“I forget
that every day – every 24 hour rotation of Earth – people kill and get killed
in the name of someone else’s conception of God, and that some people who do
not kill in the name of God, kill in the name of needs or wants or political
dogma.”
Neil de Grasse Tyson
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
This is a
poor comment on the human race; but this is who we are and who we have always
been.
With the
advent of ISIS, the face of terrorism has changed. It is not that we don’t have to worry about
large scale attacks like 9/11, but it seems like the new normal is to motivate ‘lone
wolf’ religious nutcases to target places where civilian gather.
Earlier this
year ISIS posted a video of a suicide bomber among the crowd at Time
Square. We have to ask ourselves if this
was propaganda to make us fearful, or was it a recruiting tool for radicalized American
Moslems willing to commit the greatest sacrifice for Jihad.
I know that
our government leaders say if we change our routines we are giving in to
terrorism, but perhaps we are living in a new reality and haven’t yet accepted
the truth.
Regardless
of the number of NYC police in Time Square on New Year’s Eve, I don’t see how that
scene can be made safe from people willing to die to create chaos and
destruction.
We haven’t
decided yet if we will watch the ball drop in Time Square on TV, as we usually
do on New Year’s Eve.I have
trepidation.
At any rate,
I will be glad when this night is over.
We had a
California terrorist attack by two radicalized Muslims and the U.S is
outraged. Even members of the
Republican Congress were so concerned they stated they would pray for the
families of the dead.
We had a
terrorist attack at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic by a radicalized
Christian. Most Democrats were outraged
– the Republicans spoke against abortion providers and said we need better
mental health treatment; but not even a prayer for the dead.
This is nothing new. Racism and religious intolerance has always been a part of the American makeup. Now it has pretty much congealed in the Republican Party. When we say that this is not what American values are, we are fooling ourselves.
MRMacrum (Lost in the Bozone) posted about the violence in American society today.
I have witnessed a cultural change over the last sixty years that has brought us to the dysfunctional chaos that is twenty-first century America.
I was raised in the south during the 1950 by my grandmother. I owned and hunted with a shotgun and a 22 rifle throughout my teen years. Every boy in my school owned guns and every man I knew owned guns and hunted. But, in that era the idea of shooting up a school, or public venue, or mass killing wasn't even imaginable. When some violent crime occurred it was immediately denounced and people were horrified.
Today gun violence, shootings and even mass shootings are so commonplace that we talk of them for a few days and then move on. We are a more violent society today then we were sixty years ago. We are a different society, a people and with different value, and the ready availability of military type weapons has unleashed a dark place in our psyche.
I don't glorify 'the old days' for there were many social injustices and the world as a whole was still fucked up; but we didn't live in fear of our neighbors.
Back then I thought the human race would become smarter into the future; but that doesn't seem to fit the trend.
Shiites and Sunni have been at war for the past fourteen hundred years, but for the last fifteen years the United States (motivated by oil interest) has inserted itself into the fray; and in the process destabilized the entire Middle East. CBS Sunday Morning gave a quick overview of the religious/ geopolitical factions involved and the crazy alliances the US has committed itself.
This is a Religious Civil War that needs to happen; but we cannot extract ourselves, because our commitment is not to one side or the other - but to oil.
It doesn't have to make sense: it is Religion. ' the Ol'Buzzard
What does it say about a
nation that cold bloodedly murders 140,000 men women and children in one day
and then five days later slaughters 70,000 more? Is this a necessity of war, or genocide? Was this collateral damage or an act of state
sponsored terrorism? Does it depend on
who is doing the slaughter and who is slaughtered?
After burning 140,000 people
in the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 the United States dropped another nuclear bomb on
the city of Nagasaki
five days later, killing 70,000 of that cities 270,000 population.
At that moment the United States
became the most feared nation in the world.
Not only did it have the technology to slaughter hundreds of thousands
of human beings in an instant but it also had the will to do it.
Back in the States the war was over.
People celebrated; but no one asked 'what have we done?'
This does not stand as a
condemnation of our nation state, but a condemnation of the human race in
general. The slaughter of civilian
populations is not new to our race; it has gone on since the beginning of
time. Our closest kin in the animal
kingdom, the chimpanzee, has been known to kill and eat its own kind, to attack
other chimpanzee bands and to kill for pleasure or without purpose. We have these same traits, and this is born
out by our history.
