Time To Take On The Bully Boeing

If you don’t take care of yourself no one else is going to do it for you. This is where the union comes into play. In the world of work, this is the one entity that has been developed to help the working man and woman. It is in no way a perfect organization, but without it American workers are left to the wolves. You see this when companies set up manufacturing in states that view unions as the enemy.

All you have to do is look at what is happened in Wisconsin or Detroit or here in Everett. American companies are making record profits, but they are doing any and everything in their power not to give anything back to their workers or the communities that support them while their CEOs make 1000% more than their average worker.

Boeing in our state is making more money than it knows what to do with, but it wants concessions from the state and from its workers. They talk out of both sides of their mouths as they shout that their workers need to be trained in math and science be it here in Washington or in South Carolina. Yet, they are unwilling to contribute to the public education system in any meaningful way.

They are too busy putting dollar bills in the pockets of politicians instead of contributing to public schools with their tax revenues.  They must be courted because other states are so desperate for Boeing that they are willing to give the company free or highly subsidized land for their manufacturing facilities. These states are ready to push through or already pushed through right to work legislation that all but makes it impossible for unions to function and thrive for hard working hourly employees.

This is business in the 21^st Century, but it resembles late 19^th and early 20^th century business practices. At some point, someone needs to stand up and say the emperor has no clothes. That someone must be in a position of power in the industry or government for that idea to register with the public. To be effective, this aforementioned maneuver must originate with a coalition of groups that must work together to bring these travesties to light. This is where the media comes into play.

Here in Everett, the Herald has brought up some of these issues, but they too often treat Boeing with kid gloves. It is sad to see the fourth estate has become so demure in its reporting. 60 Minutes once a bulldog in reporting the issues has become a shadow of itself. It is time for the American workers to stand up to these bullies. Boeing is not the company it once was. It has no connection to Puget Sound region.  I wonder what Bill Boeing would say about what has happened to his company.

I do not know what is going to happen when machinist in District 751 vote on Boeing’s counter proposal; it matters not; Boeing has already won. They have put fear in the machinists, the politicians and too many of us in the Everett area. I can see them rejecting the vote to flex their muscles. This way they can show the 22 other states and workers what is at stake. But, what will that do to their long-term employment?

More than that, Boeing has some big, bad secrets that are not that secret: all 787’s built in South Carolina must be flown to Everett to be completed. Errors and the lack of skilled workers back on east coast make it impossible for Boeing to fly 787’s directly to customers without first coming to Everett. They can say that is the fact that the planes need to be painted, but it is more than that.

Moreover, Boeing loves South Carolina because it can pay the workers so much less, and corporate is trying to use this fact as leverage against the Everett plant and its workers. I’d like to see our news organizations start investigating Boeing and their management practices as well as the production situation in regards to the 787 in Everett and Charlestown.

However, that would mean taking on a large multinational company and seriously investigating how it works. Why Boeing has decided to attack and punish the workers that have put it in the position of being one of the most profitable companies in the world not just the United States. On the surface, this seems daunting, but there are people in the company at all levels willing to share their stories. We need someone unafraid of embarrassing Boeing. It is time to take off the gloves and reveal the truth behind the curtain because they have shown their willingness to abandon Washington and its trained work force.

Where Are Our Visionaries?

We are no longer a people of action destined for great things. We are a people of talkers destined to talk about some incident until no one can hear it or cares to hear it. And, when we take action, a faction of American politicians and pundits do everything in their power to derail and demonize any program or idea that does not fit into their limited scope no matter how positively it will impact the country as a whole be it healthcare or food programs or highway and bridge repair or NASA.

As a nation that one time set its sights on the moon and beyond that built the largest transportation infrastructure the world has ever seen, we have become rather pedestrian in our present visions. We still build the deadliest weapons ever imagined, but we no longer seem to have the ability to see the big picture as far as society stands. Politicians are unable and unwilling to take risks to propel us forward.

We are trapped in a twenty-four hour news cycle. We can only see the small and petty. We do not trust each other and can longer no come together to better society and more forward.  There is no way for people from differing ideologies to step up and compromise. It is this my way or the highway philosophy that signals the decline of a once great country, which brought together divergent opinions to drive the ideals and ideas of America forward. It is a sad and disheartening time to be an American.

As a country and a society we are at a crossroads. We are at a place that where politicians in so called leadership positions want to jettison many of the beliefs that the government is here for the benefit of society. I realize that in 1980 Ronald Reagan signaled the beginning of the end in terms of the benefits of modern government as far as creating a safety net to protect all Americans no matter their situation. Today, there are far too many politicians that want to punish Americans that they deem as being unproductive and a drain on society while giving away more and more of the American Dream to corporate America.

This is nothing new as societies go throughout history. The powerful always use their influence and position to protect and enhance their interests on the backs of the weakest in society, and when the government sides with the wealthiest, then, we as a society have to decide if we really want to go this way and penalize the lowest on the economic scale.

Starting in the 20^th century the American experiment became an idea that wealth could be spread through more of society under the guidance of the government. American capitalism was never purely a libertarian ideal. Throughout American history the government has stepped in and regulated commerce and behavior. Sometimes to the benefit of the wealthiest and sometimes to the benefit of the poorest. There has always been volatility between the classes, which is why governmental interventions are used to stabilize economic tensions. In the last 6 years, we the people just made 10 billion dollars from GM by giving them a loan to prevent bankruptcy. This is not the first time the government has stepped in to help business.

So we have to ask ourselves the question, “Is government the problem or the solution?” This is a critical moment in history where we are faced with important decisions that will determine the trajectory of our society for a generation. The battle over government intervention will get uglier before it gets better. The distrust and anger is palpable. But, as Americans, we must take on this problem.

Healthcare is the first and foremost issue for Americans today. The lies and misrepresentation of the new system are flying across the air waves. It is these extreme views that are helping to eat away at the fabric of our society. And, it is the average American that will be hurt by all these attacks and misrepresentations.

It is disgusting that politicians and pundits alike are lying through their teeth and want to refuse to help their fellow citizens. The majority of these talking heads have never missed a meal or been denied medical coverage in their lives. They are unable or unwilling to empathize with others who are hurting and not being served by the capitalistic system in its present configuration.

In their world, there is no room for hungry children, there is no room for the uninsured and sick in our country. It is time for those in power to get off their high horse and see what it is like at the bottom rung of the ladder. All Americans need to look beyond our on individual needs and think about the needs of society.  This idea is not communism or socialism.  It is humanitarianism. We will send food and supplies half world away but we will not feed or cloth or immunize an American child in need.

In the future, where will the visionaries come? Who will work for the greater good of society whether it is to develop the next extraordinary space mission or take care of the sick, hungry and tired? Have those words emblazoned on the Statue of Liberty become fiction?

