Has anyone seen this TV ad for Five Hour Energy?

I’ve seen it a number of times.  It just has a lady in a pants suit sitting on a table next to a very tall stack of paper.  Her spiel, which I am paraphrasing, goes something like this.

"Have you asked your doctor about Five Hour Energy?  We did, and the results were AMAZING!  Fully 73% of doctors surveyed said that they would recommend a low calorie energy supplement to their patients who use energy supplements.  73%!"

There’s a bit more, but that’s the crux of this ad spot.

Gah, I can’t stand overt stupid in our society, and I hate it when advertisers just assume the viewers have the intellect of a persimmon.   I don’t suppose I need to point out to you, alert reader, about how inane this ad is.  The only thing that this “study” found out is that 73% (which actually isn’t that much to brag about) would prefer their patients, if they absolutely feel they must use an energy supplement, use a low calorie one rather than a fattening one.  Nothing about recommending an energy supplement in the first place, nothing at all about Five Hour Energy specifically….  When I asked my doctor once about one of those supplements for joint discomfort that has glucosamine and condrotin in it, he said something like, “Well, it can’t hurt you.”  That’s what doctors really think of dietary supplements for any reason.

I just find it fantastic, given how much money is involved in buying time on national TV for commercials, that this ad company expects a lot of potential customers to be convinced by this argument.  But perhaps, people really are swayed by someone who spouts a bunch of statistics that may sound impressive but are really out to manipulate the viewer.  Sort of like our current politicians.

Here’s someone else that finds Five Hour Energy ads to be stupid and potentially deceptive.

The Olympics certainly aren't what they used to be.

My opening statement is not a criticism.  I like them much better now than when I was a kid.  I was trying to explain to my 16 year old daughter how the Olympics were viewed when I was a kid, which was always, always through the lens of the Cold War.  Us vs. Them.  How many medals did the U.S. and its allies win vs. the Soviet Bloc?  That's what I remember the most about the Olympics when I was a kid.

There was always outrage when our gymnasts were given really low scores by the Russian or East German judges.  I remember how the men's basketball team was literally robbed of a gold medal by the officials by giving them not one "do over" at the very end of a game with a half court heave, but TWO "do overs."  I remember the U.S. boycotting the Moscow Olympics because of their involvement in Afghanistan (and boy, in retrospect, do we look stupid now) and the Soviet Union and their allies boycotting the games in LA.  I remember every once in while that we actually rooted for one of "their" athletes because they were so good, such as Nadia.  And I most certainly remember the U.S. hockey team's "Miracle On Ice" at Lake Placid.  I even have a hockey puck somewhere around here with a sticker of the U.S. hockey team on it when I saw them doing their warm ups by playing all the teams in the Central Hockey League way back when.

I am not sure my daughter could really get what I was saying.  After all, she has no direct experience with anything like that.  The Cold War is just something that happened back in the depths of time that she reads about in her history book.

I am certainly not saying there aren't political tensions in the world.  But it is certainly nice that, for the most part, they don't manifest themselves in the Olympics anymore.  The Olympic Games are not seen as some "proxy war" for who has the best ideology.  And that's really a very positive development.  I actually enjoy rooting for the Russians now and then.

One more thought on guns and the lack of gun control in America.

Here's a comparison to think about when debating gun violence in this country.

On 9/11, one of the worst days in American history, somewhere around 3000 people were murdered in cold blood by a number of fanatics.  Over that event, this country ended up starting two wars (even if Iraq wasn't about 9/11 directly, George Bush certainly used the opportunity to get his war of choice), each of which set a record for the longest war this country had ever participated in.  Thousands of American soldiers were killed, and tens of thousands were maimed for life.  Over a trillion dollars was spent, and hundreds of thousands of civilians from both Iraq and Afghanistan were killed.  That's what this country did in the name of the 3000 people who died on 9/11.  "Never forget!"

On the other hand, somewhere between 9000 and 10,000 people in the U.S. are killed by gun violence each and every year, and we do absolutely nothing.  Let me repeat that.  Between 9000 and 10,000 people in the U.S. are killed by gun violence each and every year, and we do absolutely nothing.

The ability of Americans to rationalize away anything that contradicts with their established beliefs is nothing short of dumbfounding.

UPDATE:  Actually, Cognitive Dissonance was the term I was looking for.

UPDATE:  Here is actually what looks like to me a non-satirical commentary from The Onion, courtesy of Balloon Juice.

