Bigmack
Bigmack's JournalMoney is broken...
Wonderful piece that Ms. Bigmack found in the Guardian.... it's directed at the Brit system, but it relates.
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Suspend Your Belief in Cash..
The true value of money – or why you can't fart a crashing plane back into the sky
Banknotes aren't worth the paper they're printed on. The entire economy relies on the suspension of disbelief
Money is broken, and until we admit that, any attempts to fix the economy seem doomed to fail. We're like passengers on a nosediving plane thinking if we all fart hard enough, we can lift it back into the sky. So should we be storming the cockpit or hunting for parachutes instead? I don't know: I ran out of metaphor after the fart gag. You're on your own from hereon in.
The entire economy relies on the suspension of disbelief. So does a fairy story, or an animated cartoon. This means that no matter how soberly the financial experts dress, no matter how dry their language, the economy they worship can only ever be as plausible as an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. It's certainly nowhere near as well thought-out and executed.
(A British banker)... earns more than a million pounds for performing enigmatic actions behind the scenes at a publicly owned bank. And on top of his huge wage, he was in line for a massive bonus. To most people, that's downright cheeky: like a man getting a blowjob from your spouse while asking you to make him a cup of tea.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/12/banknotes-not-worth-their-paper
I used Roundup (reluctantly) to kill English Ivy..
that was taking over.
Anybody know how long to wait before planting garden veggies on that spot.
I know... I know.... shouldn't use Roundup...
but...
Damned ivy had 1/ 1/2" trunks laying on the ground.
I've done some research, and it seems like that shit breaks down relatively quickly, but does anybody have any direct, expert experience?
More for the Church to concern itself about...
.. than the rules that govern everybody's fucking.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/Catholic-Churtch-Los-Angeles-Archdiocese-Priests-Accused-Pedophile-Molest-Children-139129294.html
Priests Accused of Molesting Children Hiding in Plain Sight
Some 200 Catholic priests suspected of sexual abuse are living undetected in communities across California, according to an attorney who represents hundreds of plaintiffs who sued the LA Archdiocese for molestation they say was inflicted on them by priests and clergy of the church.
Ray Boucher has mapped sixty locations where suspect priests live, in cities and towns from northern to southern California, and provided those locations to NBC4 exclusively.
“Many if not all these priests have admitted to sexual abuse,” Boucher said. “They live within a mile of 1,500 playgrounds, schools and daycare centers.”
Church officials allowed priests suspected of sexually abusing children to retire, flee the country or hide in rehab clinics until the statute of limitations on prosecution ran out.
“What the church did is take these guys and send them off to facilities where they treat pedophile priests without ever alerting police,” Boucher said. “By enabling these priests to be hidden for so many years the church protected them from being prosecuted.”
U.S. military says Taliban set to retake power: report
The United States military has said in a secret report that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control over Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw from the country, Britain's Times of London newspaper said Wednesday.
"Many Afghans are already bracing themselves for an eventual return of the Taliban," the newspaper said, quoting the report. "Once ISAF (NATO-led forces) is no longer a factor, Taliban consider their victory inevitable," it quoted the report.
The Times said the "highly classified" report was put together by the U.S. military at Bagram air base in Afghanistan for top NATO officers last month. The BBC also carried a report on the leaked document.
Large swathes of Afghanistan have already been handed back to Afghan security forces, with the last foreign combat troops due to leave by the end of 2014.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/01/us-afghan-nato-report-idUSTRE81006N20120201
At what point does a religion...
become so disconnected from its members that it no longer functions?
I have read that 98% of US Catholic women use birth control.... http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/14/us-most-catholic-women-us-use-birth-cont-idUSTRE73D4SZ20110414
... and that American Catholic women have a higher abortion rate than protestant women......
http://factcheck.org/2007/12/abortions-comparing-catholic-and-protestant-women/
Abortion and birth control are two biggies in the church.
So..... WTF?
Like Carlin...."I was born an Irish Catholic... now I'm an American."
The ROE didn't include...
... the phrase "shoot first and ask questions later."
The ROE didn't include shooting granny in bed.
