Debt and Depression - The New Empire of Debt

I'm in the middle of reading "The New Empire of Debt".

I'm sure you've realized, we're broke as a nation and so far, this book does a pretty thorough job of explaining the why and how of the situation.

I'll spare you the majority of the details in this 350-page saga but essentially, the spirit of empire-building intoxicated our leadership and at about the time of Woodrow Wilson's presidency, we got on the gravy-train of printing money that we'll never get off. It's the same story with great empires of the past such as the Romans, Mongols, etc...

I'm not saying the authors are wrong.

But, damn. It's depressing.

As a younger guy with minimal personal debt, is there something we should be doing as individuals to get ready for this collapse? I know prepping is one outlet folks lean to and I've done some of that. But, in all seriousness, if we are in a place where we need to have our own food, water, and safety for an extended period of time I'm not sure if I trust myself to be militant enough to protect what is mine.

Further, should we be convinced that at some point in the coming decades we will be forced to lower our expectations from thriving to merely surviving? It sounds somewhat petty, maybe a little immature, but if we don't have "hope" to cling to and our best days are behind us, what's the point?

(Please note, this use of the word "hope" and use of the word "hope" in any political campaigns past or present are merely coincidental and absolutely do not indicate an endorsement!)

I find the prospects depressing. I know a lot of you think it's worth fighting for here on the homefront through education and political awareness but I'm not convinced it's a battle that can be won. Looking around our communities, seeing the type of people we share society with, I just don't see the drive, personal ambition, and desire to get off the government teet.

So, where do we go?

More mob violence

This dude was beaten almost to death by a group of guys in Alabama.

Owens' sister, Ashley Parker, saw the attack. "It was the scariest thing I have ever witnessed." Parker says 20 people, all African American, attacked her brother on the front porch of his home, using "brass buckles, paint cans and anything they could get their hands on."

And the media did the country no favors for their works in inciting a race war.  Good job.

I'm going out on a limb and suggesting that this sort of behavior is going to get much much worse in the coming months, and when it does it will be everywhere.  This wasn't a savage beating in Chicago or North East DC; it was in frickin Mobile Alabama.  All cities have their rough spots, but the hatred of man is going to start pouring out from every crack and crevice, so be prepared in your daily life.

Don't tempt the savages

Fells testified that the female victim, whom he did not know personally, got out of her vehicle, “came up to me and spit in my face. She was cursing at me."

Fell’s cousin, Austin Morris, whose charges were dropped in this case, stated that the spit landed in Fells’ eye and “was enough to see it drip and run down his face."

The victim was shot in the back by Fells for her stupidity. Before you say it, I'm not condoning what Fells did in any way shape or form; by his own admission he's untrustworthy and deserves his 12 year sentence. What I am saying is that if you don't want to win stupid prizes, than don't play stupid games. There is no reason in the world to spit in somebody's face, and if you do it and don't get shot by some jackass, then you will more than likely get a brutal beatdown at the very least. Same goes for arguing over parking spaces and throwing insults about people's mommas at strangers; you don't know if John or Jane Q. Public is wrapped real tight, so it's best to not provoke the savages.

Fortunately both morons survived this encounter. Hopefully some of this area's more high-strung residents read the article and take the lesson from this and apply it to their day to day lives. I'm sure it's no different in other parts of the country, but folks around here are fed up, and because of that they tend to disregard the "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" and instead resort to all sorts of tactless behaviour. So stop flipping the bird, insulting, spitting, ramming cars on the interstate with your dumptruck, ***ETA: stabbing drunks and fist fighting, and generally acting like you don't have any sense, take a breath or two and calm down, and your chances of getting maimed or killed by a psycho will fall dramatically.

The vanity of this silly country will be its ruin

AAAHHHHHGHGGGGG!!! I swear (no really!), the absurd amount of fashion and vanity that is present in this country is depressing!!

Based on Andy's sound advice, I've scoured the internet looking for a medical ID bracelet for the afore mentioned allergy problem that I have, and instead of something simple and functional the market is instead flooded with jewelry. Jewelry. Accoutrement's that make you fashionable. Somewhere along the line some yayhoo decided that simple utility should take a back seat to looking cooooool. When I was a dumb wee lad, the way to look cool was to roll your Camels up in the sleeve of your white T-shirt.