Riddle Me This Batman

Riddle me this batman. What is this life all about? Why are we here? It seems all a waste of time to run around and act all important and then to die. What do we have to offer? Why do any of this if we are only dead meat on the hoof? There seems to be no meaning to anything. Every year I watch as 400 plus children make their rite of passage into adulthood, for what: to work for 40 years with no guarantee of healthcare or a decent retirement or stuff or the lack of stuff.

It makes me question everything that I have held as important. What is there to parenthood? Marriage? Work? To know that all I am going to do is die and someone else is going to rise up in my place as I rose up in someone else’s place can be unnerving. That is the cycle of life. Really, it is the cycle of meaninglessness. We give life meaning with things. Things that we accumulate. Things that we have to see and feel. We work and work for this stuff. When the stuff is not enough, what next?

Look to today. Go no farther. Do not plan for a future. It will drive you crazy. We are trapped in the material world as Madonna so aptly put it. Future means nothing until it is upon you. You can work, save and do it all correctly and never see the fruits of your labors. The future can be stolen in the blink of an eye. 

What is there to show for my father after his death? Nothing of substance. What about my grandfathers? Nothing. Grandmothers?  Nothing. What is the point of living if you are not living for today? Tomorrow will never come. No one is going to worry about yesterday when they are worrying about tomorrow and too often forget about today.

Today, we put everything in a cloud. Life exists in a transcendental world of servers using 1s and 0s. In a blink of an eye this information can vanish just as we do. Time has no friends. It marches on regardless of our personal desires. It evaporates all in its way.

I look around and see a temporal world that only believes in change and that change too often throws away the past. It is beholden to a tomorrow that will never come and a yesterday that is all but forgotten. There is hell to pay when you never play the game that runs in the present. A present that has no memory except what we give it, and when we die, that memory is extinguished like our presence.

Life is all the same no matter the scale. It can be as simple as putting the dishes put away correctly or cleaning bathrooms or as complex as billion dollar mergers. All the same in the end. It is all destiny. We are destined to die. We are destined to fill our time until we die. This is not morose. It is fact. What are you to do with your time between birth and death? You can get no more elemental than that. That is the only fact that matters. Most philosophers filled their time with meaningless hyperbole. What is your destiny?

Are you going to spend your time trying to justify your existence only to die like the rest of us? What are you about? Are you going to dance the dance of death or life? It is up to you. You can let the world drive by or you can get in the fast lane. No matter what you chose, it matters not. You will die, and if you are remembered, it will be a caricature of your life. Make time meaningful for yourself in the present. That is all that matters.

Rock on.

Blank Spaces

Every time I look at a blank page I want to start with, “the door opened…” What does this mean? It really is nothing. On the other hand, it is all about running away or looking for something new to change the pace of life and get me out of the rut of daily life. There is so much daily repetition that it is shortening my life. Leaving me a shadow of myself. A large, gigantic shadow, but a shadow none the less.

I turn to the screen to fill in all the blank spaces of life. What are we to do with all these blank spaces? Do we color them? Where do we find the markers that will change our trajectory? We must look past the end of our noses. We have to open closed doors and look into dark corners of our minds to see what is hidden.

When you find what is hidden, grab on to the tiniest of ideas or visions. Roll them around on the tips of your fingers. Put them in the palm of your hand and feel their weight. Don’t put them in your pocket because you will forget them, and they will become lint that you pull out of the dryer lint trap. Your car keys will crush them and you will be right back into your old routines.

Take this revelation and put it on your bedside table. That is not the greatest place for it to live, but at least it can breathe and stay alive. It will not suffocate like it would if it was in your pocket. Now, you can take the time to look at it from all sorts of angles. You can think about how you are going to fit it into your life. You can break the cycle of boredom and repetition. Break out of your comfort zone.

Put your new vision into action. Step outside of yourself and look in the mirror. If you look long enough you can see the future and the past. Time is of no meaning at that moment. You will become one with the universe. Okay so that is a bunch of hokum; who gives a shit. You have to give in to the unknown. You have to be willing to take a leap of faith, or you will wake up and it will be the same day different year.

What do you have to lose? Nothing. You can always walk back through that door and put your vision or idea back in your pocket. You can forget about the future and live in the world you have created before that idea pushed itself into your frontal lobe. There is no genie that has to be put back into the bottle. Everything is as it should be. Chamber that round and holster that revolver. The lights will come on and gas will be in your car. Order will be restored to your world and all will be right.

Is that what you really want?  No. You want to look into your pocket. You want to find that ray of sunshine and feel that warmth on your face. You will run as fast as you can from the rain and clouds as they bare down on your being. All right that was a little dramatic, but you will be curious as to what could be. You will think about how the change will affect your place in the world and your feeling of self.

Or not. I mean the ball is in your court. There is something to be said for being content with your daily routine. There are no surprises to make you feel out of place. Change is something that can upset the balance in your life. It is not always welcome.

If none of this is for you. You will always know when dinner will be served. You know what your bedtime is no matter the season. There is such safety in this knowledge. You can breathe easier knowing what to expect. That is not for me. I will be looking for a bit of magic. It will give me a new reason to live. It will let me explore all I don’t know. I don’t care if the heat will be on or if there will be gas in the tank. It is the little surprises that bring satisfaction to my world, but not yours, so be it.

 

Go in peace.

Credit Lie or Keeping the Poor in Their Place

I can’t write about love, lust, education, politics or religion. What is there left? War? It is the same thing over and over. No matter what time period we study the cycle is repeated from generation to generation. The only changes are technology. The idea of killing or being killed is imbedded in human DNA. Modern warfare not only uses weapons, but also uses wealth as a means of stratification and centralizing power. Look at the way Germany was punished after WWI or look at how we punish those in our society with bad credit or the lack of credit.

I want someone to argue against this idea. Come on you peaceniks or social economists. Prove to me that my thesis is wrong. Show me how humankind is altruistic as a whole. I am serious. Humankind is selfish and greedy. Jesus is used as a weapon to separate the wheat from the chaff. By this I mean that humans want to feel good about themselves, so they set up food kitchens and warehouses so that the homeless can be housed. Lately, these do-gooders have created tent cities. Yet none of these institutions have created something that will put these people on the path of full integration into society. As a country, we do not want this to happen.

These institutions are not set-up so that you are giving a hand up. They are set-up so that we can keep these people away from our neighborhoods. We don’t want their kind infecting our homes and way of living. We (as a society) need these people on the bottom of the economic scale so that we can feel superior. We can give them bread and not teach them how to bake. We can give them fish and not teach them how to fish. This way we can feel good about ourselves and still keep the riff-raff in their place.

We need a stratified society for us to survive. The wealthy understand this fact. They are desperately afraid of what would happen if people revolted against this stratification of society, and the rest of us go along with it because of our own greed and anxiety about our place in the world. This goes beyond our borders and around the world.

Credit has taken off and been heavily supported by the wealthy to provide the middle class with all the trappings of being wealthy and none of the benefits. It is a full proof system to keep all but the wealthiest on top and in control be it politically or economically. It is like a movie set all pretty on the outside and empty once you step behind the credit façade.

