Stay in Debt...

...or be suspected of being a terrorist. What's that you say? That's the dumbest thing you've ever heard of and couldn't possibly be true. Think again.

Would somebody please tell me WHY making a larger than normal payment on a credit card gets your name sent to Homeland Security? If they want to hold it to make sure the money's in my bank, fine no problem. If your name isn't already on some HS watch list (and if they're spying on PETA and Quakers then a lot of us probably are on some list somewhere), why should paying off debt red-flag you? Is it un-American now to pay off your debt?

Oh yeah, 9/11 changed everything. Right. It changed our ability as a nation to think objectively and rationally. It made us fear everything, even fear itself. It hurt us so much it made us arrogant enough to think all the brown people are bad, as opposed to just the assholes who say they hate us. You know, the ones in the caves in Afghanistan that we were supposed to "smoke out." Saddam Hussein is being brought to justice. Great. And this expenditure of untold billions, 2000+ American lives, and uncounted Iraqi civillian lives was due to what specific threat that he posed to America? Did he arrange for 4 planes to be crashed into our buildings? No, it was this other guy with a bad foot on dialysis who is still at large almost 5 years later. Once upon a time, he was wanted dead or alive. What are we doing about that now?