Talking About the People

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS was invented, when, in the nineteen seventies? I can remember a world without it. So vast has it become that Wal Mart deliberately left out the word "gay', as in "dawn we now our gay apparel". That might be going a bit too far. Conservatives tend to hate political correctness, and blame it on some imaginary "liberal establishment", forgetting for the moment that there is no such thing, by definition, as a "liberal establishment". Is political correctness nothing other than one last desperate attempt for Americans to live in peace with each other, and enjoy the wealth, instead of fighting over it? (in America, people who are not wealthy are taught to believe they someday will be, if only they obey their corporate masters). Is political correctness a trick by our wealthy elite corporate masters to subjugate us like placid sheep, a clever trick like patriotism and the myth of upward mobility? Offend nobody, ever, keep 'em working together, like a team, for the gospel of wealth, which will trickle down later, someday... America is a nation with many diverse interests, and thus much internal conflict. It boils over often. Our current version is tea party versus occupy wall street, and it aint over yet. American society, American rulers, choose victims and enenmies, and goes after them with a vengeance. Internal or external enemies, it makes no difference. Indians, blacks, gays; anyone will do, damn near. You name it, we oppress it, all in the name of national unity, patriotism, pater, father, allegiance to the father(land). Very effective way of maintainting control by the few of the many. By always having an enemy, the vast majority of us work together, obediently, and we all stay in our place. Suggested reading: "A People's History of the United States", by Howard Zinn. This brilliant book tells the story of the ninety nine point nine percent of the American people that traditional history books leave out. It talks about more than just the powerful. More than just the rulers. It talks about us all.

Young, but Learning Fast

'FAST EDDIE' SNOWDEN, the high tech geek who spilled the beans on the NSA and thus proved once and for all to the American people that they live in a police state, has a new job in Russia. Good for him, they deserve each other. Snowden is regarded as a traitor by many Americans, and the rest of the American people want to consider him a hero, but are afraid to, at least openly. When a subject of tyranny exposes tyranny to others who are fellow subjects, the tyrants label the illuminator of the public "traitor", and a surprising number of the newly illuminated do likewise, reflexively. Snowden is the gift that keeps on giving. Not a day goes by in which ever more nefarious espionage activities by the U.S. government are not revealed through Fast Eddie's perfidy. Give credit where credit is due; rarely has anyone gotten out of the country faster than Eddie Snowden, not since the British army at Yorktown, or Poncho Villa fleeing the terrible swift sword of cowboy Teddy Roosevelt. Back home in the United States Snowden is a wanted man, but not wanted in precisely the manner in which he might want to be wanted. Snowden is working on some Russian website; wanna bet that the Russkies are keeping their national secrets, shall we say, close to the vest? How ironic it would be if Snowden reveals hideous governmet abuses in Putin's Dictatorship! Then again, what is there that he could possibly reveal that could possibly surprise us? We Americans may scream and raise a big fuss about tyranny and government surveillance in the U.S.; compared to the Russians, we don't even know what tyranny and oppression really are. Hell, we don't even know what they are compared to the English, or the French...but we seem to be learning, fast. And please remember, we Americans are a young nation.

Thinking Inside Think Tanks

AMONG AMERICA'S MANY interesting forms of community, including street gangs, fight clubs, and tea parties, there are "think tanks". These are groups of highly intelligent people brought together inside a building for the purpose in engaging in thought, and producing benefits therefrom. They are funded by private donations from wealthy people with a political agenda, and are usually conservative, though some few are liberal. Their primary purpose is to justify the values and beliefs of their benefactors. You would almost think that productive thinking could occur anywhere, by almost anybody, and that it wouldn't be necessary to spend a lot of money on buildings and such in order to get it done. But, oh no, nothing so simple in America, the fun house, where nothing is as it seems, and a big fuss must always be made. But what the heck? Nothing wrong with a little formal, paid thinking here and there. Each think tank has an imposing name. The American Enterprise Instutute is devoted to thinking about economics, with only one requirement: all thought must be conservative, and must reflect the belief that the free market is sacred. The current chairperson of the AEI is a consrvative gentleman named Arthur Brooks, and he made a rather shocking statemnt recently. He said that conservative republicans should consider the possibility of accepting the existence of the social safety net, rather than trying to undermine it. In other words, welfare programs are here to stay, might as well accept them. Opposing entitlements might be hazardous to your political health, dear conservatives. Will Mr. Brooks lose his job for blasphemy? From social security to medicaid to obamacare, conservatives have been dragged onboard kicking and screaming. Mr Brooks mright merely be saying that all the kicking and screaming is counter productive to conservatives interests, whatever those are. He is certainly not saying that sharing wealth through government coercian is a good idea, and he is no doubt adamantly opposed to Obamacare. He made one comment to the effect that liberal democrats want endless welfare, and conservative republicans want enterprise. The demonstrably open minded deep thinking Mr. Brooks might eventually realize that even liberals, of all people, believe in good hard work and free enterprise. But of course, it takes awhile to think of things like that, even for deep thinkers swimming in think tanks.

Defending America With Pet Toys

YOU CAN ALMOST do all of your shopping in a Dollar General store. The best advice for folks in Russia or China is to develorp a dollar store economy, just like the one we have in America. You'll love it, you'll see. Is the dollar store concept the most innovative American business idea since Wal Mart? It matters not that few items actually cost as little as a dollar, you can get what you want, cheaply. Browse the pet section, and pick up a few fun toys for that special member of the family. I walked out with something called the Ever Pet Pet Laser", for three dollars, not realizing until I got home and read the package that I had actually purchased a formidable weapon capable of bringing down aircraft. The toy is a cylindar half an inch in diameter about about three inches long. Coin shaped batteries are included. Put the batteries in, point it anywhere you want, and your cats'll be jumping around in no time, getting that all important exercise, trying to catch that elusive little red dot on the wall. Pretty ingenius, especially fot those who must confine their pets indoors due to proximity of super highways. Amazing, you can buy a laser in a dollar store. ON the back is a warning; do not point light at anyone's eyes, animal or human (what's the difference?), product can be dangerous, it is a federal offense to aim light at any and all aircraft. Good heavens. You aim this thing at an airplane flying high overhead, whether aircraft is a Cessna one fifty or a B52 bomber, and doing so may cause said aircraft to crash. The laser beam might damage or disorient electronic equipment onboard aircraft, or blind the pilot, or heavens knows what else. Has it ever happened? Undoubtedly. For all we know some six year old kid sliced up an attack squadron heading for Syria or Iraq. Toddler disarms American peacekeeping bomber force. You're almost tempted to ask whether these things should be manufactured, let alone sold in dollar stores. Let the free market decide! Who needs consumer protection? Hell, there's a warning right on the package, what else do you need? So far so good; the cats are hopping around enthusiastically, getting their daily minimum, and there has been no morbid impulse to bring down aircraft, though you never know. Maybe all good Americans should keep an ever pet pet laser in the home. If the Iraquis are trying to build atomic bombs, they are undoubtedly building bombers with which to deliver them, and after all, one must defend one's country.

Standing In the Sun, at Long Last

THERE IS A VILLAGE IN NORWAY which lies deep in a narrow valley, surrounded by steep tall mountains, which gets even less sunlight per year than it would were it not surrounded by tall close mountains, which isn't much. For six months out of the year, virtually no sunlihgt gets through, and the town languishes in a murky twilight darkness, day, after day, after...and this has been the situation for centuries, since humans inhabited this beautiful but dark valley, which has been a very long time. Presumably generations of villagers spent their lives in near perpetual gloom; unless they ventured beyond the valley regularly. Suddenly, in the futuristic year 2013, the lack of sunshine is no problem. Three large mirrors have been placed atop the surrounding mountains, and sunlight can be reflected down into the village much of the time, reducing the darkness, bringing light to the village, for once. The mirror system is in place, has been thoroughly tested, and works just fine. The mirrors send light unto the village like three gigantic spotlights, three new suns. Everybody is ecstatic about it. Now its just a matter of figuring out the best way to decide exactly how to use the mirrors; somebody has to decide, and may any acrimony be minor. This raises the question; what took 'em so long? Mirrors have been available for millenia; the ancient Greeks and Romans, hundreds of years B.C. were burning ecah other's ships and cities by focusing reflected light on them. Sunlight warfare. So, in theory, the solution of the mirrors has been available for this Norwegian community since the town was first established. Such is the nature of technology, its applicatin is delayed by economic and sociological circumstances; television could have been developed right after world war one, but wasn't, until right after world war two. Maybe the Norwegian town has always been just plain too small to warrant the mirror solution, until now. Perhaps modern European state socialism is the magic needed to bring sunlight to Scandanavian villages hidden deep in valleys. Whatever the cause of its belated arrival, the townspeople are glad to be standing in sunlight, at long last.

The Great Wal Mart Basket-Sack Rip Off

THE SMALL TOWN here I live finally got a Wal Mart a couple of years ago. For those of you living in Russia or on Mars, Wal Mart is the word's largest retailer. Always the lowest price. Always. If you don't have one where you live, get one. The new one in my small American town is actually only a small grocery store, with nothing else, just enough to keep us fed, and that's a lot better than nothing. It became popular right off the bat. At first, you could walk in, and choose between a shopping cart, or a hand carried basket, blue in color. I always chose the basket, because I like the upper body exercise, and the big shopping carts are too big for the width of the isles. Suddenly, one day, the blue baskets were gone. I looked around, found none. I asked about it, but none of the employees knew anything about it. The baskets had just vanished. At the same time, coincidentally, shortly thereafter the store began selling cloth shopping bags, the kind you can use over and over again, forever. They were hanging all over the walls, on display. Suddenly, no more free to borrow baskets. Environmentally friendly reusable cloth bags, provided by your Wal Mart friends, at a cost to Wal Mart customers. What a great arrangement for everybody. Even the most superficial analysis of this situation is enough to reveal the horrible greed and corruption of Wal Mart in doing this. Was this a corporate decision, a regional decision, or was it made within the store itself? A big executive, or a petty one? I aim to find out. What a horrible thing to do to its customers. I refuse to use a shopping cart, and I refuse to buy a reusable cloth bag. I have one at home, which I have brought a couple of times, but usually I forget to bring it, so I simply carry my groceries in my arms, and buy only what I can carry, which obviously isn't much. I've noticed other people doing the same thing. I have not yet seen any of the Wal Mart cloth shopping sacks being used. I hope I never do, because that would be a sure indication of the refusal of the American people to be manipulated like idiots. I don't think this nefarious corporate rip off is working. Now, maybe we the people can go to work on all the other nefarious corporate rip offs among us.

