The Book of Lucre

Chapter 1

1
And it shall come to pass that in those days Lucre
shall become the supreme god among mankind.

They shall profess many beliefs, and claim many gods, but all will worship
Lucre.

2
And Lucre shall govern their acts, and govern their lives, for
there shall be no life without Lucre, and nothing shall be
accomplished without Lucre.

3
Lucre shall be the measure of virtue, and Lucre will be
the measure of worth, and all things will be measured by Lucre.

4
And nothing shall have value or worth, save that it be
measured by Lucre.

5
Many will worship Lucre in secret, for they will assume
powerful places among those who worship other gods, yet, in secret,
Lucre shall be their god, and they will love Lucre and worship
Lucre only.

6
All thoughts will be measured by the standards of Lucre, and
the measure of all men, and, if a man hath not Lucre, then his
thoughts are as nothing, not even as the breezes are the thoughts of
those who have not Lucre.

7
And a man hath not good, save that he hath Lucre,
and the measure of his life is by Lucre. His life is
worthless, save that he hath Lucre.

Chapter 2

1
For Lucre is all good, and Lucre is all holy, and Lucre
is all-powerful.

2
In Lucre all things have their being. Lucre is the
wellspring, and Lucre is the goal, and without Lucre
there is nothing.

3
Lucre hath neither pity nor compassion, for these things are
not of Lucre, and have no value. Lucre hath no remorse,
for what does not lead to Lucre hath no value, nor hath it any
consideration, lest it lead to Lucre.

4
All begins in Lucre, and in Lucre have all things their
end. From Lucre all things spring, and unto Lucre do
all things attain.

5
For Lucre is the reason for being of all things, and of all
mankind.

Chapter 3

1
Now it shall come to pass that in those days men shall cry
out, for they have not received justice, and they shall cry out, “
Where is Justice, O Lord? We are aggrieved, and downtrodden, and men
persecute us.”

2
But they shall have no justice, for they have not Lucre, and
in Lucre is all justice. For Lucre careth not for
justice, and justice is not of Lucre, yet shall Lucre
determine justice, for those who have not Lucre shall have not
justice, and Lucre shall not hear their cries.

3
And those that have been robbed shall cry out for justice likewise,
and Lucre shall hear them not, for they have not Lucre,
and they have not life or justice, nor shall there be mercy shown
them, for they have not Lucre.

4
And those who fall sick shall die, if they have not Lucre,
and they who have not Lucre shall have no homes, nor shall a
mother even purchase milk for her newborn, unless she have Lucre.

Chapter 4

1
For it hath been said that in early days Lucre was but a
servant, and served mankind.

2
And Lucre caused men to have trade with each other, so that
they could obtain goods, one from another, and obtain services, one
from another, because men had made Lucre, and Lucre
served them.

3
But men began to become befuddled by Lucre, and said, “only
gold is Lucre,” and “Lucre maketh value.”

4
And men began to worship Lucre, and to desire only Lucre,
and all their aim was for Lucre.

5
And all their efforts were for Lucre, and their eyes were
fixed upon Lucre. Their love was for Lucre, and they
held nothing of value but Lucre.

6
And they desired not food nor drink, nor did they crave the love of
women, nor of men, nor did they love justice, nor health, nor ways of
virtue.

7
For they said: “With Lucre can all these things be had,
and without Lucre, none, for Lucre alone is desirable,
and Lucre alone hath beauty. Lucre bringeth health, and
justice, and the love of men and women. Lucre bringeth food
and drink, and Lucre provideth shelter. Therefore shall Lucre
be the judge of good and evil, and those who have Lucre shall
be good, and those who have not Lucre shall be evil. Those who
have Lucre shall be counted among the just, and those who have
not Lucre shall be counted among the unjust. Those who have
Lucre shall live, and those who have not Lucre shall
die.”

8
And they made a god of Lucre, and called Lucre
by many names, yet by whatever name, Lucre is the same.

9
If some say that Lucre hath rebelled, and become god from
being a servant, yet shall they be deemed in error, for Lucre
hath no mind for rebellion, nor for service, but, made into a god,
becometh God, and becoming desired, becometh desirable.

10
And so they made Lucre into a god, and made Lucre into
their god, and they worshiped Lucre, and Lucre alone,
and loved Lucre, and Lucre only, and desired Lucre,
and Lucre only, and all their thoughts were for Lucre,
though Lucre thinketh not, nor loveth, nor desireth, nor
careth Lucre for worship.

