The Four Horsemen will ride - 2012

So I guess it wasn't just Labor Day weekend, but also "Hey lets scare the shit out of people with 2012 shows and ones that coincide with Nostradamus' quatrains " weekend too, including one show which pushed 2 hours in length. I mostly expected there to be a billion 9/11 specials given it's a week away, but I guess maybe the resonating memories were also a way to conjure some hysteria in other ways too.

Unfortunately though, I think - much like y2k - this is simply another episode of humanity's obsession with its own demise. I mean, it's only been the obsession of mankind since, well, probably 4000 years ago and one of the major factors in the propagation of religions which still have a stronghold now. It's always about the day, God or his trusty son descend to earth to judge its people and to take those worthy and leave the sinners/unworthy behind to perish in the acts of the apocalypse.

So much for loving thy sinner and hating thy sin(s), right? Those vengeful, egoistic motherfuckers. (Heaven's Gate anyone?)

But really, much of the ideas behind 2012 extend from seemingly prophetic messages of the ancient past, but as "civilized" humanity tends to do with everything - naturally it's all mainly misinterpreted and more hysterics than actual. One of the main factors is the purported end to the Mayan calendar, as some claim it to be. However, it does not simply end, but it is an end indeed - to a long count which has done so for approximately 5100 years. It doesn't stop. It counts back to zero.

So, why the hysterics/significance? Well, in truth, the Mayans actually did conceive one of the most accurate forms of time, but much about the basis of its construction is still up to subjective interpretation. But what is relatively certain is that the Mayan people were undoubtedly quite the mathematician's and astronomers and so the fact that the "faithful day" happens to also coincide with two very-precise celestial events, its significance seems to have been bloated.

But before delving into the actual events of that point in time. Lets briefly explore other theorized conclusions to our existence:

• A rogue planet/star will enter our solar system - eerily donned Planet X - and it will either collide with the planet or just in case that calculation is complete bullshit: particularly a Brown Dwarf will pass so closely to Earth that it will reverse the poles, which if violent enough could tear everything as we know it apart (not true) and if not, it would expose us greatly to solar events. And guess what? It just so happens solar storm activity is predicted to peak again around 2012. Furthermore, if it's gravitational effects on Earth are too strong, it could pull us from our orbit around the sun into the abyss of space, thus losing our main means of survival.
  
• A celestial object is going to hit the Earth according to Nostradamus. Ironically (as noted in the provided link) the same quatrain was applied in 1999 which probably inspired the two films Deep Impact (1998) and Armageddon (1998). But according to that "source" they had it all wrong then, but NOW it's right..the whole 1999 thing he just knew we'd find it. Of course!
• Assorted human conflicts (wars, nuclear bombings) coupled with a wave of natural disasters, including greater famine, plagues, etc.

There are others, but those seem to stand out. The first two are actually interchangeable because they're based on the same exact concept. In one scenario the rogue planet is the culprit entirely, whereas in the other, it's passage through the solar system will actually disrupt objects in the asteroid belt and thus send them toward our wonderful home to destroy it. The Brown Dwarf argument stems from the fact that because of their low mass, they're actually fairly difficult bodies to physically see (similar to asteroids) and so they can totally pull off the whole "SURPRISE!" thing, but instead of jumping from a cake, scantily-clad and voluptuous, it'll just fuck up our entire planet and either kill us all or leave it so vulnerable that the potential of it being rendered uninhabitable is almost absolute. What a dick.

Many of the ties to the above concepts are simply all doomsday prophecies - or at least what can be interpreted as such - and actually not at all directly tied to the Mayan's or their calendar. In fact, the main two premises of which to base these concepts are Nostradamus and The Book of Revelations.

Nostradamus in particular has quite a reputation and undoubtedly drawn both the ire and curiosity of humanity for the better part of 500 years. People have attributed some of his writings (quatrains) to predicting much of the worlds major events both long beyond his death and actually during his lifetime as well, almost all of which have been in hindsight. Isn't that sort of like the person in the room watching Jeopardy who says "Oh! I knew that!" even though they never actually uttered even a word of the answer? Nostradamus is certainly fascinating and it's actually fun to read into, but when you really break it down, his purported foresight has done nothing for the world but validate catastrophic events after the fact. You can probably attribute that to the fact that there are not only hundreds upon hundreds of them, but they're also written in multiple languages, vaguely and with an abundance of metaphors that really could mean anything.

