More F35 Madness

Today's NYT is reporting that the "Pentagon" and Lockheed have agreed on the latest round of F35 purchases. The planes now cost $137 million EACH. We ask our friends to enumerate all the useful things this country could acquire for each F35 we did not build.

F 35: Our Latest Insanity

As New York and New Jersey begin to emerge from the destruction of that Category One (the smallest) Hurricane, the Pentagon (read: War Department) is going merrily ahead with plans to spend $394 billion for the so-called "Joint Strike Fighter."This latest dose of madness was conceived in an era when we had the "enemy" of the USSR. Last time we looked, the USSR was no more. And the F35 cannot prevent another dozen terrorists from diving planes into cities, should they so decide to do so.
What prompted our latest outrage is the fact that all across this pathetic country infrastructure, from bridges, to roads, to rails, to mass transit, to water and sewage systems, is collapsing under our very noses, and all we can think of to do is build more obscene fighter jets, nuclear carriers and submarines that we don't need and can't afford. Hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage gushed into the waters of the East Coast, and in some cases, continue to gush because "no one could have foreseen" the destruction of this pipsqueak hurricane.
Just wait 'til a REAL one comes along. But at least we'll have the F35 to bomb wedding parties in Afghanistan and drones to bomb schools in Pakistan. We can console ourselves with that as our homes float away in our own sewage.

Dems: Don't Get Euphoric Yet!

With all the blather about the inevitability of Democratic victories as far as the eye can see, Ned would like to interject a bit of reason into the unwonted euphoria (or is it simply relief?). Regardless of demographics, there is that ol' electoral college to keep in mind. Here's why: here are reliably red states, as far as the eye can see, with the possible exception of Arizona: Arizona, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska. These eleven states have 54 electoral votes and have about 24 million people, and some of them are actually losing population. California has 38 million people and has 55 electoral votes. Moreover, does anyone believe that the phenomenal black turnout in key states like VA and OH would have been the same for a nonblack candidate? Or if the morons of the state GOP hadn't tried to suppress their votes?
Remember that that Sneering Plutocrat Romney still got 47% of the vote, and would have gotten more had he not been overheard dissing half the country to his elitist moocher, parasite friends as, ironically, moochers and parasites.
One day, maybe in 2016, the GOP will stop shooting itself in the foot and actually run a candidate from the 20th century--much less the 21st.
It ain't over yet.

Brooks: A "New" GOP?

Poor David Brooks. In a recent NYT op-ed, he describes the "new voices" in the GOP and tries to see a way forward for the Republican Party. But this is a party that suffers from a fatal disease: half of its most reliable base consists of religious fanatics who have more in common, seriously, with The Taliban than they have with Reality-Based communities. Then take the rest of their base: racists (Obama got 10% of the white vote in Mississippi, and 15% in Alabama) and selfish, grasping, amoral Sneering Plutocrats, who care, like the Dragon of the Niebelung, only for their pile of filthy lucre, and for whom enough is never enough. Given this handicap, how can they survive? By gerrymandering congressional districts for one, and by rulings by a pliable and contemptible Supreme Court (think Citizens United) for another. Finally, they have to depend on the stupidity of a part of the electorate and the distractions (earning a living, taking care of kids, etc) on another part of the electorate. Or perhaps they just mount such disgusting campaigns that they hope voters get turned off and stay away.
There is in fact only one vacuum in modern American politics: the Populist. Think Oklahoma in the 30s, or West Virginia in the 60s. The Democrats have given up these voters and the GOP has nothing to say to them since it would alienate the Sneering Plutocracy. What we need is clearly a Populist Party, one that stands for health care, a much reduced military, education, a protected environment, fair trade, and community. Oh and did someone mention Climate Change?

Coburn for the War Department!

Obama is apparently looking for a replacement for amiable hack Leon Panetta as head of the War Department (we prefer this more realistic term for the benign 'Defense Department', since this country has engaged in nothing but aggressive wars since 1945). We suggest kook Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. Many of Coburn's ideas are right out of the 14th century (BC, that is) but he is a powerful skeptic of military spending and has many fine ideas about how to cut it deeply without sacrificing the ability to invade any country we so choose to spread 'freedom' around the world, mainly by obliterating persons of color. The nomination would sail through the Senate, the War Department would quake in its boots, Obama would have his bipartisanship creds enhanced, and the country might actually see some deficit reduction that is sensible, necessary and long past time. The fact that we have a bigger war budget than the next ten countries COMBINED should make every sensible American sick to their stomach.
Let's hear it for Tom Coburn!

Big Government Comes Back

For all those Mental Midgets who drink the GOP kool-aid and believe that nothing government does is good and nothing 'private enterprise' does is bad, we direct your attention (assuming your reading level is above 5th grade) to today's NYT featuring an article on the rebirth of the New York subway system, one of the world's largest, and entirely run by government and union labor. The recovery of the system was miraculous and not a 'heckofa job Brownie' to be heard. Now, crawl back under your rocks and go back to sleep.

Election Fulminations: Geezerdom's Shame, Etc

Ned recalled today seeing numerous geezers with Romney yard signs, and condemns them to the lowest reaches of Hell for their breathtaking selfishness and ignorance.  A generation which is living off the backs of younger Americans paying into Medicare and Social Security, providing these geezers with a comfortable lifestyle, and then voting for a Contemptible Being who intends to deny those same benefits to the young. Ned asks how disgusting is that? Moreover, he remembers with exasperation that geezerette in SC who indignantly demanded that politicians 'keep their government hands off my Medicare!' Yet he recalls that this disreputable selfishness and abysmal ignorance has always been part of America. In fact, Lincoln warned against appealing to anything save 'the better angels of our nature.' This of course is exactly what the deformed and vile heirs of Lincoln have done every election since 1960. And today? "47% of Americans are moochers and parasites" said of course in private. And yet many especially the old, continue to support such beliefs.
May they all roast in hell.