12 dead in a shooting rampage outside of Denver at a Batman movie.

This country is really, really sick. I am not sure I am not talking about a country which can continually produce nutjobs that believe they need to solve their grievances by taking out guns and blowing away innocent people. Yes, every country has the lunatics, such as Norway, for example, but this country seems to have more than our fair share.

But again, what I am talking about is the fact that these types of events are so damn commonplace. They seem to happen several times a year now. And I will absolutely goddamn guarantee that this event will be all but forgotten within six months, just like the shooting at Virginia Tech was. Just like the horrific shooing of Gabby Giffords at a campaign event outside a shopping mall in Tucson.  Those have all but been forgotten, except when someone brings up Giffords every now and then.

 Any attempt by anyone to actually DO anything about gun violence in this country will be met with overwhelming opposition, and the attempt will crumble. Any attempt will be labeled as “Political Opportunism” and “Government Overreach.” The country, as a whole (which is different than a majority of the population, because that doesn’t factor in money, the NRA, and political timidity), would rather have these sickening events a couple of times a year where countless innocent people die or come through the event with horrible physical and psychic scars, than actually curtail anyone’s easy access to as many guns as they want. THAT is what is important in this country. Innocent lives are not important in the face of letting crazy people have guns.

Don’t give me that crap about statistics. I can show you just as many statistics about how having guns in someone’s home increases the change, by a large amount, of someone getting shot accidently.

 Don’t give me that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” No, guns do kill people. That’s the predominate reason that many guns are manufactured and sold. Sure, there are rifles and shotguns made specifically for hunting of animals (which I think is cruel and absurd, but do recognize it as a legitimate form of “recreation”). But most guns are made to kill people.

I feel so badly, just like I do after every shooting. Nothing will happen. People will wring their hands and say, “how horrible.” And other people will immediately go into their defensive/pre-emptive offensive mode, ready to stomp on any attempt to do anything about curtailing gun violence. And absolutely nothing will happen. This is the norm. People die in car crashes, no one wants to take away people’s cars. (I have actually heard that one as an argument.) Therefore, by extension, why worry about a few nuts with guns which we can’t do anything about anyway? Don’t concern yourself that we haven’t actually TRIED to do anything. We just know that we can’t solve the problem. So, let’s just forget about this, shall we? Good. Too bad about all those kids that were killed and injured because they wanted to see the new Batman movie. That’s just how it goes.

I hate this country.

UPDATE:  This is in response to the first comment I received on my post, only about 10 minutes after I hit post.  I thought about addressing this "argument" in my original post, but I was so upset and in a hurry that I didn't go there.  Not that it would have mattered to those people who think that the best/only solution to gun violence in this country is to arm EVERYONE.  Yep, sure can't see any problems with that....  No, I am sure that drunken disputes at 2 a.m. in a bar that currently only results in broken teeth and bloody knuckles would NEVER result in a gun fight.  Just like the case of Trayvon Martin in Florida didn't end up with a 17 year old kid dead because some hot shot with a gun and a chip on his shoulder (who wasn't even drunk at the time) decided he was going to instigate something.  No, guns certainly don't empower people with feelings of control, machismo and invulnerability.  No, and I am sure that when something did come up, no more innocent bystanders would be hurt or killed in the crossfire.  20 people shooting in a dark movie theater with smoke bombs and tear gas going off?  No, no chance of anyone else getting hurt.

Goddamn, I cannot understand this country.  People have lost sight of all perspective and ideology is REQUIRED to drive all responses anymore.  No logic.  No understanding of anyone's problems other than their own, either real or imaginary.  Only mindless tribalism.  "They" are against this, so "we" MUST be for it!  And vis versa.

I still maintain that the 2nd Amendment was written to address the issue of the government being able to raise a fighting force (i.e., "militia") very quickly, as there wasn't a standing army back then.  To me, that's simple logic.  But a huge percentage of the people in this country believe that it means that anyone, even those with a history of domestic violence and mental illness, should be allowed to have as many guns as they want, without any government "interference" at all.  It's perfectly fine to have to go through mandatory training and getting a drivers license to drive a car, but guns?  Hey, it's all good.  No regulations necessary.

And I am just as sure that I will get more crazy comments like that first one.  I may end up using my authority as owner of the blog to delete those comments, of course....  You want to advocate arming the entire country?  Go get your own damn blog.