Credit is the great lie. Look how the World Bank uses credit against what is euphemistically called developing nations. They extract a pound of flesh for every euro or dollar that is lent to these countries. None of these countries are able to get out of debt and grow beyond the idea of developing.  They are in no way on the path to become a first world country.  What would happen if the European Union, the United States or China wanted to do the right thing and pull these countries up? Another war would break out under some phony premise. Can you say Iraq?

We depend on these countries feeding at our economic trough. We need to be able to manipulate their economy and politics for the benefit of our economy and politics. Foreign Aid is the number one way that first world countries keep third world countries in their place. It becomes the perfect way for them to do our political and military dirty work. Ask Yemen. However, look what happens when we overreach with our greed and phony magnanimity: Libya.

This idea of the value of credit is an old trick of the mob. I just lent you money, or do you remember that favor I did for you? Now, it is time for you to reciprocate. One problem for first world countries is the fact that so many third world refugees are flooding our shores. These unwanted immigrants are upsetting the balance of power. They are bringing us down. Germany experienced this phenomenon when the Berlin Wall fell. We need to model our behavior after the Germans if stratification is to remain in place.

One last idea. There will never be a One World Government because there are too many plutocrats in too many countries that need and will protect their piece of the pie at all costs.  They are doing everything in their power to remain on top and keep the tide of poverty at a manageable level so that credit can be used to placate the masses here at home and across the globe.

The credit lie infects all societies in all countries. In some places, it is the credit card that takes advantage through banking manipulation. In other places, it is parents selling their children for money or goods. Maybe it is the World Bank extending credit to countries on the brink of collapse. In all these cases, there are winners and losers. It is always the same: those doling out the money or goods are the winners and the borrowers are the losers. Think about your own economic position. Who has the power?

Corporatism Takes Over Democracy

The measure of a man or a woman is their ability to stand up for what they believe no matter the situation. This can be painful and heartbreaking as people that you once saw as friends turn on you. They pretended to believe as you did, but their beliefs are as phony and flat as the characters in a movie.

In this day and age why does it seem to be so difficult for men and women to stand up to the mob and say, “The King has no clothes”? It is ironies of ironies that public officials are more worried about pleasing those in the business world even if it means taking the entire country down. They are too small minded and swayed by Super-PAC money to look at the big picture and see what is needed in the long run for the country as a whole.

At one time, the battle was states’ rights versus federal rights. I am sorry to say that this is no longer the case. These Representative and Senators hold corporate interests above the interest of people that voted them into office. They are taking marching orders from secret business donors and special interests that are in no way aligned with the country’s needs.

This is corporatism at its worst. As a country, we can thank the Supreme Court for opening up the flood gates for this type of industry influence that pits the few against the many. There is no end in sight for the kind of change that these hundreds of millions of dollars bring.

It takes a strong person to stand up the type of pressure that this kind of money brings. There seems to be a moral relativism that has overcome the House of Representatives and the Senate. Everything is relative to the amount of money being deposited to one’s reelection campaign. These are men and women who are ruled by money and not their conscience.

The question to me is, “At what point do their morals and values kick in, and they see the errors of their ways.”  That idea sounds like a bad morality play told by Hollywood in the 40’s as the country was glossing over racism and sexism that has plagued us for over 400 years. I do not hold much hope that there will be significant changes in how the federal government operates anytime soon.

Where does that leave the country? It leaves us caught in a quagmire of greed and self-interest that wants to punish the weakest in our society. These corporatists are trying to reverse a hundred years of gains made by the working and middle class, so that they are able to replenish their coffer at 19^th and early 20^th century levels.

It must be fantastic to be able to say that you make 100 times more money than the average worker in your company. Why stop there when you are capable of having a politician or two in your pocket through your Super-PAC. That seems to be where we are going as a country. If this isn’t a rehash of the good old days, I don’t know what it is.

Maybe, we should rekindle the idea that racism and sexism aren’t so bad? The waving of the Confederate Flag in front of the White House may be a sign that the country needs to reverse all the gains that women, minorities and gays have experienced in the late 20^th and early 21^st Centuries. Why should those people be seen as equal?

White males have taken so many hits over the past 40 years that it is time to reverse their fortunes. Women need to be seen and not heard. Gays need to get back in the closet and brown people need to move to the back of the bus.

If corporatists had their way, this is where the country would be headed. They would allow a few exceptions as long as those men and women towed the company line. I am not sure what the company line is or might be, but I know that it will be detrimental to the country as these billionaires gain more power and influence in our federal government. It is time to take action against such blatant anti-democracy. Vote against candidates that represent these morals and values.

Fight for the Soul of the Republican Party

What is the primary reason that we are here? We are born to die. Seriously, what is the point? It is absurd to think that there is any meaning to life. Some seek money, others seek fame. The majority live a life of quiet desperation. There is nothing new in this idea.

What needs to remembered is that you are required to give meaning to your own life. Each individual is solely responsible for their own sense of happiness.  There are plenty of people that will try to manipulate others for their own satisfaction. You must do everything in your power and run as fast as you can from these people. They are the definition of a succubus.

An evil demon set on your personal destruction. Too many people dream of finding such beings so that they can feel alive. They live for going from one crisis to another. Their pathology leads them to being an enabler. It is such a sad state of affairs to see such people in our government. These people want one and one thing only: to ruin of our government and our way of life by creating one phony crisis after another so that they in no way have to deal with the real issues that face our country.

Men like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul feign the idea that they are the healthy change that is needed for America to move forward. They are so self-centered that all they can think about is their own personal positions no matter the topic or situation. They see the world in small personal terms.

These Tea Par Anarchists want annihilation at all costs. There is no big picture for these lawmakers that does not involve some sort of self-destructive behavior. They are acting like a drunk on a two week bender. Once they put the bottle to their lips there is no stopping them until they pass out. They need an intervention. The only intervention that will have any meaning to them is being voted out of office.

The problem with this scenario is that the men and women who enable and encourage the Anarchists are unable or unwilling to see that their way of life is going to be destroyed by the people they elected. These bar-flies have no idea how bad it is going to be until they wake up with a pounding hangover and see what has happened to their bar.

It has been burned to the ground. There is nowhere to go and celebrate. These Tea Party Anarchists are jumping for joy. They have wreaked havoc on the very people that voted them in, yet they are proud of the fact that these same people will no longer be able to suck at the government teat. They are victorious once again on a tiny scale.

When it comes to the gigantic bar known as Washington D.C., they have no power to carry out this kind of damage on the large scale they so wish. Their two week drunk will lead to the loss of billions of dollars, but that is it. They were forced to capitulate. But, they are ready to go on another bender as the latest talk about Benghazi illustrates.

Their drunken dream of taking over Washington D.C. was a fantasy best left to the comic books. They made their power play and fell flat on their face. There may be a political price for such aberrant behavior. Gentlemen and Gentle Ladies be ready to be put in the back of the caucus.

