JamesSlusher.com

I have had it up to the proverbial HERE with Republicans bandying about the terms “conservative” and “liberal”. Last night I was referred to as a “liberal” because I disagree with just about everything George W. Bush has ever done.

I believe in a balanced budget that conserves the American people’s money, Bush does not.

I believe in conserving the American people’s rights and freedoms (including the right to privacy), Bush does not.

I believe in the conservation of our natural resources, Bush does not.

I believe in conserving our military power to legal, honest and legitimate uses, Bush does not.

So if I’m the one that believes in the conservation of our money, resources, principles and lives, how come I’m not the one called “conservative”?

I love a good con artist. I really do. In fact, I like a good thief, too. I think both of these endeavors, if done professionally, can really be respected. They take thought and time and years of polishing to be really good.

Con artists, in my opinion, are respectable in that they almost always take advantage of someone else’s greed. Very few people that get taken by them weren’t trying to get something for nothing. Take for example the Nigerian schemes you see on the internet and in your inbox. The people that get taken by these schemes think that they are about to get millions of dollars out of some dishonest accountant or treasury-secretary or something. Like someone is really going to randomly pick up your e-mail address, trust you with their stolen millions and keep it hush hush. So really con artists are stealing from greedy stupid people.

What I really , really like are con artists who take from con artists. That’s the kind of beautiful poetic justice that I love. That takes a much higher level of gamesmanship. It’s like pulling sleight-of-hand tricks on Harry Houdini. I’m wondering if anyone has figured out a way to turn these cons around on the Nigerians? I would love that.

Through a post on Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s blog, I saw this take on an A. Lincoln letter at Slacktivist.com.

Being the lazy fool that I am I will quote the same section Patrick did:

Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure. Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, after having given him so much as you propose. If to-day he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him,–I see no probability of the British invading us”; but he will say to you, “Be silent: I see it, if you don’t.”

The provision of the Constitution giving the war making power to Congress was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons: kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly oppressions, and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. But your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood.

Eerie how dead-on that is to the current situation.

If you like Bill Maher and his Politically Incorrect show, he has a blog.

I’ve always been a fan of his, if you haven’t checked him out, do yourself a favor and read his stuff. You can catch some of his jokes here. Click on the “Private Stock” link.

Now.

I have made my opinion on Suncom and its horrible customer service clear in the past. They are getting worse. They tried to bill me a whopping $267.20 when my wife and I hadn’t yet exceeded our minimum minutes (we get 350 daytime minutes plus unlimited nights and weekends, and we had only used 310 total minutes). They have been trying to gouge us ever since the first time I complained to them and I must believe now that they are doing it purposefully. I expect I will have to call and argue with them once a month now until I have finished my contract with them which is not until October.

I believe that there are other phone companies, either cingular or verizon or someone who doesn’t require a contract. If I can’t find one I will just get a prepay phone somewhere. No more of this getting trapped by imbeciles crud.

Do yourself a favor and avoid Suncom/ATT

Not only does George W. want to discriminate against an entire class of people, but his wrongheaded economic policies have put Social Security benefits in jeopardy.

The Republicans are acknowledging that things are in trouble, but will play political catch-up at a later date:

U.S. Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Grand Rapids, doubted that Congress would go near Greenspan’s recommendations any time soon.

“Congress will not cut benefits in an election year or in a nonelection year until such a thing would be absolutely necessary,” Ehlers said. “Instead, we’ll look for other options. We have to look at other ways to finance (the Social Security Trust Fund).”

Look for what other ways? Lets borrow from Peter to pay Paul, perhaps? You know George “I’m a war president” W. Bush is not going to cut defense spending. So what other programs are going to get cut? I’m sure nothing that would benefit Corporate America, so who does that leave to pick up
up the slack? Middle-class Americans such as moi? I know I shouldn’t be surprised by now, but his basic incompetency astounds me.

If you are old, Gay, or middle-class and still a Republican you are just like the Hispanic kid at Aryanfest. You are supporting a group that wants to see you crushed under their bootheels

Now that the back porch is shaping up, my wife and I are in the market for some decent outdoor furniture. We have been leaning heavily towards wrought iron. M prefers to have something with a patina rather than the regular black. It’s not easy finding such things, especially this time of year. If anyone knows of a place online that sells such stuff, please let me know. We are looking to get a bench, around 6 chairs and a couple of end tables. M is about to drive me nutso with her obsessing about such things, so the sooner I can get it bought, the sooner she can start obsessing about a trip or something.

My Dear Wife and I have been busy little homeowners in the past few weeks. We have spent years (close to 3 now) remodeling and general transfiguring the innards of our abode. Now we have started on the outside. The eaves and overhang have gotten a fresh coat of paint in the color that Valspar calls “kindadarkredmaroonish”. At least that’s what was on the color chip. We also repainted the shed with the same shade of burgundy and hit the formerly white spots with some BRIGHT white. It looks like a barn now. So much so that I have taken to calling it “the barn”.

So that’s done and I even have a picture of my wife planting fake flowers in the planters outside our house. Yes, they are plastic, which guarantees I won’t kill them for at least a month.

The new outdoor carpet comes from Lowe’s on Tuesday. I’m thinking of having a BBQ or some such to celebrate the new look.

P.S. for 02/25, we have the new carpet in and it looks great!

Angie once mentioned that I should say something about our friendship. It’s actually hard to say anything about it, because it is such a given in my life, like air or sunshine. It’s good to have friends that you always know will be there and that you can pretty much say anything to and they will take it for what it’s worth and not judge. And friends that you have had a long time are like family, in more ways than one. For one, they keep you honest. You can’t pretend like you didn’t have a rat tail in the 80’s, because they saw it. You can’t front like you were Mr. Perfect in high school, because they were there giggling at you making a jackass out of yourself. When you can’t think of anything good to say, they remind you.

So these are my friends, Angie (in the black jacket) and Chaun (in the red jacket). They have been with me forever and here is to another forever together.

P.S. Another reason they keep you grounded is that they have all these pictures of you!!!

I have done more writing since starting this blog than I have done in the decade prior to it. I’m talking cumulatively. Of course, I’m not counting instant messages, as I do quite a bit of that and counting that would blow my whole thing out of the water. So ixnay on the essagingmay.

I think it has been very good for me, allowing me to stretch some horribly atrophied mental muscles. I have also opened my dictionary more in the past couple of months than I had in the previous 15 years combined. And thats counting Scrabble games.

Of course, there is a downside to this. Some of the madness comes pouring out and you get to watch me spin my tales of insanity.