That's all changed now.

Want a life saving medical marker for your wrist? Too bad the EMT looking for one on your soon-to-be corpse will pass over it while admiring your pathetic designer tribal cuff. What is this garbage!?!? Pleaseohplease tell me: What does your conceited, vainglorious, extroverted, bubbly personality have to do with a lifesaving device crafted for the sole purpose of identifying your severe medical condition? That's right, nothing!

It's abundantly obvious that idolatry is here to stay in America. Pity.

What I'm now looking for is a solid, stainless steel band with all my allergy gibberish on it, but with the whole shootin' match ceramic coated bright red. Bright red, as in LOOOOKY HERE EMT DUDE!!! MEDICAL ALERT THINGY!!! SAVE MY LIFE!!!! Not "Looky here EMT dude. I'm a charming thirty something with a fondness for shiny beads, horses, and long walks on the beach. I like taking long showers, and sometimes I get butterflys in my stomach when the cute clerk at Wegmans asks me if I have a bonus card. I'm insecure about the dark birthmark on my finger, and sometimes I cry quietly about it at night."

What I don't need is a leather, barbed wire abomination that some off duty nurse who sprung to help my dying ass will end up too busy laughing herself to death over to administer my epinephrine. Get over yourselves, people!

Never again

In the 28 hours that it took for my name to be approved for a new firearm transfer, I came to the conclusion that I will not go through that process ever again. Though I did willingly consent beforehand, and He who derives a benefit from a thing, ought to feel the disadvantages attending it, I've had my fill, and will stick with private sales from here on out. A man should never feel so convicted in his heart that he questions whether he is a criminal or not, or questions who he is. It is unconscionable.

To be clear, I do not blame those within the Virginia State Police or FBI who administrate background checks, as they are not the ones who placed the repulsive concept of pre-criminalization on us; that blame lies with the greater American public first and foremost for not only agreeing to this insanity up front, and perpetually consenting to it, but for also continuing to demand it, under the naive belief that scumbags would be eradicated if we could only ensnare them with a piece of paper. I'm ashamed of myself that I ever fell under that criteria.

Last night I was doing mental backflips trying to find out what it was that would make a state and federal government hesitate to approve of a transfer. Though nobody could tell, as I have a knack for taking physical, mental, and emotional punishment with a calm demeanor, I was questioning myself over and over until I was actually thinking "what did I do wrong?" It was there where I realised I had left the Line of Departure into a hostile place that I had no business being.

I recall a time when I was in sunny Ramadi, talking to my beautiful wife on a private, Iridium satellite phone, when she told me she was delayed for a transfer for a handgun. To say she was upset is an understatement, and no doubt she was feeling exactly like I was last night: convicted. Though she had harmed no one, she combed through her past out loud to me, searching for a crime she didn't commit. I tried to convince her that everything was OK, and it did turn out to be -- that moment was my first warning notice of how harmful a background check could be, and I missed it. A dear friend of mine, who was instrumental in keeping me grounded last night, was also delayed on a gun purchase some time ago, and he also felt the same convicting thoughts -- that was the second notice that I again missed. Last night was final notice.

Whether you've ever bought a gun or not, or have any intention to, feeling convicted of something you didn't do is something everyone has probably experienced at one time. It's similar to the feeling of being falsely accused of something; not a - "you're a poopie-head" accusation, but a serious one, like - "you stole from me, didn't you?!?" The latter has the tendency to cut very deep. Having to explain yourself and why you're not in the wrong used to be a viscerally unnatural act. There was a time where it used to be a man would recoil at such a thing, as it was against all human nature to stand quietly in the face of an accusation -- "Are you calling me a liar?" Perhaps it's "reality shows" and bad TV that has put us into the mindset of constantly defending who we are, that I'm-right-and-you're-wrong, and getting comfortable with conflict and confrontation in situations we do not belong in. I don't know about y'all, but I am done putting myself in the middle of situations like that.

