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Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"" |
| Date: |
26 Apr 2005 10:46:22 AM |
| Object: |
Ameri~ka The Brutish Rule? |
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Ameri~ka The Brutish Rule?
The wife is a wee bit angry with me presently. She's flat going to hit
the ceiling upon finding out about the present controversy I'd engage, or
otherwise whack with an outraged literary stick. But hey, as you'll come
to see, I really love her... so could do nothing less and still be a proper
husband.
My wife ~is~ an innocent in all this. She's never been to a paranormal
chat room, surfed internet fringe forums, made on online friend,
constructed a website, or contributed to a special interest internet group.
The technology only very peripherally exists in her world. She has other,
more traditional, interests.
She is ambivalent to UFOs, a moderate/centrist politically, and she's
blissfully unaware regarding the affect (sic) of an *internet* upon the
collective sensibilities of the people who choose to plug themselves into
it. Seriously, if I don't tell her myself, she'll likely never even hear of
this essay. Her internet innocence is that complete.
Additionally, to further ornament the point, she's spent well over a
quarter of a century as the valued wife of a military officer and,
currently, drives a bus for a federally funded school system. In that
referenced time she went out of her way to pay her taxes, was always clean,
forever thrifty, gracefully respectful, and certainly brave. She still is.
~She~ hasn't changed.
More point ornamentation. Her husband had had many top-secret military
clearances whilst on active duty as a career flight officer, so, as a
German National, she'd been through numerous Government Intel sieves in her
own right over the years. She'd had to jump a huge hurdle agency-wise when
we were married, 30 years ago, to get the clean bill of intelligence-health
she obviously enjoyed. To wit: I was _never_ denied clearance of any type
for any reason.
So what did I do to turn her crank so hard? I make it sound like I must
be using or trafficking in controlled substances, be part of some radical
political effort, involved with a terrorist cell, or cultivating some kind
of twitchy online internet sexual activity...
Well... no, no, no, and (...Let me think...) no. At this point evidence
for any of the preceding or remotely similar activity would have to be
~planted~, frankly. Put a ~fine~ point on that, reader. It may come up
again.
What did I do, then?
Well, in a nut-shell, I wrote recently here for Rense.com that our
certainly faux-mandated, apparently vote-thieving, and obviously ethically
bankrupt CIC George W. Bush (...so there's ~no~ mistake...) was a
"dumb-assed-dry-drunk-double-deserter with an inferiority complex, a
paucity of intellect, and delusions of dangerous grandeur."
That scares her. She ~is~ scared. Should she be?
Here's the rest of the story.
She's a German national, remember. She was born and raised in West Germany
to a maturity decidedly foreign, if acceptably so, to the sensibility of a
garden-variety American citizen. Her father was a German artillery Captain
and her mother worked in photo intelligence and image interpretation during
the war. Nothing twitchy there, then, or later... nothing that precluded,
at any rate, the top military clearances I've already mentioned.
Let's cut to the chase...
Her mother and father told her many of the dark stories about what it was
like in Germany prior to and during the loathsome war years. Her still
living second father, keenly edged at 86 and a retired Regional Finance
Minister (a survivor of the winter war in Russia additionally), is able to
draw... comparisons. Others, numerous friends and relatives of
contemporary and advanced years that she regularly talks to over there in
the "old world", are making the same unsettling... comparisons. Is there a
comparison?
Their concern, fretfully reflected in the apprehension of my wife, is that
the United States seems to be aping the same kinds of *attitudes*,
*behaviors*, *predilections*, and *activities* they'd seen before -- the
same kinds of hateful emotional fire, political irrationality, and
nationalistic malevolence. The same kinds of blurring of church and state.
The same kinds of voter fraud. The same kinds of rights reduction.
The *same* kinds?
The same (...much worse, actually!) intelligence surveillance. The same
Machiavellianism. The same unilateralism. The same predatory corporatism.
The same institutional duplicity. The same gnawing and depressing fear...