UPDATE:  I revised the number of dead in the title from 14 to 12.  Initial reports on events like these are always confused/confusing and will always be subject to correction after things settle down a bit.

UPDATE:  Ah, great.  The shooter booby-trapped his apartment.  That's just great....  This guy really meant to go out in a blaze of glory, or whatever that amounted to in his sick, twisted mind.  I don't care how badly anyone may think that "society" or the government has treated them.  There is absolutely no justification for this.

This just about sums it all up.....

Here are some reasons I think the United States is in decline.

There are a number of reasons why I can’t say that this country “is doomed” or will be “totally irrelevant on the world stage.” Sheer inertia, for one thing. Plus we are still one of the biggest consumer nations on the planet. Plus we have a huge standing military with nukes. Other countries will have to pay attention to us, even if it is to humor us while privately rolling their eyes at each other in private when our name comes up.

Here are some things that will lead to our increasing irrelevance and eventual downfall as a world power.

• The country is being run by the rich and powerful solely for the benefit of the rich and powerful. Everyone else absolutely does not matter. The only time we get any of the crumbs is if our self-interests also coincides with the self-interests of the rich and powerful, which isn’t that often. The country, the most rich and powerful on earth, no longer cares for its citizenry.

• Ideology trumps good results. One political party has decided that government is evil and is doing everything it can to destroy that government. Yet, these are the same people who mouth patriotic slogans and the drop of a hat and will accuse their “enemies” of being un-American for disagreeing with their ideology.

• Making vast amounts of money is the only thing that matters. Just “making money” doesn’t cut it anymore. Companies have to make the absolute maximum they can, 100% of the time. Doing the right thing by their customers is a thing of the past.

• We have a large number of politicians who will say and do absolutely anything to get elected, even if it means contradicting themselves from two weeks ago and flat out lying through their teeth.

• We have one political party dedicated to destroying the other, and any means, regardless of the ethics or non-legality, will suffice. The end justifies the means. Government will be sabotaged in order to gain a perceived political advantage, even if most of the people in the U.S. will suffer in the short term, and probably the long term as well.

• The Republican Party has lost track of the overall vision of this country. What has been substituted is to object to every single thing the Democrats propose or try to accomplish. Again, the outcome is the only thing that matters. The cost to the country as a whole is not considered.

• Politicians and powerful people with a lot of influence will make up the most outlandish fabrications and outright lies in order to gain some sort of political advantage.

• Our media is no longer dedicated to getting to the truth. The reporters are driven by favoritism, “good old boy” politics, and a desire to remain in “the club.” The conglomerates that own the media outlets are interested in making as much money as possible. News is no longer outside that “for profit” box. Plus, they have huge stakes in the political game so that they can retain their position of vast wealth and power. Neither party has any desire to change.

• We have one media outlet that controls the political discussion and also acts as kingmaker that is totally dedicated to destroying anyone who disagrees with them, and will fabricate anything the can to achieve that goal.

• Our voting population includes a very large percentage of very ignorant people. They can be easily stampeded into voting against their own interests, as long as the issues are framed in a way that it is “us against them” and their own “values.”

• Science, regardless of the subject matter, is now on par with “strong opinions.” Scientific findings can be ignored when inconvenient, but will be trumpeted when a scientific finding happens to coincide with someone’s predetermined beliefs.

• We no longer desire to invest in this country, for things like education and infrastructure. It is more important that "shareholders" get a large return on their stock investments. Anything not collapsing right now can be ignored.

• We celebrate ignorance. Knowledge and experience are now suspect.

• A large percentage of the American people do not care to become knowledgeable about anything. They want to be entertained. Video games, high def/3D television, smart phones that will do almost anything, are apparently all that is required to keep a majority of Americans happy.

• A large percentage of Americans seem to think that America is “exceptional.” However, they have absolutely no basis for this belief. We are behind the rest of the world in almost every category that means anything.

I sure I will think about more. I really, really hate this country right now. If I were in a position to move to another one, I would probably do it. I have about seven years until retirement. I think emigrating is a definite possibility at that time.

Love of money consistently outranks doing the right thing in the United States.

I find that I keep writing blog posts that start out with some variation of “The ONE thing that I find most amazing….” Of course, that only reflects what I am thinking that very day. In reality, there are just so many things is today’s society that I just don’t understand and could never imagine happening in this country.

