23 February 2010

Strange times

Are we living in strange times or what?
We get old "Mr. 5 deferments" Cheney telling the world how he was all for water boarding any of the captured "illegal enemy combatants" and the guy is still walking around free. Well, OK, the latest is he is in some hospital with "chest pains". Why, he obviously doesn't have a real heart? Maybe that mechanical one is acting up. Tough crap Dick, just suck it up and get on with your miserable life.
We have some clown who owed back taxes AND an airplane and a nice house decide that it was unfair that he should have to pay those back taxes. What is his "solution"? Why set fire to his house, then get into HIS own airplane and fly it into the nearest IRS building. So, suicide is now an option to paying taxes? I don't recall ever having been taught that in any school.
If he could afford to have that airplane, why couldn't he pay his taxes? Hell, if I owed back taxes and owned an airplane, I'd sell the damn plane and pay the tax. NO, I do not enjoy paying taxes of any kind, but if I honestly owe them, I do pay. I have personally been in a position of owing more tax than I could pay off at one time. The IRS set up a payment plan for me. It wasn't even very hard to do that. Couldn't this clown have done the same? Or did he feel some compelling "need" to "make a statement"?
Whatever, I consider him to be a coward and a fool. Disagree? Fine, it doesn't change my opinion of him and his cowardly act. I did notice that the far right was very quick to call this coward a "hero" and some sort of "true"(??) patriot. Bullshit! 
Now, today, I see where Go-bomb-them is on another "push" for health care reform. Almost makes me wish I believed in some sort of god. At least that way I could pray for us to be saved from the bullshit from the White House.
America will not get anything like the national health care that we need. Every other industrialized nation has some form of national health. Most of them have had such a system for decades. Not America. No sir, the "land of the free" gets some crap doled out by the goddamn insurance companies. All in the name of higher and higher profits for them and nearly useless "coverage" for the people.
What this country really needs is something like Medicare for every American. Period. We also need the right to have the government negotiate for lower prices for medicines. The very same meds sell for much less in other countries. Why? My reply, greed. And the fact that "our" elected representatives allow the goddamn insurance companies to continue to make huge profits. Same goes for the drug makers. They are allowed to make obscene profits from us, while they continue to push "off label" usage of their meds. All the better to get the doctors to write more and more prescriptions for their meds. The fact that many "off label" uses result in unforeseen and harmful side effects matters little. Even when these drug makers are caught and made to pay fines for the violations, they happily pay the fines as their profits are so large, the fines are at best, a drop in the ocean.
One other thing caught my attention. At the CPAC meeting, Glen Beck told his audience that they should not have anything to do with those who talk about revolution. Really? I don't own a TV set, so I do not watch this clown Beck, I do catch bits of his act on video on the net at times, but doesn't HE talk about revolution? Maybe he doesn't use that exact term, but seems to me he is pushing for a violent change of some sort here in the old US of A. 
I think that coward who flew his own airplane into the IRS building in Austin had something to do with that comment about avoiding revolutionaries. 
Note to Beck, and the rest of the clowns like Limburger, O'Really, etc, be very careful of what you stir up. You clowns have created this monster of the "tea parties", now it looks like your creation is getting away from your control. It would be very ironic if the "tea parties" turned on the clowns like Beck. Personally I do not see how any sane person can stand this guy. When I try to watch video of him, I can only stand about 2 minutes tops. The guy is seriously sick unless it is all an act. 
We no longer teach our kids critical thinking at school. I believe that is one of the main reasons why such crap as Faux Noise, Limburger, and the rest are so popular today. Far too many people do not have the ability to honestly think for themselves. So, yes, I put a good bit of the blame on the school system for this. Of course BOTH wings of the war party are also to blame. The elephants and the donkeys share equal blame for the sad state of America. They are both totally owned by the corporations and no longer represent the actual people of the country. 
It is going to be fun watching how the elephants try to control their "tea parties". It will be equal fun watching the donkeys try to explain it all away. It is an election year folks, get set for lies, lies, and more lies. 


America, what a country.
semper fi

4 comments:

Tao Dao Man said...

This will be an interesting year. I agree, we will hear lies, and more lies, from both parties. As they have basically become one. Especially when it comes to our foreign policy, and our endless wars without borders. Almost on a daily basis, I keep asking myself. What in the hell happened to our country? Or, have we always been this way, and now they are just more blatant about it. I believe it is the latter. We have always been this way. And as one of our hero's said "WAR IS A RACKET".

UU4077 said...

I wonder what the far right would be saying if our flying-an-airplane-into-a-building-because-he-disagreed-with-US-federal-policy-man (aka Andrew Joseph Stack) had been named Mohammed something-or-other?

Nan said...

Sounds like you have the same question about Darth Cheney that I do -- how does someone without a heart manage to have cardio problems?

The guy with the airplane just flat out didn't want to pay taxes -- wouldn't have mattered if his tax bill had been next to nothing, as far as he was concerned he shouldn't have had to give the government anything. He'd tried a number of tax dodges (trying to get recognized as a church, for example) that didn't work. It doesn't bother me to pay taxes -- I view them as a reasonable price to pay for living in a civilized (more or less) society.

john francis lee said...

We no longer teach our kids critical thinking at school. I believe that is one of the main reasons why such crap as Faux Noise, Limburger, and the rest are so popular today.

It's more than a question of ability. The MSM is paying these guys to spout "facts" that any real editor would leave on the editing room floor. It's a conscious attempt to degrade the level of public discourse, to drown the rational in a sea of "passion".

Why would they do that?

The other observation here is on the "Tea Party" business. When times get tough... we get fascism. Historically been the case.

"Passion" substituted for rational analysis makes fascism "look good".

We definitely need to cashier the present residents in Washington and 2 November is our chance to non-violently and peacefully eliminate 435 + 34 = 469 of the 537 enemies of the people who have commandeered our government, but... I hope we can elect ordinary Americans to replace them and not the brown shirts waiting in the wings.

I don't know what else to do so I've elaborated a bit at http://www.uspvp.org and http://www28amen.org.

If we just sit on our fat asses and wait for the cavalry to arrive... they're going to be wearing brown shirts for sure.

Remember : it can always get worse. And historically it has always got much worse before it gets "better" after the kind of financial meltdown that is in reality just beginning to unfold.

"If you lose your money, please god don't you lose your mind."