Nonsense

Common Sense says the higher the throne, the farther from reality. "Put the power of color to your message," is intoned in an add for Office Depot. "Crimson and clover," repeated over and over are words in a song played on the radio. A musician, David Byrne, believes that what’s morally good or correct for you should not govern what you do; only do what’s "fun and feels good." The slaughter and rioting continue in Kenya, an African country familiar with dictators, coups and racial and political turmoil. Chewable ice machines, 16,673 units now, have increased in the U.S. 23% from 2003 to 2006 because of demand from those addicted to chewable ice irregardless of the price. It’s obvious that advertising slogans make no sense. Lyrics from popular songs are nonsense. Hedonism makes perfect sense to far too many artists. Rioting creates a sense of purpose in unstable, countries. Fads ignore common sense. Yet it seems to me the problem of lost common sense will remain insoluble because people invariably welcome an escape from reality. The madness from the crowds is a ‘far cry’ from any higher intelligence that should occupy the throne. American Idol’s appeal is global because the idea of an idol is transmitted at birth. And the same method of perpetuation applies to nonsense.

No canaille allowed

Early in 2008, The Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Anglican Church, promotes a law for England in which, "The legal provision should keep before our eyes the general risk of debasing public controversy by thoughtless and, even if unintentionally, cruel styles of speaking and acting." So much for free thought. Luckily, only 3% of Britains attend church but the law would apply to everyone. Luckily Britain is isolated from Europe and the rest of the world by bodies of water. Yet, tragically, this religious leader expresses the perverted belief that Christ was the first Communist who preached his ‘religion’ of equality, brotherhood and justice for all. One drawback mars this Utopian, Christian, Communist, dream - the perversion of its meaning. Why does the Anglican Church choose misinterpretation? Why does the Bishop degree suppression? For generations B.C. and for generations after the establishment of Christianity, no canaille were allowed under repressive regimes. During the French and Russian Revolutions and the Cultural Revolution in China, for examples, ‘ Thou shalt not offend anyone by thought, word or deed was the cardinal commandment.’ Today, Muslim extremists ride forth with sword in hand on their current Jihad, threatening Britain’s and the heathen world’s order. Consequently, compromise and capitulation drive Britain’s political and cultural agenda. Walt Disney’s Lion King sang about the circle of life. The perverted religion of political correctness rears its ugly head and its ideology comes full circle from egalitarianism, Marxism and Communism. No speech or thought from the rabble will be allowed. Off with the infidels’ heads, the Muslims degree! Pull in you’re heads, the Britains agree!

3 monkeys in 1

Say anything - as you run for President because the public is gullible and ill-informed.

Saying nothing - is impossible because your ego demands to be heard.

Say something - and you betray your lack of knowledge rooted in facts.

When a local mayor says something: "My faith is the fact that I believe income and revenue are up," he proves his mouth moves like a politician whose brain is at rest. He then follows this uneducated something with some unwarranted complaints about the coming recession and our difficult economy. Saying nothing is impossible for him too because he is a liberal politician. When he says anything, it reflects his anticipation of government rebates or federal grants to subsidize his city’s budget and ‘improvements’ that he wants to make under the guise of supposed needs.

Our monkeys campaigning for President are no different. They see, hear and do whatever it takes to garner votes. Yet Americans let candidates say anything, say nothing and say some false, misleading things, then fall for all of the statements and promises.

Our cultural revoution

If I lived in China in 1969 during the Cultural Revolution, this blog would not be allowed. The four olds - thought, custom, culture and morals would be in the process of being destroyed. The Chinese people put up with it - often gladly - even though they had no choice. They learned never to give an opinion on anything because it might be suspect. Here in the great U.S. of A., fortunately, no old thought, custom, culture or moral has been discarded. Rather the idea, the tradition, behavior pattern and ethical utilitarianism - unite when it comes to a ‘freebie.’ Government project after government project, politicians tell us citizens, "cost nothing. SHIP, Senior Housing Inspection Project "won’t cost seniors anything either, a local mayor says. The expense to the taxpayers is ignored in America, because ignorance is bliss.

In a free market company, Exxon Mobil, continues to find new sources of oil to more efficiently power our millions of cars. Simultaneously, government, a closed market system, re-allocates monies from those who pay to those who don’t (which include many senior citizens). Such a tactic imitates the socialistic goal of the Chinese communists to create a dictatorship of the proletariat. In reality, however, only a dictatorship of the ruling class presided over the masses.

Now we have the tax rebate package to jump start the economy. The taxpayers continue to fund giveaways to those who do not pay taxes even though those who do not pay are not legitimately poor. Redistribution of wealth in America is another version of a Cultural Revolution.

Pathetic

What sells best nowadays in America is pathetic, pathological grief. A whiny, girly man, sissified by his emotions and unable to put sadness into its proper perspective writes a memoir about a beloved dog, Sprite. Yet Sprite was part of Mark Levin’s life for less than 2 years. How could his literary pap have become a New York Times best seller? What is America coming to when a nationally syndicated radio talk show host flaunts his pathological grief? And some Americans applaud? Ever since the death of Princess Diana this condition has increased in prevalence - unabated, encouraged and dangerous to the point of becoming recreational pastime. Grief, anthropomorphically based without a sense of proportion or true purpose in life, is pathetic. It radiates, hot and unremitting from a man who can’t hold it together. Mark would trade his "rating and career" to keep his dog. Excuse me, inevitably, all old dogs ( and people ) die. His words are frightening in their sincerity, coming, unfortunately, from the depths of a religion of pathological grief. Check out some of his chosen words: "Agony, torturous, overwhelming pain, terrible, killing me, depressed, panicked, emotional wreck, sinking and sinking, unbearable, bleeds, struggling. The adjectival and verbal list is endless.

