Sometimes I forget that he can make any simple project into a 22-episode DIY Network program. He actually REWIRED AN OUTLET at midnight.

I see you've met my husband.

And my boyfriend. (He re-grouted the shower TWO HOURS before my mother was due to arrive for Thanksgiving weekend, as I was trying to make sure everything was tidy and welcoming. @@)

I would hope a vibrator that plugs into the wall would be the Vibrator to Destroy All Other Vibrators!

And Ginger, thanks for pointing out those budget proportions. I was thinking of just welfare. Which is clearly too small. The other stuff being that big, I don't mind. But I'll have to find a better argument against that argument. We may just have to actually get rid of everything and live through a few decades of a lot of people (including several of us I imagine) living in shanty towns, and old and sick people dying in droves in the streets (including several of us I imagine) before people remember why we needed entitlements in the first place.

That one's effective, but I'd prefer a counter argument that's a little less grim.

I think the overall budget could certainly be trimmed in all areas while still offering the same or better services by rethinking the hundreds of patchwork programs and updating technology. We talk about government waste as if someone was out there throwing away money, but much of it is because of decades of low-bid contracts, deals for vendors favored by Congressmen and the fact that government tends to cut capital budget before anything else.

What I become outraged about is that the right is suddenly the guardian of the deficit, after the Republicans in power spent in a way that would embarrass drunken sailors, including a brand-new expensive entitlement, the Medicare drug benefit, which was written almost entirely by big pharma. As Paul Krugman keeps saying, this is not the time to suddenly become deficit hawks. The only entity with money to spend is the government, and if it doesn't pour money into programs that hire people and increase production, the country is going to spiral into a much worse fiscal state.

I would hope a vibrator that plugs into the wall would be the Vibrator to Destroy All Other Vibrators!

It's a lover, not a fighter.

Of course, there is no bitterness like the bitterness of your vibrator running out of battery when you are trying to handle business. Not that that's ever happened to me

It's just frustration extra-amplified.

That said, if I had a Magic Wand right now, I would use it on my back. If I had a boy right now, I'd also use him on my back. My back hurts. Craziness.

If I had a boy right now, I'd also use him on my back.

Der.

I love how this thread is jumping from discussions of the budget deficit to the KILLER VIBRATOR THE DESTROYER and back again.

If more people had better vibrators, there would be lots less spending of gummint money.

What I become outraged about is that the right is suddenly the guardian of the deficit, after the Republicans in power spent in a way that would embarrass drunken sailors, including a brand-new expensive entitlement, the Medicare drug benefit, which was written almost entirely by big pharma.

Yeah, the Republicans don't want the Democrats to spend money on programs that people will like, because it'll make them like Democrats more. So increasing the deficit when Republicans are in power leaves Democrats to clean up the mess rather than enact more spending themselves.

Clinton was really mad about this when he took office.

Hmmm... Trying to bring it all together.

It we were to use some of the saving incurred from withdrawing from Iraq to buy every woman in the country a Hitachi Magic Wand, it might help the overall mood of the nation.