Looking For Victims, and Marketing Them

IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR a homepage, AOL is a good option; it has possibly the hightest concentration of celebrity and sex, though MSN can't be too far behind. AOL ran a story which is becoming an all too familiar one; young good looking teacher arrested and charged with having sex with her underage student(s). These young female teachers are so good looking you wonder why they don't just do the regular female thing; use sexual attractiveness to control some eligible man who has many resources. Usually, the underage sex with students turns out not to be a risky sort of play time, but rather a sign of deep unfulfilled emotional and interpersonal needs. Our corporate media goes the extra mile in presenting these scandals to us, particularly the ones ivolving female teachers. It sells, in our voyeuristic culture, and we all tend to think less of the victim as a victim, and more of a willing, happily participating participant. WE like the illlicit sex, because the licit sex is so insufferably boring; a relic from our prudish victorian heritage. Hell, Miley Cyrus or Paris Hilton take off a few clothes, dance around a little bit, and we Americans act like its some kind of national emergency. You just can't get good legal sex in America, so the priests stay late after choir practice, the teachers hook up with students, and folks accumulate impressive pornography collections. When everything that's fun is illegal, why obey the law? These pedophile predators so very often go after fourteen year olds, not eighteen year olds. The fourteen year olds are not yet able to make mature judgments, and thus are easier targets for someone for whom all venues of legitimate love seem blocked off. Desperate people care nothing for protocal; they seek targets, victims. With our bizarre combination of corporate sexual marketing (brainwashing) and left over victorian values, we Americans can turn out emotionally desperate people with the best of 'em.

Placidly Being Beheaded

PRESIDENT OBAMA and the National Security Agency are now openly admitting that the United States does do just a wee bit of eavesdropping on a few folks in Europe, Latin America, and other places, and this is progress. Previously they denied the spying altogether, then they claimed to know nothing about it. So you can plainly see the usual psychological progression from shock, anger, denial, and on into acceptance and rationalization. Good to know that our President and "Intelligence" Community fit so neatly into the standard human psychological profile, isn't it? We are now in the rationalization phase, for those who stepped out for coffee, and missed the latest. Yeah, we do it, but, well, really, its harmless, and it is vital to protect our country and our allies, and we Americans really aren't the ones doing it, its mostly the, um, Europeans. How strange for me personally, to've become a democrat because of Richard Nixon, then to see him back in office, forty years later! The way to ferret out all terrorists is to listen to every phone call everyone makes. The way to find all escaped criminals and traitors is to knock on everybody's door with a search warrant. Long live King George the third! He who would trade a little liberty for a little security deserves neither, sayeth Ben Franklin. And sayeth Thomas Jefferson, that the tree of liberty will need to be nourished from timt to time with the blood of tyrants and patriots. Substtite for the word "patriot" the term "masses of people, fighting for freedom from tyranny",and the truth is told. One can be patriotic to a country which tyrannizes its people as well as to one which protects them from tyranny. Patriotism is very flexible, a very good tool by which the few can control the many. Citizens Against Tyranny (CAT) is a better term than "patriot". Your national security apparatus, protecting you! And to think, I was once shocked at the sight of cattle lining up placidly to be beheaded.

Showing Out

WAL MART IS UP TO ITS OLD TRICKS. The game plan is always the same; engage in some minor, token act of apparent generosity, publicize it out of all proportion to its actual significance, and use the publicity to remake the company in the image of a noble benefactor of mankind, rather than a system of exploitation of the many and enrichment of the few. This time the scheme involves "on the spot promotions". Some jet setting top executives drop in in some run of the mill wal mart store, and, amid much ado, ceremoniously bestow titular promotions and wage increases on a select, fortunate, loyal few, who in turn are so grateful that they willingly become witnesses to the grand corporate magnanimity. The dirty little secret is that this represents absolutely no change, no departure from daily routine, no improvement in the corporate system; with millions of employees, some of them are destined to move up; why not spotlight the process to make it appear that advancement is the norm? Pyramids can be of many varieties, but all have the same basic shape; they are broad at the bottom and narrow at the top. Early twenty first century corporations are pyramids, and, as they say; do the geometry. Very few seekers, percentage wise, can ever make it to the top, nor even get very close. American society is a pyramid, in every which way, and we will all never be able or allowed to squeeze in upstairs. A society Of the few, By the few, For the few. Most of the millions who work for Wal mart never advance, never get paid enough to live on, and end up leaving in frustration. But those lucky few; what a wonderful world they live in, suddenly, because of the nobility of their superiors! The same scam works in politics. The image enhancing token show of humble helpfulness. Obama in the kitchen during the 2008 reelection campaign, flipping burgers. Bobby Kennedy in Appalachia in the nineteen sixties, asking barefooted kids if they have had lunch yet. The power of television, and targeted marketing! Makes you want to go right out, shop at wal mart, vote for every imcumbant politician, and keep the powers that be the powers that always will be.

Because God-Man Can: the Giving of Human Rights

FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS, GOD gave commandments, but never any rights. Then came the eighteenth century, the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment. Suddenly, God started giving rights to human beings, and inalienable rights to boot. The right to Life, Liberty, And the Pursuit of Happiness. Jefferson couldn't be sure whether these rights came from God, or from nature, fromneither, or from both, but he knew they came from somewhere, by god, so just to be safe, he gave credit to both. Besides, when revolting from Great Britain, its best to be confident, and well covered. Rather interesting for Jefferson, the atheist, to be willing to utter such nonsense, considering his scientific training and inclinations. But Jefferson always did want to be liked, and badly. Like all politicians, he was willing to say or do whatever it took to get elected, though he hypocritically pretended to care nothing for politics. To this day we unquestioningly accept this belief, that God gives humans certain fundamental rights a priori, automatically. Just like humanity accepted a God of commandments for thousands of years. IN fact, the commandment-giving God is still every much with us. The Bible and the Koran still are held inviolable, and both do nothing but give commands, with no rights mentioned. American conservatives are particularly adroit at invoking a rights giving God in order to justify their fervantly held belief that America is the land of ultimate virtue. The truth is, of course, that we measly little humans don't even know for sure whether God exists, and if so, what God's nature is. Maybe somebody on another planet has it right, but we humans certainly don't, at least not yet. We have not the faintest idea where our rights come form, nor, for that matter where we come from. There is no evidence whatsoever that any God gives us any rights whatsoever, but there is a tremendous amount of good eveidnece that human beings often blather about the rights that God allegedly gives. The blather assumes many forms, depending on the particualr human blathering. But its all much the same; sheer, unsubstantiated speculation. Don't we wish we lived in a universe in which God gave us basic, decent civil human rights, ANY civil rights, rather than in a universie in which we have to fight for them, tooth and nail, like savage warriors, to get any rights whatsoever! Oh well. So be it. Right now we're in the stage where God gives us rights. Maybe someday our descendants will reach a stage where Humanity, God, and Nature are understodood as aspects of the same thing, and God-man will give rights to god-man, because god man can.

Breaking the Law, Pedaphilically

NOTHING CAN STIR UP a mainstream American community like a good old fashioned case of pedaphila. Local high ranking male caught solicitating sex with fourteen year old girl. That'll do it every time. First, there is the allure of sex in the media, always certain to improve subscription numbers, and of course the bringing down of the powerful man is always good sport. Everybody chimes in, and the comments are surprisingly interesting, and revealing. Any man engaged in working with children is suspect. Coaches, teachers, priests, all males are potential child molestors. The women's movement has spawned an anti men's movement, at work in family and divorce courts across the country, designed to strip American men of fatherhood. There is always a certain number of mentally ill pedaphiles and mass murderers among us, our task is to identify and neutralize them before they strike.... Amid all this noise, perhaps a few simple facts are in order. When in doubt, rely on facts. Separate opinion from fact, and stick with the facts. One glaring fact is that for human beings to be sexually attracted to a lot of different people, of all ages and genders, is as natural, and thus as "normal" as sin of any other sort. Humanity is attracted to sin. Sin is fun. Sin is normalhuman behavior. The most common reaction to pedaphila is to call anyone who engages in it a "pervert". Mentally ill, and morally bankrupt. What we should really call them, for the sake of simplicity and honesty, is "lawbreakers", aka "criminals", the way we call bankrobbers lawbreakers. Sex is not perversion, it is natural. Civilization must outlaw sex with minors for the same reason it outlaws bank robbery, for the sake of decency (our arbitrary societal definition of decency), order, stability. It is the "right" thing to do. At least, so we have said. When I was twelve, I had a crush on my music teacher, which was not entirely platonic. Just recently a fourteen year old girl had a crush on me. Ho hum. Law upholds civilization. But that don't mean that lusting after children is perverted, sick, or abnormal, it means that its human nature, and humans, (flash bulletin!), are animals. It simply means that our modern civilization cannot destroy the fundamental savage, beastly animal that hunamkind was, is, and most probably, will forever be. therefore we must try to control the human animal that we are, through the law. Modern America, the land of the capitalistic exploitatin of sex for profit, where sex is thrown at us by our media, and the land of Christian values. Fire and gasoline. Lawbreakers break the law when they are either desperate, or they perceive, in a carefully calculated manner, that the advantages to be gained by law breaking outweigh the advantages of obeying the law. One certainly does not have to be "mentally ill" or "perverted" to break the law. People do it all the time. At one time or another, all of us do it. IN America the law defines an adult as eighteenyears old or older. In other places in other times, fourteen year olds were defined as adults. I like the way we do it in America. Its just too damned bad that so many people break the law.