Mark is a modern, professional Yuppie who can’t bury a dead dog because of community regulations so ashes are on order. He vacations often, once to Nassau for relief. He has inherited from his mother, a maudlin anthropomorphism. She provided intravenous injections to her beloved dog for one year. He is so self-important that his vet makes a house call to put his dog to sleep. He is a spoiled elitist, privileged to employ underlings from Brazil to help him around his newly constructed, suburban home. Without a plethora of funds to finance unrestricted medical care, Mr. Levin’s connections with his dogs would have been nil.

How shall his dog Sprite have a legacy? By being called Sprite Levin. By an owner being his "guardian angel." By a man regretting his failure to catch and diagnose the dog’s brain tumor earlier. By Mark talking to the tree under which he buried the pet’s ashes, asking Sprite, "How ya doing?" each time he passes or touching the leaves and branches. By Mark holding a sweatshirt against his face that the dog slept upon and inhaling. By an exaggeration of tears.
Mark wallows in sentimentality. If his pathos of Mark Levin were in itself not so hysterical, my laughter would fill the spaces between the lines. Sadness for the losses of my beloved pets raised its lonely head as I read his book, but for me, perspective usually triumphed. Mark prolongs his grief by interjecting into his memoir, sympathetic tales and expressions of loss and love from readers, listeners, friends and relatives.

A telling footnote is Mr. Levin’s "contempt for inhumanity and selfishness" represented by folks who rid themselves of a pet for whatever financial or personal reasons. He hates any person who cannot live up to his standards of love and care. A short two months after Sprite’s passing (not death), however, Mark and his wife adopt an 11 yr old blind dog who needs major veterinary services and surgeries, that, luckily, he can afford. If Americans have literally gone to the dogs, and dogs are men’s best friends, creatures made in the image and likeness of God, willingly patter on on 4 paws. Rational control of sadness still does not distinguish them from their friends.

Joy

A stuffy, a twist tie,
A fuzz ball, a cloth rose,
And thou! You chose
Your toys and the floor
On which they lay,
When you choose to play.
Brown tabby beauty,
With a rare purr for me,
Sheltered, safe and free.
My cat in prime time
Personifies the cost
Of love found, not lost.

Choose

Who does not spend reasonably when at every turn I hear of a grant, program or loan?

Who is not behaving rationally when I hear that a ‘new’ G.I. Bill to help war veterans attend college is on order? It violates the obvious fact that some men (and women) do not need or want to obtain a higher education.

Who does not choose morally when he suggests that we pay veterans a bonus for their services? He forgets that the right to be a free, American citizen infers a corresponding duty, to serve one’s country. Extra payment should not be an incentive.

Who does not save responsibly when I hear demands for universal health care because citizens cannot afford private health insurance? Many people don’t need or want it. There is no health care crisis. Life span is continually being extended. Americans are healthier than ever recreating and traveling more. Yet costs of and demand for services keep going up.

Whoever excuses dependency, represses the four freedoms.

Salute to Lincoln

Eloquence was his middle name as carefully crafted, eloquent words and an internalized ideology, encouraged by temperament and appreciated for generations. Abraham Lincoln. Born February 12, 1809, at his death, Edwin Stanton said, now "he belongs to the ages" to fathom, discuss, love and respect. Prior to Lincoln, 8 Presidents held the White House but no one for more than 4 years and 3 for less than 4 years. America was ready to be led and America placed its trust in Lincoln as its leader.

He was a Whig, then a Republican who liked to call the Democrats "locos." He wanted to change people’s minds by persuasion based on proper reasoning because he knew that one only hurts one’s self by his follies. Yet about his antagonists on the opposite side of the political aisle, he said, "I know that the great volcano at Washington, aroused and directed by the evil spirit that reigns there, is belching forth the lava of political corruption, in a current broad and deep, which is sweeping with frightful velocity over the whole length and breadth of the land."

When he said that human bondage was "not only the greatest question, but very nearly the sole question of the day," he was called a Black Republican, a "high priest of abolitionism," a nigger lover, and hissed and hooted by mobs. His remarks were necessary to counter the sentiments of Chief Justice Roger Taney who regarded Negroes as "beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.

As a lawyer he was a furious, dedicated worker handling a 100 cases a year, ( 2 a week) regardless of the financial status of his clients, always pursuing the cause of justice under the law. He respected our Constitution, Declaration of Independence and democratic tradition. He held a "reverence for the law as "political religion" which required "sacrifice unceasingly on its altars."

Lincoln’s personality juxtaposed a sense of humor with recurring depression that made him an habitue of the morose and melancholy which he called the ‘hypo.’ His favorite poem, "Mortality," expresses his acquiescence to the unpredictable workings of fate.

"Tis the wink of an eye, ‘tis the draught of a breath,
From the blossoms of health, to the paleness of death.
From the gilded saloon, to the bier and the shroud.
Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud!"

One of his own poems of 13 stanzas compelled by the tragic fate of a friend, sets the tone of his alter ego that confronted the dark side of life.
"I’ve heard it oft, as if I dreamed
Far distant, sweet, and lone-
The funeral dirge, it ever seemed
Of reason dead and gone ..."

