If you are reading this and can name the first American to walk in space then we probably have some things in common. Perhaps it is only our age that gives us commonality. But, it also probably has a lot to do with our interests. I asked Betty the same question and while she could remember the names of some of the earliest astronauts, she missed the correct name of our first space walker. I then asked her to name the lead actor who played in the movie Wizard of Ozand she could name almost all of them. I only knew 2 of the actor’s names so her interests lay somewhere else than mine. In fact, I did not read the book and I’ve never even watched the entire movie during my lifetime and it is ostensibly a classic. It was an utterly stupid story to me as a child, teenager, adult and old geezer. As I have often written, reading fantasy (someone else’s fantasy) is a huge waste of valuable time. Getting drawn into a novel is very, very rare for me. I admit to reading a couple of Michael Creighton’s novels as well as Verne, Wells and George Orwell’s. I vividly remember being almost forced to read the Hardy Boy’s Adventure’s that were far inferior to my own vivid imagination as a boy. It really requires intense believability to attract my interest. The same goes for movies, in my opinion. Gooey, man-eating blobs and little bug-eyed aliens from the planet Cereous Nauseous do not amuse me. In fact, the last amusement I got from a fictional film was when I was in the 7th grade and watched Lash Larue take on a pack of horse thieves. Ever since then I have only read non-fiction books, journals and articles. I even cringed when I was taking English Literature and was forced to read Hamlet, Othelloand other Shakespearian works. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales was pure torture. When I read and studied Plato’s Republic, I was enthralled and lapped-up every word. Although I really wasn’t a scholar, I was enamored with his philosophy and treatment of his society. These types of writings seem to express my interests and disinterests pretty well. Before I forget, it was Ed White who first took a space walk for America and he came close to dying because he couldn’t get back into the small capsule after swelling his space suit in the vacuum of space.
Voracious readers of novels have often argued with me that I am missing out on a great deal of enjoyment. I disagree. I can make the same case for people who only read fiction. The only dose of non-fiction they get is from the morning newspaper. Even voracious readers of specific historical eras, like Civil War buffs and World War I and II experts often tell me I am missing out on some great stuff. I disagree. I can speak knowledgeably about World War II and the Korean War, only because I have watched a million reels of original war films and from living through some of the experiences – Victory Gardens and scrap recycling as examples. I studied the American Civil War in both grade school and college so I have a smidgen of knowledge about it as well. I’m just not turned-on by the minutia of it all. I don’t care about famous civil war generals anymore than I care about famous Korean War generals. My interest lies in the big picture of why society fought the war in the first place and what cultural changes transpired following the end of the wars. Just like the early space missions from Mercury to Gemini to Apollo, I grew up during these periods of space activity. I read and watched everything I could about the entire space pursuit. Of course, I am also a voracious reader of space technical journals and articles and love to watch NASA TV on my cable television hookup. So, it isn’t unusual to find me reading. It is quite unusual to catch me reading fiction.
I fully understand that many people do not have very vivid imaginations. They cannot amuse themselves in thought alone. They require an outside influence to cause their imaginations to begin churning. It takes another’s words to influence (prime) their imaginations. Well, for folks like me, it doesn’t require any imaginative influence whatsoever for us to be totally consumed with our own thoughts. I can easily, within minutes, create a complete fictional novel in my own mind, complete withc olor visions of specific scenes and the faces of my characters – practically storyboards. It is not only vividly interesting to me, it will also be a story filled with scientifically explained features and glitter – part fiction and part nonfiction. Each has a beginning, middle and end. If given the talent of a fictional writer I believe that I could have written many hundreds of pretty interesting novels in my lifetime. If you are like me, you know what I am talking about. If you are not like me, then you’re probably calling me a liar about now. Before you criticize me for not reading novels, I think you would do better to look at yourself and discern the reason that you read them at all. Then ask yourself, what do I really contribute? I really get miffed at the so-called intellectually elite who froth over popular novels and hold little book clubs to discuss the author’s meanings ad nausea. What the heck does that nonsense contribute? Of course it contributes absolutely nothing. What these people need to do is go write their own stories or invent something on their own. Because they are so intellectual, they can’t. I’ve known many people like this. I consider them as dumb as a rock. All that they have to relate to is a myriad of another author’s descriptions of life. They have no visions of their (absolute) own. Sorry for being so uppity. I do understand, however, that reading – even novels – can be rewarding as well as a learning experience of the fullness of life. Even if it is a vision by another, people can interpret it as they wish and often gain a greater understanding of many things. I’m just not among those people, I’m sorry to say. I’m a moron.
