Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

For life is quite absurd
And death's the final word
Forget about your sin - give the audience a grin
Enjoy it - it's your last chance anyhow.
And always look on the bright side of life...
--Bright Side of Life, Eric Idle

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Monty Python's Bright Side -- one of the all-time great crucifixion songs.

Ready for some gallows humor? Enjoy the always spot-on The Onion for their coverage of U.S. troops based in Iraq being transferred to Afghanistan (U.S. Troops Excited to Finally Return to Afghanistan).

To whet your palate:

While most remained enthusiastic about the trip home, a small percentage of military personnel expressed concerns that Afghanistan had drastically changed since they were called off to war. Others worried that it would now be awkward to interact with local warlords.

. . .

"We had our entire lives ahead of us," said Tagle, who "pretty much grew up" in Kandahar. "Anything was possible. Going to college. Maybe starting a family someday. Even making the world a better place."

Added Tagle, "It's funny the things you picture for yourself when you're young."

Wicked.

Fleecing the Lambs

Savior like a shepherd lead us,
much we need thy tender care;
in they pleasant pastures feed us,
for our use they folds prepare
--Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us, Hymn

We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us
--Communist worker's saying

Money, the very "coin" of ordinary interaction,
is [hence] of all thingsthe least understood and --
perhaps with sex -- the object of greatest unreasoning fantasy;
and like sex it simultaneously fascinates, puzzles and repels
--F. A. Hayek

Never spend your money before you have earned it
--Thomas Jefferson
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As usual, The Onion gets it right in a must-see here: In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole? Openmarket.org asks if Lada factories were as bad as Detroit's Big Three (Beyond Bailouts.) Answer: no one beats Detroit for profligacy and irresponsibility. Where's My Bailout gives a sense of the scope of the problem.

Ranger is not related to T. Boone Pickins but would still like to weigh in on the energy situation that defines America today. He will analogize current approaches to energy policy to the conduct in the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©).

Just as the PWOT is unsustainable and based upon faulty propositions so is our energy policy. The false premise is that private enterprise will allow the nation to achieve energy independence at the current levels of current energy consumption. However, if America is to approach energy independence, the program must be national in scope and actuality, i.e., nationalized.

Private enterprise cannot achieve comprehensive coordinated programs. As with our banking system, entrepreneurs seek to privatize profit, while nationalizing responsibility.

All the Sarah Palin fans are ready to call "socialism" and paint Ranger as a Pinko. Well, maybe, but what was the Manhattan Project? Communism, or was it democratic because the objective was weapons development? Surely such operational constructs could be applied to beneficial programs.

Why bail out GM if they have not learned to be competitive in the world market and build fuel-efficient cars these past 30+ years? Everyone says they want a Free Market, but the downside of that is, you sink or swim by the marketplace demand created for your product.

Rewarding incompetence is Ranger's definition of Communism.