That doesn't sound like someone trying to warn the world of catastrophe, does it?

The "Book of Revelations" isn't significantly different but is arguably a bit more straight forward. Regardless though, it's a mere addendum to the bible with the sole intention of materializing the concept of Christ's return to the Earth at the end of time, which began upon his death. So, this is circa 2000 years of waiting in the making. Nostradamus has some kind of allure to it, whereas this masterpiece is merely just the sort of happy ending the earlier bibles were lacking: God decides to finally destroy sin and Satan (after all this time? C'mon man...what the fuck have you been doing all this time that was more important?) and all of the worthy people make the ascent into paradise while those left behind endure death and destruction.

I'm sure that has nothing to do with scaring people into believing, either.

Realistically though, there are certain things which do coincide with 2012 that are pretty interesting, but probably aren't divine or wrought, nor could they be conceived as such at the time they were potentially understood, if they even were at all. There will be an semi-rare planetary transit, that will have the path of Venus crossing before the sun which will be visible from many (but not all) parts of Earth (in June, not December). Another factor, though it has been insanely misinterpreted is a galactic alignment between the Sun and the center of the Milky Way. Well, if by center they mean the massive black-hole which creates the "spiral" of the galaxy, then yes, they're right...and from our perspective, that also happens every year (question 11).

The other aspect, which could be debated for an eternity, is the fact that the calendar actually ends on a solstice. The technology junkies we are today, almost unanimously suggests that there is almost no possible way they could have made such an accurate scale to predict that with such precision. To begin with they would have had to know the preceding events for as much the span of time they were even going to be calculating. That seems relatively impossible to have had for the time-frame. However, I also refuse to believe it's completely impossible they could have done it. As the egoists we are when it comes to ancestry, I think we oft praise the few whose discoveries were so monumental they're used today whilst undermining the more primitive ones which do not seem applicable, but because we do so, does not necessarily make it so , either. So, by some chance, they may have found a way...but no one will ever truly know because much of their documents were destroyed and then only pieced together thereafter. So while it's possible they could have done it (to me), it's also equally possible this has all been contrived by "modern man" from the remains of their civilization and has absolutely no realistic value at all, except what we found to be applicable.

The other aspect is the aforementioned cyclical solar storm maximum, which occurs approximately every 11 years. However, even to this day, the cycle is merely approximate and relatively unpredictable to actual points in time. In fact, due to a seemingly irregular minimum in this cycle, scientists are being led to believe it's possible the Sun may not reach its maximum until 2013 or beyond in this cycle. Also, even when the sun does in fact reach the maximum period, that doesn't necessarily translate to disaster either, although truthfully disaster always looms within these periods. If for some reason one were to overwhelm our atmosphere (magnetosphere) or penetrate it enough, it could cause blackouts and destroy much of our electronic devices...but generally speaking that would be the extent of it (still devastating to the modern world). But it's a lot more likely they could disturb or destroy objects orbiting space and potentially cause them to plummet to the Earth below, but even that isn't likely to happen within the year, as is seen with many debris in space, it takes a bit of time for them to descend to a point of free-fall.

It's all very interesting to look at and read about, but at best, it's science fiction and at worst, it's total bull shit that has almost no proof whatsoever. But what can be said with some certainty, is that the world will probably be different in 2012, but it's because of humanity now and not because of the foresight of the bible, Nostradamus or the Mayans, at least not in the ways above, what humanity does with it is another story altogether.

Religulous and thoughts therein.

Yeah so, Globalism/Globalization, not happening for now. I kinda need a break from that economic mess.
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So, today I finally watched the (above depicted) documentary with Bill Maher- Religulous and it was quite a thought provoking, albeit not surprising, doc on people and religion(s). I half expected it to be one long tongue-in-cheek, skewed, film and while naturally some of it was, it really did something interesting: ask the hard (but seemingly easy) questions and show you what these people - of all walks of life - actually think.

