Burrowowl

There’s been a lot of hubbub lately about the threat of the United States government defaulting on its loans and other financial commitments because congress hasn’t raised the cap on the maximum amount it is allowed to be in debt by law. Scary thoughts like Social Security checks not going on out, Treasury bonds not being paid out upon maturity, Veteran’s Administration hospitals closing their doors, and other calamaties have been put forward as possible repercussions of this political fuss. Here is, quite simply, why this shouldn’t be a problem even if Congress can’t get its act together in the next week or so:

From the U.S. Constitution:

Article. VI.

All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

Supreme law of the land means that other laws, regulations, and practices are subordinate to the Constitution, and only laws that are consistent with it are valid. Dig down a little further and you find that it has been amended several times. Of particular interest these days is the 14th time it was amended:

AMENDMENT XIV
Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.

Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age,* and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3.
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4.
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5.
The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 4 was meant to distance the Union from debts incurred by the Confederacy leading up to and during the U.S. Civil War, but starts with a clear affirmation that the United States federal government will and must meet any and all of its financial commitments.

In the light of the 14th amendment, the debt ceiling is not valid under Article 6 of the Constitution. If the Republicans want to cut spending, they should past more austere budgets, and shame on President Obama for playing along with the scare-mongering.

                  _____|\
              _.--| LOL |:
             <____|.----||
                    .---''---,
   The               ;..__..'    _...
    Lulz           ,'/  ;|/..--''    \
     Boat        ,'_/.-/':            :
            _..-'''/  /  |  \    \   _|/|
           \      /-./_ \;   \    \,;'   \
           ,\    / \:  `:\    \   //    `:`.
         ,'  \  /-._;   | :    : ::    ,.   .
       ,'     ::   /`-._| |    | || ' :  `.`.)
    _,'       |;._:: |  | |    | `|   :    `'
  ,'   `.     /   |`-:_ ; |    |  |  : \
  `--.   )   /|-._:    :          |   \ \
     /  /   :_|   ;`-._;   __..--';    : :
    /  (    ;|;-./_  _/.-:'o |   /     ' |
   /  , \._/_/_./--''/_|:|___|_,'        |
  :  /   `'-'--'----'---------'          |
  | :     O ._O   O_. O ._O   O_.      ; ;
  : `.      //    //    //    //     ,' /
~~~`.______//____//____//____//_______,'~
          //    //~   //    //
   ~~   _//   _//   _// ~ _//     ~
 ~     / /   / /   / /   / /  ~      ~~
      ~~~   ~~~   ~~~   ~~~                   

Supposedly released by LulzSec:

1. Salutations Lulz Lizards,
2.
3. As we’re aware, the government and whitehat security terrorists across the world continue to dominate and control our Internet ocean. Sitting pretty on cargo bays full of corrupt booty, they think it’s acceptable to condition and enslave all vessels in sight. Our Lulz Lizard battle fleet is now declaring immediate and unremitting war on the freedom-snatching moderators of 2011.
4.
5. Welcome to Operation Anti-Security (#AntiSec) – we encourage any vessel, large or small, to open fire on any government or agency that crosses their path. We fully endorse the flaunting of the word “AntiSec” on any government website defacement or physical graffiti art. We encourage you to spread the word of AntiSec far and wide, for it will be remembered. To increase efforts, we are now teaming up with the Anonymous collective and all affiliated battleships.
6.
7. Whether you’re sailing with us or against us, whether you hold past grudges or a burning desire to sink our lone ship, we invite you to join the rebellion. Together we can defend ourselves so that our privacy is not overrun by profiteering gluttons. Your hat can be white, gray or black, your skin and race are not important. If you’re aware of the corruption, expose it now, in the name of Anti-Security.
8.
9. Top priority is to steal and leak any classified government information, including email spools and documentation. Prime targets are banks and other high-ranking establishments. If they try to censor our progress, we will obliterate the censor with cannonfire anointed with lizard blood.
10.
11. It’s now or never. Come aboard, we’re expecting you…
12.
13. History begins today.
14.
15. Lulz Security,
16. http://LulzSecurity.com/
17.
