As a man of thirty years, I've seen much change in this country. Talking to those older than me I see even more that has changed.
We've lost many things in the past fifty years, and what we gained in return is nowhere near fair value.
When I first started going to college ten years ago community college tuition was $9 a unit. When my mother started college it was $3 a unit. When she was a kid it was free. Now it is $36 per unit. That's insane.
To make it worse, back when my mother attended school, community college wasn't a mandatory thing. Hell, university wasn't required. People went to university to become leaders in an industry. Doctors, lawyers, powerful businessmen, teachers, etc. It wasn't required. Your average adult never went to college of any type. They started working straight out of highschool and that was their career. And it was enough to live on. People went to college to join the middle class.
Now we need a college education just to be at the top of the lower class.
To make matters worse, the pay of teachers has become abysmal. These are the people who educate our children and take care of them for us during the day. The least we can do is to pay them better than a nanny.
And whenever the government cuts money from schools, the first thing they do is cut the "non-essential" fields like art, music, and theater.
Now moving on to our tax dollars at work.
Thirty years ago the country was filled with low-cost/free Mental health clinics. These weren't mad houses for the criminally insane, they were places for people who just have some crossed wires and couldn't deal with the real world. Then the country started closing them. All of the mental health care professionals cried out that this would leave our streets filled with crazy people, and they were right.
Before all of these people with mental problems could be treated and medicated so that they weren't a danger to their neighbors. Now they are homeless, or living with relatives or friends because they can't hold down a job un-medicated and they can't afford their medicine.
If you look into alot of the mass-shootings that have happened in the last thirty years, the gunman often suffers from some sort of mental condition that is untreated. Yes, having access to high-powered assault weapons gave them a means to act out their madness, but their madness effected the rest of us because the government decided to get rid of the mental health clinics so that the rich could have another tax cut.
Before it was rare to see a crazy person walking down the street talking to themselves. It's not that we've suddenly developed more crazy people, we just stopped treating them. Before if the police came across a man talking to a tree (in a non-religious way) they would pick them up and take them to the clinic to be examined and treated. Now they just pick them up and dump them at the border to another city. Make them someone else's problem.
Next factor to consider is public transportation.
Prior to 1963 California had a great public transit system. Everyone could take a train or a trolley everywhere they needed to go. Then GM bought out the public transit and mothballed it so that people would be forced to buy cars.
Now this was the act of a corporation to make your life more difficult, but the government let them do it.
Next we have health care.
Free or Discount health centers still exist, but they are much more rare now, and their quality and funding are all but gone. Now they are effectively a place to pay $50 for a antibiotic prescription.
They don't give the care that they used to, how can they when their budgets have been gutted.
Now what have we gained for all that we gave up?
Facebook.
Seriously.
Also, free porn.
I will grant you that the internet is an impressive tool for the people. Mass communication allows us to share information with loved ones across the country, our friendships are no longer limited by zip codes. There are great things that the internet has done for us. We have access to literally any piece of information in the world with just a few keystrokes.
But it also comes with a cost.
Yes twitter, instagram, facebook, myspace, etc allow us to cyber-stalk eachother. We can e-poke eachother, with our cell phones we can reach eachother at any time.
But really, is that an improvement?
When I was a kid, if I wanted to talk to a friend of mine I got on my bike and went to visit them. I would knock on their door and say "Hey, can _________ come out to play?". The same was true for my parents and the generations before them. To communicate with people, we had to be physically with them.
The current generation of young people has got to be the most anti-social humans ever born. They don't see eachother in person, they see eachother online. And what's worse is that this behavior has affected the rest of us. It's the rare people who actually see their friends on a regular (more than once a week) basis. We all remain creepily aware of eachother's lives via Facebook, but really, who the fuck cares what that bitch of a co-worker said to you when you got to work?
Before nobody talked about that shit, because it wasn't important.
Here's a shocker: It's still isn't important.
Nobody cares, but we all know about it because we have the captive audience of the internet. Any stupid little thing we say gets posted online and everyone "likes" us complaining just to make it clear that they were paying attention and not ignoring us.
And then there's porn.
Nothing has done more good and damage to modern sexual relationships than internet porn. Back in my youth porn was a rare thing, and it usually consisted of a half-torn playboy somebody found in a dumpster or half-blocked cable porn.
Now we have access to any, and I mean literally ANY crazy type of porn we can possibly think of.
If you get off to people beating their own genitals with live squid, I'm sure you can find porn of it.
But is that really a good thing?
Before people started having sex, all they brought to the table was their partner and whatever previous first-hand experience that they already had.
