Mass Murdering, the Yahweh Way

THE RED SEA PARTS, AND THE NATION OF ISRAEL, knowing what's good for it, and never inclined to miss an opportunity, enters the dry breach and scampers across to safetly, while its pursuers are held in abeyance by a wall of fire. When the Hebrews are safely ensconced on the other side, the fire wall is quenched, and the Egyptian charioteers, themselves opportunists, resume their pursuit. Then the twin invisible dams burst, and the rest, as they say, is history. Biblical history, straight from God. Talk about having someone's back! Lost in all the excitement is the utter helplessness of the Egyptian service personnel. They who served, and did everything else, at the whimsical behest of Pharoah, himself rather almighty, relatively speaking. To his people, Pharoah was God. Beyond a mere dictator; God. He owned his nation, and his people, like no other mere mortal ever has, or, it is to be hoped, ever shall again. The charioteers who drowned at the hand of a greater God had less power of self determination than even an American Marine recruit in boot camp, and that's going some. Just following orders, for real. So, precisely what did they do to deserve a watery grave? Oh, God of Abraham, couldst thou have but released the waters BEFORE extinguishing the flame? Would it really have made that much of a difference vis a vis Jewish safety? By the time Pharoah's minions had built boats and boarded them, or circumnavigated the Red Sea, surely God's chosen would have been out of recah, and, even had they not been, the Lord surely could have devised yet more clever restraints, eh? And what a loss of fine horses! Hundreds, if not thousands of fine young healthy men, in the prime of life, sacrificed only becasue of Pharoah's stubborn pride, and, so it would seem, God's lack of compassion and restraint. (military servicemen tend to be young healthy, and full of future potential). And were all the plagues upon Egypt really necessary? Death to all the firstborn? Really? Defenseless infants? Talk about victimization! Any all powerful God capable of creating a universe surely couodhahve changed, softened Phaoroah's heart by some other means; a good stiff shot of endorphines, perhaps. In a court of law with an impartial jusry, Jehovah would be at risk to exposure to a mass murder rap. But, alas, the last thing the Bible is, is impartial.

Planning In the Supposedly Free market

SUPPOSE THE COMPANY YOU WORK FOR hires a new CEO, who introduces herself to the manangers, workers, and shareholders, and explains her business philosophy clearly. "I am a firm believer in free enterprise and free markets", she proudly proclaims. "the free market is the best producer of wealth ever devised, or "discovered", and any interference in it from government or meddlesome corporate executives only slows economic growth. Business enterprises should respond to the market and work within it, rather than try to control it, and should remain flexible in their responses to market conditions. Therefore, all comprehensive advanced planning and fixed strategy is a detriment to growth, and is not only usless, but harmful to our purposes. As long as I am leading this company, we'll take it one day at a time, work hard, see what happens, and do the best we can in accordance to whatever market conditions prevail on any given day." ----- How do you suppose the managers and shareholders would respond to this? The new Chief Executive Officer would be looking for a new job later that same day, that's how. She would be run out of the board room for lacking, in the articulate words of one of the President Bushes, "that vision thing". Board members and shareholders alike would accuse the poor gal of being incompetent, of having no leadership skills, of being, as we like to say, "clueless". She would quickly be replaced by someone with a dynamic personality and an equally dynamic corporate business plan. Someone able to say: "this is where we are now, and this is where we want to be in the future. And here's exactly how I intnd to get us there." Then, the new top dog would lay out a comprehensive detailed plan which would make pre planned communist economies look haphazard and chaotic by comparison, just as all corporate CEOs are expected to do. Yes, when the chips are down and the money is on the line, people want a "man (or woman) with a plan." None of this "the market will take care of itself" nonsense. Despite all the rhetoric we hear about the glory and the wisdom of the laissez faire free enterprise free market, people always want to plan ahead; they want a vision for the future. The so called "free market" has never existed, and it never will, not in any economic system or enterprise. The free market is nothing but an ideal, an abstraction, a concept. Planning and cooperation is an essential component of all political and economic systems, be they communist, capitalist, socialist, autocracy, plutocracy, or democracy. Only anarchy is unplanned, and economic anarchy is exactly what a truly "free market" economy would truly be, if ever one existed, which one never will, as indicated above. Indeed, planning and cooperation is an essential component of all human endeavor which involves more than one person, or, for that matter, one person. And planning and ooperation, economically, are the fundamental ingredients of, - dare we say it - socialism. shhh!

Attacking Christianity , Viciously, With Very Small Arms

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION IS INFECTED with a persecution complex. Ironic, since this institution has committed the lion's share of persecution, ever since the Roman Empire stopped persecuting it in 330 A.D., and the church became the most powerful force in Western Civilization, replacing the Roman Empire. The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, abortion clinic bombings, KKK lynchings, and the list goes on. But according to the poor persecuted two billion member cult, the fatih, the fiction goes, is under assault from an avalanche of secularism. It seems that the eighty five percent of the American people who are Christian are under attack from the remaining fifteen percent, and is in grave danger. There was once a church on every American street corner. There still is, but with fewer people inside. Its just too tempting to sleep in on a Sunday morning, after a rip roaring Saturday night of video gaming and various forms of heresy. And Wednesday nights have good TV these days. We can no longer pray in school, except in secret prior to science and math exams, and test scores clearly indicate that prayer is ineffectual. The atheists, five percent of the American population, are on the march. Further indications of the assault on faith are the surging popular support for gay rights, and the new tendency for tolerance to be codified in law. A vicious assault of mandated tolerance! The teaching of evolution in public schools and the exclusion of Bible studies from science classes are yet further indications. Then too, there is the unreasonable assertion in liberal political circles that the American government ought to remain secular, in accordance with that annoying non christian document, the United States constitution. Sacrificed on the alter of christian hysteria, as usual, is history; (see:"The Heretical origins of the American Republic", by Mathew Stewart). In a country (the U.S.) which was never intended to be "Christian", and was intnded to have a wall firmly placed between church and state. (see: James Madison) The Christian faith has for generations enjoyed a virtual monopoly on American spiritual culture, which it is only now beginning to relinquish, grudgingly, with poor sportsmanship, as the world becomes gradually more scientific and less religious. But what else is to be expected from a bloodthirsty cult of human sacrifice (see; Christ; cruXi-fiction thereof) which consigns non members to eternal damnation and torment?