18. Support: http://www.mithral.com/~beberg/manifesto.html
19. Support: http://www.youtube.com/user/thejuicemedia
20. Support: http://wikileaks.ch/
21. Support: http://anonyops.com/

It immediately occurs to me that defacing government websites will do no good for anybody but the security consultants that will be retained to prevent future problems. Compromising bank systems, either to release account information or to halt transactions is almost certain to cause more serious problems for the typical prole than do any lasting harm to the folks at the top of the food chain. There's something to be said for the flair LulzSec has displayed with their efforts, though.

Summer officially started for Sharks fans last night, ten minutes forty-eight seconds into the second overtime period. This traditionally entails gnashing of teeth, wearing of sack-cloth and ashes, complaints about officiating, excuses about late-season and post-season injuries, and optimistic starry-eyed tripe like “next year they’ll come back even better.” That may well be, but it certainly won’t be the same 2010-2011 San Jose team.

According to Capgeek, San Jose is already in the hole for about $51,000,000 of salary cap for 2011-2012, with millions locked up in Heatley, Thornton, Marleau, and Boyle, all of whom have no-trade or no-movement clauses in their contracts. They’re not going anywhere, but several over players are either potential trade fodder or entering free agency in one form or another. There’s a lot of wiggle room in the roster:

• Joe Pavelski is a solid performer, but with $12,000,000 and three years left in his contract, it’s a bit of a stretch to assume folks are looking to trade for such an expensive third-line center.
• Ryane Clowe, with $7,500,000 contracted over the next two years and some serious work ethic through the rough patches, may be a touch more appealing on the trade market.
• Devin Setoguchi goes restricted free agent this summer. $1,800,000 for a winger that dumped Dany Heatley off the first line is pretty cheap, so we can expect #16 to see some tempting offers.
• Torrey Mitchell is looking to earn $1,725,000 in the last year of his contract. He started to shine again once the Sharks put him on a line with Wellwood and Pavelski, so he is probably a viable trading piece.
• Ben Eager is relatively inexpensive, as most 4th-liners are, and is an unrestricted free agent this summer. After some ill-advised penalties in the post-season, his stock has probably fallen a fair bit.
• Benn Ferriero goes restricted free agent after spending most of the year in the AHL. It would be unwise to put a lot of expectation on him at this point.
• Scott Nichol anchored the 4th line for most of the 2011-2012 season, is a fan favorite, is spoken highly of by other players and coaching staff, is a faceoff-winning machine, and works cheap. Somehow he won’t be re-signed. The Sharks do their damnedest to troll me.
• Kyle Wellwood is much too good for the money he’s pulling in from San Jose. He answered his doubters with solid performance, and you can expect him to be working somewhere else for a fair bit more.
• Jamal Mayers is a cheap workhorse that I keep seeing on breakaways that he just can’t close the deal on. The Sharks played him all but four games in the regular season, but I suspect they’ll let him go if they find opportunities elsewhere.

And that’s just among the forwards. Expect the Sharks to lose five to eight of their regulars (including defensemen). The depth, speed, toughness, and work ethic of the 2011-2012 team are all going to be tweaked for good or ill.

Fact: Original maps of the United States show 64 states. Modern maps have been carefully redacted, and Google Earth has been censored to hide the true shape of the North American continent. The planet’s actual diameter differs from the official value by nearly 2,000 kilometers.

Fact: The first president of the United States was not George Washington, as is commonly accepted today. The first president was Melvin Ponders, who also has the distinction of being the first necromancer president, the first nonhuman president, the first undead president, and the first president to die in an assassination carried out by none other than Benjamin Franklin himself.

Fact: Television static isn’t anything of the kind. It’s a broadcast designed to keep you from actually seeing what’s actually on those empty channels. This is one of the isolated cases where the power-that-be truly have your best interests at heart, as was the move from analog signals to digital, which gave us another layer of security. Certain early television sets made before 1954 can be tuned to show what’s on those channels, as a few of the older inmates at many mental hospitals can certainly attest.

