Comments on Pro Libertate: The "Disaster Capitalist" Nomenklatura

jomama,i like that name. :-). if you are a woman,...

2006-09-02T17:32:00.000-06:00

jomama,

i like that name. :-). if you are a woman, your nephews and nieces would not see the irony in it all. :-)

anyways, thanks for the tips. i am planning for "that day", but right now i know the Lord wants me to stay in for a while. i was thinking of getting out...and resigning my commission and saying to heck with the benefits, but then something happened and i knew God (whose son is Jesus Christ) was behind it. there is still more for me yet to learn. still scares a me bit to listen to my peers and teachers talk about america as being a democracy, spreading democracy, and the like. our country seems to be pitching money out of a wheel barrel (spl?) to any country that requests help...or will get help whether or not they like it. one thing really got me. made me a bit angry.

will,

yeah, i was sincerely trying to help the person. i knew something she did not know and was trying to get her to "do the basics" and pray on the thing knowing that God would do the rest. she wouldn't listen. i have a relative in a federal agency. this person is Christian. when he/she hit a certain mark, he/she nearly got out because of what he/she saw going on. he/she once recounted to me what happens when you "first show up". he/she said that it you go in for an interivew and the boss talks to you....then you get an opportunity to respond to what you just heard. now, basically it's like this: "this is what we do, and this is how we do it. so tell me, do you agree with this?" now, this is not what's said, but it's the underlining message. if you don't make your stand there, taking the ethical stand later on will not be easy. my relative said that if you tell them where you stand as a Christian (and what you believe), eyes open, and that supervisor now knows where you stand (adn knows what you will not tolerate). knowing the person i was talking to, i strongly felt that she would "play the game" and eventually morph into dorian gray if she joined up before praying on it. maybe i'm wrong, but i don't think so. power corrupts. especially those of weak faith.

yeah. i would not necessarilly tell a Christian stay out of the federal govt (i think that's not what you're really saying, but this...), but i would surely tell them to pray on it, cuz if God did not tell you to go in, "God help you trying to get out."

An awful lot of fine myth-busting here, will.And r...

2006-09-02T07:57:00.000-06:00

An awful lot of fine myth-busting here, will.

And rick got it right when he says the US is bankrupt. Not to worry tho. No need to fire anyone. Their checks will just stop coming as they did to the military in the Former Soviet Union. Now would be a good time to start planning for that, rick.

And those at the upper echelons of the Power Elite are always looking abroad for new fields to plow.

Who's gonna pay for the gas to keep the tractors running?

Fooling around in other peoples' affairs costs a lot of money, doesn't it...and creates new enemies daily.

What goes around, comes around.

It's official.

The larder is empty.

Brother Confederate Canine --Thanks for giving an ...

2006-09-02T07:01:00.000-06:00

Brother Confederate Canine --

Thanks for giving an Unfrozen Caveman Blogger some useful HTML tips.

Your scientists just recently chipped me out of a glacier, as you know. I was using crushed berries to decorate the walls of my cave when I was quick-frozen.
Your technology confuses and frightens me; whenever I see a webcam I'm sure it will steal my soul, and I run away screaming.

The geography errors I can't blame on my Cro-Magnon aversion to technology; they're the result of simple sloppiness, I'm afraid, and will be duly corrected.

Rick, isn't it incredibly tragic that we've reached the point where it's necessary to advise Christians to get or stay out of the employ of the federal government?

will,could not agree with you more. i often wonde...

2006-09-01T22:14:00.000-06:00

will,

could not agree with you more. i often wonder how we in the military can repeatedly get pay raises being that our govt is broke. well, that's really a dumb question as i know the answer...no one is doing the math to tabulate the costs. it's all gonna come back and bite us.

in the military we get paid leave. i don't think the private sector does that, but then again, in the private sector i don't think you can get yanked off your leave at any time. :-O but should our leave be paid leave? i want to reluctantly say no.

are we overpaid in the military? i tend to think so. i'll get back to that in a moment. remember how folks used to bicker how lower income military used to be on welfare? don't hear those complaints anymore (i think there's more welfare now and the mostly tax exempt deployments): i always wondered how some could complain about their pay. if you came in the military (which you knew did not pay a lot) married, without a house, and with a car payment, then that was your fault. i mean, that was just stupid! back to the pay remark.

i now think that with the contract violations, numerous deployments, and just the physical and emotional strain put on most of us now, that the pay is worth it. we get abused. now some of the benfit packages like free college education makes me squirm in my seat. i understand wanting to keep people in and investing in your "assets"--the service member but i feel there should be a limit on it. i mean the tax payer is being forced to pay for this. some parts of this just don't sit right with me. pay raises? i still disagree with them. our govt needs to be saving money.

