worst has yet to be explained. Any idiot, even a Wall Street executive, could see that these were risky loans. There had to be some other way to make money off these loans aside from the monthly mortgage payment... let's think here, boys...

What Wall Street came up with was nothing short of criminal. Wrap these mortgages up into securities, price them at 20-30 times their value, break up the mortgages and slice them and dice them ten ways to Sunday so no one could tell what securities fund was comprised of what mortgages (and at what terms/rates), insure them, get them rated AAA, and sell them on the global markets.

All of this required massive collusion. The insurers had to be in on it. The rating agencies had to be in on it. Banks had to be in on it. Wall Street had to be in on it.

Massive. Criminal. Fraud. Conspiracy.

And now we, as the American tax payer, are expected to bail out the top 1%. Bail out the bankers. Bail out the insurance giants. Bail out Wall Street. And yes, it is the top 1% who dreamed up these loans and how to insure, rate, and sell them to make more money off of smoke and mirrors. Yes, it is the wealthiest Americans who are almost solely to blame for this mess we're in.

To top it all off, these same people are balking at a tax increase to help cover the fallout! Rich motherfuckers. Most of these people haven't been poor for generations and they have no idea what is is to live hand to mouth. They have no idea what it is like to have to scrimp and save for what they want or need. They have no idea what damage they have done.

Detroit is different. I have no problem bailing out Detroit, and here's why:

Without auto manufacturing in America we are no longer a superpower.

Never mind the fact that GM, Ford, and Chrysler are also victims of Wall Street's greed and incompetence. They are suffering from a lack of demand. Most of the green initiatives they are pursuing started long before the downturn. The Chevy Volt is a good example. They were in the process of changing their faulty business models when the recession hit.

The simple fact of the matter is that auto manufacturing is a matter of national security. It is this industry which provides the backbone for military industrial might. No modern nation can be a superpower without this component. It is a prerequisite.

But the right is using this as an opportunity to attack the unions. Yes, evil unions! Oh, noooo! They are responsible for such evils as child labor laws, workplace safety regulations, the forty hour work week, retirement and health benefits, and the list goes on. Do your research. Before unions, labor was exploited. It was during this time of rampant exploitation of labor that communist and anarchist movements in this country took hold.

Few people know this, but there was an anarchist movement and a communist movement afoot in this nation which was very strong around the turn of the century (1900). Much of their gripe was with industrial exploitation of workers. Horrible and dangerous working conditions where children worked like slaves, the hours were as long as the boss demanded, and the compensation incredibly low. This movement in America even managed to assassinate a President! William McKinley, to be specific.

Oddly enough, once the labor movement in this country started to gain ground and improve conditions for workers, the base for these more violent and destructive movements began to dry up. So why is it that unions get such a bad rap in this country?

Essentially, you can blame it on Jimmy Hoffa and the infiltration of some union shops by the mob. Much of this, at least on the larger scales, was cleaned up by the Justice Department under the RICO Act. However, the taint of this corruption provided the necessary "in" for some elements within our political establishment to go after unions and demonize them.

These same elements persist to this day. They are politicians in the pocket of the captains of industry and finance. These same politicians are eager to bail out Wall Street (no questions asked) and defuse any blame that anyone tries to place at the feet of these captains. At the same time they make Detroit grovel for an amount that was roughly 5% of what they approved for Wall Street with no strings attached!

All I am saying is that we have been taken for a ride. We've been pumped and dumped. Forces are at work that favor the extremely wealthy and screw the middle class and poor. And many of us still don't see it!

The American Dream once meant an honest shot at a decent life for anyone who would work hard and play by the rules. It has been hijacked to mean "wealth and glamor", or wild success. It is no longer good enough to simply own your home, raise your family without hunger or desperation, and retire with dignity. Now you have to have your ride pimped, granite counter tops, and take deluxe vacations to have attained the "American Dream."

By hijacking the American Dream to mean "extreme wealth" we have been made to think that any policies that do not favor the wealthy above all others are somehow unAmerican. We are meant to believe that tax policies that shift wealth upwards are fine, but that tax policies that shift wealth to the middle class or poor are "class warfare" or socialism at work.

Let me tell you something - America has never experienced class warfare. The French Revolution was class warfare. The Russian Revolution was class warfare. The American Revolution was not class warfare. The elite and wealthy in America lead a revolution against the wealthy and elite of England.

In France the wealthy were carted off and executed en masse at the guillotine. In Russia the ruling class was exterminated like rats. And so I say to you again - America has never seen class warfare. The wealthy are terrified of it here because the wealthy never win at class warfare. They die like rats.

Am I saying we should start killing rich people? Hell no! I'm saying that the wealthy interests in this country are doing everything they can to rip us off, to squeeze every last drop of blood they can out of us, and at the same time stave off retribution at the hands of the masses. These chickens always come home to roost, however.

One thing that France and Russia both had in common was an autocratic regime that ignored the people and favored the wealthy to the exclusion of everyone else. America is different in that we have a democracy which is at least marginally responsive to the will of the People.

