For whatever reason (I’m told it comes from some movie…apparently one I haven’t seen and didn’t miss) the “what has two thumbs and …THIS GUY!” meme has gained popularity recently. The intent, I believe, is to suggest that one points at others with an index finger, but makes a “point-at-self” gesture with the thumbs to indicate one’s self.

I’m guessing the reason for the meme’s popularity is that it’s fresh, new, and unique…because pretty clearly, nobody points at themselves in the real world.

Just last week, an acquaintance suggested that she hoped Tennessee’s gubernatorial candidates would, in an upcoming debate, address a question she’d e-mailed for consideration. What, she wanted to know, did they plan to do to fix the fact that Tennessee is the 2nd fattest state in the nation?

Apparently it is up to government to fix us. We’re broke, it seems…fat, lazy, piles of lard…and the gubmint must remedy this.

Just this morning, USA Today says the evil egg companies have resort[ed] to blaming the victim for the recent salmonella outbreak.

“Somewhere along the line, consumers have to be responsible for what they put in their bodies.” Consumers who don’t cook their eggs all the way through “are taking a risk on themselves.”

No way.

How dare the evil big company suggest that you might possibly be responsible for what food you ingest. Why, they even have the unmitigated gall to recommend that you follow common health guidelines in preparing your food! Why, they’ve even go so far as to print them on the cartons!

Bastards.

Wall Street Journal’s in on the act as well. This morning, they’ve taken it upon themselves to warn the poor victims of the world that some credit cards aren’t subject to the CARD Act

Professional cards aren’t covered under the Credit Card Accountability and Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, or Card Act for short. Among other things, the law prohibits issuers from controversial billing practices such as hair-trigger interest rate increases, shortened payment cycles and inactivity fees—but it doesn’t apply to professional cards

You see, the problem is:

“A lot of consumers really don’t know the difference, and some of the wording on the offers can be ambiguous,” says Beverly Harzog of Cardratings.com, a consumer-education website.

Oh my. Consumers don’t know the difference, and the wording of the offer is vague and ambiguous.

So hey…just go ahead and sign an offer you don’t understand. Put your signature to an unclear contract. By all means, apply for credit under terms you can’t distinguish from one another.

It’s really quite alright…the gubmint will protect you, and punish the evil companies trying to make a profit.

=========================

We are a nation of simple mindeed blamers. Everything must be someone else’s fault. We are victims, incapable of making decisions in our own best interest, and unwilling to accept risk of any sort. We have no thumbs.

We are disgusting fatbodies.

I have just one question for each one of you…

In the very short time you are given on this Earth, you have but one true posession…one tangible asset that is yours and yours alone from the moment you enter the world…

Your life.

Why is it that you are so EAGER to give up control of and responsibility for it?

Why do you all want to be slaves?

From http://www.hamell.net/?p=435

Ya know why I think this is such a big deal?

Let’s set Republican/Democrat/Independant aside for a minute…the parties, or even the platforms, really don’t matter for the purposes of this post. The fact this post is about the Republican primary is merely incidental to the fact that Channel 5’s article was about that particular primary.

Here in the 6th US Congressional district of Tennessee, there are 6 Republicans vying for their party’s nomination for the US House seat available in November. You may see the complete list at VoteSmart.org if you wish.

One of the candidates is a successful area businessman, who was born and raised here in middle Tennessee. He’s faced financial trouble, learned to overcome it, and turned struggles into a thriving and respected local business. He is opposed to the spending, inflation of government, and reduction of liberties that have marked the past 2 administrations.

Another candidate is a graduate of a local university, holding a masters in Public Administration from MTSU. He’s active in local councils, is also a successful and respected businessman, and has previously demonstrated a knack for balancing budgets and living within ones’ means.

Yet a third is a slightly less well known local journalist, whose coverage of area sporting events at the high school level has set a new standard in many smaller communities. His platform includes family values, and judeo-christian ethics.

Now…I won’t (in this post anyway) preach about which of these folks I might or might not have voted for this morning, or why. Again…who SHOULD, in my little opinion, win that seat is NOT the point of this post. The point is this…

All three of those candidates have 2 things in common.

1) They are not professional politiicans. None of them have ever held an elected office.
2) They aren’t mentioned in this news coverage.

Go ahead..skip to 2:15 of the video. The reporter will stand right there and tell you…yep…here’s the top 3, here’s how negative they’ve been…ok, moving on…

People…THIS is why places like votesmart.org exist, and why they’re so important. These 3 assclowns made news SPECIFICALLY because of how negative they’ve been.

