Americans are proving more and more each day that they are now the biggest wimps on earth.  Need proof?  How many Americans do you think are terrified of global warming?  Nearly an entire generation of Americans who are (if you can believe it) terrified of MILDER WEATHER!  

O my God! Longer growing seasons!  O my God!  Less fossil fuels burned to keep warm.  Two or three decades from now when the world is an even better place than it is now, our children will remember us as the scared of our own shadow generation.  How pathetic.

Listening to the news this morning I discover that a multiply convicted registered sex offender has raped and killed a little girl named Jessica.  Now our congress creatures are planning a new law named after her to place GPS devices on registered sex offenders, so our government can track registered offenders movements.  I predict the next "new law" will be named after a child who is raped and killed by someone wearing such a device.

The felon in this case had been arrested nearly 20 times and was working at a local SCHOOL DISTRICT.  The reporter who relayed this information noted that there are between 400 and 500 thousand registered sex offenders in the US, and that between 80 and 100 thousand of them are MISSING.

I'll bet you that McDonalds could tell you how many hamburger rolls they own to within a dozen rolls, but our government is unsure whether there might be an extra 20,000 people who are registered sex offenders roaming around unaccounted for.  I really don't want to hear all the lame excuses about our governments having limited resources, etcetera.  You know what?  Take EVERYONE you've got working on victimless crimes and put them on finding those missing registered sex offenders and locking them up forever.  How DARE you put 1 officer on arresting marijuana smokers while there are 80,000 registered sex offenders that you can't find. 

Why in God's name don't they put these people in prison for life?  If you have  raped a child, I'm sorry but you have announced that you are not fit company for society.  I really don't care if you "couldn't help it", in fact if you really couldn't help yourself, that is even more reason to lock you up forever.

Don't get me wrong... I don't want to see 17 year old boys go to jail for life for having consensual sex with their 15 year old girl friend.  But how is it possible for a 40 year old man who rapes a 9 year old child to EVER get out of jail?

The only explanation is that our political leaders are complete assholes.   But don't worry, if your child gets raped and killed, the politicians will be lining up to name a new law after them.

The latest debate is over whether to privatize a small portion of social security allowing citizens the opportunity to manage their own retirement funds.  Oddly my father's generation actually trust politiicians MORE than they trust the markets.  They are afraid they might pick the wrong retirement fund and be left with nothing.  And they are SURE they can get the government to pick their neighbors pocket for their retirement. 

It's sad to see an entire generation so dependent on government that they cannot even imagine being responsible for themselves.  Social Security is the third rail of American politics because grandma and grandpa would gladly eat their grandchildren's future just so long as no one messes with their with Social Security checks.

By now pretty much everyone knows that Social Security was a scam from its very inception.  It was never an investment or retirement fund.  Citizens were taxed to provide benefits for people who didn't earn them yet,  and the citizens who paid in were meant to die before they could collect their benefits.  If a private company sold you a retirement plan that expired when you do, and paid no benefits to your heirs, we'd put the owners in jail. 

Unfortunately for the politicians, people live longer now.  So Social Security has become a kind of ponzi scheme where the people taking money out of the system take far more than they ever put in.  The funny thing is both groups, the people who pay the taxes and the people who get the benefits feel cheated.  Why?  Well the payers know they'll never get the benefits the current group of seniors are getting, while the beneficiaries would have done far better if their tax money had actually been invested for them.  So, while they draw more money than they put in to the system, they simultaneously draw less money then if their money had actually been invested at even paltry interest rates.

As is typical of anything government does, it manages to screw nearly everybody somehow.  But as I said earlier, the real debate is whether to allow a miniscule portion of Social Security to be privatized.  Democrats claim that this will make the situation even worse, but also claim that there is no crisis, even though everyone knows that soon we will have only 2 taxpayers for every Social Security recipient, as opposed to three taxpayers because people are living longer these days.  The Democrats are content to wait until the crisis is imminent, then they will either raise Social Security taxes, or reduce benefits or both.

The Republicans realize of course that privatizing a mniscule portion of Social Security will not solve the problem.  But the theory is that once the public sees how well the system works, it will be amenable to a major switch, while right now proposing such a switch would be political suicide. 

Of course Democrats claim to believe that privatizing even a small portion of Social Security would be a disaster, but if that were so, they would be quite happy to blame that disaster ont he Republicans and use the issue to regain power.  Instead they are opposing it with all their might.  Their real fear is that it might work quite well, and it would hilite the failure of their policies.

