Bertologue

Increasing government spending will require an increase in taxes. Anyone who has even the simplest understanding of math will grasp that concept. So with the Democrats’ intent to increase spending where do they plan to get the money? Obama says they will get all of this money by increasing the taxes on those who make more then $250,000 per year and by eliminating business loop-holes to hide money from the tax-collectors. This way Obama is keeping his promise to the Middle-Class by taking from the rich and giving to the middle. This situation as I explained it seems to be a great plan, so I decided to look into it further to see what history has shown us happens in situations like this and how it could pop-up in the future. First I wanted to look at what increasing the amount of taxes that are taken from those who are making a salary of over $250,000/year would do. These households that make more then $250k per year are less then 1.5% of the population. In the past when similar me...

Can Iraq take care of itself? We all love the idea of an Iraq that can take care of itself and live in peace. Obama is talking about leaving Iraq because of the great advances the Iraqi military has made in learning how to defend themselves and said so at the annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars . Secretary of Defense Gates mentioned that the security situation will lead to the early withdrawal of US troops . Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki was so eager to convince the world that the security situation was being handled by the Iraqis that he removed all security barricades within the Green Zone after telling US troops to slink back to their bases and stay there. Jamal Hashim applauded this utopian bliss in an article written on the 19th of August. It seemed that the politicians and reporters were shrouded with the collective delusion of stalwartness. On that same day bombs blew through the deception of the politically driven but collectively ignorant. With their di...

Well – I have been gone… again… I am sure anyone reading this is completely shocked that I would be traveling. I am such a home-body that almost never strays away from my front stoop… Ok, that may not be exactly truthworthy. I may even be a little of the opposite. Once again I have traveled to Iraq, but this time I was not gallivanting around the North chatting with locals and placing myself in completely safe villages that caused others to have coronaries. Nope – this time I was sent there by the company I work for. They paid for the trip and I got to have the great privilege of staying in fortified structures, traveling by armored vehicle and military air-craft. My meals were taken in gargantuan dinning facilities with hundreds of soldiers and contractors eating American food and not worrying about diarrhea. All-in-all it was a standard boring trip. Hmmm… maybe my old way of touring has caused me to not find FOBing to be a real form of foreign-service. As I did go overseas wi...

I understand the concept of religion being the "biggest cause of terrorism" but I feel that this is misrepresented. I do agree that religion is the biggest excuse for terrorism, but I am not sure that it is the cause. In Encyclopedia of Wars -by Charles Phillips (Author), Alan Axelrod (Author): there are a total of 1,763 wars listed of which 123 are listed as religious wars. The State Departments lists 42 terrorist entities of which 21 have religious leanings and 14 are specifically religious ( http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/37191.htm ). Until the 1970's terrorist activity in the United States was mainly politically aimed (communist, leftist, fascist, and other ists…) with clear political agendas. In the 70's we started to see an increase in the number of terrorist groups that were associated with a religious or nationalist agenda but these attacks were political and not religious. Members of this group were the PLO, Jewish Defense League, and others. We stil...

Terrorism and Extortion are very similar in action but where they differ the most is with intended results. Extortion : Using violence or the threat of violence to create an environment where actions toward the victim lead to the victim giving the perpetrator(s) something of value . Terrorism : Using violence of the threat of violence to create an environment where actions towards the victim lead to society giving the perpetrator(s) something of value . When defining terrorism it is pertinent to first set what parameters the definition is adhered to. If we took a general definition of terrorism and said that it is simply the act of generating fear to elicit the desired response of the issuer then we can say all governments engage in terrorism to control the activities of their populace. Threat of going to jail unless you meet social norms would fit into this definition of terrorism. The same could be said about having a strong military imposing the will of a country upon another co...