Ned's Review of Elections

We would like to provide our many friends with our humble review of the past several presidential elections, starting with that of 1968. In this election, Richard Nixon edged Humphrey by a whisker. The impact of this was hard to tell, other than it led to Watergate. We feel that HHH would have enmeshed the country as far into Vietnam as Tricky Dick did, and so a HHH election would have made little difference. 1972: Here, regrettably McGovern, a true hero and fine all around man, would have made a much finer president that a second Nixon term, but the stars were aligned against him, so we got what we got. 1976: Carter edged Ford, and it probably made little difference because both were honorable men. However, Ned recalls being torn as to whom to vote for. At the last minute, Ford came out and endorsed a constitutional amendment to ban abortion, and this sealed his fate in Ned's eyes. 1980: The country's great Descent Into Horror began with the election of Reagan. Ned voted for Anderson who had the courage to tell Americans something they didn't want to hear: that they needed to pay higher gas prices. And so the Script Reader was elected, who then proceeded to run up budget deficits as far as the eye could see, all the while cementing his reputation as a "small government" man. Moreover, the pandering to the Ignorant Masses, always dangerous in the country where ignorance is a prince if not king, began in earnest. 1984: Never in doubt, but we voted for Mondale, in spite of his selection of Geraldine Ferraro as his VP, a Limousine Liberal if there ever was one. 1988: We naturally voted for Dukakis, having been repelled by the extent to which George HW Bush prostituted his principles to get the nomination, and then ran the disgusting attack ads against Dukakis. Sound familiar? The Bush presidency was a disaster, solely because he chose Clarence Thomas for the SCOTUS, one of the most glaring mediocrities ever nominated for public office since Caligula made his horse a Consul. This continues to curse the country to this day. The Clinton years were as a breath of fresh air-forget about sexual shenanigans that would make any European laugh.
Then we come to 2000, and wonder to this day how Gore managed to lose--the electoral vote of course. The 'selection' of Cheerleader George Bush may have set this country on a course of unavoidable decline, leading to the overweening hubris of Iraq, and "Bin Laden Determined To Attack Inside US." But more maddening to us is the re-election of Bush in 2004, facilitated by the Dems choosing just about the only candidate who couldn't beat him. We fully supported Obama in 2008, and note with contempt and disgust the racially-motivated hatred of him by the GOP.
We predict an Obama victory tonight, but await the outcome with fear and loathing. A Romney victory would cement this country as consisting of an electorate far too stupid to be entrusted with the vote, but we shall see.

Ned's Absence: Into Red America

We would like to apologize to our many dear friends for our posting hiatus, as we have been on a research expedition deep into the foul heart of Red America. Our journey took us across the forbidding wastes of eastern Oregon, home to a few thousands of Hardy Rugged Individualists who hate government but live off federal timber payments, subsidized water, crop payments and food stamps. We crossed into that reddest of states, Idaho, filled with cultist Mormons and more Rugged Real Americans, then deeper, deeper into the most forlorn of all red states, Wyoming. We counted about three trees between Evanston and Laramie, but plenty of signs of coal mining. We now understand the cowboy lament that, while rounding up 'dogies,' poor, motherless calves, sings "whoopie tie-yie-ay, git along little dogie, it's your misfortune and none of my own, whoopie tie-yie-ay git along little dogie, you know that Wyoming will be your new home." And God help the poor beasts.
Our journey ended in Purple Colorado, where we saw plenty of Romney yard signs in the Stepford Wife-like metropolis of Fort Collins. We can, however, report that the town has a abundance of fine brewpubs and Colorado State University. We predict however, that Romney will carry the town by a whisker, but trust that our tortilla-fancying friends in the Denver region will deliver the state the Obama. Time will tell.

Memo to our low-IQ friends

Memo: To our room temperature IQ friends
Subj: A potential GOP victory
Date: Oct 27, 2012

Dear low-IQ friends. Please note the unmistakeable signs of a Romney victory, should it come to place. And do not come crying to Ned.
* Sneering plutocrat bosses are sending memos to their serfs and other employees, warning them to vote GOP or face the consequences. Expect this to become the rule in future 'elections.'
* Your taxes will go up and your government benefits will crater, all the while your betters in the Sneering Plutocracy will enrich themselves even more. And, since these vile, grasping, soulless creatures cannot possibly spend all their filthy lucre even now, giving them more money will cause the economy to further contract.
* What few personal rights you have left will be swept into the dustbin, as states and localities cut services and workers further, except for 'police' which will be hired to ensure that the Plutocracy's possessions are secure.
* Women will find that the GOP mullahs and ayatollahs will more and more force their 8th century BC opinions on them, eliminating the rights to family planning, birth control and abortion rights. They may even revise the rape laws to decriminalize rape unless 'sufficient violence' was proven. And look for attempts to revise the marriage ceremony to reinstate "obey" as a woman's obligation.
* The coal companies will enjoy a resurgence, and clear air laws will be weakened or even eviscerated.
* Regulations, such as controls on toxic substances in food and drugs will be 'streamlined,' in line with Plutocrat's wishes. The plutocrats, on the other hand, will further withdraw behind their gated communities, patrolled by 'neighborhood watch volunteers,' armed with automatic weapons, as gun control laws will be eliminated. Rest assured, however, that you will be allowed in regularly to beg for scraps that the cat wouldn't eat, which you will have to do as food stamps will be eliminated.
* Your 'disability' payments will cease, requiring you to actually seek employment along with the other desperate millions.
* Tenure will gradually disappear from universities, resulting in their conversion into 'education centers' where you will only be forced to learn to obey orders.
We, in the Reality-Based USA, wish you a happy RomneyWorld.

Mississippi: 'God's Country?'

One of Ned's benighted high school classmates, in a congratulatory epistle to a colleague buying a house in Oxford, Mississippi, described that state as "God's Country,' to which Ned can only say, "chacun a son gout."

Ned's Pensees

Ned offers to his many friends and faithful followers this list of items du jour:
* The NYT features today an article on the 'plight of poor people with large families.' Seems these worthies are having trouble finding housing they can afford. The problem is, NYC builds housing for the poor based on the city's average demographic, and the average 'family unit' has about 2.5 persons. Today's article featured the 'plight' of a 'refugee' from Mali, a 'part-time auto mechanic' who with his wife and six kids, came to New York for 'a better life,' but now has to cram his whole entourage in a one bedroom unit he shares with another family! 'Why doesn't someone do something to help me?' is his heartfelt complaint. A spokesperson for the Manhattan Institute observed that 'persons should not have more children than they can care for,' a sentiment to which Ned indignantly associates himself.
* Comes word that of the three hundred million Americans who can feed themselves (over the age of 2) eleven percent have at least one sugary soda per day, and one in FIVE have more than 16 ounces per day. This is as good an argument for a stiff 'soda tax' as Ned has ever heard. Or the Guardia Civil.
* A study reports that each year, about three hundred people are killed and 10,000 injured in--terrorist attacks?--airline crashes?---zombie rampages?---no friends, in collisions between malevolent deer and passenger vehicles! Moreover, the collisions cost us $1 billion each year. Ned's suggestion: let's round up the deer and feed them to the homeless and to kids for their school lunches, selling the rest in high end stores, since such meat is very good for you (as red meat goes).
We wish our friends a good day.

Why Do They Hate Him?

Ned continues to be amused at the quandary the pundits and thinkers wallow in, in their attempts to explain why Obama is so hated in the South, especially among white men. They raise their hands and piously declaim that 'it can't be racism,' because 'Clarence Thomas, Condolllleeezzzzza Rice and Allen West are popular.'
As a southerner who long ago asked for and received political asylum in the Reality Based part of the US, Ned will patiently explain it to them so they can go back to dithering over whether American Idol or X Factor is 'more American.'
In the south, there are, and always have been, two kinds of black folks, according to the pinhead mentality of the southern white: Uncle Toms, and Uppity N---ers. The black folks in the former group are viewed as servile and 'know their place.' So, they are tolerated, even admired. In the later category falls Obama, or so they think. His wife, ditto.
Thus endeth the lesson.

