Conflicting indicators
My morning news cruise fills me with revulsion and renews my sense of hope, all at the same time.
Let's get the revoltin' development out of the way first:
The Senate gave final congressional approval to an $850 billion increase in the public debt, the fifth such adjustment under President Bush and one reflecting the rising costs of the war in Iraq.
Adopted 53-42, the revised $9.815 trillion ceiling is intended to give the Treasury enough borrowing authority to manage through the end of Mr. Bush's presidency and into 2009…
When Mr. Bush took office in 2001, the debt limit stood at $5.95 trillion, a statutory ceiling that had remained since August 1997. By June 2002, a $450 billion increase was needed, and in 2003, 2004 and 2006, three increases added an average of about $855 billion each to finance government costs and wars overseas.
Please allow a moment for that to sink in. "The fifth such adjustment under President Bush." The man has been in office less than seven years. And in that time, the national debt has exploded by 65%. By what earthly standard is this man considered a "conservative?"
But yes, there is hope, and I see it in a story that I imagine most people would find depressing:
A new Gallup poll reveals that, as the organization puts it, Americans now "express less trust in the federal government than at any point in the past decade, and trust in many federal government institutions is now lower than it was during the Watergate era, generally recognized as the low point in American history for trust in government."
Among the findings: Barely half trust the government to handle international problems, the lowest number ever. And less than half express faith in the government handling domestic issues, the lowest findings since 1976.
Faith in the executive branch has fallen to 43% — only 3% higher than it was just before President Nixon's resignation in 1974. At the same time, trust in Congress, at 50%, is its lowest ever.
I'm sure this news will bring an obligatory round of hand-wringing from David Broder and the rest of the insufferable Beltway punditocracy, who just can't stand the thought that the people don't trust their leaders, even if the leaders are demonstrably incompetent and/or malevolent.
Since the polling data are reminiscent of the post-Watergate, post-Vietnam years, let's quickly revisit that time. It was no great shakes, but it was also a period when the federal government had no grand designs to reshape society or the rest of the world. Even if Jerry Ford and Jimmy Carter had wanted to execute grand designs, they couldn't have because the public didn't trust anybody with that sort of authority. And that's a good thing. Really, what does anybody remember about the period from roughly 1976 to 1978? Nothing. We could actually use a few years like that again.
Alas, with massive debt, massive overseas wars, Peak Oil, and the cycles of generational passage staring us in the face, I suspect we won't be so lucky.
Sphere: Related Content
Mistrust doesn’t even begin to describe my opinion of those in gov’t or the system that pulls their strings.
I am actually afraid to voice what I think should happen to said system and its puppets. So much for “free speech”…
Comment on September 28, 2007 @ 5:22 pm
Hi peoples.
I’m out of hospital and back on deck … of the Titanic, it seems.
I’m not a New Age freak or somesuch, but almost exactly 31 years ago I had a series of very memorable dreams.
One of them ended in me sqirming my way into a cave and a voice suddenly said, “If you want to see the wreck of the Titanic, then you will have to push very hard.”
Then it was I was as though I was thousands of miles away from Earth and, looking back at it. I noticed there was a hole right through it.
What I came to understand by the “Titanic” (yes I am a bit into Jungian-type dream analysis) was and is Industrial Civilization/Capitalism and (lately) Financialism … with a huge dose of hubris thrown in throughout.
In all honesty I did not make those associations at the time of the dream (1976), though I did have some conscious pointers and was already a bit concerned about environmental issues and resource depletion … and I had not long-since read J K Galbraith’s “The Affluent Society” … AND I was disturbed by the rise and rise of Milton Friedman/monetarism/economic rationalism … and more.
So I was and am not so silly as to believe that I had some kind of mystical experience. Somehow my brain was putting together bits and pieces I had already come across.
BUT I have pushed VERY hard to understand why and how there is a “hole through everything” and I do now know why.
Trouble is that it is all too late now … gotta keep trying though, like here and in the occasional essay I write in FSO.
I know that Dave (above) differs from me in matters of causation (say), but I have no argument with him in:
“Mistrust doesn’t even begin to describe my opinion of those in gov’t or the system that pulls their strings.
I am actually afraid to voice what I think should happen to said system and its puppets. So much for “free speechâ€â€¦”
Well I do have a tad of disagreement, because I am not afraid to say what I think should happen, but I don’t do it here, out of respect for the general tenor of this site.
A while back I wrote directly to little johnny coward … you know the antipodes version of the bLiar … saying that the only good politicians, by and large, are dead ones … no worse that they say to each other in the joke of a parliament daily.
