Guard Dog

Good for you. You show more courage than most folks. What was wrong with it? Speaking of courage how are you doing?

Ok, I do not want to get drawn in to the debate here, especially since WoD does not need my help. But just to point out the Air Force began as part of the Army. It was the Army Air Corps as early as the 1920's if memory serves, and was not seperated until after Korea (again going off memory here). So it's not like the US decided to create a whole new service. But even if it did there is no Constitutional bar to them doing it as I understand it. Who knows, we might have a "Space Force" someday. Anyway, a word of warning to WoD, the US Constitution does not lend itself to literal interpretation. @Enoch & Calax, the 111th Congress would have us believe the Commerce Clause and the Necassary and Proper clause give the Congress unlimited authority to do whatever the hell it pleases to us. Thankfully the 11th Circuit CoA called them down on it earlier this month. Our republic is safest when legislature excesses are checked by a judiciary who render decisions based on an originalist viewpoint (would that we had one who did so consistently). So no, I do not think it is either tyrannical or oligarchical (is that a word?) when laws granting powers beyond the scope of constitutional limitations are struck down. Hopefully the SCOTUS follows suit next year. The only way to get around the judiciary is to amend the constitution. Correct me if I'm wrong here Enoch but a properly passed Constituional amendent IS the de facto law of the land and not subject to judicial review. @Calax, they day the electoral college goes away is the day the country breaks. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston and Dallas would decide every election. Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.

Now reading Bloodheir the second book in the Winterbirth series. It's like a guy (named Brian Ruckley) woke up one day and said "What the heck, I think I'll write a fantasy series today" without any original ideas or any clue how to pull it off. But I bought the book, might as well finish it. I finished Dance of Dragons. Overall it was good but it does seem to bog down a little.

A most excellent way to spend an evening! Unfortunately if you don't have coyotes or whippoorwills where you live it mutes the effect somewhat.

I think the root of the problem is the government is spending at a faster rate than revenue can keep up. I read earlier today that the US borrows 40% of every dollar it spends. And the rate of spending has doubled in the last two years. It's reached a point that they can not increase taxes enough to cover the deficit without utterly ruining the economy. Spending reductions MUST be taken and the largest part of spending is entitlements. Taxes will probably have to go up as well but it cannot be so great as to cripple any growth potential. My two ideas are to lift all moritoriums on domestic energy production and have at least a three year suspension of capital gains taxes coupled with a modest increase in income tax. Couple all of that with cuts in defense, foreign aid, discretionary and entitlement spending and it should be enough to equaize the debt to income issue in a few years.

Nevermind.

Well, I have a good chunk of my salary (10%) withheld for retirement, so I'm not sure what the break down in Florida is. But one of the few benefits to teaching is the decent retirement package. Teaching is a career with with high education requirements and a high burnout rate. The salary is usually extremely low compared to similar degree-required jobs. So when you start slashing their benefits, you are really crippling the future of education in Florida. Teachers will likely leave the state in droves for better packages, and you will see a drop in University credentialing programs. There is already a shortage of teachers in the country, it's just been less noticeable because the budget cuts are forcing most schools to raise class sizes and cut programs rather than higher new teachers. For example of how the salary issue works, my wife makes a few hundred dollars a month less than me, but she also gets free health care. It isn't really free, she just makes less than I do. So a teacher in Florida makes less than I do, but they don't put 10% of their salary into retirement. The money is being withheld off the top. I doubt the teacher would be complaining if promises were made to increase their salaries. IIRC It was a trade off. They could either accept work force reductions (meaning larger classes) pay cuts, or start contributing to their retirement. It was the least onerous of the three but before that the state had paid for it 100%. IMO 10% is fair. I have to pay 100% of my retirement. There are very few private sector jobs that have pensions. If you're lucky you'll have a 401k. The truth is, Florida like most other states was suffering from buget shortfalls. The housing bubble burst causing the value of property to plummet. Florida taxes propery based on it's value and with that decreasing the tax income did as well. Raising propery tax only hurts the real estate market because it disincetivises renters to buy, and makes home more difficult to sell. Plus business were already leaving the state, that only spurrs the exodus which drives up unemployement.

California's spending priorities are all backasswards. The roads and bridges are crumbling but hey if you are a state employee and want a boob job or a sex change, your fellow Californians will pay for it.

I'm willing to concede the lassiez-faire, libertarian argument has been lost for good and all.

@Gorgon & Morgoth: How do you figure? I said reasonable cuts, not total cuts. Runaway entitlement spending is the biggest share of our problem now. @Malcador: Yes 15% on everyone who earns an income. 40-50% of Americans pay no federal taxes now. Typically they are the ones who benefit most from the "Social Programs" it is only fair they should help pay for it. Just as an example there is a big controversy in Florida right now. Public school teachers are now being asked to pay part of their salary towards their retirement. Just 3% and the State pays the rest. They are stamping their feet and screaming like a bunch of spoiled six year olds about it too. God forbid they have to pay part of their retirement LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE IN FLORIDA. Our biggest problem is that so many people have been getting handouts now they never consider that the cost of those handouts is being borne by someone else. I think it's only fair that everyone pay.