I find it hard to believe
that after the killing and maiming of hundreds of thousands of civilians in one
bomb blast, that this country would be so callus as to repeat the carnage five
days later.
I do not excuse the United States
for the attack on the Japanese cities; I do, however, feel that any other
nation with the capacity and the same war mentality would have committed a
similar atrocity on its ‘enemy.’
I do condemn this country for
not including this most heinous act in our history, along with condemnation and
an apology, in the school books of our children.
We are who we are: not
Americans, not Germans, not Japanese, not Russians… – but human beings. We see what we are capable of - with no regret,
so be afraid. Be very afraid.
There was a discussion on Up
with Chris Hayes Saturday morning on gun control. A reporter that attended the recent NRA
convention in St Louis
commented that most of those in attendance were old white men; and from
conversations he overheard the consistent theme seemed to be that these men needed
to be armed because at some time in the future they would have to defend
themselves from some imaginary threat.
The liberal consensus on the program seemed to be that the people at the
convention were afraid of the rise of minorities and saw that as a threat to
their way of life.
I don’t necessarily agree
with that. I have known many men who
rode around with NRA stickers on the back window of their trucks. None of them were afraid – but all of them
entertained a fantasy of Armageddon: a time of a breakdown of law and order
when they could emerge, regardless of their age or lack of physical prowess,
with their guns blazing to become the hero and powerful leaders of their
imagination. In this scenario they all see themselves as
the gun slinger that young girls would cling to (note: in their fantasies they
do not liberate the old ladies in the rest home, but the young girls in the
college dorms.)
Many of the people that go
into police work are of the same ilk.
In high school they were the prey
of the alphas and as marginal students were lost in the back of the room; but
with a badge of authority and a gun on their hip they achieve the longed for
identity of macho. The permission to
carry a gun and the authority to shoot transforms the sexually insecure male
into an alpha want-to-be.
Now, here we intersect with
the Concealed Carry and Stand Your Ground Law.
Thousands of would-be alphas are walking around armed looking for a
chance to live out their fantasy of being feared and admired because of their
ability and readiness to kill with a firearm.
In the old 1950 novel
Battleground when a recruit would call his rifle a gun the DI would make him
grab his crotch with his left hand and hold out his rifle with his right hand
and repeat “This is my rifle and this is my gun – this is for fighting and this
is for fun.” I truly believe that gun
mania is a substitute for lack of sexual prowess.
In the military I was on the
station pistol team and qualified to compete at All Navy competition, but could
not attend because of deployment schedule.
I was awarded both expert rifle and expert pistol ribbons. I do not have a concealed carry license and
do not need one. I know the difference
between my rifle and my gun and don’t need to carry one to compensate for the
other.
The biggest threat to America is not al-Qaeda or Moslem
fundamentalist or home grown terrorist: The biggest threat to American Freedom
is the blatantly partisan United States Supreme Court. The latest ruling of The Court allows police
officers to conduct strip searches at their whim. Along with all the other totalitarian
rulings they have confirmed over the last decade that have eroded personal freedom
and privacy, this last one moves our country further toward a police state.
The Republican Party, with their elite 1% base, their
lunatic Tea Party fringe and fundamentalist Christian theocrats, have
systematically tried to dismantle social programs and limit individual freedom
of choice and privacy – while at the same time proposing religious restrictions
that move our government toward a theocracy.
While picking and choosing the tenets of the Constitution they agree
with they have blatantly ignored major articles and provisions that do not
conform to their world view of big business and God centered governance. They constantly threaten amendments to the
Constitution that would drastically change our Republic for now and the
future.
This is fine; the Republican Congressmen and Senators are
duly elected by the people, and like the President have a right to their
Political beliefs, and as such have a right to legislate their agenda.
However, here is the rub:
The Judicial branch is designed by the Constitution to be an impartial
and non partisan watchdog that can bring extreme legislations from either party
back to the central meaning and intent of the Constitution. The Supreme Court should be the neutral body
of government that guards the freedom and basic human rights of the
individual.