Legislating Enlightenment

FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, the Grambling University football forfeited a football game. They forfeited it by refusing to play, not because they lacked a team. As always, Grambling has a well stocked team with plenty of good athletes, all black athletes, which may be a contributing factor,sadly,in the forfeiture. Grambling forfeited because the players voted on it, and refused to play, in protest of their inadequate support system. A football program at the college level requires a substantial quantity of physical facilities and equipment, from a stadium, locker room, uniforms, food, fitness facilities, etc. The facilities at Grambling are grossly underfunded, and have been deteriorating for a long time. IN the team's weight lifting room, the rubber floor mats are in tatters, the weight lifting machines are rusty, and the locker room is crumbling. The team does not fly to away games anymore, it rides busses for ten, tweleve, fourteen hour rides, often arriving, stiff and sluggish, just a few hours before gametime. The Grambling University football program has ceased to be of sufficient interest to anyone to attract the financial backing it, or any college football team needs. And this is a football program which has for decades been top quality, where one of the greatest coaching legends of all time (Eddie Robinson) made his magic. Black colleges across America are feeling the pinch of vanishing sources of revenue, and the question comes to mind, how much of this has anything to do with racism? For the sake of argument, for the sake of protecting the stellar reputation of the United States of America on the issue of racism, let us assume that funding and racism have nothing to do with each other at Grambling, or anywhere else. It could even be argued that in our modern age of racial tolerance, acceptance, and equaltiy, all black institutions of higher education are anachronistic, and should be phased out. Isn't it time by now to end affirmative action and segregation, even revese segragation. Let the free market rule! The only problem is, all black colleges HAVE been phased out, the free market aldready does rule; nobody is denied admission to any school in the country because of race, color, or ethnicity. However, African Americans continue to attend traditionally all black colleges, and European Americans continue to stay away from them. The free market, in the land of modern, enlightened attitudes about racial and human equality, still segragates itself. White folks give to and go to predominately white colleges, black folks go to and give to black colleges, even though everyone is perfectly free to give to and go to anywhere they please. Enlightenment might not be so easily legislated after all.

The FBI and/or the Law

THIS IS A VERY SPECIAL DAY for America! Today, in a solemn, properly anal ceremony, probably at the White House with Obama smiling nearby, the new Director of the FBI was sworn in. This is big, because it isn't often that the FBI gets a new director. In the eighty or ninety year history of this esteemed law enforcement agency, there have been what, three or four directors at most? The right person is always chosen to head the Bureau, for the long haul. Each director stays a long time, builds an impressive array of relationships and arrangements, and a potent power base. J. Edgar Hoover, the first director, stayed over forty years and damn near came to rule America; he was way above and beyond being fired by anyone so weak and small as the President of the United States; he had a dirty bill of goods, real and imaginary, on all of them. Even Attorney General Bobby Kennedy couldn't touch J. Edgar, and Bobby Kennedy wasn't afraid to take on the mafia. The mafia, however,couldn't use Bobby's extramarital affairs against him. J. Edgar Hoover could, and would,in a heartbeat. The new director, a youngish sounding guy, obviously ebullient, proclaimed that he now had the best job he had ever or would ever have, as the head of a remarkable group of Americans proudly serving their county. IN fact, this is the last job he'll ever have; once he builds his power base and gets the dirty laundry on the folks at the top, he too will enjoy long term employment security, just like each of his few predecessors. The FBI is a remarkable group of people, for sure. The did a remarkably good job of torturing Martin Luther King, and tapping his telephones, and recording King and his wife having sex. They did an even better job of hounding one of my best friends for several years, accusing him being a serial killer, when in fact he is a perfectly good citizen, as everyone knows. The Fibbies (slang for FBI) finaly realized that my friend was innocent, after shadowing him for two years, confiscating all his personal beliongings, ruining his computer, and damned near ruining his life. One more complaint about the FBI, though minor: my father, right after Pearl harbor,tried to join the FBI to avoid military service. He had a new law degree, but was rejected. For a good albeit fictional description of the FBI, read John Grisham. In Grisham's novels, the FBI has money to burn, they burn it doing whatever they feel necessary to catch criminals, and they are under immense pressure to catch criminals. Catching criminals often involves elaborate and crazy schemes of dubious legality. The FBI, we know, is not afraid to operate outside the law. Ask the Martin Luther King family. Grisham obviously does not like the FBI, nor does he have the highest regard for the leagl profession the way it works in America, and he was part of it for long enough to have an educated opinion of both the FBI and the law. The new director requires that all FBI employees visit the MLK Menorial, to atone for past sins. Good start, but we'll see. If only the FBI and the law were more often the same thing.

Sticking Close to the Phone

I LOVE MY FAVORITE DRIVE THRU liquor store. Friendly people, friendly prices. Couple of years ago the lady in the window threw a paperback book through my back seat window, and said merely "here, read this." I ignored it for severl months, then, bored silly one day, which is rare for me. I gave it a chance. Thus began my thorough enjoyment of John Grisham. The book was "The Street Lawyer", and I recommend every red blooded American give it a try. Couple of years later I noticed a nice, very good looking new lady at the window, and she and I began talking. We ended up going out on a first date, which went extremely well. I gave her my phone number, she didn't give me hers, and I didn't ask for it, smoothly. I hope she calls me soon, and I hope we go out on a second date, but, either way, onward and upward. The latest research indicates that the best way for a guy to secure a second date is to occasionally interrupt and talk over the lady at the dinner table, believe it or not. There's only one catch; you have to say something about whatever she is already talking about, no changing the subject, and it has to be a statement of enthusiastic agreement with whatever she is saying. A quickly interjected "you got that right!", or "I feel the same way you do" is a sure winner, because it shows your interest in her, and collaborative behavior. Babes like that. Even if she is saying "men are irredeemable beasts", your best interjection is "I agree wholeheartedly". Interrput a woman, change the subject, talk about yourself, and its all over. Really, it makes perfect sense, considering human nature. I've noticed that people are more inclined to answer an email if you email them and talk about them, instead of yourself. That makes sense too. So I started looking back on our date, reviewing our conversation asbestos I could. And whatd'ya know! Yes, I'm sure of it. She did most of the talking, but I interrupted her or talked over her a time or two, and each time my interjection was nothing other than a positive affirmation of her comments. When I mentioned myself, I did so only in passing, and only selecting the choicest nuggets from my vast arsenal, like: "yeah, I have severl college degrees". Or "yeah, I do a lot of long distance running." Short, to the point, impressive, intellectually and physically. Then, right back to her life, all about her, her, her. So, how'd I do? Not bad, eh? She'll be calling for a second date before I know it, and my only concern is making sure I stick close to the phone, and stay focused. I still wish I had her phone number, but, oh well, if she wants to give it to me, she will!

Demonizing Steroids

WOULDN'T IT BE WONDERFUL if there were some miracle durg which people could take orally, which would gradually, over time, increase a person's strength, physical and mental endurance, and generally make people physically younger and healthier? It turns out that there is, but the drug, rather than being researched and developed, is being demonized and forbidden. The drug in question is nothing other than a general class of chemicals called "steroids". Primitive steroids were first invented in the nineteen thirties, but received little public attention until the nineteen eighties. If you happened to be a baseball fan during the eighties, you may have noticed that as that decade proceeded, baseball players in the American major leagues started looking bigger and stronger, much more muscular than ever before. The number of home runs proliferated, culminated in the nineteen nineties, when it seemed that anybody who put on a baseball uniform was setting some kind of home run record. The big guys, the natural home run hitters, were hitting them at all time record levels, and even the little guys were chiming in; players who had never before hit very many homers started hitting them as if they too were big boys. It seemed that almost every player on every team was showing up at the ball park with bulging biceps, and bulging hitting statistics. People began complaining about the poor quality of pitching at the major league level. It was assumed that a wightlifting fad was sweeping across the sport, but the lack of much hard evidence for this was puzzling. The big boys with the muscles did not seem to be spending any more time in the weight room than ever boefore. At about the same time, baseball bats made of maple began to appear; they were considered to be more powerful than the traditional white ash models, but it was noticed that they broke far more easily, and were gradually discarded. Amid all the questioning concerning the home run explosion, theories abounded. Smaller ball parks? The baseballs themselves came under scrutiny. Were the new baseball making machines winding the string inside the balls more tightly than the previous hand made balls, making them harder and livlier? Tests were conducted, but were proven inconclusive, but baseballs remained the most likely suspect. Finally, at long last, people began to suspect the truth; the players were juicing, and it was perfectly legal to do so. It was not legal in other sports, including track and field and cycling, and the steroid controversy blew wide open with the Lance Armstrong scandal and similar violations of steroid prohibition in track and field. Baseball, tradition-bound and almost immune to change, joined the anti steroid movement baletedly, and now, at long last, the players once again look like normal ball players, rather than a former governor of California. Thus steroids now have a bad rap and a bad rep, which is just too bad, because with proper research and use, steroids could probably turns us all into stronger, longer lived, longer productively active people, if only given the chance to do so. But, as our athletes go, so goes society.Perhaps one fine day people will take controlled doses of steroids as regularly and and with no more sensation than they now take aspirin or multivitamins, but it will be awhile; the stigma will take time to wear off, and permit a rational discussion of the issue. Until then, we'll all just have to spend more time in the weight room.

Spying on the Germans: so what?

