Prof. Stephen hawking tells a couple of
his favorite GWB jokes
(click on image)
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White Angst
Editor
Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com
In an earlier article, Follow This Simple Logic, now on the Second Front page, I had mentioned that in America the person most likely to kill you - far, far above Terrorists, Muggers, Robbers, Rapists and Thieves, O, My! - was you.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has confirmed that in the last decade death by Suicide has taken on epidemic proportions making it the tenth most likely cause of death. Even more so than automobile accidents. In 2010, there were more than 38,000 suicides...
No one seems to want to speculate on the cause or causes associated with the steady and relentless climb ever upward of this tragic statistic that leaves sorrow and frustration in its wake. As well, and maybe most importantly, those who take their own lives fail to see that they are setting into motion the likelihood that one or more of their loved-ones will follow suit, further cascading the grief.
The loss of a kind and gentle God in our society? The crumbling of the American Dream? The worthlessness of free-time activities, such as Television and Facebook? Excess consumption of alcohol, a qualified depressant? Feelings of worthlessness and a lack of control of one’s own life? Maybe all of them...
Wealthy, Middle Class, or part of the ever-increasing component of America living at or below the Poverty Line, no one is exempt. The majority of those who elect to murder themselves, though, are likely to be White, and between the ages of 35 and 64.
Not too long ago we might have labeled this group, the Silent Majority. Perhaps in their silence lies the answer to the question, Why?
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Scout’s Honor
Jos. Warren
@WarrenHillFilms
CNN has reported that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) are considering special dispensation to permit extending Scouting enrollment to openly gay boys. (Not that there weren’t gay kids involved for decades, they just didn’t talk about it.) They will maintain an embargo, though, on openly gay Scout Masters – those who lead the children: Not to be confused with those who play the Dominate role in a homosexual or other sexual relationship, like Catcher-Pitcher, Cop-and-Robber, and so on.
Because I have not been a member of the BSA for more than four decades, I really have no right to influence the BSA’s decision regarding this seemingly abrupt and discordant change: It’s entirely up to the parents of those with Scouting-age children and those who administer the BSA. But I do have some observations to make regarding salient issues facing the BSA that may otherwise languish unrecognized.
Merit Badges
When I was a Scout, as it remains today, I had to reach a certain level of accomplishment in order to attain a Merit Badge in a particular craft or capability, such as Camping, Canoeing, First Aid, Fishing, and Firearms.
After attaining the requisite skill, the Scout ceremoniously received the badge (and related certificate) and Mom sewed it swiftly to either his uniform or sash. The sash was used for excess Merit Badges accumulated by overachievers: People who were kiss-asses to the rest of us who aspired to achieve Badges of Merit in only the mostly manly of arts: Fishing, Hiking and the like. We disdained those who strived to acquire Badges in gay subjects like Business, Plant Science, Citizenship, and so on.
Today, if you take the time to peruse the list of Badges, you’ll see that there are innumerable subjects that weren’t even imaginable or hadn’t reached a level of Social Consciousness to be considered sufficiently enough relevant to be awarded a Merit Badge 40 or 50 years ago: Computers, Family Life, American Cultures, and a plethora of other varied and, What? sort-of subjects. In its entirety you may review the list here.
To be inclusive, as they say, if the BSA elects to acknowledge openly gay children in Scouting, ipso facto, they will have to introduce additional Merit Badges for accomplishments that fall within the purview of being an Openly Gay Scout.
I would suggest that the BSA ought to include:
Swallowing. How this might be demonstrated is anybody’s guess, but perhaps a large spoonful of Barium, as used in the Barium Swallow Test in Medical diagnostics, might be substituted for…you know...uh...
Anyway. To reach Merit Badge status, the Scout would be required to swallow the Barium in its entirety without allowing any of the substance to slide down his chin. Neatness, and not leaving trace evidence behind (no pun) as we know from our experience with President Clinton, is critical to achieving Badge status.
Sphincter Awareness. Combining both Agriculture and Gay Studies, this Badge tests both the flexibility and the pain threshold of the Scout, as well as his gardening skills, by requiring him to insert a zucchini, which he has grown, into his rectum. The level of achievement must be 90% of the zucchini in order to qualify for the Merit Badge. Additionally, the Scout may earn a Merit Badge for Cooking by rendering the zucchini, after-the-fact, into a well-known favorite bread following any of the more traditional recipes.
Reach Around. As we know from R. Lee Ermey in his epic portrayal of a Marine Corps Drill Instructor in Full Metal Jacket, nothing says cooperation and fraternity more than the simple yet kind gesture of providing the person being sodomized with a Reach Around. That is, extending one’s arm around the lower abdomen of the Sodomee and…
To demonstrate this capability I would imagine that the BSA sanctioned method of, Use The Scout Buddy System, described here, might best be employed to demonstrate competence. Extra credit may be awarded for simultaneous orgasm.
(If you have ideas for other Merit Badges, please submit them to the Editor for inclusion in one of our next issues, and we will eventually pass them on to the BSA.)
