Observations from the Abyss 10.3

After a few days of the U.S. government being shut down I'm beginning to learn a few things. I may have known them all along but I'm getting a quick refresher course. I'll finish with one of the many quotes coming from the GOP that you just can't make up.

A large percentage of Americans don't like government, don't like paying taxes, and will never admit government is doing anything at all for them. It's part of the same national psyche that is so in love with guns. Keeping that in mind I think maybe we need to shut the government down every twenty years or so just to show no-government nuts that they do indeed need it. After just a few days I'm already sick of hearing people struck dumb by the fact that government actually does something for them.

It's fairly obvious but Democrats always want to be liked to a fault while a majority of Republicans today don't care if you like them so long as you fear them. Democrats can be overbearing sometimes but it's like a parent who cares and thinks they know better. Republicans and the conservative talking heads always have a smile on their face like they are scolding a petulant child who needs to be shown the obviously correct way.

I've heard the GOP shutdown called extortion or scorched earth politics but I have my own words for it. In today's world it probably isn't politically correct to use the term but I can say what I want, it's terrorism. Economic terrorism to be precise. If the shutdown runs into the debt ceiling on October 17^th and the United states of America defaults on its debts it will do more economic damage to the world economy than a terrorist could even dream of doing. It's that simple but you wont hear anybody call it that.

Speaking of petulant, this quote explains what's going better than anything else. "We’re not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is," said Marlin Stutzman, conservative congressman from Indiana and member of the Republican Suicide Caucus. On the off chance Stutzman doesn't remember what respect is here is its definition; a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.

Respect. Honestly I have nothing to add.

Observations from the Road 12.27

I never did get back to my emotional response to guns but I still plan on doing it at some point. That doesn't mean it will ever happen, my head is full of posts I plan on getting back to but never do. This is more like a mid-week post Christmas edition of Sunday Observations which is going to seem more like an economics lesson.

I hope you had a good Christmas because it seems Congress has a very special New Years celebration planned this year.

And so I give you this fiscal cliff thing, something I'm totally tired of hearing about. Here is the fiscal cliff in a nutshell; Congress can't seem to do anything, with over 200 votes Congress passes a draconian law that automatically does its job for it, Congress figures it will have to do something before its own law takes effect. Now, and this is the surprising part, Congress can't force itself to do anything to stop what Congress itself has created. Is it any wonder said Congress has an approval rating slightly lower than the Communist Party's? I didn't know the Communist party still existed.

Meanwhile the government will once again hit the debt ceiling on New Years Eve, something else to add to the cliff. I agree with former President Bill Clinton on this one. President Obama should just raise the debt limit by executive order and let the republicans take him to court if they want to. As Clinton said why should Congress be allowed to vote on expenditures they already passed? It's like you went out and bought a Christmas present on credit and than when the bill came decided not to pay it. What makes this even crazier is that the government currently pays 1% interest on new loans so borrowing now to pay for projects is probably the best investment they can make. The Treasury department says they can put off the ceiling for a few months by using accounting methods, I think I'll try that when it's income tax time.

A quick note on White House petitions. Some people have been complaining that 'joke' petitions are taking away from serious politics in this country. It is beyond me how that is possible given the state of Congress but that's what they say. Anyway there are some serious petitions to look at. One would have the President "Legally recognize Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group." It was started by a member of the hacker group Anonymous after the WBC announced it was going to protest at the funerals of the Newtown shooting victims. As of now it has 263,000 signatures so will get an official response which should be interesting. You can read it here.

Also there was a good but sad article about the complete disconnect between those who fight our wars and the rest of the country in Christmas day's edition of The New York Times. The article, "With a Parent Off Again at War, a Holiday of Pride and Isolation," included this line; "No one really cares,” Tyisha Smith, a 19-year-old senior, said of the outside world."

I'm sure Congress will get to Afghanistan after it gets past its Thelma and Louise moment.

Finally, and once again, where have you gone NHL?

12/28 update - I just read a Reuters article about the Westboro petition and it said 475,000 people has signed it. I was thinking 200,000 more signatures can't be possible in one day so I checked it out. Seems there are three petitions; the main one has 287,000, another to investigate Westboro's tax exempt status has 69,500 signatures, and a third to revoke its tax exempt status and label it a hate group has 63,000 signatures.