Random Thoughts: What did they think would happen...

So now that the military has completely thrown the door open for women (yeah women!) what are we really to expect? I have heard anecdotally that male combat vets are OK with women in the fox hole next to them. They've recounted stories of heroism that declare without question woman can do the job. Great. Equality. Finally.

Now we are to understand that women will be trained as navy seals and army rangers, but rest assured standards will not be lowered. Yeah right. These programs are so grueling that most hardened men drop out/flunk out, with many reduced to tears. So excuse me if I fail to believe standards won't be lowered for women. There is no crying in the fox hole, right?

This announcement coming at the same time the current regime in Washington is busting balls in the armed services for rampant sexual abuse. What did they think would happen? These men are trained to be killing machines, their humanity altered to see other human beings as targets to be destroyed. For centuries, for eons, these men have been separated from "friendly" women. Whereas in the field of battle these men were not prosecuted for slaughtering the men, women or children of the enemy - and it doesn't take much imagination to see even these professional soldiers sexually assaulting the women of the enemy. So, now let's put these same trained killers together with women in the close quarters of combat, yes, that's great idea. Oh my, you're telling me that woman are being assaulted. Who could have predicted that?

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I heard that the current regime in Washington is pushing to have ethanol produced from newly abundant natural gas resources. Isn't it bad enough that state and Federal governments prop up this bogus industry with massive subsidies as it is? This is stupid, foolish and wasteful all in one. When they dreamed up the ethanol industry in response to Global Warming (I guess) it resulted in 40% of the U.S. corn crop being used as fuel for our cars instead of as food for the world. The price of corn and all the products in the food chain (including meat) dependent on corn skyrocketed. What did they think would happen? Didn't take a rocket scientist to see that one coming.

The ethanol industry is floundering for a host of reasons, not the least of which is the immoral implication of burning food as fuel when billions of barrels of oil are readily available. So in order save it the government is going to force the use of natural gas in ethanol production. I makes zero sense until you factor in the political contribution aspect of it all. Without doing the research I would bet that the ethanol producers are massive contributors to politicians and PAC's.

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A dozen states including Minnesota have implemented a sales tax on businesses partnering with web giants like Amazon.com and the like. Amazon began sending letters to these small businesses in Minnesota saying essentially "you're fired". This is how Amazon will get around the burden of having to calculate and collect taxes for individual states and localities. So, in other words, these small business, who likely rely on the sales they derive from Amazon.com's incredible reach, may likely go out of business or have greatly reduced incomes - and therefore pay less taxes. We call that cutting off your nose to spite your face. What did they think would happen?

The crafty Democrats who wrote and sponsored this legislation claim to have factored Amazon's reaction into their numbers and still plan on seeing a 5 million dollar revenue increase. Of course this law like so many will spin off something called the law of unintended consequences. I predict a loss of revenue as some of these businesses go under and of course the likelihood that new businesses that serve the web giants will go elsewhere to set up shop (like across the river in Wisconsin).


But I could be wrong.



Ugh