Tuesday, April 19, 2011

well, it's been a bit...

i don't really have any sort of literary plan for today's post. but it has been a little while, so i am really trying to be as good as my word and update this for all you beloved non-existent readers (all three of you, which i think have taken to switching off, which means only one of you for this post and the next, and someone different for the next two!)

well, as you have no doubt heard, the military is getting paid. they stole the money from schools and god knows what other important places. i can guaranfuckingtee that none of the senators or congressmen offered to take a paycut to make sure the military members and their families would continue to receive the pittance we do to keep this country safe for the acquisition of more oil.

i am scared for next year's election. one of the favorite runner ups for the republican party sounds like a borderline nazi. i seriously doubt obama will even be picked as the democratic candidate, so annoyed is the general populace with how little he has actually done in his presidency. (all these people have conveniently forgotten that the only thing dubya had done in the first couple years of his presidency was take more vacations than any other president in the history of the united states of america!) i am not saying obama is amazing. he's just... there. he gets the honor of being the first black president.

but in the meantime, the country is polarized. it feels like it's borderline civil war again, except this time it's democrats against republicans. and no, the tea party is not the answer. those guys are considerably more right wing than the majority of the republicans, and i can only foresee book burnings and youth rallies in our future, followed by marching those of ethnicity onto cattle cars to roll off into the night.

i said this last election, and i am saying it again: we need a strong president that will focus on the shit going on at home!! someone who will repair the rift between conservative and liberal, and really work on fixing our economy, lowering the deficit, and restoring us to the united states of america, not the divided states of america. iraq is fine, they can manage. bin laden is no longer in afghanistan. let's forget those guys, let's let them run their own countries in the way that they see fit because, hey! let's be honest: we're in no position right now to be pointing fingers and offering advice in how to run a country.

in news on the home front, no. 1 is going to be repeating the third grade. it's not cause he outright failed, it's because he only barely passed. and it is because a) he still struggles to pay attention enough to grasp all the concepts he has had thrown at him (concepts that weren't thrown at me until the 6th grade, when i was fucking 12! everyone seems to think that feeding all these kids algebra and science and shit so young is good for them, but i am not convinced!) and b) his rebellious and headstrong nature makes him think he is always right in how he does things. the kid is smart. he's got the brains. he lacks maturity. and my wife and i need to revamp our thinking so that failing isn't considered such a horrible thing so much as a stepping stone for learning from mistakes and attacking the problem with a renewed vigor. i am pretty sure there is an einstein or ghandi or tony robbins quote that would be appropriate here, something along the lines of failure being part of success or something.

i am nearly done with classes, and maintain my 4.0 average, and will graduate with honors and then be forced to quit being lazy and find a job and work for my daily bread.

and there isn't much else to tell around here lately. life goes on, we keep smiling, and i just don't have as much clever shit to say as i used to.

darth sardonic

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Friday, April 08, 2011

where'd the money go?

this is the second time this has happened that i can remember.

once before, during the clinton administration, and while i was active duty, it seemed the government had misallocated its funds, and was threatening to not pay the military. that lasted a couple days before they figured it all out and everything proceeded on as normal.

at the time, i did stand up comedy, and made a joke about how they were going to make sure the postal workers got paid because they were known to go off with semiautomatic weapons when stressed, but the government was forgetting we had jets, bombs, and tanks.

there is a similarity between then and now: both of these seeming lacks of money (i say seeming, because congress and the senate are still getting paid--or, not to put to fine a point on it, they are making sure they pay themselves!) occurred when there was a democratic president and a majority of republicans in the house.

one big difference this time around is we are still recovering from one of our worst economic slumps in history. nearly as bad as the great depression.

and they are talking, even more now than i remember then, about making mission-essential military members work without pay.

here's the thing: thing 1) if the military isn't getting paid, what is to keep them doing the job they signed up to do, namely protecting the country (to and including the politicians who repeatedly fuck them in the ass)? what is keeping young guys who haven't seen their families in months in trenches in afghanistan from just tossing down their guns, and leaving for home? thing 2) with the government in an obvious shambles of late, and the country not doing so hot right behind it, and in this age of separatism and right-or-wrong and never any gray area, what is stopping a group of military folks from doing just exactly what i joked about when clinton was president, and effectuating a military coup?

and most importantly, how on earth to rich, fat, corrupt politicians expect to continue getting away with the shit they have for however long, if the military isn't getting paid? that's like telling your personal bodyguard, "i'm sorry, dude, i spent all my extra money on cocaine and whores this week, but you've got a contract with me, so you need to keep people from harming me, all for no pay."

i am already learning korean, i should add mandarin and cantonese to the list.

darth sardonic

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