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It has been toooooo long!

September 12, 2009 in Politics | No comments

Yet, faithful readers (or not faithful?!? NOT FAITHFUL!?! I knew I couldn’t trust you…) it is not I that writes.  I am posting this because my good friend Danny Hynds has written something so simple. So thoughtful, so powerful. It actually sums up thoughts in my head that I have had for too long, thoughts I have had while staring at the news feed on my own Blackberry, while listening to my own headphones on full blast. It is not overly critical. It is not critical enough. Danny, thank you for writing this and please keep your thoughts coming. I respect them and they are a WELCOME break of rational thought during times where political ideas are boiled down to three words clips and growls.

I think I’m becoming completely paranoid. Either that, or I’m just becoming slightly more informed. Either way, it sucks. The country we live in is in a really, really shitty state right now. This is not because of Obama, contrary to the view of many. It is because of us as citizens. We have become completely reliant on the media, and on our phones that can do everything for us. Don’t get me wrong, I think technology can do some amazing things, but people have just become so reliant on it that if they had to spend one week without their iPhone, they would go crazy. Computers and technology are telling us when to eat, where to go, and how to do it. It’s scary if you really think about it. What’s scarier is the thought of what sort of society my children will live in. It’s bad enough now. When you look on the street, bus, train, anywhere, everybody has their headphones on, and are browsing the internet, completely unaware of their surroundings. Just imagine what it would have been like living in a society where you had to actually think for yourself, instead of letting Apple do it for you. Even though the dependency on technology scares me, the dependency on the media is far, far worse. Everyone lately has this false sense of entitlement and knowledge about how our country should be run, but the reality is, they are far more dangerous than any president could ever be. One man is not responsible for the recession, or the national debt. It is a long list of idiots who have spent way too much, but “Obama-haters” always like to bring up the trillions we are in debt. Do they ever mention the spending Bush did with the war, or anything else? What about Clinton? Obama did not walk into the white house and rack up 10 trillion dollars in debt, he’s just the unlucky fuck who took over. It’s been decades in the making. Video after video of assholes screaming at each other about health care reform, like they are actually accomplishing anything at all that way. Screaming and being a dick doesn’t solve anything, it just makes you look like an ass. I bet 3/4’s of the health care i pay for goes to nothing. Something defiantly needs to change with it, but nobody wants to compromise. Either you blindly support Barack, or you blindly hate him. There’s no middle ground. I just wish that there was one real news station out there, but there isn’t. It’s just hundreds of different opinions being shoved down people’s throats as “news”. I would say that we deserve to know the facts, but it really wouldn’t matter. People have already made up their minds on the issues, and nothing can ever change that. Jesus himself could come down right now and support reformed health care, and he would just be yelled at and called a fascist. Or he could be against it and be called a nazi. Either way, I’m pretty sure Jesus wants nothing to do with that debate. Obama must have a constant migraine, I couldn’t imagine having to be the face of everything that people are pissed off about in America. it’s always the President’s fault, because it couldn’t be the American people at fault. we’re just too informed and rational, right? i was going to rant more about the banks and their asshole exec’s, but i’ve reached my bitch quota for today. I think I need some Midol.

That’s it! The best thing I have read regarding the state of our union in months. Besides that Danny included this picture of fighting monkeys. Pretty perfect considering how the media handles most political debates. At some point I will post something worthwhile on here that I actually thought of and wrote. For now Danny is better off doing the thinking for me. I have probably stared at my phone for too long. Uh oh.

Glenn Beck v. Keith Olbermann

Glenn Beck v. Keith Olbermann

All hail Mexico!

April 27, 2009 in Foreign Policy, Politics | No comments

Signs 'o the times.

Signs 'o the times.

Mexico is dead!

Three months ago I was talking to someone about the Pentagon’s release mulling the possibility of Mexico becoming a failed state.  For the life of me I can’t remember who that was, but they basically laughed the idea out of the conversation.  The collapse of North American countries has no precedent as we have basically been in a state of growth and development for the past 400 years.

“Mexican collapse” alarmists are usually confined to militia forums, rare op-ed pieces, and call-ins on the Glenn Beck show.  Part of my brain wants me to think, “Come on, failed states belong in Africa and South America!  Couldn’t happen here!”

However, in light of the continuing drug wars, the H1N1 “Swine Flu” outbreak, and today’s announcement of a 5.6 magnitude earthquake outside of Mexico City, I am forced to contemplate what North America and, more exactly, the United States of America might do in the event of the collapse of Mexico.

Though the US D.O.D., the Pentagon, and several private think-tanks have all reported that Mexico could suddenly collapse, and even though border states have (quietly) begun preparing for such an event…THERE IS NO DISCOURSE ON THIS POSSIBILITY IN PUBLIC FORUMS.

