Taboo Plaza

Remember the good times five years ago?  President Bush 43rd mentioned our War on Terror daily.  His talking points narrowed to drive our military conquests of Iraq and Afghanistan.  His talking points were the daily agenda.

    "They believe that America will run from a challenge.  They're mistaken.  Americans are not the running kind.  The United States did not run from Germany and Japan following World War II.  We helped those nations to become strong and decent, democratic societies that no longer waged war on America.  And that's our mission in Iraq today."
                                                    George W. Bush- 10/9/2003

We went into Iraq and Afghanistan to fight Terror.  W's Administration rarely spoke about finances.  W's Administration painted pictures of injustice in which they wear the white hats.  Don't worry about it, because your "congrassman" is on the job.

    "Baghdad fell six months ago today, and important work still goes on in Iraq. Yet despite difficulties that we knew would occur, the Iraqi people prefer liberty and hope to tyranny and fear. Your congressman has been to Iraq, and he's seen firsthand the progress we've made in helping Iraqis build a secure and self-governing nation. There are terrorists in the country, but there's no dictator to protect them any more. And we're dealing with them one-by-one. We are fighting this evil in Iraq so that we do not have to fight it on the streets of our own cities."
                                                       Dick Cheney- 10/9/2003

W's Administration created an American Need then called everyone to attention.  Massive overtones played patriotic tales of good versus evil across our airwaves.  Terror figured its way into every political conversation because the Administration pushed the topic. 

There's benefits being in Office.

John McCain understood the cost and fought the Administration.  He voted against W's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans back in March 2003 because we were waging a war with an unknown financial cost.  He couldn't know then that the cost now is $1 trillion and climbing. 

McCain once respectably played the role of advocate for conservative financial policy.

You want a better country?  Pay attention to the political subtext taking place now as we ride Our Turmoil on Wall Street.  Listen to John McCain (2003) explain the reasons for why we're where we are now. 

Too bad the Republican National Committee can't run videotape of McCain (2003) speaking today.  People would immediately see through that as ploy.  In the business, they might say 'the American people are too smart for that.'  The obvious question left, 'what isn't the American voter too smart for?' 

John McCain must speak in 2008. 

He's not the same guy.  A Palin- McCain ticket does not speak to John McCain (2003.)  The guy who refused help from conservative Evangelicals.  A man who understood and expressed ways in which George W. Bush has been bad for the United States of America.  John McCain (2008) is not the same guy as John McCain (2003.)  John McCain (2003) as President would never allow investment firms to be bailed out on the Public Dole.  On top of that, McCain (2008) is just too slick.

John McCain (2001) wasn't slick.  He didn't have videos on YouTube.  His image wasn't produced MTV-style.  McCain (2001) campaign ads harkened back to 60's or 70's political ads.  McCain (2008) has a machine pushing him.  McCain (2008) sits alongside his wife Cindy, Sarah Palin (and who knows who else) on the Ride for the Presidency while the Machine manages the time up to November 4th, 2008.

Remembrance of Richard Wright and his Contribution to Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd is one of my top ten favorite bands.  Their music was brilliant.

Rest in Peace Richard Wright



Beautiful music was left behind and that's a life worth celebrating.




September 15th, 2008 Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright passed away.






Where Are My Followers of Christ on this One?

Faith in money is ubiquitous?  That means everywhere.  Tune into many channels talking about economics in America and you're liable to hear someone talk about people losing faith in the Market.  The market is people.  People with faith in the dollar bill.  There is little in the way of mainstream religious outrage. 

Faith in false idols may be okay.

Who preaches the word anymore?  Apparently noone with access to a significant amount of national airtime.  No one expressing outrage over sacred cows.  The steady drone of news commentators and economic advisors have replaced morality. 

The United States turns to socialism.  Bear Stearns, Freddie, Fannie and AIG you're in.  Merrill, fuck you.  This all takes place without a vote anywhere in sight from any kind of democratic institution.  Major policy in America was decided and if it is really bad who do we vote out of office then?  The U.S Fed is a private company.  We should change our name so other countries will recognize us. 

We should change our name so we recognize ourselves as a nation. 

