Random Thoughts on Various Subjects

1. DOWNGRADE

Last night, Standard and Poors downgraded the nation's credit rating from AAA. Though it was anticipated by the markets, the reality of the USA's debt levels and future unsustainable obligations should be a wake up call to a nation addicted to welfare and war. Unfortunately, the answer to the wake up call is almost certainly going to be another round of inflation--er, "quantitative easing"--from the Fed as it buys up the debt. Of course, I suspect they will create another euphemism for printing money and debasing the currency.

What does this mean? Basically, it will cost more for the USA to borrow. This downgrade is a tap on the brakes. Maybe, the government will cut spending like it is supposed to. But probably not. The Treasury Department assaulted the math of S&P and said the rating agency had made an error in its deficit projections of $2 trillion. But we know better. There is real math, and then there is government math. Who are you going to believe?

The markets have been in chaos this week as bad economic news has caused ripple effects as this new batch of reality sets in. Welcome to the double dip. I will explain it for you very easily. All that stimulus spending and Obama bullshit managed to change the stats for a short while, but it is over with. Recessions are a needed correction, and they delayed much of it. It is time to take our medicine. This has to happen. Obama doesn't want it to happen because he wants to win another term next year. He isn't getting a second term. The son of a bitch needs to get the fuck out of Washington and go on to his richly ignominy and shame. He will be remembered as the worst president in living memory.

2. THE MEXICAN CARTELS

There is so much bad news coming from south of the border that I have to wonder when people here in the USA will finally flip and say that enough is enough. First, the ATF admits to allowing weapons to go to Mexico. Major scandal there. Then, a high ranking Sinaloa cartel member says the US cut a deal with them letting them run drugs in exchange for info on rival cartels. I want you to stop and think long and hard about these two things. Let's say you support the war on drugs. Yet, here we have two examples of the USA supporting and facilitating illegal activity. The US government actually has helped criminals break the laws it is claiming the right to enforce. Why? How does this make sense?

Here's the deal. It isn't about the law anymore. It isn't about keeping people off drugs. What this represents is a collusion between government criminals and private criminals to perpetrate a massive fraud on the American public. These things are allowed and encouraged because the end product will be televised arrests that the Feds can point to on television. This isn't law enforcement. This is PR.

The War on Drugs isn't being won. Everyone knows this including people in the government. Unfortunately, the general public is clueless as fuck and continue to support this insanity and madness. There is no way you can tell me that legalization would have worse effects than what we are already seeing. As it stands, the US has effectively thrown in the towel and is now simply picking which cartel will have the monopoly on the drug trade. This is a complete disgrace.

3. WiFi CAMPING

Some of the stores in the Starbucks are covering up their wall outlets to discourage laptop users from being what they are--hogs. The fact is that you can't go to any coffee shop that doesn't have two or three WiFi campers hogging tables in an impromptu office they have set up because they are too fucking cheap to have internet at home. Blocking up the outlets at least allows the possibility that these campers will be limited by the life of their batteries.

Why do I care? This story cuts to a problem I see among a lot of minimalists, and it is being hoggish of other people's resources. I'm all for simple living. I'm also cool with business generosity. But here's the deal. Imagine a guy borrows the neighbor's blender for margaritas. This is because the guy sold his own blender on eBay in order to cut down on clutter. From then on, he relies upon this neighbor's generosity for his margarita fix. At some point, the neighbor is going to figure this out. This isn't minimalism. This is mooching. (Everett Bogue, take notes.)

4. HATRED OF THE TEA PARTY

Tea Party Republicans in Congress have been surprisingly uncompromising in their stance on the debt debates, and I find it both refreshing and good. The debt deal was considered a "win" for the Tea Party, but Tea Parties consider it a loss because it doesn't actually cut spending. It merely cuts proposed spending from an extremely outlandish amount to a slightly smaller but still outlandish amount. Basically, as one person put it, it was deciding to do without the Ferrari and just go with the Mercedes.

Tea Partiers have stood on principle, and now, they are hated. This is what happens when you put reality out there. This is what happens when you do what you say you are going to do. I have felt the flak on Facebook from people saying that I am lacking in compassion because I agree that government needs to be cut. This is because these levels of spending are unsustainable. All I get in response is people calling me a stonehearted bastard. Imagine a weather man who predicts a coming hurricane and then gets slammed for his pessimism and negative thinking. This is the sort of delusion we are facing in this country. It is the same delusion you see in Europe.