Early in the 20th century, Stephen Vincent Benet wrote about Lincoln’s "Honesty, rare as a man without self-pity, Kindness as large and plain as a prairie wind." In the same time period, John Drinkwater wrote that "When the high heart ( Lincoln’s) we magnify, And the clear vision celebrate, And worship greatness passing by," we as Americans are ourselves great. From Ralph Waldo Emerson a century earlier, soon after Lincoln’s death, we get that "His heart was a great as the world, but there was no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong." During the Civil War Carl Schurz said of him, "He possesses to a remarkable degree the characteristic, God-given trait of this people, sound common sense." And on the day after his assassination on April 15th 1865, Walt Whitman the poet said, "He leaves for America’s history and biography, so far, not only its most dramatic reminiscence - he leaves, in my opinion, the greatest, best, most characteristic, artistic, moral personality."

Enough will never be said, thought or written about, imitated or inspired by, Abraham Lincoln.

That's 1%

The four freedoms: To spend responsibly, to save reasonably, to choose morally, to behave rationally - these are the core principles of my candidacy for President.

That 1%

That 1% of DNA by which human beings differ explains the billions upon billions of irrational discrepancies in thought and behavior. This biological mystery makes for fun and games.
The post-secondary option that makes it possible for junior and senior high school students to attend college for credit sounds like a win-win proposition but because of union opposition and government funding for public schools, every counselor discourages the idea. Leniency applies to qualifications in that students need only be in top 25% of their class and take a test, but they will be penalized on their grade point averages because regular and advanced placement courses in high school are rated on a 5.0 grade point average and post-secondary are rated on a 4.0. The purpose of such an irrational, discriminatory rule may not be obvious unless one understands that public education does not aim to educate; it aims to perpetuate government funding for an excess of teaching jobs. Furthermore, any reference to the post-secondary program at a school must be presented with total lack of enthusiasm. So much for public education’s concern for the United Negro College Fund’s motto, "a mind is a terrible thing to waste."

A second example of a tragic loss of reason from that 1% of DNA comes from agendas driven by government grants that cascade taxpayers’ money into lost or fake causes. In my nearby Ross County, Ohio this past year, 750 cases of domestic violence were reported. A representative from an interested, government funded coalition, claims the higher rate (higher than what? ) stems from the local "culture of treating people as property."

Also, home gym users and tennis buffs put themselves under the knife for rotator cuff surgery - sometimes repeatedly - in order to maintain their active pursuits.

Travelers on Holiday vacations are willing to spend $899 a night for luxury hotel rooms.

Health experts claim that the solution to all problems is eliminating poverty. When eliminating poverty, however, causes the problems of earlier breast development and puberty in girls, they claim that these problems are caused by malignant factors brought on by the elimination of poverty.

Lastly, The perfume industry is a $31 billion dollar colossus. Think about it - humanoids spend $31 billion on evanescence.

Differing DNA in human beings lends itself to lies as well as truth, but the strange and inexplicable application of either to human behavior still remains a mystery.

Allahu Akbar

Gone now in 2008 is a 3rd generation New York pub. A 2008 West Point cadet observed that it reflects, "still something pure, and good, and alright in this world." I must remind the cadet that the pure, good and right are going away fast. Insanity, political correctness and hypocrisy are replacing them. In order to prevent miscarriages (and at-risk and premature births) OB/gyms have been telling pregnant women for years to go easy on caffeine, to quit smoking and drinking alcohol and avoiding hazards, such as cat litter and undercooked meat. Health checkups, folic acid pills and a so-called healthy weight are added suggestions. Yet healthy babies - sometimes 10 or more - have been born to women, who violated each of these prescriptives, for hundreds of years before modern medicine. Then to contradict the message, a director of women’s health says "reducing caffeine won’t prevent a miscarriage that’s destined to happen...But this does give women the opportunity to do something that may reduce their risk."

Smoking, high cholesterol and diabetes are co-indicators of heart attack according to experts, yet researchers have identified a genetic variant that is linked to an increased risk of a heart attack. The variant is present in 60% of the population and is "independent of such conventional cardiovascular risk factors."

A three pack-a-day smoker dies at 64 of lung disease, but his two sisters with equally strong habits took cigarettes with them to their graves at ages 76 and 83.

Even though our drinking water and agricultural and chemical products are now the safest in the history of the world, citizens, panicked by experts and the media, choose bottled water, organic foods and non-toxic fibers and cleaning products. The steps forward that the industrial and pharmaceutical revolution have taken over the years are simply being brushed aside or ignored.

The insane, politically correct and hypocritical have replaced what’re pure, good and right, such as realism, common sense and gratitude. When a smoker says that "Smoking was a real good friend of mine," we ought to worry about America’s future without the right to determine our friends. The liberal, socialist enemies are out there. The murdering, Muslim jihadists are out there. A Chechnyan rebel they "slit...open like a tin of meat, pulled out his intestines and used them to strangle him while he was still alive. On the neatly white-washed wall above him, written in his own blood, were the words Allahu Akbar - God is great." Isn’t it time we worried about the worrisome enemies out to get us?

tHE GREATEST IS.....

