Hemorrhoids, Democrats, and Iran

The Things I Think Blog has been published a little late this week. The latest figures from economists is that the Stimulus Package will cost each American $6700 in debt…I figured I’d work some overtime this week and start paying down my share.

Save the Hemorrhoids

When I was young, there was a campaign by Greenpeace, or some other tree hugging organization, to Save the Whales. I was okay with that. Cute, gigantic, multi-ton mammals floating around the ocean: who couldn’t be behind that? Then came the campaign to Save the Rainforest. Okay. Save trees so they suck up carbon dioxide…I get it. Then came Recycling, Global Cooling, Global Warming, and the “What Would Jesus Drive?” Campaign to get us to stop driving SUVs…incidentally, Jesus probably would have driven a Ford Expedition—he had 12 disciples to haul everywhere; they never would have fit in a Prius. None of those bothered me too much.

This week, Greenpeace stepped over the line. Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist for the Natural Resources Defense Council said, “Future generations are going to look at the way we make toilet paper as one of the greatest excesses of our age…[it]is a lot worse than driving Hummers in terms of global warming pollution.”

Holy crap!! (pun intended)

My guess, and mind you I am only an ignorant blogger, is that future generations will in no way question the manner in which we cleaned our hind ends.

If you choose to use leaves or the new, reusable wipe that has recently hit the market, live in a earthen shack, walk to work, and eat only plants--more power to you. As for me, I will continue to use the softest TP money can buy, live in a house large enough to find some peace and quiet, drive whatever I want to work, and eat meat…maybe some fresh whale.

Keep a Keen Eye to the South

Mexico, right now, is essentially engaged in a civil war. The wars between rival drug factions have claimed thousands of lives (and estimated 6000 in 2008—by the way, more than were killed by institutionalized violence in Iraq in 2008). Decapitated bodies are now found on a daily basis. It is not safe to walk the streets of Mexico City; more people are kidnapped in Mexico City than any other city in the world. Why should we pay attention? Know what the 2nd most dangerous city in the world is for kidnappings?

Phoenix…Arizona…USA.

In the last year alone countless people in California, Arizona, and Texas have been kidnapped and taken back across the border where they were held for ransom or killed. Hitmen from a Mexican cartel burst into a Phoenix home, dressed as SWAT team members, raked the home with gunfire, executing a man inside. In Texas, a live grenade was thrown into a bar frequented by US drug agents.

President Obama and Janet Napolitano, Director of Homeland Security, had better pay attention and fast. The Mexican government is about to collapse and if it does, hundreds of thousands of refugees will pour across the border. The US will be faced with a humanitarian situation similar to those found in Africa. Or worse, a drug runner will be shot by a rancher, the rancher’s family will be killed by a cartel in retaliation, and every gun-owning Texan (and there are a lot) will take up post on the border…on second thought that might not be a bad idea…at least someone will have realized that the US needs to reinforce the border with a military presence. Pay attention to this. But you won’t find this story in the mainstream media…why? Because it proves that conservatives have been right about the issue of border control for years…and a conservative, according to the Liberal media, can never be right.

Appeasement: It Worked So Well the 1st Time…

Thank God for John Kerry. The Senator from Massachusetts just recently returned from a trip to the Middle East in which he met with the leaders of Syria and Iran, and brought a love note home from President Ahmadinejad to President Obama. It seems that the letter has worked…President Obama has been wooed into a deal to lay off Iran for awhile.

Russian newspapers are reporting that President Obama has offered a deal to the Kremlin in which the US will scrap its missile defense shield plans in Eastern Europe in exchange for “help with Iran”. Didn’t Faust make a similar deal?

The Russians, especially Vladimir Putin, are glad President Bush is gone. The Obama Administration, and its “peace at all cost” approach is exactly what Mother Russia needs.

Here is how this will go down:

First: Obama abandons (I mean thoughtfully withdraws from) Iraq, Russia promises to get Iran to stop building a nuclear weapon, the US does not build a missile shield in Europe, and Obama is lauded by the Liberal media for solving the world’s problems.

