Hmmmmmmmm..... This a bit like finding an old friend again. I use to put my thoughts down here, when I actually thought I had a thought, but somewhere along the way I began to feel like it didn't really matter what I thought so I quit posting.
I haven't changed my mind, but if I do, I'll put it here

Musings of a Dumb Ass

We've finally come against a crisis that may be bigger than us, and thus far appears to be unmanageable, the oilspill in the Gulf............

As with all the other events in the last ten years that required a steady hand and the power of a responsible government, as in our behaviour following 9-11, that resulted in two disastrous wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, we have shown the same political and individual stupidity displayed in Hurricane Katrina and now the British Petroleum spill that makes us look totally inept and impotent to the rest of the civilized world and we are locked into the 'system', whatever that is, in such a way that a reasonable solution, which is most certainly out there, impossible to achieve.

What really isn't being said, is something possibly even more dangerous than the pollution spewing into our ocean, and that would be the position of power and responsibility of British Petroleum to its' Mother Country, England, and its' subjects, numbering 42 countries.

All of the British subject countries are not entitled to the same rewards and benefits as the true natural born Brit, but each would fall in order should the Mother Country fail and fall. This would surely be a calamity unknown to modern times and no one really knows what the effect would be world wide should if Great Britain should fail. It could possibly throw the entire world into a position of looking at reversals that might make us knock on the door of dark ages akin to the period following the fall of Rome, so long ago.

So how could an oil company spilling crude out of a 22 inch hole in the ground on the ocean floor be such a threat to world stability?

Simple.... BP is the single largest contributer to the British Government in the form of taxes, and likewise the pension funds of Great Britons' retired are deep into BP stock, which has taken a severe beating at the hands of current events, and will likely suffer further perhaps to a total failure, if the gusher isn't harnessed soon.

Should a complete failure of BP occur, there would be a collapse of the retirement system in England, which would mean nobody retired gets a check in England. All powerful nations on the earth have shackled themselves to the elderly in the form of retirement, health care and a myriad of other 'gimme's' and if anyone thinks the elderly doesn't have punch, even enough to collapse a government and likewise a country, then that portion of believers will be in for a huge surprise. Problem is that we have all grown dependent on each other and should Great Briton fall, lots of others, perhaps the entire globe will collapse also.

By the way, it seems to me an effective way to seal the damn pipe up would be through the use of a simple airbag.... y'know,....the kind that holds locomotives up. Stick 'em in the hole and air 'em up....... OK OK OK...... It's too simple ...... I know........ I'm sorry..... forget I even mentioned it.....

Musings of a Dumb Ass

In listening to my circle of friends and neighbors I'm reminded of the singularity of our thinking that continues on to our national direction. It's about 'me' with little regard to anyone or anything else on the planet. That might seem a bit radical, but I suppose age has made me that way.

Just last night I was with friends around a table that brought about great conversation and a lot of laughter.

They were concerned about the economy but were vague about what created the problem though almost without exception each recieved a government check every month. They were jealous of the countries that simply gave health care away to their citizens while they had to pay for their Medi-care (average cost $96. pr. month).

They displayed absolutely no understanding of different cultures and seemed to believe we had a place everywhere in the world we're currently occupying and a mandate to do whatever we do including 'nuking whoever the offender's are. They displayed no understanding of who done what and clung to the idea that them Moslems were sworn to kill us. I didn't hear any conversation about any other cultures or religions that have or would like to try to decimate us, of which they are many, including many Christians world wide, and also many Israeli's, to whom we give unlimited protection and huge amount's of money to all the while they shoot the Palestinians peering from behind the fences at the homes they once lived in that are now inhabited by the ones we protect. They were oblivious of the tragedy of the deaths of children killed by our presence around the world, and never mentioned the agony of the families of the innocents who die daily because of our operations on their soil, nor whether we should even be there or not.