Hard Liners, Hardening the Lines

THE IRANIAN PEOPLE, generally, want to finalize a nuclear weapons deal, lift the sanctions which are crippling their economy and destroying their living standard, and rejoin the community of nations. Many of them would quite likely prefer a less repressive, more secular, more philosophically reasonable government of their own, but this, of course, is pure speculation. Their problem is the hard liners within their government, the religious fanatics who seem to think that any deal with the west is a deal with the devil, and that it is better to die for Allah than to make peace with the enemy. The American people, for their part, are, for the most part, utterly indifferent to the question of Iranian nuclear armaments, as they are on most issues; video games and the Kardashians are far more interesting. The problem in America is that those few who have any interest at all in the matter at hand are almost all hard liners themselves, who seem to believe that Barack Hussein Obama is on the verge of recklessly selling out America's interests to an Iran which will soon be, if it isn't already, bristling with nuclear weapons, with Obama's approval. The only interested Americans who aren't hard liners justify their dovish, conciliatory approach to an aversion, of all things, to adding yet another middle eastern war to America's already long and rapidly growing list. American hard liners seem to have conveniently forgotten their own maxim that "politics stops at the border", and that the President of the United States is solely responsible for the conduct of American foreign policy, with the advice and consent of the Senate, according to the U.S. constitution. Thus they subject their Secretary of State and President to a ceaseless barrage of haranguing foreign policy criticism, even before ink has been applied to paper on any agreement with Iran. Recently, forty seven United States Senators, led by Tall Tom Cotton of Arkansas, sent a letter to the Iranian leaders, undermining Obama's conduct of foreign policy by stipulating that his word means nothing. They too seem to have either misread or conveniently forgotten the constitution, and in so doing have committed treason, or at the least have revealed themselves to be traitors, but only when a president they despise is in office. The Iranian government, quite appropriately and hummorously, told the forty seven reprobates exactly where to put their letter of interest. Interesting that Cotton and Senator Cruz of Texas, a fellow republican hard liner, attended Harvard University, but evidently not their political science classes. But, upon further reflection, what else can one expect from people who believe that the American government should be a Christian theocracy , that candidates for political office should be permitted unlimited spending on advertising, and the Internal Revenue Service and Federal Reserve Bank should be elliminated?

Argentina and America: Two peas in a Pod, Gathering Steam

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is a mirror image of Argentina; a third world country, in which the elite few gather the profits while the mighty, silent masses passivley dwell in quiescent, quiet desperation. Neither country is a democracy, or has ever been. But at least in Argentina an effort is being made. The lady who sits in the President's chair is trying to share a bit of wealth and power with the poor, and the opposition she is engendering is eye popping. Even her own family members scorn her. How dare she even attempt to redistribute even a modicum of wealth and power to the voiceless! In Argentina, as in America, one simply does not discuss politics at the family dinner table. One does not because one cannot without starting a fight. dividing families, losing friends. Liberals on the left, conservatives on the right, steaming bowls of entrees and side dishes lined up down the center, like a barricade between two factions at an uneasy truce. Anyone stranded in the middle had best hide behind the mashed potatoes and brandy snifters. Just as it is in the great American fun house, the United States of Acquisition, where nothing is as it seems, nothing is as our corporate masters tell us. The main difference between the two nations is that in Argentina, they serve their revolutions straight up; in America we postpone ours, with the exception of an occasional short term release of steam, and we divert our anger onto other, hapless nations and people. There will yet be another Argentinian revolution; the masses are already gathering in the streets, and erecting barricades. Even now a gun is pointed at a progressive Argentine president, as guns are always pointed at American progressives who dare attempt to stray from tradition by enacting populist reform. The only question is; how much longer until the American kettle blows its top completely, and the steam becomes an explosion?

Coming Together: A Synthesis of Ketchup and Cheese

THE KOCK BROTHERS, for whom no cause is ever too right wing to underwrite, have hopped into the sack with the American Civil Liberties Union, for which no cause is ever too liberal. Strange Bedfellows indeed. They both intend to apply pressure to the renowned and huge American incarceration industry to shorten the prison sentences of non violent offenders. Presumably, the "Coke" brothers are concerned primarily with flooding American streets, the streets of the United States of Acquisition, with white collar criminals, rather than buyers and sellers of Coke-cane. their motive may be to strengthen the ranks of their peers, and to render more efficient and profitable the free enterprise lock up system...the ACLU's motive? One can only guess. Civil Liberties, perhaps? The union of even more addictive substances and more compatible entities is proceeding apace, as the Heinz Corporation and the Kraft Corporation are bringing ketchup, mac and cheese, and velveeta to the same table, and placing them on the same plate. Although less fortunate Americans have been doing this culinarily for decades, it will now be done by those in power financially in corporate board rooms, with Heinz playing the purchaser, adn Kraft the purchasee. All hail to America's new third largest food company, and the world's fifth largest, and heaven only knows who or what could possibly be any larger. Spare the tomato tossing and please pass the squeeze cheese, with a big fat dollop with oozy red salt and sugar viscosity on top. It should all blend together tastily, served straight up, with just a touch of shareholder appreciation.

