Sunday, December 26, 2004
Frank Burns eats worms
Just watching a M*A*S*H* rerun and thinking: How many guys like Frank Burns are running the show in Washington?
Loose nukes . . . again
From NYT:
The one guy who we can prove peddled nuclear secrets to anyone with money, never received any 'justice'. He's sitting in his mansion under house arrest (that's real punishment), because Bush sold his soul to that little cutthroat in Pakistan. We should have bombed them into nonexistence along with the Taliban. Oh, that's right, we fucked that up too. But at least we got all them WMDs Saddam had. Oh, that's right . . .
[. . .]
"This was the first time we had ever seen a loose copy of a bomb design that clearly worked," said one American expert, "and the question was: Who else had it? The Iranians? The Syrians? Al Qaeda?"
[. . .]
Nearly a year after Dr. Khan's arrest, secrets of his nuclear black market continue to uncoil, revealing a vast global enterprise. But the inquiry has been hampered by discord between the Bush administration and the nuclear watchdog, and by Washington's concern that if it pushes too hard for access to Dr. Khan, a national hero in Pakistan, it could destabilize an ally. As a result, much of the urgency has been sapped from the investigation, helping keep hidden the full dimensions of the activities of Dr. Khan and his associates.
There is no shortage of tantalizing leads. American intelligence officials and the I.A.E.A., working separately, are still untangling Dr. Khan's travels in the years before his arrest. Investigators said he visited 18 countries, including Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, on what they believed were business trips, either to buy materials like uranium ore or sell atomic goods.
[. . .]
The one guy who we can prove peddled nuclear secrets to anyone with money, never received any 'justice'. He's sitting in his mansion under house arrest (that's real punishment), because Bush sold his soul to that little cutthroat in Pakistan. We should have bombed them into nonexistence along with the Taliban. Oh, that's right, we fucked that up too. But at least we got all them WMDs Saddam had. Oh, that's right . . .
Tweaks 2
Well, I'm done doing the major fucking with this site. A couple little tweaks over the next couple days. Comments welcome. Hopefully it's easy on old eyes (like mine).
And by the way, welcome back, Gord.
And by the way, welcome back, Gord.
Truck Lag, Newsweek, and the 10 Undercovered Stories of '04
If you get the idea that this post and the two below seem to be sort of heavily relying on Newsweek,well, you're right. We drove home from the Coast yesterday, Christmas Day, hoping to avoid the worst of the traffic and give Mrs. G a day of rest before she goes back to the mines. If we did avoid the traffic, God help those who are driving North-South in California today.
Anyway, we collected our mail on the way home and there was a Newsweek. I was tired after eight hours in the saddle so all I did last night was read it. I thought there were some mighty good articles, so today, being in the throes of Truck Lag and consequently lazy, those are what I am posting.
Elinor Clift has a good article on the 10 undercovered stories of 2004. Read it. Her piece is only on line.
Go read the whole issue. It's the year-end summary and has lots of good photos, cartoons, quotes and articles. Great in the bathtub while lettin' them tired-and-sore-making toxins out.
I hope to be back to normal by tomorrow. That probably raises more questions than it answers.
Anyway, we collected our mail on the way home and there was a Newsweek. I was tired after eight hours in the saddle so all I did last night was read it. I thought there were some mighty good articles, so today, being in the throes of Truck Lag and consequently lazy, those are what I am posting.
Elinor Clift has a good article on the 10 undercovered stories of 2004. Read it. Her piece is only on line.
From Iraq casualties to health care to evolution, these are the issues that should have received more attention from the media in 2004.
Go read the whole issue. It's the year-end summary and has lots of good photos, cartoons, quotes and articles. Great in the bathtub while lettin' them tired-and-sore-making toxins out.
I hope to be back to normal by tomorrow. That probably raises more questions than it answers.
The Spirit of the Season
With all the brouhaha about "Merry Christmas" v. "Happy Holidays", Political Correctness and the secularization of Christmas, I think Anna Quinn nails it in Newsweek. Good piece. Read it.
I like her sentiment, but I am finding it a real challenge to exhibit "tolerance and charity, kindness and generosity" to a certain 51% of the American people right now. Fuck 'em.
