December 2011

1984, Y2K, 2012…(12/28/2011)

1984, Y2K, 2012…(12/28/2011)

It started last week when I saw my first article referencing a countdown to the winter solstice of 2012 when the Mayan calendar predicts the world will end. I think this is silliness and would be the same as a future archaeologist mining a 21st century landfill and finding a “Snap-On” tools calendar ending 12/31/2011. Speculative archaeologists make conclusions based on limited data and future generations could infer we worshipped scantily clad women and predicted our termination at the end of this year.

Cultures have always focused on end-of-time events. I believe a fascination with the opportunity to have a genesis of life provides hope by focusing on doomsday dates . Whether fueled by Nostradamus, lunatics like Harold Camping, a novel written by George Orwell, or the errors of 1960’s computer programmers, Hollywood, the media, and internet pundits focus on predictions to build their own following and create panic. Speculation from movies like The Road, Armageddon, or 2012 feed the appetite of people seeing hope through termination of today’s woes and a clean start in a new world.

Predictions of an Orwellian society did not come true in 1984. However, a slow incremental change has occurred and continues to take us closer to that vision nearly every day. Slowly liberties and freedoms are eroding to government sponsored surveillance and restricted speech, travel, and freedoms. Looking back to 1999 we know airplanes did not fall from the sky or satellites crash to earth, and traffic lights and computers continued to operate. However, more than any prophetic event facing our world the hype around Y2K contained a level of validity. Personally, as a software-company owner at the time, I benefitted from failures of my competitors to update products for the year 2000 and conclude a level of failure was avoided through preparation.

In 2012 disasters are looming on the horizon which may create the feel of a societal collapse and end life as we know it. At the end of 2011 when we feel the worst of the financial crisis is behind us the world governments have used their ammunition to save the economies but the battle must continue. With no way left to fight Europe will face its biggest financial challenge and could ultimately collapse upon itself. Although China has expanded rapidly growth will halt and credit will freeze due to an American and European consumer hunkered down awaiting the end of the world where iPhones and shopping malls will no longer be important. Western nations will fight to recover outsourced industries, realizing globalism created a Roman Empire like gluttonous lifestyle and they must save themselves through isolationism, thus shutting down third-world development and freezing economic growth.

I predict the world will not end December 21, 2012. However, our current malaise will continue to exacerbate and make many wish an epic calamity would cleanse our past mistakes. Careful prudence and pragmatism will guide the successful whereas hardship will enslave many of our friends and neighbors unwilling to change old habits. Ultimately we will look back laughingly at the hyped prophecy of 2012 as we do past predictions. Next up, Hollywood can focus on the impending collision of the Apophis Asteroid on April 13, 2036. Happy New Year!

Only in America

Only in America (12/14/2011)

Every day the world around seems to get crazier. Headlines shout out moves by our government that make no sense, but yet we abide by the changes thrust upon us. I thought I would compile a short list of what I consider infringements upon our liberties that we could not imagine five years ago, and certainly never a decade or two ago. Through slow incrementalism we, the citizens, have eroded our own freedoms.

Actions by TSA top the list; an agency which did not exist a decade ago but now employs approximately 50,000 screeners and has a budget of $8.1 billion. This agency now requires everyone to throw away water before boarding an airplane. Water is the essential liquid required to live on our planet, it puts out fires, and easily identified. But, only in America if you are drinking water while waiting in a security line is it now a security threat. A close second is last week’s incident by TSA strip searching 85 year-old Lenore Zimmerman. Only in America would a 100 pound 85 year-old be considered a terrorist requiring a complete vacate of common sense.

Attending theme parks and sports events has brought another level of questionability to liberty erosion. Watching the “rent a guard” screeners at facilities like the Coca-Cola museum, Georgia Aquarium, Disney, or Sea World laughingly rifle through personal belongings with chop sticks while wearing latex gloves confirms the authoritarian moves of fear implementation and our own stupidity. Only in America would we trust our lives to $9.00/hour security guards and allow them to infringe on our privacy while claiming to protect a commercial enterprise from a bogeyman terrorist threat.