Choosing OUR Mountain Slope, and Heading Straight To It

A CONFUSED KID crashes a passenger jet liner into a remote mountain, and we all pretend to wonder why, as if we didn't already know. Hopeless desperation loves company, and seeks it out, wherever it can be found, in the air, on the ground, at sea, within the hding places of our seduced, sedated minds. Somewhere, some nameless young lady understands why, and when she chooses to tell us, our morbid curiosity will be sated, the crowd can disperse, and we can all go home, morbidly, vicariously satisfied. In a back room "for employees only" at Wal Mart hangs a sign, saying :today's share price, $81; tomorrow's share price depends on YOU!. The only thing lacking is an image of Uncle Sam, finger extended. Eight dollar an hour "associates" dream of nine and even ten an hour, and an opportunity to further enrich the already rich, whose class they aspire to, somehow. These aspirations are a chimera of false values. Eighty percent of corporate stock sits in the portfolios of the one percent. Those ringing up the purchases at the cash registers and those stocking merchandize among the endless, always the best price shelves dream of the day when they too will be among America's exclusive elite. Deep down they must know; it aint hapnin'. Then they clock out and go home to their one room apartments and trailers and massive debts; their corporate master retreat to their gated, well guarded mansions of loneliness. And no matter where you go, there they are, here we are, the ninety nine percent, all going to Wal Mart to further enrich the rich, as we alienate ourselves from ourselves in our depression of escape, and sit in our own cockpits, deciding which mountain to make our own. What is the connection between a clinically depressed young airline pilot and those of us who toil and shop and strut and fret in the consumer laden isles of our local Wal Mart? It is this; they derive from the same source; from an impersonal corporate "civilization" of profit before people, wherein to be incorporated is to be human, and to be human is to be a corporate commodity, and where we are all trained from birth to seek the best deal, the most efficient means to exploit - everything. And as we approach our chosen slope, we tell each other; knock before entering, and have a good day.

Cruzing Towards Lunacy At the Tea party, Ted Cruz Style

RAPHAEL CRUZ, THE FATHER OF ULTRA CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN Texas Senator Ted Cruz, traded one drug addiction for another; alcohol for evangelical Christianity. Hell hath no fury like a zealous born again convert. And the apple never falls far from the tree, the chip off the old block. Like father, like son. How the spawn apes its sire, minus the alcohol, plus the presidential aspirations. Teddy, you see, is running for president of either America, or the tea party. Both Cruzes interpret the United States constitution and the holy Bible literally. Both documents come straight from Almighty God. Never mind James Madison, Moses, doctor Luke, and John of Patmos. Both documents, say the Cruzes, are conjoined, inseparable, God-written. Never mind that Madison, a living human being who actually wrote the constitution, advocated a wall between church and state, with the first amendment establishment clause. For the men de la Cruz, that wall is invisible. Since the constitution makes no mention of Obamacare and the Internal revenue Service, both should be abolished, say the Cruzes. A true constitutional literalist, is Ted the scion. And a true economic "your on your own" Christian, expousing the divinity of a man who told us to render unto Caesar and give unto the poor. Presumably Cruz supports the right to carry any and all weapons, no matter how powerful, and to retain appendages attached to the upper torso. Ted Cruz explicitly wishes to give newly unemployed former I.R.S. employees a new job; guarding the Mexican border, fantastically enough. A legion of accountants, paralegals, and secretaries, patrolling and defending America's southern border against impoverished unemployed laborers, armed with M16s and certificates of completion of rapid fire weapons training. Biblical literalist to the end, Cruz presumably believes the world to be flat and immobile, its four corners standing atop pillars, and that when Christ returns, he shall be brandishing a sword, and the stars shall fall from the heavens like the shiny glass trinkets they surely must be, and will strike the Earth, and shatter. How well matched are ultra conservative politics and a flat earth! Thomas Jefferson said that the Book of revelation is the ravings of a lunatic but neither he nor Madison, both non Christians, ever said that the nature's God from whom all natural inalienable rights derive is the Christian god. The men of Cruz and their comrads in spirit and arms added that part, all by themselves. Turn the other cheek, but keep your semi-automatic handy, just in case christ wants you to make use of it. And just think - Cruz the younger is but the very tip of the tea party, and will surely soon be joined in the Republican presidential sweepstakes by fellow young buck lunatics such as Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, and, who knows, Sarah Palin redux? Better hang on tight to your sanity, for its going to be a wild ride, albeit a most entertaining and humorous one.

David and Goliath

THE NATION OF ISRAEL is a tiny, defenseless country surrounded by powerful enemies who threaten its very existence, according to Israeli and American conservatives. This, despite Israel's previous attempts at peace through the ceding of its "own" territory to ungrateful, greedy Palestinians. So goes the self serving fantasy. Poor little David, threatened by the great Goliath, valiantly defending himself and his nation of Israel. Hint: David was not the underdog here. He was armed with the most lethal weapon of his day, and he knew how to use it. He was poised against a lumbering idiot who wielded only a cumbersome, inaccurate battle ax, useful only at extremely close range. Goliath never had a chance. Neither do any of Israel's enemies. David has a nuclear arsenal, and the unqualified backing of the most powerful and aggressive superpower in world history. That the United States of America and Israel should be allies is supremely appropriate; a pair of military behemoths, both conquering occupiers living on stolen land, just the two of us against the big, bad disapproving world. Their slings are circling high above, even as they cry crocodile tears at their unjust treatment by their already vanquished, victimized enemies.

Should Israel Exist?

ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu was reelected, which was a surprise to the pollsters, and a great disappointment to liberals in both Israel and the United States, including President Obama. It may be that he won reelection by bringing out his base at the last moment with a promise that as long as he was above ground, breathing, and in power, there would never be a Palestinian state, which is directly contradictory to both Israeli and American official policy, which holds that there will indeed eventually be a Palestinian state, if certain conditions are met, including a cessation of terrorism. Shortly after the reelection, Netanyahu backtracked right to where he should have been all along, and where he had always been previously; there will be a Palestinian state, if certain conditions are met. His comment that the establishment of such an entity at this time would only result in its being governed by terrorists is not without merit. And just think; amid all this rancor and turmoil, there was once a time when Jews and Arabs lived peacefully together on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, and that time was before 1948, before the establishment of Israel. There are, believe it or not, well educated Jews who feel that the creation of Israel was a mistake. At least one conservative rabbi, with flowing sideburns and all black clothing, pointed out that Judaism is a religion, not a political party, a superpower, nor a political entity of any sort; but simply - a religion. At least, that was its original intention, long ago, before European imperialism and christian bigotry brought about the diaspora, and the widespread persecution of Jews. They started congregating Zionistically in the Holy Land in the late nineteenth century, Lord Balfour decreed British support of Zionism in the early twentieth century, and when Hitler's behavior in the mid twentieth century created a global sense of guilt, in comes British and American imperialism, and the state of Israel. And that is precisely the situation with which we are all uncomfortably stuck.

Tom Cotton and Rush Limbaugh; Unaware of Their Treason and Racism, Respectively

THOSE DARNED CONSERVATIVES, always entertaining, always doing and saying the darnedest things, like preschoolers. Two recent examples stand out. Freshman punk U.S. Senator Tom "in tall" Cotton, of the great state of Arkansas, now says that the lettter he wrote to the government of Iran, informing them that nothing that Obama does means anything, was not really a letter, but an information packet. Everyday he has something new to say about his arguably illegal, treasonous act, as he dodges the slings and arrows even he surely knew would come his way. After all, when you stab your own President in the back, and act like a traitor, someone is bound to pay attention. Amusing is the Iranian response to the letter; that it is pure trash, which of course it is. Stay tuned. Tom cotton aint done yet, most likely, and the rest of us sure aint done with him. The tragic thing is that most conservative Americans probably think the letter was the best idea since sliced bread. Similarly, conservative spokeshuman Rush Limbaugh, on his Excrement In Broadcasting radio network, told his conservative sycophantic listeners that "the multicultural curriculum is an attack on Western Civilization", as if he (Limbaugh) has the slightest notion of what western civilization is; he failed the course in college, along with all the other classes he took. So rush finally comes out with his racism. The multicultural curriculum is nothing other than including all people in social studies classes, teaching about everybody, instead of an elite few. Now, we include African-American studies, women's studies, and so forth, instead of merely teaching the history and culture of wealthy powerful white heterosexual men. To oppose multiculturalism, acadmically, or anywhere else, is racism and sexism, pure and simple. But can you imagine Limbaugh, or any of the millions of right wing nut jobs who doubltless automatically agree with him, to understand this? Don't hold your breath....by T. L. Reconciler

Budgeting America: More Guns, Less Butter

LET THE GAMES BEGIN! Just as the cherry trees are fixin' to bloom after a cold dreary winter in the nation's (U.S.A.) capitol, Congress is getting ready to heat things up a mite by engaging in that which can be termed "the annual battle of the budget." Don't panic; somehow, they, we, always seem to find a way to work something out, no matter how much acrimony preceeds the working out, no matter how poorly the working out turns out. That's because there is no other choice; the nation MUST have a budget, and even America's politicians are sufficiently percipient to understand that. This time, as always, the conservative republicans want to increase the military budget, and decrease the social safety net, which, as usual, is exactly the opposite of what they should be doing. Capitalism is consuming, exploiting, chewing up and spitting out more poor people than ever, another staple of conservative republican policy. They, the poor, need nelp, now. They need to be turned into consumers and producers, and paying them a living wage for the work they do would be a good start, plus reasonable assistance for those who truly need it. Currently, more assistance is needed, not less. These backwards thinking delusional republican cons pretend that the extra military money is desperately needed to "protect Amerca", which is already far and away the best protected nation on Earth, by a factor of many. The United States has hundreds of military bases in dozens of foreign countries, and this is not to "protect America", but rather, this is to make the world a more beneficial place for American "interests", defined as "American corporate interests", aka profiting. By increasing the military budget, the American government is doing nothing other than strengthening the American worldwide corporate empire. By targeting the poor for less government help, the America corporate owned government is victimizing, as usual, that segment of American society least able to fight back, and least important to American corporate interests.

Looking For That Kinder, Gentler world

EVEN AS WE SPEAK, we are well armed, practicing hard, and ready to go. All of us, the world over. The Russians are conducting extensive military "exercises", which means practicing making war, very near the Ukraine, which is hardly surprising, since Vladimir Putin the Great obviously intends to reqoncuer that sovereign nation in honor of people like ivan the Terrible, Ivan the Great, Catherine the Great, Joseph Stalin, and all the other gentle souls who have ruled the motherland with an iron hand for centuries. Meanwhile, the United Staes and her flunkies, aka "N.A.T.O" are doing the same thing, sharpening their killing skills, nearby, on the other side of Ukraine. In other words, the kindling, the fire, and the gasoline are all laid out, in close proximity to each other, ready to detonate. And who knows what the Chinese are doing; over the past few years they have made a point of conducting a nearly constant display of naval exercises in the South China Sea, just to remind us all that they can, and that they are in charge in that region, and fully intend to remain so. The south Koreans and the Americans have been having similar practice sessions off the coast of Korea, which the North Koreans have dutifully acknowledged by firing nine missiles into the pacific Ocean, within shouting distance of the American navy. Exciting times. Many arrogant, aggressive, imperialistic, well armed countries, paranoid as always. and just think, a mere fifty years ago, back in the halcyon sixties, many of us had the stupid audacity to suppose that by the time the twenty first century was well underway, we'd be beyond all this, and well ensconced in a kinder gentler world. So much for pleasant dreams.

