Government Tyranny Over a Well Armed Public

WE THE PEOPLE of the U.S. of Amnesia have bee given a reprieve, of sorts. Big brother has taken a baby step back, has gotten, as they say, out of our face, slightly. The "Freedom Act" has taken effect, and although it does not free us from government scrutiny, it dials back the Patriot Act, albeit minimally, by requiring the feds to get a court order before stealing our privacy straight out of our smart phones. Of course, the court order will be only a rubber stamp, granted on every occasion without question, and nothing will really change, and we will still be living in an Orwellian world. Since the coming down of the Trade Center on nine eleven the American people have armed themselves to the teeth with privately owned handguns, as state after state has sanctioned a well regulated militia, and the government, meanwhile, has encroached into our lives in a way which would have shocked Orwell, Huxley, and every other paranoid science fiction writer who ever wrote dystopian futuristic novels. What's wrong with this picture? Wasn't a well armed citizenry supposed to prevent government tyranny, or some such right wing gibberish? Where are all the second amendment militia types now that we need them, putting the federal government back in its rightful, limited place? Probably sitting on their fat butts, weapons at their sides, bitching about liberalism, as usual. And while we're at it, let's clear something up. If the feds ever decide to disarm us, nobody but nobody in freedom's land will hold his precious firearm in his cold, dead hand, having valiantly resisted tyranny unto death. Oh no. That's all just big talk. What all the gun owners will do is quite simple; they will meekly, mildly, immediately comply in full, and hand over all weapons without the least whimper. Happily married politically conservative father of two, member of local church and G.O.P., defender of beloved second amendment, dies resisting federal agents on his doorstep. Yeah, right. I'll believe it when I see it.

Doing the Opposite, and Finding Our Way Out

IT IS TO BE HOPED that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, even those who don't celebrate it. If possible, a quick dose of reality and some exercise wouldn't hurt before jumping right back into our American holiday fantasy. Five pounds gained, five more to go, before the big diet/fitness program starts on January first, 2016, and ends about January fifteenth, and we return to the never ending swamp of the Presidential campaign, and the freak show fun house quality entertainment American culture never fails to provide. Some folks in the public limelight, like Ben Carson, are particularly entertaining. Dr. Carson found out too late that Thomas Jefferson did not write the U.S. constitution, had virtually nothing to do with it, and didn't even like it very much. He thought we would need a new constitution about once every generation, to keep it up to date. He turned out to be right, whether or not we wish to admit it. Jefferson, of course, was a radical, revolutionary liberal, the kind who want to change things for the better. Conservatives like Carson, on the other hand, tend to think that the U.S. Constitution is perfect and sacrosanct as is, like the Bible. Even more frightening about Carson and his conservative is is their stubborn denial of climate change. That's an extraordinary accomplishment for someone with a background in chemistry and science. Can you even remotely imagine electing someone to the office of President of the United States, in the far futuristic year of twenty sixteen, who doesn't believe in climate change? What would he or she do? Suspend all environmental projects, all effort to save the planet, and instead give American corporate capitalism and the fossil fuel industry free reign? Would President Ben Carson ignore the rising sea levels, the violent weather, and the climbing temperatures while encouraging the burning of fossil fuels? Evidently. Goodness, how frightening, how absurd. Davy Crockett once said that if you're lost in the woods, figure out what direction you think is best, and go in the exact opposite direction, and you'll find your way out nine out of ten times. sound advice, and it applies here. Whatever a right wing conservative says, do the opposite. If they say that primitive documents like the constitution and the bible are sacred, you know better. They deny climate change, you know better. Don't vote for extreme right wingers. Works every time.

Lovin' and Thankin' the Universe, and Its Gravity, On Thanksgiving

I AINT REALLY TOO SURE that the human mind can comprehend the universe, or who or what creates it, but I like to give thanks for it. Somehow it feels appropriate and good. Thus, thanksgiving turns out to be just about my favorite holiday. Turkey, why not? All traditions are arbitrary; many of us liberals only want to get rid of some of the more odious, stupid, or destructive traditions, like primitive religion and violence - but turkey dinner on Thanksgiving seems harmless enough. All fun, healthy, non destructive traditions are welcome to linger. By the time we have five hundred million people in America and twelve billion on Earth, we may have become vegetarians, by necessity. But for now, let's gobble turkey. We don't really seem to have any inherent "right to exist", and our existence seems anything but inevitable; our existence seems more like a choice, by nature, or by God, (your choice), and it may be that the two terms, nature and God, are ultimately synonymous. Thus gratitude, even in a purely materialistic, scientific framework, somehow seems relevant and appropriate. It is not necessary to regard Thanksgiving as a religious holiday. it can be considered a logical response to a miracle, the miracle of existence. suppose, for example, that the numerical expression for the force of gravity is, say, 3.1415. The value of pi, symbolizing the strength of the force of gravity. Whether you very slightly increase the value, say, to 3.1416, or slightly decrease it, say, to 3.1414, you destroy the universe. Gravity, it turns out, at its actual, measuring strength, makes the universe we know and live in and love - possible. A wee bit less gravity, the cosmos falls apart, everything goes flying off into endless space. A teeny tiny increase in the strength of gravity, and the entire universe collapses into one pile of matter, too dense to harbor life. The universe, it seems , is perfectly designed for us, and who knows what other forms of life. The universe works, like a machine, carefully planned and designed. However that happened, I appreciate it.

