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TechnoratiThe Audacity of Dopes: The Regressive Right's Happy Memorial Day Message to the Troops
Greetings, American Servicemen and Servicewomen (those of you who are still alive),
'Happy' Memorial Day.
This is a message from your good friends in America's conservative movement -- otherwise known as the regressive right -- and our nice team running the country's government, the Republican Party.
You remember us, don't you? We're the folks who very much like to have our pictures taken with you, especially right before elections. You've been voting for us for years. Your drill instructors get you all pumped up with testosterone and adrenaline and then we're kind enough to provide outlets for your energies in extended quagmires like Vietnam or Iraq.
We want to let you know, especially on this Memorial Day, that the rumors you've been hearing about us these last few years are not, um, exactly correct. Just mostly.
Look, we'll be candid with you. It's true that we've asked quite a lot from our country's men and women in uniform these last few years. But, remember, the cause was good, and therefore highly worthy of the sacrifice involved, especially because that sacrifice was all yours, not ours. You may have come to think that you were fighting and dying for nothing, but in fact your service has been helping to make sure that we were continuing to win elect... er, that American corporations were continuing to domi... er, that the US was continuing to bring freedom and democracy to the world. Yes, that's it, that's it!
Some of you have criticized us for not providing you with adequate armor in this war. Remember that grunt who publicly embarrassed Rumsfeld with his question about that, right before Rumsfeld publicly embarrassed himself with his answer about how you go to war with the Army you have? That was years ago, and we still haven't gotten you the stuff you need. The important thing, though, was to enrich Jabba-The-Hut-size corpulent contractors at every opportunity by loading them up with fat, no-bid contracts and then quietly letting them fail to provide the material they've been contracted to supply. I'm sure you can understand those priorities. Just duck a little faster when those pesky IEDs go off, and you should be okay.
Oh, and we're genuinely, truly sorry about that lousy care you're getting when you come home injured. You know, like that Walter Reed scandal, and the way that the military uses every means possible to make sure you don't get properly treated, including denying that you're actually injured. We'd really like to help out here, since you fought our little war for us and everything, but the darned thing about it is that adequate medical care is hugely expensive, especially for all the PTSD cases and head injuries that are going to require vast amounts of money to treat over decades worth of time. Sure, the country has the cash, but not enough to also cover obscene tax breaks for the wealthiest elites. Guess what our priorities are?
Maybe you're a little pissed off about your salary, too, especially since we're asking you to risk life and limb in the ungodly conditions of that hell-hole we created in Iraq. It's true that the starting salary for a private in the US Army is only $14,904 (yes, that's actually per year, not per month), but don't forget you're getting the chance to serve your country and see the world! Or, at least one little corner of it we've turned into charcoal, rubble, and burnt DNA samples that used to be human beings.
Does it anger you that we award these outrageously lush contracts to Blackwater and other mercenary companies, so that the people you're fighting next to are earning six to nine times the salary of a top Army sergeant? Are you bugged that the US government spends $1,222 per day for each Blackwater hired gun, for a total of $445,891 per mercenary, per year? Do you think it's a bit, well, wrong, that General David Petraeus earns less than half what some Blackwater officials in Iraq are making? Sorry about all that. If it makes you feel any better, you might like to know that Blackwater contributed scads of money to make sure that we win elections against those wimpy, appeaser Democrats. It certainly makes us feel better.
Maybe you're upset that there are such mercenary forces in Iraq, anyhow, especially in numbers that actually exceed the amount of uniformed troops there. If so, you're probably also irritated about the fact that you've had to do two, three and four rotations of combat duty now. That your rotations have been extended from twelve to fifteen months. That you've been stop-lossed, so that even when you've done your part and fulfilled your contract with the government you are being forced to stay in the military longer, while those who never signed-up at all are untouchable. That you signed up for the National Guard or Reserves to help out in an emergency, but not for these endless extended tours for which neither outfit was ever intended to be used.
Maybe you're thinking, "There are 300 million Americans. They haven't even been asked to pay additional taxes for this war, let alone to serve. Why is the government balancing this entire war effort on the backs of less than one percent of the country's population, including me?!?!" Of course, we've carefully trained you not to think like that, and indeed not really to think about politics at all, other than to vote-Republican-cause-they're-gung-ho-and-that's-all-you-really-need-to-know-soldier. But apparently we need to revise our training methods here in Oceania to make them just a bit tighter.