The same kinds of hell, reader... as was provided by Nazi Germany's
Fascists of last Century. Is it the same?
I report that they see in us the rise of what they themselves endured in
the previous 30's and 40's, can sense the same approaching catastrophe that
that behavior traditionally precipitates, and feel that their concern is
more that appropriately justified. Is their fear justified?
My wife is fearful of an eventual Bush-league *Gestapo*, cheerfully
facilitated by a powerful and sizable minority of adoring if deluded and
terrorized sycophants, breaking down our door and dragging us away for
re-education camps, imprisonment/torture, or even arbitrary execution.
She's worried about the continuance of our hard won military pension upon
which we must depend. She's worried about the falsely punitive attentions
of predatory institutions, corrupt agencies, and a rogue government
hijacked by demonstrable criminal elements. She's worried about future
persecutions imposed upon us at the whim of lawless sociopaths and their
willing functionaries.
She's worried about us being falsely identified as an enemy of a 21st
Century fascist state, and dealt with accordingly, outside any law, so with
the obligatory extreme prejudice. A true innocent in every respect, should
she be worried?
Fascism is defined as a system of *government* marked by centralization of
authority under a *dictator* (preferred figurehead), harshly stringent
socioeconomic controls, suppression of even lawful opposition through
crafted terror, and the use of manipulating censorship or propaganda. It is
typically characterized by belligerent nationalism or some kind of baseless
racism. Ultimately, it is a whole political philosophy or movement based
upon or advocating such a sorry system for even sorrier government.
Moreover, it has a penchant for an oppressively dictatorial control
mechanism that is ~passionately~, even joyfully, prosecuted. It ~likes~
what it does.
It puts corporate entities in charge of government, combines state and
church into a *sturch* or *chate* resembling neither, and it is the jealous
enemy of an individual's freedom. It engages in adventurous wars of
empire, as it profits from them, and it lavishly rewards the predatory few
at the terrible expense of the manufactured many. It is a singular and
perfidious evil in all ways, all matters, and at all levels.
It HATES liberalism and egalitarianism. It ~abhors~ a bill of individual
rights. It ~detests~ due process and equality under the law. It
~loathes~ independent thinking. Do we begin to resemble any part of the
preceding?
I'm a writer of admitted small talent, but a writer nonetheless. I'm also
an educated, tax-paying, law-abiding citizen/retired soldier/officer. I'm
placed medially near the top of the aggregate bell curve... nothing really
special or pointedly seditious about me according to the references I'd
mentioned (forgetting a proudly admitted cant to liberal philosophies) ...
but ~I'm~ detecting a resemblance.
Friends of mine far smarter than myself and more professionally experienced
and educated than myself detect a resemblance. Persons abundantly
experienced with the full-blown ~examples~ of same... detect a resemblance.
Some of us have to squint the eye a little harder than others, thank your
God of choice, but a resemblance seems plain, regardless. Is there a
resemblance?
Why would I shoot off my mouth and tempt fate, then, if there were? The
answer is obvious.
How could I ~not~, reader? How could I close my eyes and harden my heart
to something I know, historically, would threaten me (and mine) right along
with you (and yours)... something that would ponderously grow, eventually
and certainly (!), to metastasize like the foulest national cancer, later
(soon!), if ~not~ now?
How could I have any respect for myself, feel confident about the quality
of life for my children and grandchildren, or live a proudly valued life on
my own... if I didn't speak up now before our seeming national wretchedness
was a foregone and egregious conclusion? How could I remain silent if I
recognized that the present day was quickly becoming the ~antithesis~ of
everything I had learned in school, defended in combat, and internalized in
college about these glorious United States and the brave grace of its
~conjectured~ contribution to progressive civilization? How could I ~not~
speak up, reader?
I'm a writer like I said. I've a spotless record, top drawer references,
decorations, citations, and awards... I'm a quality citizen, an
intelligent patriot, and I have given my life in service to our nation as a
career military officer and certified ([s]...if underemployed... [/s])
special education teacher. I've been a proper *boy scout*, reader, as I've
written before, if one with teeth.
