It's Too Crazy, but they are the people with the guns

WASHINGTON -- Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) is retiring from Congress after 59 years.

Dingell will make the announcement Monday at a luncheon in Downriver, Mich.,according to the Detroit News.

"I’m not going to be carried out feet first," he told the paper. "I don’t want people to say I stayed too long."

I'll say it, you nutcase.

Hey Mr. Dingell, you stayed way too long.   You overstayed by somewhere between  quarter and half a century.  And your dumbass colleagues went out of their way to celebrate your abuse of the system.  They know, you know, and I know that turning elected office into a career, replete with benefits and pension, is at the core of our corrupt, unjust, immoral, over reaching, authoritarian governmental condition.

That you and your pals would be celebrating and publicly praising this deadly flaw in our system shows that you understand full well that the public's capacity to be suckered is seemingly endless.  I'll bet you and your buds even have the nerve to use the "public service" tag as if decades of power, special treatment, benefits, and now pensions, not to mention perks from cronies needing favorable contracts and legislation, is a noble, holy sacrifice which deserves the thanks of those whose money you burn.

The mentality reflected in the accolades given because the guy is the longest "serving" member of Congress, ever, show how far gone people have become, and how so many think government is God, and that all this crazy nonsense is OK and makes sense.   Many in the world of cool elitist, tediously intellectual (so you'll notice and say, "wow you're smart") academia, and other fields dependent upon the government dollar, will spin this sort of abuse of the representative system into something sacred, and a higher calling than whatever normal taxpayers do to get by. 

I'm finding myself in an uncomfortable quandary now and then.   I have been irately opposed to our foreign policy for most of my life, and haven't been a fan of the last several wars in which we've involved ourselves , how we conducted those wars, or how we extricated ourselves from them, in those cases in which we did.  Bosnia?  I don't care.  VietNam, don't care. Iraq, don't care.  Afghanistan, don't care.  Certainly not enough to say, hey I'm going to give my life for this cause---whatever it is.  Usually you get no clear consistent answers regarding the purposes and goals of modern skirmishes.  

If I have not liked any of the wars, and do not like the little domestic games being played for "protection against terror", how can I blindly, and sincerely say to everyone in the military, "Thank you for your service?"    I backed out, at the last minute, of a slot to go to fighter training, partly because I knew I couldn't follow orders given by corrupt idiots with whom I disagreed.  They were not going to say, "hey let's take Cuba today!!  We'll give back the property that Castro stole, as best we can, and we'll make them use their constitution that both Batista and Castro ignored, then we'll have fun on the beach and be happy".  That would have been great.  I would have enjoyed serving under that kind of attitude, but NO.

I suspected I'd find myself at odds with the brass, and that I wouldn't last long.  I would have started an international incident, or refused to do something.

I appreciate a defense department, but an offense department deployed for dubious, vague and often conflicting reasons does not inspire my support.  I know that 99.5% of those in the military do not think like I do.  Over half are there because it has good benefits, provides funding for college and is a good way to get out of an early life rut, to get away from family and grow up.   The awesome skill, intelligence, drive and discipline some military jobs, like SEAL, require are quite admirable.   But they are under control of less than honorable people who give no good honorable reasons for how the military is used.

I'd say thanks, but when was the last posturing of our military one of defense instead of off the wall wars in countries where even the good guys are raving religious fanatics and lunatics?   When was it a matter of defense instead of such a web of deceptive and varied interests that no one can unravel it?  I don't know.  I wish I could thank the good people who are "just doing their jobs" under the management and direction of bad people with dishonest and/or immoral motives, but I can't do without feeling like I am lying.  But I usually keep quiet and pretend to be into it. 

It is a lie.  I do not thank policemen either.  Once in awhile their job does not involve bothering people who need not be bothered, and in a non bullying way.  They get paid.  I'm giving no extra thanks.  I've seen more of their abuse and bullying than I've seen of their help.  And help is their job.  Not like they do it for free.  They get pensions.  Most people do not these days.

Thank you for your service, and I'd thank you even more if you refused to do the wrong thing. I do offer my sympathies for those who have to serve under impossible rules of engagement dodging the political correctness police at every juncture.


At least most government workers who get obscene perks and privilege, like the astute Congressman Dingell, don't bleed the rest of the world dry for half a century. His father only did it for a couple of decades before Johnny boy ran for his dad's old congressional seat. Must be a locked in district.

The wars on poverty, drugs, and terror have all three done very little to alleviate poverty, diminish drug use, or make us safer, freer, and any less annoyed by lunatic factions and lunatic states of the world.  The cool thing is that we've enriched many slumlords on the local level, helped enrich and empower drug lords and thugs all over this hemisphere, removed any pretense of rights against arbitrary search and seizure, and helped arm and enrich the same terrorists and evil countries we now label as enemy.

This clown will most likely be on someone's payroll as consultant, influence peddler, connected jerk, lobbyist before the day is out. It is shameless and you'd think they'd play down the fact that this guy has been bilking the public for nearly sixty years. But the public is easily herded, even the supposedly intelligent contingent of the population. So they go along with the party. The news goes along, of course; they are the government's sales force and have been since before this Dingell clown ever served his first term.




.