"Humbug!" cried Scrooge before he got a chance to spend the night practicing a little empathy, and that's the best word to sum up the current hue and cry about the demise of Christmas. While cars zoomed by with trees lashed to their roofs and worshipers crowded the pews to listen as John the Baptist prepared the way, a wave of organized outrage suggested that Christmas is being driven out of existence. Who killed it? Liberal orthodoxy, secular humanism. Whenever people start throwing around science-fair phrases it's a bet that they want their opinions to sound inviolate because they are not.
So the silly annual examples are trotted out, the schools that censor Christmas carols, the townships that insist that the evergreen decorated with lights is a holiday tree. No one searches his soul about how we came to this pass. It has little to do with separation of church and state or liberal politics and everything to do with the way the blunt cudgel of Christianity has been heedlessly used, the tyranny of the majority. After years of Jewish parents' sitting through school concerts listening to the words "It is the night of our dear savior's birth," maybe oversensitivity was inevitable, since any other kind of sensitivity had been in short supply.
From the trials of witches in Salem to the talking-head evangelists of the present day, we have a rich tradition of faith-based bullying in this country (my emphasis). "The fact is, 96 percent of us celebrate Christmas," said a representative of a swat team of lawyers organized "to serve the body of Christ" by orchestrating challenges to inadequate public celebration. Humbug. One study estimates roughly 75 percent of Americans are Christian; the rest are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, agnostics. "We must never allow our children to forget that this is a Christian nation," Jerry Falwell recently said from the pulpit. Humbug. Two out of three Americans in one poll said they oppose any attempt to make it so by constitutional amendment.
Christmas is being observed exactly where it ought to be, at homes, in our hearts, among friends and families. The modern movement to exhibit it in town squares and mall food courts is precisely what has led to the secularization of one of our most solemn holy days. That's why some Jewish leaders have been uncomfortable with reducing the Chanukah menorah to a dueling religious symbol, paired with a Christmas tree for the sake of equal time. Faith is not a photo op.
So if people are really worried about keeping Christ in Christmas, they might personally exhibit tolerance and charity, kindness and generosity. It is the ultimate exercise of style over substance to whine about the absence of "O Holy Night" at public events. The real point is in taking the lyrics to heart: "Truly he taught us to love one another/His law is love and his gospel is peace." And if saying "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas" offers someone who is not of your faith more comfort and joy—well, 'tis the season for both.
I like her sentiment, but I am finding it a real challenge to exhibit "tolerance and charity, kindness and generosity" to a certain 51% of the American people right now. Fuck 'em.
Peddling the Wrong Crisis
It seems Bush is good at inventing and installing crises where none existed before he showed up with his schemes to enrich his homeys at our expense. This article in the January 3 Newsweek by the Wall St. Editor, Allan Sloan.
To kinda sum it up so my little pea brain can understand it: Bush gave away the store on Seniors' prescription benefits, in a manner that only benefits his Big Pharma buddies, and installed a $17 Trillion crisis where none existed which starts to impoverish the American people in the next year or two, while at the same time he is going to "fix" a crisis that doesn't start for twelve years by giving away what's left of the store to his Wall Street buddies so they can start impoverishing the American people in the next year or two. That sound about right?
I guess Bush feels he has to get our money into his pals' hands before the '06 elections or he won't get the chance.
As far as Bush talking with people whose views differ from his, fat fucking chance.
The asshole has the "moral values" of a Snake-Oil salesman.
President Bush's economic conference last week was a great show—if you like watching sales meetings. The conference, billed by the White House as a "frank discussion" about the president's economic program, was really a two-day infomercial that was short on "info,'' long on "mercial.'' Attendees, who had been screened by the White House, applauded at all the right places. Bush closed the conference with a dire warning about Social Security. "The longer we wait," he said, "the more expensive the solution becomes. The crisis is now."
I wasn't invited to the meeting, of course. But if I'd had a shot at the microphone, I'd have asked Bush why he thought Social Security was a crisis requiring immediate action but was ignoring a far larger and more immediate problem. To wit: the one he created a year ago when he pushed a Medicare prescription-drug plan through Congress without providing money to pay for it.
Everything's relative. Bush talked about Social Security's being a $10.4 trillion problem. That's how much you'd have to give Social Security today for it to continue paying benefits indefinitely under its current formula. But the shortfall in Bush's Medicare drug program is $17 trillion. In other words, the problem that Bush himself created a year ago is two thirds again as large as Social Security's problem (my emphasis). What's more, the drug plan starts costing taxpayers big bucks just a year from now, in 2006. We'll borrow it, of course. Social Security, for all its flaws, will take in more than enough cash to pay for itself for a dozen years even if nothing changes. So which is a "crisis"? A $17 trillion problem that starts next year, or a $10.4 trillion problem that starts in 2018? You don't need a math genius to answer that question.
