Response to Rubio

Obama has not suggested bigger government. Obama has not grown government. Government employment has declined since Obama took office. These are all easily checked facts Mr. Rubio.
Free enterprise does not build roads. Free enterprise does not educate the workforce. Free enterprise does not do basic research. Free enterprise does not protect our citizens. Free enterprise does not protect our environment. These are the things that president Obama has proposed.
The deficit is not today's problem. The economy is the problem. The economy needs to be fixed. Spending reductions do not fix the economy. Your way just leads to stagnation, further income disparity, and no growth to the economy.



Sent from my iPhone

I was told to look in the mirror as an answer to this.

I look in the mirror and don't see any hatred of minorities. I am a minority. I've tolerated religion all my life and still do, I don't oppress anyone, and seldom make claims without evidence. However, religion doesn't get a free pass anymore. If it makes claims that can't be substantiated, it gets questioned. No longer is faith a virtue. No longer can religion claim moral high ground. No longer can religion claim the only purpose and meaning to life. No longer can religion claim any explanation for why or how we came to be. Showing where religion is wrong is rational human growth, progress out of darkness and superstition. That isn't war, that's rational thought. That's growing out of fear and into understanding of our place in the universe. If the religious feel embattled and persecuted, they should consider the arguments they make based on ancient texts and personal anecdotes that usually are easily explained by statistics, imperfect human perception, and corruption.

I do hate. I hate mutilation of children's genitals in the name of religion. I hate stoning of women on religious grounds. I hate the child abuse that is telling a small child that they will burn in hell without proper belief in gods/Jesus/whatever. I hate the undemocratic control religion has over people with the subsequent inevitable abuse of power. Hate is not always a bad thing.

Job Rant.

I've been a manager at this company for more years than I want to admit anymore.  Ok, here goes... of the 32+ years in this company, 3.5 years in the late 80's to early 90's and then the last 16.48 years since August of 1996.  I've never liked being a manager,  that is why I got out of it the first time.  Fortunately I have been able to do technical work and lead a technical team so it wasn't all bad.  I do that part pretty well apparently.
Rant:

• The customer is warning us that they expect a 10% cut in our budget this year.  Just a warning and we won't know for sure until half way through the year.
• The director wants to cut now and avoid having to make a 20% cut later.
• We identified people we could cut by position that would least impact our operations and work.
• Two of those people said they would take the layoff without bumping someone if that is what it came to.
• This plan was submitted to Human Resources.  HR for short.  Heartless Rats.  Human Refuse.
• HR said we have to try to find these people jobs, even if that meant bumping our own people below them in the ranking order.  The outdated ranking order that is over a year old and has no relationship to today's rankings.
• As if I give a shit about rankings.  I need specific people.  The people we decided to release were releasable because we don't need them as much.  If everyone could do anyone's job, we wouldn't have made a selection.  That isn't the real world.  It appears to be the HR world.  A Level 5 System Engineer Sr Stf should be able to step into the shoes of another Level 5 System Engineer Sr Stf of lower ranking without too much training or trouble.
• And what is this bullshit that an employee can't say "I don't want to bump anyone."and we have to try to place him somewhere anyway?  I guess they want to avoid severance pay at all costs since it is 2 weeks pay plus 1 week per year served up to 26 weeks.  But if they bump someone who has the same salary and severance, no gain there!

I am so pissed off I can spit.  Several people are going to get an unnecessary layoff notice because some lawyers tells HR to toe the line and follow process exactly.  I am spending hours of my life writing up justifications for why the other people shouldn't be bumped by this guy ranked higher than them.  Obviously they don't trust my judgement, nor the judgement of the senior manager and director above me.  I am tired of it.  Why do we have managers at all?  Just hire a bunch of HR types to do this shit and let the engineer leads run the real work, until HR runs the company into bankruptcy.

MORAL Majority?

Right there, in black and white, the Republicans admit publicly how the House seats they retained in 2012 was achieved despite having over a million fewer actual votes. Intentionally, planned, with premeditation. Now WHO is corrupting American values? WHO is un-American? From WHO do we need to take our country back from? These are the people who are supposed to be MORAL and RIGHTEOUS?

