Orwellian Pro-life and Torture

Doublespeak, newspeak, the meaning of words changes rapidly. Pro-life is such a positive sounding term, but so many who preach it are pro-death for people who disagree with them. So many support the war we were lied into, which has caused a million deaths in Iraq, and left four million homeless. Pro-life for fertilized eggs, but not for human beings. So self-righteous, so sure their god is the only god, worshiping mammon in a capitalist temple, while claiming to be so holy.

Lower gas prices are supposed to help incumbents in the election. That explains why they dropped so fast, and shows plainly how easily the price is manipulated. Think oligarchy and plutocracy, instead of democracy, because it is long gone. The republic is also dead, replaced by empire.

Back to the pro-lifers, who don't care how many people are killed in other countries by our military. They don't know, nor care that American corporations, around the world, hire militias to keep the farmers in line and execute serious opposition. Their attitude here is also pro-death.

Anyone, who reads, who hasn't read Orwell's 1984, must do so. Read a prophet as accurate as any who ever lived. Listen to our leaders spouting inane remarks, similar to "war is peace."

Pro-lifers and death go together like McCain and torture. He would never approve it he said, and our government would never do it. But our government did torture. It continues to torture, and McCain supports it. It's enough to make your head spin.

Our old allies are now our enemies, and former enemies are our best allies is a scenario from Orwell. The government propaganda machine always claims we are winning, but everything goes to the war, and the ruling class, leaving little for common folk. Look around...read 1984, or Animal Farm. That's another terrific ditty, more satirical, slightly less grim.

We Paid for Another Swindle

Everybody keeps saying $700 billion, but the bill passed at $850 billion and that is a minimum, not a maximum. In short, we just poured another trillion dollars down another rat hole, and the economy continues to sink. Kiss that money and the promised benefits good-bye. The only benefit will be to make the rich richer. Timeslip: amount may double.

Thank the powers that be, Bush and his neo-con cronies didn't get social security privatized, or it would be gone, too!

Note: McCain has campaigned for privatizing social security. Of course, he might not bring that issue up right now. Note: Obama supported the bail-out, in spite of the overwhelming public opposition.

I came to Montana from Arkansas, where the congressional delegation was particularly wimpy towards Bushite legislation, but I thought it was different here. Tester is different and I like him a lot, but Baucus appears to be another corporate democrat. I must recontact the Backbone Organization and get more of their "spineless tickets" to send to representatives who sell out. My first one goes to Baucus. That is just because he is the closest and most recent example of a Democrat being a wuss. I want tickets for Pelosi and Reid, too. Who put them in charge?

Our system no longer rewards excellence; it rewards mediocrity. Our leadership is mediocre in every category, on both sides of the aisle. Will someone, please, have the guts to step forward and say we must end this war. I'll send Obama a ticket for saying the "surge" worked. Bullshit! We've segregated Iraq and built walls to keep everyone separated. It's a reverse of the cold war, when the Soviets built the walls.

I'm Pissed Again

And there is a fireplug to piss on, but what is it doing there?

And what am I pissed about this time? A little news crept through my screening system about McNut trying to blame the Democrats for the economic melt-down, while claiming it isn't really that bad, after voting for the neo-cons deregulation agenda for years. That pisses me off. They demand a "free" market, which means let them make all the money they can at everyone else's expense. They want everything deregulated and controlled by the "free" market. "Free market" is a meme, just as "democracy" is. Does everybody know what memes are? They are advanced advertising, mental viruses spreading with a false image plastered over a hideous reality. The people throwing these memes around are greedy enough to bring the whole system down. When they do, they hide their spoils and try to blame someone else for the situation.

While we're on the subject of hypocrites, I want to consider the disparity between what Christ taught and what Christians now believe. Jesus lost his temper when he discovered the money-changers in the temple. It is pretty plain people who sold religion for a profit and sought earthly wealth and power, while claiming to be holy were not his chosen people. The Bible said a few things about charity. It didn't say to cut charity to the bone, in order to get richer, quicker. Chogyam Trungpa wrote a book entitled "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, in which he discussed this problem in detail.

That's a couple of piss-offs for today, and I must be on my way. I can always add more here, or anywhere else on the blog. It's a basic that going to a blog and reading left-to-right, down the page reverses time as it goes from now to back then. With links, revisions and updates, it becomes more tangled.

Wishing all long life, health and happiness.

-30-

4th of July Speech/Sermon/Rant

Today is the fourth of July, a day dedicated to patriotism, BBQ and beer. Does everybody have a gun ready to fire into the air? Look, there are fires everywhere. Let's blast some fireworks. Who-ever is drunkest can aim the rockets.

People are still arguing over what the founding fathers meant, when they formed this country over two centuries ago. Were they deists or faithful Christians? What did they mean by a nation of the people? Rich and poor, slave-owner and slave all fought to free us from the reign of a mad king. Farmers fought against the finest troops in the world and kicked their asses. Flags featured snakes, stepped on, ready to strike back. Freedom was a real issue, as was democracy. They were not brand names thrown about to further political goals.

We fought the British empire and vowed to be a republic, never an empire, but our vows were for nothing. We inherited much of the British empire and expanded elsewhere. Now, we are the mightiest empire the earth as ever known. Our military bases circle the globe, and gunboats enforce our will on people everywhere.