Maybe that’s not what you’re interested in. Maybe you don’t WANT to vote for a backstabbing, mud slinging, career politician. But MSM won’t tell you you have options.

You know WHY we’re in the mess we’re in? it’s not because “the democrats did this”, or “the republicans did that”…it’s because POLITICIANS are birds of a feather…the kind of slime that does what these assclowns do…both to get IN office, and then to STAY there…IS the kind of slime that put us in the shape we’re now in.

And it’s YOUR fault. MY fault. OUR fault.

We vote for the “lesser of three evils” because we don’t BOTHER to learn that there are fully TWICE AS MANY OPTIONS as MSM leads us to believe. We are led around by our nose rings, unwilling or unable to think for ourselves, relying instead on the television to tell us who we can vote for, and what they believe.

People…get off your metaphorical ass.

Do some research.

Find out who’s running…what they ACTUALLY believe…what they’ve voted for, or said, or written, or published, or endorsed…

Find out where they work, what they do, who they are.

You’re selecting the people who will serve as YOUR voice…who will act as YOUR executives…who will guide YOUR community, YOUR state, YOUR country….

Please do us all a favor, and demand more information than a 30 second sound bite that fits neatly between this year’s hard hitting expose on internet safety, and the plug for the latest reality show.

And judging from the lack of panic amongst the always clueless MSM, you haven’t…

2009’s bank closures were a piffle compared to this year.

Yesderday’s activities by the FDIC brought the 2010 total to 108.

That’s right…108 banks have closed in 2010 alone…and it’s not August yet. Last year…the worst since the S&L crisis of the 90’s…had seen only 69 banks closed by this time.

Significant here is the causes the article mentions..largely defaults on commercial loans/property, the result of businesses closing down ‘in the recession”.

But wait…there’s a problem here. We’re supposed to be in a “slow but susteained recovery”, aren’t we?

Think about that…during a “recovery”, fueled by billions of dollars of non-existant capital “thrown from helicopters” into a flagging economy for the EXPRESS purpose of keeping bankrupt companies afloat, we’ve got companies closing at such a rate that:

1) 10% unemployment is the norm.
2) SO many commercial loans are going unpaid that a RECORD number of banks are closing.
3) Consumer confidence and durable goods orders are DOWN during the second busiest time of the year.

====================

What’s going to happen somewhere in the next 6 months or so is going to make 2008/2009 look like Disneyland.

So, Pete Sessions, (R)etard - Texas was on MTP yesterday, and he was asked about the Republican agenda. He said that Republicans wanted to “balance the budget” and that we need to “live within our means”.

Ok…admittedly, I’m pretty fond of such ideas, go figure.

But funny thing about living within you means…it requires choices to be made. Barring a Bill-Gates-esque income, one simply can not do it all. The fact is that when one has X money, and the things one wants to do/have/buy cost 2X, then one must eliminate some items from the plan, or find ways to increase X.

That seems fairly obvious one would think…but apparently it is no more obvious to Pete Sessions than it is to any of the morons in Washington who got us here in the first place.

Not only does Sessions refuse to address the request for specific choices that would be made, he ignores REPEATED specific examples! He is HANDED the answers, avd is incapable even of simple regurgitation.

THIS is the ignorance and/or apathy (I’m unsure which at this point…perhaps both) that runs our nation.

Oh…and the best part? Mr. “balance the budget and live within our means” voted FOR the bailout.

FIRE
THEM
ALL

So says Todd Gillman of the Dallas Morning News.

Excuse me Mr. Gillman, but…well…DUHHHH.

This, good folks, is pretty much exactly WHY we’re facing $13,000,000,000,000 (scary when you type it out, huh?) of debt, with more coming down the pike. BECAUSE IT’S NOT POPULAR to do the right, responsible thing.

It wasn’t “popular” in this house when we lived on $50 a week grocery budgets in an effort to dig our way out from under $70,000 of debt. We weren’t very “popular” with our children when the gifts under the tree were limited and small. It wasn’t “popular” when my wife and I decided that we’d save another year, and get the pool we really want next summer, instead of borrowing money to get it now.

But guess what…not participating in the recession has been pretty damn “popular” in this house. being able to take a vacation…paid for in cash…every year has been pretty “popular”. Being able to handle emergencies when they arrive has resulted in significantly less stress…which has made my wife and I much more “popular” with each other and our children. Paying all of our bills on time has made us pretty “popular” with service providers as well.

Doing the right thing is frequently NOT easy or “popular”…the results, however, often are.