I realize that the preceding paragraphs are pretty simplistically stated. But, I wanted to keep it simple so that I wouldn’t get lost in the descriptions and analogy. I am not demeaning those who read novels anymore than I am enhancing my own position. I’ve always said that it takes all kinds of people to make up our world. I’m just one, little bitty type, of which I’m sure you are grateful. What has me blabbering is the fact that I recently came into contact with a self-classified, intellectually elite person who chastised me for not reading novels. I held back my fury for courtesy sake but I wanted to unload on him and this writing tirade was instead a great outlet for my pent up rage (hee hee). Like I said, if you’re anything like me you will fully understand my position. If however, you read a lot of novels, you will never understand me and you’re probably thinking that I really must think a lot of myself. Well guess what, you’re right on. Get over it. Something tells me that we will never build robots that sit around all day reading novels and running down their batteries. If we are going to use robots, they will necessarily need to be useful. Reading drivel isn’t useful, is it? Well maybe. Since some people are so devoid of an imagination, reading is a way to begin to understand things. Reading cheap romance novels may teach someone how to behave in a relationship. However, any relationship based on a cheap romance novel is doomed from the start, in my opinion. Reading about space-goobers from Cereous Nauseous will teach someone how to interact with nothing. Reading a mystery novel may scare the pants off of someone who can’t personally conceive of a crazed-killer, chain sawing into pieces and then consuming the body parts of some unsuspecting and innocent victim. That sort of thing, and even weirder stuff is child’s play for me. I don’t need to read someone else’s stupid plot when I can make my own up in nanoseconds. From what I know about his novels, Stephen King hasn’t got a thing on my own imagination – fortunately or unfortunately.
I read to learn most of the time. If I need to know something, I look it up and learn what I want to know. If I can’t locate literature I may experiment – much like I have done with electronic circuits all of my life. In order to understand binary digital logic circuits, I bread boarded up many hundreds of specialized circuits like flip-flops, comparators, adders, etc. I did the same things with tube circuits back in the fifties and sixties. (K5FNW- My Ham Radio Hobby) I needed to know how to build a building and so I read books on architecture and then designed and drew the plans for my own buildings. I oversaw the construction to make sure things were done the way I understood they should be done. If I found contractors making mistakes or cutting corners I did what any good architect would do and have them fix it right away. My entire life has been led (and directed) by common sense. I guess that’s why I have such a gripe with lawyers and the phenomenon of political correctness. Both, to me, are the antithesis of common sense. The negatives are numerous when you do things like I do them. You’ll likely never get past the moron category. You’ll certainly never be an expert at anything. Before going on I owed you that.
As you know, one thing that has me concerned at this time is the cultural-morality change (decline in my opinion) in America. There is a fast-rising movement, born and nurtured at Berkley, California (and elsewhere) of total FREEspeech and freedom to do anything that doesn’t harm others – take drugs for example. In total abandonment of common sense, new-age intellectuals are in favor of allowing anyone to say anything at anytime in anyplace. This of course, can lead to anarchy – a complete lack of order. People who are unable to really think for themselves (young children and morons for example) will lap up this free-drivel stuff to the max until it catches up with them as adults. Personal behavior will no longer be a standard on which to judge someone. In addition, this same cultural change pretty much allows for freedom of individual movement, individual choice without regard to anyone else’s position. They would allow someone to smoke marijuana in a public place and blow the smoke into your four-year old daughters face. They would allow a person to appear naked in a public place. They would allow homosexuals to kiss in front of your ten-year old son. They will also allow men to rape children as in NAMBLA and supported by the ACLU. These freedoms will come at a great price if humanity allows such flagrant, in-your-face things to continue. I personally hope that attitudes change and that this foray into total, civil abandonment will not be allowed to continue in America – or anywhere else for that matter. If other countries want to cultivate cultural sewers I recommend that we cut off all cultural ties. This is an illness that has crossed paths with many, many previous civilizations. We should all look to history and deem never to repeat the common failures. America’s founding fathers explicitly wanted God to be a major part of our emerging culture. They knew that morality keeps people in check. They knew it provides for order and discipline. A lack of it results in tyranny.
