OMG - the sky is falling!!!

 

Sighhhh!!!  America, must you go out of your way to make yourself a public embarrassment?  As someone who has spent a considerable time living outside the U.S.A., I have grown weary of what America says about itself and not what people outside the US say about them.  We are our worst PR enemies.  I speak another language well enough that I am often mistaken for a European (Hollander, Dane, etc) but NOT as an American.  You would be surprised what folks at a beer table say about "Yanks" when they believe there are no "Yanks" at the table.  I can only surmise from these past experiences what is being spoken about concerning America's latest obsession with "hallowed" grounds.  Let me first note that the entire issue on the "hallowed" ground surrounding ground zero is a New York City issue.  Five blocks away from ground zero there is an already existing Islamic Mosque.  It has been there for over fifty years.  No one has asked them to move from this location since 9/11 and no one has accused the congregation of being wild eyed terrorist.  But of course that Mosque is FIVE blocks away and not THREE blocks away.  Now the Islamic believers want to use a building that they own located three blocks away from ground zero as an Islamic Cultural Center.  It will not be a Mosque but more like a recreation site for believers in Islam.  The fact that it is two blocks closer (and shielded from ground zero by an entire city block of high rise buildings) has somehow created a mysterious power to corrupt and somehow threaten the people of New York City.  Incidentally the power of Islam to impart supernatural powers on its followers was the only legitimate reason that the Guantanamo prisoners could not be tried in New York City. Obviously these powers would have given them the opportunity to overpower 8,000 New York police officers, at least that many Federal guards and 12 million citizens of New York and escape into the darkness to reign terror on all of America.  Them Islamic folks are one powerful group of wizards.  So now we are all upset about people in the US exercising their right of free worship and the unobstructed free practice of their religion not for legal reasons but rather because it is "insensitive."  Of course, American "true blooded" Yanks who carry insulting banners at the funerals of fallen soldiers is OK and we cannot prohibit their right to commit this rather "insensitive" act.  How many streets, buildings, homes etc. have good old white America built on native American "hallowed" grounds?  Did we ask them first?  Does the "Trail of Tears" ring a bell about what happened when native Americans had the audacity to complain about the abuse of their ancestral and "hallowed" grounds?  Chicago, Los Angelas, Tucson, Miami, are just a few of the US major cities built on grounds once held entirely by proud native American entities.  If American wants to honor "hallowed" grounds, might I suggest Selma, Alabama and its civil rights abuses or all of Texas and it's wanton and illegal confiscation of land belonging to another sovereign entity.  Incidentally, being "hallowed" ground in New York City has not slowed the promulgation of new peep-shows and porn shops surrounding ground zero but that is OK.  Obviously, nothing more American than a peep-show.  Yes America, we all know how much you honor our "hallowed" grounds if only you could just once actually read the US Constitution you might be surprised at just how legal these Muslims are acting on this issue.  

