It is Not Always Easy to Know When I Joke

Sometimes I'm not even sure. So, it is OK if others don't know.

Wouldn't it be great if all the people who are high on the new president would go out a buy stocks like crazy? If that enthusiasm spilled over into the market, it could be a good thing. Maybe it will happen. Spend that beer and wine money, and part of the dope money on stocks because you are optimistic and happy. It's just crazy enough, it might work.

Dancing for Dames

It seems better to not say what I said. So, I deleted it.

That's the trouble with being online, people can misunderstand or assume things and get feelings tangled up, especially if they know you. Not always worth it.

I'll just say that I think those various dance class things are probably a good place to meet middle aged women. I consider middle aged just about any age that is still breathing and able to get around on their own.

Ramos and Compean finally Released!!!

I'm not sure it was the full pardon it should have been, but their sentences have been commuted as near as I can tell from the news bite.

Something is better than nothing. That W had to wait until his last day is a shame. It makes me think he was playing to someone else's tune, most likely whoever is pulling the strings on the entire immigration smokescreen. There are some very odd arrangements between the US and Mexico that serve to create animosity where very little existed. The general public has allowed themselves to be played like pawns, both Mexicans and Americans. It is a very dirty business.

The incredible way in which those two agents were railroaded and all the various players from Johnny Sutton on up the chain all the way to the White House boggles the mind. Obviously insiders of both parties had motive to stop short of blowing that thing wide open. It seemed to imply ties between our Justice department, the White House, the Mexican government, and drug cartels.
I think it goes beyond that, and beyond obvious money motives into some sort of big power madness.

Many of the corrupt scams that get played seemed to go beyond money as the average person can conceive it. All that is left is pure power and a wish by a few to control the many. I still don't get why. One scam after another has been shotgunned into the affairs of state, with the ultimate desired result always more control.

All else aside, I am very relieved that these guys will finally be freed. Their families have suffered needlessly. Financial ruin, difficulties for their children and beyond. All because they did their job in a case in which it rubbed the corrupt alliance between Mexican government, cartels and US Justice department the wrong way. It proves that prosecutors can break every law in the book to create a kangaroo court in which facts are suppressed and justice is a joke. How anyone like Johnny Sutton can accept a paycheck and sleep at night is beyond me. Sociopaths with a title and the backing of the US government.

That is why I trust private citizens to possess arms more than those in government.

edit: as it turns out, full pardon, reinstatement, and payment of lost wages was not part of the package--as it should have been. Geo W is a wuss and has little comprehension of what damage means in lives of "little people". At least he let them out of jail. but it still won't happen for a couple of months. To go further, I suppose he'd have to admit the trial was a sham and that would cast suspicion on him and his crew in the justice dept. This way he doesn't have to give Sutton and others in the government what they deserve. He can let Comean and Ramos out, still convicted of felonies, "Hey guys, you're free, but your lives are screwed forever to further political agendas of people you don't even know".

The hard nosed law and order stance often wins votes, but just as often it leads to barbaric abuse of human rights and freedom. A government which can so easily imprison people for dubious reasons is a dangerous thing and one to be contained and limited.

HE has risen

Catching bits and pieces of news and hysteria, for one who just landed on the planet, yields but one conclusion: The Second Coming is upon us, America is crowning a new king. My nephew would accuse me of being a hater for such an observation.

Edited: I think the original was too likely to not be representative of what I think if not read in detail.

That is how it is in this thought controlled world in which emotional hysteria trumps reason. The 21st century, the Age of Hysteria.

Anyway, I wish Obama expressed a philosophy I think would yield a freer world rather than one made comfortable in the sort of way which constantly being stoned would make tolerable. It is a simple difference. I do not believe in Rulers as the key to a good life. Most of what pass for issues of the day have no business being debated in governmental bodies.

He doesn't express that view. He doesn't address the fact that the IRS terrorizes middle and low middle income people. The myth that "the rich" slide is not quite the case. The mega rich who own government slide. Those who many consider rich pay the lion's share. In any case, a progressive tax is corrupt and contrary to promoting incentive for independent enterprise, especially when coupled with regulations which supposedly protect the public. Much of that sort of regulation drives away competition and ensures the big boys get bigger.

No need to belabor that point.

I find it a little bit heartening, and depressing at the same time, that the Obama PR paints him as the messiah, as a savior. Ladies on the View were swooning about his academic record and not only did they have it wrong but didn't even have Barack or his wife in the right schools.

One guy was gushing that his "IQ is off the charts", but when asked what his IQ is, he didn't know. It is great to be happy about who is president of the USA, but it is better to remember that we eschew monarchy and titles of nobility. I know that slipped the minds of those who created the Camelot mythology around Kennedy, after his death. There wasn't Camelot talk until after. He was elected in one of the closest presidential elections but he has been painted as king. He was likable, at least judging by the number of chicks who were ushered in and out of the White House, but savior, no. None of them are or have been.

I've yet to see the one who managed to revamp the structure that creates the corruption that steers foreign policy and domestic regulations. None of them will go that far. Their supposed "reforms" always take the form of more power, and more regulation which only those pulling the strings can navigate, driving the outsiders out of the running.

I'd probably like Barry. Maybe not. If I played basketball I guess that would be a fun thing; me vs the big O.

Hysteria always worries me when large groups of people are involved. Mobs are dangerous and the majority can be a terror. Just think of the things done by those in power bulldozing their way over those with less power. It is not a good thing. That's why jails are full of people who haven't done much to hurt anyone. And why many who hurt people regularly are walking around, often with an official title. It's why slavery was considered a way of life worldwide for many hundreds of years, and in some parts of the world it still is. People go along, and people can't resist power or the idea that they need a king, or absolute ruler.

I hope people can be thrilled and have their party without any lunatics or those who feel it will further their cause, creating a scene of violence or worse. I also hope they don't push to give more power over to the head of state than has already been done.