Two GRIM October elevenths

Ned's friends may recall that on October 11, 2002, a craven Congress acceded to the lies and calumny of the criminal Bush Regime and "authorized the use of force" against Iraq, a country that had never attacked the U.S. The betrayal by Congress took place only after a cascade of lies and misinformation from Bush and his stooges, including Dan Senor, Don Rumsfeld (who should be behind bars), Condoleeeeezzzzza Rice (ditto), Colin Powell (who should have resigned if he had a bit of self-respect),  and, most infamously of all, Dick Cheney, who should, along with his sock puppet Bush, have been tried for war crimes years ago.
And on October 11, 2011, a craven, crazed Congress, under the thumb of the GOP neanderthals, refused to pass the Obama Jobs Bill, which, at $477 billion would, according to impartial economists, have added 2% to the country's GDP and generated 2 MILLION jobs, at an interest cost of perhaps $6 billion a year. What a different place this country would have been if neither of these nefarious activities had taken place.
Ned wishes his friends a happy VP debate.

The Bush "Taker 47%"

Ned would like to remind his many friends that Willard Romney and his Li'l Buddy run around the country sneering at the 47% of Americans who "pay no income tax" and who thus in their words are slackers and parasites. But let us take our thoughts, painful as it may be, back to the criminal regime of George Bush and Dick Cheney. During the 2004 vice-presidential 'debate' between Cheney, who is unaccountably still at large and not in custody, and John Edwards, Cheney PROUDLY boasted of the Bush/GOP tax policies that had "TAKEN MILLIONS OF AMERICANS OFF THE TAX ROLLS" so "that they now (as of 2004) paid NO INCOME TAX."
Ned would ask these representatives of the GOP-- i.e, Romney and Ryan, if they supported these socialist, enabling policies or if they railed against them as creating millions of parasites, sucking nutriment out of the Public Intestine?
We respectfully await their response.

Silver Linings Of A Romney Victory?

Although we consider it vanishingly unlikely, we are moved to look for silver linings in a Romney victory. First, perhaps the Social Security 'disability' fraud police will grow some testosterone and weed out the parasites, saving us billions in the process. Second, perhaps the fat people drinking soda and eating sweet sugar-laden pastries (whom Ned sees every time he ventures to one of his local coffee houses) will see their welfare checks reduced, or they may be forced to use their filthy lucre to actually purchase nutritious food. Third, perhaps the ignoramuses who voted for Romney will immediately afterwards lost some health benefits, and here Ned is thinking of those whining geezers who cry 'keep your government hands off my Medicare!' Fourth, perhaps those who are against any form of immigration will get their wish and all the illegals will leave, meaning they might actually have to pay a living wage to their nannies, cooks and other help, and the price of their cheap food in all those ethnic restaurants will go up. And finally, perhaps all those who actually believe we should attack Iran, Pakistan, Grubistan, Malistan, Crockistan and every other country composed of dark skinned people who do not share our love of Jesus and "freedom" will get their wish. And then 9/11 will seem like a cakewalk.

Ned's post-debate rumblings

If there is one thing we take from the "debate" of last Wednesday, it is not a new eureka moment. No, friends, we have simply seen a truism more sharply enhanced, which we believe many of our friends and fellow Americans have yet to internalize: today's GOP will do anything, say anything, be anything, attack anything, degrade anything, lie about anything and betray anything to seize and hold onto power. Can anyone doubt that Romney's re-discovery of his moderate persona, which was discarded like a grocery bag during the shameful disgrace called the GOP nominating process, is simply a new suit meant to sway the ignorant masses? We do not. And the 'scandal' over the jobs numbers adds more fuel to this stinking conflagration. Where were these same people when these same jobs numbers were favorable to GOP candidates?
En fin, friends, this whole sorry spectacle exhibits once again the Scientific Fact that Ned has long championed: virtually every word that comes out of the putrid vomitorium which constitutes the GOP noise machine would do Orwell's Ministry of Truth proud. Moreover, it illustrates, if more evidence were necessary, the profound and utter contempt that the modern GOP has for its own supporters.
Where is the brave media person who will, in utter exasperation, finally demand of Romney, Ryan, their stooges, rentboys, sycophants and lickspittles "Have you no shame sir? Have you no shame at all?"

The first "debate": God help us all

We can barely contain our disgust with the conduct of the first so-called presidential debate. The "moderator," a pathetic, disengaged and enfeebled Jim Lehrer, who should have been put to pasture when Robin MacNeil retired from PBS, did his customary terrible job. We for one were appalled when we learned he was to "moderate" this event, expecting the worst, and we were not disappointed. We suggest a trained seal could have been as successful at keeping Romney in check. And of course Lehrer did not ask any penetrating questions of either candidate. And as to the actual content, we like many others were flabbergasted that Obama didn't challenge the drivel, obfuscations, filibustering and out-and-out dissembling that constituted Romney's assertions. While the fact-checkers give the debate to the President, the so-called MSM gave it to Romney on "aggressiveness." God help this country if Obama doesn't find his game or if the so-called "undecided" voters shift to Willard. We are thinking of leaving and joining the resistance. We hear there is a Free French garrison in Brazzaville...

An anniversary of shame: Ole Miss!

Ned would like to remind his many friends that today, Sept 30, 1962, was the day James Meredith was escorted onto the "campus" of that hotbed of liberal thought, The University of Mississippi, or 'Ole Miss.' Well, 'the boys of the town made some comment upon it,' and riots broke out and two people were killed. It took 3,000 soldiers to subdue the place so that one small black man, a veteran no less, could get an education that his STATE TAXES helped pay for. At the same time, Ned was a sophomore at the U of Tennessee, which had enrolled its first black student the year before, to no fanfare and no disturbances.
Many of Ned's high school classmates went to Ole Miss, and are rabid supporters to this day. We wonder what their comment on this anniversary would be?
And, finally, does anyone wonder why the South is the last real bastion of redneck, sanctimoniously hypocritical anti-intellectualism in the country?
We don't.

The Infamous Romney Video: A Game Changer?

By now the entire solar system is no doubt agog over the infamous video of Mitt Romney speaking to his Sneering Plutocrat cronies in condescending tones about that '47%' who 'pay no income tax' and who are 'dependent on government', and finally who consider it their right to have a roof over their heads and enough food to keep them alive. Not to mention, of course, free health care. And it goes without saying that Romney did not admit he was wrong in his preposterous sweeping condemnation of a hundred and fifty million American citizens.
We at first thought that this would be a watershed moment in American political history: that it would be the final nail in the putrid coffin of the modern GOP. That the American voters would finally come to their collective senses and drive these Reptiles back under their fetid rocks, or into the rank caves from which they slithered. But on reflection, we demur.
We realized that we have never heard any politician admit to having made a mistake. We except Winston Churchill, of course, who admitted on several occasions he had been wrong: about the Dardanelles Campaign during WW1, about returning Britain to the gold standard after WW1, and about numerous decisions carried out, necessarily hastily, in the dark days of WW2.
No friends, no American politician of the modern GOP persuasion is capable of admitting they were wrong. And we think we know why. First, they are surrounded by lickspittles, flunkeys, 'consultants,' stooges, rentboys and sycophants whose sole job it is to flatter their boss, on whose largesse they depend for their filthy lucre. Secondly, they are supremely egotistical and narcissistic. And finally, half of the American people are a stultified group of overweight clods who don't look past the next BiG MAC@, TV episode, game console, or Bud@ Light. They are simply incapable of analytical thought.
So, while this episode might help cost Willard the election, he and his like will never learn. Only recall the exploits of George Felix Allen, Jr and his 'macaca' moment in 2006, and recall he is in a DEAD HEAT with Tim Kaine, a respectable middle-of-the-road Democrat, in Virginia.
But for us, Willard, Felix and their ilk are like Caliban; about whom Miranda said inThe Tempest, "He's a villain, sir, a villain, and one I do not like to look upon."

