From my cerebral cortex to your nervous tunic

"Ladies' don't drink scotch Kate!" -Mom

At Least 42% of the American Population are Idiots
[info]katestone
 When I saw the quote from Glenn below I was seething...

Along those lines, a new poll from The Washington Post today reveals that 42% of Americans favor bombing Iran's "nuclear development sites" (49% of Republicans; 38% Democrats; 42% Independents), while 33% of Americans favor "invading with U.S. forces to remove the Iranian government from power" (40% Republicans; 32% Democrats; 30% Independents).  Although majorities oppose that, that is a rather substantial group of Americans that favors having us bomb and invade our third Muslim country in less than ten years, not counting the places we bomb covertly or the countries bombed by our main Middle East client state.  And just imagine how much that support among Americans will increase if the U.S. Government ever starts advocating it and, therefore, the U.S. media even more loudly than now beats the drums of war against Iran. 

Not only is it frustrating to think that I have to sit and listen the debates about how the hell we get ourselves out of Afghanistan and Iraq after years of war, along side the talk about our devastated economy, I cannot believe that the media has done it again and somehow convincing Americans how it is a good idea to go to war with another Middle Eastern country. 

Iran is huge, I don't have time to look up the details about the size of Iran's population, and the although much differently run government, still well controlled government run by the Supreme Leader but it would be nowhere as "easy" as invading Iraq. It sounds really easy that we would just fly over and bomb the shit out of some nuclear plants, but that is pretty much how every war is started, the easy clean swipe, then it gets to be a fucking mess. 

People are fucking dieing! Do we not really care because we are too fucking far away and we are staring at are fucking iPhone playing Bejeweled to give a shit! 
 
In the last ten years, the U.S. and Israel collectively have bombed at least six Muslim countries (including Gaza).  Despite that, 40% of Americans want to attack yet another one, and 1/3 want to invade.  Those are the same people who, if there is another terrorist attack on U.S. soil, will be walking around, eyebrows earnestly raised, innocent, self-righteous and confused, and asking:  "why do they hate us??"  And their friends and neighbors and leaders will assure them:  "they hate us for our freedoms."
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Obama's Noble Peace Prize
[info]katestone
 Matt Taibbi's opinion on the award given to Obama last week

Change?
[info]katestone
 A good article about the War with Afghanistan by Andrew Bacevich.

As well as the new Frontline comes out tonight on the War with Afghanistan.

We May Say We Like Peace.... But...
[info]katestone
 Actions kind of speaks louder then words

I am Back With Vengeance
[info]katestone

So be it, my last post was in June.. this girl has been busy... Enjoying summer...

Fuck that, this summer sucked, because I spent most my time getting laid off and looking for shitty jobs. But I finally got one. Assistant Admin. for the marketing department of a company that sells coins. Yeah the shiny shillings that you don’t pick up off the sidewalk cause it just ain’t worth it unless it’s at least a Benjamin. I have reservations about direct marketing, but have changed my mind, because I am not on the sales floor. I am upstairs in the boardroom bitching about the sales floor not doing their job! I am actually not bitching; I am snickering copying down word for word those that are. The marketing/advertising world is a bit strange, they sit in meeting all day and try to figure out a way to take your money, and they usually find a way. But if they fail, they will never blame themselves. This would hurt their big egos, so we blame every other department, usually sales. But what do I know. I just got asked to order some T-pins. That’s my job! I hope to level up. Sell coins, receive coins, and level up again. That’s my motto, kind of like Mario.

Politics:

Yeah still keeping track of that shit… sort of, at least the important stuff. Obama is pissing me off. I don’t like him. He is a skinny little liar. I shouldn’t be surprised though. Sigh… I am sure I will go into dept more about this in later blogs.  

Health care

I don’t want to sound like I don’t want everyone to get health care coverage and be taken care of when they are sick or more importantly get preventive care. I do. It is extremely important to have a healthy society. What I am generally worried about is the government, which seems to be great at wasting or “misplacing,” or putting idiots in charge of deciding where and how the money of hard working people is placed, to have it turn out to be fail, much as our infrastructure, public education, and possible as horrible as social security. It’s horrible, I saw a bumper sticker that made me cringe, it said something to the effect that the more control you give your government the more they can take away.

