Dubai a look into our future...

From The Agonist:

Is Dubai a look into our future?


"...there is no one – absolutely no one – who can come to the United States’ rescue. And if you want to believe that the US would never, ever ask for a little extra time to pay back its debt, or ask for it to be restructured in some way, or debase its currency with inflation in order to throw its debt burden on to those who have financed it, that is your affair. Just remember there are millions of individuals, funds, corporations, and governments around the world who have bought US Treasuries. It only takes a few to wonder long and hard enough about just how safe and secure these Treasuries are to cause a stampede out of them, at which point the US is exposed like Dubai as a naked supplicant in the global market, begging for alms and a little forgiveness for past sins."

Stefanie Spielman...

Stephanie Spielman 1967-2009

Here is a wonderful slide-show.

Afghanistan

Here we go, "nation-building" again. Not gonna work.

We have a very moral purpose in hunting down terrorists, killing them and publicizing the fact that we will continue to do so. Problem is, we don't have a handle on "righteous anger" anymore. We assign blame to ourselves based on what terrorists say their reasons for attacking us were. We psychoanalyze to the point of national Stockholm Syndrome. And the result is that not only does it give rise to the perception that we are weak, it self-fulfills, and we are weak. And we become an even easier target.


“Fearsome acts. A man steals from me, I cut off his hand. If he offends me, I cut out his tongue. If he stands up against me, I cut off his head, stick it on a pike and lift it up for all to see. A spectacle of fearsome acts. That's what maintains the order of things. Fear.” - Bill The Butcher

Disappointed & Pissed...

Issues 2 & 3 are examples of the majority of voters not doing ANY research at all, passing two amendments written by the very owners of the interests those amendments purport to control.

Frighteningly, it may be a sign that most voters can't do the research, and even when things are spelled out to them, they either can't understand, or more likely, are ignorant through wilful stupidity.

It looks like they just gave their rights away (Issue 2 - a board now makes their decisions for them), followed by their wallet (Issue 3 - they sold something for less than a 10th of its market value).

The state just lost 450,000 million in license fees, and the farmers just took the right of the rest of us to vote on our food away.

Ignorance begets dangerous decisions.

Now the only way you can change it is through another public vote, either to amend the amendment or repeal it, which will cost the Taxpayer even more money -- on top of what they lost in the deal.

Now, we'll still have to deal with the Humane Society, as Issue 2 does nothing to stop that. And I think the average voter lost what control they have over the quality of our general food supply.

The only thing Issue 2 did was place the farmer under even more control from Big-Ag.

In the end, the farmers will find out they hurt their own pocket-book; and the real result will be that this board will be against everything from organic, free-range farming to Truth in Labelling. Big-Ag and the "Harm" Bureau don't want us to know where food comes from, how livestock are fed, and how many steroids and antibiotics are in the livestock they market.

More importantly, they don't want the voters to have a say about what types of farming and farm pollution will be allowed to expand in Ohio. This lack of voter power will really hurt all of us down the road.

It's disgusting how much trust the public puts in TV ads.

Corruption loves an uninformed populace.