What does it mean?

What exactly does it mean to "serve your country"? Lately I've been asking myself that question. Virtually all things I have seen around the internet and in the media point to being in the military. It's a little bit baffling to me. The way you are serving your country is by killing others in the name of what some see as "freeing" Iraq or Afghanistan. I am a fan of not doing this, thus the reason of the picture of the lion and the lamb. I saw this somewhere and think it is pretty fitting (at least in my mind) for Veteran's Day: Killing for peace is like fucking for chastity. I don't know who exactly said that, but I definitely agree.

Anyways, I am getting off point. I was aiming at what exactly "serving" your country means. Does it mean being willing to die for a piece of land? Being willing to kill to take control of others? Unknowingly being indoctrinated to kill by words like "freedom" and "patriotism"? Personally, I think it's the latter. I wanted to be in the military when I was naive and only 18 years old. I was ready and willing to go to a military academy and go off and kill for Dick Cheney, George Asshole Bush and Karl Rove. And I was very close to getting in but I started having seizures while I was 18. Maybe I should be thanking God for giving me epilepsy that prevented me from being in the military.

Anywho, I am a little curious about this question: How am I not serving my country? I am giving back to my country as best as I can by showing a little truth in a nation in the grips of mind control by corporate media who are in bed with corrupt politicians. I think that is a bit "patriotic". When given the truth, true civil disobedience is the best form of "patriotism". I may not be willing to say the "Pledge of Allegiance" but I think that, in itself, is pretty goddamn “patriotic”. That’s my rant for now. To all you people who don’t read my blog, keep on keepin’ on.

~Someone Important


Post Script (a pretty long Post Script):
You may have noticed that I used quotation marks when using the words “patriotic” or “patriotism”. In case you were wondering, that was on purpose. Patriotism is a made up word by assclowns who want you to do their bidding. As Emma Goldman writes, “Patriotism assumes that our globe is divided into little spots, each one surrounded by an iron gate. Those who have had the fortune of being born on some particular spot, consider themselves better, nobler, grander, more intelligent than the living beings inhabiting any other spot. It is, therefore, the duty of everyone living on that chosen spot to fight, kill, and die in the attempt to impose his superiority upon all the others.”

I thought Stephen King's commentary on the Black Ribbons album by Shooter Jennings might be kind of fitting for my message:

"From the center of nowhere, Atop the shoulders of giants, Above the creeping fog of disinformation that clouds the American union, this is Will 'O the Wisp. And this is The Last Light Radio. Your last beacon of truth and defiance

I've always started my shows by saying that: All ships lost in the night search for the lighthouse on the rock of the enlightened. But, for truth seekers out there, the battery is fading and the light is dying. I see that freedom has failed us and with no light the night's going to be a long one. Woody Guthrie said: This land is your land, this land is ... my land. Great words, but this land is their land now.

This will be the last time your ears and my voice will be getting together. Because, as of midnight tonight, the previously public airwaves will be commandeered for government approved and regulated transmission. The last breath of free speech will blow itself out. What rises in its place is going to be the wind of thought control. Bad guys win folks!

You know I don't always play a lot of music on the show, as most of it these days is processed, bubble gum bullshit - churned out by the overlords of doublespeak and made to turn a gray world grayer. But tonight I won't go without leaving a message. Tonight I've chosen to play the one band the American Fascicrats don't want me to play. Tonight I'm going off the air with the music of Hierophant. For those of you not familiar, you'll get a taste of Hierophant's music tonight. Their message, their light

I started you off with Wake Up from their 2009 album Bohemian Grove, their first and most radical. Remember what the song says: Don't let 'em get you down. The most important truth is love, all you know and all you need to know, as the poet says. “What was that beauty, what's the difference? Love your family, love your neighbor, love your enemy as yourself. Go on loving, it's what humans do best and the one thing they can't kill.” Got it?

This is Will 'O the Wisp. The time now is no time. The temperature is cold. And the news is blue. But for now the light still shines. Off the same album, this is Triskaidekaphobia. That's fear of thirteen my sons and daughters, as in thirteen o'clock. You're listening to the last night on The Last Light"


Take care.

Visual torture

I stopped watching after about 6 seconds, around the time Gretchen Carlson uttered "There was this big rally put on by comedians which many people unfortunately think are news people". Such a large amount of stupidity in so short a time could have caused spontaneous combustion if I had kept watching...