I also need to be convinced that other excluding the elderly. Which for some reason though Social Security and Medicare was to be of assistance with why the percentage of Americans cannot afford a health care plan. I doubt that it is my “elite belief,” the leads me to need more convincing. I don’t get paid shit and live in Steven’s Square. I am just concerned. I pay 275 bucks a month for health insurance coverage and still have a 500 deducible. That is a shit load, but I can still afford it, and get taken care of quite well. Why can’t others? Can they really not afford it or are they spending there money elsewhere first leaving something that possibly a government will eventually pay for them so they don’t have to? I just don’t know how I can afford it but other people can. I don’t like my taxes raised.

Also, I wish Minnesota would be recognized. Minnesota has one of the best health care coverage of any state. All non-profit too! Maybe a model after us would do the rest of the county well! Need to write Obama a letter…

Afghanistan

This spring I believed the war in Afghanistan was important and a worthy fight. I believed that instead of fighting the wrong country/clan in Iraq was bullshit, and we should move our focus back to getting Afghanistan under control. I strongly believed the importance as well as the ability of the US dissolving dangerous groups in Afghanistan who nailed New York. Although I still feel that not enough of the guilty party has been dissolved, I have lost an extreme amount of faith in the US military, as well believe that fighting clans instead of countries is such a different war that our generals today don’t know how to fight. I very well could be wrong, I really do not know anything about the US military, I am somewhat assuming.

Not only for the fact that we may not know how to win war against a tribal faction, I just do believe that US needs to come to terms with the fact we cannot afford to fight anybody right now, That includes, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran. The US is trillions of dollars in debt and believed the only way to solve our recession was to put get billions more in debt. Sigh I am not smart enough to say whether it was necessary or not, but there comes a time where someone has to say we don’t have the money for it. The word surplus hasn’t been in the US’s vocabulary for years. If we were trillions of dollars ahead of the game and everyone American was all happy with there health care, education, and housing I would say lets beat the living shit out of the Taliban in Afghanistan. But we just can’t afford it. My mind has been changed.


Time Out
[info]katestone

I was just reminiscing the Cleveland OH road trip, man that was fun! Seems like forever ago!! What the fuck it was like ... fuck I don't even remember the year... damn it was awesome. I need another one of those.

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Last Week in Recap
[info]katestone

A co-worker was fired on Tuesday. Guess who is taking up the slack, yep yours truly. So in the last six months I have taken a co-workers job over while she went on maternity leave, and as she has now been back for three months, she is only part time. So I now have my job, another part time accounting job, and now that of the newly-fired job. So that is 2 1/2 jobs. I will be having a new computer added to my office so I will now have two computers to keep track of all "my stuff." Sigh... and people wonder why I drink so often. It was nice, my coworkers did let me leave an hour early on friday knowing that I would be headed directly to the bar.

Venture Brothers Season Three came out on DVD on Tuesday. This is one of the funniest damn television shows there is out there. It just has to be. I actually (lol) if you know what I mean. 



I had a great discussion on the Thomas Therom. It was the only think I took out of sociology. It is the idea of what "you believe" is real, "becomes real". 

Also discussed meaningful friendships, hard to come by, but very important to ones self growth, and the importance to keep them from falling apart. I wonder if people realize the pain that is inflicted to ones friend when you loyalty falls elsewhere.

Am halfway through Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Pretty Crazy, but good.

I have now added stealing music to my list of wrong-doings, but I am grateful. I downloaded Pet Shp Boys' Yes, and have not been able to listen to anything else.  

I have got back into my running routine... Yay for me. I have gotten myself back up to 10 minute miles, and it only took me a week. 

Glen had a great post about the prison system in America

Let's start with a premise that I don't think a lot of Americans are aware of. We have 5% of the world's population; we have 25% of the world's known prison population. We have an incarceration rate in the United States, the world's greatest democracy, that is five times as high as the average incarceration rate of the rest of the world. There are only two possibilities here: either we have the most evil people on earth living in the United States; or we are doing something dramatically wrong in terms of how we approach the issue of criminal justice. . . .
 

What the ... is this?
[info]katestone


AIG
[info]katestone
Un-f-ingbelievable.

