Thursday, September 20, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
"Lone Survivor"
Putting aside the rant for once to talk about heroes. Not Superman or
Batman. Not even sports stars. I'm talking about real life struggling,
self-sacrificing heroes. What I'm really talking about is a book called
"Lone Survivor", and the hero at the center of it, Marcus Luttrell. Marcus
Luttrell is a Navy Seal (and just based on that he is worthy of our extreme
admiration) who was serving in Iraq when he and three of his team members
were deployed to Afghanistan. I'm not going to tell you much about the book,
because I want you to read it for yourself. Buy the book. Get it from the
library. Borrow it from a friend. Whatever. Just read the book. It doesn't
detail an epic battle that decided a war, or saved a bunch of people. In
fact, most of the bad guys are still on the loose. But what what really got
me about this book is what people are willing to do, not for headlines or
medals, but for pretty abstract ideas. Duty. Honor. Country. This isn't
about politics. It's about flat out courage. I don't have a lot of heroes in
my life. But Marcus Luttrell is one of them.
Batman. Not even sports stars. I'm talking about real life struggling,
self-sacrificing heroes. What I'm really talking about is a book called
"Lone Survivor", and the hero at the center of it, Marcus Luttrell. Marcus
Luttrell is a Navy Seal (and just based on that he is worthy of our extreme
admiration) who was serving in Iraq when he and three of his team members
were deployed to Afghanistan. I'm not going to tell you much about the book,
because I want you to read it for yourself. Buy the book. Get it from the
library. Borrow it from a friend. Whatever. Just read the book. It doesn't
detail an epic battle that decided a war, or saved a bunch of people. In
fact, most of the bad guys are still on the loose. But what what really got
me about this book is what people are willing to do, not for headlines or
medals, but for pretty abstract ideas. Duty. Honor. Country. This isn't
about politics. It's about flat out courage. I don't have a lot of heroes in
my life. But Marcus Luttrell is one of them.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
"I'm Quitting the Republican Party" Part Two: YOU'RE FIRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was going to follow on with the real, sensible solution to some of the
issues facing America and the world, and why everyone currently in politics
is completely incapable (or at least unwilling) of doing anything that helps
us rather than them. But I'm not going to bother. We knoow they're crap. We
all do. There is no voter out there who can honestly, in their heart, say
that they believe that their candidate will say the hell with the polls, to
hell with my legacy, to hell with how history or the mainstream media judges
me, I'm going to fix the country. That is not going to happen. And it's not
because there are no good people in this country. Any person will, without
outside influence, generally do the decent thing. But politicians...
Republocrats I call them, are not without outside influence. They start out
small somewhere, with probably good intentions, thinking they can improve
their little corner of the world. And that's where they should have stayed.
But then they get the ambition to to move up, and we've lost them. Even,
even, if they move up through local to state government, they can do some
good if their scruples have survived. IF. Big word. But if they have, then
they can still do good. Because they live where they govern. After that,
they get the King syndrome. And they're gone. Give them a red lightsaber,
and change their name to Darth (insert hated politician's name of your
choice here). They've gone to the dark side. So what do we do? First
acknowledge that no independent will ever get elected to the White House.
The Republocrats own it, and they'll never give it up. So what you really
have to do is scrap the general election process. It's broken, and it'll
never get fixed, because the sharks who own it don't want it fixed. Scrap
it. Get rid of it. Then you fire the whole damn Federal Government.
Everyone. The money that we save will pay for the salaries of necessary Fed
employees. Military, ambassadors, Intelligence community. The rest of it...
take the savings and give it to the states. And then, because we should have
a head of state, hold a lottery for president. Require a decent credit
rating, and no criminal record (right there you've improved over what we
have now), and then get stuck with the job for six years. Then you're out
for good. Someone else gets the job. Congress is next. Gone. Governors can
communicate with each other, and decide what they need to do to get the job
done. There's no influence of corruption, because they've reached the
pinnacle of their political career. We've been conned into thinking that we
need lawyers to run the country. That couldn't be farther from the truth.
There is no profession (with the exception of politics) that is at once so
self-serving and a drain on the lifeblood of the country. They are
responsible for tha basketcase that is the American healthcare system. Why?
Malpractice insurance. That says it all. Shakespeare knew what to do with
lawyers. The same should go for career politicians. And television news
anchors. And the fact is, common sense isn't taught in law school. It isn't
taught anywhere. You either have it or you don't. And the average person,
who survives on common sense, has more than the average blood sucking
lawyer.
issues facing America and the world, and why everyone currently in politics
is completely incapable (or at least unwilling) of doing anything that helps
us rather than them. But I'm not going to bother. We knoow they're crap. We
all do. There is no voter out there who can honestly, in their heart, say
that they believe that their candidate will say the hell with the polls, to
hell with my legacy, to hell with how history or the mainstream media judges
me, I'm going to fix the country. That is not going to happen. And it's not
because there are no good people in this country. Any person will, without
outside influence, generally do the decent thing. But politicians...
Republocrats I call them, are not without outside influence. They start out
small somewhere, with probably good intentions, thinking they can improve
their little corner of the world. And that's where they should have stayed.
But then they get the ambition to to move up, and we've lost them. Even,
even, if they move up through local to state government, they can do some
good if their scruples have survived. IF. Big word. But if they have, then
they can still do good. Because they live where they govern. After that,
they get the King syndrome. And they're gone. Give them a red lightsaber,
and change their name to Darth (insert hated politician's name of your
choice here). They've gone to the dark side. So what do we do? First
acknowledge that no independent will ever get elected to the White House.
The Republocrats own it, and they'll never give it up. So what you really
have to do is scrap the general election process. It's broken, and it'll
never get fixed, because the sharks who own it don't want it fixed. Scrap
it. Get rid of it. Then you fire the whole damn Federal Government.
Everyone. The money that we save will pay for the salaries of necessary Fed
employees. Military, ambassadors, Intelligence community. The rest of it...
take the savings and give it to the states. And then, because we should have
a head of state, hold a lottery for president. Require a decent credit
rating, and no criminal record (right there you've improved over what we
have now), and then get stuck with the job for six years. Then you're out
for good. Someone else gets the job. Congress is next. Gone. Governors can
communicate with each other, and decide what they need to do to get the job
done. There's no influence of corruption, because they've reached the
pinnacle of their political career. We've been conned into thinking that we
need lawyers to run the country. That couldn't be farther from the truth.
There is no profession (with the exception of politics) that is at once so
self-serving and a drain on the lifeblood of the country. They are
responsible for tha basketcase that is the American healthcare system. Why?
Malpractice insurance. That says it all. Shakespeare knew what to do with
lawyers. The same should go for career politicians. And television news
anchors. And the fact is, common sense isn't taught in law school. It isn't
taught anywhere. You either have it or you don't. And the average person,
who survives on common sense, has more than the average blood sucking
lawyer.
So am I trashing the constitution? No. We weren't trashing it when we
outlawed slavery, or gave women the vote. We were amending it to suit the
realities of the day. And this day, our Federal government is broken. We
need to fix it. Oh boy, do we need to fix it!
Saturday, September 1, 2007
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