11/27/02    It's been well over a year since America was attacked by radical Muslims on September 11th, 2001. I understand it less now than I did even then, and I find myself concerned about the effectiveness of policies prompted by this attack and by ulterior motives that may be hidden in these policies. Obviously oil factors into this, but there's a lot of talk that certain directives of our new "homeland security" will be used to further diminish our civil rights as Americans. I honestly don't know what those rights are. If you look at the Bill of Rights it says we have freedom of speech. This is true so long as you don't speak too loudly. These days it might be wise to keep any anti-government opinions to yourself. In actuality, we ourselves have damaged our freedom of speech by our own thin-skinned political correctness, diminishing the scope of our arguments to where the outcome is luke-warm at best. Freedom of the press is part of this, and however biased and sensationalistic they may be, they still have a powerful voice in reporting the news and drawing attention to our internal corruptions. Some believe all of the news media is already controlled by the government, and yeah I'm sure there's certain things that are collectively agreed upon in the industry as being "off limits", but it's really more of a competitive market driven by ratings and consequently ad revenues. If you can put up with all the partisan bias, and/or celebrity-of-the-week, and/or 15-minutes-of-fame stories, you do get a fairly accurate assessment of the global big picture, at least compared to countries where the media is an actual branch of the government. Most of our other "rights" in the Bill of Rights has to do with the legal system. Much of it I don't understand, but it's probably safe to say that all of it is manipulated by the attorneys anyway so it's only relevant if you can afford that manipulation. The real paranoid concern here is with the right to bear arms (not arm bears). The popular opinion is that eventually guns will be outlawed, and consequently only outlaws will have guns. I'm not in favor of taking away all registered firearms from the American public, but in the event of Martial Law what good would they do anyway? Are you going to shoot the Police when they arrest you for curfew violation? I'm afraid there's not much anyone can do to stop whatever will or will not happen in the future, guns or no guns. Personally I refuse to believe that the "New World Order" is upon us and has been accelerated in it's implementation by the events of September 11th. It would be ironic though, that these terrorists would help to create the very thing they thought they were attacking. The whole thing was ironic for them anyway. Everything they built up all those years was destroyed as a result of their own actions. What did they think was going to happen? How could they not foresee our response to this attack? They not only killed a bunch of innocent people who had nothing to do with anything, but they themselves were wiped out as well, their beliefs lost any credibility they may have once had, and they actually strengthened that which they intended to hurt. And now the remaining few of these terrorists seek "revenge". Unbelievable. Sad part is, even though for many of these terrorists the whole religious conviction thing is just a convenient platform to justify their political motivations, there and just as many (if not most) that have been programmed from childhood to believe that God will actually reward them for the slaughter of innocent men, women and children, and if you commit suicide in the process you get extra points. How handy is this? With that kind of Kamikaze mentality you don't have to be the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree to be a good little soldier. The universe is an overwhelming demonstration in resourcefulness to be sure, how a few dozen atoms can be used to create everything, including life in all it's intricacies and seemingly infinite variations. Our perception of whatever or whoever came up with this phenomenon is probably no more insightful than a dog's perception of his beloved master. They see their master as God the creator of all things, but I doubt that even dogs have the grandiose delusion that when they die their master will be waiting for them in doggie-heaven with porterhouse steaks and a line of eager poodles in heat. I guess the trick is to get 'em when they're young. As mentioned before, we can make kids believe anything, even that a giant invisible rabbit breaks into your house once a year to hide brightly painted chicken eggs. Perhaps it would be better instead to brainwash our children into believing that God will reward us for respecting one another in spite of our differences and that hard work and knowledge will get us extra points. Unfortunately, the terrorist mind sees no value in this attitude for fulfilling whatever cause or destiny, profit or prophecy they seek. And now it looks like the results of that short-sightedness will haunt the entire human race for quite some time to come. And if it does mean a "New World Order" I doubt it will be in the military form that Al Queda (and some of our own American militia groups) believe it will be. True power comes from economic domination. If and when the United States gains full control of the planet's oil supply, military prowess will only be as effective as it's ability to fuel itself. A thousand tanks or fighter jets are of no use if they are all out of gas. And of course the domestic impact is even greater since without trains, planes, trucks and automobiles civilization would grind to halt. Another important factor is control of the planet's human resources as well. Most of the products we use are made elsewhere by people who could not afford to buy what they manufacture, and if these products were manufactured here in America no one could afford to buy them, even us Americans. These days you don't need to win a war to exploit global human resources (like Japan after World War 2). It can be done through investments in the development of economically depressed areas of the world. Starving workers will work cheap. The only other factor in this simple formula for world domination is to unite all of the "exploiting" nations into an alliance governed by a universal set of guidelines, and of course we already have such a system in place. Back to our basic "civil rights", how far these are diminished depends on how necessary it becomes to control the actions of those who refuse to participate in this grand plan. You have your militia and Klansmen who aren't really a threat except to minority groups (as long as they get to keep their guns), and you have your survivalists who just want to be left alone (if I could grow my own food and generate my own electricity, I would), and you have your mobsters (who already participate in this grand plan more than we care to admit), and you have your deadbeats and hoodlums (who are nothing more than cultural excess baggage along with our senior citizens and handicapped), and then you have terrorists. Once you start blowing things up and go flying planes into buildings, the powers that be are going to crack down and crack down HARD. And as mentioned, this only makes these powers stronger by giving them the necessary justification needed to more effectively and forcefully police the world we live in. Again and again prophecy manifests itself into being by the collective belief in that prophecy. Such a shame since the future is fluid with an infinite number of possibilities, that we don't try to steer it in a more constructive direction. Most likely in 30 years we will all be speaking Chinese anyway. So to the Bin Ladens and McVeighs of the world I can only offer one piece of advice : Never poke a bear with a stick unless you're sure it's dead. 9/3/11    Well, here we are a decade later, and everything pretty much played out as expected. The 9/11 attack successfully created an economically devastating trillion dollar military-industrial infrastructure that continues to this day, seemingly accomplishing nothing, with no clear goal, and no end in sight. I guess we didn't learn anything from what collapsed the Soviet economy just a couple decades earlier. And, after all this, the threat of another terrorist attack is just as real, if not more so, than it was in 2001. The most likely reason for this continued threat is because we're STILL THERE. New recruits join these terrorist groups faster than we can kill them, not just because they are uneducated, live in poverty, and are brainwashed at a very early age, but because there's always an increasing number of people in these countries who have lost someone close to them due to American fire, friendly or otherwise. They don't hate us because we're rich, good looking, or make really cool movies. They hate us because we WON'T LEAVE. What if China determined that, out of the hundreds of millions of people living in the United States, there was a very, very small group of Canadians here somewhere that hated the Chinese, and were planning some pathetic isolated random act of violence against them in their homeland, and arbitrarily decided to start dropping bombs on us and set up a 20 year+ military presence here? Would we be glad they were here to flush out these radicals, and believe that a military occupation, destruction of our cities, and accidental (or intentional) deaths of our loved ones are justified because, God forbid, we wouldn't want anything bad to happen to our Chinese allies? Of course not. Their presence would have the OPPOSITE effect, causing anti-Chinese groups to grow year after year after year. In the case of Iraq, we can say we freed them from a ruthless dictator, but the Chinese could say they freed us from a ruthless Liberal, but a decade after the boogie-man had been slain, we would want them to simply GO AWAY. Unfortunately, no one is able to offer a viable alternative to military occupation (I mean "liberation"), other than to open dialogs with all involved parties. A great start to be sure, but in the end if we don't stop terrorism OVER THERE, we will eventually have to stop it OVER HERE. This may be better left to covert groups like the CIA, Navy Seals, or some other "Special-Ops" organization, but like most people, I do not trust, and even fear the CIA, and have a tough time giving them that much power because they don't have to play by the rules. However, the bad guys don't play by the rules either, so what do you do? Obviously, using our military as a posse roaming the world lookin' for rustlers instead of protecting our own borders doesn't work. Maybe it never did. It's quite possible that every American military action since Korea has been primarily for the benefit of those who are best poised to profit from it. A society that lives in fear of their enemies, real, imagined, or manufactured, will much more easily support such interventions, and after 9/11 we have all surrendered to these fears, giving our corporate, political and military leaders more power over the world than at any other time in history. Almost seems too convenient to be a coincidence, doesn't it? (uh-oh, better stop now before the conspiracy theories start spewing...and...I'm pretty sure my phone's tapped). 