Sunday 3 November 2013
QQ : NUMBER FORTY - NOVEMBER 3, 2013
A D E C K O F Q U E S T I O N S, A L M O S T A R O Y A L F L U S H O F A N S W E R S.
J U S T M I S S I N G T H A T D A M N A C E.
T H E M I S S I N G C A R D...........T H E C A R D O F C O M P A S S I O N.
QQ: 1. THE FILLY BUSTER
Question:
What's the difference between red and blue?
Answer:
A Democrat pays now.
Fix the bridge before it collapses.
A Republican pays later.
Rebuild after it collapses.
There is no difference.
If a few people collapse in the process, that's life. Some people got shot on the bridge trying to escape Katrina. It wasn't even in danger of collapsing.
QQ: 2. GROUND-STANDING
Question:
What's the difference between a Canadian and an American?
Answer:
A Canadian lives longer, is healthier and has lower stress, but is cold and
bored.
An American has shorter longevity and is sicker with more stress.
But he can stand his ground.
Americans are not boring.
QQ: 3. THE STATE OF EIRE
Question:
If Barry O'Bama was actually born in Ireland rather than Kenya, would he more qualified to be president?
Answer:
Maybe he should acquire an apostrophe.
Birthers might consider Ireland to be the 51st state, so... yes. It's not a racial thing, they just want their country back.
They don't want their country black.
QQ: 4. A PETRO STATE OF MIND
Question:
If Australia and Canada were not gigantic quarries full of an infinite store of mineral resources, would they be so benign and just as "nice"?
Answer:
Australia was settled by petty criminals whose contemporary ancestors, in lieu of owning guns, kill each other with their cars. The survivors drink themselves to death after beating their wives and drowning their brown neighbors or incarcerating them in concentration camps.
Canadians simply eliminate all environmental controls; eliminate all oversight over governance and they live within a benign dictatorship. The biggest city in the country is lorded over by a crackhead.
God knows how these people would behave without their enormous mineral and oil wealth.
QQ: 5. ALEXANDER'S HIP-HOP BLAND
Question:
Is EDM actually music? Is Miley Cyrus the Elvis of the 21st century?
Is Jay Z the Sinatra?
Answer:
A studio photo of Billy Holiday is on my studio wall. Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Charlie Watts... and just about anyone named Charles is in my head.
J.S. Bach lives through my hands.
QQ: 6. THE AMP HAS NO VOLTS
Question:
If Jesus was alive today, would he be a Tea Party member, a member of the NRA or just s simple Conservative Republican?
Answer:
Tony Scalia is the new Messiah.
When he returns to earth Tony Scalia-Christ would declare that corporations are people; eliminate food stamps; deny voting rights to the disadvantaged and provide health care for only those who could pay. He would segregate his churches and schools, pollute his earth and subjugate women.
And that's just the beginning
Who's his daddy?
Try introducing public transport in Nashville. Clearly that must be the work of Satan.
QQ: 7. EDJA-MACATION
Question:
What does school choice really mean?
Answer:
Government should stay out of the edjamacation business:
After all it's all business. Trillions of dollars in student loans; charter schools run as entrepreneurial enterprises; and those pesky teachers unions wanting tenure.
The result........pure racism, segregation, feudalism and usury.
Education should be an investment similar to infrastructure like a highway or a bridge . It is not a business.
QQ : 8. THE BRIDGE TO EDUCATION
Question:
If eduction is in fact an infrastructure-like investment, why is it designed to fail?
In the USA, the bridge has collapsed.
Answer:
You cannot teach a hungry, sick, damaged and impoverished child.
Feed the child, keep him healthy, protect him from violence and then and only then can education begin.
Education must involve the humanities, history, literature, physical education and a myriad of after-school activities. We must teach a child how to be human as well as how to read, write and add.
Is there an app for that?
QQ :9. A BIG S-MAC 4U
Question:
What do you call a minimum wage worker at Mickey Dees or Wallmart?
Answer:
A slave.
The civil war may not be over. The only mitigating factor might be food stamps and emergency room access.
This week food stamps are being reduced with more reductions to come.
Welcome back slavery.
Is living in a car a symbol of freedom?
Have a happy meal.
QQ : 10. IT'S A SEMANTIC THING
Question:
Why does a Jew always answer a question with another question?
Answer:
Why not?
Tuesday 10 September 2013
QQ : NUMBER THIRTY NINE - SEPTEMBER 11, 2013
N I N E E L E V E N
QQ:1 NINE ELEVEN, THE LESSON
Zimmerman, Sandy Hook, Newtown, Chicago.
America, take a look in the mirror and see your very own homegrown holocaust. We have our own Sharia law. It's known as the second amendment to the constitution as interpreted by Wayne LaPierre.
Keep your Glocks loaded and under your pillows 'cause those Muslims are comin' to getcha. Arm the teachers, keep a shotgun in your trunk, take one to work and make sure you are stocked up on ammo 'cause you know the government's gonna getcha and turn America into an islamist socialist paradise.
How is it possible that Australians and Canadians get through the day unarmed. It's a miracle.
QQ:2 BRAVE NEW WORLD
Snowden, what have you wrought?
The NSA has seized and utilized a power, more formidable, more destructive and more overwhelming than the atomic bomb, chemical warfare and the holocaust combined.
Once we were free. We are now slaves. Slaves to a technology that can never be undone. The game is over and the new world is upon us. Hal rules. Stanley Kubrick you were a true prophet.
Perhaps the messiah should take the hint and come back sooner than later since we've really lost it this time. Help! I'm being observed wondering down the screw-fastener aisle of Home Depot.
My inbox is full of nails. Is there a crucifixion on the schedule?
QQ:3. IMMIGRATION
So far there are about 2 million homeless Syrians. They really should go back to where they came from. Do they expect us to take care of them?
Tony Abbott is going to buy up hundreds of thousands of old Indonesian boats in order to halt illegal boat-people from getting to Australia. That concept was thought up by a Rhodes Scholar,
His Honor - the new Prime Minister of Australia. Tony, Tony, Toe-knee.
Let's build a fence between America and Mexico. 2000 miles of border at about $4million per mile comes to about $8billion plus billions more in maintenance and patrol. What's another billion or three to keep America strong and free. It's not the banks that brought us down, it was the illegal immigrants. There would have been no recession with a really solid fence. Derivatives be damned, it was the maid's fault.
QQ:4. INFRASTRUCTURE
We like to think that the bridge is going to hold up when we cross it. We would hope that the design of the local nuclear reactor has taken weather and earth movements into account. We could have hoped that schools in Tornado prone areas would provide shelters as part of their design. Ancient Rome knew that power and solid infrastructure were intimately connected. Apparently that's an ancient concept.
We live in false hope.
As hypothetical president, it's so hard to chose:
Fix a bridge or bomb Syria?
Secure a school building in Ohio or maintain Guantanamo?
Keep Manning under lock and key or regulate fracking?
So little time, so much to do. Got to get that bipartisan thing happening.