Knowing Better: Liberalism As Emotion, and Conservatism As Reason

YOU SIMPLY HAVE TO give conservatives credit for some of the haired brained, but very creative arguments they use against liberalism. Among the more prominent anti-liberal arguments is that liberals form conclusions and opinions based on emotion, rather than reason. Can you imagine all those liberal PhD types at places like Harvard, M.I.T., Stanford, Yale, ignoring their intellects and using only emotion to form their conclusions and beliefs? Institutions of higher education tend to be swarming with liberals, enough to almost make you wonder whether there is some connection between liberalism, and higher education, like, maybe, intelligence and education. No, say the conservatives, all those academic liberals are a bunch of ivory tower eggheads and nitwits, totally out of touch with reality, letting their emotions run wild, and ignoring their own intellectual capabilities, limited that they are. To hell with their newfangled explanations of nature, all this stuff about evolution and life on other planets, those crazy liberals! There has been a "liberal takeover" of America's education system, a horrible insidious conspiracy, and these evil liberal PhD type academicians are filling our youth with outlandish notions - liberal notions, such as human equality and societal progress - without which we could all live happily in good ole conservative America. Conservatives must think themselves to be the intellectual elite of America, by virtue of their denial of climate change and their denial of the existence of racism in America, and their tendency to embrace a religion which celebrates human sacrifice. You'd almost think that denying climate change is an emotional response to a horrible reality, and that denying that racism still exists, as conservatives tend to do, might be an emotional means of expunging guilt, and that embracing a primitive world view religiously is an emotional response to the uncertainly of modern life. That is, if you didn't know better.

Avoiding Taxes, Seeking Profit

The crazy thing about this big drug company merger (Pfizer-Allergen of Ireland) is that the owners are telling us, straight up, that the reason for it is to avoid American taxes. They used to be ashamed to admit that, because it was so unpopular, but now we're used to tax avoidance,, and no longer seem to care who engages in it, so this time they came right out with tax evasion as a reason for merging. Attitudes change. Once upon a time, conservatives were not ashamed to be racists; now, they are. Attitudes change, but big corporations don't; they still lie. The real reason for the Pfizer merger with the Irish corporation, like all mergers, is to further enrich the rich, at the expense of the poor, and the workers. They intend to do this by forming a monopoly on the drug industry, to get rid of all competition, and charge whatever prices they want, using the cheapest labor possible, thus increasing profit. Corporations don't pay much income tax in America anyway, whatever the tax rate. They use loopholes to avoid paying taxes. Avoidance of American taxes is partly the reason for the merger, but not the only reason. Another crazy thing about this merger is that the smaller company, Allergen, Is buying the much larger company, Pfizer. that tells you that there's something rotten in the state of Denmark. Speaking of Denmark, in Denmark everyone, including corporations, pays seventy percent income tax, and yet, Denmark is the richest country in the world. Go figure.

Eliminating Bad Behavior

NO MATTER WHAT DONALD TRUMP SAYS, no matter how crazy, his devout followers, of whom there appear to be more than a few, seem to lap it up like a stray dog on a pile of fresh puke. This bodes well for The Trumpster one might think, but perhaps not for the nation as a whole. Hordes of Islamic-new Jersey-Americans, claims the Donald, were jubilantly and wildly celebrating in the streets of New Jersey at the World Trade Center came falling down, all those years ago. Nobody in New Jersey can seem to remember any such thing happening, so we're all waiting for proof. Meanwhile, American conservatives are just dumb enough to choose to believe believe Trump's tall tale, or pretend to, and that's a bit of a problem, because, above all else, the one thing that the self proclaimed Islamic States wants is for we the people of the self proclaimed United States and the rest of the west to hate Muslims in general. The more hatred at the Islamic faith and its adherents by the Americans and Europeans, the more likely Muslims around the world are to support the self proclaimed Islamic State. Can't people like Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin see that? Evidently not. For that matter, can't American conservatives in general see that? Oh, hell no. Ninety nine point nine percent of all Islamic people are peace loving, and god loving. Ninety nine point nine percent of all Christians are the same. So, what about this radical idea? A coalition of Christians and Muslims, worldwide, to defeat violence! Not just terrorists, but perpetrators of violence of any sort. Why leave anybody out? Terrorism is a form of behavior, violence is a form of behavior, Let's declare war of all undesirable forms of human behavior, and eliminate them in one fell swoop! Let's even include drugs and poverty, which in a sense are forms of behavior, and have been at war with us for a long time anyway. Let us not be unrealistic. We are not likely to totally win any of these wars.

Keeping My Head Down

THE SALAD BAR at the senior center is sensational. I like to be first in line, which is easy, since most of these people move, quite frankly, like snails. The ravages of age. The lady in charge was adding plastic spoons, and we were talking, about gun control, for some reason. She carries, she said. I never woulda known. Sweet, soft spoken, silver haired Christian lady, probably somebody's grandma, going heels. Go figure. When she said: "guns don't kill people, people kill people", I knew it was time to add chopped broccoli and blue cheese, go sit down, and munch. So I sat down with my sensational senior center salad and started to eat and think, which is always risky. To conceal and carry, or to carry openly? For me, were I the gun totin' type, my personal preference on any given day would probably depend on my mood, and I suspect I'm far from alone. Arguments for and against either style are strong. Some states do it one way, some do it the other. Every state has its own style. Obviously, nobody really knows which is better, so they must be equal, so it must not even matter, so maybe folks should be free to do either, anywhere. The fact that its a matter of opinion, that nobody really know whether 'tis better to conceal or carry, I find troubling. If we don't even know where its best to carry a weapon, what else might we not know about weapons? Can we even be sure how they work, or whether they kill people? Maybe people don't kill people after all; maybe an evil spirit of some sort infect weapons at certain times, and bang, you're dead. The very minute every state in these United States has the same laws regarding firearm carrying, or even remotely similar laws, I'll rest assured we know what we're doing. Until then, I'm keeping my head down.