So now I'm here, having passed through the eye of the needle, and before too long somebody will come across this post and scoff "Big deal. Get over it. It's for the greater good. Getting criminals off the street is worth making millions of good people go through a background check." My retort is to try it sometime. If you get approved in two minutes, close enough to "instant" I guess, then you most likely won't get the full effect and have an understanding. Consider though that very few transfer denials are even prosecuted (also note in there that ATF agents didn't feel that most of the prohibited persons were dangerous enough to timely retrieve a sold gun). If you still feel that catching a handful of people that probably aren't dangerous is worth criminalizing tens of millions of Americans every year, then you can have the system. Hook, line, and sinker. As for me, I'm out.

Strike while the irony is hot

This is too good:

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The president of New Hampshire’s Plymouth State University told students Thursday they don’t have to come to class Friday because activists may appear on campus with loaded guns to protest the school’s ban on weapons on campus.

Whaaaaaaat?!? Those rebels! Anyone who would willingly break the law must have ill intent!

Later, the two said the weapons would not be loaded and would have trigger locks and other safety devices on them, the university said.

You mean these hooligans gave advanced notice to the university that the firearms they intend to bring to their claimed peaceful protest will have locks on them and be in plain view? Ms. Steen, you did the right thing. Who knows if these outrageous people will suddenly change their mind, unlock those weapons, load them, and then take out as many innocents as possible, their cause for safety be damned.

Safety first, I always say. And nothing is more useful towards safety than ensuring that non-violent folks who pass out literature regarding unsafe university policies don't have an audience. That's safer than safe. I would go so far as to personally write each student and staffer a day-pass from class on bubble wrap, so their finger tips don't get bruised when I handed it to them. Of course, I would announce this privilege softly so as to not panic the herd.

There is no need for bravery in this new world, as plans are in the works to start a society where fear has been forbiden, and it will be enforced.

Look, the only people who should be authorized to carry a weapon on campus are cops. Since these boys haven't been highly trained to handle the icky things, they have no business with weapons of death -- locked or not. Wait, what?

Jardis resigned from the Epping Police Department last year after he apparently was suspended, the Union Leader reported in 2010.

Oh. Well. . . .maybe he forgot all that training. It's well known that once you leave the force, you revert back to being a drooling moron like the rest of us. Come. . . join our ranks, good sir!

I only wish I lived in a country where I have to make stuff like this up.

Don't get your freak on

This garbage about stopping shooters from enjoying public land. . . . the Interior Department can shove this right up their interior.

I'm severely agitated over this because of the similar situation here in Virginia. This area used to be good-'ol-boy land: a place where my fellow hillbilly heathens and I gathered together to hunt, fish, shoot guns, shoot bows, and otherwise have a great time on God's green earth. That was back when the county's population was manageable. Now, my county and the surrounding ones are awash with yuppie families who moved down in droves from New York, Massachusetts, and Maryland to live in the "country," which has put the word "history" into "historic" Fredericksburg. Now you can't fire a slingshot or clap your hands too loud or one of these pathetic people will call the police out of fear.

I wish they would all leave.

My only hope is that I can convince my wife, our family, and several friends to move the hell out to a state where I can go for a walk without hearing the sound of traffic and sirens; where I can step out on my porch in my underwear and fire an overbored rifle at a distant crow without wondering how long it will take for the cops to show up to measure my backstop; where I can park my truck in the driveway knowing that at night, thieving little shits aren't going to syphon off all my gasoline before scattering a handful of trim nails under my tires; where it doesn't take me an hour to drive five miles to work or the grocery store.

Now you're telling me that the government wants to get involved in taking away the dwindling places where folks want to enjoy shooting? All because spineless hippies that are scared of their own shadow might "freak out" at the sound of gunfire?

There are plenty of places that these chicken-shits can go where shooting is already banned. Let them go there. The meek people who would use the government to intrude on peaceable folks, how about they go take a fucking shower instead of worrying their stinky little heads over hunters and shooters. How about a bill that makes the Interior Department send their high-falutin' asses right back where they came from? I don't like wimpy people around my kids; it creates a public disturbance. It's a social issue, get it?