Observations on today's GOP

When Ned were a lad, the GOP was a respectable organization. Strong in the Midwest, the Far West, parts of New England, etc--only unrepresented in the most benighted regions of this country--the former Confederacy. Contrary to Conventional Wisdom, it wasn't Nixon, with his Southern Strategy, that begin the transformation of the GOP into Infamy and Disgrace--it was FDR and Harry Truman. The plutocrats feared, hated and despised FDR, whom they viewed as a Traitor to His Class. In their view, the riff raff could be taken care of by going to the back door of a church or mansion of a Sneering Plutocrat and beg for the scraps that the cat wouldn't eat, remembering to doff their caps and look at their feet all the while. To FDR, all Americans deserved the dignity of a roof over their heads, food on their table, decent medical care and an education. Social Security was the result. Truman added a desegregated military, the GI BIll, and Humphrey-Hawkins, a bill that set as a goal of the federal government a job for everyone. And who, having survived the Great Depression, would settle for less?
In 1948, Strom Thurmond broke away from the Democrats because of Truman and ran as a "Dixiecrat" and carried several states. That set the demise of the Democratic Party in the South: LBJ only finished the job. The GOP, to its eternal shame, then came up with its "Southern Strategy," and sold its soul for a few pieces of silver, riding the back of the tiger of racial hatred and ignorance.
"Fast-forward" to today and we have the spectacle of a Rump GOP, beholden to the Ignorant, The Sneering Plutocracy, the Gun Nuts, the Anti-Science Crowd, and sundry other creatures with a mindset, if one can call it that, of creatures who live under rocks and have no love of day.
They have become, in Tolkien's word, orcs.

Organics: Roger Cohen Has A George Will Moment!

Back in 1991, Ned was a lowly cave-dwelling college professor at an Undisclosed Location. He had occasion to read, in his Washington Post, an op-ed by George Will that he has never forgotten. It was headlined 'Al Gore's Green Guilt.' An attack on Gore's 'Earth In The Balance,' it was one of the worst pieces of writing Ned had ever seen, filled as it was with logical fallacies, knowing untruths and blatant misunderstandings of climate science. Even since then, Ned has been contemptuous of Will and his by-and-large vacuous and pompous screeds. Now Roger Cohen, billed as an 'op-ed' columnist for the New York Times, has himself had a George Will Moment. Yesterday he wrote a piece full of sneering contempt for the granola-crunching, sandal-wearing airheads who have the audacity to buy organic foods. He pointed, as many others have done, at Stanford University 'study' that found, wait for it, that organic foods had no more vitamins than conventional foods!
Now, Ned's friends will know that 'vitamins' are not a reason why those of us who adhere to organics choose them. We do it because it is good for the soil, good for the air and water, and, in the case of animals, good for them as well, at least as much as it can be. But Cohen chose to show his PROFOUND ignorance of agronomy and environmental science in this pathetic attack on those who chose organic foods over pesticide-laden 'conventional' industrially-grown "food." We will not lower ourselves to demolish his so-called arguments, as a cursory reading of the incendiary comments by readers, far more knowledgeable than himself, to his idiotic piece have done a masterful job by themselves.
We will suffice it to say that we consign Cohen to the same stinking scrap-heap as George Will, and trust they will be happy bedfellows. The NYT should be ashamed of itself.

The Future of Medicaid

Medicaid, as Ned's friends know well, is a program that assists very low income Americans to pay their often outrageous and grievous medical bills. What many of his friends may not know is how much of Medicaid goes to pay for nursing care, most of this in for-profit "homes" that cater to the very frail and Alzheimers-ridden of our very elderly. Now, the Sneering Plutocracy need read no farther, because this program does not affect them, since they have enough filthy lucre, flayed from the backs of employees and shareholders, to pay for anything. No, Medicaid pays for, we are given to understand, about half of the nursing home bills of the very elderly. Without it, they will simply be thrown out onto the streets to starve, or dumped onto their children or relatives. In this context, Ned points to seven years ago today, September 7 2005, when 32 residents of a nursing home in New Orleans DROWNED as they were not evacuated during Katrina, one of our Bush legacies. Most of these pathetic oldsters were of course on Medicaid.
And so, friends, if the GOP have their way and turn Medicaid into a political football funded by "block grants" to the states, expect your frail parents to have to exhaust their life savings (and your inheritance) in order to qualify for Medicaid, and then to be thrown out into the streets when their block grant runs out.
So we pass another milestone in The Greatest Country That Ever Was Or Ever Can Possibly Be In The  Whole World.

Anniversary of a Bush Outrage!

Ten years ago today, Aug 21, 2002, Ned's friends will no doubt recall these comments from then-generalissimo and widely acknowledged war criminal George Bush: "No decision has been made on Iraq, but we believe the world would benefit by regime change." Of course all Ned's friends know that was just one of the many blatant, felonious lies told by that lizard. But Ned suspects that, having heard this fatuous remark from Bush, billions of the world's citizens would have cried: "Yes! Regime change! For America first!"

Anniv of Social Security!

On this date in 1935, over the frenzied objection of reactionaries and neanderthals of the GOP, FDR signed the Social Security Act into law. Since about 1940 it has been the bulwark against dire poverty for oldsters in this country. And of course the present-day neanderthals and reactionaries, led by Paul Ryan, that valiant "intellectual" seeker-after-truth with a BS degree from some bumscratch college who is Romney's VP choice, hate it even more. They would have geezerdom crawl to the back door of some church or McMansion in a gated community, where they would beg for food that the cat wouldn't eat.
There you have the choice facing Americans today.

Sickly TV commentator

Today Ned had to experience a phrase, completely involuntarily, that almost made him disgorge his victuals. A TV commentator of the female persuasion made this observation about some US woman who had just won an olympic medal of some sort, in a sickly sugary, oh-so-sincere voice: "Tonight her star was shining super bright." Ned vanished before he had to listen to any more, but would recommend this sort of treatment to elucidate information from the most hardened "terrorists" in Guantanamo.