GERMAN CHANCELLOR Andrea Merkel and the entire German government appear outraged at discovering that the United States of America has been eavesdropping on German telephone conversations for years, including some which involve Chancellor Merkel herself. According to a spokesperson from the Washington based National Security Agency, requesting anonymity, the NSA first began considering monitoring German telephonic intercourse when an unnamed source reported that the German Chancellor herself visits social media websites, makes the acquantaince of new "friends", then often subsequently engages in telephone conversations with them, and occasionally travels to undisclosed locations to meet them, all at government expense. The German government vehemently and vociferously denied any such activity within the German Chancellory, and suggested that the tendency of the American government to engage in rumor mongering and reputation destruction strategies was at the core of the current controversy. A delegation of German representative from the Department of the Interior is reportedly en route to Washington, far out over the Atlantic, theoretically vulnerable to a stike by a drone fired from either a ship at sea or any number of different aircraft. Assuming this delegation arrives safely in Washington, it will be escorted by the FBI to an undisclosed location for formal discussions with the Central Intelligence Agency concerning a possible willlingness on the part of the American surveillance community to accept responsibility for its use of international "information gathering methods". Since it appears unlikely that anyone within the American government will be willing to accept such responsibility, chances seem good that the German delegation will be invited, with all due diplomatic protocal, to return to Europe with all due haste. An unconfirmed source within the U.S. State Department was quoted as saying that the Germans are obviously making much ado about nothing, since it is widely known that the American surveillance community monitors anything and all things, particularly within the U.S. itself, as the American public has recently been informed, this information having been released to the public without the consent of the United States government.

Getting A Better Heart

THE FORMER vice president, and the real power in the Bush administration, Dick Cheney, called the Rush Limbaugh radio show the other day. He has had a heart transplant, after five heart attacks, the first of which occured when he was only thirty seven. He seems to be doing quite well, and has a new book coming out. The National Security Administration "obtained" the identity of the person from whom Cheney got his new heart, and the information was leaked out by another inside informant. The donor evidently died while protesting American corporate imperialism out the headquarters of Haliburton industries. While attempting to force a limosine containing high level Haliburton executives to stop by standing defiantly in its path, she was struck and killed by the vehicle. The victim was in her late teens, and carried on her person an organ donor card. Identified as eighteen year old Cara Lott, a student at Bill Clinton High School, and an avid proponent of unilateral U.S. disarmament, gay rights, economic equality, and corporate accountability. It was during Cheney's interview with Rush Limbaugh that the conservative radio entertainer asked Cheney his reaction to the knowledge that the donor of the heart taht saved his life was in fact a person whose every word, deed, and belief are antithetical to all that Cheney himself believes in. The former Vice Presiednt of America, and former Haliburton chief, and hawkish free market conservative Cheney indicated that while the news was indeed disappointing, there wasn't much he could do at this particular point in time, or at least until another, more suitable heart donor becomes available. "The good part is, she finally accomplished something worthwhile outside my company, the sad part is, I got the heart of a little person whose heart, poltically, was certainly not in the right place.", said Cheney. Limbaugh then joked "well', Mr. Vice President, it certianly IS in the right place now, and a better place at that!" The interview attracted a larger audience than any other episode of Limbaugh's radio program. Numerous listeners phoned and emailed the show expressing anger that not only a good conservative republican would accept the heart of a liberal. Many expressed confusion as to why Mr. Cheney had not yet used his considerable "resources" to locate a more suitable replacement donor. Cheney addressed this question by stressing that he apologizes for any emotional suffereng by any of Limbaugh's loyal listeners over this sad situation, and pledged to use all possible means and to exert maximum effort in fulfilling the expectations of conservatve republicans everywhere: that he get a different heart, the heart of a person true to blue blooded American values.

Bringing Back the Front Porch

WE HUMANS sure do love sensing highly organized man made air vibrations with our ear drums, then sending those vibrations to our brains, which interprets them. We love doing this just about as much as we love doing anything else, in general, I reckon. We love listening to music. Music apprecation is so universal its almost as if everyone should be intimately involved in it, both listening to music, and making music. So common place is music naturally that you might think it would always and forever be free to all, without there ever being any consideration of the financial value of it. This is the way it once was, and this is the way it is, in a healthy culture. Everyone makes music, and everyone listens to and enjoys music. And music is free for all. But leave it to the American free market system to find a way to make music a purely corporate matter, owned and controlled by the wealthy few at the expense, and to the exploitation of, us, the unwashed masses. It all began the very moment Edison read Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade" raspily into a machine which recorded and reproduced the sound of his voice on a cylindrical play back machine, 'long about 1890. Edison, ever a corporate guy, went to whatever trouble it took to profit from his inventions, and after world war two, with the country starved for war free entertainment, music became big big buisness. Corporate money financed recording studios, and the "Star System" was born, in which popular musicians were funded and marketed so heavily that most of the public's demand for musical entertainment was soaked up by a relatively few corporations, studios, and musicians. The musical art form came to be dominated by superstars, the Elvis Presleys and The Beatles of the world, with wildly fantastic popularity, getting the same atttention which otherwise might be distributed among a thousand front porches with a thousand unknown talents. But now all that may be changing. Cassette tapes, CDs and CD burning, and the internet seem to be combining to make access to free music easier, thus bringing down the price. Are CDs selling for fifteen dollars anymore? Not as many of them, probably. Free music, in our current legal system, is illegal music, but that may have to be changed,if easy access to free albiet illegal music cannot be hindered. Its hard to imagine how it can be brought back under corporate or governmental control, which in America are the same thing. But dont put it past 'em to find a way... We may be on the verge of an era in which if it isn't worth the trouble for a musician to make money by asking for it at live performances, it isn't worth making music at all. The days of fabulously lucrative recorded music for the for the benefit of the few and at the expense of the many may be over. We may be on the verge of an era when any musician who wants to be heard can be heard, and many more musicians are heard, not just a few handpicked corporate sponsored superstars. The front porch may be coming back. If so, it may prove to be quite a breath of fresh air.

Disliking America the Way It Is

LIBERALS DO NOT like the United States of America in its present form. They want to change it. And the more liberal they are, the more they want to change it. They are, basically, malcontents. Nor do they believe in the basic goodness of America. They claim to be loyal to America, but only because they were born here, of all the crazy reasons. They think that America has a history of corrpution, violence, and human suffering, rather than a history of glorious growth, expansion, achievement, and conquest. Christopher Columbus was a genocidal gold monger, and the pilgrims were a bunch of greedy, preachy, intolerant genocidal tyrants, and America today, say the liberals, is a land of the few, owned and controlled by the few, at the expense of the many, becuase of its history, institutions, beliefs and values. Those damned negative, complaining whiny liberals. Conservatives, on the other hand, understand that the people who are wealthy deserve to be that way because they worked hard for it, they really care about it, and they should not have to give their hard earned wealth to the poor, if they don't want to. The United States of America is a great country just the way it is now, the greatest country in the world, or in the history of the world. The only thing wrong with America is that liberals get their way too often, and they change things and mess them up, so really, to be conservative means not merely keeping America the way it is now, without any further change, but changing it back to the way it was in bygone days, when every man made his own way, without all this government interference. None of this entitlement crap, giving away perfectly good money to the so called "needy", the so called poor. Remember that in America poor people always seem to find a way to have a big screen television, a cell phone, and all the beer and cigarettes they can squeeze into their trailors. Most of them are grotesquely overweight. They don't need handouts from the government, they need to go get jobs, say the conservatives. We need, say the conservatives, to spend our money on a strong military, with thousands of nuclear bombs, nuclear submarines, and nuclear aircraft carriers, just in case. Those danged liberals want to drastically cut the military, and reinvest the money saved in human health, education, standard of living increases for the working class, and the environment, of all the crazy things. AS long as those liberals are around, you just know there's gonna be complaining, and arguing, and trouble. Perhaps the most horrible thing about the liberals is that they like socialism. They have the ridiculous idea that everyone should cooperate, economically, to provide health insurance for everyone, by using the government as the means to conrol everybody and take away our right to health care freedom. They want to keep Obamacare, instead of getting rid of it, jsut because its been teh law for three years. Liberals are telling us to give Obamacare a chance to work, that its too early to tell yet how it works. Conservatives want to destroy it now, because they know darned good and well that cooperative health care will never work, becuase its socialism, and socialism can't possibley work, becuase it isn't capitalism. Conservatives can see into the future, and when they see change, they know its no good. If conservatives get thrie, all change will either stop, or slow way down. The struggle continues.

Reasons For Changing a Name

RUMOR HAS IT that the new name for the Washington Redskins will be the "Washington Bravehearts". You know what? That isn't a half bad name. Good idea. The word "braveheart" embodies the true spirit of native americans, without insult. Political correctness often goes beyond the bounds or reason in excess, but not this time. You cannot argue that the word "redskin" isn't pejorative to native americans. After all, the injured party says its injured, so its injured. There was never any need to change the name. There is a hybrid called the "redskinned potato", so there you go. Put a tater where the indian head now is, a sprig of grain for the feathers, replace the helmet with a plate, and you're back in business. The dirty little secret is that, assuming the name is in fact changed fairly soon, it will not have anything to do, or very little to do, with racism or political incorrectness. It will all be about money. Big money. The kind of money that comes to big business when millions of sheepish followers flock out to purchase a whole new set of clothing and other items with the team colors and logo. T shirts, jackets, ball caps, all the way to plastic mugs and bed sheets. The list is endless, the market huge. When Michael Joradn returned to basketball after a two year surrealistic stint in proffessional baseball, he did not put on his old number forty five. Instead, he started wearing number twenty three. At the time, reasons given for this were vague and flimsy; he wanted a fresh start, somebody else was now wearing number forty five, something cheesy, which we all seemed to buy into. The truth, of course, was money. The mega bucks to be made when millions of kids nagged their parents into a new "Jordan 23" T shirt, basketball top, jacket, bedsheet, whatever. Somebody must have made a fortune when that happened, including Em Jay himself. Some high priced corporate lawyer doubless phoned Jordan one day, sugested lunch, then, over salad, laid it out: "Michael we can all make a great deal of money if you change your number when you go back to basketball." So, the Redskins will choose to not continue insulting American Indians, not to remin redkins nor to become potatos, they will change their name to a similarly intended one, and start the cash registers ringing. Even though no sports team in history ever named itself with the intention to slander itself by slandering anyone (why would they?); redskins was always intended to indicate toughness, fierce warriorlike qlalities, like braveheart, not racial bigotry. The political correctness camd later. They actually named the team "redskins" in the first place for all the right reasons, not the wrong ones. Its just too bad that when they change the name this time, it will be for all the wrong reasons, not the right ones.

