Lead is a highly toxic metal and a very strong poison. Lead poisoning is a serious and sometimes fatal condition. It occurs when lead builds up in the body.
There are no beneficial effects to consuming lead.
In children, recovery from lead poisoning can take time. Even low lead exposure can cause permanent intellectual disability.
Even low levels of lead in the blood of children can result in:
Behavior and learning problems
Lower IQ and Hyperactivity
Slowed growth
Hearing Problems
Anemia
Adults are at risk, as well:
Cardiovascular effects
Increased blood pressure
Decreased kidney function
Reproductive problems
Like I said, maybe I'm slow or have ADD, but this is all very confusing to me. Can anyone explain this to me after I take my Ritalin? Anyone?
One American
Presidential candidate says, “We HAFTA have free trade exactly as the WTO
dictates we HAFTA do it, because we HAFTA make America great again.”
The other candidate says, “I agree, and we HAFTA defend our
partners overseas, so we HAFTA bomb more people to achieve
peace. Remember HAFTA worlds out to destroy our Liberty. Counting me, but the Justice
Department says I can get out
of jail free. You HAFTA love me. Signed Hillary.
The American CEO says, “That sounds great to me but we HAFTA
outsource all the labor to compete and we HAFTA slash benefits for every
employee below me to support your campaigns but only if you HAFTA taxes on our
profits, please.”
The Japanese engineer says, “We can make any product HAFTA
size. I don’t even HAFTA squint my eyes.”
The Chinese production manager says, “We can make it for
HAFTA rice and you HAFTA sell it for twice the price, but don’t touch it or it
will leave you sterilized.”
The retailers around the world say, "We HAFTA close
HAFTA locations and layoff HAFTA employees to compete with the World Wide Web
or our brand will lose demand and our stock options will drop dead."
The economist puts on a rosy pair of shades and says,
"We’ll hire them all back by next year when we're outta’ the red, as
part-time temps if the market improves, a miracle happens, and we're not in a full
blown recession yet, or all dead from debt. Don't print that last part I said."
The trucker sitting at a diner off I-90 says, "I
could make a living at this if diesel were HAFTA price." And a whole
trucker chorus puts down their coffee cups at once and chimes in, "That
would be nice.”
The manager shouts, "Keep it down in there! I HAFTA call
my brother in Pakistan who’s wearing a suicide vest tonight, and it's so far
from here I HAFTA dial twice. Jesus Christ!"
The North
Korean prison camp laborer says, “I'll
HAFTA cut sleeping to two hours you say because I HAFTA ship a million
knock-offs to America by Friday.”
The Russian oligarch says, “I can make HAFTA delivery
disappear. You'll HAFTA make call to Boris and Natasha, my dear. Is there any
more vodka in here?”
The climate scientists in the Arctic says, “I froze HAFTA
brain cells I have left to determine, absolutely, and for certain that we HAFTA
cut our CO2 emissions or HAFTA planet will drown in the sea, increasing HAFTA
solar reflectivity. Shh, keep that last part a secret, please.”
The research scientists says, "I HAFTA get a government
grant to tell you if HAFTA glass is empty."
And the other one says, "I HAFTA get a government grant
to tell you if HAFTA glass is full, debatably. Write that 7-digit check care of
me."
The Pope says, "We HAFTA save the planet. It's
all up to us. That's what Jesus said in Matthew 6:25,
it's there, somewhere you’ll just HAFTA trust me on this. I'm speaking ex
cathedra. I'm speaking ex cathedra.
Just kidding, but I'm really serious."
The Dalai Lama says, "He has so much compassion, I'll
HAFTA blow that crazy Argentinean a kiss."
The Patriarch of the Orthodox Church says, "We
HAFTA keep in touch more often, but we HAFTA find
a better place to go. I can’t decide which is worse Castro or Guantanamo. You
HAFTA gimme a call, and let me know.”