It is time for ALL of us to realize that the ENTIRE crop of elected officials…at EVERY level, from county dog catcher to US President…have let us down. They have done the “popular” thing and FAILED to prevent an economic crisis, a looking second one, a historic debt, a dwindling GDP…in short, a NATION whose personality can best be equated to that of a resource sucking bum.

THROW
THEM
OUT

We call for the FIRING of every last incumbent in any elected office at every level. We call for MASS LAYOFFS. We call for REDUCTION OF HOURS, PAY, AND WORKFORCE. We call for SHUTDOWNS.

We call, in other words, for PRECISELY the same results THEIR policies, irresponsibility, largesse, and power mad STUPIDITY have visited upon the people with whom they are so “popular”.

You’re right, Mr. Gillman…that’ll probably make us fairly “unpopular” with the worthless sacks of protoplasm we replace.

So be it.

So much has been said recently about the possibility of a “double-dip recession”….another recession directly on the heels of the recent one.

Will it happen? Almost certainly, imo. And here’s why.

A recession is, at its simplest, a reduction in spending. Quite simply put, people stop buying things. It’s a fairly vicious self-feeding cycle…Bob stops buying his weekly magazine, which puts a bind on the publisher, who lays off Sam. Sam can’t buy his nightly beer, which puts a bind on the bartender and brewer, who lay off Sally and Joe.

Pretty soon, unemployment tops 10%, and everyone’s hoarding cash afraid they’re going to be next. Consumer spending drops like a rock, confidence plummets, and “somebody must do something!”

In this most recent case, the “something” was to spend TRILLIONS of dollars we don’t have to create “fake” spending. What do we mean by fake? Simple…it was spending that wouldn’t have occured except for all the ‘free money” being handed out.

Of course, we all know, money is NEVER free. Money is a STORE OF VALUE…which means, to exist, value MUST be created. But wait…our money ISN’T MONEY…it’s CURRENCY created on a whim out of thin air.

Oh look….debt.

We incurred trillions of dollars of debt, which now we can ONLy pay off with MORE DEBT…valueless currency. And rest assured…we HAVE to pay it.

This, of course, triggers inflation.

But here’s the kicker…and the reason a second recession is on the horizon…

This time, NOT EVEN INFLATION will pay our debt. Because OVER HALF OF IT is INDEXED. Over half of our debt is in entitlements we have created or expanded during the latest recessions….entitlements that INCREASE WITH INFLATION…that is, they are INDEXED to inflation. Meaning, EVEN if we print enough currency to pay the entire debt, the inflation created by that action will RAISE THE DEBT.

So…guess what…there’s only 2 choices.

1) Go further in debt…making our products worth nearly nothing on the international market…reducing the GNP below even recession levels.

or

2) Increase tax revenue to pay down the debt…which, given the current administration, will almost CERTAINLY be attempted by means of tax hikes. Raise taxes, spending decreases…recession.

=========

Now, more than ever, is the time to attack every debt you can. The BEST way to survive an extended period of reduced income is to NOT OWE ANYONE ANYTHING. When you are debt free, NO amount of unemployment can result in losing your car or your home, and every penny you make will be YOURS to care for your family.

Do not make the mistake of going into panic mode, and building a large emergency fund. Unless your emergency fund is large enough to pay all your secured debt (in which case, why haven’t you paid it??) then it WILL run out…and then, all your planning and saving will have bought you is a few months time.

Instead, eliminate secured debt. NOBODY can take something away from you that you rightfully OWN.

Attack, attack, attack!

Long, probably boring, philisophical post follows. You have been warned.
============
So, yesterday at the flying field, it was time to charge one of my flight batteries, using my new whizbangy Thunder AC6 charger. So, plugged the battery in as I had several other times, started everything up, and went to sit down for a bit.

About 30 seconds in, the charger beeped indicating an error. I went over to read the display, in order to determine the cause of the error, and was told…and I quote:

NIGGER OR ERR

*blink*

Being the rather “mission oriented” sort I am, my immediate response was “Um….wtf does that mean, and how do i fix it so I can charge my battery?”

Of course, the etymology geek in me pretty quickly jumped to “And whatever it means, how did THAT phrase get plugged in as the English translation???”

So, upon arriving home, I immediately googled the specific phrase. Very few results, even fewer in English. After checking a few forum threads, I became relatively frustrated.

You see, every thread had three things in common:

1) The original poster was doubted. The usual reaction was that he must be trying to spread some sick joke, or pull some sort of internet prank.
2) An argument ensued about whether or not the original post with the phrase should be edited to remove the “offensive” word.
3) Nobody ever actually resolved the issue, identified the meaning of the error, or how to resolve it. in other words, the problem remained unsolved.