Anyhow, the answer to all these questions is the same. We've got to stick it to you guys, then stick it to you again. First, because we can. And second, because the alternative is completely untenable. We know you won't complain too much. You'll spend the first half year in Iraq still living off your macho fumes. You'll spend the next year silently enraged, but still careful to respect your chain of command and avoid politics. And you'll spend the rest of your time sinking into despair and accumulating the unimaginably horrific experiences that will later put the 'T' into your PTSD.
Sure, we could solve all of this in a heartbeat. In fact, we could do it the old-fashioned way. We could have a draft. That would mean that tens of millions of Americans would share the burdens and risks of this war, rather than just the few who were economically desperate or foolishly patriotic enough to enlist. That would mean that the country wouldn't have to continue plummeting toward national bankruptcy by paying private mercenaries ten times what it costs to field a GI. Maybe some of that money could even be spent on treating the wounded, or preventing them from getting that way in the first place by providing them with sufficient armor.
But the goddamned thing about a draft is that it would turn latent hostility toward us war profiteers and our Republican marionettes into outright fury, spilling out all over onto the streets. Already, two-thirds of the country opposes the war and thinks that it was the wrong thing for the country to do. A majority even believes that we deliberately lied about the WMD thing. (Of course we did! Jesus Christ, what did you expect? A lecture on energy sector economics?) Anyhow, these people are angry, and they're showing it in elections. Can you even imagine what would happen if, on top of all that, we did the right thing -- the thing that this country has always done -- and went ahead and instituted a draft and raised taxes during wartime? Well, we can imagine. Our little regressive movement would be about as popular as the bubonic plague, and our front operation, the GOP, would make the Whigs look like a much-beloved popular party, by comparison. Which it looks like those idiots are about to do, anyhow, since they can't seem to keep their peckers in their pants. Stupid jerks. Oh well, don't get us started on that one.
Perhaps you're also a bit incensed that we who send you off to fight wars never bother to show up ourselves. Maybe you heard that Bush got his daddy to get him into the very safe Texas Air National Guard during Vietnam (and then didn't even show up for that). Pretty shameful, eh? Well, at least he's decided to give up golf for the duration of this war. No one can say that the man doesn't sacrifice for his country. Or maybe you're angry that Ashcroft got seven draft deferments, or that Cheney got five and literally even said "I had better things to do in the Sixties than fight in Vietnam", or that Wolfowitz didn't go, or Feith or Perle or any of the rest of them, or that Romney thinks that his five boys working on his presidential campaign is a contribution equivalent to serving in Iraq. We can see why that might make you mad, but sorry, friends, this is war, and everybody has a role to play. You dudes get to be the fodder. We're the profiteers. Got it? We'd appreciate it very much if you'd just do your job, and let us do ours. That way, we don't have to throw you into some Guantánamo-like pit for the rest of your miserable life on some trumped up charge, in order to discredit and silence you.
Sure, it sucks. But don't feel too bad. We do have one final gift for you -- a special Memorial Day present. We're going to do our best to make sure that the new GI Bill that would give you decent college benefits is treated to the same fate as we gave to Saddam, with about the same degree of dignity, too. Even though god knows you've earned it. Even though it was one of the smartest things this country ever did last time around. Even though the story we're running around trumpeting as our excuse for opposing benefits for the people we always wrap ourselves in during election time -- that it would result in sixteen percent of the armed forces retiring so they could obtain the benefit -- is nonsense, because the same Congressional Budget Office study that produced that finding also showed that the bill would increase recruitment by exactly the same amount, as more people signed-up to receive the benefit.
And even though -- in what is the most remarkably shameful behavior of all by people who wouldn't know shame if it hit them like a bunker-buster bomb -- the underlying logic of this argument is that we cannot give you this benefit because you've earned it, you more than deserve it, and damn if you wouldn't actually use it. Therefore we'd lose you, and since we're unwilling to risk our own fortunes by having a draft, we can't have that. So, our way of saying thanks to you, our way of supporting the troops, our way of showing our patriotism this Memorial Day, is to deny you these benefits so that we can further exploit you yet further, after which time we will still be denying you these benefits.