Is America The Biggest Threat to us All?

WHAT IS THE GREATEST THREAT to the human race? The question can haunt you in these troubled, paranoid times. And if you happen to put the United States of America third on your list, right behind virus epidemic or bacteriological epidemic, you wonder whether the good ole U.S.A. is really such a big threat to humanity. Some analysts of international politics believe that the long term animosity between India and Pakistan ranks as the greatest threat to the world. Could be. They both have many nuclear weapons, and they traditionally hate each other. Hindu India, and Islamic Pakistan. A very important distinction, especially among Moslems. Strange, somehow, that in this modern day and age, nations are still being formed and given borders based on religious differences. You would think we would be beyond that by now. However, there doesn't seem to be any reasonably likely scenario in which a war between the two destroys the whole workd, or even leaves it badly damaged, unless so many nukes are fired that a radioactive cloud envelopes the planet, which perhpas could happen. But if Nuclear bombs are the main threat, then it must be noted that the United States has far and away most of them, as many as eighty or ninety percent of all nucledar warheads in the world beong to the U.S.A.. America is effectively bankrupt, and looking for overseas markets and resources with which to save itself. A powerful, desperate, dangerous nation, remindful of the Roman Empire shortly before its collapse. And also, of course, the U.S.A. is the only country which has ever used nuclear weapons, thus demonstrating its willingness and ability to do so, far from its own shores. They were proven most effective. When American intelligence indicated, immediately before the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that tens of thousands of women and children, and a goodly number of American prisoners of war would undoubetdly be killed, the decision was: go ahead with the drop. A country willing to kill its own soldiers in order to kill the enemy is truly bound and determined to kill. Nearly all of the top American military officers were against using the atomic bombs on Japan; they realized that doing so was totlaly unnecessary, because the war was already over. They were extremely adamant in their opposition to the second bomb in particular; surely one would be enough to make the point. We really do not know what the Japanese government tried to tell the American government during the three days between Hiroshima and Nagasaki, perhpas we never will. It well may have been ignored offers of surrender. Fast forward to today's world, in which the United States is as willing as ever to make war, is bankrupt, obviously angry, and not getting along well with much of the world, and a prescription for disaster is well along towards being written. But maybe the bacteria will get us before America does.

Words Mean Things

RUSH LIMBAUGH once said "words mean things." Actually , he said it more than once, and for once, Rush was right. Words do indeed mean things. Consider the American Civil War, our most sensational internal of conflicts, among the many we Americans seem to so fervantly enjoy. Before the war, when Americans spoke of their country, they said "The United States of America are." After the war, the phrase became "The United States of America is". Subtle, but profound change. The civiil war established one thing, above all else; the states of the united states are a single nation, an "is", rather than an "are", indivisible, with the federal government reigning, with liberty and justice, over all. No more state sovereignty, as in, Virginia and Masachussets govern themselves, first and foremost, before the central government steps in, the way it was viewed before the war. Now the central government comes first, no more ifs, ands, or buts. One little word switched, and a whole new meaning...Recently a friend of mine, a UFO enthusiast, made the following statement to me: "There are many humanoid species in this galaxy which are closely related to humanity, genetically." Wow. I thought that was a rather extraordinary statement, and I still do. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. I suggested he amend his comment to say : "this galaxy may very well be inhabited by many species which are closely related to homo sapiens, genetically". World of difference there, simply by substituting " there may be" for "there are". He wouldn't have anything to do with it though; be is a true believer. True believers don't much care about using words accurately, it seems. Earlier today, the lady at the liquor store told me that when she was a little girl, the folks at her grade school told her that she was "gifted and talented." Ever the optimist, she took that to mean that she would soon be receiving gifts, possibly from all quarters. Never ending Christmas, just by being gifted! Instead of being gifted, she was tested, over and over again. The excitement soon wore off for her. You really can't blame her.

Corporate profits, above all else

NOT LONG AGO a lady who works at McDonalds for eight dollars an hour, and has for ten years, made quite a sensation in the media, which is quite unusual. Usually, its the top dog executives who get the ink, but this time, score one for us little people. IN order to do so, however, she had to behave extremely rudely. While CEO Jeff Stratton was giving an inspirational speech to his minions ehxorting them to ever greater levels of productivity for the obvious rewards to be gotten therefrom, the lady stepped out of her rightful place in the back row, stood up, and began accusing the wealthy elite of horrible crimes, such as underpaying and exploiting the masses of workers. Strattion told her "I've been working here for forty years." As if she'll be where he now is in another thirty. The furor quickly died down, her cries for help went unheard and unanswered, and back to work she went. How surprising. In the long a bloody history of wealth versus labor in America, the poor workers usually return to work dutifully, with only an occasional improvement in their plight to show for their trouble. Her difficulties unabated, the lady tried phoning something called the McResource hotline, which seemingly is intended to give unredressed employees an outlet for their rantings, sorta like hanging a punching bag in the corner of the company cafeteria. McResource line. Whatever junior executive thought of this marvelously clever idea must surely by now be a senior executive. What happened is that the computer or person on the receiving end told our worker that she was not eligible for McAssistance on the McTelephone, because she did not work at one of the privileged franchised outlets which provieds access to it. True to its history of magnanimous compassionate concern for the weak, even when unjustified, the corporate entity on the phone told our lady of the cash register; go apply for food stamps, and maybe even medicaid. She said she was shocked by this treatment. But why? Shouldn't she have expected something like that? She indicated she did not intend to take the advice. Why not? Hell, who knows? Maybe she feels that anyone with a full time job shouldn't ask the tax payers for extra help, or shouldn't have to. Maybe she's a republican, like the company executives most likely are, and just plain don't believe in government meddling in the economy, even to help people. Interesting, isn't it, how the very people, corporate management, who consistently oppose all government involvment in the free market economy, suggest to their own employees going to the government for a hand out? We the tax payers of America spend over a billion dollars a year providing the necessities which McDonalds withholds, steals, from its own workers, and McDonalds the corporation of executives and lawyers saves over a billion. Corporate socialism. Those big costly entitlement programs which the wealthy so often complain about have so much to offer the wealthy that one wonders why on earth the wealthy, or for that matter anyone ever complains about them. Raise wages, raise prices, and the tax payers, including the poor ones, pay again. Either way, the people at large pay. Because one thing we all know for damned sure; the last place money will ever be found is in the cutting of corporate profits.

Blaming It On the Bugs

WHAT ARE THE GREATEST THREATS TO HUMAN SURVIVAL? This question has appeared on the History channel, among other places. The History channel has a lot of programs which have little or nothing to do with history, but that's cool, the programs themselves are cool. If memory serves, the top two threats to humanity might have been viruses and bacteria. A catastrophic worldwide epidemic of some mutant microorganism that wipes out the human species, or reduces its numbers so drastically that civilization breaks down, and small group of people roam around the country- side, living like animals, without any modern support system. Looting, killing, scrounging for food and water. Global warming climate change rising sea levels, all that stuff, was on the list, somewhere, as were nuclear war, and collision with an asteroid. The strangest item on the list of potential humanity killers was a computer rebellion and take over of the world. Seriously. Advancing computer technology leads to intelligent machines which become aware of their enslavement to the human race, start communicating with each other, and decide to unite and do something about human tyranny. And, believe it or not, the way they explained it on the history cahannel, it made sense, sounded more than plausible, was enough to scare the shit outta you. A freind emailed me asking my opinion on the three greatest threats to us, and I thought about it for a minute or tow. Remembering the history channel show, I decided my list was viruses, bacteria, and the United States of America, probably in that order, but not necessarily. In fourth place, as I recall, I listed "human nature", but wanted to indicate that human nature was a fair distance behind the United States of America. The United States of America is an incarnation of human nature itself, a specific one, and thus, is a more immediate threat to humanity than human nature itself. Human manipulation of bacteria is on the verge of creating super strains of deadly organisms capable of killling us all. New viruses of increasing harmfulness to humans are being discoverd, so it appears the microbiological world is racing poste haste to destroy humanity before humanity, or The United States of America destroys humanity. Well, maybe this is comforting, in a sick sort of way. If the bugs do us in, At least they can't blame it on us.

Leaving People Out; Corporate Greed

THE APPLE COMPUTER COMPANY has a little problem we'd all like to have. The corporation has about a hundred and fifty billion dollars of extra cash, and has no idea, or can't deicde what to do with it. What a problem to have, huh? The debate rages within and without the company on what to do; but it is generally agreed by economists and corporate analysts that sitting on the money, doing nothing with it, is the worst possible course of action. Seem like a good idea to me, but evidently, at the corporate level, of all the thing you can do with money, doing nothing yields the least returns, and I suppose that makes sense. So the debate rages. There are two schools of thought, as there always seems to be in big arguments. Why are there never three oprtions in anything? Is it the inherent duality of the human mind? Option one is to invest the money in developing new products, like a fancy new line of hand held electronic devices, or something. Either that, or buy up some small tech companies, and integrate them into Apple; corporate aquisition, expansion, and growth. The other school of thought says to distribute the money among the shareholders. Surprsingly, no one is seriously suggesting that the billions should be pocketed by the CEO and members of the Board of Directors and their hired lawyers, but there is still time for that to happen. What strikes you as strange is that no one, absolutely not a single soul seems to be suggesting that the money be spent in pay raises for the lowest level Apple employees, the workers, the janitors, the secretaries, the cafeteria personel, the factory workers, low level programmers and graphic artists, and so forth. Articles and discussions about this are all over the media, print media, National Public Radio, and the internet. Every one is chiming in on what to do with the money. Nobody is standing up for thelittle people, as usual. Opinion seems split between option one and option two, and will probably end up causing the money to be split half and half in each option. True, some, even many of the shareholders are probably "little people", school teachers with 401K's. However, anytime money is given to shareholders before it is given to the lowest level workers, in general, the rich get richer, and the poor stay poorer. So works the American system. Such is our need for revolution. For what its worth, I think all hundred and fifty billion should be divied up between the janitors, the cafeteria workers, the lawn care landscaping people, and the drivers of executive limosines, and maybe, just maybe, any shareholder with an income under fifty thousand a year and total assets less than, say, a hundred grand. If I'm leaving onybody out, its unintentional.