Financial Crash 5th Anniversary

Ned would like to remind his many friends that today, August 9th, is the fifth anniversary of the financial crash that has cost all of us little people our sense of well-being. On this day in 2007, BNP Paribas, a Plutocrat-run French bank, announced that it was sustaining big losses on subprime mortgages, a class of mortgage that should never have been issued but for the greed and depravity of the mortgage and banking industries. Before we knew it, the economy had tanked, George Bush had been replaced by Barack Obama, the FDIC had stolen Ned's Washington Mutual stock and given it to JPM Chase, while the Plutocracy was still entrenched in the seats of power, running the world for their own personal benefit, and to hell with anyone else. Plus ca change, plus le meme chose. Or as our friends of The Who memorably sang, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

Daily Economics Lesson

Ned offers another of his Invaluable Economics Lessons. Today's is the difference between price and cost. Americans believe the things are the same. Not so. Take toilet paper. Many persons will drive miles to a Walmart to get twelve rolls for some preposterously cheap price. Then they will proceed to use ten times as much, imagining it is 'cheap.' Others will buy a few rolls of environmentally sensitive paper at a higher cost, but will use less. Ned suggests that the ultimate price each pays is the same. And as a further example, take industrial meat. The corn and soybeans used for feed contribute to the degradation of the Gulf of Mexico and the poisoning of the Mississippi River. But that cost is not included in the price gluttonous persons pay to devour their pound of flesh.
Thus ends Ned's economics lesson for today.

The Heroic Vincennes

Ned's friends will no doubt be glad to learn that today is the anniversary of an historic deed carried out by one of our Heroic Fighters for Freedom and Defenders of Liberty, the USS Vincennes. On "patrol" (Ned would say on provocation duty) in the Persian Gulf, the Vincennes shot down an Iranian airliner, killing all on board. Later the "Pentagon" said it was all a mistake and they were sorry. The year was 1988.

Ned's economics lesson

Ned would like to explain today's economy to his many freinds. We are all familiar with the dreary numbers: high unemployment, concentration of wealth in the hands of the Sneering Plutocracy and the Paris Hilton Crowd, GOP Mindless Midgets in charge of the House, and de facto the Senate. Obama has been unable to move the economy off dead center, mainly because of (1) timidity and (2) GOP knuckledragging, neither of which is likely to go away. But here's the simple explanation to the sluggish eonomy: CORPORATE PROFITS EQUAL 12% OF GDP. Now what's so bad about that? First, corporations are sitting on most of that cash and not investing it, or paying it "out" in dividends, or heaven forbid, paying their employees below the level of Sneering Plutocrats. Second, the money they do spend goes to salaries for Sneering Plutocrats, who can't possibly spend all of their filthy lucre, so it does not go back into the economy. Just recall Mitt Romney's offshore accounts. So, while the middle class stagnates, and the GOP plays its obscene game, the Plutocracy hoards cash like the Dragon of the Nibelung.
Ned hopes his friends have a very nice day.

Self-centered jackasses, v. XXV

In Ned's Money mag that came today he found a letter from some idiot who said, in response to a query about how one handles children of friends who try to sell one junk food like cookies "for a good cause:"
"Here's how I handle it (smugly). I buy the stuff and then give it away to the lowliest workers at my firm. It makes me feel good, helps the kids and I KNOW the poorly paid employees appreciate it."
Ned rubs his hands in glee at the very thought of this clueless, smug, self-centered, insolent meathead (from Texas--where else?) and begins to see how why our poor tend to be more obese than the wealthy.  

The Latest Shooting Outrage and Mitt Romney

We will not launch another of our famous thunderbolts concerning this latest outrage, having already determined Amerikkka to be certifiably sociopathic. The fact that an Empty Suit like Mitt Romney could be a viable candidate for the presidency is even worse. A man who has amassed $100 million in an IRA? A man with a 55-page addendum to his tax return describing his foreign holdings? 'You beatin' up on a man? You puttin' a man in the hospital!? How come I don't see no marks on you?!

The American "Diet?"

Ned's friends will be glad to know that Americans will consume more toxic junk food on the 4th of July than any other day of the year, according to Bloomberg. Here's the loathsome lineup:  barbecue staples comprise 'lean' ground beef, WHITE bread, American 'cheese,' iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, ice cream and potato chips. Only tomatoes are nutritious and most of them will no doubt be conventional, slathered with pesticides, and eventually thrown away anyway.
Health care debate, anyone?

Parallels?

In 1942, the Nazis exterminated the tiny village of Lidice in the Czech Republic, murdering 142 men and sending children and women to sure death in concentration camps, because partisans executed the head of the Gestapo or some such loathsome organization, Richard Heydrich. In 2009, in response to Fatah "insurgents""kidnapping" a lone Israeli soldier, Israel let lose a horror on the defenseless Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated urban areas on earth, bombarding it with rocketry and bombs, killing hundreds of civilians and as many as 300 children.
Parallels?

The Younger Female Generation

We admit to a profound sense of befuddlement concerning Gen X'er and Millennial females. Ned has no idea how they think, nor how they view the world. He can see that they can text, but other than that, admits defeat. A recent encounter illustrates his dilemma. At his local Market of Choice, where he was indulging himself in a coffee and trying to read his Economist, what should he see but a Millennial Female with infant in tow. Thinking nothing was amiss, he returned to the bad news in his Economist. But, moments later, another Millennial Female approached, with another infant in tow, It appeared from the conversation that the first female was seeking a nanny for her infant, explaining that her present nanny was leaving and that her life was "going to get crazy"over the summer. The second female replied in a supportive manner, and Ned was content to leave them to their business until he heard one ask the other if "a father was in the picture", to which the female replied "no." And, it turns out, a father wasn't "in the picture" for the other female as well. So, Ned was given to understand that both females had had illegitimate children and had no intention of getting married to the father, whomever that was. In fact, they were content to have nothing to do with him.
Ned wonders how these females can afford nannies? But more importantly, wonders in his most lugubrious 'get off my lawn!' persona, what has happened to this country, when young women can have multiple children by multiple men, and feel no guilt or remorse whatsoever, nor, apparently concern for the psychological wellbeing of the child as it grows up without a father, and begins to internalize a similar "lifestyle."
He begins to see how a Pygmy Narcissist Plutocrat like Romney might well be elected.

Foundations for billionaires

Ned's Economist this week features a story on a meeting of a few dozen plutocrats, deciding how to give away their ill-gotten gains: read, gains flayed from the backs of workers and shareholders. Buffett, Gates, Zuckerberg, et al have amassed such obscene levels of lucre that they are trying to find ways to 'give it away' for the 'benefit of society.' Now, no doubt many of Ned's friends think we should applaud such public spiritedness on the part of our betters: but we do not. Rather, we decry and condemn a society in which it can be thought appropriate to concentrate wealth in so few hands, and then trust them to give it away in the best interests of society. We feel they usually do a pretty poor job, often setting up 'foundations' headed by family members, toadies or lickspittles, which have the authority to give vast sums of money to causes that stroke the monumental egos of these plutocrats, and incidentally help them avoid taxes. For example, we understand that Gates is funding arcane programs in Africa while there are hundreds of thousands of men, women and children living under bridges and in shelters in this country. Moreover, our jails are filled to overflowing with so-called 'criminals' whose crime is smoking a gram of crack cocaine to escape their dreary, meaningless lives, here in The Greatest Country That Ever Was In The History Of The Universe. At the same time, states which have built these jails are slashing spending on higher education, and forcing our kids to take on trillions of debt, that they will likely never be able to repay. So, let's start trying the novel idea of fixing our own house first.