I wrote earlier about my overall lack of a competitive nature. Of course, anyone reading about my shortcomings may not recognize my conclusive points. I was attempting to say that I have a feeling that COMPETITION, in its purest expression, has probably led to an increase in our cultural unrighteousness. Since I believe that only certain people are born with or achieve a competitive personality, it is this number of people who will continue to make unrighteous decisions. Another certain percentage of people (not particularly competitive) will absorb their unrighteous behavior from those I call competitors simply by watching them. See if you agree with me. People who are extremely competitive (in all facets of life) will do whatever is necessary to win. They will rationalize their unrighteous decisions until the day they die. Some competitors attend church regularly as if to wash off the stench they otherwise feel. Still others will donate 10% of their wealth as tithing in order to buy someone else to wash off the stench. The urge to create wealth causes all sorts of problems. Unless you inherited wealth, you probably work to earn wealth. The only people who seem to succeed in this venture are folks with considerable competitive spirits – drive. It is quite easy for the rest of us to believe that such a person is endowed with great wisdom or drive or competitive spirit. We look up to these paragons of civic wealth – especially if they are very generous in their support of honorable charitable endeavors – and we wish to emulate them.
Perhaps the generation of great wealth of early 20thcentury tycoons like Vanderbilt, Ford, Edison, Mellon and Carnegie (who were all extremely competitive – win-at-all-costs men) finally evolved into modern-day corporate greed as their grandchildren and great grandchildren matured into latter day CEOs. Their need to succeed turned the hearts and minds of these family members into individual slices of manure. As I wrote earlier, unrighteousness, in all levels of our democracy, is growing like a run-away cancerous tumor. Our government leaders, at all levels of authority, have succumbed to an indefensible urge to do wrong. In so doing, they have stolen the entire land and perhaps the peoples’ free agency as well. In my humble opinion, I believe that the Constitution of the United States is merely hanging by a thread. The original meanings of our forefathers has been so convoluted by amendments and faulty Supreme Court decisions, that I’m not so sure it still has much meaning at all. The Bill of Rights has sure taken a hit during my lifetime. Unless a majority of Americans open their eyes (right now – today) and take an interest in what political groups do, I’m convinced that our culture is in for a big shock and maybe even a total meltdown. Organizations like the ACLU cannot be left alone to decide what the majority of us want by forcing us to accept the wishes of a very few. In my opinion, the ACLU is fighting on the wrong side of our Constitution and Bill of Rights. The ACLU, of course, camouflages their true intents in the rhetoric of freedom. In fact, their goals seem to be the abolition of a democratic society. It seems that they go unchallenged in courts all across our country – mostly because no one wants to pony-up for the defense costs and also because of our total abandonment to accept political correctness. It is my sincere hope that the ACLU is doomed at some time in the near future. Their activities have begun to sicken me.
These times are no different than those of our fathers and grandfathers. It was competition that drove them to succeed and even get a decent meal. Today, wealth is fairly commonplace in America. Not riches, but quite enough for most of us to lead comfortable lives. We’ve taken our eye off the important things – those controlling things – like our government agencies, banks, CEOs and insurance companies. We sit back and let these things just roll on and on, unchecked for the most part. Well, just think about this, the CEOs of failed Enron and WorldCom, are of the same cut as our politicians. They all were educated in the same (intellectually elite) schools and followed very similar career paths. That alone should give you some pause. From what I know about these giant corporate failures is that the CEOs thought that they were acting in accord to laws spit out by our legislatures. When they got caught, all of a sudden there wasn’t a single politician that told us they were responsible for the whole, sordid affair. They quietly changed the laws (back) to keep the rest of us from catching on. Poor Ken Lay just got caught in the middle of a huge shell game. He will probably go into politics when he gets out of whatever jail he gets put in (if ever). They all have the same competitive tendencies – and they will do anything (ANYTHING) to win. Of course it is all-disgusting, but this is the fact, as I know it to be. I would love to hear any arguments to the contrary of mine.
