Advocating Change

THE EX PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE, having lately been on the lamb, has resurfaced, in Russia, of course. Maybe he could end up sharing an apartment with Edward Snowden, under Putin's protection. And who says that American melodrama is the best in the world? Not surprisingly, the ex Ukrainian president is claiming to still be the President; so addicting is power, that we prefer hullucinating to giving it up. Did the members of the ruling oligarchy, those immediately below the President, panic, and kick out their own leader? All those deaths in the streets of Kiev seem to have been the catalyst, to've sealed the deal. The tree of liberfty will from time to time need to be nourished with the blood of tyrants and patriots, said Jfferson. The masses at the bottom of the pyramid could never free themeselves, other than by dying. Just as in the French and American revolutions, the upper middle class and nobility overthrow the despot, with gentle, but persistent pressure from below. And wouldn't it be nice if the lowly teeming masses all over the world started doing the same thing; starting ganging up, organizing, and making their demands known to the powers that be? I wouldn't exactly count the idea out, if I were you. In the age of the internet, simultaneous communication among a large number of people is more feasible than ever; the platform for true popular dissent is in place. "If the people become inattentive to the affairs of government, the legislators and magistrates will divide society into two classes: wolves, and sheep" said Jfferson. That already happened, long since. Our task, we the masses, is to take control, and equalize the classes.

Hunting and Staring

WE ALL KNOW HOW MUCH WE HATE being stared at. Is there any culture in which staring, looking at somebody for more than a split second, is considered courteous? Isn't it true that pretty mcuh anywhere in the world, if you look at somebody for more than a few seconds, you're risking your life, or at the very least a black eye? All I know is, here in the good ole U.S. of A., I have, for nigh onto fifty years, been very careful about who I look at, and how long I keep looking. You never want to get caught staring at somebody, if you don't want to elicit a negative response from the staree. All those longing, emotion laden looks at girls, always careful to cut it off the very moment her face begins to turn toward me. In most cases, they won't consider it flattering, they'll consider it threatening, but, you never know. People who are attracted to each other tend to stare mutually, as if by some unspoken but well understood amendment to the standard human agreement. Likewise, people who engage in friendly conversation reach the same unspoken agreement; friendly mutual eye contact, like a handshake, is a pledge to hunt no further. We all like to stare at other people, but none of us likes to be stared at. That is because we are hunters, and we like hunting, but we do not like being the hunted. It is not considered courteous, in almost all human cultures, to hunt other people. If only we could find a way to look at people, without fear of violence, even though we haven't known them our entire lives.

Slumbering Giants

THE RUSSIAN HOCKEY TEAM not only failed to win the gold medal, it failed to win anything at all. Did it even win a single game? Will the Siberians build a new rink for their new team? You put too much pressure on a bunch of kids, and see what happens. Maybe the "just relax and have fun" approach works best after all. Just another lesson, probably unlearned, by another all powerful government which does not seem to know the limits of power. In the Ukraine, the people have spoken, and many have died, showing the Russian ruling oligarchy who's really in power, at bottom. They have watered the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants and patriots. Let that be a lesson to all would be mass protestors for just causes: mass protesting works! But you have to do it long enough, and strongly enough, which is to say with enough screaming people, and probably, tragicallly, enough violence. Is it possible to achieve success with a mass protest without resorting to violence? According to Thomas Jefferson, it is not. But at least there are only a few hundred dead heroes in the Ukraine, and not a few thousand. Meanwhile, back in the good old U.S.A., that ceaselessly entertaining fun house of the imagination where nothing is as it seems, Obama continues to run free, signing executive orders, while the people slumber, and their government sits paralyzed. The American people, like the world's teeming masses, are a slumbering giant.

Our Clueless but Entertaining Bank of America

THE LAST THING I WANT TO DO is criticize an organization as wonderful as the Bank of America, but, I must admit, my life with "it" (the B. o A) has been, still is, and promises to continue being...interesting. Of course, why not? The Bank of America, back in the day, was handing out debit cards to illegal immigrants, loaning Michael Jackson hundreds of millions of dollars, and generally playing fast and loose with its considerable assets. Then, it went belly up broke, and was bailed out by you and I.At one point I was receiving one ad after another in the snail mail from the Bank of America, urging me to refinace my mortgage. Finally, when I went in to talk to them about it, just to get them off my back, they told me I wasn't qualified...OK. Fine. Just lately they sold my mortgage, unbeknownst to me, to another corporation, without consulting me or telling me anything about it. How lovely. Suddenly I was expected to start senidn in monthly mortgage payments by snail mail, after years of paying the Bank of America for the privilege of automated electronic banking. OK. Fine. And n, for the piece de resistance'....Once I started receiving my monthly mortgage in the snail mail from my new lender; I started receiving the same thing from the Bank of America, even though they no longer hold my mortgage. My next project is to get that stopped, probably by simply ignoring the invoices, throwing them in the garbage, and waiting for B o A to , shall we say, figure it out? In a strange, sort of masochistic way, I'm looking forward to my future dealings with the Bank of America. I still have my checking account, savings account, debit card, and credit card with them. That alone is enough to do some damage. Call me a glutton for punishment. But never let it be said that I forfeited financial adventure by insisting on being treated properly by my corporate masters.

Protesting Properly, Effectively

IN THE GOOD OLE U.S.A., a few concerned citizens were sentenced to long prison terms recently for breaking into a nuclear power facility and vandalizing it with red paint and unpleasant messages. The judge explained that he had the utmost respect for their deeply held religious beliefs, but that it was no excuse; they had broken the law. Fair enough. These latter day hippie radical environmental activist pacifist types are well intentioned; but vandalislm is vandalism, red paint thrown on concrete must be scrubbed off. Anytime, anywhere, anybody protests anything, chances are, its for a good reason. People seldom if ever go to the trouble to organize public protests without having a good reason for so doing. Support your local protest, whatever it happens to be. The key to effective protesting, other than having a good message, is to present the message as clearly and persuasively as possible, over a long period of time, to as manhy people as possible, without incurring a violent response, and thus risking death, imprisonment, and the end of the protest and its sacred cause, whatever it is. You just don't see very much effective protesting from jail. Millions of people already agree that nuclear power is dangerous and highly questionable; instead of vandalizing stuff, the best way to get this message to the masses is through the power of the mighty pen, or mighty keyboard. May the good people of Kiev force their government to accede to their every reasonable demand! And may they find a way to do so, using non violent resistance, which doesn't get any more of them killed. The Russian female rock band "Pussy Riot" would probably accomplish more by living in the United States, giving concerts, and using the internet, instead of standing on streets in Sochi, or performing in Russian churches, getting arrested and beaten. You always hate for protest leaders to land in jail; they often vanish entirely, and, along with their good messages, are never heard from again.

