Monday, September 30, 2013

Link leftovers

Been a tad busy for commentary lately.  Nevertheless, here's some things that have caught my eye recently.  May come in handy for leisure reading for all the government workers about to be furloughed from their jobs because Congress can't do its job.

The Religion of PeaceTM has another busy weekend
Suspected Islamist militants stormed a college in northeastern Nigeria and shot dead around 40 male students, some of them while they slept early on Sunday, witnesses said....
Boko Haram, which wants to establish an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, has intensified attacks on civilians in recent weeks in revenge for a military offensive against its insurgency.
Several schools, seen as the focus of Western-style education and culture, have been targeted.
Their fellow travelers in Syria are stepping up as well, casting into serious question the wisdom of providing "aid" to rebel groups in that nation's ongoing civil war.  There's really nobody worth cheering for in that brawl -- so naturally, our political class insists on getting involved.


 ************
Dallas County and other law enforcement agencies 'up-armor' to fight... whom, exactly?
Dallas County sheriff's deputies traveled to Fort Hood earlier this month and picked up their very own International MaxxPro MRAP. This particular truck has never seen any actual combat, having only been deployed stateside for training exercises, so it doesn't have any cool battle scars, but with the dealer's $600,000 price tag knocked down to nothing, and with just 10,000 miles on it, the deal was too good to pass up.
...and we wonder why the Federal Government is bleeding money... or why many people are concerned their government's preparing to go to war with them.  Meanwhile, that same insolvent Federal Government is leading the charge to provide bankrupt Detroit with upwards of $300 million in assistance to keep the lights on.  This is only necessary, of course, because the city's coffers--particularly its pension fund--were criminally mismanaged over the past couple decades.  So yeah, that sounds like a real good place to inject more money.

************
Which brings us to today: the last day of the fiscal year.  If, in fact, the government "shuts down" (insert scary music here), it'll just join the ranks of the corporate media, who've been decidedly off-duty when it comes to covering the proliferating scandals of the current administration.

These "shut down" threats amount to little more than thinly veiled extortion.  Those functions that serve the core purposes of the empire will remain open.  It's the many little things that inconvenience the taxpayer--the very people who are supposed to be served--that will close.  All the better to inflict discomfort and reconciliation to further fleecing.

I hope, however, that an extended shutdown may lead inadvertently to a different result... a wider realization that we don't NEED these people and their meddlesome power trips.  They need us...

No comments:

Site Meter