We have flirted with open class warfare in the past and we were brought back from the brink by people like Teddy Roosevelt (Republican - trust busting) and Franklin Roosevelt (Democrat - New Deal). Regardless of whether or not you feel these initiatives were worthwhile or not, they altered public perception of the landscape and brought us back from potentially huge civil unrest as a result of the lower classes rebelling at their lot in society.

In both cases (trust busting and the New Deal), the public was outraged by the abuses of the wealthy. At the turn of the century it was the robber barons and industrial titans like Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Schwab who used the Pinkertons and like methods to brutally suppress worker strikes and unionization.

In 1929, short selling and abuses on the stock market were the cause of massive hardships in this nation. Forces beyond the average man's control had ruined his life and they were rightly angered by this. These forces were again comprised of those who had wealth and wanted more and more and more and more.

Forty percent of world wealth lost. The poorest among us always bear the heaviest brunt of these downturns. Historically, when the better educated middle class starts to feel the pinch is when things get ugly. They "rouse the rabble", as it were, and with numbers they break the back of the wealthy establishment and, at least, force concessions.

So let's all pull together before it gets that bad, eh? We're rocketing in that direction, if you hadn't noticed. How many people do you know who have lost a home, a job, or both? I am lucky in that I live in Charlottesville. Between the University of Virginia, hospitals, NGIC, and other agencies and industries our area only tends to get hit by the worst recessions.

I will tell you one thing, however... I walk to work every day right through our downtown and Main Street areas and I've been seeing a noticeable uptick in the number of homeless people or people begging for change. Old ladies living in tents, people pushing shopping carts around picking up cans, disabled people in wheel chairs on the Mall asking for money.

It's getting ugly.

Class Warfare? Yes, and We're Losing...

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE50T11420090130

This makes my blood boil. $14 B in bonuses paid while receiving taxpayer money to bail them out of gigantic losses? How is this possible?!

The last eight years have represented a major redistribution of wealth from the bottom and middle to the top. Millionaires have turned to billionaires and billionaires have become even more filthy rich. All the while the middle class has shrunk, poverty grown, wages stagnated, and expenses skyrocketed.

Maybe when they empty Gitmo of terrorism suspects they should fill it with robber baron CEOs. Fucking thieves!! They run their companies into the ground and still get billions in bonuses?! How the hell can any bonus be justified when they are laying employees off and losing money? My head is spinning... how can we tolerate this?

Thieves! Thieves! Oh, Christ! I'm infuriated. The only thing these guys are good at is stealing! They are incapable of running a company with competence, but man can they steal! Please explain to me how this is anything but out and out thievery. They get our money and put it in their pockets.

All the while the average American is losing their job, their home, their dignity, their healthcare... We are losing EVERYTHING, and these guys are getting even more rich!

How much damned money do they need? And to top it off they are utterly shameless about it. CitiGroup just was caught buying another corporate jet for $50 million. They didn't even have the decency to buy and American made jet (it was French) !! This after receiving $45B in taxpayer bailout money!

Shameless thievery!! Please, someone tell me why these guys shouldn't be strung up in the public square by their tender parts! I'm almost serious about this. In my mind this is nearly treasonous.

The nation is in dire financial straits and these guys are conducting business as usual - heaping money stolen from the public coffers on themselves, buying more jets and sacrificing nothing themsleves whilst laying off employees. The later of which has the effect of removing that much more money from the hands of consumers which further undercuts the segment of the economy (consumer spending) which accounts for 2/3 of all economic activity in our nation.

On top of it all, they get to keep their jobs!!! This blows my mind. If it weren't for these "economic geniuses" repackaging shaky mortgages into securities and selling them at 20-30 time their capitalization, we wouldn't be in this mess! They perpetrated fraud and then when the house of cards collapsed they got your money, my money, our money and proceeded to use it not to save jobs, not to keep credit flowing, but to put in their pockets!

Thank God I don't live anywhere near Wall Street. I'm so mad right now I just might do something stupid...

Capitalists and Socialists

Where my free market capitalists at? What! What!

Where my socialists at? What! What!

Screw all you guys and your weak knees! Both of these groups are being wishy-washy and failing to have the courage of their own "convictions."

If you're a free market advocate then you have to be against any intervention by the government to save capitalism from itself. Let the chips fall where they may. Destruction is but the dawn of creation, right? Out of the ashes new enterprises will rise... stronger, leaner, more competitive. Innovation will save the day!

I don't see anyone espousing these ideas.

Stop snickering, you socialists! You don't even have the balls to openly call yourselves socialists! Ha! A real socialist would be standing in front of every mic and every camera screaming at America to wake up! Unbridled capitalism has failed you! Again! Nationalize the banks! Nationalize the automotive industry! And I don't mean these half-assed "bridge loans" or "bailouts", either. A socialist would advocate for open and total government control of these failed institutions. And don't kid yourselves - these are most definitely failed institutions. The writing has been on the wall for years and either through paralysis or willful blindness they failed to act in advance to save themselves.

Again - no one is openly advocating the government takeover of the means of production and capital.

Free market capitalists say "Ho!!"