Russian Government Afraid of Pussy Riot

IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF RUSSIA, going back a thousand years, there has been democracy for six months, during 1917, when Russia was getting destroyed by Germany.It didn't work out. There's a bit of a trick to democracy, as any American knows, and the Russians just haven't had the opportunity to learn the trick. They'll have to learn; the future is for the people, with their internet and cell phone democracy. Behold Kiev, even as we speak. The Russian all hot female punk rock band "Pussy Riot" is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and just what the doctor ordered, vis a vis Russia, and the world. At some point, in the fairly near future, Pussy Riot should strongly consider touring in America, and finding out what a rock n roll crowd really is, American style, free of any government interference. We Americans could certainly show the girls a good time, eh? But in mother Russia, Putin and his autocratic police state are scared as hell of the gang of sexy young screamers, which is absolutely hilarious. Every member of Pussy Riot has been arrested, detained, locked up, sent to Siberia, tortured, and generally treated with excessive rudeness by Vladimirs's vampires. And just think; all they are is pretty girls, speaking truth. In America, most of OUR great entertainers make fun of the United States, all the great comedians do, and we Americas just eat it up, because its funny, and accurate, and we see no harm in it, since we are secure in who we are. Our government, powerless to do otherwise, languidly agrees, and tolerates all dissent, only because it is powerless to stop it. Make no mistake; if the United States government could, it would, oppress the people. Instead, its left up to the corporations. When the "Dixie Chicks" lambasted George Bush, millions of right wing Americans were outraged, and succeeded in ambushing the all girl group's career. But the Dixie Chicks were never arrested, or harassed by the government, only by conservative morons. Bear in mind, the American government operates a massive police surveillance state, and conquers countries all over the world with its massive military; but at least our government isn't afraid of a few good lookin' chicks bitching about the government.

Real American Problems

ACCORDING TO A NEW GALLUP POLE, the biggest problem the United States faces is unemployment. Last week the biggest problem was "government and politicians", and the week before that, it might have been North Korea, or environmental damage. It could have been anything, and it still could. We Americans like to keep our problems fresh, and keep 'em guessing, even if it means bringing old complaints out of storage for periodic examination. There's an expanded menu to select from. So many of our problems seem amorphous, and distant, it becomes easy to slide them under and out from under the couch. For sheer staying power, you'd have to give your vote to climate change; people living next to Chesapeake Bay report that their estates are getting wet around the edges. Same in the South Pacific, where small islands are already disappearing beneath the waves. How much of our disposable personal income will be confiscated by governments desperate to keep their nations afloat? Will our big screen TVs be beaten into bailing buckets and sand bags, of necessity? Can you imagine how much wealth will be required to keep sea water out of Manhattan, to keep it from inundating the billions of people who live near the oceans? We Americans prefer to spend our hard earned money on weaponry, and entertainment, rather than, say, education, roads and bridges, or clean water. We like the sexy stuff. The mundane necessities of daily life are so, um, boring. But if we're not careful, we'll have to cut back on warfare in foreign countries, and get to work on food, water, clothing, and shelter, and we might even have to invite fun house folks like Lady Gaga and Justin Beiber to give the rest of us a hand.

The Americans: Preaching, or Practicing?

IT MIGHT SEEM A BIT STRANGE, to be an Indonesian citizen, awaiting the arrival of American Secretary of State John Kerry, strange to greet him warmly and to hear him speak to your country, telling everyone that your country will soon sink into the ocean unless you and your countrymen change your ways. It would seem strange for several reasons. First, being told how to live your life by a foreigner standing on your own soil might offend the pride of even the most humble of humans beings. Secondly, the very behavior alluded to by the visiting American, causing global warming by injecting billions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere, is a behavior which the Americans themselves elevated to the level it is today. Another strange thing, from the Indonesian point of view, is the obvious fact that within a couple of years, the Americans are likely to send over some high ranking government official who will say just the opposite. There is no global warming, full speed ahead with economic development, using all available resources, and may our two nations find beter ways of cooperating in the investment of American corporate dollars for the further development of your lovely nation. You never know you're gonna get from the Americans; hard driving capitalism, or high minded environmental activism. You just have to choose which one to believe, and hope that Americans stay close to home, and tend their own economic and environmental clean up business.

Being Civilized

NOT LONG AGO, a tea party lady was talking to a republican member of Congress at a fundraising function. She said that getting Obama out of office is urgent, because the President is a traitor who should be tried and executed. The Congressperson chimed right in, declaring that Obama is absolutely lawless, and constantly violates the Constitution. Amazingly, but tellingly, the Congressperson made no attempt to rebuke the comment about executing Obama. Why bother? He probably agreed with the idea that the President should be put to death, to save the country. You hear this sort of vicious talk all the time, so much so that it no longer even seems surprising. This is the extreme depth to which extreme right wing Americans have fallen. And make no mistake, extreme left wing Americans, extreme liberals, are no better. Bush is a moron. Reagan is an idiot. Conservatives are uneducated, unintelligent, and thoughtless. Same kind of garbage. There is probably some sort of cyclical nature to cultural crassness. Abraham Lincoln was often called a baboon, and Thomas Jefferson was accused of being an adulterer. In his case, the accusation was true. And maybe conservatives do tend to be less educated than liberals. Whether we are more violent, more aggressive and vicious with words is not really the key question. The key question, ofr us, is: are we becoming more civilized, or, if not, are we at least avoiding regression?