Scout Uniforms
Although sometimes refuted by some members of the Gay community, everyone knows that dressing in drag is a favored pastime for many gay men. Once again, to insure inclusivity, the BSA ought to consider allowing openly gay Scouts to cross-dress for meetings during the year: Halloween comes to mind, given the status of the holiday South of Market or in the Castro, both in San Francisco. Easter might also be officially sanctioned as a Scouting Cross-Dress event.
Variations in traditional Scouting uniforms might include allowing the openly gay Scout to borrow his sister’s Girl Scout uniform, or alternatively to design and sew a gown reminiscent of one worn by Bette Midler or other favored performer.
TID’s GL Hill recommends Kilts as an alternative to pants for the openly gay Scout. Pleated, they might add a touch of flair to the otherwise drabness of a Scout ensemble, especially when combined with knee-high white socks and a white blouse much like the girls at Mother Butler High School in the SF Bay Area did, with their frilly panties, and...but I digress.
Physical Fitness
I imagine no change to the existing curriculum for calisthenics, but do foresee a need to emphasize Push-Ups and Deep-Knee Bends. And, as in Yoga, practicing prolonged kneeling might be a helpful attribute for the gay Scout. Alternatively, Pillow-Biting.
Does all of the above seem crude, cruel or callous
to our sensitive readers?
It is, and here’s why: Sexuality is not a transcendent act. To the very antithesis, it is base level and fundamental to the existence of the species, or not in the case of homosexuality. One’s sexual practices ought to be no more important to someone else than which hand one uses to wipe one’s butt, if at all. Understand?
Sexual behavior is primitive, fundamental, foundational. Dogs do it; Cats do it; Cattle do it: It is not something to be publicly celebrated or recognized for the manner in which it is performed – it is something to be done, however one may choose to do it. And doing it, occurs at varied times and with particular emphasis based on the needs of the animal.
The answers to, How much we like to do it, In what position, and How we prefer to have sex are responses to questions we typically aggregate under Too Much Information, yet the implied answers to these and other questions underlie the nature of homosexual or gay sexual behavior, just as they do when one is heterosexual. In other words, it ought to be nobody’s business, yet we – collectively, Gay and Straight – are making it everybody’s.
If the BSA elects to embrace an openly gay policy, then they must also embrace and provide appropriate concessions for the Openly Heterosexual, Openly Sleepy, Openly Fat, Openly Stupid, Openly Smart, Openly Black, Openly White, Openly…
...Human, because these are all conditions, traits or characteristics of humankind. To single out one characteristic that does not define the person but only his base Maslovian self is absurd and inconsistent with the mission of Scouting.
There is no correlation between admitting a black child in 1916 and an openly gay child today: The BSA must refuse to bend to the absurd demands of groups of people whose interests are purely sexually based.
Kim Jong-Un:
Will Somebody Please Kill This Guy
Editor
Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com
Editor’s Note: We’ve received a few brief emails suggesting that our approach to eradicating Kim Jong-Un through assassination is “inappropriate” and not “reflective of an evolved society”. May I remind our readers that our only goal in invading Iraq was to remove Saddam Hussein, by way of which we largely destroyed Iraq and bankrupted the US. Our suggestion is confined to only Mr. Kim, who is nothing more than an irritating pimple on the world’s collective arse. Besides, we’ve hardly evolved beyond violence as a tenable solution to conflict,
individually or as a nation.
At the conclusion of, Run For Your Life, elsewhere on this page, regarding the once-again proliferation of first strike nuclear arms to be deployed on our behalf guarding against, among other threats, Kim Jong-Un, the author said, “I’m still evaluating our response…” I’ll answer for him. The wait’s over: Kill him.
Mr. Kim has unilaterally threatened nuclear attack against his construed enemies. He is a 28-year-old pudding-headed despot, regarded internationally as a psychotic, and rightly so. He has torn up the armistice that had put an end to the bloody forbearer of Vietnam. He threatens the lives and the sovereignty of South Korean citizens. As a probable consequence he imperils the lives of all of his citizens in the North, and his actions could very well lead to the destabilization of the region, and beyond. And, by all accounts he is perfectly capable of delivering on his delirious ramblings, having attracted the muddleheaded legions who control the military.
Even China can’t tolerate him. What’s more I can’t tolerate him: and collectively we of The Independent Daily are known through our writing for resisting military action except under only the most dire of circumstances. But Military Action is not what we’re suggesting.
Look, in 2001 we embarked on an unwinnable war in a country that even Alexander the Great couldn’t fully pacify, nor any of those who followed. Ten years ago, under the (contrived) aegis of liberation, but in fact to make Iraq safe for Exxon-Mobil and Shell, we invaded a country resulting in the deaths of nearly 5,000 American Men and Women, along with perhaps as many as one million innocent Iraqi women, children, and men.
We’re talking one lunatic here…that’s it. No dead innocents, no collateral destruction: just the surgical extraction of a hemorrhoidic pain.
The US Government is no longer prohibited from assassinating a foreign leader since George Bush’s revocation of Executive Order 12333 in October 2001. In-place since it first emerged as EO 11905 in 1975, the US Government was prohibited from exercising our discretionary powers when it came to liquidating international troublemakers and thugs like…
Well, like Kim Jong-Un.