<crickets>

Socialists say "Ho!!"

<crickets>

Hmmm... Maybe there are no real socialists or free market capitalists after all? Or not many, at least. In my humble opinion, we should go "all in" one way or the other. I'm tired of these half-measures that keep this crap limping along as-is.

In all honesty, our economy is a mixture of socialism and free market capitalism with a bit of a lean towards the free-market side of the equation.

So what do you want? The slow growth and predictable hum-drum of socialism or the roller coaster ride of boom and bust that is free market capitalism? There's no perfect economic formula, people. It just doesn't exist.

I just wish we'd be done with this - either we commit to an ideology and let that go where it may or we can drag this global economic collapse out for years and years and years. If we truly committed to an ideology, we could at least know once and for all which works and which doesn't...

Me, personally, I'd like to see it all go down the toilet. I have a feeling that's what's going to happen no matter what government does.

Life and existence in general resemble both systems, in some ways. Life is all about death and rebirth: the boom and bust of free market capitalism. Life also carries on - the more things change the more they stay the same: the safety net and static nature of socialism.

So what the hell? Let's try one of them out for once!

Is it just me?

Here is my primary beef with Bush: The guy directly and obscenely contradicts himself, often in the same breath. He is intellectually dishonest and a hypocrite of the greatest magnitude.

Before I get any knee-jerk reactions to that last comment:

• No, I am not a major lefty Democrat. I voted Democrat this last election because the Republicans have screwed the pooch so badly these last 8 years and I felt I had to "vote the bums out."
• I have voted for Republicans in the past.
• I know many politicians will contradict themselves, but rarely do they do it so blatantly and in the same breath.
• Yes, I have specific examples to provide...

Just last night in Bush's Farewell Address he said the following (a verbatim quote):

And with strong allies at our side, we have taken the fight to the terrorists and those who support them. Afghanistan has gone from a nation where the Taliban harbored Al Qaeda and stoned women in the streets to a young democracy that is fighting terror and encouraging girls to go to school. Iraq has gone from a brutal dictatorship and a sworn enemy of America to an Arab democracy at the heart of the Middle East and a friend of the United States.

This was done by means of invasion and war. In both nations there have been innocent civilian casualties. No one knows for certain, but the lowest, most conservative estimates I can find on the Iraqi civilian death toll are in the 60,000-90,000 range (and those estimates are months old).

Now I understand that the enemy over there often fires RPGs and mortars from within homes of terrified civilians. I understand almost all of the combat is taking place in urban, close-quarter conditions. I do not in any way condemn our soldiers for doing a very hard job with exceptional professionalism and bravery. I place the blame squarely where it belongs: on the shoulders of the country's political leadership of which Bush is the Commander in Chief.

Not five minutes later in the very same speech Bush goes on to say (another direct quote from the transcripts):

As we address these challenges - and others we cannot foresee tonight - America must maintain our moral clarity. I have often spoken to you about good and evil. This has made some uncomfortable. But good and evil are present in this world, and between the two there can be no compromise. Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere. Freeing people from oppression and despair is eternally right. This nation must continue to speak out for justice and truth. We must always be willing to act in their defense and to advance the cause of peace.

So what exactly did we do by invading a nation like Iraq to advance the ideology of freedom? Was the cause of peace advanced through a war of choice? Did we not kill innocent civilians by the thousands? Is that not the inevitable and utterly predictable outcome of any war?

Afghanistan is different - they actually attacked us whereas Iraq did not attack us nor did they have the WMD that the Administration said they did. They willfully bent intelligence to sell this war in order to advance the ideology of freedom in the Middle East and killed thousands of everyday Iraqi citizens in the process. So, by Bush's own logic: "Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere" is he not condemning the actions he himself ordered?

I fail to see how dropping a 500 lb bomb from miles in the air and killing civilians to promote the ideology of freedom is so different from a car bomb killing innocents to promote any other ideology. It is all murder by Bush's own logic. Meaning well doesn't make the families killed in either form of attack any less dead. It doesn't make the survivors mourn the loss of loved ones any less. It doesn't engender any less hate.

And this bit:

As we address these challenges - and others we cannot foresee tonight - America must maintain our moral clarity.

Moral clarity like Abu Ghraib? Moral clarity like Guantanamo? Moral clarity like secret prisons and renditions? Moral clarity like tapping the phones of your own citizens?

Regardless of where you come down on these issues you have to admit that they are morally murky at best. You have to admit that patriotic Americans of the best intentions and of all political stripes can have honest disagreements about the morality (and legality, for that matter) of the above actions undertaken by this Administration. That is the very antithesis of "moral clarity."

And if you are of the mindset that the "world is grey" (and I would tend to agree), and that moral clarity is at best elusive, then why would you make absolute statements like the ones Bush made in his speech? The contradictions and hypocrisy are built right in by his very own actions as President!

Mindset

Let me be clear about the way I view our future and why I consider myself a survivalist... and for that matter, what I think of when I use a word like "survivalist."