A homeless dude asks the three guys in silly hats as they
walk by, "Hey, brothers, can you spare a dime or get me high?" But they
all just keep walking. And Jesus looks down and says, "Now, that ain't
right, you HAFTA do more works and less talking. One of these days their all
gonna' HAFTA see the Light. Now, I HAFTA go see 'bout a call from a Pakistani
guy. Weird, right?"
Fifteen-hundred miles away a Lakota man lights some sage and
says, “I don't understand wašíču HAFTA the
time they say they love me then take HAFTA land they promised by treaty. I
suppose, as long as they leave HAFTA Social Security in our casino all I need
understand, is that the Great Spirit has the winning hand. Go on, try your
luck. You never know. Press the flashing button. You bet ten and you win! A
buck. That's for the buffalo. Many days travel across big waters, HAFTA continent of Europe
says, “We HAFTA help these helpless refugees” while the others say, “We HAFTA
stop these migrants in their tracks” Angela Merkel asks, “Who's gonna pay to
send these poor people back?” The European Union says, "Der Bundesbank
haben das money sack. Veel HAFTA pay you back. Veel keep track."
Down in the Peloponnese, a distant descendant of Leonidas shakes his head and says, "I'll HAFTA sell more
feta cheese to all these Persian chaps. Austerity sucks like bringing Spartan
living back." Ain't that a laugh?
The Basque turns to his
clansmen, which number twenty to twenty-five, and said, “We HAFTA have our
independence to thrive just like the Irish tried.”
An Irishman shout across the English Channel, “You HAFTA be
out of your fucking mind! Give us a whiskey, love; I HAFTA get pissed for the
night.”
In a desert bunker outta sight, an ISIS recruiter cries,
“Those who drink alcohol must die. You HAFTA wear this dynamite to kill the infidel
who disagree with Allah or Muhammad to reach paradise. Here we'll HAFTA try it
on for size. Now, As-salamu alaykum and
good-bye.”
This isn’t a rap, it's just a list of simple rhymes with the
truth backing it up inside. All that is hidden will HAFTA be revealed in time.
Let's see what’s happened since the murderer committed “suicide” and burned his
21 victims alive... Weird, right? They did, now, you HAFTA see the light.
Back in the Land of the Free, the American working man says,
“I'm only working HAFTA hours and I'm gonna’ HAFTA get another part-time job by next week.
We haven't saved HAFTA money we need for our retirement."
His son says, “I can’t make HAFTA student loan payment this
month even HAFTA I move back home. All this debt is fucking bent!”
His wife says, "Screw the government! It seems we can
only afford HAFTA house, HAFTA kids, and HAFTA car my mother and father had."
Her father says, “You should kiss the flag and be glad. I
HAFTA take a shit and an $8,000 pill or can’t go without it. Now, I HAFTA sell
the house and car to buy a camper with your mother by my side who can't
remember my Goddamn name HAFTA time.”
Her mother says, Oh, my! Does that strange man HAFTA use such
language at the dinner table? Ooh!, I've fallen and I can't get up! I'm not
able.”
People look at me and say, "I don't understand HAFTA
shit he writes about HAFTA time. I am sure he'd HAFTA be out of his mind, and I
am being kind."
And I shrug my shoulders and say, "You HAFTA do the
research and the math, then you'll HAFTA come back tell me what you find.
Otherwise, you're just one of the blind. Mind that pit it’s deep and wide."
A shout cries out across the countryside, "That's all
bullshit! He's full of it!" Then IMF director leans back at his desk,
clear his throat, and says, “We HAFTA keep them all drowning in debt. HAFTA
clerk checked on our Korean prison profits, yet? We’ll take the gold. You keep
the check.”
The Mexican worker says, “What the Hell! I HAFTA cross the
border to survive.”
The Immigration officer says, “We HAFTA build a wall, and
make it a mile high.”
The old East German smiles and says, "Oh, now it's your
turn to commit suicide. I HAFTA leave the country tonight. This country's going
down the drain; all the leaders HAFTA be insane! Aufweiderzen!"