A very key ingredient is to put an end to him before he has an opportunity to procreate siring yet another imbecile who will inherit the seat of power and continue this reign of absurd rhetoric and threats for yet a fourth generation. (At least in the US we have the good sense to keep these people in Arkansas mostly locked away from the control of power, with the exception of Bill Clinton (and that’s why).)
We need to get back to the business of correcting a dismal International economic situation. We need to husband our financial resources, and instead of financing further weapons of destruction under the threat of nuclear attack, seek solutions to unemployment, illiteracy, and homelessness. We need to grow real jobs...
We promise not to write anything bad about anyone who kills him…Hell, even I could be talked into it if someone would bring him to northern Arizona. (I don’t like to fly and the smell of Kimchi is enough to make me wretch.)
Magnitsky and Scientology?
Editor
Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com
In our January 8, 2013 issue we ran an article on the impending enactment of what is simply called, the Magnitsky Act. Simple only in title, it was a far-reaching successful attempt to use the US Congress to avenge the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer for a very wealthily industrialist, Bill Browder, and his company, Hermitage Capital, caught in the middle of a scandal that may or may not have been of his (their) own doing...no one really knows for certain. What they do know is that $230 million seems to of vanished in the process.
Authored principally by Senator Ben Cardin, Maryland, the Magnitsky Act (S.1039) became law when Obama affixed his signature to this self-serving legislation in the guise of Human Rights.
Of significance, Ben Cardin’s principal contributors have always been law firms. One lawyer particularly stands out among them: John P. Coale, one of Cardin’s most significant individual contributors (and Greta Van Susteren’s husband, and fellow Scientologist). Together, they are friends to Sarah Palin, also a Scientologist, and numerous other Scientology adherents who apparently are either directly involved in Washington politics or have significant influence on their direction and control.
Of significance, too, is that Russia, under President Putin’s approval, banned the writings of Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard in 2010, effectively shutting down this “religion”. For those unaware, L. Ron Hubbard, until finding wealth in the development of Scientology in 1954, was a hack Sci-Fi writer of little renown or accomplishment.
Also, Ben Cardin is strongly supported by the Church of Scientology as a featured Congressional member on their News site, WN.com, where praise is profuse.
Notwithstanding the Scientology connection, and regardless of how that may prove out, the Magnitsky Act was and is a terrible waste of time, money, and does nothing but place another substantial roadblock between America and Russia at a time when doing so is plainly self-destructive.
Cardin, Obama, et al. ought to be singled out for public reprimand. One would presume that the axiom regarding Glass Houses would have come to mind, but Washington runs solely on money and its conjugate influence today, and that is why we are where we are...
Here’s the original article:
President Barak Obama is about to sign into law the Magnitsky Act – a trade law provision that will impose sanctions on those Russians who are alleged to have been in violation of Human Rights laws. Under the provision, violators may have visas denied and available assets frozen by the US government.
Given the extent of Human Rights violations by the United States, as recently as the invasion of Iraq, there is a probable list of offenders against whom the Russians may wish to impose sanctions, as well. If you’d like that list, please feel free to contact the editor: I may have a rather lengthy roster somewhere here on my computer, probably filed under “B” for Bush. (See, The Abduction and Trial of George Bush at no charge online.)
Interestingly, Mr. Putin has recently said, "Listen, they haven't shut Guantanamo for eight years now. They keep people in shackles and chains without trial or investigation, like in the Middle Ages.
"[These are] people who open secret prisons and legalized torture to conduct investigations, and these people are now lecturing us about some of our failings?"
However, to bolster their claim, the US Congress will be subpoenaing both Jimmy Hoffa and John Kennedy to offer testimony to contradict Mr. Putin’s allegations regarding the impurity of our government.
Nobel Gay Prize
Editor
Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com
Ought we care what a Gay NBA player has to offer in the way of social consciousness? How pressing is it in the world today to know how many male professional athletes like to put penises in their mouths and rectums (hopefully and presumably in that order)?
Is it critical to the vast number of societal issues we face today in America and Globally as we stand on the precipice of financial and, possibly, existential doom?
How will what this over-paid, marginally sentient individual has to say diminish the millions of deaths every year from global starvation? How will his words solve the devastation of homelessness? How will his thoughts on his sexuality dissuade one country from striving to decimate another?
Might the Norwegian Nobel Committee be in the midst of planning an annual Nobel Gay Prize to those whose sexual appetites do not include placing Tab A into Slot B?
Finally, where do the Masturbators stand in all of this? (Hopefully not too close...)
It seems as though we care far too much about what some jerk off has to say, so we may as well hear from the rest of them, too. It is, after all, just another sexual preference.
Read, Scout’s Honor, below and find out how far we’ve fallen...
The Average Reader
Editor
Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com
The Independent Daily is read in its English form in more than 53 countries every month, by the numbers on a one-to-one ratio, American-to-Other. Based on a few of the emails we receive we presume that for some readers located in, as an example, former Eastern-Bloc countries, we’re more of a curiosity - a learning experience: An avenue to acquire greater depth of understanding of the American political mindset. That would be a mistake.
