…but made for a woman.

Viagra of course.

I don’t make a habit of posting about American politics because every one else is doing it but hey, some things just catch my eye.  When a budget comes swooping in at $3.55 Trillion for instance, that gets my head cocked to one side.  Because I like to crunch simple numbers, I figured I would find out how much that is per citizen of the USA and it comes out to over $11,000.

Know what the median individual income in the United States was in 2006 for people aged over 14?  Just a tad over $26,000.  Now does anyone else find it incredible that in a nation with a median income hovering around the $26,000 mark that this year’s budget will average $11,000 per person?  Take out people aged under 14 and the cost rises to somewhere in the neighbourhood of $13,000 per person living in the United States.  Freaky.

I read a very cool statistic.  Its not a good and cheery statistic wearing a smiley face mask or anything but it’s still pretty cool.  Before the insane collapse of the German mark, the socialist government there had increased spending to such an incredible degree that less than 1% (one percent) of government spending was actually covered by tax revenue.  The rest of the government’s spending was actually covered by printing more money which is just more and more borrowing.  Before too long, the German mark collapsed and was devalued to such an incredible degree that a single American penny could buy you about 45 billion German marks.

Now a lot of people blame the collapse of the mark on treaty requirements that placed incredible obligations on the German state after WWI.  I used to be of the same mind because hey, having to hand over billions of marks and things like coal and steel would dive bomb anyone’s economy right?  Absolutely right but agreeing to a ridiculous treaty that basically had Germany hand over everything of substance that the nation had was not Germany’s only problem.  The gutless government of the day also saw fit to solve its problem of massive debt and obligations by printing money non stop and without any consideration to the possibility of causing massive inflation.

the Treaty of Versailles was a problem so far as hyperinflation was concerned yes, but not the only problem and I would say not the biggest problem.

The United States has been in a deficit spending position for years now and the last time they actually had a budget surplus was under former president Bill Clinton.  In fact, at one point they were in a position to actually pay off their debt within a decade.  That seems to no longer be the case.

$3.55 trillion is a big basket of cash and this kind of spending is frankly not responsible.  It’s been tried in the past and it’s failed in the past.  It will fail again.

As much as I hate socialist idiots running countries, I have to recognize the chuckles coming from my own mouth when I see stuff like this.

Tip o’ the hat to Canadian Cynic.

So if you’ve been keeping up with the news, I’m sure you’re shivering in your shoes at the very idea that Vancouver is apparently riddled with gangland violence.  In fact, it’s being called Canada’s gang capital now.  Quite the title huh?

So one may come to the conclusion that gang members are generally psychotic.  I mean, it takes a special kind of jerkery to run wild through streets where children and other bystanders roam whilst firing off a gun.  Gang land skirmishes are usually petty disagreements attached to a very large cash value of some sort.  Cash is a big motivator for a lot of people and it’s the core reason that many of them become involved in gangs to begin with.  Sure the allure of some kind of brotherhood is a nice hook but that only lasts as long as the new recruits either see a fellow member left behind to get shot or are left behind them selves.  The real hook is telling some one they can make a few hundred dollars a day doing nothing better than using their muscle and influence of intimidation.

Despite the idiocy of running around with fire arms shooting up neighbourhoods, I think there are those who are much crazier than gang members and they don’t have to worry about being arrested.  No, I think all the worst psychotics are actually elected to government.

Through all the talk of how bad gang violence is getting in British Columbia, there is a recurrent theme and it’s been a recurrent theme for…well gosh, it’s been a recurring theme for as long as I can remember anyway.  As violence crops up, the answer is more police, tougher laws and overall, more teeth for the fight against crime.  What do you suppose happens to a terminally ill patient if you treat their symptoms rather than their illness?  They’ll probably die right?  What do you suppose will happen if you treat the symptoms of gang land violence rather than treat the core cause?  I bet it’ll just escalate.

Politicians are freaking out and supporting get tough on crime legislation.  What’s funny is that in that second link there, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan says outright that drug crimes and gang violence are linked.  His solution is to escalate the violence.  Let’s ask the Mexicans how this has worked.  Oh lookie there, not too good.

What on earth makes sense about making something more illegal if the illegality has caused serious problems?  It is sensible to crate a black market, ensure the lucrative nature of said market and then escalate the scale of the methods used to create that black market to get rid of it?  That sounds like complete and utter nonsense to me but hey, just look to government and you’ll see a bunch of psychotics in denial about the realities of society.

There has been little made about the idea that perhaps robbing gangs of their revenue may alleviate much of the problems suffered as a result of gang violence.  Elliot Ness didn’t put a single bootlegger out of business.  Ending prohibition did that and ending it today could do the same to wealthy and violence gangs.  It’s a hell of an idea I know but you need look no further than Mexico to see what the current method may get us.  Mexico is deploying tens of thousands of troops to fight drug lord armies.  Is escalating the violence really a solution or is the government loking to give us all greater employment opportunities in a new wing of the Canadian military that will be used to fight a war on drugs?

It seems a former judge don’t want none o’ his money goin’ to them damned rag heads!  I apologize for using such offencive language but I feel such ignorance deserves a good shot down below.  As soon as you’re able to get over the word “damned” you can move on and read the rest of this post.

Former justice Staniszewski doesn’t want any of the money from a scholarship that he established going to Muslim students.  It seems that he feels violence undertaken by Muslim extremists merits the idea of cutting off educational funding for all Muslims…or at least funding that he is able to provide.  Ideologically, I don’t happen to think he should be compelled to give money to anyone he doesn’t want to and if that means he doesn’t want to give money to Muslims than so be it.  Of course my ideology also has a great loop hole in that I can encourage people to berate this guy to the very day he dies for being such an asinine fool.

Courtesy of CTV, an undated photo of the face of ignorance.

I have a huge problem with Staniszewski’s reaction to extremist violence.  His deal seems to be that since he sees idiots abroad cutting people’s heads off, he gets the impression that refusing to help educate people of the same religion (however warped the extreme version may be) is a reasonable reaction.  I think hes being an arrogant and ignorant old fool who in the end is doing his bit to increase the amount of violence that does occur in the middle east and elsewhere.  His impact may be almost unnoticeable in the end but however slight his impact may be, it’s certainly a negative one.

Religiously inspired violence is violence that is born of ignorance.  It has been and certainly always will be true.  The only way to ensure that such violence is reduced and even ended is to increase the education of those who would perhaps undertake such baseless violence.  By refusing to allow his funds to go to Muslim students, Staniszewski is helping to promote ignorance and by extension, potential violence born of ignorance.

This sad old fool is deserving of ridicule and heckling.  He himself needs a good strong shocker of an education.  I’m just thankful the dolt isn’t still serving on the bench as a judge.