They were also concerned that our Government has turned against God even though God is still in our Pledge of Allegiance and on our money. It's just that no mention of Jesus is made nor allowed in or on any Governmental property or business. No one seemed to recognize that those of a faith other than Christianity are entitled to their beliefs and the protection thereof also. That's what made this country great in the beginning, a simple separation of state and the church.

They are dedicated almost to the end to produce a Cleric Government run by the church although historically the Christians have killed, raped and pillaged the same as the rest of the world, if not more.

That is really scary to me........ we're strange

Musings of a Dumb Ass

I don't put my thoughts here much any more, mostly because I don't think my thoughts matter much any more. Those who think they have cures and answers for our future are nothing short of completely ignorant. I believe I always knew how it would end for our country but somehow never thought it would actually happen. I've come to believe our demise as a free and independant people in a free and independant country is at hand.

It is so hard for me to watch what we've become all the while being a part of what we were and remembering how it was in this great and wonderful country.

I will cherish to the grave the freedoms of choice I had as a child and young man, gone now forever and replaced with a killing strangulation of confusing and useless laws and constant monitoring of life by the unseen eyes of government and neighbors..... yes, that's correct, neighbors. We have all become pawns and robots for a society that has little logic and routinely turn our neighbors in to the authorities for everything imaginable including a dirty house, and amazingly, the authorities which generally include some of your neighbors are very quick to enter into your life to retrain you in the correct ways and behaviour to make you a good citizen.

We deserve to lose all. We have no right to continue as a world leader when we are unable to lead ourselves.

We've traded our dignity and backbone for a myriad of entitlements from big brother which result in actual checks and/or government services for most Americans no matter what age or social status, and made us feel it is ok to accept it.

We've also allowed most all of the real jobs to go somewhere else and the remainder of jobs left is generally those that service us, unfortunately, with a goverment subsidy to fund them.

There is no way for this beauty contest to continue. We're ALL ugly.

I used to think I'd never live to see the real collapse..... Now I'm pretty certain I'm going to have a ringside seat.

What a mess

Musings of a Dumb Ass

The world became a place for me to pay attention to in about 1957. That was when I really discovered women, cars, clothes and music.
Girls didn't have tattoos and cuss, and not many 'put out'. If they did, we mostly didn't talk about it. There was no such thing as abortion or the pill. If you had a date, most of us knocked on the door when we picked her up, and generally had her home by midnight at the extreme latest.

Cars were a statement about who you were. There was no such thing as a foreign made car in my little town in 1957. The first one I seen around town was in 1958 and none of us would have been caught dead in a Volkswagen, no one had ever heard of a Honda, Toyota, or Kia or anything else not from here . Everything was American made, and we loved it.

Clothes were all american made including our shoes.

Music was also American made and the wildest thing I heard was Little Richard.

All in all, America was a pleasant and respectable place to live anywhere in the country, and you were safe anywhere.

Just 52 short years later, we are now in a world community where foreign goods have just about completely taken over our country. We have been told that true capitalism works best when we trade with other countries and that may be so, but while we eagerly bought the cars made somewhere else, we slowly crippled then killed our own great automobile makers, filled our shelves with everything made from foreign soil, (the only thing I can find made in America at WalMart is Mason fruit jars) and now our farmers are threatened with the same dilemna as the manufacturing sector as food processed and grown somewhere else flood our markets.

Not many work at the 'factory' anymore simply because there are no more factories to work at. Instead we are by far the greater percentage working for the Government ( that means anything subsidised by government money as well as directly employed by the government. Our good paying manufacturing jobs have been replaced with lower paying jobs in the retail market or servicing each other in health care, child care, home care or a myriad of other government funded entities.

We've been taught to take welfare, we call it many things, but if you are not presently working for it, then it's welfare. Simple and brutal, but true.

Our government and legislators are out of touch with it's people, and have taken on a life of it's own spiraling out of control.

Health care will finish burying us, because everyone is out to lunch on the issues, legislature, and populace, and global warming just adds insult to injury. Doesn't anyone realize there was once an ice age that went its way, and we've been warming ever since. To truly believe we are powerful enough as inhabitants on this globe to create or even enhance our climates is just another act of complete and total idiocy. We've managed to destroy ourselves quicker than any other leading civilization in history. Such a tragic way to leave the stage........