Early next morning I got a visit from the Australian Federal Police.
All ended well, with me and the Feds talking about vintage cars, but I won’t sully the Saloon with some things I might say elsewhere.
Comment on September 28, 2007 @ 8:10 pm
Well, it’s time to start the ball rolling again for the 2008 elections~! Who ya gonna vote for, Sully?
I’m gonna catch H. for the opinions expressed herein, but what the hey…General Tenor be damned. I don’t care anymore. Why?
I’m dying. Fast.
The corporation I work for has just been implicated in multiple failures to establish a “culture of safety” within which my health would have been of somewhat more intrinsic value. Perhaps. They are about to be indicted for PREVENTING me from finding MSDS sheets a few years ago, saying that nothing in the plant could possibly hurt me. So why would I care who gets elected? Or the ramifixations of being denounced broadly?
I don’t, not anymore. See, I’m getting ready to enter the hospital too, Gerry…for what looks like a mighty short stay…days maybe.
Liver cancer is ass unpredictable as Uncle Fed..so I get to see THE BRIGHT LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL.
Oh boy…never in MY wildest dream…
Ultra Violet Lacquer is used in the printing industry (paper dollars maybe even? wouldn’t that be ironic…) to quick dry the inks. Grandpa died in 1962 from liver cancer, so my corporation thinks it can establish a predisposition to L.C. in the family…but wait! Where was grandpa employed?
Why, General Motors, wouldn’t you know?
The exact same U.V. substance that instantaneously cures ink on paper also cures automobile paint…drive grandpa’s freshly painted Buicks out into the sun in 1962 and whammo! The lacquer locks up in a split second…and the paint is dry. Sadly, so it was with grandpa’s liver. Now mine is heading that same dire-ection according to the presented symptoms. I’m a printing press supervisor, wouldn’t ya know. Grandpa’s first, and FAVORITE grandson, so I’m told…but I wouldn’t know…he died before I was 10.
That’s why I don’t give one DAMN about who gets elected…or who knocks on my door tomorrow.
My psychiatrist gave me a new prescription…
Phukamol, he calls it…though I can’t read his hand writing. An Anti-depressant, I think. Great…
What I DO care about is that for the first time in history NO ONE should get a SINGLE FING vote! Wouldn’t that be a hoot?
Hillary looks fine for the democraps, cause, see, she can raise big bucks, more than anyone else can even DREAM about. America, that’s a DANDY incitement for excitement!
On the Rebutlican side, they’re all clamoring for the black vote. SCREAMING AT EACH OTHER FOR NOT ATTENDING DEBATES IN BLACK COMMUNITIES! “WE MUST LET IT BE KNOWN THAT REPUBLICAN’S ‘DO’ WANT THE BLACK VOTE”, they scream.
Forget the fact that they don’t give one iota for a BLACK PERSONS ARSE, it’s the BLACK PERSON’S VOTE that matters. So who will get the black vote?
No-one, if I can help it.
America, you should for once look at where Hillary and her ilk on the other side of the WHITEPICKETFENCE are GETTING all that money…poor folks like you’n me? Naw. Union representatives? Maybe some. The health care industry? Well now that you mention it, that accounts for the majority of H’s piles. Lobbyists and their spin don’t want THAT news out though. It’s enough, they spout, for the common man to know that she GOTS big piles, not where dey came from, and not what dey smells like.
Imagine a health care system where an individual is MANDATED to buy his/her own health coverage, particularly if MR. EMPLOYER doesn’t provide it. What happens then,
Mr. consistently democrapic Union Man? THINK ABOUT IT A SECOND!
If an employer knows that his grunts legally HAVE to provide their own health care, then management will QUIT providing it. THAT’S IT. CUT AND DRIED, EXACTLY LIKE MY FAMILY’S LIVERS.
So my dilemma is just EXACTLY THIS…how to stop America from casting even ONE VOTE IN THIS BOGUS LIE OF A POLITICAL SUB-CULTURE? Even ONE vote would get ONE candidate a brand new “White’s” House…
I HAVE TO FIND A WAY BEFORE I DIE to convince the common man that after all the improvements and advancements made to the “life of Reilly”, that at the end of the American Dream there is not and hasn’t EVER been any improvement at all.
Consider…
My friend C. is a self made millionaire over and again. She paid cash for her brand new MILLION DOLLAR HOME after completing the seventh of B. and M’s. seven homes. C. is an ‘INTERIOR DESIGNER’. I asked her to design a new interior for me yesterday…she glared at me and said nothing. C. doesn’t like being made to think, see, she votes democrapic.