When comparing American political thinking to other countries located around the world, it’s imperative to remember that one-half of America is intellectually below average. And that the Average American is below the worldwide average from both an involvement and awareness level (and perhaps intellectually) when compared to many of the countries represented in our readership. From our perspective only the UK appears to approximate that of the US in apathy.
As an example, Spain: Currently deluged by unemployment where in some classifications (non-student, less than 25 years of age) there are more people not working than working, while across-the-board unemployment exceeds 27%, the Spanish are not content to watch TV and post illiterate missives on blogs. On the contrary, like the Venezuelans, Italians, and many others, they are on the streets making their disgust with politics-as-usual known.
Although America’s unemployment far exceeds Spain in sheer numbers, the manipulated and published percentage of unemployed at this time is about half that of Spain, or 13.9% of America’s workforce. Underemployment is not a component of our government’s figures: In America we have a record number of college graduates pumping out burgers and coffee for lack of genuine career opportunities. In response, Americans abdicate responsibility for the future and default intellectually to American Idol and Facebook.
There is always an exception, and that seems to lie in the minds of America’s recent immigrants and those whose familial roots were more closely anchored to political discourse and action.
From our mailbox we can tell you that America’s salvation, if there is one, certainly doesn’t rest in the minds of Texans wherein ignorance runs, as does still water, deep.
Tomas Young
and
The Abduction and Trial of George Bush
Editor
Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com
For those readers who have not caught the link between The Independent Daily and Warren-Hill Productions, we are the writers and producers of the film, The Abduction and Trial of George Bush. For those who do not know who Tomas Young is, we invite you to read a well-written article on the BBC, here.
After you’ve read the article, we invite you to view the film, in its entirety (66 min) online at our site http://peoplevsbush.be. It is in small format (640X360 resolution) and viewable on Mobile, as well. It is free of charge. It is important.
Perhaps someday justice will be done, rather than only on film…and we at The Independent Daily urge Mr. Young to consider not ending his life, as painful as his existence has become, and to live to see the day when Good defeats Greed, when Justice is served, and a Murderer faces the consequences of his actions:
We owe it to the 5,000 killed and the more than 30,000 injured in the contrivance we call the Iraq War.
We owe it to the hundreds of thousands of innocent victims in Iraq whose only fault was to allow a tyrant to control their country: Something we, as Americans, should understand.
Religious Hate2
Editor
Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com
In Sri Lanka, located just off the tip of India, it has been reported that several Buddhist Monks have led an uprising against local Muslims. It seems that the Buddhists had tired of having to coexist with the Muslim lifestyle practiced by just 9% of the Sri Lankan population.
Sri Lankan police set-up a Hotline through which those experiencing, “…religious or racial hatred hatred…” might lodge a complaint. That is “hatred hatred” which I think has a self-cancelling effect. Or does it mean that one may report instances where those who hate, those who hate may complain? Or, is it just a quaint Sri Lankan way of saying, “That goes double for me”?
But, alas, that’s not the point of this brief opinion. The obvious point, and one you’re probably considering too, is, Why are Buddhist Monks practicing violent radical social activism? More to the point: Why are they throwing rocks, destroying property, and inflicting violence on their fellow Sri Lankans, and urging their followers to violence against those who are only practicing a different belief?
And how would Buddha reconcile this behavior among his followers, notwithstanding the painful history between the two religions?
In the Eight-Fold Path Buddha taught that Right Action meant to abstain from doing harm to other humans, including physical violence, theft, and all of the other anti-social behaviors condemned by other great prophets and leaders throughout time, such as, say Mohammed, Jesus, Moses (peace be unto them all), and if I’ve forgotten anyone, please forgive me.
Not doing harm to others is just basic good behavior. Doing harm to others while a believer of a philosophy steeped in the condemnation of aberrance in all its forms is just simply abominable.
It relegates Buddha’s teachings to the garbage bin when those who represent the quintessential leadership of a religion - a way of life - fail to follow the basic premises of that order. It is the same as Adultery by an Evangelical minister. It is Pedophilia by a Catholic priest. It is Blasphemy by a Mullah.
How can we hope to elevate the behavior of those who do not believe in a Divine Consequence, if those whose very life is allegedly devoted to transcendence on this plane cannot adhere to a few laws basic to secular social order?
Welcome to the Fabulous 50s...
Now run for your life!
Jos. Warren
@WarrenHillFilms
Perry Mason remains one of my favorite old television programs. Gilligan’s Island, too, although I can clearly see the inanity in it today and question our level of sophistication as a viewing audience at that time.
I think fondly of the old days in Highland Park, just outside Los Angeles, back to my early schooldays during the 50s. Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. Farmer Dick’s Supermarket, and Van deKamps bakery in front of which I’d hawk the LA Times until late at night raising enough money to buy milk, bread, and try to hoard a little for a respite of fun at the Pomona Fair.
Highland Park back at that time was a neighborhood of working-class stiffs, my Dad among them. There was a Recession on at that the time, too. Dad was out of work. We all did what we had to do to make ends meet, although ends rarely did. Our car was repossessed. Sometimes we had to move to avoid being involuntarily displaced. I had to wear Welfare Jeans and knock-off Keds provided by LA County Relief: that’s what it was called then.