No, I've not changed in the interim, become traitorous, or gone, in any
way, bad. I've been consistent. Not so my nation, seemingly.
Conversely, it seems to be my Nation, threateningly and unsettlingly, which
changes, worryingly, around ~me~! It's taken a hard right turn to
convenient and authoritarian ~brutishness~ I can neither respect,
rationally support, or remotely admire.
Truly, my nation seems to abandon me, not me it. Hijacked by an apparently
if ironically ~faithless~ gang of politically malignant radicals
scurrilously bent on using our democracy to ~destroy~ our democracy...
(another talent of the fascist), these co-opted mechanisms of government
betray ~me~, deceive ~me~, are disloyal to ~me~!
...Who the hell am I?
I am ~you~, reader! I'm another guy on ~site~ heating our culture's boiler
water. I'm one of the ones, along with you, paying the big freight in
blood, sweat, and time! I'm one of the ones, along with you, at the whim
of powerful sociopaths hard-wired to discount us, and so by ready
extension, ~you~, reader! This is regardless where you think you come
down for a political positioning left or right of center. Still -- to an
ironically vast ~minority~... you're just another steer in the herd they
prey upon even as they pretend to lead your prayer.
I look around myself and see wide-spread and pointedly unheralded voter
fraud (!), political murderousness (!), and life/career-destroying dirty
tricks! I see hijacked mainstreams, roll backs of middle-class nurturing
New Deal social programs, and insentient journalists pretending to be
oblivious to it all! I see murdered investigative reporters, mindless
network TV programs, rampant censorship, and the easy/ignorant complacency
of the dumb-downed.
I see docile-herd-producing educational systems, insultingly banal text
books, and all of this atrocity of patent disrespect is officiated by
brain-dead reproductionist teachers numbingly teaching too many students
with too little resources. I see managed illness, multinational
corporations without the remotest civil responsibility, and the business of
America as only unrestricted, and therefore historically dangerous,
business.
Verily, I see hungry men jailed for stealing metaphoric bread while rich
men are rewarded for stealing factories producing same...I see no ~less~
than the death of our national soul, the corruption of our finest ideals,
and the radical rightwing degradation of all the better principles and
ethics to which we should adhere, or why have ~Abortions~ gone demonstrably
UP during a Bush League watch by a percentage recorded in double digits?
I'm not the only one seeing such. Given a conjectured potential for it I
won't be the only one persecuted for reporting it either, presumably.
....If I am to be persecuted. ~Am~ I to be persecuted?
Yes, my wife is scared and angry with me for stirring this unsettling mess
with my equally scared but outraged literary stick. But it remains...
maybe if I'm just a little-bit brave now, raise my voice with others,
now... others seeing the same kind of wrongness and egregiousness, NOW...
...Maybe I won't have to be consummately brave (...brave to death!) later
on. That's my hope; however, wishful; that's my wish; however, hopeful...
I'll keep you posted. If things start getting dicey for me, if it looks
like I'm getting singled out for Special High Intensity Trouble of a
persecutorial nature, I'll try to let you know. I mean there shouldn't be
any trouble, you know? It's still America, isn't it?
Or is it? Is it Ameri~ka, and we just have yet to cop to it?
I wonder... "America the beautiful" or "Ameri~ka, the brutish rule"? How
hard do you have to squint ~your~ eye, reader? How scared are you? How
afraid?
Be very afraid, frankly, and speak out. It just might save us all. The
country you'd save ~would~ be your own.
We've a new year, Readers. Let's ~make~ it new.
*****************************************************************************************
.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
***********************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[Below is a discussion group for the above site]
HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
.
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| User: "Les Hellawell" |
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| Title: Re: Ameri~ka The Brutish Rule? |
26 Apr 2005 11:22:57 AM |
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On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 11:46:22 -0400, wrote:
I mean there shouldn't be
any trouble, you know? It's still America, isn't it?
