Since it's quiet and we haven't had any political on the list recently. :)
T
From http://www.fredoneverything.net/FOE_Frame_Column.htm
A New Improved America
The Coming of God Knows What
Something is wrong with the United States. I
think most of us have noticed it. There is a
mortal rot in the country, made manifest by many
little rots that are hard to integrate mentally
yet are, I think, somehow related. The change is
grave, accelerating, probably irreversible, and
fascinating. Things are not as they were.
The United States is the most hated country
on the planet, followed by, to the extent that
there is a distinction, Israel. So far as I know,
there are no other contenders. You can say Who
cares? as many will say, or Screwem if they
cant take a joke, or Id ratherh be feared
than loved. All very droll. Still, it is an
interesting datum. No country ever lives up to
its own PR, but there was a time when America was
widely admired. Now, almost universally, it is seen as a rogue state. And is.
This carries a price. The US consulate in
Guadalajara is part fortress, part prison, with
barriers and cameras and bars and rentacops, and
they take away a womans lipstick if she is going
to enter. Maybe a country that fears lipstick
needs to think. The French consulate around the
corner is wide open, like all others that I know
of. The French, Chinese, Japanese and so on arent hated.
The US government now lives in its own, strange, insulated world.
(2) The United States is the most militarily
aggressive country on the planet, followed
closely by Israel. I am aware of no other contenders.
Some of this combativeness is
obviousattacking Iraq for no good reason,
occupying Afghanistan, threatening Syria and
Iran, attacking Lebanon by proxy, bombing
Somalia, putting troops in the Philippines to
hunt Moslems. The US is also looking for trouble
with Venezuela, threatening North Korea, moving
to contain China (Doesnt a container need to
be bigger than its scontents?), embargoing Cuba,
pushing into Central Asia, increasing the
military budget, and pushing NATO ever closer to
Russia. (How stupid can you get? Very. Stay
tuned.), And the Pentagon now has Africom,
African Command. Africa is now Americas business.
(3) Powerful domestic hostilities grip the
United States. Maybe you have to be outside of it
really to see it. I live in Mexico. You can go
for
well, five years and counting, without
hearing angry talk about this or that group. In
America, women hate men and men are getting sick
of American women. Blacks hate whites hate
Hispanics. Affirmative action engenders intense
hastily that doesnt go away. It isnt the normal
friction found in any country. It is serious
antagonism quashed by federal force.
And the black-white-brown thing has very
real potential for getting nasty. This we dont talk about.
(4) A curious state fear prevails in
America, but it is a governmental creation, a
calculated manipulative Disneyland. Perhaps soon we will have Terror Mouse.
Recently I was in Washington. Everywhere
there were the artificialities of fear. The steel
pop-up barriers in the roads, the stopem-bombs
steel poles on sidewalks, the endless warnings to
report suspicious behavior on loudspeakers in the
subway. The searches of everything, the
metal-detecting doorways even on buildings of
country governments, of schools. (Schools, for
Chrissakes. What is wrong here?) And of course
the confiscation of shampoo at the airport. This is nuts.
(5) The bullying of people entering the US.
Any country has the right to determine who
enters. Fine. If you dont want them to enter,
dont give them visas. If you issue a visa, try to be courteous.
Violeta had a visa, issued by the consulate,
both times when we went to the US. Still she got
bullied by the border Nazis. It was ugly. I am
obviously not a Mexican, but I get the same
hostile questioning as to where I am going, why I
was in Mexico, and so on. It is none of their
business where I go in my country. Or shouldnt
be, but there are no limitations on governmental
powers now. A friend, married to a Mexicana,
again with a visa, got separated from her, and
both got abusive questioning. She came out crying.
America was not like this. Now it is.
Compare this with the real world. I land in
Beijingevil commie Beijing, right? Maybe twenty
seconds to see whether my visa was valid, clonk
of stamp, thank you, no baggage search, into a
taxi. Vi and I land in Paris, en route to Italy.
Glance at passport, yep, its a passport, no
stamp, no nothing, on we go. Italy didnt even
look at our passports. Grown-ups.
I am not ashamed of the United States. It is
a hell of a country. Been there, done that, loved
it. In two weeks in DC with Violeta, although she
is clearly not American, she was everywhere,
always, treated with perfect courtesy and
friendliness, whether on Cap Hill or Farmville,
Virginia. Americans really are good folk. The
government isnt. Its the gravest problem we
face, both internationally and domestically.
(6) The Constitution really is going away,
or has gone. It never did work as well as it
should have, but few things human ever do. Habeas
corpus is dead, right to an attorney,
congressional right to declare warits not even
worth listing the list. Joe iPod in the burbs
doesnt care because it doesnt affect him, yet.
Git them Hay-rabs, aint no draft, plenty sushi. Urg.
(7) The increasing, detailed, intrusive
regulation of life, the national desire for
control, control, control. Everything is the
business of some form of government. Want to
paint your shutters? The condo association wont
let you. Let dogs in your bar? Never. Decide who
to sell your house to? Racial matter. Own a dog?
Shot card, pooper-scooper, leash, gotta be
spayed, etc. Have a bar for men only, women only,
whites or blacks only? Here come the federal
marshals. What isnt controlled by government is
controlled by the crypto-vindictive mob rule of
political correctness. This wasnt always in the American character.
Add the continuing presence of police in the
schools, the arrest in handcuffs of children of
seven, the expulsions for drawing a picture of a
soldier with a gun. Something very twisted is going on.
How much of the public knows what is
happening, or even knows that something is
happening? I dont know. But I dont think that
its going to go away. In ten years it will be an
entirely different place with the same name. Almost is now.