You will be taking a back seat to the adults in the Republican Party if and only if they have the moral character to put those drunks in treatment facility. It will take a 12 step program to make substantial changes to a Republican Party that has acted and enables such deviant behavior. In the next two months, that is what needs to happen if the country is to move forward.

Until then, strap on your seatbelt and enjoy the ride. The fight for the soul of the Republican Party is still up for sale. Watch out for those carrying a flask in their suit pocket or purse. Don’t fall for the old trick of going back to their offices for a drink and cigar. It is not what you think. Jim Jones has nothing on these charlatans.

The Tea Party is a Terrorist Organization

The Tea Party Subversives are trying to steer the federal government in a new direction. The Republican Party radical wing has decided that national elections are no longer the key to success.  They see local control as the means to power. Unconsciously, they are have become the anti-federalist.  They have in no way clearly articulated this idea to their constituents or to the country as a whole.

They say things like, “Government is the problem, not the solution.”  Of course they in no way mean this. Because if they did mean it, they would be advocating for anarchy. Moreover, if there is a natural or a man-made disaster in their district or state, these men and women, who say they hate government, are the first ones at the feeding trough. Ironies of ironies. Furthermore, in no way, are they willing to cut off the government funding for the special interest groups and businesses that fund their political campaigns, more irony.

They are only anti-federalist when it suits their ends. Remember, for all politicians, the means justify the ends, therefore, for these Tea Party Subversives, shutting down the federal government is a logical means to ending Obamacare even though they have no plans to replace this law with other legislation.  If they are able to eliminate this legislation, it will only be the beginning of their Machiavellian collusions.

What they don’t realize is the ACA is a federal law that cannot be eliminated on the local level. You must be able to run national and statewide campaigns to impact federal law. You may be able to keep winning in Gerrymandered congressional districts, but you will not be able to overcome federal laws with this strategy, with or without a divided government, which says to me that these Tea Party Subversives have no desire to govern. They are a seditious organization set on disruption and destruction of the federal government without any plans on how to replace it. They have taken a page from the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Why govern when you can create crisis after crisis so that you can embolden your power base, thus, never accomplishing anything but disorder and damage. This way you can stay in power as you raise the emotional ire of said base. This is great way to grind government to a halt.  What do these extremists do next? Will there be a backlash to their tactics in their home districts? Not yet. Unless the Republican leaning women in their districts take a stand against these tactics as well as those used by the Tea Party Subversives to dismantle women’s reproductive rights.

I see these diehard fanatics as so ideologically ensconced in their belief system that they will go down with the ship no matter the cost. Fanaticism centers on people who can't change their minds and won't change the subject that they are perseverating over. These people have very strict standards and little tolerance for contrary ideas or opinions. They are unable or unwilling to see other points of view. Tea Partiers believe that they have the corner on truth, and will do anything to maintain their position even if it means the obliteration of an idea, person or institution.

  That is where we stand with the Tea Party darling Ted Cruz threatening future government shut downs if he and his Republican trouble makers don't get their way. Compromise is not a word in their lexicon.  The question remains, “How do we overcome this self-destructive behavior?” We don’t. This era of self-indulgence must run its course. Like all children that are throwing tantrums, we have to wait until The Tea Party runs out of energy, then, and only then, can the adults in the room change the discussion to a productive topic.

 

The Democrats and the President must refuse to negotiate to with these traitors . You never negotiate with terrorists, homegrown or otherwise. You let them fall on their own swords. When these Tea Party Subversives realize there is no hope, they will back down, but it will not be anytime soon.  They will regroup and attack again. They are against governing. They are bent on the collapse of the federal system or their own ideological position. Keep a close eye on these Tea Party Subversives and the next steps in their political machinations, which are Anti-American.

 

Government Shutdown: Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

What are we to say when our children learn from our leaders in congress that it is okay for you to take your ball in the middle of a game and go home? How are we as adults going to explain to these young adults that congress is having a temper tantrum and that they are going to make the American people pay for their childishness?

It is one thing to argue and disagree about philosophy, but it is entirely different when you refuse to do any work because your view is the only view that is right or correct or whatever it is that the Tea Party Republicans see as their position.

Democracy is founded in the idea of compromise. It is inherent in the institution. Without compromise, there is no democracy.  This is evident in any country that tries to replicate democracy and does not understand or is unwilling to give into it underpinnings.

Russia is a perfect example. They have democracy in name only. Putin has made sure of that. He is an autocrat that has found a way to game the system so that democracy cannot live and breathe. He has bullied and changed the constitution so that he can become the next dictator of Russia, while pretending to be the democratically elected president.

In the Middle East, murder in Iraq is desired long before compromise.  For democracy to work, there has to be a certain level of mutual trust amongst the rival parties. There has to be a certain level of mutual respect amongst the rival parties. When that is absent, then, all sorts of ill-conceived ideas will take root causing chaos and mayhem. Democracy cannot and will not work in countries that do live and believe in these foundations no matter how much America tries to force the issue.

This is what is happening in Washington DC. As I sit here three thousand miles away in Seattle, I see the three ring circus known as the federal government ready to cut off it nose despite its face. I see sad, angry men unwilling to see beyond their tiny corners of the country.  I see men so saturated in their own narcissism that they refuse or are unable to have a vision for America.

Even, during the darkest days or Vietnam or Watergate, there were politicians that had a vision for America. I may not have agreed with their vision, but they had one. This idea does not exist in today’s world. With politicians more worried about their reelection or preparing a bid for the White House those ideals about the country are dead on arrival.

Today, it is not about what I have done; it is about what I can stop.  It is about listen to me because I am me. Vanity and public attention seems to be the endgame. There is no thought to the idea that the American people need politicians to tackle big ideas and bring about big change so that the country can grow and prosper.

I see no Lyndon Johnsons on the horizons. To me he was one of the greatest presidents we have elected. He was a flawed man, a vain man, yet one who looked at the future of America and saw something few others did. He was a man that changed the course of history with the Great Society. He blew it with Vietnam, but who at the time would have done it differently? I don’t know.

The one thing he had was compassion for the American people, and a belief that he could set America on a new course. I don’t see that ideology from any of our current politicians. At the end of Johnson’s first term, he stood tall as a statesman, and acknowledged his politically fatal mistake we know as Vietnam. 

Where are those men or women today? I don’t see them. This makes me sad for America.  We have no one to draw strength from. President Johnson refused to run for a second term.  He made the ultimate sacrifice for the nation: his ambition took a back seat for the country. This cannot happen in 2013, and we as a nation and a people are suffering, and will continue to suffer until this changes.

Mass Media’s Obsession with Mass Murder Or Looking Beyond Virginia Tech

What is the point of gaining notoriety if you are not going to stay alive and bask in the glory?  What is so cool about suicide? You only get to go out in a blaze of cowardice.  Why send a manifesto and video if you are not going to be around to revel and rejoice in your own grotesque comedy masquerading as a tragedy?  These are some the questions that I would to ask the shooter if we were sitting across from each other eating lunch in some out of the way dinner. 