I think I'm getting a Bohner.
QQ:5. THE MIDDLE CLASS
If you make stuff, you need someone to buy it.
If you don't pay your workers a living wage, then they don't have the money to buy your stuff.
They then have to get welfare and collect food stamps that comes out of your taxes.
Then there's no dough to fix stuff.
Then the roads fail, the bridges fall down and the nuclear reactors explode.
It's all part of gods plan. Who needs a middle class anyway. They are so bourgeois.
QQ:6. MILEY CYRUS
There used to be this phenomenon that we knew as music. It was expressed in melodic and lyrical form and was performed by artists. Some of those artists were virtuosos. Some music became the anthems that unified us. Some music was romantic and some was sad and some was happy. Some music was important.
Those days are over. Melody has been observed by the NSA and has been found to be subversive.
It can no longer be tolerated. Instrumental virtuosity has been found to be a tool of terrorism and is banned. Lyrical imagery, allegory and poetry are crimes against humanity.
We hip and we hop and we rhyme and we twerk and the beat goes on.
Music is a stardust memory, somewhere over the rainbow.
QQ:7 BREAKING BAD
Is this really the best we can do? This is the Miley Cyrus of series television. Millions spent on mediocre script, disastrous acting, childish dramatic concepts and an ethical dark age.
Why is this so popular? So we distract ourselves while the ship is sinking.
Stock up on that food stamp popcorn from Wallmart and get ready for next weeks exciting episode that reveals how to make blue meth. and shoot guns that never run out of ammo.
The Sopranos was no gleaming literary shining light, but was Shakespearean in comparison.
QQ: 8. IT'S NOT ALL BAD
Hope is on the horizon. Mr. Putin and Mr. Assad have brought us new hope.
So does Baz Obama's recent meeting with Putin make him a Chamberlain?
Is this "peace in our time"?
Little Georgie Bush said "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy….I was able to get a sense of his soul." —George W. Bush, after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, June 16, 2001
QQ: 9 GERMANY IN THE THIRTIES
Germany was partially set up by Chase Bank, Standard Oil, General Motors, IBM and others for them to make a bunch of dough and also to stop the colonialist ambitions of Joe Stalin. Follow the money.
Putin and his buddies have oil and gas. A shit load of it. We are engaged in a war of pipelines criss crossing the planet. Russian oil heading east and west, Canadian oil heading south, US fracked oil heading up to hell and all powering and lubricating the machine and securing the oligarchy.
If only those pesky radical islamists would let us get on with it. There's business to be conducted and money to be made. They are in the way.
What is it that they want anyway?
QQ: 10. WHEN YOU AGREE WITH SATAN
Hitler wanted social democracy. But the Jews had to go.
Radical Islam wants social democracy but the infidel has to go.
America wants social democracy at the point of a gun.
Israel wants a land of milk and honey but the Palestinians have to go.
Palestine wants Israel but the Jews have to go.
On the other hand, some have made their peace with feudalism:
Saudi Arabia, the Vatican and Wallmart.
What indeed is the lesson on the anniversary of 9/11?
Etched on my Stone Tablet
John
Editing: Batshrva
QQ:1 NINE ELEVEN, THE LESSON
Zimmerman, Sandy Hook, Newtown, Chicago.
America, take a look in the mirror and see your very own homegrown holocaust. We have our own Sharia law. It's known as the second amendment to the constitution as interpreted by Wayne LaPierre.
Keep your Glocks loaded and under your pillows 'cause those Muslims are comin' to getcha. Arm the teachers, keep a shotgun in your trunk, take one to work and make sure you are stocked up on ammo 'cause you know the government's gonna getcha and turn America into an islamist socialist paradise.
How is it possible that Australians and Canadians get through the day unarmed. It's a miracle.
QQ:2 BRAVE NEW WORLD
Snowden, what have you wrought?
The NSA has seized and utilized a power, more formidable, more destructive and more overwhelming than the atomic bomb, chemical warfare and the holocaust combined.
Once we were free. We are now slaves. Slaves to a technology that can never be undone. The game is over and the new world is upon us. Hal rules. Stanley Kubrick you were a true prophet.
Perhaps the messiah should take the hint and come back sooner than later since we've really lost it this time. Help! I'm being observed wondering down the screw-fastener aisle of Home Depot.
My inbox is full of nails. Is there a crucifixion on the schedule?
QQ:3. IMMIGRATION
So far there are about 2 million homeless Syrians. They really should go back to where they came from. Do they expect us to take care of them?
Tony Abbott is going to buy up hundreds of thousands of old Indonesian boats in order to halt illegal boat-people from getting to Australia. That concept was thought up by a Rhodes Scholar,
His Honor - the new Prime Minister of Australia. Tony, Tony, Toe-knee.
Let's build a fence between America and Mexico. 2000 miles of border at about $4million per mile comes to about $8billion plus billions more in maintenance and patrol. What's another billion or three to keep America strong and free. It's not the banks that brought us down, it was the illegal immigrants. There would have been no recession with a really solid fence. Derivatives be damned, it was the maid's fault.
QQ:4. INFRASTRUCTURE
We like to think that the bridge is going to hold up when we cross it. We would hope that the design of the local nuclear reactor has taken weather and earth movements into account. We could have hoped that schools in Tornado prone areas would provide shelters as part of their design. Ancient Rome knew that power and solid infrastructure were intimately connected. Apparently that's an ancient concept.
We live in false hope.
As hypothetical president, it's so hard to chose:
Fix a bridge or bomb Syria?
Secure a school building in Ohio or maintain Guantanamo?
Keep Manning under lock and key or regulate fracking?
So little time, so much to do. Got to get that bipartisan thing happening.
I think I'm getting a Bohner.
QQ:5. THE MIDDLE CLASS
If you make stuff, you need someone to buy it.
If you don't pay your workers a living wage, then they don't have the money to buy your stuff.
They then have to get welfare and collect food stamps that comes out of your taxes.
Then there's no dough to fix stuff.
Then the roads fail, the bridges fall down and the nuclear reactors explode.
It's all part of gods plan. Who needs a middle class anyway. They are so bourgeois.
QQ:6. MILEY CYRUS
There used to be this phenomenon that we knew as music. It was expressed in melodic and lyrical form and was performed by artists. Some of those artists were virtuosos. Some music became the anthems that unified us. Some music was romantic and some was sad and some was happy. Some music was important.
Those days are over. Melody has been observed by the NSA and has been found to be subversive.
It can no longer be tolerated. Instrumental virtuosity has been found to be a tool of terrorism and is banned. Lyrical imagery, allegory and poetry are crimes against humanity.
We hip and we hop and we rhyme and we twerk and the beat goes on.
Music is a stardust memory, somewhere over the rainbow.
QQ:7 BREAKING BAD
Is this really the best we can do? This is the Miley Cyrus of series television. Millions spent on mediocre script, disastrous acting, childish dramatic concepts and an ethical dark age.
