What bureaucrats you talkin' 'bout? Argentine Customs?
[QUOTE=Jackson]Been there, done that!
And if you are successful, you will experience an enormous sense of personal satisfaction in having created something of value, a feeling that no government bureaucrat will ever understand, along with a belief that no one has any right to confiscate any part of what you've created, regardless of what sophistry they may employ to justify their intent.[/QUOTE]Your superiority over lesser mortals as demonstrated by your business acumen should give you great comfort. Too bad it is diluted, when you are coerced to give up some of your hard won treasure, because elected representatives were given that authority by your fellow citizens. And their blood-sucking bureaucrats do the dirty work. Oh the horror!
Those inferior people who have intentionally pursued less fulfilling work than entrepreneurs just can't get no satisfaction. They live diminished lives leaving nothing behind. The living dead is what they are!
It all goes back to that subversive book the Bible. If only Christ had not engaged in his infuriating sophistry in the Sermon on the Mount and his many other naive and misguided pronouncements, maybe no one would be so jazzed up about helping their fellow man and we wouldn't have to pay all these taxes.
Why in heaven's name did he go and say "You cannot serve God and wealth" and "if anyone wants to take away your tunic, let him have your cloak" and "do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth".
Worst of all he said ""it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."
What a duffuss! What moralistic bullshit! And it has been used as an excuse to rob from the rich to give to the poor for centuries.
Now along comes Obama - the New Messiah! Will it never end?
From your keyboard to God's ear
[QUOTE=Jackson]Sunday, January 20, 2013[/QUOTE]The wheels are coming off. This might possibly become the all-time earliest lame duck in history. If America gets lucky, we will see a watershed midterm election next year and chairman Maobama will get early retirement (which we will pay for, of course)
Cold Warriors Go Ballistic, when Obama Doesn't
Obama has cancelled the "Star Wars" missile defense deployment in Eastern Europe, proposed by the Bush Administration, and will replace it with a more practical and less expensive alternative.
Obama's decision to scrap the controversial system came after a unanimous recommendation by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Pentagon.
Republican leaders, who used to argue that Presidents should listen to their generals, say Obama is "appeasing Russia" and "weakening our national security" by listening to his generals. Go figure!
Obama's Defense Secretary Robert Gates (a Republican holdover from the Bush Team) answered critics stating: "those who say we are scrapping missile defense in Europe are either misinformed or misrepresenting the reality of what we are doing." He added Obama's new plan "provides a better missile defense capability" and will be operational seven years sooner than the Bush plan.
Case closed one might think, but one would be wrong. Reality and logic will not sway the President's critics. Get ready for Dick Cheney to re-emerge from his bunker to mutter and sputter how Obama has surrendered to Putin, stabbed US allies in the back and will get nothing in return, etc.
Looked at objectively, it was clear that the Bush plan was aimed at a threat that didn't exist, using missile technology that hadn't been proved to work. Bush was willing to deploy an unproven, enormously expensive system for reasons that had less to do with protecting the Europeans, than US domestic politics.
The plan served three key conservative political objectives. First, was Republican affiliated defense industry financial interests, second, the "Star Wars" system cultists in the party who, as an article of faith, clung to Reagan's imaginary high-tech "umbrella" protecting good nations against the missiles launched by rogue nations and third, the need to keep both the mythology of the Cold War and the "existential threat" from Islamist terror alive, as clubs to beat up Democrats whenever they might suggest cooperating with Russia or talking with Iran makes sense.
In order to bully or buy support, the Bush team had threatened its way across Europe and bribed Polish and Czech government and military officials, who lusted for the billions of US taxpayer dollars that were promised. As normal, Bush could care less that the vast majority of citizens in Poland, the Czech Republic and all across Europe opposed him. Most NATO member states were either opposed or non-committal, as well. If America wanted it that was enough.
Now, Obama has proposed an alternative approach to effectively reducing the threat from long-range missile attacks - using cheaper, more reliable, proven, ready-to-deploy, scaled to the actual threat technology.
On the issue, he has managed the Pentagon masterfully. He has listened to US allies who wanted the Bush plan to disappear. In his no drama Obama way, he put down another marker in his fight against the decades-long Republican-led wasteful and dangerous welfare system for defense systems contractors. He has, as he promised he would, "reset the default button" with Russia.
Finally, he has moved the country a major step forward towards a sane and responsible foreign policy.
Even if no concessions from the Russians result, this is the right decision. Saving money and reducing unnecessary antagonisms with Moscow and our European allies alone make it the smart play.
Of course, the right wing dinosaurs that hate the fact that the Cold War ended are apoplectic. Which is another sign O man is right.