Two can play at this game.

You can't convince me that they're seriously scared that an elk hunter might shoot their dog when these days urban folks are terrified that police will do the same thing when they raid their home looking for a pot plant. I guess these days there's no place safe for Cujo.

So, my question is: the hippies think they have a right to live in a place free from good folks who like shooting firearms? Good. I accept that, as long as they accept that shooters and hunters have a right to live in a place free from the sight of cowards out riding their high horse.

I think the next time I see someone who's fearfully looking at my openly carried Glock, I may have to whip out my cell phone and call the cops:

"The lady is obviously not of sound mind, officer; she looks like she might do something crazy any moment, like make terroristic threats or something. Oh, she just peed down her leg. Take her away, boys!"

. . .and that's just a little bit more than the law would allow

Good grief. There's so much fail in this short tragic story that I'm just shaking my head.

As Bittinger approached the front porch of the home, the suspect fired an arrow into his chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The shootee had a "weapon;" the type is not made clear in the article. I'm under the assumption that if the shootee had a weapon and made threats, and/or became a deadly threat, then perhaps deadly force via bow and arrow was appropriate. Just because the shooter didn't use Paw Paw's shotgun hanging over the mantle doesn't mean that deadly force wasn't justified. The Dukes were quite fond of primitive tackle, and as we know they were just some good ol' boys, never meanin' no harm.

This part of the story was interesting:

The coroner says Bittinger died when the arrow punctured his lung and blood filled his heart.

Blood filled his heart?!?! You can die from that? Oh, shit, I have blood in my heart right now! I'mma fixin to call me the rescue squad, right fast! Maaaama! Maaama heeeeelp!! Bloods done filled my heart!!!!

My take on this is that the coroner meant blood filled his lung, or maybe the coroner imbibed a little too much moonshine, or even his sweat stained Realtree hat is on just a little too tight. We'll never know for sure. The hits just keep on coming, though:

A compound bow has a system of pulleys that provide more force with less pull. It’s normally used for hunting.

Or killing babies. You know, because anything that provides more force should be brought into the light for some much needed obfuscation, and then hopefully some legislating. Because this wasn't a killing with a "bow," but a "compound bow," meaning that we should ponder the shit out of what this actually means. It means the deadliness of the instrument is compounded, and commands less effort to wield, so logically we should point this out to the masses considering that a good 99.99% of professional journalists don't have a clue as to what to make of this. Being that the weapon is obviously compounded, it should only be allowed in the hands of law enforcement and professional hunters who have met the compounded training needed to handle all that compounded power that comes from a system of pulleys. Idiot.

Lastly, we have this comment that makes me weep for the people of this country:

Lynne Le

I don’t believe Tony threatened the suspect,
the suspect murder him and blame him, he’s death he can’t defense him self.

Lynne Le needs an intervention to get him/her off whatever substance he/she has been abusing. That person needs help, right quick now! Get Betty Sue and Jimmy John in a room with em' to talk some sayance in to em'!

Drive-by crossbowing and other violent and bizarre stories

It sounds to me like this country has come completely unglued. There are so many violent attacks and thievery in the news these days that it makes my head spin; we have this morning a story out of San Diego about a kid shot with a crossbow in a drive-by. We also have widespread and rampant thievery of things like HVAC units, copper pipes and wire, toilet paper, hair extensions; and it's all become a family affair as well.

I've passed on many crazy stories just like that one this week already, but there are so many that are too close to home that I'm getting irritated.

There's this one out of the Fredericksburg, Virginia Wal-Mart where a teenager was beaten into a coma by other teens, and also an armed robbery and carjacking at a gas station right across the street. I shopped at that Wal-Mart with my family this weekend, and I get gas at that station all the time with my kids in the car early in the morning; the idea of a group of thuggish little shits attacking my family or driving off in my car with them makes my blood boil. There was also an armed home invasion where the homeowner was attacked with a baton over some prescription meds.