Fox & Friends being Fox & Friends (Link)

I'm just flabbergasted she would even say such a thing. Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart provide more and better news in one show than Fox Noise does in 6 years of coverage. At least Colbert and Stewart actually say they ARE satire. I wish Fox & Friends would say the same thing about themselves, but they insist they are a "news" station that is "Fair and Balanced".

Lame...

Sorry

To all you people who don't read my blog, sorry I haven't "blogged" in over a month. I've been busy and I have just been slacking. I promise I'll post another rant about things that grind my gears when I get around to it. In the meantime, keep on keepin' on.

PS:
I just got the books I ordered: "Hopes & Prospects" and "Breaking the Sound Barrier" by Noam Chomsky and Amy Goodman, respectively. I haven't started to read them but I'm jacked that they're here.

Business leaders with a conscience? That's possible?

I never thought I'd see the day when people who would benefit from campaign contributions (bribes) would actually not put the dollar above the person. Although I still see the system as broken and the system still continuing after this, it is a bright light in a very, very dark place. I'm sure business leaders may be nice people, good values, good morals and the whole 9 yards. But in the grand scheme of things, I don't see them as much more than lords with the American people as mere serfs in a feudal system. It always seems like they put the dollar over the person, wealth over equality, inhumane-ness over decency. However, after reading letters sent by business leaders who value the people, I have developed a small level of hope. Perhaps the system can change no matter how many doubts I have.

I am damn proud to see business execs who actually have a moral compass.

http://rawstory.com/2010/01/business-leaders-finance-ruling-extremely-troubling/


Letters to the house and Senate:

http://www.publicampaign.org/sites/www.publicampaign.org/files/business-leaders-letter-house.pdf

http://www.publicampaign.org/sites/www.publicampaign.org/files/business-leaders-letter-senate.pdf

These lone acts of courage are not going to change much without the support of the people and responsible politicians like Alan Grayson (D) of Florida. It is going to take the will of the people and the acts of the people. Those in power are only in power because we, the people, let them be in power. Those in power become powerless when the people refuse to be mere serfs. It can be seen all through history that with a few sparks and educated individuals, the world can change drastically.

I wish I had read this article when it was first written back in January but I suppose I was just seeing red from then until now. Those 5 Supreme Court Justices' who voted to allow this limitless corporate finance should be ashamed of themselves. They just corrupted the election process of a democracy. Lately I haven't had much hope for the future of the Corporate States of America but this one little light made me think twice. Maybe we can go back to the United States of America but that's all going to take time, time that I hate to give up.

People need to be kept educated. You cannot take news from corporately owned media at face value. All stations, whether it be Fox, MSNBC, CNN or whatever, they distort and mislead. Real research is required in a democracy. DemocracyNow.org and other indepent news stations are probably the only ones worth trusting. Democracy is not a spectator sport. Change does not happen overnight. It takes struggles and sacrifices. Change may take years and years as seen in the civil rights struggles of the 60's. Apathy has crippled us the past few decades. People need to get off their asses. The ill-informed tea-partiers are admirable, although they are ignorant of what they are fighting against. But we should look at them as something that shows people can actually be united under a common cause. I have not seen that kind of unity in the States for quite some time.

Now then, back to my point of this post. This kind of feudal-like institution needs to change. When the public is misinformed, it votes against itself. Trickle down economics is a perfect example of the widening gap between rich and poor. That kind of policy does not work. Tax cuts for the rich is just as bad as giving money to the rich. That won't make them want to bring jobs to the States. It will just make their wallet a little heavier. Incentives need to be made to bring jobs to the United States. You have to make things cheaper to make in the United States rather than having workers in Chinese sweat shops who are paid pennys on the dollar. Perhaps increases in trade tariffs, or increased taxes on corporate products. Whatever the solution may be, it is possible, but it is not easy to achieve. I hope some may read this and find it interesting, but my true hope is to inspire people to educate themselves and make up their own minds. You cannot parrot the teachings of nimrods on major news networks on both ends of the spectrum. Make up your own damn mind.

It's been too long since I last ranted

This rant is going to be a little one about US war crimes. The picture above is that of a SMALL portion of the masscare at My Lai in March of 1968 during the Vietnam war. This may be too long of a post to read and most will not read it because of sheer laziness. That's why this country remains ignorant to all of its crimes against humanity. Now then...

