The President says we're soft

“This is a great great country that had gotten a little soft and we didn’t have that same competitive edge that we needed over the last couple of decades,” Mr. Obama said in response to a question about the country’s economic future. “We need to get back on track.” – Barack Obama, http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/278769/wait-malaise-french-soft-jonah-goldberg

Yep. That’s it, Mr. President.  We’re soft. We’ve lost that competitve edge. We need to get back on track.

Let’s see, business is noncompetitive… Yet, during the last two years of my professional finance career, we have been through 6 different audits from 6 different government agencies. (total dollar value found to be owed to the government? Zero). As far as finance managers go, I’m not that weird.

Wow. I wonder what value I could’ve been adding to my company during that instead of creating multiple phone book sized reconcilliations that no government employee will actually ever read. However, if I’d failed to spend hundreds of hours producing these useless documents, we’d have gotten fined and put out of business.

WARNING: I am about to go on an angry tirade about why American business is not competitive. Spare me the useless offended emails about how not all government employees are bad. Dur. Of course they’re not all bad. Many of them are truly awesome people. I’ve worked with many impressive government employees who have conducted themselves with the utmost professionalism…. But even then there are a ton of you, and you’re all up in our business too. And even if you are one of these good, solid, reliable, smart, hard working government employees, you are also probably the first to admit that many of your coworkers suck.

Ask any businessman, you’ll get the same story. Assuming you can make your way through the paperwork process to actually start your business, the fun begins and never lets up. Heaven help you if your business actually does something that might involve a committee of bureacrats somewhere, because then you get to waste lots of time begging for permission to exist.

You want employees? Get ready for the DoL. Better get your EEOC reports done on time (one of the only places left where anyone actually gives a damn what color you are). When I opened my first business, I was rather surprised to discover that I had to contact 5 different state and federal entities before I could hire my first employee. You want to actually build something? Get ready for OHSA and the EPA. The approvals alone will eat up an eternity of time you could be productive. And you’d darn well better make sure you do your quarterly filings with the IRS and your state tax commission, or they will eat you.

And every time you turn around, there is a new regulation. Since there are like twenty different agencies that can screw with you on a whim, you’d better keep up on all of them. You need to know every clause! Not that that matters in real life anyway, because I’ve personally witnessed government employees totally ignore their own regulations and jerk a business owner around, usually through laziness or apathy, because it is easier than just doing their stupid job by the book.

Remember, no actual wrong doing on your part is required. Your company pops up on a list and now you get to spend hundreds of man hours kissing butt and playing fetch the report for a bureacrat, simply to earn the right to stay in business. You can be fined or shut down, all without breaking a law.

Once upon a time, I sent in a mandatory report to a federal agency (which shall remain nameless, because I may have to deal with them again and I know they’ve got at least one spiteful bastard on the payroll). We were in full compliance with the law. The numbers where what they were.

The federal employee did the math wrong when he entered it into the database. We received a warning and were threatened with a huge penalty. It took me (literally) six seconds to see what he had entered wrong. I explained it, and had to reexplain it, and reexplain it, and even sent color coded spreadsheets over, and for the next TWO MONTHS had a terrible penalty hanging over my head…

Because this bureacrat had made a mistake, KNEW he had made a mistake, but it was too much work for him to go back and fix his mistake… In the end there were multiple levels of government supervisors involved, lawyers and independant experts confirmed I was right all along, and still he was grasping at straws to somehow prove that we were in fact wrong, and he was right the whole time (because he had already said so to his manager, who also couldn’t be bother to actually look at the report). This went on and on, with various new odd ball ideas popping up to show how I had to be in violation (because he’d already said so, and it is really hard for him to go back and change that) up to and including accusing me of fraud.

The fraud one really got my goat, because he sent over this gigantic e-mail about “OMG why don’t these numbers match!!!” This one took me literally, and I’m not joking, 16 seconds to figure out what he was doing wrong, and we’re talking some basic Accounting 101 level, are you f’ing kidding me, level math.

Finally after hundreds of man hours of very expensive per hour dicking around, we got it all cleared up, “Oh… Yeah, I guess I did put that in the wrong column to begin with… Sorry. Oh, but since you showed up on the poopy list, next quarter you have to fill out this super gigantic poopy list paperwork that is totally mandatory.”

But at least I never had to deal with that employee again… Because he got promoted.  

Yes, Mr. President, it must just be becasue America is soft.

Let’s see… We’ve lost our competitive edge… Even though Canada’s unemployement is lower than ours because they are actually tapping their natural resources instead of throwing billions of dollars at mythical green energy projects. In the same time period my little company got audited half a dozen times and passed, Solyndra got audited once by Price Waterhouse, failed miserably, and got half a BILLION bucks. One of these things is not like the other.  Maybe we need to start building solar panels, (or donating money and photo ops to the president).

Ken Salazar put thousands of men out of work in eastern Utah with the stroke of a pen. Then they did the same thing in the gulf. Now Canadians are having to hire Americans to fill all their many job openings. Think about that… Canada. Friggin’ Canada is kicking our asses! They were all like, “Hey, we’re all out of jobs, eh? But under our feet is stuff worth money. Maybe we should dig it up and sell it, eh?”

But we can’t do that, because global warming or something. Let’s see, liberals are the scientific ones–they are always quick to tell you–but their response to global warming is mandating energy products that don’t exist, cars that don’t run, and poisonous light bulbs, while we funnel billions and billions of dollars to crappy countries that don’t like us. BRILLIANT!  So, assuming that you guys are totally right on the science (which you aren’t) and that the whole thing isn’t a gigantic scam–like unto eugencis back in the day–to grab up more political power (which it is), the only possible solution to this huge problem is more government control of everything?

