Poor folks and drones

Well, I got a very interesting email the other day. It came from a highly recommended site. The link to it is on this page, but I'll give it here also.http://unsilentgeneration.com.
The article in the email alert is about the "wonderful" Lt. Governor of South Carolina and how this guy thinks of poor people.
Now keep in mind that this guy, Andre Bauer, claims he is a "good Christian". He is running for the office of governor in his state also.
This "wonderful" person is on record as saying that we should treat poor folks like stray animals and not feed them. You see, according to this "good" guy, the poor folks will just come back for more if you help them. We should, I suppose, just let them fend for themselves, and if they die, well, so much better for the state. Yep, that way there would be fewer poor folks to clog up the system. Oh, and more for those who aren't poor.
It amazes me how these miserable damned jackasses can run around America claiming to be "good Christians" and then say crap like this and the media just lets them walk away from this sort of comment.
Here again is another "fine" example of what I continue to call an Xtian. There is NO Christ in the Xtianity they practice. There is none in what they preach either.
Now, some will jump on me as I am an old heathen, but I do know some bits of the Christian story. Jesus mentioned helping the poor at different times in the New Testament. He did not, that I remember, say to not feed them and just treat them like stray animals. In one story Jesus even went so far as to show socialist tendencies. I refer to the story where he told the rich man to sell all his belongings and give the money to the poor. Not being a follower of any religion, I do not have the chapter and verse in front of me. Any real Christians who might be reading this can look it up I am sure.
I just cannot understand how we allow any politician who claims, as the elephant gang has, to uphold "family values" to run around spouting this sort of bullshit. Have we all become immune to this? Don't we get angered at the hypocrisy any more? Do we just sit back and take all the manure that is dumped on us daily? When will people wake up and email, write, call, etc the offices of the politicians who make these outrageous statements? If we just sit and do nothing, we will lose even more of what little are left of our constitutional rights.
A second item came past me recently that ties in with the above. Over at Tom Dispatch, again, the link is on this page and it does work, there is an article by Nick Turse. Mr. Turse is a trusted commentator, trusted by me at least. He writes in his recent article about the drones we are using in our current wars and the future of these drones in, of course future wars.
Yes, folks, we are in for endless war. Endless wars for endless profits, but that is something I have said before, so, no with this post.
Mr. Turse points out how the drones are being used in increasing numbers in the current wars "we" are fighting. He has very good information as to how these weapons are being upgraded and the new types of equipment that is being planned for future wars.
Now that is all worth reading, but what I take from all of this "technological" breakthroughs and improvements is that the US military is increasing their use of these systems.  Now, you may say this is good as it keeps our pilots out of harms way. Yes, it does do that, but, it also now makes war even more like a video game. Currently, many of the pilots of the drones we use "work" out of an Air Force base in Nevada. They come in at the start of their shift, fly the drone by remote control, preform the mission, and at the end of shift, they go back home. War by remote control, just like some video game.
And there is the danger to all this. As war becomes a video game, our "leaders" will be less inclined to stop and even try to reason with anybody before they start another war.  Since the majority of the pilots won't even be in the actual combat zone, the Air Force losses could drop to zero. All drones, all the time.  But, making war into a video game removes reality from what war actually is. War is a goddamn dirty business. Don't think so? Ask anybody who has been in a war zone just how "clean" war is. One historian, I can't recall his name just now, said in an interview some years ago that wars were fought in garbage dumps. He spoke the truth to some extent. The battlefields are littered with trash, just plain old "normal" trash and all the cast-off trash of war, empty shell casings, discarded rations, etc. You do not ever see any signs saying "keep our battle zone clean". War is nasty, brutish, vile, violent, bloody, on and on. I'm doing my best to keep this polite. War is not a damn video game. With the increased use of drones to carry on our wars, we are in danger of making war more attractive, more of an option than ever before in human history. There lies the danger of these new weapons systems.
War should always be the very last resort.
I am going to close this entry with some comments from General Smedley Butler. He said there were only two reasons for war. To defend OUR homes, and to defend the Bill of Rights. All other reasons for war are a racket. After 33 years as a US Marine and having been awarded the Medal of Honor twice, he knew what he was talking about.
In his short pamphlet "War is a Racket" he states;" Three steps must be taken to smash the war racket. We must take the profit out of war. We must permit the youth of the land who would bear arms to decide whether or not there should be war. We must limit our military forces to home defense purposes."
He ends his pamphlet with this final comment. "So....I say, 'To HELL WITH WAR!'"
I agree 100%.