Republicans enjoy a 33-seat margin in the U.S. House seated yesterday in the 113th Congress, having endured Democratic successes atop the ticket and over one million more votes cast for Democratic House candidates than Republicans.

Rachel Maddow: The GOP Plan To Take Presidency, Keep House In Four Easy Steps

1. Win under-the-radar local elections:

2. Use new majorities to gerrymander state legislature and congressional districts in their favor:

3. Use redistricting to ‘win’ seats in the US House of Representatives in 2010 and 2012:

4. Change state-level electoral college rules so Democratic candidates can’t win the presidency:

And just to ratchet up the slime factor, the Virginia Senate waited until Democratic Senator Henry Marsh left to attend the president’s inauguration before voting on the bill. “Virginia senators had to wait until he was gone because the Senate is equally divided in Virginia, with 20 Republicans and 20 Democrats,” exclaimed an appalled Maddow. Because of the even split, Virginia’s Lt. Governor, Bill Bolling typically casts the tie-breaking vote in situations like this. But even the state’s number two Republican thought this was a dirty trick and refused to support it. That left the GOP lawmakers with no option but to wait until a Democrat left town and they could skew the numbers in their favor without having to rely on Bolling. As it so happened, they waited until one of Virginia’s most preeminent civil rights icons (and the first black mayor of Richmond, the capitol of the Confederacy) was at the second inauguration of the nation’s first black president to launch their attack. Throwing up yet?
Yet Virginia’s law — the first of its kind — still stands, and other states are poised to follow suit. Already, Pennsylvanian Republicans have a similar bill in committee.

It's Not the Deficit Stupid!

I feel like slapping someone... wake up! The problem with today's economy is not current budget deficits and national debt! It is not! Our problem is lack of jobs, and the markets the employed make for more job creation. The only reason an employer creates a job is when they need someone to work. Taxes, health care, national debt don't matter. They want to sell something and they need buyers. They only create jobs if demand for what they sell requires it. All deficit reduction does right now is kill jobs. Period. Yes, the budget needs to get better balanced but not now, especially since more than half of the current deficit is caused by the recession. Recover from that and half the problem is solved! Get out of the stupid wars and more is saved. Get the economy booming with education and infrastructure now while money is cheap! Austerity fails! It failed Japan's stagnation for 20 years and now Europe is dying with its failed austerity efforts. WTFU!

http://harpers.org/blog/2013/01/america-is-having-the-wrong-fiscal-argument/

"Deficit-cutting under the current circumstances is bad economics, according both to theory and to historical precedent. Austerity economics are palpably and tragically failing in Europe, yet the same types who urge austerity on Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and even France — not to mention the non-Eurozone giant, Britain — are also urging it in broad consensus in America. And they are succeeding. Dedicated to their polite even-handedness, meanwhile, the media have tended to blame both sides and to assume unquestioningly that deficit reduction is required, rather than identifying the clear culprits responsible for sustaining our economic mess. These culprits are not evenly distributed across the political spectrum. In order of importance, they are:"

1. The Tea Party Republicans who have been working for an economic policy driven by ideology and a hatred of most social policies.
2. self-appointed “common sense” centrists like the powerful Campaign to Fix the Debt
3. Third is the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO’s economics are utterly neoclassical, which means it is conservative, in that it almost always favors less government spending. Its projections generally assume that high budget deficits will crowd out private investment and slow economic growth.

God in judgment

Today 20 kids lost their lives. 

Mike Huckbee has an opinion.


So do I.“[W]e’ve made it a place where we don’t want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability — that we’re not just going to have be accountable to the police if they catch us, but one day we stand before, you know, a holy God in judgment,” Huckabee said. “If we don’t believe that, then we don’t fear that.”

Why would I fear a God who is so ineffective as to be totally unable to at least call the cops before the shooting starts? It never has before. Or maybe this god is malevolent and shouldn't get our attention. Or is uncaring and there is no point in our attention. Or. There is no god. Mike Huckabee... you've wasted your life on something that doesn't exist. How sad for you. Not nearly as sad as losing 20 kids you think could have been prevented with fear and superstition. Action by us here and now could have prevented it, not fear and superstition. Those kids have lost their one and only lives, they do not go to a better place. They are lost to us. Their lives have been lost, they will never be who they could have been. We will never know who they could have been. This is the price paid for supposed rights (god given in some minds) of gun ownership and personal responsibility that limits aid to mental illness. 

