So... the WHAT NOW has Happened

So, the last time I was in here, the question was, "What Now?"

The US government was just in the process of signing into law a bill to raise the debt ceiling to prevent a default disaster.

But after all the bickering, posturing, politicking and pouting, not nearly enough was done to satisfy investors and creditors around the world, and the USA lost their golden triple-A rating.

C,mon, people!  If the average family ran their household the way the government runs theirs, EVERYBODY would be broke!  A friend sent this to me, yesterday, and this just about sums it up:

If the US Government was a family, they would be making $58,000 a year, they would be spending $75,000 a year, and they would be carrying $327,000 in credit card debt.  They would be currently proposing BIG spending cuts to reduce their spending to $72,000 a year.  These are actual proportions of the federal budget and debt, reduced to a level we can all understand.

OK, I don't think anybody needs grade 12 math to see what's wrong with that, yet around the world these same dumb clowns keep getting voted in to office!  So what's wrong with the voters?  That is, those people we all see when we look in the mirror?

Fellow Canadians, do you think it can't happen here?  ... in this country where the vast majority of our exports are to the USA, because it's always been so darn easy to sell everything there, rather than do a little legwork in order to diversify our markets?

Wherever you live, take a look at the size of your country's national debt and then tell me straight it can't happen here!

Maybe it's time for us to LISTEN to those crazy "Tea Party" types.  Maybe they DO know something, after all!

how to Survive 2012!  Do you know how?

So, What Now?

So, Congress has passed the bill to raise the debt ceiling and avert a default disaster.  But many on both sides of the floor are still grumbling about it.

Tea Party members of the GOP are grumbling, because there were no real, meaningful cuts and taxes were not reduced.

A LOT of Democrats are grumbling, because there are no spending increases to social programs and taxes were not increased.

Leaders of both parties continue to posture, both in Congress and in the Senate.

But the big question remains:  What now?

The fact is that the USA is multiple trillions of dollars in debt, and is about to raise those numbers once again to avoid a default.  But what is the cost of this?

There is a very slight possibility that the US credit rating will not be downgraded, mainly due to the "old boy's club" that the USA seems to have a very big say in.  But the reality is that the US is in a state of RUNAWAY debt creation, and this little spat between the GOP and the Dems that we've just witnessed is nothing compared to the storm that is coming.

When people realize that their great grandchildren have been sold out by this present mob of criminals in Washington, there's going to be some BIG changes.  Mr. Obama wanted change, but not the kind of change he's going to see if the general population ever wake up to what's really going on!

Under this agreement that is being signed into law as I write this, nothing has really been fixed.  The day of reckoning has merely been delayed.  A bigger storm is being allowed to brew.  Contrary to what Mr. Biden likes to say, you cannot avoid bankruptcy by spending more money you don't have!

A default would have been bad for the USA and the whole world.  But what is coming could be (and probably will be) a lot worse.  A total collapse now may have been the best thing that could have happened, before things get worse.  Only time will tell.

The REAL Pandemic of the 21st Century?

I just finished watching the documentary, Under Our Skin, on the Knowledge Network website.  As a diagnosed Lyme sufferer, diagnosed by a retired doctor who is one of the most respected and highly sought out speakers on Lyme Disease in the world, yet still refused the treatment that could cure me, this film did not offer much hope.  It only served to underscore the huge problem this disease is for those unlucky enough to have it anywhere in the developed world.

One of the things that really stood out in the film (which made the Oscar short list for documentaries), was the very thing that I have found time and time again.  Despite an overwhelming mountain of scientific and anecdotal evidence for long term, TREATABLE AND CURABLE Lyme Disease, those who control the system still obstinately deny the facts.

The province of British Columbia recently had to release a report, finished in May of 2010, that proves that this problem is WELL known of by those who run the medical community, yet doctors still know practically nothing about it, and those that do continue to deny that it is a real problem.  Perhaps if enough people read the report, presently available for download on the Canlyme website , watch this documentary, and write to MPs, MLAs, and in the USA, state governors, congressmen and senators, perhaps we will get some action.  Never mind me... I've already lived at least half my life, but what about all the KIDS that are infected and dying?  This is a crime that rivals the holocaust, yet it is happening right under everyone's nose.

Pathetic Parasitic Slimeballs....

It seems that there are far too many, today, who will do anything they think they can get away with for a buck.

I call them "Pathetic, Parasitic Slimeballs..."  They are some of the most heartless creeps alive on the planet, today.  

Egypt is in the throes of chaotic events that will change the face of Egypt, most likely will cause great hardship and calamity for many in that great country, and very probably will spark world wide events that will affect people at every level, and possibly very negatively, at that.  It is at the very least a sobering and serious time in history when our fellow human beings in Egypt are facing a crisis such as has not been seen there in a generation, and one that may turn out to be without precedent.  The short term consequence could be massive suffering for many.

Yet just this morning, as I was checking my email, I discovered that, already, unscrupulous spam marketers are using the crisis to flog their pathetic wares without any sign of compassion for those who are suffering.  When all the world is watching Egypt as events unfold there, some are using headlines about that very suffering to inspire those who do have an ounce of compassion to open and read their drivel with the ridiculous hope that their unethical regurgitations of bad copy will inspire a sale to a susceptible and gullible fool looking for a path to quick and painless riches... (breathe...)