The same politicans that have saddled us with millions of pages of regulations, suck up all our time, and harrass us with bureacrats are also in bed with the unions, an institution which made wonderful sense back in ye olde tymes of child slave labor and rat flavored sausage, but now primarily exist to take money from their employees to funnel through their very wealthy leadership to democrat politicians, in order to ensure that the guy that sweeps the floor makes at least $60,000 and has full benefits from the day he retires until he dies in thirty years.

Yes, because that is going to keep you competive, Mr. President!

Look, you’re in a union, and you think it is awesome. Whatever. We don’t live in ye olde tymes. You think your job is treating you bad or your work conditions suck? FRIGGIN’ QUIT. The whole business model of working for one company for eternity and they take care of you until you die? It doesn’t work out in real life. Quit expecting it to. And now the companies that have fallen prey to this mentality are floundering and dying, you are out of work, but your leadership is still collecting dues to donate to the same politicans that ruined everything to begin with. They don’t love you. They aren’t looking out for you. You are a statistic to be used, nothing more.

Despite all of this nonsense your kind has thrown at us, American business keeps on trudging along, being the best creator of wealth in the history of the world, and you have the audacity to say we’re soft? Everything this nation has ever accomplished has been in spite of your kind, you self-righteous academic narrcisst, not because of you.

Not just that, but you say that America is a little soft?  Does this guy look soft to you?

They don’t make soft Marines.

Maybe your golf buddies are soft, and your union thugs are soft, and your legion of academics that have never held a real job are soft, and the societal leeches that depend on the democrat’s perpetual welfare state are soft, but most Americans are not soft.

My best friend and coauthor, Mike Kupari, is deployed to Afghanistan right now. He volunteered to be an EOD tech and defuse IEDs, a stupidly dangerous job, because he is an American who is anything but soft. His first published novel, Dead Six, came out this week, but he’s too busy not being soft to be home to enjoy the fruits of his labors. 

The reaon I think of Mike right now is because I got a long email from him this morning about how depressing the news is from back home. About how everything seems to be falling apart. About how people like you seem fixated on doing everything in your power to drive us into the ground. About how your side wants us to turn into yet another failed, bankrupt, pseudo-socialist, all controlling, nanny state.

And normally I’m the optimistic one in our friendship, but for the life of me I couldn’t think of anything good to say. Because he was right.

I do however agree with the last line of your quote, Mr. President. “We need to get back on track.” Yes. We do need to get back on track. Luckily, we know exactly what got us off the track to begin with, politicians, regardless of party, that believe the solution to everything is more government meddling.  The first step to getting back on track is throwing you, and your ilk the hell out of office.

Variant by Robison Wells, out today
My Geeky Hobbies 3.5

120 thoughts on “The President says we're soft”

      1. Being an atheist, I don’t pray … but Psalm 109:8 might get an amen from me.

        Obama is the only one here who needs to go. He is way to soft and thin-skinned for the job.

  1. “And you’d darn well better make sure you do your quarterly filings with the IRS and your state tax commission, or they will eat you unless you’re Warren Buffet.”

    Fixed that for you. 😉

  2. “The first step to getting back on track is throwing you, and your ilk the hell out of office.” Too soft, Larry, too soft!

    Reading your post I kept thinking of the quote attributed to Lavrentiy Beria, Stalin’s head of the secret police “Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime.”

  3. Speaking as a .gov employee, your story about the mathematically impaired bureaucrat is entirely too familiar. The phrase heard around our office is “f*** up, move up.”

  4. Hire an actor to read this into a camera. Put it on YouTube. Strap Pelosi, Jarrett, Obama et ux and half the MSM into chairs and do a Clockwork Orange on them.

    1. This will not work. I would use my mother as an example as she is very much a Pelosi Obama type. Not that she is a liberal but that she is never wrong even when she is wrong. You can prove this wrongness. You can back it up with facts, examples, scientific data and the laws of physics. They still in their minds are not wrong because they believe they are right. People like this the voice of God could tell them they are wrong, send down a guy with flaming swords, strike them down and even use a talking donkey (its in the bible look it up) to explain the wrongness and they would some how find a way to justify their reasoning.

  5. And this is the reason these whack jobs in the government want to “regulate” the internet, people can’t be this blunt and tell it like it is on tv or radio cause all the p.c. liberals would jump down their throats and get them shut down.

  6. I think many will start going the way of the barter system.

    Entrepreneur; “Income? Absolutely $0 this quarter.”

    IRS/State Auditor: “But…but…how do you pay for your bills and supplies and food and stuff?!”

    Entrepreneur: “I don’t pay anything. I trade service for service. No cash involved at all. Equal trade.”

    IRS/State Auditor: “But we can’t tax that! How can you pay taxes if we cant tax it!” *Falls over in seizure style fits*

    I don’t think they could tax a system where you did equal trading for goods and services with no cash transactions. I could be wrong, but it would be funny if we all started using something like Monopoly money to trade goods and services with and they tried to tax it.

    IRS/State Auditor: “Ok, that will be $50,000 Monopoly Dollars in quarterly taxes!”

    Entrepreneur: “You do realize how stupid you sound and look right now don’t you?”

    IRS/State Auditor: “Uhm. Yes, I do.”

    Entrepreneur: “Okey dokey. Here ya go.”

    IRS/State Auditor: “Thank you. Have a nice day!”