The Beauty of the Internet

ISN'T THE INTERNET the most marvelous ivention yet by our dear selves? Now, we can all write books, and be published, without elaborately processing trees into paper by the billions of tons. And indeed we all could write a book, or books, and contribute to the store of human knowledge. Where is it all? In my computer, and yours? Or is it all in an extradimensional "cloud", so to speak, floating, hanging, somewhere...? In other words, what would happen to the internet if we extincted ourselves through U.S. foreign policy, or the extraterrestrials decided to spray something, and eliminate us? Would all our effort survive, if all our computers melted? Or do we need to launch a few laptops into outer space, with the internet inside them? How many websites can exist, simultaneously, in this universe? On this planet? We certainly do not want to reproduce human beings in unlimited quantity, and fill the galaxy with them, do we? But - certainly there can be no harm in producing a vast ocean of human thought and knowledge, then finding a place to safe keep it, for all eternity, once we ourselves have vanished.The problem with cable television is that it doesn't leak into outer space, for other beings to catch. I Love Lucy is still traveling across the cosmos, attenuated, but discernible. These days it seems nearly everybody is writing a book, has written one or several, or has a website or blog. This can be viewed as a healthy indication of the state of human creative health. Can you buy a kindle with every book ever written accessible? Not yet? Maybe later? I'll wait.

National Public Radio

IF ONE WISHES TO CAST OFF the bonds of enslavement to the corporate industrial complex, and assume for yourself the freedom to thrive intellectually, implicit in Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, the first thing one must do is rid one's household of all cable and satellite television. Replace it with National Public Radio, which is within reach of almost everyone in the lower forty eight United States, if one has a decent radio. National Public Radio, as the name implies, is free from corporate seduction, coercion, and control. Hence, no advertising, which is a breath of fresh air unto itself. Plus, NPR is far more intelligent than mainstream television, and one can read a good book while listening. However, without any ad revenue, to make up the money necessary to cover expenses, NPR has fund raising early and often. They regularly bombard listeners with pleas for money. Anyone who is tired of that technique is perfectly free to go back to private radio and television, with its endless parade of drivel, and advertising. Either way, you can't win. Some circumstances, however, ore preferrable to others. The government provides only modest support for NPR, and less all the time, which is appropiate and proper. Public Radio should be supported by the general public; voluntarily, just like commercial media. NPR could probably even sell some commercial time, within limits, without becoming another corporate puppet; but that would be risky, a very slippery slope. The American corporate oligarchy is like the mafia, or an effective diet; once it takes control of someone or something, it never lets go.

Ellen Page, Coming Out

ELLEN PAGE COMES OUT! Or something like that. Another homosexual human being, tired of hiding it, tired of living a lie, now fully "gay". She is, presumably, an actress or entertainer of some sort, or maybe just one of those celebrities, famous for being famous. By the looks of her, there'll be a few heterosexual males, sighing with a vicarious sense of lost opportunity. In an even less enviable position is the star football player, a M. Sam, who came out, right about the time he is scheduled to become a professional player. Good luck with that. The number of evolutionary reasons for strict cultural conformity is far too great to fully enumerate, here or anywhere. Suffice to say that humans are social animals, who find as many ways as possible to cooperate, even as they cling to destructive violence as a way to survive. But damn, how far, exactly , do we have to take it? In Biblical times gay people did nothing to propagate the species, in harsh demographic circumstances, where everyone needed to contribute new children. We get that. And never spill your seed in vain; make sure it finds its mark. OK, fine. But does that mean that two thousand years later along our evolutionary adventure we must all express the same sexual preferences, the same religiouioty, and the same hair style and skin color? Exactly how far must we go in imitation each other for reassurance? Compare your skin color to anyone else's, anywhere. You'll never find a match. Terrified of that fact to the point of denying it, we create our imaginary cultural categories, of religion, skin color, everything, and live warily within them, with only a mild, vague sense of dissonance. w clever our expedient conventions! And how tragically flawed, and demonstrably false. And in these latter days, worst of all, how needlessly restrictive.

Enslaving Ourselves With High Tech

EVERY FORM OF TECHNOLOGY every invented by humans has been used by humans to destroy and enslave each other, it could be argued. Bows, arrows, guns, knives. American conservatives believe that universal gun ownership would usher an era of violence free human harmony, or they pretend to believe this, but either way, its only a mental aberration. Take drones, for instance. Flying self guided smart rockets that can destroy anyone, anywhere. Soon dronew will be programmed to make their own decisions. Can you imagine our neighborhoods then? Or maybe you'd prefer not to. Then too, there's the famous implanted micro chip, voluntariy implanted just under the skin to give us instant access to information and communication, at first. When implanted micro chips become mandatory, beware. Big brother can now monitor you, and thus control you. Computer technology itself might one day enslave us all. Computers, ganging up on us, taking over the world. Or some computer borne virus. There was a time when the very notion of a computer beating a human being in chess was ludicrous, unthinkable. Then, along came Big Blue, and down went the Russian world chess champion. Now, I assume, any computer off the shelf at Wal Mart can beat anyone anytime, or soon will. There is little doubt that our machines, and thus our weapons, are becoming bigger, more powerful, more deadly. Our level of thinking, our level of wisdom, seems unchanged, or maybe even in retrograde. Albert Einstein was once asked to write a message to be placed in a time capsule, to be opened hundreds of years in the future. He wrote: if you have not become kinder and more compassionate than we were, may the devil take you."

Rushing Into History, Conservatively

SEVERAL MONTHS AGO RUSH LIMBAUGH decided to extend his empire and so he spoke a book, which other people doubtless edited for spelling and grammar, and put into print. The low information conservative hordes descended like piranha, and made Rushie a thousand-aire. "Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims", the version in which the pioneers of 1607 and 1620 survive through capitalism and Christ, rather than the more prosaic and factual version, in which they steal from the natives. Finally, after years of cultural hardship and warfare, crawling towards more historical, if unflattering truth, we are coming full circle, and returning to our patriotic pristine fantasies. Home at last, with our beloved propaganda! Unable to resist the sweet tasts of success, Limbaugh just now announced the second book of what one faintly fears could become a series longer than anything ever conceived by Louis L'amour. The sequal, if memory serves, has something to do with the colonial period, and again features Rush Revere. For a project of this magnitude, the author's name must appear on every page. You can imagine Limbaugh's serial history of the United States pounding relentlessy far into the future, dumbing down generations as yet unborn.The pioneers push west peacefully, untainted by violence. The former mexican territories are acquired through intrepid hard work, and manifest destiny. The war between the states becomes once again an unfortunate abberation, with eventual reconciliation and opportunity for all, all the way to Martin Luther Knig, whose fussing recedes back into its previous minor place among the many misguided malcontents of the nineteen sixties. AS we approach the present in the still to be completed Limbaugh legacy of hagiography, the United States withdtraws from Viet Nam victorious, and neo-conservatism carries the fight for freedom forward, spreading virtue around the world in the face of flat out opposition from liberals, moslems, and communists. We'll wait awhile for that fun house tome; right now, in the land of Limbaugh, the colonists are growing restless under British tyranny, and that iconic group of staunch conservatives is gathering in Philadelphia, to found the nation rightly, which is to say, as conservatively as any violent revolution for drastic change can possibly be made to seem.