Sweet Dreams From Pfizer

ITS OFFICIAL, ACCORDING TO SOURCES. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is merging with Irish pharmaceutical heavyweight Allergen, in a deal, believe it or not, worth about one hundred and sixty billion, with a "B". The big get bigger, the rich get richer, and the United States government stands by idly, and lets it happen, even though its illegal. Its illegal because it violates the Sherman Anti-trust Act, like most modern corporate mergers do, and its happening because the U.S. government is owned and controlled by the very corporate community which seeks such mergers, seeks to further enrich the rich. The corporate wealthy make the rules; for all of us. The Pfizer CEO smugly spews the usual dishonest drivel: we are doing this for the betterment of everyone on the planet, our billionaire owners want only to serve you, the common man, and the new Pfizer will be able now to do even more for you, the common person, than ever. Also, the United States corporate tax is ruing us, keeping us from fulfilling our holy crusade to e]help everyone on Earth. God, what bull. the truth, of course, is that this merger is yet another in a long litany of examples of modern corporate capitalism run amok, out of control, and in control of the world. We the teeming masses must either rise up and stop it, or live in abject impoverished servitude. for example, instead of merging, these two companies should both be broken in half, to increase competition, which is supposed to be the basis of capitalism. but we the people don't seem to care whether we are owned and controlled by the corporate community, and our government is owned and controlled by the corporate community. There will come a day, all too soon, at this rate, when there is only one company in the world, and its owned by one person, like some kind of "Super Trump". Sweet dreams!

Guessing Whose Turn 'Tis To Be Hated (hint: ours)

WOULDN'T IT BE absolutely horrible if some foreign army landed on the coast of California, quickly established a beach head, and began rapidly, methodically, inexorably advancing inland, conquering the country, with every instrument imaginable, including air power and massive, streaming infantry, ever arriving, and neither the American civilian population nor military able to stop it? A complete American surrender to an all conquering enemy, on our soil, and the imposition of foreign political control. Horrible. The closest we've ever come to this is the War of 1812, with the Brits burning down Washington, and the War Between the States, with Lee up in Pennsylvania. And that was bad enough, heaven knows. Thank goodness for big oceans and Robert E. Lee's poor judgment. I keep trying to tell people, to tell my fellow Americans, that when this happens, anywhere in the world, the country that gets conquered ends up really hating the country that conquers it, and much of the rest of the world usually ends up feeling the same way, hating the empire. I tell people that all empires are hated, and that we the U.S.A. are now the hated empire. The responses I get amaze and amuse me. Everybody understands and agrees, but nobody cares. Hell, what can we do about it now, turn back the clock? Most Americans would rather watch the Kardashians than give a damn about anything.....People root for underdogs. Conquered countries are underdogs. Being a conquering empire has its downside: widespread unpopularity. Just ask the ancient Romans, or Napoleon Bonaparte's advisers. Or Hitler's Germans. Everybody they conquered hated them. Guess whose turn it is now? Yes, my fellow Americans, all this attacking we keep doing in the middle east riles some folks up. Go figure. No matter how justifiable or unavoidable or holy our American wars seem to us Americans, them foreigners don't always agree. Go figure. Americans who travel overseas often come back reporting perceiving or experiencing anti-American sentiment. How surprising. One becomes afraid to leave one's country, if one is American. This does not, of course, excuse terrorism, random, barbaric, mass murder. But even evil behavior is motivated, sometimes understandably. A wrong response does not preclude justifiable motivation. If only these terrorist bastards would realize that the pen is mightier than the sword. If only we all would.

To Let Them In, or To Keep Them Out, Or To Put Us All Out Of Our Misery

HILLARY CLINTON AND OBAMA are arguing in favor of taking in the Syrian refugees, on the basis that such action is in the true spirit of America, because America is the land of the compassionate. And now, suddenly, their conservative haters are pointing out that keeping refugees out is much more in the nature of America, which of course is quite correct. Damn, those america hating conservatives, revising our history, making America look bad, just like they often accuse liberals of doing. Fact is, America is both; a land where foreigners are not wanted, and a land of compassionate generosity which, once in a blue moon, does what the statue of liberty wrongly accuses it of - gladly taking in low value (economically) people. Of course, if you catch the conservatives in a patriotic state of mind, arguing with some America hating liberal who thinks America is mean spirited, the conservatives are gonna point to America's history of immigration acceptance in an Ellis Island heartbeat. But at the present, in the real world, the liberals want to bring in the Syrian refugees, and the conservative don't, so....our true way is to keep them out so say the right wingers. Well, whatever. This only goes to show that for every argument and point of view there is an equal and opposite one, that every viewpoint has merit, that we all embody all possible characteristics. Right now, they say, there are more Mexicans leaving the land of freedom than coming in. Go figure. Maybe they decided to go somewhere where opportunity isn't illusory. Goethe once said that Germany would be better off if all Germans left Germany, and scattered randomly around the world. He said this in the early 1800s. Based on subsequent history, he may very well have been right. Maybe we'll all leave the United States, ex-patriot ourselves, and put us out of our culturally diverse, economically and politically polarized national misery.

Wanting The NSA IN Our phones, Republican Style, but Being Unable To make It Happen

THIS IS TOO FUNNY. The two most despised entities in the galaxy, the U.S. gummit (govt.) and the corporate industrial financial technical complex, are at each other's throats. A rare and beautiful display of evil, consuming itself. The corporations want to make money, so they conceal/encrypt our cell phones chats, as per the strong wishes of the consumerate. Big gummit (govt.) wants to listen in, to one and all. Problem is, Bill Gates and duh boyz don't have any key, any way to bring dis-encryption about. The cat is out of the bag, as all the high school hackers are trying to tell us.But that unfortunate but savory and humorous fact doubtless won't stop the small government conservative republicans from shrilly screeching that we must have the NSA in our lives, at any and all cost. After all, here come the Muslims. We can fight them here, or we can fight them there, and all that rot. Paranoid lot, those conservative patriotic emotion based "thinkers". Problem is, it aint gonna happen, the elimination of private inter-citizen cell chats, 'cause it cain't, at least, not without us all getting new smart phones, and all our big tech corporation masters pitching tizzies. So there you have it. Big govt. (gummit) liberal democrat types want the National Security Agency out of our lives, small govt republican cons want it in. Go figure.