Now by the time people actually have sex, they've already seen hundreds of strangers having sex. Internet porn has turned all of us into Voyeurs, Voyeurs with completely unrealistic expectations. Yes, we can find porn of people doing whatever crazy as thing gets our rocks off, but wouldn't it be better just to find a partner who is willing to do that with us?
Honestly, before it was trial and error. People would find a partner and experiment. Now people are going into experimentation pre-disposed for or against whatever the kink is. Before it was new, and most often both partners were trying it together for the first time. So good or bad, neither one had any pre-existing opinions.
So now instead of learning about sex from eachother, we're learning about sex by watching other people have sex incorrectly. Cause let's be real, nobody really has sex the way they do in porn. It's not intimate, it's not comfortable, and most of the positions are too physically stressful for most of us.
It's all stupid. And for the loss of cheap health care, safety from psychos, loss of affordable education, and loss of cheap transportation. All they give us is Facebook and porn.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Thursday, October 4, 2012
First Presidential debate Oct 3rd
Ok, didn't manage to catch all of the debate, but I saw a large portion of it.
I'm firmly of the belief that the system for political debates is kinda retarded. Arguing a point with limited prep time and only 2 minutes to speak is crazy nightmare.
But onto the debate itself.
All of the analysts are saying that Romney won the debate. Mainly in that he gave the impression that he was giving concrete details, while he in fact was disagreeing with himself all the time.
Example:
Obama says that his medical plan is exactly like the one Romney used in Massachusetts.
Romney responds that no their plans are totally different because his was a bi-partisan effort.
Obama responds that regardless of who made it, the two plans are the exact same formula, with a couple additions.
Romney changes the subject to complain that medical care should be the problem of the state, not the federal government.
Obama rolls his eyes.
This is something that has been bugging me for the last fifteen years that I've actually paid attention to politics.
Republican candidates always say that they want LESS Federal control, MORE state control, LOWER taxes, but HIGHER spending.
Taking the first two under examination, the Republican party doesn't actually have a good record with those two concepts. Every time we get Republicans in power, they want to Increase Federal control (Hello? Patriot Act?) and try to take the power away from the states by trying to enforce morality/religion. I'm sure I could come up with better examples, but I'm tired.
Second part they actually keep their word on, but it's fiscally insane. You can't reasonably spend money that you don't have. Hence why every time we get a Democrat in office, they have to reduce their spending and increase taxes to pay for the debt of the previous administration.
Romney is doing the same thing in his campaign.
He's talking about reducing taxes again but keeping the budget basically the same, so yet again, more debt. It's like giving a teenager a credit card with $100 in the bank and no spending limit. You hope that they will be smart enough not to spend more than the $100 they have, but with no limit they are spending like crazy. And given our financial crisis, that's fucking insane.
But the whole concept of putting the power back in the states, yes, it's permanently part of the platform, but they'll never actually do it. More control for the states requires more money for the states. So either Federal taxes need to go down so State taxes can go up, or the federal government needs to give a sizable percentage of their earnings to the states.
So yeah, much of the debate was simply massive research and math failures.
But I am looking forward to the VP debate. Mostly to see what crazy shit Paul Ryan will say.
I'm firmly of the belief that the system for political debates is kinda retarded. Arguing a point with limited prep time and only 2 minutes to speak is crazy nightmare.
But onto the debate itself.
All of the analysts are saying that Romney won the debate. Mainly in that he gave the impression that he was giving concrete details, while he in fact was disagreeing with himself all the time.
Example:
Obama says that his medical plan is exactly like the one Romney used in Massachusetts.
Romney responds that no their plans are totally different because his was a bi-partisan effort.
Obama responds that regardless of who made it, the two plans are the exact same formula, with a couple additions.
Romney changes the subject to complain that medical care should be the problem of the state, not the federal government.
Obama rolls his eyes.
This is something that has been bugging me for the last fifteen years that I've actually paid attention to politics.
Republican candidates always say that they want LESS Federal control, MORE state control, LOWER taxes, but HIGHER spending.
Taking the first two under examination, the Republican party doesn't actually have a good record with those two concepts. Every time we get Republicans in power, they want to Increase Federal control (Hello? Patriot Act?) and try to take the power away from the states by trying to enforce morality/religion. I'm sure I could come up with better examples, but I'm tired.
Second part they actually keep their word on, but it's fiscally insane. You can't reasonably spend money that you don't have. Hence why every time we get a Democrat in office, they have to reduce their spending and increase taxes to pay for the debt of the previous administration.
Romney is doing the same thing in his campaign.