There is already some evidence in on this sunject.  Private accounts were tried in Chile not that long ago, and the public loves them.  They have outperformed the government system by a large margin.  But Americans are afraid of any radical changes (as they should be)  and it will take some convincing to change things here.  Of course the likely outcome is that some means testing will have to be done.  It makes no sense to pay rich seniors social security while taxing the middle class at 80 percent.

But then hardly anything about Social Security DOES make sense.  The more you know the less sense it makes.  If we had honest politicians they would have admitted by now that Social Security was never meant to be a retirement plan for the middle class, just a safety net for those who did not take responsibility for their senior years.  Of course as with all such interventions, when you exempt people from the consequences of their foolishness, you encourage them to be fools.  Now what was once a saftey net for the few people who managed to live to an old age without learning any responsibility, is now the major retirement plan for the majority of our population.  And the consequences keep on rippling.

Foreigners often misunderstand how America works.  You see unlike much of the world our government is not run by an absolute despot who can spend as much money as he likes on whatever he wants.  In this country the Congress has the spending authority.  So when President Bush offers a mere 15 million dollars to Tsunami victims to get the ball rolling it's not because he's trying to aid disaster victims on the cheap.  It's because he can't just drop a billion dollars on his own authority.

Of course the people who hate America don't like to miss opportunities to find fault with us.  So it's important to be rude as soon and as often as possible.  The theory being that if only you can be rude enough the American people will refuse to be charitable and you can enjoy saying "I told you they were cheap" over the dead bodies of the Tsunami victims.  How enjoyable that would be!

Fortunately, the American people are actually the most generous people on earth.  Not because we are "better" than anyone else on the planet, but because we have liberty, and all its blessings.  And liberty creates wealth like nothing else can.  In fact the American people can not feel superiour to every other nation, because we are quite literally the emigrants of every other nation.

If other countries enjoyed as much freedom as we do, they would be as rich, and wouldn't have to hate and envy us so.

We know this, and it makes us feel sorry for them, which is another reason why we are so generous.  So don't worry you ungrateful wretches, we'll show up with the planes and the food, and the water and medical care. Despite the idiots amongst you who hate us and wear Bin Laden T-Shirts, while complaining that we are stingy, we'll show up to do the right thing anyway.  Because we're the good guys, and that is what we do.

I'm not terribly religious myself, but my I did learn at a young age that Jesus taught, if you have two coats and your neighbor has none, that you should give one of your coats to the neighbor in need.  However this is VERY different from hiring a bureacrat to steal a coat from your neighbor who owns three coats, in the name of your coatless neighbor, who will be lucky if he sees the sleeve of that coat. 

Our government "charities" operate precisely in that manner, they are rife with waste and fraud, miniscule percentages of the money collected and spent actually goes to the people who are supposed to be helped, and no one is held accountable.  Why is this?

I'll tell you.  It's because government "Charity" is not about helping the poor, its about punishing the wealthy.  It's about rewarding those who envy the better off.  It makes the people who have no real charity feel better.  They can say they gave at the tax office, (but of course they know that the rich "gave" much more)  It's for people who measure charity by how willing they are to force their neighbor to pay taxes, rather than by how much they themselves donate to charity.

The real measure of the truth of this is how little public outrage is generated by the waste, fraud and incomptence involved.  If you donate regularly to charity, by now you have figured out that one of the best ways to measure the effectiveness of your donations is by using the Better Business Bureaus's wise giving guide.  I try not to donate to charities that are less than 90 percent efficient.  And there are LOTS of private charities that are that efficient.  In other words lots of charities that spend 90 percent of the money they take in on actually supplying the needs of the people they are helping. 

Compare that to government "Charities" or welfare.   Here in New Jersery they don't even bother to comply with the law.  Though records are required to be kept by both the State and the Federal government, the Division of Welfare is notorious for not keeping them and for failing to perform their annual audits.  The last time the Essex county division of welfare did an audit they showed 10 million dollars was unaccounted for.  Later they discovered that 6 million of that went to fraud.  But no one was arrested.  No one was made to repay the money, and no audits are now being done.

What government "charity" has a record of 90 percent efficiency?  Despite the fact that they don't have to spend ANY money on fundraising activities (unlike private charities) they could never even qualify to be a BBB registered charity because they would never meet the minimum requirements.

Here's an idea.  Let's require government welfare agencies to meet the requirements that private charities must meet to be a registered charity.  Let's require them to be 90 percent efficient. Let's give them 1 year to shape up or let's make them close their doors and surrender their budget.

But don't hold your breath while waiting for our corrupt government to hold these agencies accountable.  It's not about helping anyone. It's all about punishing our richer neighbors for having the nerve to be better off than most of us.  If you understand this you understand that government welfare is doing the REAL job it was intended to do. 

