If it ain't broke.....

"I will take my death into my own hands. The State has no business giving me the authority to die - or the authority to live. Matthew Parris"

“class struggle is a central element in the analysis of social change.....”

"Change we can believe in....." Candidate Barack Obama

Social change.....giving the poor a leg up...collective Democracy where the untaxed poor are invited to raise the taxes on the greedy rich folk....Robin Hood stealing from the rich to feed the poor, minus of course, his operating expenses....
Karl Marx was a profound thinker who won legions of supporters around the world but his predictions have not withstood the test of time.
His adherents fomented the bloody revolution that toppled the Tsars of Russia and fired the imagination of the world. Utopian dreamers everywhere responded to the drumbeat of social change and predicted a world-wide change where the capitalistic bourgeois would be ground under the triumphant feet of the proletariat ushering in a world wherein "From each according to ability, to each according to his needs" would be the norm. Social change, the future of the world.
During the first half of the twentieth century, Marxism had taken firm roots but in the second half, the Marxist dream collapsed. The people of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Albania and the USSR rejected Marxism and entered the ongoing transition toward private property rights and market-exchange system; ie, capitalism or as we call it in the USA, Republican Democracy.
Countries that have had socialism forced upon them (not the most advanced capitalist countries) the poor, so-called Third World countries condemned the masses to systemic poverty and political dictatorship.
Ah well, some dreams die hard.

Sowing the wind......

Sometimes I just can't sleep 'n I play Solitaire 'n other stuff 'til I get sleepy.....'n sometimes I write stuff that come the morrow even I will not understand....'n sometimes I go into my own archives 'n read again the nonsense that I find there....I find that I'm a little upset with the direction that President Obama seems t'be taking us 'n I'm so irritated by the mainstream media that I can't hardly stand it....part of what irks me is I have a neighbor who doesn't have cable or satellite 'n only watched 'free' teevee which means that he gets his news solely from one of the major networks 'n he gets a totally different view of what's going on in this country.....he thinks that far-right zealots are blaming Obama unfairly, that American healthcare is broken (it ain't) 'n that we should all give Obama a chance.....I consider myself t'be a moderate conservative 'n I thought we should give Obama a chance, but after half a year into his first term, Obama seems to be slipping badly....I think he misjudged what he considered to be a mandate from the American people and if he ain't careful, he just might end up being judged a worse President than Jimmy Carter.....I was a McCain supporter 'n I don't give a damn what anybody thinks about Sarah Palin...McCain/Palin lost the election mostly, I believe, because the Republican Party was in such disarray after Bush/Cheny that no Republican had much of a chance to win....Still, McCain/Palin received almost half of the votes.....not enough to win but certainly enough so that the Democrats should have taken notice of the divide and governed accordingly....They did not. It appears that Obama may well have 'sown the wind 'n thus must reap the whirlwind.....
The following is a pre-election speech from John McCain that stuck in my mind.

"We cannot again leave our problems for another unluckier generation of Americans to fix after they have become even harder to solve. I'm not interested in partisanship that serves no other purpose than to gain a temporary advantage over our opponents. This mindless, paralyzing rancor must come to an end. We belong to different parties, not different countries. We are rivals for the same power. But we are also compatriots. We are fellow Americans, and that shared distinction means more to me than any other association. I intend to prove myself worthy of the office; of our country; and of your respect. I won't judge myself by how many elections I've won. I won't spend one hour of my presidency worrying more about my re-election than keeping my promises to the American people. There is a time to campaign, and a time to govern. If I'm elected president, the era of the permanent campaign will end. The era of problem solving will begin. I promise you, from the day I am sworn into office until the last hour of my presidency, I will work with anyone, of either party, to make this country safe, prosperous and proud. And I won't care who gets the credit." John McCain

“Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing the matter with this except it ain’t so.” Mark Twain

The Great Beer Summit......