    Entrepreneur: “Later, Einstein.”

    1. Sorry, Ray, they got you beat there too. My girlfriend had a business a few years ago. When she was starting up, her first quarter, no earnings.

      So the city of LA looked at how much the OTHER businesses in her area were making, averaged it out and tried to collect THAT completely fictional number from her because she MUST have been making at least that.

      1. Got you one better: The California EDD lost my paperwork dissolving my S-Corp, and tried to collect payroll taxes for 3 quarters based on estimated income while I was working full-time for another employer, and paying the with-holdings through EDD from that salary.

        They still send me notices trying to collect the penalties on the over-charges from their mistake! They did back off on the main amount of the taxes, but refuse to admit that they lost the paperwork…

  7. “This is a great great country that had gotten a little soft and we didn’t have that same competitive edge that we needed over the last couple of decades,”

    And yet I, your esteemed leader, refuse to listen to any serious advice on how to make it easier for businesses to compete.

  8. GOD BLESS AMERICA.
    Thank you Larry. Thank you very much for saying the same thing’s I, my employer and 90% of my coworkers have been saying since (in my case before) obama took office. Thank you for saying what i’ve been saying about unions since i was in High School. they were much needed force back in ye olde tymes, but nothing they do now cannot be accomplished by the Internet. Nor are you taking your and your familes lives in your hand when you pack up and move across country. WE DONT NEED UNIONS in the world of today. As for the government. My Company had an audit last year. Much like your case, one of the goverment employee’s made a mistake and said we owned the government 600 thousand. When we showed them their mistake they said “oh. you’re right. but you haven’t had a franchise tax audit in X years. we’ll do that now.” You’re right, beurocrats are so busy taking productive man hours away from, PRODUCTION, its getting in the way. And why do we need such a huge beurocracy these days? This is the Internet Age, why cant this shit be automated? (i know it can, but look at how many beurocratic drones would be out of a job)…. ok, that’s a whole diffrent rant.

  9. We’ve taxed and regulated away our competitive advantage.

    We have good people, good infrastructure, and mountains of resources. But the dumbastids in the Government won’t let us exploit them.

  10. Yeah, this is what I’ve been saying for years.

    We could fix the economic woes of the country, and hell, probably the entire world, if the government would just get the fuck out of the way and let us do it.

    But instead, we’ve got people like that mine operator down in Georgia who said “fuck it” and went Galt.

    And I don’t know how much longer America will still be America enough to innovate our way to the top if we live under this sort of state buried bullshit for much longer.

    I totally agree with this whole post though. I’ve looked into starting a number of businesses, and in the end, just decided not to bother. You’d think that at the very least, they’d want to make it easier to start a business so you could make money and pay taxes, but they aren’t even that smart.

  11. Your rant is mostly based on anecdotal evidence – what may be true for you may not be true overall. We’re a first world nation – arguably the greatest power on the planet at this point in history. Of course we’re soft – we’re at the top, and haven’t had to scrap and fight for survival in quite a while.

    We’re in a bad place as far as the job market goes though – developing companies are cheaper for industrial labor, so we’re losing the market on industrial labor and gaining the one on white collar labor. If you’ve been to places that were once the industrial hearts of America, you know how much that transition is costing us.

    We can’t go back though. Even China is starting to dump its worst industrial labor needs on India as they go through a boom in their rapidly expanding middle class.

    As far as job creation goes, America is still one of the most fertile lands in that regard. The availability of capital, talent, and a social environment that doesn’t punish someone for failing a few times before they strike one out of the park is what’s keeping us on top.

    America has the greatest pool of intelligent workers out there, and the ability to make good use of them. The work may depend more on the brain than the muscles these days, but that diehard work ethic is still there shinning in the dark.

    Americans complain a lot though. The answer to any challenge shouldn’t be complaints but ‘haha, see you and raise’. America is the land of ‘they said we can’t and then we went and did it’. If Teddy Roosevelt said the same thing Obama did, would we complain or see it as an invitation to go out and kick ass anew?

    1. Great theory but I’m going to go out on a limb and surmise that you haven’t had much experience running the daily affairs of a small business – haven’t had to finance raw materials, maintained equipment, and fend off ravening packs of government wolves from behind a wall of paperwork…All while meeting payroll.

    2. Americans complain a lot though. The answer to any challenge shouldn’t be complaints but ‘haha, see you and raise’.

      Screw you, bub. Why the hell should we have to meet the challenge with a 500 lbs ball and chain added on? Natural challenges we’re great at beating, but there’s no natural law that says we have to be burdened with all this bullshit–other, perhaps, than the Iron Law of Bureaucracy.

    3. Oh, we’d love to go “kick ass anew” but we have to fill out all this mandatory paperwork first… Then I need to apply for my Form 1752B Permit To Kick Ass.

      And on that whole “anecdote is not evidence” bullcrap that always pops up whenever I post anything from my life experience, so therefore it doesn’t count… Bull crap. Actually, it would be eyewitness testimony, and in many of our cases if you look at our resumes, then it would be expert witness testimony. Ask any small business owner. Ask anybody that is a finance/tax/regulation person, and you’ll hear the same type of story. Most of these posters are agreeing with me because they are also living some variation of this nonsense.

      Yet if I get interviewed by a journalist and they post a link, then my anecdote becomes evidence? Huh… Funny, because I’ve had that happen too, and everything I said still didn’t count to the liberal blogs… I’m pretty sure that anything that is said that doesn’t fit the Obama/Academic worldview is automatically anecdote and anything that does fit is evidience. Glad we could clear that up.