I carved initials in a tree down at the park: “JW+KJ”. KJ was a 6th grader, too. I saw the Blob for maybe a dime on a matinee ticket. My friends and I had worked up a scheme where we would steal empty soda bottles from Farmer Dick’s at York and Figueroa and return them to the liquor store up the street for the deposit: A foolproof source of revenue until we were busted. Rock and Roll competed with Big Band at homes up and down my neighborhood.
Today, our children have the opportunity to relive these invigorating, character-building experiences, albeit at costlier thresholds, both as a result of today’s continuing economic downturn combined with the return of Threatened Nuclear Annihilation.
It’s a good bet that some school districts on the West coast will no doubt re-invoke the famous Duck and Cover maneuver effective against both earthquake and runaway nuclear fission, thanks largely to the maniac, Kim Jong-Un, and to the US response, which I’m still evaluating.
And although deeply dumbed-down, I’ll presume that children today will still question the wisdom of attempting to avoid death by placing a school desk between them and a devastating fireball likely to lay waste to everything within hundreds of miles of its center of impact. Perhaps not.
To many today this omnipresent threat will be a unique, new fear: To us it was just life. Frankly, fear of death by incineration never hurt anyone. Look what it did for the Boomers: We’re all relatively normal...
Kim Jong-Un:
Not the Bad Guy Obama Would
Like us to Believe...
Threatening Nuclear Annihilation is one thing. Meaning it, another. As this TID exclusive photo clearly shows, Mr. Kim, whose stage-name is Kim Jong-Mo, obviously enjoys a joke as much as the next guy. Mr. Kim, along with the original Curly Joe and Larry, recently completed a made-for-TV special.
Curly told us off-set, “It was just like having Moe back with us, except we couldn’t understand a goddamned thing he said.” Who can, Curly...Who can, indeed...
Obamacares Deeply About Alcohol
Warren-Hill
@WarrenHillFilms
The Associated Press’ Alonso-Zaldivar released a brief yet informative article describing a little-known clause within Obamacare likely to blacklist millions of Americans from the law’s provisions – effectively pricing them out of the market – and insurance coverage.
It’s a provisional penalty for those who smoke. Not for the obese, like most Americans, and most importantly, not for those who abuse alcohol, like far too many Americans. You can catch the article online at AZ Central, here. Unfortunately, the article stops short. Here’s the rest of the story:
Every year alcohol-related automobile accidents kill 25,000 Americans. 700,000 are injured requiring medical attention, from cursory to life saving.
The total annual cost for healthcare in alcohol-linked medical care is more than 170 Billion US Dollars for the alcohol abuser, only.
This does not include billions of dollars in medical expenses for the victims of drunk drivers and victims of violence, domestic and otherwise.
It does not include the cost of law enforcement time and equipment in response to alcohol-related incidents: traffic, domestic violence and otherwise.
It does not include the cost of adjudicating drunk drivers and those who commit domestic violence.
It does not include the cost of incarceration, probation and parole for violators.
Nor does it include the billions of dollars in lost productivity and opportunity in America’s factories and offices, and very importantly,
The untraceable cost and the irrevocable harm done to America’s families.
For smoking the total cost is about 120 Billion US Dollars. While not pocket change, on a comparative basis it pales to near-translucence when held next to the sum of costs for alcohol abuse today: By most estimates, far in excess of two trillion dollars.
Well how can this be? Given these irrefutable facts, why would Obamacare not place a greater emphasis on those who abuse alcohol?
Political Action Committees (PACs) are those organizations that "contribute" money to Congressional Representatives. During the period 2011-2012 the top PAC contributors in Alcohol-related industries were (in US Dollars):
National Beer Wholesalers Organization, 2,884,750
National Restaurant Association, 3,595,097
Joseph E. Seagram and Sons Inc. (a distiller of alcoholic beverages), 3,518,684
Anheuser-Busch Co. (a beer and beverage maker), 2,473,220
Brown-Forman Corp. (a diversified alcoholic beverage maker), 1,433,980
Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America, 1,182,500
Harrah's Entertainment Inc., 982,741
Outback Steakhouse Inc., 951,350
Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, 834,378
Chili's Grill and Bar, 725,400
Et cetera, et cetera...That’s how.
Obama Affirms Feinstein’s Federal Hunting Limit on Children
Warren-Hill
@WarrenHillFilms
“...to continue killing more than ten (10) children, as an example, (he) must change out (his) magazine...” - Barak Obama and Diane Feinstein
This week President Barak Obama approved Senator Feinstein’s proposal to limit the number of “Kills per Weapon” to not more than ten (10) children without requiring a shooter to change out a magazine or revert to a second or subsequent weapon, failing once again to understand that it has nothing to do with the firearm.
The proposal advanced by Senator Diane Feinstein, California, and Manchin, West Virginia (both supporters of the Iraq War), is very reminiscent of the long-expired Assault Weapons Ban, a law which did nothing to curb violence in America (see the Shepherd’s Billy Club, column left).
Under the provisions of this legislation, weapons (or the magazines that feed them) may not have a capacity in excess of 10 rounds. Ipso facto, if any given shooter is a qualified marksman he will thus be limited to not more than 10 kills per magazine or weapon. Thereafter to continue killing children, as an example, “the shooter must change out the magazine and replace it with a fully charged magazine...”