The first five shots I blame on the lack of health care in this country, the rest on the NRA.

There is Always a Price

I was listening to George Hrab's Geologic Podcast episode where he replies to a new atheist about the loss of a loved one.  George made a point I had known but never knew how to put into words.

Everything has a cost or a price.  That car you want.  The career you strive for.  The power or status you crave.  Also other things less materialistic like ethics and morals.   Learning and research.   But maybe the heaviest price is paid for friendships and relationships.

This isn't saying it is bad to pay a price for these things, only that it is there in many forms.  And it may be that the emotional price of a relationship is the biggest for most of us.

When do we pay the price?  Sometimes the relationship is costly as it progresses no matter how it ends.  A relationship may be costly at the beginning for many reasons.  But it seems that at the end of a relationship is where the highest costs are, especially with death, because this is when the realization that you'll never be seeing that person (or pet) again sets in and the sorrow for the loss is the final emotional cost of that relationship.

I think the price is worth paying for a good relationship and most of us do.  Some of us avoid the price by avoiding or limiting relationships which I think limits life too much.  But other people avoid the cost by pretending there is a place where we all go when we die, where the relationship will continue for eternity as if that is a desirable thing.  Besides the fact that this is totally made up with no evidence, it is also cheating, diminishing the price of the relationship lost.  "Oh, I'll just see mom in Heaven when it is my time" is a dismissal of the relationship.  To diminish the cost of the loss with wishful thinking about an afterlife is denial of the cost of the relationship.  It's like shoplifting a candy bar, a short quick satisfaction and doesn't really satisfy the hunger and has it's own cost.

I don't think most people really feel all that much better thinking that there is an afterlife.  The loss is huge, the pain is real, the sorrow is deep for most of us anyway.  Why cheapen the meaning of the relationship with this fantasy/wish for a later reunion?

There might be more thoughts on this...

Where am I going?

To all my friends and family; I pray that you know for sure where you are going after this brief stay in the World. If you cannot say, without absolute confidence, then you are being or have been decieved. Fortunately, the choice is yours. I am not here to argue with you about your beliefs. If you want to try and argue it, then take your argument to your Creator. There is only One True God and one Way to Him. Don't wait any longer to receive His free gift of Salvation!
"Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines.-" Hebrews 13:9a

• 3 people like this.
• 

  ---------------- AMEN BROTHER!! "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23

  52 minutes ago · Like
• 

  Tom Hail To my cousin David who I have enormous respect this is one thing I cannot be silent about. With absolute confidence I know that when I die, the carbon in my body will recycle into the earth, my water will recycle into the environment, my mind will stop thinking and dreaming. My soul will die with my mind. All that will remain is the memory of me by others and the results of my efforts, primarily my daughters and their lives to come after mine. To believe otherwise is at best wishful thinking based on the deceit of religion. No mystery of the universe has ever been answered by the supernatural or magic. There is no evidence that any soul, despite hundreds of years of looking for it, remains after our death. Religion brings false hope for something better, allows for suffering to be endured for when, if good enough, you go to the better place instead of working harder to improve this life. To hope for an afterlife is wasted effort and diminishes the meaning of this life, your only life.

Killing children again.

Barrage of rocket attacks slam southern Israel

Over 30 rockets fired at Israel after missile hit IDF jeep on border patrol, injuring 4 soldiers; IDF tank shelling kills 4 Palestinians.

Christians United for Israel (CUFI)

Like This Page · 6 hours ago 

Prayer Alert- more than 30 rockets and mortars have been fired on Southern Israel. Israelis near the boarder with Gaza were told to stay within 15 seconds of a safe room. LIKE to join us in praying for the one million Israeli men, women, and children living under the threat of rockets tonight. http://bit.ly/Q4Pp5h


Not mentioned is that the Israeli retaliation resulted in the death and injuries of children.

‎/S Ooh! Ooh! The religious cranks killing the other religious cranks's children again because they killed their children for killing those children through slow starvation and depravation because their children were killed with suicide bombing children. And then there's the other religious cranks who will kill to keep an unborn child alive at all costs standing on the side egging on the fighting that kills children in hopes of the big killing spree that brings on the magical guy who will make everything better after everything is horribly horribly worse. Awesome. Bronze aged magical thinking armed with 21st century weapons. /SarcasmOff Reason #37 why I am an angry atheist.

