SEX IN DAVEY JONES' LOCKER: or IS MY SUSHI STILL ALIVE?

A full moon casts its pale blue light upon the surface of the water, painting a perfect self portrait on the near black surface of the water during slack tide in the harbor as I stare in contemplation, well perhaps even deeper thought than mere contemplation, more like deep meditation, so relaxing it’s almost painful to move when the time is right.  

The fish aren’t hungry, it’s one of those nights offering this fisherman hours of quiet introspection interrupted only by the occasional seagull squawking in the distance, even my fishing buddy is quiet; highly unusual for the bear-sized man with a booming voice. Even his nickname is fittingly “Bear.” The only activity I’ve seen tonight is reeling in the line to see if the ever-present, yet invisible thieves of the ocean have absconded with my bait, again. Reel it in, rebate the hook and drop it back into the water only to repeat several minutes later. Clever little shits, those denizens of the deep. I’ll not be convinced for a moment that the “lesser” creatures of this world have no reasoning power and I know of no other fisherman who will ever accept that theory either.
11:00 PM; still no activity. 

“Hey Bear! Watchya say we give it up for the night, finish off the beer and head home? The in-coming tide must’ve fed them too well tonight.”
“Yep, let’s crank’em up and give it up, we’ve got a big day on the boat Friday anyway. Maybe we’ll make up for it then.”

I begin hauling in my line, it feels heavier than an empty line, but the line is dead weight so it’s certainly not a fish, probably some seabed trash or kelp, hell probably both, it weighs maybe five pounds, it isn’t kelp alone, that’s for sure. I reel it towards me from our perch on the bridge twenty feet or so from the water’s surface. It’s taking a couple minutes to get the clump of “stuff” from the bottom of the channel to the bridge where I can cut the line and toss the kelp back into the water or the trash into the back of the pickup. A quick gulp to finish off the can of beer and I resume reeling in the line.

The end of the line has arrived, but it’s too dark to see any details of the mass hanging off the end, a pretty sizable blob of seaweed alright.

Teeth are meant for far more than simply chewing; like Bubba’s shrimp recipes in Forrest Gump, the list of uses for a fisherman’s incisors can be endless and are often used for cutting fishing line rather than taking the time to locate the cutters stored somewhere deep in the tackle box, besides tackle boxes in the dark can be a painful place for bare fingers. The dark, shapeless “clump” of seaweed is two feet from my face so I grab the line, pull it towards me to sever the line with my pearly whites, planning to let the entire mess fall back into the water below and head for home. As I pull the line towards my face, suddenly the seaweed comes to life and I see dark fingers reaching out for me in a flash, it happens so rapidly in fact that I have no time to make any assessment as to what it is and it is but a fraction of an inch from grabbing my face.

Startling the hell out of me, I jump several feet in reverse and scream out “FUCKING HELL! I look at Bear and scream; “GODDAM!! DID YOU SEE THAT SHIT?” My fishing pole is lying on the ground with the tip hanging over bridge’s rail, the clump of stuff now hanging in the air over the water from edge of the bridge.

All I can hear in reply is Bear’s roaring laughter. Even in the pale light of the moon, I can see that he’s literally crying he’s laughing so hard. And I really can’t blame him as he was watching something few fishermen ever get to see – a five pound octopus attacking a man’s head in self defense.

That wasn’t enough excitement so we went fishing again a few days later, the day after Thanksgiving, taking a boat fishermen euphemistically refer to as a “cattle boat”,” a boat that takes large groups of fishermen out to fish in the open sea. The boat is scheduled to take us to a reef about half way between Davey’s Locker in Newport Beach Harbor to Catalina Island. It is a year of a hellish El Nino that wreaks havoc on the coastal areas of Southern California and for many miles inland. Landslides, flooding and several very large piers with restaurants and other businesses on them are swept off of their pilings and into the ocean. It is the wettest, most destructive storm season I had encountered the entire twenty years I lived in California.

The boat normally leaves around midnight in order to get to the reef by early morning. We board the 65 foot steel-hull boat about 10:00 PM. from the waiting room in Davey’s Locker, the boat owner. I recall seeing one girl in her early twenties in the crowd as we board. A female fishing on a cattle boat is certainly not unheard of, but not terribly common either, so it kind of causes one to pause for a brief second. I suppose it could be analogous to seeing a cat running in a pack of wild dogs. 

It’s raining so hard that the water in the harbor, less than four feet away from where I’m standing next to the boat’s gunnel is not visible.

As we normally do, Bear and I go to the galley have a couple beers and play cards with some of the other fishermen. In retrospect, I now wonder what in hell we thought we were going to do when we arrived at the fishing point.
We feel the customary lurch as the boat leaves its moorings and heads out to sea. The weather is so bad it’s even a bit rough in the harbor, but when we pass the breakwater hell is unleashed by Poseidon himself. That huge, steel-hulled boat is tossed around like a toy in a pool full of rambunctious children. Bear and I sit in the galley, holding onto the sides of the chairs and the table, glancing at one another to see if there’s fear in one or the other’s eyes as the boat encounters massive wave after massive wave.

With each wave, the boat shudders like an earthquake as it climbs up the mountain to the crest only to shoot to the bottom of the trough like a high-speed rollercoaster gone off its tracks. I’m certain the propeller leaves the water as it crests the wave as the ship literally rattles like marbles in a tin can. After the second or third wave, the boat hits the trough so hard, all the latches intended to keep kitchen tools; plates, bowls, pans, KNIVES, spoons, glasses, etc. in the cabinets break and the contents begin flying around the galley like missiles, canister bombs and steel Frisbees.

We hear the boat’s captain on the speakers; “attention all passengers! To avoid injury, please go below to the bunks. Please go below to the bunks! All deck hands to the bridge.”

“Now that’s a good idea” I think to myself and by the look in Bear’s eyes, he’s in full agreement. But an idea and the execution of an idea can be miles apart at times. MILES.

Traversing a very narrow passageway, down very steep steps into a large dark room filled with bunks while the boat is jostling around like a car tumbling down a hillside sounds pretty damned difficult you say? DIFFICULT? Hell it’s damned near impossible! 

Had it not been so worrisome, it would surely have been hilarious to watch. Everyone is slamming their heads on the bulkhead, against the walls and against other heads. We’re falling down the steps, running onto each other and each and every one of us are swearing like truckers, I swear I can even hear the voice of the loan female in the swearing fest.

After poking one in the eye, waking some others and receiving the resulting choice words from those who’d been in the bunks while Bear and I were in the galley, I finally feel my way to one of the top bunks, climb in, cover up and hold on for one hell of a ride.

The damned lights finally come on (one 60 watt bulb at each end of the big room full of double bunks) and when they do, I realize that my face is but a foot or so from the top of the room. Claustrophobic as hell, I begin hyperventilating and sweating like mad in a room where the temperature was probably around 35-40 degrees F. Hoping to alleviate the crushing feeling of having something that close to my face, I reach up and touch the clammy, hard, steel surface and it suddenly occurs to me that this scow of a boat may be my casket, buried under hundreds of feet of water, but even that didn’t bother me as much as the closeness of the surface.

Hoping to stop the panic, I turn sideways and pull the blanket over my head with just enough of an opening to breathe freely and for my eyes to see across the room. I can feel my heart rate slow as I scan the dimly lit room where there are three rows of bunks, one on each side and one down the middle.

