Uh Oh

Times are really bad. That is no news any more, I feel like I'm standing on the beach in Indonesia a few years ago and watching that tidal wave come in. You realized that you are not in a good place, and you realize that the future looks pretty bleak, but you really are no longer in a position to do much about it.

Our Best Thinking Got Us Here

A couple of years ago I was encouraged (strongly) by the powers that be to join (euphemism watch) a Twelve Step program. One of the sayings used repeatedly when talking about how one got in the program is: "Our best thinking got us here."

I was reminded of this in reading the discussions of the need to keep the various CEOs and such and to give them these outrageous bonuses. "Because they are the best." If they are indeed the best ------- well then our best got us here. Perhaps they should join a twelve step program. PA, Plutocrats Anonymous.

They lie without consequence; they ruin people for sport.

OK, maybe debtors prison is a little over the top, still maybe not?

They lie without consequence; they ruin people for sport (sort of Vince Foster). You might add they ruin whole nations for sport. I suppose you might even add the entire world. I'm speaking about repubicans and conservatives.

I am thinking about the information that republicans are on TV 2 to 1 attacking the bail out and calling for lowering taxes again (still?). Fighting against those things that will really put people to work. Still people seem to be too stupid to figure out that these our rulers are not totally accurate (or even rational), after years of being lied to by right wing assholes on TV the general public still listens to them even though almost everything they have said has turned out wrong. How consistently wrong do you have to be for how long in this country to be kicked out of the public discourse? (I guess that is a rhetorical question.) I suspect always (wrong) and forever (wrong).

Liberals/progressives need to be able to get the information out there into almost every home to counter this stuff, but I am feel hopeless. We seem to be unable to do that.

Let me just add this for a WTF moment from someone who gets paid good money to be continuously wrong. No not just wrong, but pointless.

We are in the biggest hole we've been in in 75 years and we seem to be able to do nothing even remotely rational to get out. Those with the power seem to have a nearly infinite ability to ignore the past or distort it to make it fit into their little preconceived ideological pigeon holes.

Maybe I'm ranting a little since I've discovered that in the Courts I work the employees hours/wages are being cut this week. Believe me this isn't just a high minded empathy with those worse off. I also means that the appointments monies are being cut. That means yours truly is gonna get his cut too.

I also have been reading Eric Rauchway's The Great Depression & The New Deal, A Very Short Introduction. The first couple of chapters "The world in debt" and "The Hoover Years" sound a little too much like where we are right now. I really think I'm too old for this.

I Don't Care What They Say

I don't care what they say, you cannot put a photo in and then edit, you've got to edit first!

More of the Same?

Well the stimulus package passed the House yesterday with no republican votes after the democrats and Obama gave them most of what they asked for. Now it goes to the Senate. Is there anyone who thinks that more won't be given away? Ian Walsh at Firedoglake has been on this and his stuff is both convincing and depressing and scary.

No matter what is done there is no way to placate the republicans and their enablers in the media.

I am not sure that the country can survive the current cabal in control of the levers of power. They are too bull headed to be reasoned with and are too stupid to realize that they are destroying the goose or calf or whatever it is that provides them their power. The actual people who make this country work. The rulers have every reason to assume that no matter what happens to the hoi poli they will continue to rule. There will always be a few who are able to scramble up through the ranks. They will be pointed out to show that anybody can do it. Kind of like in the Reader's Digest, you know My Most Unforgettable Character.

When Reagan was elected and the recession hit at that time I thought and said that they (meaning our conservative rulers be they democrat or republican) could run the country with 25% unemployment. I now think that they can continue to control and run this country with 50% underemployment. Enough so that people are so scared of losing their shitty jobs that they will do whatever it takes to keep it. If that means standing on the backs of other poor to keep their head above water then they will do that.

We voted for change and now that change is not happening. So we have nothing left to do but eat dog or die. Or vote in the closet fascists who are out there at the door salivating and just waiting to get in to give us a nice pleasant American version of 1935 Germany.