Like prayer has helped at all in the last 60 years or so.

Movement conservatives have traded truth for certainty.

"Mike.K. says:October 29, 2012 at 4:01 am

I have to say on your “big government” comments on conservatives:

Most conservatives are authoritarians. They want small government for *themselves*. They want big, authoritarian government for people they don’t like. I’ve mentioned the base’s drive towards “punishment politics” before. They are often people who either want to be lead, or want to be part of the goon squad so they can give a beating to “those” people. They have made themselves the hero of their invented past of lies for so long, and everyone else the villain, that they really believe that God Himself will make sure they and they alone are on the right side of the gated fence and the right side of the billy club. Remember that with Bush’s election they were promised a thousand year reign of Good Christian Conservatives, and so they already think their ascendance to power was stolen by hippies and uppity women and minorities and gays.  

This is part of why they will applaud torture and applaud the thought of leaving someone to die. They are OK with sending their children to war, knowing some will die, as long as more brown people and unbelievers die than their own. They are fine with back ally abortions, as long as they can buy their own daughters an airline ticket and that more poor and colored die than their own. They were fine with the dismantling of unions, as long as it was laborer-class jobs sent overseas. They are fine with pissing away billions on a war on drugs, as long as more of “those” people get swept off the streets. 

Movement conservatives have traded truth for certainty. As a result, words no longer have meaning. If you don’t understand talk of “big government”, it’s because you’re trying to make sense of the lyrics of Wingnut Jazz. It doesn’t make sense because it doesn’t make sense. It just scares you with big government spending by big government democrats for big government liberals to re-educate your children with socialist indoctrination, think of the children!, until Sarah Palin gets up on stage wrapped in a flag and brandishing her Bible, her hair did up and her tits nice and bouncy under her big big smile (just for you!), spinning a soothing chord of the Jazz, about the Founding Fathers and their Common Sense Constitutional Freedom Solutions based on Conservative Values and the Christian Bible of Jesus.  

And then you write her a check."

Lying Romney Bastard

Having spent a couple of days in Colorado seeing all the Romney ads I am flabbergasted at the level of lying coming from his mouth.  And the PAC ads.  Fucking amazing.  And people are buying this shit.  I guarantee you Romney will do nothing to reduce the deficit.  National debt will not go down one dollar.  He has no plan, I've looked, there isn't anything there but jingo words, carny talk, outright lies and blither blather about what he will do.  He can't do what he says, it will cost everyone but the top 5% more, and he will drag this country into the ditch.  The stupid fuck only cares about getting elected, gives not one whit about anyone else.

Reality Check GOP

Like they say, you are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts.

1. Unemployment rate is not higher now than when Obama took office. It is the same or lower. 4.5M more people are employed than when he took office.
2. The deficit did not double under Obama. It has declined every year.
3. Corporate profits are as high as they ever have been.
4. Romney did support the Blunt amendment to Obamacare.  And then didn't.  And did.  Who knows.  The Blunt amendment says an employer can decide if your health insurance covers contraception.

Another FB battle. Lara Logan

Sorry for the formatting... just capturing another FB argument.

Catherine Gile likes an article on The Daily Beast.
Saturday at 5:15pm ·

She is an outstanding woman.
Lara Logan’s War Cry
www.thedailybeast.comThe CBS News and ‘60 Minutes’ correspondent stunned a Chicago audience with her interventionist critique of America’s response to the attacks in Libya. James Warren reports.

Catherine Gile It's refreshing to see someone in the mainstream media brave enough to speak out loudly.

October 13 at 5:17pm · Like

· 

Bob Stone She knows firsthand of the violence as she was attacked personally while in Egypt covering the situation there. She barely survived.

October 13 at 8:56pm · Like · 1

· 

Tom Hail She is an outstanding woman and I've always respected her reporting. I would have to question her impartiality after what happened to her in Egypt. She knows first hand we can't "Shoot ’em, bomb ’em, fuck ’em. They will kill your children." without killing their children. That makes me think she is on a revenge thing for the attack on her. What a mess. There is no solving it almost to anyone's satisfaction.

