What’s Up? 07/29/10

Tags

Amendments, bread, Constitution, espionage, John Le Carre, Michelle Bachmann, Poetry, Sarah Palin

I’ve always thought the spy business was kinda silly. I mean, I realize it has its importance in times of actual war. Those people who infiltrate to gain information that will help your side win and do so more quickly, are courageous people it seems to me.

But this other stuff? Oh, my, it strikes me about the same as mercenaries. Gosh, gee, no war? I can’t kill no more? I’ll go volunteer to kill for you, for a price. Sick people.

Same for spies. Weirdos who try to inflate the importance of their spooky jobs. It always strikes me that the rest of us sit around making fun of them like indeed they are playing cowboys and Indians. Speaking of which here’s a fine review of Le Carre’s book, and some interesting commentary on the subject.

So who chooses to be a spy? Weirdos as I said. Probably the same class of human who wants to be a cop in a dangerous city. People who feel powerless. Not all of course. But in general I think.

The latest crop of spies are the bunch they recently caught in the US. It made me laugh. Kinda a joke don’t you think? Anybody think they were seriously gonna find out anything actually important? I doubt it. Loved watching the “transfer.” OOOOh so scary, and spyish.

I bet those Russians are kinda pissed now. Life here was probably more to their liking than what they now have in good old Moscow.

~~

Oh, Google musta read my rant, and got my pictures back to the way they were. Good job Google. I’m glad I carry that kinda power.

~~

The article linked above raised another interesting item came to me. The writer says he has read the novel many times. I’m not one to reread much of anything, though I have a couple of things, War and Peace comes to mind. With just so much out there to read, I feel I can’t spare the time to reread anything. The Contrarian is just the opposite.

I’m not sure what that says personality wise. Any ideas?

~~

A terrific REAL poet is amongst us. I suggest you try this one and then browse through the site for other perfect gems. This one spoke so powerfully to me, that I wonder if the author has gotten into my head.

When it comes to thoughtful ponderings, nobody is much better than Tengrain. See his thoughts on our dear Sarah (that woman is an idiot) Palin, and her unforgivable use of her son Trig.

D-cap is starting a series on how we might consider changing our constitution to govern better. I’m fully in agreement that something needs be done to at minimum stop the ability of a minority to keep the majority from getting a bleepin’ thing done. So get in on the ground floor of what will undoubtedly be a thoughtful series.

Jaliya at Pushing 50, has a post on Target CEO and his wife who have allegedly given Michelle Bachmann the max in campaign contributions. While I don’t usually shop at Target, I do like their stores, but I will definitely not be spending my money there if this is true. Thanks for the heads up Jaliya!

~~

I just made two loves of 7-grain bread. I got the recipe from Cooks TV show. I love their recipes generally, but they are usually more complicated than regular ones. But and it’s a big but, it’s frankly worth it. They really try everything and come up with the very best. My loaves weren’t as high as hers but otherwise look identical. They are supposed to be sandwich usable (most home made bread is too heavy, dense and dry for good sandwiches). If it’s as reported, I’ll share the recipe with ya tomorrow. They had a nice regular rolls recipe too. I make a batch of them and throw them in the freezer. Works wonderfully to jazz up any meal. Warm them and they are like you just baked them.

Sorry, I don’t seem to be finding much that interests me today. Some days are like that. I luv ya all. Be careful out there and keep your heads down.

You Got It All Wrong

Tags

Amendments, checks and balances, citizenship, Constititution, democracy, federalism, freedom, government, liberty, theocracy, tyranny

It has been my considered opinion for many years, that democracy requires a certain political maturity to pull off. I came to that conclusion as we wasted so many thousands of lives in Vietnam, all in pursuit of exporting democracy.

The neo-cons cannot “get” this. So we have continued to go about the business of “nation building” over the years, with little success.

Texas is busily trying to rewrite history to suit its collective religious notions. So out goes Jefferson as part of the Enlightenment, and out goes the Enlightenment in favor of “other ideas.” Caesar Chavez is dropped. What is in, is that the Founding Fathers were all Christians and their purpose was to establish the “City of God.”

Bunk, but what can you do against such mindsets? In fact, our Founding Fathers, (FF) knew quite a bit about government and had a pretty clear idea of what they did not want. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That is one of the truest phrases ever spoken.

Democracy comes after all the other forms have been tried. I’m not sure if we ever gave Aristotle’s “philosopher king” much of a chance, but then such persons are mighty hard to come by. So we ended up with a strange seemingly unworkable structure that was based on the premise of “trust no one.” We established three branches, and were careful to give no one branch too much power, and plenty of veto power over the others. (Yes, before you start, I know the difference between democracy and federalism–we can treat them the same for this analysis.)

Yet, even then, we knew it was risky. Complicity still paced along the horizon. I mean the in’s in Washington could agree that at least they WERE the powerful rulers and could AGREE to at least protect themselves against the great hordes of ordinary citizenry. And of course that is pretty much what has happened today. Almost nobody in Washington gives a hoot about the American “people.” Remaining in their little fiefdom is the point today.

I contend that the FF actually saw this as a possibility and that the Amendments to the Constitution were really the last ditch defense against the return of tyranny. Seen in this way, we can I submit make a better choice as to how to break apart this log jam of inaction on crucial social issues we find today.

Freedoms of speech, assemble, and press insure that citizens can gather, discuss, organize and plan the ouster of those who are not doing the public good. No jail for dissidents. Freedom of religion is a direct response to the legitimacy that a “national” church can lend to a corrupt regime, and the tit for tat forced legitimacy of a particular faith interpretation. (Look to Latin America as a perfect example of a tyrannical government working hand in hand with a church to keep the status quo alive and well.)

Seen in this light the right to bear arms has zero to do with people having the right to amass personal arsenals. Rather it has to do with the fact that the people, thwarted by a government who enlists its personal army to defeat dissidents, don’t have to show up with pitchforks and shovels to war against tanks and machine guns. It is our final and most dangerous alternative to a government run amok.

Such an alternative is usually not necessary when trial rights, peers, and so forth are protected constitutionally. We can’t be jailed for opposing our government. We used to think we couldn’t be tortured into telling on ourselves (now open to wonder). We realized the importance here of liberty from tyranny, devoting half of our amendments to protecting the opposition.

None of this sounds very like the idea of creating a City of God. It seems more a sober reflection of how dangerous power is, and that we must remain ever vigilant to its excesses. Those who try to pervert the amendments into something else, either singularly or in groups are dangerous and must be watched carefully. Those who would suspend them even temporarily, even for “security’s” sake, must be opposed.

Texas is so appallingly wrong. It already has about the worst record in terms of graduating kids in the country. It has avoided what 48 other states have agreed is proper–minimum national standards of learning–and it’s increasingly at the beck and call of religious bigots who are determined to establish what the FF abhorred–a theocracy. Sadly, no doubt it will prevail at least within its borders and continue to turn out ill-educated backward and bigoted new adults ready to enter the voting booth.

Patrick Kennedy went ballistic the other day calling up the national media to stop its insane laziness and start to focus on real news. He was utterly right. If the press cannot or will not do it’s job, then it is up to us. It’s up to you. And me. Or we can kiss this find experiment goodbye.

Just what I’m thinkin’ about today.