All of which might make you wonder, "How do these guys ever win elections? How is it these guys are in the White House, instead of cleaning up litter by the side of the road with the rest of the chain gang?" To which we might respond, "How come morons like you keep voting for us?" It's really not so difficult to figure out. We use hate and fear and divisiveness to win elections, and they work great. Wetbacks, ragheads, niggers, fags, kikes, bitches. Whatever. As long as it isn't plutocrats, we don't really care what the prejudice du jour might be. Just as long as you're thinking about something else as we pick your pocket or line you up in battle formation. Or, in the case of you dumb SOBs and this whole GI Bill thing, doing both at the same time.
How can this happen in an America that claims to love and support the troops, that is as nationalistic and as armchair-patriotic as can be? It can happen because we make sure to keep this war as invisible as possible to the whole country. That's why there's no draft. That's why there's no tax increases. That's why you don't see the flag-draped caskets coming back to Dover Air Force Base anymore. That's why the media are embedded and censored and perhaps even murdered. That's why we pay whores like Scott McClellan to lie to you. Maybe the rest of you muttonheads weren't paying attention during Vietnam, but we sure as hell were. Who says America didn't learn any lessons in Southeast Asia?
True, there are signs that the natives are restless. And desperate Republicans in Congress are voting for the GI Bill in the hopes they won't ultimately need those resumes they are nevertheless furiously updating just in case. But, honestly, even on this Memorial Day, most Americans are completely clueless about what you're doing in Iraq and why. It's doubtful they could even find the place on a map.
They sorta care about you, and they definitely know they're supposed to, but let's be honest. It's very, very easy -- one might even say purposely convenient -- to simply and nonchalantly believe that you're off fighting for our national security, and that's a wonderful thing and all, but, hey, can we flip back to the celebrity channel or the game already, eh? Did you know that Katie Couric's already dismal ratings actually plummeted even further when they sent her to Iraq to try to make her look like a serious journalist? Who wants to see that? Did you know that coverage of Iraq in the media is drying up faster nowadays than a puddle of blood under the Fallujan sun?
So, yeah, sure. On this Memorial Day, Americans are appreciative of all that you do.
But, more than anything, what they really appreciate is the day off work.
Thank you for your service!
David Michael Green is a professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York. He is delighted to receive readers' reactions to his articles (dmg@regressiveantidote.net), but regrets that time constraints do not always allow him to respond. More of his work can be found at his website, www.regressiveantidote.net.
41 Comments so far
Show AllJP OVERSEAS: My own daughter(s) rebels against my values but in a way is gifting me with the opportunity to help raise my grandson. He's 2 and EXTREMELY open to nature whereas my daughter is not (hates bugs, etc.) My best friend also has a 2 year old grandson as does another woman I know through a friend. The thing held in common: These kids are amazing. What I mean is they seem to intuitively grasp that it will fall to them to learn how to connect with the natural world once again. The industrialized phase if not over, is certainly going to be revised greatly. Oil is one factor, global warming another, and for America, the loss of supreme world status due to the folly of this last war and what it has only BEGUN to cost us.
My point is that if people with humane ideals are positioned to work with this next generation (the 2 year olds), THEY Will be the ones to take up the mantle. My daughter's generation for whatever reasons, part that they were raised at the acme of materialism where the media constructed a version of "the good life" so ubiquitous that few have been able to question it, seems UNABLE to shift gears. When I talk to my daughters about the things I learn on CD and read from non-mainstream sources, they wonder if I am exaggerating. So little of what we know on CD is being broadcast through the conventional media outlets. This phenomena is so unbelievable that the twisted media world of the pro-war voices that support a maniac like Bush make those of us who remain sane and grounded in humanitarian ideals makes US look like the misguided misfits. Orwell meets Kafka meets Goebbels. So... I am glad to touch the life of my grandson and open the doors to nature as GRAND master and teacher. I won't live to see the results... but this is how life, as a never ending chain, supports itself.
jpoverseas June 2nd, 2008 6:08 am
An arrow right in the center of the bull's eye.
It's a tangent, so let's keep it going.
Siouxrose and Jim Murray (and others I'm to lazy to add to the list): You, like out DMG most of the time, are right on the money, but you got to get together.