Terrorist have the ability to only destroy limited targets
within our population; but, the United States Supreme court has the ability to
destroy a nation of free men and women and move our country toward a version of
George Orwell’s 1884 – and this is the future that I fear.
And if some government agency is reading this, as according to the Supreme Court they have the authority to do: I'm watching you Watching me Watching you the Ol'Buzzard
I am seventy-plus years old. I have been around the block numerous times;
and though I don’t think that age necessarily equates to intelligence – I can
post an impressive resume. And, the one
thing I know for sure is: I don’t blindly trust our government to act in our
best interest.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am a loyal American (of American
ideals) – and I have the scars to prove it.
But, I don’t trust our government (politicians.) Our
government has never been a government of the people, by the people… etc. It has always been the government of special
interest and “the bigger picture” gamesmanship.
Our government constantly packages swamp land as “Preferred
Real Estate Property” and sells it to the citizenry. They tell us it’s candy but in the bottom of
the box there is often a scorpion.
The last thing I blindly bought into was the liberation of
the South Vietnamese people in the Vietnam war; only to discover that our real
reason for occupying South Vietnam was to tactically establish a permanent
nuclear military presence on the southern border of China (sounds familiar in
reverse: Cuban missile crisis.) Then,
of course, “Iraqi Freedom” where a White House full of oil men invade a country
with the second largest oil reserve on earth.
We have constantly been sold a bill of goods only to find
that some patriotic spin name has been added to cover up the smell: The Patriot Act – I need say no more.
We have moved from Bush’s “phone tapping of (only) foreign
suspected terrorist”, to authorized surveillance of American citizens and to expanded
surveillance authority for civilian police.
Now Obama has just signed an appropriations bill that allows the
government to arrest and detain, without trial, any American citizen suspected
of terrorist connections. Obama says he
will not use this authority, but what about a future fundamentalist, Tea Party,
Republican President – what about a President Cheney clone?
Think
about how this could fit in to George Orwell’s 1984 repackaged as 20XX.
Now there is a new government threat covertly aimed at taking
the first step to control and censor the Internet.
On October 26, 2011 the Bill HR-3261 was introduced by Lamar
Smith (R-TX.) The bill is touted to prevent the piracy of U.S.
copyrighted material. The bill is commonly
known as SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act.)
The actual title is “To Promote Prosperity, Creativity, and Innovation
by combating the theft of U.S.
property, and for other purposes."
It’s the - “and for other purposes,” - that bothers me. At first glance the bill seems to require
Internet providers to monitor customer’s traffic and block web sites suspected
of copyright infringement.
But, the bill also states that it would make unauthorized streaming
of copyright material a crime with a maximum imprisonment of 5 years for ten
infringements within six months.
That has me nailed;
and probably everyone reading this blog who include pictures or YouTube clips
on your post. This is an open invitation
to some political regime of the future to use the NSA or FBI to monitor web
sites and blogs that they feel are not in the best interest of Big Brother and
shut you down; or to threaten or actually imprison people that speak out. (Does anybody still remember the First Amendment
to the Constitution?)
The internet should not be the property of any government
and no government should have the right to censor it “for the greater good” of
its people.
THE RATIONAL OF WAR IS: IF YOU CAN KILL MORE OF THEM THAN THEY CAN KILL OF YOU - THEN YOU WIN.
When I was in Vietnam my military pay was $1,600
a month; plus, I was making a fantastic $75.00 a month extra for hazardous duty
combat pay. After the war was over I
read that the war had actually cost $32,000 per enemy killed. The cost in American lives in Vietnam was: 58,178 killed, 153,452
wounded and 1,711 missing in action.
Today I read that, not including the actual cost of the war
being waged in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States is spending
$80,000,000,000 (eighty billion dollars) a year on counter terrorism efforts. Admiral Dennis Blair (Ret.) who served as
director of national intelligence for the Obama administration estimates that
there are between 3,000 to 5,000 actual al-Qaeda members. This means that we are spending between
$16,000,000 and $27,000,000 (sixteen to twenty-seven million dollars) per year on
each al-Qaeda suspect.
My question is, why don’t we just contract out the wars? We should hire mercenaries and pay them per
head. Hell, for a sixteen million dollar bounty
you could count me in on the hunt.