The Future

Succinctly put, it's bleak. We've seen two million jobs evaporate this last year alone. Our manufacturing base is in serious trouble. Banks are clamming up with the credit and all our economy does is consume, consume, consume. We make nothing.

Politicians are more interested in scoring short term political victories than laying the foundation for long term sustainability and growth. The term "mortgaging our children's future" is such a cliche these days that the poignant image it is meant to convey is utterly lost. In short, politicians are long on gathering power und to themselves, and very short on actual, real leadership.

Our leaders, be they corporate or government, are no longer expected to produce results. They are bailed out or golden parachuted or pardoned when they fail or even commit criminal acts. There is no accountability. The meritocracy that once made this nation great is no longer. Our democratic ideals are dying out in favor of a nouveau nobility. Kennedys, Clintons, Bushes, and more.

Our executives in the governmental realm behave more like kings than officers of the public trust. Our corporate chiefs act like spoiled children of nobility who are given a small fiefdom to run... often into the ground. Corporate boards are comprised of executives from other, often competing, companies. One CEO may have a board whose members are CEOs at companies whose boards on which they themselves serve. Can anyone say mutual masturbation?

Our leaders are modern day robber barons; thieves, confidence men, and thugs. I mean that with no poetry and in all ways literally. We have yet to see the Obama Administration in action, of course. While I am allowing myself to hope a bit, I know history too well to get my hopes too high. Washington has a way of changing those who mean to come to town and root out the rotten core of our government.

The momentum of this financial crisis has not slowed one bit. No one talks about this, but the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are as much to blame for our financial problems as the mortgage crisis. The defecits we run (roughly $400 billion a year for the last few years) do not count the cost of the wars we are engaged in. They are funded with emergency supplemental spending bills - off books. The true defecits we have been running are north of half a trillion dollars a year.

Do you hear that sound? It sounds like a giant toilet flushing... and we're on our way out with the crap.

"Survivalist"

This word is oft maligned as meaning "gun nut", "militia freak", "racial supremacist", "radical", or "wingnut." This is not what the word means to most of the community.

While I am not a prominent member of the survivalist community, I do consider myself a survivalist. To me the word "survivalism" means, in its most basic form, "preparedness." So to be a survivalist means to be someone who is prepared or who strives to be prepared for the day when the trucks stop delivering me my food and when the lights go out.

To be honest, no one can foresee exactly what shape the coming gridcrash will take. Will the markets melt down and banks fail causing currencies around the globe to go into a hyper-deflationary spiral? Will there be an attack on Washington which will cause a lapse in centralized authority leading to riots born of panic? Or will budget shortfalls in the fed, state, and local levels coupled with high unemployment cause government to essentially be ineffective and overwhelmed leading to defacto anarchy? We saw how well the fed responded to a disaster like Katrina. Or, on the radical end of the spectrum, will a bug escape some Army lab and wipe out 90% of the world a la Stephen King's The Stand (minus the supernatural stuff)?

The point of the last paragraph is to say that there's no telling how, or even if, the shit will truly hit the fan. How does that influence the survivalist's mindset? I can't speak for others, but for me it means having a flexible, generalized plan that can handle as many eventualities as possible. It means learning a whole metric ass ton of information on the basics:

• Prioritization - What must you have? What can you do without if you had to? What do you do first?
• Water - Treatment and sourcing
• First Aid - Not bleeding to death
• Growing and Storing Food - Gardening, composting, and food preservation
• Hunting - When the supermarket runs out of meat, you'll need to hunt, kill, and prepare game of some sort. This will be especially important years when your garden's yield is less than expected
• Sanitation - Getting rid of waste and possibly using it as compost
• Energy Engineering - When the lights go out, can you get them back on? Can you setup a wind turbine? Could you construct one? How about biodiesel? A tractor would make that farm way more productive...
• Outdoorsmanship - If you had to spend a night outdoors in the winter, could you? How about a week? A month?
• Gunsmithing and Marksmanship - Fixing, cleaning, and shooting guns
• Construction - If a tree falls on your roof and knocks a hole in it, could you repair it?
• Brewing - Making your own beer, because what the hell is life without beer?

Just think of all the stuff you call on others to do. Do you have even the slightest clue how to do that yourself? Some things will just go away. For most, electricity will simply be gone or could be unreliable, at best. How will you preserve your food without the handy-dandy refrigerator?

Not too long ago we knew how to take care of ourselves. My grandparents canned food from their garden and so did my father and mother. They didn't do it because they were poor and had to, either. To the contrary, my grandparents and parents were on the more afluent side of the middle class. Our great-grandparents didn't have refrigerators and it was a way of life for them to grow food and preserve it themselves.

In hard times, can you trust the cop who hasn't been paid in two months? They may be in as tough or tougher a bind than you are (more likely the latter). They are just like you except they have authority and a gun. I have to admit, if my family were hurting and I had the gun and authority, I'd be sorely tempted to use it to my family's advantage.

A survivalist, in short, does not take for granted the notion that the cushy comforts of modern life will always be there. In many ways, a survivalist is a rationalist. Look at our economy. Unsustainable and obviously broken on a fundamental level. Look at our energy consumption habits. Unsustainable and terrible for our environment. Look at our modern society. Stupid, lazy, and isolated with no signs of improvement. Look at our leadership. Incompetent and corrupt.