Meanwhile: the Iranians never stop building a nuke (with supplies from Russia), Russia, now allied with Iran, pressures Iraq to cut ties with the US, the US still is not protecting Poland, the Czech Republic and all the other Eastern European nations that could be vital to US interests, and Obama is called a hero for the “peace” around the world…despite 14 terrorist attacks perpetrated by former residents of Guantanamo Bay who were released by the courts because they were not read their Miranda Rights on the battlefield.

Then: Iran nukes Israel, Israel responds and is called a “monster”, Russia invades eastern Europe (claiming a need for a “buffer zone” of security from NATO), the US and EU are powerless to stop them because the Iran-Iraq-Russian alliance now controls 90% the world’s oil (since the Obama Administration stopped the drilling of that filthy, polluting stuff a couple of years before), and for some reason, despite the nauseous amounts of idealism oozing from the White House, F22 Raptors just won’t fly on solar energy and corn oil. The situation is even more dire because Obama Mandate #3,456 prohibited the use of soft toilet paper.

Finally: The Democrats get booted, a Republican takes over, does what Obama should have done years ago: takes out Iran, flexes his muscles toward Russia and stops the invasion, goes back to killing terrorists instead of trying to make them feel comfy…and is called a “war-monger” by the Liberal Media…and an enemy to the environment because he uses Charmin Ultra-Soft.

Change, all that is left in your pockets to count…on.

I am going to give you a number that will absolutely, positively, blow your mind…9,700,000,000,000…

9.7 trillion. That is the amount of money the US government will have committed after passing this latest “stimulus” package to “solving” the country’s financial crisis and it is equal to 2/3 of the value of everything that was produced last year in the USA (Bloomberg.com). $9.7 trillion of YOUR tax money. And President Obama has promised that this is just one leg of the stool…which means there is more to come!

This amount is outrageous. Look, I know people in this country are hurting, I am not callous to that. But, how is this type of out of control spending going to help anyone?!?! One of three things will be done to pay for all of this:
(1) higher taxes—in other words, less money in your pocket
(2) print more money, inflation skyrockets and things you buy everyday will cost more—in other words, less money in your pocket

Barack Obama was right when he campaigned that we can count on change in his administration…that’s all any of us working Americans will have left in our pockets.

And what has all this spending gotten us so far…

January 2008: Unemployment= 4.9%; GDP Growth=1% in 1st Q; about 4.5% in 2 of 4 Q in 2007

$168 billion in tax cuts and rebates in 2008…the “Chinese Economic Stimulus Checks” that went out under the Bush Administration were nothing short of the most Socialist thing a government could do…just give its people money. And, since most people either paid off debt, put it in savings or bought things Made in China, it did little to help the US economy…Beijing sure appreciated it though.

August 2008: Unemployment= 6.2%; GDP Growth= 3% in 2Q

Election season politics take over, we all hear how bad the economy is…so we believe it and stop spending. People can’t pay the loans they never should have signed up for in the first place, banks collapse, and instead of letting them and allowing new banks to take over, we spend….

$700 billion in the “Bank Bailout”, which the CEOs of the banks proceed to blow. This does not include the $2.3 trillion lent by the Fed that we never heard about.

December 2008: Unemployment= 7.2%; GDP= -3.8% in 4Q

As you can see, nothing was solved by throwing all that money at the problem. In fact, things got worse. The fact of the matter is that the economy was not that bad to begin with. Since recovering from the economic blow of 9/11, the economy expanded EVERY quarter except for one. Unemployment hovered around 4.5% for all of 2006 and 2007. In fact, the worst if got in the last 10 years was during the Congressional election cycles of 2002 and 2004 when the Dems were trying to scare the bejeezus out of everyone to convince us how horrible President Bush and the Republican Congress was doing.

And now…despite all the preponderance of evidence that none of this been successful so far the Democrats in Congress just passed another massively bloated spending bill…at least $780 billion. This is serious…things will only continue to get worse if the government continues to spend like this.