He's talking about reducing taxes again but keeping the budget basically the same, so yet again, more debt. It's like giving a teenager a credit card with $100 in the bank and no spending limit. You hope that they will be smart enough not to spend more than the $100 they have, but with no limit they are spending like crazy. And given our financial crisis, that's fucking insane.
But the whole concept of putting the power back in the states, yes, it's permanently part of the platform, but they'll never actually do it. More control for the states requires more money for the states. So either Federal taxes need to go down so State taxes can go up, or the federal government needs to give a sizable percentage of their earnings to the states.
So yeah, much of the debate was simply massive research and math failures.
But I am looking forward to the VP debate. Mostly to see what crazy shit Paul Ryan will say.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Wedding tips from a veteran Best Man.
Ok, I've done the best man gig twice now, and there are a few things that I have discovered about weddings that I think everyone should know about.
1. Weddings are a much bigger pain in the ass than you think.
Consider all of the details of your perfect wedding. The type of flowers you want, the dress, the color theme, the reception. It's lovely isn't it?
Now consider the other things. The invitations, the thank you cards, the seating arrangements, the photographers, the DJ, the back seat bridesmaids. Shit goes from lovely to horrifying really fast.
Simple tip: Focus on simplicity. The wedding is going to be inherently complicated, so try not to add more complication to your plate.
2. There is going to be drama.
Without fail, someone is going to be pissed or emo about your wedding. If you're very lucky it won't be one of the people actually getting married. But the best thing you can do is to assign a bulldog on the bride and groom's side. The groomsman bulldog basically acts as a bouncer. His job is to kick drama out the door to make sure it doesn't fuck with you. The bridesmaid bulldog has the job of trying to catch the drama before it becomes unmanageable. These people have a rough job, make sure to do something nice for them.
3. Make sure you keep your wedding gift registry in the price range of your guests.
If most of your friends are poor, make sure you give them cheap options. They feel obligated to give you something, but don't try to break the bank.
4. Be ready to compromise.
As part of the process you may feel like everyone is trying to influence your decisions, and when you are in the planning phase you should tell people to go fuck themselves. It's your wedding, do it how you want. However, as you get closer and closer to zero hour, be ready to ditch your elaborate plans when they become too convoluted or too costly to keep. Yes having the bride and groom arrive in carriages might be awesome, but not cheap, and if the church has no ability to handle horses, you're kinda stuck.
5. Be willing to delegate, and be ready for the consequences of that delegation.
Firstly, don't try to do every little thing yourself. Yes you may have a special way you want the napkins folded, but teach it to someone else and let them do it. However, don't get pissed off if they don't look exactly the way you want them. Yes within reason, but they are trying to help you, don't get pissed at them.
6. Avoid having too many chiefs.
You need one master plan, and for everyone to follow that, don't let other people try to influence your plans or to try to turn your wedding into their ideal wedding. Fuck those people.
7. Clearly define everyone's roles. The first time I was a best man I had no idea what to say for my toast. The second time I wasn't notified that I was the best man until the day before the wedding. Fortunately I managed to pull together an awesome speech the second time, and the first time I managed to pass it off to someone who did know what to say. But think clearly, people don't automatically know what you want them to do at their wedding. Do you want a bachelor party? Should the speech avoid any specific topics? Should the bridesmaids attempt to match accessories? Important details to remember. You can always pass the buck to someone else, but you do need to make sure that person knows what you want.
8. Make sure to take time to enjoy yourself.
Weddings are a stressful time for the couple in question. If you don't focus on your own happiness then the beginning of your new life together is going to be a constant reminder of one of the most stressful days of your life. Take naps, cuddle, remind eachother why you are doing this. And get good and drunk at the reception. Unless you really want that wedding night sex to be special, expect your wedding night to be spent passed out from exhaustion.
9. Skip the wedding night sex.
Unless you are getting a quick civil service, you are going to be entirely too wiped out to perform properly in the bedroom. Just go to sleep, and try to impress eachother the next day when you are less tired.
1. Weddings are a much bigger pain in the ass than you think.
Consider all of the details of your perfect wedding. The type of flowers you want, the dress, the color theme, the reception. It's lovely isn't it?
Now consider the other things. The invitations, the thank you cards, the seating arrangements, the photographers, the DJ, the back seat bridesmaids. Shit goes from lovely to horrifying really fast.
Simple tip: Focus on simplicity. The wedding is going to be inherently complicated, so try not to add more complication to your plate.
2. There is going to be drama.
Without fail, someone is going to be pissed or emo about your wedding. If you're very lucky it won't be one of the people actually getting married. But the best thing you can do is to assign a bulldog on the bride and groom's side. The groomsman bulldog basically acts as a bouncer. His job is to kick drama out the door to make sure it doesn't fuck with you. The bridesmaid bulldog has the job of trying to catch the drama before it becomes unmanageable. These people have a rough job, make sure to do something nice for them.