Making Information in America

GOOGLE PASSES EXXON, becomes America's number two company. Wow. Information over oil. And we all knowwhat number one is, correct? All hail to Wal Mart, the Arkansas based king of the heap. We've been told for years, id not decades, that the American economy is now an information based economy, not an industrial based, or agrarian based, as in the remote past. We never really knew what all that meant, until now. If information outsells oil, what else do we need to know to know that information is America's hottest product? And how much longer until information overtakes consumer commodities and brick-a-brack istelf? Ten years ago, you weren't gonna tell anybody that a search engine would soon be soaring towards number one, vaulting past every business which grows, makes, or sells real physical things. The dirty little secret, or is it a white elephant standing there plainly and lonely - is that you simply cannot feed the children or clothe and house them with information. Endless internet searches for celebrity gossip, lawsuits, and sports scores just don't feed the bull dog. To do that, we may've forgotten by now, one must actually cultivate land, plant crops, build factories, and make things, here at home. In such manner are people employed, and fed, near and at home. A long time ago we decided to farm those minor food clothing and shelter-like functions out to third world countries with cheap labor, so we Americans could all take the time to go to college, and become lawyers and stockbrokers, entertainers and celebrities. When Dick, Jane, and Sally get off the bus today, they'll have their "smartphones" in hand, and will be staring hypnotically deep into them, made in China.

The United States of America, Accumulation, & Poverty

FREE ENTERPRISE, LIKE CHRISTIANITY, sounds like a good idea; maybe we should give it a try. We never really have, in these United States. Slavery is not free enterprise. (nor is it Christianity, is it?) Neither is indentured servitude, slave labor wages, or corporate oligarchies. Wouldn't it be nice in America, if just one, only one, of our major economic sectors, say, insurance, medicine, or oil, were competitive, rather than corporate oligarchial. There is no real competition in any of the industries named above; isntead, the handful of huge corporations which dominate each of them conspire, if only tacitly, for their mutual benefit. And why not? Under the circumstances, you and I would do exactly the same thing. But wouldn't it be great, to have real capitalistic competition america....The cable TV industry is no different than any other. There is no competition, there is only a handful of super huge corporate players, forming an effective monopoly. It just got worse: Comcast is buying Time-Warner cable, for something in the neighborhood of forty two billion bucks. Now our cable television bills will go up even more, as we the people have ever less power of choice to do anything about it. Our only remaining choice is televisionlessnes, and its been proven effective, in promoting a more intelligent lifestyle. These sixty dollar smartphone and television bills might start to weigh heavy on the poorer half of the American people. In America, even people on food stamps and unemployment insurance, or disability have cell phones and big screen TVs, but, after all, this is America. Soon the teeming American poor might have to do without, and live like the truly poor in truly impverished countries. The United States, which looks more like a third world country every day, is closing the gap between itself and Haiti.

Taking Pictures of People In Pain

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT American culture could descend to no further depths, it does. Happens every time. Never bet against it. Now from the depths of our depraved culture, amid our ever growing arsenal of vicious weapons, emerges: sadistic selfies; pictures taken of one's self with a cell phone, which include someone else, in humiliatng circumstances, most usually, an obvious state of skid row homelessness, a condition, which we Americans all know, is quite common in our land of alleged opportunity. The person in the pic taking the pic is almost always quite young, say college aged, well fed and dressed, smiling smugly, having a blast. Serving the twin purposes of self aggrandizement and the humiliation of some poor ordinary schmuck, for purely comparative purposes. How typically presumptuous of American youth, of Americans, to think that anyone might give a rat's ass. Anyone who pretends to is faking it, a fact which should be pointed out to the camera thugs who wish only to do harm. They usually aren't very smart. One can only hope that this sordid little hobby is materializing all over the world, wherever cell phones are sold, which is everywhere. This would take at least a smidgen of heat of us Americans. Somehow, though, you sadly sense this is an American pehnomon. Welcome to the future, where everything is on camera, not because of the national security police state; because of the masses of private citizens, folks just like you and me, doing their thing. Well, maybe, just maybe, if more and more visuals of people in pain start to turn up on the internet, say facebook, those of us who are more fortunate will finally get the message, put aside our petty differences, and work together to ease, if not end, the pain.

Lawless Obama, Limbaugh Lies

ACCORDING TO RUSH LIMBAUGH, President Barack Hussein Obama is utterly lawless. He is nothing other than a lawbreaker. Obama has gone beyond the dictorial level of some third world banana republic socialist dictator; he has become Stalinsist in his autocratic brutality. He has torn up the Constitution and taken over the country. This is how bad its become. In effect, Joseph Stalin, or Adolph Hitler now rules the United States of America with an iron hand. Quick translation: Rush Limbaugh, like all other conservatives, hates President Obama. Now, please remember, there are millions of lawyers with their eyes on Obama,; if the President were to even think about breaking a law of the land, he would immediately be impeached by the carnivorous conservatives in Congress. Hell, President Obama would get impeached if he jaywalked across the street from the White ouse. In reality, Obama is using every trick in the book, within the law, to implement policies that the republicans in Congress won't vote for, policies Obama considers vital. For the most part, the President is using the very constitutional tool of executive orders, raising minimum wage for government employees, enforcing environmental regulations, and so forth. Also, as we go along, getting deeper and deeper into Obamacare, Obama is constantly tinkering with it, trying to make it work better, which, at this point, seems reasonable necessary,and helpful. This is what the Republicans think makes Obama another Stalin, or Hitler. The Third Reich never looked so good. Of course they don't really believe that, but, in our era of image making and destroying, one must exaggerate and distort, twist and spin. When liberals make such drastic complaints about America, its government, people like Rush Limbaugh suggest that they leave the country. Your private jet is fueled and ready for take off, Rushie.

