South China Sea Intrigue

A few days ago I heard an interesting story on CNN about how the USNS Impeccable was poking around the South China sea, when all the sudden some Chinese ships started to pursue them telling them to leave the area.

The Pentagon claims that the Chinese ships were harassing the Impeccable and even said that they have “increasingly aggressive conduct.”

So what did the Chinese do exactly? Well, according to the Pentagon, two Chinese vessels were in close proximity to the Impeccable, waving their flag and telling the Impeccable to leave the area. (That sounds so aggressive huh?)

What happened next is what caught my attention. It seems that as five Chinese vessels came closer, they also started to throw pieces of wood into the water. OOO!!!!!!! Wood was thrown in the water! AND because the Impeccable didn’t quite know what the intentions of the Chinese vessels were and contending that it was an aggressive move on their part, the Impeccable decided to take some fire hoses and spray the Chinese vessels with water. I started cracking up when I heard this next part…get this…the Chinese crew members decided to strip down to their underwear while being sprayed with the fire hoses! Oh-My-God! This is aggressive? This is dangerous? To whom? You know what…if the Chinese were in international water somewhere near a protected area of the United States, you better bet your ass that we would have our military out there trying to get them away from our protected interests. Why do we feel that it is ok to take surveillance ships near the coasts of other countries and collect data, and if that country finds it threatening and decides to warn us to leave, we find that aggressive?

I am amused, I guess, by the thought of Chinese men stripping down to their skivvies and dancing around in the water being sprayed at them. Maybe there is more to this story than we are being told, but on the surface it looks like China made it pretty clear that they wanted our people to leave the area and we got pissed off. It also makes me wonder if we are too arrogant as a military power. Is it essential that we be over there sticking our equipment where it doesn’t belong? Yet, if another country were to do that to us we would have our panties all up in a bunch? Do we need to lighten up a little? Or is the U.S. correct in it’s assumptions that China is increasingly aggressive towards us over there?

I would LOVE to see a video of all that transpired! You know they must have a copy of it over at the Navy!

Bald Beauty of the Day

Take Me to Your Leader

Who is the leader of the Republican party? Is it fat cat Rush Limbaugh, king of the conservative talk show radio waves, or is it Michael Steel?

I don’t really have an opinion about Rush Limbaugh because personally all he is to me is an entertainer like Howard Stern. Yes, I said Howard Stern because he is the other shock jock for which so many are loyal fans and listeners. Can you imagine if Democrats started calling Howard Stern the leader of the Democratic party? It is absurd to me that some would say that he is the leader of the Republican party…he is just another entertainer tickling the ears of those who think he is “oh so powerful.” Is he powerful? Does he energize the base? Well, what do we mean when we say “energize the base?” Is it the “base of the Republican party” or is it just “the base?.” Here is the ‘other’ definition of “base” in the online dictionary:

base ² (bs)

Bald Beauty of the Day

Am I the Only One Confused About Politics?

Am I the only one that is confused about politics? Just when I thought I had seen it all, out comes Bobby Jindal, the Republican governor from Louisiana speaking to the American people as though we were all four years old. Granted, it was late…but come on! Could that little bedtime story be anymore condescending? As I sat there trying to comprehend what he was saying and put some sort sense to his “tall tale,” I couldn’t help but wonder if he was hypnotized by one of his fellow Republicans. He looked like a zombie, yet that wouldn’t be too far from the truth would it? It seems to me like Republicans are the walking dead these days. Oh, and there was something that struck me about his bedtime story speech that I just can’t get out of my head. He said something that I have heard before from other Republicans- “We haven’t even had a chance to read the bill.” OK, maybe I’m a little bit slow, but that bill has been available for them to read! It’s available for EVERYONE to read! As a matter of fact, I quite enjoyed reading one little tiny section of the 680 page bill (which I’m sure has gotten bigger since the last time I read it)…here is what tickled me:

“Page 12 Sec. 1109. Prohibited Uses

None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available in this Act may be used for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, or swimming pool.”

Wow! Those are the prohibited uses for funds appropriated. What will we do now? Those aren’t the only things prohibited in the bill, but I had no idea that casinos, aquariums, the zoo, or swimming pools were such a big temptation for misuse of our tax dollars. I could see golf courses being a bone of contention to our represented officials and maybe this is the real reason that Republicans have become the party of “no.”

Well, it’s just a thought anyway. Now that’s not to say that Democrats don’t play golf or go to zoo or anything, but I think something has to be getting under all these Republican skins, and maybe Bobby Jindal was their test pilot for how powerful hypnosis can be in persuading the American tax payer to come over to their side. Other attempts had failed so maybe this is their last resort.

Beyond the speech Bobby gave, it seems to me that he and many others like him haven’t read the bill. Is this an admission of guilt? We all know how important doing something about the economy is, so what are we paying them for? Does this sound right to you? How can they argue about something they haven’t read through? And why would they inject false claims of spending that isn’t even in the bill that they haven’t even read?

I never understood how each party could toot their own horn about how they have the answers. Both are equally guilty of making sure our country is run straight into the ground. They both want to spend, spend, spend, and yet there is justification on both sides about why their spending ideas are better. Dems want spending on programs that can create jobs, give health care, and improve the safety of our roads…Reps want lots of tax cuts and decreased spending. But it’s not decreased spending…it’s the same damn thing. OK, so we get the tax cuts…for what? So that the tax payer can go out and SPEND IT. What’s the difference? To me, neither party has the magic solution. I certainly don’t have a magic solution, but if I did this is what I would do:

• Find 50 statewide banks that are fiscally responsible, treat their employees well, do not practice predatory lending and have a grasp on risk management when it comes to lending money. After finding this kind of establishment, I would cut flood those banks with money and cut off all the big banks and allow them to go into bankruptcy. Let them figure it out.
• Then I would restructure the tax code and bring it back to a flat tax. Everybody wins with this one.
• Then I would get rid of the IRS and the Federal Reserve. When was the last time this private corporation was investigated?
• Last but not least, I would put a new water filtration device in the Pentagon, White House, Capital and any other watering hole where paranoid public officials gamble with the lives of our troops and others abroad. There must be something in the water that makes them all paranoid, thinking that we are always in “grave danger”…or maybe they just believe everything that is on the TV. I’d stop the war and leave other governments to fight their own battles.

Well that’s what I would do. It’s a simple list, coming from a simple person. You know, the kind that needs to be spoken to like I am in the 1st grade.

Bald Beauty of the Day