The ROE didn't include taking 5 men out and executing them... not in the heat of a firefight, but executing them.
The ROE didn't include shooting into rooms containing women and children... shooting that was not random, but well-aimed and center of body-mass shots.
Wuterich was a Staff NCO...in charge of seeing that the Marines under him followed the ROE, the UCMJ, the Geneva Conventions, and any other orders from his superiors.
He failed miserably. He failed to control his Marines, and in fact led them to commit war crimes.
In my war, we took innocent lives... by accident. Regrettable, and I feel them today. But we had NCOs who controlled the situation and made sure we followed orders.
This man is a disgrace to the Corps. He violated the prime code of honor of the Marine Corps... (From the Marine Corps Code of Honor) ... "And, above all, honor mandates that a Marine never sully the reputation of his Corps."
Clean out your headgear!
I was MOS 0331, and I was in the shit enough to know when somebody is talking thru their ass.
Sugar should be a controlled substance....!
I've fought my weight my whole life. Always in good shape, but way too heavy. Very active... hiking and doing lots of physical type work.
My doc has always been after me to lose weight, of course. "Diet and exercise"....
Shit, I was watching what I ate.. diet pop and the whole thing.
I was in to see him in June, and he changed the script... he said that sugar should be a controlled substance... that it's addictive for most people.
He said to cut out sugar and white carbs and anything that tells your body it is sweet. He said that you'll have withdrawal symptoms for a couple of weeks, but then you'll be better.
I did it.
Cut all sugar out.... except honey in my coffee and one glass of wine about 5 nights a week.
The doc was right... withdrawal pains and amazing cravings. I stuck it out and after about two weeks I felt no cravings.
Since June of 2011, I have lost 35 lbs.
It's not a diet... I eat a LOT! Instead of a bagel, I have a whole wheat wrap. Instead of chips and salsa, I have cauliflower and salsa or apples and salsa. Big breakfast of fake egg omelet with lots of onion and real bacon bits on a wrap. Lunch is cottage cheese and fruit... lots of it... and some nuts. Dinner... lots of anything that isn't white (whole wheat is OK) and fruit for desert.
I don't suffer at all.
It does piss me off that sugar is in everything! You have to watch carefully. Yoghurt, for instance, has 25-30 grams of sugar... I think companies could sell horse shit in little containers if they put enough sugar in it.
I think that sugar made my body hungry and demanded more food. I don't feel those cravings anymore.
I'm not even worried about regaining the weight... I'm not on a diet.
I'm not defending them... but....
.. the people of this country have no fucking idea what war is really about.
Pissing on their dead...? You think that's the worst..?
You think their moms taught them to do that..?
Nope...WE did.
WE are the ones who have made a society so involved in war/death/revenge that pissing on the dead is nothing! We have killed hundreds of thousands... actually, millions... of innocents in our march to Empire. Hell, we killed innocents today!
We have to stop being an Empire. We have to stop putting our people in these situations. We have to stop making so many veterans.
Libraries... who needs them? ...
In our area in semi-rural Washington State, we had a library levy last year. The letters to the editor of the local paper were absolutely amazing. All the usual rightwingnut bloviation about inefficient government, rising taxes, and spending those fucking "hard earned tax dollars" (do the rightwingnuts imagine that only they work hard for their money). Several complained that nobody uses libraries anymore.
Intent on pissing away some of my valuable time, I responded.
It seems that Americans paid taxes in 2009 at a lesser rate than at any time since the Truman administration, so all that "high tax" stuff is just bullshit.
More people used our library system last year than at any time in history.... 12% more.
In addition, the levy would amount to $24 ..... per year per household.
I wrote all that... several times. Each time, my written comment was the last one on the thread.
A couple of days later, another LTTE would appear, screaming about the high taxes, big government, and the wise use of those "hard-earned tax dollars".
I responded again.... and again, my comments were the last one on the thread.
Those people do NOT listen to anybody... any fact... any reason. They just operate from their guts... especially the very last part of their guts.
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Member since: Mon Apr 12, 2004, 08:50 PMNumber of posts: 8,020