Sometimes, often times, the US refuses to admit wrong doing. It's just the way the United States works. If we had lost WW II there is a good chance much of the staff of the White House would have been tried for war crimes against humanity for the napalm bombings of towns like Dresden, the fire bombings of Tokyo, and the nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Other war crimes directly in conflict with the Geneva Convention took place through military coups in south America and south eastern Asia. Others took place in Israel, the US puppet in the middle east. Due to the fact that Africa does not hold key commodities like oil US involvement is fairly seldom. I find this pretty humorous and sad since we went in to Iraq under the disguise of preventing a murderous dictator killing his own people when this happens all the time in Africa.

Numerous massacres took place during the Korean war, usually between North and South Korea but if you research enough it is easy to find incidents of war crimes the US committed (Hoengseong for one) in the name of preventing the spread of communism. Others can be found through US backed coups and government take overs, specifically in south America. US support was given to known drug dealers and warlords who were well known to kill their own people, not unlike Saddam Hussein. That is yet another example of US hypocrisy. Condemning and starting a war against a person who killed his own people while at the same time backing others.

Now then, in to the Vietnam war where numerous massacres took place, we refuse to admit we were wrong. Just take a look at My Lai. Through the years it has become harder and harder to find evidence of US massacres. If you want absolute evidence of US war crimes in the present, look at the video footage showing the shooting of journalists in Baghdad:

http://wikileaks.org/

What it all comes down to is the propaganda shown on major media outlets and government cover-ups. Propaganda does not always include pro-US footage. It is not always the American superiority complex. A large amount of propaganda includes what we do not see. The control of information by major news networks is extraordinary. Conglomorates and corporations who are in bed with government officials are the same ones who own the air waves. Scandals kept out of the news networks are not uncommon. Look up the court case New Communs of Tampa, Inc v. Akre. That is a perfect example of propaganda. Manufacturing consent is the prime motive of corporately owned media.

Although we do not live in an authoritarian or totalitarian state, we do have somewhat of a limit on what we do and do not know. It is amazing when you think about it. We are not mad at our government because of what they keep from us. We are perfectly content with that because of the vast amounts of pro-America mindsets in this nation. The majority of Americans have become mindless drones, the tea-partiers for example. Ask them what they are protesting, the tenants of socialism or the stipulations of the health care bill and you'll find out they won't say anything out of ignorance or them parotting the things Rush Limbaugh and/or the clowns on Fox Noise say.

It's only going to get worse. About three months ago a decision from the Surpreme Court has doomed us all, but of course most of us don't know about it. Read Citizens United v. FEC. It is the most absurd decision since Dred Scott v. Sanford. To give some background, in 1886 the Surpreme Court decided that corporations are people under the law. Now then, the Citizens United case decided that since corporations are not allowed to donate literally limitless amounts of money to a candidates running for office, they are not getting their first amendment rights. Now corporations, the same ones who control what we do and do not know, can buy politicians like they are commodities.

I truly believe that it's all connected. People refuse to admit it because it seems too hard to believe. If Americans saw have the things we are responsible for then there is no way that we would support such a violent nation. Read up on the government coups in South America. Nicaragua, Panama, Brazil, Guatamala, Cuba, Columbia... All of those are places where the US has tried or did train people to overthrow the government or US troops have directly overthrown the government. The reason: we wanted a pro-US dictator in charge. We, through both direct and indirect ways, control most of middle and southern America. The US has probably the most amount of war criminals in the world. The reason we don't get in trouble: anyone who opposes us will be demonized, we will impose trade sanctions or just simply crush them with military might.

Many of our own people believe we are the police officer of the world. In reality, we're the criminals of the world. One question I keep asking other Americans is, "What if these massacres happened to American civilians? How f*cking furious would you be?" But the answer is always the same from the pro-American fanatics and it's always something like, "Well they attacked us. We're justified. Might makes right." They never address the question. Numbers have desensitized us. With numbers, there is no human factor. It's just a number. If people hear the number of Iraqi civilian deaths is upwards of 100,000, we'll just say "That's horrible" and go back to eating a burger. Each and every one of those people were a picture in someone's wallet. Those pictures were an aunts, uncles, fathers, brothers, sisters or mothers of that person. They were a person for f*cks sake! I want to know why this is happening. Why can't people just be peaceful? What is so scary about peace? Why don't people want it? Why do they want bigger and better bombs? I sometimes want to shake people and ask them "What the hell is wrong with you?! Are the innocent civilians not people?!"