Of course he does resort to his criticisms and sarcasm, but with some of the responses people had (including a member of Congress) it's a little bit hard not to, so it's forgivable. I'm not going to sit here and review the film, however, because I think it's more important to talk about the content than anything. A few things stood out to me:

According to some statistics presented (and I outright admit, I could not possible be a bigger skeptic of any statistic like this) in the film, it purports that there are approximately 1 billion Islamic faithful in the world - 1 billion! The world's population is approximately 6.76 billion. Similarly, Christianity is estimated to have approximately 2.1 billion. Realistically it's impossible to ever actually know and these numbers really only just that, but the thought itself of those numbers in comparison to the worlds population is overwhelming. What is surprising (in the prior link) is that the next largest group is *drum roll* Non-Believers at 1.1 billion.

While none of this (except the size of Non-believers) should be shocking at all, I don't think I have ever actually looked at a realistic numbers regarding the population of these religions (and sects therein). It's astounding to think that when combining those estimations, close to half of the worlds population is devoted to these two theologies alone. Neither should really be surprising when you consider the reign of both the Roman and Ottoman Empire's which had an immeasurable influence on religion at their respective times, but still, I somehow never fully imagined the numbers being so high, especially for Islam.

First, I want to touch on the Islamic faith, which I have almost always strayed away from due to mostly ignorance to the full-scope of the religion. Admittedly, I am no more educated on it than I have ever been, but there are facets of it which I feel I can more easily identify and speak of without having to even partially understand the religion (and of course each individual sect's practices). Even without a vast understanding though, I feel that Islamic religions are quite possibly the most insidious of all the major religions.

I don't necessarily mean that as an insult against the Islamic faithful, but it's a religion which has largely let the time pass it by and is sickeningly oppressive, not to mention in a lot of ways, tyrannical. But more importantly and quite visibly, it is unbelievably oppressive to women and in some sects, forces them to live as dehumanized objects. Although in some ways, they have gotten past the oppression of women, the practices on an individual level in many ways have not changed very much. Also, it should be noted that Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007, it's semi-safe to assume that it probably partly had to do with her gender.

I do understand that not all Islamic sects are oppressive to women in those kinds of radical ways, but the real problem is that it still exists and when considering the size of the overall religion, I have to imagine that probably greater than 20-30% of the religion total still practices in such a way. The atrocities these women face are unimaginable, including but not limited to physical/mental abuse and rape. Some might argue it's also the culture, but religion is intrinsic in cultures even to those who do not necessarily practice the religion. It's not to suggest that this does not occur in society as a whole or within other religious cultures either, just to be clear, but that does not make it any less real in Islamic culture(s) either.

Moreover, many religions have practices which are minimally demanding, the best example being many Christian sects, which largely "require" an individual to attend services/institutions weekly (Saturday or Sunday) and otherwise you live your life as you wish. But Islam requires daily prayer and very specific hygienic (nothing against that, either) practices, methods to prayer, direction, etc. It's specificity and stringent requirements on a daily basis, I feel alone, are what make it tyrannical as much as anything else. The amount of devotion it requires is unbelievable and by my estimation, unreasonable.

But what has ultimately been created or manifested within it is something that has come to threaten the world and others within its stronghold. Israel is constantly threatened by its Islamic neighbors both near and far (I assure you, that is not a defense of Israel), religious sects within the the Middle-East which differ from one another and has also spilled over abroad. There is a lot of hostility surrounding this particular religion and the monster in the belly of it all has generated a level of extremism to an extent that is relatively unseen in much of the world (religiously based).

What's most concerning, beyond the humanitarian atrocities within it, is how far-reaching this violence has been and the threat it poses to parts of the world. What strikes me about it the most is the reality within it all that there is the potential for a situation of Nazi Germany type proportions on a world-wide scale. Firstly, if you don't think September 11th has had anything to do with our current economic standing, you're ignorant and blind. Yes, our own inherent and unique American-brand greed has much to do with it, but the wrench they threw into the gears on that fateful day ultimately created the instability that made us fall flat on our faces. On a global scale, with the right planning and even with a reckless execution (but execution nonetheless) they could cripple many nations in this world in such a way that a greater rise in power is not out of the question.