Unfortunately, this is not new, nor is it uncommon.  It is simply a fact, today, that ethics and even the understanding of right and wrong, legal and illegal, seems to have come down more than ever to the lowest common denominator for most - everything is legal, moral, and ethical enough as long as one does not get caught.  In other words, in a world where "number one" is increasingly the only important one, as all ideas of answering to anyone higher than ourselves is discarded as irrelevant and even unscientific, this IS the kind of world we are creating.

In the words of a good friend of mine, "Woe is us..."

There is Still Hope in Egypt

Few people in the free world can stomach the idea of living under a dictator, so the news of the potential collapse of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's regime is welcome news for many in the west.   After decades of Mubarak's total control of the country, a whole new generation has risen in the rest of the world, mainly ignorant and unaware of the fact that prior to Mubarak and his predecessor, Anwar Sadat, who signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, the whole area was a giant powder-keg, even worse than it is today.  The threat of war, and its danger to then entire region was ever present.

Unfortunately, especially as it turned out for President Sadat, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, a fundamental Muslim organization, did not like the idea of peace with Israel, and in 1981 assassinated Anwar Sadat.  His successor was Hosni Mubarak.

One of the things that most westerners do not understand, mainly due to a woefully pitiful interest in world history, is that all the Islamic nations are governed either by very strong dictators or they are in a constant state of internal trouble, or they have foreign governments on their soils doing the same thing the dictators do, enforcing the rules and keeping the peace with a strong military presence, something that is hated even more than the dictators.

(The very idea that the west can "win" in Iraq or Afghanistan or perhaps Pakistan or Iran shows a pitiable misunderstanding of the Islamic culture.  They consider their land holy and the "infidel" foreigners unholy, and will never really stop fighting until either the foreign dogs leave or the last one of their numbers is killed.)

The west is now excitedly proclaiming that Egypt is about to become a democracy, even while the Muslim Brotherhood and other such organizations stir up the people, hope for a complete collapse of the government and a power vacuum into which they can boldly stride, either as the "saviours" of a country in chaos, or through a western led election process, which they will play along with until they have total control and can throw the infidel dogs out.

The very idea that we in the west would support such government as the Muslim Brotherhood would most certainly impose upon Egypt is hideous.  Already, Egypt is under Sharia law, but a moderate form that has been heavily monitored and controlled under President Sadat, and then President Mubarak.  However, the very powers that plotted to successfully assassinate Sadat are still plotting, still waiting to put the country under their brand of Sharia, where women have no rights of any kind, and any idea other than fundamental Islam is forbidden under pain of death.

Some, even today, have the audacity to proclaim that we in the west have no right to say anything against what is going on in Egypt.  They will loudly tell you that Egypt has the right to plot their own course and their own, hard-earned democratic and free society.  To them, I will say, it's high time you started relying on something other than the evening news for your understanding of world events, and high time you became a student of history!  There will be no democracy there, any more than there was in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

The greatest hope for Egypt (and the middle east) is for everything to truly cool down, as it presently seems to still have a very slim chance of doing, and for Mubarak to manage to appease the people long enough to pass over the rule to someone this generation will find more palatable, while still being a strong enough leader to keep the lid on the explosive reality that IS any country in the Islamic world.

Will it happen?  Maybe.  Will Egypt stay quiet?  No.  It's too late.  It is inevitable for all the countries in the region to eventually be fully under the control of those who hate Israel and her allies, and for all out war to be once again waged on Israel.  The signs are everywhere, and they are growing stronger every day.  But should we give hearty approval to it?  NO!  Whatever our personal beliefs may be, our own security in the west depends on peace in the middle east.  So whether we care about the people of the middle east (we sure should), or only about our own skin and comfort, we should pray that things settle down in Egypt and that they go into this new decade with a moderate but very strong leader that they can live with.

That's my opinion.

Ramblings and Rantings - Part II

Well, folks, it's 2011 and things haven't improved in the six plus years since I first wrote about useless email. Therefore, here is a second look at one of the reasons I have so little hair left (ok... it's a guy thing... but still, it seems to have disappeared in direct proportion to the amount of junk I have to wade through, every day!)

My email inbox is still overflowing - how come the good guys get sp@m warnings for one email and these guys dump on me over and over again and nobody's even slowing them down? I now have software on my main account that gets rid of a lot of junk, very effectively (Thank you, Netaddress... plug, plug, plug), but the junk in my inbox STILL wastes a lot of time, every day, and if I miss a day... ugh.

I think the programmers who are trying to control this pile of cyber litter should change their tactics. Why not let all email through with real return addresses and real people checking their email.

Hey - how hard can it be? At LEAST 80% of the junk would disappear instantly if all the ISPs just used a filter that autodumped email with phoney reply-to and from addresses! They're pinging all the time - how hard to ping back on every email and trash the ones that bounce?
Am I missing something here?? Is there one good programmer out there?

And to make it even better, create a little algorithm that checks for contact information in every email coming through - if there's no contact info in the email - TRASH IT!! It's doable, people!

How hard it that? Now we've dumped 75-90% of sp@m without breaking into a sweat.
But no - the dumb boneheads take the lazy approach and string up the people who DO use real addresses and real contact info, because they're easy to find.

And what do we get instead? A WHOLE LOT MORE anonymous garbage in our inbox!
Go figure!!

Now, take a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Feel better? Have a marvelous day!

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Apology Form

I have to admit, a lot of people could find this very handy!