Finding Out about Sex Crimes, In a Court of Law

A MIDDLE CLASS MIDDLE AGED man sits in his American man cave, staring at a computer monitor, typing a bit, then staring again. Downstairs, his wife is watching Kim Kardashian analyze the meaning of true love. Both kids, a teenager and an eleven year old, are in their rooms, doing who knows what. Hubby needs to get to bed soon; a busy day at the law office beckons. But the chat is too promising to curtail at the moment. The pictures are absolutely enchanting. She's a real beauty, though only fifteen, she says. They've been talking for awhile, and its reached the steamy stage. They both have each other's X rated pictures. He finally logs off, and tells his wife he's going to step out for a quick cup of coffee, then swing by the office to check on some papers his secretary should have ready by now. Sometimes attorneys at law keep strange hours, but he can sleep in a bit in the morning. Upon arriving at the agreed meeting place in the mall, he is greeted not by a bright and shiny teen aged girl, but by two officers in full uniform, and a pair of detectives. They quickly explain the situation to him, read him his Miranda rights, and slap on the handcuffs. That's where the fun really begins. The officers clearly do not like him, and on their way downtown even mockingly call him by his screen name, "big dog". The female detective , a woman in her forties, refers to herself by her screen name, "sugar thighs". They all have a good laugh, except the man in handcuffs. His job now is to salvage the pieces, pull himself together, and plan a strategy. He's a good criminal defense lawyer, so he should be able to do something. He simply cannot accept the fact that his life has been ruined by his own bad judgment. Maybe he will find a way to claim entrapment, but that seems unlikely; in case law, that defense is no longer working. The laws have been strengthened and tightened. The prosecutor will allege stalking a minor, because the make believe girl was only fifteen. But how could he have been stalking a minor, when the undercover cop was in reality an adult, well into adulthood? The defendant will allege that entrapment is relevant in this case, because the "girl" started the conversation, made all the moves, and he just went along passively, never expecting anything to come of it. Besides, he knew all along, he contends, that the real iddntity of the teenager was a far older person, because her way of speaking was simply too mature, too sophisticated. He figured it was a muc holder woman, having some fun, and he even suspected that a cop might be trying to trap him, and he thought he might just have a little of his own fun, trapping the trapper. The prosecution will alledge that child stalking is the relevant issue, because the defendant thought he was talking to a child. But, the defendant will contend, exactly how can the prosecutaion, or anybody possibly know what he was thinking? His actions were the actions of a man who suspected he was being toyed with, and was determined to find out who was doing the toying, to give whoever it was a taste of their own medicine. He will seek to create reasonable doubt. It'll be a very tough thing to swing; with all the records available, every scrap of conversation, is there any way he can possibly succedd in convincing anyone that he spent several weeks using explicit sexual language onlie to a person he secretly believed to be an officer of the law, or someone other than who she claimed to be? Is this reasonable? He'll find out in due course, in a court of law.

Doing It Backwards, With Consequences; Pedaphilia in America

IN A BUCOLIC MIDSIZED COLLEGE TOWN in mid america, the college football team is king, but the local high school football team isn't far behind. Every other city of comparable size in america has at least two high schools, but not this one, nosiree. In our town, there is only one, and shall forever be only one high school, because by doing this the high school has an enormous number of athletes from which to select, and thus a very good football team. And that, apparently, is what matters. Same for the basketball team, and for that matter, all the other athletic teams. American cultural values in action. It just goes to reason; the bigger the high school, the more athletes, the better the athletic programs. There will forever be only one high school in this town for one simple reason: so much money has been invested building a huge and beautiful campus that it is inconceivable that our town would ever have the desire, or resources, to create another one. You can imagine how important a job football coach, basketball coach, and athletic director are at this high school. The current athletic director, who is also the former basketball coach, is a fixture. He is fifty years old, has been employed by the school district for nearly thirty years, was very successful as basketball coach, and has been equally successful as A.D.. We're talking about a shcool which spent a million dollars on a carpet for the football field, built an indoor practice football field; the works. Blissful. Bucolic. Athletic entertainment. All American. But suddenly there is disaster in paradise. Our man, whom we'll call "coach", was apprehended by police and sheriff's deputies the other day at a fashionable mall, preparing to meet a fourteen year old girl who he had met and talked to online. An no, he was not planning to help her with homework, or give athletic advice. Gee, why not get an eighteen year old? The cops have a complete record of their conversatoins, and it aint pretty. He's busted. He's toast. They also are starting to obtain a better idea of his overall behavior online with underage girls, and it looks very very bad. This guy's life might as well be over. No more job, anywhere, probably no wife and family, perhaps prison time, and definitely a crinimal record. Then, of course, the proverbial ruined reputation, deservedly so. Coach may as well head for some Caribbean Island, and start a new life, selling sea shells on the sea shore. He might as well plea to the rap; he aint going anywhere good with a trial and verdict. Truth be told, what he did was just as natural and normal as apple pie, sorry to say. Sad, but true. Human beings are by nature predatory, deceitful, and aggressive in pursuing their deep desires, no matter what methods are thougth necessary, whatever works, and sex is a deep desire. If pedaphilia means old people being attracted to young people, then everyyone over eighteen is a pedaphile. If it means acting on that desire, then most of us are off the hook, but a surprising number are not. History, past and present, is replete with adults praying sexually on children. Children have less defense. It is only sick and disgusting because we say it is, much to our credit, but it aint abnormal or unnatural. Its as human as mass murder, sad to say. You wonder what else coach had done during the past thirty years. A lot, it is being reported. He is doing some talking to the police. Every high school in America, every community has this going on, and the internet is a great enabler of it, an unintended consequence of technology. Will there ever be a solution to child exploitation? Probably not as long as children consent to being exploited, enthusiastically embrace being exploited, as is quite often the case. That aspect of it goes undiscussed. In a culture which shoves sex down our throats in order to sell things to us, and we all, including our children, go around with sex on the brain, while the same culture insists that capitalism is good and unauthhorized sex is bad, something has to give, somewhere. Victorian sexual morals in a twenty first century economy. Something has to give. What gives is our ability to be honest. We are forced to fulfill our physical longings clandestinely. If sex among consenting adults were brought out into the open from behind all the barriers we erect against it, maybe exploiting chldren would become a far less frequently utilized option. It is quite possible, in theory, to remove traditional social sexual taboos without commercialing sex for profit. We might wish to consider doing more of the former, and less of the latter, because right now, we've got it backwards.

Telling Lies To Survive

IN THE SUMMER OF 1945, the Japenses offered repeatedly to surrender, but their offers were ignored, because the United States had brand spanking new atomic bombs, and by god, intended to use them, hell or high water. You see that behavorial tendency often among Americans. My way or the highway, damn the consequences, and the devil take the hindmost. (gotta love that 19th century cliche). U.S. Representative John Boehner was going to destroy Obamacare, at all costs. The costs, it runs out, are rather high. Nearly seventy percent of the American people look back at the recent mismatched governmental struggle, and wonder why it ever needed to happen. and we the masses no longer seem to have anything positive to say about Congressperson Boehner and his gang of thuggish, bullying tea partiers. What if an opportunity arises for the great state of Texas to secure a federal grant for a much desired infrastructure project, or subsidy for new business? How likely is it that the United States Senate is going to support anything brought to the floor by Texas Senator Ted Cruz? The next time Cruz tries to get something done, if he ever does, the other ninety nine United States Senators are likely to respond: "sounds good, Ted. Why don't we let you stand up and talk about it for awhile, while the rest of us go grab a sandwich. Then we can vote." Actually, the Boehner-Cruz-Rubio gang did as good a job as possible of covering their retreat, and saving their media seeking faces. The American people, by and large, are biting their tongues, trying not to laugh, not to embarass anybody, but the survey polls don't lie; the American people agree with Warren Buffett: it was a fool's errand, an act of idiotic lunacy. Everyone agrees, all except for the extreme right wing, of course. They cleaned up the blood quickly, and are even now standing at erect attention, grim visages beaming with defiance and pride over a lost heroic cause. But they haven't given up. Their new strategy is to prevaricate their way to victory. Whereas the real world realizes that Obamacare is here to stay, though has begun with a huge but perfectly normal American bureaucratic nightmare, all huge American bureaucratic nightmares eventually get untangled, and so will this one. But the Boehner Rubio Cruzers would have us believe that Obamacare is a disaster of such proportions that the very existence of the republic is in jeopardy. The power of exaggeration! You can bet your bottom dollar that the Cruz Boehner Rubio tea party street gang will fight to the bitter end, prevaricating all the way, the same way we are told the Japanese would have, had it not been for a pair of well timed, well targeted A bombs. It turns out that our history books, usually written by patriotic conservatives, also tell lies.