Joining the Fight Against Corporate Control

THE MOST POPULAR RADIO PROGRAM in the middle of the American night is, hands down, "Coast to Coast A.M.", with host George Noory. Millions of listeners, midnight to four, every night/morning. The subject matter befits the nocturnal time slot. Its entirely out of the ordinary. UFOs, extraterrestrials, ghosts, the paranormal, and government conspiracies, for good measure. Throw in a little real science from time to time, and no wonder its popular; its interesting, if a bit late at night. Recently one of the show's most popular hosts got fired, and much of the show's audience is screaming bloody murder, screaming corporate conspiracy, corporate control. Screaming that the reason the host was fired was because he refused to advocate the corporate viewpoint, and instead insisted in expressing his thoughts independently, the worst of all sins in corporate America. And undoubtedlly all that is true, and more power to the angered audience. As if they were the first to notice corporate control. Hell, any liberal worth his salt has been screaming about the corporate takeover of America for, oh, what, over a hundred years? And now that its actually happened, the people at large scarcely notice it, and then only when it directly affects them. To the fans of "Coast to Coast A.M." I would say; if you don't like corporate control, even if only because it finally has impacted your weird paranormal corner of the cosmos, then welcome to the club. Welcome to the struggle, to the war of rich versus poor. And maybe next time enough good patriotic Americans have enough guts to get out in enough American streets in sufficient numbers to make a difference, please, feel free, don't be bashful, make yourself at home, on the front line of the fight against global corporate control.

Tiring of Licorice in West Virginia

SOME COMPANY IN WEST VIRGINIA dumps tons of poison into the public water system, which provokes an annoyed response. The finger pointing and clean up commence, and yet, a month or two later,the problem lingers. Or, as latter day carpetbagger West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller intoned with upturned nose; "I wouldn't drink this water if somebody paid me." Of course, what Rockefeller ever did anything without being paid, or ever really needing to be paid? The guilty company, now in bankruptcy protection, didn't realize what was happening, it was an unfortunate mistake, and so forth. Tell it to a judge. Large incorporated business dumps waste into our environment to save money, world becomes dirtier. A yawningly familiar refrain, a staple of the industrrial revolution, until the advent of government intervention and regulation. Now, we are cleaning up, albeit belatedly. Hooray for us. As always, socialism rides to the rescue of capitalism, sure as Roy Rogers. But don't tell any blue blooded American conservative that government ever does anything but stifle business and prosperity. In a lot of places, like West Virginia, Roy didn't quite show up in time, or with enough sidekicks. Some folks are just plain resistant to anything having to do with government, including legislation protecting air, water, and land. On the upside, the longer West Virginian water tastes like licorice, the greater the furor, in West Virginia, and localities beyond the Blue Ridge, and the greater the chance that enough blue bloods will tire of licorice, that something will finally get done.

Seeking Substitutes For Stardom

THE FARTHER REMOVED you get from the nineteen thirties, the more American grownups you see thinking of Shirley Temple as a brat in need of a butt smack, and less the adorable starlet. She wore a bit thin by World War Two, and got out while the getting was still good. She knew better than to try to parley her kiddie cuteness into a serious acting career in the adult world. Everybody has to deal with it differently. Ron Howard simply kept going; turning into a gooe adolescent actor, and a good grown up actor, then, a great director and producer when his acting ability reached its limit. Others have flamed out prematurely, and vanished. The dilemma is eternal. You come into this world, and the moment you become aware of it, and your place in it, your "place" is at the pinnacle of the sociological pyramid, as measured by fame, wealth, and amount of constant attention accorded by the rest of the race. Then comes the big let down, teh cold turkey. From top, to middle of the pack. That gnawing desperation to get back under the spot light, to retain or reclaim the fame, status, attention, adrenalin. Any fundamental human need on the Mazlow chart, among which are social status and value to others, suddenly ripped out from beneath, and the organism has heap of adjusting to do. Shirley Temple did it by going about her business, with marraige and family, and a career, in politics and diplomacy. Smart move for her; regular appearances before very important people at very important social events is a sure surrogate for movie stardom. So Shirley never really had to surrender the spotlight. Now we are confronted with the transitional stage of Justin Beiber and Miley Cyrus, et al. Same song, upteenth verse. Can we all help shepherd them through by bestowing a little lingering love? Perhaps a self help book for Hollywood types whose bag of trickes has run out early, and needs a suitable substitute. Shirley Temple, who died yesterday, could've written the book.

What We Do That Others Shouldn't, & What We Think They Should Do

ITS REALLY AMAZING how many things we as individuals do in our daily lives that we don't think anybody else should do. When I tell people I've never been married, they all agree how smart I am, even the ones who have been happily married for decades. No smoker ever thinks you should start smoking, and no drinker ever thinks you should start drinking. Seldom would people recommend their jobs, and almost no one would want someone else living the same life, even those who would do it all over again. Greener grass. And I can't say I would urge anyone to follow my path. Nobody thinks its a good idea to follow closely the car in front of you, though we all do it. We are all intrepid individualists, blazing a ungiue trial, warning all who would follow to refrain. The things we think other people should do, we would never for a moment consider doing ourselves, or if we did consider, wouldn't do. Have a positive attitude, and always listen to others. Don't interrupt. Keep your opinions to yourself, and if you don't have something good to say about someone, don't say anything. Always be cheerful. Damn, if we could only get others to follow all the good advice we have for them, they'd all turn into perfect girl and boy scouts, with behavior nice and convenient for us, and nothing further to worry about. Contributing to the community, and forming friendships are things we all want to do, as conveniently and easily as possible. If only we could get other people to do the things we know we should do but don't, and get them to avoid doing all those things we do, but know we shouldn't.

Rewilding

IT REALLY MAKES A DIFFERENCE, whether bees, butterflies, and bullfrogs all disappear. And before you laugh at the idea, please note; that is exactly what's happening right now, the disappearance of these animal species, and many more as well. The research is in, all the numbers, the statistics. Ask any bee keeper, or biologist. Even more frightening, if all the bees disappear, we're doomed, because they pollinate all the plants that all animal species, including us, need to survive. Fortunately, we are dealing with the problem by raising more and more bees on bee farms, and setting them free, to pollinate the world. And thank goodenss we are doing this, until you remember that it was us who started the problem in the first place. Basically, all the kinds of plants and animals we have hounded into extinction, and again, there are many, must be brought back into existence, if we are to have a chance for survival. Otherwise, the whole ecosystem will collapse, and we with it. Fortunately, this is within the realm of human capability, to bring alive plants and animals that were long ago extinct. Thanks to cloning, its not only possible, its a reality. "Rewilding" refers to the process wherein species of plants and animals which have been driven off by mankind are reintroduced into their natural habitat, and a new wilderness is reborn, where it once was. Its already happening in Europe. Of course, this will requir much planning and cooperation on the part of us the human race, which, if you're living on the same planet I am, seems impossible and hopeless. But worldwide cooperation and planning on that enormous, global level; environmentally, economically, militarily, politically, seems absolutely necessary for our very survival, yet utterly impossible, given our collective behavioral tendencies. Let's face it, whether in small numbers or large, humans fight a lot. But that's becoming a luxury we can no longer afford. The projects of the future, of the present, are too enormous to accomplish without enormous work, and thus, group effort.