Jim, as a 30 year vet of teaching philosophy (ret), I can assure you that critical thinking, one of those "subjects" in the philosophy grab bag, is not being taught much. Instead of helping folks develop reasoning and critical abilities, critical thinking courses are usually a dreadfully dull laundry list of decontextualized snippets of test to which "rules" and "forms" which have been given little explanation or justification are applied to reach Correct/Incorrect outputs. (T-F and multiple guess tests are sooo much easier to grade.) Very few students see how what is taught in these courses has application beyond getting a decent grade in the course. Could critical thinking be better taught? Sure, but only by getting it out of the philosophy ghetto and making it the central skill taught in every course from math to literature. 'Course, that would require that academics have the skill. Nietzsche saw another problem long ago: professors pride themselves on their skepticism but are constitutionally unable to apply it to their own views. They, OK formerly we, are professors--folks who proclaim their allegiance--rather than, shudder, critics.
Despite my despair, let's suppose that somehow somewhen young people manage the develop some skill at critical thinking. Won't do much good unless kids are raised as Siouxrose suggests. Critical thinking skills are useful only if people feel at ease applying them where they will, on what puzzles or confuses them or just don't "feel" right. Far too many children in the US (and elsewhere--check out most of East Asia, for example) are brought up under constant adult surveillance. They are forbidden taking chances (might get hurt, heaven forbid), exploring (might meet one of them preverts), building or taking apart (ouch!), hanging out with kids they choose (bad influences everywhere), or being alone (retard that social development). Bloody wonder us geezers survived childhood, isn't it? Insofar as the kids are conditioned against these sorts of activities, they are, as Siouxrose and others say, conditioned to accept authority and distrust themselves. But if they don't trust themselves, they can't apply the critical thinking skills where they're needed.
So what to do? Make lots of noise, mutiny with the troops, boycott the corporate masters, bear witness by action that things don't gotta be this way, mouth off about the naked king and his naked chicken hawk enablers, refuse to go into debt, grow veggies and eat them, repair instead of replace, learn critical thinking AND hand skills, help a vet fight the VA, add to this list.
'Course there are those who suspect that the Perfect Storm which will wipe away the last couple hundred years of human history is just around the corner or the corner after that. If they're right, it'll be those too few of us with both imagination and critical thinking skills that make it. Finally, a test worth taking.
VOX
Thanks. Glad to hear it.
"A lot of these guys are in fact educated, i.e. they have degrees in things like business and political science. I would tend to say they have received training, but lacking a love of wisdom or morality or beauty I would at the least say they have educational gaps."
You got what I meant. And I'm glad you missed the party later in that decade.
And Sioux Rose, in Viet Nam and not married, well....young men are just weak.
VOX: You're a trip! If I were a man, having served in Vietnam I would probably have opted for the "girl on the swing above." Can't fault you for experimenting... I'm glad I grew up in the 60's and got my taste of "free love."
IPENEK: I was making an analogy between these times where everything is being managed and that mindset impacting innocent children... as if they all have to march rank and file and put away every toy, and never get a spot on their clothing... in short, a world of 2 year olds that would make Dr. Phil proud. (VOMIT!)
A lot of educated conservatives support a kind of fetish concept of "freedom." It becomes an idol they worship. Their views on deregulation, taxation, welfare states, gun ownership, etc. all become based on their fundamentalism in that regard. If you make a tentative objection to any of it they'll accuse you of being an authoritarian fascist, licking the boot that kicks you etc. So it becomes very hard to argue with them that to allow business freedom to pollute or being free to let the disadvantaged die in a gutter is wrong. Libertarians are the worst in this regard.
Thomas More, Ipenek, homeward-angel, Siouxrose et al.
You've probably all gone home by this time, but here's a footnote anyhow: If Thomas More's post was abusive you could have fooled me. It actually prompted me to look up Henry Kissinger's bio on wikipedia, Henry representing to me the profile of an educated conservative. He received what they call a PPE education (philosophy, politics, economics). The philosophy part is largely pragmatic - ethics, logic, the ability to win arguments, as opposed to a study of classical philosophers which I believe contributes to qualities of wisdom and humility and perhaps decency. Henry's ethics were amply demonstrated during the bombing of Cambodia and elsewhere. One wonders what grade he got in it at Harvard. A lot of these guys are in fact educated, i.e. they have degrees in things like business and political science. I would tend to say they have received training, but lacking a love of wisdom or morality or beauty I would at the least say they have educational gaps.