Stupid Outdated Constitution

I think it is time someone speaks up in favor of the US Constitution and not as a critic.  When the NRA was finally able to get the courage to actually bring the matter of gun ownership to the attention of the Supreme Court, I waited quietly for their decision.  In all of the huffing and puffing that both sides have demonstrated on the issue, this was the FIRST time that the NRA decided to test their stand in court.  I was not surprised that this Court voted in their favor since it is top loaded with some rather extreme activist Judges as evidenced by other decisions oozing out of their minds.  In the end, they decided that our fore fathers meant for all Americans to be armed to the teeth as a matter of self-protection.  In reading the various documents of that era, it was pretty obvious that arming themselves as a "well regulated militia" was designed to provide a ready reserve military arm to counter threats from the government and from foreign intrigues.  As much as I disagreed with this decision, I respected the Court's authority in this matter and began my own style of peaceful protest.  I do not own a firearm so the forearm companies will starve if they are depending on me.  I will not remain in a retail outlet if someone enters bearing an openly displayed weapon and I tell management why I am leaving.  If their business is more preferential than mine, so be it.  If I see someone with an openly displayed weapon enter a Federal facility (Federal Courthouse, Federal lands, etc.), I report the violation immediately to the police.  I am a real nuisance but all I am doing is obeying the law and assuring that the law gets obeyed by others.  You see, I really appreciate the presence of the US Constitution and it's legal arbiter, the Supreme Court.  Keeping this personal position in mind, I find our lawmaker's latest assault on this wonderful document to be not only abhorrent but bordering on treason since they are attacking the basis for which this nation was formed.  I am speaking of the assault on the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution which was first proposed on 13 June 1866 in the ashes of the Civil War.  It was ratified by 2/3^rd of our Congress two years later on 9 July 1868.  This was not, therefore, rush to judgment but the result of due deliberation.  Our forefathers knew what the impact of this law would be and voted it into law.  At the time there was great concern that we would turn into a mongrel nation and that a flood of Chinese workers would overwhelm our electorate.  In actuality, the thrust of the law was to provide citizenship privileges to slaves recently released slaves from the former Confederate States by noting simply that "All persons born or naturalized in  the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State in which they reside."  Pretty simple language and the various predictions of overwhelmed electorates never came about.  It has been the law of the land for almost 150 years and has served us well.  As noted in the above quote from the Amendment, diplomats would not have their children covered since they are not "subject to the jurisdictions" of the United States.  Now several Congressmen from several States want us to change the 14^th Amendment to preclude children of undocumented aliens from being considered as US citizens.  Unless your white hood has baked your mind in the hot sun, it is obvious who this change movement is meant to target – our Latino/a brothers and sisters from the South.  12,000,000 illegals will marry and have kids and these kids will then become a voting bloc.  If you have spent a career opposing the presence of these people in a nice white America, such a voting bloc could present a real job security threat.  Do you think "illegal" Canadians worry about their kids being accepted as Americans?  I doubt it.  This effort to push for changes in the 14^th Amendment did not occur until we started seeing more and more Hispanic surnames holding office in the various States throughout this country.  OMG, if we don't do something quick, democracy will enable almost anyone to hold public office and majority groups will now be able to set policy.  We simply cannot have such a situation in a democracy so let's alter our perception of what constitutes a democracy.  We should be very proud of these lawmakers since they have taken the stand that they and only they really know what was going through our fore fathers's minds. We probably need to begin looking at freedoms of religion next since those evil Moslems want to build a Mosque on private lands in New York "near" ground zero.  After that let's check out freedoms of the press, speech and protections of our persons places or things – you can never be too careful you know.             

Doncha just luv it??!!

I am dropping this entire article into my blog noting that it relieves me immensely to realize that I am not the only person who believes America has gone a little short on common sense and integrity.  I am writing this even now as the news is reporting some Baptist minister is sponsoring a Burn a Quran Day at his "church".  I can only shake my head and recall that my brother was murdered in Ireland in 1988 for being a Catholic.  I hope (and excuse me for saying this) that this "ministers" church is scheduled to be on the evening news as the typical seasonal report noting that his building in town was the only building wiped out in a small tornado that didn't kill or hurt anyone...you know the story...we see it all the time...

In my own State the Attorney General. Mr. Cuccinelli, is suing the US Government to oppose the recent health care reform.  Again, a separate State deciding on which "laws of the land" they will chose to obey.  Break out the grey uniforms and we might want to think about reinforcing Ft. Sumpter. 

...and yes I am worried about this country...

The state of America? Hysteria

• Tim Rutten

Hysterical moral panic seems an apt description for our fevered political condition

ByTim Rutten

July 31, 2010

la-oe-0731-rutten-20100731

If you reengage the American media after a month out of the country, as I've done this week, it's hard not to conclude that hysteria is now the dominant characteristic of our politics and civic conversation.

How else to explain the fact that questions like secession and nullification — issues that were resolved in blood by the Civil War more than a century ago — have come alive again and are routinely tossed around, not just by fringe figures but by Republican officeholders and candidates?