I am getting to worked up. For more on US war crimes, go here:

http://www.uswarcrimes.org/index.php/download-war-crimes-report/

" I suddenly had this feeling that everything was connected. It was like I could see the whole thing; one long chain of events."

~Eric Finch (V For Vendetta)

Changing minds

I wonder if there are any people out there whose mind I may have changed. I'd like to hope that I did but sometimes I feel like I am just adding to the political polarization that is crippling this country, making us hate eachother and creating more and more injustices. I'd just like one e-mail or one comment saying something like, "Hey, I read some of your stuff and thought it was interesting" or something like that. Unfortunately, on various message boards I post on like Yahoo! Answers and YouTube, I feel like I have just made people stray further away from each other. That's about all I got.

Hilarious, except without the hilarious

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/18/90669/state-of-the-health-care-debate.html

Making fun of a child... It doesn't get much better than that.

I sometimes wonder if the right wing has completely lost its mind.

Jim Bunning, the newest worthless asshole

So I was looking around the internet, just browsing some news stories and came across our good ole' boy from Kentucky, Jim Bunning. Earlier today Mr. Bunning SINGLE HANDEDLY stopped a piece of legislation that would help out the unemployed and COBRA. Thanks to this worthless douche thousands of workers have been furloughed. Now 2,000 jobs have been lost. And when asked about why he has blocked all of this his reply was "Tough shit". Stay class Bunning, you mean spirited son of a bitch.

Injustice persists

If this were a just place with a system that had just a touch of decency, men in charge of this kind of atrocious indifference towards the value of human life would be tried, convicted and in a cell with other murderers:

http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/143308/health_insurer_accused_of_%22attempted_murder%22_by_man_stripped_of_his_coverage/

If you think that that is not proof enough that this country needs AT LEAST a public option, read the one about the 4 MONTH-OLD INFANT who was denied coverage because he was larger than most other infants.

http://rawstory.com/2009/10/insurer-refuses-to-cover-baby-says-hes-too-fat/

If that still isn't enough, read the story about the rape victim who was denied coverage because of her pre-existing condition, which was that she was raped.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/27/woman-denied-health-care_n_335000.html

Even teens know that health care in this country is fucked up:

http://www.northjersey.com/news/82334842_Students_discuss_health_care_bill.html

To opponents of health care reform, I'd like to ask you to truly look inside and question yourselves why you are opposed to it. Could you explain to the families of these people why you are opposed to a single payer option? What if this happened to your family? I don't know when exactly it happened but this country took a turn away from morality and moved towards reckless disregard for everything except the almighty dollar. I think senator Grayson was more right than most of you think. "Don't get sick. And if you do, die quickly."

I yield the rest of my time.

Wanted to make this a humorous post but I couldn't help it

So I was hoping to make this post funny, like the one about MTV and My Life As Liz but I couldn't help it. A new fighter jet coming out, the F-35, has got me all riled up. Let me just sum up the bulk of my rant in one single quote from the article. "The program, which is by far the Pentagon’s largest, is expected to cost nearly $300 billion if all of the 2,456 [F-35] planes are purchased in the next 25 years." That's right. $300 billion (http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/108749/gates-tries-to-get-f35-program-back-on-course)

So, approximately $120,000,000 for ONE GODDAMN JET?! HAS THIS COUNTRY LOST ITS MIND?! Why do we need another fighter jet? The F-22 Raptor is already probably the most deadly in the sky! We also have the F-117 Stealth Nighthawk. We also have the B-2 Stealth Bomber. Who are we afraid of? Why do we need more? Why are we building more and more and more? Are we not the most powerful country on the planet militarily? Do we have really need to build up our military even more? Why? Why? Why?!

Who are we afraid of? Do terrorists like the ones Fox News and Rush Limbaugh fear monger about really have the technology to threaten an invasion? Are Iraqi suicide bombers going to start showing up on US soil that are going to absolutely necessitate an entirely new line of joint strike fighter jets? Are Afghan Taliban fighters really going to start mounting a major offensive on the west coast? Do we have any other major enemies? I mean those are the only ones who we are having wars against. Those are the ones that we have been taught to fear. Those and the terrorists, which do NOT necessitate a fighter that costs roughly 120 MILLION. But honestly, who else is there to attack the United States?