Here Come The Drones

OUR NEWEST HIGH TECH TOY IS DRONES. Before long, millions of us will have one, because some corporation or other will get rich by brainwashing us into believing that a home drone is the coolest thing since sliced bread, which it might well be. (I'm sure I'll find out)However, owing to their increasing numbers and resulting airborne congestion, drones are starting too crash in undesirable locations, like the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York and downtown Chicago streets. Within a year or two they'll be crashing into buildings and people and streets regularly, as divorcing couples use them to deliver ultimatums and spy, and teenagers have dogfights and do other fun but weird things with them, and America-hating terrorists transport bombs with them. So, they need to be regulated, and probably, therefore, policed, which is going to be a major hassle. I would trade in smart phones and drones for a colony on Mars in a heartbeat, even though, back in the nineteen sixties, I fantasized about all three, longingly. Here comes more big government. Drone regulation. You can hear the republicans screaming now. Let 'em fly in freedom! Or maybe our conservative libertarian friends will categorize drones with recreational drugs and the female body - needful of regulation. Either way, keep looking up, and be prepared at all times, to duck.

To Let Them In, Or To Keep Them Out

MUCH THAT I HATE to admit it, the republicans (in America) have a point, concerning refugees from Islamic countries. Better not let 'em in here. It only takes one person to raise hell, and, who can tell, about anybody raising hell, really? Of course, there's that Jesus thingie, you know, the one about the good Samaritan. And not because anybody in particular or any particular religion has the truth, its because, the words of Jesus convey a philosophy of life that, even upon close examination, seem to be a perfect blueprint for a higher level of existence. His words would seem true even if they were, say, mine, and not his. (We can all make his words our own, eh!) So... anyway... what's the call? Maybe we should let ten thousand Syrian refugees in, after they fill out a questionaire, the way Obama wants it, and just take our chances, because of our desire to achieve a Christlike society, and because the law of average is on our side - maybe. One way of looking at it is to assume that if radical Islamic terrorists were wanting to sneak into America, they'd've already been doing it for years, by walking across the Rio Grande at night, which is no great accomplishment, not at all hard to do, evidently. Then, where are they? Hiding out, waiting? Will there someday be day of terror, hitting every town in America, some horrible day in the future? Let us hope and pray not. My intuition tells me that we could all act like Jesus would, and get away with it, vis a vis the teeming refugee hordes. But one can never be too careful, you know.

Evolving With Einstein

WHEN ALBERT EINSTEIN was about twelve years old, he had an epiphany. It consisted of an awareness of his Jewishness, and he determined to embrace his cultural ancestry to the fullest. He became pure kosher, and observed all the rites and rituals. Another epiphany within a year resulted in his abandoning the formal aspects of Judaism, in favor of philosophical pantheism. Henceforth his religiosity consisted in, as he put it, "a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit which manifests itself throughout nature." Einstein continued to believe in God, but he dropped the dogma. he remained, however, deeply devoted to his Jewish heritage, and gave its intellectual component credit for spurring his own intellect. As he put it, he "thanked his lucky stars" for his heritage. He remained, however, deeply suspicious of the creation of the state of Israel, suspecting that it would create more problems for the Jewish cause than it was worth. He even turned down an opportunity to become the first president of Israel. He thought it incredible that anybody would consider him qualified. He got it from all sides. Zionists thought him insufficiently observant, others considered him to be everything from communist to anarchist to non christian sinner condemned to hell. The price of fame, and all that. "My religiosity consists in humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit which reveals itself in what little we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality. I cannot conceive of a personal God who would sit in judgment of creatures of his own creation. Morality is of the highest importance, for mankind, but not for God." Well put, Dr. einstein

Making Moot Points About the Middle East

RECENTLY WAS THE TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF the assassination of Israeli prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who may well have been the best, and last hope for peace in the middle east. He was a liberal, who therefore wanted change. He wanted to change war into peace, by compromising with the Palestinians. The very thought of this is taboo among hawkish Israeli and American conservatives, who prefer demonstrations of strength ad intransigence. It is compromise which made modern America possible, and it is compromise which will make peace possible, if ever it is. Israel, twenty years ago, was like america, polarized, evenly divided between liberals and conservatives, but now the conservatives are in ascendance, as they may well be in America. Rabin was intensely hated by the vast right wing conspiracy, both in Israel and in its benefactor, the U.S.A., and two brothers, only one of whom is still locked up, gunned him down. If you seek to make peace in these places, you do so at great risk. Consider Joshua Ben Joseph, Martin Luther King, and Robert F. Kennedy. Isn't there any better way to deal with these wimpish, peace loving, left wing radicals? It could be argued that the state of Israel should not exist, that 1948 was far too late in history to carve out a new nation in an ancient land, that Palestine was far happier, for both Jews and Arabs, before the fulfillment of Zionism, and that a single book, such as the Christian bible, is no excuse for the theft of a nation. Such arguments are moot. Perhaps the situation might have been better if the British Empire and the United States had not imposed the Jewish homeland upon the world without permission. Equally arguable is the proposition that the world would now be better off without the stain of European and American imperialism. Such arguments are, quite obviously, now moot.

