"Libertarians" are intrinsically, unavoidably hypocritical.

Sorry "Libertarians," but you inhabit a fantasy world. A "Libertarian" is the sort who issues blanket condemnations of "Government," employing no specificity whatsoever, even as he drives down government-funded streets and highways, walks on taxpayer-funded sidewalks, uses government-funded sanitation systems, rides government-subsidized New York subways, Atlanta buses or Illinois METRA trains. A "Libertarian" very likely benefits from the education he received at a government-affiliated University and breathes air that is considerably less contaminated with lead than it was in 1970 due to the action of that government agency, EPA. Many more example of this kind of "Libertarian" duplicity are possible, but hopefully I've made my point. Ayn Rand received Social Security near the end of her life, and benefited from Medicare, too.

I am the NRA

I'm the NRA and it's true: Rocket launchers don't kill people, people kill people! Gosh darn it, if I want a .50 caliber machine gun for Kristmas, that's nobody's business but my own, and Santa Claus BETTER oblige me! And yer darn tootin' - I NEED my vintage WW2 howitzer to keep the US Gub'mint at bay. With my arsenal, I should have no problem fending off their F-16s, Nuclear-tipped long-range missiles, napalm, depleted uranium and all the rest of their toys. Vote Republican! (I'm joking, BTW.) http://www.jsonline.com/business/background-check-requests-for-gun-purchases-up-60-sa85thi-184953111.html

JESUS CHRIST!!!

JESUS CHRIST!!! * Jezus Christus!!! * Jésus-Christ!!! * Jezus Krishti!!! * Jesus Kristo!!! * Jesucrist!!! * Isus Krist!!! * 耶稣基督!!！* Ježíši Kriste!!! * Jesus Kristus!!! * Xesús Cristo! * Jesuo Kristo!!! * Jeesus Kristus!!! * Jesu-Cristo!!! * ΙΗΣΟΥ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ!!! * JEZIKRI!!! * ישו נוצרי!!! * Jézus Krisztus!!! * Íosa Críost!!! * YESUS KRISTUS!!! * GESU 'CRISTO!!! * イエス·キリスト!! * 예수 그리스도!!! * IESU CHRISTO!!! * Jēzus Kristus!!! * JĖZUS KRISTUS!!! * ИСУС ХРИСТОС!!! * Ġesù Kristu!!! * JESUS KRISTUS!!! * !!!عیسی مسیح * Jezus Chrystus!!! * JESUS CRISTO!!! * ISUS HRISTOS!!! * ИИСУС ХРИСТОС!!! * JESUCRISTO!!! * YESU KRISTO!!! * Jesu Kristi!!! * இயேசு கிறிஸ்து!!! * พระเยซูคริสต์!!! * İSA MESİH!!! * Chúa Giêsu Kitô!!! * IESU GRIST!!! Well now, there we are. I may be the penultimate atheist, and a class of 1981 graduate of Blessed Sacrilege High School, but at least I KNOW HOW TO KEEP CHRIST IN KRISTMAS!!! Enough of the Krass Kommercialization of Kristmas! This is all about Jeezus's Birthday, even if that day falls in March, NOT December. JESUS CHRIST!!! Oh My Fracking GOD!!! Ho ho ho and a barrel of fun!!! And let me just add that the next humanoid who utters the tired and tiresome "Merry Kristmas" mantra at me will get an earful, straight outta my Season of Discontent. I am NOT "JEEZUS"S son."

No cuts to Social Security's Cost of Living Adjustments!

In November, President Obama implied that Social Security cuts were "off the table" in the fiscal cliff discussions. So what do we hear in Mid-December? Namely, that the president has offered up reductions in Social Security's annual Cost Of Living Adjustments as a sacrificial offering to John Boehner and the rest of Congress's austerity-mongers. My response to that is "No Way." This is not why I voted for Barack Obama last month. We must not tolerate any effort to reduce deficits by harming seniors and the disabled. We should definitely tax the wealthy at a higher rate, in order to increase revenue. But Social Security is a retirement insurance program into which millions have already paid their fair share. And it has a $2.7 trillion surplus in its trust fund. No attempt to rip off seniors and the disabled should go unchallenged. Indeed, no such attempt would be entertained by people interested in promoting a just society. While we're at it, let's endeavor to keep Wall Street's greedy hands off of Medicare and Medicaid. I cannot accept the idea that these two highly successful programs might be privatized or otherwise harmed. Neither should President Obama be comfortable with such a notion.

Just found out Mayor Michael Bloombug is "worth" $25 billion

I am of the opinion that we could do a lot better, as humanoids, if we divested the ulltra-rich of their absurd opulence and privilege. Then the rest of us might breathe, eat, sleep and all the rest a little easier.

Email to a Friend - "I'm Against It."