Who wouldn't be concerned? Who wouldn't look at all of that and wonder when we'll reach the tipping point which brings it all crashing down? A survivalist is someone who sees the big picture and resolves to not be a victim. A survivalist may be your savior one day...

Camping, Shooting, and the Decline of America

A bit of a scattershot entry here, but what the hell?

• The Vice President of the United States admits to the world to authorizing torture
• Chrysler shuts down all plants for a month

Oh, God. We've really and objectively gone to hell in a handbasket.

In that spirit, I am going shooting with my brother and kids this weekend. A .45 or two, maybe a .357, and my .22 Ruger will be in the mix.

I'm trying to setup a camping trip with a couple of my brothers and maybe some friends for some time this winter. We'll probably camp on the back portion of my parents' property in Barboursville.

I really want to try out some of my camping gear which I just haven't gotten a chance to use yet.

WTF Have I Been Saying?

Notice what year 2008 ranks in there with? 1931. The worst year for the S&P ever... worse than 1929, for Christ's sake.

You'll have to click the image to get a full sized version to read it well.

Prognostication

Let me tell you something here - if the US Auto Industry collapses then I officially deem this nation no longer a superpower. The long ride we've had as a preeminant global force will be done with if the industry that won World War II for us goes away.

There was a scene from Band of Brothers that leaps to mind where Webster (along with the 101st Airborne Division) is riding in the back of a long convoy of trucks along a highway where 300,000 German POWs are marching in the median going the other way.

They are walking and riding in horse-drawn carts and Webster screams at them, "What were you thinking!? Look at you! You have horses!! Say hello to Ford and General Motors! You ignorant, servile scum! What are we doing here? You interrupted our lives for this?!?!"

The idea that a nation could attempt to dominate the modern world on horseback was preposterous.

Our manufacturing base is without a doubt the central cog in our military machine. The auto industry is the wheel upon which almost all teeth in the industrial cog are mounted. When that goes, the last of anything we actually make is sure to soon follow.

Gut Punch Correction

(Click for larger image)

Slight correction from yesterday. It seems the Dow has lost 42% (rather than 40%) of it's value from its high on October 9th, 2007 of 14,164 down to its low of 8,175 as of October 27th, 2008.

Gut Punch

516,000 jobless claims last month.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4AC40B20081113

Dow Jones Industrial Average down 411 points yesterday. The Dow has lost over 40% of it's value from its high.

No sign of it stopping, either.

Batton down the hatches people.

Religulous

I went to see Religulous tonight, the new film by Bill Maher. We have this great old theatre here in town which has but a single screen. It's the only commercial venue in town where this sort of film is par for the course.

Do not let the reviews you may have read fool you about this flick. It is very much anti-religion. I say that as a matter of fact and without judgement for or against the movie - or religion, for that matter.

The basic gist of the movie is that anyone who approaches religious belief with certitude is a fool. Religion is foolish and dangerous. Dangerous because the apocalyptic fantasies that are at the core of so many religions are now possible due to man's recent grasp of apocalyptic technologies.

Technologies such as nuclear weapons which, along with pollution, are listed as some of the ways man's technologies could facilitate the apocalyptic fantasies contained within various scriptures. I would add biological and chemical weapons to that list of apocalypse-enablers.

Bill Maher says at one point, "The only thing worse than prophecy is a self-fulfilling prophecy."

To close the film, he sums it all up with, "Grow up or die." Meaning religious faith is immature and its foolish tenants can lead to our destruction given man's grasp of modern technology.

I am agnostic, myself. I don't claim to be wise enough to know what the answer is. I agree with the assertion that religious institutions are prone to corruption and have been so for centuries and millenia. Centuries and millenia of corruption have most likely lead to a perversion of the teachings of Christ, Muhammed, Moses, whoever.

The Grim Reaper of Greed

alternate title - Power Word Kill Rich Whitey

Recession Finally Admitted by the Fed

Finally there are rumblings from Washington that seem to admit to a recession. I think the American people have been tuned into the reality of an economic downturn for quite some time.

As of now, the Dow is down another 502 points. The other day it was up by around 900, but I knew that was mere volatility. This downturn won't stop until the actual fundamentals of the world economy are repaired.

The U.S. especially needs to put its economic house in order. We need to start making things again. That is what is fundamentally at the core of our floundering economy - we don't make anything any more. We make money off of money. We flip houses. We use credit.

There are many things that have gone awry, don't get me wrong. However, increasing manufacturing jobs in America would have the effect of decreasing unemployment, putting more money in the pocket of Americans. Two thirds of our economy is based upon consumer spending.

I think retail stores are going to take a major hit this Christmas. Americans are losing their jobs, their homes, and their confidence. Watch the stock market in late December and early January. Look for a big drop when the retail numbers prove to be abysmal.

I think the turnaround here will take a good long time. I think Americans have been shocked into waking up from a credit card coma. Spending will slow. Savings will increase. Less cheap crap will be bought in stores. Bad news for China, really.