Holly shit am I depressed or what? I hope that what Gore Vidal said several years ago is right and I'm wrong: Middle aged men tend to confuse their own failings and decrepitude for that of the nation. I don't remember what work it was in nor have I quoted it precisely, but I've got the thought right.

More Democratic Voter Fraud Revealed

The actual prosecutor filing his complaints

Oh wait, my mistake more republican lies about voter fraud revealed. Oh noes all these allegations made before the election by the republican prosecutor of Hamilton County (actually that's redundant) turn out not to be true. Who could have thought, once again?

These people are scum they do not believe in democracy.

BBC & Many a Slip

So the other day I was listening to BBC World News on NPR and discovered that there was a controversy concerning a fund raising appeal for residents of Gaza. The appeal would seek to raise humanitarian aid for homeless and children in Gaza as I understand it.

From what I heard (on BBC) is that BBC had permitted the same type of fund raising in the past for Darfur and Sudan. The question was: why not now for Gaza? The way it was presented on the BBC gave one the impression that perhaps there was a double standard when things involved Israel and Palestine.

However, the really interesting part of the story was the interview conducted by a BBC reporter of the head of BBC, the Governor General[?]. Two points, one is that the Governor General was nearly incoherent in his responses. The second point is that the reporter's questions were incisive serious and hard hitting. Gee you don't think that our reporters might be expected to do that to their "betters" do you? Oh wait, of course they will now that their betters are democrats. I forgot the rules.

Oh yeah, I got about half way through the above paragraph and the Internet stopped completely. All better now though, about four hours later.

Level 3 and What It Means For YOU

Nothing really, but I wanted to think up a title. Well what it means for me is that I'm sitting here in my warm in the middle of a county that has declared a level 3 snow emergency, and wondering whether or not I should try to run to the next county over which is only a level 2 and then on to Columbus for a training (Columbus is also at a level 2).

Otherwise, I am able to look at the news today, oh boy. Obama is still giving away the store to get non-existent republican votes. What is wrong with the guy? He did win the primaries, but the last few were like playing out the clock for a football team that is way ahead -- a prevent defense as they say. He completely out performed Clinton early, then kind of coasted giving up short yardage.

Essentially the general election was his to lose, especially after the stock market melt down. He is obviously a talented politician, but I am not sure that he understands just what we are looking at. He also has what seems to be the democratic disease of our generation. A need to try to get the media (who are in the bag for the republicans, mostly) and the republicans themselves to just kind of like them. Can't we all just get along?

Of course the answer is: "no we can't." There are different political parties because people believe different things. Why do democrats act like abused family members who try to explain away every violent act of the abuser, by taking the blame themselves?

OK, so I guess this post is your punishment for the county sheriff declaring a level 3 and keeping me at home.

Inbred cretins

Why is there no CSI: West Virginia? Because there is only one set of DNA and there are no dental records.

OK, that was statist? Well, I am brought around to that joke, by the news that William Kristol is being fired, let go, resigning, whatever. The guy has tons of money and incredible influence because of his parents. The guy has never been right. The guy never loses his smirk. The guy helps destroy the economy and our military, not to mention the (at a minimum) tens of thousands of dead he can take at least partial responsibility for. He continues to fail upwards.

Why does he have that kind of power? Because of the inbred people who currently run this country. Our government and the media that reports on them have become monuments to nepotism.

Then when you think about it who would be the political hero of such a hack? The very last president that's who. Who was right about nothing, who never lost his smirk, and who more than any other individual is responsible for the destruction of our economy and our military. He did continue to fail upwards until he simply couldn't go any higher or fail any more spectacularly,

Birds (as my grandmother would say)of a feather. Kristol and Bush have got to feel comfortable around each other. They are essentially the same person. Not very bright, but given power simply because daddy greased the skids for them. And we as a people are so fucking stupid that we fall for our own inbred ruling class. At least as incompetant as the later Bourbons or Romanoffs, but without the style.