Obama, Bowing Up, Throwing Down

BILL O'REILLY, THE AGGRESSIVE FOX News dude, interviewed President Obama right before the Super Bowl, for some inappropiate reason such as ratings, tried to rip into el Presidente in typical FOX friendly fashion, failed miserably, then proclaimed the interview to be the epitome of all journalistic endeavor, the most seminal discussion of all time, worthy of a Pulitzer, if not a Nobel Peace. Benghazi, ye olde IRS-ergate, the health care flop, all the usual staples were dusted off and paraded out, O'Reilly, looking for weaknesses. No mention of anything relevant, such as ye olde NSA-451, sluggishness in repairing Obamacare, or anything else substantive with which O'Reilly might easily have exposed the President. Those heavy topics were just too much heavy lifting for an aging talking TV face. Go for the jugular, with the straightforward scandal-sheet stuff. But this time Obama, who has been savaged by Bill the Bully before, was ready, and laying in wait. Barack Hussein had the big bad boy so flustered and on the defensive that late in the final round, O'reilly meekly purred: "Mr. President, do you think we at FOX are unfair to you"? Wow. Swing the bat, Obama, a hanging curve ball is on the way. Said the President: "hell yeah, you're unfair, but I like you anyway." Who would have said anything else? Confirm the abuse, then show how little damage it actually does. The only thing Obama didn't do right was predict the outcome of the football game, but then, neither did anyone else, and that wasn't really the purpose of the interview. IN any event the purpose, damaging the President, was never fulfilled.

Warning the World About War, American Style

WITHIN FIVE YEARS, or say, during or before the year 2020, the United States of America seems destined, as inevitably as the fates themselves, to become involved in a massive, global conflict of its own making, even if only indirectly manufactured. Another one of those Mexican war, Spanish American war, World War Two, and Viet Nam kinds of scenarios, wherein the United States government, bound and determined to initiate hostilities for covert material gain, finds some agregious if imaginary offense as pretext to intervention. You can almost bank on it, so to speak. You can just see it in the faces of the average American citizen; the anger, the fear, the frustration of gradual, steady economic failure in a culture which places a premium on success through conquest..Beware, oh friends on foreigh soil! Here comes the American military....again. You can see it in the way every American with a driver's license is lurking, scowling, five feet behind your rear bumper. Coming soon to a theatre of operation near you, with all the smart bombs, carrier based fighter planes, and missiles fired from deep beneath the ocean blue: the American military industrial complex! It'll doubtless be quite a show, with full mainstream conservative American media coverage, like usual. Advertising revenue should soar, which is, of course, all part of the bigger picture. Doubtless the American juggernaut will be placidly accompanied by the usual host of allies; bought, paid for, intimidated, and coerced. Again, the usual scenario. That way, it won't really be an "American" war, will it? If I were a Moslem, living on non American soil, or living within the lower forty eight, for that matter, I'd be ducking my head under my desk right about now, the way we used to, in those halcyon days of yore, when our enemy of the month in America was Soviet Russia, and cooperative economis was Satan. Move over socialism! There's a new enemy now, as there almost always is. After all, you have to keep 'em guessing, and, above all else, the American people themselves, that amorphous mass of inert and presumbably sedated organic matter, must remain confused, yet content.

Choices, & Owning Up

THE THREE KITTENS I took in as strays a little over a year ago are faring well, but my mother died recently, there's a girl I like, and, well, a lot of stress right now. So, the other night, in anger, I swiped my sweet girl off the kitchen counter, and she landed on the floor, four feet below, partly on her side. She looked at me in disbelief, and I felt disbelief, disbelief at me, myself, and I. Good God, how could I? Well, after completing a self imposed regimen of personal hatred, torture, and repentence, I finally got over the guilt, even though I really hadn't hurt the little thing, she is young and athletic, very forgiving, (and somewhat of a bitch, like females in general, truth told). She just got up, shook it off, and looked at me, confused. I love her, and I promise to never do it again. Ever since, Mandi has been curled in my lap like never before, as if forgiving, and strengthening our love. Then I remember the time I threatend my sister's life, because she refused to leave my bedroom, insisted that I show her a piece of personal mail I was reading. I couldn't surrender to tyranny, and I couldn't call the cops, because that woulda only inspired ridicule, from all sides. So, I did what I felt I had to, in my desperation. Of course I regretted it, and still do. Meanwhile, my siter and I get along great, as we basically always have, with but an abberation or two. But its interesting, how we always have choices, evenwhen we find ourselves, through no apparent fault of our own, pushed into corners. Maybe I should have simply grabbed my stomach, wretched violently, and puked all over my looming sister. Or run out of my own bedroom, and down the street, and far, far away.

Our Olympic Monstrosity

IT SHOULD BE ENTIRELY OBVIOUS by now that these the games of the upteenth Olympiad are a complete and unmitigated mess. Terrorists running around everywhere in the frozen wilderness of mother Russia, the massive Red Army in hot pursuit, erecting barbed wire checkpoints everywhere, denying all participants of any semblance of reasonable privacy, even by American standards. Then too, is the sheer cost of this monstrosity, something north of fifty bil. And its not like Russia is the land of unlimited disposable wealth or ready investment capital. And what will be done with this billion tons of concrete super structure following the two week orgasm of human athletic passion? Nothing, that's what. Exactly what in the hell cold one possibly expect to be done with it? A new metropolis with eight million people, moving in from Moscow? Let's try this. Let's build a nice complex of Olympic facilities, summer and winter, somewhere like Greece, and just keep the damned games there, every four years, and be done with it. At least then the investment will have a chance to yield some real profit. But now let us return to the games themselves. Let us return to unfinished roads, hotels, race courses and stadiums, impossible human confusion and congestion, and eternal bickering over the rules, and outcomes of events. Like a symbolic miniature world war, every country for itself. What's the point? To foster international cooperation, harmony,love, and understanding, or to start world war three? The purpose of the olympics is in serious jeopardy of not being fulfilled, a casualty to greed, international hatred, and rapacious, unbridled, unsportsman like competition.