C. can’t sell her house though, as it’s now worth just UNDER HALF A MILLION, even though it sits right on the water in Luxurious Palm Beach County.
50% off “fire sale” coming soon to a neighbor near you!
C. also is intensely proud that her stock market investments are soaring. She won’t listen, though, when I point out that while she’s making more dollars every day, every day her dollars are worth less by the precise amount of her gains.
I.E. her investments are FLAT. Just like her best friend…prone on their backs.
How does one stop EVERY VOTE from being cast though…even the VERY FIRST ONE? Well, even if only TWO votes were cast we’d still have a dead heat. I can think of TWO people will KILL to get their vote counted. One’s a Democrap, the other’s a Rebutlican.
Help me guys’n'gals…where would you start to get a campaign like mine out in the open? Am I dreaming? Maybe, but consider that in a few years AMERICANS won’t own this country, DuBAI’NS will, along with several other Sovereign Wealth Nations. Dubai already owns 19.9% of the NYSE, 28% of the London, and now can cast TWO VOTES upon the NYSE???
Votes will be TOTALLY IRRELEVANT WHEN CHINA OWNS ALL OF THE U.S.of A.(sia) AND ALL OF IT’S INVESTMENT FIRMS, ALL OF IT’S BANKS, ALL OF IT’S GOLD, AND ALL OF IT’S PEOPLE.
We might as well get USED to not voting, because we are all only being USED anyway, by those whom we vote FOR.
An American Tragedy….21st Century style.
Loging off..(spin little green wheel)
Shutting down…(spin little green wheel)
Over and out. Exeunt. Shake’s fool, the Shark
Comment on September 28, 2007 @ 11:40 pm
Dear Sharky,
I am very sorry to hear about your liver cancer and I know what you are going through, because I have had three lots of cancer - prostate, lung and secondaries in my ribs … but I have been in remission for a while and my recent hospitalization was only indirectly due to cancer.
At least, here in Australia, we still have a good public health-care system, despite the best/worst efforts of Howard & Co; whereas I know that in the US things are woeful.
My lung cancer was possibly related to industrial issues - according to my surgeon - though I have been a smoker; but here you just get treated anyway and I am doubly sorry for you that you and other Usans are getting shafted, left, right and centre.
What a shame that, in the USA, just quite moderate “socialistic” policies all got branded as “left”, “socialism”, or even “communism” … whilst all the rest of the “western world” was really just instituting reasonable and sensible ways to try to ensure a degree of fairness for everyone.
In this very site, the Saloon, I see Dave pursuing a sorta ‘libertarian’ line which treats any kind of state intervention as if it was necessarily anathema. And in the Daily Reckoning Bill Bonner seems to have similar opinions, BUT there is a vast difference between libertarianism and simply a liberal/humanitarian recognition that we are not all created equal, that we can all become ill, or fall on hard times in some other way and will ALL get old and cease being “rugged individuals” … as if we ever were in the first place!!
E.g. we come into the world as the most helpless of all animals and we remain basically helpless (some 16 years or longer) whilst other animals are mature WAY earlier.
We are the most NECESSARILY social species of all - the most dependent on each other - but this crazy doctrine of “individualism” has arisen and found its most extreme expression in the USA … the obverse of the extreme collectivist doctrines of such as Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot, for instance.
Heck I do not want to detract from your personal tragedy Sharky, but - for fucks sake - you would not have been as abandonned if you had lived in the socialistic regime of Saddam Hussein, before the most progressive and egalitarian country in the ME was destroyed by the 1991 invasion, subsequent 12 years of economic sanctions and the current destruction of everything.
Yep I am fucking angry.
I am fucking angry that a commbination of the CIA and Rupert Murdoch destroyed the Whitlam government in Australia during the mid-1970s … soon after the Alende government in Chile got totally destroyed.
At least we did not get a Pinochet, but we have ended up with Howard and major erosion of the “fair go” for which Australia was famous.
I will be blunt - but I can back up what I say - the very best world leaders at the moment are Putin, Ahmadinejad and Chavez, for instance.
I daresay that might stir up a hornets nest, but I’ve said it and CAN justify what I have said … well look at the way Ahmadinejad kept his cool in the face of a disgusting attack on a head of state/guest speaker!
He might be only 5′4” but he stood head and shoulders above his “hosts” … and he has a practical PhD to boot (OK I have a problem with his religious stance, but so what. He ran logical rings around all criticism.)
As for not voting Sharky?
I entirely agree with you, but I do not know how to organize a kinda silent protest.
Here in Australia we are compelled to vote, or face a fine, or possible imprisonment, I suppose.
