Vitriol Espresso"I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I'll kill you all." General James Mattis
Okay, so it's been a while since I've been at the keyboard to update on things in the news that catch my eye. Which isn't to say that I haven't been reading. I haven't been reading with the jaundiced eye of a pissed off citizen, I've been fairly pleased with my life the last few weeks and not in the mood to bitch.
For the sake of humanity, I shall shed this happy-goodness of feeling and don the cloak of dissent! Booyah!
Way back in the mists of time, Protectionism was proven to be contrary to fiscal growth. Hopey McChange and Bumblin Biden want to restrict trade in order to give US companies the lead-up, proving neither one of them has ever opened a history book. Which is pure bullshit (imho). Restrict trade and you restrict millions upon millions of trade dollars that will be vital to repaying the trillions it's gonna take them to ruin our economy well into the next decade. Hell, even the unions are against it and that's saying a lot when THEY speak against trade. Remember the Great Depression, guys? Yeah, Protectionism didn't help then, either.
Congressional Dems think a recession is a blank check. Proof!
Zimbabwe abandons it's currency. There, but for the grace of God, Hopey. Unicorns can't help you if you inflate the dollar so much you have to abandon your own currency like Zimbabwe did. Learn from your cousins before it's too late.
And last, but not least:
North and South Korea stand on 'the brink of war.' Oh, like they haven't kept up an armed border since the 50's. Does anybody see this as some kind of suprise at all? Personally, I think Kim Jong-il is dead and his regime generals are trying to keep his kid from taking over by pretending he's alive. A good old fashioned war would do a lot to keep these generals in power, you know. Time will tell.
H/t and Thanks go to Gateway Pundit for leading me to some of these stories. St. Louis rawks.
Btw...this blog may be moving. Apparently it's against the Google ToS to insult muslims. Still waiting on final decision.
Happy happy vacationland! So far, anyway. It's been sort of the same as normal except someone serves me dinner and nobody interrupts my reading. The cats are all pretty sweet around here (there's about 10 or so), but I hide my belongings under a thick blanket lest they become targets for the appropriately named Squirty. Just finished the BIG book I brought with me so I'm hoping that tomorrow will lead to something else to do. Outside the home, I mean. Father has decreed that we should go across the mesa (assuming it hasn't snowed since his truck is like a feather on ice) to Delta. Which is great with me. I love driving up on the Grand Mesa. It's gorgeous even in the winter when the next turn could find you dying under a giant pile of snow and the cattle bars are the only place to truly get any traction. I shall take my yack-traks so that I do not fall down a cliff. Hor-jay.
My muscles have unclenched, the stress is slowly trickling away, nobody is obsessing overly much on anything in particular. It's relaxing in it's own strange way to get out of that damnable apartment for a while. But I miss me kitties and games an junk. Been told that it's good to get away for a rest...a REAL rest, not that fake rest bullshit I usually get sold. Still haven't done anything creative, but I have got some unreal ideas stuck up in my head that could just get turned into something nice. If there's still talent in these arthritic fingers I'll see what I can do. Eventually. After I get done sleeping on this lovely self-cooled fully adjustable bed. Ahhhhhyeah.....
Welcome to the USSA! Bank of America to receive additional $20 Billion. Which, coincidentally, makes the US Government the major stockholder in this bank. Ain't socialism fun?!? :D Top that off with the news that Circuit City is going out of business and you have a recipe for crap salad. So the banks and the auto industry are worth bailing out, but a computer store chain isn't? Where is congress going to draw the line? Or will they?
I welcome my fellow Galts of the world into their new country. Put your feet up, have a state sponsored cola, and watch some state sponsored TV. The state will be taking care of you from now on so there's no sense in bothering to go to work anymore. Once the last company goes down the drain because our socialist/marxist congress (and president) has destroyed our system of capitalism, we will all be in the same shithole together.
I need to read Atlas Shrugged again. Assuming I can still buy a copy.
D-Day (as in Democrap-Day) is inching closer and foreign regimes counting on Obama's weak experience-less administration to finally take hold. The more Bush packs his things to leave he White House, the more the governments who have openly discussed war are getting ready to unload. This doesn't mean only BAD governments, either. The United States, as global policeman, has been holding even some of the good guys from launching into their neighbors. With Obama in office the future is not guaranteed to be a good one.
The Time Clock Has Run Out: Israel Ready to Strike Iran. What, you didn't believe me? You thought the Israelis would allow Iran to gain nuclear offensive capabilities? Ahmadinnerdumbass is the one insane asshole on the planet who I /know/ would have no problem tossing a nuke. Give him one and he will use it. The time really has run out.
What happens in the next couple of weeks will determine the future of the globe. If you think this period in time isn't significant, you haven't been paying attention. Obama is our very first truly socialist/marxist president. His skin color has NOTHING to do with anything. Look back at what has happened with the administrations of other presidents that were considered weak or far too liberal. Jimmy Carter's administration all by itself should teach you the lesson of global politics when the United States has such a huge political shift. Also keep in mind that it was Democrat Presidents that administered the start of our two World Wars.
Have you heard the latest? Madonna Targeted by Extremists!!! As if this is anything new, right? They've been threatening her from 2003 to today for her strange addiction to the Kabbalah (and pilates, maybe). Can we call this a tradition now and turn it into a new Muslim holiday? We can call it 'DEATH TO MADGE DAY'! Rainbow banners and 80's pop music sounds fun to me. And you can make blood-filled effigies sporting gold bustiers with cone tits and cosmetic surgery scars. Europeans will eat it up with a silver plated spoon.