Losing Our Friends to Alien Abduction

FRIENDSHIP, MOST OF US might agree, is among the most valued treasures of life. Of course, like everything else, it has its downside. Among the pitfalls of friendship in American life, is a most curious phenomenon, (for me if no one else. But, I,suspect, for others too). Namely: strangely enough, if you're an American man, and you make friends with an Anerican woman, or many American women, she will, they will, invariably, be abducted by aliens. And, interestingly enough, the better the friendship, the more harmless, the fewer the edgy sexual undertones complicating it, the more innocent and fun it is, the more likely the kidnapping. Purely platonic, intellectually fulfilling relationships are doomed to extinction through alien abduction. As if the extraterrestrials are having fits of jealousy, or seeking insight into human happiness and its senseless destruction. In many if not most instances the aliens will eventually release her, them, but in nearly every case, the woman is much changed after her abduction. Much changed personality-wise, that is. She's usually much less friendly, and seems to have memory loss, or, in some instances, American women abducted by extraterrestrials come back friendlier than ever, but in a phony sounding, pandering way, as if the friendliness is intended only to avoid further inconvenient contact, intended only for them to part company with you on good terms, safely. A sort of wary, reluctant, guarded warmth, if you will. It happens nearly every time, both the abductions and the post op behavior. Probably more for some than others, but probably, all American men, and the women who unwisely befriend them, have experienced this, at least once. If you've ever noticed that a female friend of yours has vanished, raise your hand. Don't bother to inform the authorities; they are already swamped, and will give only lame assurances. If you didn't know better, you might think that the ladies were merely walking out on friendship, hiding, almost as if twenty percent of American women had been sexually molested or abused, and thus American women in general were very, very fearful, careful, and strategically deceitful. But that accurate analysis wouldn't do here, in America, where all is glitter and appearance, and bad news doesn't set very well. Welcome to the fun house of alternative paradigms and explanations! And ladies, enjoy your ride. I hope they don't stick you with too many needles, and I hope they bring you back less afraid of men, and more confident in your own ability to evaluate them.

Wondering If We Have A Chance

ONCE YOU START TO explain to people, in a sane and realistic manner, that here in America, there could be and really already has been a war between the rich and the poor, they begin to listen. So, you have to keep them listening, because you are trying, to warn them, desperately. You know you're gonna die soon anyway, so you don't matter, but they, the young ones do, and you want to hand them a better world. There will probably be many more people on planet earth during the next century, and there will be a need for them all to have adequate food, clothing, and shelter, blah blah. As I get ready to die, in a few more decades, I'd like to think the world will go on after me, that the human race will endure, reach out into the universe, thrive, explore, and expand. That it will go on profitably and happily, for many millenia.. But with exploding population, increasing gap between the rich and poor, and out of control climate change, what chance do we have? Particularly when at least half the people of the most powerful, militarily, nation on earth seem to neither care about global warming, or even believe in it. Moreover, the Amrican people seem content to placidly sit by while their government uses their military to run roughshod over the planet. That's frightening. That's ominous. One wonders if we even have a chance. Why is the gap between rich and poor important, globally, as well as nationally? Because, dear reader, if this continues, there will be a war between the rich and the poor.

Culling Out the Undesirables

THE VERY MOMENT you think American culture can sink no lower, it does. We shouldn't be surprised, but we are. Maybe we just don't want to believe it. The smug, self satisfied dismissive indifference of our upper middle class to - everything save itself - ceaselessly amazes and amuses. Better to laugh than to cry and break things. In Baton rouge, that bastion of progressive egalitarian thought, the rich want to put a wall around themselves and shut out the poor. They may even want to move the poor onto a reservation, bulldoze their shanties, and put up a gleaming gilded country club, exclusive, membership by invitation only. The wealthy and almost wealthy want their own seperate school district for their very special Izod children, and they do not want the poor kids from the wrong side of the tracks, the kids of color, to have any part of it. Why should they the achievers pay the lion's share of property taxes, they reason, only to allow the less fortunate, the less successful, to ride their coat tails, like a bunch of moochers? Let the poor pay for their own meager schools, with their own meager taxes, drawn from their own meager assets? Let 'em eat cake! There shall remain of our cities but the wind that blew through them! Similar movements have begun in other southern states. Please recall that in this benighted part of the country, it took the American people one hundred years to stop pouting about the liberation of the slaves, one hundred hyears to begin treating African-Americans like human beings, and then, only at the point of a federal bayonet, by court order. Now they will get their revenge upon the poor. In the earthquakes to come, it is to be hoped I shan't allow bitterness to quench my cigar's glow. At the day of reckoning, when the upper middle class American southern baptist minions come before their vengeful but just God, amy they be sent receive their just rewards, post haste.

Gaga & Britney, Teaming Up

GAGA AND BRITNEY team up, read the neon headline, on the front page of every internet homepage, and probably on all the supermarket tabloids. Its more fun to skip the article below, and speculate. The best guess is that they intend to team up to make a album, or a CD, or whatever they call a collections of songs reproduced electronically. Or maybe a two hundred dollar ticket concert tour, complete with slick aluminum pipes and exposed skin. But it really could be anything. A team to circulate through the party curcuit. A team to raise awareness of eating disorders, or drug addiction. The hope is that its something which won't do any more damage than a few minutes of insipid, keening lyrics, and tired, hackneyed melodies. It might be best if they were planning something political; celebrities have a high rate of bleeding heart liberalism, and people pay more attention to them in America than the politicians who are supposed to be doing such things, but generally don't. Celebrities are prettier than politicians, and always less boring. American politicians are too busy stopping traffic, and spewing venom at each other, or rasing funds for the next reelection campaign two years hence. When celebrities join forces, te earth trembles more virilently. Madonna is just now escorting female Russian rock singers onto American stages, to discourage Putin from further repression. It may be too late for that, but the expression of good intentions is the essence, and our glittery gods and goddesses can always use a little more attention.