October 13 at 9:51pm · Like

· 

Bob Stone Tom of course she has a "Revenge thing" going on. I want revenge on the ones that attacked her and also the ones that killed our people in Lybia. It's not REVENGE it is called JUSTICE!!! Someday there will be a time you will have to stand and fight and protect your family and yourself, WILL YOU???

October 14 at 8:07am · Like

· 

Tom Hail And she'll get justice from who? She was attacked in Egypt by the religion of Islam with its medieval regard for women. Not by Al-Qaeda or the Taliban who are just parts of that religion of ignorance. Libya is, with it's Islamic drivers, a power struggle. Is justice being sought by the US? I think so! When has it not? By Obama's administration more so than the last administration who got distracted by Iraq. She advocates a level of conflict that would be global in nature. Against who? WWII was against specific countries and foes. Fighting Islam and its people with force will accomplish nothing, much like the war on drugs. Only education and time will end this and I don't see it happening with stupid shit like this. Will justice be achieved from everyone's point of view? No. Never. Only education and prosperity will end it. Stand and fight? That is what I do every day.

October 14 at 9:33am · Like

· 

Bob Stone FIGHT! For what and for whom. Actions speak louder than words and time is running out.

October 14 at 9:44am · Like

· 

Tom Hail Time is running out? What is the timeline? There is a deadline? We have all the time it takes to either solve the conflicts or destroy ourselves.

October 14 at 9:46am · Like

· 

Bob Stone The timeline runs out for every member of our armed forces that is killed or wounded and the people such as Lara Logan and the little 14 year old Pakistani girl who only wnated an education. Talk to a GOLD star family about timelines. You say you stand and fight everyday, again for what and for whom??

October 14 at 10:03am · Like

· 

Tom Hail Ha! And how many thousands more service men and women will die following Logan's path? Not to mention civilians. By your reasoning, time has already run out. I fight for a prosperous future for my kids, my community, my nation, my species. Prosperity brings justice. Education brings prosperity. Fighting indiscriminately does not. In the short term hunting the Libyan terrorists is necessary but it doesn't bring justice for everyone. Some satisfaction for some, but that doesn't solve anything.

October 14 at 10:28am · Like

· 

Bob Stone By prosparity,do you mean money, wealth,being better than your neighbor, having more than anyone less fortunite? You will fight for yourself only, or will you stand and fight for all people who are not allowed to "Prosper" in the way you GOT YOURS. What if you were not fortunate to be born in America and have the opportunities you had all your life. Is justice being you and letting the less fortunate of the world FIGHT and DIE just wanting to get and education so they too can prosper same as you? Some people have to fight for their lives before they can fight for their prosperity.

October 14 at 10:59am · Like

· 

Tom Hail No, prosperity is living without fear with food and shelter and being able to grow and explore. The point is to understand that the need to FIGHT and DIE isn't the only way to prosperity. Education gets people there. Someday it may be clear to everyone. In the meantime people will continue to fight and die futilely. Logan's way.

October 14 at 11:34am · Like

· 

Bob Stone OK then. Some people have to fight for their lives before they can fight for an education to become prosperious. Freedom isn't free! It's paid for by the ones who have fought and died for it. That is fact not futile attemts.

October 14 at 12:06pm · Like

· 

Bob Stone ATTEMPTS.

October 14 at 12:06pm · Like

· 

Catherine Gile If you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything. Freedom is not free I don't care what university taught you otherwise. There are people out there who hate you because you do not think like they do and btw they far out number you.

October 14 at 1:00pm · Like

· 

Tom Hail Huh? It's pretty easy to say the old trope "freedom isn't free" and not really understand it. The cost of freedom isn't just fighting and dying in defense of it. You also have to fix the causes for the conflicts and military actions can not do that. Did I say not to defend yourself? To not bring to trial those responsible for terror or crime? Have I said anything like that? Have I not spent 30+ years of my life as a defense contractor engineer? I am not a pacifist. Sure they outnumber me, but you know what? This country is doing very little to solve the problems. Mainly because of attitudes of fear like yours. It prevents solutions. Believe it or not, progress is being made, prosperity is increasing around the world over the last 100 years. But I see that fear and irrational thinking can easily undo years of progress.