11
For Lucre hath no thought, nor hath Lucre love, nor
desire. Lucre heareth not, and seeth not. Lucre hath no
pity, nor hath Lucre tenderness, nor compassion. The love of
Lucre giveth no reward but the love of Lucre, and the
desire of Lucre is requited only by the desire of Lucre.
For the desire for Lucre is not quenched, nor is it ever
satisfied, if one hath Lucre, or if one hath not. For one who
worships Lucre is ever in thrall of Lucre, who careth
not, loveth not, pitieth not, and rewardeth not.

12
And so they made their god of Lucre, and did worship
Lucre, and did hold Lucre above all things. And Lucre
became unto them the judge of all being, and all life, and all
acts.

13
And so in Lucre do all things have their being. In Lucre have all
things their life, and for Lucre do all things perish.

The True Name of God

One problem our society has today is its religion. I'm not talking about Christianity, although I have a few problems with some precepts there, I'm talking about the real religion of the United States. Make no mistake about it, the U.S. is a theocracy, ruled, and ruled in close to an absolute sense, by a religious establishment.
No, again, I'm not talking about what's become known as the Religious Right, although that would be a more than fair description. I'm not talking about Evangelical or Fundamentalist Christians. They may wish they ran the country, and some people believe that they do, but, in reality, the U.S. is run by the religious establishment of another god altogether.

The true name of the god of the United States is Money.

Think about this: Doesn't it seem as if the railing against the Obama Administration's course on the economy has reached the tone of a religious war? It does, because a religious conflict is exactly what it is. Obama is violating the tenets of money-worship.

This violation stems from an understanding of what money used to be, and a misunderstanding of what it has become. In the not-too-distant past, money was, for want of a better term, a servant of society.
What money did was facilitate trade between people. Here's a simple example: Say you're a farmer, and you grow wheat. You need to buy a plow, but the person who sells plows doesn't want any wheat; he has no use for it. So you have this stuff that you both agree is worth something - you call it "money." You give him the right amount of money, and he gives you a plow. Now, he takes that money, and uses it to buy groceries, because he needs to eat, but plain wheat just doesn't cut it for him. The grocer uses some of that money to buy flour, which he can sell for money, and the miller, from whom he bought that flour, used money to buy your wheat. So, what money did was allow you to trade with somebody who didn't need or want your stock in trade. Same with everyone else in the chain.

Money, in this case, acts as a servant of society, and this action is good for all concerned. However, in today's society, money has assumed a different role. People who misunderstand this are in for trouble from a lot of different directions, some of which surprise them.
The desire for more of the things that money can buy became transformed into a desire for money itself, first, because of it's buying power, and later, because people started to want it for its own sake. Money became the god of our society. It became the holy object. It changed from a means to an end into the end itself. The quest for money has replaced the quest for righteousness, the quest for truth, and the quest for happiness. Money itself appears to have replaced all of those things in the eyes of our society.

Money is Truth. Money is Happiness. Money is Righteousness. Money is God. All things are justifiable if they lead to the acquisition of Money. Money, and only Money, is holy.

A warning, though:

Money is the cruelest of gods. Money brooks no other values. If a thing, an idea, or a desire cannot be meaured in Money, it has no value. There is no value but Money.
Some years ago, there was a local news anchorwoman in the New York area. Her name was Sara Lee Kessler, and she was an Orthodox Jew. Because she took her faith seriously, she would not work between sundown on Friday and sundown on Saturday. That is the time of the Jewish Sabbath, and the Orthodox perform no labor during that time. Her employer, however, determined that there was a need for her to work on Saturday, during the Sabbath. She refused to do so, and she was terminated. Now, those who deny that money-worship is a religion (and most of the more rabid money-worhippers will, in fact, deny that what they do is religion) will tell you that she was fired because she was insubordinate - she, after all, refused to work when she was told she must work. Don't be fooled by this. She was fired for religious reasons. Her Judaism came into direct conflict with her employer's worship of Money, and she was fired because of that.

No religion takes precedence over the worship of Money.

I am constantly amazed by the Christian Right's support of large corporate interests. Here are people who claim to take their Scripture literally, but they support the most brutal Money-worship, forgetting the words of Deuteronomy 12:31: "You shall not behave thus toward the LORD your God, for every abominable act which the LORD hates they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods." You see, one of the things near the top of the Hebrew God's list of abhorrent practices is human sacrifice, yet Money demands, and receives, human sacrifice on a regular basis.