Directly across the very narrow aisle (I could have easily reached out and touched the bunk adjacent to mine) I see movement under the blankets, it catches my attention and takes my mind off of the looming steel above my head. The occupants (yes, plural) of the bunk stop moving, they must have sensed my gaze and the lone female peaks out from under the blanket for a few seconds, unknowingly staring right at me. She resumes her activity after satisfying her concern that “no one was watching.” I can’t believe my eyes; they’re having sex! One girl among what was likely 40 or 45 men and she’s having sex right in the middle of them all! WHILE THE BOAT IS DAMNED NEAR SINKING!

What a surreal night. What a strange damned sight!

After about 4 hours of trying to get to the reef, the captain announces that he’s turning around because, get this, “it is too rough.” He calmly says “Davey’s Locker,” (the company that owns the fleet of fishing boats) will provide all with rain checks so we could come back when the when the weather isn’t so bad.”
My first thoughts are of the irony in the name "Davey’s Locker" and our impending doom. I wonder if we’ll even make it back.

It takes us 45 minutes to return to the harbor from the point it took us 4 hours to get to. We learn later that we had encountered not 1,not 2, but 3 water spouts (tornadoes over the ocean) during our joyride.

When the hoard of faces, devoid of blood and pale white, leave the boat and walk into the waiting room to receive our rain checks, I glance to the side and sure as hell, the girl who was having sex with her bunkmate is standing right next to me. I avoid looking at her for very long, fearing she’d sense that it was I who was across from her, below deck in the bunks.

We cash in our rain checks two weeks later, using the same boat to the same destination, calm seas though. That was a night I’ve never forgotten and likely never will.

Stand Your Ground Doesn't Mean Shoot To Kill

As it always does after a particularly bothersome incident, the gun debate is once again being debated with fevered pitch in the U.S. and just as prevalently as the debate, many people across the country become severely confused when the concept of gun control is broached, somehow correlating it with ending gun ownership completely, thereby prompting ad nauseum repetition of the moronic, audacious and half-witted attempt at bravado made popular by our friends at the NRA; “I'll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands!” 

Let me say first of all, to dissuade any instantaneous preconception that I am, a gun antagonist or a gun nut; I am neither.  I own several guns and have done so for 52 years now, since I was presented with my first - my grandfather’s Remington Model 34 .22 ca bolt-action rifle at the age of 8 years old.  I love to shoot guns (I deplore killing anything with them other than tin cans and glass bottles, however).  

Owning guns and shooting them is very enjoyable for me, perhaps somewhat akin to standing next to an idling locomotive, but those guns are locked in a gun safe, to which only I have the combination, when not in use at the range or in the desert and while in transport they’re locked in the tool box in the back of my pickup for, just as those locomotives, they DEMAND a very high degree of respect.  Learning to shoot well is indeed an art, but it is also a massive responsibility. I do not, nor will I ever carry a weapon in a public arena and this is precisely why: 

On July 10, 2010 a man with whom I was acquainted entered a Costco in a suburban area of Las Vegas, Nevada known as Summerlin, a mildly upscale master-planned community of upper-middle income residents.   The man, Erik Scott, was a sales representative for a company (Boston Scientific) which produces high-end medical devices including the implantable pacemakers and defibrillators he sold.  He and I met regularly to coordinate acquisition of those devices for implant into patients within the hospital system for which I was responsible. 

He was a congenial, intelligent young man and was certainly not an ordinary slouch of a guy; a West Point Graduate with a master’s degree from Duke who had served as an M1A1 Tank Platoon Leader in the U.S. Army.  Erik was in Costco to purchase items for a trip of some kind that involved a backpack such as hiking or camping; it’s unclear to me which. 

While in Costco, he began opening a package of items to see if those items would fit into his pack and predictably, this behavior caught the attention of some Costco employees, some of which were concerned and some of which were not, even trying to assist him; different accounts from different perspectives, as always. 

Erik paid for the products he had opened along with other items he and his girlfriend purchased and exited the store.  For those of you who have exited a Costco store, you know what kind of crowd is typically coming and going; estimates are that there were at least 20 to 30 people in and around the immediate area of the entry/exit where he encountered several Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Officers screaming different and by most accounts, contradicting commands. 

It seems that during the process of checking the items for proper fit, one of the “concerned” Costco employees noticed Erik’s weapon and, from all accounts I’ve read, either panicked or simply became agitated when he told Erik that he was not allowed to carry weapons, to which Erik simply replied “I have a permit to do so.”  The employee reported to his supervisors that “there was a very suspicious man with a gun ripping open packages in the store.”  The store began to quietly evacuate the customers and employees, all unbeknownst to Erik. 

As Erik exited the store, commands ranging from “get on the ground” to “drop your weapon” were thrown at him from the PD officers awaiting him and apparently, he attempted to do what he heard and began to remove the weapon from where he had it concealed and in the process of doing so was shot seven times, killing him. 

His profession was not such that it was required, of this much I am certain, but Erik was carrying, not one, but two concealed weapons, a Kimber .45 caliber semi-automatic and yet another .380 semi-automatic in his pocket and his blood-soaked concealed weapons permit was stark and ironic testament that he was legally entitled to do so.

If one reads the various accounts of the incident, here, here, here and here, it’s vividly apparent that confusion was thick in the air, not only with the Costco employee and the LVMPD, but within Erik as well.  There are questions that will NEVER be answered such as; why did the Costco employee find it necessary to pursue the actions he took?  Why were the LVMPD officers issuing conflicting directions? And in my mind, the most important questions; why was he carrying not one, but two concealed weapons?  Why did he feel the need, especially in the community in which he lived?  He was also taking fairly high doses of morphine, for what I don’t know, but; why was anyone who was taking such a powerful drug allowed to carry concealed weapons to begin with? 

So many questions; so few answers, but here is one answer I can be absolutely certain of without even a preceding question; there is absolutely no doubt had Erik not been carrying a gun, he would still be alive today. 

There were coroner’s inquests, civil suits, internal investigations by the PD, yet not one time did anyone wonder why the man was carrying two weapons, for there was no need to ask; HE HAD A PERMIT! 

Well what a very impressive privilege; an utterly unnecessary privilege for which he paid with his life on that day! 

I do not believe that the PD acted in error, nor the Costco employee and to some degree, even Erik was not to blame.  But the lax laws in this country are most definitely erroneous and need review and overhaul NOW.  No matter how you want to view it, whether you’re pro or con on this issue, guns on the streets equals bodies in the morgue. 

“The right to have and bear arms” is an irrefutable right in this country according to the Constitution of the United States, but that “right to bear” them needs to be tempered drastically.  As with all governing instruments, the Constitution needs to be constantly reexamined to fit the needs of the society it’s intended to govern (amendments).   The Constitution was developed when guns were both necessary for survival and when the U.S. had just ended the American Revolution, so the right to bear arms carried far different ramifications then than it does now. 

We’ve all seen the statistics related to the issue and as with ALL statistics, they can show what the originator wants them to show, but here’s one that simply cannot be manipulated and that is, guns will and do result in a violent scenario, either purposely or accidentally and a death such as the one above or Trayvon’s or any other of the thousands upon thousands who are killed due to foolish, irresponsible laws and/or gun owners can be neither ignored nor manipulated. 