October 14 at 9:29pm · Like

· 

Catherine Gile My attitude is not fear based it is reality based. What progress are you talking about, the progress of progressive thinking people?

October 15 at 8:57am · Like

· 

Bob Stone HUH???? Defence Contractor Engineer( nice title). If fighting for freedom insn't an answer to keeping free and "prosrerious" what are you doing working for a DEFENCE CONTRACTOR? You must hate your job supporting and supplying the tools of war to this nation. I also put my entire professional life in service to keeping this country safe while working for the Dept. of Defence DARCOM, plus a tour in the U.S. Army in Vietnam seening the reality of what FIGHTING for freedom means . I most likely just don't get it.

October 15 at 9:09am · Like

· 

Tom Hail Fact. The rate of starvation in the world has decreased, military conflict decreased, health improved over the last 100 years. That is progress. If it improves for everyone, the fear and injustice declines. Your attitude does nothing to improve it and can cause it to set back. Here is an old trope " lead, follow, or get out of the way." If we aren't leading the world to improve, they will push us out of the way. We are leading today but barely. That can change easily with isolationist fearful thinking. Bob, you made my description of my job a title. I am the Milstar Flight Engineering Manager at in addition to being the spacecraft Certified Principle Engineer for on-orbit operations. Milstar is a communications satellite supporting all branches of the US DOD and State Dept. We strive for and achieve nearly 100% dependability of that constellation of satellites. I do not hate my job. Not the technical side anyway. I am proud of our support to the troops around the world whatever they are doing. I know what they have been doing. One of the most deadly things to a guy on the ground is to lose communications with his team, leadership, and command. The dependable flow of information also means that fewer innocent people get killed, that unnecessary destruction is not wrecked. I also know the flow of diplomatic information saves lives and helps find solutions. That is the part I can do. What they do with it in the Pentagon and White House can only be affected by my vote. Bush was an idiot, Cheney a crook, they killed thousands of our troops, squandered our resources in Iraq and fucked up Afghanistan. Why you would vote for Romney/Ryan blows my mind, they are the same idiots and not smart enough to be crooks! Fighting for freedom comes in many different forms, not just with military force. Occupy Wallstreet was a freedom fight. The blasphemy rights fights, civil rights, gay rights.... they are all freedom fights. You were part of a very violent fight but not the only fight.

October 15 at 9:00pm · Like

· 

Bob Stone Tom, thank you for your clarification of your job description. Keep um flying. The decisions that are made in the White House affects what happens in this country and now the world over. As far as the flow of dipllomatic information saving lives goes ,One Ambassidor and three others dead and no solution in site!! Another four years of Obama and company is all the reason needed to change leadership . Hope your satellite can find an answer.

Yeah, we can keep blaming Bush.

"It just doesn’t feel like Obama has ruined America. Republicans used to talk a lot about this thing called the stock market, and how it helped not just the rich, but middle class folks whose pensions and 401ks depended on it, well now they never seem to mention the stock market. Perhaps, because under President Blackenstein the Dow has doubled, or as Republicans call it, devastating economic news.Now, there certainly still is poverty in our country, but it’s obviously among the underclass that you don’t see. The very people that today’s Republicans could give a sh*t about, so I don’t understand why they’re all so upset about the economy, except of course, it’s their big issue. So they have to pretend that America is a rotten compost where people are eating cat food and wiping their ass with the Pennysaver. And weirdly, Obama kind of has to pretend that too, because if he doesn’t, then he’s out of touch.
 So we all wind up living in this fictional picture of America that actually would be more appropriate for the year before Obama took office. Remember 2008? I do. That’s when Lehman Brothers collapsed and the market froze and they measuring GM for a pumpkin lot. And when you opened your bank statement you saw the drowned Japanese girl from The Ring, and then you died.And yes, I am saying we can keep blaming Bush for that. It’s the same as blaming rats for the Black Plague. Just because you’re sick of hearing historians saying it doesn’t mean it stopped being true. George Bush left a flaming pile of dog sh*t on the White House steps, and now it’s gone, and Mitt Romney has a hell of a nerve running on the idea that I’m going to fix the economy by restoring the policies of the party that destroyed it." 

~Bill Maher 10/5/12