I guess I should not be surprised. But sigh... I don't like to point my finger and yell, but for everyone that is complaining about the $165 million in bonuses that AIG has given to their staff you need to quit and shut up. Look, "we" and I say "we" because it is our congress and we were so fucking happy we got the republicans out this year that "we" got our democrats in the majority, and passed a messy bill too quickly because they were told the world was going to fall apart around them if they did not vote for it RIGHT NOW.

Now AIG has used a percentage of their bailout to bonuses that they legally were under contract to pay. Yeah, I am pissed that my money I work fucking really hard for goes out to a bonus that is probably going to some remodeling job for some asshole's mansion in the Hamptons. But should we be that surprised, we allowed our government, which could probably be the most corrupt, messy, disorganized organization to give a shit load of money to a bank, really fucking fast, without obviously stating that they could not use this money to give a shit load of it away in bonus... duh? and now we think we can be mad at AIG. Shit, no we can't. Now we want AIG to not give the money out or take it back, or name the guys that got the money. Yeah, because it is really the fault of the one that got the bonus, yeah lets shame them into giving it back, I wouldn't, if I had signed a contract that said I would get 6 million dollars, and then I thought I might not because the company was going out of business, but then did because the government was stupid enough to give my company, that is going bankrupt money and there was 6 million new dollars in my account, shit they signed a contract. It's mine. Don't blame me I would say, blame Obama and his speedy bailout plan that obviously had little or no thought in it. Dude we just went through the same thing about a month ago with GM and them buying a plane with their bailout. Do you really think that this money is going to go for the right thing to save the company? Psh, nobody probably has a clue how to save the company, why not give it out in bonuses.

Good fucking job Obama. Strike one.

Media
[info]katestone
Jon Stewart beat the shit out of Jim Cramer. Blah! so f-ing what. I almost felt bad for Jim, he should of just plead the 5th half-way through the show. I don't really know where my angry comes from, I like the Daily Show, and the Colbert Report, and consider there approach to the news very insightful. But, I don't like when the far young left that eat up Jon Stewart like he is the best damn news anchor since Edward Murrow. Jon Steward could pick a new person each day from any one of the 24 hour "news" shows to destroy. They all aren't "reporters," they aren't "experts." in their field, they presenters and entertainers. Look how long Jim has tried to take down Bill O'Reilly. People don't care or are too stupid to realize that the these networks need to fill up 24 hours worth of time on a show, and it is far too expensive to actually have reporters go find out what the hell is going on "out there" and report back to Americans, when it is cheaper and our dumb American asses will be satisfied listening to "experts," whom  sit around and read other peoples opinions all day and then turn around and repeat to our dumb ears. Take the war in Iraq.  If our fucking media had done any reporting, we might of figured out before it was too late that what Bush was actually doing, instead they cheered on our war. They didn't do any reporting, they just brought on their fucking experts to tell us that there was trouble brewing, ... thanks a fucking-lot. But no, they are entertainers, advertising themselves as great informers of what is going on around the world, pulling shit like racking Dan Rather over the coals once in a blue moon to show that they will axe anyone that defies their great duty. Yeah f-ing right. Our huge media outlets are worthless, whoever needs Jim to rack an little shit like Jim Cramer over the coals to see that are idiots, go ahead and cheer Jon Steward, we should be smart enough to know you don't get any important info from CNBC.

If you wanna watch a great PBS show on how the media really fucked up, watch Buying the War.


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Burn After Reading
[info]katestone
First comedy that I have watching awhile... Even longer since I watched a comedy that I thought was funny and actually laughed.

I give it an A
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The Words Can Never Stop
[info]katestone
 Finished Norweigen Wood, pretty crazy, which is why I shoud probably start Hard Boiled Wonderland... and the end of the world. It shouldn't cut into Andrew Jackeson... his life and times...
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Watchmen (The Movie)
[info]katestone
The movie was good... but not as good as the graphic novel... Surprised? Of course not. Now lets make fun of it and meet the characters...

This guy had no charm, he was the badass. I mean what does not scream badass about him? Even his mustache says badass. Women were okay with being raped by him, but I guess that if you spoke up you were capped. He even cried like a badass.

Moving on... the blue guy, that had no problem walking around with his dong out. I wouldn't either if I could lift a finger and demolish the world with it. Fly to fucking Mars for a little get-away time. I felt bad for the guy, but he didn't have any feelings, so who the fuck cares eh? He wanted to go make a better civilization in the end anyways... Go get 'em Johnny!