Industrial accidents that occur because the officers of companies just will not spend the money to fix dangerous situations in the workplace take the lives of scores of people every year. Lives are lost, people are disfigured, they lose limbs and other body parts, all as part of the continual sacrifice to Money. On April 24th of this year, McWane Inc., a manufacturer of iron pipe, was fined $8 million for workplace safety violations and environmental crimes at its Atlantic States foundry in Phillipsburg, NJ. Four managers were convicted in 2006 of "repeatedly conspiring to deceive regulators." The motive? Why, Money, of course. Federal prosecutors "described a Dickensian corporate culture that put production and profits ahead of all other considerations, including the well-being of its 6,000 employees, who toil in one of the nation’s most dangerous industries." People were killed. People lost fingers, eyes, hands, and arms. Those were human sacrifices to Money.

One of the better-known industrial accidents recently involved a fire at the Imperial Foods chicken processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina. Twenty-five people were killed and fifty-four injured when they were trapped behind locked fire doors. Why were the doors locked? The explanation for locking the fire doors was that employees were suspected of stealing food through the fire doors, and the cheapest measure the company could take to prevent such theft was to lock the doors, which wer intended as a means of escape during a fire. Human sacrifice - to Money.

Many of us remember the story of the Ford Pinto. The Pinto was a smallish car that became infamous for the tendency of its fuel tank to explode into flames if the car were struck from behind. Ford determined that the cost to fix the problem would cost $6 per car.
Six dollars.
Ford refused to fix the problem, saying that the cost was too high.
Six dollars per car.
Did Ford really value the lives of its customers at under six dollars? Of course not. What happened was that somebody in their actuarial department figured out roughly how many lives would be lost in rear-end collisions where the tanks burst into flames. They then determined the average cost to settle each case, multiplied by the expected number of such cases, and compared that to the cost of fixing their cars at six bucks per car. They determined that it would be cheaper to settle all the cases than to fix all the cars. That, Dear Reader, is nothing less than human sacrifice - to Money.

No life is worth more than Money.

It might be argued that what people really worship is all the stuff they can get with money. It's just the desire for things that causes such behavior. That fails to explain the fact that the more money people have the more stuff they expect to get without paying any money for it. It fails to explain the obsessive hatred of taxes of any kind by people who live in the most lightly-taxed country in the industrialized world.
It's not the stuff, it's the money. Stuff is stuff. Money is holy. We don't just want it; we worship it. It is the object of all our desire. Money claims - and gets - priority over health, family, faith, truth, justice, environment - Money is preeminent.

Money is the true Name of God.

Tea Parties My Ess

So, today is "Tax Day," the IRS income tax filing deadline, and people are gathering to mark the occasion with "Tea Parties" across the nation. These "Tea Parties" are modeled after the famous Boston Tea Party of yore, and are supposed to highlight the plight of the hard-working people who are being oppressed by burdensome taxes levied by an insensitive and bloated government, out to preserve its privilege at the expense of the populace.

What a total crock. I'm not going to mince words here - why should I? What we've seen today is a large number of stupid people who have been led into political rallies staged by the Republican Party, in order to protest the fact that the extremely well-off are finally being made to once again contribute to paying for the benefits they receive from our country, in more-or-less just proportion to those benefits. The people doing the protesting, let me note, are, for the most part, not among those being asked for a more just contribution, and, furthermore, many of the protesters will likely end up with a reduced burden, finally, after almost three decades of shouldering a disproportionate share of the economic load. Perhaps I offend some people, but, there you go. They are just plain stupid; there's no other word that does justice to the idiotic display these people are making of themselves. Why not just find the richest guy in your town and pay his kids' college bills for him? I mean, maybe he finds them too expensive, and you can
help him out. While you're at it, why not let him know that you think you make too much money for the work you do, and that he deserves to have some of yours? Or, you can suggest that he'll get better value if he fires you and gets someone in China to do your job.