And the Wall Street broker says, “You just HAFTA keep rolling
those dice, HAFTA I take my little giant slice.
Thanks for playing so nice. Oh, you lose my friend. You'll just HAFTA come and
play again. Now I HAFTA make my dinner date with all the Presidential
candidates we’ll talk about the politics that will seal your fate. So long,
suckers!”
Little people, mom and pops, worldwide pull out their empty
pockets and cry, "I should never HAFTA trust those mother fuckers again!"
The politicians say, “We HAFTA fix the system we fixed again!
There we put all those matters to an end. Your money is safe, you just HAFTA
put it in like a good American. Yup, it's official, the fix is in."
And all those little people, mom and pops, and suckers around
the world sing, “Thanks, we owe you guys and we HAFTA give you all an Amen!”
Until it all happens again, the only question is when...
So, if someone says you HAFTA do something follow the reason
to the root, if you find tyranny, monopoly, or slavery wearing a three-piece
suit, all you HAFTA do is render them the single finger salute.
Things have changed over the years in the good old Home of the Brave. It seems that sometime between the Progressive era (1890 to 1920) and the post war years our little Republic started to become an increasingly expensive, unresponsive, and out of touch behemoth running amok. This worrisome development has continued unabated to the present day. As the old maxim says, "Follow the money." I'd like to suggest we update these wise words to read, "Follow the money because the debt will stalk you and your children."
If you're not a numbers person, how about following your feelings? The most recent report card on how Americans feel about their Federal Legislature shows that approval ratings have ebbed to the current low tide level of 11%. In my estimation, that's on par with a dictatorial regime's approval ratings or maybe Coke II's consumer satisfaction, but not for our very own freelyelected representatives!
Aim for the Porch Light! (I'll let you in on the joke shortly.)
What gives? We put these jamokes in office and then we despise them? Is it us? Are we really that fickle? Maybe as candidates they spent too much time lying to us while racing down the campaign trail. That would keep our hands clean as we discreetly assign blame and move on to topics which cultivate less gray hairs and facial wrinkles. But wait! There is that miniscule possibility that we spend too much time accepting, and even believing their lies. This not so tidey answer comes and roosts on our shoulders a bit too heavy. We could subtract at least half our burden by adding, "You have to admit, those front runners and their dark horses put on a hell of a good show before the election. I mean, they actually seemed... uh... honest." But now, in the early days of December their promises engraved in granite just thirty short days ago are beginning to smell like some other solids dispersed among the kitty litter... again. The problem is that no matter how much their words resonated in your soul, no matter how much they knew what you've been going through, they don't give a "kitty litter solid" about you. Oh, they needed your vote to get elected, but then for the most part you have served your purpose like long overdue litter. So, the next election cycle you return the favor, "Out with the old and in with the new... poo." Back and forth, the turd tossing ballot by attrition is cast for a candidate whose promises were never meant to last into the new year. The distraught football fan has the next season, and we wounded voters have the election. Be of good cheer! We, the People, will have our day again on eleven eleven. The liars get the intervening four agonizing years in which to fabricate more sweet fraudulence for our eager ears. Personally, I pass the time fantasizing about shooting out my representative's porch light at a minimum semi-annual basis. This pleasant thought shatters the repetitive motion, mental carpal tunnel of ballot box regret. Forgive me Founding Fathers for I have sinned. I voted for my last catbox solid candidate six months ago. What vexes me is Why? I haven't the foggiest, Fathers. I do not know. But I can tell you is his porch light is visible from six hundred yards or so. I remember proudly pushing the chad next to his or her name... because the other candidate was Beelzebub! Electing a demon would be insane. Give me absolution Fathers, that I may commit this lesser sin again. I must confess, this is the sad state to which our nation state has decayed: We vote against the person whom we know to be Satan We have proof. Ergo, we vote for the person with the slightly less pronounced cloven hoof. Ergo, error go.
