Recently in Good, Old Fashioned Rant Category

I am having one of those days where I am unhappy with the direction of my life. I am working in a field that is swamped with unnecessary regulations and oversight, filled with dysfunctional people, and poorly funded. That means I am paid squat for the work I do in trying to help others overcome their addictions.

I want to write. Not just blog, but write. I have this novel I've been slowly-hell glacially-working on, but I let the other aspects of life interfere. I am struggling in a low paying job, living in a country that currently despises the lower class of it's citizens, which means I feel alienated and hated.

Yeah, I am fed up. I am angry at my country. I am angry at my country's leadership. I am sick and tired of living in a mockracy, not a democracy. We are currently in the early stages of fascism. Our rights have been eroded away bit by bit, each time with a claim of protecting our freedom. My rights are my freedom. Taking away my freedom to ensure my freedom is insanity. Yet time and again I am faced with another claim of taking my freedom to ensure my freedom.

It's like the drunk who keep drinking with the hope that this time it will result in normal drinking; only to wake up in the morning once again having no memory of the activities of the night before.

The country is falling apart, and I feel powerless to stop its slow, inevitable decent into tyranny.

New York Times

The inflation has many causes, from rising global demand for commodities to the monetary constraints of currencies pegged to the weakening American dollar. But one cause is the skyrocketing price of oil itself, which has quadrupled since 2002. It is helping push many ordinary people toward poverty even as it stimulates a new surge of economic growth in the gulf.[highlighted by Rook]

What, so ordinary people are not usually poor? Seriously, what idiot wrote this incredibly stupid sentence? So ordinary people are not normally poor. Ordinary people are middle class or upper class. So, I guess that makes poor people not ordinary. Maybe they are just lucky ducks.

If ever there was an example of a Freudian slip, this is it.

Arrogance, thy name is New York Times.

McClatchy

BAGHDAD -- At least 40 Shiite pilgrims were killed and 60 injured in a suicide bombing south of Baghdad Sunday in what was once known as the Sunni triangle of death.

The bombing in Iskandariyah came as hundreds of thousands of Shiites took to the streets to walk the 50 miles to the holy city of Karbala for Arbaeen. The ceremony on Thursday commemorates the anniversary of the 40th day following the martyrdom of Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Mohammed, a venerated figure in Shiite Islam.

As pilgrims stopped for water and food at a tent set up to serve them along their journey, a suicide bomber walked into the crowd and detonated, killing and wounding many of the pilgrims, said Muthanna Ahmed, spokesman for the police in Babil province. He expected the death toll to rise.

Explain to me again how the I&O* of Iraq has improved Iraqi lives? If we meant to give them the same standard of living and the same level of security as we are blessed to have,,,,,,, well, I guess that means we must have the same number of killings by suicide bombers at Christmas mass, or Easter mass, unless mass is canceled due to strain on the electrical grid causing a shutdown.

Seriously, BushCo™, screwed the pooch when it comes to Iraq. Other than to fatten the pockets of Halliburton and company, this has been a monumental failure.

* Invasion & Occupation

Honestly, I should be in the shower right now. But the whole Democratic party primary season is starting to get to me. All the angst, anger, pettiness, and general, all around nastiness is pissing me off. Seriously people, think about it, who really cares in the end which of the two get the nomination? Hillary and Barak are both more palatable than any Republican currently running for office.

That doesn't mean I am saying your vote does not count, or that the Primary season is not helpful. Obviously your vote counts, and the primary season is very helpful. Right now the Democratic party is forming it's platform. That is the other, less talked about aspect of the primary season. The various groups and institutions within the Democratic machine hash out their differences and come to a consensus on issues, not just candidates.

In the end, it is not so much what issues the candidates themselves believe in, so much as they are competent and capable of running the government. Or, because they are following BushCo™, repair the government. In the end, the will of the people will force it's desire on who ever is the head of the government. Unless, of course, the person is incompetent, as we're currently experiencing.

New York Times

Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who heads the Armed Services Committee, said it was "unfortunate that the administration failed to identify the concerns upon which this veto is based until after the bill had passed both houses on Congress and was sent to the president for signature." The senator said he was "deeply disappointed" at Friday's developments.

