Repetition is the death of magic. – Bill Watterson
What the hell is wrong with you, Internet? Halloween is less than two weeks away, and I’m seeing practically no good spooky links! The only one this time around is the first video, via Kevin Wilson; let’s get on the (eye)ball for next week, which is the last Links column before the big day! The (scary in a bad way) links before the first video are from Radley Balko, and those between the videos from Jesse Walker (“bus”), Nun Ya (“marmosets” & “bomb”), Everyday Whorephobia (“Texas”), Pastachips (“Denmark”), Mike Riggs (“Watterson”), Walter Olson (“Cumberbatch”), Jason Kuznicki (“pee”), ClarkHat (“stupidity” & “taboo”), John Stossel (“spending”), Jillian Keenan (“name map”), and Wendy Lyon (“Sweden”).
- Cops protest arrest of murderer cop ’cause it’ll discourage cop murders.
- If it had been a human instead of a squirrel, he’d still have his job.
- Isolated vocal tracks from pop songs.
- A surreal bus.
- Marmoset manners.
- The year in blasphemy.
- Texas cops tase drag queen to death.
- Not even the Danes understand Danish.
- Cops murder man for drinking milkshake.
- The first Bill Watterson interview in years.
- The Benedict Cumberbatch name generator.
- All mammals take the same amount of time to pee.
- Stupidity is one of the most powerful of all natural forces.
- What if a typical family spent like the US federal government?
- Autistic boy suspended from school for drawing a cartoon bomb.
- Animated map of most popular girls’ names in the US, 1960-2012.
- Swedish policewoman and dog prosecuted for assault on drunk man.
- Shamans purify well after tribesman dumps magical taboo liquid into it.
From the Archives
- Poe, chocolate, consequences, Monty Python, 6-word stories, lunch, eyeballs, roaches, drugs, beer, wine, Pokemon and the police state.
- As long as government actors have power over people, this will happen.
- Sex radiation is so dangerous, exposed students must be quarantined.
- Politician notices West is trying to “criminalize lust” after he’s charged.
- A badge turns armed robbery into “improper use of forfeiture funds”.
- Nairobi mayor threatens to arrest sex workers for doing as he says.
- Some sick people don’t think American prisons are bad enough yet.
- How is it that women can seemingly cut off their sex drives at will?
- Dr. Graham Ellison on the absurdity of the Swedish model.
- Developments in HIV prevention that some people dislike.
- Why do some people deny the existence of neofeminists?
- Sex trafficking victims enslaved by witchcraft and torture!
- Battle of the control freaks: abortion vs. “sex trafficking”.
- Accepting profile of a several San Francisco sex workers.
- Why I love autumn, and it’s a bad idea to ignore Nature.
- Prudes make an unnecessary Gardasil study necessary.
- Society’s galling denial of the necessity of sex workers.
- I really like this trend of brothels sponsoring things.
- A three-part horror tale for the Halloween season.
- Dr. Brooke Magnanti on “sex trafficking” hysteria.
- Zimbabwean lawyers support decriminalization.
- The multiplying cracks in the prohibitionist dam.
- Dr. Gad Saad on ludicrous tabula rasa notions.
- Vietnam ends “re-education” of sex workers.
- Why Obama was a civil liberties disaster.
- My first million.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQeKlL0fOaU
In “The Last Samurai” Tom Cruise tells Katsumoto about the battle of Thermopylae and a million Persian troops. He asks Katsumoto … “A million … do you understand this number?” Katsumoto replies “I understand this number”.
Yet few people on the planet really have an understanding of the number 17 TRILLION.
It’s the national debt of the United States – and it will never be paid off. In fact, if you combined all the debt of the Western Democracies you would come up with a number that is IMPOSSIBLE to ever pay off … save two methods …
1. Forgive debt. This will never happen – because when you “forgive” debt – or erase it, you produce “winners” and “losers”.
2. Monetize the debt by devaluing the world’s currencies. This will be the method it’s paid off because it produces only “losers”.
However, monetization of the debt will take basically everyone’s money – and produce a new “dark age” of perpetual recession.
And people don’t even understand this concept.
When Zimbabwe went through it – at one point – a 100 BILLION Zimbabwe note wasn’t even enough to buy a loaf of bread.