Following this illogic, we're not really voting. The process of selecting the people of power is much akin to playing Russian roulette with a single shot, bolt-action rifle. That's not a pretty picture for the greatest and most rocking nation on the planet. But that's what we get evil Republicans or wicked Democrats. Beelzebub or the bullet. Trick or... trick. This "heads lose your heads, tails lose your tails" political reality might explain our increasing and enduring sense of despondence expressed numerically in our Congressional disapproval. The only holy way out of this inferno is to opt out of the political trauma center system all together. Thus avoiding both the Prince of Darkness and the lesser minion of the dark realm you'd support by default.
There's a couple parties that only care about white people.
There's three that are only concerned with black people.
A half-dozen are Socialist or have "Socialist" in their names. Every one of these insist that they are the only "real Socialists". The others are bourgeois.
A growing slate have a "green" hue. The Mountain Party is opposed to coal mining in West Virginia. Talk about single issue politics!
My former political home, the Libertarian Party is still active and actively going nowhere. I guess freedom doesn't rally much interest in a nation dependent on the monthly ebb and flow of Treasury checks.
Not one of these parties, stand a snowball's chance in the hometown of the most unclean candidateyou refuse to vote for. Why throw your vote away? Do the prudent thing and vote for the candidate who requires less blood offerings. That's a well used vote! Praise God! You would NEVER vote for Beelzebub! That is why you have ALWAYS voted for a lesser Demon of the Dark Realm. At least he will be after you shoot out his porch light.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Should any reader extrapolate the insane idea that I am endorsing shooting any porch lights out, I will lose all respect for you as a human being and there will be no ice cream for you. It will be too hot where you're going.
For what must be decades now we have been told that "Free Trade" takes few thousand page document, negotiates in secret over years to put together. It takes language so complex that no average person could comprehend what we're agreeing to in the (much touted) agreement. More jobs, more money, more security, better access to all the stuff we can't live without, that's what we're told. We should be thankful that our elected officials managed to put such a wondrous trade deal together for us. We should be... Evaluated!
Medicated! Institutionalized!
Re-Educated! Or mybe we already are. Free Trade means,
"I give you this and you give me that, do you agree?"
If yes, the deal is done. If no, the deal goes dead. It is a very simple convenience of exchange transaction. This concludes all you will ever need to know, and all there is to know, about Free Trade. It's just that simple. eBay is free trade.
Even a cave man could understand Free Trade!
We do not have a single Free Trade Agreement. Not a single one. We have managed trade, very managed, very specific legally managed trade with wording so complicated that we don't understand it. Why do you think that is? Moreover, why would we actually believe that these very lengthy documents1 are what Free Trade looks like...
US - Australia FTA
US - Bahrain FTA
US - Chile FTA
US - Colombia FTA
DR-CAFTA: Includes US - Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, & Nicaragua
US - Israel FTA
US - Jordan FTA
US - Korea FTA
US - Morocco FTA
NAFTA: Canada & Mexico
US - Oman FTA
US - Panama FTA
US - Peru FTA
US - Singapore FTA
Why would we be told that these are Free Trade when they are not? At the risk of sounding conspiratorial, because we are too dumb to know otherwise. It's a Repetition = Truth thing like suicide bombings. We hear something so often that we stop questioning the words. It's an established "fact", like...
Witches causing crop failure
Scurvy being caused by a virus
Bats are blind
Cutting to balance the humors
AIDS being caused by people in Africa having sex with monkeys
OK, the last one was a stretch, but if we hadn't been told otherwise by so many healthcare professionals, we would be believed that too. In the absence of facts, any fiction will due.
For instance, if the managed trade deal ends in disaster for one or both signatory nations, well hell, Blame Free Trade! Then, the people will demand Managed Trade, which is exactly what we have.
Take your pick Coke or Pepsi. Cast your vote, and I will wish you the very best (of what you're given).