For example, Zach Wamp, a Tennessee congressman who opposes the recently enacted healthcare reforms and is running for governor, told an interviewer that he hopes "the American people will go to the ballot box in 2010 and 2012 so that states are not forced to consider separation from this government." Meanwhile, GOP candidates for statewide office in various Midwestern and Southern states are promoting the notion that states ought not to enforce any federal law not approved by at least two-thirds of their state legislators. It's as if John C. Calhoun suddenly had risen from the grave and had a talk show.

In Nevada, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate has discussed abolishing Social Security and darkly mused over whether Washington's alleged overreaching may require a "2nd Amendment solution." That means guns, a prospect that could be facilitated in one state after another by an outfit called Appleseed, which holds weekend seminars whose participants are given a mix of Minuteman pseudo-history and instruction on marksmanship.

Meanwhile, attempts to repeal sections of the Constitution continue apace. The so-called 10thers, who want to roll back 100 years of federal law and regulation in order to assert rights under the 10th Amendment, are almost unremarkably ubiquitous in the GOP. Candidates across the country pining for "tea party" support have endorsed repeal of the 17th Amendment, which would end popular election of U.S. Senators and return their selection to state legislatures, a step that theoretically would "restore states' rights."

The most popular such movement involves abolishing or gutting the 10th Amendment as a way to deny American citizenship to the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants. Even the ostensibly moderate Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has signed on to that one, while Rep. Louie Gohmert (R- Texas) speculates that such children actually are terrorist moles planted here to grow up as U.S. citizens as part of a long-range plot.

Nothing quite tops the anti-Muslim hysteria, which has led people to organize opposition to the construction of new mosques in places from Lower Manhattan to Temecula. One candidate for statewide office in Tennessee — somebody should examine their water supply — argues that the 1st Amendment does not cover Muslims.

Some inclined toward therapeutic explanations of history might attribute all this to a kind of collective post-traumatic stress syndrome engendered by the lingering, still-unresolved aftermath of the horrific events of 9/11. Others might point to the dislocating effect of electing an African American president to govern a society in which strong currents of racial anxiety still eddy beneath the surface of everyday life. Perhaps both forces act in unseen concert.

Back in the early 1970s — an era whose tumult we yet may come to regard as benign — social scientists here and in Britain coined the term "moral panic" to describe what can happen when groups of people are seized by an exaggerated fear that other people or communal forces threaten their values or way of life. The scholars described those who promoted the panic's spread as "moral entrepreneurs" — a term that takes on a deep resonance when you consider the commentators and politicians who have attached themselves, and their interests, to the "tea party" and its attendant movements.

In the midst of moral panic, inchoate indignation stands in for reason; accusation and denunciation supplant dialogue and argument; history and facts are rendered malleable, merely adjuncts of the moral entrepreneur's — or should we say provocateur's — rhetorical will. As we now also see, a self-interested mass media with an economic stake in the theatricality of raised and angry voices can transmit moral panic like a pathogen.

Looking around the United States in the summer of 2010, hysterical moral panic seems an apt description of our fevered political condition.

timothy.rutten@latimes.com

Where did all the oil REALLY come from?