I've written for years that Social Security has big long-term problems that need to be addressed, and the sooner the better. I praised Bush during the 2000 campaign for daring to broach the topic. My problem with Bush's proposal—or more accurately, with what I expect him to propose, since nothing formal has yet emerged—is that he's using fuzzy math to promise a free lunch. He rhapsodizes about private accounts—but doesn't mention that the trade-off is a cut of 40 or 50 percent in Social Security's guaranteed benefit.
If absolutely nothing changes, there will be a Social Security "crisis." But you can put the program back on course with a few tweaks—including small private accounts, if you like. You can raise the retirement age; modify the benefit formula; raise the wage base on which Social Security taxes are collected ($90,000 in 2005); trim payments for high-end folks like me. Bush, though, has ruled out many of these remedies because he wants to make good on his pledge not to change benefits or raise taxes.
Bush would put a big hole in the Social Security safety net at the very time that corporations are doing the same with pensions. Companies are dumping "defined benefit" pensions based on salaries and replacing them with plans that force employees to bear the risk of investing successfully. If we hadn't had a bull market spanning an entire generation, no one would dare propose letting tens of millions of unsophisticated investors risk Social Security money in the stock market. The bull, born in 1982, died almost five years ago, but fond memories of it linger.
Even as Bush urges average people to trust Social Security money to the market, big-time players like corporate pension funds are growing less optimistic about what the future holds. "The people running these funds know that the bull market's over, and they have been reducing their earnings estimates for the past three years," says Chris McNickle, a managing director of Greenwich Associates. General Motors, one of America's most highly regarded pension managers, has trimmed its holdings of U.S. stocks and bonds. "We wanted to reduce our exposure to large swings in the market," says GM spokesman Jerry Dubrowski.
If Bush really wants to have a meeting of the minds about Social Security, he might consider talking with people who have views different than his. And he might want to do something about his prescription-drug program before it eats us all alive.
To kinda sum it up so my little pea brain can understand it: Bush gave away the store on Seniors' prescription benefits, in a manner that only benefits his Big Pharma buddies, and installed a $17 Trillion crisis where none existed which starts to impoverish the American people in the next year or two, while at the same time he is going to "fix" a crisis that doesn't start for twelve years by giving away what's left of the store to his Wall Street buddies so they can start impoverishing the American people in the next year or two. That sound about right?
I guess Bush feels he has to get our money into his pals' hands before the '06 elections or he won't get the chance.
As far as Bush talking with people whose views differ from his, fat fucking chance.
The asshole has the "moral values" of a Snake-Oil salesman.
Christmas reading
For those interested: Chapter 6 of Empires is up at creativity . . .
Also, I'm gonna be doing a little screwing with the template here today. Got some issues with this one, namely too many Java script problems. So bear with me.
Also, I'm gonna be doing a little screwing with the template here today. Got some issues with this one, namely too many Java script problems. So bear with me.
Inauguration Schedule
From Jesus' General:
Funny stuff.
[. . .]
9:00 A. M. - Catholic League president William Donohue delivers the invocation, asking the Lord to smite the anal-sex loving Jews in Hollywood.
9:30 - Donald Rumsfeld uses an AT4 Light Anti-Armor Weapon to destroy a tank, thus proving his contention that armoring Humvees is not all that important. The families of any attendees killed during this demonstration will receive a thank you letter personally stamped with Sec. Rumsfeld's signature by an E-4 in the Pentagon's mail office.
10:00 - Alberto Gonzalez does an interpretive dance based on his torture memos.
10:30 - Secretary of State nominee Condoleeza Rice pays tribute to her husband by reading an original poem called, "I Guess They Weren't Kidding When They Said that Bin Laden was determined to attack inside the U.S."
[. . .]
Funny stuff.
Housing starts
Been saying this since summer (here, here, and here).
Story.
However, leave us not forget that the top two nitwits at Fannie Mae have had to step down under shady circumstances, so anything that comes out of there is suspect.