To School, To Home School, Or To Unschool

SCHOOLING, IF YOU REALLY think about it, is a form of indoctrination. If fact, its nothing but indoctrination, a great power structure from above, with the most important decisions being made by faceless all powerful bureaucrats at the state and sometimes federal level, local school boards at the next level down, followed on down by administrators and teachers, and last, but least, the poor students themselves, essentially held captive by a system over which they have little or no control. Particulalry when it comes to American History and culture, public schools in America are pure indoctrination, teaching, decade after decade, the bizarre fantasty that ours is a country which is fundamentally a shining city on a hill, a beacon of virtue for the entire world. And that, as anyone with a brain knows or at least senses, is simply not true, or at least, not the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Then too, there is the matter of sitting in neat rows with rigid restrications on individual behavior, often extending even unto one's personal attire and hair style. Indoctrination. Most of us of course experience twelve years of this without much complaining, because part of the indoctrination is the passive acceptance of indoctrination. Nowadys, however, people are starting to rebel from it, and home schooling is more popular than it has been since the nineteenth century. Home schooling often entails much the same rigorous discipline and structure embodied in public school, only on a personal, family level. Now comes the concept of "unschooling". ON first thought it is tempting to imagine "unschooling" as nothing other than chaos, willful ignorance and anarchy, with children free to play video games all day, or to do nothing all day, or whatever thy choose. IN fact, unschooling seems to work rather well, report the parents who have tried it. Kids tend to be naturally curious, eager to learn, and if only given an environment and opportunity conducive to it, they seem to learn with a vengeance; on their own terms. And what better way to learn! Maybe we should all experience a little bit of all three techniques; there is obviously great value in being forced into a building with many other people, and being forced to learn how to get along with them. Most Americans live their entire lives attending class reunions regularly; there must be a reason why. As Aristotle said: we are social animals. But, as Abraham Lincoln proved beyond a doubt by reading himself into being a lawyer; a human mind can educate itself better than anyone, if given the chance.

The Reclining Secret Service

THE SECRET SERVICE just isn't what it used to be. What it used to be was an elite group of darkly well dressed young men who did their jobs quietly. What it seems to have become is a gang with a gang culture and mentality, soliciting prostitutes in Latin America, drinking heavily, crashing motorized vehicles into the fence surrounding the White House, changing directors like diapers. Abraham Linclon, who with indredible unwitting irony signed into law thus creating the Secret Service only several hours before his own preventable death, could definitely have used the agency's protection. And, he might have been appalled at what the agency has, or seemingly has become, in the darkly humorous, sardonic manner in which only Abraham Lincoln could express the great state of appallment. Back in the early seventies, my brother-in-law was in the army, in the media department, and his job one fine day was to photograph President Nixon. The very moment he removed his camera from a pocket of his full dress military uniform, out of nowhere materialized an S.S. goon, who tackled my brother-in-law, who wasn't yet my brother-in-law, to the floor, landed square on top of him, and said, quoth: "don't move, you son of a bitch". My brother- in-law didn't move a muscle, or a single piece of polished brass, and is thus among the living to this very day. Even his army uniform didn't make a difference. Lesson learned; keep your hands out of your pockets while in the company of el presidente.But, gee, did the bastard actually have to call my brother-in-law a "son of a bitch"? A bit unprofessional, wasn't it? So, perhaps boorish behavior among our chief executive's protectors is not such a new thing after all.

Indicting Senator Tom "tall" Cotton, As a Treasonous Traitor

FRESHMAN U.S. SENATOR Tom "cottonmouth" Cotton, Repub, Arkansas, certainly knows how to stir the pot. He went to Harvard, which, after all, is where pot stirring is taught. Senator Tom "shitting in tall" Cotton is terribly ambitious, wants to be President, and, given the bizarre proclivities of the American people, one day might be. Cotton is one of this new crop of quite young, quite consrvative republicans now prominently self displaying on the political scene, all of whom, it could be argued, are quite insane. (see Noam Chomsky for details, use google). Cotton has yet another attribute; he may be a traitor, guilty of treason. Writing a letter to the Iranian government, telling them that President Obama is a buffoon and has no power to make treaties with anybody, while Obama is directly engaged with attempting to sign a treaty with that country is, it can be argued, treason, punishable, according to the U.S. Constitution, by death. Even as we speak, Secretary of State John Kerry is intimating that Cotton's letter, which was signed by 46 other respublicans of questionable loyalty to their own government, may well have already damaged chances for a treaty. if he decides that the letter has very definitely caused said damage, who knows? Is it possible that Attorney General Eric Holder will do a bit of research, and issues indictments? I wouldn't entirely rule out the possibility. the republican Senators are brushing off the notion, naturally; what else would you expect them to do? that might change, soon enough. Better laywer up, fellers. America's conservative radio talk show hosts, demonstrably insane, are calling Cotton's letter to Iran a "public relations statement", and "an informative communication, not a formal letter to a foreign government". Yeah, sure. Whatever. Press releases don't begin with "to whom it might concern, dear sirs": do they?

