Hallelujah!
Voted down, and a damn good thing too. This is a prime example for the reason why I picked the name I did for my blog.
Here's the root of the problem. Bad economic decisions in our modern banking industry (I refuse to call them "institutions" like the media seems to love doing - they are not "institutions" that we must simply keep afloat. They're businesses.) stretch back to at least the 1970's where the savings & loans started to go under. Laws passed in 1980 apparently made it acceptable for them to be increasingly loose with their money, and in the following decade we had a savings & loan meltdown. Lets notice the trend starting here: government got involved in business, and the market failed. In 1989, the government formed the Resolution Trust Corporation to help these companies get rid of their "toxic" investments, and a significant portion of this was funded with taxpayer dollars. Notice anything similar about what's happening today?
So the real meat of the problem here is that these companies feel safer since the door has been thrown wide open for government bailouts of bad financial decisions. The very same people who made these bad decisions are screaming for the bailout to happen, to avoid an economic "meltdown". Yeah, sure, let's bail you out so you can run away with your golden parachute. The man who took over as CEO for WaMu recently worked a whole 17 days before the company failed, and he received a $20 million payment. Let's not forget Stanley O'Neal, the former Merill Lynch CEO until 2007, left with $161 million.
The logic simply fails. These companies, whose business it was to loan money and make money on those investments, failed. They made bad investments, and now they're in financial trouble. The argument for the bailout is that the people of this country and their businesses won't be able to get home loans, car loans, student loans, business loans, because the institutions that loan money don't know how much they can loan. . . So we need to give them taxpayer money so that they can loan more money. They're in trouble because they made bad decisions about loaning money; we don't need to give them money from taxpayers so that they can continue their failing business.
Despite modern indications, we live in a Capitalist society, folks. The government is attempting to apply a Socialist solution to a Capitalist system.
Here's a hint: the free market fixes itself, and when the government gets involved in business, bad things happen.
Let me paint for you the true Capitalist, free-market scenario. These financial businesses fail (in part, at least, because of underhanded lending techniques. That's a totally separate matter). They get picked apart by the other companies who want to create or expand their financial influence. The assets of the failed companies get bought by people looking to make money on their failure to do so. If the government steps in at all, it should be to reduce or eliminate taxes on the income made from these "dangerous" investments to increase the speed that these assets get bought.
Not all of it is a bright, sunshiney picture. The stock market takes a dip, because some of its pillars have crumbled, but the pillars are being remade even as they crumble. The people who made silly purchases of homes or cars or what have you... I'm sorry, but have a little personal responsibility for your actions. You either didn't read the fine print on your loan contracts, or you didn't understand it. So, these people are in trouble. If the company that buys their bad loan has a good heart, they can restructure the loan to have a more sane interest rate, and probably decrease the overall amount owed, in order to keep these debtors in their car/home whatever they bought, and attempt to have a positive cash flow from the original people who made the loan. Failing that, or if the company is a little more cut throat, they'll evict the person or repossess the property, and attempt to sell it to someone else to recoup the money on their investment on these "bad" loans.
In the end, some people lose their property due to making a bad decision about which company and what loan, some people get a break and get to keep it... Some companies go under, some companies get bigger. The market and the economy has a little healthy turmoil, and then things normalize and stabilize. And we go back to living life, just like we always have.
... I seem to have run out of words. In closing, the government should get its big nose out of the market and the market will take care of itself. In the future, the people of this great nation and the businesses in it will be a lot more careful how they treat loans. We go through a short time of economnic difficulty, and then things normalize. The free market system works - you just have to leave it alone and let it. It has for the past 200 years, with various government induced hiccups.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
But
I'm not too tired to read. This is some great information about the socialist policies of our government and what it costs us in real dollars.
WAR is coming!
Its way too early... well... late... for me to be posting right now. I'm editing this later :P
EDIT:
WAR is Coming!
The release date is dangerously close (September 18th) and having beta tested this game, ohmygosh. It takes a lot of the good elements of MMO's of the past, and completely ignored everything that made them slow, or annoying, and generally forgettable. As soon as your character sets foot on the world of WAR, things start moving quickly, and they don't stop unless you want them to.
I could go on ranting about it, but really, you can get a preorder at Target for $1, and get a head start on the game without really paying for it, so what are you waiting for?