3. Make sure you keep your wedding gift registry in the price range of your guests.
If most of your friends are poor, make sure you give them cheap options. They feel obligated to give you something, but don't try to break the bank.
4. Be ready to compromise.
As part of the process you may feel like everyone is trying to influence your decisions, and when you are in the planning phase you should tell people to go fuck themselves. It's your wedding, do it how you want. However, as you get closer and closer to zero hour, be ready to ditch your elaborate plans when they become too convoluted or too costly to keep. Yes having the bride and groom arrive in carriages might be awesome, but not cheap, and if the church has no ability to handle horses, you're kinda stuck.
5. Be willing to delegate, and be ready for the consequences of that delegation.
Firstly, don't try to do every little thing yourself. Yes you may have a special way you want the napkins folded, but teach it to someone else and let them do it. However, don't get pissed off if they don't look exactly the way you want them. Yes within reason, but they are trying to help you, don't get pissed at them.
6. Avoid having too many chiefs.
You need one master plan, and for everyone to follow that, don't let other people try to influence your plans or to try to turn your wedding into their ideal wedding. Fuck those people.
7. Clearly define everyone's roles. The first time I was a best man I had no idea what to say for my toast. The second time I wasn't notified that I was the best man until the day before the wedding. Fortunately I managed to pull together an awesome speech the second time, and the first time I managed to pass it off to someone who did know what to say. But think clearly, people don't automatically know what you want them to do at their wedding. Do you want a bachelor party? Should the speech avoid any specific topics? Should the bridesmaids attempt to match accessories? Important details to remember. You can always pass the buck to someone else, but you do need to make sure that person knows what you want.
8. Make sure to take time to enjoy yourself.
Weddings are a stressful time for the couple in question. If you don't focus on your own happiness then the beginning of your new life together is going to be a constant reminder of one of the most stressful days of your life. Take naps, cuddle, remind eachother why you are doing this. And get good and drunk at the reception. Unless you really want that wedding night sex to be special, expect your wedding night to be spent passed out from exhaustion.
9. Skip the wedding night sex.
Unless you are getting a quick civil service, you are going to be entirely too wiped out to perform properly in the bedroom. Just go to sleep, and try to impress eachother the next day when you are less tired.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Why the 11th Doctor Who sucks.
Before I begin, yes, I will be bashing Doctor Who in this article. And yes, this article will be filled with a shitload of SPOILERS.
So 11th Doctor, written by show-runner Steven Moffat. Gone is the happy-go-lucky David Tenant and in is the brooding psychotic god of the universe Matt Smith.
The main episodes of note are "The Pandorica Opens", "A good man goes to war", "The wedding of River Song", and "Asylum of the Daleks".
Pandorica Opens finally bring the Doctor and Amy Pond to the reason behind all of the random tears in the universe that we had been seeing since the first episode. It turns out that The universe was destroyed by the Tardis blowing up. (They never actually explain why this causes the entire universe to detonate, but apparently it does. Only Earth is spared, and the Doctor uses his prison to fuse to the Tardis, finish detonating, and then re-build the universe from his memories. The Doctor makes statements that Amy Pond's memories are the source of the new universe that is created.
But let's face some facts here.
1. Amy is a semi-normal human
2. Amy is actually from a parallel dimension where her family was eaten up by the cracks in the universe.
3. Amy has no knowledge of most of the universe. Sure she's been on some adventures with the Doctor, but her knowledge of the universe is far from complete.
Which leaves us to assume that the Doctor provided the memories that re-created the universe. He just told Amy to remember so that he could mess with her mind at her wedding. Either that or he tried to write himself out of the universe and realized that he can't be the creator of the universe if he doesn't actually exist.
So the universe is back, and it's exactly as he remembers it. Which means by definition it should only contain things that he knows about. Specifically it is now impossible for him to be surprised, because he already knows everything that exists.
So the Doctor destroyed the old universe and created a new one in his own image.
Fast forward to "A good man goes to war". The entire universe has decided that yet again they are sick of the Doctor's shit, so they kidnap Amy Pond so that her human/timelord hybrid daughter can be brainwashed into killing the Doctor. The Doctor of course rescues Amy with the help of Rory Williams and the rest of his friends. At the end River Song reveals that she is Rory and Amy's daughter.
Which, given that the Doctor created the universe and everyone in it, means that he always knew she was their daughter, even though in the episode he gets all angsty about it.