I don't think it's just an American hatred, I think it's an intolerance of anyone who does not see the world as they do and frankly, that's a recipe for disaster. Furthermore, when you consider that A) Not all Islamic people are bad or ascribe the radicalism, B) There is little-to-no differentiating between good and bad in the long run and C) Their overall visibility as an entity, in many ways, is very low (compared to swastikas, grandiose public events and a very outspoken fuhrer ). Understandably the immediate thought process here would be, "Well, what about Iran? There seems to be obvious concern there." That's not entirely wrong, in some ways they are a threat, but I think the threat is more deeply rooted in the religion than it is the political entity that is Iran. If something of that nature were to occur, I do feel that Iran would likely become a factor in it, without question. But the threat of Iran, to me, seems more reasonably local: Instability and the vulnerability of Iraq and increasingly Pakistan and the fact Iran has been licking its chops at the possibility of destabilizing and destroying Israel. On that front, yes, they are a threat. But on a global scale, it's the pockets of extremism and the looming potential that such a domineering and tyrannical religion could even be the catalyst for those not involved to be influenced into a fight for power.

Like I said, it might be reaching, but it's also not entirely unrealistic either. This isn't "the terrorists" this is something much, much larger and much more devastating to the world at-large and we're all powerless to stop it because of the aforementioned examples.
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Another facet of this film which was incredible, was the mentality that so many shared in their responses to question of dinosaurs, the age of the world, evolution. There are others, but I will stick to those for the sake of brevity.

So many of the responses were just as ignorant and narrow-minded as you could ever imagine; the rationale, the absolute certainty, the defensive manner in which some responded to serious questions and counter-points. That is my biggest quarrel with religion in general, the inhibition of free-thought, the way in which people believe so firmly and unwaveringly in a book, a compilation of doctrines which span millennia and bow to a man, Jesus, who never even set out to create another religion. Paul, some 60 years later, created the Pauline Church. The blind devotion and unwillingness to compromise on almost any level, is unfathomable. The absolute refutation of anything which, equally refutes by either conceptualization or empirical proof, their beliefs, their book or their god, imprisons the mind and has inhibited America from progressing in more ways than we can imagine. Say what you will, but 8 years of George W. Bush, can almost certainly be attributed to the ignorance and infectiousness of religiosity and the ultimate goal of imposing their beliefs on the entire nation as a whole.

The creationist museum is easily the best example used in the movie, this is a museum which outright repudiates evolution and despite hard-line empirical proof of the contrary, depicts man sharing the Earth with dinosaurs. People actually believe this, simply because the bible makes no reference to the contrary and there is some kind of loose reference to dinosaurs on Noah's Arc. Meanwhile, even Pope John Paul II supported evolution much to the chagrin of Christians, whom still did not accept it (as evidenced by a multi-million dollar museum dedicated to strongly suggest otherwise).

Beyond all of my frustrations with religion and my utter disdain for it all, it's truly disheartening that people are so bound by it, especially when it comes to the actual answers to the questions we have. The most important point both implicit and partially explicit in the film is probably what makes it greatest of all: doubt. So many of these people have no doubts, they don't care to question but merely follow these concepts, beliefs and ideas, never thinking or wanting to hear otherwise. To limit yourself to a single school of thought is to deprive yourself, for a lifetime, of the true fruits in the wealthy garden of knowledge that this life affords us from the Earth we inhabit, to the night skies of endless possibilities and not necessarily any right answers.

If you want to be religious, if you want to believe in god, that's your prerogative and your unalienable, natural right as an intelligent being. But the emphasis here is intelligent. We don't have to agree on the existence of god because to each his/her own, but religion does nothing but enslave humanity to a book (or books) and wastes a lifetime in its constraints, instead of allowing people to ask their own questions and find the answers for themselves, defining themselves, their lives, their perceptions and not being handed a prescription for instant retardation.

I shouldn't care, but people's complete stupidity and ignorance appalls me to a point that I can't help but talk about it.

Reading between the lines a little bit...

Well, now that our lovely recession is really in full-swing and countless dollars are being whipped at the criminals at various institutions, lets take a moment to simplify things a little bit:

First and foremost, why are we in this mess to begin with? You can look at it a few different ways, but ultimately you can break it all down to the simple fact of human nature. Yes, human nature. The inherent greed of humanity has ultimately prevailed and allowed for all of this to come to the surface. Although simple, the bigger picture here is not so much, because what you have is one long, vicious cycle of shit that ultimately floated to the top as soon as one of major factors of the 'game' changed.