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Seriously?
Just signed up for iGoogle to see what it had to offer, and one of the things that caught my eye was this story. Which is actually a transcript of a TV/radio "news" program.
First of all, call them what they are. Illegal immigrants. Calling them "undocumented" doesn't change the fact that the lack of documentation means they're in this country illegally. That goes hand in hand. Undocumented = Illegal. This "political correctness" really irritates me. Just because you say a classic beat up car is a "beautiful" beat up car doesn't mean that it isn't, still, a beat up car.
Second, and this is the real issue; "The climate of fear around deportation has worsened as ... ICE continues to step up its raids across the country..." Climate of fear? What is that even supposed to mean? That illegal immigrants are fearful that they're going to be deported? Good! Great! That means that ICE is doing its job correctly and enforcing our immigration laws that these illegal immigrants have broken.
I also enjoy the self-propagating society the liberal media has created for itself. The list of credentials for any "expert" is the list of publications that have featured their words. While that might have meant something when the media was actually fair and reported news instead of slanted stories, all it shows now is how deeply in bed said "journalist" is with the liberal political machine.
Back on topic.
In the transcript of the show, they even quote a person who... well... I'll just quote it for you.
"IMMIGRANT RIGHTS MARCHER 3: [translated] We are in a country that isn’t our own, but we want the government and the new administration to reform immigration for everyone."
Since when did illegal immigrants have a say in what our country does? Isn't that the one real perk to being a citizen of this country? That you can vote on the issues the country needs to decide on? Who appointed these liberal hacks the Saviors of Humanity, giving voice to the undertrodden people who make themselves criminals simply by being here, in our country?
"IMMIGRANT RIGHTS MARCHER 8: [translated] This country doesn’t respect you. My words don’t matter. They’ll get what they want, including taking my life. I’m tired of them treating me like I’m less just because of the color of my skin. They have everything of ours, including our country. America is for all Americans. This is my boat, too. [in English] This is a country of immigrants. We need the change bad. Obama is not the solution."
America is for all Americans. That's the catch. You're not an American. Yes, we are a country built on immigrants. But, further, we are a country built on immigrants who came here wanting to be American. We are not a country built on immigrants who work here, demand rights and social services to which they are not entitled, and then send all the money back home so their family can have a better life in their own country. For the vast majority of American citizens, our ancestors came here legally, learned English, worked hard, and made for themselves and their families an American life, raised their children as Americans, and became part of the country, and part of our national identity.
Most of these illegal immigrants (obviously, not all; some are trying to become American, but they are the exception) are simply here to work jobs that pay more than a few pesos a day, and then send the money home to improve the quality of life of their families in their home country- which they still identify with. If you've watched any video of any of the immigrant marches, they're waving Mexican flags, not American flags. They don't want to be American- they want to be Mexican in the United States, and have all of the privileges of American citizens. Check out this video.
I salute that veteran. The video makes my point- that Mexican businessman wants to be Mexican first, and never an American. But he wants all the rights, privileges, benefits, everything that should be the result of American citizenship.
When the show introduces their guest, David Bacon, right out of the gate he goes for the "human rights violations"- talking about workers who were arrested by ICE for immigration infractions.
"But the problem with those workers is that they were—you know, there was no habeas corpus, there was no bail. There weren’t even any charges against those people for two weeks."
I'm sorry, but you don't just "give" someone habeas corpus. The procedure for habeas corpus is bringing a court action against the agency that is holding someone against their will, and if the court decides the agency doesn't have the authority to hold that person, they go free.
As for the charges not being brought for two weeks, that is a complaint I can understand. Two months passed before I was falsely charged with my crime, and during that period, I had no idea why I wasn't employable. But looking at the two numbers here... one man waiting two months to be charged, versus 481 people waiting two weeks to be charged... I'd say that ICE was working as fast as it could to charge all of them as quickly as possible, as is everyones' right in our justice system- the right to a speedy trial.
Alright... I'm all worded out for the moment. More to follow, likely tomorrow.
First of all, call them what they are. Illegal immigrants. Calling them "undocumented" doesn't change the fact that the lack of documentation means they're in this country illegally. That goes hand in hand. Undocumented = Illegal. This "political correctness" really irritates me. Just because you say a classic beat up car is a "beautiful" beat up car doesn't mean that it isn't, still, a beat up car.