If anyone wonders why I'm so damned paranoid, this is why. With all the mob-of-disenfranchised-teens beating up folks and robbing stores all over the country, I'm sure I'm not the only one who's on edge.

More mob attacks

There was a big street brawl in DC, a mob of 75+ teens in Cleveland, Ohio were running around punching people, and in Philadelphia, PA a group of people numbering approximately 100 were running around town assaulting people, breaking one woman's leg.

At some point or another, a youthful mob attack is going to be stopped by someone with an AR fresh out of a Magpul training course, and this behaviour will hopefully be a thing of the past. Considering these attacks have been all over the news in the past few weeks and are well known to be incredibly violent, folks should know what to expect if they're caught up in one. I'm not interested in being the guy on the news who got head-stomped by a bunch of excited kids, and I don't know anybody else who is. The savages need to stop pounding the war drums.

Crazy people roundup

A shooting victim at the funeral of a shooting victim, in Chicago. Why, there aught to be a law or something to prevent stuff like this from happening. Maybe make the whole daggone city a place that is free from idiots with guns. What a swell idea.

Also, TSA screeners conducting an intense scrotum search found a bunch of heroin on a traveler. Oh wait, did I say TSA screeners? My mistake; it was Customs Inspectors, and they weren't sexually assaulting him when they found the drugs, they were interviewing him. Weird. Who would have known that old fashioned police work would produce results?

And again, hailing from Stafford, Virginia we have a psychotic woman ramming her car into another car, all the while her 1 year old is safely strapped into the back seat. Now this may come as a huge surprise, but the whole incident was allegedly started over a man. Shocking!

Kansas City shows off its lunatics with some parents who were off doing who knows what while their crazy ferret ate the fingers off their four month old. Leaving your kids in an air conditioned car while you buy a lottery ticket is grounds these days for state charges, so these people had to know that it was a bad idea to leave their infant at home alone. With an animal that is known to bite.

Now, as you go about your day, look to your left and your right at all the friendly people you encounter and know that at least one of them is batshit crazy. Pay attention to your surroundings at all times.

Pass the assault

In regards to the McDonald's attack from a few days ago, more of the story is now known.

The attackers names are not known, but we do know that they are 14 and 18 years old and that they should know better than to stomp on people's heads. Also, the moron who was filming the whole thing was a McDonald's employee (he's been fired, for what that's worth). We also know that the attack started over the victim allegedly checking out one of the attacker's boyfriend. So the whole shootin match should have never happened if any single person in the mess had been sane.

I have to throw the yellow flag here at McDonald's acting like they give a damn about the morality of their employees; the employee filming the attack and laughing is reprehensible for sure, and I have no concern for his livelihood from losing his job, but in general, businesses like McDonald's have made it a policy for employees to not intervene in such things. In our litigious society, trying to stop an attack will get your company sued. Now it seems that not stopping an attack will get you fired, or even shot to death, so it's lose lose for everybody.

There are some folks who care more for humanity than they do for the preservation of their job (me included), so that point is valid, but I can't see how commenters are throwing rocks at the camera man considering the public's usual policy of watching the mayhem while they wait on the cops to show up, if anyone's even bothered to call it in to begin with. The point I'm trying to make here is that people at large don't really care about some poor 22 year old getting her head kicked in because everybody is too locked on like it's entertainment, and they're waiting for someone else to do something. It's accepted that this is the way of the world, so who's to blame? This isn't the first time scumbags up and decided to do violence without cause. It's the way things have always been.

I do think that people in some areas are starting to warm to the idea that they can do something to stop this sort of violence without getting themselves hurt or killed, and this is because of modern self defense tools. Equalizers work; that lady in the video that tried to help wasn't very effective, but she would have been with the help of her little friend P3AT. Hopefully people wake the hell up and start getting involved.

***Update: We have on of the attackers names - Teonna Monae Brown - and also there will be a protest by a transgendered rights group. I bet the group didn't phone in for help for their protest.

