Back to the O.K. Corral

Between the whores in government making the laws and the whores on the bench handing down shit like this, the American people haven't got a chance. If you read some of the articles written about this travesty many of the attached comments are saying that we need more guns, and that the theater is responsible for what happened because they created a gun free zone. Einstein was right, "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."

We are going to need to have a blood bath in this country with a shooter and a gun carrying hot dog or two engaged in an O.K. Corral type shootout. There will need to be a number of innocent victims caught in the ensuing crossfire before this idiotic myth that more guns on the streets will make us safer is dispelled. When that occurs - not if, but when I say - three things need to happen. First, all shooters who off the innocent need to be treated the same under the law - death penalty or life in prison all around. All shooters should be considered culpable in the massacre and serve appropriate sentences. Second, the family of any hot dog who is killed by S.W.A.T. because they can't tell one gun toting squirrel from another will have absolutely no standing to sue. Third, any attempt by said family to sue must be dismissed with all court costs - hopefully in the hundreds of thousands - falling to the plaintiff's share. That is to say the family.

Maddow Blasts Law Requiring Aurora Shooting Victim's Parents To Pay Gun Dealers

A Crone's Face

Yesterday I went to the mall. Never a particularly enjoyable thing for me – but yesterday was more grotesque than usual for a number of reasons. One that sticks out is the young man who walked up to me, handed me a packet of cream which he admonished me not to drink because it was called Merlot cream, and said, “Let me put this on your face and erase those wrinkles.”

My face is a portrait of my life, man. My wrinkles are part of my life. I earned every single one. Erase my life? Why in hell would I let him do that?

The Right and the Left

Former President George W. Bush spends his time painting pictures of himself in the shower. Former President Jimmy Carter spends his time building houses for the homeless and the poor. That is as good an explanation of the difference between a Conservative and a Liberal as I can imagine.

Social Eugenics

Through a process of what one might call social eugenics we have managed over the last 35 years or so to breed out in many people any vestige of a social conscience.  We did so by infusing into our moral genetic code the greed chromosome.  We did so by embracing materialism, racism, misogyny and all manner of fear.  We did so at our own risk because this experiment in madness has served only to promote the good of the few over the rights and good of the many; and while the beneficiaries of the new social selection laugh up their sleeves at the sheeple who blindly carry their message forward, we risk entering a New Dark Age and Feudal Order where the wealth created by many and the power that rightfully belongs to us all are concentrated in the hands of an ever shrinking elitist minority.  

Blood on the Sand

… With his bodyguards and silver cane and every hair in place, he took whatever he wanted to and he laid all to waste... Lyric from “Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts” by Bob Dylan, from his album “Blood on the Tracks”

These words could apply to anyone of the swaggering harlots in Washington D.C. that the American people have elected to represent Israel and the Military Industrial Complex.  To paraphrase Mr. Dylan, with crystal ball and turban on and every lie in place, prominent Republicans are vowing to oppose the peace treaty with Iran that the president has just negotiated, having never read it of course.  From Trump the Chump to “How Dry I am” Boehner they are piling on to say once again that the facts don’t matter.  If Obama did it, it is wrong. 

The alternative to this treaty is likely to be all out war.  The American people had better decide how much blood and treasure they are willing to throw at the heads of these overblown lunatics, fanatics and charlatans in order to fund their geopolitical ambitions and Netanyahu’s xenophobia.

Growing Old

Some things are not for sale at any price: the skill of a gardener; the beauty of a perfect rose; the song of the meadow lark.  Greed is superfluous in acquiring the talent of a Mozart, a Shakespeare or a Monet.  Einstein did not purchase his cerebral cortex, nor did Robert Kennedy or Michael Debakey.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were not for sale at any price – that is the nature of a truly impassioned commitment.  One wonders if in our abject worship of money we haven’t set up a paradigm where monetary value is the enemy of meaning.  

It is a fact that we respect those with money or who can raise money over those with a message and a solid public policy stance in politics.  We insist that the boys on Wall Street are the smartest kids in the room, no matter how many times they sacrifice the common good for their own short term gain, when in point of fact the real brain trust is in research labs across this country where men and women work tirelessly to employ the human genome in the battle against cancer, heart disease and more. 

I am old now, and have the time to be introspective and philosophical.  I also enjoy the greatest advantage of age, save wisdom, in that I care not what others think of me, my ideas or my opinions.  Beyond all of that, the greatest benefit of having lived many more years then I have left to live is unquestionably a sharpening of my wits, a fine tuning of my instincts and an exquisite sensitivity of my bullshit meter.  

Time to Grow Up

I have read article after article and post after post that concern themselves with Hillary's camp sniping at Bernie's and visa versa.  In the words of my long dead, seldom lamented, Catholic father, "Jesus jumped up Christ in a streetcar, grow the fuck up."  This isn't about Clinton's wrinkles, Sander's Socialism, the need for numskulls like Claire McCaskill to get her mug on the tube, or some stunted soul hiding behind a cursor to take revenge on a world that terrifies them by abusing people on Facebook or Twitter in anonymity.  This is important.  This is the future of the Left in modern politics.

This is about the survival of the Working Middle Class. This is about whether or not we can turn the legalized corruption in our government around and take control away from the Lloyd Blankfeins, Jamie Dimons, other Wall Street vampires, the big banks and corporate crooks. This is about the next Supreme Court nominee. This is about an undue burden on women who are seeking to obtain LEGAL and safe therapeutic abortion. This is about voting rights for people of color. This is about gun violence, religious bigotry and racism run a muck in this country. This is about demanding that our goddamned politicians talk sense, talk policy, talk issues and never mind flim-flamming and overwhelming us with their pseudo patriotism, shallow moral rectitude and sham nobility. This is about giving them to understand that we will hold their feet to the fire. In other words and plainly stated, this is about your life.

So far, Bernie Sanders is the only one saying what I am interested in hearing. He has said it for years. However, the Democratic field is opening up. The Primary is not, is not for the love of the Goddess, a done deal. The General Election is over a year away, no matter what Chris Matthews and other blowhards would have you believe, NOTHING is settled. Therefore, read, think, talk, demand and prepare yourself to vote.