Zimbabwe of course – simply threw their hands in the air and surrendered. They first went down the path of accepting ANY foreign currency and now, I understand they are on the U.S. dollar? It’s been awhile since I’ve been to Zimbabwe.
But the point I’m trying to make is that – once the US dollar collapses – there’s no place else to go except – perhaps gold and relatively few people own any gold at all.
You cannot escape the Math – you can have all these lofty ideals and good intentions about providing universal healthcare to everyone – and you can have all these noble ideas to save the planet by spending money …
But you will not escape the math and the math says that pain is coming.
We keep spending money – and the math clearly says that we are sentencing our children to a horrible existence – for generations. That’s a fact. People can debate global warming – scientific data can be interpreted different ways …
Math cannot – it is absolute – and we are living in a mass fantasyland where everyone seems to believe the gravy train can go on unabated.
it cannot.
And, because we all SHOULD know math – but choose to either or ignore or pretend that 1+1 doesn’t equal 2 … we now qualify as this planet’s “worst generation” for being cowards and refusing to arrest the debt using radical measures so that we can face this pain ourselves.
In 100 years – when history is written – all of the Tea Party “Radicals” and Ted Cruz’s and Rand Paul’s will be seen as the most sane among us.
Because they know math.
I live way out in the country, on land that can be farmed and ranched, with a self-contained well and sewerage (and in the next few years, self-contained power). My house is defensible, and our only major investment is in this property.
Because I know math, too.
Okay when the shit hits the fan I’m coming to live with you. I have lots of weapons! 🙂
And yes – you are one of the ladies of the evening who has her shit in one sock. Beautiful, sexy … and yet totally willing to drive an old truck and throw used things up on her Amazon Wish List!
And let’s not forget the chickens and the egg farm!
Maggie’s Man hit the gold mine!
Before I start, let me say up front that I’m not trying to play “gotcha” or “pick apart” your position Krulac, rather I’m merely asking if you would expand on what you’ve said that I might understand it more. So, again, no disrespect is intended whatsoever.
“When Zimbabwe went through it – at one point – a 100 BILLION Zimbabwe note wasn’t even enough to buy a loaf of bread.
Zimbabwe of course – simply threw their hands in the air and surrendered. They first went down the path of accepting ANY foreign currency and now, I understand they are on the U.S. dollar? It’s been awhile since I’ve been to Zimbabwe.”
I found this story which indicates Zimbabwe currently has a ‘multi-currency’ regime: http://allafrica.com/stories/201308070269.html
(Is there anywhere in this world you haven’t been to, Krulac? :))
“But the point I’m trying to make is that – once the US dollar collapses –“
What, in your view, would be the catalyst which causes that to happen? Do you think it’ll come from our government’s hand, an outside government, or neither? I ask because in this globalized world aren’t there several organizations, both political and private, that have a vested interest in keeping that from occurring?
Going back to Zimbabwe, that article also states that the hyper-inflation was “sanctions induced.” I’m guessing that’s in addition to Mugabe’s horrendous mismanagement of the economy there, but it would at first glance appear that the inflation wasn’t completely his doing.
“there’s no place else to go except – perhaps gold and relatively few people own any gold at all.”
If you do not wish to answer this you needn’t do so, but are you one of those relative few?
“We keep spending money – and the math clearly says that we are sentencing our children to a horrible existence – for generations.”
Can you describe this “horrible existence”? Do you think it will resemble some of these post-apocalyptic movies that have been glutting our movie theaters of late? What exactly would we have to give up in order to face the pain now, as you say below?
“Math cannot – it is absolute – and we are living in a mass fantasyland where everyone seems to believe the gravy train can go on unabated. it cannot.
And, because we all SHOULD know math – but choose to either or ignore or pretend that 1+1 doesn’t equal 2 … we now qualify as this planet’s “worst generation” for being cowards and refusing to arrest the debt using radical measures so that we can face this pain ourselves.”
I will agree that our current crop of politicians have been cowardly about this, without a doubt. However, I would stop short if you are including the whole of America in that generalization. I would think that the majority of people recognize the problems you describe, and would do anything to keep them from occurring. The problem is that for many people it’s too much of an abstraction (just as global warming is for the majority of people), and there doesn’t seem to be, as yet, someone who both knows the solution but more importantly knows how to sell the solution. I’ve often wondered what would happen if a politician were to appear who had the strength of conviction of Ron Paul plus the undeniable charisma of Barack Obama circa 2008. Someone who could speak simply as an American, not as a politician, and lay out what needs to be done, without writing off people as “takers” or “moochers” because those are the very people that need convincing.