If we're going to build more fighters, more bombers, more tanks, more everything, shouldn't the government AT LEAST fear monger us in to thinking we need more? I mean come on. Don't make me want to go to war without giving me a reason. Don't make me want to build up our military even more than we already have without giving me an enemy I should be afraid of. The point of this post is just to show how ludicrous we have become. We spend 120 Million on a fighter jet when that money could just as easily be spent on building homes and giving shelter to the poor and homeless. We could spend that on food to give to the hungry. We could be giving it to Katrina survivors who lost Everything. But no. We spend it on more bombs, more bullets and more military just for the fuck of it.

Now I don't know if inflation has changed the numbers on this but I'll just leave you with a quote posted before to end this little rant:

"The cost of one heavy modern bomber is this: A modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants each serving a town of sixty thousand population. It is two fine fully equipped hospitals…. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron… Modern weapons take food from the hungry and shelter from the homeless."

~President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Wanting for peace

I just started reading Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo and I have to say that I am becoming more and more anti-war by the minute (by the way, the Metallica song One is based on the book). In case you don’t know, the book is about a soldier who lost all limbs, his ability to see and his ability to talk after being hit by an artillery shell. It is set in World War I and it is just plain horrific. I don’t know why but I am just creeped out even thinking about it. I respect and understand the peace movement, hippies back in the 60's and Cindy Sheehan a lot more.

There is one thing that has been bugging me these past few days, a question no pro-war person has been able to answer. Is it so wrong to want for peace? Why do so many of the hawks out there see war as a positive thing? Certainly I am not one for a disarmament of everything we have. I do believe that war is in fact justified in certain instances if all forms of diplomacy have failed and an attack from another nation is imminent but why do Americans sometimes seem so eager to go to war?

I am not strictly speaking about Iraq and Afghanistan. There have been many other times when acting with the military was the first and only thing Americans wanted:

Guatemala, Iran, Lebanon, Cuba, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Congo, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Cambodia, Chile, Angola, Libya, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Grenada, Chad, Bolivia, Panama, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Yemen, Philippines, Liberia, Columbia

All these have been places where the United States military intervened. It makes one beg the question, Are we a violent nation? Perhaps I am generalizing. Perhaps we are not a violent nation and our government is. But I do not think so. You may disagree with me and say that our government is the violent one. Well, we elect our officials to the federal government. WE elected them. They are one of us. So what does that say about us as a nation, as a society?

I am becoming a bit of a hippy, I'm not denying it and I'll fess up to it. Sometimes I post things and comments on YouTube and a few political news sites. The negativity and name calling on those sites is unbearable sometimes. It's just sad. The things I post often deal with political commentators who I believe lie and distort the truth on purpose, the war in Iraq and health care. Those 3 things are very controversial and people have strong feelings about them. Some people can write some vile things about the way I see things. A friend just told me I should try to get my stuff published somewhere or see if I could be a blogger for a big site. That's not something I'd like to do. I don't like it when people make fun of my views or do the whole name calling thing.

I'm an advocate of health care and I'm anti-war and I'm trying to get people to not be dead. When I get criticized for that, it really bums me out.

Is it so wrong to not want to act militarily? All those countries above, there is NO way that every means of diplomacy failed and war was the only option for every single one. This is my rant for now. I’ll try to make my next one humorous. Maybe something about why my cat Roo Bear is so weird…

It just keeps getting worse

One of the worst court decisions since Dred Scott v. Sanford has just gotten worse. Reading numerous articles over the weekend and today has opened my eyes to the grim future of the United States after last weeks court decision to allow limitless finance to candidates running in elections from corporations. The thing that just struck my mind is who's to say that foreign corporations won't get in on elections in the United States? Last weeks Citizens United v. FEC was bad enough but now SpeechNow.org v. FEC is threatning to allow foreign corporations to fuck with the US democratic process. One of the other things that is troubling to me is why this is not getting more coverage. I mean this is not something like a small defense contract getting thrown out. This is effecting the electoral process for fucks sake! Why do people not seem to care about it?!

As Keith Olbermann named them so eloquently as "Those poor, dumb, manipulated bastards; the tea-partiers", they remain blissfully unaware of the repercussions of this bill while they stand out side the White House like asses holding signs that compare Obama to Hitler and Stalin. I still have yet to find a connection between President Obama, who is attempting to better the health care system, and Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, two of the biggest mass murderers this planet has EVER seen. I also fail to see why Obama has been called a socialist, communist, Marxist and anarchist. It makes one wonder whether these clowns even know what they're talking. Do they know that none of those words are synonymous? Do you think they know each of them have different philosophies and propose different things?