I don't have any answers to the issue I am going to raise here but I just wanted you to think about a problem that has bothered me for some tome now.  It goes right to the heart of another issue – how easy it is to promulgate a lie on the American people.  To best understand what I will cover you need to begin thinking in very large numbers.  OK here goes nothing.  Imagine a Jurassic era world with an unusual trait.  It seems all of the animals in this area are gathered in about a dozen places in this world.  They are not just gathered at these sites but they packed in almost shoulder to shoulder for miles in all directions.  They live their lives in this manner and die virtually at the same site in which they were born.  These are not little barnyard animals but rather behemoths weighing in at over fifty tons adult weight.  They have been gathering at these sites for millennia in a world that must have been simply overcome with enough flora, fauna and fresh water to feed these millions of animals and the supply of food and water has been continuous for the same number of millennia that the animals have existed.  When they die, they apparently do so in similar close order fashion and apparently with each succeeding death stacked on top of the preceding death.  Then something in this strange world happens that causes these huge piles of cadavers to become covered with some substance that prevents these bodies from simply withering away into dust.  Instead they are completely covered and shi4elded from the natural influences that would shrivel these bodies into nothing but rather they continued to sink deeper and deeper into the earth where pressure and other natural forces drains and coverts the hydrocarbons from these bodies and deposited them into deep pools to await harvesting by man millions of years later.  That is how we are supposed to accept the formation of deep oil in our mantel.  Now let's look at this fairy tale a little closer.  One dinosaur under the most perfect natural conditions would produce a couple of barrels of oil.  Now that presumes that no other predator ate some of the deceased dinosaur.  It also presumes that the body was not allowed to be exposed to a week or two of sunlight and air which would greatly decompose the cadaver.  Instead it presumes that the dead lizard gets buried under a very deep covering of protective silt almost immediately and then be subjected to just the right amount of heat and pressure to cause the chemical change required to covert the rotting corpse into petroleum.  Now since our oil deposits are found in only a few narrow geographic areas of the world, this dead animal would have to have been accompanied by billions of like animals all of whom died, got covered immediately and were then exposed to the identical chemical and physical processes needed to convert them to oil.  This fairy tale also assumes there was enough of these well handled cadavers to produce the billions of gallons of oil that we have harvested in the last century or so at a rate of about one hundred gallons per adult beast.  Oh oh…now that pesky thing called math takes over.  Even if you can accept that in about ten places of the world over a period of about a million years, all the animals of the world came to one of these sites to die and be covered over completely the number requirements simply does not compute.  There simply were not enough animals to produce the amount of oil we have thus far harvested.  Remember these brutes would have eaten tons of food each day and the billions of animals that would have had to exist at one time just so maybe a couple of hundred thousand got a "proper burial" does not conform to what we know or surmise about how they lived and roamed the earth.  So if billions of dinosaurs gathering in Prudhoe Bay, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia or Odessa, Texas didn't produce the oil what did?  A Russian astrophysicist named Andre Velikov came up with a much more believable solution.  Let me know if you want me to let you in on his theories.  They are really fascinating.    

Let's look at some "facts" instead of hype

In the following few paragraphs, I am going to try to I am going to try my best to be as neutral as I can noting only the facts as I see them or have read about them in various media.  The topic is the current administration and how it has been treated by the press and my friends and neighbors.  I will undoubtedly make a mistake or two especially in regards to actual numbers and statistics but look past these errors for what I am really trying go convey in the message. 

To begin with, it was a monumental vote that placed a black man at the helm of this great nation.  Much of what has happened since then is that simple fact in itself.  Not only has a liberal moved into the Whitehouse, property often thought to belong only to the Conservatives, but a black liberal on top of it.  A person holding a political office in rural West Virginia confided to me that although she was a yellow dog democrat she simply could not bring herself to vote for a black.  I heard this not once but literally dozens of times from all sorts of voters during the election and though I may have at first attempted to take the time to explain Mr. Obama's agenda, I soon realized that this door was closed and that was that.  Since taking the Whitehouse, America has allowed its 1950s style fears to once again take over.  Mr. Obama was not looked upon as a prominent lawyer who sold over two million copies of his book BEFORE he ran for national office.  Nope, he was the reincarnation the Black Panther, Black Muslim, civil rights marching radical extremist who somehow illegally stole the office of the Presidency and now, that he is there he has some secret socialistic jihad agenda to destroy America.  So far he has not sought to take anyone's weapons away from them and has not decreed Christianity forbidden.  He has won all of his major actions by clear majorities and in most cases super majorities of Congress.  He eschewed backroom politics in favor of presenting his issues openly and in some cases to public forums and at none of these did I see a single leather coated black beret body guard.  Yet even though the voice of the people as expressed in its Congress has spoken in favor of his major policy decisions, a very loud minority within the Congress has in essence said that the people are wrong and that they, this very vocal minority, will speak over the wishes of the people. 

Let's look at just a few of the half truths or outright deceptions being given out as fact to the American people by this vocal minority. 

1)   The President will pay for his health care reform by cutting Medicare for the aged.

