A Wonderful Waste Of Time

While Congress shuts down America because they want 16 year old pregnant girls to suffer, what are the rest of us supposed to do? Well, at least there's this stunningly addictive waste of time:

Click the boxes, make music.

It's sort of like creating your very own King of Limbs.

Frankly, a government shutdown is a debacle. And strangely, at least in my lifetime, it only seems to happen when the Republicans wanna stick it to the Democrats. There was no reason to shut down in 1995 and there's no reason now.

Republicans want to turn a budget fight into a battle for larger, more complicated, probably unsolvable issues--abortion, welfare, health care, you name it. They'd rather cut a million dollars from programs for poor people than save billions by repealing a ridiculous-to-begin-with tax cut for billionaires. All because they claim to want a smaller government that also has the power to dictate people's sex lives.

There's only one way to balance the budget. Increase revenue. You can cut out wheelchairs for the elderly all you want, but it won't make a appreciable dent.

I hate taxes like everyone else. And raising taxes is a suicidal proposal for any politician. But until the federal government starts selling iPhones, taxes are pretty much the only way they get money. And if you're going to raise taxes, why not raise them on the people who can afford the hike? (which is not me)

If you don't have the guts to do that, then you're faced with three less palatable options. Slash the military budget in half (good luck!), raid social security and significantly ax the program (enjoy!), eliminate medicare and medicaid and hope that Groupon begins offering medical care deals (Valentine's Day Heart Surgery, 50% off!).

Anything else is a waste of time. Less productive than clicking boxes.

Obama's Lybia Speech

He made the right decision, but you can see Obama's clearly been struggling with this. He didn't want to be a war President. But it made me realize something. Clinton decided to launch a similar mission in Bosnia back in the 90's. After that, of course, we had Bush launch an all out ground war in two countries, like his father before him. Basically, it boils down to this:

Republicans fight wars on the ground. Democrats fight wars in the air.

That's the way it's been since I was born, anyway. No world wars, but wars nonetheless. Sad.

Then you see things like the Tsunami and earthquake that hit Japan and you wonder... With terror like that in our universe, why the hell are we so afraid of each other??

Great, now I sound like a hippie.

Thanks a lot, Mommar.

General Electric Pays Negative Taxes

This makes me supremely mad. According to the New York Times, while the rest of us schmucks give an absurd amount in taxes every year, which go towards subsidies for profitable companies like General Electric, G.E. actually gets paid from the government and avoids taxes completely. How does G.E. reward America for this generosity? By shifting the majority of the G.E. workforce overseas.

Thanks to the administration of George W. Bush (and the blind-eye congress under Obama), corporate tax law was changed to create loopholes that companies like G.E. could use to avoid taxes. Not only that, the loopholes work only if companies fire Americans and hire Europeans instead. We were just too busy being scared about terrorism to notice. Wonder why we're losing jobs to other countries? Look no further.

Ironically, it was Ronald Reagan, Republican prophet, who closed the loophole to begin with. But these days, with both the Democratic and Republican parties comfortably in corporate America's pocket, awarding companies rights beyond those of ordinary people has become the norm.

I'm sure our founding fathers would be proud.

The Republican party line says that corporations should be given free reign because their output and profits benefit the nation. But due to the loopholes, G.E.'s output and profits aren't benefiting the nation-- they're staying overseas. Instead of merely allowing a corporation to retain most of its profits, we're actually providing a financial incentive to abandon America.

We're paying G.E. billions of dollars to leave us.

Does that sound like good policy??

Major League Jew Attempts A Comeback

Jewish ballplayer, and former New York Met David Newhan is attempting a comeback after a scary neck injury.

Mazel Tov, David! I could use a few more Jewish utility men on this year's Major League Jews fantasy team (coming soon).

The World's Last Unsecured Password

I want to apologize to all my family and friends (and assorted random contacts) for spamming them this week. My email was hacked. More specifically, my AOL email was hacked.

Yes, I can hear you laughing. AOL email??? What is this, 1998?

I moved onto Gmail a lifetime ago, but I still kept my AOL account around for the purposes of signing up for things. Everyone these days asks for your email address, and I didn't want my Gmail inbox stuffed with "Special Offers" and "Membership Information." My AOL account, therefore, became a haven for junk.

It was also very vulnerable.

Back when I created the account, sometime around 1996, people's awareness of internet security wasn't high. In 1996, celebrities accounts hadn't yet been hacked for nude photos and spam emails were still written using complete English sentences. When AOL prompted me to create a password, it didn't insist it be 8 characters long, including a capital letter, a number and a special character. It just asked for a password.

So I typed one in. Benf. Short for Ben Folds Five, a band I liked a lot in 1996.

According to mathematics, 456,976 guesses is all it would take to crack my password. From 1996-2011, it had gone uncracked. 15 years. But apparently, someone did it. I'm very careful not to click spam links, so I'm pretty sure I didn't give a spammer that way in. It was just a matter of time before my pathetic password fell victim to someone who undoubtedly looks nothing like Angelina Jolie from the movie "Hackers."

So R.I.P., last unsecured password in the world. You were a relic of a bygone era, when the internet was a much more innocent place. I'll miss how quick and easy it was to type you in, and how easy you were to remember. I'll remember you always.

Benf. 1996-2011