Evolution/Devolution?

Ruins

Where have all the jobs gone?

I've been a blue collar worker since I got home from Vietnam 40 years ago. I've watched up close as entire industries went off shore. I don't blame management. I sure wouldn't want to pay many of my coworkers for what they think of as work. The American work force has no one to blame but itself for outsourcing.

That said, as a Vietnam vet I watched as our best and brightest gave it all to satisfy a narcissist society bent on proving it could go anywhere, do anything to anyone who didn't toe our line. We've joined that long list of former world powers that burst on the scene like a giant zit only to revert to being a mere scar on the planet. Our ruins (infrastructure) are already dotting the landscape. The one thing we have in common with all those historic world powers is that there is only one place to go but down.

Fame and Infamy

FAME AND INFAMY

Years ago I read that a childhood friend of Lincoln's assassin told of this incident. The perp, the scion of a famous family, told his friends that he wished he could have been the guy who brought down the Collossus of Rhodes.

Later, I learned that an arsonist had destroyed the Temple of Artemis, one of the original seven wonders, in 356 BC. He said he did it because he wanted to be famous.

Later a scion of another famous family hatched a plot to fly airliners into landmarks - because he wanted to be more famous?

The Info age has made 15 minutes of fame an entitlement available to anyone who wants it. There is a fraction of humanity that will always choose to get most bang for their self promo buck the easy way, with violence.

The punishment: We should take a page from the Greeks back in 356 BC. Part of that sentence was a proclamation to erase the perp's name from history, before he was executed. Today we shower perps with what they want most - long before, and continually until - a verdict/sentence is ever achieved.

You'll notice that I never used names. Neither should anyone else, including you. Call it preventive medicine on a social level. You can still talk about them, just generically. "An un-named suspect" would do very nicely, thank you. No pictures, no film at 11, no bestowed infamy. Please.

Corruption and the T party

Delusions of Grandeur in meerschaum
The guy sitting down is the boss's son-in-law.

CORRUPTION AND T PARTY ANIMALS

I'm a Vietnam vet. A naive 22 year old when I got there, I was a believer. My dad served in WWII, Grampa was in WWI, there was even an ancestor killed in the Civil War. It was my turn to go and I let myself be drafted.

They made me a clerk. When I got to Nam I was stationed at Long Binh, a huge base. I never knew the meaning of the word corruption till I got there. It was so bad that when the '68 election came along I couldn't vote for my childhood hero HHH. As VP, if he didn't know how bad it was he should have. I couldn't vote for Tricky Dick either.

Since then it's been one thing after another. Watergate was bad enough. Then Reagan admitted he was selling weapons to the same people he blamed for killing 242 Marines in Beirut. I was aghast. The worst guys I knew in Nam gave aid and comfort to Charlie and the C in C had just admitted to worse. He should have died in prison for that.

When the Iraq war started the civilian subcontractors lined up around the block for the big salaries. They all said they wanted to serve but the military didn't pay enough. I got news for them. Patriotism is a freebie. Millions of Americans have died hideous deaths in service with nothing but chump change in their pockets.

If you're angry about corruption in gummint, where have you been all these years? We have the government we deserve. It is a perfect reflection of the population at large. I've worked with T party types for 40 years. When they're not bad mouthing authority, whether it's government or management, they're trashing everyone else out of ear shot. The three finger rule applies. When they point a finger at someone else they've got three fingers pointed at themselves.

Meanwhile, they spend so much time belly aching and so little time working that their jobs are being outsourced and they have no one to blame but themselves.

Confederate History Month

REMEMBER THIS

In spite of all the spinning to make the confederacy about something else, this is what it was really all about; the legality of one person doing this to another person.

Fame and Infamy

There are four LEDs mounted behind the door. The pipe lights up when it is standing on it's base. There are male plugs in the rear two legs with small electronic components inside the skirt. Power comes from a transformer, etc hidden inside the curio cabinet.

FAME AND INFAMY

Years ago I read that a childhood friend of Lincoln's assassin told of this incident. The perp, the scion of a famous family, told his friends that he wished he could have been the guy who brought down the Collossus of Rhodes.

Later, I learned that an arsonist had destroyed the Temple of Artemis, one of the original seven wonders, in 356 BC. He said he did it because he wanted to be famous.

Later a scion of another famous family hatched a plot to fly airliners into landmarks - because he wanted to be more famous?

The Info age has made 15 minutes of fame an entitlement available to anyone who wants it. There is a fraction of humanity that will always choose to get most bang for their self promo buck the easy way, with violence.

The punishment: We should take a page from the Greeks back in 356 BC. Part of that sentence was a proclamation to erase the perp's name from history, before he was executed. Today we shower perps with what they want most - long before, and continually until - a verdict/sentence is ever achieved.

You'll notice that I never used names. Neither should anyone else, including you. Call it preventive medicine on a social level. You can still talk about them, just generically. "An un-named suspect" would do very nicely, thank you. No pictures, no film at 11, no bestowed infamy. Please.