Second, and this is the real issue; "The climate of fear around deportation has worsened as ... ICE continues to step up its raids across the country..." Climate of fear? What is that even supposed to mean? That illegal immigrants are fearful that they're going to be deported? Good! Great! That means that ICE is doing its job correctly and enforcing our immigration laws that these illegal immigrants have broken.
I also enjoy the self-propagating society the liberal media has created for itself. The list of credentials for any "expert" is the list of publications that have featured their words. While that might have meant something when the media was actually fair and reported news instead of slanted stories, all it shows now is how deeply in bed said "journalist" is with the liberal political machine.
Back on topic.
In the transcript of the show, they even quote a person who... well... I'll just quote it for you.
"IMMIGRANT RIGHTS MARCHER 3: [translated] We are in a country that isn’t our own, but we want the government and the new administration to reform immigration for everyone."
Since when did illegal immigrants have a say in what our country does? Isn't that the one real perk to being a citizen of this country? That you can vote on the issues the country needs to decide on? Who appointed these liberal hacks the Saviors of Humanity, giving voice to the undertrodden people who make themselves criminals simply by being here, in our country?
"IMMIGRANT RIGHTS MARCHER 8: [translated] This country doesn’t respect you. My words don’t matter. They’ll get what they want, including taking my life. I’m tired of them treating me like I’m less just because of the color of my skin. They have everything of ours, including our country. America is for all Americans. This is my boat, too. [in English] This is a country of immigrants. We need the change bad. Obama is not the solution."
America is for all Americans. That's the catch. You're not an American. Yes, we are a country built on immigrants. But, further, we are a country built on immigrants who came here wanting to be American. We are not a country built on immigrants who work here, demand rights and social services to which they are not entitled, and then send all the money back home so their family can have a better life in their own country. For the vast majority of American citizens, our ancestors came here legally, learned English, worked hard, and made for themselves and their families an American life, raised their children as Americans, and became part of the country, and part of our national identity.
Most of these illegal immigrants (obviously, not all; some are trying to become American, but they are the exception) are simply here to work jobs that pay more than a few pesos a day, and then send the money home to improve the quality of life of their families in their home country- which they still identify with. If you've watched any video of any of the immigrant marches, they're waving Mexican flags, not American flags. They don't want to be American- they want to be Mexican in the United States, and have all of the privileges of American citizens. Check out this video.
I salute that veteran. The video makes my point- that Mexican businessman wants to be Mexican first, and never an American. But he wants all the rights, privileges, benefits, everything that should be the result of American citizenship.
When the show introduces their guest, David Bacon, right out of the gate he goes for the "human rights violations"- talking about workers who were arrested by ICE for immigration infractions.
"But the problem with those workers is that they were—you know, there was no habeas corpus, there was no bail. There weren’t even any charges against those people for two weeks."
I'm sorry, but you don't just "give" someone habeas corpus. The procedure for habeas corpus is bringing a court action against the agency that is holding someone against their will, and if the court decides the agency doesn't have the authority to hold that person, they go free.
As for the charges not being brought for two weeks, that is a complaint I can understand. Two months passed before I was falsely charged with my crime, and during that period, I had no idea why I wasn't employable. But looking at the two numbers here... one man waiting two months to be charged, versus 481 people waiting two weeks to be charged... I'd say that ICE was working as fast as it could to charge all of them as quickly as possible, as is everyones' right in our justice system- the right to a speedy trial.
Alright... I'm all worded out for the moment. More to follow, likely tomorrow.
In Memoriam
I'm a couple days late with this, but I wasn't even a member when the actual date hit, so here's the belated tribute. Picture credit to www.law.umkc.edu, from the Moussaoui trial. That's all but 92 of the casualties of 9/11.
I know many of you will turn your eyes away when I say 9/11, and I loathe you for it. No, it wasn't the greatest tragedy to hit our country, but it was the latest. Those who are "tired" of hearing about 9/11 are the ones turning their eyes away, but are you equally as tired of hearing about Pearl Harbor? How about the first WTC bombing? What about the embassy bombings, and the USS Cole?