Morons

There was one in every ditch on every curve yesterday in the two and a half hours it took me to drive the 20 miles home. In years past, snow was quite common in Virginia, and my fellow Virginians could be counted on to keep their bumpers to themselves while maintaining an orderly fashion on their way home. Not so anymore, as there are so many dipshits that freak out with the first dusting of snow, careening around corners and smashing into shit that it makes my head spin.

I literally pulled every get-home trick from my native backroad knowhow book, and at every turn had to turn around as there was a moron in the ditch in two-wheel-spinning-four-wheel-drive. There were also a great deal of Civics and Frontiers tore up too.

It amazes me these days the false confidence that some morons get in the snow just because they're driving a massive 4X4 SUV. I have it on good authority that most SUVs of this generation are built from bona fide suck-ass, and can't climb their way out of a frost covered field, so the idea that they would help incompetent drivers make their way down a slippery road while texting on their cellphones is a stretch.

My parents used to purposly take me out in the snow just to teach me how to drive in it, so that one day I wouldn't be one of the afore meantioned dipshits stuck on the side of the highway.

It worked.

I guess there is something to be said about the huge influx of people to my area, as the general population went up a genuine five fold over twenty years. I did not fail to notice yesterday the amount of out of state license plates from the likes of Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, and such, which brings back horror stories of every time driving on Maryland roads. Sorry Marylanders, but I have to call y'all out as being, by far, the worst drivers in the union. It's not even a contest. Missouri drivers I would say come in second, although they did alright earlier this week in the winter wonderland which was St. Louis. And before you say it, I obviously don't rank Virginians as being very high on the list anymore.

Since I had the kids in the car this morning, I gave an extra three quarters of an hour for the jackassery and mayhem to die down before venturing about on the highways. Worked like a charm. I can't wait for the next snow, as the XTerra is pretty fun to drive in the mess.

Dangerous jackassery

You have to be a real asshole to shoot deer well outside of your limits. Shooting animals at distance is cool if you can actually hit where you aim at, but this douchebag lobs round after round of .50 BMG at deer at a mile until he finally kills one. The reason I decided to post this here is to show my several readers that most rifle rounds actually do ricochet.



The ones ricocheting off the water near the end are perhaps the most dangerous.

Brandishing

Not a good way to get leverage in an argument, especially at night on the side of the highway.

The story itself is kinda ho-hum, but commenter wideopenspaces brings up a good point: why would anyone pull over at 12:30 at night in a one-way-street (I know where this happened) to bicker with someone that they don't even know? That's pretty reckless in its own right. This all happened in Stafford county (borders Spotsyltuckey) which is not known for competent drivers nor sane people.

The only thing I can guess is that the complainant thought he might get to beat down the other driver in obviously justifiable retribution for such a hurtful "hand gesture", and then realized that the other guy wasn't wrapped real tight either.

Man, I wish all the savages hadn't decided to move here. Things used to be so quiet.

Pit Bull violence

Jones refused and officers escorted her outside, officials said. She suddenly stopped and ordered the dog to attack. The pit bull began biting the officer's foot, which was protected by a boot.

Many things to discuss. One, did the woman really "order" her dog to attack? Are the cops suggesting that she compelled the dog to act by tendering it spoken words? Seriously? I'm not defending her overall actions; she seems like quite the scumbag, and whatever charges are conjured up over her "ordering" an animal with a primitive will and no mastery of the English language will probably stick, but it still stands to ask the question of whether one can make an animal do anything. Responsibility for the dogs actions on the other hand. . . . .

Two, who wants to bet that the dog is not a "pit bull" -- the assault thingy of the canine world -- at all, but merely some form of muscular terrier that cannot be accurately identified by the police? Back in time, way way back before the Russians covertly introduced pit bulls to the American continent to wreak havoc on the place, the canine threat of the day was either the Doberman or the Rottweiler. At that time, pretty much any mid to large black dog that made the news was one of those highly dangerous and volatile animals, and the world knew about every toothy incident where one of them ate an entire city of people. These days, the Doby and Rotty threat is a thing of the past, as advanced doggy electroshock therapy and loppobodomy techniques have been so perfected that they don't seem to attack everything in sight like they did in the 80s.