            Truth:  Mr. Obama noted he will help pay for his health reforms by eliminating   $500M from Medicare in the form of attacking waste,      fraud and abuse in   Medicare. Last week he conducted a seven State raid and stopped $250M insuch abuse.  Another six or seven States and he will have met his goal and no money will have been cut except money being paid to criminals.

2)  Mr. Obama must accept a lion's harem of the responsibility for not taking immediate steps to stop the BP oil spill.

            Truth:  Under Federal law passed under George W Bush, when an oil disaster occurs, the offending oil company is the action agency to halt the spill.  The US Government does not have any indigenous oil spill equipment in its arsenal    and must rely on private industry to react accordingly.  Would sending 10,000 or even 50,000 National Guardsmen have helped.  Not likely since they are trained for population control and not oil spill cleanup.  The US Coast Guard was on site within hours and stayed there until even now.  National assets (satellites and spy type planes) were put at the disposal of the cleanup effort the same day.  Mr. Obama visited the site within seven days but note that the presence of the President at such catastrophes is not a help but rather a hindrance.  Security procedures, dog and pony shows and low level politicians seeking photo ops do not assist anyone.  Think back on every time you saw the President and all of the toadies who gathered around him.  Not much beach cleaning was going on was it?

3)  Mr. Obama should have out his best brains on the problem to stop the oil spill.

            Truth:  He did and guess what? Brain trust advised against most of the gimmicks now being put into place by the same toadies who gathered around the President.  Sand berms?  They are using sand from the ocean bottoms right off shore which deepen the harbors and dramatically change the tide patterns  ESPECIALLY during tidal surges that accompany hurricanes.  Good luck New Orleans.   The berms are also made of sand which will at first soak up the oil then when the first hard wind comes and sloshes over the berms they will dissolve in the rush of the oncoming water and release their soaked up stored oil much further inland now driven by this tidal surge.  Good luck upper Mississippi River basin.  But Bobby Jindal knows more than all the scientist so the berm building goes on. 

Those are just a few items from the current headlines.  Undoubtedly the Tea Party will be able to conduct its scare campaign against blacks and liberals and gin up a lot of spit and vinegar but in the end – inside the voting booth, the American people have a way of shoveling their way through the cow dung and I expect they will do so this coming November as well.  If they do fall victim to the hype, much like a bad haircut, it is only a matter of time until they can see what they have unloosed upon our nation and allow the same voting booth fix the problem.

Have We Gone Totally Crazy?

Just look at some of the stories floating around the ether lately and you can get a real deep sense of anxiety on where this nation and it's citizens are headed.  The Governor of Louisiana signed into law a new bill now making it legal to carry a concealed weapon into church.  I distinctly recall Catholic Mass being held under a very large nylon cargo parachute as big as a circus tent.  Less than ten miles away, our soldiers were engaged in a nose to nose fight with enemy soldiers near the road to the Ashau Valley.  Men were dying in the obscenity of war but guess what?  We had to stack our weapons outside the chapel during services.  We did so without griping or yelling some idiocy about our Second Amendment Rights even though we were actually the "militia" referenced by the founding fathers.  Go figure!!  Now our good citizens are espousing a need to defend themselves in church.  First and foremost let's not forget that this is "God's House" and if he/she decides to mug you in Church for whatever reasons, your silly sidearm is not going to be much of a deterrence against his/her omnipotence.  If, on the other hand, you are concerned with your safety being threatened by mere mortals...maybe you need to consider another church.  Have we gone totally crazy??

 

We accept the government's authority to require us to register dogs, cars, motorcycles, airplanes, voter registrations, explosives, fishing and hunting licenses, sporting licenses i.e parachuting, hot air balloons and our ability to receive public utilities in our homes.  Yet when we ask our citizens to register their private firearms the squall can be heard all the way to Timbuktu.  The same squealers scream even louder when we try to control how many guns they can purchase and to whom they can sell these obscene tools of human death.  These whiners note their opposition in some obscure mumbling about their fear of the government and the anticipation that such registries would be used to confiscate their weapons when the government finally gets too strong.  This attitude makes these little boys and phallic symbol worshippers little more than an underground future terrorist organization bent on destroying the government when "they" decide it has become too powerful.  Bubba, I am not sure I want you to be the one making that critical choice in the future of democracy.  But don't worry, we know where you live, what type of car/pickup you drive, what kind of dogs you own, where you do your hunting and fishing and how you voted last term.  If we take away your dog and pickup truck Bubba, and then suspend your fishing and hunting license we will have effectively disarmed you.  We are watching you!!!  Have we gone completely crazy?? 