Most Roman Emperors thought “I am the greatest.” Any different take on their importance could have spelled the end of a reign. This idea of supremacy for a ruler was an ancient one. From the perspective of either good or bad, emperors marched on. Julius Caesar, bad, Augustus, good, Caligula and Nero, bad, Trajan, good, Commodus, bad, Diocletian, good. Finally Constantine, good, embraced the religion of a higher ruler, Jesus Christ. One would think that the Son of God would certainly hold higher sway over mortals than the greatest, mortal, men.

Yet Rome borrowed traditions from the Greeks’civilization. Slavery was common, women were excluded from public life, and homosexuality was an accepted aristocratic practice. During the dark ages following the decline and fall of Rome, ignorance pervaded the landscape in shadowed in the persecutions of mystics, witches, heretics and Jews. The greatest emperor usually identified himself as he who could maintain power over each of the three groups of society - those who work, those who fight, those who pray. Customs and emperors, good and bad, marched on.

And where do rulers stand today? No higher than they stood spiritually ( not physically) in ancient Rome. All the greatest leaders have not adopted that ‘greatest’ commandment of love for one’s neighbor as one’s self. The mystery that Constantine embraced in 300 A.D. has not changed, but mastering it - there has been the rub.

Sun of God

3 Million men and 600,000 horses on 6/22/1941 initiated Hitler’s invasion of Russia in operation Barbarossa, the nickname of Emperor Frederick I of Germany. This onslaught would prove that Stalin’s foreign minister was correct when he observed, "Ideology cannot be destroyed by force." A tragedy beyond conception unfolded in which almost 27 million Soviet citizens would die in defense of their ‘motherland.’ The horrible toll for the Reichland was almost equally devastating. In contrast to a war of armor, Pentecostal Christian churches preach about garbing the "armor of God." As verbally confused as soldiers positioning themselves on a battlefield, evangelical messengers talk about the process of prayer and shoot off wordy weapons like "see your prayer experience"and experience "prayer gifting" as you put on the "armor of God." The harmless vs. the harmful, words vs. weapons, peace overtures vs. rattling sabers - why has humanity always come down to this futile conflict of the worldly vs. the divine? My answer lies with the sun.

If our sun were much larger or smaller than it is, life on earth could not exist. Because larger stars burn their fuel more quickly, the sun would have burned out already had it been, say, just twice its size. Were it much smaller, it would give out so little heat that the earth would be locked in a permanent freeze, and would be far too cold for any form of life to survive. Conclusion: The size of the sun is just right; without it we are nothing. Inspiration: Time-out for a meditation on the amazing, the awe-inspiriting fact of our Sun as a prayer experience that intuits the futility of war and the necessity of peace with God.

One step in the door

Is Liberal fascism just another variation in the long line of fanatical ideologies that have perpetrated atrocities on mankind? In an encyclopedia of the 1700's, fanaticism is defined as "a blind and impassioned zeal, born of superstitious opinions, which makes men commit absurd, unjust, and cruel acts, not only without shame and without remorse, but, indeed, with a kind of joy and consolation." Religious in origin, the witchcraft trails and prosecutions reigned. Religious fanaticism morphed into political fanaticism which demanded and facilitated persecutions and deaths born out of new - and old - prejudices and beliefs. The Holocaust reigned. Political fanaticism led bright, idealistic, sensitive young men to join in immeasurable cruelties down through the years from the Muslim jihadists, Bolsheviks, Communists, and recently, the Black Panthers, the Taliban and al Qaeda. Comrades were "realizing historical necessity...revolutionary duty." This language sounds familiar if read about fanaticism in the Ancient Rome, Medieval Europe or the Middle East. No aspect of law was outside of religious or political fanaticism, so killing any victim of a revolution could be justified. Intellectuals, clergy and soldiers accounted for the general complicity. Moral panic killed Jesus and the Jews and remains the indispensable guide to the fanaticism in our time. Yet how do we explain the fact that only the wretchedly poor assisted the persecuted and hunted refugees to any degree? Were they closer to Adam and more distant in development of the higher faculties of the brain from the enlightened elites? I think so. Smart people, especially politicians, have charismatic appeal. I am reminded of an atheistic Doctor who I hear dispense advice on my local radio station. His definition of smart allows for the acceptance of fanaticism or fascism in its justification of a cause for the sake of the greater good. Fascism is a system of one-party government which exercises a centralized autocratic control over the activities of all individuals especially through economic control by the state. Its supremacy of state over the individual takes the guise of a populist nationalism but in reality it’s a system of creeping socialism which encroaches upon free enterprise and private property through governmental action. Fanaticism breeds Fascism. Liberal Fascism aims to attain its goal - socialism in America. No good can come from that. If leftist liberals put one foot in the door to socialism through their fascism, fanaticism is the driving force.

No greater love

Loose morals increase the risk of cervical cancer exponentially, but why should America’s politicians or do-goobers disclose this fact when they can spend taxpayers’monies? Spokespersons for free testing agencies simply make stupid, contradictory statements about "thinking seriously about preventing something" and encouraging women to come in for testing. More free money than brains means that if a free test discloses a cervical (or breast cancer), the victim will be immediately put on Medicaid. Welfare has replaced warfare in the Western world. Instead of the "gory nurse that trained societies to cohesion," our politicians, our government agencies, our ignorant, greedy citizens, applaud giveaways that bind us together in our spirit of popular, socialistic nationalism. Another example, 23 million more dollars have been allocated by HEAP this year (in Ohio) to help the poor pay their winter heating bills. Each year the demand rises because each year the supply of free money increases in proportion to how high the poverty line can raised by politicians. Academics and academic studies confirm the fact that the poor have a "higher marginal propensity to consume." Yet no efforts exist to educate or encourage them to save and not overspend. Teaching citizens to act responsibly is not an academic issue. It affects daily living. What happened to the proposition, "that action is best which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers," which Francis Hutches on stated 300 years ago? Welfare monies wasted on the 20% perform a disservice to the 80% without attempting to educate the minority in ways to improve themselves. Furthermore, passing a temporary, economic stimulus package to help the minority, will - if history teaches us anything - never go away.