May I assure Siouxrose that I only went to one whorehouse (and only one time), a bamboo fenced establishment in Kingston Jamaica called "The Kit Kat Club." I did not catch any diseases and I did not get a tattoo and I promise I will never do it again.
arcing28:
That's essentially how blogs work, I've noticed. It's not really a bad thing. The same applies to conversations. You'll notice that when a group of people talk there will be an idle period, then someone will say something of note or interest, or just an odd kind of thing, and the conversation will follow it until the next point of divergence...etc.
The Japanese principle of Lukatmi which is very useful in such situation states that: you will have a long and prosperous life as long as others die in your place.
Strange how this blog strayed from the original gist of the article to the educated, the uneducated, parenting and the use of the vernacular. Deja Vu.
homeward-angel May 31st, 2008 6:13 am
Thomas More, i take offence to your rude comment there directed at vox,
Well I certainly didn't mean to be rude. I went back and read it again and you are right. It could be construed that way. My apologies and thanks for calling it to my attention.
I simply meant to say that his comment (which I knew at the time was tongue-in-cheek) was a refrain I've heard before from exactly that small bunchof elitists. Its really arrogance. The real shanme is they believe it. And I have a few Professors friends that say that kind of thing all the time.
I won't accept rude or vulgar talk or comments and I certainly don't want to be percieved as doing anything like that. So, please....ANYONE that see's anything I post that looks out of whack, give a hollar and say, Hey Dummy! It will be appreciated.
voxclamantis May 30th, 2008 2:20 pm
And if you thought the same as homeward-angel, oops, sorry about that.
Just wanted to see if markup works here. I guess so.
Siouxrose: I'm not exactly sure what is going on with parenting these days. When I was a kid I had pretty much free rein of my days -- long hikes with other kids, etc. These days I never even see unaccompanied kids. In fact, I rarely even SEE kids. They're all sequestered away somewhere. And what's up with all those Kung Fu academies? It's like parents think the only way to keep kids off drugs is to teach them to beat the crap out of each other.
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Thomas More, i take offence to your rude comment there directed at vox,
Vox, you had it easy, but that doesnt mean its time to vote for the Dims all the way just yet.
Third party vote is your "liberal" best bet. EVERYTHING ELSE IS JUST A SIDESHOW OF A SIDE SHOW.
"It's true that the starting salary for a private in the US Army is only $14,904 (yes, that's actually per year, not per month)"
In Canada, that is well under the LICO (Living Income Cut Off) for a single person, much less a person who is married with children. I have no idea what a private makes in the Canadian armed forces today, but their recruitment website states that it is "competitive" (http://www.recruiting.forces.gc.ca/v3/ENgraph/resources/payandbenefits_en.aspx?bhcp=1) It says that non-coms start at 30K$. If I remember from my military brat days, that means those who are non-commissioned officers, not the privates. So, whoever is desperate enough to believe the lies of governments that they will be recompensed for their service has been seriously misled.
Time to retire militaries everywhere in the world and learn to live together with our diminishing natural resources peacefully.
Thank you, David Michael Green. I envy your political science students.
And well observed, jim_murray; you are bang-on as well.
My experience has shown me education does NOT a progressive make. However, many "educated" people, tend to at least entertain the idea that they may be wrong in there assessments and conclusions, thus they MAY be reasoned with, and convinced by facts and evidence to change a position they hold.
So as night follows day, MANY of the "less educated" will blindly follow and uphold any/all ideas or conclusions they may hold, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, and no reasoning is possible with a closed mind such as that.
Critical thinking is DESPERATELY in short supply amongst the average N american. this is not an accident, it is the result of an education based on false, re-written history, and designed to mass produce consumer/worker drones to cater to the "entitled by chance of birth" elites who's forefathers and mothers were the ROBBER BARONS of the earlier rapings of some other peoples nation.
excerpt from;
War Immemorial Day - No Peace for Militarized U.S.
by Bill Quigley | May 27, 2008
Memorial Day is not actually a day to pray for U.S. troops who died in action but rather a day set aside by Congress to pray for peace. The 1950 Joint Resolution of Congress which created Memorial Day says: "Requesting the President to issue a proclamation designating May 30, Memorial Day, as a day for a Nation-wide prayer for peace." (64 Stat.158).
Peace today is a nearly impossible challenge for the United States. The U.S. is far and away the most militarized country in the world and the most aggressive. Unless the U.S. dramatically reduces its emphasis on global military action, there will be many, many more families grieving on future Memorial days.
Thomas More May 30th, 2008 2:31 pm
B. The Democratic party is only marginally better than the Republican party.
Amen brother. When everybody else sees it we can move forward. Untill then we just wait.
