Good morning, Frank...
What the hell! It's only 2:30 in the morning, the time when some people I
know are just barely going to bed, and here I am, having slept, awakened
and then stumbled into my office to see if anything were erupting that I
should even concern myself about, and what do I see, but Frank Reichert,
pretty much summarizing the disgust I feel with our government, both
local, state and federal. Damn. Put on a fresh pot of coffee, because you
and I are speaking of a common view, for a change, one that neither of us
can no longer predict with any certainty will not undergo dramatic change
almost on a daily basis.
Frank Reichert wrote:
> drum beat in terms of defining national security and safety. It
> is pure fiction to believe that much of anything at all is likely
> to change over the course of several years, that is, baring a
> truly global social and economic catastrophe.
You speak of either social or economic disaster, not as a social theorist
who bases his statements upon pure theory, but like myself, one based upon
the history of what I have seen and experienced in my years.
> That may be coming. Some signs certainly point to such, to wit:
>
> 1. The exorbitantly incremental increases in the prices in global
> petroleum;
Everyone is bitching about the price of fuel, in the form of gasoline for
their new, trendy but uneconomic SUV's to the old beaters that never were
that fuel-efficient to begin with. Unlike the Democrats, George W. Bush's
Republicans seemingly will not admit the possibility that the dramatic
rise in the price of world oil has ANYTHING to do with the fact we are
engaged in a heated war with several Islamic countries, oil producers all,
or that we, as a nation, are the world's largest per-capita consumers of
oil.
The impact, however, of the sudden increase in petroleum costs, are both
far-reaching and catastrophic to the American economy, as so much of our
economy is dependent upon fuel and petroleum to get things done. What is
even more ominous is there is no end in sight to the escalation of fuel
prices. It could get worse before it is over.
> 2. The US trade imbalance with China and other so-called emerging
> nations;
Are you speaking of the imbalance between our manufacturing sector and
those of the Far East, here? If so, you and I have the same view of the
world economy, as exports from our manufacturing sector to offshore
markets is steadily on the wane while, thanks in part to such things as
NAFTA, Far East countries are enjoying incredibly unrestrained access to
the American marketplace.
Nobody in political circles seems to think it horrifying that, over the
last years, we have steadily lost our manufacturing capability to Far
Eastern countries, largely due to the cheap labor and the abysmal standard
of living in most of these countries compared to our own.
> 3. The collapse, if one can dare speak of one, within the
> European Union;
> 4. The US obsession with so-called renigag states such as the
> entire Islamic world, Iran, North Korea, et. al.;
Renegade states? How about if we assume, for the sake of history, that the
majority of people in our country believe for a moment that he can BEAT
the Islamic Nations at war? Does history justify that belief? Hell no. If
Bush had actually gone after, prosecuted and soundly drubbed Osama Bin
Laden, and let it go at that, the Islamic Nations of the world probably
would have let the matter drop. However, no, Bush had to take on a
good-sized portion of the Islamic world.
Some say he did so to revenge his father's honor. I say I don't know, but
I do know Islam has been around a hell of a lot longer than the Bush
regime in Texas.
> AND LOCALLY:
>
> 4. The tremendous costs associated with all of the US wars:
>
> a. The War on Terror... no end in sight;
> b. The War on Alcohol and Tobacco;
You forgot the cost of the War on Drugs, Frank! We are still fighting THAT
war and aren't any closer to winning it than either the War on Terror or
the War on Tobacco and Alcohol.
> c. Upcoming War on Obesity (that's getting more attention as
> the days, weeks, and months go by;
> d. I could list countless others here... but the same sense
> of ridiculous government meddling in social affairs boggles the
> imagination!
Ah, the Republican-Bush mindset: if you cannot reform them to where they
think like you, legislate them out of business!
> George Wallace had it right. So did Barry Goldwater. There is
> not a 'dimes worth of difference at the higher echelons of the
> Republic and Democratic Parties'. You indeed tried to point some
> of this out obviously in your essay.
Although I scarcely had the time to thoroughly read his essay, that was
the impression I gathered, and I tend to agree with him.
> The once aspired Libertarian movement is dead in America. If
> it's alive anywhere else, I'll move there. Unfortunately, there
> isn't anywhere to move to really. Such places, even if they
> exist today, have already been taken over by the socialist
> parasites that already have their global constraints and
> aspirations in place to control the human race.
That's more or less the way I see it, too. Like yourself, I don't know
that there is a solution in sight, nowhere left to move, and I'm too old
to simply mount up on a horse and ride off into the wilderness where they
would never find me. However, don't run off. So long as we have the
freedom to discuss such issues, there is always hope, RIGHT?
Dave
--
Dave Laird ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
The Used Kharma Lot / The Phoenix Project
An automatic & random thought For the Minute:
Brogan's Constant:
People tend to congregate in the back of the church and the
front of the bus.
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