Today’s “ONE thing I don’t understand” is how often we see stories, from all the various aspects of our complex society, that show us that people seem to consistently put making large amounts of money over doing the right thing. In this following story from Crooks and Liars, “the right thing” not only has to do with following the law but also protecting worker’s safety in a very dangerous workplace.

An independent state probe in West Virginia concludes that mining giant, Massey Energy, was responsible for the April 2010 explosion that killed 29 underground coal mining workers. It echoes preliminary findings by federal investigators earlier this year that Massey repeatedly violated federal rules on ventilation and minimizing coal dust to reduce the risk of explosion, and rejects Massey’s claim that a burst of gas from a hole in the mine floor was at fault. The report also notes Massey’s strong political influence, which it uses "to attempt to control West Virginia’s political system" and regulatory bodies.

Even when people have died and it is shown that the owners were negligent, they still fight against doing the right thing, because it will cost them money. These huge companies already make lots and lots of money for the people running them, as well as all the “stakeholders.” I absolutely detest that word, as it infers that the workers themselves are not “stakeholders.” But it is the idea that companies can’t even spend a 10th of one percent on making workers safer or even paying them little more than subsistence wages if it would mean giving up even that much of their precious profits. Profits are all that matter, it seems. Making huge amounts of money is never enough if there is one more drop of blood that can be squeezed from the stone. Profits for owners and stakeholders. That absolutely comes first these days.

Why is this? Where did this mindset come from in our society? Is our species just that greedy by genetics that it comes naturally? Have we not reached a place in the history of our society that we can afford to make sure that everyone has a piece of the pie, and is confident in the fact that their workplace is safe from hazards in the process? Why does a rising tide NEVER float all the boats? Why is it that the rich and powerful always want more riches and more power? I just truly do not understand this motivation.

In the richest country our world has ever seen, why is it that those on top seem to think those underneath them in the power structure are somehow slackers, that they are undeserving to share in the riches? What is it about people that drive them in this manner? Getting back to the story I quoted above, how could anyone be so callous and uncaring about worker’s safety that they couldn’t spend a bit more time and money in making sure their workers, the ones the rich and powerful depend upon for their riches, are safe when they come to work? What ever happened to “doing the right thing?”

This is a constant theme from today’s news items. Republicans want to bust those greedy unions, the ones that try to give a voice to the people who educate our children, who protect us on the street, and who answer that 2 a.m. alarm bell when our houses catch on fire. They want to demonize anyone who desires to a bit bigger share when it comes to dividing up the pie. How dare they ask for more! It’s ours! Greedy, undeserving maggots! As if someone who sits in a boardroom all day long or manages a hedge fund is somehow deserving of all the wealth they are siphoning out of the system.

Is this some inherited tendency of our species? Are we programmed to act in this way? Or is this a learned behavior? Is greed and avarice so widespread in our society that everyone “understands” that those are the rules everyone is working to?

I don’t know the answer, of course. I was trained as an engineer, not some behavioral scientist. But what I see of our species makes me ill. Yes, there are many, many good people who act selflessly and not just in times of extreme need (such as after this spring’s devastating series of tornadoes). There are many people working to change the system to make it fair to all, not to just the rich and powerful. But I am more interested in the motivations of those who are constantly fighting against doing the right thing by everyone who is part of the system.

I am very much not impressed with human beings as a species. Yes, we are capable of some wondrous things. Awe-inspiring. But we are also capable of thoughtless cruelty, even when the results of that cruelty is staring us back in the face. And we seem to be able to rationalize away any second thoughts or bad feelings this might cause us if we dwelled on it for more than a few seconds. Our ability to hold double standards and believe conflicting ideas at the same time is truly mind-boggling, and not in a positive way.

I hope that humans never do find a way off this planet and start “seeding the galaxy” with other human societies. I think, at this point in our development, we have failed the test and I believe that we don’t deserve any further chances. And God, if She exists, must be shaking Her head and thinking something along the lines of, “Well, I should have seen that coming. I guess I won’t try that again.”

Perhaps the one thing that amazes me the most about Republicans is how they have decided that public schools and teachers are the enemy.

To me, this is a really unnerving thing. The one constant throughout someone’s life is that they had to go to school. For people of my age who grew up in non-urban settings, that meant public schools. They were there, you went to them. You may not have liked going to school, but that’s what you did. The teachers were, for the most part, pretty friendly and competent at their job. Even when I moved to a very small town in rural Alabama when I was in high school, there was the school. They did their best with the very few resources they had. Sure, you could bitch a bit about how things could be done better or the crummy buildings, but they weren’t “the enemy.” That would have made as much sense as declaring air or water the enemy, schooling for children was that ubiquituous.

O.K., fast forward to somewhere in the last decade or so. Public schools, in the minds of many on the conservative right, are about as popular as a coven of witches. They are there to “brainwash” your kids with all their talk of tolerance, multi-culturalism and other liberalist ideas (including evolution, of course). Teachers and teacher’s unions are a bunch of greedy, whiney slackers who are overpaid and just flat out terrible at their jobs. And, on top of all that, get three months off a year! Yes, I am sure we can all agree that teachers having to deal with all sorts of students on a daily basis, many of whom come from poor backgrounds, broken home, and may not even have enough to eat everyday, are just lounging in the lap of luxury on their $50K salary.

Worst of all, apparently, is the fact that schools are run…. by the government!! Horrors!

From Washington Monthly.

March, Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum expressed his disdain for public education. “Just call them what they are,” Santorum said. “Public schools? That’s a nice way of putting it. These are government-run schools.”

Campaigning in South Carolina over the weekend, Santorum went even further. (via Steve M.)

Rick Santorum, a possible candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, even raised the specter of Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Italy in a speech here Friday night while explaining why his grandfather emigrated to the U.S. His uncle, he said, “used to get up in a brown shirt and march and be told how to be a good little fascist.”

“I don’t know, maybe they called it early pre-K or something like that, that the government sponsored to get your children in there so they can indoctrinate them,” Santorum said.

There is a fair amount of this talk going around. At a home-schooling rally in Iowa in March, Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann, and Herman Cain — all Republicans who’ve expressed an interest in the presidential race — raised the specter of ending public education in the United States altogether.

This also includes far-right media. CNSNews’ Terry Jeffrey argued a few weeks ago, “It is time to drive public schools out of business.” Townhall columnist Chuck Norris has begun calling public schools “indoctrination camps.”

But I’d note for context that Santorum is a former two-term senator — and he just won a straw poll in South Carolina, which arguably puts him in the tier above folks like Paul and Cain. And in public, he’s comparing public schools to fascism.

Keep in mind, polls show that the American mainstream considers the public education system one of the nation’s most cherished institutions. When asked what areas of the public sector most deserve budget cuts, schools invariably come in last.

And yet, here we are.

"Indoctrination camps?" "Fascism?" And Santorum and Bachmann are not some penny-ante nutjobs. They are some of the "leading names" in the Republican Party and are likely to run for President. So, here's the situation, then. Some of the “most serious” of minds in the Republican Party are not happy with the publc schools. But rather than try to fix them, to put more resources into them so they have a fighting chance of becoming what everyone would like them to be, Republicans have decided that they want to destroy them. “It’s time to drive public schools out of business.” That’s pretty chilling stuff, by any measure.

One of my best friends from back in the 1980’s has become a ultra-conservative. His views apparently match everything I have heard off of Fox News and the Wall Street Jouranal. The unemployed are a bunch of lazy slackers. Unions should be demolished. He is supportive of everything that supports big business. It’s like he has become an entirely different person than the one I knew back then. I don’t like getting together with him anymore, because I know (even if we aren’t talking about it) that everything I hold dear is something is absolutely detests. It’s kind of hard to maintain a friendship with that kind of thing staring you in the face.

Last year, we were having drinks after work and he started off on a number of things that were apparently bothering him. Public schools was one of them. And he was really angry. I thought he was getting ready to punch me on several occasions. He hates paying taxes on public schools, even though his three kids went through their public school and came out of it very well, I think. Then, while he was on a roll, he came out and said what I really think he firmly believes, and that is the government has absolutely no business providing public education. He was for vouchers and private schools. So, once I could find the courage in the face of this anger and hostility, I asked him, “So, you are saying that you want every single kid in the country to go to private school?” He did an abrupt about-face but acted like he hadn’t, saying, oh, no, I just want to be able to opt out of paying taxes for something I disagree with.

That’s a nice thought, I guess. I would have really loved to be able to opt out of paying taxes that went toward two unnecessary wars, tax cuts for the upper 2% who don’t need any more than they already have, tax breaks for huge corporations who move their operations overseas and leave massive unemployment in many communities when they decide that they can get Chinese or Mexicans to work for 10% of what they pay American workers. But I don’t have that option.

