"war on"

if wall street ever sold stock in whatever our politicians declare war upon, i'd be first in line to buy some.

used to be, when we went to war, big things changed. the union jack in favor of the stars and stripes... emancipation from slavery... the fall of so many forms of fascism... but, recently, the changes, whenever luck has had it that there have even been any at all, are getting smaller and smaller, (saddam was a pretty small man in the grand scheme of things), and the things left unchanged that we're supposedly fighting against are getting stronger and stronger, and/or more pernicious. (drug cartels, terrorists, our economic malaise, energy dependence, etc.)

if i were king...

my radical agenda would be simple:

1) energy independence to solve our monetary, security and (potential) climate challenges via harnessing midwest wind and southwest sun and conducting it to the coasts where we're using all our energy. (the midwest is, btw, the place where we need jobs the most, so it's convenient that all the work building and maintaining our national and patriotic wind farm is right where it ought to be).

2) decriminalization of pot and many other recreational pharmaceuticals in favor of treatment to reduce demand, instead of scarcity to finance supply. this will have the corollary benefit of starving the columbian, mexican, taliban, etc. etc. etc. criminal terrorists further reducing our security issues, and it will also, via taxation, put us straight into the black for good, and pay ourselves out of this terrible mess into which we've gotten ourselves.

3) flat tax, to throw all those tax lawyers and corrupt politicians out of work who have made a huge cottage industry out of gaming our national treasury--make it so simple and inexpensive to pay taxes that everybody does it. first of all, if we're not fighting wars against terrorists and drugs and our citizens who would use them, by elimination of all three with one fell swoop, we won't be needing such a large federal budget, while all that tax revenue from sin is going to be bulging our coffers in no time. but, second of all, even at our current bogus budget levels, a legitimate flat tax which would fund our treasury at its current levels if the burden were truly shared would be between 12 and 15%. (how would you like a more than 50% tax cut?)

4) education and civil liberties would be the only business of the government that wasn't oversight and enforcement of law, and care for the elderly and others who cannot care for themselves. we'd throw in a few infrastructure projects, like our wind and solar farms, and things like the internet and such, but that's it. small govermnet and a free citizenry.

too bad those criminals in washington would never allow such things to happen, since it would take all the pork and profit out of their little racket...