You see, when business was booming they had tons and tons of money to just throw around in order to make more profit, which is why most of the major players today are in the situation they are in now. Much of the current situation has to do with quite plainly: bad investments. What bad investments? Well, the truth is there are a plethora of them, but what my focus here is high-risk mortgages, otherwise known as Subprime Mortgages. Now, it is a little perplexing as to why these institutions would go and risk millions upon millions of dollars on such high-risk, low-success investments, but quite like credit cards, there is light at the end of the tunnel for the bank(s), but not so much for the borrowers.

In this instance the lenders are almost counting on the failure of the borrowers, because before the market shifted drastically, it was a seller's market: demand was high, prices were high and business was booming. But as this all began to materialize it shifted into a buyers market, things were not selling as well and the values depreciated at a staggering rate. So instead of being able to seize foreclosed properties and re-sell them to salvage some profit and still keeping a debt to the failed borrower it essentially became a profitable practice.

Admittedly this type of thing isn't my forte, but that's the gist of it.

Now, a lot of people like to sit back and point the finger at those who borrowed the money, despite not being fiscally stable enough to sustain, but this again goes back to the human nature aspect and moreover the capitalistic climate in the United States of "buy now worry about it later" evidenced by the concept of credit cards. I mean what is the ultimate point of a credit card? You don't have the cash right now and you want to purchase things in order to repay them later.

Although a home is a lot more serious than splurging on a new laptop, clothes, movies, etc. It doesn't change the fact that, the same mentality can be had in this instance as well, ESPECIALLY when it comes to people who may be, in some ways, desperate to own a home. Credit reports and their overall standing have a great importance when it comes to these things and generally speaking, a lot of people screw up their credit and it hurts them down the line. So in swoops in the swift, fast-talking, always smiling, enthusiastic mortgage broker who ear fucks you with the dream of owning and living in that house. They can make it happen, your poor credit score: No problem, they have just the thing for people like you. And oh, did we tell you that this will help your credit score and give you the opportunity to refinance at a lower rate after a few years?

When people look at this situation on the macro level and foot some of the blame on those who recklessly borrowed, it's not that they're wrong either, but they simply cannot account for the swindling that occurs to a lot of people and the more uncertain you are, the more wavering you do, the more they pitch a sale to you in order to get you on board. We're talking about a commission business here, they want money and as much of it as possible and they don't really give a shit if you sink or swim because they're getting paid up front just like the property owner is (assuming it's not already the same bank). Maybe the weakness of people is to blame, but the system itself is still more to blame. It has created this atmosphere of consumerism and buying beyond your means to fulfill the Freudian ID. They don't tell you about the balloon payment in 7 months where your already high mortgage suddenly has a payment of twice it's typical amount or more, but it's in the fine print on the paperwork they rush you through so that you can go ahead and move your entire life into their perfectly constructed path to failure.

Some question why there aren't regulations in place to thwart this kind of thing. Well, there are, in some ways, but mostly "big brother" both federally and locally often concede to the concept that "We don't have the right to tell banks how to invest their money." It is a very slippery slope, without a doubt.

So the housing market inevitably tanks, banks are left with countless bad investments and no income because houses aren't selling almost at all anymore and they're losing millions and in some cases billions. The effects reverberate throughout almost all markets and it all goes downhill from there.

In the end what happens? The exact people out to fuck you just to make a buck now want your money AGAIN, are basically putting you and future generations in debt for them, because they failed. Saddest of all is, the reason it's so imperative that we keep these major banks afloat is the simple fact that if they completely tank, so does everything and quite frankly I think they knew that all along, too.

But hey, capitalism and the good ol' US of A is great. Speaking of which, next I think I'll take on Globalism - the proverbial bullet in the foot of the United States.

OMGz THEY're NATIONALIZING 'R BANKz!

Oh how you've just got to love the media sensationalizing what amounts to mere hearsay at this point - Nationaliztion of the nations largest financial institution Citigroup.

The current rumored 'take over' if you will would be a 40% stake in the company, which, if anyone's counting, is still less than half. To call this a step toward nationalization, to me, seems to be a gross exaggeration on the behalf of both the media and the leeches on Wall St. who have preeminently deemed this all superfluous and thus the talons of Communism sinking itself into the "free world's" ideological dream of a free capitalistic market. And while on the surface that just may seem to be, I think one must ask themselves a few important questions before making such a bold statement: (Oh, see what I did there?)