Athletes, who by definition are competitors, do all sorts of things to gain an advantage and edge on their opponents. Until recent times (1960 or so) I never heard about steroids and other muscle-building drugs but such stuff is commonplace today. True athletes have always trained and trained to the point of personal exhaustion. I’ve even heard that this (limit training) is akin to taking mind-altering drugs as endorphins flood their brain and produce a feeling of euphoria. I guess that like everything else, there is a reasonable limit as to what people should do in order to achieve their own measure of success. Tanya Harding was so consumed to succeed that she had her competitor’s knees whacked with a billy club shortly before their ice skating competition. Ken Lay didn’t need to steal and if he did his company was a fraud in the first place. It was sustained by plain old greed.
While it makes a nifty business model, I never believed that energy (of any kind) should be treated like any other commodity such as wheat, rice and beef. Energy sources are a necessity for all citizens. (Of course, food is too.) Holding citizens hostage to energy is like charging a tax for sunlight. Enron was a business that bought and re-sold electricity and gas that wasn’t yet created or pumped out of the ground. Enron never generated a microwatt of energy or a BTU of gas – they just brokered it. Besides, these “commodities” and other essential services are a requirement for civilized life to continue aren’t they? Take them away and you hold a nation hostage to the whims of a few unrighteous business competitors. The entire state of California found this to be true and fired their Governor Gray Davis for demonstrating his lack of effort to eradicate greed. Because of the enormous decline in moral values, protecting our country’s infrastructure is more important than ever. Leaving all of our lives in the hands of unrighteous competitors (or terrorists) scares the heck out of me. And, they surround us at all levels of our society. Most of the time we are so bitterly fighting and arguing with one another, we don’t recognize the cancer surrounding us. Our ideologically divided culture spends all its time harping on our differences and the current two-party political system is probably more to blame than anything else. As differences get ever wider and more polarized, humans just don’t seem to have the capacity to compromise anymore. If everyone takes a position that it his or her way or the highways, things will only deteriorate. I’ve been watching this for about the past decade and things certainly have gotten worse. This might be our culture-killer.
I’ve been fairly aware of the development of the two-party system since about 1952 – when I first studied civics (Eisenhower election) and asked my Dad what his political affiliation was. I watched the 1960 presidential election cycle with great interest – Kennedy and Nixon – and voted for the first time. I voted for Nixon so what does that tell you about my brains or lack thereof? And, I had the brains to vote for him two more times. While Nixon turned out to be quite a scoundrel, I nevertheless agreed mostly with his public socio-political and defense positions. Since he turned out to be a terrific liar, I still don’t know what his political positions really were. And, I’m not about to go make a scholarly study either. I just believe that we all need to accept personal responsibility and the fewer things our government does the better. As I previously said, the Republicans want to tell me how to live my life and the Democrats want to tax me to pay for it. Who knows how much longer this can last? I hope to God my grandchildren will take control over this sociological meltdown.
Unless we (the people) take back the fundamentals of democracy, amending our culture on the principal of majority rule, I foresee a complete breakdown of our country and our civilization. The separation between popular belief systems will clash in a most uncertain way. It is already clashing in the courts and I’ll bet you that much more of it is yet to come. Even if tort reform happens, there will still be a huge slew of civil litigants embroiled over clashing ideologies – not singular legal issues. Think ACLU here. The 1% of our culture who calls themselves atheists gets the ACLU to fight their battles and blackmail jurists into creating federal law from the bench. The last time I looked, only the legislature can create laws – not the judicial branch of government. Justice can only interpret laws, not make them. That’s written in the Constitution. But, when laws are made from the bench by judges, the people have no way to vote for these lawmakers who are mostly appointed officials. Nowadays, legislators are playing a huge (not just oversight and consent) part in the selection of federal judges. Congress has hijacked the presidential nomination processes for federal judges. I just don’t know why all of us are not screaming our bloody heads off. Our most delicate laws, as prescribed 200 years ago by some very learned people, are slowly being usurped by political unrighteousness. We cannot endure this onslaught of modern, 21st century legalese. Our most cherished federal laws were good enough for this country for almost two centuries and in the last several decades we all of a sudden discover that our laws are flawed and require re-writing. Hog wash. You better start asking yourself why. This is serious stuff with profound implications for America’s (and your personal) future.