Ina Drew's Take Home

Ina Drew, the 'financial genius' who until a few days ago was a Captain of the Universe and head of the London Office of JP Morgan Chase, has, as Ned's friends all know, had to quit after the firm took a $3 billion bath on some bets at the Dog Track that went wrong. But Ned advises his many friends not to feel too sad for Ms Drew, since she took home $14 million last year alone. Ned wonders whether it isn't better to pay 140 people $100,000 a year (so they pay maximum income taxes, and payroll taxes, but can still limp along on that wage) than to pay ANYONE $14 million a year. Just askin.'

Thursday at the Casino

Ned's tale today concerns Jamie Dimon, former Golden Boy of Sandy Weill at Citigroup (you remember Citi--the stock price was $53 a share in '07 and it's $2.90 today), and now "CEO" of JP Morgan Chase. Ned's friends will recall Ned's love for Chase, as the FDIC stole his Washington Mutual stock, along with that of hundreds of thousands of other innocent people, and gave it to Chase. Well, today Dimon announces that Chase has lost upwards of $2 billion during the last month or so trying to outsmart the market; in other words playing blackjack at the House Table. If they lose, well naturally the Feds will bail them out with our money (money added to the money they stole in the Wa Mu deal, but let that pass), because they are "too big to fail."
Ned's take on outfits like Chase, and Dimon too for that matter, is that these companies are engaged in legalized theft and they use their gains to pay obscene salaries to people like Dimon, who has made hundreds of millions since he was given the job at Chase. But even though Ned's contempt and disgust for these people is nearly boundless, how much more is his contempt and disgust for their rentboys, toadies, lickspittles and stooges in the Congress, mainly members of the GOP, which never met a Sneering Plutocrat's ass they weren't desperate to kiss (or worse). And who are striving tirelessly to cut their already low taxes to the bone.
Ned wishes his friends a very good day.

Ned's 'Take' on Global Governance

Ned's many friends know that he has a fondness for The Economist, considering it to be the only news magazine worth reading. He has, based on his careful attention to articles in The Economist over the past nearly one year, formulated a hypothesis on the state of global governance. It bodes ill for the future of 'democracy.' We believe that most countries are governed either by despots, religious fanatics, or corrupt forms of representative government. Given that there are more than 170 political entities on the planet, it is far easier to list those countries that Ned accepts as having reasonably competent, responsible governments. They are: Canada, Australia, a few countries in Western Europe, and perhaps Uruguay. The U.S. does not make the grade, since it is governed alternatively by sniveling Democrats or fanatical, hyper-religious sanctimonious hypocrites calling themselves Republicans.
Just consider some of the political entities on this planet: Mexico is corrupt and drug-ridden. Eastern Europe and Russia are corrupt and authoritarian. China is barely governable. Japan has been shown to be corrupt and incompetent. India's government is a corrupt laughing stock. Pakistan is nearly a Failed State, sinking into anarchy, but possessing nuclear weapons. Iraq is a preposterous creation of Western Imperialism. Israel is a religious autarky. Afghanistan is a society firmly wedded to the 7th century AD. The Middle East is clan-ridden and fatally corrupted by religion. If Greece were a business it would have been bankrupt by now. Lebanon would be fine if Syria and Hezbollah would leave it alone. Africa is a write-off, too busy destroying its environment and each other to be taken seriously. Many other countries are simply lines on a map, and are busily trying to subdue ethnic minorities fighting for their own state, like Thailand, Turkey and Sri Lanka.
Whom does that leave? Luxembourg. And it is ruled by a Grand Duke.

Privatizing public space

Ned's many friends know that one of his main irritants is narcissistic, self-centered people who try to convert public spaces like restaurants, parks, coffee shops and stores into their own personal space. He has written irate posts excoriating dog owners who let their mangy curs run wild in public parks, terrorizing children and geezers, all the while laughing and uttering such banalities as 'he's really friendly!'
Today Ned, after a rather challenging night, was having a cup of decent coffee at his local Market of Choice, together with a bran muffin (the bran muffin was his breakfast, not his companion), reading the NYT and minding his business, and trying to ignore a Millennial sitting at the next table who had a classic case of Oral Diarrhea. But this is not Ned's subject, since that occurrence is so commonplace as to be no longer worthy of mention. No, Ned takes to task today a mother ('mom') and a friend who were in nominal charge of a noisy infant. The friend would pick up the small creature and make it squeal. After about ten minutes of this irritating behavior, she put the thing down and it commenced running around the area, periodically screaming, at which both presumed parent and 'freind' derived much merriment.  Ned and many of those surrounding him were somewhat less amused, but, given the state of self-centeredness abounding today, he was not surprised. Ned thought of asking the woman if she was in the mistaken delusion of being in her own living room, but satisfied himself with wishing her in Hell, and turned his attention back to Paul Krugman.

Our Daily News Report

Like a beached whale, Ned has been inactive of late, content to breathe laboriously and await rescue. However, two news items raise us to a form of activity. First, we note with scorn that the imbecile who is running the state of Florida has demanded that all state employees be subject to "random" drug tests. Ned likens this idiotic idea to one in which a dictator in a Banana Republic (which this country resembles more each day) demands that every citizen be subject to "random" raids by storm trooper Deputy Dawgs in what was the privacy of their own homes. Or, drivers be subject to random stops and beatings as part of the price of operating a motor vehicle. We note that at least for now the courts have struck down this infamous proposal
Next, we note with infinite contempt that our erstwhile Narcissist Of The Year, none other than Newt Gingrich, has signaled that he "might" end his preposterous "candidacy" for the GOP presidential nomination, for which he has absolutely no hope. The thing we find contemptible is that a "fiscal conservative" like this cretin is costing the US taxpayer $40 k a day in Secret Service protection as he goes about playing statesman.
You can't make this stuff up, as Louie Mayer once observed.

The US Navy--Bless Their Hearts

Two delicious pieces of news today concern our Navy. Comes word that one of their "most essential" new ships, the so-called "LIttoral Combat Ship" is, you guessed it, coming in far over budget ($700 million each) and cannot perform the tasks for which it was supposedly designed. For example, it can't float very well with a crack in its hull, and it can't tell a mine from sunlight. And Ned regrets to say that this debacle is only partially attributable to the Criminal Bush Regime since Obama has likewise championed the ship. Ned points out that for $700 million we could award $7000 college scholarships to 100,000 students.
But not to be outdone, a carrier that the Navy "must have" to "defend freedom" is now expected to cost $6.1 billion versus an earlier estimate of an already obscene $5.2 billion. Each.
Another exercise: how many $10,000 college scholarships could we award for one of these useless behemoths? The first correct answer will receive a Popeye comic book and a can of spinach.