The bottom line is government welfare is based on ENVY, not Charity.  You could easily do MUCH more good spending a tenth of the tax money devoted to "welfare" with private institutions that actually have accountability, and efficiency.

In America, we like to make things illegal as a kind of "jobs program" for police.   One of the justifications for keeping Marijuana illegal is the notion that it is a gateway drug. Drug Warriors claim that virtually every user of a "hard drug" was first a user of Marijuana.  But isn't the real test of a gateway drug the number of Marijuana users that move on to "harder drugs", after all 100 percent of "hard drug" users have used water, is it a gateway drug too?

Of course, the real irony is this: If you TRULY believed that Marijuana is a gateway drug why wouldn't you move the gate?  Right now the gate empties at illegal drug sellers.  And naturally if you are selling illegal substances you may be selling other illegal items, like illegal guns, or "harder drugs", so it makes sense that you will try to market your other products to your existing clients.  So clearly in some sense Marijuana IS a gateway drug.  It would make sense to move the gate to an innocuous location like a 7-Eleven, where the other products being marketed are things like bread, and milk and soda, candy and sandwiches.  Or if you are concerned that sandwich buyers will turn into Marijuana buyers than move the gate to a Marijuana only store.  But you will never hear a drug warrior admit this. 

The situation is analogous to the sale of cigarettes, a product that is definately dangerous to your health.  Would anyone prefer that cigarette purchasers buy their products from criminals who have other even less desirable products for sale?

So take your pick:

1. Marijuana is a gateway drug, and the gate should be moved. (legalized)
2. Marijuana is not a gateway drug, and it should be legalized.

If you want to keep it illegal it is clearly not because you are trying to "protect" anyone. Your true motives are to arrest people who choose to intoxicate them selves with something less toxic than booze or cigarettes.  It's a culture war, with American citizens as the target.

Som much of American politics revolves around absurd conspiracy theories.  Every event easily becomes fodder for your political point of view what ever it is.

For example:

If Gas prices go up before the election it meant either that:

1. The Arabs were driving up the cost of gasoline to keep George Bush from being elected.
2. The oil companies were grabbing as much profit as possible before John Kerry get elected.

If Gas prices drop after the election it means:

1.  The Arabs failed, and are now trying to get on Bush'es good side.
2.  Bush won so the oil companies won and now they can relax because they have plenty of time to gouge us.

Personally I am not a big fan of conspiracy theories.  The people who engage in them are usually trying to prove how they have a special insight into the world and politics, and usually accomplish just the reverse.

Neither Democrats nor Republicans are really the party of "the people."   They both get their money from wealthy corporations and individuals, they both have their set of special interest constituencies.  They both favor big government, and they both prefer their own party get to run it.  While the rhetoric used leads many people to believe that there are huge disagreements between the parties, the reality is that the actual policies implemented by the parties make them almost identical. 

Most of the disagreement is theoretical.  For example:

Democrats favor gun control (generally)  while Republicans do not (Generally).  So, you might think that Republicans once elected, would try to repeal the 20,000 plus gun control laws.  Nah.  They want them ENFORCED!

Democrats oppose "Corporate Welfare", and Republicans (supposedly) are in favor of it.  Do the Democrats try to repeal any Corporate Welfare?  Don't hold your breath.

The general rule is that once a program or law is adopted, it becomes a sacred cow.  Neither party wants to offend the beneficiaries of the law or program.  The argument between the parties therefore is limited to what additional layer of bureacracy will be applied to the existing framework of our government.  No matter how opposed the parties are to what is proposed, once it becomes law, all opposition ceases.  

That is why though Republicans in theory are opposed to Social Security, they in fact never oppose it.  The most they can do now is propose extremely modest alterations.  Similarly, Republicans are in theory opposed to a minimum wage, but in fact they will never vote to eliminate it, they can only oppose increases in the minimum wage. Meanwhile Democrats were opposed to the war in Iraq, but their chosen candidate can only argue that he would wage it better. 

So, if you haven't figure it out yet, in America our government is the barnacle like buildup of whatever laws no matter how ill advised or counter-productive have ever been enacted.  No party is going to change that.  The argument is restricted to what shall be done next.

should be automatically disqualified.   Bush or Kerry.... we are about to have one hell of a BAD President.

Here's an idea. Let's try to elect someone who is not enamored of their own power next time.  I'd like to see an American President that would:

1. Cut Federal Spending.   2.5 Trillion dollar budgets are insane.  Nothing the Federal Government does, does it do well.  If our welfare agencies were private charities they would go out of business because no one would volunteer to send money to any charity that WASTES 40 to 80 percent of the money raised.