There will be plenty of positions available for returning soldiers in the "War on Drugs", or in organized crime. Look no further than WWI and Prohibition to see why the Guvment had (for once) the good sense to give veterans a piece of the pie in the form of the GI Bill. These last two wars have given us little more than expensive gas and a few generations worth of debt. There is little pie left for veterans or anyone else after the Military/Media/Oil/Industrial Complex has taken it's heaping portion.
"Only the soldiers can deliver themselves through large scale mutinies. Nothing else will save them from horrible and useless deaths, or a lifetime of walking ruin from grievous physical or psychological wounds. Nothing else."
Say it again , again , again ... " Nothing else "
They signed up to kill and if they were too naive to figure that out then they deserve to die . They deserve the right to bring themselves home by mass mutinies but now that they have discovered that it's not a " cakewalk " I have no sympathy for them and most couch-sitting Americans don't either .
"
DMG's article was great as ever. And I really enjoyed Voxclamantis's reply. It's true that some educated people turn conservative, but not ones with a modicum of compassion.
How to stop this? The people have to become intelligent and politically aware. The answer is in education, which is controlled by the government. Thst is why ,typically, a revolution is immediately followed by an overhaul of the educational system. The most politically aware and the most educated and intelligent people in America, and perhaps the world, are the Cubans.
Americans need to be taught that their country is a rapacious thief and a danger to the world before anything will change. If Americans continue to believe that they are a force for good and that they fight wars to help people, nothing will change.
Abolish Memorial Day.
Support alive people
and keep them that way.
To voxclamantis,
You wrote "Being educated I of course became very liberal". That not
always the case. There are a lot of educated people who are war-mongers, prejudiced, against any public assistance to the needy and for corporate controlled government.
Also, currently there is no difference between the Democratic and Republican parties and their candidates. They are all owned and controlled by big Money/Business.
I read yesterday that there were last year, 2007, over 300 suicides in the Russian military.
I can think of many smart-ass comments about that, but for once I'll restrain myself.
Now these are the kind of authors CD needs to put forth. While I would also prefer that we add in those cowardly Dems who cave in to the GOP all the time, this article will be a nice one to pass around out here in Spartanburg, SC !
Okay, so most Americans are "opposed" to the "war" (which is not a war but an occupation by a foreign military) but aren't "outraged" enough to actually do anything about it except, er, ah, answer poll questions.
But what about the million+ men and women of our Armed Forces who've already rotated in and out and in and out and in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan so far? Where's their outrage? Why are they killing themselves instead of, say, those who lied them into hell for "base" mega-profits?
You'd think, at this point, there would be at least a couple of squads ready, willing and more than able to storm the White House and arrest the domestic enemies of the Constitution using it as their anti-America HQ, right?
Why do we pay our military anything at all?
Since America has now adopted the "Viking Economy" model big time, how about just dividing the spoils of war amongst the warriors like they did.
BTW, in 1967 an Army private made $89 @ month if I recall right.
The folks to whom this essay is ironically addressed most likely do not have the time, skills, or will to read this!
Therein lies the crux.
What were those words printed on the Statue of Liberty? "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free; send these, the homeless tempest-tossed, to me; I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
It must seem to many Americans that the lamp has not illuminated any golden doors for them!
Being educated I of course became very liberal
a. That apparently is a widely shared opinion by a small minority of elitists.
B. The Democratic party is only marginally better than the Republican party.
Neither Obama nor McCain will save the soldiers in Iraq. McCain is a blueblood professional warrior, royalty among the military. He doesn't give a damn about the dogfaces at the bottom of the military hierarchy. See Stanley Kubrick's "Paths of Glory". Obama will play bait and switch on the deck of the Titanic . . . but still keep us there.
Only the soldiers can deliver themselves through large scale mutinies. Nothing else will save them from horrible and useless deaths, or a lifetime of walking ruin from grievous physical or psychological wounds. Nothing else.
