Tkrain

Found 2nd Life a few months ago, and am enjoying the hell out of it.

I opened a gallery and am putting up some of my favorite pieces in it.  If you're a Second Lifer, please head over to Lendorel's Fine Art Gallery and check it out.   It's a good opportunity to see my pieces in a real gallery setting.  My name in SL is Lendorel, btw.

A Letter to My Congressman

Your most recent questionaire leaves some questions difficult to answer properly. Specifically, the question about the impact of tax increases on the debt crisis. No, tax increases will not "solve" the debt crisis, but they certainly will, when combined with reasonable cuts, help curtail it. I know that the majority of Republican lawmakers have taken the "no new taxes" pledge, and that at this time, the tea party has an absolute stranglehold on the party (one of the reasons I gave up and registered decline to state!), but what I'm seeing in Washington today is two parties so lined up in their principles, so stubborn headed in their absolute refusal to compromise, that at this point it's hard to argue that we even have a functional congress.

The debt ceiling is not a proper hostage in these debates. Congress instructed the Federal government to spend, and further instructed the government not to collect enough revenue to cover those expenditures. By logical extension, Congress has already implicitly authorized borrowing money to cover these expenditures. The entire "debt ceiling" debate is an artificial exercise in political noise making. The productive thing to do is put the debt ceiling issue behind us and get working on next year's budget. You've already agreed to the monstrous debt for the 2010/11 fiscal year. Get over it, and start working on 2011/12. Hearing in the news -=every day=- that America is on the brink of defaulting on debt is hurting stock prices, hurting employment, and quickly lowering consumer confidence. It's certainly lowering my expectation of reelecting a single incumbent.