Hedonism and selfishness across the board from 20 and 30 somethings to baby boomers to retirees negate the possibility that Americans will prevent anything negative from happening in the future unless behaviors change today. When in human history have so many tried to have so much as in America? Which of the 10 commandments does narcissism transgress? I think of what Dante alluded to in his poem the Divine Comedy: "the Love that moves the stars." This profound description refers to God. Dante’s poetic mastery of this mystery amazes me because it was penned almost 700 years ago before Dante reached the age of 61. Believe it or not, nothing’s changed. God so loved the world as to allow the insanities of his beloved creations to trickle, no cascade, down through the ages.

Life-saving humor

"He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad." The DNA of Scaramouche, the protagonist of Sabatini’s novel has the dual stuff to keep a human being sane as he navigates his way through life. Capturing a moment of delight doesn’t hurt either. By a random turn of my head this morning, I was fortunate to witness a klatsch of 6 male and 9 female cardinals pecking at the bird seed on and around my stump. Humor and delight counterbalance the madness of humans as political animals.

2004 Nobel Peace laureate from Kenya, Ms. Maathai Wangari points out that political games of treachery and intrigue are common denominators in elections. "It is on the alter of this kind of cynicism that values like transparency, honesty and accountability are often sacrificed." If a person’s world view of political wisdom sees that in order to make an omelette, some eggs must be broken - trouble looms on the horizon.

Another dismal outlook applies to the philosophy espoused by The Underground Man written about by Dostoevsky. With consequences of tragic irony, Dostoevsky’s protagonist deliberately excludes himself from Paradise to prove that he is free. He exemplifies Everyman because all intelligent people fiercely resist control of their actions and desires. He knows that an understanding of true self interest requires that a person not hurt other people, nevertheless, he chooses to shoot himself in his foot. He consigns himself to Hell where love is impossible, even the love for himself which would have keep him sane.

When the world is mad, a frequent guffaw helps. Why can’t man, the political animal, choose sanity as a method of pursuing and achieving whatever happiness may be possible in life?

Life-saving humor

"He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad." The DNA of Scaramouche, the protagonist of Sabatini’s novel has the dual stuff to keep a human being sane as he navigates his way through life. Capturing a moment of delight doesn’t hurt either. By a random turn of my head this morning, I was fortunate to witness a klatsch of 6 male and 9 female cardinals pecking at the bird seed on and around my stump. Humor and delight counterbalance the madness of humans as political animals.

2004 Nobel Peace laureate from Kenya, Ms. Maathai Wangari points out that political games of treachery and intrigue are common denominators in elections. "It is on the alter of this kind of cynicism that values like transparency, honesty and accountability are often sacrificed." If a person’s world view of political wisdom sees that in order to make an omelette, some eggs must be broken - trouble looms on the horizon.

Another dismal outlook applies to the philosophy espoused by The Underground Man written about by Dostoevsky. With consequences of tragic irony, Dostoevsky’s protagonist deliberately excludes himself from Paradise to prove that he is free. He exemplifies Everyman because all intelligent people fiercely resist control of their actions and desires. He knows that an understanding of true self interest requires that a person not hurt other people, nevertheless, he chooses to shoot himself in his foot. He consigns himself to Hell where love is impossible, even the love for himself which would have keep him sane.

When the world is mad, a frequent guffaw helps. Why can’t man, the political animal, choose sanity as a method of pursuing and achieving whatever happiness may be possible in life?

More money than brains

I can’t, I can’t, I can’t stop crying as my husband laughs about the obscene, dishonest waste of taxpayers’ monies to benefit the elites in Washington. And Nancy Pelosi, the Democrats’ incumbent Italian Fascist leads the charge. Instead of reining in spending, spoiled politicians radically change cafeteria offerings and continue to talk about spurring economic growth with more spending measures. I can’t, I can’t brook such profligacy and maintain peace of mind.

More money than brains leads to trouble. Delphi, a supplier of parts to General Motors with money to burn, arrived at the point of unsustainability of salaries to employees of $28.00 a hour. Finally, an executive decided that paychecks must be reduced to a reasonable $9.00 an hour. That’s progress. Money must be abundant because two small wedges of brie and cheddar cheese, 6 grapes, 2 saltines and 1 strawberry for a side dish are priced at $4.95 in the Congressional cafeteria (now reconstituting the menus to gourmet, low-fat offerings). That’s not progress.

Insanity hindering progress is pervasive on a global scale. The evil Taliban has innovated with attacks at restaurants popular with Westerners. The huge computer chip company Intel, reports a 51% surge in its net but its shares of stock fall 14%. How can these two irrationalities be explained? The savings rate for Americans has dipped below zero. This sub zero rate symbolically represents a freeze on common sense. Why can’t a sense of personal responsibility force people to prepare for the future and/or rainy days? Then to prove that the words of Dante in his Divine Comedy for those who enter Hell , "Abandon all hope, you who enter," apply to our hedonistic, self-absorbed Western culture - I came across a reference to "organic essentialism," the new concept for modernist biological sculptors. Practitioners of this art say that the "less is more principle" is "defined by relationships to nature and restraint and lack of ornamentation." Does this mouthful of non sense from spoiled elitists reflect progress?