My god! What a cynical view! For the counterpoint, let us go to O'really pontificating about how our country is nobly based on the Judeo-Christian tradition. It was our duty to bring democracy to Iraq, and we did.

No thanks. Bill raises my blood pressure. Anyone who hasn't realized by now he gets paid plenty to spout the party line has been completely brainwashed. First of all, the Iraqis do not have democracy, nor do they have running water, electricity, health services or any guarantee of safety. One million civilians have been killed. Two million are homeless, living in ruins, tents, fields and caves. More than that have fled the country as refugees, to live in poverty-stricken ghettos in surrounding countries. Other countries now dread the possibility of our bringing democracy to them.

Iran is next on the neo-con hit list. We certainly have the weaponry to devastate another country. The lion's share of our resources have gone to building weapons and using them for many years. Time out to voice the administration's fear tactics: Oh, my god, China has greatly increased its military spending. Therefore, we must increase ours. Horse biscuits! We spend more than all other nations combined for our military. The pundits tell us war is not the issue, it's the economy. War has wrecked our economy. All services and maintenance, across the board, have been cut to finance our invasion and occupation of a foreign country.

The oil fields were the goal, and the latest news from Iraq, is the oil companies get no-bid contracts similar to Halliburton's. This war has made the rich richer and the poor poorer. Check how Cheney's stock portfolio has multiplied, since he helped lie us into this war. Look at the oil companies' profits setting new profit records every quarter. When they said the invasion would pay for itself, they meant it would pay them. "Let it be; its the free market. We need less regulation, not more!" Road apples! I've expressed my opinion of the trickle down theory before, and everyone understands just what is trickling down. We are literally pee-ons at this point.

This is not a party issue; this goes beyond Republican/Democrat. We are not only an empire, but a decadent one. Turning to the Oxford English Dictionary we find decadence defined as "luxurious self-indulgence." We in the United States are 5% of the world's population, and we devour 30% of the world's resources. That cannot continue.

Unfortunately, elections don't seem to make much difference. I've spoken against the Bush administration and Republicans, blaming them for this fine mess. However, Obama has already caved on the domestic spying issue and is courting the Christian Coalition. He'll be caving (I mean "compromising" on environmental issues next.) Does anyone really believe switching parties in the White House is going to end the corruption?

Our first priority cannot be to elect this bureaucrat or that one, but to end the war. Then we need to go beyond that, to dismantle the military-industrial complex. Ike warned us against it, but we didn't listen, and now it owns us lock-stock-and-barrel. During the Vietnam War, Walter Cronkite went over there and saw U.S. soldiers wounded and dying. He came home and put the images on television. The ensuing outcry forced the end of that war. Those in power corrected the problem, this time around, by banning those images from the media.

When O'really refers to the Judeo-Christian tradition, he must be looking at the Old-Testament Jehovah ordering the chosen people to slaughter every man, woman and child, and occupy the promised land. The promised land must not be confused with the garden of Eden, which we are currently blasting to pieces.

I probably upset some Christians with my observations, but consider how Jesus met his end. They came for him in the dark of night, took him to jail, tortured him, put him up in front of a kangaroo court and sentenced him to die. Josephus said it was the rich and powerful who arranged his execution. So it has been in empires since: those who bought their position, instead of earning it, disappear those who challenge their authority. Our government routinely practices the same atrocities. When caught, they merely change the laws.

Superman has encountered kryptonite and can no longer fight for "truth, justice and the American way." Everyone must take up the banner and march forward to bring back the ideals this country was founded on.

Amending the Constitution

It is time to amend the constitution. The word people, as in a government of, by and for the people, must be changed to corporations, in order to be correct. Since corporations were given human rights, as if they were human, they have gained more power than real people. Now they are having their way in our country and around the world. It is important to remember they only exist for the purpose of making profits.

"They hate us for our freedom." What a vacuous lie that was. They hate us, because we have been meddling in their countries for decades, telling them how to live, telling them they must be like us and telling them they must let our corporations exploit their natural resources for profit no matter what the cost to the native land and people.

My Oxford English Dictionary defines democracy as "a form of government in which the people have a voice in the exercise of power." By that definition, democracy is on life support in this country. Corporations speak loudly, but the voice of the common people is ignored. Democracy is a brand name, a marketing tool, and nothing more. For example, look how we brought democracy to Iraq.

Another example would be the way our government demanded democratic elections among the Palestinians, but when the Palestinians voted Hamas into power, every type of pressure was exerted to overturn those results.

When it looked as if a military coup had toppled the democratically elected government of Venezuela, our president declared it a great day for democracy. What?!

Since our government is now recycling their why-we-must-invade-Iraq propaganda with only one letter changed, let's look at Iran. Occasionally, one still hears about how those nasty terrorist types seized power from our ally, the Shah of Iran, but one never hears how we put the Shah in power first. Also, it is never mentioned how the Shah may have killed as many of his countrymen as Saddam did. It seems dictators must be replaced only when there is money to be made.

What would a smart person have done, when the invasion of Iraq was imminent? He would have bought stock in Halliburton. Wait...maybe, that's what a greedy person would have done.