Honestly, just how stupid are these people? For around thirty years now, American workers have been told that they're too expensive - lazy and unproductive, we cannot possibly compete against people in East Asia, Europe, or pretty much anyplace that's not here. Our benefits are too costly. Of course, in many countries where labor is "cheaper," the government also supplies health benefits (as in most of Europe, Japan, and Korea. Even China is developing a universal health care insurance system). We can't do that here, though. That would be "socialism." So, the price companies pay for labor here includes health benefits, which are govenment-supplied in those countries our workers compete against. The solution here, of course, is to simply not provide such insurance, or to offshore industrial production, thereby fobbing the health insurance costs off to those foreign governments. Oh, by the way, how, do you think, do those governments pay for those benefits? Why, through taxes, of course. Citzens in those countries, incuding the rich ones, have a generally higher tax burden than we do here. In all the industrialized world, we have among the lightest tax loads. But, hey, why let facts get in the way of a good bitch session? And then these working people attend rallies to show their support for the very people who have done this to them. How stupid are they, anyway?

Oh, well, we hear, pensions are too rich, and too expensive. Excuse me, but, if companies (and governments) would simply stop raiding their pension funds to hide operating losses, most of them wouldn't find pensions so expensive. As I mentioned, governments do this, too. Here's an example:

In New Jersey, we're being told that the state workers' pension expenses are outstripping the value of the pension fund. Workers enjoy pensions that are far too large, goes the argument. How could we have let ourselves in for such a predicament? Let's go back a few years, to the administration of one Christie Whitman (who, incidentally, did such an execrable job as Governor that her own party, the Republican Party, doesn't like to talk about her). During her adminstration, she and her advisers came to the conclusion that the state pension fund was "overfunded." This was during a boom in the markets. Her party ran on the premise that taxes were too high, but they didn't want to cut off programs that were either necessary or just popular (like the "Homestead Rebate," which is nothing more than a bribe to taxpayers. "Rebate?" Just adjust the tax rates, cowards). So, what did Ms. Whitman and her cohorts do? They stole the money from the pension fund. Stole it. That's the only word that accurately describes what they did. They stole the money from the pension fund so that they wouldn't have to tax people to pay for what they get from the state. Now that the markets aren't so high anymore, those funds are no longer "overfunded." In fact, they are seriously underfunded, and they've become a drain on the state budget. Does anyone point the finger (justly) at Ms. Whitman? No, indeed, the blame falls on those very workers whose money was stolen by the aforementioned Whitman and her cronies. And who is it that's making all this noise? The very same Republican Party that perpetrated the theft of funds from the workers' pensions. Now, there's justice for you.

So, now, that party is staging these "Tea Parties." The party that steals from public workers, and whose loathing of legal constraints on business has led to the greatest theft of people's savings and investments in our recent history, the party who has engineered the raising of expenses of working people, while cutting the incomes of those same people, the "Robin Hood-in-reverse" Party, who have taken from the poor and given to the rich - these people are organizing "Tea Parties" to complain about the awful burden they carry.

For shame.

For utter shame.

The Republican Party has forsaken any sense of civic duty. They pander to the basest instincts of the electorate. They encourage petty greed, anti-social behavior, and outright criminality. They preach anarchy. They have no shame.

As for working people who support these shameless thieves that have ravaged our country and its people:

They are unutterably stupid.

Pfrustrating Pfreakin' Pfaucets...

