or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
October 28, 2009
New Tomdispatch
Cashing in the War Dividend
The Joys of Perpetual War
By Jo ComerfordSo you thought the Pentagon was already big enough? Well, what do you know, especially with the price of the American military slated to grow by at least 25% over the next decade?
Forget about the butter. It's bad for you anyway. And sheer military power, as well as the money behind it, assures the country of a thick waistline without the cholesterol. So, let's sing the praises of perpetual war. We better, since right now every forecast in sight tells us that it's our future.
The tired peace dividend tug boat left the harbor two decades ago, dragging with it laughable hopes for universal health care and decent public education. Now, the mighty USS War Dividend is preparing to set sail. The economic weather reports may be lousy and the seas choppy, but one thing is guaranteed: that won't stop it.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at October 28, 2009 10:35 AMZero comments on a story about the real cost of perpetual war?
Posted by: N E at October 29, 2009 07:06 AMSame old. Same old.
N E, Tom has been covering this since Iraq. You can only write so much about the bloating Pentagon budget before the viewer can practically write the articles themselves.
Interesting that the expansion of the MIC under Obama is going as planned although to a lesser extent.
Posted by: Nikolay Levin at October 29, 2009 10:21 AM"Under Obama?" hahahhahahaha! That's a good one.
I'm not even sure "to a lesser extent" is right.
Every growth rate has to at least slow down from time to time, especially when something is already gargantuan. Otherwise we'll have to colonize other planets!
uh oh
Posted by: N E at October 29, 2009 01:56 PMFigurativley, ok? (Laughing Out Loud)
The funny thing is some of that money could really be useful in colonizing said planets if the Earth's state is as tenous as it is said to be, it could be time for Earths most successful cancer to move onto rosier lymph nodes, so to say.
I think the total budget of NASA per year is less than the total cosmetics purchased in the United States. Unfortunately, no doubt a portion of the budget is actually research into space-based weapons system the Pentagon thought was more prudent to account for elsewhere.
Posted by: Nikolay Levin at October 30, 2009 12:34 AM
