Conservatism's Eternal Problem

THE CONSERVATIVES recently had their big annual meeting, confronted with the problem of what to do about the recent election disaster, and how to lure hispanics and young people, how to reverse the war against secular socialism, which they seem to be losing.

One young lady pointed out "people think young people are liberal. That isn't true. Some television shows are sending a conservative message. There's one with a gay couple, but they're married, and they have a kid! That's conservative!"

Well, not exactly. If this is what passes for modern conservatism: a gay couple, but married, then conservatism is becoming yesterday's liberalism. Conservatism is more like "gay guy fights agains being gay, knowing its wrong, and eventually he succeeds."

The conservative community will have to adjust its views on gay marriage, and other social issues, such as abortion  recreational drug use, and pathways to citizenship for illegal immigrants, among other things, in order to sufficiently catch up with the times to attract tomorrow's voters.

That's what their big meeting is all about; finding ways to modernize, without appearing to compromise consrvative principles. That's the eternal problem confronting conservatism, and its a big one. Wish them luck.

Rand the Fatuous

SO NOW, RAND PAUL is "seriously considering" running for president, which is code for I am intoxicated by the power, prestige, and attention i receive as a united states senator, and i want more of the same.

It is certainly not code for I want to be of service to my country. It never is. Anyone wanting to be of service need only pay a quick visit to a salvation army location, or plant a tree. One need not engage in a desperate twenty four seven two year pursuit of high political power to be of service to one's country.

Rand Paul the other day stood on the floor of the senate and refused to stop talking, because he had not received an answer from president obama to the following question; "would you ever launch a missile attack against the united states of america?"

Let us assume, for the sake of sanity and cynicism that no president of the united states would ever attack america. Can we ast least agree on that? Apparently not. Rand Paul already knew this, knew the answer to his theatrical, fatuous query perfectly well, but anything for a bit more attention from the media.

This is not the behavior of a person who is qualified to be president. This is the behavior of a small child. This is petty, this is juvenile. Well, he got his answer, in writing, from the attorney general. It is to be hoped that any campaign he launches for the american presidency will be met with the derision it so deserves.

Without Socialism

LET'S BE CAREFUL to make neither too much, nor too little of the death of hugo chavez. Was he a tyrannt? Absolutely. Did he advocate for the poor? He did, in that he seized much of the wealth of his country, and redistributed some of it, while probably keeping some of it for himself. Like many politicians, he became wealthy while in office, and, like harry truman once said, you cannot do that by being honest.

For those conservatives among you who denounce chavez for being a socialist, which would you do away with? Social security, medicare, medicaid? Minimum wage? All of the above, considering the nature of wealthy american conservatives.

Would you do away with the process of incorporation? Or patents? Or bankruptcy? All of these, dear conservative friends, are socialistic devices, government mandated programs created for the very purpose of propping up capitalism, and preventing the free market from consuming itself, and everone else, save for a few extremely prosperous few.

In a free market, anyone who participates in any business would bear the full responsibility of that participation, without hiding behind a conceptual  entity. Any good or service to enter the market would immediately be available to anyone wishing to exploit it, and anyone whose business failed would be responsbile for all debt incurred thereat, without using bankruptcy to evade responsiblility.

The united states is, at least in large part, a socialist country.
why, the very process of magically, mysteriously converting a business into a hypothetical human being, a legal fiction of a person, in order to relieve its real human participants of the responsibility for their own actions- is an atrificial economic device intended to prop up business.

Without socialism, there can be no capitalism.

Jesus, Guns, and Money

GORE VIDAL, THE prominent writer who died a few months ago, was anoted liberal, and he had a name for american conservatives. He called them the "jesus, guns, and money  crowd". This in reference to the seemingly accurate generalization that american conservatives tend to be very strongly pro capitalistic, stridently anti socialistic, tend to be closely accosicated with christianity, and tend to ardently support the second amendment, unmitigated.

To vidal, and perhaps to others, this combination seemed a bit, shall we say, incongruous. Did the Son of Man not preach weaponless pacifism, and absolute sharing of wealth? Turn the other cheek, render unto caesar, go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give unto the poor, and so forth.

