I have been re-reading James Howard Kunstler’s “The Long Emergency” recently and I recommend you read it, if you haven’t already. Kunstler is a big thinker and, unfortunately for his career, is not on board with the happy-face mood of our country. His is not the message America wants to hear at this moment, but if you want to see around the next turn of fate to protect yourself and your assets, you need to get familiar with what he has to say.
For a prophet of doom, Kunstler is a lot of fun to read — a big improvement over the Old Testament prophets. I think you could summarize his attitude to his writing with the phrase, “You’ve got to laugh to keep from crying.” And he will make you laugh!
He writes somewhat like Hunter S. Thompson, but describes the real world with humorous insight rather than his personal hallucinations. Continue reading →
Imagine that one day in the not to distant future you answer a knock on your door and find that the Police are there to arrest you for a crime that you haven’t committed, but someone has identified you as having the potential to commit that crime some time in the future. Sounds like 1984 Science fiction doesn’t it. But what if it was actually happening right then and there? What would you do? More appropriately, would there be anything you could do? Or are you one of those who loudly state “That could never happen here?” Continue reading →
There may have perhaps have been a time when America was a land of at least some brave people. although arguably a nation that celebrates as heroic a history that features lots of people with modern guns and cannons conquering and destroying another people who were living in the stone age and fighting back with bows and arrows, and that built its economy on the backs of men and women held in chains certainly has a tough case to make. What is clear though is that there is nothing brave about modern-day America. FULL ARTICLE
“It became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it”
I recalled this statement while I was reading a very powerful look at the My Lai massacre that took place during the Vietnam War. The depravity of humanity gone mad is revealed in this account and one would think that we would never again commit such atrocities. But the powers that be convinced us that we should put it behind us and move on. And now it seems we have repeated the depravity again in Iraq.
Is it true that our future is shaped by what and how we react to events and realities of the present? Have we gone even deeper into depravity since My Lai? And if that is true, what did we not do that would have kept us from drifting into an open acceptance of torture and unjustified bloodletting today? If the future we get IS up to us, what failures of our past determine what we leave for our children today? Continue reading →
Those who wish to eradicate America’s participation in torture do not grasp the larger picture-the picture that is even broader than the nation’s history of torture. I’m speaking of civilization itself which leads to empire which leads to every form of abuse imaginable. FULL ARTICLE
Americans in the past fifty years have come to believe in a “something for nothing” economy. As little children we were raised to the crooning of Jiminy Cricket singing, “When you wish upon a star your dreams come true.” While it is true that America has been the land of great possibilities, there are limits that we have failed to acknowledge. FULL ARTICLE
Rex Huppke at the Chicago Tribune kindly asked me to answer a few questions for his latest article, “Populist Irritation Doesn’t Have the Same Ring as Populist Rage” – I think it’s a good satirical look at the state of politics in America….more of the same, and more of the same.
Watching C-Span this week, I happened to take in what money Obama was proposing to spend as part of the Stimulus. One of those items was money to improve the availability of education for all who desire a better education, but can’t afford it. It reminded me of the rapid growth in cost to obtain a good education. And coupled with this proposal were two stories in the local paper the past few days concerning contributions of some college students.
It seems that the communications satellite to be put into polar orbit by India in April was designed by college students and their instructors at Madras University in India. Another newspaper story carried the information that a new method for detecting breast cancer had been developed by students and instructors at the University of Arkansas. The detection method analyzes the chemical composition of tears collected from the eyes to detect telltale indications of the breast cancer. Now that’s money well spent and knowledge and experience almost impossible for young minds to get in any other scenario. Continue reading →
Protest (American, definitely not a verb): Wait for UFPJ or ANSWER to stage a parade (I mean, demonstration) on a weekend afternoon so no one misses work or school or in any way disrupts the flow of commerce. Don’t make a sign; the organizers will make one for you. March in an orderly fashion, be polite to the occupying army (I mean, cops), and be sure to stay in designated free speech zones. Blame the Republicans. Wear costumes. Make puppets. Exclude anarchists. Hold a candlelight vigil. Sign a petition. Chant. Vote for a Democrat and hope for change. Need I continue? Continue reading →