Firstly - The number which has been thrown around in these rumors has been 40%, I'm pretty sure that is still considered a minority share of the company. How is taking a big, but still less-than-half stake in a very very important institution some how nationalization? Yes, with that stake they will dictate many things within the company and there will obviously be a link between Citi and the government which gives the government control, but it is still not necessarily total control.

Secondly - Arguably this could go first, but ask yourself: What happens if Citi (who has failed to sell itself on an open market) goes the way of Lehman Brothers, et. al. ? We're not talking about a small institution here, we're talking about what amounts to the largest financial institution in the United States. I'm not going to answer this for you, but look at it this way...when the biggest financial institution doesn't have money and much of America runs on an IOU basis (cars, businesses/corporations, houses, college) where exactly are we going to get money from to advance in life and survive?

Thirdly - Why are we in this mess to begin with? More specifically, why is Citigroup, the largest institution in America for a reason, suffering from hundreds of billions of dollars in losses? There are a lot of answers to that question which are all correct in their own respects, but at the end of the day the greedy, predatory tactics of the ENTIRE financial industry has ultimately led to its own demise. This is the literal capital failure of capitalism. This is the end result - looming failure and no real solution.

When considering the above, it's hard to imagine what else to do. We simply cannot continuously inject tax payer dollars into these institutions due to their own complete and total failures. We are in this situation because of them and it's not just the institutions who are suffering it's everyone. While I have my opinions about foresight in the matter and the fact that what is happening right now seems like the only inevitable conclusion (in terms of the stimulus not so-called nationalization), we simply cannot go on throwing out money at the exact people that fucked it all up to begin with.

It's a very desperate situation and the United States simply cannot let Citigroup fall because the odds are, the entire market will collapse in on itself and we will have less than nothing if it does. The repercussions are ones that we cannot risk on the mere chance that they will right the ship themselves. That is not to say that somehow a partial government takeover is going to either, but this is not the face of tyranny unveiling itself, it's the embodiment of the dire straits we're facing realized in a single set of cirumstances.

Still, I'm going to reserve my own full judgment until more concrete details surface, rather than the clamouring in the media and on Wall Street. I hardly think something this momentous is going to take shape overnight, so there will be much to debate and to ponder once the full-scope of the situation comes to light.

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On another note:

I'm still not sold on the Obama administration nor Obama himself as President. Although it has only been a month since he took office, I feel like he's still doing a better job talking than he is at accomplishing very much. I'm also still a little perplexed at the reckless, and seemingly rushed closing of the detention centers which to me seemed more like a "See, I'm here to get shit done" statement than it was a very good, or well-executed idea. I do and continue to think that, in that area, there needed to be drastic changes...but to have rushed it like this seems, frighteningly premature.

Granted Mr. Obama started his term waist deep in a sea of shit, but I'm just still not sold on his policies nor approaches thus far. I feel like his speeches have romanticized his presidency but he has failed to deliver as enthusiastically and precisely as he has executed his words. Plus, the bumbling over some of the cabinet openings isn't exactly instilling much more confidence in me either.

I certainly hope that, if Mr. Obama et.al. choose to make this leap of faith into taking a stake of Citigroup, that it's a highly calculated one which is based on necessity and not simply desperation alone. After 8 years (arguably less than 7) of George W. Bush, we cannot afford to fail.

Happy New Year!

Hopefully this will be a much, much, better year than 2008 was.




Be sure to check out the Winter Classic at 1pm Eastern today on NBC.

The challanges which lie ahead...

I will come out and say first and foremost that I did vote for Mr. Obama for President. And it wasn't because I had chosen him outright, but what I did know was the Mr. McCain was not getting my vote under almost any circumstances. However what was a deciding factor for me was that I felt Mr. Obama displayed and convinced me that he has the kind of leadership skills and the type of overall mindset that will ultimately make our nation a progressive one and not one which wishes to regress or appeal to a single ideology only.

