Miscaneous Jabs

I was raised with strong respect for the military and the government for the wealthy, for doctors and lawyers and business leaders. I learned how misplaced that adulation was. Many have chosen to not see the full truth. The evidence is not lacking or hiding. Those individuals are themselves hiding -- from reality, from the hard truth that their idealized fantasy about America is a sham, and worse than a sham, a danger to the rest of the world.

Please note that for every inch of anger at America, there is a foot of sadness and disappointment. I was raised, like so many, to believe in the wonderful sanctity of America. I’ve watched the tragic trajectory that has brought my native land to its present position, how it had a chance to be the true shining light on the hill, but opted instead for the halls of darkness -- of power, privilege, profits and polluted politics.

One piece of the multilayered proof of America's rotten core is that the evil rise toward success while good guys finish last. What hope is there for a decent man or woman in the cutthroat business world, or newsmedia, or in politics? Very little, actually.

In America, the mass media catered so much to the lower demographic -- once they realized the almighty numbers of the semi-ignorant, that they increased its numbers two-fold, three-fold, and beyond.

Bankers deeply wounded America, and to a certain extent, the world, with their foolishly headlong pursuit of risky profits. They were rewarded, and continue to be rewarded, with huge billions and continued obscene bonuses.

Democracy in the US is already up to its neck in corruption and inefficiency. Now with the Supreme Court opening the floodgates of corporate money onto the already drenched lowlands of political influence, there is little hope that the government can avoid being drowned by the corporate agenda.

So-called “conservative philosophy” is a phony ruse. The main purpose and goal of conservatives is deregulation and lower taxes, ie, keep government away from their greedfest.

Back in the Saddle Again

I'm back! I've been away with the ship (The Pearl) to a planet not far from here as the photons fly -- around 60 light years distant. The Service Corps, more specifically the Commander of our ship and his top staff (not inclusive of moi) had a negotiation to conduct, that of a planet entering memberhood. It went well, and they have now begun the process which will lead them to becoming part of the Astanian League of Planets. Hopefully, our Urth will also qualify at some point for such inclusion.

Anyway, I'll soon be back to posting on this site, as I've accumulated quite a few notes I'd like to share.

The Sad Modern State of Education

As for the declining state of education in America, it’s easy enough to understand. There’s too much else in the environment of any and every youth for them to be much interested in the boring and difficult process of learning. To diagram the problem: The original villains in this piece were – and still are to some extent – television, popular music and movies. These are much more exciting and sensation-producing than anything a parent or teacher or minister has to say (drone on about) to the youngster.

The battle between parents and children over homework time and entertainment time ensued for a generation and a half, and eventuated in most children relenting to their parents’ strictures for study time, but with the compromise that the TV and/or music would be playing simultimely. So it was kind of a Mexican Standoff, but the knowledge and literacy levels saw a steady decline nationally

Then came the personal computer, with its expanded universe of stimulation and interaction, from chat rooms to texting to porn sites to fun websites to Facebook and now Twitter. And downloaded music, easily available and constantly necessary to hear and text/chat/tweet about. Now homework had become not just a dull chore but an evil intrusion into their lives, interrupting the funcitement they were cybernetically surrounded with.

On top of this, and building over the past 15 years into an irresistible force in its own right, are video games – so devilishly vicarious and jaw-droppingly addictive that, for millions of (mostly) males, it has become the diversion of choice. The real misfortune of this development is that, unlike most of the above distractions, many of the full-time video-game players are the more intelligent of the youth generation, youngsters who will now never come close to their potential in school, athletics or even a social life.

Further compounding this decline in education is the fact that something close to half of the children don’t quite understand the need for all the tedious schooling in the first place, since they’re convinced that they’re going to be singing stars or actresses or professional athletes or reality-show stars. Or, in some areas, drug dealers or pimps, like the guys they see in their neighborhoods wearing gold chains and driving expensive cars.

Ah, Consumerism, Thy Name is America!

The evil triumvirate of soulless corporations (intent only on large, short-term profits), television advertising divisions (intent only on large, short-term profits), and enabling politicians (intent only on large short-term campaign contributions) have led America into the morass of more ass – with 67% of the adults in the country overweight, and a growing percentage (almost 30%) of children as well.

At some point these vultures and vipers – known generally as “highly successful people” – realized that America was a huge flock of sheep with disposable incomes, easily fleeced by these highly successful people. With Madison Avenue acting as the fulcrum of the massive manipulation, Americans became inundated with irresistible images and appealing slogans for tobacco and alcohol and colas and candies and strippleted foods (like crappy white bread that “builds strong bodies 12 ways”) and cosmetics and hair products and new-new-new everything – what you absolutely must have to be a with-it individual or family.