A couple of examples of screwed-up ideologies are (a) Presidents can no longer appoint federal judges of their choice and (b) the word “God” must be removed from all references to/by/for the state. In the first example, Congress just filibusters all Presidential appointees and won’t let an up or down vote to take place and in the second example the ACLU and extremely liberal judges set the tenor of political correctness to which our society must obey. Both of these examples are absurd and yet they are taking place right before our eyes. Neither is democratic. Neither can be sustained. And, neither is righteous. Both of these examples are caused by an illegal interpretation of our Constitution. I’m convinced of this. The Congress is only to give advice (not consent) to a President regarding his or her judicial appointees. They are not supposed to completely block nominations although they can either vote for or against the nominee. As Presidents change, judges die or retire, other judges are appointed. This is a Constitutional provision afforded to our Presidents who have to be re-elected for 2-terms or go their own citizen’s way. Today, that “right”is being taken away from the citizens as well as Presidents. I’ve already addressed the unrighteous ACLU and politicians have weak backbones.
I am afraid that there are fanatical politicians as well as terrorists. Both are fanatical to a point of madness. Unfortunately, regular citizens like me are governed by this madness. If politicians are turning over total control to our judges, then only God can save America – for we surely won’t be able to. The most simple concepts of democracy are that the majority rules. Politicians do not rule in a democracy. Kings do not rule a democracy. And, most certainly judges do not rule a democracy. The fall of the great Roman Empire has been laid at the feet of crooked politicians (and judges) and the fate of America may be exactly the same. As long as the citizens remain ambivalent as to who their leaders are, the citizens will get what they deserve – the most heinous of human behavior all wrapped up in a tidy, public offering. If citizens do not bear the burden of understanding who and what politicians are and what they do, they will be subject to being led by madness down an untenable path. All men are unrighteous. Unless we regain control over the modern-day politicians, we will succumb to the same fate as other great civilizations. The fact is most Americans do not have a clue what goes on in the political arena. They have no clue how unrighteous their own elected officials can be. And, they do not have a clue what politicians do and how laws are made to control their own affairs. Idiots, who can legally vote, fall prey to every mind-melding trick that can be thought up by those seeking to win (and remain in) elective office. I HATE to use the phrase “brain washing” or the word propaganda, but that’s exactly what it is. And, it is my opinion that too many voters do not honestly know what they are voting for when they back a politician with their single vote.
Oh yeah, some people speak as if they do know what goes on in the political arena. The problem is, they still do not know unless they have been employed as a politician. Secret deals are a dime-a-dozen in state and federal legislatures. In fact, the whole business of politics is to deceive constituents and generate huge sums of money for the lawmakers themselves. Why else would a multimillionaire, earning ten million dollars a year, run for city mayor who only earns 1/100th that amount? The sneakier a politician is, the higher their colleagues regard them. The whole business of modern politics makes me nauseous. In fact I am puking and hurling large chunks right now. And, remember this – 90% of all politicians have been trained as lawyers. Guess where judges come from? It is a sickening mess is what it is. I really don’t think America (as I’ve known it) will endure another 50 years. If this writing endures that long perhaps someone can laugh at my far too pessimistic conclusions.
Long ago, I wrote about the teeny-weeny eyeballs (tiny television cameras) of the 90’s peeping on every move we make and I opined that things could change once WE can spy on those spying on us. Well, now we can – sort of. (Who’s Peeking On Me) These days, some web sites provide information regarding how politicians vote on legislation. I believe that all data comes from government documents as well as whistle blowers – which are kept honest by the website’s users. Like EBay, people who contribute to these websites are rated as excellent, good, poor and downright liar. This will be the ultimate filter of anecdotal contributions. People who spin the truth and lie will soon be chided into the ozone by the user’s feedback. It’s quite interesting how the web creators are commingling data from government publications and data from people who have knowledge of things unpublished. A simple example might be a waiter who serves some Senator and overhears the politician cursing non-stop. While this is a silly example, it nevertheless offers me a way to describe this site. Anyone can review these web sites and really learn what is going on. But, one must look at many sources in order to find out the truth because far too many of these political web sites offer nothing but half-truths and some even post outright lies – following their own deeply held ideologies. If I read or hear something on the news I will routinely read up to twenty different postings on the same subject. I can usually come to the right conclusion but it is a task that requires time and patience.