Reassessing the Situation

WANTING ONLY A COLD ONE OR TWO, I slouched into the nondescript bar and sat down, near where a small group of fine young ladies were seated. I was alone, at a table which seated four. They were in a booth. I smiled, they smiled, and that's all. Nobody ever accused me of being smooth. Soon four big tattooed gents in black leather and metal sauntered in, looking like a small biker gang, or part of one, which their bearing seemed to indicate. It occurred to me, by and by, that they wanted my table. They kept glancing over at the ladies, who, quite frankly, didn't seem to me to be their type. That fact usually doesn't slow down biker dudes, who can always give it a whirl, and move on if its a no go. But I appeared to be the only barrier to their giving it a whirl. But I wasn't about to move. Even though I felt not the slightest bit lucky myself, I was damned if I was going to get up and walk out, or move to another spot, and make myself look obsequious. No matter that they looked rough and tough, ready to rumble, and had me greatly outnumbered. They shot a disdainful glance at me every few minutes, and a warmer one at the girls more often. after a long enough period of time to ensure me of my masculinity, a decided to finish off my last beer, and offer to let them have my table, thus sparing my honor, at least in my eyes. I walked up to the closest dude, and said: "if y'all want this table, its yours". Even as I finished the sentence something felt vaguely familiar. The man looked straight at me, grinned broadly, and said "hey buddy, how's it going?" Eureka! Recognition! This man was none other than a former student of mine, way back in my graduate school days, when I was teaching freshman history at the university. I recalled Dusty was different from the other kids; sort of a biker type even back then, who I thought might or might not ever graduate. turns out he didn't, but he filled out some, got married, got into a good line of work, had a coupla kids, and yes, he and his friends liked to go riding together, but no gangs, or anything like that. Just the clothes to keep the wind off. Good solid citizen, looking a bit rough around the edges. We laughed, cut up old touches, and had a beer together. We shook hands, and as I walked out the door, sure enough, he and his three friends were already settling in at my table. I smiled at my own silliness, and felt confident that dusty would make it home to his wife and kids soon enough.

Taking Credit, and Blame, and Fearing For One's Country

WHETHER WE CARE TO ADMIT IT, the U.S.A. is a racist country; study after study affirms this. The point is not arguable, which is perhaps why so many Americans argue the point. America has a long and virulent history of racism, and an equally impressive record of denying this truth. No society in world history has been as racist. By nature humans refuse to accept unpleasant truths. European-Americans are as afraid of this truth as they are afraid of African-Americans. At the University of Missouri, African-Americans are either fabricating offense for some perverted purpose, such as making trouble or getting attention, as they are being accused of, or they genuinely feel the sting of racism. Which is the more likely? In the United States of Amnesia, the fun house never ends. Barbaric as the Islamic terrorists behavior is, it is not unmotivated. Americans need to understand; when a foreign army half a million strong invades, conquers, and occupies an Islamic country for over a decade, feathers are bound to be ruffled. We forget that the Islamic State would not exist today if Saddam Hussein were still in power, as he would be, but for American intervention - an intervention which, quite truthfully, was predicated on a deliberate deceit by President Bush the first. Bush told Saddam to invade Kuwait, with america's blessing, then, once the deed had been done, changed his mind, and waxed indignant. It was a trap, deliberately set, as a pretext to war, invasion, and the acquisition of oil fields. Feeling betrayed, rightly so, Saddam evidently hatched a murder plot against Bush, which provided Bush the second with a personal pretext to invade Iraq again. You'll recall that his public pretext was weapons of mass destruction, which, you'll recall, never existed. The mistake the French made was in rubber stamping American imperialism. When sufficiently angered, people are willing to die to kill their enemies. That is the state of mind of America's, and France's enemies. Self righteous arrogance is always the attitude of violently obtained empires. Thomas Jefferson said it best: I fear for my country, when I reflect that God is just."

Pissing With Impunity In The Pool

IN LATE MIDDLE AGE I had the good fortune to spend three consecutive summers at a beautiful, modern aqua center, what used to be called a public swimming pool, and to get paid for it. It was a summer recreation program for disabled kids, and I was a happy camper supervisor. Beautiful bikini babes, corny loud summer beach music, energetic children breaking the "no running" rule, all that. Don't worry; I didn't take my shirt off. Didn't need to, I never got in the water. Three summers, and nary a dip. Mainly because my job was to supervise, and keep an eye out. But the real reason was this: everyday there were dozens of kids under the age of, say, twelve, hour after hour in the water, and never did I see any of them leave the pool, and enter the restroom. Red flag, as they say. People started to ask me why I never got wet, and instead sat around glancing at books and at the swimmers, and at first I cited my professional duties. Then, I decided to start telling the truth, the one about kids never going to the bathroom. After all, being in the water stimulates the metabolism, as we all know. Something wasn't right. I always got the same response; complete dismissal. Nobody wanted to believe what to me was an obvious truth; the water was full of chlorine and urine. "The chlorine takes care of it, even if it happens, which it certainly doesn't; the parents are on top of it." All tripe. Rationalizing if ever there was. The plain fact is, chlorine helps, but no, it does not magically eliminate all piss. People like to swim, and they don't like thinking about the water quality. There's a parallel, I think, to climate change. We don't want the world to be in environmental distress, because we don't want to do what it takes to deal with it, which means sacrifice. We avoid the truth only because we would perish if we accepted it, said Goethe. Gallons of urine in the swimming pool are cleaned up for us, somehow, and tons of carbon in Earth's atmosphere are somehow purified by nature, all without our needing to do anything. Like, I am sooo totally sure..

