Happy Against Their Will

It's impossible to make somebody happy against their will.  

Some people hold power by maintaining an attitude of displeasure or disaffection.  Attempts to cheer them up, or gain their trust threaten this power, and will be resisted.  

Unless they are willing participants, your effort is better directed elsewhere.  

Happy Holidays! Gesundheit!

I can hardly express the outrage I feel when it’s Christmas time, and somebody walks up to me, smiles, and says, ‘Happy Holidays!’  

Just who the hell do these people think they are?  It’s not ‘Holidays’, it’s ‘Christmas’, damn it!  When people ignore the Prince o’ Peace, it just makes me want to tear them limb from limb! 

While we're on the subject I get pretty peeved when people say  'Gesundheit' instead of 'God Bless you!', or 'Excuse me' instead of 'Pardon me'.  

Gotta run now.  The O’Reilly factor is starting.  He’s continuing his special report on the secular humanist agenda!  



Can we all agree that over the next month or so, if somebody offers us a pleasant greeting, we just accept it cordially - like mature grown-ups?  
On the other hand - if you sneeze, and they say 'Gesundheit!' instead of 'God Bless You!' I think you ought to tear 'em a new one.  

Enough for Everybody

Veterans Day

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns fell silent all along the western front. 

So ended the First World War – the most devastating war Europe had ever experienced; begun one hundred years ago last August, ending four bloody years later. 

It was the world’s first exposure to industrial-scale murder.  Over a billion (with a ‘b’) artillery shells were fired into the frontier of trenches that stretched across France and Belgium, from Switzerland to the North Sea.  Four million soldiers died in those trenches, and in the shell-pocked moonscape ‘no-man’s land’ hell that separated the sides. 

When it ended, there was briefly a hope that humanity had learned its lesson about militarism.  In that light, November 11 was established as a holiday to celebrate peace.  Here is the final clause in the US Congressional resolution of 1926:    

“Whereas the legislatures of twenty-seven of our States have already declared November 11 to be a legal holiday: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), that the President of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on November 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.”

It’s an international holiday.  Though it goes by different names in different countries, the prayers for peace, and the expressions of respect for those who have borne the brunt of conflict are common. 

Greetings for Veteran’s Day, Armistice Day, Remembrance Day. 

Peace!  

Voter Fraud

As an opening gambit in many swindles, the swindler warns his prey of the danger that lurks all around – particularly directing attention to others who might be planning a crime.  As the victim’s attention is directed away, his wallet disappears. 

This misdirection is often very effective; so effective that—if the victim doesn't notice who ended up with his wallet—the crime may validate the warning, strengthening the  bond between predator and prey.    

The campaign to disenfranchise voters—through restrictions on early and absentee voting, wholesale purging of voter rolls, strict voter ID laws, and intimidation gangs at polls in poor and minority precincts—is NOT an attempt to COMBAT voter fraud.  IT IS VOTER FRAUD – fraud of a magnitude not seen since the days of Jim Crow. 

Promoters of these restrictions have spread rumors about widespread voter fraud, but aside from a small minority of easily-confused and frightened voters, these rumors are not really even intended to be believed.  They just serve as semi-transparent window dressing, so people can feel validated in cheating others out of their right to vote. 

Clearly, those promoting these programs, and pulling the strings of the gullible, completely understand what they’re doing and why – and are cynical enough to not need the window dressing for themselves.  They have looked around—both at the country today, and at the demographic trends—and realize that the plutocracy they represent cannot long survive in a fully-participatory, empowered democracy.  Their only hope is to make sure participation is suppressed. 

There is nothing new about the suppression of democracy in this country.  From the days of the Federalist Party, there have always been those who stand to lose by greater participation.   Restrictions against women, blacks, Indians, and even non-property owners are all part of our history.  The difference now is the trajectory and the transparency.  Instead of moving in the direction of more inclusion, we are back-sliding.  In the past this was done openly; now we’re supposed to pretend there’s a higher motive.  Pretty much everybody knows better; but some of you know you’re not supposed to admit it.  
 

With the Voting Rights Act gutted by the usual suspects on the Supreme Court, the disenfranchisement may work in tipping a number of close races this time.  Many will celebrate now what we should all be grieving.  We are becoming a nation that condones and institutionalizes cheating in the most important civil function we perform. 

Whatever we call the system that is evolving, we should avoid words like ‘democracy’; they are meaningless and foolish in this context.  

LAZARUS WEPT

LAZARUS WEPT

Give me your energetic,
your rich;
your landed gentry
yearning to breathe free –
of taxation, welfare,
or any obligations
intended to meet the needs of
the huddled masses. 

As for the retched refuse

of your teeming shores …
they will be detained,
then returned to you.
  

Prejudice and Assimilation

A persecuted ethnic or religious minority cannot overcome discrimination and prejudice by assimilating within the oppressing society, then participating in discrimination against a new target.  This only serves to validate the idea of discrimination; and merely postpones the day when one will once again become the target.    

The only thing this changes is that, when the cold stares and furtive innuendo are once again directed at these people, they will no longer have any moral high ground from which to appeal.