We know the truth when we hear it, but if it is never spoken and never heard...
Any fiction will due.
Footnote:
1. Links to the specific trade agreemens can be found at Department of Commerce Free TradeAgreements ( www.trade.gov/fta/ )
Pay no attention to those two guys behind the curtain.
Keep in mind that the two choice system comes right out of the corporate world. Coke or Pepsi, McDonald's or Burger King, and when you say, "I don't want a cola and burger", you're assumed to be unstable and potentially a threat.
We've tried every combination, Republican President/ Democratic House, Republican Senate/ Democratic House, Democratic President/ Republican Legislature, and every other permutamtion and still it's been a straight line from prosperity and peace to what we have today, which is neither.
We've heard the same tired rhetoric about campaign finance reform since I was a twelve year-old thumbing my way through the Chicago Sun-Times before school. Has anything really happened to return the power to the People?
Look, there is a solution, and it is simple enough for me to write in three sentences...
Contributions from individual donors only
A maximum of $500.00 per individual.
All monies not spent on the current election campaign are turned over to Campaign Finance Enforcement for their funding.
Problem solved!
But this will never happen. We know the truth when we hear it, don't we?
Now, ask yourself, "Why won't it happen?"
Is it not in the best interest of the People?
Think about it, those three sentences would return the power to the People because each person is only worth $500 of influence. The majority of people (the so called "99%") are a hell of a lot larger than the 1% which currently exercises much more influence on policy makers than the Welder from Ohio, the single mom from Albuquerque, or the Dentist from Seattle. One billionaire can quite nearly dictate his agenda to our Representatives, who in turn parrot it to us and the media, who in turn sing the tune we have come to know by heart.
It's a fictional little ditty, all (or most) of it lies. Some believe that the Coke part is true others are set like thousand year old concrete on Pepsi being legit. Meanwhile, whilst we shred each other to pieces over the cola we never wanted in the first place, guess who's vote is really being counted?
It's the fourth of July, 2016. The United States of America is 240 years old. That's about bar mitzvah age (12-years-old) for a nation when compared to the history of more distinguished European countries, and brit milahage (7-days-old) in respect to the world's most venerated nations. Yet, we've set the Stars and Stripes atop a Mount Everest sized summit of accomplishments for a country of such tender years. Just to name a few of these milestones,
The American inventor Thomas Edison lit up the darkness for all mankind in 1879 with his efficient and affordable electric light bulb.
In 1884, we lit the way to the future of cities when we built the first skyscraper in Chicago.
An understudy of Mr. Edison, Nikola Tesla, left his mark upon the power grid in 1885 by developing the AC induction motor and championing alternating current which electrifies our modern world.
A couple of Midwestern brothers electrified the world by taking to the air for 59 seconds over the sands of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina just before the Christmas of 1903.
The Panama Canal was first considered in 1513 by the explorer Vasco Balboa, but it took four centuries and American engineering to make that old Spaniard’s Christmas wish a reality exactly 400 years later in 1913.
When the Japanese attacked our Pacific Fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbor, we shipped millions of tons in much needed munitions, material, and G.I.s through the Panama Canal in order to return that war to the Japanese who surrendered in 1945.
At the same time Americans were building Liberty ships on an average of three a day, one in as little as 111 hours from keel to christening to keep England afloat long enough for American General Eisenhower to march the Allies from the beaches of Normandy to downtown Berlin.
Although, America started out as the underdog in both these conflicts, we emerged from the ashes of world war reborn as a superpower in 1946.
During the post-war years, we took on the peace in the same manner we had won the war by shipping millions of tons of American manufactured goods and American grown grain to every affected nation to rebuild the world which war had destroyed.
We took America’s superpower status to new heights when astronaut Neil Armstrong took one giant leap for mankind onto the surface of the moon. That was July 20,1969.
In 1981, we lept into the personal computer age which made technology, well… personal.