Could you be that person, Krulac? Everything I’ve read about your life that you’ve shared over the time this blog has been in business (and I’ve been around almost since the beginning) would suggest it.
“In 100 years – when history is written – all of the Tea Party “Radicals” and Ted Cruz’s and Rand Paul’s will be seen as the most sane among us.
Because they know math.”
I can’t say anything about Rand Paul in this instance. Is it me, or was he pretty much absent during this past “crisis”? Or is Cruz just that much more of an attention getter?
However, Cruz might well be sane, but that doesn’t mean he’s smart. I wonder how much better the Republican’s position would be if they’d decided to just knuckle down and run better candidates in the midterms in order to obtain a veto-proof majority in Congress in order to get rid of Obamacare.
Been awhile since I’ve been to Zimbabwe. The last time I was there I used U.S. dollars and they were accepted everywhere. I saw other currencies being used … like the Euro. I was told that it was basically “open currency”. And yes – I do remember when the were on the Z-Dollar and had runaway inflation … but I was working along the Zambezi River near Victoria Falls in a camp situation and we got our supplies from Zambia across the river. By the way – Victoria Falls is one of the absolute most majestic and beautiful places I’ve ever seen and I highly recommend a visit there to anyone. There’s plenty of tourism “support” there.
It really doesn’t matter what caused Zimbabwe’s runaway inflation – hyperinflation is hyperinflation and that’s what’s coming to us.
When I say there is no where to go after the US dollar falls … where else is there? There is no place. This is especially true because by the time the dollar falls every other major currency will have fallen also.
We’re up to what? QE3? And we’ve printed trillions of additional dollars – so far, everyone’s good with it because it hasn’t caused inflation. But the thing is – it hasn’t caused inflation because ALL THAT MONEY is sitting in bank reserves – it’s not a part of the economy yet so it’s not affecting the “velocity” of money. However, once banks start lending that money – it’s going to be a very bad situation because the money WILL enter the economy at that point.
And everyone is happy with appointing Janet Yeller to the Fed because she LOVES printing money apparently!
Printing money devalues the currency – devaluing the currency is like reaching into YOUR wallet and pulling dollars out of it – it’s stealth taxation and because people are too stupid to realize it – the government gets away with it. People look in their wallets – see $20 bucks … and think … “Hey great!” What they don’t realize is that that $20 bucks is now worth something less because the Fed had money printed to devalue it.
At a certain point, inflation will make the Fed irrelevant – and the currency will go into a death spiral. The Fed could pull money out of the bucket – but that’s going to be a shock on the economic system when it’s done that quickly and … death spiral continues.
We aren’t gonna stop this. Nothing we can do can prevent this – we are simply in a whirlpool right now treading water but the whirlpool is going to win.
And in the meantime we’re doubling down on spending.
What’s it gonna look like? It’s gonna look the Great Depression – and maybe worse. At least back then, there was a generation of Americans with a WORK ETHIC. They weren’t “too good” to work minimum wage jobs.
This is going to be one helluva a shock to the parasitic classes and – they are not ready for this. I suspect you’ll see crime shoot through the roof.
And you will see wars – because it’s going to happen globally.
I’ll admit I have no first-hand basis for what I’m about to say, but I wonder if there weren’t people such as yourself in, say, 1928. People who could see the Crash coming and were convinced it was going to be the end of the world and the current generation of “Flaming Youth” wouldn’t possibly be able to handle it.
Yet that generation was able to weather the two greatest crises this nation had ever known up to that time, without falling sway to those who thought Hitler and Stalin had better ideas about how to run a country (and there were more than a few in very influential positions back then).
As you say below, it’s breathtaking what humans can do. I can remember you once talking about “the next great evolutionary leap” and how humanity has not experienced it yet. At the most basic level, do you think Americans of today, your tribesmen, would turn out to be so different from Americans of the 30s and 40s when the chips are really down?