Various Things

Nothing to do with the post, I just like it.

Who could have thought that the previous administration could have been so incompetent that they didn't even keep the files of the various terrorist in one place.

I mean I was afraid that they were watching my every word on the computer and listening to my every word on the phone. Wow I guess that I don't need to be that worried after all. Or perhaps they just aren't that worried about them foreigners, but rather us internal dissidents. Oh who am I kidding, I'm just not that important.

A second bit of information is that it appears that the current pope is planning on bringing back some of that old time religion. Hallelujah!!!!!!

Finally, from my home state it looks like the Republicans might not be convinced to back the stimulus package. It is amazing, who could have predicted that? Republicans not being bi-partisan. Well when you have been perfectly wrong for the last two decades I guess there is no reason to start being right. There might be a song there somewhere.

Loki Dressed for Work

New Toy or What i'm Doing To Help the Economy

Because I'm a good patriotic American much like yourself, I have taken it on myself to help jump start the economy.

To that end I have purchased a new HD-LCD-TV. The old RCA passed away last weekend after giving one last gasp. It turned on by itself and went to a channel we never used and sputtered long and loud. Then all was peace. Well not really peace, it turned itself into a radio with a nice thin blue line running horizontally across the screen. As I turned the TV around I saw, on the back: October 1992.

R.I.P.
October 1992 to January 2009
You served me well

Well OK, back to watching the new TV in all its flat screen and high def. glory. I won't be available much for the foreseeable future.

Stuff About Yesterday

You know laughing at right wingers is a never ending joy. Just how stupid can these people be? He might not be president because he (and the Chief Justice) miffed a couple of words. Do these people not have anything to do with their lives? Do you not have attorneys who can tell you about these minor errors and how they affect things? Oh, well.

UPDATE: Oops.

The other fun guy was Rick Warren (that is Pastor Rick Warren) who was very careful to make nice to everyone in his invocation. My guess is that he got scared because of the incredible explosion of disapproval that accompanied his choice by Obama. It ain't Billy Graham time any more. I suspect that the good Rev. lives inside a bubble and is never really challenged or confronted by anyone. Even the wealthy and powerful are kind of afraid of him and his power (real or imagined). When people who aren't afraid of him attack he figures he'd better be cool. Of course, with any luck he pissed of a fair number of his own followers who wonder why he didn't "speak truth to power." Power being the LGTB people who complained loud and long.

The New Guy

Well one can only hope our beltway media royality ends the same way.

Well its down to work for the new guy. And the MSM continues much as it did yesterday. By mistake I read this article without first noticing that it is from the Politico.

First, the authors bemoan the fact that so far Obama hasn't had his "Sister Souljah" moment where he could repudiate his base (by attacking a straw [wo]man) as Clinton did. With the thought I guess that that worked so well for Clinton. Then he points out that Obama is unlikely to screw his supporters the way Clinton with NAFTA. This is apparently a bad thing. I mean NAFTA did turn out so well for the working and middle classes and in fact this country in general.

Second, he very briefly quotes "one recent report" which claims that Social Security will go into steep decline after 2011. However, everything I've read is that is just hooey. Most of the reputable economists (those who did fore see this financial collapse) say that Social Security will be fine for the fore see able future. The authors do not even bother to mention that many economists (including the most recent Noble winner) disagree strongly with that "recent report."

The people who own DC or at least think they own DC are going to fight like cornered rats to keep their power. This will include simple lies like the one about Social Security and just listing something as a "good thing" which is in reality a very questionable thing like Clinton's pushing for NAFTA.

Apparently, once a moderate/progressive/liberal is elected to office it is necessary for him to repudiate his base to show he can really govern. Like a real American. They can't stop themselves. It's just as though we aren't in the middle of the greatest financial crisis in the last 75 years. But then of course, they aren't going to hurt. Just the rest of us.