The demand for personal computer operating systems opened doors around the globe for Microsoft Corporation to open Windows 95 which opened My Documents on My Desktop of My Computer.
As we moved into a new century we linked hundreds, thousands, and millions of those My Computers together and did a stellar job of turning the planet into MySpace.
Today, America faces stiff competition from a world market we helped to open by the creation of a global collaborative social network, workspace, and shopping mall. For the first time in our history, the human race shares a common repository for all of our things, stuff, and magic built in a mystical/digital place we call “the Cloud”. Our American ingenuity has provided us with many advantages and the ability to build bridges to places our fathers couldn't imagine. This is where our focus and our target should be. However, we seem distracted by other matters.
We've passed some truly astounding milestones for a nation with only 240 candles on its birthday cake. When you consider that I’ve noted only a smattering of all the great works Americans have done over our nation's lifetime, it's really quite awe inspiring. We, Americans, often feel so high and mighty above the rest of the world it's like we're looking down from the Cloud...
or is it smoke reflected in mirrors? Do you smell something burning?
Looking back at our more recent history, it appears that we've been focused on targeting and destroying a lot more bridges than we've been building. While our infrastructure crumbles beneath our feet, we've been spending trillions of dollars bombing the infrastructure of other nations. It seems that we have been rushing headlong and blind into every hotspot, factional blaze, and tribal conflagration we could find or help kindle on the planet. Moreover, when we've done so, America is not winning wars or hearts or minds. We leave ashes and call it peace. We are using a baseball bat to put out fires.
Perhaps the most disturbing part of this new American trend (and certainly the most alarming part of this post) is that I didn't need to explain what I meant by that last sentence. We are all well aware of the folly of our foreign policy, and yet we are without any real political alternative to our current course of eternal international intervention.
Maybe that's one of the drawbacks of having only 240 candles on our birthday cake, we lack the perspective and the wisdom that comes with age. We think we're invincible. We believe we are ready to take on the world and that we cannot lose. We think we can solve all the world's problems because our ways are best. We believe that 240 candles is proof of our success.
However, I'd like to remind us all of another very innovative people, great civilizers, amazing administrators with remarkable acumen who came to rely primarily on their military prowess to expand their sphere of influence across the globe. A people we know as Romans who had over 500 candles on their birthday cake before some Visigoths and Vandals came to blow them out.
We're fifteen years into nation building (and probably narcotics trafficking) in the "Graveyard of Empires", and Afghanistan is still f#@$ed up. Not to worry, it was f#@$ed up long before we invaded after the 9/11 attacks. We demanded that the Taliban government turn over Osama bin Laden, and they had the nerve to ask us to provide evidence of his guilt prior to extradition. Being the "Rule of Law" nation that we are, we invaded Afghanistan pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act.
Nevertheless the invasion worked out fine. In a mere decade we nabbed Osama! Yup, we got 'em. Well, we sort of got 'em. We didn't actually grab or nab him prior to ventilating his face, neck, chest, remaining torso, and about everything else Osama owned with bullets. Then, we nabbed his body and gave it a burial at sea because that's a Muslim tradition.
It's not really a Muslim tradition according to Muslims, but Barack Obama said it was. Who cares, really, we KIA'd that bastard! (Osama, not Obama.) At least we're kinda sure that we killed him. He (Obama, not Osama) released the photo of Osama's corpse to the world. So, what if it was a fabricated photo? Obama is bringing a manufacturing job back to the USA!
I know, it all seems kinda sketchy, but what we can be certain of is that Osama was found shacked up in a windowless three-flat which reflected that all five of his wives shared a particular disdain for housework. That we are positive about. For sure, dirtbag, for sure.
Oh, yeah, and we are also damn sure that the unkempt dark hulk of a building in which Osama was ripped to shreds by flaming (Made in the USA) lead was located in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Which you will know, assuming that you're reasonably competent in geography, is not in Afghanistan.