If Americans are smart and we have good leadership we can come through this better and stronger. If the focus is on technology and research into alternative energy we have a chance. If America leads the way with a whole new fleet of battery driven and alternatively fueled cars we can again be the auto manufacturer of the world. If we invest in infrastructure like schools, roads, a new solar and wind electrical grid, and college we can again become competitive.

If our leaders have the political will to raise taxes we might be okay. If we are honest with ourselves then we see that raising taxes is unavoidable if we are to address our national debt and other needs simultaneously. If Americans can change their ways and refrain from spending what they don't have then each of us may yet find economic salvation.

If we hold our leaders accountable on the issues that matter to all of us we can save ourselves from ourselves. Issues like education, roads, jobs, a stagnating economy, and the environment are all interrelated and can all be solved on a single line of attack.

The simplest answer is usually the best answer. I usually denounce Occum's Razor as a means for oversimplification of complicated issues and ideas. In this case, however it is right on.

Problems like crumbling roads, vaporizing jobs and a worsening environment can all be solved by investing in green technology and providing government subsidies for green infrastructure projects. This would lay the foundation for jobs and a revitalized economy. It would allow us to export this technology and put America back on the economic map as a producer and exporter rather than an importer and borrower.

More Americans with good jobs boosts consumer confidence and provides the fuel for two thirds of our economy (consumer spending). More good jobs means a larger tax base. Government subsidies for technology research means many many small businesses getting startup money from either the government or venture capitalists.

And to cement the continued growth of this new economy you invest in education. A smart workforce is an efficient and innovative workforce. You also ensure this new boom is sustainable with massive infrastructure investment in both existing and new techologies (as they come online). Improve roads and build a new sustainable electrical grid. This will create jobs in and of itself as well - this will feed back into the positive cycle by putting more money in the pockets of Americans and growing the middle class.

That is a lot of "ifs." Believe me, I am aware of that fact. Every pay period I am putting a little bit towards survival gear and supplies. I am trying to hope for the best, but I am planning for the worst without a doubt.

EDIT: At close of trading today the Dow was down 733 pts.

Chaos Reigns

• Wells Fargo slipped 3.7 percent
• The S&P financial services companies' index fell 5.6 percent
• Bank of America fell 4.6 percent
• The Dow fell below 10,000 for the first time since October 2004
• JPMorgan Chase slid 5.7 percent
• Shares of energy companies were a top drag, with the S&P energy index down more than 7 percent
• Shares of Exxon Mobil Corp fell 1.2 percent
• Chevron Corp lost 4.7 percent
• Shares of economic bellwethers ... General Electric ... shares dropped 5.2 percent
  

And now the wolves are fighting over the carcasses strewn everywhere. This from Reuters...

"Citigroup said it is suing Wachovia and Wells Fargo, and it is seeking more than $60 billion in damages over Wells Fargo's competing bid for Wachovia."

FUCKING CHAOS REIGNS!!!!!

The Butt-Rape of Main Street

Mao Tse-Tung and Lenin might have been on to something. How many times do we have to be screwed by the titans of industry before we wake up? When does enough become enough? When do we pick up the gun?

I'm not advocating it - not yet. I'm just wondering when it is that people get so fed up with the bullshit being shoved down their throat by Washington and Wall Street that they go armed into the streets. Bullshit like:

1. "We can't have national healthcare because it's too expensive. But you sure as hell better cough up a $700 billion bailout in just a few days!"
2. "Bankrupt due to medical bills? Well, see we just made it easier for the hospitals to take your house. Oh, you're welcome!"
3. "We have to cut education spending because we just can't afford it. We have this $10 billion a month war of choice we have to fund."
4. "Sorry about college being unattainably expensive, but we just can't afford to help you with that. See, we have these regulations we need to loosen and then we'll be cutting the taxes on those who benefit from that deregulation."
5. "Hey, remember how I outsourced your jobs and stagnated your wages? Yeah, haha! Good times. Hey, I got real fucking stoned and was doing some plain retarded stuff with that mortgage I sold you... yeah, yeah. I repackaged it and sold it for like 20 times what it's worth. Hey... I need to jack your payment by like 120% to try to cover my losses."

These same guys that have had Main Street bent over the barrel, slapping us in the face with the cock of outsourcing and donkey-punching us with stagnant wages now want us to pay the bill for this date rape.

Wall Street to a crying Main Street, skirt torn and dirty: "Hey, sorry I punched you in the fucking mouth, called you a 'whiner', and then ass-raped you in the alley behind the restaraunt I told you we'd eat at. Who am I kidding? I'm not sorry for that. I actually ended up taking Congress out to dinner, Main Street. Yeah - I know you're bleeding, but I need you to pay for my date with Congress. Yeah, and you better pay right now or things will get fucking awful."

Fuck them. No matter what there's going to be pain - bailout or no. There was a bailout during the Great Depression and the Depression still happened. Fuck these assholes. Let them all lie in the bed they've made. Let the chips fall where they may and we'll just have to deal with the fallout.

