I'm Entitled; You're Not!

The radio news caused me to look in my rearview mirror yesterday.

There was a CCN/Opinion Research Corporation poll that stated 68 percent of people questioned worry about the federal deficit.  It went on to say that only 19 percent believe that reducing the federal deficit was more important than "holding the line on Social Security, Medicare, and taxes."  (Source:  CNNMoney)

As I looked in the rearview mirror I could barely see John Kennedy saying in his inaugural address:

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.

If more people don't look in their rearview mirror, there may be a wreck.

Terrorists in Terrorist's Clothing

The Associated Press released a partial story this morning on a Christian militia planning to kill police officers.  (Link to story here.)

The difference between an Islamic terrorist and a Christian terrorist is largely a matter of "them" versus "us."

In perusing online news articles of Islamic terrorists you will see comments like, "Kill them all, let God sort 'em out," and "Those barbaric Muslims are at it again."  (See point on "Kill 'em all.")

Comments on Christian terrorists have comments like, "Ruby Ridge and Waco 2.0 with all the fixings and dead children," and, "Politics, try to make it look like there is a vast conspiracy against Obama.  Actually we just don't want socialist ruining this country."

As long as they are "us," they are good.  As long as they are "them," they are bad.

Too bad we don't live in a country where "All men are created equal."



For information on terrorists of many flavors, Jessica Stern has a great book, Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill.

Plastic Bubble Tax

The Associated Press released a story today that says Obama's health care bill--now law--will impose a tax on tanning salons.  (Link here.)  The idea is that tanning salons are bad for health and should be taxed, similar to taxes added on tobacco products.

What's next?

• Outdoor-Construction-worker tax?
• Farmer-in-the-Sun tax?
• Fastfood tax?  
• Potato Chip tax?  
• Bicycle Accident tax?  
• Sitting On Your Ass In a Theater Eating Popcorn Tax?
• Sitting On Your Couch Eating Popcorn Tax?
• Taunting Pitbull tax?
• Entering Combat tax?
• Skydiving tax?

Maybe we should just push for a blanket tax.  

It would be called, "Leaving My Safe Warm Plastic Bubble Tax."

We actually need a "Taxing Politicians that Raise Blood Pressure and Stress Tax."

The End of Food

Label found on a recently produced can of Mayan chili:

For best value purchase and eat before December 21, 2012

Now I know what to do with the food I hoarded for Y2K.   


Eat it.

Solitaire

Do you cheat at solitaire?

What's the point in that?

Do you win when you cheat at solitaire?

Really?

Do you cheat at solitaire when someone is watching?

Does it matter?

Gives a new perspective to Plato's remark--through Socrates--that the most moral person would become the most immoral, vile, deceitful person when given the power of invisibility.

One final question:

Is national security the ultimate cloak of invisibility?

Maybe we're playing solitaire.

Trickle Down?

Trickle down as an economic principle was ripped from politicians' vocabularies after the Reagan administration. Speech writers and political strategists felt it put too much emphasis on giving to the rich and letting it "trickle" to common folk.

While vocabularies have changed, tactics haven't. Bailouts have been aimed at rich corporations. Even the "Cash for Clunkers" wasn't designed to help people; it was crafted to sell cars and prop up the auto giants. The premise is that if the banks and corporations prosper, the economy will grow and bailout main street, even though most of the economy is based on small businesses and consumer spending.

Additionally, main street is about to be hit with another "trickle down." Now that corporations have been bailed out, both Timothy Geithner and Alan Greenspan have predicted that taxes will have to be increased to pay-down the federal deficit.

Hopefully, Americans won't go along with higher taxes, but they are going along with the premise. Most even believe that subsidizing insurance companies, health companies and rich doctors is the best way to provide affordable health care.

It must be said--no, screamed from the roof tops,

"Trickle down works only if you want wet socks!"

Dennis A. Carroll, 3 August 2009

The End?

When people become dinosaurs the blue rock will continue its spin in the cosmos.

Dennis A Carroll, 21 July 2009

Furry People?

Many luxuriate in the belief that animals are people with fur, when people are simply animals without.