Maybe we could call ourselves the Selectively Socialist States of America.  It sounds adequately facist enough for some of these major policy decisions that have just taken place without a vote cast publicly.  I have little problem accepting Socialism into our economic governance in this country.  The current system isn't working for me.  I suppose, if it's working for you then you might disagree.  However, if the current system isn't working for you then why not Socialist economic measures.

Socialism for millionaires is okay in this country.  Why not for me?  The money is being provided because the economy will fall apart.  So they would like you to believe.  Guys like Jim Cramer don't seem to buy it.  He's an out and out capitalist.  The guy is passionate about his topic.  He seems to think there's someone to blame.

It's a bit long but hang in for the payoff.

Cramer's emotional outburst seems to me adequate at least.  This happened a month ago because he saw what was coming.  It's hard to understand for you and I, because we're not on the inside.  The system isn't working for me and more than likely, it's not working for you either. 

You're working for the system.

Don't get mad though.  That doesn't do any good.  Beating your fists against the wall only hurts.  Nothing gets resolved and we end up back in the same place even if we win.  The only things that change are the Facist faces holding your reins.  It's an inside job.  Corporations hide the faces of those who would think they can mold your destiny.

Cramer talks to these people.  People you and I will never see.  They're not necessarily bad people.  They just don't share your interests.  They've worked hard for what they've got and they'll be damned if someone less deserving should get a dime of their money.


What is money though?  In a word, it's paper.  But, it's still something more than that.  It's also a credit in a log somewhere.  There are a bunchs of these logs.  Credits and debits.  We accept this form of money because we have faith we can use our money to purchase what we want.

We receive money because we work.  We labor producing something, at least we use to produce something.  What we produce now I'm not sure.  We use to produce items like salt, buttons and beach balls.  Then a dollar made sense.  If you're paid by item produced, there's a direct correlation for your work.  If beach balls sell for a dollar a piece and you make me four an hour; I'll pay you two dollars an hour. 

We are in 50/50.

Now we serve each other.  We're a service sector economy.  We sell each other crap produced elsewhere.  We produce a moment in time.  Nothing you can point to later and say my work accomplished that.  There is no 'that.'  Since a dollar is no longer worth gold or silver, and we really don't have anything else to base our money on, our dollars are essentially trade-able for each other's time.

With our labor and the faith of people on Wall Street the Dow Jones stock market jumped 368 points in one day.

Faith makes it happen but nothing has changed.  Our economic system is flawed in this country.

What Ron Paul is talking about, simply speaking, is the way our economy has been running.  I understand it like this: the U.S. Fed is a private organization.  One more time, the United States Federal Reserve (those who create money in this country) are a private corporation like Coke or Nike.  In 1976, we stopped backing our money with gold.  The U.S. Fed didn't have to have additional gold in the vaults to create more money.  They could print money as they felt necessary.

 Federal oversight from the U.S. Treasury Department and Congress is sometimes the Grand Debate.

The U.S. Fed creates money with interest.  Everytime you hear from Ben Bernanke, it seems, he is announcing the U.S. Federal Bank interest rates for loans.  He's the Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve (i.e. Banking) system.  He's in charge of printing money and distributing it to other banks in the country with interest.  This money gets documented in spreadsheet logs.

Question concerning interest in this kind of system: If I'm God and I print the only money of value in the world.  I decide to create only one five dollar bill in the whole world and I loan it to you for thirty days, but I expect six dollars in return- How are you going to pay me six dollars?

Add in now other banks borrowing money with interest from the U.S. Fed with their spreadsheets.  These second banks then loan money out again with interest, on top of the interest they owe to the U.S. Fed.  These secondary banks essentially create more money on their spreadsheets where there was no money before.  This has been allowed to continue because everyone has figured it would be all right.  If I give you five hundred dollars, you'll probably just put it in the bank.  Therefore, it's assumed you'd never really have to produce all of the money actually on your spreadsheets.  Creating money where there was no money before on spreadsheets.  That's why we are where we are today. 

Corporate entities made many loans in which there will never be enough money to satisfy the debt!

Banking rules allow banks to loan nine times more than they actually have in their vaults.  That's called fractional reserve banking.  Credits and debits go onto balance sheets with no true hard assets behind them.  Every bank creates money by charging interest on assets not present.