It seem plain enough. The explanation to this seeming contradiction of values might be found in the nature of consrvatism itself. nConservatism embraces the status quo. Conservatism resists change.In any culture, and country, the "establishment" is the conservative status quo.

And, in this country (U.S.A.) the establishment is christianity, capitalism, and the second amendment. These values are never seen as contradictory or inconsistent.They are bulwarks of the statuw quo, and are what they are because they are tried and true, proven effective, unassailably true.

Those who succeed greatly financially are being rewarded becuae they are good christians, devotedly, unswervingly following the man who preached a message of voluntary poverty. (sell WHATSOEVER thou hast, and give.)

Ironic, that the most liberal person in human history is most admired by the least liberal humans among us.

More Things In Heaven and Earth

A FEW DAYS AGO  a major television network had a story about dolphins, and the amazing discovery that dolphins not only have a language and speak to each other, they have names.
It may be that for a living creature to have a name is really no big deal; maybe it happens all the time.

I have always suspected, and still do suspect, that cats, for instance, have absolutely no interest in the names we haman pet owners give them. Cats don't repsond when you call them, they respond when they are good and ready, right?

Maybe every sparrow has a name for every other sparrow, and likewise earthworms, and so forth. Still, to us, to actually hear dolphins calling each other by name is profoundly exciting, and maybe just a bit humbling.

It makes you wonder what else different animals can do that we don't know about. Maybe you don't have to use tools, build structures, and print books to be intelligent. Could it be that dolphins, without arms,legs, or hammers, know more about the world than we do, and travel around the universe more than we can even dream?

Suddenly the need to save this planet intensifies, and not only becuase we wish to save oursleves. Who knows what precious cargo this world harbors that we know nothing about? Ther is evidence, good evidence, that dolphins use telepathy in communicating, as well as sound waves.

There is evidence that humans, using "mass mind melding" can influence conditions on this planet.

The first lady, the oscars, and true democracy

PRETTY COOL,  the first lady michelle obama being introduced by the legendary jack nicholson, and reading in front of the world, from the white house, the winner of the oscar for best picture. yes, abraham lincoln was another scheming politician, and it cost him the big prize.

There was a whole lotta negative criticism about michesse's TV appearance, mostly coming from, of all people, american conservative republicans. And its like the first lady said; since we can now all know what everybody else is saying, ever little event turns into a national conversation.

And that's a good thing. Really, its getting to the point where we can almost all just about vote on everything, every issue, without having to leave it to the elite few ruling class of politicians. Hallelujah.

We all know of course that the founders were more fearful of real democracy than they were of tyranny, and, really, for good reason. mob rule can become an exercise in insanity. Representative democracy, republicanism, is the sensible form of democratic government.

But maybe we have just a bit too much representation, indirect representatin, and not quite enoug direct democracy, not quite enough mob rule. A little mob rule now and again never hurt anybody, long as it don't get outta hand.

Millions of good, patriotic americans, in front of their computers, casting votes on whether to draft a new constitution, or keep the old one. Whether to legalize marijuana, or keep criminalizing it. Whether to retaliate against china for unfair trade practices. The potential is unlimited.

All three hundred million of us could, in theory, get online, and send demands to our congresspeople and to el presidente, demanding national online referendums of a wide variety of issues, issues which need to be decided, but haven't beren by the "representative" government, but haven't been.

Our founders, dear friends and fellow american citizens, were far too fearful of mob rule. We don't have "representative" government in this country any more than we have equal protection under the law. We have an oligarchy of the corporate elite.

So let's change it. Let's create a real, direct democracy, using modern high tech. We've only our submission to the military industrial corporate complex to lose.

The Sequester, and Common Sense

So OBAMA GOT A LITTLE TESTY at a press conference, when someone suggested that maybe he shouldn't blame the republicans. These people don't know what testy is. They should have hung around harry truman. harry got testy, in a hurry. harry was testiness, personified.

at first, obama wanted to raise income tax rates on the wealthy, and the republicans responded that this was robbery, and suggested instead that tax loopholes be closed. So, obama gave up the tax increase, and instead endorsed and proposed closing loopholes;

only by now, the republicnas, perhpas emboldened, has decided that closing loopholes was unacceptable. And they accuse obama of moving the goal post. what we have here is a failure to communicate, as the line goes.

