Louisiana Oil Spil

There are a lot of legitimate responses to the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; Anger, outrage, frustration, resolve … curiosity, guilt, shame. The one response only a fool can have though – is surprise.

Political Correctness

Much of what many people deride as ‘political correctness’ is really nothing more than good manners—the same type of courtesy we in the mainstream accept as a matter of course—applied toward a person or group they don’t think of as worthy of such consideration. 

Fear that one might be accused of political correctness is a tool to silence those who might otherwise speak out against targeted rudeness.  

Bizarro World - Health Care for the Unemployed and Sick

In Bizarro World, losing one's job means that one not only has less money coming in, but actually has to pay MORE for medical care. 

And in Bizarro World, if you're sick enough, you can't get medical coverage at all. 

Thank goodness we live in a place where things make more sense. 

Ironic Bumper Sticker

As I approached a Chevy Suburban in a WalMart parking lot, I saw a bumper sticker that said ‘Run!’ As I got closer, I saw another, more faded word; ‘Don’t Run’. Curious – I walked up to it, and could barely make out the phrase, ‘These Colors Don’t Run!’ in front of a bleached out, barely perceptible US flag.

At the bottom, in tiny, but clear, bold print were the words, ‘Printed in China’.
Seemed ironic.

Judicial Coup

Few Americans of any party question our laws against foreign involvement in our domestic politics. But last week’s Supreme Court decision opens the door for global corporations to openly and directly dominate political discourse here. These corporations have allegiance to no country. The only connection many ‘American’ companies have to us anymore is to extract our dollars in exchange for foreign-made goods, before forwarding the profits to foreign tax havens.
Corporations have already established an international trading system through the WTO that usurps national law, and have used their surrogates in the media to portray opponents of this hyper-national framework as unpatriotic. Clever misdirection, that. They can be expected to use their newly legitimized power to further the subordination of national laws to theirs.

A Christmas Carol

We watched A Christmas Carol as a family the other night. It's a worthwhile exercise to watch this from time to time – not so much as a period piece as it is a window into our own hearts, and our current society. I think very little revision would be needed to update this story.

Ghost of Christmas Present: If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, none other of my species will find him here. But if he is to die, then let him die...! "AND DECREASE THE SURPLUS POPULATION!"
Ebeneezer Scrooge: You use my own words against me?
Ghost of Christmas Present: Yes! So perhaps, in the future, you will hold your tongue until you have discovered where the surplus population is, and WHO it is. It may well be that, in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than MILLIONS like this poor man's child.
       – Charles Dickens

Wealth, Power, and Government

Absent an effective countervailing force, power and wealth will attract one another into an increasingly tight, inwardly spiraling orbit, resulting eventually in the black hole of concentrated wealth and monopoly power. Government which fails to act as that countervailing force—instead becoming a mere agent of wealth and power—violates its raison d’être, and is worse than no government at all.