Tom Toles for October 07, 2014

Presuming that we could actually effect Michael’s ‘modest proposal’, it could then be said of us as it was once said of another superpower, “Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.”

“Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.”“They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire, and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace.”—Calgacus speaking of the Romans (as attributed by Tacitus)

Thank you, Jase.

Cheney’s war of aggression to grab Iraq’s oil seems to have lasted longer than 2 – 3 weeks and hasn’t paid for itself. What it has done is let the genie out of the bottle, which should have happened after WW I, and started the final breakup of the Ottoman Empire. Pull our troops out of Saudi Arabia which supports Wahhabi sect of Islam – teaches destroy Satanic U.S., and let them continue their 1,400 year old religious war. .

Look at me! I can danceO’er the Globe while I pranceWith crises in hands (and one foot)Coalitions I’ll cobble(Which wobble and wobble)And in time we shall all be kaput!

Yes, the sequester keeps taking a bite out of everything we do in the world — military funding AND medical and scientific research. It’s a dumb idea, but it’s the only thing the Republicans have actually achieved in the past six years, so they can’t allow it to be fixed.

I wonder how many of these problems would not have developed into crises if we had had a more engaged president during the past five years.

Re-Flex: that “Defense budget” is only the published non-classified; the real annual budget is over $1.3 Trillion.

Rather than “Cat in the Hat” movie, I think of DiCapprio in “Titanic”, and the fact we are only in our dreams righted to be “King of the World”.