The ultimate welfare queen

The news today brings word of a true 'welfare queen' in the iconic sense a la Reagan. Ned wonders if his many friends recall a certain 'Ms Suleyman', a woman without gainful employment who nonetheless had ova implanted in her uterus, or some relevant ladypart. She was as a result blessed with eight offspring, and thus earned the sobriquet 'octomom.'It turns out that she is now, and has been for a while, on Food Stamp benefit in California. Ned suspects that this person is some sort of bogus 'refugee' or even on 'disability', perhaps as a result of one or more of the Iraq wars, instigated by one of the criminal Bush regimes.
If Ned had his way, he would see to it that the Guardia Civil made a call on this personage and put her into protective custody until she could stand trial for antisocial behavior, which in Ned's world would be an egregious felony. If convicted, she would be imprisoned, and at the end of her long sentence, deported. The eight clones, or whatever they are, would be put up for adoption, but so as not to prejudice the innocent children their sad history would be kept secret.
By the way, the aforementioned individual says she is "ashamed" to have been found out to be on welfare.

Our xenophobic side

Perhaps Ned's friends will allow him to exhibit a bit of his xenophobic side for a brief, shining moment. We wonder, with the greatest respect, what is wrong with so many of our "Korean American" associates? First we hear of their adherence to the "Rev" Moon's "church," which for pure unadulterated silliness makes the Mormons look like a collection of St Thomas Aquinas knockoffs. Then we turn to a darker side: the killer of more than 30 innocent people at Virginia Tech--remember that?-- was carried out by a, you guessed it, Korean American, with a "troubled history." Now we find yet another maniac has been able to legally obtain a semi-autmatic sidearm and, claiming to be "really mad" at his fellow students because they mocked his poor English, he set out to kill as many as he could. He, too, is described in press reports as "having a troubled history."
We once again pine for the days of the Guardia Civil in Spain, when persons with a "troubled history,"of an antisocial bent, upon having been been clearly and repeatedly exhibited, simply disappeared into confinement before they could kill or maim any of their fellows. How many of our innocent friends, acquaintances and relatives, dead now through the actions of sociopaths with a repeated history of such behavior, would be alive today? We of course can never know. Barring a revival of the Guardia Civil, we would be happy if every handgun in the country were to be confiscated, and their lunatic owners, if complaining, could be sent to the middle of the Utah desert, to be surrounded by their fellow psychopaths.
But of course we value "freedom" far too much for such a sane outcome.
We wish our surviving friends a very good day.

Gone Mad

Ned wonders if we as a 'society' have finally gone completely mad. The latest outrage concerns a certain "determined gentleman" in the words of the Oakland Chief Deputy Dawg (we are not making this up) who cold-bloddedly murdered seven innocent people at an Oakland CA religiousist 'college' with of course a handgun, because, apparently, he felt 'disrespected' by the administration and some of his fellow students.
We fervently hope that, one day, and may it come sooner rather than later, all the handgun lunatics will, like lemmings, hysterically clump together and run screaming into the sea, where they will be eaten by sharks. Then perhaps we can get back to civilized living.

Winning the hearts and minds: Afghanistan, vol. XII

Ned's friends will no doubt be aware of the US mercenaries' latest attempt at 'winning the hearts and minds' of those yokels in Afghanistan: a sergeant, 'acting alone,'apparently murdered at least 16 Afghans, most of them children, in a rampage one of their generals called, characteristically, "an isolated event." Except, as Ned's friends know, it was anything but isolated, as it follows on the heels of atrocity after atrocity, with women and children murdered, in Pakistan and Afghanistan. And we can't blame this one on that war criminal George Bush, can we?
'The fault, Horatio, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves,' in that we as a nation are so soul-less that we would permit such outrages without the faintest whimper of complaint.

A Nation of Sneaks

Our friends at politicalwire.com have alerted us to a story, about a former Dem candidate for Governor of New Jersey. Seems he dressed up as a homeless person, complete with matted hair, soiled clothing, erratic behavior, and fake tattoo, to try to pass himself off as homeless, in order, he said, to find out if single, mentally impaired homeless men were 'discriminated against' in favor of women and children.
Now, no doubt some of Ned's friends will applaud such selfless, public spirited behavior, but we see it as something more sinister, a step in the slow but steady conversion of this country into a Stalinist society of sneaks, liars, stooges and snitches. All across the country, honest, well-meaning employees and volunteers are having to deal with hired sneaks, often paid by their employers, who come to their place of business and lie about themselves and their purpose in order to try to get them to do something that their employees would find incorrect, and which could get them reprimanded or even fired. In addition, they are often recorded or photographed without being so informed, contrary to federal law.
We feel this may explain the often exasperating behavior of TSA employees in airports, Deputy Dawgs mainly, forcing old ladies to undergo indignities and everyone to be searched and humiliated in order to pass through "security."
We feel this is one of the growth industries in this decadent country, hired sneaks to try to corrupt honest employees and volunteers, along with dog walkers and 'groomers,' security guards and leaf blower operators.
Contemptible, contemptible behavior, but after all, what can we expect from a society growing more ignorant every day, a trend that is celebrated by the GOP pinhead presidential candidates and their enablers, lickspittles and toadies.

Our sacred 2nd amendment right

Ned would like to ask those deranged individuals, 2nd amendment lunatics all, if they value their "right" to own a firearm more than the rights of those three dead kids at the Ohio school to life. The kids were murdered by an 'at risk' teen from a violent family, who somehow obtained a 22-caliber handgun and opened fire at a cafeteria table at 7.30 in the morning.
What about it pinheads?
Oh, and whatever your response, you are invited to kiss our a**.

Game Over?

This week's Economist contains a troubling article on the growth of coal as a fuel source by India and especially China. By 2050 the Chinese alone could be burning 8 billion tonnes of coal a year, and the Indians maybe 2 billion tonnes. It makes us wonder why we are spending so much angst and political capital trying to slow and eventually reverse the effects of climate change, due mainly to CO2 emissions from coal and oil burning. We are beginning to think it would be better, like Voltaire, to quietly cultivate our garden, and devote ourselves mainly to the mitigation of the inevitable warming of the planet by 3-4 degrees C, accompanied as it will surely be by catastrophic coastal flooding and other unpleasantness.
Could it be that the great cosmic experiment with big brains will prove to be a disaster? We fear so, and the GOP presidential field only cements this hypothesis in our mind.

"Love you"

Are Ned's friends as tired of hearing people speak in meaningless phrases as he is? Ned especially finds it tiresome and annoying when he hears people use sentences without subjects. His "favorite": Love you. Not "I love you." Not "We love you." But the meaningless "Love you." He also takes those to task who use the annoying and meaningless phrase "God bless." Not "God bless us every one." Not "God bless you", but just the meaningless "God bless." We suppose some would say that we should not be so churlish: after all, we are surrounded by persons who say things like "prayers go out for...," or some such twaddle.
We sometimes wonder if we should ask our friends to join us and lament the passing of the English language as a means of effective communication.

UPDATE, 3/1: Perhaps our friends will permit us to add that scintillating tribute to idiocy from our friends in the Dismal Science, "negative growth."