Dennis A Carroll, 20 July 2009

Middle East Wars?

As the Israeli military bombs Palestinians in Gaza the age old mantra, "Ya, but those people have been fighting for centuries," has been heard around coffee shops, bars, and water coolers in the United States.

That is the perception. What is the reality?

Here is a list of the uses of United States federal troops, and their precusors:

• 1637 Pequot War
• 1675-1676 King Phillip's War
• 1680-1692 Pueblo Revolt
• 1689-1763 French and Indian War
• 1763 Pontiac War
• 1770 Boston Massacre
• 1774 Lord Dunsmores' War
• 1775-1783 American Revolution
• 1775-1832 Midwestern Conflicts
• 1794 Whiskey Rebellion
• 1801-1805 Tripoli and Barbary States
• 1812-1814 War of 1812
• 1813-1842 South Indian Wars
• 1846-1848 Mexican-American War
• 1854-1890 Sioux Wars
• 1860-1877 South Indian Wars (again)
• 1861-1865 U.S. Civil War
• 1872-1873 Modoc (Indian) Wars
• 1877 Nez Perce War
• 1846-1864 Navajo
• 1861-1890 Apache
• 1898 Spanish-American War
• 1898-1902 Philippine Insurgency
• 1912-1915 Nicaragua
• 1915 Haiti
• 1916 Pershing's Mexican Campaign
• 1917-1918 World War I (U.S.)
• 1941-1945 World War II (U.S.)
• 1950-1953 Korean War (technically continues 56 years later)
• 1962 Cuban Missle Crisis
• 1965 Dominican Republic
• 1965-1973 Vietnam War (U.S. involved to a limited degree before 1954 until 1965)
• 1967 Detroit Riots
• 1968 Pueblo Incident
• 1975 Mayaguez Incident
• 1980-1989 Arming and training Afghan mujahideen
• 1983 Grenada
• 1983-1984 Mining Nicaraguan Harbors (also Iran-Contra Affair)
• 1986 Libya
• 1989 Libya
• 1989 Panama
• 1991 Gulf War
• 1992 Somalia
• 1994 Haiti
• 2001-2009 Afghanistan
• 2003-2009 Iraq
  

What is the reality? From the time Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock until today, the United States has been involved in more wars than the countries of the Middle East.

The wars conducted over the same period in the Middle East could be further reduced when wars initiated, both directly and indirectly, by European nations and the U.S. are taken from the equation.

I have mentioned this point at bars before. The typical answer is, "What have we done to the Palestinians?" The answer is easy. We have armed first one side--Israel, and then several sides, Israel and Egypt for example. Today, Israel and Egypt are the number one and number two recipients of U.S. military aid.

University of Montana Arabic language professor Samir Bitar was a child in Palestine during the 1967 Six-Day War. A U.S. made howitzer shell went through the wall of his family's home during that conflict. When Bitar talks of that day, I see something in his eyes that I haven't seen in the eyes of any one else. Bitar is two years older than I am. (I am 49) I can only imagine what I would think of Israel and the United States if I had had an artillery round go through my house when I was 9 years old.

Each of us in the United States is an enabler. We are no different than a relative "helping" an alcoholic or drug addict.

Going back to one of the themes of this blog, William Graham Sumner's Person A and Person B, we (the United States--each of us) are worse than person A or B. We are an enabler for Persons A and B. While Persons A and B (in this case Israel) wish person C (Palestinians) to do something ( I won't venture there today), we assist. With our perception that "those people have been fighting for centuries," and our enabling, the Palestinians become Person D, the "forgotten man."

As this is written the death toll if 400+ Palestinians dead (mostly civilians) and less than ten dead Israelis. Five of the Israelis are soldiers that were killed by a friendly fire incident yesterday.

Those figures bring back memories of the Pequot War. When one Pequot was accused of murdering a settler in today's Rhode Island, the settlers burned alive 600-700 Pequot Indians. More were sold into slavery in Bermuda. Not only are the numbers similar, but Puritans praised the massacre in the name of God. How things stay the same.

"What experience and history teach is this--that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it."

G.W.F. Hegel