We don't even know if the bailout will help. This is the actual consensus of the economic intelligensia. They admit it. How did they come up with $700 billion as the pricetag for this bailout? Just a guess...

Grrrarrrr! I could just scream. Nah - I'll go shooting instead.

Patriots, None and All

Don't talk to me about patriotism. None of you. This coming from a man who is not the patriot he could be.

First of all, the word is tainted in the modern context. Patriotism is not a bumper sticker or a ribbon. It is not the hollow words "support the troops." It is not blind allegiance to the flag.

You may believe that you support the troops, but what have you really done but say the words? Did you buy a t-shirt or did you put a magnetic ribbon on your SUV?

That same gas-guzzling behemoth that ships your petro-dollars to Saudi Wahhabi princes who then use that money to fund terrorists? Good job, Patriot.

Do you pay attention to politics? Do you vote? Do you volunteer your time or money? What civic virtues do you believe in? Do you actually know which candidates hold those same values? Do you even know what a "civic virtue" is?

Or do you vote a single issue and listen to slanderous mischaracterizations and vote on who you "feel" would be the best candidate?

Are you so ignorant that you wouldn't even know how to answer many of the questions above?

Enough questions. Too many Americans are satisfied to be ignorant. From rednecks and gang-banging thugs to soccer moms to businessmen in suits; ignorant one and all. Fat, dumb, and happy.

Modern pop culture is an incredible force for stupidity and ignorance. The Paparazzi and the obsession of the moment makes us stupid via distraction. Brad and Angelina adopted another baby? Who fucking cares!? MTV has been turning our teens into idiots for over two decades now.

Millions expend their energy tracking the lives of the famous when they should spend that energy in a way which might actually benefit themselves or their community. Watch C-Span if you must be a voyeur of the famous. You might just learn something.

Patriotism is love of the American Dream, not the flag or a President. Patriotism is a burning fire whose fuel is blood and sweat. With that blood and sweat we purchase freedom and opportunity. It is in serving country and community that we sweat and bleed. Service is the coin of patriotism.

And so we're clear on this - unquestioning patriotism actually goes by another name altogether. It's called fascism and it's completely un-American.

If I have to hear one more able-bodied man under the age of 50 tell me about how he supports the troops and we should invade Iran I will just loose it. Go volunteer if that's the way you feel. They'll take you these days, believe me. Shut the fuck up and put your own ass on the line if you think we should start a war that would spread across the Middle East, because you can't have my kids.

I swear to God, if this war is going on by the time my son turns 18 I will murder anyone who tries to take him off to fight in that tragedy. I mean that - I will stab you in the eye if you try to take my babies to go fight in a petro-war started by a retarded addict from Crawford.

But these same chickenhawks won't volunteer themselves because they are cowards. They are scared all the time because they're ignorant and they believe the local newsman when he says that there's "something in your house waiting to kill your children!!!" So of course they believe the President and other high officials when they intimate that Iraq will detonate a nuclear bomb in America.

These same officials who got six deferments themselves during Vietnam now want to commit our soldiers to wars everywhere. Fucking hypocrites. Fucking cowards. That's what enrages me about these couch-potato commandos: they assume since I don't like Bush and I think Iraq was a mistake that I must be some hippy-dippy left wing pacifist.

And in case you were wondering - yes, I have served a stint in the military myself. I was lucky enough to serve in a time of relative peace and under a President who didn't casually squander the lives of the military. I have spent time behind a trigger in the name of America. Have you?

I am no pacifist, ladies and gentlemen. I own 4 guns and I have served my country. I hate the Grateful Dead and love punk, metal, and rock. There's not a damned thing pacifist or hippy about me. Those who truly know me think I'm a bit on the militant side, as a matter of fact.

I volunteer my time and money to the causes I believe in. I serve on my neighborhood's HOA Board, I volunteer for candidates I believe in, and I put my proverbial money where my mouth is.

I recycle, am energy-conscious, I walk or bike to work, and I instill these actions as values in my children. Because what's more patriotic than taking care of the environment we all share? What is more an intrinsic part of our national heritage than the actual physical nation we leave our children?

And I think I should be doing more.

Gunshow Review

This weekend I went to the C&E Gunshow in Richmond, Virginia. All in all it was a mixed experience, I have to say. Let me break it down into these 5 categories:

1. Website
2. Selection
3. Vendors
4. Facilities
5. Atmosphere

Website - 2 stars out of 5

Pretty bad, although they did just overhaul it over the weekend. Before it had a black and white repeating gif background, was rife with misspellings, and had scrolling banners. It still has the scrolling banners, but at least they're not blinking now.

http://www.cegunshows.com/

Selection - 5 stars out of 5

Anything you could ever want is what you could find. They had everything from AK-47s to AR-15s to Glocks to Siggs to G22s to MG-34s to Tommy Guns to Mosin Nagants (for $89!) to M1 Garands to Ruger Revolvers to S&Ws of all varieties. There was more, believe me. Much, much more.

They had ammo of every variety, knives (from the practical to the purely ridiculous), and accessories that ran the gamut from helmets (modern and antique) to holsters to ammo cannisters to gunsmithing tools and the list goes on.