Victims are dead either way and guns have no business in a public arena where misunderstanding is going to be present; always, 100% of the time.

THE PATRIOT ACT IS FULLFILLING ITS PROMISES

Why I should be surprised about THIS, I don’t know after the direction in which we’ve been heading since the advent of the Patriot Act, but this is alarming.

I have to say here, that I've never been arrested before so I may be completely naïve.   Am I? Am I missing something here, or have we stepped over the edge on the tails of Homeland Security?

So! If I am arrested for something as simple as forgetting to pay a speeding ticket, I am now subject to strip search and even BODY CAVITY INSPECTION!!
I've been writing in opposition to the Patriot Act and the future of abusive powers since this intrusive act reared its face in Congressional debates. We ignored it!

In the ever-present apathy of the American psyche, we ignored an act that PROMISED – not “had the potential,” or “could be abused,” this act literally PROMISED to impede our freedom; to violate individual rights to privacy and we stood by, watching as Homeland Security began to fulfill that promise one step at a time; in airport inspections, making light of the circumstances in which people are searched at airports and even laughing at what appeared to be humor while a lady dressed in a biking under a heavy coat stripped down to the barest of clothing to be gawked at and shamed; in utterly shameful and terrifying abilities for states to stop persons based simply on a hunch that they are illegal aliens.

Now, we’ve made it one step closer to a totalitarian society in which individual rights are of no concern.

“The Supreme Court on Monday ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that officials may strip-search people arrested for any offense, however minor, before admitting them to jails even if the officials have no reason to suspect the presence of contraband.”

“Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, joined by the court’s conservative wing, wrote that courts are in no position to second-guess the judgments of correctional officials who must consider not only the possibility of smuggled weapons and drugs but also public health and information about gang affiliations."

What in the name of hell does Kennedy mean “we are in no position to second-guess the judgments of correction officials? That’s PRECISELY what they are there for!  That’s the very purpose of the U.S. Supreme Court – to guarantee civil rights and to prevail over state laws that are abusive in the nature of their powers.

“Article VI, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution is known as the Supremacy Clause because it provides that the "Constitution, and the Laws of the United States … shall be the supreme Law of the Land." It means that the federal government, in exercising any of the powers enumerated in the Constitution, must prevail over any conflicting or inconsistent state exercise of power.”

“The Supremacy Clause also requires state legislatures to take into account policies adopted by the federal government. Two issues arise when State Action is in apparent conflict with federal law.”

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects personal privacy, and every citizen's right to be free from unreasonable government intrusion into their persons, homes, businesses, and property -- whether through police stops of citizens on the street, arrests, or searches of homes and businesses.
I ask: Is this not unreasonable government intrusion into their persons? Is this not unreasonable and degrading in virtually every way possible???
We sat in the comfort and protection of our homes (domiciles soon to be at risk of illegal intrusion as well), fearing some propagandized, ubiquitous, sinister “terrorist” plot to, at any moment, pop out from under an airline or bus seat, spread terrorism via the Internet, or attack us while we drove to MacFattys.

We scoffed and laughed at the laws that allow TSA “agents” to search at will our bodies while unclothed. We stood by and watched as Arizona passed unimaginable “illegal alien” laws that allows any “officer of the law” to stop virtually any person simply upon a “suspicion” that the person may be illegal.

Now, we are subject to unimaginable searches “for any offense, however minor, before admitting them to jails even if the officials have no reason to suspect the presence of contraband.”

The Supreme Court of the United States is following, not the laws that made this country what it is suppose to be, but the wishes of those very same people who wish to destroy our rights, our dignity, our economy and our freedom.

Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible. Totalitarian regimes stay in political power through an all-encompassing propaganda campaign, which is disseminated through the state-controlled mass media, a single party that is often marked by political repression, personality cultism, control over the economy, regulation and restriction of speech, mass surveillance, and widespread use of terror.

This happening every time Congress, with the blind support of The United States Supreme Court, passes laws that takes us to the next square towards Fascism. We are one more square, one more roll of the dice, towards losing everything and we had better stop replacing what should be boistrous objection with humor at women removing their coats to reveal a bikini at airport “security stops;” stop allowing states such as Arizona and Utah to pass intrusive and illegal search and seizure laws without regards to personal liberties; AND NOW, we can expect horrendous, embarrassing, humiliating, illegal search and seizure laws if we’re arrested for simply forgetting to pay a fine or for participating in peaceful and lawful protests. And don’t forget, a speeding ticket “is in lieu of arrest.” When will we begin to be arrested for speeding rather than ticketed, which of course would result in strip-search and body cavity inspections?

A strange paradox exists in this country, where it's perfectly legal to carry weapons and gun down children, yet our personal rights guranteed as human beings are on the verge of collapse.
As a man, I am deeply worried if, for some reason, my wife or daughter are arrested for some trivial bullshit.  As a human, I am worried shitless about the direction this country is taking.

We are too close my friends. Too close to the abyss and I don’t like what I see down there.

NEED I SAY ANYTHING?

ONE MINUTE EACH NIGHT

Apparently I'm on a chain-mail list of some ultra-righter.  I got this in my e-mail yesterday and now I'm worried that the poor soul's finger-tips are burnt to a crisp for sending this to ME.

ONE MINUTE EACH NIGHT

This is the scariest election we as Christians have ever faced, and from the looks of the polls, the Christians aren't voting Christian values. OMG!!  Are people actually reading, evaluating and using their brains now???  NAHHH!  Just the usual guessing game again, they're just not voting for the RIGHT Christian. Those stupid, stupid, wrong Christians!

We all need to be on our knees. I have been for weeks, laughing so hard at Rick Santorum's moronic remarks, I can no longer stand.

Do you believe we can take God at His word? Call upon His name, then stand back and watch His wonders unfold. This scripture gives us, as Christians, ownership of this land and the ability to call upon God to heal it. I challenge you to do that. We have never been more desperate than now for God to heal our land.  Do you really think he can after we've "Been fruitful and increased and increased and increased in number; filled the earth far beyond its capacity and subdued destroyed it. Rule over poisoned the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living dying creature species that moves on the ground?" For the Bible tells us to do so!

This election is the scariest I remember in my lifetime. 2 Chronicles 7:14. 'If my people, which are called by my name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.'  I'm not absolutely certain what they're scared of, but HERE'S what scares the hell out of me. If I "call upon his name then stand back and watch his wonders unfold, we'll have diseases, famine, horrific floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, people turning into salt, people talking in different languages for building tall buildings, even more children and innocent people will die, flesh will fall from people's bodies, snakes will talk, etc., etc. 

And then he'll say "For the last millennia, this has been just a test to try your faith."  Had these been real disasters, well, YOU; the gays/lesbians (especially those in the military), Muslims/Buddhists/Hindus/Jews, abortionists, the enlightened and most of all, you morons who did not vote Christian did it, not I."

During WWII, there was an advisor to Churchill, who organized a group of people who dropped what they were doing every night at a prescribed hour for one minute, to collectively pray for the safety of England, its people and peace. This had an amazing effect, as bombing stopped. until the bombers refuelled, rearmed and returned the next night, which proves one thing - praying causes Germans to drop bombs. 

