HAIL DUBYUS!

An Illustrated Guide to Mendacity and Folly in the Imperium Americanum

Trick Or Treat? We’ve Been Tricked So Long, We Wouldn’t Know A Treat If It Bit Us

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Of course, Bush is saying the Democrats will raise taxes. But who put us in a position where the national debt was so massive. The bulk of Bush’s tax cuts went to the rich. If we took away their tax breaks, we’d have enough to pare down the debt AND give the middle class some tax relief!

In the meantime, an update on our NEW Google censorship problem. Remember how I said that the image search results between China and the US were interchanged? Well, they fixed China, but left the US results in total censorship! Exactly what I expected them to do, since you can’t trust anyone to fix anything right over there when they screw up. I’ve sent a letter to the image search team and if that doesn’t get a response, I start writing VPs…

Ken Lay Memorial Edition

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(Reuters) Convictions of dead Enron chief Ken Lay thrown out

(Houston Chronicle)Government sues Ken Lay’s estate

(AP) Judge vacates conviction of Ken Lay

(AP) Skilling sentenced to 24 years in prison

(USAToday) By claiming he’s guiltless, Skilling proves he’s clueless

Back in the old days, a financier convicted of mismanaging funds to his advantage would’ve been told to do the right thing and been handed a pistol with a single bullet. Why was this the right thing? It harkened back to Roman law that if you were convicted but had not been executed, the state could not take over your estate. In other words, by committing suicide, you provided for your family by not leaving them destitute. It was part of the presumption of innocence. Technically, you were still “innocent” until sentence was carried out. In modern times, we have a waiting period between conviction and sentencing, and if you were to die in that period, the conviction would be nullified for the same reason. Moreover, if the sentencing were to include a fine, that could not be taken from your estate either because that would be visiting your punishment on your innocent family.

These day we ALSO have drugs that can mimic heart failure. In fact, when Ken Lay was convicted, I had several conversations about the possibility that he’d conveniently pass away before sentencing. I can’t say this is the case, but he had powerful enough friends to carry it out had he wanted to. Saves the family from losing the estate (the estate can still be subject to civil suit, but without the living miscreant, the chances of substantial recovery is teensy), he goes into hiding in the tropics with the Swiss bank account money. Can YOU see a downside?

I also wish to mention my condolences to our friend, S.J. Smith, on the death of his wife. Teri was my wife’s writing and business partner and best friend. She was a great soul with an expansive personality and incredible good humor in the face of adversity. She was only 51 and passed because her physical heart was not as strong as her spiritual one. She will be missed.

UPDATE: I will be taking Friday off this week because of these sad and unforeseen circumstances. Thanks.

He Thinks He’s Flash Gordon, We Think He’s A Ming Wannabe

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US stakes claim on space

Basically, Georgie Boy has declared to the world his own version of the Monroe Doctrine. Just as Monroe told Europe to stay out of the Americas (despite the fact that several countries held huge interests there) and ages of schoolkids ever since were taught that this unilateralist Monroe Doctrine had some sort of binding effect on the world stage (only if we chose to back it up by force, which we sometimes did and sometimes didn’t), now the Emperor Bush has decided that space is OURS, since he thinks that no one is strong enough to dispute it. We will ignore Russia, whose space program is moribund and France, who’s doing a bang-up business launching satellites, but the main competitor he wishes to deny space to is China. We’ll see what they think of this when their space program is ready a few years down the road 🙂

In the meantime, I was right, this did take me all weekend. I wish I had the talent of a Wally Wood, who could have pencilled and inked this in several hours, and done it better, so this is my tribute to a past master…

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