CNN Again

A wonderful day. On the other hand I was in a store and on TV right up there on CNN was Bet a Million Bennett pontificating. CNN must be rendering what they think is Caesar's.

Or what ever. Did watch those DFH's singing a little.

Curiouser and curiouser

So HBO blacked out the gay Bishop's invocation. I wonder what that could mean? I would see a lot more in it if it had been any other organization, but HBO? Come on!

Att any rate does anybody anywhere think that the MSM and Village will do anything, but continue to margainalize and try to completely destroy any liberal/progressive movement in this country? If they do we are backto selling that bridge.

Death Comes for the TV

Turned on my TV today and there was a single thin blue line from one side to the other. Its gone to that happy movie rerun place in the sky. We did contact Rick Warren, but he is too busy to lay hands this weekend.

The late RCA was some where between 16 and 20 years old. We'd decided not to buy a new one for xmas and to wait until this one gave out. Then just yesterday it came on all buy itself and went to a station we never used. Do you think it was crying for help? We ignored it and it now sleeps with the fishes. It is deceased. Oh well: time and tide wait for no TV. We decided to pull the plug.

So its off to Circuit City to get a digital HD-TV, oh boy.

Hell Has Indeed Frozen Over

Good god, it is 12 (or maybe 15 depending on which weather you look at or listen to) degrees below zero.

Look I know I wouldn't mind it if I lived in the U.P. or above the Arctic circle. But I don't. Once again I've managed to screw up by merely not thinking ahead. Neither of my dogs want to come in. The Chow has an extreme coat and spends most of the day outside yesterday. The St. only comes back in cause he doesn't want to be away from his people too long.

They both want me to come outside and play. Are they nuts. No I really should have looked at dogs bred and raised around the equator. Oh well, too late now.

I Told Ya So

I had figured that when the Pentagon released figures of the Gitmo "recidivists" there were probably some problems with it. I also figured that there figures were released to put pressure on Obama. Guess what -------- right again.

It's an old joke, but apparently it is still knockin' em dead if you get my meanings, and I think you do. Simply make up the figures most people don't have the ability, knowledge, or willingness to check them or you out. You will get away with it most of the time and in these times with this press you can bet that if you are pushing right wing propaganda you will definately get a pass from the vast majority of the MSM.

Damn I wish I could be right about something good. You know like figuring what stock to take a chance on.

Nobody's Perfect

I've had NPR on while driving around for the last couplet of days and once again I realize how god awful news in this country is. I mean let's face it NPR is much better than most radio and it is a sad little hole of mediocrity. Yesterday I listened to Randal Terry and a right winger who wasn't as crazy discuss whether the "Right To Lifers" go from here. Do you think that Pro-Choicers would have been allowed to discuss their positions/problems without the right being given at least a chair? You do? Well I've got this land down in Florida then.

However, one of the interesting discussions I heard today and I've heard this before, is that apparently Bush and his minions refused to give Israel bunker busting weapons and refused to give them to fly over Iraq to attack Iran's (alleged) nuclear facilities. (Actually, I guess Iran does have nuclear facilities, Israel says they are for bombs and everybody else says they aren't.)

Well anyway it just goes to show that as the title says: Nobody's Perfect. Even Chaney/bush can't screw up all the time.

Of course I could be wrong?

You don't think that maybe this was a lot of hooey to make Bush look more Presidential and Salomon like do you? Naaaaaaaaaa. Couldn't be.

Well At Least I'm Not This Much A Part of The Problem

Well, so Madoff sends a million dollars in presents to friends and family and the court doesn't think that he did enough to warrant the revocation of his bail. I would guess that the million is simply a drop in the bucket when you compare it with the amount stolen, but still.