Another thing that is REALLY bugging the piss out of me is why have political parties become so polarized. Why is it ALWAYS “us” versus “them”? Why do there only have to be 2 political parties? I’d like to and consider myself to be in neither party, though I side with the left far more than I do the right. I consider myself a democratic socialist. I’m not afraid of admitting it. I AM a socialist. Why do so many people see me as such a bad person because I believe in a system that is different than capitalism? I don’t think that our government is bad. I merely suggest that our government could be better by doing things different. Why is that wrong?

So many people, both republican and democrat, believe that this country’s health care is not great. So do I. I think a different system is the way to go. I think socialism practiced under a democracy is something that could make this country a better place. Socialism is NOT something to fear. It is to be explored and understood. I do not mean to force my beliefs upon others. That would be destroying some of the concepts democracy encourages. For the record, democratic socialism DOES NOT equal AUTHORIARIAN SOCIALISM, DICTORIAL SOCIALISM, AUTHORITARIAN COMMUNISM, DICTORIAL COMMUNISM, etc. Nor does socialism equate to ANY type of anarchism. Democratic socialism equates to democratic socialism. Socialism does not mean a hammer and sickle. One thing that socialism does not do is advocate a society where the top 5% of the population owns just as much as the bottom 95%.

One last thing; Some people accuse of President Barack Obama of being a "traitor" for what few may see as socialist policies. Which of the following equates to a traitor to you; a person elected by the people of the United States of America to be the president of the United States of America or 5 people voting to corrupt the election process of a democracy?

Many people believe this country can be better than it currently is. Am I such a bad person in believing that it can be through different ways than yours?

Wait, WHAT?

Would you trust a news company if they actively pursued a court case that would give them the legal right to lie on TV? Would you trust a news company if they actively tried to suppress a story that involved the public health, one that involved the health of children? I know I wouldn’t. What kind of News Company could do that with a clean conscience? Why would they do it? How can they STILL be broadcasting?

I give the one, the only, Fox News:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZkDikRLQrw&feature=player_embedded#at=25

It’s a bit frightening isn’t it? One of the largest and most trusted news organizations in the world actively pursued and won a court case that gave them the right to distort news and lie on TV. Now I’m not saying that this news organization over here is truthful and this one here isn’t. That’s not the point. The point is that the Monsanto Company used bovine growth hormone to make milk that was possibly harmful to humans. They did this KNOWINGLY and Fox News tried to cover the entire thing up.

Still trust Fox?

http://www.organicconsumers.org/rbgh/fox-news.cfm

http://www.ceasespin.org/ceasespin_blog/ceasespin_blogger_files/fox_news_gets_okay_to_misinform_public.html

He saw the inevitible demise

Sometimes people can see things that others can't. I never really researched Dwight D. Eisenhower's political ambitions and achievements but he was one of those people. Throughout his 2 terms as the president of the United States, he saw things beginning to happen. I wish more people saw them. Perhaps they were inevitible or perhaps that we were too far in to our current ways at the time but they did in fact happen. Now we're stuck in our ways. It depresses me sometimes. Maybe the Romans are not the only empire of the world to be the cause of their own failure. I implore you to read part of Eisenhower's farewell address below. Please read it.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/dwightdeisenhowerfarewell.html

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Military-Industrial_Complex_Speech

"The cost of one heavy modern bomber is this: A modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants each serving a town of sixty thousand population. It is two fine fully equipped hospitals…. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron… Modern weapons take food from the hungry and shelter from the homeless."

~President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Warping stupidity

During a lapse in judgement, I watched an episode of an MTV reality show. I'd now like to stab myself in the ear as punishment. Real World was bad enough, but this reality tv shit has evolved itself in to something that is downright... Ugh. I suppose I may be too much of a "Back in the day" kind of person and miss the 80's/90's MTV when somewhat shitty music videos and Beavis & Butthead were on. I did expect something decent from MTV, given that I haven't watched it since I can't remember when. However, that does not excuse my stupidity in stooping to the low levels of reality television.