But I find it amazing that Republicans don’t seem to understand what I think is a very basic fact. A highly educated population is good for the health of the country and ensures a future in an ever-increasingly competitive world. Do they really want to go back to the 1880’s, where most of the kids of this country just went to work when they were 10 years old and were functionally illiterate? Is that what they really want?

This is not a rhetorical question on my part. I see all the things that conservatives are attempting to tear down these days. The Republican governor in Maine wants to lower the working age for children, at the same time he wants to lower the minimum wage. Some states want to see the minimum wage abolished altogether. We’ve already discussed how many conservatives would like to kill public schools. And we all know how they feel about Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, and all other aspects of our current society that form a “social safety net” for those who are really in need. Do they really want to see a huge percentage of this country destitute? I just absolutely do not understand their larger vision for our society. All they seem to want to do is transfer even more wealth and power to the upper echolon of American society. But to what purpose? I have never heard anyone on the right even try to articulate their larger vision, past “smaller government” and “taxes are evil.” What do they really expect our society to look like in 50 years if those policies were really enacted?

As I have stated before in this blog, about the only answer I can come up with is that no one (aside from those really rich and powerful people behind these ideas) is even thinking about those larger questions. They have bought into the notion, body and soul, that Democrats and liberals are evil and must be destroyed. And that is not some sort of over-the-top hyperbole. That is really what they believe, and that is the only thing that really matters. That's it. The bigger picture, the one that will occur 50 years in the future, well, I guess that will take care of itself.

If that’s really the case, I am very fearful for this country if these people ever get total control of our government. Because they WILL find a way to never let go of the reins of power again.

Being a part time political blogger, I feel I should say something about the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Make no mistake about it, this guy was an evil fuck and deserved much worse than he got by getting shot in the eye and dumped into the ocean. OK, just to make that clear? I have absolutely no sympathy for someone who planned the mass murder of thousands of innocent people.

So, with that out of the way, here are some of my admittedly confused thoughts about the whole subject.

1. I was rather surprised that the mission statement was to have OBL killed and not captured. For one thing, ordering someone killed, even someone who deserved it as much as OBL did, isn’t really what I thought we did in this country. Yeah, it’s a myth, sure. I understand that. But still, to break with that ideal so easily and not let justice really take its course, as we normally do things even with the most evil murderers, seemed not in step with how we like to think of ourselves. The whole thing felt like it was a lot more about revenge and retribution, rather than justice. I have seen some mention of "closure" as well, which I think is a total rationalization. It's closure by the fact that a mass murderer got what he deserved. That's a lot more about revenge than some sort of metaphoric sense of "closure", in my way of thinking. And if you really want to get down and call it for what it was, that was an assassination, pure and simple. That's what South American drug lords do. That's what the old Soviet bloc used to do. Is that really what America wants to be? I suppose that train has long left the station, as we now seem to be quite fine with the concept of being known for torturing prisoners and holding people for years without charging them with anything. We seem to have already stepped off that slippery slope.

2. I know that the events of 9/11 were devastating to us individually as well as a country as a whole. And I don’t want to tell anyone how they should feel or celebrate the killing of OBL. But the whole deal of large masses of people getting together and chanting “USA! USA! USA!”, like at some hockey game or something, didn’t feel right. It was a bit unseemly, I thought. But then again, I am not in those people’s shoes, so I don’t know how they felt. My own feelings were something like, “Finally. It’s about time… Good riddance.” I really didn’t feel any elation.

3. Maybe now we can get the heck out of Afghanistan. We haven’t really understood why we are there for years. Al Quaida isn’t there anymore. Yeah, the Taliban is there and they aren’t very nice. But aren’t those the same people that the Soviet Union fought for so long and the U.S. was giving them arms to help them fight “The Evil Empire.” And look what it got them, a breakup of their huge country and a complete collapse of the central government. Sure, the U.S.S.R. was already rotten to the core and ready to go anyway, their losing war in Afghanistan only hastened it on. But isn’t the same exact thing happening to us? Let’s get out now while the death of OBL at least gives us some cover of getting out with our “honor” intact, since that seems to matter a great deal to some people.

4. It will be really interesting to hear the rationale from the Pakistani government, our supposed allies, about why they didn’t know that OBL was in this huge compound just miles from the country’s military school and where many retired military people live. Sure, it is JUST within the realm of plausibility that they might not have known he was there, but really, this doesn’t look good. They need to come up with some sort of explanation, and pretty quickly. It is a pretty telling indication about how much we don’t trust the Pakistani government that we didn’t tell them about the raid beforehand. Something is really going on here behind the scenes.