Most of the data I looked at is very revealing. You can see who contributes to whom, how much was contributed and also find out what part of our industrial base supports each political candidate. For example, the Lawyers of America is among the top 10% of all contributors and they donate mega-amounts of cash to almost everyone running for political office. But, you can quickly find out which politicians that specific contributors support the most. The Insurance Industry is also a huge political contributor. So are the National Rifle Association and Oil, Gas and Electrical firms and associations – in other words, BIG business. Associations have the most money to donate because they are made up of hundreds of smaller like businesses – like the American Bologna Makers Union or The National Association of Yardmen. As you click on points of interest, you dig deeper into the more obvious conspiracies and lies. I dare say that every single current politician has something to hide. This unique website exposes their deepest fears of getting caught at even small, insignificant misdeeds. Voting records are easily perused. Making comparisons of a politician’s voting records to their contributors is a single click of the mouse. Congress is being exposed behind clear glass walls for the first time since its inception. I don’t have a clue how this will impact the way politicians work or how our society emerges in the 21stcentury. I’ve witnessed a huge change in the way politics unfolds today as to the way it worked even 20 years ago. Most politics was practiced in complete secrecy until the 1970’s. While secrecy is still the mainstay of a politicians plying of the trade, much of it gets released into the public domain earlier than before. Remember Nixon’s Watergate and/or Clinton’s Monika Lewensky? Unless congress finds a way to stifle this website (shut it down) it will only grow and grow. Since it is an experiment for earning a masters degree and controlled by the intellectual elite, it will have some failures but the data will soon enough get punched into this massive database and it is doubtful that congress can shut it down without causing a serious public debate. I loved looking up my Senators and Congress-persons. I found it very revealing and extremely interesting. I also took a peek at the current crop of 10 Democratic presidential contenders (09/21/03) and their largest supporters to date. Wow! (Now down to Kerry and Bush.)
If one or more of my grandchildren grow up to be members of the Legal Bar, I hope to God that they never lose their souls to unrighteousness. But, if law is still being practiced the way it is today, I am afraid that it is a given that they will. Lawyers are trained to lie and not get caught. A lawyer must be able to see several versions of the truth and develop hypothetical(s) to explain each version. Criminal defense lawyers must be able to confuse the truth and in my opinion it is a race with prosecutors who can confuse it the most. It is both the jury and the presiding judge that is the recipient of this mass confusion, supposition and deceit. What scares me the most is that the body of law in American jurisprudence makes all of it absolutely acceptable and legal. It’s as if the word lawyer and liar are synonymous. And, as I have repeated over and over, most of our elected politicians are trained lawyers. Judges of consequence are 100% lawyers. Isn’t it interesting that lawyers are giving huge sums of money to other lawyers to become our congressional lawmakers? It is a circle of doom for the common citizens. And, without equivocation I can say that it will spell the end of our beautiful American civilization; at least the one that I grew up in and cherish. And, it is all because of personal unrighteousness (not only lawyers) run amok.
I used to admire great intellectuals – people who seemed to think and speak of interesting and even profound things – especially those who were really smart. Somewhere along the way my admiration became tempered. I came to realize that most intellectuals only understand their own specific discipline – although these folks really do know their stuff. What they don’t have is a broad knowledge base, yet many think they do. Biologists know about biology. They do not necessarily know anything about physics or philosophy. Historians even specialize in narrow paths of study – like a Civil Warbuff or the escapades of Napoleon. Baby doctors don’t usually perform brain surgery. This intellectual specialization doesn’t allow most academic people a chance to study other things, unrelated to their field. This may be why medical doctors usually make lousy businessmen. I suppose that for doctors, studying business is akin to wasting valuable time. I mention all of this because all people are like that in general – we all are. People migrate to things of interest and usually don’t take the time to understand a lot of other unrelated stuff. I suppose that people who read newspapers get a whiff of sociology but they never take the time to really understand the cultural implications. I often hear people refer to the government as if it is a living entity. People say to me, “They are concealing the fact that UFOs exist.” I often say, “What person or people are concealing it?” I usually end up looking at a face with the word DUH expressed on it. “What do you mean by the word person?”they retort. I have to remind them that the government is a collection of worker bees (real people) like me. If I knew that aliens existed there isn’t an army big enough to keep me from blabbing it to the world. This same nonsense has been going on since about 1947 when a flying disc from Cereous Nauseous allegedly crashed at Roswell, New Mexico. Referring to the United States government as a living, breathing individual is stupid and downright wrong. While it may make the argument easier to comprehend, there is no way anyone can lay blame on an “individual” that doesn’t exist. Wrongdoing in government is caused by personal indiscretions and unrighteousness. Unfortunately this behavior gets worse and worse as more and more people act like unrighteous scumbags. Without question there are cliques within the bowels of the government all vying for attention and money. But, government secrets are leaked all the time and others are gotten by hook and crook. If aliens were among us (and known to “any”government official), it wouldn’t be a secret for longer than 15-minutes. The same goes for mysterious conspiracies. Now, when smart guys start saying that they have proof that aliens exist, those people lose me like a cheap watch. And, I’ve heard and read where brilliant people (physicists, medical doctors and astronomers) say they do believe in aliens. This gives you some idea how I judge people. Intellectualism indeed.