Anyone who gets 15 minutes of fame should want to be recognized for his accomplishments.  He should want to see himself on the small screen and walk to the courthouse to hear the jeers.  More importantly, he should be able to clearly articulate the reasons that the world owes him something and that he should be allowed to extricate payment through death.  Unlike serial killers, spree killers are able to grab immediate public attention for themselves though there is no long term glory.

This too is one of the stumbling blocks for all serial killers.  They are unable to fully enjoy their accomplishments because they cannot let anyone know what they are doing or it will all end.  Yet, they desperately need to be acknowledged for their ability to outwit the police and other pursuers.  However, their obsessive, compulsive inadequacies drive them to seek the attention that will be their ultimate demise. Ironies of ironies.

Yet, serial killers driving need for approbation and appreciation for their superiority is far more important to their psyche than the monstrous murders and rapes that they carry out to prove that they are not inadequate and impotent: a drain on society.

Profilers and psychologist may argue with the simplicity of this premise and point out its short comings, but the interviews with these men bears these ideas out.  Ted Bundy basked in his role as expert and tried to manipulate all his taped sessions refusing to reveal too much not because he was afraid to give away his secrets, but because, he was afraid that the klieg lights would never return.  It is narcissism at its most pure and unadulterated.

Our Korean friend bears witness to this fact with his package being mailed to NBC.  He knows full well that the media’s need for ratings under the guise of news will get his picture plastered all over the air ways.  They will migrate from television to the internet in a matter of nanoseconds and live on perpetually as electronic impulses that resurface on U Tube whenever there is a new spree killing.  He may not be able to enjoy it, but we will.

How different would Ted Bundy’s killing be if he knew that his crimes would be floating effortlessly from household to household?  You may say that the early beheadings during the Iraq War have become passé and that we don’t seek them out with the same regularity, but anyone who wants to perpetrate that same crime can use them as a blueprint.  How easy it is to view and get insight into how to carry out your version of that crime. 

What is more revolting and disquieting is the idea that these creatures film their atrocities for the voyeurs of the world.  As we have all become aware, through crime drama and real life murder shows, these people keep trophies of their crimes, and digital videos and pictures are a perfect trophy.  I predict that it will only be a matter of time before one of these individuals sends pictures of their crimes over the internet to celebrate their mental and physical superiority.

I was disappointed that our Virginia Tech murderer relied on classic 20^th century technology to get his ideas out: snail mail.  It reveals the level of his own impotence and lack of understanding of the power of the web.  Other modern day terrorists seem to clearly understand the power of words and pictures as they stream unfiltered across our computer screens.  He evidently was unable to fathom this concept.  As with the news media, once this idea reaches critical mass, we will be desensitized to its power and it will no longer hold any sway.

Until that day, expect the internet to be inundated with mass mailings of unrestricted words and pictures revealing the devastation brought on by the most heinous acts of humankind.  Television news may presently act as a filter, but that is only a ploy.  It will be the news media through the internet that exploits the next wave of national and international terroristic acts of violence and aggression as a means of gaining fame, notoriety, market share, and profit.

Denver, Sandy Hook and the Navy shipyard are the latest obsessions for our media organizations.  As I write this, there are more than five new atrocities that are being broadcast on American television under the guise of journalism. Murder sells. I am not talking about the fictional worlds of Dexter or Breaking Bad.

News programs need to make money. They need to keep and grow viewership so that they can raise ad revenue. Murder is the name of the game. Whether it is as bad as it seems, it matters not. News organizations are looking as hard for death as a looky-loo is looking for blood at a traffic accident; therefore, mass murder or serial murders work in their favor. It does seem to me that mass murder has taken a commanding lead with television news because of it immediacy and the multiple angles which can be exploited to keep the story in the news cycle.

Right-wing Tools Can Kiss My Libtard Ass

The attacks keep coming from the right over Obamacare. I don’t get it. All these southern crackers keep voting against their own best interests. I guess it goes back to the idea of fear of the unknown or fear of the trumped up known as expressed in hate speech. Who would vote against healthcare, but an idiot? An idiot that is being led by the nose by the richie riches.

I think about that Pennsylvania small town sheriff, Mark Kesslar, and he’s obscene laced tirades about his guns being taken away by libtards (huff.to/1bN6vO2). Like conservative morons he shows his true colors by having no cogent arguments and relying on personal attacks that have nothing to do with reality. He will get votes when he runs for Sheriff because some backwoods cracker that can barely read and write will go to the polls and exercise their democratic rights.  

The moral and intellectual irony is so great that it makes me laugh as these right-wing tools play army in the woods. You have no fucking clue as to what you are up against. Because you have all the freedoms this country offers, you get to play army and yell and scream to your heart’s content. You need to go to Russia with Snowdon and see where your revolutionary bullshit gets you. A fucking Gulag.

Scream all you want. Rant all over the internet. You are all conservative pussies that have no idea what America is all about. You are against the niggers, slant eyes and wetbacks to name a few. I grew up with dumb fucks like you. Intolerant, ignorant small minded crackers who can’t see beyond the end of their pointy little noses.

When you have a few beers in you and a gun in your hand you are all tough mother-fuckers. Of course, when your dumb-ass boys are backing you up you’ll step up. Always safety in numbers. You and your ilk make me sick.  If you have read this far, I want to give you a shout out. I hope you used a dictionary so that you understood some of the bigger words I used. I tried to avoid writing beyond a 3^rd grade level so that I could reach as many backwoods crackers as possible.

Keep you screaming and ranting going. You and your brothers are Viagra sucking impotent revolutionary wannabes. You have no idea how easy you have it in this country. You have no idea what has been done to make your lives as easy as they are. Most of you don’t vote. You just yell and bad mouth the country you live and anyone that disagrees with you.

Disagreement is what makes this a great country, but when you want to step on the rights of others then you are perpetuating the truly ugly history of America. And, we have an ugly history of attacking our own to prolong small minded power base: Selma. Need I say more? Maybe these crackers are still butt-hurt over the fact that African-Americans are allowed to vote, or that so many white libtards voted for a black President. With these jackalops there is no telling where their misguided hate comes from except INGORANCE.

Keep making those YouTube videos so the world can see and hear your ignorance. It is a beautiful thing when a right-wing tool can make a left-wing nut job look reasonable. I love Mark Kesslar. He makes being a libtard a beautiful thing.

 

Just remember that all you right-wing tools get to join that same healthcare exchanges as all members of congress. You now get the same healthcare coverage as a DC politician. Many of these same politicians are angry about the changes. Put that idea in your pipe and smoke it.

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

There comes a point in one’s life, in which you think that you have something to say, but you figure out that you are as full of garbage as the next guy, however, that does not stop you from typing some junk about nothing in particular.