Hmmm!  If the United States is God's country, just what in hell does he think he was doing answering the prayers of the English during WWII?? Inquiring minds want to know.  

And there's your answer folks!! THAT'S why the prayers in England resulted in bombs dropping!!!

There is now a group of people organizing the same thing here in America. Now there's a big surprise.

The United States of America, and our citizens, need prayer more than ever!!! If you would like to participate, each evening at 9:00 P.M. Eastern Time (8 PM Central, 7 PM Mountain, 6 PM Pacific), stop whatever you're doing, and spend one minute praying for the safety of the United States, our troops, our citizens, for peace in the world, the upcoming election, that the Bible will remain the basis for the laws governing our land, and that Christianity will grow in the U.S. So! Does this mean that if I pray for Santorum (a professed Christian) and this person prays for Gingrich (a professed Christian); does "God" cancel out prayers one at a time, placing into office the candidate with the most prayers remaining? Well hell! Let's all pray instead of vote and save trees, time, money and most of all, avoid hanging chaff (hang Saddam Hussein instead).  

As for me!  I think "God" becomes so confused as to what we really want, he simply gives us the shit we keep getting as punishment for our indecisiveness? 

If you know anyone who would like to participate, please pass this along. Someone said if people really understood the full extent of the power we have available through prayer, we might be speechless. Our prayers are the most powerful asset we have.  

Thank you.  

No!  Thank you!  You've just proven what I've surmised for years; the people in the U.S. RARELY, IF EVER, use logic while at the polls.  With this sort of logic, John Kennedy was indeed as evil as Rick Santorum says he was; Jimmy Carter, one of the most ardent humanitarians of the world, is a disciple of the Devil and Martin Luther King was a trouble-making gangsta.

Sorry Socrates, you're just too damned old for the Christians to even consider, or your name would decorate the walls of shame with the other ne'er do wells, the rest of the trouble-makers who spoke out against the thougthless thought processes of the masses.

Please pass this on to anyone who you think will want to join us. Nahh! I'll take my chances with elections, even with the piss poor choices we always have.

God Bless You!!!

No!  Please!  Really, I have enough problems already - no hair growing where it's supposed to, but all kinds of it growing where it never did before; I get uglier and fatter by the day; I have to use eyeglasses AND a mangifier to see the newspaper; my libido ran off and left me behind and now gorgeous young women are cute little girls;my back hurts if I stand, my butt hurts if I sit, my feet hurt if I walk and naps that used to take 30 minutes are 3 hours; and worst of all, I used to dislike candy and love beer - all old people dislike beer and love candy;   Ahh shit!!

Wait! I'm Not Clear on This Issue: Who is the Whore?

To the individuals who make up the audiences, the corporate sponsors, the radio and television stations who air people like Limbaugh; it’s time that all of America examine the intentions of the publicity seekers of this nation who proclaim “free speech” while deriding others with thoughtless, juvenile, disparaging, self-serving remarks that have very real and very negative consequences by inflicting serious harm to the individuals of whom they speak and even to those who are completely disconnected with the event.

Every year, our children in schools and innocent people on the city streets are recipients of violent actions perpetrated by others who have learned, through hate-speech such as Limbaugh's, that to harm someone is justifiable behavior if their targets are in some manner “different.”  Violent attacks by others who have no history of violence in their backgrounds have increased for years as the perpetrators seek to resolve rage, a rage stoked solely by hate-filled tirades of others who hate and mindlessly pass along that hate through mass media.

Sadly, many are very easily infected with this vitriol by what they hear from the vile, careless, corporate whores such as Limbaugh who will do and say anything for a dollar.

Rush makes about $37.5 million a year to spew this shit.  Now!  Can someone clear this up for me?  Who exactly is the whore/slut is here?

It's time to stop supporting these people who think their words are beyond reproach and the easiest way to stop their shameless trash is to simply stop listening. Sponsors will stop paying for them and the whores will fade away into the nothingness in which they belong.

Watch Japan's Killer Quake on PBS. See more from NOVA.

IMAGINE

All change requires, to use a worn out phrase a “paradigm shift.” In order for America to rise again we need a change in focus at the very foundation and what better place to start than with the educational process in the U.S?


As for me, I think there’s far more to Shaw’s message than what we get on the first pass; “Youth is wasted on the young.” I am completely convinced that the same is true for education, it is wasted on the young, not because they don’t want it or because they’re lazy, in the U.S. education is NOT education rather a mass communal attempt to teach conformity in preparation for production and contribution to the GDP.

 

For those of us who have had an opportunity to carry on conversations with a person who has been educated in another country, the difference is not only noticeable, it’s stark and it’s not a simple matter of being better in the sciences, math, etc., it’s knowledge literally of global proportions. People in other countries understand the roles they play in the massive community of Earth and they understand it far beyond the warped perspectives we’re taught in our schools. In essence, the United States IS NOT “the most important,” “the best,” “God’s chosen,” “the shining light of democracy.” We’re part of a picture much larger than “ME,” me being the U.S. and until we educate our citizens for the sake of knowledge rather than production, we’ll remain isolationists by design, whether or not we wish to be isolated.

 

First: The extreme nationalism shoved down our throats should never enter the picture in our education, yet it permeates the very air we breathe from day one of our education. This is indoctrination of epic proportions NOT education. Our history lessons are a scam, intended to blind us with hegemonic lenses so dark, we can't see beyond the noses that hold them to our eyes, our schools are bastions of political discourse absorbed through surreptitious, perhaps even sinister efforts.

 

Secondly, consider this: Our educational system as we see it today was developed (coincidentally????) in conjunction with the Industrial Revolution. Both are products of the mid 19th century. Coincidence? I think not! Our system was designed to mass create producers to fill the frenzied development of factories. It was the new tool for the corporate elite; human capital at their disposal, people who were once very independent and self-sufficient, a type of people that DO NOT work well in factories, offices or production lines. Orwellian robots, mass-produced to in turn mass-produce.

 

In the late 19th century when our current “system” of education was being developed, many very well educated people were adamantly opposed to the direction the system was being designed. Ralph Waldo Emerson, for example: “We learn nothing rightly until we learn the symbolical character of life….I believe that our own experience instructs us that the secret of Education lies in respecting the pupil. It is not for you to choose what he shall know, what he shall do. It is chosen and foreordained, and he only holds the key to his own secret. By your tampering and thwarting and too much governing he may be hindered from his end and kept out of his own. Respect the child. Wait and see the new product of Nature. Nature loves analogies, but not repetitions. Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.”

 

Emerson understood the connection between successful, effective education and individual interests. He feared, rightfully so, that we were heading down a path of mass production; an assembly line mass-producing human Model Ts rather than an effort to turn out human Bugattis.

 

In the U.S., our propensity towards mediocrity is a harsh representation of our failed education (and it has NOTHING to do with failing teachers, but with our singularly designed system); our wide-spread intolerance, social class position and indifference are results of missing pieces of the knowledge puzzle, because we’re guided towards conformity and confusion rather than individualism and confidence.

 

Who truly enjoys “education” at a young age and why do we not enjoy it?