It has been my observation that typical Americans are easily fooled – as in deceived. Just take a look at the television advertising and ask yourself what moron would respond to each of the ads. These media people (ad-execs) know just how to play to their demographics and punch the right buttons. If the ad is aimed at young people (and most are these days) the ad is really dumbed down in order to grasp a 14-year olds’ attention. To reach the baby-boomers, now in their mid to late 50’s, ads use popular music of the 50’s and 60’s – the adolescent period of this huge group of people breeding a sense of tribalism towards a certain product. I despise almost all types of advertising. I really HATE 99% of it. If you read my earlier ramblings (Muterize Me) you know that I mute the sound every time an ad comes on the television. Since I don’t ever listen to the radio, I don’t have to keep lowering the volume or channel surfing when ads are played. I can honestly say that I have never, ever been prompted to buy anything or do anything from hearing, reading or responding to an advertisement. Musical jingles have no effect on me. In fact, I’ve never really heard a great jingle – either musically or lyrically. I’ll bet you that the underlying schema of every single advertisement is sex – either scantly clad, seductive people appearing in the ads or refer to what people may consider a sexy car, dishwasher or all other products – even soap for goodness sake. For the life of me, I don’t understand how a car or soap can be sexual. It’s absurd. Now, after considering the American advertisement, please remember that most Americans are not like me – they do, in fact, respond to advertising. If this were not the case there would be no advertising. But, I have to ask myself this question, “How can someone who thinks a car or a bar of soap is sexy ever be prepared to vote with any significant understanding of anything worthwhile?”I submit that the way most people think really doesn’t allow them much more than a cursory understanding of things political or legal. I’m certain that my parents were well informed before they ever cast their votes on anything. I overheard them talking many times over the years of my youth. They took their “vote” very, very seriously.
Perhaps the Internet will change what has been going on for most of my lifetime. Maybe the Internet can halt the failure of our educational system or at least compensate for its failures. Perhaps the Internet and other technological achievements will help create a clean and righteous world civilization. Or maybe I am dead wrong and the majority of our voting citizens do fully understand all things political and I am just being a sanctimonious old paranoid geezer. All I can say is look around for yourself. See what you see and be certain that you understand what you see. If I am wrong you should be able to tell for yourself. If you are a person who is ill informed, I urge you to be more proactive and begin a process to become more informed. A wise person once said, “Knowledge is a powerful tool.” You can probably go through life being a dumb bunny but you’ll be much happier being a wise old owl. Knowledge also can be a great comfort. Not as great as your faith in God Almighty – for this is the greatest human resource of all. But if you follow the careers of your elected officials and fully understand how they are acting on “your behalf” then you can decide if they are doing a good job or failing you altogether. And, don’t ever think that your single vote doesn’t make a difference. Indeed, it does. Just think about all of the friends and acquaintances you can chat with and help educate. Perhaps your single vote will impress five others and those five infect (inform) five more. One doesn’t have to act like a nut to get the attention of others. One only has to be correct and sincere. If your decisions are truly righteous then you simply can’t fail. You won’t succumb to hype (advertising, etc) and your pathwill be straight and narrow guided by the full strength of your being.