Going To Small Churches With Very Old People

WHEN I TURNED SIXTY and joined the local senior center, it soon seemed obvious to me that I was way too young to be there. When the prayer stopped and the lunch line formed, everyone seemed to be moving in slow motion. In fact they were in a hurry. the food is great. If I move away, I'll tell them good bye, and offer a quick, friendly suggestion: when a new member shows up, walk over, offer to shake hands, introduce yourself, and say something nice. Or maybe I'm the only new member in history who wasn't greeted by one and all, and if so, disregard above advice. I had to win them over one at a time, since I look too young to be there, don't dress properly, and look like some kind of radical intellectual non-Christian type, which I am. One...at...a...time...worth it, though, because the food is good, and cheap for the elderly. We are finally beginning our seniors right, and we must, since within a few decades most of us will be seniors. Thus far in American history, the elderly have been an abused minority, like blacks, gays, woman, and any else who doesn't happen to be a wealthy white man, but that's changing, of necessity. At least ten of them invited me to church, and they all seem to belong to different churches. In a tiny little town, there are nearly as many churches as there are people. therefore I could not resist saying to one of them: "we all invent our own religions, ultimately". You can imagine how that went over. I told one of them that my religiosity was modeled closely on that of Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein, and he may've done some googling, because his initial confusion has resolved itself into smug, knowing disdain. My plan right now is to either accept all the invitations, or none of them. Each experience is likely to be rewarding, somehow or other, so maybe I'll end up just selecting a could of them, as research samples. All of these small churches are dwindling, as is the Christian faith worldwide. So they could use some help.

Rendering Unto Caesar, Reluctantly

RENDER UNTO CAESAR are among the most interesting words ever spoken by Jesus Christ, and among the least discussed, the least sermonized, least understood, least appreciated. In capitalistic, profit seeking, anti tax America, "render unto Caesar", if too often recited, becomes inconvenient. Our American Christian churches are filled with pro capitalist, anti socialist conservatives. "Render Unto Caesar" cannot possibly be among their favorite words of Jesus. American conservative Christians believe in lower taxes to increase personal profit, not "render unto Caesar". Hence, the words are largely ignored. Like everything else Jesus said, you can put these words into any context you wish, or no context at all, or you can twist it any way you like, and the message is still the same: pay your taxes. Redistribute the wealth. Behave socialistically, for the purpose of helping others, not enriching yourself. Its that simple. And he didn't say anything about organizing politically to reduce taxes, or joining the Taxed Enough Already TEA party. Are there any wild guesses as to what Christ would prefer Caesar spend his tax revenue on? Would it be weapons for the military, or programs to aid the poor? Would Jesus be a proponent of trickle down Reaganomics, wheres taxes are reduced on the wealthy, and military spending is increased, and social spending is reduced - or would he favor transferring wealth from the rich to the poor? As we approach the holiday season, brothers and sisters, fellow American, conservative Christians, may we hold in our hearts the words of Jesus Christ, which, in all truth, are not the words of corporate capitalism or the economic policies of the very conservative Republican party.

Wishing Right Wingers Were Sane

THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI has been infected with the classic, deadly American disease of racism, which is highly contagious, and must be resisted early and often, by whatever means necessary, including legislation. Perhaps a complete quarantine of the flagship campus might be in order, and if the African American football players can't be persuaded to call off their strike, old movies'll have to do for entertainment. Most interesting of all is the conservative reaction to the protest. Conservatives seem to feel that the whole thing is being made up, that there is no basis for protest against racism, and that the protesters are the villains, not the victims. Conservatives embrace tradition. In America, tradition includes the flag, apple tie, and Chevy, as well as a class based society segregated by great disparities in age, gender, wealth, social status, and power. During slave days, conservatives argued that the slaves were benefiting from enslavement. During Jim Crow segregation they argued their old states rights baloney, and accepted the brutality of segregation without a whimper of complaint. The liberals complained. When Martin Luther King was marching, conservatives dogged him and threatened him as a troublemaker. Now, they respond to the racism at the University of Missouri with contempt for the victims, calling the victims 'racists", and believing themselves, suddenly, miraculously, to be above racism. What a laugh. Over time, conservatives seem to be becoming less reasonable, but fortunately, increasing laughable and entertaining. To deny that racism lives in today's United States is to cling desperately to tradition; the tradition that says that whether there is racism in America should be determined by the people at large, not the government. Then, if the people choose racism, simply ignore it, which means, accept it. the conservative way. For most of American history, conservatives were in favor of racism, and before that slavery and segregation, and liberals were against it. Now, the libs are still fighting racism, and the conservatives insist it no longer exists. According to most conservatives, the current unrest at the University of Missouri has nothing to do with racism, but is instead a liberal conspiracy, intended to make trouble. Yes, they really believe that, believe it or not. Or maybe they're just pretending to believe it, and maybe they're pretending to believe that global warming doesn't exist, and that we would all be safer if we all carried guns. Probably not, but maybe. One can always hope. They may be crazy, them right wingers, but we hope they're not that crazy.

Dodging Ben Carson's Knife

REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL DARLING Dr. Ben Carson is on a roll, threatening to trump Trump. Rejoice, right wingers of America, you finally have your own viable black candidate, to offset B. O.. Your very own conservative African-American, of which there are about five nation wide, to make you right wingers look open minded, tolerant, inclusive. Its all smoke and mirrors, of course, since any gathering of tea party or republican conservative types anywhere in real space and real time is real, real white. Your best bet is that the eventual republican nominee will also be real white. Dr. Carson, like the rest of us, has a proclivity to exaggerate his own experiences, for the same reason why Thomas Jefferson did and the rest of us do; to excite wonder and get attention. No harm in that. Like mark Twain said, never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Then too, we love it when our celebrity exaggerators get caught, have to confess, and promise to reform, before our very eyes. It gives us a chance to be self righteous, noble, forgiving, tolerant, and it gives the offending celebrities a bit more face time, which is what they dearly love. Dr. Carson's whopper about getting accepted at West Point does no harm, because it merely stretches the truth a mite, in the grand tradition of Mark Twain, Davy Crockett, and Brian Williams. Th Carson whopper about stabbing somebody in the belt buckle while trying to stab him in the gut is very alarming; whether its true or not. People change remarkably little, fundamentally, in their late childhood and adulthood. Obama's sister claimed that she has never seen her brother angry at anyone. That's just what we need in our presidents; tightly controlled emotions, subdued by the intellect. We don't need some wild animal in the White House throwing things and breaking things. A quick, hard to control temper can lurk just beneath the surface of the most soft spoken, gentle person. Beware candidate Carson; either he once had a murderous impulse, or he wants us to believe that he did. In either case, watch out.

