Klass

What is the Middle Class? I'm not sure I've ever really been a part of this organization. I find it hard to believe I am part of it now because not much I hear about it hits home.

I'm almost certain that I am an "American People" member, but I even wonder about that when I hear obviously in touch experts say, "What the American People want is...blablabla". The blablabla part almost never hits home. It could be that I don't know what I think and they do.

From what I hear, it could be to my advantage not to join the Middle Class club. They are apparently suffering and struggling and in even more pain than I am. Still, that causes me to wonder what class I am in, if being in a class is required.

I better cut myself off from outside media input before this identity crisis reaches "the tipping point". I'm not even sure what that would entail but it sounds ominous.

Kicking the Party Up a Notch in Charlotte

What's an American to Do?

If I believe everyone I hear, I'm better off now than I was four years ago, I'm worse off now than I was four years ago, I could die in a ditch from a hangnail if They have Their way, or I can get free penile implants if the other They have Their way, etc., etc.

And I do believe each and every story, statistic, boast, and attack that I hear. These come from people "you can trust". I'm pretty sure people spend money that isn't theirs less responsibly than they'd spend their own, in most cases.

My only suggestion is that if you love the word "struggle" so much, why not learn to pronounce it as it is spelled? Really, a word used in every paragraph ought to be of known spelling and pronunciation. Or is "shrtruggle" a separate word with similar meaning? I knew no one else would ask but I suspect that many wonder, as I do.

When I am in charge, any candidate who parades his/her family and spouse will be disqualified, and the First Spouse will not have any cause, tax allotments or anything else. I'm sure Michele and Ann are swell people, but I don't care how they feel, have absolutely no desire for them to run national campaigns against fat, for flowers, the homeless, I don't care. Maybe they'd be better at president than their husbands but they didn't apply for the job, so please leave the building.

So, by my rules, Romney would be out and so would Obama. I know, it is silly to fantasize about a perfect world in these treacherous times of shrtruggle.

All I really want to know is how will you reduce domestic tyranny and stay out of my life? How many prisoners who don't need to be locked up will you release, and how many laws will you suggest repealing? How many agencies will you either abolish or reign in? Aha!! Just as I thought! None of the applicants can answer me. If only I could send them all packing until I find an applicant for the job who'll do it right.

A never ending circus, Barnum vs Bailey or both vs Ringling Bros. Who knows? It's a shrtruggle to sort it out.
I want to believe. The pictures painted are so wonderful. It is thrilling--until you figure out that pickpockets have been working the mesmerized crowd while they stood gazing in awe at the spectacle before them.

Life on earth in the midst of what passes for organized civilization is just one big shrtruggle.

Democratic Convention in Pictures

Arrival of Congressional Black Caucus



Arrival of white guilt association, formerly Congressional White Caucus


Secret service arrives early to survey streets


enthusiasm is high. Suspense is in the air. Who will be the nominee? It's clear who she's pulling for (do you think she is L,G,B, or T? )


To keep everyone in bounds, the PC Thought police are on the scene

The Last of the Sane Economists

or one of them

OK. Advertising Again:Dreaming Man Seeks Dream Lady

I'm pretty sure that my slightly hermit-like lifestyle may result in full tilt insanity if I'm not careful.

So, I hereby put myself on the market, but first, let me list the parameters for you.

1.a female human who has been such since birth--I know it is horrible of me but still legal to rule out transgender

2. Age is a tough one. I can't imagine you'd find me at all interesting unless you're over 40-- or so.

3. be attractive and in decent enough shape. Better shape than I am in would be a plus. If you don't weigh more than me, that is a plus as well. This is a rather flexible parameter. You may be irresistible and be able to send me to the moon on a seesaw--you never know

4. tattoos. I don't know. Every single woman of middle age seems to have some compulsion for someone to draw on her body. Permanently. If I hate it, that's ultimately a deal killer, but it doesn't mean I won't fool around. Maybe I don't hate it. Have to see it.
Seriously, I saw one that freaked me out more than if she'd had a big clown's face on the thigh. Actually, at first I thought it was a big clown's face on her thigh. I guess that is the only one that actually frightened me at first glance.
So, I guess, I'm neutral to a point on that, but not a big fan of the practice.

5. I don't care what you eat as long as you don't care that I'm a non carnivore.

6. did I say good looking? Oh, and not inhibited in stupid ways when we're alone.

7. you can't be looking for money, because I don't have it.

8. I hope you like road trips, and can get away now and then to join me.

9. Don't cultivate jealousy, yours or mine. I'm too old for that.

10. Be nice.

11. If you have kids, let them not be at home, and let them not be needy brats.

12. Don't have big horror stories about your ex. Don't want to hear it. I'll try to return the favor.

13. don't be a drunk.

14. be affectionate, get my jokes, and make me laugh.

15. think I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread, even though we both know better.

OK. I sure hope this server can handle all the applicants that will pour in. I'm thinking I'd be a better person if the right woman took over management of my life while pretending I am my own master.