11/6/12    Another year has passed since 9/11, and here it is Election Day. No I'm not voting. Illinois’ 21 electors are carved in stone, so for us here the presidential election is already over, and has been over for quite some time. There was never any real possibility it would go "red". And since electoral votes cannot be split, all Romney votes will be discarded. Maybe we’ll get to play next time, and at least those wasted votes make a silent statement that people are so fed up they will support pretty much anyone, qualified or not, in the hope of affecting change. And I think it's great when people stand behind a cause, real or imagined. Without a cause, there can be no hope. However, to me this election is just a media extravaganza like the Superbowl. Only difference, you already know what teams are playing before the season even starts. And worse, they're the same team. We like to think there is a huge divide in political idealisms between parties, but at best they all might engage in some lively banter over drinks about abortion or gay rights, but not before they all pat each other on the backs for a job well done. They all play in the same sandbox, and any perceived differences are just a convenient illusion of contrast. The status quo will not be shaken or even stirred regardless of today’s outcome. Perhaps we should be voting out our lobbyists instead of the politicians they solicit and simply put all legislative votes on ebay. I hate to be cynical (love it actually), but at my age it no longer makes sense to try and take back our country by supporting either of the two parties that took it away from us. 2/4/13    I made the statement earlier that most likely in 30 years we'll all be speaking Chinese anyway. That was 12 years ago. And so far there's no indication they have an interest in us, right? As long as every Christmas we can prove we are still viable consumers there's no need to be assimilated, right? Even though we continually intervene and occupy other countries expecting them to see us as "saviors", we would NEVER allow a foreign occupation here, right? Well, although I've stayed clear of the big media-fueled gun control debate, the more I read on both sides the more I see everyone ignoring the elephant in the room. Here is my opinion on why both left & right may be missing the bigger issue: First, I admit that if forced to choose a side, I will always agree that the Federal Government needs to BUTT OUT of our personal lives. Stick with your Constitutional mandates and quit meddling in state & local affairs, because you suck at it. As for the subject at hand, the 2nd Amendment calls for the "Right to bear arms", so end of discussion, right? Problem being, at least with Liberals, is the broader definition of "arms". Does this include UZIs? How about grenade launchers? Infrasonic cannons? Laser weapons? Do we need to add an amendment that says you actually have to have common sense and not be a jackass to participate in all previous amendments? It's a valid point that there are too many people who abuse this basic right for malicious intent, but no one wants to take that 1st step on the slippery slope because we are simply not capable of doing anything in moderation. Once it starts, it snowballs. Opposing this bandwagon mentality, conservatives are warning of a hostile government takeover ending in a tyrannical slave nation, which is more bandwagon mentality that becomes so kooky that any truth regarding such a possibility is lost under layers of paranoid conspiracy mongering. On the other side, it's all about "saving the children", which for the most part is a sincere and genuine motivation, but lost under layers of self-righteous nanny-state protectionism doomed to a legislative domino effect. My opinion is that there is an underlying "windfall" in all this that neither side or the media have speculated on, hence the aforementioned "elephant in the room". Currently, China owns about 21% of our $16 trillion debt, or about $11,000 for every household in the entire United States. Japan comes in a close 2nd, but I suspect we have no intention of paying them back any more than they intend on paying us back for similar debts accrued since WW2. China, however, wants a return on their investment, and the grand plan over the next decade or so, according to "insiders", is to exchange dormant federally owned properties nationwide to offset this debt. China could use these properties for anything from manufacturing to research facilities, farming, drilling & oil processing, etc., which seems like a win-win for all concerned. China's problem with this arrangement is sending its civilians and soldiers here (their military is involved in EVERYTHING), because they see us as a wild-west anarchist society of homicidal barbarians. And why wouldn't they? We proudly broadcast our sociopathic behaviors to the rest of the world in all manner of media, and until we can at least get a small measure of control on our own population, they are reluctant to put droves of civilian and military personnel in harms way. However, although this seems to be the perfect equitable solution to our inevitable generational bankruptcy, many people (myself included) DO NOT WANT THEM HERE, period. Talk about your slippery slope. As they employ more & more Americans right here on American soil along with their own associates, how long will it be before they are fully integrated into our economic and political systems? Maybe I'm the one being all paranoid now, but I'm not alone in the fear that our grandkids may one day be assimilated into their military-industrial collective, and paranoid or not, that's NOT what our forefathers suffered, fought and died for. Adding the "windfall" of civilian disarmament would certainly civilize this process, and I can't help but think that this whole left-right "2nd Amendment" vs."Save the Children" media storm has been nurtured and perpetuated by the mainstream to distract us all from what will surely be a very unpopular economic occupation until, if ever, it is quietly implemented. I cite no references to the scope, intent, or progress of these debt negotiations, but it's reasonable to assume that these negotiations exist, and their absence from the mainstream is the primary basis of my suspicions. What we don't talk about scares me a lot more than what we can't stop talking about, and if the "selling out" of America has anything at all to do with the disarming of its citizens, we have much bigger issues than simply Bubba Ray keeping his guns or a fly by night messianic president and his socialist cronies who will soon be nothing more than names in a history book. Not saying I’m always right, just saying it would be really nice if everyone thought I was.