"But when I see them working at the airport every day, I'm really thankful. They are working really hard. I never imagined they could help us so much."

Arika Ota, 29, quoted above, has more nice things to say about the U.S. Military in an insightful story by the AP.

"To be honest, I didn't think much about the U.S. troops until now," said Arika, who works at an amusement center in the coastal city of Sendai. "But when I see them working at the airport every day, I'm really thankful. They are working really hard. I never imagined they could help us so much."

More people around the world are learning, hopefully, that it’s damn handy to have a lot of highly organized and disciplined young men around when such things occur. But even so, in this story and others, the fear of having our legions close by is evident in some of the quotes further down.

My favorite blogger, Ann Althouse, has a diavlog with Bob Wright up at my favorite site, bloggingheads.tv, where they speak of many things regarding the Wisconsin protest demonstrations ongoing at the Madison, Wisconsin capitol.

What's interesting to me about the whole thing is how Prof. Althouse goes on and on about the visceral displays of emotion that accompanied the "left" and how a lot of it was ugly and off-putting. Fair enough.

And her reports of threats is not only the lowest form of behavior on the part of certain people, but down-right-southern-tacky on their part. We must welcome and embrace those who disagree with us as the necessary stimulant any good mind needs.

With that said, it is quite hypocritical on her part to go on and on about the ugliness of speech and then in the next segment argue with Wright over the need to look beyond the normal boundries of constitutionally derived "speech".

As best I can determine, no one has actually threatened the professor with anything resembling illegal "speech" (she should know, she's a constitional law professor at a major university)and so why is it on the one hand repulsive to her to observe some speech and pronounce it ugly and yet argue for more free expression?

Althouse: "A man should never wear shorts in the city

Professor Althouse links to an article on men's style and the gentleman's recommendations as top 5 rules seem quite sensible to me.

I find the Professor interesting and so I must confess my admiration for her features on bloggingheads.tv, and her blog, where she always engages thoughtfully and pushes, prodding, needling for a good exchange. Her ponderous right wing apologetics aside, she has a damn fine mind.

Men in shorts should be limited to bathing trunks, in my opinion. Tennis is played just as well in comfortable slacks, the pros DO NOT wear shorts around on the golf course and basketball players are engaged in child's games.

Grow up.

Political "thugs" with important titles...

Over at Crooks and Liars, Karoli notes the resignation of another Indiana prosecutor over e-mail sent to Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, suggesting, shall we say, aggressive "false flag" operations  to discredit the Teacher's Union demonstrations.

Interestingly, this coincides with Gov. Walker's comment during his conversation with the so-called "Koch brother" who was actually baiting Walker into just such embarassing statements as his "we thought of that" off-hander.

This is worth repeating

"In 1946, the US financial sector owed $3 billion of debt, or 1.35% of GDP. By 2009 this had increased to $15.6 trillion, or 109.5% of GDP."


Z.1 Statistical Release, Federal Reserve Board of Governors, December 2010

The current government debt, remember, the thing everyone says is the problem in this country, is about 46% of GDP. That's everything, in perpetuity...While financial or private capital interest, owe almost $20 TRILLION!!! That's 20 trillion, with a "T". 

And if I remember right, when the shit hit the fan and this debt became callable, IMMEDIATELY I might add, what sector of the economy went running to government (you know, that evil thing) to bail their asses out and stop the call on margins, instruments of leverage and debt obligations?

Why, the capitalist sector of the production equation. Das Kapital, the straw that stirs the drink, the ultimate risk gods who champion their right to fail as their moral justification for their "compensation", such as it is (and it ain't too damn bad).

In 1789 things like this would have ended much differently for the perpetrators of leveraged speculation and the collapse of the credit market. Perhaps Jack Ketch could make a comeback.

The reigning prince and future king

"The net worth of the United States at the end of 2008 was $75 trillion or 5.2 times GDP."








" In 1946, the total US debt-to-GDP ratio was 150%, with two-thirds of that held by the federal government. Since 1946, the federal government's debt-to-GDP ratio has since fallen by nearly half, to 54.8% of GDP in 2009. The debt-to-GDP ratio of the financial sector, by contrast, has increased from 1.35% in 1946 to 109.5% of GDP in 2009. The ratio for households has risen nearly as much, from 15.84% of GDP to 95.4% of GDP."







"In 1946, the US financial sector owed $3 billion of debt, or 1.35% of GDP. By 2009 this had increased to $15.6 trillion, or 109.5% of GDP."







Z.1 Statistical Release, Federal Reserve Board of Governors, December 2010







Well, what do you think about that?

War of 1812 - The burning of the White House

VICE ADMIRAL SIR ALEXANDER F. I. COCHRANE, R.N., to


FIRST SECRETARY OF THE ADMIRALTY JOHN W. CROKER

No. 98



Tonnant, in the Patuxent, 2nd. September 1814.



Sir,

I have the honor to acquaint you, for the information of my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, of the proceedings of His Majestys combined Sea and Land forces since my arrival with the Fleet within the Capes of Virginia, and

I beg leave to offer my congratulations to their Lordships upon the successful termination of an Expedition in which the whole of the Enemy's Flotilla under Commodore Barney has been captured or destroyed--his Army, tho' greatly superior in number and strongly posted with Cannon, defeated at Bladensburg-- the City of Washington taken--the Capitol with all the public buildings, Military Arsenals, Dock Yard and the rest of their Naval Establishment, together with a vast quantity of Naval and Military Stores, a Frigate of the largest Class, ready to launch, and a Sloop of War afloat, either blown up or reduced to Ashes...

Glossary for those who use words to their own ends in foreign policy

"Democratic Movement"; aka insurrection, as in when a body of people challenge present governmental authority.



"Peaceful Demonstrators"; insurrectionist, as in those actively engaged in combat over control of civic, economic and military assets in Libya.



"No-Fly Zone"; An act or acts of war by unilateral or multilateral authorities in which military and governmental facilities are attacked so as to cripple a target government's infrastructure.



"Taking the lead"; aka "showing leadership", this is when the United States is goaded into perpetuating violence in another country's territory for whatever raisson d'etre.



Like it or not, and I do not necessarily like it, the United States IS the policeman of the world. But we should not, repeat, should not, get involved in other country's internal political squabbles by killing some of their citizens.



If one country is causing trouble in the neighborhood, stealing other's things, commiting violence against you on your property and whatnot, then it's OK for the neighbors to call the police and have that troublemaker calmed down...by whatever means necessary.



But by definition, what we have in Libya, right now...is....wait for it........CIVIL WAR. I know we have a long history of getting involved in other people's civil wars all the time, but you know, I wish we would kinda stop.

The Cleverlys "Walk like an Egyptian"

Bodies

Bloggingheads presents - This week in Blogs

What the Tea Party doesn't understand

I've watched with amusement and fascination the emergence of the so-called "Tea Party" in our American polity. It is truly fascinating and encouraging, in a way, to see so many people fired up about any worthwhile issue.

And the topic of the future of our government's size and scope is one worth debating. When I say I am amused, it is not a condescending "Hey, look at the freaks" kind of amusement but rather the mirth of someone seeing, once again, how fictions about history are perpetrated. I laugh only to keep from crying.

What the tea party doesn't understand is what the original Boston Tea Party was all about. Let's look back.

Over the first 100 years of significant settlement in the colonies, a lot of support and protection from England and The Netherlands was provided. The Dutch helped us out more than you can ever imagine, but they never had sovereignty over the colonies to any significant degree. England supplied the "protection" for commercial trade interests and His Royal Highness's subjects on the seas and Great Lakes, rivers and territory of the American frontier.

England's Parliament and His Majesty had some quaint notions about paying for military necessities back in those days. They actually had to come up with sufficient tax revenues to pay for their various wars with France and Spain over events in and around the world. England had also just fought a very protracted, bloody and expensive war in North America to finally break the French/Indian alliance and make the new frontier safer for continued American colonial expansion.