So, I have this kitchen faucet, by Price-Pfister. It began to drip, so I figured I'd run out to my local big-box "Home Improvement Center" and get the parts to fix it.
Not so fast.
These days, with every little thing being replaced by "NEW!! IMPROVED!!" versions, parts for items a couple of years old aren't always that easy to find. So, on to the second big-box "Home Improvement Center." I actually found a part, but by a maker of replacement parts, not Price-Pfister (now owned by Black and Decker, by the way). Took the handle off the faucet (pfaucet?). OK, now to remove the cartridge. Usually, this is done by unscrewing a cap that either holds the cartridge in, or is part of the cartridge. Well, off comes the cap. Top of valve stem is still in the fixture, so I pull it out (yes, I turned the water off first). The top of it comes out, leaving the bottom of the valve cartridge still in the fixture. It seems the way this particular valve is made involves several parts, and they are held together by the top of the stem, which is a snap-fit onto the bottom part. Trouble is, the friction holding the bottom into the fixture is more than enough to prevent it from being removed by pulling on the top. Pulling the top of the stem disassembles the valve, leaving the bottom part in the fixture. There are about three other tiny little bits floating around between them, one of which, at least, could have been made as part of the top piece, but wait, there's more! There's no way to remove the bottom piece without destroying it. Nice work. Well, I remove the bit from the fixture, destroying it as I do, and put in the new valve. unfortunately, the handle now doesn't come back to the correct position when the valve is shut off. It's just a bit shy. Or, moving it over a bit, it's a bit far. I think, maybe the valve is not in quite right. Lotsa luck, in order to change it, I have to destroy the bottom bit... remember that? Well, I do just that, and I replace both the hot and cold stems. Three valves bought to replace two. Guess what? Neither valve handle lines up correctly, and now the damn faucet drips way worse than before. Now, I've fixed a few faucets in my time, and never, I mean never have I had problems like this.
What's the deal, does no U.S.-based manufacturer see fit to make a decent product anymore? This is not the only product I've seen that's been a disappointment, but it's the straw that's making this camel's chiroprator bills go a little over the limit today. Remember when there were these companies in Detroit, Michingan, who used to make cars? It seems they got so carried away with making money that they forgot how to make cars, and manufacturers from Japan, Korea, Germany and Sweden started to take away their market share. The first thing they tried was to buy some of the competition, or make deals with them. So now, Detroit bought the Swedish car makers. Buying the Japanese didn't work out, though, because at least one of them got to be as big as any of the Detroit companies. Eventually, as we know, Detroit and it car makers fell on very hard times. They may or may not be around this time next year, but they should still serve as a warning to other companies in this country.
People don't care how much money you make when they're buying your products. What they care about is whether they're getting a product that's worth all the effort they put out to get the money they're turning over. Lately, the crap that U.S. manufacturers have been turning out hasn't been worth the effort. In fact, it seems that every new thing put out by a manufacturer here these days has been no more than a better effort to express contempt for the poor dope who's expected to buy the thing. Of course, while we're talking about contempt, we may as well mention the treatment these same companies dish out to people unfortunate enough to work for them. It seems these employees (who are also, incidentally, buyers of those products) cost too much to maintain. Not enough money going to stockholders after the managers skim off their "share." Of course, decreasing the payouts also increases the managers' "share," so there still isn't enough going to the stockholders. But, hey, if we can't pay the price for that kind of talent, we'd have to hire people who might, I don't know, try to run the business for the benefit of the stockholders (who, in many cases are those same employees and customers, because their pension funds or 401(k) accounts hold company stock), rather than treating the companies as their personal piggy banks (and I do mean "piggy").
Anyway, back to the trigger of this particular rant:
Hey, Price-Pfister! Your pfaucets are cheap pfieces of pfucking junk! Kiss my ass, Black and Decker! Your stuff has been just plain bad for years, now.
And let this be a warning to any other U.S. manufacturers:
If this is what I can expect from you, inferior products at inflated prices, bad service and support, and bad replacement parts you can't even bother to make yourselves, then I hope every one of you goes out of business. Will people be hurt? Probably, but they're the people who have gotten used to it - the people who have always paid for your mistakes. If you're gone, they will eventually get other jobs, because, stuff will still need doing, and there will be a place for people who can do it. There will, I hope, be no place for you, the people who run these scams we call industries in this country.
I hope you starve.
I hope your children and grandchildren starve.
I hope others learn from this and never dare to try what you have tried, to make a fortune doing as little as possible, and charging top dollar for it.
You are all reprehensible frauds, and we are better off without you and your progeny. The only thing useful you can leave behind is the memory of how business should not be done.

Bobby Jindal just doesn't get it

So, here we go with the same tired nonsense the Republican hacks have been touting for years. Bobby Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana, is telling Americans that the way to fix our broken economy is to do more of the same stuff that broke it. That's right, more tax cuts for the people who already have all the money. Yup, more downsizing of government, and less regulation for the businesses that have proven, over the last twenty-eight years, just how trustworthy they are. Less spending on public projects that have been neglected for nearly three decades, and more "Welfare for the Wealthy."

Are

We

That

Stupid?

For the last three decades, we've pretty much been giving these people what they've demanded (not asked for, mind you. Demanded.). What we're stuck with now is the direct result of what we've done. We have plundered our children and our grandchildren, and given their future to multinational corporations whose only loyalty is to the enrichment of their top management. These are corporate entities that have even robbed their investors, by lying about the value of their assets, and bestowing enormous bonuses on managers who have done a manifestly bad job.