 

From day one, we are force-fed disconnected groups of “stuff.” We’re expected to digest that stuff from what the education bureaucracy assembles and in turn, we assemble what the bureaucracy wants, in factories, offices and assembly lines. Many children are not pre-disposed to be assembly line workers, accountants, finance advisors, etc. yet they’re forced into a mass of producers much in the way George Orwell envisioned in his novel 1984. We have become exactly what he wrote of, an oligarchical, collectivist society with two interests in mind – produce and consume. And the sad thing is, the vast majority of Americans don’t even realize that we are now his vision come to life.

 

I was a product of our “wonderful” educational system. I learned absolutely nothing from school; until I was ready, in my mid 40s. It was then that I understood the correlation between life and education and that education is not a means to an end or for production, but a means to a better world on the whole. Connecting life’s experiences and an understanding of the purpose of education comes early for some and later for others, but in our system, we ignore the individual’s propensities and give him/her what we want them to have. And how convenient it is that it fits so well into the game of the powered elite and the corporations in which we produce the wealth for them!

 

We don’t enjoy education because it is forced upon us in a manner that many, many children are not predisposed to learn or accept. Later on that subject in a moment.

 

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder:

 

We all know what that is by now; we all know that many combat veterans suffer from it; we know that people who have been subjected to horrific incidents suffer from it: 9-11, airliner crashes, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc., but there’s another cause of PTSD.

 

“Posttraumatic stress disorder is more prevalent than previously believed, and is often persistent. Progress in estimating age-at-onset distributions, cohort effects, and the conditional probabilities of PTSD from different types of trauma will require future epidemiologic studies to assess PTSD for all lifetime traumas rather than for only a small number of retrospectively reported "most serious" traumas.”

 

PTSD is not simply a symptom of “major trauma,” often people experience PTSD who are placed into situations for which they are not psychologically "wired' to handle and that can include situations as seemingly benign as an artist forced into a highly structured, repetitive environment, i.e. processing the millions upon millions of parts for machines sold in mass across the world, or processing mail. Getting the connection here? Some people “go postal” because they cannot handle the stress of a highly structured and monotonous process when their propensity is towards something else. We’ve all been there, mostly unknowingly so. School!

 

Why don’t many of us enjoy the educational system? We’re forced into a highly structured, monotonous situation designed for one thing and one thing only – production. An artist is forced to grasp algebra when all he/she wants to learn is how to be a better painter, sketcher or sculptor. A philosopher is forced to learn how chemicals interact. An anthropologist is forced to learn poetry and a scientist is forced into literature, etc…..

 

I firmly believe that our very educational system is the root cause of our social disorder, just as in Orwell’s 1984, we are rebelling against a society in which we don’t matter, against an unseen force, the oligarchy of the elite corporatists, who need producers, not individuals. Gun violence is not about guns anymore than violence committed with a knife is about knives it’s about a social illness that is so prevalent in our culture that our culture is on the verge of destruction.

 

Soldiers are forced to act against the most basic human level of decency there is, to preserve life, by killing others and most often doing so without apparent reason in the individual’s mind and sadly, PTSD is often manifest as a result. People who go through the mundane routine of turning the alarm off at 6:30 AM, taking a piss, brushing our teeth, shaving, showering, dressing, grabbing a donut on the way to work to perform for 8 to 10 hours, returning home to make an attempt towards normalcy for a couple of hours, only to restart the process over and over experience the same phenomenon. “Going postal” is PTSD created by a routine in which we must participate in order to survive in a society built around mass consumption and many of us are simply not predisposed for what this oligarchy is forcing us into.

 

In John Taylor Gatto’s “The Seven Lesson School Teacher” he enumerates exactly what teachers do today:

 

1. Teach confusion  
2. Reinforce class position  
3. Promote indifference  
4. Create emotional dependency  
5. Force intellectual dependency  
6. Instill provisional self-esteem  
7. Create paranoia 

Everyone who reads this blog should read Gatto’s essay on this matter and you too will see the reason as clear as the air you wish you could breathe, our society is imploding upon itself and it’s not because we’re born to be violent, we’re taught to be violent through total disregard for our conscious selves, our metaphysical lives and it begins taking place the moment we walk through the hallowed doors of our educational institutions.

 

Can America rise again? 

 

Certainly, but we must start at the very foundation and rebuild. Simply placing bandaids over the sore spots do nothing but hide them from view, they will remain sore regardless of how many bandaids we apply. Starting over is going to be a necessity and one very basic block of laying that new foundation is education. 

 

Teaching children to contribute to the world in a manner that is best suited for them will ensure success, reduce violence and will surely make them better world citizens through understanding beyond our own borders. Our democracy will thrive, for we’ll be a nation focused upon people rather robotic producing and consuming users with no regard for others. Teaching one to be a human being of their natural choice is far simpler and much more important than forcing a human being to be an object of absolute obedience and conformity, blind to all but the needs of the "machine."

 

IMAGINE! What we could do if all our educational efforts went towards a better world rather than a fatter wallet.

 

TAKE TWO GUINNESS' IN THE MORNING AND CALL ME

The old advertising slogan ‘Guinness is good for you’ is actually true it seems.

While Diageo, the manufacturer, makes no health claims for the product, scientific research shows a pint of Guinness a day is actually good for your health.

Indeed it may work as well as a low dose of aspirin to prevent heart attacks.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin made the discovery recently.

The Wisconsin scientists gave Guinness to dogs who had narrowed arteries. They found the Guinness worked as well as aspirin in preventing clots forming.

The researchers told a convention of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Florida, that a pint of Guinness taken at meal time had the best impact.

They believe that antioxidant compounds in the Guinness are responsible for the health benefits because they decrease harmful cholesterol gathering on the artery walls.

Science is my hero! And it tastes sooo much better than aspirin.

So here you go - have a couple.

RW005s Trojan Horses

Trojan Horses are not only inserted into bills as they’re developed, the “horses” are very often developed later as a result of those bills too.
To fully understand the health care system in the U.S. today, one must understand, or at least see the history of health care in the U.S.

My very encapsulated history lesson for you today:

Major advancements were made in medicine in the world in 19th and 20th centuries, most of which we all know about, but prior to these advancements, doctors, in particular, surgeons  were  typically barbers (hence the red and white striped barber poles – representing bloody bandages.  The Catholic Church saw surgery as a sin against the sanctity of God’s creation), herbalists and alchemists.  Cocaine and opium were not only legal, they were common household remedies.

As the practice of medicine changed and improved, doctors were no longer expected to provide their skills as a public service and began charging patients.  The change was not a particularly welcome change among the less fortunate; we had begun our trek towards health care for those who could buy it.

Most don’t know it, but health care reform was born as early as 1910 as the labor unions and progressives became keenly aware of the pending social imbalance, but even then, special interest groups, especially the blossoming of a very prestigious group - doctors with their newly formed AMA were of course deeply opposed to any reforms.  Those special interests and WWI derailed all reformation attempts.

The Great Depression resulted in the passage of the Social Security Act and yet, health care insurance was but a ramrod idea taken on by Blue Cross in a few states, for those who could afford it.

WWII began and in order to entice those left at home to join the workforce in the massive U.S. war industry, employers began offering employees health care benefits.  After the war President Truman proposed a national health program. Guess who came to the party with a bad attitude – the AMA.  Some in the House of Representatives even called the concept a Communist plot.