We have to have an economic system that works, wouldn't we all agree, and in order to do that the currency must be, shall we say, "viable"? Worth something, in other words. And how can that happen when the very government which issues it  and supports it treats the currency as if its worthless?

And there shall be a constitutional amendment prohibiting the spending by the government of money it does not have. Simple common sense, seemingly.

The "sequester" is tough medicine, but its the sort of medicine we need. We need lots of intelligent government budget cuts. Too bad the sequester cuts make no sense, but, at least its a start. If there are vast amount of money in circulation with no real material wealth to back it up, then problems arise, problems  with the value of the currency. Inflation can kill an economy, and always does.

At the Bottom of the Cliff, With No Pope

MARCH FIRST HAS ARRIVED, the pope is no longer the pope, and the united states has fallen off the cliff, again, or, as our half breed president says, its gone down a steep incline, or something like that. Half breed? Of course. Nothing derogatory intended. If the term was good enough for cherokee-irish americans in previous american history, it'll do just fine now.

Either way, it makes no sense, just like it makes no sense to abuse a perfectly good currency system, or place unreasonable requirements upon people, such as priests. A lot of what we the human species does makes less sense than it should, it might be agreed.

And it almost seems as if the world is continuing to turn. Can you imagine a papal election every , say, four years, a billion catholics registering and voting, with world wide election campaigns featuring mass advertising, pep rallies in full stadiums, the whole works?

"Crush the infamous thing!" said francois marie arouet, aka voltaire, in reference to the catholic church. That might be going a bit too far, particularly since he said it in seventeenth century france, but, his point is well made; we must not overly fear change.

We could eliminate annual cost of living increases for social security, ease the retirement age up just a smidge, use means testing for medicare, cut the military significantly without harming america's safety in the least, and pretty much be on our way out of this mess.

Can you imagine a priest, promising to remain celibate for life, and then, later on, finding out that, oh my, notwithstanding pledges and contracts, he is still human, in every conceivable way. What on earth could ever be done about that?

If we are not even remotely willing to give consideration to solutions which loom conspicuously before our smiling faces, then what hope have we to escape  future entrapments of our own creation?

 they all are, you know.  "so often times it happens, that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we have the key." (the eagles). Congratulations are in order for pope benedict 16, who found the key. May we all be so fortunate.

Regrets, Too Few To Mention

THOSE OF YOU OVER, SAY, 55 will remember watergate, and the resignation (dismissal) of mister nixon. Those of you too young to remember it have read about it, and are lucky to not remember it.

 Remember the two young reporters, woodward and bernstein, who busted the president. they were portrayed by dustin hoffman and robert redford in the great movie "all the president's men". 
woodward is still working for the washington post after all these years, and has now run afoul of the obama administration, or someone high up in it. The president himself is apparently not involved.

woodward, like many other reporters, claims that this crazy sequester idea, which was originally well intended but is now fixing to bite us all in the butt, was obama's idea. Obama, of course, is inthe midst of a savage effort to pin the blame on the republicans.

bob woodward has a few unflattering things to say about obama, such as, his white house is the most cult like crazy place since nixon's white house. woodward also agrees with the republicans that obama seems to be avoiding a compromise by constantly changing his terms for agreement. Not very flattering stuff.

One of obama's assistants evidently told woodward that he would regret having written such unture things. Woodward says he felt threatened. This greatly pleases the republicans, who seize upon the opportunity to portray obama as an al capone style gangster, who orders revenge hits.

Obama would probably be best advised to call woodward, straighten this out, and then get right back to the business of blaming republicans, and accusing them of being champions of the wealthy, to the detriment of everyone else.

Besides that, woodward will probably never regret what he said about obama, just like he never regretted what he said about nixon.

Free To Choose!

AS IF WE DON'T ALREADY have enough issues and problems to ponder, now we are presented, by the good graces of our great american media, and our confusing culture, the confusing situation wherein a small child proclaims herself a female, even though there are physical indications of maleness, and the american public, or at least the school district in colorado where she is trying to attend school, insists on treating her as a male. Go figure.

Are we such a regimented type A control freak society here in america that we can't even allow a girl to be a girl? Seemingly, but let us hope not.