Fast forward again to "The wedding of River Song" and River has decided despite the fact that she's been programmed to kill the Doctor, she doesn't want to. She'd much rather fuck his brains out. So she changes history so that she doesn't kill him. Which stops time and condenses the entire universe and all of history onto Earth. The Doctor forces her to go through with it after he explains that he is faking his own death.
The universe reverts back to normal and life goes on.
Then we get to "Asylum of the Daleks". The doctor meets a awesome hacker trapped in the body of a Dalek. She rescues the group by erasing the Doctor's existence from the memory of all Daleks.
Following this, the Doctor has the brillant idea to erase all evidence of himself from the universe so that no-one will know who he is.
And here is where we get a massive paradox.
The doctor created the universe because of the Pandorica which was a trap designed for him because everyone in the universe was pissed at him.
The exploding Tardis also happened because of that event.
If nobody ever knew that the Doctor existed, then they would have no reason to create a trap for him. Which would mean that the old universe was never destroyed and re-built, The cracks in the universe never existed, which means that the Doctor would never have met Amy (because she was only interested in him because she was living in a big-ass house that was un-making her relatives from existence.)
If he never met Amy, her and Rory would never have given birth to River Song the Timelord hybrid. If River wasn't a hybrid, she wouldn't have grown up around Rory and Amy and made them realize how they felt about eachother, thus negating her own existence.
And of course, if he was hidden from the universe then they wouldn't be waging war against him, which wouldn't cause him to go back and erase himself from history.
Case in point, if he was erased from the knowledge of all Daleks in all of time, then they wouldn't have kidnapped him to go to the asylum where he meets Oswin the super-hacker who erased him from Dalek memory.
So we are left with a massive paradox. And the most obvious rule about time travel. I.E. DON'T FUCKING LET ANYONE KNOW THAT YOU ARE A TIME TRAVELER!!!
The other Doctors seemed to not have a problem with that. They hid their time-raping nature from the universe. Like, you know, a sane person.
So 11th Doctor, written by show-runner Steven Moffat. Gone is the happy-go-lucky David Tenant and in is the brooding psychotic god of the universe Matt Smith.
The main episodes of note are "The Pandorica Opens", "A good man goes to war", "The wedding of River Song", and "Asylum of the Daleks".
Pandorica Opens finally bring the Doctor and Amy Pond to the reason behind all of the random tears in the universe that we had been seeing since the first episode. It turns out that The universe was destroyed by the Tardis blowing up. (They never actually explain why this causes the entire universe to detonate, but apparently it does. Only Earth is spared, and the Doctor uses his prison to fuse to the Tardis, finish detonating, and then re-build the universe from his memories. The Doctor makes statements that Amy Pond's memories are the source of the new universe that is created.
But let's face some facts here.
1. Amy is a semi-normal human
2. Amy is actually from a parallel dimension where her family was eaten up by the cracks in the universe.
3. Amy has no knowledge of most of the universe. Sure she's been on some adventures with the Doctor, but her knowledge of the universe is far from complete.
Which leaves us to assume that the Doctor provided the memories that re-created the universe. He just told Amy to remember so that he could mess with her mind at her wedding. Either that or he tried to write himself out of the universe and realized that he can't be the creator of the universe if he doesn't actually exist.
So the universe is back, and it's exactly as he remembers it. Which means by definition it should only contain things that he knows about. Specifically it is now impossible for him to be surprised, because he already knows everything that exists.
So the Doctor destroyed the old universe and created a new one in his own image.
Fast forward to "A good man goes to war". The entire universe has decided that yet again they are sick of the Doctor's shit, so they kidnap Amy Pond so that her human/timelord hybrid daughter can be brainwashed into killing the Doctor. The Doctor of course rescues Amy with the help of Rory Williams and the rest of his friends. At the end River Song reveals that she is Rory and Amy's daughter.
Which, given that the Doctor created the universe and everyone in it, means that he always knew she was their daughter, even though in the episode he gets all angsty about it.
Fast forward again to "The wedding of River Song" and River has decided despite the fact that she's been programmed to kill the Doctor, she doesn't want to. She'd much rather fuck his brains out. So she changes history so that she doesn't kill him. Which stops time and condenses the entire universe and all of history onto Earth. The Doctor forces her to go through with it after he explains that he is faking his own death.
The universe reverts back to normal and life goes on.
Then we get to "Asylum of the Daleks". The doctor meets a awesome hacker trapped in the body of a Dalek. She rescues the group by erasing the Doctor's existence from the memory of all Daleks.
Following this, the Doctor has the brillant idea to erase all evidence of himself from the universe so that no-one will know who he is.
And here is where we get a massive paradox.