Housing and mortgage refinancing have been keeping the economy moving along. That, and corporate cost-saving measures (read: layoffs and contract renegotiations). With that old nitwit Greenspan promising he'll continue to steadily raise interest rates through at least the first half of '05, look for housing starts to fall again next month, regardless of what the 'experts' say. Remember, they all, directly or indirectly, work for Bush.
A real indicator will be when they get all the holiday spending numbers sorted out. By Christmas Eve, most places weren't anywhere near their last year's totals. Well, except for high-end concerns. Seems the rich are breaking all records for spending. I guess those tax cuts are really working, huh? If the consumer confidence indexes take a hit, watch the economic forecasts also take a turn downward. At least in the reality-based world, that is.
[. . .]
Sales of new homes plunged 12 percent last month, the biggest drop since a 23.8 percent fall in January 1994, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.125 million units. But industry analysts played its significance down, saying applications for new mortgages still were at healthy levels.
“I would not view this report as the beginning of a significant downturn,” David Berson, chief economist for mortgage financing giant Fannie Mae in Washington.
[. . .]
Story.
However, leave us not forget that the top two nitwits at Fannie Mae have had to step down under shady circumstances, so anything that comes out of there is suspect.
Housing and mortgage refinancing have been keeping the economy moving along. That, and corporate cost-saving measures (read: layoffs and contract renegotiations). With that old nitwit Greenspan promising he'll continue to steadily raise interest rates through at least the first half of '05, look for housing starts to fall again next month, regardless of what the 'experts' say. Remember, they all, directly or indirectly, work for Bush.
A real indicator will be when they get all the holiday spending numbers sorted out. By Christmas Eve, most places weren't anywhere near their last year's totals. Well, except for high-end concerns. Seems the rich are breaking all records for spending. I guess those tax cuts are really working, huh? If the consumer confidence indexes take a hit, watch the economic forecasts also take a turn downward. At least in the reality-based world, that is.
While Nero fiddles
Does this disturb anyone besides me?
Story.
So, we have the Chinese gaining a bigger foothold in the Western Hemisphere, developing oil resources that could, should, have been ours. While I'm all for conservation, there are some realities here. We do have a great thirst for petroleum, and the Chinese are direct competitors for resources. With demand at an all-time high, and production reaching the same plateau, instead of trying to strike a deal with Chavez, the Bush administration did their best to overthrow him.
Our inept foreign policy has left us on the outside looking in, a continuation of the diplomatic damage caused by the rejection of Kyoto and the folly in Iraq. Opening ANWR up to drilling will certainly not make up the difference. If they were smart, they'd work a deal with the Russians to help them develop the vast perto-resources under Siberia. That's if the Chinese don't make a deal with 'em first, or just decide to take it.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has offered China wide access to his country's vast energy resources, including oilfields and the possibility of increased direct crude supplies.
The offers were contained in a bilateral energy accord signed in Beijing late on Thursday following talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao, the presidential press office in Caracas said.
[. . .]
Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter, ships more than half its daily oil output to the US, but since taking office the leftist Chavez has sought to reduce its economic dependence on the nearby US market.
"Venezuela is making a major energy offer to China because China has become the world's second biggest energy importer," the Venezuelan president said in Beijing on Thursday.
[. . .]
Story.
So, we have the Chinese gaining a bigger foothold in the Western Hemisphere, developing oil resources that could, should, have been ours. While I'm all for conservation, there are some realities here. We do have a great thirst for petroleum, and the Chinese are direct competitors for resources. With demand at an all-time high, and production reaching the same plateau, instead of trying to strike a deal with Chavez, the Bush administration did their best to overthrow him.
Our inept foreign policy has left us on the outside looking in, a continuation of the diplomatic damage caused by the rejection of Kyoto and the folly in Iraq. Opening ANWR up to drilling will certainly not make up the difference. If they were smart, they'd work a deal with the Russians to help them develop the vast perto-resources under Siberia. That's if the Chinese don't make a deal with 'em first, or just decide to take it.
Saturday, December 25, 2004
Syria, eh?
From the Jerusalem Post:
Instead of going into Iraq with enough troops to seal the borders and keeping the bad guys from sneaking out, only to come back and fuck our asses later, we go 'with the Army we've got'. What in Hell are we gonna do (aside from bombing them back to the Stone Age) if the Syrians decide to fight back? Don't have the troops to handle the additional load, do we, Rummy? I'm waiting for my draft notice.