Piously Wising Up At the Drugstore, A Bit Belatedly

THE WORD HAS COME DOWN FROM a corporate high places, as on a stone tablet, inscribed with a single declaration, descending by CEO from some financial Mt. Sanai, adorned with all manner of media hoopla; the CVS pharmacy retail chain, the nation's second largest, will no longer sell tobacco products. The enlightened rationale, according to Moses of the bottom line, has to do with a sudden, Saul of Tarsus like thunder bolt of a revelation having to do with the harmful effects of tobacco, in a business seeking to more nobly advance the cause of human health. A pharmacy, after all, is supposed to make people well, not ill. Certainly it shouldn't seek profit through the merchandising of death in a cardboard box. Let the grocery stores serve that function; the purity of the pristine reputation of the lily white pharmaceutical monopoly is at stake. Ignoring the obvious question of why it took fifty years years for this awareness to manifest - cigarettes were declared lethal, officially, in 1964 - it appears that untangling the complicated tangled webs of hypocritical free enterprise requires decades of unraveling. Tobacco sales constitute a two billion dollar a year income source for ownership, or roughly three percent of gross corporate profit, accumulated across about seventy six hundred outlets. According to a newly pious CEO, this mmomentous decison will significantly reduce cigarette smoking in America, especially among the very young. Where else can one go to purchase cigarettes? Nowhere, implies the man in the five hundred dollar suit, hands folded piously in exalted magnanimity. Sales of all tobacco products are to cease no later than October first of this year; or, in plain language, juste after one final two billion dollar corporate haul, for old times sake. Who says our corporate oligarchial masters are unconcerned with our well being? CVS cigarette sales have only killed a few thousand voluntary victims, with only a hanful more to come.

Who Are America's True Heroes?

WHEN THE WORLD TRADE CENTER was destroyed, the American people suddenly decided that police officers, fire fighters, and emergency response professionals are "heroes". We made that decision collectively, as if in a grand group awakening. A good healthy jolt of fear and rage from the brain stem can work wonders in amending perspective. When the United States lashed out against the Islamic world in angry response, members of the military became heros. How fickle we are, and how short our memories! When Reagan became President, all the hippies cut their hair and became middle aged financial advisors, or corporate spokespeople, complete with family values. They joined in the blule collar hero worship, but in the farthest recesses of their minds must linger dusty memories of cops and G.I.s as villains. That was Viet Nam, the optional war. There is a pattern here. Heroes are people who render indispensable services for which thery are poorly paid. For the time being, that is, until we forget the carnage, and get back to the business at hand: the current Kardashian hair color. The dirty little secret is that in the ever shifting fun house that is the United States of Advertising, our real heroes are those who keep us entertained. We tried to turn teachers into heros, but it didn't stick. We much prefer entertainment to education. Hence the income gap between Justin Beiber and the first grade teacher next door. But we have one final chance at heroic cultural reconciliation: the true heros are minor league baseball players! They entertain us, and they do it at blue collar wages. Firefighers and cops were always heros, we just didn't know it. How long until we again forget? Entertainment is an eternal verity herein the fun house. But most of us are too poor to relate to Justin Beiber. We are, at bottom, a nation of blue coolar workers. Tear down the statues of Elvis and Britney, and in their place let stand some anonymous nineteen year old pitcher, toiling heroically in a ball park with a manually operated scoreboard, two thousand cheap seats, and ads adorning the outfield fences. Who knows? Maybe a firefighter will bring his family to a game. Or better yet, maybe Kim Kardashian will drop by, slumming.

California Dreamin', Dessicatin', and Desalinatin'

CALIFORNIA GOVERNORE JERRY BROWN is doing all the right things.Don't water your lawns, turn off the water while shaving or brushing teeth,fewer flushes per day, group showers, the whole ball of wax. Extreme drought in California, too much sleet, snow and ice in New England, better cold in the midwest and south. Either the climate is becoming more volatile, or we have softened our memories of past winters and summers. Or maybe the proponents of global warming are working some illusional hoax by some mysterious means. Why not? Conspiracy theories are all the rage these days. While Calirornia parches, all the while there sits the magnificent and normally placed pacific ocean, tauntingly. Nuclear radiation and heaps of rubble are on their way from Japan, but have yet to arrive. Water can be purified of anything, including salt. A steady stream of pure clean water, borrowed from the ocean, caressing California! W're so accustomed to cheap water that we seem overly reluctant to raise its price by processing it.Ther is no shortage of water on Earth, only a shortage of human willingnes to build cities where it lingers and replenishes. Viva Las Vegas! For this commodity, supply and demand have both been historically high. Commodities such as legal advice, medical attention, and financial advice, remain costly no matter how high the supply, which, in the United States, is high. Do we perchance detect a crack in the magnificent edifice of Adam Smith? Since water is forever in high demand, shouldn't it be forever a bit more expensive, after the fashion of white collar services? And, by making potable water ever more abundant, shouldn't the cost of desalination be at least partially offset by greatly greater abundance? Sometimes, its just plain hard to tell the difference between free enterprise, monopoly, and socialism. But its comforting to know that there is no shortage of water, and never will be.

Building the Pipeline

AMONG THE BIG DECISIONS with which President Obama is faced is that concerning whether to construct a pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Of Mexico for moving crude oil to refineries. Canadian oil, moving across the fruited plain, into American production. Sounds strangely like economic super power imperialism. But let us consider that aspect antoher time. The reason the project hasn't been undertaken yet is that President Obama, citing environmental concerns, hasn't approved it. But now there is a wrinkle in his environmentalist agenda. Namely, thorough studies indicate, rather persuasively, that the pipeline, which would be underground, would have no adverse impact on nature. Either the President will anger the environmental crowd, or the profit seeking crowd. Take your pick, Mr. President. If it isn't perfectly obvious by now, it should be. The human race is going to suck every drop of oil from the ground, and use it. One way, or another. There is no force, save global autocracy, which can prevent it. Such is the power of the corporations in our corporate global civilization. The only remaining question concerns the degree of cleanliness with which we do so. So let's build the damned thing and get it over with. We'll all be happier at the gas pump, the money changers might be sufficiently appeased to cease their inanane free enterprise rhetoric long enough to stop the ringing in our ears, and who knows? Within a few decades, when the growing season begins in January and ends in December, and the average daily temperature at the North Pole is room temperature, the money grubbers might just begin to consider the possibility that something isn't quite right. But don't count on it.