The parents actually treated their shild as a male for the first several years, due to the genitalic maleness. However, increasingly, the child announced herself to be a girl, with increased vigor and determination, and both parents now say that they came around to her way of thinking.

The parents say that anyone who spends five minutes with their child can tell she is a girl. Quite frankly, the pictures of her face clearly show a girl, even though among six year olds there is a certain lack of obvious gender differentiation facially.

so what's the school district going to do? Keep forcing her to use the boy's restroom until she becomes emotionally traumatized, and the parents are forced to file a  lawsuit?  Or maybe accede to the parent's, and the little girl's wishes, allow her to live like a girl at school, then start a lawsuit of their own, and drag pictures of her naked into a federal courtroom?

There are many public school administrators in this country who are perfectly capable of something so pernicious, trust me.

This is america, by god, and anybody can become whatever they choose. Individual freedom of choice. That's what my ancestors, and thousands of great americans have fought and died for.

Every week in the united states several people have surgical procedures which change their gender, hence the growing "transgender" movenet. Its the next big battleground, socially. One can scarcely imagine what weapons the christian conservatives are preparing to launch against this sweet little girl, her parents, and everyone else like her.

Well, bring it. We'll be ready, using the sacred american creed "freedom" as our weapon.

Get It On Paper, Fast

TOMORROW THE POPE LEAVES OFFICE, which is an event so rare that the conspiracy theoristsare out in force, not unpredictably. The various theories are of striking quality, in terms of creativity and imagination.

The pope is being blackmailed out of office. He will be arrested for crimes against humanity as soon as he leaves the vatican. His removal is part of a vast transfer of political economic power world wide, in which powefrul people everywhere are being replaced.

Well, whatever. A large part of the beauty of the catholic church is the mystery, especially in matters of the spirit. But, admittedly, there are times when it would seem that a bit more, shall we say, "certainty" might be nice.

Take, for instance, the gospel.  The Holy Bible, formalized, organized, codified at the council of nicea, 325 A.D. There is no doubt about this historical fact. And there is no doubt that three hundred years is a very long time to allow a church, the church, to languish without Official scriptural guidance, in a faith which places so much emphasis on; it sacred holy book.

God speaks to man through the bible, three hundred years after christ walked on earth. Jesus came to earth, for one thing, to preach, to teach the word of god. Well then, who better to write the word, to put it on paper, indellibly, forever, in front of everyone..than jesus himself?

Automatic authenticity, straight from the source. The church, with its undeniable, well witnessed gospel, in print, available for all to see and read, right from the very beginning, having come straight from the son of god himself.

Well, it just seems like that would have been the way to do it, considering how questionable books, by their very nature, are. Jesus, writing in front of his followers, could have avoided all that, all the uncertainty, and after all, wasn't he here, partly, to teach us all?

Sheer Competitive Lunacy: whither compromise?

THERE IS HOPE, after all. Some republicans are agreeing to go along with obamacare, including several governors and a congressperson or two. Before you know it, the word "compromise" will be dusted off.

Compromise is the key to american history. How else can it be in a country which for centuries was half slave and half free, with fifty one different legal systems which often conflict. Thomas Jefferson and alexander hamilton disagreed eery bit as much as obama and the republicans, but they served in the same cabinet; well, for one term, anyway.

There is a pervasive adversarial characteristic to american culture. Its written into our legal system, evident in our actions. One third of the world's lawyers are americans. IN any given year, the big book which lists the names of licensed attorneys in the U.S. contains at least a million names.

Look what's popular; whatever emphasizes violence and competition. this i can assure you; all across america, baseball and football games are held in which the players are all six years old, and the parents who are watching act for all the world as if they truly care which team wins.

Engage any educated american in a conversation in which you express an opinion about some public affair; see how long it takes someone to correct you; no, not how long it takes for a different opinion to be expressed, how long it takes someone to declare your opinion "wrong" and correct it. Not long.

Money is a tool, nothing more, nothing less. Using it wisely is merely a matter of intelligent decision making. Trying to collect as much money as possible in order to impress others with one's affluence is not efficient, healthy use of a valuable tool.

Government policies which degrade the very value of the very currency the govenmnet itself establishes for the benefit of all is sheer lunacy. We the people allow it to happen, and we the people can sure as hell stop it.

Less Government

THERE IS A BILL PENDING in the great state of arkansas, U.S.A. which would allow instructors at state colleges and universities to carry concealed weapons on campus. This, along with the bill that would allow guns to be carried into church, and arkansas is thinking about becoming very well armed indeed. So is the rest of america, even as the liberals push a ban on assault weapons.

Will public school teachers be next in line to get permit to pack? Will all public servants eventually be allowed to carry heat, then, eventually, be required to? Incrementalism can work in many different ways.

Will we all eventually be waking down the street, driving our cars, wide side arm conspicuously displayed on your gunbelt, after the fashion of the old west? Is that what we want, a well armed citizenry?

Bear in mind that most gunshoot wounds in america are friendly fire. Accidental fire, mistaken fire coming from good people. then too, there are the hiterto good people, people like you and I, who, inexplicably, suddenly whip out their handgun and use it murderously, sometimes on themselves.

It is absolutely critical that in the united states we th epeople do not allow the government to take away our guns. With equal vigor we should oppose govvernmental imposition of laws limiting the size of soft drinks, or where, and what, people can and cannot smoke.

How many of you NRA members support the legalization of marijuana? You conservatives who so desperately want freedom to cary guns and freedom from government confiscation of your money might wish to consider whether you really want government to make laws regarding sex and drugs.

Guns, abortion, drugs, pornography, let it be said about them all; they are best kept legal, and unpopular by popular demand.

Stand Your Ground

YOU MAY RECALL the sheriff in arizona who made quite a splash some time ago with his stern and spartan methods of treating inmates. Living in tents, dressed in degrading attire, working long, hard hours, the whole works.

This attracted a lot of attention, whether intentionally is impossible to determine. But the people who like this sort of thing really like it. Now that same sherrif has retained the services of the actor steven seagall .

For the purposes of offering instruction to anyone who wants it on martial arts, the proper handling and use of a firearm, and methods to deal with assailants; instruction provided by..an actor? Do we all realize that people like steven seagall, bruce willis,  arnold schwartzennegger and clint eastwood, not to mention sylvester stallone, are actors, in real life, and not super heros?

All over the country (U.S.A.) states have enacted or are considering enacting these "stand your ground" laws, under which self defense killing is immune fro prosecution. This is an issue in florida, where george zimmerman will go on trial for second degree murder in the gun death of the teenager, using self defense as his defense.

If we aaaaare going to become a nation in which a high percentage of citizens are armed, which certainly seems to be the current trend, then it makes sense to pass laws defending people who use their weapons in self defense.

but its a slippery slope, and a long way down the road to justifiable violence. Self defense is often a matter of opinon, and can easily be used as an excuse to do harm.

Thank You, Mr. Koop

C. EVERETT KOOP, A SURGEON GENERAL  to remember, died today at the ripe old age of 96. It must have been his clean living. What set him apart, other than his ceaseless crusade for healthy lifestyle choices and against smoking, is his apparently contractory beliefs.

Koop was a fundamentalist christian who approved of and recommended sex education and birth control, including distributing condoms to high school students. Its a rare day when any conservative, much less a fundamentalist christian, harbors such a progressive social and health care philosophy.

That just goes to show what a little scientific education will do for you. Koop was loyal to his religious beliefs his entire life, but that didn't stop him from using his power of reason to arrive as sensible conclusion, which does not always happen among deeply religious people.

Shrew conservatives analysts often lament the liberal make up of college and university campuses in america, as if they don't understand why such a high proportion of students and professors are liberal. Maybe intelligence and education have something to do with it.

When you think about intlligence levels of recent american presidents, who comes to mind, as educated intllectuals: clinton and obama, or bush and reagan? (be honest)

when reagan appointed c everett koop to the surgeon general position, he probably did so knowing that koop was a fundamentalist christian, and most likely assumed therefore that he was a conservative on social issues, such as sex education and birth control.

Reagan lived to regret his choice, and america benefitted from it, because if we need anything in this world, its sex education and birth control, not dogmatic puritanical religiosity. Thank you, mr koop.