What I do is just turn up, have my name crossed off the electoral roll and put blank pieces of paper in the ballot boxes.
A lot of others do that too, or else spoil the ballot paper, but I have no idea how to turn that into a general boycott.
Finally: I wish you all the best.
Comment on September 29, 2007 @ 4:26 am
A non-vote actually is a vote - against the corrupt System that has been slowly destroying the U.S. for a long time, though the pace has picked up considerably since the spoiled rotten baby-boom generation took over.
I divorced the RepubliCON party a decade ago. Now, I refuse to vote at all.
Comment on September 29, 2007 @ 9:46 am
A-Jad, the president of Iran, has much tighter puppet strings than Bush could ever hope for. The mullahs who pull those strings have complete control over the diminutive leader. When A-Jad opens his mouth, you here the voice and will of the mullahs.
Hugo Chavez is just another tin-pot Latin dictator who just happens to have stolen for himself a controlling interest in a major oil company. It’s all about Hugo and his ego in Venezuela.
Putin is not much different. He’s just stolen for himself much more oil and natural gas than Chavez. In addition, he has nukes.
If this blog were published in Iran, Venezuela or Russia, we would all be hanging by our toe nails for the comments we’ve left here.
By comparison, the corrupt power structure in the U.S. looks pretty good. Scary, ain’t it?
Comment on September 29, 2007 @ 1:25 pm
Dave.
No point to arguing with you really, but why not have a look at some Iranian, Venezualan and Russian media, e.g. have a look at the Moscow Times http://www.themoscowtimes.com/indexes/04.html
Or todays Pravda - forget the old Soviet version - http://english.pravda.ru/
Not much in English available from Caracas, but I don’t think you’ll find this too objectionable http://www.dj.com.ve/
You might not find this too bad either http://62.193.18.228/ it’s the Tehran Times.
Hey Dave you shouldn’t believe all you’ve been told. OK maybe you can’t travel outside the US physically, but you can sure look around on the internet.
Comment on September 29, 2007 @ 3:32 pm
BTW
Chavez and Putin have nationalized - not stolen - oil that belongs to Venezuala and Russia respectively … so how could they “steal” it anyway??
Iraqi oil is being sold-off to western oil companies at the barrel of a gun … what do you call that?
Comment on September 29, 2007 @ 3:45 pm
Well, I would say nationalizing industries is tanatamount to stealing them. You see, those who have the power to “nationalize” have way too much power…and you know what they say about power and corruption. Besides, with dictators, it isn’t about their countries and their people; it’s about the dictators themselves and their egos.
As for looking around the internet: that would be where I’ve gotten the info necessary to make up my own mind about things. One must be carefull in choosing internet sources however. Propaganda abounds, especially in websites run by news outlets of nations known for tight control of their media.
I don’t believe much of what I read in the NY Times and other U.S. media outlets. Why would I beleive anything in the news outlets of Russia, Venezuela or Iran?
Comment on September 29, 2007 @ 4:31 pm
GUYS;
“It’s late September and I really should be back in school..” (thank you Rod Stewart, an inspirational thought filled tune if ever there was one.)
HOWEVER I LOVE THE HEAT AROUND HERE IN LATE SEPTEMBER! INTENSE DEBATE MADE DEMOCRACIES THE WORLD OVER SUCCEED….except those, of course, propped up by puppet strings…
Gerry, as I wrote, I thought of you, hoping you’d elucidate your need for a hospital stay…sorry to hear of your TRIPLE X distress, at least mine appears terminal a little more rapidly than yours…and since my life has been one of great joy, I’ll be glad, really, to see grandpa again soon. “GO AUSSIES”…
Putin got away with something HUGE…i.e.. accusations of being the FIRST to use radiation warfare. SHORTly (no dizrespect intended, ‘AhMen’, er…excuse me…’Ahmad’) Shortly thereafter he was invited for a fishing trip on ‘daddy’s boat’ and a stay at ‘daddy’s house at the beach’ (one can only surmise daddy thought the two of them would be drinking heavily or doping up with shared needles, hence the requisite ‘adult’ supervision).
I wrote George an e-mail asking him if he’d questioned P. about the allegation or had he instead only thought to ask P. ‘if he needed help pinning another innocent wriggling worm upon his hook’, though two months later I still await a response to that one. I guess it’s the “one that got away”.
So I assume P. to be innocent until proven guilty… thank Goddess for the democraTIC way.