Not here mate. This is an international forum.
--
Les Hellawell
greetings from
YORKSHIRE - The White Rose County
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| User: "Curly Surmudgeon" |
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| Title: Re: Ameri~ka The Brutish Rule? |
26 Apr 2005 02:52:03 PM |
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On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 11:46:22 -0400, buckeye-ELO wrote:
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:MwtJ0vzJADQJ:alienview.net/news.html+REPLACED+BY+NEW+ENTITY+CALLED+STURCH&hl=en
or
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Scroll down to
Ameri~ka The Brutish Rule?
Thanks for the article. While it gives me shivers to see other agreeing
with my take it gives no satisfaction at all. We are at a truly historic
turning point in our culture. The America we knew no longer exists, we're
at war with those who have hijacked our nation.
-- Regards, Curly
------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.curlysurmudgeon.com http://mp3.dubyaspeak.com/internets.mp3
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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| User: "Gray Shockley" |
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| Title: Re: Ameri~ka The Brutish Rule? |
28 Apr 2005 02:57:10 AM |
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On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 14:52:03 -0500, Curly Surmudgeon wrote
On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 11:46:22 -0400, buckeye-ELO wrote:
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:MwtJ0vzJADQJ:alienview.net/news.html+RE
PLACED+BY+NEW+ENTITY+CALLED+STURCH&hl=en
or
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z240527FA
Scroll down to
Ameri~ka The Brutish Rule?
Thanks for the article. While it gives me shivers to see other agreeing
with my take it gives no satisfaction at all. We are at a truly historic
turning point in our culture. The America we knew no longer exists, we're
at war with those who have hijacked our nation.
-- Regards, Curly
I can certainly understand the article and
agreement with it.
However - - - there's a .sig I occasionally
use which I got from an old _New Yorker_.
An older man - prolly the grandfather - and a young boy,
sitting on his lap. And the grandfather is telling the boy:
"Everything is always the worst it's ever been".
This isn't to say we aren't in a very precarious position -
there is a way to destroy anything that was created.
/But/: there is, historically, a great resilience of the
American people and a sense of "fair play and decency" that
is going to appear whenever something is happening which is
- and there's no other word - "evil".
The only addiction which I have ever had which was worse
than my addiction to frozen Reese's Peanut Butter Cups was
"Watergate".
And I think that was when I burned out on teevee. I'd go to
school 'til about 2pm, go to work (and listen to Watergate
when there weren't customers in the store) and, then, go
home and watch the re-runs until zero-dark-thirty and I did
that until Marine One took off from the White House with
that President for the last time.
What took down Nixon (for whom I have more respect than I
do for the current occupant of 1600) was what I've called
"Instant Karma"; that is, someone does so much "bad" that
the "Karma Kup" overflows, reverses (like a bad toilet them
thar Northerners have that got water inside the trailer)
and moves in reverse from the next incarnation back to this
life and takes the sucka down.
I'm beginning to start thinking that this administration is
imploding. Out of the members of the Holey Trinity, I don't
think Bush43 or DeLay69 will finish out their terms and, if
William "My Family Owns the Biggest HMO in the World" Frist
is actually the Republican choice for Pres'2008, he'll lose
and lose badly.
I'm heavily addicted to movies such as "The Night of the
Living Deads' Mother-in-Law's Boyfriend's Buddy Who Is
Wandering Around the Junior College Looking for unDead
Co-Eds Whose Father Owns a Liquor Store" and the Republican
Party is starting to look more and more like a convention
of the unDead.
I think it's time for Rowdy Roddy Piper to check 'em out
and see if the Bushie Republicans are the unDead or if They
Live.
Gray Shockley
--------------------------
Calvin: These are interesting times.
We don't trust the government,
We don't trust the legal system,
We don't trust the media,
and we don't trust each other!
We've undermined all authority,
and with it, the basis for replacing it!
Hobbes: "Interesting" is a mild way of putting it.
Calvin: It's like a six-year-old's dream come true.
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