Missing Saddam Hussein, Badly

REMEMBER SADDAM HUSSEIN? Those of a certain age surely will. Ruggedly handsome guy, with a penchant for discharging rifles during formal speeches, author of the scaled down, simplified-for-your-convenience, one candidate per ballot electoral system. In a word, a helluva guy. And give credit where credit is due; Saddam Hussein hated islamic jihadist terrorist groups, and he knew exactly how to defang them: round 'em up, string 'em up. The fact that he did this only for the consolidation of his own power does not alter the fact that under Saddam, extremist Islamic terrorist groups had not a chance. Saddam wasn't too terribly gung go about religions of any sort; he preferred to dress in secular, formal western attire, after the fashion of an all-business modern secular ruler, which he was. But he knoew handle to handle groups like I.S.S. and Al Qaeda. Where is Saddam when we need him the most! Oh, the things we Americans could learn from that man, such as how to apprehend criminals. And how well organized, efficient, and stable was Iraq under the rule of Saddam I, the great all powerful king. The dirty little secret, of course, is that the best form of government is a dictatorship, a benevolent dictatorship, the key word being "benevolent", which, most assuredly, Saddam was not. Oh well, you can't have everything! Back in the days of Saddam Hussein, there was no, or practically no extremist Islamic terrorism, no I.S.I.S. or Al Qaeda, no Islamic State of iraq and Syria and north Africa and God knows where else, and, best of all, there was a world trade center, the original version. And, of course, there were several thousand American teenagers who have since died in combat in wars engineered by the United States of America, corporate office.

Fighting Real Wars, For Real Reasons

FORMER TEXAS GOV, failed presidential candidate, and possible future failed presidential candidate Rick Perry, yelling a speech, screamed: "we didn't start this war, but we sho do aim to finish 'er." Or, something to that effect. He was referring to the alleged 'war on terrorism", which arguably is not an actual war, since it is a war against a concept, not a nation or identifiable human entity. Rather remindful, in fact, of America's other great conceptual wars, the one against poverty, the one against crime, and the piece de resistance, the war on drugs. It turns out that wars against activities and concepts do not succeed as well as wars against other countries, particularly weak and disorganized nations with plenty of natural resources, and opportunities for potential foreign corporate investment. All it takes is a pretext, a provocation, a reason, and, if all else fails, an entirely fabricated excuse, such as those employed variously by the United States in 1846, 1898, 1964, and 1991, to name just a few. This current war of the month against terrorism began in earnest, not by coincidence, shortly after the United States attacked Iraq on February 15, 1991, which in turn began a few months after Saddam/Iraq conquered Kuwait, which in turn happened one week after the American ambassador to Saddam/Iraq told Saddam, face to face, that the United States did not care whether Iraq attacked Kuwait. That's when the war on terror, a war on a vague concept, began, with a conversation between American ambassador April Glaspie, and the now dead, along with hundreds of thousands of other people, Saddam Hussein. google: April Glaspie, scroll down, click on "transcript of conversation with Saddam, 7/25/90". So, In the great fun house that is American foreign and domestic public policy, where nothing is ever as it seems, we can convince ourselves that "they started it", while going about our merry, self righteous, and ever so prosperous corporate controlled way.

Missing Sam Simon

SAM SIMON DIED the other day, and the world lost a renaissance man. And somehow, the loss was especially shocking for those of us who are either close in age to Sam, or, slightly, ever so slightly, older. He was basically a director, producer, and writer, in no particular order, and his flagship project was the Simpsons, involvement in which netted Sam millions if not billions or trillions. Most importantly of all, Sam was a great philanthropist, a lover of the oftten unlovable human species, and all others as well. It is not yet certain how much money he left for the rest of us, but its gonna turn out to have been quite a bundle, all bundled into neat packages to be distributed straight on to those who need it most. Kinda like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, two other great American heroes whose generosity is already helping untold numbers of needy folks. People in need are not always victims of their own laziness or stupidity, contrary to standard conservative doctrine. And by the reverse token, extremely wealthy people are not always greedy ogres, who ascended the ladder by pushing others back down. So hat's off to anyone who transcends stereotypical, categorical thinking, and hat's off to Sam Simon, who is already missed.

Hillary, Unthinkingly Risking all

HILLARY CLINTON RIGGED UP her own system, whereby all her email, personal and professional, took place on one machine, her personal one, not the government one. God, what an idiot. Doesn't she know that anytime she looks at somebody cross eyed the republicans are going to be out to get her? Which is more likely, that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was secretly using her own personal cell phone to secretly conduct American foreign policy and possibly engage in secret scandalous conspiracies to undermine America, or, that she simply did not want to carry two cell phones around? What we see here is another, yet another , conservative-republican-christian witch hunt, after the fashion of Salem, Mass., 1692, or Senator Joseph mcCarthy, republican ca 1952. The witch hunters are, take a bow, boys, none other than our conservative republican christian jesus guns and money boys. and its been going on a long time. Big Bill stains Monika's blue dress (ca 1993), and its off to the races! Witchhunt! Now cometh Hillary. But still and all, Hillary should have had enough sense not to do that, even though she did it only for her own personal convenience. One's personal convenience is not as important as appearances, up here in the realm of high and mightly politics and political backstabbing. by now, one would think that the Clintons would be able to see their target on their backs, at least in the mirror. For some reason, big beautiful people often have eyes, but see not. (see JFK, Dallas, 1963) Too big to fail? Maybe, but why chance it?