Tracking citizens has become the latest trend by government both national and local. Although the constitution guarantees freedom from warrantless search and seizures, we have allowed government entities to track vehicles with GPS, install cameras using facial recognition software to track individuals, and license plate scanners watching and permanently recording the location of our vehicles. In addition, police departments now carry devices to take and download cellular phone data, without warrants, during stops. Only in America would George Orwell’s predicted tracking of citizens occur in our lifetime.

Nearly everyone with a smart phone has a video camera with them 24-hours per day. The first sensationalized recording of police brutality was the Rodney King beating caught by news helicopters, and if the cameras were not on scene the LAPD would have denied the punishment they put on King. Nearly every day citizens are now arrested for filming their own arrests or the arrests of others. The most serious being Michael Allison in Illinois who faces five counts of wiretapping for filming his own arrest this past summer. If we cannot film the public servants hired by us, the citizens, to ensure rights are protected then a police state has truly come into existence. Only in America would filming a police officer lead to the arrest of an innocent bystander.

Our country has changed before our eyes. Since the passage of the Patriot Act our government has accelerated its actions to interrogate, search, and control the innocent citizens of America. Our founding fathers warned against such actions and tried to protect us with the Bill of Rights. Only in America would we ignore history and readily give up Rights that were won with the blood of our ancestors.

Hang ’em

Hang ‘em (12/7/2011)

Americans tend to bury their heads in the sand when it comes to government. Sadly a majority cannot name the Vice President, and certainly not the Secretary of State or the Speaker of the House. Thus, this is the reason for referring to “sheeple” or “zombies” to stereotype the average citizen. It seems the career politicians understand this and manipulate the masses for their own gain. The latest failure of the ruling-elite is to come up with budget cuts for the next ten years. The proposed method of manipulation to make this happen was so appalling every member of the House and Senate should be publicly hung for treason against the people.

Over the last years, under Obama and prior to the Republicans winning the House majority, Congress has failed to submit a budget. This year with new leadership the Republican majority made a valiant attempt but was blocked by Democrats in the Senate from approving the budget. The new “super-committee” was created to break through the deadlock and find $1 trillion in cuts. What is more important to note was they were tasked with finding $1 trillion in savings over 10 years, starting in 2013. A simple task, right? $1 trillion over 10 years works out to $100 billion per year and the current budget is approximately $3.7 trillion in expenditures (outlays) and $2.6 trillion in revenues (incomes=taxes). A $100 billion cut per year is 2.7% of the total expenditures. Sadly, these ass-clowns running our country could not come to an agreement, but why should they? There are no consequences!

Similarly, on November 18, 2011 Congress had a chance once again to demonstrate the interests of the country and the people were more important than their bipartisan bickering. Voting primarily along party lines the proposal for an amendment to the constitution failed to pass. Currently 49 states have some type of balanced budget amendment. Interestingly, the federal government has only balanced the budget six times in the last 50 years, four times while Bill Clinton was president.

It is easy to ignore the actions of Congress as most people yawn over politics and turn on a Sunday afternoon football game. However, this past week the Federal debt hit a post WW2 high of debt to GDP (Total Debt/Total GDP) equal to 99.5%. In the next two weeks that number will move to triple digits and will not stop increasing. Interest rates are artificially low and any crisis remotely similar to Europe will drive the cost of treasury bonds higher therefore adding to debt faster. At the same time an economic malaise engulfs the country and GDP based on the consumerism of the threatened American shopper is likely to remain relatively flat. Congress is the only entity to change the course of America right now and it must make tough decisions to rein in spending. Arguments are taking place over taxes, but spending is the first, and easiest, place to cut. For instance: foreign aid, arts, museums, the Department of Interior, Department of Education, Department of Energy, and closing military bases overseas.

The ass-clowns running Congress want to ensure they have a luxurious lifestyle based on a taxpayer funded income and pension for life instead of making tough decisions best for future generations. I assert today’s Congress is committing treason as they have become the domestic enemies of our country by willfully and knowingly harming our credit rating, impairing national security through reckless spending, and stealing the wealth of future generations.