      1. This is how the world ended..

        There was supposed to be an ark, and it was funded by the SBA, certified by the Bureau of Shipping,licensed by the Federal Trade Commission, okayed for livestock transportation by the FDA and Interior jointly, approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission, and registered with the Coast Guard… but the porthole covers were not up to UV protection standards so it was downchecked by the EPA. Sorry.

  12. and this is why “foreigners” have street food stands, convenience stores et al…easy untrackable money!

  13. If they’re reading you I’d like to add in my two cents worth Larry.

    I want to start a business. I have skills, a plan, enough start up money and the desire to be my own boss and maybe employ a worker or two. Nothing huge, just another American small business. I probably won’t and Larry just perfectly enunciated all the reasons why. My accountant wife actually laughed at me when I brought the idea up. She’s dealt with the IRS, Franchise Tax Board, Workers Comp, etc., ad infinitum and she knows. When I took a look at just the licensing requirements my excitement to be a part of the “Great American Experience” went the way of the Dodo.
    Will I join the ranks of the self employed? Maybe, maybe not. That I am so reticent to even make the attempt based on what my own government is going to do TO me is a crying shame.

  14. You talk about paperwork and the headaches involved in business. I can’t even imagine what kind of paperwork and such the Krav Maga school I go to is going to be going through when they start offering Simunitions training to civilians.

    All I know is that me and my “soft” friends will be going to the range tomorrow to stimulate someone’s economy.

  15. Sing it, man! And I say that as a union member. Who doesn’t want to be.

    Wait, what?

    Well, you see the company I work for (large business) has a rule for my job classification. You can either join the union (and pay union dues) or you can not join the union… provided you sign a form say that you have a moral or religious conflict with joining a union… and you must pay the EXACT SAME AMOUNT as the union dues to some approved religious or charitable organization. Sadly, thinking unions have outlived their usefulness is not a valid moral conflict.

    Sure, I could lie and say I have a moral conflict of some other sort. However since I’d have to pay the exact same dues (just to someone else) and wouldn’t be eligible for a number of benefits that union members get I’d actually wind up being penalized for lying. Oddly appropriate, but not attractive overall.

    The unions have a sweet racket going.

  16. So, the one question I’ve been asking a lot lately is: what do we do with all of our currently unemployed?
    Manufacturing jobs have not only largely dried up in the U.S., but large scale is usually done more cost effectively and more reliably by industrial robots. Assembly line jobs? Gone. Hell, with 3D printers becoming more and more cost effective on a daily basis, we’re seeing people who can effectively manufacture almost anything in their own garage.
    So, for the unskilled worker in the U.S. what jobs do we have that need doing?
    I’ve actually been thinking that the U.S. government should require anyone on welfare to power a generator 30 hours per week. I mean, we want “green energy”, right? We have surplus food, right? Use human powered generators to make these people create electricity. If people want to power a generator for more than that, the power company pays them, much like they do now for alternative energy being input into the grid. Not only does it help us create power, but it gets people on welfare into the habit of actually working. I see welfare countries like England where entire generations of families have now never held a job and I worry that’s where the U.S. is headed too.
    This also has the added benefit of getting people to exercise.

    1. Dave they already have whole generations who havent held a job in one family.
      They have whole generations on STREETS in Baltimore who havent held jobs.

  17. Have to agree 100% here with you Larry. Others say your rant is anecdotal, well I disagree. At the company I work for (Fortune 300 company) we constantly are wasting hours and hours every week doing SOX compliance audits and we pay a bunch of people to constantly audit us just so we can be in compliance. NONE of that produces anything useful other than reams and reams of documentation, paper trails, and stuff that nobody will ever really read. Over-regulation of the industry my company is in has driven costs through the roof just for getting our product to market.

  18. Here’s another one for you. Do you own a home built before 1974? Did you know that if you do so much as repair a piece of broken drywall you have to do a lead test? That if you detect lead you have to do remediation on the area? Did you know that if you don’t you could be fined over $1000.00? It’s true.

    That’s why I don’t work on old properties. I’ll sell you cabinets for your remodel…but neither me or my subs will work on your property. Because of the fact I’m a contractor I can fined $10,000 or more.

    I spent $200.00 going to a class for certification on this and decided that it was not anything I wanted to be a part of.

  19. Actually, he is partially right… we ARE soft to have tolerated
    him and his fellow Marxists’ antics as long as we have, prior generations would’ve run them out on a rail as soon as they started their crap.

    HOWEVER, that is a mistake we don’t necessarily have to live with and many of us are working on addressing… Step one, make sure Obummer-lite doesn’t get the GOP Nomination.

  20. “As far as finance managers go, I’m not that weird.”

    Sorry Larry, YES you are!

    Doesn’t make you any less right but you are definitely that weird.

    A finance manager who used to deal in Title II Firearms, shoots a lot and is a New York Freakin Times Bestselling Author. If that’s not weird I don’t know what is.

  21. Both my husband and I were self-employed, and both did well enough in our respective industries to make a comfortable living. Taxes ate us up. Being forced to by insurance ate us up. The state of California chewed us up (maybe to soften us up?) before the federal taxes ate us up. Now I’ve given up my business. I’ve taken a low-paying job and perform work I’m not thrilled at performing to pay in enough taxes to offset my husband’s business. If this experiment fails, my husband’s business will likely have to go. We just cannot afford to be successful as self-employed people in this country.

  22. This is sounding a lot like a Hitler’s Bunker parody. He wants to send all his socialist buddies out of the bunker, and then yell at us for explaining reality to him.