What I have found with the internet is that the rubbish keeps coming at unheard of volumes.  It is amazing the amount of words that can be regurgitated about the same thing and they are just as meaningless as the first thousand words. 

It is unheard of today to let sleeping dogs lie.  We have to interview the lying dogs and their neighbors and the neighbors of the neighbors to make sure that everyone knows how important this event or incident or controversy is today.

Tomorrow it will become inconsequential unless we can find a different angle so as to breathe life into the case of the lying dog.  Does all this inquiry truly matter? Not really, but it can be fun for the investigators and the journalist, and it keeps them working so long as they are able to chase down the next lying dog story.

When we are tired of the current lying dog story, we will find the next lying dog story, and it will be the most important issue that has ever been raised in the history of man and womankind.

The sad end to the story is that once the media hounds have tired of the current lying dog story they will move on to more pressing lying dog stories and the old lying dog story will be long forgotten, however, for the lying dog, this is not the end.  In his or her life, there are messes to be cleaned up and bowls to be filled that are outside the light and glitter of the media.

That lying dog is all alone with his or her thoughts or pain or heart break or success.  Today, you are the media darling with your lying dog story and tomorrow you are an afterthought.  Yesterday, you were trending on twitter and tomorrow there are no retweets or favorites.

When reality sets in, there is nothing but yourself and your problems.  Facebook and social media work because we have a need to be seen and heard.  We do not want to be the lying dogs of yesterday.  LOOK AT ME!  SEE ME! Oh how Oscar Wilde and Dorian Gray would flourish in this new world of instant gratification.

In today’s world, would Narcissus even need to look for his reflection in the pond or would he die at his keyboard searching for likes.  Trolling through Facebook, people can come across the post that has traveled the world and had millions of likes.  What is the point of these posts?  Why the millions of reposts?  What purpose does it serve?

Well, for the original post, there is a chance for unanimous fame.  You can say look what I did.  I broke the record for most post in a 3 day period or longer.  So what! Where does it ultimately lead?  Nowhere.  It becomes forgotten amongst whatever is currently trending.

What does all of this mean in the long run?  It means that ideas and conversations are changing in ways that the people in power don’t totally understand.  The Obama team understood it better than the Obama White House, but that is neither here or there.  In two years, it will be all different.

Death on the Horizon

You think that when you are confronted with your own mortality that it would have greater impact on your life. It doesn’t. Least not for me. It has made me more aware of my limitations and that time is constrained.

You go on with your life as if you had forever. I know this sounds rather disingenuous, but in my case it is a fact. I get up and go to work. I put my writing on the back burner. I argue with my wife and eat and drink too much and watch too much television.

When I turned 50 four years ago, I came face to face with my own fear of death. I saw the end. It might have been the atrial fibrillation in its 6^th year. At the time, I thought of my own father who died a year after his own retirement at 64. It could have been anything or nothing; I saw my own imminent death on the horizon.

With that a change of behavior should have been a part of the equation. Not at all. I’ve been electrified more than ten times over the past ten years. I still like a well poured Manhattan and too many late night snacks. It is completely illogical behavior, rather human. I’d rather have a drink with my friends than worry about my own longevity. At some point, a person has to prioritize. What should you prioritize? Relationships? Creativity? Adventure? Life.

Do you want to live as long as possible and deny yourself certain pleasures or do you want to live fast and burn out quickly? At 54 life has zoomed past. When I was my son’s age, I’d have never said that, but I have the benefit for of those extra 20 years, and I can say it flies by as retirement creeps up.

Facing my own mortality has done nothing to change me, but if I don’t take it seriously there will be nothing for me but silence. I have to make wholesale changes. I say I’m ready, but there is nothing to stop the bad behavior. Electrification makes bad behavior possible. I have started to make important life style changes such as diet, exercise and alcohol. I want to be able to go and do things without the fear that my heart will hold me back. I am not looking to live to 100, but I am looking to live and ski, run, ride bikes, go 4-wheelin’ and travel.

With all that said, I am afraid of death. I have seen it up close and personal too many times. It is an ugly emptiness. It’s like getting older. It sucks just like getting older. Your mind says one thing and your body says another. I wish my internal matched my external.  That is not the case. So what…

I will head off to the next adventure. There is no time to sit around and whine about it. Put it in the rear view mirror and plod ahead. This is the end or the beginning of the end. Whatever. Have some fun chasing the sun across the surface of the earth.

I will put it all in motion. There is no point in sitting around and dreaming and wishing. Action is all it takes. Time to head out and attack life. This is my mission to see the farthest corner of the world. Taste all that life has to offer.

Live for the moment and look to the present to bring about the changes that make life exciting and worthwhile. See what there is to see. Work for enlightenment and self-actualization. Nothing is greater than knowing yourself.

Always remember there are mountains to ski and oceans to cross. Cultures to clash and words to write. Beers to drink and hospital rooms to visit. What is waiting for me at the end of the rainbow? Don’t know, but I will find out just like everyone does.

Disposable Society

Living in a disposable society enables us to recreate ourselves whenever we feel the need or desire to escape, moreover, it is a concept that has developed under the mass media’s radar screen due to any number of modern factors, short attention spans not withstanding.  Some of these factors developed through technology such as society’s greater mobility through the use of the car, train, or airplane.  Add that to our modern workforce’s ability to move from job to job and company to company, thus, modern culture possesses the necessary wanderlust to satisfy the craving of any disposable soul, moreover, this plays into corporate shareholder hands and makes it easier to dissolve entire manufacturing divisions for short term profitability or outsource well paying jobs to third world countries.  This is not the only place that disposability rears its ugly head.

Twelve-step groups have sprung up like mushrooms in a cow pasture, and create another venue in which people are able to recreate themselves through the disposal of their past and the creation of their new present or future.  It is in cyberspace that people are truly able to live as they desire and pretend that their frailties and oddities no longer exist or that they are that man or woman which has haunted them throughout their sordid and miserable lives.  Sexual and corporate predators find this venue tremendously valuable in an endless pursuit of their disturbingly deviant behaviors.

This aforementioned idea of the disposable society is contrary to the usual drama we call the fast food generation or throw away generation.  Under this classification, people who were unable to digest the profound and logical instruction of their middle and high school teachers are slated for the waste heap of society.  Those of us who were able to dispose of our past and recreate our present scream past these heaps of humanity as they beg from exit ramps, corners or along downtown streets.  Maybe they are hidden among the railroad tracks as they travel in packs in a parallel universe that offers the same brisk service as any Mickey D drive through window or high speed internet connection.  As long as they stalk the shadow world, the rest of us feel safe and ready to dispose of our ugliness and replace it with a shiny new persona via the latest blog, search engine, or chat room.