Republicans, Undermining America, Like Traitors

AS YOU KNOW, if you don't live on Mars, Obama is trying to negotiate a treaty with Iran to get them to stop making atomic bombs. And good luck with that, right? Meanwhile, forty seven Obama-hating republicans in the U.S. Senate sent a letter to the Iranian government, explaining that Obama is a comeplete joke, and that nothing he does holds water, or will ever last beyond his sorry time in the White House. OK, fine. They're entitled to their opinion, but are they entitled to try to sabotage negotiations being conducted by the Presiddente' del Americano? The President makes foreign policy in the United States, right? And Congress gives advice, reaction, and, in the case of treaties, an up or down vote. (in this case, congressional approval is NOT required, contrary to what our Repub-cong-cons claim) But are these republicans interfering with the actual MAKING of foreign policy, illegally? Gee, what a tremendous thing to do! Can we say "treason"? Or, perhaps, "prison"? To the gallows with them all! (joke). Crazily enough, all this got started by a freshman Senator from the great state of Arkansas, a youngster about forty or younger, with short neat hair, and the weird belief that society would be better off were we all to carry Bibles and firearms on our deeply religious and patriotic persons. Hilariously, the perceptive Iranians took one look at the republican letter, and told the conservative Senators exactly where to put said letter, namely, to fold it five ways and put it where the moon shine, to quote Tolstoy. All because the letter is complete garbage, nothing but propaganda, which is what the sharp Iranians called it. and of course they are quite correct. The Persians have been around for thousands of years, and they know a thing or two, they by God know propaganda when they see it. Hatin Obama is one thing, but usurping and undermining the office of the President is quite another. Conservative republicans of America: it is not necessary to commit treason in order to register your disapproval of Obama. You can use social media, which, after all, is where all the other garbage is stored.

Baiting and Switching Saddam, and the Fruit it Bears

WELL, LET'S SEE IF we can get all this straight. The Islamic State has obtained a new ally: the terrorist group in North Africa, which has pledged allegiance to the flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria... Al Qaeda, meanwhile, is not allied with the Islamic State, but formerly was allied with the group in Libya. This is already getting too confusing. We are talking about at least three different entities here, none of which existed before the first of our many made in America wars with Iraq, and heaven forbid that all these many entities should begin to cooperate. The Islamic State is doing well enough already, don't you think? On July 25, 1990, the United States ambassador to Saddam in Iraq, April Glaspie, the first women to ever serve as ambassador to an Arab country, appointed by Bush the forty first, told Saddam that the United States did not care whether the Iraqis invaded Kuwait, did not care about anything or any disputes between Arab-Arab nations. When Saddam heard this, he smiled. Eight days later, he cashed our blank check, and invaded Kuwait. Suddenly we the United States got all bent outta shape, copped an attitude, forced Saudi Arabia to accept our army as it prepared to launch, and then we the people of the U.S.A. attacked Iraq, and the rest, as they say, is history. And what a mess Iraq is now! If you wish proof of this, simply go to google, and type in "April Glaspie", then scroll down to where it says "transcript of conversation with Saddam". And there it is. Available for all to see, because the State Department knows that nobody will care, so why not put it online? Just like Viet Nam, just like the Mexican War of 1846, just like the Spanish-american war of 1898, bait and switch, say one thing, lure a tantalizingly weak enemy into war, for them into war, by attacking them under false dishonest pretenses. This is the American empire, which Thomas Jefferson knew well. Jefferson said: "I fear for my country when I reflect that God is just". And so should we all. We should hope that God is either not just, or that he is not paying attention. I fear that neither is the case.

Honkies, Honking On

BACK WHEN THAT BIG DUMB black kid was gunned down in Ferguson, Missouri by an understandably frightened police officer, and the African-American community took to the streets with placards, our right wing European-American brothers and sisters wondered, or pretended to wonder, exactly what all the fuss was about. Conservatives are often and easily confused; after all, most of them never attended college. College instills thinking skills. They (conservatives) even waxed a tad angry and self righteous over Ferguson, just like they did back in 1964, when Congress was furiously debating and fillibustering whether to treat African-americans like human beings, for the first time in American history. Those damned ungrateful darkies! Don't they know a good sharecrop when they weed one? Hell, we done give 'em their damned freedom, what else do they expect? Acceptance? Equality? The very nerve!.....Meanwhile, a new Department of Justice study proves, using only facts, that Ferguson, Missouri is a racist community (white racism vs. blacks), racism of the usual American sort, subtle and largely unseen, well disguised, with crackers cracking down, ever so indirectly. Arrest and conviction records clearly prove the point. Black man gets stopped by cops, white man drives on down his privileged road. Dark brown dude goes down, locked up, light brown upper middle class dude walks. What we're talking about here is not any proclivity for people of dark pigmentation for criminal activity; we're talking about same crime, same circumstances, vastly different outcomes. Over and over again, all across this great nation, decade after racist decade. My brilliant brother-in-law (caucasian, conservative) offered the brilliant theory that our modern American version of racism is nothing other than pushback for having had racial equality shoved down our societal throats by an overreaching federal government. Oh, those damned civil rights laws! I responded that perhaps its merely of matter of old habits being hard to break. After all, the first slave ship dropped anchor at Jamestown in 1619, only twelve years after the good ship Susan Constant dropped anchor, filled with fortune seekers whose only purpose was to enslave native Americans and steal their alleged gold. (that scheme never worked out). A mere two hundred and forty six years later, the African slaves were "freed", left on their own to fend off great white hatred for another one hundred years, until 1964, then left to fend off petit white hatred for another fifty years, unto the present day. Every sociology department at every major American university has conducted research which clearly indicates the lingering persistence of a fundamentlal feature of American life; white racism against African-Americans. And yet our right wing patriotic American honkies keep honkin' on, like silly geese, that the trouble all began with affirmative action.