The US is contemplating incursions into Syrian territory in an attempt to kill or capture Iraqi Ba'athists who, it believes, are directing at least part of the attacks against US targets in Iraq, a senior administration official told The Jerusalem Post.
The official said that fresh sanctions are likely to be implemented, but added that the US needs to be more "aggressive" after Tuesday's deadly attack on a US base in Mosul. The comment suggested that the US believes the attack on the mess tent, in which 22 people were killed, may have been coordinated from inside Syrian territory.
"I think the sanctions are one thing. But I think the other thing [the Syrians] have got to start worrying about is whether we would take cross-border military action in hot pursuit or something like that. In other words, nothing like full-scale military hostilities. But when you're being attacked from safe havens across the border – we've been through this a lot of times before – we're just not going to sit there.
[. . .]
Instead of going into Iraq with enough troops to seal the borders and keeping the bad guys from sneaking out, only to come back and fuck our asses later, we go 'with the Army we've got'. What in Hell are we gonna do (aside from bombing them back to the Stone Age) if the Syrians decide to fight back? Don't have the troops to handle the additional load, do we, Rummy? I'm waiting for my draft notice.
Could ya spare it?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush on Friday made Christmas Eve telephone calls to U.S. troops in Iraq to thank them for their sacrifice following a deadly suicide bombing at a U.S. base.
Bush called 10 troops, including six in Iraq, "to express his gratitude for their service and sacrifice and to wish them all a merry Christmas and happy holidays," White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said.
Bush made the calls from the Camp David presidential retreat.
[. . .]
Wow, ya called 10 guys while you're sittin' there, kickin' back at Camp David. Could ya' spare the time? Christmas is hard work. Did ya' break a sweat makin' those 10 phone calls, or did somebody actually dial the fucking phone for ya' too? What a miserable, incompetent fucking failure.
Nuke the whales
Or the equivalent:
I can't wait until the day we realize, the way the American Indians did thousands of years ago, that we are merely stewards of this planet, instead of the owners. We have the potential to do such great things in harmony with nature, instead of shitting it up. Thanks to 12thharmonic Blog for the link.
The bones of beached whales show signs of decompression sickness - the "bends" suffered by deep-sea divers - which scientists believe could explain why some sea mammals are stranded en masse.
A study of the skeletons of sperm whales has found that many of them suffered from a type of bone damage normally associated with the bends, when bubbles of nitrogen form in the blood causing pain and distress.
The findings lend support to the theory that loud underwater noises produced during naval exercises using submarine sonar could startle whales and dolphins and cause them to surface more rapidly than they would normally.
[. . .]
Michael Moore and Greg Early, of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, found extensive damage, called osteonecrosis, to the bones of stranded sperm whales.
They suggest that this could support the idea that sea mammals in general are vulnerable to becoming stranded when they are startled into rising too soon from a deep dive.
[. . .]
I can't wait until the day we realize, the way the American Indians did thousands of years ago, that we are merely stewards of this planet, instead of the owners. We have the potential to do such great things in harmony with nature, instead of shitting it up. Thanks to 12thharmonic Blog for the link.
Friday, December 24, 2004
Christmas
Heading out in a little while to Mrs. F's brother's house. His wife is an Eye-talian and an outrageous cook (almost as good as Mrs. F), and on Christmas Eve she does the Fish-a-thon. From 6 until midnight, I'll do nothing but eat. And, as usual, Jews will outnumber every other religion around the table. Know what? It doesn't matter, because it's about goodwill to others. We'll be with people we love and care about. I think Jesus would have approved.
To all our readers and fellow bloggers, have a happy, healthy, safe, and most of all, a very Merry Christmas.
To all our readers and fellow bloggers, have a happy, healthy, safe, and most of all, a very Merry Christmas.
Note: I'll see you sometime tomorrow, when my hangover wears off
Bug the Krauts
Via RDF at Corrente:
There's an email form letter you can electronically sign and it will be sent to the German Federal Prosecutor.
This might be the only way justice is served, being that the corrupt regime in the White House sure as hell won't do anything, and are probably just as culpable.
. . . And call on the German Federal Prosecutor to INVESTIGATE RUMSFELD and other U.S. officials for war crimes at Abu Ghraib. See if that “big grin” is operative in a courtroom. . .
There's an email form letter you can electronically sign and it will be sent to the German Federal Prosecutor.
The Center for Constitutional Rights and four Iraqis who were tortured in U.S. custody filed a complaint on November 30 with the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office against high ranking United States civilian and military commanders over the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere in Iraq.