Why is this so popular? So we distract ourselves while the ship is sinking.
Stock up on that food stamp popcorn from Wallmart and get ready for next weeks exciting episode that reveals how to make blue meth. and shoot guns that never run out of ammo.
The Sopranos was no gleaming literary shining light, but was Shakespearean in comparison.
QQ: 8. IT'S NOT ALL BAD
Hope is on the horizon. Mr. Putin and Mr. Assad have brought us new hope.
So does Baz Obama's recent meeting with Putin make him a Chamberlain?
Is this "peace in our time"?
Little Georgie Bush said "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy….I was able to get a sense of his soul." —George W. Bush, after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, June 16, 2001
QQ: 9 GERMANY IN THE THIRTIES
Germany was partially set up by Chase Bank, Standard Oil, General Motors, IBM and others for them to make a bunch of dough and also to stop the colonialist ambitions of Joe Stalin. Follow the money.
Putin and his buddies have oil and gas. A shit load of it. We are engaged in a war of pipelines criss crossing the planet. Russian oil heading east and west, Canadian oil heading south, US fracked oil heading up to hell and all powering and lubricating the machine and securing the oligarchy.
If only those pesky radical islamists would let us get on with it. There's business to be conducted and money to be made. They are in the way.
What is it that they want anyway?
QQ: 10. WHEN YOU AGREE WITH SATAN
Hitler wanted social democracy. But the Jews had to go.
Radical Islam wants social democracy but the infidel has to go.
America wants social democracy at the point of a gun.
Israel wants a land of milk and honey but the Palestinians have to go.
Palestine wants Israel but the Jews have to go.
On the other hand, some have made their peace with feudalism:
Saudi Arabia, the Vatican and Wallmart.
What indeed is the lesson on the anniversary of 9/11?
Etched on my Stone Tablet
John
Editing: Batshrva
Friday 24 May 2013
QQ : NUMBER THIRTY SEVEN - MAY 24, 2013
A BREAKING HEART
Legend has it that my namesake, writer and satirist, Karel Capek, died in 1938 of a broken heart. He realized what was about to happen to his country and his people. The tragedy unveiled in his foresight was more than he could bear. Karel's brother Josef Capek - painter, cartoonist and illustrator, subsequently died in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp.
As I watch the world aghast at recent, unfolding catastrophic events, both human and natural,
I wonder what miraculous, insane mode of denial allows us to carry on.
QQ:1 THE USUAL SUSPECTS
In a routine massacre that goes under-reported and remains of little concern, about 200 people were shot to death in America this week - as they are every week, come rain or come shine. Another 350 people committed suicide using guns and a further 2,000 were wounded one way or another based on published, average numbers.
As magazines that one used to read go the way of the dinosaur, the ‘magazine’ that holds 30 or more rounds of ammunition has become the standard accessory.
QQ:2 THE CELLAR ENTITLEMENT
The schools in Tornado Alley do not have shelters. Their budgets do not allow for that luxury. The policy of austerity has set our priorities...and keeping our children safe is not one of them. Balance those budgets. Read my lips...no more taxes. The banks need the money more than our children.
A flyer arrived in the mail today from American Express offering a balance transfer for a mere 28% interest. Poor American Express. They must really need the dough.
Or, perhaps usury should be a crime.
QQ:3 SHOOT FIRST, ASK QUESTIONS LATER
I could be off my rocker like the three and a half people in the universe who still believe that OJ Simpson is innocent, but.......
Why does the specter of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby keep haunting me?
Boston and Chechnya somehow seem to have a disconnect for me despite all indications to the contrary. Something stinks. Or perhaps the event was so traumatic I simply can’t accept the simple explanation. Firecrackers in a pressure cooker, baseball caps and backpacks, rap rhymes and boxing and now Florida's assassination make for great television.
Someone, somewhere caused mayhem, destruction and profoundly sad wounding and death. Who and why may well become buried with JFK.
QQ:4 THE FOOD OF LOVE
"I am an artist I should be taken seriously".
Justin Bieber at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards.
Play on!
QQ:5 TORONTO THE GOOD
A cold, corrupt place where the infrastructure has failed; the air is poison; the hospitals are septic and anything can be bought for a price.
They have the leadership they deserve.
What a crackup!
QQ:6 THE TWO-STATE SOLUTION
There is a slave class of underpaid, overworked, exploited drones who do the farm labor, the janitorial work, food service and construction. They are employed in what used to be THEIR land. Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California. Minimum wage for food service workers remains at less that $3 per hour. Hygiene, nutrition, housing and welfare are not our concern.
Perhaps a line could be drawn in the sand and the occupied territories of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California should be handed back to its rightful owners. ‘Mex-america’ and ‘Tex-america’ could then live peaceably alongside each other and prosper. Tear down that wall, Mr. Obama!
QQ:7 SEXUAL CONGRESS
While climate extremes mangle, drown and kill our children; while weapons of mass destruction invade our schools and our streets; while buildings designed for our economic benefit collapse in Bangladesh...we engage in pornography.
That pornography is the manner in which we sit and watch congress practice mass, endless masturbation without climax.
Their agenda has become so corrupt, so ineffectual, so partisan and so ‘finan-centric’ that the world has become unrecognizable.
Compassion seems to have become a foreign concept. Just like our misreading of the second amendment we have misinterpreted the Gettysburg address to read “government of the banks, by the banks, for the banks”.
Jesus!
QQ:8 THE AXIS OF EVIL
Pakistan, North Korea and Iran seem to be engaged in a game of Russian roulette. Syria is imploding and Africa is exploding.
It's those pesky banks yet again. Someone is doing business with ‘little Kim’, someone is doing business with Assad and someone is doing business with Iran. Weapons are being developed, manufactured, imported and exported and traded. I wonder who is financing these endeavors and paying the price? Who is teaching the scientists and technicians? Who is financing the monumental costs?
Could it be.....us?
The Dow is at record highs. I wonder why.
QQ:9 MORE MUSIC PLEASE
A Google search reveals that there are numerous listings under the heading "Stain removal channel".
The removal of spots and stains seem to be something of an obsession within the contemporary anal-retentive household. I propose another spot removal that I would like to see.
Spotify, or perhaps, ‘Stainify’ have soiled the environment enough. Is there any detergent strong enough to remove them?
Their algorithms feed me ‘dreck’ that I don't want to hear. They pay slave labor royalty rates - and the music sounds bad. Get me some Ajax.
QQ:10 THE MYTHOLOGY OF PRIVACY
So now we hear that 100% of all phone calls, all emails, all electronic communication can and is being monitored in the interest of "Homeland Security".
Perhaps it is time to round up those who are found to be potential threats to our Homeland as a result of this surveillance. They can then be put to work in separate work camps and then euthanized as their productive assets become unnecessary.
We can then live in peace and harmony and rest assured that the bad guys are weeded out, the drones are protecting us from the skies and we will always have God and Glock on our side.