Denying Change

THE WAY IT'LL ALL GO DOWN - and you know this is true - is that the human species will develop wind and solar energy, reverse climate change, and save the planet, and in response all the idiot conservative climate change deniers will drool to us that there never was a problem in the first place, it was all made up, it was all a liberal hoax. Its what they say now, and its what they'll say if they live long enough to say it far into the future. Too funny. They also say stupid things like, the human race is too small to ever have any real impact on Earth's environment, or that, in the long run, the environment will take care of itself, so we don't need to worry about it. They say the same thing about economic disasters; in the long run, the free market corrects itself, without any help from the government. A single response pertains to both the environment and the economy: in the long run, we're all dead...so....isn't there anything we can do, pretty please, while we're still here? Why resist change, and human corrective action, either for the environment or the economy, so very desperately, at all costs? Is it because to admit the need for change undermines the basic values behind conservative thought? Mysterious forces of nature, such as invisible hands and deities cannot and will not relieve us of the consequences of our actions. We had better learn to do it ourselves. Time to grow up, and discard our man made deities and mysterious, invisible forces. The one thing conservatives fear and hate the most, change, is the one thing we need more than ever, the one thing that will save us from ourselves. and change is exactly what is taking place, as more of us understand and accept the reality of our impact on the planet, and how to make it sustainable.

Ditching the Pipeline, For Now

PRESIDENT OBAMA, after thinking about it for seven years, finally deep sixed the Keystone pipeline project, much to the jubilation of environmental new age hippie types, and the enduring consternation of profit seeking, conservative republican suit and tie type guys. The president probably had decided the issue by the time he got out of first grade, but withheld his announcement until very late in his presidential term of service to avoid years of vilification by the mainstream American conservative media. But he can avoid it no more, and here it comes! Should be fun, and interesting. American presidents seem to fall prey to a certain mental disorder wherein they discover courage and truth quite late in their terms. We learned, for instance, that we are all puppets of the corporate state only on Eisenhower's last day in office. Thus Obama's environmental legacy seems assured, if not his pro business legacy. Ironically, the earth will probably suffer more damage by shipping the "dirty" oil using trucks and trains, instead of through the never to be built pipeline. Whether the Keystone pipeline ever came into existence is entirely moot, notwithstanding the huge fuss both sides of the issue have made over the issue. When a republican becomes president, which may be soon, look for the pipeline proliferation to resume. Numerous oil pipelines already line the fruited plain, with more to come. Homo sapiens is going to suck every last drop of fossil fuel out of the ground and burn it, environment be damned. Obama missed a golden opportunity to make a bargain with republicans, conservatives, and corporations. He could have blackmailed them all, probably, into issuing passionate, unconditional statements of acceptance of climate change, in exchange for the pipeline. You can build your pipeline if you agree to invest heavily in solar energy! Besides, the next republican president to come along will doubtless resuscitate the pipeline project.

Takin' Selfies

PLEASE BEAR IN MIND, that apparently contrary to popular belief, a "selfie" is not a recently invented cell phone app. Oh, hell no. Selfies have been quite possible for quite some time, and have in fact, on rare occasion, taken place. its just that, until now, even American society wasn't sufficiently self absorbed and narcissistic to create a selfie fad. Part of it, of course, is the simple fact that, with today's smart phones, selfies are just too darned easy to take, and therefore too tempting not to take. However, they have always been a possibility. Fifty years ago you could hold a camera at arms length, and snap a quick picture of yourself. Its just that nobody did it. Nobody thought of it. either you held the camera and took a picture of something other than your own sweet self, or somebody else took a picture of you. It was that simple, and that's the way it was. Hell, for that matter, it was probably doable in the nineteenth century. You would have had to set up the big bulky camera, attach a rope to it, stand in front of the camera, pull the rope, and just stand there for ten minutes or however much time it took, and make a selfie, in slo mo. It might be just a tad blurry, since you would suddenly appear in the frame while the metal plate was already exposing. But again, nobody did that. Who in the hell would want to, at least until you get to the third millennium, cell phones, and inflated egos? Or whatever. Who knows, maybe folks way back when woulda been snapping selfies along with the rest of us had they but had cell phones...but still, even with the primitive cameras they had, they could have taken photos of themselves....and didn't. What do selfies say about us? Maybe not much. Social media is just another way to create community, but nothing may entirely take the place of good old fashioned face to face interface. Selfies would seem to harm no one, and maybe, just maybe, they do not prove that we are all a bunch of self worshipping egomaniacal maniacs.

Dreaming Of Reasonable Regulation, and Good Judgment, Albeit Vainly

EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER had a credit card, wised up, and cut it up, knows exactly how exorbitant interest rates for the damned things are. Downright usurious. They (our corporate masters) do this because its perfectly legal, there's a market for it - in short, because they can. Sometimes one wonders why they can, why we the people allow them, by providing the market, and refusing to enact the necessary regulatory legislation. In America we worship the concept of the free market, and although we regulate it somewhat, we do so sparingly, cautiously, so as not to upset our masters. we make mistakes, sometimes over regulating, more often under regulating. It should probably be legal in New York city to drink large paper cups full of cold, syrupy, sugar laden, heavenly caffeinated soda pop, and if memory serves, it finally, at long, litiganous last, is. it should probably be illegal to charge excessive interest rates on credit cards, merely to protect the average American consumer from the consequences of his own poor judgment, which, though regrettable , we must sometimes do. Maybe credit cards should treated the same as guns, drugs, and abortions should be; perfectly legal, with reasonable regulation, but relatively rare, owing to the soundness of judgment of the average American decision maker. Good luck with that, and don't hold your breath. So here's what we can do to strike a blow against tyranny and usury. We can all cut up our credit cards, and refuse to replace them. Consider it an act of, shall we say, organized free enterprise. consumers have the right to communicate and organize too, you know. heaven only knows our corporate owner/masters do enough of it. And while we're at it, let's jump start the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. That was fun. Ah, the good ole days... Let's do it now, in the name of freedom and liberty! All together now...