The bill is important to members of the military and their families, since it provides for a 3.5 percent pay raise for the troops and contains measures intended to improve the much-criticized health-care system for veterans. (Money for the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan is provided for in separate legislation.)

Honestly, it is not about the possibility of lawsuits. It is about BushCo™ using it as an excuse instead of vetoing it over the 3.5% pay raise for the troops. These bastards are nothing, if not craven, in their efforts to undermine our troops. And since there is no simple fix to be had here-it will all have to go through the legislation process again, more pork barrel sections will be added, and the pay raise will be battled against. And if it is not successfully combated and makes it into the bill again, than another section will be used as an excuse to veto that version of the bill.

Now, if you will all excuse me, I have to put my conspiracy theorist back in his underground bunker complex.

This is the afore mentioned post:

I feel empty. I've no energy. I've not the motivation to write my anger out. And I am full of anger. But it does no good. All the writing of angry screeds. All the ranting at the unlawful, unethical, amoral actions of BushCo™. All the bitching about the American Aristocrats and their raping of the American middle class. Not any of it accomplishes a damn bit of good. In the end, I am drained. Lifeless. I have not the desire to do but the bare minimum to survive.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I do my job. But there is no love in it for me anymore. I've been away from my family for too long. Alone, empty, without the life affirming embrace of my loved ones, there is no reason to be happy.

There is no reason for me to put up with the standard mediocrity of many of the employees where I labor. There is no reason for me to accept the inadequacies, and sheer incompetence, that populate the back water institution of my employ.

And it is a backwater institution, let me tell you, full of backwater thinking. Many of them are bush country hicks with visions of grandeur. They all carry the same mentality of "we do things different up here in the Borderland."

Yeah, they sure do. Many live mediocre lives while performing mediocre levels of employment. At least they are at their best 100% of the time.

I despise them. They represent everything that is wrong with America, and with the human race. They reflect everything that I found wrong with me.

That's the biggest part of the problem. I see me as I was years ago. Ignorant, self-centered, intellectually lazy, and emotionally stunted. It's all around me. Echoes of my past failing persona.

Without my family to remind me of what I've accomplished, to support me and uplift me, I fall into my old funk. And I can't take it anymore. I want the fuck away from this place.

Yes, I know, it is petty, judgmental, and cruel. I was in a bad place.

However, things are now different. I have a new job. It starts on Monday of next week. I am not willing to give two weeks notice. Back, about a month or so ago, I explained my financial situation to my boss, who is the director of the facility I am now leaving (God, that feels good to type!). His response? "You better do something about that."

Well, having been one month behind on the mortgage, three months behind on the electric bill, three months behind on the cable bill, two months behind on the gas bill, paying out the ass for gas to get back and forth to be with my family, and the extra cost of paying for a motel room, I did just that, I found a new job.

You know, in the end, it's not that corporations are soulless, it's that the people who are in charge of them are merciless, uncaring bastards. A corporation, whether for profit, or a non-profit, is merely a reflection of the personalities and soul of those in charge.

So, anyway, I am resuming my life in Hastings, MN. Farewell, ol' Borderland of the North. May your frigid winters not be seen as a metaphor of your heart.

Actually, many of the people up here were quite delightful and pleasant. Indeed, as a whole, I found International Falls, and Littlefork, to be pleasant, restful, and beautiful.

My problem was with the uncaring, and insensitive manner with which my boss reacted to my financial difficulties. I wasn't expecting him to do anything much more than offer some words of encouragement, or at least a bit of empathy. But to be told coldly (and it was cold and blunt, let me tell you) "Do something about that" was the last straw. So, I figure I own the company as much regard as I received. Which was none at all.

God, I have no idea what I am going to write about. I am just hitting away at the keyboard just to take my mind off of the awful loneliness I feel today. I miss my family. It's tearing me apart, having to be away from them 5 days out of the week. And since it's a 6 hour drive one way just to be with them, I really only get one day a week with them.