Now I lay me down to sleep
Pray the Gun my soul to keep
Glock bless Mommy Daddy and all the family of man.
etched on my stone tablet
www.johncapek.com
editing : Batsheva
Friday 29 March 2013
QQ : NUMBER THIRTY SIX - MARCH 29, 2013
ETHICS, SCHMETHICS
Are ethics merely a survival mechanism? Or is there an underlying, morality- based distinction between right and wrong? Is the concept of "Universal Values" a mere myth? Is there a celestial Supreme Court? For that matter, does a heavenly Clarence Thomas sit on the right hand, the extreme right hand of God?
It certainly helps the survival of the species if we organize our behavior and sublimate our reptilian tendencies. But, is survival the only motivation to be "good"?
Are primates "good" within their social structure. They seem to bond with each other; protect their young; engage in grooming and congregate in groups. They acknowledge leaders and construct social hierarchies.
IT'S JUST A SIMIAN THING
The original "Planet of the Apes" movie posed an interesting quandary within its naive Hollywood portrayal. What is the real basis of ethics as we perceive them?
We are so horrified by the Sandy Hook massacre that the news is spattered with reports of Sandy Hook denial and conspiracy theorists who absolutely believe that it never happened. Some even suggest that it did happen, but was orchestrated by the Muslim Socialist in the White House.
Ironically the horrific climate extremes that have struck Australia, and more recently New York and New Jersey are regarded as normal, cyclic events by the same deniers. These beliefs are held despite the fact that those events are off-the -scale according to any known historical record.
MONKEY BUSINESS
In business, we naively believe that value, commerce, quality and exchange are based on some quantifiable value.
It turns out that the eyeglass frame retail industry is, and has been for some time, firmly based on hype, deception and hoax. That $400 name-brand frame cost about $5 to make. At 8000% profit, perhaps there is an ethical culture, education and dare I say it, "ethics" in favor of the new ephemeral construct. That is the "financial services" industry. We now talk about "financial instruments". Banks sell "products" we "put", "call", "short" , "long" and spectacularly we "hedge." Beyond hedge trimming we are witness to the mind-boggling ethically challenged concept of “derivatives”
Insurance has to be up there amongst the biggest scams of all. The very concept of raising premium rates based on an individual policy claim, defies the entire concept. One takes out insurance to share the burden of risk. Raising an individual's rates based on a claim is the very essence of deceit and deception.
Social Security insurance and Medicare insurance are labeled as "entitlements", despite the fact that we paid for them.
IF I HAD A HAMMER
Perhaps we have something to learn from the primates. Perhaps, in fact, we ARE simply primates. We forage around for food and shelter; appoint bullies to lead us; engage in devastating, territorial, decimating wars; subjugate our weaker brethren and we pray to mythical creations to bring us good fortune.
As humans, perhaps our only small step beyond the reptile is our creation of idols and symbols that personify an awareness of our vulnerability and in particular, of our mortality.
It is thought that animals do not know that they will ultimately cease to be.
We are likely the only species that is aware of our our mortality. With that insane conceptional awareness, we create mythologies that give us a story to hang on to, a foundation upon which to base our existence and a cross upon which to nail ourselves when things get out of hand.
I have read suggestions that a true awareness of mortality would make the maintenance of a rational life experience impossible for a thinking human. Therefore, we create irrational myths in order to survive.
These myths contain survival mechanisms that we naively believe to be ethics and morality. But are they really? Was Billy Graham a good man? Did the latest Fatwah from the Ayatollah come to him via a conduit directly from the Prophet who sits on high? The Pope resigns. And then there were two.
The Sunday morning, bible-thumpers suggest that there is a truth they have to share. They convey their truth while they present themselves to us with makeup, perfectly coifed hair, tailored suits and diamond studs. They heal the infirm with their hands. They sell their truth with calls to the faithful to touch the television. They appeal to their congregants to send in their prayer requests along with dollars. Dollars end up in hedge funds and a host of other wondrous financial “instruments.”
I thought the violin was an instrument. Does a financial derivative make a melody?
Apes don't seem to have a need for a higher power. They do seem to appreciate a banana, a handful of peanuts and a good scratch.
Hallelujah!
THE GIFT OF LIFE
Perhaps it would be worthy of study to better understand the factors that hold fundamentalist beliefs in place. Believers in absolutism and fundamentalism have held and continue to wield power far out of proportion to their numbers. Some even have tea parties.
The earth was flat for the better part of human history and it was the center of the universe. Saudi women get closer to God when they do not operate a motor vehicle. Jews made a deal or "covenant" as they call it, where the sacrifice of a slice of penis brought them a closer relationship with the divine in a “seal the deal” contract. Women were thankfully freed from this burden in that culture. Contemporary Egypt practices a different ritual involving around 90% of all its women. Good God!
Some are now cleansing themselves further in Beit Shemesh Israel, by making certain cell phones kosher only for women. These ethically blessed devices then become a direct line to the holy. I wonder if a text to heaven is like a letter to Santa c/o The North Pole? No sexting for Sarah.
COLLATERAL DAMAGE
Barry Obama was a law professor and then a community organizer. He seems like a decent chap. Three days into office at the beginning of his first term as Commander-in-Chief, he ordered drone strikes in Pakistan that killed innocent human beings.
I have never begun to understand how, after a period of three days, a seemingly compassionate, educated, intellectual fellow could undergo the emotional transition that permitted these directed assassinations and the potential collateral damage to take place with his order and direction. Prior to the day he took office, I don't believe that Barry killed anyone. Then in an instant, he within his own psyche found a way to undergo a mystical transition.
These actions continue to this day. How does he sleep? In what ethical construct does a teacher and welfare worker take on such an awesome responsibility?
My mother was a community organizer and city councilor. I don’t believe that she ordered hits on any of her constituency.
POLLY PUT THE KETTLE ON AND WE ALL HAD TEA
Within my ethical dilemma, I have done my best to fathom the right wing's fascination with women's reproductive functions, automatic rifles and the restriction of health care to only those who can pay for it.
I have tried my best to understand the connective tissue that places these issues at the forefront of a political agenda that currently controls the purse strings of the US congress and indirectly, the economy of the entire world.
I have often thought that a fun movie plot would be to construct a believable scenario that tells a story based on the premiss that O.J. Simpson didn't do it. Similarly, I wonder what kind of world would be created if the entire "tea baggers" agenda were to be embraced, become the law of the land, and the manner in which American society functioned.
We could mandate the arming of all primary school teachers, demand that all pregnancies come to term and let nature take its course when illness strikes.
The right to bear arms could include missiles and atomic weapons. Access to emergency medical facilities could be restricted to only those with good credit. We could drive a tank to work, deploy mines around our homes and freely hunt for Bamby in our suburbs. Bridges and highways would be privately tolled and armies would be privatized. Rape could be re-defined as to its quality. Women's bodies would be mandated to shut down based on congressional mandate.
Would that be a more ethical brew?
Milk and sugar with that?
PRESIDENT SARAH RON PAUL PALIN WOULD:
Nuke Iran and North Korea
Build a wall between America and Mexico.
