Gingrich is a total Tool

So Newt on OWS: "“Let me take that for a brief moment to describe Occupy Wall Street. All of the Occupy movement starts with the premise that we all owe them everything."

Gingrich Being a Tool

Herein methinks he doesn't have a frickin' clue.

The OWS movement is about revisiting rules that have been calcified over 40 years that direct 95% of any improvement in productivity to 1% of the nation.  That create tax laws that ensure this perpetuates itself.  That value Capital over Labor, losing any sort of a balanced perspective, and that have sold our legislative and judicial systems to the highest bidder, depriving the 99% of any sort of real Democracy.  They're protesting the sham of a political process where, two parties bought and paid for by the corporations owned by the 1% (OK, by the top 5% in this case) create no real change, only useless gridlock which isn't even entertaining anymore.

The fact is, if you look at it, if you aren't part of this group, the odds of you ever being a part of the group, or even improving your measly lot in life are pretty slim for most Americans.

So Newt, why don't you get a job that doesn't involve leveraging your political position with corrupt companies to make a couple million a year?  Something real and tangible that adds value to the US.  You once were apparently a good history professor - why don't you try teaching history again.  And stop displaying your ignorance and total tool status in debates on nationwide TV.

11.11.11

On today, Veterans day 2011, 10 years into the Global War on Terrorism -


My fellow veterans: I salute you. Thank you for your service to our great country. I'm proud to have served and I know you are too. 

(stolen shamelessly from Monique Hayden Gary with whom I served not once, but twice, on two continents)


I saw a chart the other day that something like 0.45% of the American population has served/are serving in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars / occupations. This is down from something like 15% for WWII and 4% for Vietnam.

This is why the government and society can pay lip service to admiring our citizens in uniform, yet in actuality do nothing to support them. (Note the funding and state of the VA, burying remains of fallen servicemen in a garbage dump at Dover AFB etc.)

As a decision maker in the political or economic systems, you might know someone who knows someone in the service, but the odds that you or an immediate family member have or are serving are miniscule. And that's what's wrong with the military-industrial complex we've built - there are no longer personal consequences for the decision makers for employing our sword, or trying oil or resheath it.


So on Veterans Day 2011 remember, respect, support.  And please think about the system we've created that encourages us to put our brave citizen soldiers, airmen, marines and sailors in harm's way, and support them after they've served or given their all.

In God We Trust

A response to Congress  reaffirming this week as the national motto the phrase "In God We Trust" and encouraging its pronouncement on public buildings and continued printing on the coin of the realm. 


See the LA Times for an article on this matter.


Who's god?  Or gods for that sake?  Yaweh?  Allah?  "God"?  Ganesh is a favorite of mine - let's make Ganesh our god we trust in to provide, direct and favor us above all other nations on earth.  


For 175 years (give or take until 1956 that is during the hysteria of the Cold War and under the influence of such great American leaders as McCarthy) we realized that religion is divisive and plays no place in a modern, post - theocratic government.  This is why the Pilgrims and many colonists came to this nation in the first place - to get away from state religions.  This is what the Enlightenment was all about, and arguably why European nations have ruled the world for over 400 hears.  Let me hear the words - "Separation of Church and State".


While living a just, moral and contributory life is an integral part to being a human being and a member of society, there's no place for Congress, or your city council for that matter, to legislate morality.  Legislate actions, behaviors.  Outcomes.  But morality?  Please.


Your religion is your business.  No one else's.  And plays no role in the development and management of a well run secular society.


Now if you'd like to like in a Theocracy, where religion is major part of the governing of a people, then I'd suggest you move to Iran or Taliban controlled areas of Afghanistan.  Just watch out for those who might take issue with your god, or your interpretation of what he, she or it is telling you to do.  

Why don't they just get a job?

This is a typical comment from most my conservative friends - and they do somewhat have a point.

Most everyone I've known more than 20 years have made their way in life through hard work, many by serving in the military as I did.  They worked McJobs, they were baristas.  So their point of view is that, if they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and made something of themselves, why can't all these OWSers?


Good question, but sort of missed the point in my estimation.  The world is full of individuals who've been successful despite the obstacles thrown in front of them.  Many haven't succeeded. Why should we knowingly create an economic and political system that favors the few to the detriment of the many?  I think this is the issue on the table here, not why can't a group of protestors get employed.  It's about the systemic destruction of opportunity for anyone but the already privileged, and whether that's the world We the People want to make ours, or if there is truly a better one out there.

When Citibank begins marketing financial products to the "Plutonomy" (clever taking a concept, changing the suffix and making it a trade-markable item) you know we're in trouble.  They don't even care about keeping the topic quite anymore.  (See this article on Plutonomy to get started on the details: Times Colonist)

What's really amazing to me is how the upper middle class (lets say the top 20%) have bought into this line of argument.  Coming from a world of relative privilege compared to the bottom 80%, yet a stone to the sun compared to the 1%, they've adopted the liturgy of the wealthy in some misguided belief that they too will get there.  They've been to the best schools (their parents' money can buy), networked into powerful business relationships, and are set to make their $250,000 or so a year, and somehow this has convinced them that they've succeeded on their own merits.  In reality, they've neither succeeded (A hedge fund manager can make $250,000 a day guys), nor competed on their own merits (they were favored from birth.)

If this group (which I'll agree I too belong to in comparison to the bottom 60% - I'd say I've moved from somewhere around the 60th percentile where my parents were to somewhere in the 3rd to 5th percentile today) can't see the disparity we've created in opportunity, and the wasted potential this represents for all of us Americans, then we're in trouble.  For as the Terror taught la France, so too shall OWS teach America - when the vast teeming masses that make up the bulk of this country see no future, no potential, no ability to improve their lives for themselves or their children, then things can and will get ugly.