We are asking the German prosecutor to launch an investigation because the U.S. government is unwilling to open an independent investigation into the responsibility of these officials for war crimes and the U.S. has refused to join the International Criminal Court. CCR and the Iraqi victims brought this complaint to Germany as a court of last resort. Several of the defendants are stationed in Germany.
[. . .]
This might be the only way justice is served, being that the corrupt regime in the White House sure as hell won't do anything, and are probably just as culpable.
Christian values
What would Jesus say?
NYT via Melanie.
I thought the idea was 'putting Christ back in Christmas'? The way we neglect the poor and downtrodden is probably making Jesus' ass pucker.
Merry Christmas.
[. . .]
And we learned this week that in the last two months, the Bush administration has reduced its contributions to global food aid programs aimed at helping hungry nations become self-sufficient, and it has told charities like Save the Children and Catholic Relief Services that it won't honor earlier promises. Instead, administration officials said that most of the country's emergency food aid would go to places where there were immediate crises.
Something's not right here. The United States is the world's richest nation. Washington is quick to say that it contributes more money to foreign aid than any other country. But no one is impressed when a billionaire writes a $50 check for a needy family. The test is the percentage of national income we give to the poor, and on that basis this country is the stingiest in the Group of Seven industrialized nations.
The administration has cited the federal budget deficit as the reason for its cutback in donations to help the hungry feed themselves. In fact, the amount involved is a pittance within the federal budget when compared with our $412 billion deficit, which has been fueled by war and tax cuts. The administration can conjure up $87 billion for the fighting in Iraq, but can it really not come up with more than $15.6 billion - our overall spending on development assistance in 2002 - to help stop an 8-year-old AIDS orphan in Cameroon from drinking sewer water or to buy a mosquito net for an infant in Sierra Leone?
[. . .]
NYT via Melanie.
I thought the idea was 'putting Christ back in Christmas'? The way we neglect the poor and downtrodden is probably making Jesus' ass pucker.
Merry Christmas.
Christmas Eve
You don't expect me to put up some sappy message for Christmas, do you? I'll leave that to others. As many of you know, I'm an animal lover (dogs especially). On this (supposedly) happiest of holidays, maybe we should remember the creatures who can't speak for themselves. David at 42 is of like mind:
Responsible pet ownership (I hate that word in this context) is something severely lacking in our consume and discard society. Pets are not toys or penis extensions, so don't buy your fucking kid a dog for Christmas. A cute puppy or kitten doesn't stay cute long if you're not prepared for it. If you're not ready to make a 12-15 year commitment, don't get one. And remember, between 2 and 3 million unwanted dogs and cats are euthanized every year. Don't add to the statistic, butthead.
Vulgarians
You know, rich stupid people have the right to spend their money however they want. But $50,000 to buy the First cloned cat sold in the U.S. is money that could have been used to foster and save the lives of hundreds of unwanted cats and dogs that other people mostly discard like used condoms. Maybe “Julie” isn’t stupid or mean-spirited or even rich and just wanted her old kitty back, but she’s got an unhealthy grip on reality.
Me, when Señor Toenails goes to kitty hell, I’ll probably go to the local shelter and let another one pick me out just like last time, or take a couple of the free kittens that idiots who don’t understand the words “spay” and “neuter” are always giving away.
Responsible pet ownership (I hate that word in this context) is something severely lacking in our consume and discard society. Pets are not toys or penis extensions, so don't buy your fucking kid a dog for Christmas. A cute puppy or kitten doesn't stay cute long if you're not prepared for it. If you're not ready to make a 12-15 year commitment, don't get one. And remember, between 2 and 3 million unwanted dogs and cats are euthanized every year. Don't add to the statistic, butthead.
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Freedom
I've been delinquent for not visiting Patrick over at yelladog for the last couple days and I missed this:
Excellent post. Go read.
[. . .]
Please allow me to drop back a bit to one of my favorite discussions that will also serve as a clarification of terms- Americans often confuse consumer choice with Liberty. Many of us think that we are "Free" because we can buy twenty different brands or styles of jeans for less than $20. (How many times have you heard an SUV apologist say "It's a free country, I can drive whatever I want!"? Both parts of that statement are true in varying degrees, though neither is a tautology and neither is completely false.)
[. . .]
Excellent post. Go read.
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