As an alternative, the law will clearly imply that he may, “...at the shooter’s own discretion, carry a separate, 10-round weapon hence obviating the need to re-charge the firearm previously so depleted...” (“Optionally, the shooter may avail himself of as many additional weapons as needed of said capacity.”)
In this way, Feinstein and our other Congressional members may avoid having to confront the issues of violence in our society: Please read, Connecticut, Why Are You Shocked, elsewhere in this issue. Likewise, no single Senator will be required to generate any original thoughts that might raise the ire of our friends at the National Rifle Association, the NRA.
As well, and foremost, to admit that our societal ills lay (at least in large part) at the feet of a government that promotes and condones violence on a global basis is tantamount to having pulled the trigger on the children of Connecticut. Thus both Feinstein and Manchin, who dually supported the 2002 resolution to invade Iraq are manifestly culpable in the murders of those 20 children.
...Reagan decided that providing help to the mentally ill was an unnecessary expense...
I suppose it goes without saying that likewise are Obama, Bush, and a host of other ne'er-do-wells, or as we theorize in an article appearing on this page, “Kill ‘Em All”, Lunatics.
Historically, culpability extends to the late 1960’s when then-Governor of California, Reagan decided that providing help to the mentally ill was an unnecessary expense, releasing people who otherwise would have benefitted greatly from mental health treatment: Fortunately, and seemingly, most have found their way into the US Congress.
We cannot legislate good behavior. We cannot legislate civility. We can only teach our children that violence is not an end in itself, and then, practice what we preach.
Fake Environmentalism
Ricardo dela Luna
You Cannot Call Yourself an Environmentalist
and Shop at Walmart!
I was turning left to move further down a main street waiting patiently in the turn queue. In front of me was a new, small fuel-efficient hybrid car with far too many bumper stickers: Two or three Obama stickers; Anti-war slogans; Dire warnings about Global Warming; The World is a Village sort of thing, and on and on. You could barely see the back of the car.
I deduced, quite astutely I might add, that the driver, a woman maybe in her late fifties, was a left-leaning liberal, of which we don’t have many in Arizona.
From the left turn lane queue she moved to the right lane, and from there into what I consider to be one of, if not The greatest contributors to the downfall of American industry: Walmart. That got me thinking…
Like many Americans I was born when forty percent of American jobs were in the Manufacturing sector: four of ten of my Dad’s friends participated in the making of something. This was always considered a good thing, because making things meant that these things we made were hopefully sold to people somewhere else in the world and that put money into the system that didn’t exist before in the US economy.
This also helped something called the Balance of Trade, a thing we talk a lot about today but really pay no attention to. China has a very positive Balance of Trade with the United States. Through the latest statistics available from the US Census Bureau, China exported billions of dollars more in goods to us than we exported to them.
The very good news is that, owing to our prolonged Depression, China’s exports have fallen off somewhat, because Americans don’t feel like spending as much as they did.
Over the years, the same as most consumers, I saw reduced prices as the focal point of my consumer duty. Of course, back then Sam Walton promoted Walmart and Sam’s Club as safe harbors of American made products. Poor Sam died, though, and that left the operation up to his kids. Anyone who is a parent knows that children are greedy little bastards, and Sam’s kids and all of the shareholders of Sam’s Club and Walmart became greedy little bastards too, just like our children and grandchildren are - or will be - but certainly not anything like we were when we were children.
Cost, Quality, and Availability are the variables in anything we buy. No one can argue the cost-effectiveness of Chinese made products: substantially low labor and transportation costs have led to an absolute glut in Chinese made products around the globe. As a result Availability is assured.
For a time we lived not too far from the main east-west artery of the Burlington Northern Railroad. From several vantage points we could watch traffic in both directions. On the eastern route, stemming from the Port of Los Angeles, (railroad) car after car after car (ad infinitum) laden with cargo containers bearing the names of shippers from the Far East rolled onward to their retail destinations. On the western route, as rail cars lumbered back unfettered by the weight of merchandise and containers, one couldn’t help but notice the absence of American made product moving to super-happy consumers in China, Japan or elsewhere.
This leaves us passing the buck: If six of us get together and we have one dollar between us we can all agree that we’re in deep (crisis). For quite awhile now, that’s what America has been. If one of the six of us was any good at whittling and we were able to sell whatever it was that he or she whittled to someone outside of our circle, presumably through the Lehman’s website since our whittler would undoubtedly be Amish, we would add some level of wealth for every object sold.
The problem with America is we don’t whittle anymore. We have become literally a bunch of people passing a single dollar around to one another, placated by the imported crap we buy at deep discounts, all of which salves our need for immediate gratification.
But, that’s not the point of this little piece. This is about people who profess to be environmentalists shopping at those places, and buying those things, that are made in those countries, by those people because of the appearance that they can buy more, or just what they need for less money.