It is the politicians, pundits and executives that travel in and out of the corporate culture that leave the stable, unstable and the breathing, breathless.  These are the true stars of society whose private personas live entirely separate from their public personalities.  They are the ones that commit heinous crimes that shock the world not due to the nature of their crimes, but do to the fact that their crimes are so out of character from the phony behaviors displayed during their public schemes in which they claim the pain they feel as they lay-off a huge percentage of their work force.  This way these white men are no longer forced to follow society’s rules that left them feeling trapped and impotent.

Their craving for power and authority can only be satisfied once they have satiated their need for depravity and domination that accelerates with each new encounter.  In the world of psychiatric mumbo-jumbo, these ideas are all too simplistic, and we are forced to search for the hidden meaning in all they do.  We are required to find how their delicate psyches were damaged, thus, leading to their depravity and destruction of any humanity they deem as weak or vulnerable. 

Corporate socio-pathology has reached new heights of absurdity when the needs of the few drive the operations of mammoth, international conglomerates to attack and destroy the welfare of their employees for the immediate gratification that ultimately may destroy their corporate infrastructure.  Profits are necessary and a healthy result of astute reaction and anticipation to competition within the marketplace, but this new focus on the disposability of workers, e.g., Boeing outsourcing of jobs in its latest attack on wages of blue collar workers is criminal behavior on the same level as the BTK killer.  Moreover, its impact is far deeper and the long term repercussions travel well beyond the closed production lines and workers’ families and become engrained into our civilization’s socio-psycho-pathology that expect the worst from an employer. 

At this juncture, it is requisite that as a society we reflect on the sociological and corporate changes that are attacking the foundations of democracy, e.g., the political and corporate embrace of the concept of disposability.  The fact that verbal intolerance is on the rise and the powerful are using it to attack those they see as weak because of their espousing diversity of thought and action, smacks of fascism.  These neo-conservative elitists’ use of exclusionary tactics recall the brutal and reactionary racism that has destroyed many 20^th Century Governments, and they are the heart of these attacks as they say “no” to anything but their own demented and delusional perspectives of America as prescribed by national and international corporations.

The idea of the disposability of the middle class needs to be eliminated.  The middle class needs to push back against these neo-conservative charlatans to expose their phony machinations as fraudulent and harmful to the long term health of society.  For all the ways that we have become a disposable society such as training someone in India so the position can be outsourced to add profitability, the government needs to step in as it did with the meat packing industry in the early 20^th century, and punish the lords of profitability that are willing to sacrifice American families for stockholders.  

 

 

World Beyond Twitter and Facebook

There is one thing to be said for modern travel: it is quick. There is no mystery or allure as once there was or seemed to be in the past. It is all about moving as many people as possible at the best price for the company in charge of the movement of humanoids.

For us sheep, this may provide a break in price, however, it makes traveling more than an inconvenience. It is officially a headache. Traveling through Europe is no easy task for the uninitiated and can be an expensive endeavor. You have to be willing to sacrifice any number of conveniences or money in pursuit of movement.

From London to Paris, if you are willing to ride on a bus for nine hours the monetary price is quite reasonable. On the other hand, if time and comfort reign supreme, taking a high speed train is the way to go and beats flying, but it comes at a financial price. It brings with it a relaxing environment, food and beautiful scenery.

Traveling is exhausting. We are on the move at least 8 hours a day. Searching for the next new monument or alleyway or toilet.  You are looking to find the history that was told to you in books or other reading.  It is fun to think about all that took place so long ago until you are confronted with the pain and hardship that most toiled.

When you are standing in a place such as the Louvre, and you realize that this palace was too small for King Louis the XIV. You can feel the power and hubris of the ruling class. You can feel the oppression of the people and yet it is so distant.

You are confronted with how small we are in relationship to the universe. Look at what is happening around the world today and you can see and feel the pettiness that drives humans and politics and how the immediate is so important, which of course it is not. I don’t think that this feeling has changed over the course of humanities life span.

I sit here now typing away staring into the Scottish woods of Cairngorms and I am taken aback by the futility of life.  Of working for the weekends or in this case the three week holiday that we are on. I think of my need to have the internet so that I can instantly connect to the people back home. There is no longer a need for the family slide show. You can throw your adventures up on the internet and share it daily.

The world has not gotten smaller.  With all our technology it may seem so, but it has not.  The world has gotten larger, which seems counterintuitive because today it is about making connections to other people. Walking through the streets of Paris or London or Aveimore it is the people that make the difference. We have met some of the nicest people as we have gone about.

It is funny to think that the plant and animal life is so similar between northern Scotland and western Washington.  They in no way have the mountains that we have, but the wild and desolate nature of the landscape is amazing similar. We are staying just outside the largest wilderness area in all of Europe and we made it to one of Scotland’s ski resorts. Very different in its set-up than in the states.  There were no trees just vast open spaces.

Welcome to the world beyond Facebook and twitter.

Right-Wing Attack Machine at it Again

Here we go again with another attack of the right-wing machine. This time it is allegedly against abortion. However, their attacks go beyond abortion; their end goal is to shutdown Planned Parenthood, which spends the majority of their time taking care of women’s health issues far beyond abortion, state by state. They are using the abortion issue as the leverage to eliminate health care for the underclass of American society or anyone that may need to use government subsidized Medicare.

The latest case in which women were attacked was Indiana. In this case, as reported by Mother Jones, the state was trying to deny women on Medicaid the ability to use their government program to get medical treatment at Planned Parenthood offices. Indiana was unsuccessful in its two year battle. This is a win for the good guys. Those white government men were denied the right to decide when and where women can be treated.

On the other hand, in Texas, Mississippi and other repressive, mostly southern states, these same white men have been successful in defunding Planned Parenthood through more clever tactics. What all this means is that women of means can get preventative care and abortions because they can pay for it out of pocket. Abortions are still being performed in all of these states, but only for the haves and not the have nots.  Therefore, if you a person struggling financially, you are out of luck when it comes to family planning, cancer screenings or other preventative measures relating to women’s health, and you use Planned Parenthood or other offices that were set up for these types of medical visits.

Remember there is no war on women. These republicans care deeply about unborn fetuses, but once you are born, you better find a way to get healthcare that they deem as acceptable. If you are dependent on any government assistance, the state of Texas will tell you when and if you can get medical attention. This is big government at its finest. The republicans have set up their own death panels and in their crosshair are women living at or below the poverty line.

In Indiana these same republicans were unable to deny healthcare to Medicaid patients. This is something that needs to be replicated around the country. Every American needs, no deserves, quality healthcare with no government intrusion including but not limited to abortions.

According to Mother Jones, Texas was able to cut government family planning funds. The repercussions to this is that 53 women’s clinics were shut down. Fourteen of these clinics were Planned Parenthood and the other thirty-eight were not affiliated with Planned Parenthood. None of these clinics performed abortions (Texas Policy Evaluation Project, Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas).  This is all about denying services to the working poor. It is a way of punishing those that are struggling to make ends meet in today’s economy.