You might have heard of this conflict vaguely in some old history lesson you had. It was referred to as "The French and Indian War".

So Parliament, again, quaintly, tries to charge a tax to the colonist to help offset this costly investment in the security and prosperity of the colonies. THIS is something the colonist do not like.

Now, don't get me wrong, the tea tax was onerous because it was so regressive. And there were many other assessments colonist had to pay for prior to this and ongoing. And "taxation without representation" is a fundamental worth standing firm against. The list of perceived slights and deprecations that T. Jefferson eventually listed in his now famous declaration were legitimate.

But let's be clear. The colonist, in revolting visibly against the tea tax, were NOT arguing necessarily for SMALLER government or less taxes, but the right to FORM THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT if they couldn't be properly given representation in the current legislature.

The Tea Tax Revolt was not about smaller government, it was about us not having a say in government. No one was saying that government was too big in the colonies circa 1760, but rather that we didn't have enough government, responsive to the colonist and their desires locally.

To back up the previous post

Don't believe me, listen to FOX news commentator Jim Pinkerton in an interview with John Villareal of The New America Foundation.

You see, Jim was there in the Reagan administration when this was all going down. Plus he just reminds people of some hard econ 101 facts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plKMc-cHN3w

Social Security History Lesson

I'm near 53 now so I have a little experience with the ongoing battle republicans have carefully waged against Social Security. Now, at base here you have a program that since a few years after it's inception, has been accumulating more money than it pays off. In billions and then trillions. A little tweak here and there and the system does just fine.

And let's remember that SocSec money used to accumulate into a trust fund. It really was just money sitting around drawing interest while paying it's benefits. But then we had the phenomenon called "Supply side economics", the infamous Charles Laffer doodled on a napkin for Rumsfeld and Cheney and Ronnie Raygun went down in history as the guy who stimulated us out of our "malaise". Never mind that what he really did was the equivalent of feeding a supersized Butterfinger to an 8 year old at bedtime.

So St. Ronnie grants "The Great Tax Shift" and all is rosy, except, well...it's not. A few voices point out some inconvenient facts about St. Ronnie's programs. Like David Stockman, St. Ronnie's own Budget Director.

See, Mr. Stockman had the unfortunate habit of pointing out that giving tax cuts to everybody, especially those dramatic cuts at the top, combined with MORE government spending (not less government, like St. Ronnie promised) was kind of, you know, unsustainable.

So, St. Ronnie's brain trust says, "hey, we got all these monies accumulating to the SocSec Trust Fund, why don't we start just counting that as general revenues and then these huge fiscal gaps in government financing won't look so damn bad. So, they did and started issuing the SocSec Trust Fund I.O.U.'s and taking the fund's revenues away.

Flash Forward!!! Here we are today with all our old St. Ronnie legacies sitting around and telling us that NOW there is a problem with SocSec. See, they say, it's not really a trust fund, it's just a bunch of I.O.U.'s and the government has to borrow money now to pay off those I.O.U.'s and you know, we JUST ARE BORROWING TOO MUCH MONEY, so we're gonna have to cut those SocSec benefits and change eligibility and so forth. Because you know, IT'S a CRISIS!

So, there you are. The Great Tax Shift, financed by debt and other revenue streams, but not taxes at the top, oh no, those came down more under BUSH II, continues to haunt all facets of our current government financial schemes.

And the one thing that's never considered, the one thing that started the whole tower a tilting, is raising taxes on those who are paying a historical low as a percentage of income, who do not have to worry about paying more in the future because the narrative of the republicans and the tea partiers (what an unhistorical bunch) fits precisely their self-interest.

We, the proles, fight over the remnants of our middle class while the fat cats watch from the best seats.

This is how teachers roll!

    

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Crisis in Dairyland - Apocalypse Cow
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

    

Something has to be first

So this is my first inane entry into the world of blogging. Exciting....no?