    It’s not Obama’s fault … it’s our fault for not wanting to follow him into the socialist Full Monty. If we would just harden the fuck up and follow him properly, we could all have skittle-shitting unicorns!

    We are too soft for real socialism … our unwillingness to follow him blindly into Gulag-land is evidence of this.

    1. If you can get a copy of the Oct.1 Wall Street Journal, look at Peggy Noonan’s editorial, especially the second section about “stories” versus “events.” In short, the administration was more worried about the story they wanted to tell than they were about solving a problem. Post-modern-politics in a nutshell.

  23. Larry I say unto thee something I’ve been saying everywhere, facebook, Baen’s Bar, my own blog etc…

    Verily I say unto thee..Our government as it stands now..sucks diseased donkey dick. That is all.

  24. Larry, with all due respect to your giant intellect/ego, here’s a link that will go some distance toward explaining all those burdensome regulations:
    http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2011/09/defense_department_inspector_g.html
    I don’t expect you to understand because you’ve never worked where there is serious risk of poisoning, injury or death. I know, I know, in some earlier time you wrestled ninja alligators in molten lead – right…
    Ain’t buyin’ it, Bro.
    And, what’s with all the whining about your job?
    A wise(ass) man once wrote:
    “…just freakin’ quit”.
    The adverb you were after there was: “FUCKING”.
    Don’t be a language pussy.
    And, I’m sorry, you only get to invoke the Marine Corps if you belong – or did.
    You have no service and therefore know nothing about it.
    For your consideration:
    http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/kwtjl/calling_all_military_veterans_of_reddit_we_took/
    Go ahead. Attack the source. I know you will.
    And, on the subject of Marines, try to wrap that giant brain around this guy, one of two Marines in history to have won two Congressional Medals of Honor:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler
    There’s also his book:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_is_a_racket
    Finally, my fave of your entire, marginally informed, whine:
    “…the best creator of wealth in the history of the world.”
    A. That’s a pretty long history you’re talking about. junior.
    And all that wealth… whither?
    Wealth is measured in goods and services not numbers on a screen on Wall St. or the Cayman Islands.
    Why don’t your heroes put all this “wealth” (What? $2 1/2 trillion off shored) to work?
    Oh, I forgot…REGULATION.
    But they managed to work around that by offshoreing labor as well as capital.
    Hasn’t been an issue for you… yet.
    How long you reckon before your bean-counting can be done better and cheaper by someone in Malayasia? Hell, they may even be able to crank out low-brow fiction as well. They’re very resourceful.
    And, I think the Pres may have talking to you alone. Sounds like.
    You have a nice Sunday evening, Big Boy.

    1. Wow… Just… Wow…

      Sometimes the other side makes my own argument for me so much better than I ever could.

      1. What a dumbass.

        If you actually read what he linked, he blows his whole damned argument apart.

        And we aren’t whining about our jobs. We are incensed about insane government regs … which are not a part of our jobs, but are rather an unpaid duty imposed on us by a bunch of bureaucrats who should have been hung from lamp posts years ago.

        But this little socialist clown would have folks believe that outrage over these government excesses is evidence of our “softness”.

        Our only softness here is our failure to line these retards up, along with lefty clowns like Brawly, and shoot them.

      2. Oooh, Larry comes to the party… late.
        Was it calling you a pussy Larry, that did it?
        It took you well over twelve hours to come up with your brilliant rejoinder. Wow… Just… Wow…
        You’re flat out of ideas aren’t you?
        And to all Larry’s mouth-breathing followers:
        You fucking clowns, fuck you and all your inbred relations back to Zippy the Pinhead.
        For the record: I’ve never read a Clancy book in my life ’cause the guy’s a poser – kinda like Larry – and all of you.
        I have my four years active Navy and seven National Guard while Larry’s got… his dick in his hand.
        I’ve never pretended to be Mr. Tacticool because I’m not.
        Again I say… FUCK YOU ALL and especially you, Larry
        Larry’s a hack. A bragger. Follow him all you want. The guy’s a joke.
        And, dumbass – I mean you of course “Larry”, can you actually present an argument? Or are you as stupid as your readers?
        Pussy.
        You’re just like Fatogre.

        1. Let’s see… Present an argument… I’ve got the initial 2,000 word post. You have presented several little bits of insanity, posted links to random bits of out of context history from the 1930s, called me and my readers names, and I’m not really sure what… Wow. You sure showed me. I’m totally going to register Democract and vote for Obama next time around! Bring on the regulations. Yay!

    2. “I don’t expect you to understand because you’ve never worked where there is serious risk of poisoning, injury or death. I know, I know, in some earlier time you wrestled ninja alligators in molten lead – right…
      Ain’t buyin’ it, Bro.”
      riiight… because everyone knows that pointless financial audits are the only way to protect our soldiers. And the first five audits in one year weren’t enough. So what if the taxpayers have to foot the bill, right? We can always just print more! Right? RIGHT??

      “And, what’s with all the whining about your job?”
      actually, Larry has said time and time again home much he loves his job. So much so that he continues to work it despite being able to make a comfortable living writing low brow fiction. It’s the endless ridiculous wastes of time and tax payers money that he seems to be against…

      “The adverb you were after there was: “FUCKING”.
      Don’t be a language pussy.”
      Because how dare you have a moral code of any sort?!? How DARE you try not to offend people? What, does your mother read this or something? (Hi Mrs Correia!)