Two consequences of a Mexican collapse:

Staggering Mexican emigration

I do not count myself as one who is “anti-immigrant”.  I think people who view our borders as impenetrable barriers that should be guarded like a hawk tend to forget their own roots and act more out of blind selfishness then they do out of patriotism.  Real patriots invite those in who desire to legally and actively participate in our country’s great economic and social system.

All that being said, the collapse of Mexico would cause an influx of refugees that we could not possibly be prepared for.  What would we do?  Send a whole division of the United States Army to guard the border?  Shoot those on sight who cross unauthorized?  Methinks past administrations might take that route which would put us in a very poor position internationally.  But what is the alternative?  Call in the UN and set up camps in southern Texas?

The answer is, there is no answer.  It would get messy as hell.

Easy access for outsiders

An even greater worry than the flood of otherwise innocent and well-behaved Mexican citizens would be those with ill-intent entering Mexico “post-collapse” and then attempting to gain refugee status in the US.  The Border Patrol, INS, and DHS have made great strides in protecting our borders and airports from people who enter the US with ill-intent.  Having a collapsed nation right next door would make it VERY easy for both domestic Mexicans and outside influencers to set up bases of operation to strike America from.

I am not trying to be paranoid, or say that there is ANYTHING we can do about this preemptively.  In fact, my point is pretty much that there is nothing to be done preemptively.

______________

Aside from those two consequences, there are myriad health, infrastructure, and economic consequences of a Mexican collapse that would weigh heavily on our country for decades if not contribute to a serious setback in our quality of life and security.

I have no answers here, obviously.  My only question is, why aren’t we talking about this?  Are we scared to offend the citizens of Mexico who are obviously doing a bang-up job of running their country?  Mexico has a rich history and the vast majority of their citizens wish to keep their country around, why aren’t we offering more help to keep them afloat?

Are our resources that tapped?  Should we be spending less time and money worrying about the health of our fattened financial institutions and more time devising a way to help a neighbor?  This isn’t being talked about, and if our neighbor’s house catches on fire, ours certainly won’t remained undamaged.

Obama “fears” Rush Limbaugh?!? GET OUT YER IMPEACHIN’ ROBES!

January 26, 2009 in Politics | 1 comment

So, it is all the buzz today that Obama made a serious oopsie by even mentioning right-wing commentator Rush Limbaugh.  There are people out there who are saying he has bigger problems on his hands than a radio talk-show host.  This is undoubtedly true, but makes the strange assumption that it has taken our President longer than three seconds to formulate a sentence about another person.

Can we imagine the scene that these idiots are envisioning?

Rahm Emanuel: Mr. President. . .I know Rush has been getting on your nerves lately. . .but we do have that economy briefing in a few minutes.
Presdient O.: . . .what?  Oh, sorry, yes I’m just putting the finishing touches on this innocuous sentence that I’m going to mention to Congress.
Rahmy E-boy: Well, that’s fine, but you have been staring at that paper with headphones blaring the EIB network for about 3 hours.
Mr. Prez: WOULD YOU CAN IT?!?!?  HE’S TALKING ABOUT ME AGAIN!

First point to address. . .Obama is right.  Limbaugh has considerable talent and is entertaining to listen to but he is canonized by millions of listeners and his words are gilded as truthful and earnest.  In fact, his broadcasts are filled, every day, with HUNDREDS of logical fallacies, he has explicitly admitted to the practice of altering callers and facts to make his point clearer, and he stands for keeping America divided based on race, sexuality, and thousands of other issues that we should strive to move on from.

In brief, people SHOULD stop listening to Rush Limbaugh.  Not completely, just for the reasons they listen to him today.  We shouldn’t take a commentator as a reporter as he is not.

Other point is that people see this as a mistake.  My imagined scenario above is what millions of right wing people are imagining is going on.  Obama is scared of Limbaugh and it is preventing him from doing anything else.  They’re calling his mentioning of this a mistake.  Rookie mistake, rookie President.  Let’s look at just one of the mistakes our previous “rookie” President made.  He committed millions of US soldiers to an unjustified and unnecessary war.  Now there are thousands of US citizens dead and millions of Iraqis dead and wounded.  Let’s see, if I were to pick how far below “Killing US soldiers and foreign citizens in the name of profit and personal gain” addressing the topic of Rush Limbaugh’s ridiculousness to Congress falls, I would say it lays somewhere between:

1)  Burning the toast, I HATE THAT!
and
2)  Forgetting to replace the TP after you use it all, CURSES BE ON YOU!

Lastly, for your enjoyment, a little of our favorite Oxy-popper admitting to his “fair and balanced” journalistic practices.  FREEEEEEEDOM!

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