Another interesting thing in this article is the tone. I wonder if it is the start of Madoff as a sort of victim. Poor guy just got caught at the wrong time. The article says that the government is "yielding to public pressure to make an example out of Madoff during the nation's economic troubles." You know he's being made the scape goat for all our financial troubles.

Bullshit.

I would guess that he was betting that he would die before the markets went south. The ponzi scheme could probably have operated as long as the markets continued to expand. Of course no one in power saw this collapse coming, so perhaps he thought he could continue to operate this scam for ever. I wonder how long he would have been out there if his kids hadn't turned him in?

I would think that this would be a perfect plot for Arthur Miller if he were still alive. Of course I guess he kind of already did it.

Or Perhaps I'm Part of the Problem

So today I acted a little like a little nazi (all in small caps). My client was busted for what we now call O.V.I. (used to be DUI). He tested way over for marijuana only. I really don't think that he was probably impaired (the marijuana levels are ridiculously low).

Well we ended up pleading him. So I was just there greasing the skids I guess. The war on drugs simply enables the closet fascists who use it as an excuse to put more and more people under closer and closer government surveillance. A defense attorney is complicit in it all.

Of course, we do get paid. Now I've got to go and prepare my bill.

What a Surprise

Well I guess we can just believe this now can't we? I am sure that the government has all this information. I believe that it can be accessed from the same departments that had all that information concerning the WMDs.

I Guess I Just Must Be An Anti-Semite

How can the entire country or Israel go so crazy as to have their electoral board to throw out the Arab parties. So the Arab parties won't be allowed to run (at this point) in the next election. How crazy is that. Those parties wouldn't have gotten a significant minority. Why throw them out, it is simply a way to --- to what? I don't think that there is a rational explanation. The rulers have simply no chance of losing power to a few marginal Arab parties. So what is the point?

One of the things that Israel has had going for it is that it is a real democracy, unlike most of the other middle eastern countries. What this shows is a little of the way the real power is used. It is simply a way to keep their ni**ers down. It is now clear that the current rules have more in common with the American South before the 60s or South Africa under apartide. I suspect it is simply the desire for a ruling group to show the under groups how powerless those undergroups really are.

Then a second story goes to show just how much control the current Israeli government has over what our rulers are allowed to do and to think about Israel in our own country. The Israeli leader tells our President what to do and our president just caves and does it.

Wow just wow.

Oh Woe Is Me

OK, maybe I am putting on a bit much.

After rereading some of my posts I'm starting to feel a little like Jeremiah or perhaps Cassandra. Take your pick. Although I am far from the only one. Still it does kind of get old.

What you may well ask, gets old?

Watching the same people who have been wrong about everything politically over the past forty years continue to be wrong in the same way and continue to control the levers of power and make the same mistakes they have made before. Or new people controlling these same levers of power making the same mistakes the old people made. And let's face it, the mistakes are pretty obvious right about now, but the answers are all the same, and are all as wrong as they ever were.

I know the cliche about being crazy (same, same, different result, etc.).

Or perhaps it merely draws into question the general level of intelligence of the electorate. I was told by a sitting magistrate that FDR caused the great depression to last longer because he spent too much money on stimulus programs. Then in the same breath he said that what got us out of the depression was World War II. A war that resulted in a massive amount of deficient spending. How can an otherwise intelligent man hold that we cannot spend our way out of a depression and yet immediately say that we spent ourselves out of the depression through military spending?

So maybe we are fucked. I guess not being listened to didn't stop either Jeremiah or Cassandra. Of course, neither of them ended well.

Obamavilles?

So do you think Obama will do enough to deal with this economic crisis? And with the middle east and our torture regimes now? I am beginning to doubt it. I watched Clinton live up to his campaign promises. That is I watched him govern as the most conservative democratic president since Grover Cleveland (OK maybe Carter was just as conservative).

I figured that I didn't know enough about Obama and I could only hope that he would be progressive, I doubt it now. How narrowly lucky were our parents to get FDR. I guess we will see, if Obama can overcome his roots, but I really don't expect it. I do not want to live the last years of my life in an Obamaville, but I may not have any choice.