Of course, then there is the fact The GirlFriend™ works 5 to midnight on Friday, and then Saturday midnight to 7 AM Sunday. So, I end up doing my laundry, and getting the shopping done for my family for the week that one day while she sleeps. And with her wage being below working poverty levels, and mine just not enough, even combined with hers, to make the mortgage, pay the bills, pay for the gas for me to make it back on the weekend, and to pay for a place up here, we are going to lose the house.

I've been looking for another job, back down in the Twin Cities. I've put in a lot of applications online, which is pretty much the way of job search now-a-days. But not one call. And I mean not one. It's getting extremely discouraging.

The thought is to just say the hell with the house, pack The GirlFriend™ and The Fuskers™ off up to this neck of the woods, and settle in for the duration. But The GirlFriend™ is having a hard time coming to grips with that possibility. She dreads going back to renting, which I am not particularly fond of resuming. Yet, it's more than likely the end result.

The other major obstacle coming down the road is the next adjustment of our ARM. Yes, that's right. I am one of those idiots that let themselves get suckered into an adjustable rate mortgage. I didn't figure the mortgage company would raise the rate one percentage point each year. I, incorrectly it turns out, thought they'd be reasonable and stretch out the upward adjustments out over a longer period of time. Instead, they've raised the interest rate one percent each year since we first bought the house.

We've gone from 4% up to 7% this past three years, with, no doubt, another 1 percent increase next year. Needless to say, our monthly payment has damn near doubled. And we've no more equity in our home today then we did 3 years ago. At least, not enough to help us get a refinance loan.

Anyway, as it stands right now, I am really pissed. At myself for having been naive enough to believe an ARM was a wise decision, and at the housing industry for allowing itself to get to such a disgustingly unbalanced and calamitous state.

So, there you have it. I am angry, lonely, stressed, and plain feeling completely, utterly helpless. Ya, that's it. Fine.

Fucked up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional.

Situation normal.

Blue Girl, Red State

Four and a half years into Iraq, and six years into Afghanistan, they have decided it’s time to determine what, exactly, to do with mercenaries who attack and murder civilians without provocation, or otherwise commit actions that undermine the efforts of the United States to salvage something – anything – from this clusterfuck so we can claim some sort of semblance of a shadow of a specter of a pale imitation of victory™ and get the hell out of there.

Sometimes, you just need to duck when she gets her grove on.

Fuck it. I've had enough for today. All I do when I scan the headlines is get mad as hell. I'm going to read a book, play computer games, and generally ignore the world today.

Think Progress

On the Senate floor today, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) made an impassioned appeal to his fellow senators, declaring that the Lieberman-Kyl amendment on Iran should be “withdrawn” because the “proposal is Dick Cheney’s fondest pipe dream.” Webb cautioned that the “cleverly-worded sense of the Congress” could be “interpreted” to “declare war” on Iran.

There are so many good quotes in the article that you've just got to go read it for yourself. Quite frankly, Jim Webb kicks ass.

The Huffington Post

Before a single Democrat condemns MoveOn's ad, they should insist that George W. Bush and the Republican Party repudiate the anti-military smears on war heroes that have been the hallmark of Mr. Bush's political career.

Too many Democrats still think Mr. Bush's presidency is on the level. Let's be clear. Mr. Bush is not leading a serious, sober discussion about public discourse during a war. He wants to divide progressives and score political points. We should not let him. Throughout his career he's been willing to tolerate and benefit from vicious lies about military men. We should not concede that he is legitimately angry now.

Damn right! It's about time someone pointed out the hypocrisy of the Vastly Corrupt Conspiratorial Right Wing Political Machine (VCCRWPM!)