Drill baby drill.
Make moose-hunting an Olympic event.
Legislate the word "gotcha" into the Webster's dictionary.
Eliminate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unionism, government education and any and all entitlements.
Intern Muslims, see Russia across the bay and denote the reading of newspapers a liberal, propaganda device.
Introduce mandatory AK47 weapons in every home.
Eliminate the minimum wage thereby re-introducing feudalism.
Because big government is our enemy and we must be prepared to defend our rights.
BUT, MAYBE THEY HAVE A POINT:
Big government currently:
Assassinates without accountability.
Tortures without accountability.
Wiretaps and eavesdrops without accountability.
Declines to prosecute the institutions who deal in fraudulent financial instruments.
Legislates and enforces our enslavement to profit making corporate insurance institutions.
It's a long way from "community organizer" in Chicago to DC. And what the hell is Rahm Emmanuel doing in Chicago that is making any sense? There is civil strife going on with more killing than Syria and nobody gives a shit. There's some effective big government.
Is the South side of Chicago the land of the free, home of the brave?
THE KILLING FIELDS MEET W.C. FIELDS MEET ST. MARTIN-IN-THE-FIELDS
Shakespeare made artistry out of murder and mayhem. Cain and Able went at it. Perhaps the life experience is simply a recurring Hollywood Western movie with Audie Murphy replacing Brutus, or Macbeth as O.J. Simpson or Hannibal Lechter.
Ethics seem to be a concept that is a flexible, expedient tool of manipulation for those who benefit from exploiting cartoonish mythologies for their own grasping of power and profit. Children are sent to the front lines in the name of the Prophet; women are raped in the pursuit of the greater good. The minimum wage for food service workers in America is held at below $3 per hour as an expression of unbridled, freewheeling capitalism and charter schools have re-introduced segregation. They have become a substitute for bussing.
There's no business like the god business. Scientology is said to have a billion dollars in reserve to support their thetan mythology through the courts while Chabad buildings, churches and Cathedrals stand deserted, idle, unoccupied and useless serving no purpose other than the realization of asset value and tax deductions. Put a box on your head, make the sign of the cross, face the East and genuflect. Ritual has overtaken meaning. The symbol has become bigger than the original intent.
THE SCOTUS
Tony Scalia is the living proof of ethical expediency. The constitution of the USA has become a demonic distortion in his mind and in his hands. Ethics be damned.
www.johncapek.com
Editing : Batsheva
Are ethics merely a survival mechanism? Or is there an underlying, morality- based distinction between right and wrong? Is the concept of "Universal Values" a mere myth? Is there a celestial Supreme Court? For that matter, does a heavenly Clarence Thomas sit on the right hand, the extreme right hand of God?
It certainly helps the survival of the species if we organize our behavior and sublimate our reptilian tendencies. But, is survival the only motivation to be "good"?
Are primates "good" within their social structure. They seem to bond with each other; protect their young; engage in grooming and congregate in groups. They acknowledge leaders and construct social hierarchies.
IT'S JUST A SIMIAN THING
The original "Planet of the Apes" movie posed an interesting quandary within its naive Hollywood portrayal. What is the real basis of ethics as we perceive them?
We are so horrified by the Sandy Hook massacre that the news is spattered with reports of Sandy Hook denial and conspiracy theorists who absolutely believe that it never happened. Some even suggest that it did happen, but was orchestrated by the Muslim Socialist in the White House.
Ironically the horrific climate extremes that have struck Australia, and more recently New York and New Jersey are regarded as normal, cyclic events by the same deniers. These beliefs are held despite the fact that those events are off-the -scale according to any known historical record.
MONKEY BUSINESS
In business, we naively believe that value, commerce, quality and exchange are based on some quantifiable value.
It turns out that the eyeglass frame retail industry is, and has been for some time, firmly based on hype, deception and hoax. That $400 name-brand frame cost about $5 to make. At 8000% profit, perhaps there is an ethical culture, education and dare I say it, "ethics" in favor of the new ephemeral construct. That is the "financial services" industry. We now talk about "financial instruments". Banks sell "products" we "put", "call", "short" , "long" and spectacularly we "hedge." Beyond hedge trimming we are witness to the mind-boggling ethically challenged concept of “derivatives”
Insurance has to be up there amongst the biggest scams of all. The very concept of raising premium rates based on an individual policy claim, defies the entire concept. One takes out insurance to share the burden of risk. Raising an individual's rates based on a claim is the very essence of deceit and deception.
Social Security insurance and Medicare insurance are labeled as "entitlements", despite the fact that we paid for them.
IF I HAD A HAMMER
Perhaps we have something to learn from the primates. Perhaps, in fact, we ARE simply primates. We forage around for food and shelter; appoint bullies to lead us; engage in devastating, territorial, decimating wars; subjugate our weaker brethren and we pray to mythical creations to bring us good fortune.
As humans, perhaps our only small step beyond the reptile is our creation of idols and symbols that personify an awareness of our vulnerability and in particular, of our mortality.
It is thought that animals do not know that they will ultimately cease to be.
We are likely the only species that is aware of our our mortality. With that insane conceptional awareness, we create mythologies that give us a story to hang on to, a foundation upon which to base our existence and a cross upon which to nail ourselves when things get out of hand.
I have read suggestions that a true awareness of mortality would make the maintenance of a rational life experience impossible for a thinking human. Therefore, we create irrational myths in order to survive.
These myths contain survival mechanisms that we naively believe to be ethics and morality. But are they really? Was Billy Graham a good man? Did the latest Fatwah from the Ayatollah come to him via a conduit directly from the Prophet who sits on high? The Pope resigns. And then there were two.
The Sunday morning, bible-thumpers suggest that there is a truth they have to share. They convey their truth while they present themselves to us with makeup, perfectly coifed hair, tailored suits and diamond studs. They heal the infirm with their hands. They sell their truth with calls to the faithful to touch the television. They appeal to their congregants to send in their prayer requests along with dollars. Dollars end up in hedge funds and a host of other wondrous financial “instruments.”
I thought the violin was an instrument. Does a financial derivative make a melody?
Apes don't seem to have a need for a higher power. They do seem to appreciate a banana, a handful of peanuts and a good scratch.
Hallelujah!
THE GIFT OF LIFE
Perhaps it would be worthy of study to better understand the factors that hold fundamentalist beliefs in place. Believers in absolutism and fundamentalism have held and continue to wield power far out of proportion to their numbers. Some even have tea parties.
The earth was flat for the better part of human history and it was the center of the universe. Saudi women get closer to God when they do not operate a motor vehicle. Jews made a deal or "covenant" as they call it, where the sacrifice of a slice of penis brought them a closer relationship with the divine in a “seal the deal” contract. Women were thankfully freed from this burden in that culture. Contemporary Egypt practices a different ritual involving around 90% of all its women. Good God!