Number 3, the owl guy. That costume says it all folks!

The biggest genius of them all. Look at this guy, he looks like the guy from um... that stupid show, but has a kick like your mom. He wore a crown and a cape but he didn't fly anywhere. But he saved the planet by killing millions... Give him a around of applause idiots!

My favorite. Look at this guy. He was it. He was fucking mean, tough and could break your fingers if you looked away. He would take your hand squeeze the shit out of it, while you were holding a glass, and once that glass broke, he would keep squeezing. This guy was pissed off. He don't give a shit about you or your mother.

Last but not least, this bitch. She was the hottest and the sluttiest of all. Well she was the only chick. So she got them all. She didn't do anything but run around and act pathetic. Poor girl. At least she knows how to romp.

I give the movie a B+

Favorite Quotes: of course both by Rorschach

Rorschach's Journal: October 12th 1985. Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout 'Save us!' And I'll whisper 'no'.

You people don't understand. I'm not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with me!

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This Guy Is F-ed
[info]katestone
“Look, I wish I had the luxury of just dealing with a modest recession or just dealing with health care or just dealing with energy or just dealing with Iraq or just dealing with Afghanistan. I don’t have that luxury, and I don’t think the American people do, either.” Mr. Barak Obama

And by the sounds of it... so is America.

Just How I Have Been Feeling
[info]katestone

You need more You need more You need more You need more
You need more You need more You need more You need more
You need more

Boy it's tough getting on in the world
When the sun doesn't shine and a boy needs a girl
It’s about getting out of a rut, you need luck
But you’re stuck and you don’t know how, oh

(Don't have to be) A big bucks Hollywood star
(Don't have to drive) A super car to get far
(Don't have to live) A life of power and wealth
(Don't have to be) Beautiful but it helps
(Don’t have to buy) A house in Beverly Hills
(Don’t have to have) Your daddy paying the bills
(Don’t have to live) A life of power and wealth
(Don't have to be) Beautiful but it helps

You need more
Than a big blank check to be a lover, or
A Gulfstream jet to fly you door to door
Somewhere chic on another shore

You need more You need more You need more
You need more You need more You need more
You need love
You need love
You need love

Too much of anything
Is never enough
Too much of everything
Is never enough

Boy it's tough getting on in the world
When the sun doesn't shine and a boy needs a girl
It’s about getting out of a rut, you need luck
But you’re stuck and you don’t know how, oh

(Don't have to be) A big bucks Hollywood star
(Don't have to drive) A super car to get far
(Don't have to wear) A smile much colder than ice
(Don't have to be) Beautiful but it’s nice

You need more
Than the Gerhard Richter hangin’ on your wall
A chauffeur-driven limousine on call
To drive your wife and lover to a white tie ball

You need more You need more You need more
You need more You need more You need more
You need love

I believe that we can achieve
The love that we need
I believe, call me naïve
Love is for free

(Don't have to be) A big bucks Hollywood star
(Don't have to drive) A super car to get far
(Don’t have to live) A life of power and wealth
(Don't have to be) Beautiful but it helps
Beautiful but it helps
Beautiful but it helps 

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Stopping the Drug War
[info]katestone
The Economist had a great article on the drug war. I have believed in the legalization of drugs since 2005 after research on my thesis paper for graduation from the University of Minnesota and agree with the Economist on the issue.

Indeed, far from reducing crime, prohibition has fostered gangsterism on a scale that the world has never seen before. According to the UN’s perhaps inflated estimate, the illegal drug industry is worth some $320 billion a year. In the West it makes criminals of otherwise law-abiding citizens (the current American president could easily have ended up in prison for his youthful experiments with “blow”). It also makes drugs more dangerous: addicts buy heavily adulterated cocaine and heroin; many use dirty needles to inject themselves, spreading HIV; the wretches who succumb to “crack” or “meth” are outside the law, with only their pushers to “treat” them. But it is countries in the emerging world that pay most of the price. Even a relatively developed democracy such as Mexico now finds itself in a life-or-death struggle against gangsters. American officials, including a former drug tsar, have publicly worried about having a “narco state” as their neighbour.