Our country has been at war, open or not, for close to two decades now. Osama bin Hidin' declared war on us, and we didn't take him seriously. Especially not Mr. Clinton- remember those speeches about *Clinton Impersonation Voice* "We will find those responsible and we will bring them to justice." He didn't do a damn thing. Some of you will say that he did. Really? Did he really do anything measurable? How many al-Qaeda plots did he stop? How many leaders did he arrest/kill/otherwise impede their ability to operate? I vaguely remember a training camp or two getting bombed, but come on.
I bet Osama bin Hidin' was really surprised when after 9/11 we went over there and started blowing his whole operation to hell. That's what we should've been doing after we found out who our opponent was.
This isn't about "let's play nicey-nice and hope everyone will love us". This is about survival of our way of life and our freedoms. Look at the natural world. If you don't have the means to defend yourself, you get eaten. Like it or not, humans are animals. We're more than animals, we're predators. Need proof of that statement? 90% plus of all predators have two forward facing eyes to better focus on their target. Humans are violent by nature- hell, we grew up in nature, and nature is violent.
The point of all that is "multinationalism" and "globalization" be damned. If we're under attack from a fly, we need to hit it with a sledgehammer. The only "moral" issue here is our ability as a nation to continue our way of life. Read Starship Troopers (no, its nothing like the movie). Or, here, let me quote the relevant passage for you.
"...To those who hang on to the axiom of 'violence never solved anything', allow me to say this. Anyone who clings to the historically untrue — and thoroughly immoral — doctrine that 'violence never solves anything' I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms."
So lets not forget that those who wish to end us and our way of life will use violence, and violence is the only sort of deterrent that they will recognize and respect.
In Memoriam - 9/11/01
Some Family History.
I absolutely love family history, and if some of you have a request, I might be able to find out a little bit for you- a coat of arms, maybe a motto, maybe a little information. The resources on the internet are kind of limited (most places want you to pay for their services) but I still manage to scrounge up some good information.
For example.
The earliest ancestor I've been able to find is a man named Sir Oliver D'Esse, who was a Norman and a companion to King William, Duke of Normandy. Also known as William the Conqueror after 1066, when he sailed from what is modern-day France to conquer England. Sir Oliver has a coat of arms almost identical to my own. A silver shield, two black chevrons. My modern family heraldry is the same, with two silver five pointed stars inside the top of each chevron. Our last names are also remarkably similar. The family motto is "Non nobis sed omnibus", which means "Not for us but for all". Good stuff. This is on my father's side of the family.
On my mother's side of the family, I'm related to a town in France. Hazebrouck. Our family was apparently so influential there that we had our own door in the side of the cathedral built in 1494. It's still there to this day- a side door, our own private entrance, with the family coat of arms above it. The research my mother has done shows that we're related to two or three founding fathers of America... can't remember which ones off the top of my head.
Love family history.
So where the hell did I go wrong, eh? All this greatness behind me and I'm delivering pizzas.
For example.
The earliest ancestor I've been able to find is a man named Sir Oliver D'Esse, who was a Norman and a companion to King William, Duke of Normandy. Also known as William the Conqueror after 1066, when he sailed from what is modern-day France to conquer England. Sir Oliver has a coat of arms almost identical to my own. A silver shield, two black chevrons. My modern family heraldry is the same, with two silver five pointed stars inside the top of each chevron. Our last names are also remarkably similar. The family motto is "Non nobis sed omnibus", which means "Not for us but for all". Good stuff. This is on my father's side of the family.
On my mother's side of the family, I'm related to a town in France. Hazebrouck. Our family was apparently so influential there that we had our own door in the side of the cathedral built in 1494. It's still there to this day- a side door, our own private entrance, with the family coat of arms above it. The research my mother has done shows that we're related to two or three founding fathers of America... can't remember which ones off the top of my head.
Love family history.
So where the hell did I go wrong, eh? All this greatness behind me and I'm delivering pizzas.
Greetings!
So I'm brand new to this blogging business, but I just can't keep all my thoughts just in my head anymore. I figure I'll go crazy if I keep arguing with myself, so I'll try arguing with you all. Sound good? :P
I intend for this blog to be mainly political, but from time to time I may toss in assorted interests and happenings of note in my personal life. A few examples include football, computer gaming, tabletop wargames, paintball... I guess I'll stop there before I have to edit "a few examples" to something more numerous.
