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| SQUASH SCRAMBLE, SUNDAY, 20 SEPT 09 |
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Eternal Vigilance Is The Price Of Liberty
Those That Don’t Know Their History Are Doomed To Repeat It
PONDERINGS
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. Friederick Nietzsche
It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. David Brin
Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today. Mahatma Gandhi
The more corrupt the state, the more laws. Publius Cornelius Tacitus
The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines. Charles Kuralt
The dynamo of our economic system is self-interest which may range from mere petty greed to admirable types of self-expression. Felix Frankfurter
IDIOTORIAL
Are we angry? Mad as hell? PO’d? You bet your sweet bippy we are. What to do? What to do?
Be careful what you say & do, because the Bill Of Rights has been squeezed by the Patriot Act, and your “right to a redress of grievance” has been curtailed by the ever vigilant eyes & ears of the U.S. gubmint. Remember The Patriot Act?
For more than 40 years, gubmint at all levels has been on a march away from what [in a perfect world] we would like to believe is its most important duty: preserving, protecting & defending both the rights & the welfare of its citizens. Gubmint, especially the pols, have been busy ensuring their own welfare, and often doing it in the back rooms and shadowed corridors at the expense of the citizenry.
For those who have been paying attention, the process has been a slow, methodical, but inexorable march in the wrong direction. Now, because of a few bloviators [mostly inflammatory], M/M J. Q. Average has risen from their long mesmerized slumber induced by the siren song of conspicuous consumption, as well as the eternal pursuit of something better for their progeny, finally understanding that something is terribly, terribly wrong, and our progeny will probably not have it as good as we did, for the first time in human history.
The economy is in the toilet. The financial industry is in shambles. Industry is gone overseas, along with all those good jobs & benefits. The housing/development bubble has burst. Natives & immigrants, both, are overwhelming our meager social safety nets. Most ingratiating, it has all happened as the very institution empowered to prevent it has, rather, wink-winked & pooh-poohed as the nay-sayers raised the red flag.
We have the power to reverse this trend. To seize the opportunities imbedded in these momentous challenges confronting us.
We invented the technologies that will wrench us from the devastating effects of global warming. Brought about by the iron grip of the fossil fuel industries on pols & our common sense ability to solve the dilemma. We have done it before. We can do it again!
We can adapt successful programs from the past, and other industrial nations, to our benefit. We invented ‘cap & trade’ and it needs doing again. We had the finest railroads in the world, and we need them again. We possess the ability to conserve resources in order to preserve our culture.
We do not need to re-invent the health care. All we need do is change our perception of health care to one of a moral right. Wrest it from the iron grip of the for profit demagogues who own the pols, and have distorted reality beyond our meager ability to understand the stark realities of our dysfunctional health care system. It has been done all over the industrialized world, and we need to adopt the best. Single payer is the best, because all the $-billions squandered on the myriad of other systems that have been created through the years would disappear, and it would come under one umbrella. And the cost would be borne by every citizen according to their ability.
Of all the challenges confronting M/M J. Q. Average, the most daunting must be reforming corrupt, inept, and aloof politicians. They exist in a world of ambition that bears no resemblance to the realities of the world of M/M J. Q. Average. That is no excuse for not doing something, For abandoning “their all corrupt” mantra that has divorced too many citizens from participation in democracy. With all its faults, it is still the best opportunity for human rights and the spirit of adventure and conquest which created the American Dream.
We certainly aren’t lacking opposition for the sake of opposition & demagoguery.
Effective leadership is within our grasp! Let us seize the opportunity for change & leave something for our progeny besides a horrendous mess of problems and squalor.
CONNECT THE DOTS
Court Debate About Islam
Could Fears Of Runaway Be Real?, SPTimes, Michael Kruse:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/how-real-are-runaways-fears-of-being-killed-for-becoming-christian/1037655
Energy Reality
A New Climate For National Security, SPTimes, D. V. McGinn [VADM, USN, Ret]:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/perspective/top-military-minds-mull-climate-change-energy-efficiency-new-fuels-and/1037130
Oil Won’t Bring Us Energy Independence, SPTimes, LTTE:
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/letters/oil-wont-bring-us-energy-independence/1037397
Health Insurance Darling Scams Everybody!
Senate Plan Falls Short, SPTimes:
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/senate-plan-falls-short/1037391
Mad As Hell, But What To Do?
Edgy Americans Look For Someone To Blame, SPTimes [WPost], Jim Sleeper:
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/edgy-americans-look-for-someone-to-blame/1037411
The Good Guys? In Your Dreams!
Republican Health Care Failure, Creator’s Syndicate, Steve Chapman:
http://www.creators.com/opinion/steve-chapman/the-republican-health-care-failure.html
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Posted by curmudgin on 2009-09-20 13:34:50 | Rating: | Views: 7
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