Legalisation would not only drive away the gangsters; it would transform drugs from a law-and-order problem into a public-health problem, which is how they ought to be treated. Governments would tax and regulate the drug trade, and use the funds raised (and the billions saved on law-enforcement) to educate the public about the risks of drug-taking and to treat addiction. The sale of drugs to minors should remain banned. Different drugs would command different levels of taxation and regulation. This system would be fiddly and imperfect, requiring constant monitoring and hard-to-measure trade-offs. Post-tax prices should be set at a level that would strike a balance between damping down use on the one hand, and discouraging a black market and the desperate acts of theft and prostitution to which addicts now resort to feed their habits.
 

I find it hard to swallow that we still follow an idea that was built more then a hundred years ago. The policy that the United States has is to save the white innocent children. How can the majority of those that support the "war on drugs," not realize what the policy does to blacks in this country and the danger it puts on developing countries where these drugs are produced.

I on can imagine if 800 policemen died in the United States what steps the government would take.

Harsh as it may seem. Those that do drugs, meaning any type that you smoke, snort, inject, or drink take a chance on health. If you take this to a level where it dangers others, of course there should be consequences, if you take it to a level that you harm yourself and decide not to seek help, you are stupid. Period. The government should not interfere.



 
 
 

Disaster Awaits
[info]katestone
 I walked in, set my purse down, went to the bathroom, hey I had three glasses of wine. When I saw one of the many doors closed, I Iaughed a bit, yes, Freyja had been playing, why there was her little mouse, but when I turned left into the bathroom, why the shade had been ripped apart, and there was glass everywhere, had someone broken into my apartment? Had Rorschach been in my apartment to see what I was up too? ... Nope... just Freyja playing... This girl is for sale. Highest bidder. I start at 1 cent.
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Norwegian Wood
[info]katestone
Started Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood this weekend. Guess I am not allergic to fiction like I thought I was.
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Holy F-ing Christ!
[info]katestone
I like submarines. I think they are cool, sneaky and an awesome invention. I don't like the Hunt for the Red October... even though Sean Connery is in it. Anyways I am getting off track. Did you see this? Holy shit, could I have woken up to western Europe blown up by two nuclear subs colliding? Jesus, and we are worried about Iran or Pakistan.

The submarines are equipped with sonar to detect other vessels nearby but our correspondent said it be might the case that the anti-sonar devices, meant to hide the submarines from enemies, were "too effective".  HOLY SHIT. I have never almost thought that we could have total annihilation by something "too effective."

"This is clearly a one-in-a-million chance when you think about how big the Atlantic is," yet.... In 1992, the US nuclear submarine USS Baton Rouge was struck by a surfacing Russian nuclear sub in the Barents Sea.  I THINK MAYBE 1 IN 100 MIGHT BE A BETTER CHANCE.

The two submarines are key parts of each nation's nuclear deterrent, and would have been carrying missiles, though both the UK and France have insisted there was no danger of a nuclear incident.
I DON'T FEEL SAFER!

"Now that this incident is public knowledge, the people of Britain, France and the rest of the world need to be reassured this can never happen again and that lessons are being learned." NO SHIT!

"The Ministry of Defense needs to explain how it is possible for a submarine carrying weapons of mass destruction to collide with another submarine carrying weapons of mass destruction in the middle of the world's second-largest ocean," he said.
YES THEY DO! I AGREE!

CND chair Kate Hudson said: "The collision of two submarines, both with nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons onboard, could have released vast amounts of radiation and scattered scores of nuclear warheads across the seabed." HOLY JESUS F-ING CHRIST SHIT!




Look... He's No Abe
[info]katestone
I have hope too, but lets just not jump ahead of yourself. Barak Obama is no Abraham Lincoln okay? I don't care if the guy is from the same state and uses the same bible and lives in the damn house. Abe was a super hero. Barak has not really done anything yet. Abe was white, he freed the black people, but he didn't really even like them. He wanted them shipped back to Africa. I don't really think he thought about unifying anybody that wasn't white. Barak quotes Abe all the time, because Abe was 'the man,' and because Barak can't come up with his own material. Abe saved this f-ing country. He saw the only war on this country's land. He was able to hold a country together after 620,000 Americans died in their back yards. Could Barak do that?

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." -Abe Lincoln


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