I served in the US Navy from 1957 to 1960, in what was at that time called a "kiddie cruise" meaning you got out on your 21st birthday. This counted as a full term of enlistment, with no reserve time required afterward. It was peacetime with nothing dangerous going on except a cold war that was nothing but Washington and the Russians quietly stuffing warehouses full of nuclear warheads. When I say I "served" I mean I sat on a destroyer escort reading paperbacks and smoking 10 cent a pack Camels and eating homemade pie, sailing from one Caribbean whorehouse to another until discharge day. I headed for the University of Arizona because the catalog had a picture of palm trees on the cover. The GI Bill was still in effect from Korea, and shortly after I arrived at school it was extended to cover peacetime service. They started sending me money which covered nearly all my college expenses, and later on while I was in graduate school they extended the benefits for another year or two on top of that. Being educated I of course became very liberal, and am pleased to say I have never voted for a Republican except for a local lady who was a friend of mine.
This must indeed be galling to the nerve jangled kids coming home from Iraq intact except for bad dreams and camel spider bites, functional enough to get construction or prison guard jobs to make their trailer payments. Or at least it would be galling if the breath of education were ever to stimulate that atrophied part of their brains that the military takes extreme pains to scab over. They go deer hunting and swap right wing myths and compensate for their wretched lives with anger and blind patriotism. And vote Republican naturally, so that their children will have wars to fight and freedom to die for.
"How do we take back our democracy?!"
Use the referendum Luke.
I think the troops have figured this out already.
"Army Sees Record Number Of Suicides In Iraq"
"Our" "elections" are a con game. Money to the politicos, back to the corporations and contractors, back to the politicians, back to the corps, and so on, ad nauseum.
How do we take back our democracy?!
Get the money out of politics?!
Are there enough us to stop this raging out-of-control beast?!
Holy sh*t.
I don't think I've ever heard anyone say it better. Why for gods sake, is'nt this published in the NY Times? Mr Olberman; Can you please read this on the air?
Someone...anyone please!!
JIM MURRAY: Regarding the points you raise around education, I'd like to add two anecdotal examples. My best friend is raising her grandson. He's a lively child who's had the benefit of a very spiritually aware parental mentor. In contrast, when he's in school (he's 10) the entire experience is based on rules, conformity, sitting still, taking tests, and in a word AUTHORITARIAN control. My friend shares with me her frustrations. Does she take him out of school? She isn't prepared to homeschool, and quite a bit of the home school crowd is equally authoritarian, adapting to a Christian perspective.
In a related way my daughter (28) is a very strict parent and I am glad to be given time to be my grandson's ad hoc nanny. I recently ran into a female about my daughter's age at the state park where I am teaching my grandson about nature. The woman FIERCELY made her 2 year old son sit away from everyone in a "time out" until he could CONTROL himself. The child was the human equivalent of a steam engine about to burst. I thought about this in relation to a recent HBO comedy special featuring George Carlin when he mocked the way kids are being taught to play these days. The parents set up "managed play dates," and he joked "What happened? Did they run out of sticks?"
In the past 30 years the orientation towards self-control, managing everything from medical accounts to toddler's emotions, the whole "personal responsibility" ethos (obscene when those in positions of authority FAIL to account as they undermine the basic conditions--economy, environment, foreign policy and its inevitable blowback--for all of us)is in OVER-drive! It's against nature! And for that reason alone is doomed to fail. The repression of liberty starting with robbing a child of his own spontaneity, the freedom to follow the pursuit of sheer wonder, what a net loss. In my grandson's case, you can bet I am fighting to make sure WONDER is alive as vitamin to his soul!
I support Green's use of the word 'regressives'.
We need to stop using 'conservative' and 'liberal' and change the paradigm to 'progressive' and 'regressive'. Fight the battle of words on ground of our choosing.
IPENEK: Good response to ATEXAN. An intellect that's honed without a matching set of compassionate qualities is a dangerous mind given to laying to waste. That would probably define the journalists of large media who sell their souls, could care less about the senseless carnage they help to promote, and yet speak in clear sometimes concise terminology.
Wow, VOXCLAMANTIS: Quite a cautionary tale/confession/resume! Thanks for sharing it.
The article raises the disparity in salaries which I had NO IDEA were that huge! The rape of the US treasury for this calamitous HEIST in pursuit of oil is almost a bad joke given the fact what's being spent could not possibly exceed the ACTUAL sales price of the gooey stuff that runs the engines of this consumer-driven capitalist world. If the gods are watching, they must be stunned that somehow the worst traits of human nature were able to climb to the top and take command to this extent and extremes. It may convince the makers of the Matrix to clear the slate with lots of help from Nature's elemental kingdoms (Hello, global warming/climate extremes) to begin anew...