Oops! We invaded the wrong country. Our bad, but we got the right guy, probably maybe, for sure!
Another thing we're pretty darn sure about is damn few Al Qaeda honchos were ever killed or captured in Afghanistan. It seems most of them had a Pakistan mailing address and Pakistan is one of our partners in the War on Terror. Weird, huh?
Maybe they're partners like Saudi Arabia is in the fight against ISIS? It sure seems like all our partners in the Middle East are inclined to work against our partnership's stated goals. That's weird, too. Oh, well.
So, we are still there (Afghanistan, not Pakistan) occupying the wrong country years later. We're fighting tooth and nail against the Taliban, who are not terrorists, so I'm not sure why we're fighting them, but we are. Oh, well. It seems that along the way to invading the wrong country and maybe bagging the potential mastermind of 9/11 we will have spent somewhere between $4 to $6 trillion dollars* on this imbroglio, but who is counting? That may seem an expensive entry fee for an ass kicking contest with the varsity team of Pakistani madrassas, but we're the away team and it's always pricey when you wander down the Silk Road to the "Graveyard of Empires". That works out to be about $40,983.61 per US taxpayer, but like I said who's counting?
Here's the bad news. It looks like the match is going to end up a draw. How unAmerican is that? Anything that can end in a tie is inherently against American principles. Draws are expensive in the global cops and robbers game. Thanks for playing! So, the reasonable and mature way to respond to this expensive disappointment is to affix blame. The problem is that there is so much to go around, yet predominantly it all has a mailing address in the United States with a 20500 ZIP code. They don't care. We don't care. It's a thing of ugly.
And now for the really bad news, the only time when a vastly superior force fights for this many years and the conflict ends in a tie is when that vastly superior force is fighting against (and been killing) the indigenous people (not insurgents). Oh, well. The shit we're blowing up looks great on the T.V.!
Areas in red are controlled by Afghan Army (United States armed and funded) Areas in white are controlled by the Taliban (Probably Saudi funded, another one of our Middle East partners.)
* $4 to $6 trillion dollars includes total costs such as economic impact of wounded and lost life value. Like real costs, not just the costs we want to count to justify bullshit like this war.
The Left uses a convenient method to prove a point. First, take the facts, then remove any data which contradicts your claim and provide what is "Left". Here are some examples of how this is done.
Example 1: Budget Spending
Leftist Premise: Defense spending is the biggest part of the Federal Budget.
They will present a budget chart that looks like this to support their premise...
Leftist Conclusion: Clearly, Pentagon spending is more than half of our budget spending. Therefore my argument is valid and anything that follows it is also true, such as...
That's too much to spend on defence
Military contractors are overpaid
We don't need a big military
We are an unethical global hegemony
We're racist
It's all perfectly logical, right?
No, it is built on a foundation of bull and the substance of their argument drops in quality from there on. Some of their conclusions may have merit, but by using deceptive evidence they errode the value of their own argument.
The graphic is not the "Federal Budget", it's only the "Discretionary Spending" portion of the Federal Budget. The full budget looks like this...
Defense spending drops to a distant third place at 16% of total spending after Social Security with 33% of total spending and running a close second is Medicare at 27% of total spending.
Consider for a moment what this means,
60% of all Federal spending does nothing except rob Peter to pay Paul. That is the vast majority of "work" that our Federal government does.
This activity produces no real wealth it merely transfers ownership of wealth while taking a substantial cut for overhead costs.
These programs have no actual accounts or deposits for the beneficiaries. They are both effectively Ponzi schemes.
Neither Social Security or Medicare are mentioned in the Constitution, while a Common Defense (the military) is specifically mentioned.
So, the Constitutionally mandated military has taken a back seat to some creative financial products that are not mentioned in the Constitution. Weird, right?
It's not that I am against a social safety net or senior citizens. I realize they worked hard all their lives for their Social Security benefits. The problem is the architecture of the system. We pay it in reverse. We should be "investing" for the future, rather than paying off the past. This allows small sums regularly invested over a couple decades to grow into a sizable sum, and the investor can retire on the principle plus interest.