More money than brains accounts for waste and stagnation. But then I read about two poor Chinese parents who have less money than is necessary to solve the problem of a violent schizophrenic son, so they turn to using their brains to cage him for his own protection and their safety. Unfortunately, waste is again the outcome, because not until the son escapes and kills his mother (having already previously killed an elderly woman) does the government intervene with money to ‘put the offender away’ in an institution. Is this progress? No, not until enough money is available in struggling economies to prevent such waste. I guess I should dry my tears and be cheerful that America has money to burn - except on unpronounceable, expensive menu selections including couscous and arugula.

Liberal Fascism in the cafeteria

Under the auspices of elitist, liberal Democrat, Yuppie Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, the Congressional cafeteria has instituted some changes. Instead of meat loaf, Mahi Mahi (high class, expensive fish) will be served. Instead of processed cheese (perfectly adequate nutrition for the ‘masses’), Brie will appear. Raspberry tarts replace old-fashioned jello (a low-calorie childhood favorite). Of course, no smoking will be allowed on the premises (in line with the Democrats’ democratic program of stripping away individual rights and pleasures). Economic freedoms will follow culinary choices on the liberal agenda (certain corporate entities have already been identified for restrictions). Because America has had more money than brains (as shown in the Bank lending crisis the result of a cash flow out of all private and public, financial orifices) Americans must be penalized. Liberals not only strip away our rights, they also, true to their hypocritical natures, strip away our duties as citizens. Through the help of the Community Action Commission, a welfare based government agency, some people (who meet certain poverty guidelines) can have their taxes prepared for free. No end is in sight to the waste of taxpayers’ monies (even if some people don’t pay taxes) to achieve the ends of liberal socialism. Elites get those beneath them to pay for their privileges as the poor are encouraged to be needy, lazy victims in a society in which they do not contribute their fair share. Liberal Fascism upsets me to the point I want to puke my sweet, green, wiggly low-class jello.

Lib vs. dog

Contrasting the soul of a liberal with the heart of a dog makes me tremble, tremble, tremble. Liberal Fascists twist reality to conform to their supposedly just causes. Take Iraq. Most Americans want out, they say, but libs pervert this wish that Americans have for ending the killing so that our troops to can leave having won the war and defeated the enemy. Their version of the facts upturns reality to show that we are losing the war, sunk in a quagmire and that we never should have entered the land of the dictator Hussein in the first place. Liberal Fascism also aims to dictate by pre-selection what is acceptable behavior and then to impose its agendas upon our free choices. Today they take away the right to smoke. Yesterday they gave us the right to abort babies via Roe v. Wade. When they define an evil, it must then be dealt with through regulation or elimination. They wish to nationalize health care because big pharma is bad, to regulate the auto industry because environmental pollution is bad and to control the schools to promote their immoral agendas, socialistic ideas and revisions of American history. They promote Union control of workers’ monies and appropriation of the profits of private, oil companies because capitalism is bad. They promote distortions of race, gender and class relations and pander to their inherent inequalities. They promote grants to overcome obstacles rather than personal responsibility. We know them by their perceptions of the good which are actually re-creations by the Devil of ideas in a world view that are actually bad.

In contrast with liberals, we must raise our sights to a doggy’s life to find the ultimate goods. Dogs exude pure love, pure joy, pure trust, pure unselfishness, pure persistence played out on an unlimited scale. As John Grogan said of his beloved pet Marley, who passed on after 13 years. ..."he chased his tail till the day he died, apparently convinced he was on the verge of a major canine breakthrough." We can’t resist the embrace of a free spirited, loving, devoted dog. Yet we have trouble, as Grogan writes, figuring out how to live life, "what really counts and what does not." Studying a dog can help us. Succumbing to liberalism will not. Americans know what counts and can’t liberals the freedom to chase after socialism and Fascism at every turn. Marley, the golden Labrador - " his was a pure heart." "He was a great dog," according to his owner, Grogan. God-given for sure. The hearts of liberals come from and aim for all the wrong places. If they have their way, we will have no free spirit, free choices.

Who's master?

Dog owners believe that some dogs are masters at pursuing their prey. It’s the genetic pattern. The retriever dogs like the Labrador and the Golden deserve applause for their search and rescue behaviors. My Greyhound/Doberman mix can spy a squirrel, recognize it as prey and initiate a chase almost simultaneously. Dog owners also believe that a dog can only answer to one master so they enter obedience classes that purport to teach canines who’s boss with important words and phrases as instruments of mastery. Some Labs and Newfound lands get the messages. My black Newf, Snowbound, never chose to obey the command, "Come back here;" he just strayed. And Savannah, my mutt, has never wasted a nano-second musing over my preference when she runs after a hapless cat, rabbit, raccoon, woodchuck or squirrel. Some dogs hunt by sight; others by smell; all dogs originally hunted. When did four- legged masters of their fate relinquish control to human alpha dogs? I suggest - never.