      “And, I’m sorry, you only get to invoke the Marine Corps if you belong – or did. You have no service and therefore know nothing about it.”
      Followed by this keyboard commando talking about them- because you know, he’s read a lot of Tom Clancy so HE knows what he’s talking about,,,. If Larry- who has worked closely with an awful lot of soldiers in not only his day job as an accountant to a defense contractor but also teaching hundreds in his CHL classes (for free, no less) can’t talk about them then I think it’s safe to ignore anything he might have to say about them.

      “Why don’t your heroes put all this “wealth” (What? $2 1/2 trillion off shored) to work? Oh, I forgot…REGULATION.”
      As opposed to Tough Guy’s political idols who are SO fiscally responsible.

      I love these internet tough guys. They don’t have the courage to post under their true name or anything else but they can make threats and insults, safe behind their keyboard. The only reason your post showed up here at all was because Larry finds you more amusing then frightening, you pathetic coward.

    3. Ok you drugged out hippie motherfucker. I think I know your problem. It’s pretty hard to say anything of real consequence while shlob’n someone’s knob for money. That’s right you worthless dick sucker, you have nothing to say so you rag on someone with enough intelligence to say it like it is. You’re nothing more than a zit on societies ass.

      If Larry wants to say that they don’t make soft Marines you will shut the fuck up and like it. Is that understood?

      Now, go crawl back under whatever rock you came out from under (and back to your peter-puffing day job) and leave people that actually matter alone. Do you understand that or do we have to draw you a fucking picture?

    1. Kamloops is a lot like Utah, just a little cooler and without the spectacular geological formations. And the votes for the current Conservative government on the rural side rode partially on the elimination of the Long Gun registry, something that has actually started happening.

      1. @Larry. *snicker* when you try to link in to Brawly’s page through the hotlink on his name his blog ‘pissuparope’ can not be found. *snciker* I find this amusing.

      1. Yeah, I could just delete comments like this jackass, but I find that people like him actually help prove my points. Normally when I get linked to a big liberal blog you can tell down to the exact minute that occurs because then I start getting an avalanche of posts like this dude. Some more crazy than others, most sticking to whatever narrative about what type of horrible person I am created by the lib-blog-link, and a few that actually try to argue about the points in my original post. (and those my regular well-educated and completely bloodthirsty readership quickly descend upon and crush without mercy).

        And I’m still not sure exactly what Smedley Butler has to do with a discussion of government regulation. (and yes, I know who he is, and he even gets a mention in Spellbound) Nor am I worried about my use of a famous picture of a Marine, because judging by the numbers of my fans and friends in the service/prior-service, none of them are offended by me utilizing a picture of a badass American warrior flipping the bird as a demonstration of America’s distinct lack of softness. 🙂

        As for the language, I try not to F bomb on the blog. (does happen though, especially when I’m posting excerpts from my fiction) I’ve got a lot of readers from all walks of life. No need to go out of my way to offend anybody, (plus I’ve got a vocabulary), but I don’t edit posters who want to swear. (especially the attack dogs, because once again, they prove my points for me).

    1. Not trying to be threatening, stupid. Simply realistic.
      Larry, wow, I had now idea you actualy knew who Smedly Butler was – and you mentioned him in one of your… books.
      Are you going to send his relations a copy?
      But, you missed the point, you dumb fuck.
      You really are too dim to reason with… and… Oh God. These other poor putzes – your “readership”; I just hope they have someone to wipe their asses for them… or… they’ll seriously reek…
      Ya’all know that – right? DON’T FIRE YOUR ASS WIPER!
      Fire the pool-boy first.
      And, you can find me here:
      http://plowshareforge.blogspot.com/
      Larry knows the place but he’s too big a … what’s the word I’m after… PUSSY to go there this time.
      It’s been nice Larry.
      We’ll have to do this again sometime… and invite all your “special” friends. I’m sure they benefit from being out… interacting, you know.
      They do have proper supervision, don’t they?

      1. Oh, man… I should’ve recognized this particular brand of crazy earlier. It is Plowshare. He’s off his meds again.

        Seriously, if you search on this blog, you can see where I’ve gone around with this idiot several times, including the last time when he gave a tear filled apology because he was off his meds.

      2. You know…it’s because of douchebags like you that I left Oregon. Too many hippie jackasses too full of themselves to open their eyes. You really are of less consequence than a gnat. You have no real experience, no life, and only enough common sense to not shit your pants. You throw around the word “pussy” enough that I bet you with you had one. It would make your life’s work as a fag prostitute so much easier. If you don’t like what Larry has to say, DON’T READ HIS BLOG you complete idiot. Shouldn’t you be getting back to work anyway? The guy next to you is going to refuse to pay for an interrupted blow job.

  25. But but but, Larry I am soft. I sit in an IT department all day. If I try to be productive I get yelled at because I littleraly did the work of 5 other people plus myself and now the 6 of us are sitting playing cards and goofing off with the Playstation that we smuggled into the building. Im soft I only get 5 hours of sleep a night because I go home and play more video games after work. AFTER i do my housework and commute 2 hours because they wont get me a voip line at my house.
    I guess I am soft because I get to support with my fica taxes at least 1 person who is retired.

    BTW Bought a copy of Dead 6. Great book. But you had to bring out Dead 6 on the same weekend as Tom Clancys most recent paperback AND Keith Laumers Bolo Series Compendium… Dont the publishers know I can only spend 20 bucks a week on books. Tom Clancy’s book cut into my beer money and my ammo budget.