I get into discussions with my fellow libertarians about the nature of government, why tyrannies occur, how things can be changed, and the like. The conventional wisdom amongst the liberty people is that government is a massive criminal gang, and the people are somehow held hostage to this gang. But this isn't true. I don't see the evidence for this. Individual libertarians may feel this way because they feel the oppression of the government. But the fact is that when a majority or even just a sizable portion of the population turns against the government, the effect as witnessed by the crack up of communism and the Arab Spring is that these governments must change and give way to freedom. The idea that an entire country can be a prison is virtually false. North Korea may be the exception, but as I have argued in the past, that regime continues to survive the way kleptocracies in Africa continue to thrive--lavish Western aid that bypasses the people. Withdraw this outside support and these regimes disappear in a wave of revolution.

My model for the way tyranny operates is much different. I see government not as a criminal gang so much as an addiction of the mass public. If you doubt this, witness as so-called anarchists protest government cutbacks over in Europe. The same thing happens here in the USA with even Tea Party members wanting to continue receiving their government Medicare. The fact is that government is not indifferent to what the masses want. It is almost wholly preoccupied with giving the masses exactly what they want. In this respect, government is no different than any corporate enterprise. Government exists to serve consumer demands. The demand here is for people to benefit from the theft and oppression of other people. This is where the welfare/warfare bullshit comes from. The vast majority of the people in the USA want to loot the rich and enjoy the goods of this theft while preventing certain minority groups from enjoying those same stolen goods. In the past, this would be black people, but today, it is Mexicans and Muslims. This is how a guy enjoying a government pension, Social Security, Medicare, and the rest can condemn the Mexicans mowing his lawn as a bunch of thieving welfare bums. The irony is this guy is probably a Tea Partier.

Government is a society wide addiction. Government is the belief that you can have security, prosperity, and the like and not have to work for it. This is why the new American Dream is a government check. As government feeds the appetites of this piggish public consuming and devouring the productive effort of others, it grows until it collapses. This is because you cannot have prosperity without productivity and thrift. Government punishes both. We are a nation of parasites. When the host dies, the parasite dies. We are approaching that point now.

History is replete with examples of this cycle of looting and implosion. All tyrannies are ultimately tyrannies of the majority. When the majority of the people become lazy worthless fucks, that nation collapses. This is the USA today. I am a stonehearted bastard because I point out these facts. I'd rather be a bastard than a piece of shit parasite.

5. LADY GAGA

Everyone is ripping into Lady Gaga for "copying" other people's music. I find this laughable in the same way that George Lucas claimed that Battlestar Galactica ripped off Star Wars. Once you understand the nature of creativity, you will always dismiss these claims of plagiarism and the much darker specter of copyright infringement.

Creative ideas are not born from immaculate conception. They are born from the recombination of old ideas. Yes, Lady Gaga had influences in her music, and you can hear those influences. So, what? You can take those original influences and trace them back to even other influences. It doesn't matter if it is music, a movie, or an invention. All ideas build on the ideas of others. The people who claim intellectual property theft are simply thieves who call the cops to report a robbery of stolen loot.

FWIW, I can tell you right now as a writer that I am heavily influenced by many other writers and thinkers. I have no new ideas. I have new combinations of old ideas. This is why I try and absorb all the information that I can from the internet. This is why I talk to people and listen to things they have to share. This is why I take full advantage of social networks both real and cyber. This is where all my creative ideas come from. All of it comes from watching, observing, and listening.

People who know me offline are always surprised to read my blog and see their own influences in my work. These people don't write or even read all that much. Yet, there is some story or anecdote they shared that is posted as part of some essay on the blog here. I don't think anyone has ever accused me of being a bad listener. I listen intently. I want to hear what people have to share. This is because I intend to steal it.

If Lady Gaga has made any sort of error in all of this, it is to try and defend herself as a completely original artist. She isn't, and she shouldn't be ashamed of it. Gaga is simply the combination of two prior artists--Madonna and Marilyn Manson. Those two artists owe as much to Marilyn Monroe and Alice Cooper. In my readings of various creative types, I find the best creators are simply shameless thieves.

The nature of creative endeavors just shows to me the folly of intellectual property. There is no such thing. Thanks to the internet, people are learning this fact. IP is simply a way to stifle creativity and innovation so one person can profit from the larceny. This is the real theft. Ideas are not scarce. As such, they can never be held to the economics of scarcity. In these times, we need a new economics of abundance.

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