 

The Gulf of Mexico has become a greasy mess and is slated to become even worse.  Yet amid all of this gushing oil, we find two very weird groups of people both related in their causes and both as nonsensical as the other.  One group strongly opposes and moratorium are further deep water drilling to permit the Government to check safety features and emergency procedures.  The other related group strongly wants more drilling to begin.  In both case the reasoning stems from the supposed loss of income that drilling rigs bring to the economy.  Of course the fact that the gushing well is doing it thing BECAUSE no one was checking their safety procedures and no one had any ideas how to stop a broken well does not seem to matter just as long as "I get mine!!!"  Of course the destruction that this well has caused will ultimately impact everyone on the coast and perhaps everyone in the US and possibly the world does not seem to matter as long as "I get mine first!!!"  Have we gone completely crazy?? .    

God Bless America

Eighteen months into his term of office, President Barack Obama is faced with an unusual, even ironic, situation.  It would seem that several US States, Arizona topping the list, have indicated a desire to abrogate the Constitution of the United States.  It the intention of Arizona et. al. to simply decide that the powers granted the the Federal Government by that wonderful Constitution, are better served by the individual States.  I speak of course of Arizona et. al. deciding that they will now begin to control immigration into their separate State.  The next step, of course, would be issuing Arizona Passports, Arizona International Customs Procedures, issuance of visitor visas, international banking rules, interstate trade and transport requirements and the list goes on probably ending somewhere around the time Arizona begins issuing its own currency and stamps.  The founding fathers recognized the inherent problems and road to failure that would be paved if the separate States were given powers that overlapped into the interest of the other States or worse, ignored or trumped the national laws.  Arizona wants to deny the right of teachers to teach the English language if they have any sort of accents.  This presumes that anyone in Arizona or any other States can actually presume to speak anything resembling true English. I find it curious that the citizen's of Arizona want us to believe that their porous borders are something that occurred last Wednesday or something.  Of course the relative free access across the Arizona borders has been a reality since Arizona was a Territory awaiting Statehood.  What they are not telling us is that the "problem" did not become a problem until the numbers began revealing a creeping parity between the numbers of Latinos in Arizona and the number of "whites."  Before the fifties and sixties, along the various Southwestern States, there were no Spanish surnames holding political office.  Now it is common to see Govenors, Mayors, Police Chiefs and all points in between doing great jobs and bearing those wonderfully melodious Latino names.  This not only indicates more awareness on the part of the Latino community but it also indicates a growing legal voting block and now "Whitey" seems to be getting scared.  If we listen to the people of Arizona going through their daily whine sessions, we are suppose to believe that the Federal Government is not doing enough to stem the tide of illegal immigration.  We are suppose to make another 6,000 trained border patrol agents materialize out of thin air.  Failing this we are suppose to give Arizona 6,000 armed military personnel to carry out their secessionist aims and goals.  Imagine 6,000 young soldiers walking the streets of Arizona's major cities stopping anyone who "looks suspicious" and demanding proof of citizenship.  "Arizona uber alles".  Fortunately the US Government has a doctrine of Posse Comitatus which forbids the military from conducting routine police activities except in times of declared national emergencies.  As for coming up with another 6,000 border agents - not likely!   Even though Arizona believes they are the most important piece of real estate in the known world, the Federal Government has thousands of miles of other border areas to protect. Let's see what happen when a black President now interposes himself in a State's attempt to secede  from the Union.  I personally think Arizona should shut their pie holes since the Latino community will very soon have a voting majority and then we'll see how well "whitey" likes being profiled and questioned about their right to walk the streets of Arizona.