My only disagreement with P. is his decision to refuse to ship Russian wheat to Europeans for food this coming winter, as the rest of the planet is grossly under-producing this year…(diseases, global warming, flooding, drought), however since Russian VODKA is wheat-dependent I can be totally forgiving in that regard…
Chavez, now I haven’t yet researched the links provided by G. but will right after this post, IS in control of vast deposits of oil, though if not mistaken, his lube is highly sulpherized…unlike good old Ky.Jelly…(that ain’ a goin’ a loosen YOU up, ole Chavey, so go pher sulpher)…
I too loudly laud the decision of Ahma. to discuss matters of state as well as religion with a -(open, clear thinking, non-prejudicial, democraTIC)- free press. Though the invite was derided severly by ALL AMERICAN CANDIDATES FOR PRECEDENT, who I much prefer would engage in a bit of healthy debate…
Did I say that???
Sorry too, that he was so obviously and self-defensively blind sided… I mean, come on guys, what’s wrong with a nation complying with the International Atomic Energy Association mandate that no nuclear weaponry be sought during the active pursuit of a sovereign nation’s leaders to get his country off an oil addiction(my president REFUSES the U.N. mandate-request that we COLLECTIVELY decide the amount of carbon emmissions we ALL are allowed to produce, preferring instead to promote ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT rather than DEMOCRATICALY decided healthy (oh lord, he’s using that word again) living standards…in the pursuit of happiness…
BY the way, name the first country to unleash a weapon of mass destruction and you win an invite to fish with Me on the shores of that nation’s waterways using wind power, not oil, to get a little further down the road…
Gotcha…it was US :+)
Now before I go toe to toe with the links Gerry provided, I’d like to leave you with one more thought, this one being the title of Welsh poet Dylan T’s finest writing, in which he exerts a request that we “Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night”
I personally take that to mean RAG4, RAGE AGAINST THE EVILS OF SOCIETY WHEREVER YE MAY DIG THEM UP. AS A BADGER CLAWS FOR HIS FOOD, SO MUST WE HUMANS DIG AND CLAW FOR JUSTICE…RELENTLESSLY. PERIOD. BYE, BYE…
Comment on September 29, 2007 @ 5:16 pm
Hi Sharky,
My thoughts are with you … yep right up to the point of wanting to get off the planet, because I’ve often wondered if it was really worth getting all that treatment - especially radio-therapy - since when my quality of life has not been good.
Hey Dave,
I DARE you to take a look at http://www.themoscowtimes.com/indexes/04.html
Surely you cannot be one of those who have minds so made up that they don’t want to be confused with facts.
On the front page of today’s Moscow Times is a picture and story about protests against Putin.
Comment on September 29, 2007 @ 5:50 pm
woahhh…can you imagine a guy like me doing
that to the poster babe of THIS country? The Canadians get away with doing that to the president of their southern neighbors, the Tsibilians do it to the President of Russia, the Aussies get visits and inquiries about vintage auto’s…me, I’d likely get tossed inna da pokey with a backseat reservation…patriot act, you know?…
BUT I DO KNOW THIS: Irate Iranian’s would EXPIRE IN THE DUST if ever this were done in sight of a Mullah.
No thanks, George B., I’d rather use a pseudonym and hide behind a Hewlett Packard screen saver…for now. That old patriot act petrifies me too, Dave, to an extent.
(You see, those who have the power to “nationalize†have way too much power…and you know what they say about power and corruption. Besides, with dictators, it isn’t about their countries and their people; it’s about the dictators themselves and their egos)…
Check out the writing of John Dean…his final in the trilogy is entitled Broken Governments. If this tome don’t teach one just a little bit about our current dictator and the rebuliCONs, one is either blind or cannot read, one or t’other.
Dave, I really believe you’re thinking cap is on right when you key in something like:
‘I divorced the RepubliCON party a decade ago. Now, I refuse to vote at all’. JohnDean also refers to independents
Now THAT’S THE SPIRIT I’M LOOKING FOR!
DAVE, HELP ME GET something GOING TO stop every american FROM GOING TO THE POLLS IN ‘08 AND WE’D HAVE A NATIONAL NO VOTE WITH NO ONE IN THE WHITE HOUSE FOR 4 YEARS! TAKE ME VERY SERIOUSLY…I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO GET STARTED!
All that crap bout my health was just a way of my justifying to those out there In reality t.v. land about WHY I AM SO UPSET WITH THE CORPORATE MINDSET REPRESENTED SO REPREHENSIBLY BY THE PUBLICONS! I’M DEAD SERIOUS, MAN.
I’M BEGGING FOR HELP HERE!!!