  26. One regulation issue you leave out is the regulation they do not enforce equally.

    Why bother with the IRS, DOR, DOL, and WC? Just hire illegal immigrants off the street. Pay them cash, if anyone gets injured, drive them to the hospital (take some side streets and make a few circles) and drop them off.

    Need to write off this expense on your taxes, easily done, just ask. Here in Florida the mantra is “cheat to compete” so that jobs like roofing that paid $15 to $18 an hour now pay less then minimum wage and if the illegal worker gets injured, see above.

    Off course guys like Larry who do things the way our government requires and who have to compete with those who cheat, are racists, but only if they complain.

  27. Three years of Obama – the VERY BEST the Democrats have ever had to offer – has given us:
    
- $14 trillion deficit
    – US in a depression
    – ruined economy
    – US credit rating downgraded
    
- ignores the War Powers Act
    – gas/food/clothing prices skyrocketing
    – 5 wars, one with a record death toll
    – foreign policy disasters

    – raiding the public pension fund to avoid the debt ceiling

    – lost 800+ seats for his own party
    
- poll numbers in the toilet
    
- 44 million Americans on food stamps
    – Over half the states suing to get out of Obamacare

    – 1 in 4 mortgages under water
    
- ATF gunrunning scandal unfolding
    – Solyndra scandal unfolding
    ANYBODY BUT OBAMA!

      1. Yeah, Emerson, I’d take Palin, Gengrich, Perry, Romney, Cain, or for that matter the sound tech doing the mike check at the next Republican debate. Anybody but Zero..

  28. Spectacular! It’s amazing how a rant comes to life. We suffer a thousand tiny cuts, day after day, pretty much in silence or just grumbling to ourselves. But then one more thing happens and KABOOOOOOM!!

    I linked your rant. It’s a classic.

  29. “Soft”?

    Them’s fightin’ words!

    Only the presence of the Secret Service stops thousands – or perhaps millions – of Americans (of both sexes!) from challenging Obama to a fistfight to settle that issue once and for all.

    Somehow, I don’t think he would last very long.

    1. Hey 13

      I think he might last longer than you think. Michelle might step in and that girl has arms almost as big as mine. She looks like a scrapper. I got the feeling that behind closed doors his two most used words are Yes Dear.

  30. Hey Laserlight? Yea I’d go with the sound check guy hes probably the smartest of the bunch in terms of really usefull practical knowledge and the most realistic.

  31. Kinda surprised ol’ Nickwolf hasn’t CHIMED!!!!!………. IN WITH HIS TWO CENTS!!!!!11111!!………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………!

    1. Oh man, Nickwolf and Plowshare in the same thread? Add Martine the crazy nannystate lady and it would be like a Greatest Hits of Heavily Medicated Trolls Volume One!

  32. I was able to get on the internet and read this. Hooray for satellites!

    Larry, as you’re well aware, I’m in Afghanistan right now. I like your books. I wrote one with you.

    So you know what? Fuck it. Crazy people on the internet can call you a poser. They can call me names too I guess. Whatever. I’ve been called worse by better, and so have you.

    But Mr. “I have two honorable discharges” is safe at home, back in the world, ranting and frothing at you for being a poser. (I think? It’s hard to tell.) I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have to watch every step for a pressure plate, and that, assuming the court even lets him drive, he rolls right over culverts without even thinking about it.

    Let the irony soak in for a minute, gang. One blogger posting from the safety of his home is ranting at another blogger posting from the safety of his home for mentioning the military. “You can only invoke the Marine Corps if you belong”? What a load of bullshit. The Marine Corps is America’s Marine Corps. Every American has cause to be proud of them.

    Larry, in all the years I’ve known him, has never claimed to be anything he’s not. He’s never put on airs or given anyone an attitude.

    Meanwhile, some people safe and sound back in the world thump their chests and mash their keyboards about…Okay, I admit, I’m not entirely sure what he was ranting about this time. But he’s welcome to curse at me and call me a poser and a cunt and whatever else. I’ll chuckle to myself, thinking about it, on my next IED call. I’ll smile when next I see friends who were wounded on the battlefield. It’s no big thing. My dad got spit on by hippies when he came home from Vietnam. Comapred to that, one nutter-butter on the internet is weak sauce.

    “Blah blah blah, I have an honorable discharge!” So does John Kerry. He’s still an asshole.

    It’s heartening indeed to know that so many Americans, most of them young, recklessly brave, men and women both, are over here risking their lives for a nation full of idiots like Plowshare Forge. And you wonder why I’m cynical? I fear the Plowshares outnumber the rest of us by a good margin.

  33. He fixed up the planet
    As best as He could
    Then in come the people
    And gum it up good

    The first thing you know

    They civilized the foothills
    And every weary put hills
    The mountains and valley below

    They come along and take ’em
    And civilize and make ’em
    A place where no civilized
    Person would go

    The first thing you know
    The first thing you know

    They civilize what’s pretty
    By puttin’ up a city
    Where nothin’ that’s
    Pretty can grow

    They muddy up the winter
    And civilize it, into a place
    Too uncivilized
    Even for snow

    The first thing you know

    They civilize left
    They civilize right
    Till nothing is left
    Till nothing is right

    They civilize freedom
    Till no one is free
    No one except
    By coincidence, me

    The first thing you know

    The boozer’s in prison
    And the criminally isn’t
    And only the rascals have gone

    When I see a parson
    I gotta put my arson in
    A wagon that follows the tail of a crow

  34. Jordi might not have blinked at the rise of Australopithicus, the first apes
    able to stand upright.

    He might have raised an eyebrow at Homo Habilis, the first apes to begin
    accessing the realm of ideas and plans.

