Category: Rants

If I refer to someone as a WASP, JAP, white trash, Euro trash, art fag, goth chick, or redneck, we all know what I’m talking about. No, it’s not PC to use these sorts of labels, but c’mon, we all know that these people exist, and the label can be very accurate. There is another that I had not experienced before, but is well known throughout the middle east. I don’t know of a label for these people, certainly not in English, so I’ve come up with my own. I give you the Saubass. It is short for Saudi Bastard. These people exude attitudes that are unbelievable. It’s in the way they dress, the way they talk, and the way that they look at everyone. Totally condescending SOBs, they truly believe that they have everything right and have no time for all of the idiots that surround them. Everything is about them, how their actions affect other people is not only not considered, it isn’t important in the slightest, even when it is pointed out to them. This may sound familiar, you may have run into people like this before. Ah, but it is not combined with Whabism, contempt for women, a belief that they are perfect muslims while everyone else is corrupted (they even hold onto this identity while whoring and drinking, it’s quite remarkable), and a propensity to yell and act aggressivly. Like I said, Saudis have quite a reputation across the middle east for being superior bastards, and it is well deserved. Not all of them are like this of course, but the ones that are fit a specific type, and now we all know what to call them:-)

Your whitebread, superior SOB

Isaac:-)

I read yet another editorial going on and on about the American/Zionist hegemony, the failure of Iraq, and the danger that the US presents to the region. Look, I’ll be the first one to say that Bush and his buddies should be brought up on charges for this whole mess. We shouldn’t have gone in, if we were bound to go in we should have had a plan, and we have helped out iran considerably in the power balance scene. But for God’s sake, there isn’t any proof of us wanting to annex the place, and while we may be guilty of letting the genie out of the bottle, we are certainly not “responsible” for the Iraqis blowing each other up. The editorial claims that this has been one of the worst catastrophes of human history and that Bush and his neo-con buddies are just as bad as the nazis. First off, the author doesn’t seem to have a very good grasp of history. Even my history challenged self could probably come up with 50 worse things that have happened, someone that is into history could probably come up with a list of a 100 pretty easily. Yes, a lot of people have died, yes, the US killed many civilians during the initial wave. That’s what happens in wars, it’s the prime reason not to engage in them. But that number surely doesn’t compare with the carnage that Iraqis have inflicted on themselves. Say what you want, but the US does not target pilgrims, we do not target holy sites, we do not intentionally stir up sunni/shia emotions. As for the Nazi comparison, that’s not really fair to either side. Bush is no Hitler, I do not like him, but he has no “final solution” in mind, he (or the rest of the US) is not interested in annexing countries or expanding the borders of the US. On the flip side, the Nazis were organized, had a plan, and while they made tactical mistakes, they rarely made strategic ones.

Yes, Bush screwed up and dragged us all down with him. He has done incalculable damage to our foreign policy and wasted trillions of dollars and thousands of lives. But for the last time, that’s about all he did. There is no Zionist conspiracy (Israel’s most likely sneaky wish? They would have it so people would stop bugging them.), there was never a desire or a plan to “own” Iraq, and for God’s sake, we have nothing against Muslims (although you guys are really trying to make us that way.). The US now has a very well deserved bad reputation as a bully and meddler. The reaction of Iraqis blowing each other up and then blaming it on the US has solidified many American’s view that everyone over here is out of their freaking minds. That includes Israel incidentally. At this point, I think the people in the middle east will get their wish, I am sure that it will be a long time before America sticks its nose into this part of the world again. I am also sure that the US will then be blamed for whatever bad things happen over here because we weren’t here.

Sheesh, rant over.

A friend recently mentioned on his blog that the Don Imus affair showed the only way that he trusts the private sector. He finished his post by saying that he likes his government large and well paid. I tried to point out all of the benefits of our private sector, they provide damn near everything for us. They do it well and the products and services are always evolving to suit us. We get what we want when we want it.

I really, really don’t understand wanting a big government. All of the evidence points to the fact that that the larger your government is (as a percentage of GDP), the worse your economy performs. The Soviet block countries, Cuba, and the current North Korea are the extreme examples. I don’t think we have to worry about becoming like North Korea, but take a look at some of our friends in Europe. France has an enormous government and “protects” workers from the private sector. The result? Massive unemployment and an unsupportable welfare state. They are facing a demographic collapse due in no small part to their tax/government systems in my opinion.