Vendors - 4 stars out of 5

The vendors were all very knowledgeable and courteous. They didn't really pressure you, either. Every vendor selling guns that I saw had at least one laptop station set up with Sprint or Verizon Cards for High Speed Internet access in order to process background checks. The longest wait I heard of that day for a background check to process was 30 minutes. Not bad at all.

So why the 4 out of 5 rating, you ask? Certain vendors seemed like they were catering to the hard right wing elements out there. I mean the really hard right wing element. Like swastika hard. Certain vendors seemed to have just a little too much Nazi paraphenalia for my comfort. It wasn't like they were carrying WWII collectibles in general. Nope - just the Nazi stuff. I avoided these vendors completely in terms of my purchases.

I did speak with a couple of these purveyors of Nazi ... ummm - "goods." Only one would engage me on the topic of the Nazi paraphenalia when it became clear that I was probing for non-purchase related reasons. He simply stated that there's a market for the stuff at these shows and he's just turning a buck.

His argument, if you stop thinking right there is a good one. Legally that is where it stops. But these guys weren't simply turning a buck. There were plenty of vendors out there turning plenty of bucks there that day and without Nazi BS cluttering their stalls.

But legally that's fair enough and he has every right to sell this legal merchandise. But for a crowd which claims to be the reddest and the whitest of the red, white, and blue I have to take issue with those vendors who sport the Nazi goods. I mean - really? Naziism and fascism are about as anti-American in spirit and cause as you can get.

Chances are your granddad fought alongside mine in WWII. Or at least they served somewhere in that conflict. Would they approve? It's doubtful that they would do anything short of roll over in their graves (my grandad, at least) if they knew that Americans were glorifying the monstrous empire they fought and died to protect the world from.

Anyone who embraces fascism is a short-sighted political pervert who should be ashamed to hide behind the liberties that the Constitution offers them, seeing that under fascism those freedoms wouldn't exist. Ironic, ain't it?

Facilities - 2 stars out of 5

Meh. That's about all I have to say on that. Meh. There weren't enough bathrooms - there were long lines all day. The place got very hot as the day wore on. There was absolutely no shade outside, either. The only thing the facility itself had going for it was its size. It was a large venue that could fit many vendors.

Atmosphere - 3 stars out of 5

A very mixed bag. Everyone was very polite, but there was a bit of an edge to the crowd. For instance, there were Brown Shirts there. About three of them. There was also a bit of a skinhead presence. They didn't cause any problems, though. Maybe four or five guys?

The minorities that attended tended to travel in groups. I don't know why this would be, but it might have had to do with the Nazi paraphenalia and Brown Shirts walking around.

The one bright spot is that there was a booth for Sportsmen for Warner. Not that a Democratic candidate's booth makes it a bright spot for the simple fact that he's a Democrat. No, I mean more that you definately had a right-wing presence there and it was good to see at least a little bit of a center-left presence as well. The fact that a bit of balance was tolerated was a good thing, is all I'm saying.

Gun Show in Richmond

Man, am I turning into some sort of redneck or what? Haha. See, I can use the word redneck without offending people because I grew up in Barboursville, Virginia, by God!

Me and a group of my buddies are going to a gun show in Richmond in a couple of weeks. I won't link the website because, man is it ghetto!

Tiled animated gif wallpaper? Check.

Misspelled scrolling banners? Check.

Rants about ATF agents and civil liberties? Check.

Mad ghetto.

Teaching the Kids to Shoot

My Dad taught me how to shoot using a BB Gun back when I was 8 or so. The first real gun I ever shot, however, was my Step-Dad's Ruger 10/22 Rimfire (also at 8 years old).

My oldest son is 13 and my oldest daughter is 10. It's high time I taught them how to shoot a rifle. My Step-Dad still has his old Ruger and has consented to letting me use it to teach them the way of the gun.

I'm psyched. I think, oddly enough, my daughter may enjoy it and take to it better than my son. My son is more of the cerebral type (nothing wrong with that) and my daughter is much more the physical. We'll see.

I hope the replacement rear sight I ordered over the phone with Ruger gets here in time for their visit weekend after next.

In With the New

I have recently replaced Harry with a new revolver. See below:

Ruger GP100 .357 Magnum Revolver
Reliability:	Very High
Accuracy:	Good (as pistols go)
Stopping Power:	High firing .357 mag, Moderate to Low firing .38
Time to Fire:	Low
Ammunition Commonality:	.357 is Somewhat Common, .38 special is Common
Simplicity:	Very Simple
Ammunition Capacity:	Low (6 rnds)
Manageability:	.357 round is Moderate while .38 is very manageable

Of course I'll get out there and shoot this bad boy ASAP and let you know what the deal is in terms of its accuracy. I'm hopeful.

The grip on this revolver is especially comfortable. It just fits well in my hand (I have big hands) and the rubberizing is very nice.

I'll wait util the accuracy results are in before I name this one. I don't want to get attached to it, only to have to trade it in like I did with Harry.