We have decided that education is too expensive. We have decided that we can do without decent roads; hell, we can just drive around in SUV's, right? Can't afford one, you lazy bum? Walk!

Jindal says that the bill for this stimulus package will "increase our taxes down the line, and saddle future generations with debt."

As opposed to what, exactly? The war in Iraq, a conflict that was perpetrated on the basis of a pack of lies?

As opposed to watching our livelihoods shipped overseas, to people who will never make enough money to afford the goods they make for us, who will no longer be able to afford them, because our jobs are gone?

As opposed to allowing fast-money scammers to cheat individuals, small businesses and charities out of billions of dollars?

As opposed to so deregulating our banking system that we have brought about the very calamity that those regulations were designed to prevent?



Bobby Jindal just doesn't get it, and neither does his party.

Talk about tone-deafness! Here we are being lectured about how to fix our finances by the Governor of Louisiana, Louisiana, for Gods' sake! Is there a state whose name has become more synonymous with corruption? What's the matter, couldn't they get Jim Gibbons from Nevada to deliver the speech? This is what the GOP has to offer us as a spokesperson?

Are there no sane Republicans left at all? Have the fundies and the free-trade-at-any-costers driven all perspective from the ranks of the GOP?

Maybe what we've got is what they always planned for us.

There's a thought, huh?

Could they have done it any better if they had planned it? Maybe they did. Think about that. Why else would their best suggestion for what to do be to do more of what we've been doing?

Why would they have undone every regulation that was put in place to prevent a rerun of the Great Depression? Can they really tell us, with straight faces, they they didn't know what would happen? If so, can they really tell us, now, with straight faces, that we should keep on keeping on, and all will be well? Hey, we tried this road twice, and twice it took us to the same place. What do you mean, "keep going?"

They just don't get it.

Or maybe they do. That's even scarier, but the evidence is there.

Look, after the first fighting wore out in Iraq, the military was going all over that country trying to find those WMD's they went in to find. I so wanted them to find them. Why? Well, who wanted to believe that any administration, any President, in the United States would deliberately put our military personnel in harm's way over a bunch of lies? Who wants to believe that? I was never a fan of G.W. Bush, but I never wanted to believe that he'd be willing to send Americans to their deaths over a pack of lies.

But, now, after the years have passed, we see what happened in Iraq, and how we got involved there.

I was wrong.

Who wants to believe that any responsible political party in this country would impoverish a huge segment of the nation to enrich a few people who need enrichment not at all? Who wants to believe that any party would endorse the demonization and denunciation as traitors of any who dare to challenge its views? Who wants to believe that any group of Americans would support subjecting the bulk of the population to wiretapping without warrants, unreasonable search and seizure, and flat-out poverty?

I don't want to believe that any would.

However, I was wrong before.

Could I be wrong again?

Anyone out there who isn't scared?

Talk about just not getting it...

Well, here we are, into a new year, and into a new administration in the White House. Are we better off? Well, no, and we won't be for quite a while. After all, it's taken nearly three decades to eff this economy up; we're not going to fix it overnight.
I'm grimly amused by the debates going on in the media these days, though. At CNBC, we have the battery of experts decrying most of the Administration's attempts to undo some of the harm that's been done by the preceding crowd. "We need more bankers and financial experts handling this!" is one of their cries, "We need people who know how to do this stuff."
Now, the people our pundit friends want to take care of this have just spent most of the last decade proving to all and sundry that they manifestly do not know how to "do this stuff." Do we really want them to keep running the show? I don't think so.
Then again, one of Larry Kudlow's more frequent guests these days is Art Laffer. Now, there's a guy whose last name is probably the best description of his economic policy. Hey, Larry, what's going on? Got some extra inventory of snake oil or something? Get with the program, Man. The really rich have already got most of the money, and they've already bought all the crap they want. Now, how 'bout we spread some around, so the rest of us can meet our bills?
This brings me to one of my favorite spectacles: The Republican Party hacks screaming about the stimulus package. "We need less spending and more tax cuts!" Honestly, now, haven't we been doing that since 1981? It's as if you went to see a doctor about a broken thumb and he tells you that what you really need to do is smack that broken thumb with a hammer a few times. Fix it right up, that will. Sure. Let's fix our economy by doing the same thing that broke it. Are we insane, or merely stupid? How can these guys walk the streets without people pointing and laughing? Well, there's a story there, and I'll work on that in future posts.