Blago is impeached, but his guy in the Senate is still gonna keep his seat. And this guy is a total wang. Did you know that Roland Burris has set up his own monument to himself? Totally true, it's his tombstone. The guy is a full blown hoo-hah cuckoos nest lunatic. The dick kept an innocent man in jail for 12 years because he couldn't stand to be proven wrong. This is Illinois' newest Senator. Although, I must say he seems to be spot on as a replacement for Obama.
An absolutely stunning picture for the Astronomy Picture of the Day via ASD at NASA / GSFC & Michigan Tech U. (links on the main APOD site):
Anyway, all this because I couldn't sleep. Too busy pirating music, I guess. And tomorrow is cleaning day so I ain't gotta mess around all that much later on in the week to get stuff done before the weekend. With any luck at all I'll have time to play around on WoW while I damp down my nervous travel jitters with legal narcotics on Friday. Meh. May just take some now.
According to some folks who seem to have flocked to Earthen Ring (my WoW server) they did so in order to meet the folks who run a podcast on internet radio called 'The Instance.' Before I even knew who these people were I realized that <alea iacta est>, their guild on Earthen Ring, was drawing people here somehow. Osmosis, I supposed. Now that I know what it is that's bringing these players to my server it also clicks into place as to why most of them suck so hard at playing the game.
Anybody who would jump onto a server in order to meet a fifth-rate internet celebutard like the people on 'The Instance' can't possibly be all that intelligent. Who in their right mind would race to join a server on which the players that describe the gameplay don't actually play the game anymore? From my experiences I have not yet met an <aie> member that wasn't either outright ninja-esque (a thief with no morals) or someone who just didn't give a crap as long as they got what they wanted. The entire concept of group play is almost completely lost on the majority of <aie> members. Why? Because you can only join in a guild event if you know which strings to pull and can actively stick your nose between the buttcheeks of the nearest official's friend's cousin.
In short: <alea iacta est> sucks ass for bringing people to an already full Earthen Ring and they need to stop with it before we're overloaded to the extreme. The douchenozzles running 'The Instance' radio show should seriously tone down how wonderful our server is before it's completely ruined for everyone (if it isn't already, hour long queues aren't fun at all). It's a contributing factor to an already difficult problem. And since these twunts don't actually actively play the game anymore, it's bordering on maliciousness.
Maybe I should do a counter-show in which I let people looking for a new server how much it blows chunks to wait an hour and a half in a virtual line in order to get to a raid that was supposed to have started a half an hour into your wait. I'll have to think about it. Until then:
Hokay, so it's 2009 *blow stupidly annoying horn* and time for another revolution around the sun. Aha, you thought I meant revolution as in rat-a-tat-tat and dissent revolution, didn't ya? Well, blow it out yer a$$. Not every post needs to be politically strange.
I find myself alone again on another first week of the year and realize this will probably be the same throughout the remainder. However, there are some differences that will be starting soon that I hope will improve things for 2010. For one, I'm starting a new course of physical therapy (on Monday) that should continue ad infinitum. That's right, I'm shelling out for someone to TEACH me how to do this crap instead of waiting around for a week or two of assisted therapy every now and then. With the changes coming to insurance coverages I don't see how they're going to pay for anything anymore. Thus I learn how to do it to myself. Some call this masochism. After trying some of it out I would have to agree.
With any luck and persistence hopefully I will be mobile and healthy enough to get out of town with my kitties. As in MOVE. Somewhere. Anywhere there's people would be a good thing. A coffee shop and a bookstore are definite pluses. Bars are not necessary, but another good addition. Friends closer is a definite plus. More mobility equals more ability to do the things I want to do instead of waiting around on someone who isn't coming to help me do things I have to do. That and I could use a good shag.
Another thing is to develop this Church of Cow idea and get the artistic twinge back on track. I've spent a couple of years sans artwork and it's about time I got off my butt and tried again. Luckily, my Mother is good to me on the holidays (aside from the doom and gloom statements every so often) and I now have an actual professional set of programs to create and publish my own artwork on the computer. My Wacom pad shaketh in anticipation. Assuming I can figure out the rationality of drawing on a monitor. It's tough, lemme tell you. I'm historically a pencil and paper kind of artist. Classically trained. It's not easy to charcoal out a beautiful set of pecs when there's no model. Maybe I can spend a few bucks and get a Blick mannequin to set on the desk? Another goal!
A fourth resolution is getting out more. The weather around these parts is never that horrible except in extreme winter and during the classic spring/fall thunderstorms. The only thing that holds me back for the most part is the fact that there's nowhere interesting to go. Some would say that the forests around here are perfect, but in reality they aren't. What city people see are trees that have been 'sanitized'. That is the ground litter is chopped up and taken away as mulch. In a real forest there are ticks and flies and impassable ground litter and invisible hills (because of the litter) and old barbed wire and etcetera. It's not safe to walk through a forest unless you have a known path to go by. And out here there aren't many outside deer paths that hunters typically will watch. NOT a good place for someone wearing brown to walk, if you understand my meaning.
And lastly, I need to take more time away from the computer. I really do. I spend an inordinate amount of time on this damnable idiot box. It's about time I found another hobby away from it and relaxed to some good tunes like I used to. I may implement the 2 day off of the internet per week rule I once had many years ago. It'll hurt at first, I'm sure. But damn...so much I'm missing.
And that's the wrap up for now. One political note? Israel is doing exactly what myself and many other clear thinkers thought it would. Ground troops are moving in. And it's BEFORE January 20th. I shudder to imagine what will happen after that date...