Y’just gotta wonder about some stories that seem like they'll never go away.....’course,we never would'a had a beer summit 'n it wouldn't have been a story if Obama hadn’t tripped over his silver tongue in defense of his racist friend......Professor Gates has had a long ‘n storied career decrying racism in America.....(as had Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, etcetera) ‘n if, as many in the world thought, the election of Barack Obama was indicative that our long divisive nightmare was nearing an end, why that would put finito to the careers of the professional race-baiters.....I mean, once a horse is dead, it don’t matter how much you beat it, it ain’t gonna go no more....and the truth of the matter is that America has always been a melting-pot ‘n no matter how hard folks may strive to keep whatever they view their heritage t’be, it ain’t gonna happen. We are a blend of cultures. We have always been a blend of cultures from the very beginnings of this nation. The europeans that came here didn’t kill off all the aboriginals that lived here (tho’ truth be told, they tried, they tried)....This is a large country ‘n human nature being what it is, humans did what some think they do best....they procreated with one another without regard to creed or color....’n we’re still doing it t’day....’n we’re going to keep on doing it ‘til we’re such a mixture of colors ‘n creeds that we’ll have to find some other reason to hate each other.....not quite sure how profiling is gonna work then but we are an inventive species ‘n my guess is that we’ll work something out.....

Now y'see it, now y'don't......

Another ‘Big Lie’ that we’ve all heard too many times.... that our health care system is ‘broken’ and needs t’be replaced immediately if not sooner at an untold cost....
multi-trillions of dollars (c’n anyone actually imagine a trillion dollars, let alone multi-trillions).....It’s a lie! Our health care system ain’t broke....maybe a little bent...
well, in some cases really, really bent....but that ain’t no reason to scrap a working operation....AND the Obama administration knows this....they know that the system ain’t broke and that it’s impossible to scrap it and begin anew.....so it’s a lie......The question is.....why the Big Lie.....
well, a cursory look at the short history of the Obama Miracle will show that the Big Lie has been a favorite tactic since the very beginning......make a lot of noise, scare a lot of people ‘n they won’t notice what trick you’re actually performing......c’mon, it’s called ‘sleight of hand’ and it’s a staple in every magic act that has ever been......draw the audience attention to the right hand ‘n they’ll never notice that you’re picking their pockets with your left hand...... (the pea is never under any of the cups, but you knew that, right?).....
On that proverbial other side, health care does need a serious reformation and government could do it....it’s that could’a, should’a, would’a thing.....They could have done it long ago, they should have done it long ago, and they would have done it long ago.....except government lacked the proper incentive...we the people vote ‘em in and the special interests make sure they stay in long enough to get their bellies full gorging at the public trough.....or as George Orwell phrased it in 1984, “some animals are more equal than others.”

One side or t'other.....

Y’know, I’ve been thinking about this Cambridge nonsense ‘n I’ve come to the conclusion that the Liberal among us are much more excised than the rest of us....
Now, it’s my personal belief that Professor Gates should’a said to the responding officers, “Thank you very much for coming but I live here and there’s no problem.” Of course, that is not an acceptable scenario for an activist proponent of (black) civil rights. Nosirreebob, what Professor Gates evidently saw was an opportunity to put a white policeman in his place, to send this white policeman to the back of the bus, so to speak....to educate him. Because as everybody knows, only whites are racist (or can be)....”S##t-fire” as my old daddy use’ta say, “Everybody knows that!”
Problem is, like so many other ‘white’ people in this country, I’m beginning to get really tired of being told that I’m a racist simply because I was born white. That said, I’m aware that there are racist white people (DUH!) but there are also racist people no matter what color skin they wear..(another duh)...and to deny that fact is akin to rewriting history....or to make an assumption that only one side can be right....as in the Prez’s statement that, “he didn’t have the facts of the case but the Cambridge police acted stupidly.”....Uh, I guess calling the Prez stupid for making a (bi-partisan adjective here) remark would be making an unfair assumption. Ah well, being white, I suppose, only allows me to see one side of the issue....

The Prop...

