sirspens's New Writeups

November 13, 2008 (review)

2008-11-13T00:03:32Z

Hoodwinked

On Wednesday, 12 November, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced that the Executive is officially abandoning its plan to use the $700 Billion set aside for the buying of bad mortgages from lending institutions as it was originally given permission to by Congress. This doesn't come as a complete shock as, only days after the Bailout Bill was passed, the Bush Administration dropped its original talk and started to buy ownership in these major financial institutions. What is surprising in all of this is what Paulson said he, as current king of the roost, is going to do instead.

Is he going to help the American people out who cannot afford to make their loan payments by encouraging banks to renegotiate the terms of these loans which would turn these "bad" mortgages into viable mortgages again, thus easing this "squeeze" on the economy? No. Paulson claims that is beyond the original scope of the powers given him by…

October 22, 2008 (review)

2008-10-22T17:59:25Z

You know, I was just wondering...

If the US is supposed to have the most technologically advanced military in the entire ever of existence, then why, every morning when I read the news, is there another article to the tune of "A U.S. air strike mistakenly hit an Afghan army checkpoint / an Iraqi hospital /A Pakistani village killing 9 / 30 / 84 and wounding many more."

I mean... Do we do it on purpose?

I can almost hear "GOD BLESS AMERICA!! MY HOME, SWEE--" playing in the background as I read these articles.

God Bless America. We are the destroyers of life, liberty, and any possibility of happiness.

I was reading the AP news feed the other day, as is my habit, and I came across yet another article on the agreement that the United States is trying to reach with Iraq to stay beyond the end of the year.

Maybe a little background is in order, since most people don't know what is…

September 19, 2008 (essay)

2008-09-19T23:23:21Z

American corporations have a long record of addiction to tax payer money to finance the risky business of building private fortunes for their owners. Whether that be through the tax payer funded Research and Development of the high technology industry through the Pentagon, or the public funds shoveled into the lengthy process of developing medication – which drug companies then sell back to us at outrageous prices – the American corporate sector has found reason after reason to get tax payers to finance the creation of their empires.

Today, with the Almighty Stock Market trembling at the feet of the rocked Holy Financial Industry, the tax payers are being asked again to pull their pockets inside out and let all the contents drop into the barrel of a new form of corporate subsidy. The Bush Administration has proposed a a scheme to rescue these troubled financial, banking and insurance firms from their own self destructive ways. The plan will cost the American tax payers…

Support Issues, not Candidates (essay)

2008-04-28T06:04:35Z

It's interesting to see people get excited about a political candidate. Especially the way Barack Obama's followers are alive with electricity at the hope that he can bring real change to our nation. There is an emotional energy among his supporters that has not been felt in politics since, well, probably Robert Kennedy's candidacy in the late 1960s. People are throwing their support behind Barack Obama because they truly believe he is different than the rest. That he will lead us through some much needed global and domestic policy adjustments to our corrupt and dying system.

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The only way to move up in any company is to become part of that company. That means you believe what the company believes. You internalize their goals, beliefs and value system. Why would some company want you advancing through their management structure if you didn't truly believe in what the company was doing? To…

Don't want to be lonely no more (fiction)

2008-04-09T21:44:50Z

In my previous articles I have tried to help you out, my readers, with such problems as "What to do when she blocks your IM" and "Rage issues when WoW lags." Today, however, we are going to talk about a rl issue, in response to some very desperate emails and IRC conversations I have had lately.

How to get not lonely.

There are many many different reasons that a person can find themselves in the desperate place of loneliness. Since you are one of my readers, however, I am going to assume it is because you sit around on the internet all day. That is an understandable reason to be lonely. And it is possibly an easy one to remedy. Just follow these five easy steps:

1) Is there an exit to the room you are currently in? Exits often come in the form of doors or windows or just large holes in walls or floors -- but usually not ceilings, the reasons for this being very techinical, so we will not get

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April 9, 2008 (essay)

2008-04-09T01:51:09Z

Every once in a while you read a news story that just so blows your mind that you can't figure out which angle about it is more disgusting. You read the article over and over and you can't even talk to anybody about it because – I mean – where do you begin?

In case you missed the New York Times article yesterday, Drug Makers Near Old Goal: A Legal Shield, let me run down the facts for you here:

In the late 1990s Johnson & Johnson expressed their intention to the FDA to create a birth control patch that would have lower estrogen levels than pill based birth control. You see, lower estrogen levels are a desirable thing because high estrogen levels can often cause blood clots and heart attack and stroke and other things that severely harm a human being – and, you know,

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