In Praise of Common Sense

Ron Paul continues to be a voice of reason when there are precious few left. Though I don't agree with all of his positions, especially domestic, I do think his take on foreign policy is one hundred per cent spot on. He's one of the few political figures who correctly equates the nonsensical policies (lately exemplified by the almost farcical security scrutiny given airline travelers) with an indefensible empirical foreign policy that is not only bankrupting the country financially but in terms of common sense as well.

Quite simply stated, to paraphrase, the viewpoint is this... if we weren't all over the world fucking with people, they wouldn't be fucking with us. The idea that anybody hates our freedom is ludicrous. What they hate is us meddling in their affairs. What they hate is drone missiles and full on invasions. What they hate is us entering their homes and homelands, doing as we wish, ostensibly for their own good. What they hate is us building military bases that never go away. And as long as we continue these policies, our country will continue to deteriorate, from both outside and inside forces.

To me, this is a no-brainer. Many thinking individuals agree. The majority of Americans think that our involvement in long term overseas military ventures is unsustainable if not flat wrong. And yet, we continue to do it... year after year, generation after generation.

Were Ron Paul a Democrat or Independent, he would be railed at by the "right" as being un-patriotic, if not un-American. However, being that he's a Republican, and from Texas to boot, they really can't accuse him of such. The "left" pretty much ignores him as well, as he is, after all, a member of the ostensibly "enemy" camp. And still, whenever given the opportunity, he continues to point out the glaringly obvious reality that the messy bed we are currently tossing and turning in as a nation was in fact made by us.

Does this give hope that voices of reason will prevail? Not really. There are too many voices, both shrill and subtle, that wish the unreasonableness to continue. Because it is, after all, hugely profitable. But it is nice, even blatantly good, to hear at least one voice of truth in a cacophony of lies and half truths from both sides of the political aisle.  

Babble On

Like lots of other people ostensibly on the "left", I tend to wonder what happened to Barack Obama. Of course, if the polls tell the truth, the "left" I'm on is actually remarkably near the center. For instance, I'm for universal health care. So are most people. I'm for ending the two wars we're in... like now. As are most people. I'm for taxing the socks off the ultra rich. As are most people. And so on.

As for Obama... well, he's not so easy to define. He used to make noises like he was one of us. You know... like most people. He even did some ballsy things... like taking over the majority ownership of General Motors, for instance. And look how that worked out. General Motors has now totally turned things around. The idea that a government can't be involved in industry is ludicrous. Ask China.

But, alas, we have a system, and by golly we stick with it. Our system is to make sure the stupid rich get stupid richer and then some of the crumbs will fall off the table and we can eat.  Republicans and Democrats both support this system wholeheartedly, judging by their actions.

Obviously the crumbs the politicians are getting are substantially larger than the ones most of us get.

We also invade countries for reasons unbeknownst to any but those in the loop. At least we hope those in the loop know the reasoning. We're given reasons, of course,  but upon examination, they usually vaporize. We're fighting communism (remember... we used to fight communism... now we buy all our crap from China) or we're fighting terrorism, and so on. Again... Democrats and Republicans are for doing this. Most of us aren't. But in our ostensibly representative government, what most of us want really means surprisingly little. And an endless state of war is extremely profitable to some people. The money that is drained from our national treasury goes directly into their offshore accounts, or gold bullion stashes, or wherever they keep it.

I'd like not to be thought of as cynical. I consider myself realistic. I'd love to sing cumbaya and wear silly cute t-shirts and have a designer dog. But alas, I gravitate toward blues, my dogs are mutts and my t-shirt is white with a couple of stains on it.

Nobody is going to listen to us. Not Democrats, not Republicans, not Tea Partiers, not Jon Stewart, not nobody.  Power corrupts, and every time somebody gets into a position of power, they are corrupted. It's inevitable. It's a law of nature, as irrefutable as the law of gravity.

And so the best we can achieve, I suppose, is to state our little opinions, our small truths if you will, for posterity, and for the sake of others who might feel similarly. So that maybe, just maybe, when the dust settles in some unknown time, people will know that amongst the insanity, there was maybe a glimmer of light among the supposedly ignorant masses.

 

The Sound of Hooves

MySpace (or my_, as it is now apparently called) has finally truly imploded. This is what a poison gas attack must look like. In case you haven't visited Rupert's Playground lately, you should don your hazmat suit and take a gander at what WWI was like. It ain't pretty.

And Facebook, in spite of its vast popularity, somehow still creeps me out a bit. I don't know why. I don't analyze stuff like that too much. It's not that it's inherently evil (is it?) or anything... but I mean, that is where Sarah Palin spreads her nonsense and really... is openly inviting something that's gone viral into your life a good thing? Hmmm.

So I guess I'm back to real people in the real world. You know, people I actually know. People I actually meet. What a concept.

Not that I don't feel I know people I've met (especially on MySpace before the invasion of the body snatchers) through social networking sites. But alas, it's time to pull back. At least from trying to meet any new people. It's time to move on.

The Summer of Love, after all, was a wonderful thing... but not even for a whole summer. And once fall came there was nothing but human flotsam and jetsum washing up on the sidewalks.

So I'm going to try posting my blog over here for awhile. A blog is almost an antiquated notion now. Which makes me like it. You have to put whole sentences together, and paragraphs and such. And then people respond in kind.

Whew. All that syntax in one place is kinda daunting, isn't it?

Of course, I'll still make an occasional visit to Lisa Ferreri's site, Wiffledust.com. And I'll get in and out of Facebook to accept friend requests, and then leave before I get anything on me (that's actually kind of the way I feel... I hurry along, with my helmet on, hoping to escape unscathed). And if I absolutely have to, and I'm feeling courageous and fortified, I'll wade into "my_" and get back out as soon as humanly possible.

Telephones still work. E-mail is a good option. Maybe we should go back to writing letters and sending them in the mail. Remember what a cool feeling it was to actually get a surprise letter from a friend n the mail?

Besides, the way the country is going, we might be back to mail delivery by pony express. Which is good for the employment of horses, I suppose...