15 short years later, in the early 1960s, there were in excess of 700 insurance companies selling health insurance policies, doctors had long become the new class of wealthy, hospital costs doubled and doctors were becoming high-cost specialists.  The health care industry was becoming an out-of-control concept as the industry sold themselves to those who could afford the coverage or the care. Suddenly, we became a nation of very sick people and using the new, massive and very powerful industry to make ourselves well was, well a must.

As with any resource, the growing consumption creates a need for better products and higher volume.  Advances in pharmaceuticals, technology (pharmaceutical and high-tech companies even began advertising campaigns directly to consumers), education and the smell of vast profits was sweet-smelling chum in the water and demand drove the industry into a feeding frenzy through the 1970s and 80s.

In an effort to control rising costs, payments to hospitals are changed by Medicare to "Diagnostic Regulatory Groups” (DRGs) wherein hospitals are paid by diagnoses rather than an all-out free-for-all treatment and private insurance industries follow suit.  Capitation of payments are created to control the high expenses of doctor visit.

To combat these infringements upon their fair share of profits, hospitals began to incorporate into huge health care conglomerates and in a conflict of interest that would be obvious to most over the age of 3 years old, insurance companies, doctors and hospitals began partnering, creating a hybrid industry of doctor and insurance-owned hospitals and health care became a frightening dragon on the horizon, but the feds all but ignored them, until that is, they begin committing Medicare fraud faster than Leisure Suit Larry could pick up chicks at the discos.

Enter the feds “to our aid.”

Regulatory Agencies:

Regulatory agencies have a major propensity to increase costs, precisely due to what RW005s post illuminates – Trojan Horses, or regulatory capture. The Wiki article very effectively provides a bit of insight into the impacts of these “regulatory agencies” and suddenly, health care is now, arguably, the most regulated industry in the nation.  The only industry that can boast similar regulatory efforts is the financial industry and we’ve recently witnessed the effectiveness (or truly the lack thereof) and the impact those  “regulations” have had on our lives.

Just as with international policy and affairs, domestic policies often create blowback and we’re witnessing major domestic blowback in the form of health care and now government is trying to appease the goliath insurance and health care industries while presenting the consumers with smoke and mirrors.  Again!

A major contributor to health care costs are the COLASSAL bureaucracies created within and for the government.  Our political officers have learned all too well how to generate fiefdoms from our needs related to health care.
Just try to comprehend of the “depth” of this name alone “United States Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Bureau of Health Professions, National Center for Health Workforce Analysis.”
 
There are literally scores if not hundreds of agencies, most of which either compete with one another, or carry out their frequently overlapping agendas, at a very hefty price to you and me.

AND these agencies don’t begin to scratch the surface in comparison to the cost of; “support” industries generated to “aid” the host industry (in this case, health care) with compliance.  Plus, the vast requirements of manpower within the industry simply to manage the mandates of regulatory agencies is incomprehensible to many.
 
Some examples:
Although not directly employed by the feds, The Joint Commission (TJC) (formerly “Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations, or JCAHO) supplements the fed’s ability to regulate the industry and, in theory, is a voluntary membership for hospitals designed to monitor and improve care within hospitals (however, I can attest to the fact that patient care has NOT improved since the creation of TJC).  There are multiple “voluntary” organizations related to health care organizations including NCQA, ACHC, etc.…. and it can vary from state to state.  Membership is voluntary, however, any hospital that does not pay the required membership fees will not receive payments from Medicare or Medicaid, a vital source of revenue for all hospitals.  The average cost to a hospital for a TJC “survey” is $43,000.00, fees are based upon the size of the hospital.  Surveys are now conducted in cycles ranging from 18 to 39 months, 18 being the least amount of time between surveys, 39 the most.

In 2008, the Joint Commission collected $165 million in revenue, mainly from the fees it charges U.S. health care organizations for evaluating their compliance with federal regulations. Its expenses during this period were $162 million. TJC lost $27 million.  And who pays for those losses?
The list of regulatory agencies and acts in health care is very long and tedious (FDA, TJC, AHRQ, CMS, CDC, HIPAA, OSHA, EPA, HRSA,…….) and impacts literally every function of a hospital’s activity, form purchasing supplies to mopping the floors, yet; has our health care truly improved in the decades following the healthcare upheaval begun in the 1980s?   I can assure you, regardless of what the industry leaders and our corporate-biased government tells us, it has not.  Just take a look at some comparative health care information.

Due to CMS and Medicare HCPCS, I’ve seen staffing in hospital billing offices swell to biblical proportions just to capture all charges possible from Medicare and even private insurance companies.

Due to HIPAA, I’ve seen scores of people hired in medical records departments or consulting firms contracted simply to ensure that HIPAA requirements are met.  Very large software corporations have developed in response to HIPAA requirements.
 
IT departments in hospitals are growing at twice the rate of health care providers such as nurses, med techs, etc. just to keep up with the IT requirements of government.

Administrative departments have grown in the number of executives and their support personnel.

The ONLY areas of health care I haven’t seen grow are the front line caregivers – nurses, medical techs, etc.   In fact, those areas are under incredible strain as a result of very high stress levels of caring for patients under new regulations that place bureaucratic functions on the shoulders of those caregivers, taking their attention and time away from caring for patients.

Medical errors, especially medication administration errors, as a result of nursing staff’s inability to manage patients and the absurd mountains of paperwork required by all this ‘government coming to the aid of Joe the Public” are reaching epidemic proportions.  Front line caregivers are no longer there to care.

And now you know why your care is substandard and even deadly in hospitals.  It is not the fault of the caregivers, they are simply too overwhelmed with the real functions of hospitals - conducting business to care.

As of 2007, the U.S. spent 16% of its GDP on health care, yet we stand alone in the world in being the only developed nation not providing UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE (this is vastly different than, to coin the phrase “Obamacare,” wherein the political machine merely constructed the usual smoke and mirrors to keep the public placated).

In 2007, 15.3% of the nation had no health care benefits at all, that was 45.7 million people.  These are GOVERNMENT statistics!  Believe them if you wish, but like unemployment figures, there’s more than what they like us to see and I suspect the numbers were much worse than those published.

And these figures are from 2007, PRIOR TO THE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN!

Is the U.S. truly looking for healthcare for all?  Or is it BUSINESS AS USUAL?

Clinton holds court in Obama's White House

Am I the only one who thinks this was just plain ODD?

It felt as though my thoughts of Obama’s ineptness was being manifest right before our eyes.

“I can’t do this, Slick.  Can you come up here and handle it for me? (just leave the damned cigars in your car, my ass has been reamed enough lately).
Dammit, no one said I was going to have to face the music someday for selling out America.  I’ve been tricked! Tricked I say!”

**walks off stage shaking head, mumbling**

“Goddamned politicians, they never tell you the whole story, they’re just lying motherfuckers saying anything to get what they want”

Clinton holds court in Obama's White House - The Oval: Tracking the Obama presidency

Senate blocks DADT

Beyond absurd folks, but don't ask about it and don't tell anyone.

I watched the Senate hearing while questioning the top military personnel of the nation.  Everyone of the top brass will support the measure and stated so in the hearing (of course, what choice to they have if it becomes law).  Now our Senate is telling us that they know better than the people they’ve placed in position to run the military. 