So, the second issue is Quality. I have no product quality statistics to share: only personal observations confirmed by many other people. I used to shop at Walmart, K-Mart, Target and all the other places of similar merchandising. I stopped for several reasons, not the least of which was product Quality. It seemed that every time I bought (and re-bought) a shirt the sleeves became frayed, or the thread snaked out, or the buttons broke before the third washing. Every “Comfy” pair of pants suitable for sleeping gave way to ripped seams with virtually no effort on my part. Every pair of shoes irritated my feet in one way or another and fell apart after a few wearings. Every wrench I ever bought that said, “China” was good for one twist. Every broom fell apart; each screw stripped; saw blades didn’t; electric drills wouldn’t and the list is endless.
Why am I buying this crap? I thought. I just have to buy it over and over again. How true. Yet, it takes just about as much energy to make a bad product as it does a good. Here’s an excerpt from the International Herald Tribune, by Joseph Kahn and Kim Yardley, published way back in August 2007:
“No country in history has emerged as a major industrial power without creating a legacy of environmental damage that can take decades and big dollops of public wealth to undo.
“But just as the speed and scale of China's rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history, so its pollution problem has shattered all precedents…
“Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China's leading cause of death…”
So, there are probably thirty different reasons to shop for a comparable American made product, not the least of which is to buy a product that has to only be made once, thus preserving the environment.
In 1950 about four of ten jobs were higher-paid Manufacturing jobs, leaving only six of ten to the dregs of the Service sector. Today? Fewer than one out of ten jobs is involved in manufacturing to some extent. NAFTA has only further tipped an already slippery slope. Only a part of American Made has to be American Made. So, we’ve reached out to our neighbors South of the Border and Up North and have combined forces to insure our mutual failure.
Until America decides it’s going to enter the world economy the Sierra Club can forget about me as a new member. And, if I see that woman turning into Walmart again I’m going to slit her tires. Of course, she’ll probably just replace them with Cooper’s, which are nowadays, made in China.
The Syncretic Party
Is On The Rise
Editor
Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com
There is a new political party: One I’m giving serious consideration to joining. It’s not Utopian: it’s just a synthesis of the many disparate voices around us today - Democrat, Republican, and even a little Teabagging thrown in for balance. Today, we’re regressive: We’re de-evolving. It’s time to take a different and higher road. A road of Plurality.
The Syncretic Party regards all of our nation’s people (and people throughout the world) as equals and deserving of our respect.
It does not promote violence except as a final and last resort when all other systems have failed, and then limits the use of nation-violence to that of defense, in its simplest definition. War will no longer be used as a tool of Greed. As a result, the need for Homeland Defense will all but be negated.
The Party’s leadership unfailingly weighs their decisions and actions against the good of all. They balance the wealthier of society with the less-advantaged. They are regarded as the leaders of progressive thought by the rest of the world.
The Party’s primary tenet is to foster personal growth and achievement at the expense of none and to the benefit of all.
The Party’s adherents urge that everyone – all members of society – ought to do all they can to assure society’s success, and that no one ought to consider him- or herself entitled to anything other than the honor of being a productive member of society, and the gratitude of others for being so.
If a member of society is in earnest physically or mentally unable to contribute as an active member, they are cared for in a manner that is dignified and respects whatever contribution they are capable of making.
The Party believes that truly affordable Health Care ought to be available to everyone through his or her own financial resources, balancing ability to pay against cost.
Also, the Party believes that the attainment of personal goals is critical to the success of all, yet sees Greed as in conflict with this principle: Thus, Philanthropy is the rewarded ultimate end of attainment, resulting in greater funding for the Arts and Sciences, and recognition for its benefactors.
Through the Party’s leadership we will come to embrace all religions and beliefs as essential – Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Atheist – all are critical to a homogenous society where the value and fulfillment of life is held paramount.
The Party often displays the message, To Lead an Unfulfilled Life, is to Spit in God’s Eye, at the bottom of its various messages.
Because of the unceasing efforts of the Party’s leadership, and by the examples clearly illustrated through the lives of those who lead, all of our society’s members will be as productive and determined as they can be within the scope of what for them is possible, and, so, Homelessness and Hunger will not exist. Violence will be nearly eliminated. Hatred will be controlled and neither articulated nor acted upon. A profound sense of freedom will engulf us, and we will become far more than we ever thought possible.
If we could just take Humans
out of the equation.
Premature Ejaculate
Editor
Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com
Per favore scusarci. We’ve left the below article intact in the event that Berlusconi does prove to be the eventual victor in Italy’s (now) highly contested seat as the country’s top official. Our readers ought to recognize, please, that we were in good company, with the BBC and other international journals drawing the same premature conclusion. We all experience this sometime in our lives: There is nothing to be ashamed of.
The Merkin of Venice*
La Parte Due
Warren-Hill
@WarrenHillFilms
Fare attenzione delle signore! È ritornato!
Immediately to mind comes the expression, What were they (the Italian electorate) thinking? Perhaps. Perhaps not. In either frame of reference, the Dow didn’t respond well sending the index plummeting on the heels of the announced results. (A few other factors, like a crumbling US economy, may have played into it, too.)
When considering Berlusconi, though, it’s important to remember that no country’s electorate has a monopoly on truncated logic, or, as they say in the world of academia, Dumbness.