As part of my introduction here, I suppose I should include information as to my politics. I'll likely be called a Libertarian- with the notable exception of my distaste of open borders. Though with the Libertarian fixes to the country, immigration wouldn't be a problem. I despise our two primary parties. They're both out to maintain their power come hell or high water, and the rest of the country be damned. As for specifics...
I'm pro-choice, because it is not the government's job to tell women what to do with their bodies. Along the same line, gay marriage. It is not the government's job to tell you who you can or cannot love. These are individual issues, not Congressional issues. I believe strongly in the separation of church and state, and in the right to own and bear arms. I believe illegal immigration is destroying our country (born and raised Californian, I've lived with it my whole life), and that those damn environmentalist hippies are barking up the wrong tree (if you've seen the Al Gore Show- you know, the one he got a Nobel for- and then done some actual research for yourself, you'll understand). Stem cell research should be funded to excess, and the death penalty simply has to remain- but the legal system needs an overhaul. We probably shouldn't have gone into Iraq so that little Bush could finish up daddy Bush's business, but now that we're there, we simply have to stay and put their country back together. We destroyed it, its our responsibility. Marijuana should be legalized and regulated (no, I don't smoke it- think of the tax money the country could raise), and we should keep on hunting those damn Al-Qaeda idiots until they're all gone or they win. Equal opportunity and affirmative action are a joke (how do you anti-discriminate so someone can go to college/get a job without discriminating against someone else because of their race/whatever?), and we should've been drilling for oil using the small footprint rigs the oil companies have for the last 10 years- when we found the oil- so that gas wouldn't be so damn expensive now (and now they say it'll take 10 years to set up drilling operations. No brainer.). Racial profiling, especially for security reasons, needs to happen (is that 70 year old lady with a walker really going to take over the plane? No. Might that man of Mid-East descent? Maybe), and the theory of natural selection needs to be treated with the same amount of respect as the belief in creation. While they both don't have the same amount of supporting scientific evidence, they're both scientifically provable to the exact same extent- none.
... Is that all? I think so. For now. More to come!
I intend for this blog to be mainly political, but from time to time I may toss in assorted interests and happenings of note in my personal life. A few examples include football, computer gaming, tabletop wargames, paintball... I guess I'll stop there before I have to edit "a few examples" to something more numerous.
As part of my introduction here, I suppose I should include information as to my politics. I'll likely be called a Libertarian- with the notable exception of my distaste of open borders. Though with the Libertarian fixes to the country, immigration wouldn't be a problem. I despise our two primary parties. They're both out to maintain their power come hell or high water, and the rest of the country be damned. As for specifics...
I'm pro-choice, because it is not the government's job to tell women what to do with their bodies. Along the same line, gay marriage. It is not the government's job to tell you who you can or cannot love. These are individual issues, not Congressional issues. I believe strongly in the separation of church and state, and in the right to own and bear arms. I believe illegal immigration is destroying our country (born and raised Californian, I've lived with it my whole life), and that those damn environmentalist hippies are barking up the wrong tree (if you've seen the Al Gore Show- you know, the one he got a Nobel for- and then done some actual research for yourself, you'll understand). Stem cell research should be funded to excess, and the death penalty simply has to remain- but the legal system needs an overhaul. We probably shouldn't have gone into Iraq so that little Bush could finish up daddy Bush's business, but now that we're there, we simply have to stay and put their country back together. We destroyed it, its our responsibility. Marijuana should be legalized and regulated (no, I don't smoke it- think of the tax money the country could raise), and we should keep on hunting those damn Al-Qaeda idiots until they're all gone or they win. Equal opportunity and affirmative action are a joke (how do you anti-discriminate so someone can go to college/get a job without discriminating against someone else because of their race/whatever?), and we should've been drilling for oil using the small footprint rigs the oil companies have for the last 10 years- when we found the oil- so that gas wouldn't be so damn expensive now (and now they say it'll take 10 years to set up drilling operations. No brainer.). Racial profiling, especially for security reasons, needs to happen (is that 70 year old lady with a walker really going to take over the plane? No. Might that man of Mid-East descent? Maybe), and the theory of natural selection needs to be treated with the same amount of respect as the belief in creation. While they both don't have the same amount of supporting scientific evidence, they're both scientifically provable to the exact same extent- none.
... Is that all? I think so. For now. More to come!
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