The following are my reactions to a variety of news stories I've recently read on-line. Any quotations below are not cited as to source, but did appear in the original news stories.
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ONE:
RE: 22nd Amendment placing term-limits on the President: This amendment was a terrible idea, for it assumes that Americans are too stupid to know what to do at the ballot box.TWO:
"A broad-based group of Israelis plan to lobby the Knesset to declare the country, for the first time, a Jewish state by law." You mean to tell me that, not once since 1947 and the waging of several wars, did anyone in Israel think to do this? That's one massive oversight, in my opinion.
I have no problem thinking of Israel as a country, the majority of which consists of Jewish tribalists. Fine, that doesn't mean we have to actually drag religion into this. Suppose, someday, a majority of those who were born Jewish (tribalists, who may or may not know much about their own faith) decide to convert to Buddhism. Would their secular law bar such conversions or even jail those who try to propagate any new faith?
THREE:
"The [US] Army is not standing still. The Army is doing many, many, many [THINGS] in order for us to [SHAPE] the future environment...” - Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff.
This is a very telling statement. Tell me, since when was it ever the Army's mission to “shape” environments? Also, please define “things.” Does that include small scale secret wars (oops, I meant to say “interventions”) such as the mission to neutralize Africa's Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army? [We're just using that as an excuse to insert our forces into as many African nations as possible. Slick move to have a black US President push this agenda!] If the American people knew how many such secret little actions we've got going on around the world (costing tens of billions of unaccounted money from secret bank accounts and sales of heroin from Afghanistan), they would stop believing in things like “fiscal cliffs.”
The only reason Defense Dept (what a misnomer) wants a “nimble” Army is to be able to quickly insert ourselves (ideally, secretly) into as many pre-major conficts as possible in the belief: If we stamp them out early enough, they won't get too dangerous.
We could still have the greatest defense in the world with HALF of our current budget by, for instance, getting rid of the F-35 and reducing to 1,000 our nuclear arsenal. [We said we'd de-nuke decades ago when we signed the NPT.] As for having enough boots available, we've got to insist that others' boots do the job (not with us, but instead of us) – such as German boots, French boots (yea, Mali), Italian and Spanish boots (good cure for their high unemployment rates). But...sadly...what's going to happen is a reintroduction of our military draft, which Rahm Emanuel favors (but not too loudly), when it is “revealed” in future, heated Senate committee hearings that our reduced, volunteer Army has left us dangerously exposed.
The only such exposure going on is being experienced by the American voter to military-industrial complex lies.
FOUR:
Take a good look at that Mexican marine with his hand on [the recently-captured drug cartel boss] Guzman's neck. He's whispering, "Don't worry about a thing. Meanwhile, I hope you like the neck massage I'm giving you."
FIVE:
By way of contrast, just try to sell political literature on a street corner in Chicago, Illinois without a "speech peddlers' license." As for jailing people for hanging street posters in Egypt, this is just a measure of La-Sissie's cowardice. You do know he is a general who never saw a day of combat, so the degree of his cowardice sure picked a great time to show itself. Cut off all US aid to this wannabe Pharaoh who has only the autocrat's love of democracy.
SIX:
La-Sissie looks mighty pleased with himself. Being lionized makes him dream of his image appearing on the Greatest Sphinx. But Egyptian politics can be fickle. Those who support him today might well come to think of him as a piece of something that just emerged from a Great Sphincter.
SEVEN:
RE: Pending Arizona law allowing, under the guise of “religious freedom,” discrimination by shop owners against gays: "Instead of having an honest discussion about the true meaning of religious liberty..." OK, let's have that discussion. Suppose one of the descendants of Ham (you know, a black person) entered the shop of such a religious zealot. This shop owner should be able to deny service to this customer because the Bible teaches that blacks are inferior, right? I mean, we don't cotton to dealing with Hamsters. If a man establishes a business, he's expanded the so-called public space to which any and all citizens have a right of access - unless, say, it's a members' only private club. If this man doesn't like what walks in his door, he should get out of business and establish a monastery instead.