John Grogan never mastered his dog, Marley, that he writes about in his best selling book. I never managed to contol the genetic impulses of any of my canine friends (or some time enemies of an ordered, peaceful co-existence). One bad dog couldn’t sit or stay if another dog came into view. His wiring called for a pursuit to kill. This bad dog also wouldn’t sit but rather stood and scratched with his front paws to his heart’s single-minded intent to open a door and either escape from or enter a room. I can tick off a half-dozen door panels that bear permanent scratch marks about 24 inches from the floor. Escaping from restraint and loneliness was as compelling to him as entering a room where children giggled and played offering him satisfying human contact. This bad dog hated other dogs; this same good dog loved his pack. Yet to this dog no man was master. In spite of the fact that they are mastered by their genes, domesticated dogs fill voids in human hearts. They fill unmet needs. They master our fates in mysterious ways.

Genetics is destiny

Let’s face it, genetics is destiny. No need to read what experts say, amass data empirically or pray for intuition, the obvious surrounds us. Who gets a disease, type 2 diabetes, allergies, bad cholesterol, an angina attack, autism or Alzheimers benefits negatively from a toss of the dice. Who easily gains weight, rages with egocentrism, possess emotional resilience, displays a specific body type or enjoys a high I. Q. reaps the rewards of biology’s natural selection. Perhaps the benefits or rewards actually mean a lifetime of grief and struggle, but our higher powers, bereft of the animals, can save us literally and figuratively in the long haul. So ‘let us be glad and rejoice.’ Our earthly troubles terminate with death but don’t limit or pre-determine our pursuit of final happiness.

A tale of two cats

Red vs. brown, conservative vs. liberal, Republican vs. Democrat, reactionary vs. progressive, these are the tell-tale signs of my two very different cats.

It is the best of times for the red beast, home-raised, home-bound, defender of the land of his upbringing, a retired soldier who would fight an intruder to the death, almost done in an attempt to fulfil his mission. A family man, dedicated to his adopted family’s values, openly affectionate and needy in an ethical way. Self-reliant, personally responsible for his actions. Open and honest, willing to trade his time for rubs and pets from human strangers. Open to free trade in foodstuffs, even cheetoes, random carbohydrates and generic offerings of dry kibbles and canned selections. During the worst of times he made the best of his hairballs, compulsive scratching, hair loss from fleas, raging hunger from tapeworms, lost voice from a major offensive and his chronic, raspy cough. Having risen like a Phoenix from a childhood trauma, he lives life as an optimist and never misses an opportunity to appreciate a warm spring breeze in his senior years.

It was the worst of times for the poor, abandoned, brown baby, his welfare dependent upon my largesse. Yet I am rewarded by a lack of generous purrs. His exceptional purrs, however, occur during his selfish homoerotic adventures in the night with the quilted comforter on my bed. Playful on his own terms, he’s a mean tease to the elderly red, conservative cat and to his guardian that provides his food, lodging and protection from the big, bad outdoor world. He’s never beyond drawing a little first blood with his tooth or claw without evidencing any shame. He acts as if he is just a victim of the circumstances of his wild cat inheritance. Safe in his den, he’s unwilling to freely exchange his ideas or talents with visitors to his home; he’d never leave it if it required defense. He hides from strangeness itself, preferring the security and predictability provided by those who govern his life. Healthy, happy, self-absorbed, he bows to free trade by jumping on a keyboard and sitting on the shelf of his computer as his owner surfs the net. He’s a beauty. Joy’s his middle name. Shining, orb-eyed, muscular, the picture of health, it is the best of times for the brown cat in his prime.

The party lines sometimes blur between my red, conservative and my brown, liberal cat, but when each feline’s moderate soul touches my heart, party differences disappear and I thank the God who allowed them both to enter the non-political arena of my existence.

Change

In the 19th century, William James, the psychologist preached the message of hope writing that a ‘bad feeling’ or sorrow could be overcome. When it does, it "folds its tent like an Arab and silently steals away." Would that psychologists, politicians and media pundits practiced this philosophy today instead of spreading misinformation, anxiety and paranoia amidst the general populace. The liberal messages of "disaster capitalism" , "limbic warfare," a failed economy, two Americas, etc., do harm because they neglect to promote the emotional well-being and homeostasis of American psyches. When liberals are mugged by reality and become neo-conservatives, they are labeled as converts with a "dangerous, moralistic mentality." What happened to old-fashioned demand for facts and common sense solutions to problems? A rational approach to irrational messages should be the winning combination. Yet some Americans fail to overcome their overarching fears and sorrows. They are like some terrorist Arabs who do not go silently into the night but openly display their agenda. Americans should not unrealistically reach out to a Presidential candidate of hope and change as if he or she - an external agent - can make things better. Transformation begins from within.

Running for office

Almost 500 years ago, Rabelais’ words "Scampering as if the Devil drove them," conjure up present day visions. Outside my window, dead, fallen leaves run across the ground, driven north by strong gusts. In Iowa and New Hampshire, candidates for President have run for the highest office by hop, skip and jumping in whirlwind visitations across cities posturing, preaching and pandering for votes. A conservative radio talk show host has been called by his detractors, "the man who runs America." High schools across the country run ever increasing venues of sports events including wrestling, tennis, golf and bowling. Adventurers run down slopes on skis and snowboards. Vacationers run rapids in pontoon boats. Football players run for touchdowns. Basketballers run up and down courts. Extremists run marathons. Those who try something new run the risk of failure. The clock runs out for some who fight fatal diseases. Most days, kinetic adolescents run in circles. Where does all this running get us? Athleticism accounts for a great part, but, for certain, if Satan inspires the pace, no worthwhile end will ever be in sight. The Great Deceiver inhabits the mindlessness and ignorant idolatry attached to politics. Only a pause to think can stave off continuous activity useless as leaves escaping one resting place to swirl and settle in another. Presidential candidates will now rush like driven leaves to their next campaign stops in Michigan and South Carolina. Running for office calls for caution because the Devil is in the details.