The doctor created the universe because of the Pandorica which was a trap designed for him because everyone in the universe was pissed at him.
The exploding Tardis also happened because of that event.
If nobody ever knew that the Doctor existed, then they would have no reason to create a trap for him. Which would mean that the old universe was never destroyed and re-built, The cracks in the universe never existed, which means that the Doctor would never have met Amy (because she was only interested in him because she was living in a big-ass house that was un-making her relatives from existence.)
If he never met Amy, her and Rory would never have given birth to River Song the Timelord hybrid. If River wasn't a hybrid, she wouldn't have grown up around Rory and Amy and made them realize how they felt about eachother, thus negating her own existence.
And of course, if he was hidden from the universe then they wouldn't be waging war against him, which wouldn't cause him to go back and erase himself from history.
Case in point, if he was erased from the knowledge of all Daleks in all of time, then they wouldn't have kidnapped him to go to the asylum where he meets Oswin the super-hacker who erased him from Dalek memory.
So we are left with a massive paradox. And the most obvious rule about time travel. I.E. DON'T FUCKING LET ANYONE KNOW THAT YOU ARE A TIME TRAVELER!!!
The other Doctors seemed to not have a problem with that. They hid their time-raping nature from the universe. Like, you know, a sane person.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Welcome to the world of tomorrow.
Warning, heavy politics/ economic theory ahead.
So, currently the U.S. along with most of the world is on the verge of massive change. Most of the world is in an economic depression. Which logically makes zero sense. In theory, if everyone is poor and miserable, simple change the rules so that everyone is less poor.
The problem is that it's not everyone, just the lower and middle class. The rich are now insanely rich. They are so rich in fact that they have to invent ridiculous new things for them to spend their money on.
So the anarchists scream "Rob from the rich and give to the poor!"
Well, that might have worked for Robin Hood, but he was operating on a small scale. Our Prince John's operate on a global scale. They employ an army of accountants and lawyers to protect their money from potential theft.
No, merely targeting the Rich won't solve the world's problems, not unless you manage to cripple their power structure so that their lawyers and accountants can't protect them.
But something is coming, everyone can feel it. Wall street is moving to protect their interests by investing in stable low-growth options like gold. And the Government is supposedly creating caches of hollow-point bullets all over the country to put down any potential riots or civil uprisings.
But they are assuming that's the way it's going to go.
Yes, the world is currently sitting on a powder keg. Any major fuckup could lead to riots or worse. But the people who are likely making plans aren't likely to want to do anything that horrible fucks over the average people.
No, the likely targets are the banks. Not even specifically the money in the banks, but rather the debts held by the banks.
Currently the US banks hold some 750 billion dollars in credit card debt. This of course isn't counting mortgages and such. But still a hefty amount hanging over everyone's heads. Significantly digging into everyone's pockets and costing them large amounts of money every month.
So if someone wanted to really empower the lower and middle class, they would wipe out the debts.
I'm not a hacker, so I don't know how difficult that would be, but I do know that computer experts have been predicting a massive computer security breach for years now.
Simply wiping the banks wouldn't really change anything except for fucking with the FDIC. All banks are protected up to $250,000 and only an idiot would put more money than that in one account.
A truly scary attack would be to wipe out the FDIC and all of the banks at once. Banks are required by the FDIC to keep between 6% and 10% of their money in capital. So if all banks and FDIC files got wiped then there would still be around 8% of everyone's money still available.
That would lead to a 90% deflation in the US and would theoretically make the American dollar very, very strong (one U.S Dollar would be worth 75 Euros.).
This would lead to a massive deflation of the other economies aswell since they wouldn't want the US to become nonsensically wealthy overnight.
These are some really scary possibilities, but that's the thing to remember, they are possibilities, not certainties.
We know something is going to happen, likely in December (As the frigging Mayans left too much of a cliff-hanger there for something to not happen.) Some crazy person will do something then.
Two events that might trigger early problems are the November election and Police violence.
The election should be pretty obvious. Regardless of who wins, half of the country is going to be pissed.
The police thing is a case of trigger-happy nutjobs being given positions of authority. Most police are good people, they keep the peace and they honestly feel that they are officers of the law with the duty of protecting their community.
But there are always some bad eggs.
Some of my readers may be too young to remember the Rodney King riots, but those were some scary times in LA. Some racist police officers brutally beat a young black man, and it was filmed.
The cops involved were charged then acquitted.
The day that the verdict was rendered, LA erupted into violence that lasted almost a week.
The extent of the violence is not really discussed, because the police very wisely decided to stay the fuck out of the riot zones. They knew then that if they appeared in the riot zones, they would be killed.