I dunno, Thursdays are beginning to feel a lot like Fridays.....which makes Friday feel like Saturday 'n Saturday feels like Sunday.....'n two Sundays every week is just plain unAmerican......
It’s all, of course, pegged to the ‘furlough Fridays’ imposed on most (not all) California State workers by our ebullient Governor......who, it appears, is the victim of that old Harry S Truman dictum, “The buck stops here!”......Which it does. Arnie acted with the limited power that he has ‘n furloughed a lot of people thereby saving the State money.....Actually, it’s a lot like a 15% tax on State workers so that the Legislature can continue supporting their special interest groups that keep them in office.....but, y’all knew that, didn’t you?
All part of The Big Lie......’n right at the moment, it’s the liberal elite that is responsible for most of the Big Lies that are repeated ad infinitum, ad nauseum in all the media......like ‘The Prop!’ as Proposition is currently being called.....seems that the liberal elite is concerned that Californias schools are scraping the bottom of the barrel ‘n it’s all the fault of ‘The Prop’ for taking money from the schools.....it doesn’t matter that it is totally untrue....the theory goes that if you repeat ‘The Big Lie’ loud enough ‘n often enough, the majority of the population will believe it ‘n the vote for repeal of what has been the saviour of the California homeowner.....
Now, the really harsh truth of the problem with the California school system is not a lack of funding..... fahcrissakes, Proposition 98 has funneled tons of money into the system....’n I’m not saying that California teachers are overpaid.....the fact is that the majority of them are underpaid ‘n the schoolrooms are overcrowded ‘n there’s a horrible lack of supplies....I’ve met too many teachers who buy supplies for their students out of their own money....Nah! The problem is that age old one of too many Chiefs ‘n not enough Indians.....bureaucracy in action......oh, ‘n one of the Big Lies is that California schools use’ta be really good, a benchmark for other states to aspire to.....Nope! Never were. If you were educated in California public schools prior to ‘The Prop’...you got yourself a sub-standard education.... almost every state in the Union was better.....’n the funny thing, California schools have done better since the inception of Proposition 13.....as a matter of fact, the State as a whole has done better, collected more tax money ‘n made for a more stable environment for home-owners......’n from what I’ve seen in other States, ‘The Prop’ should be a model for the rest of the country....
Which in a really sad way, we are....our economic policy which has the State teetering precariously on bankruptcy seems to have become a model for the federal government.....God help us all!....oops! That’s politically incorrect these days...Sorry!

Faster horses.....

“Let us go then, you and I, while the evening is spread out against the sky....”

So, we (Millyrose ‘n m’self) went to Carmelita’s for dinner.......she’s been wanting t’go all week ‘n I ain’t averse to a little Mexican food now ‘n again......I said, “Maybe we should just walk down there.”......down there being like two ‘n a half blocks......I should’ve said “stroll” cause Willie perked up his ears when he heard the word ‘walk’......Willie don’t miss much, he’s that alert.......’n course, Rusty woke up when Willie began barking ‘n dancing so I suggested that maybe we should just drive, it being still a little warm ‘n all......one of the things about being ‘old’ is recalling what things use’ta cost.....’n the fact that Italian ‘n Mexican ‘n Chinese use’ta be on the cheap side.....not ‘ny more......’specially if you want an alcoholic beverage with your beans ‘n rice.....I got over my extreme thirst years ago but I still like a beer with Mexican food ‘n Millyrose will have the occasional Margarita.....’n this day ‘n age, you gotta know that they are very damn occasional.....given the price ‘n all.....in my way back when time, two people c’d go for Mexican dinner with more than one beer (and Margarita) for less than the price of the drinks t’day......ah well, time marches to a different tempo t’day but, like Cher, the beat goes on......
I’ve often stated that the inherent value of a classical education is that it provides a base for the philosophical ponderings on one’s failure to thrive....thriving, of course, in that grand old search for the American Dream...or as that sage Tom T. Hall phrased it, “faster horses, older whiskey, younger women and more money”
ah well, as my old Modesto friend ‘n bartender use’ta say...”First, I t’ink vell, den I t’ink hell, den I t’ink, vell, vot de hell.”