McClellan Resigns

Well the press secretary, Scott McClellan , has resigned. In the wake of this administration, a lot of positions have been resigned as of late. The question that arises is, What do these people know that we don’t know. We can speculate scenarios, but we truly don’t know.

With the Republican party having a lot of members speaking out against the administration, and obviously, the Democrats against them, it does make me wonder if an impeachment is on the horizon. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, has had a lot of opposition, the Vice President, also has had a lot of people speak out about him, and don’t forget the Rove/Lewis scandal. One thing I do know for a fact, this is a big mess, and the façade can only last so long.

The President announced today that "failure is not an option" in Iraq, when and where is it an option. When people fail at something, it is not because they planned it, but because they had a poor plan. The fact is, it IS that simple. There were lies to get the war started, there were lies to continue the war, and when they were being exposed they broke the law to try and destroy the ones who opposed them.

My own opinion, I don’t believe that Bush has as much of a hand in this other than being the head of the beast. I know this sounds bad, but I don’t think he has made any of the decisions that lead to all of this. He let his Secretary of Defense, and Vice President do their jobs. That is what I believe, I mean this president hasn’t vetoed a single spending bill since he came into office, he sure as hell isn’t going to tell Cheney or Rumsfeld no.

And ANWR, oh my god, everyone wants to drill there, and accuse the Democrats for blocking. Here are the facts, Republican’s can pass whatever they truly want, they are majority in all three branches of government, judicial, legislative and executive. The fact about ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Reserve in Alaska, for those who aren’t up on it) is that on loose estimates, there are only 30 years worth of oil there, some say 5 or less. One report is the amount of barrels in ANWR equal 6 months of oil use in the U.S. total. This is not just for gasoline, but for producing bottles to toilet paper. Of the oil imported 60 percent is used for producing gasoline.
Why is oil so valuable? Quite simply one barrel of oil equals 25000 man hours of work. A good example is this. An American coal miner can retreive in one day what it takes 25 men in China to retrieve. Does Electricity and fuel for machinery help, hell yeah, is it profitable and valuable, hell yeah. Is Anwr and option, no. Plain and simple, the detractors outweigh the benefits. O.K. say you get the oil, what do you do in 30 years? You are back at square one. People need to think about tomorrow, and not worry about today.

Skilling getting a grilling

Jeffrey Skilling is getting grilled on the stand in the wake of the Enron collapse. He has been asked several direct and pointed questions, and seems to be trapped. This should be a lesson to all people in position of power that you have to answer for all you do. Whether it be good or bad, you have to answer.

I hate it for his family, but he should have thought of all of the consequences. Unfortunately, the temptation is too much for some.

I hope I am never faced with temptations that could affect others in a negative way. Not that I am afraid I would make the wrong decision, but more thatI hope things get better.

Tax refunds, yippee

Maybe, Rep. Gary G. Miller, R-Calif, is submitting a bill April 27.

First let me “school” you a little. Back in 1898 the government needed a little help paying for the war (yes even back then the government was finding creative was to obtain money.), and the solution was an excise tax on long distance telephone calls. Three percent to be exact, and it has been that since 1898. This tax has been collected for One hundred and eight years. I think it is safe to say that particular war is paid for. Here is where we get tax dollars back. Somewhere around 3 years ago, the phone companies started offering minutes in block plans, not based upon distance, as the prices had been calculated on up until the nineties. The tax is based upon distance, so when this changed, we have been unfairly taxed.

Now the government is going to refund the money, to the tune of 15 billion dollars over the span. How can the money be refunded without having our children pay? Here is the “plan” as I see it. Say you spend $100 a month on long distance fees. You would get $36 dollars back for that year, $108 for the last three years.

This will not benefit the average citizen as it would the big businesses, but it is a fair dismantling, jut not worth the hassle to get less than $30 bucks back for the 3-year span. I believe the average person will just let it go. As for businesses, they already have accountants that should be on top of this.

How to claim a refund of the telephone excise tax:
* Use IRS Form 8849, Claim for Refund of Excise Taxes.
* Include this information in Schedule 6 (Other Claims): The legal basis of the claim, noting that the distance charges don't apply.
* State what's paid each month in phone excise taxes.
* Include telephone bill copies or a note saying the bills are available upon request.
Source: Stephen D. Kirkland, accountant with Moore Kirkland & Beauston LLP in Columbia, S.C.

Beyond Good and Evil

Those of us who have a different belief, who do not consider the democratic movement merely a degenerate form of political organization but a degenerate form of humanity, that is, as something that diminishes humanity, makes it mediocre and of lesser worth, where must we reach out to with our hopes?

There's no choice: we must reach for new philosophers, for spirits strong and original enough to provide the stimuli for an opposing way of estimating value and to re-evaluate and invert "eternal values," for those sent out as forerunners, for men of the future who at the present time take up the compulsion and the knot which forces the will of the millennia into a new path. To teach man the future of humanity as his will, as dependent on a man's will, and to prepare for great exploits and comprehensive attempts of discipline and cultivation, so as to put an end to that horrifying domination of nonsense and contingency which up to now has been called "history"—the nonsense of the "greatest number" is only its latest form. For that some new form of philosophers and commanders will at some point be necessary, at the sight of which all hidden, fearsome, and benevolent spirits on earth may well look pale and dwarfish. The image of such a leader is what hovers before our eyes: may I say that out loud, you free spirits?