Congrats Krez. Woke to the sound of a loud crash at 3 AM. Coyotes had knocked over the gril.... again. Actually I had not heard or seen hide nor hair of them since the flood. As aggravating as they are, I was sort of glad to see they are ok. There were four of them on my porch.

Um, ratings downgrades mean higher borrowing costs - which is something that will have a tangible impact on all Americans. This isn't some non-issue the media is hyping up (OK, so they probably ARE hyping it up). This is exactly the concern. Although looking at other nations this has happened to it is not a sure thing interest rates will go up. They have significantly in some places but only a little in others. The real question is "how much?". The cost of borrowing in the US is certainly going to go up and that will have a depressing effect on an already weak economy and it will hit the consumer. But if it only increases a little it may be just a speed bump, not a wall. I know the powers that be are clamoring for tax increases on the "wealthy" but the truth is the top three income brackets are paying 95% of the taxes now. What they should do is dump the current tax code and create a 15% flat tax that EVERYONE pays. No deductions, no write offs, no credits. If you earned one dollar or a billion your tax will be 15%. Do that, eliminate capital gains taxes (which essentially punishes investors for investing wisely) and our problems are solved inside of five years with some reasonable cuts to defense spending foreign aid, social welfare, etc. Pigs will fly first I'm afraid. They will raise capital gains taxes which will cause fewer investors to put their money into stocks, make people less likely to sell their homes (which won't matter I guess if interest rates climb no one could afford to buy them anyway) and send more investors overseas. They will increase corporate taxes which will send more jobs to Mexico and China. And they will raise income tax which will mean less consumer spending which is the engine that drives the whole thing. I think it was Winston Churchill who said "Americans will always do the right thing, but only after they have tried everything else." I just hope there is something left once we have tried everything else.

S&P Downgrades US credit for the first time...ever. And Obama wants to introduce new spending measures next week including a new round of "Quantative Easing" which is political speak for "Print more money and spend it". And the collapse is comng closer. Tick tock tick tock. As I sit here drinking my fine Kentucky bourbon I find myself thinking of a fateful October Thursday in 1929. I also find myself thinking of the words of Abraham Lincoln "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

I actually agree with you here. It would be foolish in the extreme not to make some preperations to that end. I've cleared parts of my property to get two vegtable gardens going (even if the world does not collapse I still am trying to grow the perfect tomato) and I do have a pretty big store of canned and dry goods. Plus I have around 5000 rounds of ammo for my firearms. I live literally right next to a small river and less than a mile from a big one. An the Hatchee wildlife management area is just a few hundred yards from my back door. If I could just learn how to make moonshine I'd be totally self sufficient.

Aha, remember Gorgon, we are just talking about Federal tax here. Most states also charge an income tax, ususally between 3-10%, sales tax on all transactions ($.03-$.10 on the dollar), property is taxed by state and municipalities, services are taxed like cable and cell and home phone service, etc. The actual tax burden on the American tax payer is a lot more than just what income tax bracket they fall in. In some states like California and New York the aggregate exceeds 60% for middle income families. And yet these states are still failing financially. Go figure.

Raising taxes means less revenue for business and consumers. If I have less money I will buy less stuff. If I buy less stuff the companies and retailers I buy from earn less, and on top of that their if operating costs went up because of a tax increase it's doubly bad for them. If a business has it's operating costs increase it will raise the price of it's product if possible, or retrench (meaning fire employees) if they can't. Those employees were tax payers while they were employed, now they are not. Raising taxes does increase revenue in the short term up to a point. But it becomes self defeating real quick. It's called the Laffer Curve and it's been around for a long time. There is a great quote attributed to Winston Churchill "For a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket trying to lift himself up by the handle.".

You're confusing your terms there somewhat. U.S. aggregate debt is around 100% of GDP. "Borrowing" usually refers to the annual fiscal shortfall-- the difference between what the government takes in and what it spends. It's something of a "no duh" point that total debt is higher than it was during the Bush years-- every year the government doesn't run a surplus, it goes up. And there haven't been any surplusses since right around the first round of Bush tax cuts. As for how the Obama folks are handling fiscal and economic matters, generally, I can't say I'm pleased. But the chief problem is that, when push comes to shove, they're basically acting as a 3rd term of GWB would. (Which, in hindsight, should've been obvious when they named their Treasury Secretary.) Instead of making a serious attempt at fixing the Wall Street issues that brought things down in '08, they've stuck with the bankers and tried to re-inflate the debt bubble that popped (debt, in this context, referring to corporate and consumer debt). For all the complaining, the Dodd-Frank Act was a half-hearted wave in the direction of "reform"-- there was a moment where it was possible to do something useful, and they let it pass. That said, the government is in a bind right now, as there really aren't any good options (and haven't been since the '08 crash became inevitable around '05 or '06). Increasing federal debt will hurt the economy. Raising taxes will hurt the economy. Cutting spending will hurt the economy. Letting the Fed quietly inflate the dollar to reduce the real value of the nation's debts will hurt the economy. It's a question more of relative efficacy of these options and of whose ox gets gored. As I've said before, America is looking somewhat screwed over the course of the next decade-- we'll end this with a lower standard of living than we started with. But the rest of the developed world is looking more screwed. The dollar may end up being worth $0.30, but everything else will be worth $0.10. Where do you think the value of real commodities like gold end up? That is a subject near and dear to my heart because contrary to all the advice I've gotten over the years I really do have all my eggs in that one basket. But so far it's been a good basket to be in. I don't like the fact that I am essentially betting on the US economy to wreck but that has been happening in slow motion for the past four or five years and it seems the political leaders do not have the will to stop it.