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Sometime ago I became acquainted and involved with a church group, not particularly in a religious kind of way, but more so in a friendship and social way. I've found that I need to be around people of faith. I'm not sure why, only that it makes me feel better.

A few weeks back the Minister, who I admire and respect, delivered a message about loneliness and depression. While he wasn't completely on point about it in my world, he realized there was such a thing, and wanted to help those troubled with it.

My entire life has been on a ringside seat for depression, and for that matter, loneliness too. My depression is of the deepest and most miserable kind, and I've experienced loneliness of the most devastating nature even while surrounded by those who admire me and want to be near for whatever reason, and over the years there have been many who wanted to be around for the laughs and fellowship, never suspecting how miserable I was even to the point of being suicidal.

I've often wondered what's to become of a damned fool like me and have no answers.

I think not many around me ever guessed how I really felt about life and those in it, and the miniscule few I've ever talked to about it found it so very hard to believe, I think they just sort of set it aside as something I imagined or wasn't that big of a deal. They just weren't present when I had a gun barrel in my mouth or my foot on the accelerator wrestling the temptation to swerve into the semi I was meeting. It is a terrible feeling with no explanations nor cure.

Most believe those with the problem need professional help. I believe there is no such thing as help, and those who were helped by someone else never really had the problem to begin with, because there is no relief, no cure, only interludes, sure to be followed by your old nemisis, just waiting to visit again.

The Christmas season is here, and many find it hard to navigate, and so do I. While I don't completely understand my problems with life, I can promise I certainly don't understand anyone else's.

I made a rule some years ago that's kept me from doing something stupid, and I recommend it to anyone who truly feels life itself is unsurmountable and not worth living. It's very simple. If you truly are to a place that ending it is a temptation, wait 24 hours. So far there's not been a time that life didn't look much better for me, and hold promise.... in just 24 hours..... Merry Christmas

Musings of a Dumb Ass

The absence of an identifiable enemy complicates war. It has been so since men began killing each other.

To help matters out someone long ago came up with the idea to dress armies in a certain way so they could simply kill each other and generally leave everyone else alone except for destroying private property and taking assets away from those in the way, and of course killing anyone who might piss them off for any reason, and occasionally raping the women found along the way.

This worked well for a very long time and the uniforms of the enemy became the identifier that we all hated.

As we became more civilized right and wrong became the reason we warred, more so than the wishes of an individual ruler. It should be said that right and wrong has always been up to the victor as opposed to real right and wrong.

When we invaded Iraq the standing army that existed under Saddam was defeated in real time in about 24 hours.

That particular invasion by us, fundamentally changed the way we do war forever more because we attacked a country who had no ability to do us harm. There are those who might differ with that assessment but they wouldn't last long in the court of debate. We continued on with our rampage, and with no identifiable enemy it became an attack on the people on the streets of Iraq, who predictably hate us with a venomous passion and desire to get us out at any price and plant bombs on the side of the roads for us to drive over to say so. When a bomb goes off and takes the lives of our finest we say it was done by the enemy, but we can't identify who that is and find victory impossible to acheive, and it will always be that way.

Now we are looking at the ninth year of the same travesty in Afghanistan and no end is in sight. There is no standing army to shoot and no uniforms to aim at, so we are relegated to the same failure we've experienced in Iraq and it will only get worse. There is no victory to be had in an American sponsored puppet government. We should have learned that from Viet-Nam, Iran and now Iraq, and Pakistan, but we march on in Afghanistan as if we are hypnotized and unable to reason. If Osama is what we're after, we simply should have taken him and be done with that. There is no point in saying we can't find him. That only insults the intelligence of the brain dead.

We're decimating the soul of our country with our behaviour. Not only worldwide, but in the halls of Congress, but as history dictates, we won't last much longer........