Is this a message that they don’t trust the very people they put in charge of our military?  Or is it a a decision made by a bunch of senile homophobes who haven’t a clue what’s going on around them in the world today?

Of course the bill is tied to another bill authorizing a massive pay raise for the young men and women we send to be shot at and to shoot others, a whopping 1.4 % increase.  This will certainly change the balance of wealth in our world.  It’s no wonder the puppet’s strings are being pulled to just say no.
The Senate should be embarrassed, ashamed and should tuck their tails between their legs and whimper like the cowards they are.  1.4% is the lowest pay raise now voted down by Congress since 1962.  1962 folks!  Interestingly enough, that’s the exact inflation rate in 1962, when Mr. McCain was in the military. Some other notes of interest:

The average cost of a new home was $12,500.00
The average annual income was $5,556.00
Average rent was $110.00 per month
Tuition at Harvard University was $1,520.00
A 4WD International Scout was $2,150.00
Eggs were $0.32 per dozen and gas was $0.28 per gallon.

“Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, has been blocking the repeal because of concerns about the impact on military readiness” USA Today

Senator McCain; do you realize that there are many gays serving proudly in our military TODAY?  Does this mean you feel that our military is not ready for the tasks handed them?  Or does it mean that you’re such a homophobe and bigot that you can’t see past your own issues to move into the 21st century?

OH!!  Here’s the reason: “One challenge is that 42 Republicans have signed a letter saying they will not vote on legislation until work is done on tax cuts.” USA Today

“Two Republicans in particular, Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, had earlier said they were committed to DADT repeal. But both ended up voting against it, claiming they wanted to see the tax-cut bill resolved first” Citizen Cohn, The New Republic

It seems our very own Senate is going to hold the entire country hostage, including the youth of our nation, our heroic soldiers dying every damned day so they can plant their sorry asses in their easy chairs at night, gloating of their own importance and complaining that people such as Julian Assange can freely write about our corrupt and evil government’s activities and they’re going to hold us hostage like the terrorists they seek to destroy until they get their taxes for the wealthy.

And to think of what we have to look forward to in 2011!

The Dual Faces of America

Australia Blames US, Not Assange

“Australia's foreign minister has said the US is to blame for the release of thousands of diplomatic cables on Wikileaks, not its Australian founder, Julian Assange.”

Now there’s a novel idea.

“Mr Rudd, the former prime minister who was replaced by Julia Gillard in June, added: "I think there are real questions to be asked about the adequacy of [the US] security systems and the level of access that people have had to that material.


"The core responsibility, and therefore legal liability, goes to those individuals responsible for that initial unauthorised release."

Perhaps taking it a step further would be appropriate. This entire fiasco is indeed the fault of the corrupt government officials of the United States and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the poor quality of security in the system.

Yet, we are already traveling down the blame road, the CYA so typical of our government when they’re caught with their pants down and their hands wrapped around their peckers. “It’s not my fault! Someone forgot to zip my pants for me.”

And you know what the sad thing about all this is? So many people are going to, once again, fall in line and organize, promote and cheer a witch hunt for that person who failed to zip the corrupt government official’s pants for him, completely ignoring the clear and obvious truth, the fact that the government officials are the traitors, not a foreign national who, by definition, cannot commit treason. Assange is but one more in a long line of those who failed to zip some government official’s pants and is in line for the fight of his life, maybe even the fight FOR his life.

The dual faces of America

"This disclosure is not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests. It is an attack on the international community," Clinton said, following talks in Washington with Turkey's foreign minister.


We are taking aggressive steps to hold responsible those who stole this information and to prevent future disclosures, she added.”
 
Barrack Obama should be demanding Hillary Clinton’s resignation, not blaming Assange. Clinton is the moron with the penchant for seeing the rest of the world through hegemonic lenses so thick she can’t walk while wearing them, for looking down her ample nose at the world’s leaders and population as if they are nothing more than Michael Vick’s dogs, pitting them, one against the other. Clinton’s lies, treachery, narcissism and manipulations are what should be in question here, NOT the fact that someone discovered her and NOT attacking the “neutrality of the Net.”

Releasing Clinton upon the world is nothing short of a double case of Porcine Stress Syndrome

Barack Obama should be taking the lead on this and for once, upholding the morality we Americans seem to think we own. But guess what, Obama will do what he does best; compromise. He’ll continue what he always does best; compromise our universal health care in favor of the mega-rich insurance corporations, compromise to allow a two-year tax cut for the wealthy in order to gain a one-year continuation of unemployment benefits, etc….

I’m tired of compromising. America has compromised her own people, the world and her integrity; all this while the elite puppet masters manipulate you and me in the interest of worldwide control.

I’ve grown tired of being manipulated; have you????
 

Don't Worry! Be Happy! Stay Ignorant!

Worried About Unemployment Benefits? Concerned About Health Care?


Well don’t be. In being pushed out of your homes with nothing to eat and no health care, you are actually doing your part to preserve democracy, in fact the “only true democracy, the democracy of the U.S.” Now don’t you feel ashamed for having been thinking such selfish thoughts as “what am I going to do now?” “What if I become ill” “How am I going to feed my children?”

C’mon folks! It’s not always about us!!!

Now, we’re all aware of the trillion dollar cost of Iraq and Afghanistan, of the multimillion dollar missiles and drones filling the skies over the two countries, that’s old news, but I thought you might want to know a little bit more about where your unemployment and health care dollars are being spent so you can feel proud to be a Mericun.

Billions (yes, that’s a “B”), have been given to the Pakistan government for some very important tasks. Just to name a few small ones:

Raising a twenty-six million dollar barbed wire fence along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent terrorists from crossing the border.

Apparently, our multi-million dollar missiles, aircraft and smart bombs are failing, so we’re finally resorting to barbed wire tactics. I feel certain that this will work too, given the fact that terrorists are typically unable to find their way around such a barrier, especially when they find themselves in vast expanses of desolate Afghanistan where no one can see them operate.

The combination of desolation and barbed wire somehow has a mind-numbing effect on many animals, including humans it seems. I know this to be a fact, because being an Okie, I’ve never seen cattle escape barbed wire fences and stand in the middle of the road, NEVER; and I’ve never seen hunters go beyond barbed wire fences, especially when there are signs on the fence with the words “KEEP OUT” written on them.

Yes! I’m truly surprised that it has taken our government this long to use such an effective tactic. Now, if we could just use some of the barbed wire to corral the pigs in DC!!

Seventy million dollars sent to Pakistan to aid in their battle against “Taliban Warplanes.” It’s common knowledge that the Taliban use extremely sophisticated RC aircraft to attack Pakistan’s military bases and infrastructure and have become quiet adept at even using them to attack U.S. supersonic aircraft during bombing runs over Tora Bora.

The little “buzzers” are every F-16 pilot’s nightmare. I’ve heard reports of pilots actually suffering from extreme PTSD after hearing that buzz chasing them through the skies over Afghanistan. It’s about time we do something about those dreaded air aces. Apparently, the radar-deflecting capabilities of long beards dyed bright red with cheep dye exceed even the latest in U.S. stealth aircraft.

Fifty-five million to Pakistan’s Cobra helicopter maintenance. Money very well spent as they now have TWO flyable Cobras. Two Cobras with plush leather seats and teak wood trim, gold-rimmed gauges and the best air-to-air missiles for those Taliban aircraft isn’t too much to expect for President Zardari; is it?