It is my sincerest belief at this stage that Mr. Obama can (and in a way already has) improve our standing internationally and regain the trust, belief and support of many nations that lost that in the previous administration. It is evident the global community has once again regained some semblance of confidence in this nation and it is my personal hope that President-Elect Obama takes this opportunity to have a direct hand in rebuilding those burned bridges. HOWEVER, it is also my belief that he simply cannot do so in such a way in which we are basically BUYING back our trust and respect via the plethora of requests of aid that nations around the world seemingly expect from us.

A matter of future consideration is one thing, but as a whole right now our own nation needs more help than anyone could possibly provide from them on so many levels that the focus must be and remain at the core of America and its future. As it stands we have not fully seen the effects of the financial markets instability and shortcomings nor have we been able to see what, if any, impact the sickening bail out will have. Frankly as a completely UN-educated guess, I think matters will only get worse before they get better and by worse I don't mean a week or two of instability as mass sell-offs and erratic up and down swings.

Right now we're looking at the expected spike in unemployment across the nation, we're looking at the height of consumerism of the year in the holidays which has already, in recent years, fallen well short of expectations and you can only expect it to worsen this year. Once we reach the first half of the new year and quarterly profits and projections of plummeting from presumable poor sales, we're almost inevitably going to see a much greater impact on the market, one which may take months or even years to overcome.

Mr. Obama has the potential ability to right the ship here, I truly believe that...starting with strengthening the markets as well as the all-important Iraqi Security Agreement which has been at a complete stalemate for quite a while now. We need to establish a transition of power in the country and slowly start to have the Iraqi people take over their own country once again. We simply cannot stand around with our thumbs injected in our shit holes and pretend that somehow staying is going to make the region a better place: it's not. If there is a looming civil war within the nation, it is one which is necessary to establish a prevailing leadership. We have given the Iraqi people, as a whole, the freedom from the tyrant who controlled with brutality and intimidation. We have removed the regime of oppression and dictatorial control, we cannot expect to put them back together ourselves.

"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink..."

We must now approach this situation with that mentality at the forefront of our concerns. We have lead them to the water, we have given them the sips of a republic, but we must now say that we have done the most that we can do. We have liberated the masses, regardless of their allegiance, we have moved forward with establishing some vague semblance of a governing body, we must now let the people of Iraq control their own destiny - because in the sake of a free system, of the freedom to choose, we cannot choose which system suits them best, but only show them the fruits of ours. From here it is their choice, their fight and we cannot ignore the reality that stability in this region has never been long-lasting. Peace, in a region with such divisive religious issues and principles, is simply unrealistic. In the end Iraq may cease to exist as a whole nation, but that may be more beneficial than forcing these staunch oppositions to somehow accept their millennium-old differences and somehow get along.

There are the obvious flaws to this, especially with Iran's vested interest in Iraq and their apparent desires to have influence if not sovereign control over the nation. This is one of the biggest concerns moving forward and with the deterioration of nearby Pakistan in its early stages and looming on the horizon we may see even greater conflict in the region than we have in a long time. However this is the course of nature, this is human nature and the cyclical history of this region taking place.

We must realize at the executive level(s) that we will not dictate history, we will only delay the inevitable whilst sacrificing the lives of our own citizens. No matter how you approach this situation, whether we stay, or weather we go, terrorism in the future will become a more common reality. While I have criticized Mr. Bush on his mentality of fighting them there so we do not have to here, I admit that I was in part wrong in my perception. The truth is, by being there we have ultimately diverted their attention to ensuring their region is guarded, that they are there to fight the good fight and to inflict damage to America and its interests.

When we leave the threat of this can and will rise in America and essentially anywhere that these extremists view as objectionable, loathsome and at least in their manipulations - in need of destruction for the betterment of the world in the eyes of God or whatever.

Strengthening our security, without imposition on constitutionality, should be an utmost concern because it is still, without a doubt, flawed enough to make us susceptible to extreme dangers. We must have strategic regulation(s) and implementations at our weakest of areas- Airports, Ports, Bridges, Tunnels, Subway systems, Power Plants, Food Supplies, etc. We must accept that we will never be invulnerable in some ways and that the possibility will always linger that someone or someones can and will attack us somehow. But at this juncture the best we can do is to approach the situation in such a way that it will be least effective or successful. September 11th was a reassurance to the extremist world that America is destructive on a mass scale, it is vulnerable and it can be accomplished.