When I hear the guy talk about taking on social security and Medicare entitlements. I hear the same people who put Reagan in office. I always figured they could rule with one-quarter of the working population out of work. Perhaps better, because they always had that minority to scare those who are working, all be it at a very suppressed wage. I'm looking at the same thing right now, but with a smiling young black guy saying it.

I Really Don't Remember You No Matter How Unusual You Are

I saw a midget in the Law Director's office today. Or perhaps she was a little person, I'm not sure. I think I know her. I believe she was a client or the girl friend of a client. Yeah I think that's it. The client was full sized or a big person.

Perhaps I'm not remembering this quite right. I mean that she was in the Law Director's office and I do know her, I think. But there was a period in my life spanning several decades which for want of a better word could best be called hazy for chemical reasons. So that I often see people who I am pretty sure I know, but I can't be sure. I also can't be sure how I know them. So it's best not to be too friendly, since they could become hostile if I got too close, some of them. This is particularly true of people who were on the other side in divorces and custody cases. Those seem to bring out eternal enmity toward opposing counsel. She could have been on the other side in a divorce case. Or on the same side I can't really remember.

Of course I could also have known her from one of the foggier high times. Therefore, given all these posibilities I find it is just better to go on and not try to get too friendly in cases like this. I find it better for all concerned in the end.

Holder/Firedoglake

You know that Firedoglake is a really great blog, but this is just bullshit (of course it is EmptyWheel).

I've been in the NLG for over twenty years and I know those people were not violent and the pardon was welcomed all around progressive organizations in the U.S. and most of the world. There are probably many things not to like Holder about, but this is not one of them. His bucking the rank and file at DOJ is a good sign in a future leader of that department.

What is going on, are people in the progressive world so ready to attack our own that we now buy into right wing talking points. The people who were pardoned were not themselves people who had committed violent acts. Several Nobel Peace Prize winners asked for them to be pardoned. They were required to fore sware violence in the future.

Not only that but it's badly written.

And the Revelers Dance

And the revelers dance.

Wow Just Wow

Well it looks like I've got to work harder. First Tbogg (one of the funniest blogers in existence) tells me all the good shit is taken. Then he links to two (well really more than two) but two very funny and interesting posts. Both of which are funnier than any I've posted here (I'd like to say in quite a while, but I'm not sure that is true).

Ok, it worked for the Greeks.

Well Well Well

Gas prices around here seem to be creeping up even though there was (according to a story I heard on N.P.R. a few weeks ago) [is?] a glut of oil that won't go away until after the summer. Hell it was so bad they had to store it on ships in the oceans. Where do you think that all went?

So I see that our new president elect wants to attack Social Security and Medicare (after voting to give greedy bankers all they want). Lets face it where do we get off demanding that the important people have to account for their welfare. It is the poor who really don't deserve it. So they should ------------- well not get it and kind of quietly go under. We wouldn't want them to starve (at least not in front of us), but you know if they'd kind of sort of just disapear because they can't afford a doctor or they can't afford to stay warm so they just quietly die a little early well is that so bad?

I Just Don't Know More Gazing At Self

I don't know, but I just don't have a lot to say here in the last few days. Possibly just getting back from vacation and I'm still basking in the afterglow. Or maybe I'm just lazy.

A second rate party hack like Panetta is scaring the torturers left and right. How far gone must our government and oversight be to have them come out of the wood work like they have to try to oppose someone who at most will be a moderate. And is very unlikely to rock the boat much at all. Of course this might just be a little warning shot across the bow of the good ship Obama. We have raised such a ruckus about this guy who is really one of us, just think what we will do if you try to appoint someone who is really progressive or in favor of real change. What do you think that they might know about, these liberal senators? What do think that they might have approved, these liberal senators?