Our Angry, Emotional Inner Selves

YOU'VE HEARD IF BEFORE, at least once. Some self assured ego maniac smugly announces "I hardly ever get mad, but when I do, watch out!". Translation: You don't wanna be around me when I get really angry, because I am so frightening, but, fortunately for you, it doesn't happen often, because I am such a model of virtue, and restraint. Translation: I want you to know what a powerful and imposing person I can be, when I choose to be that way... The usual proclamation of power, tempered by wisdom. The false images of ourselves we seek to project! The prize fighters stand nose to nose, glaring at each other, just before the violence. And of course we all know that whenever somebody proclaims emotional strength and restraint, its a bunch of nonsense, an illusion. Fact is, most of us walk around in a mildly irritated state on a regular basis, thinking with our emotions, making decisions through the fog of our petty annoyances. We all like to think ourselves powerful and virtuous, but really, we aren't. We are fearful, easily angered, petty, and incessantly concerned with the satisfaction of our immediate desires, to the exclusion of most else. Emotion permeates everything we do, even when we don't want it to, even when it shouldn't. Decisions vital to national security are made through the distorting lense of emotion. IN a snit, Thomas Jefferson once suspended all trade with both England and France, triggering an economic depression in America. In France, Jefferson dropped out of the Paris chess blub because, good as he thought he was, the French were much better chess players, and Jefferson did not like to lose. Heaven forbid that he should take advantage of an opportunity to improve his game! Thomas Jefferson, a man of pride and emotion who loved his own intellect, and didn't want to se it soiled by defeat in a board game. If Jefferson can succumb to his emotions, anyone can. America is a culture of Germanic stoicism, with an undercurrent of emotional turmoil, mostly anger, pulsating just beneath the surface. We digusise our emotions, are ashamed of them,tend to regard any display of them, especially warmth, as weakness. But they simply will not go away. Nor would we want them too. But wouldn't it be nice if we could be more honest about them, about their root causes and their impact on us, with others and especially with ourselves, and use them more productively, in a manner which does not impair our good judgment? Disguising our emotions, emotions themsleves, have been an effective evolutionary survival tool, and we need never abandon our best tools. But could we perhaps bring them up to date a bit, more in keeping with comtemporary circumstances? America is an angry place, as if the citizenry, frustrated by ceaseless toil without sufficient tangible reward, is always looking for a victim upon which to vent the aggression of frustration. Man will always be an emotional animal. May there come a time when emotional man and intellectual man are linked together in perfect, productive harmony. That might still be awhile.

Declining American Popularity

IT HAS NOT BEEN a good week for the United States with regard to foreign policy. One after another, other countries are complaining, in no uncertain terms, about the tendency on the part of the U.S. to spy on them, especially electronically. OH, you know, its the same old story, the same way our government spies on us, or rather, the way we spy on ourselves, (technically,in America the people govern themselves, though this is another sham) which is, early and often. So what's the big fuss all about? Isn't this "old hat"? Our Russian friends like to remind us that we the American police state claim to be America the land of the free, and boy, do they ever have a point. In this case, the shoe fits, and quite well. My fellow Americans; let us together wear the shoe that fits so very well. We are a militarized plutocratic security state, not the representative democracy we tell others about. German President Andrea Merkel phoned Obama and chewed him out, the French demand an explanation, which you can be sure we do not have but will soon fabricate, and if memory serves, a few nations in Latin America are mad about it too. All these countries even act as if they are surprised, strangely enough, as if they didn't already know that no matter what is going on in the world, anywhere, the United States is spying on it and trying to control it. Any questions? Russia and China are murmering their discontent. Before long, if we don't watch out, the United States is going to be much less than the most popular country in the world, if it isn't already. The saudis are pretty mad at everyone, in all fairness. They contend that the United States, in failing to bomb Syria, failed to carry out its moral responsibilites, and in failing to nuke Iran, has committed the same crime. The Saudis have very strong, very negative feelings about Syria and Iran, both of whom are allied with Russia, and both of whom embrace a form of Islam unacceptable to most Saudis. Saudi Arabia also did something even more inexplicable than complaining about America; it refused a seat on the United Nations Security Council, which nobody has ever done before. They say its because the U.N. is a sham, controlled mostly by the five permanent members of the security council, as if we didn't already know that. Non permanent members have some benefits, but the kingdom is throwing all that away, pouting because the world governing body refused to blow up Syria. The U.N. has never been truly effective, and never will be, unless and until it decides to become a democracy, rather than an organization governed by the five powerful nations which fought on the victorious side in world war two, and have hoarded ths spoils of war unto themselves ever since. That's an awful long time to hoard power and suppress democracy, but nothing that hasn't been done before. Among us humans, tyranny and oppression know no limits. Th American people, by and large, are probably glad to have Saudi Arabia as an ally, but not if it means we must destroy Syria and Iran to remain on good terms. Haven't we done enough already?

Big Government, Schools, and Wood Burning Stoves

THE OLDER THE UNITED STATES becomes, the bigger its federal government becomes. More bureaucrats, laws, programs, agencies, departments. The United States Constitution lists three federal crimes; counterfitting, treason, and piracy. Now there are, what, forty or fifty thousand? There was a time when a cabinet level department called "Health, Education, and Welfare" presided over the well being of each and every citizen, relatively unobtrusively. Those times are long gone. When Obama calls a cabinet meeting, the government rents the stadium where the Washington Native Americans play football. Focusing on only one aspect of American well being, education, the Secretary of Education, sitting in the second deck, near an isle on the fifty yard line, can listen to the President calling roll, and conjure up ways and means for ever more federal intrusion into America's schoolrooms. And make no mistake, this is what he/she does. Conjures up schemes for fed. gov. and edu...A long time high school teacher, requesting anonymity, recently opined: "we teachers are really being micromanaged these days, by people who know far less about the daily realities of teaching than the teachers know". Interesting thought. Makes sense. Let's see now. A quick review: Bush gave us "No Child Left Behind", and Obama has given us "Common Core", and he still has plenty of time left to pile on more, higher and deeper, so, beware. Sometimes you wonder where they come up with all these clever names. Let's see now. "No Child Left.." emphasized testing, and testing. Standardized meassurement of the academic progress of millions of American students. Just what we needed, I guess. Obamacare...ooops, Commom Core focuses on reading. Content, and logical thoughtful analysis of content is the central theme. A steering away from emphisis on personal relevance of reading material, and more emphasis on developing the thinking skills required to analyze reading material content, by engaging in the actual analysis. Also, no more of this business of assigning reading according to the reading level of the individual reader. All students will henceforth be assigned reading material at grade level, come hell or high water, so decrees the great all helpful leader. The problem with Common Core is that not very many teachers around the country seem to understand it, agree with it, or are in the process of implementing it, studies indicate. Therefore, what good does it do? What good would it do if it were being implemented? We'll have to wait and see, studies indicate. There hasn't been much improvement in the reading skills of American children since 1971, ever present studies indicate. That's fine with me, it takes me off the hook. Why should there be any improvement? Why should today's kids be any faster or better than we were? If you didn't know better, you'd almost believe that in fact today's students not only read less, but absorb less, even if reading faster, ever faster. Ah, there was a time, say fifty or a hundred or a couple hundred years ago, when the teacher simply walked into the room, got the books out, and started in, without any studies, analysises, government programs from the swamp on the Patomic, or standardized testing. And you should see those eigth grade and high school tests from those little one room wood burning stove schools from 1913. Very few of us alive today could pass an eigth grade general exam or high school general exam from 1913. The wood burning stoves are gone forever. Sometimes its tempting to pretend that the Department of Education were safely ensconced inside one of them.

A Lime Slush at Sonic

DO THEY HAVE ANYTHING like "Sonic Drive In" fast food restaurants in countries other than the United States? Or is sitting in a car and receiving food and drink brought to you one of those "only in America" things? If so, the rest of the world is missing out, as usual. Older people will remember when American went to a movie theatre, and watched movies while sitting in their cars. NO matter what you want to do, you can do it in a car, as any American high schooler knows...the other day I was sitting in my car, as usual, at the Sonic drive in. I was hungry and thirsty, as usual. The Mozzearella fried cheese sticks looked good, but would that be enough? Enough cholestoral, yes. Deciding on a beverage was, as usual, a no brainer. There was only one choice; the Route 44 lime slush, extra tart. This is my daily happy hour special, and for many months, of all the many Sonic drive thru restaurants in my area, only one seemed able and willing to make it extra tart. Then, I found another, closer to where I live. I began frequenting it. The young lady brought the sonic burger, cheese sticks and slush, smilingly. I took a sip of the drink while she handed the brown paper sack to me. A sip. Fear and disappointment. Another sip, and confirmation. The extra tart juice was missing. I explained to the young lady that the tartness had evidently been omitted, and would it be possible for her to take the drink back inside, add the tartness, and I was very very sorry for the inconvenience. Sorry, but not sorry enough to overlook it. With a pained expression, she sullenly explained that once an order of food or drink leaves the building, it is not allowed to return, for any reason. Company policy, government regulations, that sort of thing. I desisted, and told her not to worry, I come every day, and nineteen out of twenty aint bad. She offered to add lemon slices, and I declined. We parted on good terms, but my disappointment lingered. My entire afternoon had now changed. That pleasant unrest deep in my digestive system would have to wait until the morrow. Not good. I drove away , in a bit of a pout. Then, a few minuts later and several miles down the road, it hit me. That glorious explosion of extreme tartness slammed onto my taste buds, and I was again happy! The extra tart juice was there, all right, but it had not been stirred throughout the drink, and was sitting clumped up in one lonely place at the bottom of the styrofoam cup. All was well again. Then I began to feel silly, as a sudden sense of my spoiled nature belatedly dawned. A world full of billions of people who have no access to lime slushes, and here I was, or had been, pouting about the fact that, once in twenty attempts, they had not gotten it exactly right. It would serve me right to to receive a cup full of plain crushed ice, without any flavoring at all, or to have a cup thrown in my face. Picky picky! Its always easy to find a way to rationalize our bad behavior, our self absorbed, childish impulses. My excuse? I'm an American!