Fact: Teddy bears aren’t made, they’re grown. The harvesting process is far from painless.

Fact: The original red M&Ms were recalled because of a health risk. What few people know is that the red dye used was a potent aphrodisiac. The recall date, 1976, corresponds to the real date of the end of the Baby Boom.

Fact: Should you have access to a mirror of polished bronze, and were born after 1991, you may try the following experiment. Simply look at yourself in the mirror. If you see a green bar code there above your forehead, then you have my deepest condolences.

Fact: The original draft copy of the US constitution has a handwritten note from John Hancock in the margin requesting the removal of all references to the Thaumaturgic Branch of the United States Navy. A few surviving history textbooks from the 1880s still refer to it, should one be fortunate enough to find one.

Fact: JFK wasn’t shot at all. His head just did that.

Fact: the spotting of a lighted object in 1942 over Los Angeles lead to four hours of anti-air bombardment from all over the city. What few people is that this event was directly connected to the mass production of uranium-235 shortly thereafter.

Fact: Man was not the first to walk upright and harbour malice.

Fact: The Apollo moon landings were faked, but only to as a cover for the real moon landings. Neil Armstrong is not entirely human.

Fact: Pennies aren’t kept in circulation for illicit tracking or spreading rare forms of radiation or any such thing. They were repurposed into talismans designed to repel extra-dimensional entities which have been attempting to attack the US since a cabal of Nazi mystics compelled them to attack near the end of the war. Their ubiquitous presence keeps populated regions relatively safe.

Fact: The ‘remarkably well-preserved’ Lenin in the glass coffin is a wax duplicate placed there for mundane political reasons. The actual corpse of Lenin was laid to rest by a collective of Lenin’s lesser-known Ukrainian associates in Pripyat.

Associated Fact: The Chernobyl Power Plant had no active core.

Fact: There has been great deal of controversy around Barack Obama’s birth certificate. The controversy is both manufactured and utterly pointless: not only is Obama not an American citizen, he is not even human, nor is any of his cabinet. The last human president of the United States was Lyndon B. Johnson.

On a hot summer day, a young boy in Northern California pauses in the middle of his manic, unstructured day and decides it’s time for some food. Mom and dad are at work, so he’ll have to make do with whatever his limited culinary skills can throw together from the pantry and fridge. Cereal is nice, but wears on you after a while. Melting some cheese on a flour tortilla works nicely, and is a frequent go-to solution for mid-day snacks. The boy cracks open the refrigerator to grab the cheese, but lo! What’s the salad bowl doing in there? Put away the cheese, child: there’s macaroni salad to be had!

The way my family puts it together is pretty simple:

• 1lb of ditalini pasta (aka “salad macaroni”)
• 7 or 8 eggs
• Mayonnaise
• Celery
• Red onion
• Tobasco sauce
• Salt
• Black Pepper
• White Vinegar

Dump the pasta into boiling water for about ten minutes and boil up the eggs. While they’re cooking, dice half the red onion and four or five stalks of celery. The quantities are vague because sometimes you’ll want your salad a little crunchier than others. Just make sure the resulting pieces are smaller than the macaroni.

Drain the pasta and dump it into a salad bowl. Shell the eggs and dice them. Add the eggs, celery, and onions to the pasta. Drop in four or five spoons full of mayonnaise. Set aside the spoon you used for the mayo. Splash some Tobasco onto the mayo, add a large pinch of salt and a couple grinds of fresh black pepper, and stir with a separate spoon or salad tongs. You may want to go back for more mayo if things are looking a bit dry, and you don’t want to pollute your mayo jar, do you? Leave the vinegar in your cupboard; it’s listed above because its most important role here is its absence. Refrigerate overnight and serve cold.

The recipe calls for mayonnaise, not tangy white salad dressing. I prefer Best Foods, which I understand is sold as “Hellman’s” in some regions. Salt, pepper, and pepper sauce are present for flavor, and should be added to taste. Note that the pepper sauce should just be adding a little depth here. This isn’t supposed to be a spicy salad. The celery is present for color and texture. You can make the salad a lot crunchier without changing the flavor much by just chopping up another stalk and stirring it in. The onion is present for color, texture, and flavor.