flag me

Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.

-Guy de Maupassant

Does this imply that we would rather see Old Glory draped over the proboscis of a foreign leader’s statue, or flapping over a Humvee, than flying over a kindergarten on a peaceful morning here at home?

Was that a really bad sentence?

My point is, do we really love war? I think we do. There are a lot of us who want to see it end now, but how many of us never wanted it to start? Didn’t we get a rush from the rockets’ red glare, that first night of shock and awe?

It’s awful, patriotism. And worse, that we equate it with humanity.

doomed

The old appeals to racial, sexual and religious chauvinism and to rabid nationalism are beginning not to work. A new consciousness is developing which sees the earth as a single organism and recognizes that an organism at war with itself is doomed. We are one planet.

- Carl Sagan

Just watch it, and tell me we’re not doomed.

relapse

A headline in this morning’s Los Angeles Times reads:

Palin ethics lapse cited

The article begins:

ANCHORAGE — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin violated ethics laws and abused her power as governor in pressing to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper, an independent legislative investigation concluded Friday.

I don’t believe in lapses of ethics. When John Edwards finally had to admit to his almost inconceivable dalliance with a videographer – in the midst of his pursuit of the presidency and the failing health of his wife – he called it a “lapse in judgment.” He might have called it a lapse in ethics or a lapse in morals. I call that horseshit.

A lapse of judgment arises from a question to which a reasonable person might have more than one answer.

Is it safe to pull out and pass this truck?

What color should I paint the bathroom?

Should I buy some new shoes or wait for a sale?

Paper or plastic?

We all are faced with countless decisions every day, for which we rely on our judgment. Everybody makes mistakes. But ethics – morality – is something deeper. It serves to inform our judgment, but it’s not the same thing. Judgment is behavior; ethics is at the root of it.

Should I be faithful to my wife or get me some extra on the side is not a matter of judgment, it’s a fundamental matter of character. So is whether or not to pressure another state official to fire somebody you’re pissed off at.

Sarah Palin has a fundamentally flawed character. It won’t get better. She has lapsed before, and she’s headed for a relapse now. It’s just a matter of time, and of which chair she’ll be sitting in when it happens. Heaven forefend that it be in the office of the vice president. God help us if it’s in The Oval one.

I live in a small town, probably not much different than Wasilla, Alaska. I would not vote for this woman for mayor. Why in the hell would you?

Yellow

Journalists do not believe the lies of politicians, but they do repeat them — which is even worse!

- Michel Colucci, comedian and actor (1944-1986)

Ain’t that the truth? It has been especially bad lately. If they’re not repeating the baldass lies of McCain and Palin, or whipping u the panic of the great unwashed over wall street, they’re basically phoning it in altogether. Have you noticed than CNN Headline News is completely dedicated to nightly chat about a single missing child? Tragic of course, but it ain’t news anymore. Nancy Grace makes Squelch want to take a shower, and not in a good way.

do something!

My Dad has this little thing he says sometimes. Maybe we’ll be sitting on the deck, taking a break, and he’ll say, “Well I guess I’d better do something, even if it’s wrong.”

That’s much like my feelings toward the impending Second Great Depression and the half-hearted, barely conscious, attempts by  Congress to forestall it. Just for crapsakes do something, even if it’s wrong.

It’s hard to fathom the crawling stupidity of the Great Unwashed on this deal. Our banks are failing, and the hoopleheads don’t want to buy off some of the burden, because that would be rewarding bad judgment.

First of all, when the pit bull has you by the balls, it’s better to give up your cheeseburger than to lecture him for being a bad dog.

Secondly, this is not the same pack of dogs that made the bad loans. They’re all gone. The guys who screwed the pooch (sorry for pressing the metaphor) are not there anymore. The only people left to punish are US.

Thirdly, this is an investment. A takeover, a buyout, a seizure, not a gift. Not even a loan. The debts we’re buying – for pennies on the dollar – will almost certainly make us money.

Fourth, the buyout law should not restrict what the banks can pay their new executives. They need to be abe to hire quality professionals to take over.

Lastly, if we don’t buy up the low-end paper, invest it, and get our banking industry solvent again, we are most assuredly fucked. The pit bull of Doom and Depression is already enjoying his toothy grip on our junk, kids. It’s already harder than hell to get a car loan, let alone a mortgage.

If businessess can’t get the money to generate inventory, if agriculture can’t finance crops, etc., etc., there go the jobs. No jobs, no economy, no business, no food. It’s another Great Depression. And don’t kid yourself: everything is bigger now. It will be a thousand times worse.

Back in the first Depression, a man might support his family, after a fashion, by breaking rocks for the road department, or driving a mule team, or tending two acres of tomatoes. The whole family might go to work all day picking apples or pears. That’s how my family survived: they did all those things and more, and worse.

My Dad was born in June 1932. The US population was 124,840,471. There was wiggle room for the Oakies to move west and pick the fruit. Now the population is 303,824,640 and growing. Where are the Oakies going to go to find work now? Mexico? Maybe, and I say it’s time we start walking south. Better do something fast, even if it’s wrong.