Police officers are usually protected by the polis because they protect the people. When the police have been shown to not to have the people's interests at heart, that protection is rescinded.
What worries me about the potential violence in the future is that these police don't seem to have the common sense that the LAPD had back in 92. These guys will try to march into the warzone and strong-arm everyone, which will turn a riot into a bloody mess. Regardless of which side wins, the police entering a riot zone is ALWAYS a bad idea. It greatly increases the injury rate and the injuries of the innocent bystanders.
Especially if the rumors are true and the government is stockpiling hollow-points. Giving the police hollow points is effectively saying "We're not taking prisoners. If you are in this zone, we will kill you." and the rioters would respond the same way. It's like issuing a hunting license for PD.
If they were less retarded they would be stockpiling non-lethal rounds. That way the trigger-happy nutjobs could go crazy and not risk excessive escalation.
So potential scary times ahead, everyone remember to protect eachother.
That's honestly the best way for the people to handle it. Simply band together with your neighbors and declare it a "riot-free zone". Gives the police no reason to enter and start bashing heads and means that you and your neighbors get to stay safe.
Try to keep in mind that we're all in this mess together. Violence isn't the option you really want. It may sound glorious and such, but getting beaten up sucks. Try to avoid it.
So, currently the U.S. along with most of the world is on the verge of massive change. Most of the world is in an economic depression. Which logically makes zero sense. In theory, if everyone is poor and miserable, simple change the rules so that everyone is less poor.
The problem is that it's not everyone, just the lower and middle class. The rich are now insanely rich. They are so rich in fact that they have to invent ridiculous new things for them to spend their money on.
So the anarchists scream "Rob from the rich and give to the poor!"
Well, that might have worked for Robin Hood, but he was operating on a small scale. Our Prince John's operate on a global scale. They employ an army of accountants and lawyers to protect their money from potential theft.
No, merely targeting the Rich won't solve the world's problems, not unless you manage to cripple their power structure so that their lawyers and accountants can't protect them.
But something is coming, everyone can feel it. Wall street is moving to protect their interests by investing in stable low-growth options like gold. And the Government is supposedly creating caches of hollow-point bullets all over the country to put down any potential riots or civil uprisings.
But they are assuming that's the way it's going to go.
Yes, the world is currently sitting on a powder keg. Any major fuckup could lead to riots or worse. But the people who are likely making plans aren't likely to want to do anything that horrible fucks over the average people.
No, the likely targets are the banks. Not even specifically the money in the banks, but rather the debts held by the banks.
Currently the US banks hold some 750 billion dollars in credit card debt. This of course isn't counting mortgages and such. But still a hefty amount hanging over everyone's heads. Significantly digging into everyone's pockets and costing them large amounts of money every month.
So if someone wanted to really empower the lower and middle class, they would wipe out the debts.
I'm not a hacker, so I don't know how difficult that would be, but I do know that computer experts have been predicting a massive computer security breach for years now.
Simply wiping the banks wouldn't really change anything except for fucking with the FDIC. All banks are protected up to $250,000 and only an idiot would put more money than that in one account.
A truly scary attack would be to wipe out the FDIC and all of the banks at once. Banks are required by the FDIC to keep between 6% and 10% of their money in capital. So if all banks and FDIC files got wiped then there would still be around 8% of everyone's money still available.
That would lead to a 90% deflation in the US and would theoretically make the American dollar very, very strong (one U.S Dollar would be worth 75 Euros.).
This would lead to a massive deflation of the other economies aswell since they wouldn't want the US to become nonsensically wealthy overnight.
These are some really scary possibilities, but that's the thing to remember, they are possibilities, not certainties.
We know something is going to happen, likely in December (As the frigging Mayans left too much of a cliff-hanger there for something to not happen.) Some crazy person will do something then.
Two events that might trigger early problems are the November election and Police violence.
The election should be pretty obvious. Regardless of who wins, half of the country is going to be pissed.
The police thing is a case of trigger-happy nutjobs being given positions of authority. Most police are good people, they keep the peace and they honestly feel that they are officers of the law with the duty of protecting their community.
But there are always some bad eggs.
Some of my readers may be too young to remember the Rodney King riots, but those were some scary times in LA. Some racist police officers brutally beat a young black man, and it was filmed.
The cops involved were charged then acquitted.
The day that the verdict was rendered, LA erupted into violence that lasted almost a week.
The extent of the violence is not really discussed, because the police very wisely decided to stay the fuck out of the riot zones. They knew then that if they appeared in the riot zones, they would be killed.