6 R's

This country has lost the 6 R’s. First to wash away have been Reading, Writing and ‘Rithmetic as rigorous pursuits in our public schools. Not far behind, sluiced down history’s drain by pacifist protestors after Viet Nam, have been the Ruthless, Relentless and Remorseless tactics of war. When it really counts, when the preservation of mind over matter comes into play, the 6 R’s play paramount roles. In the Italian campaign of World War II, 1943-1944, no holds were barred against killing the enemy - the Nazi, the German, the kraut, Ted, Hun, Boche, bastard or son-of-a-bitch. His name may have been differently expressed by Allied soldiers, but the three R’s of combat, ruthless, relentless and remorseless, held the center together for the sake of the alternative three R’s, reading, writing and arithmetic whose free pursuit was at stake back home. At an offensive near Cisterna, "a life was snuffed out every 4 minutes," a terrible price to pay to guarantee freedom. When a choice shines clear, when stakes stand highest, when defeat means death - of both the mind and a culture - remember the 6 R’s.

Cat duo

Thunder of paws
Aged and young
Earnest without jaws
Peach and tabby run.
Feud with friendly cause
Awesome nearness -none.

Bigger naifs

Even as we proclaim to be the greatest country in the world, we display the typical human characteristic of blissful ignorance. Iowa’s caucus chose the biggest naif on foreign policy without a care about its implication. A tiny number of politically motivated Iowans chose New Deal Religion with Huckabee without notice of how it would be implemented. The democrats chose a false image of moralistic, oppressive, bullying, socialistic statism with Obama because he looks and talks so well. Self-reliance, self-respect, personal responsibility, hope based upon personal choices - principles of conservatism traditionally guiding Americans - hid themselves under the hat of present prosperity. Too troubling would be thoughts based upon data or observation. When a Clinton, Edwards or Obama says "most Americans have seen their incomes stall," listeners believe them. Agreeing out of courtesy, acquiescing out of ignorance is the American way. When a wealthy Buffett takes the high road complaining that he’s willing to pay more in taxes because his secretary is assessed a higher percentage than he, listeners believe him too without demanding elaboration. Had the listeners been shareholders in Berkshire-Hathaway, they would have been forced to care about the profitability of their investment and the loopholes (often charitable) used by the CEO of the company to reduce his tax burden.

The devil dances in the details of each and every caucus, primary and election around the globe. Sometimes a violent tune provides accompaniment. Sometimes, usually in America, his laughter enhances the party’s atmosphere.

Election day !

Question - Who have a "lot of returning experiences?"
Question - Who hear a fact when a fiction is stated?
Question - Who descend for a free, sunflower lunch?

Answer - Basketball players according to a local coach.
Answer - Liberal democrats and delusional Republicans
Answer - Wintering cardinals

Three actions unfold on caucus day, two unrelated and one relevant to the contrived and overblown, political posturing tonight in Iowa. Bounce-ballers and birds have the two to one advantage on the court of reality.

The detritius of war

The detritus of total war in Italy, 1943-1944:
A General shoots a man’s mule because it blocks a bridge in the path of march.

A herd of goats is used to clear minefields.

Local pigs, sheep and cows are slaughtered by a retreating army, rendering them useless to advancing troops.

Cats and dogs are consumed.

Soldiers heave dead sheep into the wells.

Gunners calculate that $25,000 in artillery shells is spent for each enemy soldier killed.

One casualty is suffered for every 2 yards.

A surgeon carries a hacksaw and a canvas bucket for amputated limbs.

200,000 shells in 2 days; 11 tons a minute are lobbed at targets.

A lieutenant disemboweled by grenade fragments repeats the name "Erika" ...then dies at dawn.

Condoms keep rain out of rifle barrels.

Mobile shower units visit troops on the battlefield.

Officers provide themselves with cognac and flowers.

A General’s party features wine, fresh meat, a grand piano and Italian musicians.
Incongruities win; combatants and civilians lose.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!

"The best way to ring in the new year is to ring in the true sentiments of past President Ronald Reagan.
"Whatever else history may say... I appeal to your best hopes, not your worst fears, ...your confidence rather than your doubts....dream ...that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying your way."

"It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions."
"We will always be prepared,(militarily) so we may always be free."

"Let us resolve that young Americans will always find there is a city of hope in a country that is free...and let us resolve they will say of our day and our generation we did keep the faith with our God, that we did act worthy of ourselves, that we did protect and pass on lovingly that shining city on a hill."

"America still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she‘s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home."
"Freedom is not something to be secured in any one moment of time. We must struggle to preserve it everyday. And freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction."
"America is too great for small dreams."

"America needs God more than God needs America. If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under."

Taking stock of our present condition, looking around at our society’s cultural offerings and assessing how well we have done since Ronald Reagan left us with these inspiring passages - I can only conclude America has been bloodied. In 2008 and beyond, will she be unbowed?