All I can see from these actions is that women at or below the poverty line that need and use government assistance must ask the government’s permission to be able to get healthcare. Rick Perry is playing Big Brother and bringing along likeminded brethren to follow his lead. I can’t wait to see what they have in store for Medicare recipients.

What else are Americans going to have to ask permission from Republican controlled states? In many of these red states, you cannot ask for a pay raise or better benefits if you are a public employee. You get to bend over and take it. Why go into public service if you are going to be treated like chattel?

All of these policy choices demonstrate a lack of respect for Americans. It shows an obsessive inflexibility to differing opinions. These inflexibilities say that we know what is good for you, and we are going to tell you how you need to live.

 

What makes all this so insidious is that these republicans pretend that they own the higher moral ground, and that Americans are too childlike to understand these positions, therefore, don’t worry we’ll take care of you because we know best. Their arrogance is galling to say the least.

Cheating Death

We are always looking for ways to cheat death. Is sounds so preposterous, but it is so true. There are these clinics that advertise a way to gain that youthful body or feeling or some cosmetics that will eliminate those eye wrinkles.

What is the point of cosmetic surgery if it is not there to trick us into thinking that death is not inching up on us one day at the time? For me, hitting the age of 50 sent me spiraling down the death path. My morality came into full play. I had been fighting my afib for six years and knew that my life was going to end. I was obsessed with thinking and talking about. Saying things like, “I have 20 years to go (16 today) to reach 70. Everything after that is gravy.

My father died 10 years ago this August and I need to beat his 64 years. We always competed against each other through the years and there were times I bested him and he bested me, but in this matter no one gets the best of it.  We all die. I read about death daily be it a war story or a shooting in the US.

I have not come to terms with the idea that my conscious will just cease to exist. I have seen death up close and personal. Something happens to the body when the heart stops beating whether it is a pet or your parent.

Intellectually, l understand the concept of the universe existing for billions of years, however, it makes no sense in that we are here for a blink of a cosmic eye. The fantasy of heaven or the idea of reincarnation are meaningless in light that we just stop. It seems silly to worry about the inevitable, but I do.

I cheat death by taking a hand full of pills to keep my heart beating properly and my blood pressure in a normal range. I have changed my diet to deal with other potential problems. I don’t want to end up like my father fighting my weight as he did. I fight it and my impulse to eat beyond satiation.

All this writing is based on the idea that time is short. The same goes for traveling. I want to see more of the world. There is no way to see it all. I love seeing all the different pieces beyond my tiny corner of the globe. I have a partner that forces me out of comfort zone and that is a compelling reason to stretch yourself.

Letting fear rule decisions has been a big problem in my life. It has led to choices that may have stifled my dreams. I don’t really know how true that last idea is, but I do know that I have lived a life that for the most part I am proud. Oh, I have some moments that make me cringe to think about but who doesn’t? There are times I have been a real jerk. Who hasn’t? I work really hard to keep those to a minimum today. Not so much in my past.

I what are people going to say when you are gone? I know there are people that will miss me and others that won’t give a shit and others that I have harmed will be glad. Those are the ones that hurt the most. I regret doing harm to people in my past. Some of them still haunt me. They are the demons that drive me to be a better man, father, husband or friend. I need to work on these aspects every day.

Bon voyage. You get to find your own way to the inevitable. I am still searching for mine as well as coming to terms with my own humanity.

Addicted to Violence

America is addicted to violence.  Look around you and see if you think this is true.  Which movies are the highest grossing of all time?  How many weapons have been purchased by Americans in the past 100 years?  In the past 50 years, what are the highest selling weapons?  What is our favorite sport?  What is the highest grossing sport in America?  FOOTBALL. When you think of soccer, is it the carefree sport that you remember with beautiful passing and scoring, or is it the head butt by the French in the 2010 World Cup?  Maybe you think about the hooligans that travel with their teams and start fights in the stands. People go to car races to see them crash.

Violence is the driving force all over the world.  I don’t care where you were born or raised.  Violence rules the world we live, and people seek recognition for their ability to used violence to their advantage be it in the octagon or the ring or in the bar. The Middle East is on fire and violence is the name of the game. Violence is used to control societies in which the state has failed to protect its citizens.

You look around the world and the most violent run many of the governments.  They use others to carry out their violence. It matters not.  Violence begets violence and it is rewarded with power.  We celebrated the assassination of Osama Bin Laden.  We filled the streets with thousands of cheering fans of this violent end to a man who believed power emanated from the violence he was able to inflict on those that opposed him.

All societies believe in an eye for an eye.  If you look around our country, you will see violent hate groups ready to strike and attack at the heart of our government.  The most vocal of these violent hate groups is the leaders of the NRA.  It will always be their way or the highway.

They do not care how many people are killed with their weapons as long as there are 10 more people ready to purchase their products.  They do not care about mass murders or any data that demonstrates the dangers of their products.  They are an organization that uses irrational arguments to press their agenda and their members parrot this irrationality in the press and throughout social media.  They use coercion through fear to press forward.  The NRA loves violence because it sells their product. 

As a nation we love violence as long as it does not hit too close to home.  Most Americans did not even think about the assault weapons or high capacity magazine ban until Denver and Connecticut.   Ten years ago, after my father died, I sold all his assault weapons and used the proceeds to buy a motorcycle.  I did not want to have anything to do with them.  They bothered me.  I still own a 12 gage Remington 870 and 30-06 Winchester if I ever go hunting again, and I just purchased a Taurus 605 revolver for target shooting. I am not just some left-wing wackadoodle attacking gun owners.

 There may be reasonable people out there that own weapons of mass murder e.g. AR 15 or AK 47 derivatives with high capacity magazines, but there is no reason to have them.  They are meant to kill other humans.  Watch the movies or video games and see how these weapons are depicted. Or check out videos where ballistic jelly is used to simulate the human body and head and tell me these weapons aren’t meant to kill people. Don’t watch some bogus firing range demonstration using paper.  Watch film from Vietnam; they work really well.  I am not going to change anyone’s attitude about these weapons because we do not buy them based on anything but an emotion response. 

We love the violence that these weapons produce when we unleash their awesomeness.  It has nothing to do with the Second Amendment.  Join the National Guard if you want to support the Second Amendment, then, you can be trained to shoot a government issued AR15, and you will provide a much needed service to our country. 

I want to reiterate that American is not the most violent country in the world.  We are addicted to violence.  We avert our eyes when it kills our young especially when the young are not white suburbanites.  When Americans are killed at a rate of 100 a week, you would think that we were in a war zone and outrage would rule the land. The only outrage is from gun owners ready to take up arms.

Get out your check books or credit cards and head down to the gun range, the gun store or a pawnshop and pick yourself up a weapon of mass murder.  Use it in good conscience.  Go out with your buddies and pull off a few rounds.  Teach you husband or your wife how it is done.  Teach your kids.  My dad taught me. My nephew loves to take out his AR and rip it up.  Just don’t tell me Americans aren’t in love with violence.  It is an American right we like to call the 2^nd Amendment.