I am seriously awed at this crap. I suppose I am taking all my anger about MTV on "My Life as Liz". I mean, there are loads of absolute bullshit I could be angrier at. Oh say, Real World, Road Rules, Cribs, Teen Cribs, My Sweet 16, Jeresy Shore, True Life (which its name itself should be humorous), Made, The Hills, Laguna Beach + numerous others. These are REAL good ideas for television shows for teens. Making them want for shit they DON'T need, babies most of all (Teen Mom). But more than that, it is making teens want for things. It teaches matierialism and selfism. It makes us become more of a consumer based society. I try to be as non-consumeristic as possible but what can I say? I'm addicted to food and water.

I could go on society gone awry rants til my lungs ran out but fuck it. Now then, where was I? Daria/Juno rip off. Now I remember. I saw Juno and immidiately saw it as a somewhat real life Daria rip off but I didn't mind that much. The "young 'uns" needed their own anti-hero outcast just as much as I did. But this, this has bullshit rip off written all over it down to an exact scene in Juno. Instead of Juno, it is of "Liz" laying on her car windshield looking up at the stars with a same fucking sized big gulp for fucks sake. As if our eminent failure as a country due to bureaucratic bullshit wasn't bad enough... Now I'm suffering from the shock of RTV, er I mean "MTV", the channel that shows 19 hours of reality TV, 4 1/2 hours of commercials and 30 minutes of VERY shitty music. Sometimes society just has to put it in your ass far too much as needed, as is the case now.

I fear for my ass more than ever.

Corporations are people and other oddities

Back in 1886 in the court case Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific Railroad, our good old boys on the Supreme Court of the United States decided that corporations are people under the law. Since then, corporations have had many of the same rights, liberties and freedoms that normal, breathing, thinking people have. Now, in 2010 that decision might have just fucked the people of the United States right in their puckered up asses. Earlier today, our good old boys in the Supreme Court decided that corporations have not been getting all of their first amendment rights since they can not donate litterally limitless amounts of cash to candidates running for office (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/21/supreme-court-rolls-back_n_431227.html)

So… let me get this straight.

Corporations are people… they are not getting the right to free speech… and money is the way they speak? I can already tell this is going to come out corrupt in every sense of the word. I mean it’s basic math.

Money from special interest groups + Politicians = BAD

This no limits campaign-finance from corporations, it's something you need to pay attention to. People do not seem to grasp how big this is. This is HUGE! The truth is that this decision gives an enormous amount of power to corporations. The only color that really matters down in DC is not red or blue. It’s green. The corporate agenda just became the public agenda and politicians just became a commodity. Billions is being spent in DC by corporations and special interests groups bribing, er, I mean "lobbying" politicians, which is why this healthcare bill is fucked. If insurance companies had one fucking noble strand in their DNA then this bill would be passed in a matter of days. Unfortunately for us, these corporations and special interest groups bribing, I mean "lobbying" politicians are the health care companies getting politicians to steer away from health care.

There is only one thing that these enormous health care companies care about: The bottom line. The bottom line to them is not that this country's health care system sucks. It's that this health care bill would piss off their share holders. It's funny. We're the richest and most powerful country on the planet and our health care system is complete shit compared to others. The most ironic part is that politicians know this and still do nothing... because of this bribing, er, sorry, I mean "lobbying" from health care companies.

I really do not find it that hard to picture a few politicians in the not so distant future in DC saying, “Yes, did the congressman from McDonald’s have a question?” or “Senator from Nike, you have the floor.” If you are thinking to yourself, “Hey that could never happen” then you better stop, now. This is happening. In the near future when our politicians are bought and paid for by corporations and conglomorates perhaps we should have signs on all entrances to the country with these words written on them: "Welcome to America. We don't elect our politicians. Corporations just buy them."

One thing is perfectly clear: The first amendment crap is just bullshit. This has partisan-policy written all over it. It's disheartning down to my soul to know that these Supreme Court Justice's are supposed to know right from wrong and act accordingly. In this instance, they did NOT by any means! They know the implications of this bill. The 5 that voted to overturn the case should not be Justices' at all. They should be outcast. They knew this would corrupt the democratic election process and they did it anyways! I am terribly, TERRIBLY disappointed in them! America is about to change, ENORMOUSLY. If you really don’t think corporations have the power I write or that their agenda is not part of the equation then you better check your facts. Research how much corporations have influenced public policy. Watch Why We Fight or The Corporation if you need to. Corporate agendas and the public agenda are NOT very far apart despite what your elected officials say. When corporations have full control of public policy and a majority in the House and Senate, good luck getting your country back.

One thing I think is certain: the future of the Corporate States of America is pretty goddamn grim.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34981476/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann