American Infrastructure

I’ve been thinking about this for about two decades now, and I’ve not heard of a single comprehensive plan to deal with this major issue.  Anything that comes along is piecemeal and doesn’t account for other parts of the infrastructure.

Daily Pundit

Minneapolis I-35 Bridge Collapse - Expert Op-Ed - America’s Weak Infrastructure - Popular Mechanics

The fact is that Americans have been squandering the
infrastructure legacy bequeathed to us by earlier generations. Like the
spoiled offspring of well-off parents, we behave as though we have no
idea what is required to sustain the quality of our daily lives. Our
electricity comes to us via a decades-old system of power generators,
transformers and transmission lines—a system that has utility
executives holding their collective breath on every hot day in July and
August. We once had a transportation system that was the envy of the
world. Now we are better known for our congested highways, second-rate
ports, third-rate passenger trains and a primitive air traffic control
system. Many of the great public works projects of the 20th
century—dams and canal locks, bridges and tunnels, aquifers and
aqueducts, and even the Eisenhower interstate highway system—are at or
beyond their designed life span.

The reason for this is quite simple: It is the utter corruption of
our political system. Our system has become a single machine designed
to raise huge amounts of money for a few people through a system of
institutionalized bribery by special interests, and public payment
wealth transfers in exchange for votes.

Bridges and other infrastructures don’t vote, and it has already
been calculated that it is cheaper to pay off the aggrieved after a New
Orleans drowns, or a Minneapolis’ primary bridge falls into the river,
than to actually fix our ancient infrastructure systems - since doing
so would divert too much money from the more politically attractive
system of direct bribes to voter segments.

Illegitimate Children?

Children of unwed mothers are still called “illegitimate.”  I’ve been waiting for a good reason why children aren’t legitimate if their mothers aren’t married.

No Amnesty, No National ID

I’m against the Immigration bill that was recently defeated but will soon be resurrected.  It does offer basic amnesty to people who have entered the country illegally.  It’s a law issue.

The people screaming about illegal immigration and amnesty, though, seem to have a basic expectation of how things need to be: all citizens need to have proof of citizenship.  This means a national ID.

The root problem here is the value of governmental identification.  Sure it helps to catch people who break the law, forces some responsible action on others who wouldn’t otherwise act responsibly, but at what cost to everyone else?  Identity theft is big business, and the more we rely on government identity, the more valuable these identities become.

But why are they valuable at all?

Our whole system of services is based on being who you say you are.  From opening a bank account (FDIC insured), to applying for a job (employers pay the income taxes), being you is a trillion dollar a year business (ballpark).

The only way to get out of this sputtering Cessna spiral is to eliminate governmental services.

This would be the hardest thing for America, like heroin withdrawal.  We’re so used to having these backups, it’s like they’ve always existed.  They haven’t.  It’s compassion and greed that created these programs, these ubiquitous services, but they are almost all unconstitutional.  We all want to help each other out, it’s part of our nature, the very being of our societies, coming from family, up to community, then expanding that community to encompass our States, our Nation, and our planet.  We all want to help, and sometimes the fastest way — or even the only way — is to use the enormous tax coffers as charity.

Good intentions aside, this leads to horrible things.  We all pay for some things, different things, we don’t want.  With higher taxes we pay for services and institutions that we find intellectually or morally repulsive.  With my taxes, I help to pay for Islamic military campaigns against my fellow countrymen.  We all do.  From Saudi Arabia to Pakistan to Gaza, and many other places inbetween, money that the U.S. government has collected in taxes has helped to fund the expansion of ideals held by people that consider me, my family, my friends, neighbors and fellow citizens as mortal enemies.  It galls me.  This fact alone should stick right in your throat and cause you to question the rationale of anything for which our government pays our hard-earned tax dollars.

Republicans couldn’t control themselves, Democrats have shown they can’t control themselves, it’s just one big spending party once you get elected to office.  This kind of thing should be stopped immediately, and with the harshest of punishments for those who think they are above the rules.

Isn’t it treason to go against the Constitution of the United states of America?  What’s the punishment for treason?

So now I come back to — and sum up — my original point.  Illegal immigration wouldn’t be an issue if there wasn’t a government service industry to protect from fraudulent use.  If you feel you need to keep these services as-is, then we’ll all need a National ID card so anyone can know who is a citizen and who isn’t.  These cards would be tremendously valuable because of the amount of services offered to citizens already, so theft of these cards, a.k.a. identity theft, would rise farther and faster than it does at present, forcing more restrictions on citizens, more biometric information to be handed over, compulsory DNA samples from birth, etc.  Think you could opt out?  Nope.  They’re already doing that in England.  You can’t leave the country legally — get a passport — unless you submit your biometric samples to the government.  And why is all this so important?  Because of the trillions of dollars of services offered by the U.S. government, via YOUR taxes.

Can you muster ANY ire yet?  Are you disgusted with the inevitable future that’s being mapped out at this moment?  It’s not fantasy, it’s actually happening.  It’s not paranoia, or a sci-fi fantasy, it’s being done as I type.

The only way to stop this seeming juggernaut that our good intentions have created is to eliminate the services we let be enacted by our congressional representatives.  Most were certainly done from compassion, but we must always remember that the government — at any level — is not there to be compassionate.  Government is an administration of laws based on the principles set out in the constitutions of the nation and the states within the nation.  Laws enacted that go against the principles set forth should have real consequences to those who try to undermine these principles.

So in my happy world, illegal immigration isn’t an issue if we just eliminate the money element.

This country was founded, and survived well for many, many years, without social services and intercontinental bribery on a leviathanical scale (that’s my word).  We prospered, we traded, we fought against those who transgressed against us.  We won sometimes, we lost sometimes, but never did we say, “You can’t come here unless you’re smart or have something to offer us that we can measure because we can’t afford you.”  Such an idea only 100 years ago would’ve been considered by most to be preposterous.  Today, it’s becoming a legitimate argument.  That argument needs to be delegitimized immediately.

The New Colossus


Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch whose flame
Is imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep ancient lands your storied pomp!” cries she with silent lips.

“Give me your tired your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”


Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)

You’re Damn Right I Want An Air Car

The Air Car - theaircar.com

Looks too European, makes my gaydar go off.  I just want that technology in my big honkin’ American fat-ass-mobile.  No, fuck that… I demand it.

I signed up to be notified when they’re available.  You know there’s no way I can squeeze my fat ass into one of these things, BUT I’m all for the concept and want to see it flourish.

I’m still waiting on a good racial epithet for Caucasians

Seriously, if I said “nigger” to a crowd of blacks, it’d be my ass.  However if a black guy said “cracker” to a crowd of whites, they’d probably laugh.

We find the white epithets funny.  Really!  We have no emotional connection to the supposed racial insults that are thrown at us.

Cracker
Whitey
Peckerwood
White Trash
Honky

Shit, it brings a smile to my face just writing those down.

Hispanics can yell out “La Raza!” and not be shit on for it.  La Raza means “The Race”.  If whitey yelled out “The Race!” anywhere, he’d be labeled a white supremacist and be put down.

Am I looking for an excuse to use the word “nigger”?  Nope, I use it all the time, “my niggas”.  I just don’t care for the hypocrisy of the situation.  It’s not an intelligent way to communicate, but I don’t want to be lynched for acting like a dumbass.

Oh, and I’ll give a prize to anyone who comes up with a word that incites whites to the level of indignant outrage that the word “nigger” does to blacks.

More on this shit.