Social Security takes money from worker's checks and pays that money directly to beneficiaries. There is no "investment", nothing to grow, and no principle for interest to accrue upon, instead we are just performing account swaps. As long as the workforce is growing at a healthy pace, account swaps work fine. Unfortunately, we have a stagnant work force and a growing number of increasingly compensated beneficiaries. That is unsustainable.
I'm not for punishing grandma and grandpa. I'm against fraud, and that is what the Leftist Budget Spending argument is based upon. Any system that requires constant rescue is not financially sound. The Social Security architecture must be changed in a fundamental way to address its structural deficiency. Adjusting this requirement or tweaking that benefit only prolongs the systemic failure and allows the resulting damage to grow exponentially.
Example 2: The Clinton Budget Surplus
Leftist Premise: Bill Clinton produced a budget surplus.
Speaking of fraud, here is another accounting irregularity. How many times do you have to repeat a lie before it becomes true? Infinity + 1, but you can make a bunch of wishful thinking people believe it's true way before you reach that critical mass.
Simply follow this recipe...
First, propose that there is going to be a surplus
Third, claim there was a surplus. Even a decade later...
Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat...Draw it in a chart! Or two, or three hundred...
As long as the chart includes a surplus, then there had to be one! Yes, sirree. There had to be a surplus. Liars can figure, but charts can't lie!
Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat...
Leftist Conclusion: The "investments" (Pronounced: spending) and "cuts" (Pronounced: reduced increases) that Bill Clinton succeeded in placing in the budget did what no President had accomplished in decades.
In truth (the untarnished variety), a budget surplus" should (theoretically) produce a REDUCTION in national debt, just as the inverse a "budget deficit" produces an INCREASE in the national debt. This is fairly basic arithmetic. If the surplus fails to REDUCE the national debt, I argue that the surplus is imaginary, accounting hocus-pocus, or just damn good propaganda.
If we are shoveling more debt on our unborn children many generations hence, then a surplus is nothing to brag about and it certainly is not a surplus of anything but all-natural organic bovine produced fertilizer.
So, let's take a look at the effects of the Clinton Surplus....
Ta-Da! No budget surplus. None at all. The "surplus" is accounting flim+flam=fertilizer. For an explanation of how the equation worked out to be flim/flam= (half) truth, see Bill Clinton says his administration paid down the debt.
Example 3: Right Wingers are Sociopaths
Leftist Premise: Those espousing Right wing ideas are murderous neo-nazis, while the Left is the abode of loving, maternal farm folk and working class heroes.
Look at the death toll results for Left wing dictatorships vs. Right wing dictatorships in the Western hemisphere the Left has a much lower body count. (Paraphrased)
- Claim made by Thom Hartmann on his RT show The Big Picture
Okay, Thom, you have me there! You are absolutely correct. No doubt about it, the facts are behind you on the claim that Leftist dictators have killed far less than Right wing dictators in the Western hemisphere. You win!
However, when we remove your "Western hemisphere" filter and look at THE REAL BIG PICTURE rather than what is left, you're full of all-natural organic bovine produced fertilizer...
When we look at the BIG PICTURE, Right wing dictators are monsters following in the footsteps of Elmo!
But now for the only question that I have LEFT, what kind of asshole justifies any dictators and calls himself a patriotic American, Tomm?
Okay, she's acting like a dictator but that's as reprehensible as you playing apologist for one. You and Nancy Pelosi suck, Tomm, and here is why...
Left wing, Right wing, East wing, Wingding, or Chicken wing, we should tolerate no dictators! We're Americans, Tomm! We believe in Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness! Not the Nancy Pelosi Nanny State, Equality of Outcome, and Universal Healthcare.
Oops! I forgot that this is How to Argue like a Lefty, not with a Lefty. Anyways, that's how you do both.