I am getting this very sinking feeling kind of like watching -- dare I say it again -- a slow motion train wreck. A guy is elected who says that he is for change, but it's all wink, wink, nudge nudge. We keep the power we control what goes on in this not so much a democracy. You just think you have any say in this government. It is the Village or runs things here and now.

When did this start? Was it with Carter? Nixon? Our type are the people who must run things. Even though we have been wrong for neigh on twenty years or more (and yes I count Clinton [both of them] who desperately want to be part of the in crowd). The only reason we as a country haven't gone down the tubes already is because we are so damn rich and so damn isolated.

Let us not talk about Reid and Burris/Frankin and Gupta/Moore/Obama. Oh lets, but not right now.

Filibusters

Question: When did a threatened filibuster become the same thing as an actual filibuster?

Just askin'.

Uh Oh

Reading Krugman today here and here. Also reading about how Republicans are salivating about holding up any stimulus package and forcing more tax cuts for the wealthy because they are the ones who deserve them. After all it wouldn't be fair to keep the poor and (soon to be) formerly middle class from going hungry or having to fore go medical treatment in a real depression.

Everything they have done for the past eight years (in extreme) and the sixteen (or more) years before that have worked out so well. We get to that place we were in the 20s with the distribution of wealth and are surprised that the result is essentially the same. Except we are now being told by the right (which includes most of the MSM) that FDR and the New Deal did nothing good.

So essentially what I'm feeling is this kind of feeling I get in the pit of my stomach when I lean out over the edge of a tall building or when I'm sitting in my car while I'm sliding out of control towards that really big truck. I'm watching these people who seem unable to learn from anything they've done. I wonder how we got rulers who are stupider than the bum on the street. Unless perhaps we are all the stupid.

Gaza

Right now Israel is invading Gaza. I cannot imagine (or rather I am able to slightly imagine) how horrible it must be to live in that area. A stinking refugee camp since 1947 or there abouts. No work, no hope, and the conviction that the Israelis are the cause of it all. (When in reality they are only the cause of most of it.) I would probably be dead by now if I lived there because I would think that I had to do something and I don't think that something would be a peaceful something.

The problem with this whole thing in this country as Greenwald points out very clearly is that even though it appears as though Americans are about evenly divided the establishment is totally in the bag for Israel. Of course, if one starts to criticize Israel the media and those in power cry out that you are anti-Semite. What happens is that there are a lot of anti-Semites out there sooooooooooo.

The real problem with the state of Israel is that they cannot keep their country a haven for Jews from all over the world if they allow non Jews in freely. And they need their "guest workers" as much as we need our Hispanic guest workers, and they don't go home at night (home being defined as some where else). And they have babies.

Harry Reid Again

How is it possible for such a complete political incompetent to become an important Senate leader? OK I understand he is a Democrat, but still isn't there anything the guy can do to further the Democrat agenda?

Do you think that he is one of those deep moles kind of like Kim Philby? I really can't figure out any other explanation for the guy's being punked continuously when he has a large majority. Of course the Democrats continue to elect him their leader. What maroons.

Am I Missing Something?

I'm in part four of Nassim Taleb's book The Black Swan . It is interesting, but still I think that he really doesn't say much except that we can't really predict and that life is controlled by luck. The answer seems to be diversify, so that when something blows up in your face you have another route open to save yourself.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but I all ways thought that you really couldn't predict what was going to happen next year let alone ten or fifty years from now. Is that really so hard to figure?

A second point is that you really have to act as thought you could predict somethings because otherwise you couldn't go to work tomorrow. Cause you have to figure what and where you are going. It does seem sort of obvious, but hell I didn't make a million in the market either.

I think that one must live as though there is a fairly good chance that one knows what is going to happen tomorrow or next year, with the understanding that one can't be sure. Of course, his point, I think, is that it is safer to understand that randomness and luck have more to do with life than all the planning and predictions we produce.