2. Eliminate entire Agencies.  The 1st amendment reads "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech"  So what the hell is the FCC for? To keep Howard Stern from speaking freely?  What part of NO LAW doesn't Congress get?

3. Run a Legal government.  Is that too much to ask?  The IRS writes rules with the force of law, enforces them, and runs tax courts.  Is it an Executive Branch agency? A branch of the Judiciary?  A part of the Legislature?  It does all three.  What the hell happened to the Separation of Powers?  Clearly no one in our government has the balls to ask that basic question.  The federal government is littered with three letter agencies that all violate this basic principle, making them illegal entities.  But hey who cares?  Why should the people who write the laws have to abide by them?

4.  Face Reality. Our borders are porous, we have over 9 million illegal aliens.  No one can stop them from coming.  Nor should we.  Despite the fact that 9 million Mexicans are here we haven't had one terrorist incident invloving Mexicans.  Most of those people come here to be exploited at a better rate than they get exploited in their own country.  Make it simple and easy for them to come here to work, and DOCUMENT their entry and exit.  Once it is easy to come in to work legally anyone who crosses the border illegally is a bad guy. As it stands right now, we don't know who is here or why. And apparently our government likes it that way, since blaming foreignors is much easier than accepting responsibility.

5. Legalize all victimless crimes.  Stop killing people with the equivalent of rotgut gin.  Allow legitimate business to supply all vices. In this way Heroin,Cocaine etcetra will not contain poisons, and businesses can be sued if they provide adulterated substances. Don't make laws that make the situation worse by enriching criminals (elected or otherwise) law enforcement is too precious a resource to squander on victimless crime.  Few laws well respected works much better than many laws typically ignored.

6. Do not create any more CZARS or TSARS or whatever the government calls them.  If we wanted dictators we'd move to Cuba.  The notion that we will all be more secure if only we apply yet another layer of bureacracy reporting to a single person is utterly bankrupt and foolish.  And don't blather about having ONE person to hold responsible, if we could hold them responsible they wouldn't be appointed to office they'd have to run for election.

7.  Stop rewarding agenices for failure.  If you aren't MEASURABLY fixing whatever it is your agency was created to solve, then surrender your budget and close your damn doors.  

8.  Embrace free trade.  If it isn't free trade then it is unfree trade.  Dump the WTC and NAFTA and GATT and all that crap and just allow individuals and businesses to trade their goods and services on the best terms they can negotiate themselves.  Stop using the CIA and our Army Navy and Airforce to "negotiate" better terms for AgriBusiness or anyone else.

9.  Adults should be allowed to Marry or not in whatever form they mutually agree on.  The government doesn't need to get involved with the definition of marriage. Let the churches, secular organizations, insurance companies etcetera decide what they think marriage is for themselves.  Who said we all have to agree?  Catholics can decide that marriage is only for one man and one woman, Mormons might feel differently, so what?  Join the organization of your choice and live your life as you see fit.  If you want men with weapons to enforce your point of view please pick another country, we're free here and we like it that way.

What do the letters stand for?  CBS 

Could Be Smears?
Can't Bear Scrutiny?
Clearly Bull Shit?
Complete Baloney Served?
Corroboration Be Superfluos?

OK, so the last one is a touch strained,  Please add your favorite acronym.

In America we like to pretend that we have two political Partys.  The Republican party is supposedly for "limited government", "private property", "family values", "religion", "business" and "defense".  The Democratic Party is supposedly the party of the "little guy", "minorities", "equal opportunity", "collective bargaining", "seniors", and "government programs for anyone but the rich".  The American people are supposed to fit themselves into the two parties according to their interests.  Of course people are complex and sometimes they find it hard to decide which of their many interests are most important and therefore which party best represents them.

This is of course terribly silly, for the partys' do NOT represent the interests of the American people at all.  The overwhelming majority of Americans would like to have a government that is small but effective, honest and accountable, fair, trustworthy and competent.  And if our government actually represented us one would assume that our government would reflect those desires.  The reality is of course quite different.

The American government is in reality a bloated behemoth that routinely tramples over the rights of its citizens, hardly ever accomplishes anything it sets out to accomplish, routinely lies to the voters about its intentions, capabilities, performance, achievements and  shortcomings.  The political partys, regardless of which is in control of what portion of the government, never act in any way to reverse the situation.

