Cosmetic Brain Surgery...I Thought Of It First!

There is violence in The Congo. Ashley Judd wants to believe it is caused by The Smarty Phones. She also wants to believe that someday they will have cosmetic brain surgery, and then she can be as smart as she is pretty. I haven't decided if I want to break the news to her or not.

In a featured article on the CNN website, Ashley Judd and John Prendergast go to some links (Yes, welcome to the 3D age) to dramatize the brutal gang rape of Kika, a local Mother Theresa type, by the local militia. It also details how when her brother tried to intervene, they first tried to make him rape her as well, and when he refused, they stabbed him to death.

Even though it sounds like the opening five minutes of a Sylvester Stallone movie, it doesn't change that it is definitely on the more gruesome side of human interactions. It also doesn't change the severity of it.

However, where Ashley jumps the fence and flies off to Alpha Centauri, is when she then blames this behavior on Electronics. Apparently, these evil militia types are being funded and given their power over this region by all of the money they are making from mining rare minerals which are used in electronic components.

So the issue isn't that one human being would behave this way and commit atrocities on another human being. It isn't that people who would act in such a fashion would do so over a doughnut (Bran Muffins probably aren't appealing enough). They only do it because they can mine rare minerals and sell them to Intel.

Wow, this really is starting to sound more and more like a Sylvester Stallone movie, but I'll be nice to Sly and say Van Damme.

So we can't be as bold and brash as Mad Mel and say all the troubles of the World are caused by the Jews--and trust me, she wants to. No, monkey see, monkey do. Obama talks out against technology and electronics, so let's just blame all of our troubles on the iPad.

Steve Jobs and Hitler, like peas in a pod...an iPod.

Let's face it, anything those people could get their hands on to make a buck would go to funding a dictatorial regime to oppress the people. So it's tungsten and tantalum today, but when the market falls through that, you know they're going to do whatever they can to keep it going--even bottle water.

MmmMmm. Good ol' CongoWater. It tastes just like wholesale rape and murder. Every Hollywood Celebrity will have a bottle in their hands on the red carpet within a week, but don't worry, I'm sure they'll leave the iPhones at home.

Pay It Forward

More than likely, not even God knows where my mind was when I wrote this, but I was going through some of my accrued poetry and found this:

Grim Inheritance

Broken perceptions
linger in an afterglow
of humiliated defeat.

Persecuting a withered intellect.

A soul is left hollow by
a hastened amputation
of self-worth.

Generating a lack of remorse.

Punishment is bestowed
upon an innocent bystander
in a vindictive wrath.

Terminating all hope.

An immediate smirk came to my face when I read it. Perhaps it's a bit melodramatic, but the precision and minimalism it was written with made me feel good about it. Even the title seemed appropriate.

Death And Taxes

"The only things certain in life are death and taxes." -- Benjamin Franklin

"Death and taxes may be certain, but we don't have to die every year." -- Unknown

Today I received a newsletter from my Congressman:

I wanted to share an update with you on the potential effects of allowing significant provisions of the current tax code to expire.

As you know, Congress passed a series of pro-family and pro-growth tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. However these tax cuts expire at the end of 2010. I strongly support making these tax cuts permanent because a massive $3.8 trillion tax increase would hurt families, seniors and retirees, and cripple job creation efforts.

Families that benefited from an expansion of the child tax credit and the end of the marriage tax penalty will see their taxes go up dramatically. Thirty-one million families will pay more than $1,000 per year in taxes if the child credit expires, while 35 million families will pay on average nearly $600 more annually from a return of the marriage penalty. The income tax increases affect every taxpayer but also impact 75% of small businesses. Small businesses create nearly three-quarters of all new jobs and employ more than half of all workers – they can’t afford this tax hike.

Additionally the capital gains and dividend tax increases will affect investors and business, but also seniors. IRS data shows that seniors earned 48% of dividend income and 30% of all capital gains income in 2008. Massive tax hikes on fixed income retirees is the wrong prescription.

Finally, the death tax will be reinstated at 55%. The federal government should not have a right to half of your assets when you die, and Congress should keep its promise by permanently eliminating this tax, which costs billions of dollars in compliance. In fact, I led the floor debate in favor of permanently eliminating this tax in the House.

Uncertainty over tax levels is one significant factor holding back our economy. Businesses, families and investors are facing tremendous hurdles. Congress should fully and permanently extend these tax cuts to help our economy recover and help families and seniors keep more of what they earn.

Congressman Dean Heller - Second District of Nevada

Raising taxes at the present time, whether it's through imposing new taxes or letting old tax breaks expire, is possibly the most insane idea they could have. Notice I said possibly, because it's obvious someone was completely bat-shit crazy when they thought up a Death Tax in the first place, but the guy who decided to make it 55% must have been huffing the same glue Michael Moore is.

Don't nibble on the barrel...

These people in Washington aren't simply out of touch with Americans, they're out of contact. They don't just live in their own world, they're on a completely different planet some 3,000,000,000 light-years away.

The worst part, is that voting them out isn't an absolute. It's a great start, it's our best choice at this point in time, but it doesn't guarantee it will change anything. These people didn't go to Washington and get contaminated and corrupted by the system; these people were like this before they ever got to Washington. That means there are more where they came from. How do we know that the people we replace them with aren't just version 2.0 from the same Communist Meth-lab we got these brain donors from?

"The taxpayer -- that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination." -- Ronald Reagan

Thankfully it's Friday, so I can forget about all of this until Monday, when we find out what new bills Congress had to pass so we can find out what's in them. Have a nice weekend.

Yeah, Yeah, I'm Still Here.

If only I had time for the long-winded sigh that I feel like letting out right about now. If there is one thing you could tell anyone who actively takes part in political and social discourse, it would be: Dude, go get a hobby. As it turns out, that's what I did.

I could go on and on about how hectic life has been lately, or various other matters I have been dealing with over the last few months. Obviously, they would all be lame excuses. The simple truth is, I have just found other things I have been more interested in than writing endlessly about how stupid the World has become.

Even more to the point, it is a lot more fun playing with guns than it is words. Between working on personal writings such as short stories and screenplays, and buying and shooting firearms, I've just given a pass to the ol' Blog.

It doesn't just look badass...it is.

No, that doesn't mean I'm any less polarized against society, it just means .45 ACPs and Shotguns beats you. That's right Society--Checkmate.

Then when you add into that reloading ammunition and everything that's entailed in that, it's just too tempting to pass the office and head outside.

My love for writing has not waned; however, so it's time for me to start pushing myself and writing this Blog once again. So, beyond my personal stuff, sports shooting, writing, and my dog, I will have to begin once again to come up with interesting daily articles. Don't worry, today is exempt from the "interesting" status. Don't be surprised if I skip a day for hunting.