Third, why the 1st degree assault? Are they suggesting that she planned to sic the animal on the cops all along? Like before she left her apartment that day, she re-checked her map and battle plan of the ambush, took a last long drag off her crack pipe, put on her shoes and grabbed Cujo's leash. "Lets go get us some poeleeeeeeece, Cujo! Don't let me down boy!" Yeah, totally premeditated, with like malice aforethought and stuff.

With all that said, it's surprising that the dog didn't get shot considering how often that seems to happen these days. Also, since we all know that a pit bull can tear off a mans leg with little to no effort, that only reinforces my opinion that this wasn't an American Pit Bull Terrier or other Bull Terrier breed at all, but probably a Beagle or something. And of course it sounds like this woman will be getting the treatment she needs. I could be wrong on that one; she could be a saint thrown into a big misunderstanding, but something tells me that that is not the case here.

Beware, the Worcestershire menace!

The man's ex-girlfriend is accused of forcing her way inside and throwing things at the other woman, Bledsoe said. Among the items thrown were a can of tile cleaner and a bottle of Worcestershire sauce.

And it gets worse. The man was hospitalized in serious condition when he was assaulted by an assault broomstick!

She turned on the man, Bledsoe said, hitting him numerous times until the broom broke in half. Police allege that she then stabbed the man in the lower abdomen with the broken end.

That was after the girlfriend was assaulted with the dreadful thing. We can all see the point here that it would be best if we just took everything and anything away from people so that we can live a life of peace and harmony. Imagine a world without domestic violence!!!

There are some obvious common sense measures that would have to be enacted as well that are without question, like the outright banning of wife beaters and Hurricane. That alone would go quite aways to building up the utopia, but combine it with the confiscation of worcestershire sauce and broomsticks and you have a recipe for love, not war.

Think about it now, who really neeeeeeeds bottled sauces that can be instantly turned into dangerous projectiles by errant drunken lovers in a moment of passionate rage, or broomsticks made of deadly metal -- metal used in machines of war and death? Doesn't make sense, does it?

But what about the NyQuil?

I thought that taking away everyone's cough syrup made it impossible for the crazies to make meth in their kid's room?

I feel flim-flammed!

So does that mean I can buy NyQuil again without providing a hair and urine sample?

Breaking news, a Confederate flag has been spotted in Fredericksburg!!!

I still am astonished at how clueless Americans are about the Civil War in general, and the Confederate flag in particular.

There is a new movie theator in Fredericksburg, Virginia that bears a mural with both the Union flag and the Confederate flag on the outside wall. This would be the same Fredericksburg that, for a time, was the center of the Civil War, and still bears many ugly scars from that time. Really, the only reason people have ever heard of Fredericksburg is because of the tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Soldiers that died there during the Civil War.

If there was a place in this country to spot a Confederate flag, or any other flag flown during the Civil war it would be here, so to hear some bumbling kid get his offense on at the mere sight of something he hasn't a clue about, in what is perhaps the most historic place for the Civil War makes my teeth chatter. What a fucking idiot.

I haven't been inside this theator yet, but I hear it's lovely, and you can order a beer. The inside of the theator has a Civil War theme, so a little heads up to all you brain washed, public educated pussies out there, you're going to see the dreaded Confederate flag in there too, so bring plenty of bleach for your eyes.

Actually, before you drag your family to my town and congest it with your fleet of Priuses, do us all a great big ass favor and order a fucking history book on the war before you pass judgement on something and make yourself look like a moron.

Up for air

Sorry about the lack of posting folks. This drive to Fairfax every day is killing me; I've added three to five additional hours on to my work day just to sit in traffic screaming at all the other cars.

Really, where in the world do all these people come from? Of all the places to screw up, why does everyone want to live here? I don't understand it. It's 42 miles from a to b, so I'm averaging about 24 mph round trip, which is probably a little more on the way there and less on the way back. There are simply too many cars on not enough road, and it gets worse every single day.

People, listen to me, stop moving to Virginia. It sucks here. It's no longer beautiful. Do yourselves a favor and find another place to destroy.

A little on the bitter side, yes.

How is everyone else doing?