Police officers are usually protected by the polis because they protect the people. When the police have been shown to not to have the people's interests at heart, that protection is rescinded.
What worries me about the potential violence in the future is that these police don't seem to have the common sense that the LAPD had back in 92. These guys will try to march into the warzone and strong-arm everyone, which will turn a riot into a bloody mess. Regardless of which side wins, the police entering a riot zone is ALWAYS a bad idea. It greatly increases the injury rate and the injuries of the innocent bystanders.
Especially if the rumors are true and the government is stockpiling hollow-points. Giving the police hollow points is effectively saying "We're not taking prisoners. If you are in this zone, we will kill you." and the rioters would respond the same way. It's like issuing a hunting license for PD.
If they were less retarded they would be stockpiling non-lethal rounds. That way the trigger-happy nutjobs could go crazy and not risk excessive escalation.
So potential scary times ahead, everyone remember to protect eachother.
That's honestly the best way for the people to handle it. Simply band together with your neighbors and declare it a "riot-free zone". Gives the police no reason to enter and start bashing heads and means that you and your neighbors get to stay safe.
Try to keep in mind that we're all in this mess together. Violence isn't the option you really want. It may sound glorious and such, but getting beaten up sucks. Try to avoid it.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Quick Review of Paranorman
Haven't seen very many movies lately, but I do want to go see Expendables 2 at some point soon.
But what I have seen is Paranorman.
First warning, this is a kids movie, so if you go to see it in theaters, expect a shitload of children.
That being said, the movie had plenty of adult jokes hidden in it to make it enjoyable for those of us who can vote and buy cigarettes.
I couldn't help but laugh when the adult jokes came in and the laughter in the audience changed from high-pitched to lower.
The movie is basically about the kid from "The Sixth Sense" but a few years older and much more cynical. He can see and talk to ghosts, his family and everyone in town doesn't believe him.
Shit happens.
But then craziness goes down and the town is confronted with the reality that ghosts exist. Good times.
I'm actually rather pleased with the overall moral of the story "Don't judge people who are different than you."
It comes out quite obviously in the adventures of the title character, but it also features very heavily in his overweight best friend, and a gay character who I won't name to avoid spoilers.
The gay character really slams home the moral. Like smacking the audience in the face and saying "With all of this crazy shit going on how could you possibly think that I'M the worst thing out there?"
Cause, really, who cares if someone is gay. It shouldn't matter to anyone but them and their partner. And with all of the war and economic trouble in the world, gay people should really be the least of our worries.
I love that this children's movie decided to make a point about that. It made the already enjoyable movie that much more enjoyable, and it introduces children to the concept that gay people aren't as weird as some people make them out to be. Cause really, throughout the whole movie there is very few signs that the character is gay. They are just another person, who happens to be gay, and that's really how everyone should look at it.
Thumbs up all the way on this movie.
Political/ Economic theory post in the works, I'll get it up here eventually.
But what I have seen is Paranorman.
First warning, this is a kids movie, so if you go to see it in theaters, expect a shitload of children.
That being said, the movie had plenty of adult jokes hidden in it to make it enjoyable for those of us who can vote and buy cigarettes.
I couldn't help but laugh when the adult jokes came in and the laughter in the audience changed from high-pitched to lower.
The movie is basically about the kid from "The Sixth Sense" but a few years older and much more cynical. He can see and talk to ghosts, his family and everyone in town doesn't believe him.
Shit happens.
But then craziness goes down and the town is confronted with the reality that ghosts exist. Good times.
I'm actually rather pleased with the overall moral of the story "Don't judge people who are different than you."
It comes out quite obviously in the adventures of the title character, but it also features very heavily in his overweight best friend, and a gay character who I won't name to avoid spoilers.
The gay character really slams home the moral. Like smacking the audience in the face and saying "With all of this crazy shit going on how could you possibly think that I'M the worst thing out there?"
Cause, really, who cares if someone is gay. It shouldn't matter to anyone but them and their partner. And with all of the war and economic trouble in the world, gay people should really be the least of our worries.
I love that this children's movie decided to make a point about that. It made the already enjoyable movie that much more enjoyable, and it introduces children to the concept that gay people aren't as weird as some people make them out to be. Cause really, throughout the whole movie there is very few signs that the character is gay. They are just another person, who happens to be gay, and that's really how everyone should look at it.
Thumbs up all the way on this movie.
Political/ Economic theory post in the works, I'll get it up here eventually.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Batman: The Dark Knight Rises.
Batman: The Dark Knight Rises.
A Review.
-----MASSIVE GODDAMN SPOILER ALERT---
A Review.
-----MASSIVE GODDAMN SPOILER ALERT---
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