Recall the 1992 election during which the American electorate voted into office a known philanderer and tax and spend Democrat. Undeniably, his accomplishments were many, two of which immediately come to mind: 1) A level of peacetime economic expansion hitherto unseen in our history, and 2) A clever alternative to curing a good cigar in cognac, rum, or brandy. Overall, although certain to manifest great rebuke from some of our readers, President Clinton more than met the expectations of the office, and certainly of what I expected him to do: Philander.
A little further back and we find a Hollywood B-grade actor finding his way to the most powerful position in the world. A freewheeling Capitalist and sometimes confused and arrogant man, under his leadership the US economy skyrocketed and we were all rolling in it. Most of us, anyway. Admittedly, there were losers in the equation, as well. And, during his term we learned to refer to our wives by the sobriquet of, Mommy, which is not the same as asking, Who’s your daddy?
So, why would the impact of Berlusconi’s return carry such international significance as to knock the pegs out from the Dow? No one knows. Those who profess to understand the markets’ myriad personalities are, of course, Bullshit Artists. Keep that in mind while you surf the channels seeking an answer for your losses.
My guess is that it was an excuse to extract profits following the massive run-up the markets had enjoyed. It’s called, Greed.
Who paid for the billions lost today? The small investor. Large portfolio managers and investors set the theme for the day. They are the players and rarely the losers. So...
In an earlier article (archives) we asked, What future within the EU will Italy have if the Merkin of Venice (our coinage, by the way), who maintains sufficient voter appeal in Italy among the male of the species, as well, mounts both a teenage model and a successful campaign?
There is neither rhyme nor reason. I guess we’ll just wait and find out. (*Our apologies to W. Shakespeare.)
Haggling Over Hagel
Editor
Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com
The Middle East is nearing ignition point. An even-eye and a more holistic approach is what the region desperately needs to circumvent the certain calamity awaiting all of us just over the horizon.
Mr. Hagel promises to bring a sense of reason and fairness to the international arena in dealing with Israel and Iran in a more meaningful and effective way than any of those who have hitherto served in the position of Secretary of Defense. Striking an equitable balance in an emotionally charged and highly complex region such as the Middle East, he will bring an improved level of equanimity to an otherwise disintegrating and chaotic circumstance, the result of which is likely to overshadow anything we have witnessed or felt the brunt of to-date.
So, why isn’t everyone onboard?
Although unraveling daily, being replaced by far more independent-of-thought news and opinion venues, the vast majority of control of today’s popular media still rests in the hands of those more Israel-friendly politicos and financial leaders in America. Thus, one who is not devoutly pro-Israel is often colored by deprecating innuendo, insult, and fallacious charges. Those who do their bidding are thus a forceful and vocal group, our own John McCain among them.
Mr. McCain’s interests and thoughts appear to be cloudy and festering with confusion. In all fairness, though, the majority of his constituents here in Arizona are much like those in any conservative state, the bulk of which spend little or no time understanding events beyond their backyard.
Shallow of mind and incapable of voicing opinion, save for those issues on the base level of a Maslovian scale, such as guns and immigrants, every two, four, or six years they lodge an opinion at the voting booth (if then) and default on their responsibility for the rest of their elected official’s term.
Once keen of mind and dedicated to his country, McCain today is muddle-headed and reactionary. While Lindsey Graham, who ought to be far more progressive in his views, continues to vote on behalf of his financial backers like a 90 year-old, 10-term Senator who tenderly wipes a tear from his eyes when recalling the days prior to Abolition.
Consider the issue of Iran and their nuclear program: From where does our inherent distrust of Iran’s intentions come? Are we as a government concerned about Iran’s potential use of nuclear arms against its neighbors, most specifically Israel, because we see Iran as less stable and prone to terrorism than those who direct the strategic goals of Israel?
Israel’s track record on all counts is deplorable, yet they control a nuclear arsenal thanks largely to us, that has yet to be used other than through the perceived threat it represents to Israel’s less acquiescent neighbors.
Israel is a country that has continued to ramrod further settlements, in violation of international mandate, into the West Bank and Gaza without regard to the human suffering and death they have caused daily at their ever-expanding doorstep. It is a country that has exported terrorism throughout the world, but we trust them with the most destructive weapon ever known.
And yet the furor over Benghazi continues, too, but only as a truncheon with which to beat Obama over the head into some level of submission. A very few Americans died in Benghazi. Outraged Republicans find that unacceptable. 6,000 Service Men and Women have died in Afghanistan and Iraq. We have, by any standards, bankrupted the country fighting two historically unwinnable wars to sate our need for Oil. (If you believe it was for a higher, more transcendent goal, you are a fool.)
McCain opposes the man who was one of the voices of reason at a time when so few of us expressed dissent while caught in the trappings of manufactured Patriotism and media-hype.
McCain, who spent years incarcerated in Hanoi while a Prisoner of War, supports the victors of that war every day in the Senate. He is a staunch supporter of trade with Vietnam, yet he vigorously opposed that enemy 40 years past. Why has his position changed so radically?
Follow the money…
It’s time to confirm Mr. Hagel and get-on with the business of bringing America back from the fiscal and moral precipice about to destroy whatever remnants remain of our once-great country.
It’s time for a better world, so put down your fiddle, Nero.