pensions. i must agree with boston t. party who once said that the only federal employees who should get a pension are those in the military who get wounded or get hurt because of their jobs (and some of what we do will mess you up real bad--jumping out of airplanes). as for the rest, i don't think it should happen. i mean, why do the congressmen, senators, the president, and everyone else get a pension...and i mean a huge pension?! it ain't right. taxpayers should not fund a former federal employee for life unless they sustained some job related injury.

another thing you are on point is with getting rid of federal employees. you can't simply fire them. stupid. now the military can move fast when it wants to, but in the civil service it seems that when folks screw up, that they must do so for years before they are let go unless they are a political appointee.

i once spoke to a peer and wanted out and to pursue the fbi or secret service. yes, i tried to dissuade this person and told her "to seriously pray on it cuz if it's not God's purpose for you, you're gonna get involved in something where (and i paraphrase it) you will get in over your head and probably 'fall away'." that's not how i said it, but it was my underlying message. this person would just smile and try to change the subject. i hate to see a fellow Christian go this route. another thing.

dealing with all the perks and benfits. was talking to the same person who wanted to get out. i said "you may want to make sure that you resign your commission or else they will call you back. and the circumstances won't be so good. if not, you might as well finish the last 3 years of your obligation." i got a vehement NO out of that! i don't get it. what was this person hanging on to if he/she no longer desired to be in the military?

got a friend in france who keeps me abreast of the socialism there. seems that the in thing is to get a govt job...hard to fire and the benefits package. but just as bad are those who choose to stay unemployed. these folk continue to get a check for not working. the problem she explained, and it should be obvious, is that the number of folks working is slowly approaching the number of folks who do not work. then what you'll get is higher taxes on the employed. in the end, the majority of folks in france will either be unemployed or govt employees, in both cases the same group of people, the private sector, will have to support both! now that's unsustainable development! i hate to see it when even taxing the private sector 100% will not support the govt and the unemployed.

about the mercs. yeah, blackwater and the like...they're mercs. why these folks even get these high paying contracts is beyond me. i think i've said it before, but will repeat it again for those who may read this. i met a SOCSMG guy in iraq, who said he got out as a junior enlisted nco, and a few weeks later was with socsmg making over $180.000 a year.....doing the exact same thing a private does. some of the demolition contractors i met were making over $200k a year. ok, now i'll buy into the demo guys getting paid that much b/c by coming to iraq they got paid a little more (they made a lot to begin with). but the mercs? i don't think our country can sustain the borrowing of money to pay for both iraq and afghanistan. why do so few see this?

i hate to say it, but things are going to get worse, and govt employees will follow their paycheck. laws be cursed! the paycheck is more important.

Absolutely, Will. I cannot agree with your synopsi...

2006-09-01T20:57:00.000-06:00

Absolutely, Will. I cannot agree with your synopsis more. "Disaster capitalist" is an apropos term indeed for a corporatist who thrives only or mostly on State (or rather taxpayer) customers. It's an oxymoron.

“They often have generous holiday and vacation schedules, flexible hours, training options, incentive awards, flexible spending accounts, and a more relaxed pace of work than private-sector workers.”

I'm well versed in the government work ethic and private sector counterpoint and that's so accurate! Especially the "more relaxed pace" aspect. It's easy to see why as the private sector has to produce a product that satisfies a need or want in order to obtain their revenue and it has to do it the most efficient and cost effective way possible to maximize their revenue stream in order to profit.

Government has no such concerns since it forcefully extracts it's revenue and therefore will always "make money" regardless of how inefficient the operation in question. Of course, you and the fine folks at JBS and TNA know all this and have expressed it in exquisite detail over the years.

A few side notes, if you will. A [i][/i] type of "unofficial" tag is often used in forum environments instead of standard HTML tags to limit the allowable tags by the administrator. Instead of filtering out ALL standard HTML tags that they wish not to allow, they can simply filter in, or allow only those tags. Less programming...

Anyway, here's the standard HTML:

<i>Nomenklatura</i> = Nomenklatura

...and so on for other tags.

Speaking of the "Imperial suburbs" I've long called Fairfax county "Fairyfax" for for another reason, but the portrait you paint of those Northern Virginia couunties is quite accurate. If they broke away and became a political appendage of DC, more power to 'em and good riddance.

Lastly, not to be a picker of nits, but you missed an albeit minor detail; that is the other side of the Imperial metro, as Montgomery and Howard counties are part of Mary's land. ;)