We are naive and plain stupid to believe that the lingering impacts of 9/11 have nothing to do with our current situation - Bush's re-election probably had a lot to do with the existing war (not to mention Kerry's ineptitudes), Mr. Bush has spent so much money in so many ways as a result that we have yet to even begin to see the full impact of that, even just 7 years ago. The economic pitfall post-9/11 started this downward spiral into where we are now and the lack of clear-cut and ethical policies of financial practices was finally exposed now, but this is just one facet of a massively broken system. They not only succeeded in killing, they successfully sent cracks through our economic infrastructure and allowed the greed and flaws to expose themselves as everything vastly changed over the course of time. They did win, they did succeed, and unless and until we fix what has been broken for far too long and we inhibit the abilities to have such success we will remain a target.


Mr. Obama must begin his rule with a vicious determination and certainty that will reverberate around the world. We must strengthen the middle-classes and impoverished and establish a system which, at the very least, keeps us afloat during what ultimately will be a lengthy transition back to some kind of true stability. He must extend his hand with a strength that assures us domestically and those abroad that we will be strong when we are weak, we will accept where we are flawed and we as a nation will overcome the adversities and stand against any ill-will or any threats to our security whether by force or by strong and assertive diplomacy; We will not sit idly by and allow all that we work for and have worked for to be destroyed and we will not tolerate the likes of tyrants who wish to meddle in our affairs or bring instability to the world as a whole.

But even with all the strong words and beliefs, a large part of this nation needs to overcome these ridiculous perceptions of Obama being a socialist and the fact that he isn't white. It's frivolous nonsensical ignorance which does nothing for this nation but make it worse off and intolerable. First off, when some of these people inevitably lose their jobs in the coming months and years are they going to avoid the unemployment line(s) in their respective regions because it's too-socialistic? When they have no income, no health-care for their children and the end of instability is not in the near future are they going to turn away the help from the funds in which they contributed to?

Many people are too foolish to realize that unemployment IS socialism, it is giving you the partial ability to sustain your life when times are tough, when things have taken a turn, if not for systems like that we would see impoverishment skyrocket to levels which we might not ever be able to overcome, a rise in crime and the degradation and degeneration of middle-class communities both as a whole and on an individual level. So if you wanna chastise socialistic programs then don't use them and let your life turn to shit, but don't ignorantly stand around and bitch because you have the unrealistic and uneducated perspective that somehow your problems are supposed to be fixed over night.

It is going to be a long road and whether you like it or not it's probably (as Mr. Obama admitted) not going to take 4 years but longer, because things have gone on this way for too long, we have spent and borrowed far beyond our means and ultimately have let things get to a point where the problem is far too big.

Regardless of the ideology of which you most ascribe, the reality here is that the middle-class is really what makes this country function and without them everything would come to a screeching halt. So while the wealthy and upper-classes make sour faces at the prospects of new taxes, they're also failing to realize that in most cases, without these peoples abilities to work and do the things they do, they wouldn't even have the opportunity to be rich and in the upper-echelons of the classes. If we cannot reform our system and allow those that will not be truly worse off to take the brunt of the mistakes of which their equals have largely created then our system cannot be fixed and cannot improve, it can only continue down the path to devastation and collapse that it currently faces.

To oppose is to only omit the foundation of "United We Stand" and further the growing reality that "Divided we stand with our backs turned to the needs of anyone but ourselves and our immediate loved ones."

If Mr. Obama cannot predominantly unite this nation to the fight ahead and if we oppose his efforts, we are destined to fail in unanimity anyway, so one way or another we will be together - whether in prevalence or in destitute - it's inevitable.

Congrats

To President elect Barrack Obama and Vice-President elect Joe Biden. It's still hard to believe it actually happened but it is truly incredible that history has been made in such a way and that I was fortunate enough to have lived to experience it.

Mr. Obama's speech was absolutely brilliant, well-delivered and refreshingly honest. As great a cynic as I am, that speech left me without question that this man is not only taking his newfound responsibilities seriously, but that he really wants to be (at least) a President of the people.

When I have more time I will delve more into the challenges and realities I feel lie ahead for both him and us as a nation, but for now I simply want to acknowledge this momentous event because it truly is one of the biggest moments in American history.