Russia, China (except for Hong Kong), North Korea, Iran … a lot of South America (though I’m planing a trip to Uraguay next year) … The government shutdown waxed me out of a trip to the North Pole (I mean – the “real” North Pole – I’ve worked in the arctic for years but never Latitude ZERO on the money) …
There’s a lot of places I haven’t been – it would be a long list actually because the world is BIG. But, in general – if it’s a Communist Nation – I can’t go there. If it’s strongly anti-american, like Venezuela or Iran – I can’t go there.
Earlier this year I traveled to the Czech Republic for tourist reasons. Because I have worked in sensitive jobs for over 30 years – I have to get permission each time I travel outside the U.S. to include Mexico and Canada. The lady I get permission from did not want to give it for Czech Republic. I said … “But Janet … they’re NATO now!”
And of course – she knew that already but still didn’t want to give it. I convinced her though and she approved it eventually.
But, I always talk about the “American Empire” … and it truly is an amazing thing beyond anything the nation has ever seen. It is patrolled almost the same way the Romans did it – but with a bit less “presence” and required “fealty” from members of the empire.
The most impressive thing I have ever seen – was right after 9-11 moving into the North Arabian Sea with the Stennis battlegroup. We are in the middle east – I’m watching our FA-18’s fly overhead headed for strikes in Afghanistan – electronic surveillance planes taking off and landing … a huge “Marshall Stack” piling up of planes waiting to land … 24 hours a day – seven days a week. In the combat information center – large screen displays displayed the entire theater and every contact in it … all completely networked – we didn’t have to see it ourselves to display it – a destroyer that picked it up thousands of miles away could send it to us via a satellite link.
An area that we didn’t own – thousands of miles from America. NOTHING MOVES unless we allow it to and no one has the technology to challenge us. Two weeks later – I’m actually IN Afghanistan working with a detachment of Marines from the MEU …
And I’m thinking … “How does a bumpkin idiot like me from Mississippi get into something like this?!”
It’s absolutely breathtaking what humans can do!
I haven’t been to Venezuela in ages (my dad grew up there and my grandpa lived there until he died) but I remember it being an absolute hole.
Argentina is great. Peru, not so much, although it has improved a lot since they got the Shining Path under control.
Krulac, I believe you’re close to the mark, but not quite there.
Just about every country in Latin America has had runaway deficit spending, and still suffers from the results of it. That’s where I think we’re headed.
Meanwhile, we will not be the ones writing history. There are lots of other active countries that would like to dominate the world in our place, and one of them will get there by starting a world war and winning it. Probably China.
I have nothing against the Chinese people, but their whole culture — not just their leadership — says that the individual human life is the least important thing in the world, not the most important. (Because they have way too many, in their own opinion.)
I don’t think anybody here will enjoy living in a world where they’re the largest, or only, superpower.
I agree with what you are saying – quite frankly I can’t think of a major country in the entire world who isn’t in debt – and that’s the problem – when it all comes down – there’s going to be desolation.
There’s going to be competition for resources – and that means there’s going to be WAR.
This is what we’re sentencing our children to.
We can’t stop it … but we could “mitigate” it a bit if we acted right now. At the very least … WE COULD SHARE IN THE PAIN SINCE WE CAUSED IT!
But we’re cowards – and we won’t.
I’m 51 and I can still kick ass – ten years from now – who knows? I hate the thought of being an old man when the world goes up in flames and I might not be able to get involved in the action. I hate thinking that I might be an old, incapacitated man completely at the mercy of events.
I’d say it was the deficit rather than the overall debt which is more concerning. Secondly, so much American wealth is concentrated in very few families—something like 400 families own half of America’s wealth. This vast inequality is increasing; if you read about growth in the US economy, almost all goes to the 0.01%; the average American has seen no increase in real wages of wealth in the last 30 years. And wealth inequality is a major destabilizing factor.
The problem isn’t the wealth itself; it’s the political power that buys in a fascist system. Consider Swanee Hunt, for example.
I’ve read that the inherent problems with inequality, wealth and power in the US could/will reach an unsustainable tension around 2020. I don’t know enough about this to make an informed comment; but there are certainly those who take it very seriously.
You can include my Necropants tweet for next week’s links column. 🙂
Wait, I think I missed that! Can you give me the link?
http://www.cultofweird.com/occult/necropants/