HOW AM I GOING TO ACCOMPLISH THIS IN just 13 MONTHS. I NEED Y0UR INPUT DAVE…THAT’S WHY I JOINED THIS SPHERE THREE DAYS AGO. I’M DEAD SERIOUS ABOUT A NATIONAL-NO-VOTE VOTING CAMPAIGN. THE POLLING BOOTH IS OUR ONLY CONSOLIDATED VOICE. THE OPPRESSORS THAT BE IN THIS GIANT LAND REFUSE TO LISTEN TO THE ELECTORATE, BUT THEY MANDATE TO THEMSELVES THAT IT IS COMPLETELY OKAY TO LISTEN IN ON THE ELECTORATE’S PHONE CALLS! GET MY DRIFT?
Anti-democracy is at it’s very worst right now within gov’t, and I FEEL LIKE IT’S MY RESPONSIBILITY TO KEEP THEM ALL OUT OF POWER FOR JUST ONE TERM…I GUARANTEE YOU THAT’S OUR ONLY SALVATION AGAINST THE DEATH OF THE CONSTITUTION! One term is all it would take to wake them up, I swear…
I’m serious as hell; the only way I can think of to block the inevitable next presidential election is to —- the electric grids on November 2nd…(isn’t that election day?)…No one would know how to count by hand if votes were cast without electricity. (The ability to do simple math vanished with the onset of technology)…
John Dean in ‘Broken Governments’ page xviiii:
‘there is no certain method to guarantee the survival of our species, BUT THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO HASTEN IT’S DEMISE, and high on that list is selfish, self-righteous, and self-interested government promoted by the authoritarian conservatives who now control the Grand Old Party, and have given us broken government’.
WE NEED THE, — DAVE, AND YES I MEAN THAT! WHAT HAVE I GOT TO LOSE, GIVEN MY CURRENT SITUATION?
I WILL TAKE ALL RESPONSIBILITY AND MENTION NO NAMES BUT MY OWN. THEY CAN FRY ME, BUT I’M DEAD IN THE WATER ANYWAY. I REFUSE TO UNDERGO ANOTHER ROUND OF CHEMO AND RADIATION TOO, GERRY, HAVING HAD NON-HODGKINS LYMPHOMA IN 2000. ALL I ASK FROM HERE ON OUT IS PAIN MEDICATION, AND POSSIBLY, LEGAL W—.
IT WILL TAKE SOMEONE LIKE ME TO DO SOMETHING SO DASTARDLY…SOMEONE WITH A TERRIFICALLY WONDERFUL AND HAPPY LIFE SO FAR WITH DEATH LOOMING LARGE ON THE HORIZON…I JUST REALLY DO NOT CARE ANYMORE. I’M OUT OF HERE WITHIN A YEAR ANYWAY DAMNIT…COME ON GEORGE, YOU KNOW WHO I AM BY NOW, DON’T DENY IT. YOU AND CONNIE HAVE BEEN BUGGING MY PHONE FOR WEEKS BECAUSE OF MY E-MAILS TO comments@whitehouse.cov I FEEL YOU BREATHING DOWN MY NECK…THE GIG IS UP GUYS…’LET’S ROLL’, (in the words of yet another deceased national hero, a man who died to save his country from terrorists)…
Comment on September 30, 2007 @ 12:16 am
Hi Sharky,
Thought I might try to break “the sound of silence” (I figure that you might like Simon and Garfunkel too … I am a bit ambivalent about Rod Stewart, but he has sung some great songs and I’m just iffy about his massive ego, him having once described himself as the greatest ballad singer in the world.)
Whatever: it is “the sound of silence” from Dave which prompts this missive.
Could it be that he actually read the Moscow Times and is now eating humble pie?
And, heck, wouldn’t it have been nice if he’d said something like, “I disagree with you a lot about many things, but I am sorry to hear about you two guys having cancer.” But not a peep on any score.
Sign of the times Sharky.
Like your ‘friend’ “C” being utterly detached and not wanting to know, when you confronted her with sundry realities.
I have yet to become a cynic (I have always been a sceptic) but I have learned, the hard way, that many people who you have regarded as ‘friends’ will kick you as soon as you go down.
Seems you have had a largely good life and I can understand you being content to relinquish it … and maybe meet your grandpa, who died when you were ten.
If I could believe in an “after-life”, then I would like to have a chat with my mother, who died when I was four … after which my life often went very badly, but I made the most of it - if probably in a Panglossian way.
Have you read “Candide” by Voltaire?
In it the character, Dr Pangloss, constantly proposes, “All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.” Amidst disaster upon disaster.