Some are now cleansing themselves further in Beit Shemesh Israel, by making certain cell phones kosher only for women. These ethically blessed devices then become a direct line to the holy. I wonder if a text to heaven is like a letter to Santa c/o The North Pole? No sexting for Sarah.
COLLATERAL DAMAGE
Barry Obama was a law professor and then a community organizer. He seems like a decent chap. Three days into office at the beginning of his first term as Commander-in-Chief, he ordered drone strikes in Pakistan that killed innocent human beings.
I have never begun to understand how, after a period of three days, a seemingly compassionate, educated, intellectual fellow could undergo the emotional transition that permitted these directed assassinations and the potential collateral damage to take place with his order and direction. Prior to the day he took office, I don't believe that Barry killed anyone. Then in an instant, he within his own psyche found a way to undergo a mystical transition.
These actions continue to this day. How does he sleep? In what ethical construct does a teacher and welfare worker take on such an awesome responsibility?
My mother was a community organizer and city councilor. I don’t believe that she ordered hits on any of her constituency.
POLLY PUT THE KETTLE ON AND WE ALL HAD TEA
Within my ethical dilemma, I have done my best to fathom the right wing's fascination with women's reproductive functions, automatic rifles and the restriction of health care to only those who can pay for it.
I have tried my best to understand the connective tissue that places these issues at the forefront of a political agenda that currently controls the purse strings of the US congress and indirectly, the economy of the entire world.
I have often thought that a fun movie plot would be to construct a believable scenario that tells a story based on the premiss that O.J. Simpson didn't do it. Similarly, I wonder what kind of world would be created if the entire "tea baggers" agenda were to be embraced, become the law of the land, and the manner in which American society functioned.
We could mandate the arming of all primary school teachers, demand that all pregnancies come to term and let nature take its course when illness strikes.
The right to bear arms could include missiles and atomic weapons. Access to emergency medical facilities could be restricted to only those with good credit. We could drive a tank to work, deploy mines around our homes and freely hunt for Bamby in our suburbs. Bridges and highways would be privately tolled and armies would be privatized. Rape could be re-defined as to its quality. Women's bodies would be mandated to shut down based on congressional mandate.
Would that be a more ethical brew?
Milk and sugar with that?
PRESIDENT SARAH RON PAUL PALIN WOULD:
Nuke Iran and North Korea
Build a wall between America and Mexico.
Drill baby drill.
Make moose-hunting an Olympic event.
Legislate the word "gotcha" into the Webster's dictionary.
Eliminate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unionism, government education and any and all entitlements.
Intern Muslims, see Russia across the bay and denote the reading of newspapers a liberal, propaganda device.
Introduce mandatory AK47 weapons in every home.
Eliminate the minimum wage thereby re-introducing feudalism.
Because big government is our enemy and we must be prepared to defend our rights.
BUT, MAYBE THEY HAVE A POINT:
Big government currently:
Assassinates without accountability.
Tortures without accountability.
Wiretaps and eavesdrops without accountability.
Declines to prosecute the institutions who deal in fraudulent financial instruments.
Legislates and enforces our enslavement to profit making corporate insurance institutions.
It's a long way from "community organizer" in Chicago to DC. And what the hell is Rahm Emmanuel doing in Chicago that is making any sense? There is civil strife going on with more killing than Syria and nobody gives a shit. There's some effective big government.
Is the South side of Chicago the land of the free, home of the brave?
THE KILLING FIELDS MEET W.C. FIELDS MEET ST. MARTIN-IN-THE-FIELDS
Shakespeare made artistry out of murder and mayhem. Cain and Able went at it. Perhaps the life experience is simply a recurring Hollywood Western movie with Audie Murphy replacing Brutus, or Macbeth as O.J. Simpson or Hannibal Lechter.
Ethics seem to be a concept that is a flexible, expedient tool of manipulation for those who benefit from exploiting cartoonish mythologies for their own grasping of power and profit. Children are sent to the front lines in the name of the Prophet; women are raped in the pursuit of the greater good. The minimum wage for food service workers in America is held at below $3 per hour as an expression of unbridled, freewheeling capitalism and charter schools have re-introduced segregation. They have become a substitute for bussing.
There's no business like the god business. Scientology is said to have a billion dollars in reserve to support their thetan mythology through the courts while Chabad buildings, churches and Cathedrals stand deserted, idle, unoccupied and useless serving no purpose other than the realization of asset value and tax deductions. Put a box on your head, make the sign of the cross, face the East and genuflect. Ritual has overtaken meaning. The symbol has become bigger than the original intent.
THE SCOTUS
Tony Scalia is the living proof of ethical expediency. The constitution of the USA has become a demonic distortion in his mind and in his hands. Ethics be damned.
www.johncapek.com
Editing : Batsheva
Sunday 6 January 2013
QQ : NUMBER THIRTY FIVE - JANUARY 6, 2013
HOPE AND SPARE CHANGE, ANYBODY?
Everything has changed, yet it all remains the same.
The saying goes that if we do not learn from history, then we are destined to repeat it. And repeat it we do like clockwork with 223 caliber ammunition.
LET MY PEOPLE GO
There is a new Pharaoh in Egypt. He will likely build pyramids and re-enslave the Jews. This time the Persian alliance will be his facilitator. This is part of a continuum. A nuke or two could reinstate the great Persian empire across the Middle East and eventually all of Europe and then Africa.
Perhaps a new crusade is in order. Where is Lancelot when we need him?
ACCORDING TO SOCRATES
“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”
Contemporary solutions:
Eliminate government involvement in education.
Charter schools.
Demolish teachers unions.
Transfer all texts to the cloud.
Prioritize budgets and eliminate art, music, ethics, civics, physical education and literature from the curriculum.
And, by all means eliminate those expensive social work and mental health programs. Money is tight and we have our priorities.
TECHNOLOGY IS NEUTRAL
Drive a car... pollute the earth.
Create an irrigation dam using dynamite...kill with dynamite.
Robotics take over from manual labour...millions unemployed.
Invent Kindle...burn the books...destroy the historical record.
It's all relative.
So we live longer lives. Is that a good thing? Do we, the boomers have greater wisdom as a result of our longevity. Is the world a better place?
HEALTH CARE, A RIGHT OR A PRIVILEGE?
It really doesn't matter. It is not an ethical dilemma. It is an economic nightmare. We are born and we die and we suffer our fragility and our flawed design.
When we pass through our life transitions, we incur financial repercussions.
If we use tobacco, it is not just about the individual, the family or society in general. It is about an industry. From the tobacco farmer to the cancer surgeon to the grave digger and all of the intervening steps. There are deep and extraordinary economic factors involved.
If we unintentionally inject a moldy steroid shot for back pain and suffer the repercussion, who is to blame? Who pays the piper?
If we fall asleep at the wheel and injure an uninsured child, who pays the shot? In fact what if an uninsured child gets shot?
If we acquire a hospital born infection or get a lyme tick bite in the park, what then?
Ban tobacco, ban the big gulp, ban trans fats, ban coal fired power plants, ban genetic seeds, ban ban ban.