EIGHT:
RE: Dingell from Michigan, longest-serving US Congressman to retire: So this seat, passed from father to son decades ago, might pass to Dingell's wife who just recently announced her candidacy? How touching! It seems everybody's in favor of term limits except when it comes to "our" guy or his family.
NINE:
"This is not the time for personal interests. The nation is above everybody." Fine – then I'm sure La-Sissie won't mind fully disclosing his personal assets and those of his generals. We all know how important transparency is to democracy, so I'm sure the Field Marshall (who never once participated in a war) would approve. But if he doesn't, perhaps Edward Snowden has files that could shed some light on the matter. Or perhaps a publicly spirited hacker could enlighten us. I'm surprised that countries like Saudi Arabia would give these leeches a dime without insisting on full disclosure.
Oh...wait a minute...that's right...the last thing the sheikhs want is people knowing who owns what. So I'm sure they cut La-Sissie some slack, since he's keeping the Brotherhood under control. But they won't stay under control for long. They might end up paying a visit to the royal House of Saud to share their “opinions” about what is the right thing to do.
TEN:
"[Louisiana senator] Landrieu's growing ability to help Louisiana's oil and gas industry through her recent promotion to chairwoman of..." As long as voters keep voting in support of their own narrow, local interests - and as long as our system rewards promotions to chairmanships that nurse this trend - we'll never have leadership that cares and works effectively for the country as a whole.
ELEVEN:
What is not widely known is that the Dalai Lama is absolutely terrified of [Tibetan deity] Dorje Shugden. That's a rather interesting reaction from someone claimed by many to be a Living Buddha. For my part, I saw Dalai as a very unprofound, silly, giggling, old man who allowed himself to be used as a Cold War pawn.
TWELVE:
On the opulent life style of the former president of Ukraine: This reminds me of an old story I heard about Chicago's first Mayor Daley. Whenever the subject of money came up - that is, top officials wanting raises - the parroted party line was "nobody gets to make more than the mayor." When the old bastard kicked the bucket, it was revealed that he was paid a secret salary by the Democratic party. Yes, we have our own homegrown thieves and liars.
THIRTEEN:
RE: Egypt police officers acquitted in 2011 killings: The next time an Egyptian policeman is killed by a terrorist's bomb, don't be too surprised if the Egyptian man in the street isn't all that sympathetic.
FOURTEEN:
RE: Cossack photographed in uniform whipping members of Pussy Riot: "This Cossack" was held accountable? Does that mean he was given a medal "on account" of his meritorious service to the state? The word "accountable" is too vague here. As for "this Cossack" was "fined" - does that mean he was told he did a "fine" job? Does "this Cossack" have a name?
FIFTEEN:
Ah, yes, lack of “standing” - the old fall-back of our legally-challenged judiciary. The judge thinks “their injuries” [RE: Muslims spied on by New York's finest] were caused by the news establishment, which was effective in doing its job by revealing this information. Of course, this worthless POS judge didn't want to consider that any such injuries wouldn't have occurred at all if NYPD hadn't set up this program. Even if this operation had remained secret, parties could claim injury by its mere existence since it promoted a mind-set among law enforcement that it's OK to target Muslims which, in turn, has a very good chance of tainting the cops' overall attitude of Muslims in general.
It could be argued, “But without the news expose, defendants wouldn't have ever known surveillance existed and therefore wouldn't have sued.” Ahem, perhaps so, but surely the judge had to take into consideration that we can't keep secrets very well, so it was only a matter of time until this program became known.
SIXTEEN:
If you really want to "occupy the GOP," just vote in their primaries en masse. Yes, I'm talking to independents with a lower-case "i". Even if you're the kind of i who doesn't feel warm fuzzies for the GOP, if enough of you flooded their primaries, the corn pones wouldn't have such a lock on the party. Sometimes, the best answers are the easiest ones - and they're right under our noses.
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Steven Searle, former candidate for USA President (in 2008 & 2012)
Founder of The Independent Contractors' Party
Contact me at bpa_cinc@yahoo.com
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