I was quite a lot like that, even after being forced to declare myself bankrupt some five years ago, after a bad marriage bust-up and my subsequent cancers (and more that I won’t go into).
I have HAD to change my view.
Certainly this planet is our only possible world, but all is certainly not “for the best”. (Lest there is some kind of superior being that wants to teach our species some hard lessons, or maybe scrap the entire experiment here and have a go in some other galaxy.)
Here, on this planet, a supposed ‘best friend’ WILL kick you in the guts if you are down. And I know why.
When you get cancer, go bankrupt, go into divorce and generally ‘fail’, then you inadvertently act as a mirror for what can and most likely will go wrong in the life of your ‘friend’. And he or she does NOT want to know how much like you - how much like all humans - he/she really is, e.g. vulnerable to “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”.
That’s the main gripe I have against “libertarians” generally. At the extreme - such as Ayn Rand, Margaret Thatcher and Milton Friedman - they imagine that they depend on no one else … though they all end up just like the rest of us and wholly dependent on various life-support systems, as they extend their selfish lives long past when they ought to have died naturally … yep and cancer is ‘natural’, along with all other diseases. If you live long enough, then you will get at least one of them … or you may be born with a shortly terminal condition.
Anyhow, Sharky, just exchanging some thoughts with you, considering that Dave - nor anyone - has written anything lately.
How did that Bob Dylan song go?
“How does it feel, to be on your own, like a rolling stone, a complete unknown (which everyone will be in due course) … and I stared into the vacuum of his eyes.”
Yep the emptiness of those who do not want to know and who turn from ‘friends’ and into enemies at the drop of a hat.
To end on a positive note.
Like you I could be dead within a year or so and my current life is not easy. BUT during the last 5-8 years I have met people who have seen me through thick and thin, so I suppose that’s why I have not become a cynic … but I remain sceptical about the future of our species.
Comment on October 1, 2007 @ 2:51 pm
Hey Gerry,
Humble pie? Isn’t that the band Peter Frampton got his start with? Rock on bro…
As for the pic and story of people protesting Putin and his bloody fingers…wow, that really proves your point that the Moscow Times is free of Russian Gov’t scrutiny or control with the logic leading to your previous point of Putin being one of the world’s better leaders.
If I were a dictator secure in my position, I wouldn’t mind a few negative stories in the press I controlled. Allowing the venting of a little steam over minor matters would be a good way of diverting the attention of the populace from my more important nafarious activities…like the take over and control of the oil and natural gas industries by myself and my buddies in Gazprom or Rosneft (RosTHEFT).
I could also jail anyone who stood in my way, like the guy who ran the oil company Yukos. Letting my previously mentioned friends pick up the assets of Yukos at the fire sale would be a big plus!
Yep, let them publish pictures of me with a penciled in mustache - what do I care?
Comment on October 1, 2007 @ 6:27 pm
Sharky,
I have a blog entitled “Lots To Say” which hasn’t gotten any attention or posts from me in a long time. With a little promotion, it could be a pretty good mouthpiece to get out the non-vote and expose further the corruption of the corporate-political power structure.
Leave a comment here if you’re interested…
Comment on October 1, 2007 @ 6:35 pm
Gerry,
Sorry, I went on without mentioning the personal jab you gave me regarding your health issues. I’d really prefer not to go into that sort of thing, but it looks as if I must.
I am indeed sorry that anyone would have to suffer through cancer. I watched my father wither away and die of Lymphoma. Toward the end he begged me to get a gun and shoot him. I was 17 at the time.
Feel better now?
Comment on October 1, 2007 @ 6:44 pm
JUST WHOSE LIFE ARE YOU LIVING, GERRY????
Seems as though YOU are SHARKY…and SHARKY is an AUSSIE, our lives and sensibilities ARE dopplegangers after all…in this the best of all possible democracies…(yes, oh, yes, in 1974, Rising Fawn, Georgia, where I first got laid, dead south of Chattanooga, Tennessee on a cliff overlooking the vast valleys of Middle Eastern, Alabama, 1,300 feet below me. (find it on the map…were did you spend your finest hours, and I’ll copy and paste a color pic representing what my life was like pre-printing press, in a separate and private e-mail, though certainly no one is reading this one but you and George B., …and perhaps the Aussie feds..)yep, 3 States for the price of one…the American dream…
I have always fallen for anything triple x rated…
1-loss of a loved and departed family member…
2-loss of a marriage, a tragic ending due to infidelity, (hers not mine)…
3-and the loss of my health…go triple x, all the way…
I live/love THIS Dylan thought too (though he meant something VASTLY different, sure he did, sure I do) “Everybody must get stoned”…my meaning is not to be misinterpreted though! I reefer to your comment: “yep, the emptiness of those who do not want to know and who turn from ‘friends’ into enemies at the drop of a hat”…
stoned again. Surely Gerry, you do not reefer to Dave, who appears to have done just that///sigh, I miss him so.