Studying the Bible, Again

THE FOLKS OVER AT THE SENIOR CENTER are having Bible study...again. They have Bible study often, at least once a week, sometimes more. And I'm thinking...look. You're all about seventy five years old. You've been Christians since you were, what, ten? that's six and a half decades of Bible study, isn't it? I mean, how much does it take? I read the Bible in high school then moved on. Great book, in its own way. mark Twain said it best. its got some noble poetry, clever fables, a lot of violence and general obscenity, and at least one thousand outright lies. A fine insight into the mind of ancient mankind. Good, interesting folklore. Either that, or the undeniable, indisputable Word of God. Take your pick. But either way, the point is, how long odes it take, how much study does it take, to fundamentally comprehend, to know the content of, to understand, one single book???And that's no matter how good, important, or divine the book is. Even devout Christians have to admit that there are worthy books in the world other than the Holy Christian Bible. Well, maybe they don't. Or maybe they can't? Again, the bible is a great book, and should be read by everyone. What strikes me about Bible readers is that the more devoutly they read it, the more often they read it, the less often they seem to read anything else, or seem to have ever read anything else. They don't seem to know much about books, any books, or books in general, other than the Bible. Most of all what bible worshippers do not seem to understand is how limited books really, how inadequate as methods of preserving and transmitting information. Oh, they have their advantages, don't get me wrong. Considering what book do to advance human civilization, books work wonders. But that isn't the point. The point is that books, inherently, are not capable of perfection. And perfection is what believers require from sacred books. You have no idea, or maybe by now you do, how badly I want to walk into the Bible study gang, and hand out copies of "The Age of Reason" by Thomas Paine. Just to help out. There is no harm, none at all, in expanding one's mind, in learning something new. In fact, it is arguably a good idea to so do. Bible study groupies, like all other narrow minded fanatics, would do well to consider that fact. And, one last time, all t his has nothing to do with whether the Christian Bible is the Word of God. It has more to do with the intelligence that God gave us, and how to use it.

Drug Testing As Treason

WHEN I RETIRED recently after a thirty five year teaching and care giving career, I soon realized I'd made a big mistake. I wasn't going tom miss the kids; I was going to miss the work schedule. so I decided to apply for a job helping senior citizens in their own homes. The lady at the office was appropriately smug and reserved when she told me a drug test would be required. So eager was I to reenter to workforce that I complied, albeit grudgingly. I told her I was opposed to drug tests, and that I smoke marijuana, to lower my blood pressure. She smiled faintly. The test was predictably humiliating, and predictably, I failed it. they didn't even bother contacting me. In the interim I have realized that by agreeing to the test, I committed treason, and was acting as a traitor. A traitor to America, to American values, committing treason against the very principles upon which our great nation was founded. The principle of freedom. To go barging into a citizen,s physical body , to remove part of it, and analyze it for its chemical contents is, and I'm sorry, flat out tyranny. And I don't care if its just piss, and I don't care the reason for doing it. There is no such thing as a good enough reason for that invasion of privacy, that abortion of American freedom. the same people who want to outlaw abortion are the ones who tend to favor drug testing in the workplace; namely, conservatives. The funny thing is, these are the same people who constantly accuse liberal democrats of favoring "big government". Under no circumstances take a drug test, no matter how much you want the job, because you don't want to make the same mistake I did, and commit treason against American freedom. Or, if you absolutely must take a drug test because you absolutely must keep your job because you just have to survive and feed your family, at least have the backbone and the love of American freedom to make your point - the point that drug testing is un-american, politely but emphatically, to your drug tester-tyrant. Particularly if you are a patriotic, freedom loving, limited government conservative, and therefore willing to stand up for your rights.

Afraid of Ghosts No More

THERE WAS A TIME, there really was, when businesses hid their ghosts. At least, American businesses. Not thei financial, legal, and sexual skeletons, but rather their literal ghosts, their haunted buildings. The reason? They didn't wanna scare people off. Real estate and commercial property brokers in particular. Why, if a place was haunted, fugggetaboutit. No way you, the potential buyer, was going to find out about that little see through girl who keeps croppin' up on the landing 'bout once or twice a week, long about midnight. After all, you have to sell or rent this place, get that commission, and feed your family. None of this ghost nonsense. Why scare of clients? Well, those days are gone, long gone. We're changing fast, or we already have changed. Nowadays, people who are sufficiently fortunate to have haunted property on the market, first thing they do, often, is proclaim with all possible vigor the presence of said ghost, and offer to prove it. Maybe not so much in the housing market, but in commercial real estate, particularly hotels and vacation property, yes indeed, the live in ghost is a lure, a kill joy no more. Of course, there is a law requiring full spectral exposure, but still, its one of those laws that used to be ignored, law marijuana and speed limits, but now is often no longer - not for reasons of morality, but rather, relating to the profit motive. Property owners now want to sell their ghosts, because they know they can. that's how much America has changed. We now not only believe in ghosts, we love them, and that is a sea change. Chalk it up to the scientific spirit, or natural human inquisitiveness, or improved courage, whatever. Fact is, ghosts have come out of the closet, and we aint near as afraid of 'em no more. And that's got to be a good thing, aint it? Who knows. We seem to be getting smarter, in some ways. Maybe next thing you know, folks'll stop believing that God writes books, or that torturing someone to death brings salvation to everyone who approves of the torture.