A few thoughts from the day

First, nothing ever changes, except the faces, unless you work very, very hard. Guess what? We aren't, the ones who are, are getting shot at in Afghanistan. The country is at the Mall, or busy waving the flag and calling each other names. There was to be a civilian surge, where is it, can't seem to find anything about it. That's called unity of effort to change things. The kind of thing I hope for every four years and it still disappoints.

We have big ideas and a vast majority of us invest nothing that would make us uncomfortable. We are so closed in our borders and in our minds, that the few who see or volunteer end up caring our burden with their lives. We have become so use to sound bites we think that passes as understanding. I tweet, therefore I am. The rest are just being entertained.

Where are we going, well we seem to be just circling the wagons, hording our gold and waiting for the end to come. I saw us land men on the moon, now we can't get a high speed train between Milwaukee and Madison.

Sad very Sad.

The Great Pumpkin Shortage!

Well it's the end of days for sure, Supportium when to the local market for pumpkin just to be told there was a nation wide shortage.

What did Obama do to cause this! After a Google search I found out that most of the crop is grown in Illinois, the smoking gun! No pumpkin for the cans, will there be any for Halloween? Then Thanksgiving is next, do we have Czar in charge of the mess!

Then how does this fit with Obama's Muslim over throw of Western Civilization and did Linus have the answers so many years ago for this latest assault on my dear values.

This can not stand! I am calling Glenn Beck!

Oh, I just can't take it any more.

Well, WTF came across the Google News today, the Taliban stoned a couple in the northern part of the country.

Isn't the reason we are there is to stop this sort of thing? Plus this is really far from Pakistan as the Taliban walk, so what the deal?

I here ya, big area not enough troops, the Afghan Army is just getting things together. Oh then there was the news about there operation that they got their hat handed to them by the Taliban. OK there learning and you got to start somewhere, right. Then there was the graphic about reported violent acts over a give number of years (yeah I can't remember where I saw it)but showed how things have moved from the east to the south, then around that "Ring Road" into the north. We didn't see that coming? Oh and the American Taxpayer build it to boot.

Then the good news that we are killing less civilians, but the overall civilian deaths have increased because of the Taliban. So what do the locals say, Nobody would have died, if you were not here. Thanks, keep those good thoughts coming our way.

Now I don't want to sound like I am complaining, but come on GEN Petraeus said we are making progress. I am not seeing it, of course I don't have the clear picture like he does, perhaps he is just going off the memo GEN McChrystal left.

Oh and while I am at it, it was really no surprise that GEN McChrystal staff gave voice to what they did, I have heard the same kinds of thing from various places, including my serving son. So what was the point of regime change there? Oh, and the Navy relieved the CO of the USS Peleliu for funny business with the crew, and there in the war zone supporting relief efforts in Pakistan.

Then there is Pakistan, boy, where to start, let's just look at there President. Well then that just about covers what wrong with Pakistan. Oh did you hear the leak that the ISI is helping and supporting the Taliban and most likely using our money to do it with, boy that was a good one. Just like the one I heard a few years ago that all those settlement being build on the West Bank are build with our dollars, that is really great. Cheer up though Israel is going to buy 20 F-35's, but we give them money for their defense budget. So are they really buying them?

OK, really none of this is new, just different faces and different times. This has happen before and will happen again and I think it's time we stop the cycle. The sign of being crazy is doing to same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

They said it was going to get worst.....

OK, I am not somebody who is really important, I will most likely be at one end of the scale or the other, sometimes not at all. I don't want to be in charge. I have learned over the years that command bring out the worst in me. That being said I really believe that the answers will come from the bottom-up, not top-down. Part of the problem is too many Chief's and not enough Indians, and there seems to be more Chief's everyday.

Down here at my level the country doesn't have a mission or a strategy, so many people have become so self-absorbed that the only way that things get done is to just make it up as we go along. Everybody wants things there way, many of us are know nothings and respond to fear and the fear of any sort of change. If you will, we are circling the wagons in ever smaller circles and shooting at everyone. The banding together in groups to rally against others, because we don't have that strategy or mission and any one suggested will generally will face an assault from many groups.

So here we sit throwing shit at each other, greedily clutch our things, tell others to get away and piss off, and while your at it learn to be just like us, believe like me so I can feel safe, of course my shit doesn't stink and I am always right. We have become kids in adult bodies, have lost our parents and don't know what to do our how to behave. I am not calling on Jesus or God here, because they are part of the problem or perhaps our use is more at fault.

These issues need to be solved by us down here at the bottom working together with an agreed mission and shared strategy. We are going to have to reach way down, and give up some things, and look toward the future for the gains our kids might see, because right now "It all seems to be circling the drain"

Change you can believe in

Seeing that these sort of things work by means of consensus of the elites, and that when it that comes from the those elites it going to look best for those elites. I think that change from the bottom is more of a revolution than consensus because it will have to displace or reform the elites.

There is a social economic split which is then supported by the various myths about what it means to be a citizen in America, then there are the political divisions. So really the only ones who can make the decisions are the elites, because they have the one thing that despite the various divisions unite them, power and the control of the system. That's why so much of what they do seems like theater, there playing to the power they control. They keep us divided and split into factions for there theater.

For change to happen 80 to 90% of us need to realize that only with common purpose can we change the power equation and I don't see that happening until more of us are angry enough to over look the divisions between us.

What I think is wrong.

I blame Reagan for the state of the nation, but it falls in the realm of unintended results. He gave us the idea that we, each of us could do no wrong because we are Americans. He believed that most people were good and that our society would self correct because we were everything that was right in the world. He failed to see a dark side in ourselves and by a blind believe in things American he glossed over it. He gave us the start of our hubris and entitlement that is the root cause of today's troubles.

"W" was the pinnacle of this thinking and we might have been OK if not for 9/11. Being completely blind to the world around us 9/11 only fueled the darker side of our society. The fact that we were surprised by 9/11, the Iraq war, the failure in Afghanistan, two wars with Tax cuts, the increase in Executive power, attack on our civil liberties and failure to provide checks and balances on business. It was hubris and entitlement that fueled them to take us to the point we are at today.

Even now with the crisis in full swing there are many that still cling to the faith. For all the talk of globalization, we think that we have all the answers. Wall Street still clings to their entitlement in spite of bringing us to global meltdown. The rage of the masses some how confuses them because they work hard to earn those salaries. The change in society that money equates to self worth and that the more you get the better, in spite it could be more than you could ever use.

We need to start to listening to the better angels of our nature, and I believe all the data is there to make those choices. We just need to turn away from our dark side and work for the common good.

Social Darwinism

Ya know, I listen to Larry Kudlow on CNBC and he really pisses me off. I am really tired to the Free Market knows best mantra, I mean, is this not how we got to this point. Voodoo economics has been running since the 80's, seems long enough to know and I would say it has failed to live up to the promise, it didn't raise all the boats and didn't self regulate. The idea of a free market and smaller government is nothing more than Social Darwinism. I realize that is a loaded term and some what hard to label any group with, but if I carry free markets, smaller government I can't help but come up with a permanent lower class and a great divide between
the haves and the have not, thus survival of the fittest.

I am not sure that divide between government and business is necessary or wanted, and in many ways it seems a myth. If anything these past 20+ years has blurred the lines that everybody seem to switch sides every two years. The hue and cry now is the wrong set of business persons are in the halls of government.

Frankly we need a strong government to serve as our voice in the world, a defender of our freedoms, a referee among the states, a regulator of our excess, safety net for all citizens.