Epitomizing Arrogance, the Senator Inhofe Way

HOW MANY MORE TREES would it take to absorb the millions of tons of carbon that humans have injected into Earth's atmosphere, and replace it with fresh air? One per person (7 billion)? A trillion, perhaps? The carbon in the air is easily measurable. Its there, all right. Its there twenty four seven. Carbon absorbs heat. What part of that do we not understand? Every high school chemistry teacher in the world acknowledges global warming/climate change, because every high school chemistry teacher understands basic chemistry. And every high school biology teacher knows the same thing, that the extra carbon is there, doing its thing, and that as long as we keep putting it there it won't go away, and that the more trees we plant, the better our chances of survival. Senator Inhofe (R Oklahoma) says that global warming alarmists are arrogant, arrogant because they have the audacity to think that we puny little ole humans can possibly, with our weak and puny activities, have an impact on the environment. Perhaps the good Senator should consider the effect that simultaneously igniting every atomic bomb in the world would have; namely, nuclear winter. In theory, we puny humans can do a lot of damage. In practice, that's exactly what we;re doing; a lot of damage, possibly too-late-to-be-reversed damage. What if we started spraying tons of sulphuric acid into the atmosphere, using hundreds of cargo planes, spewing twenty four seven, for years? Again, human imposed permanent winter. (but if we did a little spewing on purpose, it might block out just enough heat to remedy climate change) You wanna see arrogance, Senator Inhofe? Arrogance is living in a world in which every high school chemistry teacher, every high school biology teacher, and every trained scientist who isn't being paid by some corporation or conservative political action committee tells us, decade after decade, that we are seriously harming this planet - and not believing them. You really think you know more about environmental science than the environmental science scientific community? That, Mr. Senator, is the epitome of arrogance.

Noam Chomsky

NOAM CHOMSKY began working at M.I.T. in 1955, the year I was born, and hundreds of books and thousands of lecturs later, he's still there, a professor of linguistics and philosophy, a social and political analyst, and a social activist. He has done for the science of linguistics what Einstein did for theoretical physics. Besides all that, he believes that every American president since World War Two was/is guilty of war crimes, and should be tried accordingly. And if you don't think he has a solid set of facts and arguments to back up his position, trying reading his publications, and remember; M.I.T. doesn't put up with intellectual fraud. Chomsky is lucky to have a job at all; he couldn't get hired at any public school in America, precisely because he tells the truth, he backs it up, and the truth isn't pretty. The truth does not sound pleasant or patriotic. The truth about American history is seldom taught in American public schools. Heaven only knows what he thinks about pre World War Two presidents; very little, most likely. A lot of thought and facts going into it, not much respect coming out of it, most likely. As you might expect, many people disagree with Chomsky's social and political views, which, compared with all mainstrem thought, liberal and conservative, are radical .But no one has ever successfully refuted Chomsky and all objections to his analyses are invariably emotionally and idiologically based. We need more scholars like Noam Chomsky

Turning Cemetaries Into Parks

A FRIEND OF MINE once remarked that he wished society would "pull up the rocks" as he put it, and turn cemetaries into parks. My own mother (1920-2014), since cremated and buried in an urn between her parents ( father 1891-1943, mother 1892-1971), all of whom I knew well and remember lovingly, once remarked that "we are running out of land". This is a questionable assertion, since even seven billion of us still seem to have, per capita, plenty of room, but its sound in theory, since human population and economic development are still increasing, and since land is limited, and not increasing. Actually, land area is decreasing, and will decrease a great deal more, what with climate change and the rising of the sea level. It turns out that we can have our cake and eat it too. We can bury our dead and - frolic about merrily on the ground right above them. In point of fact this is once exactly what occurred all over America, before the Civil War. Back then, cemetaries were places of love and happiness, since most people died of natural causes, whether at an old or young age. Most folks went peacefully, in their own homes, surrounded by loved ones, and were buried lovingly, near home, and were visited often, and the dead and the living shared the land. Indeed, cemetaries were parks of a sort, in pre Civil War America. There were picnic tables, and picnics. People took walks through them, and thought nothing of it, other than good thoughts. Fears of hauntings were few and far between, and not seen as anything to worry about. If one encounters one's beloved deceased in spirit, all the better! Then came the American Civil war, and hundreds of thousands of youngsters, violently murdered by - by us all. Suddenly cemetaries lost their luster, and took on a far mosre sinister aspect. They were filled with people who shouldn't be there. A sense of grief permeated the land, and the places where dead are buried in large numbers. And to this day this has never changed. World Wars One and Two only served to exacerbate the change in spirit, and really, isn't a a shame? A shame that these three hideous wars had to spoil everything, including cemetaries.

King Vladimir Putin and the Conquest of the Ukraine

IN RUSSIA, just the other day, King Putin the first's chief political rival was gunned down in the streets of Moscow, near the Kremlin. Even as King Vladimir feigns outrage, calling the incident a "provocation" (my, such strong language!), he blows smoke away from his gun, and smugly tosses it into the river, near where Rasputin nearly died several times. But of course Vladimir Putin had nothing to do with it, just as the Russian army has nothing to do with any military activity in the Ukraine. Oh, and by the way, the Russian government, aka King Vlad I, is threatening to suspend natural gas shipments to the Ukraine, for non payment. The reason Ukraine hasn't paid lately is that Russia is sending the natural gas to that part of the Ukraine which is trying to seperate from Kiev and join Russia, with the obvious assistance of what appears to be Russian (Soviet) military personnel, but is not, according to King Vlad. The Ukrainian government simply doesn't think it should be paying for something it isn't receiving. Not surprisingly, King Putin rejects this perfectly reasonable point of view, precisely because it is a perfectly reasonable point of view. Perhaps his rejection will serve as an acceptable pretext for outright invasion and conquest of Ukraine. If it doesn't, something else undoubtedly will.