Unwilling to give up so easily…and, frankly, at this point feeling as though I had something to prove, I started asking around, looking for some more etymological help. Eventually, I stumbled across this gem. It is, of course, a portugese forum. A little playing with google translate however, will reveal that the 6th post in the thread includes the following definition for “nigger”:

um motivo oculto ou fator desconhecido que afeta uma situação de maneira adversa

The English translation? “an ulterior motive or unknown factor affecting a situation adversely”

Later an RC thread in Thai found a very similar definition and resulting translation.

Ok…so mystery solved. There are at least a FEW languages where the word “nigger” is defined, roughly, as some sort of unknown error. In other words, something went wrong, we’re not quite sure what.

Even more significantly, in English itself, it’s not at all unusual to see the word used to indicate precisely such a situation. Agatha Christie, W Somerset Maugham, and even the fictional Frank Hardy of The Hardy Boys all use the phrase “the nigger in the woodpile” to mean strange, suspicious, or unknown circumstances. See : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger_in_the_woodpile#Literature

You’ll even note that EJ Dijkstra used the term quite specifically to mean that something (the term software engineering in this case) was a suspicious or dubious term.

So…with just a bit of due diligence, we find that it’s perfectly reasonable that one ignorant (by which I mean truly unaware) of the connotations of the word might, in translation, quite legitamately select the word “nigger” as a short (remember, this is a small LCD display…space is at a premium) way of expressing the concept that some error of unknown origin has occured.

==============

So what’s the lesson in all this? Simple. Here are a few comments culled from such sources as http://www.rcshortcourse.com/forum/showthread.php?p=48944 and http://www.flyinggiants.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43991

“Maybe someone from whereever did it on purpose as a sick joke.”
“I think you are some kind of joker.”
“I believe this is either some kind of joke, or someone who believes we should only buy American trying to sway people away from China made products”
“no way will that show up on the charger.”
“you may want to consider editing your post.”

Note, throughout, that the MEANING of the error…or what steps to take to resolve it…are the last thing discussed, if at all…and no solution is ever forthcoming in ANY of those threads.

We…as a culture…LOOK for chances to become offended! We prefer to cry “offense, offense”, and point out how grand we are for not using such words, rather than consider the possibility that a simple mistake of ignorance has been made, and seek to address the problem.

We prefer, in short, to point out how self righteous we are, AT THE EXPENSE OF ADDRESSING THE ISSUE AT HAND.

The most OBVIOUS of answers…that a simple error has been made…is not only the last solution we’ll consider, we REJECT IT OUT OF HAND! Impossible! That CAN’T be a typo! it MUST be an evil, nefarious plot by some inconsiderate boob hell bent on causing offense.

Indeed…we even label the WORD ITSELF as offensive! A word CAN NOT BE SO. A word is a harmless collection of letters, with no power of its own to be offensive. It is the fault neither of the word, NOR THE PERSON QUOTING ITS APPEARANCE in an unexpected location that a group of people decided in the 1800’s to turn it into a sickening pejoritive.

Quiote bluntly…we’re more interested in finding fault with others than we are with fixing the problem…and we will falsely accuse without evidence, critique with bias, and indeed lend traits to inanimate objects they can not possibly posess in our effort to do precisely that.

I have 3 words for all of you.

GET
OVER
IT

You who find offense at the mere presence of a word, and are UNWILLING to even CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITY that its presence might be legitamate, if unfortunate, simply are NOT as important as you think you are. You are not only not as superior as you believe yourself to be, you are, in fact, destroying the very idea of what it means to be productive.

========================

Our lesson then for the day, boys and girls, is as follows:

When you allow your perceived rank or status amongst others to determine your approach to a situation, YOU are a second hander. YOU are not contributing to the solution, you are EXTENDING the problem.

Now, what we’re doing; I want to be clear. We’re not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that’s fairly earned; I mean, I do think, at a certain point, you’ve made enough money.

What more do you need, people? Has the man not made it crystal clear that you are responsible neither for your actions, nor your success? You have no say in ANYTHING.

You may not decide the best way to care for yourself and your family, you may not determine the limits of your own sucess, you may not reap more rewards from your productivity than the government allows.

YOU ARE MEANT TO SERVE OTHERS.

You, ladies and gentlemen, are slaves. Your life, and the product of it, are not yours to use as you see fit…they belong to “everyone else”. Since things weren’t ‘working for the average American”, it is up to those things WERE working for to take care of them.

You people wanted change. You got it. Enjoy it.