If I'm a bank and I have five dollars in my pockets, I'm authorized to loan you forty-five dollars in credit.  I give you a card with these credits.  By the time you pay me back, you'll pay me fifty-six dollars in credits; I write fifty-six dollars down in my net worth column on the spreadsheet and my value as a bank has just rose.

As long as noone wants to see my hard assets (that means the physical stuff I invest my money into) and I can claim the value you I have on spreadsheet.  If people start to lack confidence in my ability to produce enough hard assets to cover the loans I've made, people lose faith in my bank.

It's confusing and messy, but there needs to be more moral outrage on this issue.  Outrage like Cramer's.  There are at least two reason I can think of:

1- Our economic system is a house of cards

-or-

2- As a society we express more faith for our economic system than we do for God

If we get out of this mess we're in today, we still have tomorrow with which to concern ourselves. 

What will be tomorrow depends on how we react today.

Short, Short Shorties Yo!

Father Ike gathered us in amongst the pews.  We were packed tight together timid from the sound of thunder and seventy mile an hour wind gusts beating against the walls.  There were ten of us.  Father Ike told us we’d be safe here.  He told us God wouldn’t forsake us.

 “Surely our faith has been pure.  Among us we’ve tried to live our life by the Divine Word.  We’ve studied the Scriptures.  We’ve memorized the Passion.  We’ve tried to model our life upon the words of Jesus as given to us in the Holy Bible.  God we’ll surely show the world the Grace he may bestow upon us.”

We believed.  We had faith.  The winds picked up against the tottering walls sheltering us.  The roof creaked and before it gave way the sounds of wind screamed in small jetties through the walls and ceiling.

 “All Sinners.  Your Judgment is at hand.  Repent onto thee and may God show Mercy on your Soul.  Blessed are the sheep who follow the Lamb of God.  Relax your mind sweet Children.  Give back all that you’ve taken.  You don’t need it.  Give back what you took that’s not yours.  Confess it onto your Lord and Savior.”

We huddled in closer to one another trying to protect each other from the elements.  Some murmuring could be heard and then it was drown away with the thunder.  We averted our eyes from one another.  Every now and again we’d look at Father Ike though.  His tall thin frame hidden within wet, baggy clothes worn clumsily like burlap sack.  Father Ike’s arms raised above his head.  He had his Bible in one hand while the other hand reached for Heaven.  The roof tore off the Church.  Rain, splinters and nails pored in on us.  Father Ike kept his eyes toward Heaven.

 “Let us say a prayer now children.”

Father Ike kneeled and prayed.  We murmured along.  Wet.  Cold.  Sheltered only by his words.  Then the waves rolled in.  As the Undertow tore Father Ike down, we heard him reciting the Ten Commandments.  Father Ike went down with his book and held it within his watery grave. 

Father Ike impressed upon his congregation that day.

Something to Ponder

Last week I blasted Kid Rock for lifting Warren Zevon's melody to "Werewolves of London."  It lacks originality and creativity to take someone else's music and call it your own.  He probably made a calculated bet most people won't remember Warren Zevon anymore.  He's probably right.

I still say "All Summer Long" is catchy, well-produced and a piece of garbage.  Then I heard a 2006 song from Rihanna.  I probably heard "S.O.S" before, but it's really not my kind of music so I either turned the station or just tuned the song out back in 2006.  I listened to it the other day and I have to say: it's catchy and well-produced, even though she has essentially lifted Soft Cell's melody from "Tainted Love."

Rihanna's "S.O.S."

Soft Cell's "Tainted Love."





Same melody just a couple of beats laid on top.  I could cop out and say Rihanna changed the melody a bit or didn't make the melody as strong a focal point as Kid Rock in "All Summer Long."  I don't feel that argument holds up well though.  There may be an argument in there about how much of a song can be sampled that generally ends in confusion though.

Ultimately, the point is, some music artists today are trying to show their musical influences.  In their desire to show musical influences, they choose not to push beyond their influences.  They simply go back to what influenced them and reuse it.  This seems lazy from a sense of artistic quality and creativity. 

Unfortunately, I don't have an easy answer here.  I think I like the Rihanna song and I still think Kid Rock sucks.

Belly Laugh

As a salute to the absurdity of what is going on with our economy, the comedy theme this week is puppets.

Elmo and the Ghetto Boys.