And the ban plays on. Perhaps the "ban" thing doesn't work.
But while America considers the legalization of pot, Holland is reversing theirs.
Round and round we go. Coke is the real thing.
THE WAR TO END ALL WARS
That was the one in 1914. About twenty million people died.
There is a civil war right now on the streets of the cities of the USA. It remains a daily decimation, without comment, without concern and without press. That is of course unless a newsworthy event involves middle class white people. Then we might hear about it for a minute or two.
While about 150 people died during the recent eight day war in Gaza, how many people died on the streets of American cities? How many were wounded? Why don't we give a shit.
At least based on the annual average, 300 people were murdered on the streets of America in those eight days, double the number in Gaza. An uncountable number beyond that were wounded.
Why don't we care?
Why is Gaza more important?
Perhaps homeland security should start at home.
ANNEXATION
A recent tour of the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's plantation home in Tennessee, left me horrified. The man's legacy is akin to a Stalin or Hitler.
He was a murderous, megalomaniac, racist bastard responsible for unforgivable crimes against humanity.
Much of the nation-based structure of the world is founded on the annexation of territory. We claimed a hunk of Mexico not too long ago, and act surprised when the American-Hispanic vote displays an agenda with numbers and authority.
The West Bank and Jerusalem is a whole other thing. We hold the Jews to a higher standard. America carried out ethnic cleansing against the entire Native American population. Andrew Jackson was an executive director of that final solution. The U.S. also annexed a huge slice of Mexico; Turkey can decimate the Kurds; Armenia once was; Tasmania even had a population of Native Australians at one time.
But that was then, and this is now. We are more moral in the twenty first century. We have better ethics and we will start with the ‘Jewish problem’ by making an example of them. The effrontery that these people display in their claims of territory goes against all human, civilized behavior. They must be stopped and sent back to where they came from. Boycott that West Bank settlement humus immediately!
Somalia be damned; Congo be damned; Yemen be damned; the south side of Chicago be damned and the Mexican and Colombian drug -lords be damned. Afghanistan and Iraq be damned. Syria is currently experiencing cosmic damnation.
Because, ultimately, it is all about those pesky Jews. Solve that Jewish problem and everything else will be okay. Let’s start with the humus.
SANDY?
Pompeii.
Regardless of Darwinism, Creationism, Global warming, Environmentalism or any other “-ism”, the financial and economic repercussions that result from the earth doing its thing are monumental.
We can accommodate the earth's ego, or we can ignore it to our loss and at our peril. When subways flood, the power-grid fails, the nuclear facility leaks and the bridge collapses, we all lose.
Do we need regulation? If we have children, the answer is hell yes.
The problem is that the American constitution is sixteen pages long. Obamacare is 906 pages long.
I would like my steroid shot to be clean. I would like San Onofre to survive the big one. I would like Monsanto to stop re-designing my seeds and poisoning the essential molecular composition of my food.
But it is a mystery to me how any of this can be regulated without destroying the essence of freedom. That is why "Citizens United" sailed through SCOTUS. The New York Times is a corporation. They are permitted to influence millions of people as a direct result of "Citizens United".
How are we to regulate the New York Times corporation and their voice differently from the Monsanto corporation and their voice?
Would a PAC survive scrutiny in any other industrialized civilized democratic nation on earth? Perhaps only in Sweden, the bastion of feudal legislation.
A totally free-market economy becomes feudalism. An overly-regulated economy becomes Communism. Where is the middle?
CULTURE
"Gaming" is a term, a culture and an industry that defies my comprehension.
It began with pong and is now a 100 billion dollar industry occupying time, energy and emotion.
Backgammon is a game. Chess is a game and table tennis is a game.
Chasing down and destroying evil -do-ers through animated environments on a screen accompanied by dramatic soundscapes is not a game. The principal concept is flawed on multiple levels. We play against people that we never see beyond the virtual world. We learn virtual skills. We experience adrenaline rushes as a result of virtual experiences and we experience loss and gain in solitude. The adrenaline is not virtual.
100 billion dollars per year could perhaps be put to better use on the south side of Chicago. That is where some real killing and real adrenaline is happening. Forget the virtual stuff, that's for pussies.
INNOVATION
My house has vinyl siding. I would prefer brick or anything with better fidelity.
I type text on a QWERTY keyboard. I prefer the older technology of voice to voice communication. But telephones are so eighteen eighties. (((::: WTF , LOL.
Grass-fed beef. Now there's an innovative concept. Free- range chicken. heirloom tomatoes mercury-free seafood would also be a nice novel concept.
But plumbing made of lead is said to have destroyed the Roman empire. Their only excuse was that they were not aware of cause and effect. Contemporary Mad Cow disease has been attributed to turning cattle into carnivores. We should know better. Let them eat grass
There are references to the use of coal for energy in Greek texts dating back thousands of years.
Coal is still the world’s largest energy source for the production of electricity.
Perhaps another two or three thousand years of development will discover a less damaging source of energy. Coal is cheap to source. Yet, coal creates extraordinary damage that seems never to be considered in the larger economic paradigm.
It is not about politics. It is not about religion and it is not about ethics. It is about the money.
Here’s my short list of economic black holes:
The free-enterprise health-care system is wasteful, unsound and inefficient.
Coal is dirty. It creates economic damage.
Forty-eight characters are not an efficient means of communication.
Monsanto and the NRA should not be permitted to buy my government.
One hundred thousand surveillance cameras over Manhattan invade my privacy.
Nintendo and Playstation are the Colosseum, gladiator distractions for the masses.
We are dancing on the deck and the ship isn’t sinking........yet.
What happened to hope and change? It expressed itself in a dogmatic fundamentalist insane interpretation of the second amendment of the American constitution. There is intention, and there is interpretation.
Misinterpretation... “from my cold dead hands” to Sandy Hook.
Watch out! The drones are coming, the drones are coming.
Everything has changed, yet it all remains the same.
The saying goes that if we do not learn from history, then we are destined to repeat it. And repeat it we do like clockwork with 223 caliber ammunition.
LET MY PEOPLE GO
There is a new Pharaoh in Egypt. He will likely build pyramids and re-enslave the Jews. This time the Persian alliance will be his facilitator. This is part of a continuum. A nuke or two could reinstate the great Persian empire across the Middle East and eventually all of Europe and then Africa.
Perhaps a new crusade is in order. Where is Lancelot when we need him?
ACCORDING TO SOCRATES
“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”
Contemporary solutions:
Eliminate government involvement in education.
Charter schools.
Demolish teachers unions.
Transfer all texts to the cloud.
Prioritize budgets and eliminate art, music, ethics, civics, physical education and literature from the curriculum.
And, by all means eliminate those expensive social work and mental health programs. Money is tight and we have our priorities.
TECHNOLOGY IS NEUTRAL
Drive a car... pollute the earth.
Create an irrigation dam using dynamite...kill with dynamite.
Robotics take over from manual labour...millions unemployed.