Reality Gone Astray

Down the list on any indictment of American culture, but definitely on the list, would be its elevation of lowgrade scumballs to celebrity status. Through the avenues of music, sports, movies and television, the American pop-culture machine creates hundreds of new celebs a year, while most of the previous ones don’t seem to go away. All of this provides fodder for the tabloid media – whether it be print, TV or Net -- which burgeons ever-larger and louder.

With the advent of “reality shows,” and those misbegotten dating programs, an ever-growing number of these folks are not even talented, ie, don’t sing or act or anything. At least, before, the obnoxious brat making huge sums of money, and going hog-wild with drugs and power trips and maelstroms of maladjusted excess, could warble a little, or emote on camera, or throw/hit/catch/dunk a ball. Now it’s just, in a growing number of cases –- like Jon and Kate and Heidi and Spencer -- professional assholes being famous for being professional assholes. (Ohmaga! I’ve learned some of their names.)

I’ve only seen the promos for “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here,” but they seem to be on the right track, i.e., ridiculing the ridiculous personages of American celebrityhood. But the drawback is that some of these “stars” will have their 15 minutes of fame extended beyond what is already terribly tedious. I think they need to have the island filled with man-eating lions and crocodiles, and full-size pythons and, what the heck, a few hungry polar bears. Then I’d watch, as would many others -- as a herd that needs it... finally gets thinned.



The biggest ongoing scandal that you never hear anyone complain about (with the exception of Bill Maher last week) is that in 38 states judges have to campaign for office. Which means sucking up to the business interests and being beholden to the various special interests for contributions.

The most glaring recent example of why this is bad for justice is the case in West Virginia where an appeals court judge received $3 million from a mining company then didn’t recuse himself from judging the case which sought to overturn a $50-million settlement against the company.

The judge sided with the mining company, but it ended up in the Supreme Court, which narrowly ruled the lower-court judge to be in the wrong. But it’s worth noting that the “conservatives” on the Supreme Court, led by Chief Suckmeister John Roberts, sided with the interests of the mining company. This is their standard practice, seemingly always voting for the wealthocrat class in any and every dispute with less-powerful entities or individuals.

(Sidenote on Maher: Ambrose has said an irritating number of times, “Are you sure Bill Maher isn’t you and Jane Fonda’s love child?” He knew about my one-nighter with Ms. Fonda back in the day, that not being a very exclusive club at the time. Not that I agree with Maher on everything, but I do appreciate his brass balls.)


Short Jabs

With some exceptions, a cool black guy is cooler than a cool white guy, Asian guy, or Latino. And a smart Asian guy (and I include Indians) is smarter than those from the other groups. But a rich white guy is almost always richer than the rich black, Asian or Latino. If that’s racist, then sue me. I think it’s just data assessment.


Americans have, with the active assistance of the media and politicians, wrapped themselves in a cocoon within another cocoon regarding, among other thing, the plight of the Third World, and progressive governments elsewhere.


From an early age, I knew I wasn’t a Republican because I wasn’t a cold-blooded reptile of a person. (Funny/true how Republican, reptile and reprehensible all start the same.)


Nipples. What’s with that? When and where and by whom was it decided that the female nipple (but not the man’s) is a dirty, dirty thing, and a criminal act to expose?

But now I’m just blathering, so I will desist from further comments for now.

Party Politics

The Democrats and Republicans both operate under a false presumption – codified error agendas that are directly the opposite of each other. For Republicans it’s “Government is the problem; free-market capitalism is the solution.” For Dems, it’s “Free-market capitalism is the problem; government is the solution." It’s no wonder that bipartisanship is DOA.

But which one do I think is worse? The answer is the Republicans, by far. They represent the worst elements of America: the military-industrial complex, the financial centers, the racists, the polluters, the fundamentalists, the gun nuts. Sure, some Democrats have weaseled in on parts of this territory, but it’s clearly the occupied terrain of the GOP.

Numero Uno

There has been a lot of public comment recently about America’s slippage in the various rankings – barometers of supremacy in which the U.S. once occupied the position of undisputed Number One

From per capita income to home ownership to literacy rates, America led the world, but now we are well down the ladder on most of those. Even in computer science and availability/speed of broadband Internet, the latest analyses show the U.S to be lagging behind most of Asia and half of Europe.

But there are still some areas that have America as Numero Uno. Some of these are gun ownership, murder, suicide, drug addiction, infant mortality, mercury pollution, prison population, STDs, cancer, heart disease, meat consumption, sugar consumption, TV viewing hours, military budget, WMD production and money spent on government officials to maintain the status quo.