Though ostensibly Democrats are for the "little guy" and supposedly fear and hate big corporations, they never actually eliminate any Corporate Welfare, or reduce the little guy's tax burden.  Similarly, Republicans who supposedly believe in limited government never actually roll back any government programs.  It is an unwritten law that once government has been expanded, no matter how foolish, wasteful or corrupt the program, that program can NEVER be cut.  Unless, of course, it is replaced with a program that is even larger, more wasteful and more corrupt than its predecessor.

The partys' spend most of their time trying to scare,confuse and of course bore the voters into submission to their greedy, self serving wills.  American politics is a game of smoke and mirrors, in which the political partys' spend most of their time  trying to convince the voters that they are actaully participating in the selection of their rulers.  This is true in only the most abstract sense.  Most Americans would not choose to allow most politicians to date their sister.  But they are convinced that they MUST vote for the people offered.  Even if they don't understand how that particular group of jerks became their current "choice."

This is a losing game.  The partys' select the candidates who have proven that they can be trusted utterly to continue to thwart the public will,  and most Americans have only the vaguest understanding of the process.  They don't have the time, patience or will to acquaint themselves with the myriad of rules and technicalities involved in getting a candidate elected to public office.  And unless they are going to make a career in politics they pretty much HAVE to accept that this "democratic system" is actually run by the career politicians, of the career politicians and for the career politicians.  This shell game continues to work because the American public believes that "democracy" is when you get to choose which horrible leader will lie, steal and abuse you next.  Our leaders may be jerks, but we believe they are "our jerks."

The political partys' spend the rest of their time "opposing" each other. Candidate D takes a position in favor of Partial Birth Abortion, Candidate R takes a position against.  Each candidate does his best to fill his consitutents with the dread of what would happen if the "other" candidate had his way.  In this way they both raise a lot of money.  Then regardless who wins they will pass a law which pretends to address the issue.  If the law actually changes the status quo, the judiciary steps in to invalidate it as soon as possible.  Thus making it possible to revisit the issue again and again without ever really changing anything that might interfere with the candidates increasing the impression that they actually "oppose" each others position.  Or with their ability to fundraise.

This process continues with slight variations until everyone who could possibly be convinced that "something must be done" has donated every dollar that the partys' can extract.  Then regretably the politicians move on to another one of the many subjects of controversy in which it is possible to milk the public for a good 40 years.

The important thing is that:

1. The public believes the two partys vehemently disagree with each other.
2. The public is induced to "support" a side, preferably with money.
3. Nothing that interferes with 1 or 2 is allowed to transpire.

Now because there are hundreds of issues, it is possible for the "two partys" to pick issues that result in 40 percent of the public choosing one side and 40 percent of the public choosing the other with a good 10 percent of the rest remaining totally confused and another 10 percent actually verging on despair.

At times the number of people who actually participate fluctuate but so long as the public ends up split into pieces as described it is a certainty that:

1. The public will never get what it wants.
2. The politicians will always get what they want.

And what do the politicians want?  It is necessary only to see what happens regardless of who is in power.

1.  Government always Grows  (I call this the GAG principle) or more completely....
2.  Government Always Grows More Energetically Whatever It Takes However Awful Selfish Pigish Or Ominously Nihilistic  (GAG ME WITH A SPOON)

Keep in mind that no matter how many govenment programs to assist the poor are created, there will always be poor and MOST of the money will be spent on anything BUT helping them.  No matter how many dollars are spent on defense, we will always be threatened by aggression, both foreign and domestic.  No matter how many dollars are spent on education, less children will be educated less well each and every year.  No matter how much money government spends on health care, health care will become more expensive each and every year.  No matter how much money government spends on regulating and controlling business, big corporations will continue to get away with murder, and the "little guy" will continue to lose his pension funds.

If you believe any of the following::

1.  Social Security is fiscally sound, and will remain so indefinately.
2.  Government will begin to run huge surpluses and will then invest the surpluses wisely creating an ongoing stream of interest based revenue that will eventually replace up to 50 percent of annual expenditures instead of the reverse.
3.  Government will use Internet Technology to make FULL and OPEN accounting on every penny spent a reality in our time.
4.  Government schools will become safe havens for our children, where they may learn in a drug free environment, free from politically correct propaganda, and eventually all our children will be literate, eager participants in a thriving knowledgable electorate.
5.  Drug Abuse, Poverty and Crime will be greatly reduced or even cease to eixst in America, because of the many trillions of dollars spent in wars against them.
6. The poorest citizen will be able to get the same quality health care that American Senators enjoy thanks to the many trillions of dollars spent to make medicine affordable if not entirely free.

You are horribly misinformed.