Invent Kindle...burn the books...destroy the historical record.
It's all relative.
So we live longer lives. Is that a good thing? Do we, the boomers have greater wisdom as a result of our longevity. Is the world a better place?
HEALTH CARE, A RIGHT OR A PRIVILEGE?
It really doesn't matter. It is not an ethical dilemma. It is an economic nightmare. We are born and we die and we suffer our fragility and our flawed design.
When we pass through our life transitions, we incur financial repercussions.
If we use tobacco, it is not just about the individual, the family or society in general. It is about an industry. From the tobacco farmer to the cancer surgeon to the grave digger and all of the intervening steps. There are deep and extraordinary economic factors involved.
If we unintentionally inject a moldy steroid shot for back pain and suffer the repercussion, who is to blame? Who pays the piper?
If we fall asleep at the wheel and injure an uninsured child, who pays the shot? In fact what if an uninsured child gets shot?
If we acquire a hospital born infection or get a lyme tick bite in the park, what then?
Ban tobacco, ban the big gulp, ban trans fats, ban coal fired power plants, ban genetic seeds, ban ban ban.
And the ban plays on. Perhaps the "ban" thing doesn't work.
But while America considers the legalization of pot, Holland is reversing theirs.
Round and round we go. Coke is the real thing.
THE WAR TO END ALL WARS
That was the one in 1914. About twenty million people died.
There is a civil war right now on the streets of the cities of the USA. It remains a daily decimation, without comment, without concern and without press. That is of course unless a newsworthy event involves middle class white people. Then we might hear about it for a minute or two.
While about 150 people died during the recent eight day war in Gaza, how many people died on the streets of American cities? How many were wounded? Why don't we give a shit.
At least based on the annual average, 300 people were murdered on the streets of America in those eight days, double the number in Gaza. An uncountable number beyond that were wounded.
Why don't we care?
Why is Gaza more important?
Perhaps homeland security should start at home.
ANNEXATION
A recent tour of the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's plantation home in Tennessee, left me horrified. The man's legacy is akin to a Stalin or Hitler.
He was a murderous, megalomaniac, racist bastard responsible for unforgivable crimes against humanity.
Much of the nation-based structure of the world is founded on the annexation of territory. We claimed a hunk of Mexico not too long ago, and act surprised when the American-Hispanic vote displays an agenda with numbers and authority.
The West Bank and Jerusalem is a whole other thing. We hold the Jews to a higher standard. America carried out ethnic cleansing against the entire Native American population. Andrew Jackson was an executive director of that final solution. The U.S. also annexed a huge slice of Mexico; Turkey can decimate the Kurds; Armenia once was; Tasmania even had a population of Native Australians at one time.
But that was then, and this is now. We are more moral in the twenty first century. We have better ethics and we will start with the ‘Jewish problem’ by making an example of them. The effrontery that these people display in their claims of territory goes against all human, civilized behavior. They must be stopped and sent back to where they came from. Boycott that West Bank settlement humus immediately!
Somalia be damned; Congo be damned; Yemen be damned; the south side of Chicago be damned and the Mexican and Colombian drug -lords be damned. Afghanistan and Iraq be damned. Syria is currently experiencing cosmic damnation.
Because, ultimately, it is all about those pesky Jews. Solve that Jewish problem and everything else will be okay. Let’s start with the humus.
SANDY?
Pompeii.
Regardless of Darwinism, Creationism, Global warming, Environmentalism or any other “-ism”, the financial and economic repercussions that result from the earth doing its thing are monumental.
We can accommodate the earth's ego, or we can ignore it to our loss and at our peril. When subways flood, the power-grid fails, the nuclear facility leaks and the bridge collapses, we all lose.
Do we need regulation? If we have children, the answer is hell yes.
The problem is that the American constitution is sixteen pages long. Obamacare is 906 pages long.
I would like my steroid shot to be clean. I would like San Onofre to survive the big one. I would like Monsanto to stop re-designing my seeds and poisoning the essential molecular composition of my food.
But it is a mystery to me how any of this can be regulated without destroying the essence of freedom. That is why "Citizens United" sailed through SCOTUS. The New York Times is a corporation. They are permitted to influence millions of people as a direct result of "Citizens United".
How are we to regulate the New York Times corporation and their voice differently from the Monsanto corporation and their voice?
Would a PAC survive scrutiny in any other industrialized civilized democratic nation on earth? Perhaps only in Sweden, the bastion of feudal legislation.
A totally free-market economy becomes feudalism. An overly-regulated economy becomes Communism. Where is the middle?
CULTURE
"Gaming" is a term, a culture and an industry that defies my comprehension.
It began with pong and is now a 100 billion dollar industry occupying time, energy and emotion.
Backgammon is a game. Chess is a game and table tennis is a game.
Chasing down and destroying evil -do-ers through animated environments on a screen accompanied by dramatic soundscapes is not a game. The principal concept is flawed on multiple levels. We play against people that we never see beyond the virtual world. We learn virtual skills. We experience adrenaline rushes as a result of virtual experiences and we experience loss and gain in solitude. The adrenaline is not virtual.
100 billion dollars per year could perhaps be put to better use on the south side of Chicago. That is where some real killing and real adrenaline is happening. Forget the virtual stuff, that's for pussies.
INNOVATION
My house has vinyl siding. I would prefer brick or anything with better fidelity.
I type text on a QWERTY keyboard. I prefer the older technology of voice to voice communication. But telephones are so eighteen eighties. (((::: WTF , LOL.
Grass-fed beef. Now there's an innovative concept. Free- range chicken. heirloom tomatoes mercury-free seafood would also be a nice novel concept.
But plumbing made of lead is said to have destroyed the Roman empire. Their only excuse was that they were not aware of cause and effect. Contemporary Mad Cow disease has been attributed to turning cattle into carnivores. We should know better. Let them eat grass
There are references to the use of coal for energy in Greek texts dating back thousands of years.
Coal is still the world’s largest energy source for the production of electricity.
Perhaps another two or three thousand years of development will discover a less damaging source of energy. Coal is cheap to source. Yet, coal creates extraordinary damage that seems never to be considered in the larger economic paradigm.
It is not about politics. It is not about religion and it is not about ethics. It is about the money.
Here’s my short list of economic black holes:
The free-enterprise health-care system is wasteful, unsound and inefficient.
Coal is dirty. It creates economic damage.
Forty-eight characters are not an efficient means of communication.
Monsanto and the NRA should not be permitted to buy my government.
One hundred thousand surveillance cameras over Manhattan invade my privacy.
Nintendo and Playstation are the Colosseum, gladiator distractions for the masses.
We are dancing on the deck and the ship isn’t sinking........yet.
What happened to hope and change? It expressed itself in a dogmatic fundamentalist insane interpretation of the second amendment of the American constitution. There is intention, and there is interpretation.
Misinterpretation... “from my cold dead hands” to Sandy Hook.
Watch out! The drones are coming, the drones are coming.
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