5. Those Navy Seals are really scary.

I just truly do not understand how middle and lower class people can vote for Republicans.

Republicans all across the country seem to have declared war on the middle class. Everything that they are doing appears to be for the benefit of the wealthy and big business, at the expense of working class Americans.

Here’s the latest example from Wisconsin, via Washington Monthly.

Citing Wisconsin's gaping budget shortfall for this year and even larger ones expected in the years ahead, Gov. Scott Walker proposed a sweeping plan on Friday to cut benefits for public employees in the state and to take away most of their unions' ability to bargain.

The proposal by Mr. Walker, a Republican who was elected in November after pledging that he would get public workers' compensation "into line" with everyone else's, is expected to receive support next week in the State Legislature, where Republicans also won control of both chambers in the fall.

The prospect left union leaders, state and local employees and some Democrats stunned over the plan's scope and what it might signal for public-sector unions in the state.

On Thursday, the newly-elected Republican governor said he would refuse to negotiate with unions, and on Friday, Walker said he's contacted the Wisconsin National Guard, making sure they're prepared to respond to a protracted labor dispute, doing some of the jobs union members currently do.

Even by GOP standards, the scope of Walker's union-busting efforts is striking. We're talking about a governor effectively stripping nearly all government workers of their collective bargaining rights, and then trying to break the backs of unions themselves.

Mr. Walker made several proposals that will weaken not just unions' ability to bargain contracts, but also their finances and political clout.

His proposal would make it harder for unions to collect dues because the state would stop collecting the money from employee paychecks.

He would further weaken union treasuries by giving members of public-sector unions the right not to pay dues. In an unusual move, he would require secret-ballot votes each year at every public-sector union to determine whether a majority of workers still want to be unionized.

And in case that wasn't quite enough, Walker then added that union members would no longer be allowed to negotiate for better pensions or health benefits at all.

The governor is working with a newly-elected Republican-led legislature, and he's expecting lawmakers to pass his anti-union plan quickly.

And here’s the latest of what is going down in Florida.

Florida's Tea Party-backed Governor Rick Scott proposed cutting more than $5 billion from state spending on Monday while also slashing taxes as he laid out his first budget proposal aimed at closing a deficit of nearly $4 billion.

The Republican, a former healthcare executive, proposed saving nearly $4 billion over two years by reforming Medicaid, the health insurance program for poor people.

He also saw savings of $2.8 billion over two years through an overhaul of Florida's relatively healthy state pension system. Scott also proposed cutting taxes by more than $4 billion over two years. This would include a roll-back of corporate income taxes from 5 percent to 3.5 percent and reductions in property taxes.

Critics of the budget plan from Scott, who was elected in November on a pledge to create 700,000 jobs in seven years, said it would cut nearly 9,000 positions from state payrolls and slash billions of dollars from spending on education.

"This budget from the governor is a frontal assault on the quality of life of every Floridian and will not create a single job nor spur our economy forward; instead it takes us further into the economic ditch," Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith said in a statement.

And, of course, no discussion of this type would be complete without talking about New Jersey’s Chris Christie and his apparent hatred of school teachers.

And, lest us not forget that apparently every single Republican in the country wants to scale back or get rid of Social Security altogether.

Yeah, I know that everyone is hurting everywhere, and all states are experiencing some major budget crises. But why are all the “remedies” always aimed directly at the working class? Why do we NEVER hear about making big business and the upper crust of this country bear some of the burden? This IS the country that allowed them all to amass all those riches, after all. What is wrong with spreading the pain around, especially to those people who can actually deal with the pain?

If it comes down to a choice between middle and lower class people being able to afford housing, food and a relatively stable future for themselves and their children, and a bunch of rich people not being able to afford luxury homes, or a second home in the Hamptons, or a yacht, I know what I would choose.

What is wrong with these people? And why do lower and middle class voters KEEP VOTING FOR THESE A**HOLES?

I just do not understand…

Miss TSA Pinup Girl! (NSFW, sorta....)

Given the new "security" screening procedures at airports, I suppose this was rather inevitable.





I suppose I could make a really crude remark about boners here. But that would be totally out of character and beneath my dignity.....

I also just realized I am going to have to do another post soon, to get this thing off the top of the stack.