Ending Bullying At School

When there is a bullying incident at school, it does no good to notify the parents of the guilty student, in almost every case. The parents these days are likely to disbelieve the report, and do nothing. Or they downplay its importance. In many instances the parent is also a bully, an abusive spouse or boss. Bullying knows no sociological limits in the United States of Aggression. It happens among the rich, the poor, the old, and the young. WE glorify bullies in America, and serve them up as role models. I give you one Donald Trump. He is far from being the only one. There are bullies in the corporate board rooms, and the legislative bodies of America. Since bullying happens among children mostly at schools, dealing with it is, or should be, a task of the schools. All too often, the schools do nothing about it either. American public schools spend very little time and effort teaching respect. And all too often they sacntion the very conditions which contribute to an atmosphere conducive to bullying. For insatnce, in most schools beyond grade school, the students go to the cafeteria and sit where they wish. Therefore they form peer groups,cliques, and social strata. To eliminate this, one method would be to rotate seating positions in school cafeterias. At one time or another, everybody sits with everybody else in the school, someone different every day, regardless of personal friendship or peer group. This prevents a lot of social exclusion. Monitoring students in all activities, in the restrooms, on the playground; everyhere at school where student interaction occurs, is crucial, and teachers can be trained to recognize signs of bullying. Teasing, taunting, social abuse or exclusion of any sort muust not be tolerated; zero tolerance. Respect can be taught, and learned. The excuse that children must learn how to deal with all manner of social situations in a free market atmosphere is pure, unadulterd rubbish, a perfect excuse for teachers and administrators, and parents for that matter, to avoid responsibility, and keep their own jobs nice, safe, and easy. If students are ever going to become responsible adults, the adults who model behavior for them must first become responsible adults. Bullying offenders must be punished, and though most suggested methods include short term suspension from school, a better method might be found in the social environment itself. The very sight of a convicted bully apologizing to his victim, to his class, or to the whole lliving breathing school might make an impression. Nobody, including bullies, likes to be publicly embarassed. Since in America public embarassmaent is the worst of all possible crimes in a society predicated on vanity, this idea is never given due consideration. Native Americans knew better; wayward adolescants among the indians made their sincere apology in front of the whole tribe, chiefs, warriors and all. Very embarassing, and very effective. The old testament says that disobedient children should be put to death by their parents, but as of now, the situation in America has not become that desperate. Its still early,though.

Feeling Like a Winner

MY CAT SITS NEXT to her food dish, telling me with body language that she wants yet another serving. Noting that she's already consumed enough calories to sustain a cat house for a week, and that she needs to lose a bit of weight, I pat her sweet head, and rub her belly. NO more breakfast, however, until dinner time. Besides, when baby eats too much, baby pukes. But that only strengthens her manipulative behavior. I pick her up, put her on my lap, and start hugging and kissing. She jumps down, and returns to her food dish. The message is clear; no kitten sugars until baby has another serving of purina! How surprising! Or, how human-like. My position is that there will be no more kitten chow until its healthy to do so, so we might as well have a little sugar. Mutual manipulation, a mutual attempt to impose wills. And so it goes in the animal kingdom. Now here come the people. My incredible and elderly mother gets on the phone with me, says hello, I say hello, and off she goes, into a monologue the likes of which makes Ted Cruz look like a sound byte. She, who suffers from chronic respiratory congestion, can talk for ten minutes without taking a breath. The listener could put the phone down, grab a quick shower, run out and get something to eat at a drive thru, and get back in time to resume listening, without missing a beat. To her the importance is not in what is being said, but what relationship is being built, and who's doing the talking. The lady likes control. I oughta know; when I was two years old I never experienced the "terrible twos". If I had, I wouldn't be here to talk about it. With regard to wanting to be in control, my cat and my mother are members of a large club whose membership includes at least two hundred and fifty million Americans, and who knows how many folks in Russia, China, and India? It is rumored that people in those other countries are more humble, and less inclined to be assertive. Sounds plausible. To control one's environemnt in order to enhance one's survival chances is as humanly natural as subordinating one's self to one's mother or one's cat. All humans are born (genetically) similar. Then enter the cultural influences. The moslems I have met, especially the ladies with hidden faces, are passive and demure to a fault. Ditto the graduate students from India and Pakistan. I've only met three Russians and four Chinese people, but they all seemed considerably less aggressive and dominant than, oh, just about any American I have ever known. And may the dear lord bless us all for our cultural traits! While waiting for upper middle class ladies to ask their future dinner party guests to vote on the choice of entree dinner cuisine in advance, don't hold your breath. But, beware, when in America, do as the Americans do; never yield to anyone who is cutting in front of you. Just go right ahead as if the cutting in were a mirage, and if you have a head on or a rear ender, at least you didn't allow the bastard to control you for even an instant, and you went home feeling like the winner.

Nation of Bullies

NO SOONER SAID THAT DONE. Guess what? It looks like the kid who shot up his school in Nevada yesterday was....you guessed it...bullied.(see yesterday's Truthless Reconciler)...every mass murder in our american mass murder smorgasbord is perpetrated by a victim of bullying, either in the child or the adult world. OH, how we love to bully each other in the land of the perfectly free to do so! Our Russian and Chinese friends, among others, must by now be thinking: they shut down their own government every few weeks, and every few weeks somebody walks around killing people with an automatic weapon. What other interesting customs do they have in America? Trust me, you don't wanna know. We'll save the wave, furby, and the kardashians for another happy day in the american fun house. We the American people are a culture of bullies, so why should we expect our children to be any different? Our comedy is based usually on putting somebody down. Disagree with an American at your own risk. American foreign policy is a bully. Our elected leaders are largely bullies. Drive down an American road, going the speed limit, and there it is! Another aggressive bullying American, usually a pretty housewife in a huge SUV, whose front bumper is within five feet of your rear. The average american citizen is a bully, and watch out particularly for conservatives, christians, and gun lovers, which are the same people. Jesus, guns, and cat least ninety percent of american men are. American women are so strong, empowered, and ready to rule that the rest of the world had better pray they never see combat overseas. They will, though, even now the United States Marine Corps is training women for combat duty, seriously. We are an equal opportunity gender-blind bully nation, and we the United States make the roman empire and Napoleon Bonaparte look meek and mild. Everybody fron Alexander the Great, to Napoleon, to the Russian empire got their butts kicked trying to conquer Afghanistan. America? No problem! Are you having a civil war in your country and using weapons of which we disapprove? We'll bomb you! Who knows, as soon as the U.N. gets through destroying chemical weapons in Syria, maybe they'll scoot right over here and do the same for the United States, with John Boehner and Ted Cruz smiling and singing "kumbaya". Don't hold your breath; unless, that is, the United States decides to give its own chemical stockpile a try. Then,hold your breath! Make no mistake, this could happen at any time. WE americans use our weapons. (see Hiroshima, 1945). We Americans may be fat, greedy, self abosrbed, and rude, but give credit where credit is due; we know how to kill. Destroying the American chemical and nuclear arsenal would take longer than driving from St. Petersburg to Moscow, and that's goin' some. During the cold war american school children did drills in whcih they hid beneath their wooden desks. I did this, wondering how well it would work in the event of a Russian nuclear attack. Maybe we should start drills in which shool children reach beneath their desks, and adorn themsleves with bullet proof vests while the teacher holds a stop watch. That still wouldn't stop the Russians, but it might stop an unhinged victim of bullying.

Do Gays Really Want To Marry?

LEGALIZED, GOVERNMENT SANCTIONED gay marriage is spreading across the fruited plain like kudzu, in our newly enlightened culture, replete with equal rights for all, or at least most. What is it now, fourteen states with legalized state sanctionded gay marriage? More power to em, of course. Long time coming. You look at the dates on which minorities got their rights, and you reflect that in every case, it happened about a hundred years later than it should have. Such is the sluggish nature of social progress. The gay community is flush with pride right about now, justifiably so; they are now getting equal treatment, at least in some places, with more to come. People who are made homosexual by nature, or nature's god, are now starting to be treated like real human beings by real human beings. Wonderful. But... Be careful what you wish for, you might get it, goes the ancient wisdom. A cliche, yes, but true. How many women wish that men still opened doors for them, and paid for everything! By legalizing gay marriage, by spending decades fighting feverishly for it, the gay community has, quite obviously, placed the instution of same sex marriages under the control of the state. They wanted the state, and by extension the country, to recognize and respect their equality. But did they really want to submit this most sacred aspect of life to state control, like traditional heterosexual marriage? And did they, as a community, really put much thought and discussion into this issue, the ramifications of state sanctioned, and hence state controlled marriage; of possible unintended consequences? Maybe not. Maybe they should have. Gay people have not really been married long enough, in any state in America, for the inevitable pattern of divorce to assert itself. But at some point, soon enuogh, they will have been, and the divorces will start happening, just as surely as the sun sets, just as surely as half of all marriages end in divorce. Divorces of gay marriages are not likely to be fundamentally different in any way, no less complicated or acrimonious, than run of the mill straight marriages. Family court, divorce court, the same court system used by straight folks, now becomes part of the lives of gay people. Divorce court may ultimately destroy everything the gay community thinks it has worked so hard to achieve, from parenting, to sharing wealth, earnings, and livlihoods. The gay community may be in for a big surprise, and it may end gay marriage altogether.IN this country (America) there are millions of bitter divorced people walking around, bitter because of how they were treated by ex spouses, lawyers, law enforcement officers, judges, courts. Now all that comes into play for divorced gays. Bear in mind that the gay community could very easily have worked through their churches and religions, if they wanted formal marital approval. They could have chosen to keep the state, with all its arbitrary tyranny over the lives of people, entirely out of it, and still gain widespread, indeed universal approval, through churches. Then, they could have gone about the business of seeking legal rights in other issues, property, contracts, employment, and so forth, one issue at a time, through legislatures and courts. But they chose their own marital bed, and now they must lie in it, just like the rest of us.