Destroying Scott Ridder

The destruction of Scott Ridder, just about the only influential American who vehemently argued that the "evidence" of WMD's from Iraq, used by the criminal Bush regime to justify the invasion, was a lie, is practically complete. He has been arrested and convicted of five felonies. And what were they? Going on chat rooms and trying to get women to watch him masturbate over his videocam. That's right- not murdering wedding parties with drone attacks, not killing children in Afghanistan by 'mistake', not destroying the life savings of millions of Americans through shady financial deals, not even kidnapping children. In fact, he didn't really commit any crime at all, since he was entrapped by a Deputy Dawg, who himself may have lied to access the web site. Now Ritter could get 5 years in jail instead of psychiatric help.
And, at the same time comes a report that some woman in a Pennsylvania town called the cops because she saw a man standing at a school bus stop. This in turn provoked a panic and the principal at the closest middle school kept all the kids in from recess! We are not making this up.
So this country once again proves itself the most mentally ill society this side of Pakistan.

The New American Economy

One of Ned's acquaintances observed, with a grimace, that jobs in the "new" America will be mainly found in "security" industries, in which persons of limited education and skills are hired to patrol abandoned buildings to keep homeless people and other undesirables off the property. Of course, he observed, most of these jobs will be offered to "veterans" since they have few if any skills other than pointing weapons at civilians in countries populated by persons of color.
We admonished him for his pessimism and offered that there were at least two other "growth" industries that would fuel the economy, and fill the McMansions, of tomorrow: dogs and "landscaping." That there is an immense industry catering to dogs can hardly be disputed, as most of us know at least one member of family or friends who is a dog walker, a dog "groomer" or who works in a pet store, etc. We also expect that thousands will be hired to patrol streets and parks to pick up dog shit, a leading cause now of water pollution, and a cause that can only grow in the future. And of course, there is "landscaping" which means of course immigrants and persons of little education making minimum wage mowing lawns and blowing leaves, cuttings etc around with gas-powered "leaf blowers."
What was it The Immortal Bard had one of his characters say in, was it, The Tempest?
"O Brave New World!"

UPDATE: Thursday

It is worse than we thought. Today's NYT has a piece on how much people, er-'pet parents,' spend on their mangy dogs. Those whose incomes exceed $70 grand spend most of the money on such things as gourmet meals. And, worse, half the households in this benighted country have a dog, and 4 of ten have a cat. No wonder they don't want to pay more in taxes--those gourmet meals for Fido are taking up much of that disposable income. We hold cats to be less of an issue if owners keep them indoors where they cannot kill birds, etc.

Defunding mass transit? Wha-?

We admit to being puzzled, with no irony or sarcasm consciously intended: what on earth is the matter with the collective mentality of the House and Senate GOP? Now they have proposed a bill, which of course has NO chance of being approved, of completely defunding mass transit. This represents to us a manifestation of some sort of collective mental illness, one which we are confident will prompt some group of psychiatrists or psychologists to support awarding disability payments to any individual who espouses such a position. Here's why: the position makes no logical sense. Take DC for example. Here upwards of ten million tourists, riff-raff and otherwise, descend on the city each year, and most of them ride the metro. Residents know that fares cover about 1/2 of the cost of each trip, with the rest being made up by contributions from local governments (read, local taxpayers) and some pittance of federal support. So, when the fresh-faced kids from some Iowa high school come to DC and ride the metro, they are being subsidized by the locals, and many of them come from GOP families. And so it is across the country: New York, New Orleans, San francisco, Denver, LA, Portland, et al.
So what could these idiots be playing at? We confess to be in a daze just contemplating it, but wonder, is it yet more tiresome hatred of the black man in the White House?

Winning the Hearts and Minds: Afghanistan

In the latest attempt on the part of "NATO" to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan peasantry, "NATO" (read: American) mercenaries "mistakenly" murdered at least 8, and probably more, Afghan children in an incident this week. This is of course only the latest in a seemingly unending series of such brutal murders, oops, "accidents", and will no doubt not be the last.
In a completely unrelated incident, an enraged Afghan shot dead 4 French soldiers and an American.
The mercenary high command says it is "investigating" the first incident, and, if it turns out to be true, is sorry.
How's that hearts and minds campaign coming along so far?

UPDATE: Wednesday "NATO" (read, the US military) announced that, yes, they were responsible for the deaths of these kids, it was an accident, they are sorry, here's ten bucks each, and can we please now get back to the "war on terror?"

UPDATE 2: On the 22nd we learned that American mercenaries had burned copies of the Koran in Afghanistan, precipitating the obligatory riots and leading eventually to the murder of two mercenaries by an unnamed Afghani. All in the name of 'winning the hearts and minds' so we can 'win the war on terror.'

Okinawa

Apparently the U.S. is still refusing to get out of Okinawa, contrary to the wishes of its inhabitants. In 1996, some American mercenaries gang-raped an Okinawan schoolgirl, and that was not the first such incident. Now, the American mercenaries are demanding that the Japanese pay for the removal of some marines to Guam to the tune of $10 billion, and agree to allow the US military to keep an air base on Okinawa. Disgusting and infuriating, is all we can say. But it is only in keeping with a mercenary, soul-less empire that also refuses to end its illegal occupation of Cuba and get its murdering troops out of Afghanistan.
Ned curses the lot of them, and damns them to hell.

A New Executive Order? God Forbid!

An individual with the unlikely name of F. W. Lee Badgett, or something similar, and an even unlikelier title, has written an op-ed in the NYT decrying "workplace discrimination" against gays, lesbians, transgenders, transponders, and just about anyone else with an "alternate lifestyle." This individual also calls upon Obama to sign an executive order to "ban" such practices.
Ned respectfully hopes Obama hasn't taken complete leave of his senses and ignores such cockamamie advice. It goes without saying that we wish the best for our alternate friends, but we call upon our many readers to imagine what the rabid dogs of the evangelical nutcase Christianist wing of the GOP would make of such a thing? They would immediately forget their obsession with Romney's cult membership, and the fracas over abortion funding. They would immediately pick up their pitchforks, stir up every troll-like creature from under their rocks and march (figuratively) on Washington. Obama would galvanize these creatures like nothing else he could do. Remember Clinton and 'don't ask, don't tell?'
So God help the Dems if Obama does any such thing.

Ned's Inactivity and Climate Change

For a variety of reasons Ned has been inactive of late. Partly it is because he has had little to say that he hasn't already said (he thought about writing a post on the lamentable tendency of some to use the dreadful phrase 'doubling down' but lost interest), partly because he has been disgusted by the 'candidates' for the GOP presidential nomination, and partly because he has been becalmed by dreadful winter weather and annoying maladies. But it was also that he is becoming more fearful (or is it resigned?) to the fact that in spite of billions in research money and millions of person-hours of research, the inhabitants of this planet seem determined to walk into a climate change disaster which could have been prevented. Latest we have two pieces of evidence: the Keystone pipeline debacle, which threatens to increase production of the filthy hydrocarbons from Canadian tar sands, and this week, the report that the Mongolians are planning to open the Mother Of All Coal Mines, set to produce 420 million tonnes of coal a year, most of it destined for China, to allow them to destroy what is left of the western world's manufacturing capacity, and further flood the world with schlocky Christmas ornaments and other such drivel.
We are planning to cultivate our garden and wait for better days, should the weather ever permit.