Of course, these are just beans compared to the total that those of us unemployed, homeless and free of the scourge and useless weight of health care have committed to Pakistan alone. Oh. Speaking of health care; we can all rest peacefully in our disease-ridden gutters and alleys knowing that our health care dollars, 335 million of them, have gone to Pakistan for health care.

In total, more than 7.5 BILLION dollars has been given to Pakistan since 2002. It would be such a shame to spend that kind of money on the people of the U.S. when we could use it all to bribe Pakistan, convincing them to aid us fight the Taliban with their RC airplanes and keeping terrorists in their own pastures; don’t you think???

I feel so free and secure. Especially now that WikiLeaks is no longer a threat to our freedom and access to the secret shenanigans of government activities will no longer cause us such useless grief.

We can now enjoy our benefit-free unemployment in our health care-free nation of crystal clear democracy in utter ignorance.

UPDATE!



I’M FUCKING PISSED OFF UPDATE!

Let me guess! They're divulging this due to their integrity rather than wait for WikiLeaks to do it for them.


The Christian Science Monitor:

"The numbers are staggering, encompassing more than a dozen emergency programs set up starting in 2007 or 2008. In one program alone the Fed doled out nearly $9 trillion in funds to borrowers such as Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, largely at interest rates below 1 percent. (This program involved overnight loans, so the amount of Fed credit outstanding at any single point in time was much smaller.)

Other programs, with longer-term loans also measured in the trillions of dollars.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who led the charge for Fed transparency, characterized the new details as "astounding" and called for an investigation to determine whether banks borrowed at near-zero interest and then loaned money back to the government at higher rates.

He said the bailouts may have helped to line the pockets not only of banks in general, but also of their top executives.

'How many big banks [that] repaid Treasury Department bailouts in order to avoid limits on executive compensation received no-strings attached loans from the Federal Reserve?" Mr. Sanders asked in a statement released Wednesday'"

Suspicious Goldfish Sniff Out Terrorists

Am I the only one who sees this whole picture as incredibly suspicious?

"UPS says cargo from Yemen suspended immediately." 

"WRAPUP 8-Explosives in US-bound parcels from Yemen-Obama"

OK.  UAE and Saudi Arabia, both BIG-time supporters of terrorist activities will, on occassion, nab a pawn to sacrifice to the public and in doing so the western press will make sure that the public is duly alarmed, forewarned and, yes FOOLED in order for the west to maintain its ties to terroristic regimes.

Now, I'm not a bomb-maker and I'm no sleuth by any measure of sleuthiness, but if I were to someday lose my conscience and try to blow airplanes out of the sky, I THINK I would at least attempt to do a fairly decent job of hiding the evidence and making the explosives work, unlike the morons like the shoe bomber, the underwear bomber and now the "printer cartridge" bomber(s).  I mean, look at the picture below.  Now, does this look like something even the dumbest bomb-maker in the world would assemble and send on its way in the wild blue yonder?

OK.  Call me paranoid.  Call me a conspiracy nut.  Hell, you can even call me Bob; but are we not blaming this on Al Qaeda, the very same people who supposedly hatched pilots to simultaneously commandeer and fly massive aircraft into three separate buildings 9 years ago?  Isn't this the same group who are masterminds of worldwide destruction concocted with incredible precision, PREPARATION and timing?  Now suddenly we're to believe that they can't even light fuses in their shoes (hell, even I can light fuses on July 4th), detonate their underwear and they build printer cartridge bombs that would make even my gold fish suspicious?

Well, OK, I don't have any goldfish, but if I did, I can assure you that they would be damned suspicious of this cartridge!

Something smells very, very fishy in the land of shock-doctrine and Homeland Security, Watson.

This is where I'm from. Where are you from?

I am very simply from the memories of my life that flood my head, of which 65% and the most significant and wonderful include my incredible wife, seemingly as though it all started with her just yesterday at sunrise.

Perhaps from the worn out Fruit of the Loom sleeveless t-shirts and cotton shorts full of holes, cool and comfortable with Coleman hiking shoes from K-Mart that are the extent of my wardrobe, be it home, grocery store, movies, extreme heat, snow, or within the pickup I’m never seen without while roaming the roads of the desert southwest.

Maybe from the stucco house, not on the prairie, but in the desert amongst the endless sea of homes also painted (desert-pink? Pink? Why not brown I wonder) with red tile roofs and desert landscape; where I spend hour upon hour within its walls, with my friend and soul mate; where my daughter lives, a home well known in the neighborhood for the noisy, gentle, fun-loving dogs and the warm, open, friendly atmosphere.

Certainly from my favorite local entertainment; no casinos for me, but within the yard also claimed by the chipmunks darting here, darting there fast as lightning, suddenly stopping, laying perfectly still and as flat as a freshly fallen leaf in the shade of the mesquite tree for a much needed break, the many mocking birds singing their endless tunes, impressing one another with their outstretched wings and tail feathers spread, cautious lizards eyeing me, first with one eye, then the other, curious kangaroo rats with heads bobbing above then below the rocks as if able to dodge my glances (if I can’t see you, then you surely can’t see me) and cooing doves sneaking sips of water from the pool; all are scurrying to gather morsels we’ve spread for them, fearing the winged shadows racing across the ground, avoiding the beautiful red-tailed hawks far above in the endless expanse of blue, gliding quietly, even ghostly, across sol’s searing, blinding glow; symbols of the desert in which we each reside; serenity deep and calm until utter bedlam as my dogs enter the scene, evicting all tenants and claiming the yard “eminate domain.”

I love being from the massive purple sage brush at my home’s entrance, the grey/green, waxy leaves wafting pungent aroma throughout the home as thunderstorm’s rain drops pummel the leaves and velvety lavender blossoms, fragrance from both blending into a whirlwind of perfume more intoxicating than wine; the air laden with sage and blossoms joins with the freshness from rain drops to cleanse the soul and entice honeybees by the hundreds, the hummingbirds gather for their share too, both humming nature’s soft refrain, ignoring the outstretched hand I’ve extended in hope of but a whisper, or slight touch during their busy day.

Decedents from families o’ Scotts and Irish, or Irish and Scotts, depending upon which one of is asked first; from a house often afire with the flames o’ the Celtic gods, shillelaghs and shenanigans thrash’n from within the house, while the fires from green Irish and Scot eyes scorch the paint from the walls.

From the smoky aroma of daily barbeques, salmon, halibut, cod and tuna, hamburgers, Jamaican pork, but chicken not so much; a tradition born of our love of good food, always grilled nothing cooked indoors; neighbors inquiring, dogs running amuck, noses in the air and sniffing frantically as though sniffing hard enough will somehow drag the evening’s dinner to their mouths to inhale.

I may be from the sun, setting quietly in bright orange, gold, purple and turquoise, signaling the close of yet another day, the air and skin cooling while stars gradually burn holes into the darkening sky, one occasionally skimming across, thrown in rage by Zeus, pissed off yet again at one of his lesser gods.

And tomorrow these too will be the memories; neurons flooding my mind, displaying in every minute detail, every aroma, every sight and sound of yesterday's events, reminding me who I am and where I am from.