    He might have developped a more suspicious attitude when Homo Agasta began
    conceptualizing in a more complicated matter, and actually developped
    language. These early Humans were developping a perception of Words, which
    Jordi might have seen as something that animals shouldn’t touch.

    Homo Agasta’s offshoots the Homo Erectus began to worry Jordi as they spread
    across asia, encroaching into other animals’ territories, including other
    primates like Gigantopithicus (a ten-foot tall ape; now there’s a Vessel of
    interest for Mercurians of Animals). His Angels might be the reason why
    Homo Erectus didn’t leave behind any descendants.

    It’s possible that afterwards, Yves convinced him to leave the rest of the
    Homo Agasta in Africa alone, as they were somewhat stagnant technologically.

    And then they discovered Fire. That was enough to cause Jordi to freak out:
    Animals aren’t supposed to manipulate the Elements, let alone one as potent
    as Fire. Yet Yves told him and Gabriel to leave Humanity alone in this
    endeavour, as their discovery of Fire allowed the early homonids the ability
    to secure themselves during the night, allowing more time to think. And
    most likely cimenting the conceptual links between Fire and Inspiration…

    Jordi wasn’t pleased that these “humans” were developping such elements as
    language and higher thought, making them less like Animals and more like
    Angels.. So when the Ice Age arrived, he was ready to accept the inevitable
    mass extinctions from the resulting climate change as long as it meant that
    these “humans” might die off on their own.

    Instead, Homo Sapiens evolved even further during the Ice Age, developping
    Imagination, allowing them to concieve of more advanced tools and abstract
    ideas, and to make conceptual leaps to guess the future, or even an early
    perception of the Divine. All of which being things that no Animals have
    ever done.

  35. One almost has to feel sorry for the poor radical leftist these days. Just think what it must be like to be either a wrinkled, bloated hippie leftover or selfrighteous hipster ass right now. Back in ’08 they were told that they could have their little utopian dream land- where the sea levels would fall, and renewable energy farting unicorns would frolic with fluffy free health care bunnies as the shining happy people held hands in a world where they didn’t have to go to work at a real job(wow, man- this stuff is pretty good!).

    Sadly,in the past few years Reality has really, really messed with their zen thing, man. The Obama presidency has been pretty much straight ‘F’s’ on every front- and pretty much because of the hapless, clueless, muddle headed, non-leadership leadership of the man they elected, nay worshiped.

    Thus they have to confront a few uncomfortable truths about themselves: either their base philosophy is wrong, or they have the same sort of succepability to marketing that they mock others for having.

    The choice for them is “C”- pretend that Obama is going to lead a Cultural Revolution, American style! That the People will rise up, waving copies of “Dreams from My Father” and throw those nasty Tea Partiers and Republicans into Reeducation camps! Via la Revolution, man!

    Sorry kid, it just ain’t happening. Barak just doesn’t have it in him. Mao, Che, and others tended to not spend most of their time at golf courses, or sound like whiny teenagers. Face it, your revolution is just the usual potpouri of tired, contradictory leftwing claptrap as blabbed by the usual stinky tired leftist rejects.

  36. Dan Brock, Ken Brawly, Plowshare Forge, Oregon Troll… He absolutely thrives on attention. I strongly suggest that everyone refrain from clicking any link to his blog… Everyone should do the very harshest thing we can do to him. Turn your backs to him and never mention him again. That’s the worst thing you can do to a troll like him.

  37. You know, there seems to be some kind of a consensus. I used to work with this lady, liberal as they come, who had the misfortune to have worked with HUD. My workplace was full of pretty left-wing people, myself included, and everyone enjoyed more than their fair share of federal gubmint-bashing.

  38. Great Post Larry…. one problem… the picture is U.S. Army!!! Go Army – Beat Navy!! (The soldiers in the picture are wearing Army ACU’s while the Marine Corp have similar Diggies they do not have the same Army grey tone.)

    So they don’t make weak Soldier’s or (tho it pains me) Marines!!!!

    Cheers
    CJ

    1. Chris, the guys there are mostly in ACU, but the dude who got blown up and is flipping the bird is a Marine.

      1. Larry, I see what you mean… only a Marine would go into combat and forget his pants!! 😉 Kidding aside…

        God Bless all the men and women in all our armed forces. They put it on the line everyday while we live in the shadows of their selfless sacrifice and protection. Too many Americans will never truly know what they have done for us.

    1. I… but… (sigh) I get dizzy just reading it with all the spin on that one. It’s like they’re not even trying anymore….
      also
      “he is against Republican attempts to defund the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because doing so would “make us sicker and add to heart disease as well as everything else.” So the EPA is the only thing protecting us from heart disease? Really?

  39. Hey Larry,

    I am a small business owner, sole proprietor no less (what can I say, I like living dangerously) I know exactly what you mean about regulations.

    I am a licensed pesticide applicator. Oh yes, I am in knee deep with the EPA.

    I am a bee conservationist, placing me in great familiarity with the USDA.

    I run a marketplace selling beekeeping supplies and equipment, honey and beeswax items to the public, I am an authorized dealer for two well known distributors in my area. I have that same special feeling about taxes and paperwork you mentioned.

    I am a registered independent and personally believe that political parties in general are counter productive if not borderline treasonous.

    I have read several of your books and am in the midst of another one.

    I’m glad you don’t let fruit loops of the web bother you. There are people out there who, lacking a logical and well thought out argument, substitute disparagement and yelling at people instead.

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