The conditions which we must partly create and partly exploit for the origin of these leaders, the presumed ways and trials thanks to which a soul might grow to such height and power to feel the compulsion for these tasks, a revaluation of value under whose new pressure and hammer a conscience would be hardened, a heart transformed to bronze, so that it might endure the weight of such responsibility and, on the other hand, the necessity for such leaders, the terrifying danger that they might not appear or could turn degenerate—those are our essential worries and gloom. Do you know that, you free spirits? Those are the heavy distant thoughts and thunderstorms which pass over the heaven of our lives.

There are few pains as severe as having once seen, guessed, and felt how an extraordinary man goes astray and degenerates: someone who has the rare eye for the overall danger that "man" himself is degenerating, someone who, like us, has recognized the monstrous accident which has played its game up to this point with respect to the future of humanity—a game in which there is no hand and not even a "finger of god" playing along!—someone who guesses the fate which lies in the idiotic innocence and the blissful trust in "modern ideas," and even more in the entire Christian-European morality, such a man suffers from an anxiety which cannot be compared with any other—with one look, in fact, he grasps what still might be cultivated in man, given a favourable combination and increase of powers and tasks; he knows with all the knowledge of his conscience how the greatest possibilities for man are still inexhaustible and how often the type man has already stood up to mysterious decisions and new paths: he knows even better, from his own painful memory, what wretched things have so far usually broken apart a being of the highest rank, shattered him, sunk him, and made him pathetic.

The overall degeneration of man, down to what nowadays shows up as the socialist fool and flat head, as their "man of the future," as their ideal—this degeneration and diminution of man to a perfect herd animal (or, as I put it, to a man of "free society"), this beastialization of man into a dwarf animal of equal rights and claims is possible—no doubt of that. Anyone who has once thought this possibility through to the end understands one more horror than the remaining men—and perhaps a new task, as well! . . ..


This is one of my favorite passages by Friederich Nietzche from the book Beyond Good and Evil. I have re-read this book many times since I first acquired it in 1990. Not that I whole-heartedly agree with everything this philosopher wrote, but he helped open my mind tremendously. When I first read this book, I was a staunch right wing, bigot and racist. By reading a lot of his ideals I learned to see from the other persons perspective. Ironically, and I remember this vividly, it was his views on women that changed me. He believed that women should have no rights, and should be treated as secondary in society and live in the shadow of men. This did not sound right to me, I mean, if I were in their shoes, and not to mention, is my mother less important than my father?

So, as I started pondering status in society, I realized that these views were very myopic, and selfish. Oddly enough, Nietzsche is a Marxist, pretty much socialism, but down on women. These views that I started to see as wrong, I had to admit were my own also. I then started to change. No more Rush Limbaugh, No more Ken Hamblin, no more a.m. talk radio. But I had one huge hurdle, where could I find media on the other views, the views that represented what I was thinking. There was none around my area, and I did not get on the Internet for another seven years.

I immersed myself into Philosophy: Voltaire, Plato, Aristotle, Ayn Rand, Nietzsche, Socrates, John Stuart Mill, and others. These people really inspired me to really think, not only of my actions and words, but repercussions of what my come about from my actions and words.

These people can fix most of the world’s problems, by their lessons, and by their examples. The best-kept secrets are written in books, you just have to find them.
Until I die, I will keep searching for the wisdom to pass to my daughter, to help her with what she needs, whether it is fighting personal demons, dealing with others ignorance, or just standing up for herself.

Namaste

Oh No She Didn't!!!!!

Well, this post is a rant. Not based on any news event, though I would like to comment on Charles Taylor former president of Africa and on Hugo Chavez building troops trying to defend his country from us, as if...

Anywho, I do a newsletter for my daughters school and am a member of the PTO. This is done for free and is rather time consuming. As you have probably guessed by my posts, I am pretty much agnostic, borderline atheist. Having said that, in the monthly calendar in the newsletter, I would put most holidays in the calendar. This included Christmas, Channukah, Kwanzaa, Lent, Ash Wednesday, Chinese New Year, Yom Kippor, etc. and along with the verbage, I would put a small picture representing the day, or event. I did this along with Arbor day, Spring break, you know, days of importance to most people.

Well, someone complained that I was trying to push my christian agenda! I bit my tongue and only said, I am sorry that people are not open minded enough to respect all cultures, beliefs and religions. Truly, I believe that, but to be accused of pushing an agenda, that was a kick in the pants. When I pointed out that there were images and verbage of many other religions and cultures, they didn't care about that, only the christian stuff.

So, now the newsletter will be plain jane. No images, and only reasons for school closings during the week. Weekends blank, and for goodness sake, no mention of anyones beliefs. This is total bullshit! Everyone should have the freedom of speech, EVERYONE! I don't care if it is promoting or protesting, but damn, it is not like there was some church info, it was a picture that said LENT, on the day of lent. This is enough to have me quit doing the newsletter. I only did these things for filler, you know so the calendar didn't look empty, hell are these things not on all calendars?

Oh well, some people just suck, and are not happy unless others are miserable.

On another note, Sandlapper, I hope you get well soon, and thanks for the lack of prayers. ;)