But surely we need the government to protect us from private companies. Without all of their regulations we’d be at the companies mercy, right? I blogged a little while ago about how we are the ones that run companies, I will repost that. What I want to concentrate on here is the relative risks we face with corporate malfeasance as opposed to government threats. As a rebuttal to my comment on his post, someone sent me a link about a daycare facility closing without any notice. Parents had to find daycare the next day. Now that is certainly a royal pain, and pretty inconsiderate, but it was hardly an enormous problem. You want an enormous problem? How about the unfunded liabilities of our social security system or the enormous debt that our government has racked up. They have saddled our great grandchildren with paying for our foolish economic ways. Here’s the thing, you can come up with the absolute worst case scenario for bad behavior in the corporate world, and it will not hold a candle to what governments have actually done. Think of the nastiest, conniving businessman who specializes in evicting widows and orphans as his business. He makes 6 year olds work 15 hours a day and makes them eat nuclear waste at gunpoint. Ok, that’s pretty bad, but a little ridiculous. He still doesn’t compare to say, Stalin. Hell, he doesn’t even compare to Mugabe or Huessain. What about Milken, Schilling, or any other white collar criminal? Once again, they can’t compete badness-wise with the likes of Sen. Mcarthy, J. Edgar Hoover, or maybe even Cheney. The corporate scandals that have cost people millions upon millions of dollars do not come close to the business as usual buddy buddy dealings in the the government. Think of the worst corporate scandal you can think of. How much did that cost people? Did you know that the agricultural subsidies in the US have cost the taxpayers over 1.2 TRILLION dollars over the past 10 years? That doesn’t even include the higher prices we had to pay for the goods because of the protection offered to Archer Danials Midland and others by our government. This isn’t even a big deal, hardly anyone ever hears about it.

Here’s my point. Yes, there are terrible people out there. Low lifes and morally challenged people that will do anything for a dollar. Yes, we should be on the lookout for them. The good news is that the effects of their bad behavior are fairly limited in the private sector. The fact that these people exist is the reason that we have to be so careful about the government. The government is made up of people, just like the private sector. When morally corrupt, power hungry, profit seeking people get into the government, the stakes are much, much higher. The private sector, by its very nature, limits the impact of any one company or person. One person in the government can have enormous impacts on many different things in our life, now think of an entire party and what they can “accomplish.” Most of the time, the problems in the government aren’t obvious, the problems don’t appear until later and the costs are often hidden. Sometimes, the person doing it doesn’t even realize what they re doing is so bad (see our outstanding debt as an example). Regulations are often times (but not always) made for the supposed benefit of the tax payers, but due to the fact that politicians are, well, politicians, we don’t get the results that they were looking for. Unintended consequences of regulations have cost us plenty. This is also my prime motivation for keeping the government out of the private sector as much as possible. The Private sector is where everything happens. It is what produces all of the innovations, it is what has lengthened our life-span and made our life much more comfortable. Places that rely on the government to do this fail miserably. We should learn from both our past successes and other countries’ problems (Germany, France, Yemen, etc.). People pursuing a better life are what moves us forwards, not the government.

Isaac

small government big government libertarian private sector standard of living corruption socialism capitalism

I find that there are very few people worth talking to. I keep telling myself that I need to get out and talk to more people to practice my Arabic, but as soon as we get past the formalities (how are you, how are you doing, etc.) I want to get the hell out of the conversation. Yesterday for example, a guy tells me a joke. “What do you tell a woman with two black eyes? Nothing, she’s already been told twice…” It takes a certain skill to pull of jokes like that. You have to either assume a persona that thinks that is OK (the humor being in the irony), or you have to go in with the idea “This is a terrible joke,” a la South Park. This guy did neither, he just thought it was a riot at face value. I didn’t stick around for long.

I have been accused of being antisocial before, and if that’s what I am I guess it’s true. Like so many other things that I enjoy, I have high standards for the people I spend time with. I can assure you that I love the company of the people that I hang out with, otherwise I wouldn’t bother. It’s really frustrating here, the locals are really underwhelming as far as conversation goes. A large part of it is just education I’m sure, but even the college graduates are disappointing. Inevitably they will pull out a gem like, “Our water shortage is caused by a secret Israeli pumping station under the Red Sea, they’re stealing all of our water,” or the ever popular question, “Do you think Jews control the world?” Of course that last question is a trick to see where my sympathies lie, the truth of that question isn’t in any doubt to them. Combine jewish paranoia with a general distrust and dislike of women (but of course they are fascinated too), a healthy heaping of Bush hate, and a general impression that living in America must be hell what with all of the whorish women and rampant crime and you get wonderful conversations.

The best conversations I’ve had here have been with other students deconstructing our experiences here. Most of it is just bitching of course, but there have been some interesting talks as well. I’m sure that the fact that I can talk with women has nothing to do with my appreciation of my fellow students… 🙂 So I guess part of my “problem” can be chalked up to being antisocial, but I like to think of it as having high standards. My standards help me from going insane, but they may also hinder my spoken Arabic….

Isaac

Yemen middle east

Yemen middle east