• In the 2000 South Carolina primary, George W. Bush stood next to a man described as a "fringe" figure - a man who had attacked Bush's own father - at a Bush rally. With Bush applauding him, the man said John McCain "abandoned" veterans. McCain, who was tortured in a North Vietnamese POW camp, was incensed. Five U.S. Senators who fought in Vietnam, including Democrats John Kerry, Max Cleland and Bob Kerrey, condemned the attack and called on Bush to repudiate it. When pressed on it at a debate hosted by CNN's Larry King, Bush meekly muttered that he shouldn't be held responsible for what others say. Even when he's standing next to them at a Bush rally.
• In the 2002 campaign, draft dodger Saxby Chambliss ran an ad with pictures of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, then said Sen. Max Cleland lacked courage. Max Cleland left three limbs in Vietnam as an Army captain. Mr. Bush's political aide, Karl Rove, later refused to disavow the ad, saying, "President Bush and the White House don't write the ads for Senate candidates."
• Also in the 2002 campaign, the PAC for the Family Research Council, a close Bush ally, ran an ad in South Dakota that pictured Sen. Tom Daschle and Saddam Hussein. "What do Saddam Hussein and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle have in common?" the ad asked. Apparently, they both opposed drilling in the Arctic wilderness. First, I had no idea that supporting drilling in the wilderness is a family values issue. Second, I have seen no reporting on the late Iraqi dictator's position on Alaska drilling. But I do know Tom Daschle is an Air Force veteran. Mr. Bush never disavowed the smear.
• But perhaps the worst was what was done to John Kerry. Kerry earned five major medals in combat: the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts. And yet supporters of Bush and Cheney decided to smear his war record. The despicable, dishonest Swift Boat attacks alleged that Kerry fabricated reports that earned him the Bronze Star. The Swifties also suggested that Kerry's wounds were insignificant - and that one was even self-inflicted. Kerry's wounds were certainly more serious than Mr. Bush's, who suffered a cut on his finger from popping a beer can while avoiding his duty in the Alabama National Guard. At the 2000 GOP convention, rich, white Republicans were photographed gleefully putting Band-Aids with purple hearts on their chubby cheeks. Mr. Bush refused to condemn the attack - blandly noting he didn't like 527 groups generally - and later nominated one of the men who financed the smear to be Ambassador to Belgium.

Now, granted, maybe the 23 Democrats voting to censure MoveOn felt it was not proper for a progressive group to engage in the same low-brow, divisive behavior as the Republican party. However, censuring MoveOn was even more a waste of congressional time then impeaching Clinton. You see, I'd rather they be working on getting us out of Iraq, improve the economy for the other 98% of the population, restore habeas corpus, the very cornerstone of democracies around the world, and restore competence and integrity back to government.

Unfortunately, the only way to accomplish any of those goals is to remove George W. Bush from the Oval Office. So, what say you start those impeachment proceedings?

Ya, right.

By way of Alternate Brain:

Blue Girl

Europe has been dealing with terrorism, and doing so effectively, for many years now, and they have done so with common-sense security measures and with good, old-fashioned police work. Today, they led the way once again, showing us once more that the way to effectively fight terrorism is law enforcement, not blowing shit up, invading countries that didn't attack us, and terrorizing the citizens of said country.

What more needs to be said? Nothing.

It has always been amazing to me that we've totally ignored the fact Europe has been dealing with terrorism for decades, and without once invading a country in the process. We should have been working with them, learning their techniques for combating terrorist activity.

Instead, we get some dry drunk with a fake Texas draw and stage crafted swagger that may be more related to brain damage then to an actual attitude, that thinks blowing shit up and torturing a lot of innocent people effectively stops terrorism.

On a side note: I've been remiss in not having Blue Girl in my RSS reader. That's been fixed. What really sucks is I am unable to follow through on the tag she illegally hit me with due to the loss of my achieves. But that's alright, because I'm sure she'll come up with some fiendish, dastardly tag in the future that will challenge me to rise up to the title of magnificent bastard she once bestowed me.

washingtonpost.com

Iraq's army, despite measurable progress, will be unable to take over internal security from U.S. forces in the next 12 to 18 months and "cannot yet meaningfully contribute to denying terrorists safe haven," according to a report on the Iraqi security forces published today.

I am so sick and tired of hearing this same damn report year after year. 5 years, and it's still 12 to 18 months away. Nothing has changed since the invasion. Nothing is going to change. The people who created this mess are still using the same damn thinking they used when they decided invading was a good idea.

Can we please get some people into Congress and the White House who can actually, you know, THINK! Is that really asking too damn much?

I'm serious. I want to fucking know. Is it asking too much?