Volunteer fire department? It might just be my imagination, but you've seemed more grumpy than usual lately. EA not the career move you'd hoped for? Nothing like that. I've had an awesome time at EA, but hey've a habit of hiring people as contractors, and my contract was due to end at a time of year which one does not wish to find themselves unemployed. I'd decided I'd start looking for a new job in August unless something was decided upon, my manager said there was a 75% chance of renewal but there wasn't much he could do other than say "Keep this guy". I'd decided I begin looking in August for something else, it took me about a day, which is far quicker than I expected. I was offered my new job, on the spot, which was a massive shock. Well that and I'm beginning something indie which I am hoping everyone here is going to love. So yeah, watch this space . I'll buy it.

This just in, US borrowing has now reached 100% of the GDP. Note, that is not spending, that is just borrowing. When Obama took office it was arounf 70% or thereabouts. Oh, and by the way the stock market took a billion dollar plunge today. Now that miserable keynsian SOB of a President wants to raise taxes hoping that will increase revenues, heedless of how higher taxes depress economic growth. Not that there is any of that to speak of. He's putting the pedal to the metal with the edge of the cliff in sight. This is why I got out of the stock market all together and started buying gold when it looked like he was going to get elected. I started buying when it was just shy of $900/oz. Today it is $1654 and predicted to hit $2k by years end. It seems a lot of folks do not expect the dollar to be worth a rats turd by the end of his administration. Actually, I don't know why I hate him so much, his incompetence is making me a fortune. To quote Krez, Australia & Germany do look like better investments for business because they are not hell bent on self destruction. http://news.yahoo.com/us-aaa-rating-still-...-204040123.html

indeed. might be worth looking into just how much the fed has contributed to things like roads (huge) and state prisons and law enforcement (substantial) ... though am gonna admit that we believe that dog-catchers is likely 100% local. oh, and as much as we has problems with the method in which "social welfare" programs is administered, an insurmountable problem regarding any major overhaul o' such programs is the fact that near 50% of all such disbursements is going to aid children. is not practical or politic to be taking every "welfare" kid away from their parent's custody, but then how else does one gets monies to needy children? is not so simple as you might believe to sever fed from state where it relates it basic infrastructure spending. am not always a huge fan regarding the manner in which the fed handles many programs, but typically there ain't no easy solutions... "just stop spending for _______ ," is hardly a viable alternative in virtual all cases, and rarely is the mistakes being made the result o' corruption and evil. HA! Good Fun! ps am guessing that gd ain't a fan o' fed health care spending. well neither is Gromnir. however, at this point you gots serious problems extricating the fed, especially in a time when the economy is working towards recovery. the fed is not like other business, but one thing that is common is that for big and small, private and fed, the easiest way to cut spending is to cut employees. so, reduce services and employment. No you are right. Much as I might wish otherwise we cannot get the genie back into the bottle. The best we can hope for is to delay the inevitable for as long as possible, but with the understanding that collapse is inevitable.

Well, I've demonstrated my self control by laying off for a while. I may have to demonstrate my wisdom by having one or two tonight. I don't have any booze in the house so I'll probably just stop my the VFW on the way home. Of course the downside of the VFW is there are no women there. But it is just 10 min from my house.

I broke my mouse on my work PC today. I think the stress is getting to me. I have no girlfriend at the moment so sex is out, I haven't had a drink in weeks, and with the hours I've been working (146 in the last 13 days) I have not had time to do any kind of workout lately. Something has got to give!

Just to interject here. Most of you know where I stand on this stuff. Government is necessary and not an evil thing so long as it remains within it's boundries. It begins to get into trouble when it gets it's hands into things beyond it's scope, like health care, social welfare, etc. The issue really is that it is not capable of doing them well and the cost of doing them poorly is ruineous which I doubt anyone will disagree with. But many of you are using that old tired straw man on WoD here. By arguing against government you are saying he is against roads, fire departments, etc. We have different levels of governments here in the US. The FEDERAL government is the one in a debt crisis right now. FEDERAL requirements on state spending is causing many state governments to founder. The FEDERAL government does not pay for fire, police, roads, dog-catchers, life guards, etc. State and local governments do for the most part. Complaining about run away federal spending is not complaining about the existence of basic social sevices. Lets keep the ball on the court here.

Is it true they are dropping Crasters part all together? HBO objected to the child sacrifice and copious inbreeding I heard?

Cut the grass, trimmed the trees, cut the bushes, cleared the branches and debris from the stream and fixed the roof on the gazebo. Now I'm going to play Empire TW. Wals post the other day reminded me that I have yet to win as the Russians.