Today's email to a friend who is not on Facebook: "_____ , thanks for your response, and as we both realize, 'this is complicated.' Yet, by your 'reasoning:' Should the United States modify its interventionist policy in Central Africa, and resume supplying Rwandan invaders fighting a vicious insurgency in Eastern Congo? Or should it send weapons to the Congolese instead, as it did when it bolstered the vicious Mobutu Sese Seko regime for decades? The brutal, ongoing Congolese conflict has killed far more poeple than have died in Syria over the last two years. What makes the Congo a less worthy 'beneficiary' of US military 'largesse' than Syria? Should the US have been involved in overthrowing Manuel Zelaya, as the former Honduran president maintains it was? And just look at Honduras now! Should American military and intelligence units have conspired against Hugo Chavez, attempting to remove him in a 2002 military putsch? They did, of course. Many Venezuelans resent us for just that. What about Darfur in the year 2005? Was the CIA, utilizing our tax dollars, obliged to have supported, in a big way, the Christian minority then fighting the Muslim Sudanese government? For that matter, should we have gotten involved on a major scale in Sri Lanka's civil war, from 1983-2010? Where does 'legitimate' US-sponsored interventionism begin, and where does it END in your mind's eye? Does your interventionism have any basis in rational thinking, or are you guided by purely emotional factors? But why have you set your sights so keenly and particularly on Syria? Why have you made it the Number One focus of the militarism and interventionism you currently espouse? What about the law of unintended consequences? The CIA armed the Afghan Mujahadeen beginning in 1980 - in retrospect, I don't see that as having had a positive outcome, over a 32-year span. Think: 'BLOWBACK.' More recently, I don't think Libya is noticeably better off than it was under Qaddaffi - yes, Qaddaffi is gone, but Libya was significantly damaged and destabilized by the bombing, and now suffers a seemingly intractable refugee problem, among other grave consequences. I can't imagine you actually believe that deposing any and every dictator 'unfavorable to America' - often people we SUPPORTED previously - is our god-given, 'Manifest Destiny,' our national mission for Americans living in the 21st Century. First Manuel Noriega was "OUR Guy;" then he wasn't, and thousands of ordinary Panamanians paid with their lives. The last hundred years should have taught us, as a people, that we're better off staying out of many, if not the vast majority of these conflicts, or at least seeking an international humanitarian response instead. Why are you clamoring to arm Syrian rebels in 2012, when I don't imagine you supported the Contras' 1980's counterinsurgency in Nicaragua? (It was obviously right to oppose the Contras.) Just becasue Assad is a "VERY bad guy" doesn't mean I'm prepared to advocate US intervention in Syria now. That's what Obama and Hillary are considering, BTW, full-scale intervention, at least from the air. Moreover, merely arming the Syrian rebels is also a form of intervention. It IS taking sides, with god only knows what eventual outcome. As for Israel, all I will say about that country is I favor halting the $4 billion in annual military aid to that outlaw regime, especially in light of their recent actions in Gaza and their stated intention to build yet more illegal settlements. As for the Syrian people potentially holding feelings of resentment and ill-will toward Americans in the future if we don't arm the rebels - consider that millions of Iraqis and Afghans now hold precisely such sentiments - just because the US DID intervene. So, _____, feel free to call me a hopeless isolationist - I'd much rather be that than an American Imperialist. -DG P.S.: The United States currently has a national debt in excess of $16 trillion."

Milwaukee Spring

If you ever want to visit this region, come in December. Springtime is beautiful in Wisconsin.

McKibben is RIGHT.

On November 29, 2012 Bill McKibben, one of the foremost activists on the issue of climate change, shared some of the following harsh realities on Wisconsin Public Radio; other statistics I'm adding: The past decade was the hottest on record in the co ntinental United States, and last July was the warmest July ever recorded in the Lower 48. Due to rising sea temperatures, the world's oceans are now 30% more acidic than they were 40 years ago, resulting in terrible damage to coral reefs, for example. The Florida reef that extends from just south of Miami to beyond Key West, I've read, is more than 90% dead already. Greenland's ice cap is melting at an unprecedented rate - last summer, more than 97% of its surface was in some stage of melting. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is breaking up, and the Arctic Ocean's winter ice cover has been dramtically disappearing in the years since satellite imagery began regularly keeping track, in 1979. According to a BBC report from last night, global sea level has risen 11 milimeters in the last two decades. Hurricane Sandy may have caused as much as $50 billion in damage to NY State alone, and our Summer 2012 Midwestern drought may have caused another $150 billion in losses. Where are all the global climate change deniers now, in the wake of Superstorm Sandy? Every single caller to "Wisconsin Talks" was in agreement with Mr. McKibben as to the basic fact that human-induced climate change is occuring at a breathtaking and shocking pace. If Canada and the US stay on track to export and burn all the oil extracted from Alberta's tar sands, it could very well be "Game Over" for Planet Earth. http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/18/2012-hottest-year-on-record-federal-agency-says/

Re: Austerity, or the "Fiscal Cliff"

There's no doubt a better way to reduce Medicare costs than the $400 billion in "unspecified" possible cuts I heard Tim Geithner allude to, as he was speaking on behalf of the Obama administration Nov 2, on "This Week With George Stephanapolous." Let's allow Medicare Part D to purchase cheaper, generic medications, from Canada, like the Doyle administration did here in Wisconsin. That was before first Tommy Thompson, then the Scott Walker regime started unraveling everything that was decent about my dear old native state. http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2012/sep/04/tammy-baldwin/uncle-sam-barred-bargaining-medicare-drug-prices-s/

Some thoughts about Syrian situation

As terrible as what the Syrian regime is doing to its people is, I don't think the US should intervene. Nor do I really believe the US will intervene. Obama is basically a pragmatist, at least compared to several of his more insanely interventionist predecessors. He should bear in mind former "Defense" Secretary Gates' warning about the madness of any US president getting us into another Mid-East war. Even considering Obama's stupid, destructive and unwarranted Afghan escalation beginning in 2009, I would like to believe the Pres knows better than to get seriously involved in Syria or, for that matter, Iran. We've got too many used wars we need to wind down already, along with 800 bases in about 140 countries that need to be evacuated. We neeed to get the hell out of Yemen and Pakistan as well. I never have, and never will believe the appropriate American role was/is that of World-Cop. That attitude has killed countless tens of millions around the Third World since 1945, put us at least $10 (additional) trillion in debt, erased much of the Bill of Rights, and totally perverted the character of the American People. What we have in this country is MILITARY MADNESS RUN AMUCK. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/obama-warns-syria-warned-over-signs-chemical-weapons-are-being-readied-against-rebels-8381157.html