Moral: no one likes whiners, and I guess that just as you and I relate to reality, others prefer reality t.v.
You see, C. hasn’t and wont write an e-mail to me anymore, it’s been over a week, and I can assume my ass also is dead there, so, apparently, is our 32 year friendship.
C. prefers to smell the roses after they have peaked and are on the downward trajectory, oxidized, rather than talk about her own vulnerability and inevitable oxidation, hmmmm, fine with me…(yep, you guessed it, I’m addicted to elipses too, sigh)…
Last I heard, C. was gloating about the value of her stocks even in the face of a 20% decline in 5 years of the dollar, and the subsequent 1% ruse, scratch that I meant RISE, of her portfolio! Now I will not, can not, participate in her gloating when she is so very wrong…Train, in their song “Drops of Jupiter”, sing this refrain:
“can you imagine no love, pride, deep fried chicken..
you’re best friend, always stickin up for you…
even when I know you’re wrong…”
ya gotta listen to that tune, dude…naw you already know it…
and we gotta quit washing our underwear out in public…(what public? this bar has shut down for the night, you and I are alone, sitting in the back corner booth. I’m watching out for the ferryman…and stix appears to have swollen in the late summer sun…while you listen out for the sounds of the hounds…)
Rack’em up Gerry, it ain’t ‘late September’ any more…and you is uglier by far than Maggie May…
e-mail me at dsharky1@gmail.com
public baths went out with the Greeks…
Comment on October 1, 2007 @ 6:58 pm
Sorry, Dave, no disrespect intended, I was compiling while you two were posting. Glad to have you back but really WHERE IS THE REST OF THE WORLD, are we 3 the only bloggers here in DdS?
How did your dad die of Lymphoma? Since I had a complete remission from it in 2000, and it was such a light weight cancer to have had anyway, I ASSumed EVERYONE cured from it…truly sorry for your loss there, it reaffirms my triple x theme song, you Gerry and I (3x) lost someone close due to the big C
my lymphoma was non-hodgkins, your dad must have experienced something a little different?
later guys…I remain a dedicated imbiber at the Desidooru Saloon, if I’m still welcome after that last round of drinks…
Comment on October 1, 2007 @ 7:19 pm
MAN Dave, I am really embarrassed now…you actually replied to my question of how to get out the word whilst I was typing away, I really thought you had dumped us whiners…
Tried to find Lots to Say through Google. Its apparently a popular name…
What road map should I follow? My thoughts about how to get out the word on a voting day no-vote ran somewhat ‘contrarian’ to blogs, (quite an overused cliche and so quickly), but I’ll drive all highways on all cylinders to get there by Nov. 2,…I’m going to the Iowa newspapers and radio stations first…those trusting farmers are being shafted I fear… by the president’s mandate to ethanol production, the resultant shortage of food grain, the lack of animal feeds, drought, floods, the rising costs of leased acreage, and lastly the desperate credit relations that have ‘cropped’ up in response to a new demand for plows, tractors, and air conditioned cabs all run with oil, as there are no petrol stations to provide the farmers with ethanol even as they produce it’s main ingredient. Later, drinks on me, that last round SUCKED!
Comment on October 1, 2007 @ 7:47 pm
A blog could be an effective weapon in the arsenal. Its site is http://www.lotstosay.net and as I mentioned before, I haven’t posted there in a while - over a year.
It’s been indexed by Google - who came by there just last month. More frequent posting means more visits by Googy the Great and therefore higher rankings and greater exposure.
I can set you up with a login so you could post there (not just comments) at your pleasure. Let me know if you would like to do that.
Comment on October 1, 2007 @ 8:49 pm
yeah Dave…what do you mean not just comments?…I would go there to start a running political commentary thingee, vastly different than these posts, which were personal to the extent they needed to be in order to extract information about how to get the ball rolling. Not just commentary, and nothing I can’t back up from solid research, quoting sources etc.
I realize that by doing this, I’m opening myself up to criticism and pummeling from those of differing attitudes, I just want to make it known that selecting a president via attitudes and personal appearances alone has recently been disastrous.
Comment on October 2, 2007 @ 3:00 pm
[...] Senate has given final approval to an $850 billion increase in the public debt,” reports DR blog -master Dave Gonigam. This hike marks the fifth since President Bush took office and will allow for [...]
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