After thoughts:
16. hates diamonds would be huge plus
17. could care less about fancy restaurants
18. won't try to get me to go places where there are big crowds

19. don't be a compulsive victim or obnoxiously neurotic. We'll reserve that privilege for me

20. I hope I get that almost helpless rush of powerful positive emotion every time I see you---not a requirement, but I doubt it would take much. As men get older they get mushy and sentimental as much as they get cranky and curmudgeon-like .
21. Be able to convincingly act like you think I am genius

22. skilled in subaru maintenance a plus

---I'm prejudiced against cops and employees of the IRS, however I do realize that beggars can't be overly choosey. Maybe a deal killer, maybe not---

OK. Now everything anyone needs to know about me:
I'm 6 feet tall, 175 lbs, live in a cabin on BallisticMountain, drive my subaru more miles than you'd believe. Mechanically inclined. Sometimes bright, and sometimes not so much. I have a didgerido, and maybe a hundred harmonicas, or so. I can make things out of whatever--tile stone metal, etc. ---if I have to. The City of Miami gave me a humanitarian award for unknown reasons.
I'm a radical. I don't drink.
Very impressionable so you could probably quickly mold me to your will.
I'm an idiot, often as not, but a fairly polite one.

Servants and Masters

My vast experience has not included employing servants, but my impression is that it is extremely rare that house servants dictate how the house is run, how the budget is spent, and I think the servants are almost never wealthier than their employer.

So, how can career politicians, or even career bureaucrats or other government workers claim to be public servants? The run of the mill public employee makes more than the average citizen who is allegedly the employer. The elected officials not only make more, but they have special health insurance and pensions. They are even exempt from various rules and requirements which they place on the citizenry who hired them.

Well, anyone who buys that bit about public service from a salaried employee probably has a skewed view of economics, and free trade. Or trade of any kind. It happens. The ring of self righteousness, with overtones of free floating, non denominational religiosity must hit some emotion in people; especially those who either see themselves as the proper leaders of the "masses", or see themselves as needing a paternal authority to keep them safe and in line.

All this stuff about whether I am better off now than I was however many years ago is lost on me. I've never imagined it to be government's job to make me better or worse off, just to protect my freedom and property. Unfortunately, not too many in that business see their role as I do. I was better off in the late '80s, but I wasn't financially more secure.

I'd finally become free of alcohol and dope and stupid bars. I had more potential girlfriends than I knew how to address, and I was only alone when I wanted it that way. Of course, I was still too nuts to know what was going on, but it was a happy time. I'm fairly certain the only role in those great days that government played was that it played almost no role. There was no talk of buy-or-die insurance or much else that involved me.

It is too bad that the choice for the big show is not between radical libertarians and the usual collectivist minded people who want control of everything. As it is, we have the modified version of Neo-Bolshevik vs the radical version.

Buzz words fill the air like a swarm of yellow jackets. "The right to collective bargaining" refers not to rights but to requirements. People can and have banded together to bargain collectively for years and years. The right to bargain individually is what is threatened. The above buzz phrase is code for forced unionism. If you don't want to join, you have no choice in many places. Freedom to choose is the basic tenet of a free society. Not so complicated but the very smart, and the not so smart, can cloud and embellish and complicate the hell out of it.

That is just one example of something that is misleading and really ought not be on the table.

In the end, what we see happening, since the misnamed "public servants" have so much power to issue directives, pay themselves to then promote their candidates for office through public employee unions, make more money than most other people, and are increasing in number relative to non government workers, the so-called servants are actually the public masters and we become the servants. They also have the weapon of the IRS to harass enemies and influence the stubborn. That is why neither of our two viable choices for major office push too hard, if at all, to change that system. It is a horrible tax structure, which most people know, although some think it for less than valid reasons.

I would be so proud of my country if one of the major applicants for the top administrative position adamantly insisted the irs must go and be replaced with a consumption tax or something like it that did not penalize income directly. It would be a start, and I think that is the root of most of what makes the idea of a police state, at best, a realistic threat in this country.
They, of course, need to quit pandering by declaring wars on drugs, obesity, and God only knows what else.

And there is no win on abortion. It is a cultural issue which needs to be left at impasse.
Call it legal murder if you must, but lead by example if you think you are right, and let it go. No one should be forced to perform it or have the operation--unless I declare them unfit to reproduce--and just get it out of my face. I still bear a grudge at those holy rollers with their signs as they stood too close to the right hand lane on a busy street in Greensboro, and I'm trying to figure out how to explain what they are doing to a five year old girl in my car. Geez, do you think you actually did any good? You hurt your case more than help.

Freedom requires some real discipline when it comes to knowing people do things of which you do not approve. Most of those things are best curbed by the tenor of the culture. And that is what frustrates people. They want to force others to choose what they want them to. I don't think that method has ever worked out very well, but there are those who believe all behavior can be altered through force or taxation, and that it is OK, because they know what is best for others.

To the point. Those who call themselves public servants, who have served four or five terms in the senate or wherever, are only telling the truth if what they mean by servant is master.

Crankier By The Day

Bill, Joe, and BO are pumped for big times in Charlotte!

It is not intentional, it just happens. I'm sure the election year garbage is a slight influence, but not the whole story. It is the part of the story easiest to tell, thereby deflecting my other inter-personal failings and foibles.

From the time I first had a glimpse of TV convention coverage, years and years ago, I was embarrassed and appalled that people were running around with stupid hats, balloons everywhere, gaudy bunting all over the place, marching bands firing up on cue. I'm thinking, "Hey, isn't this supposed to be about who gets the big job of administrator, commander in chief of the armed forces? Would people hire someone in real life for a serious job if his or her resume was packaged like a big car sale or circus flyer?"

The underlying realization which I wanted to ignore--the thing that gave me a tinge of nausea--was the realization that, like the over the top car ads, they were appealing to the least among us, and the worst within us. That need to cheer for the winning team, that resistance to stepping back against the crowd because something is wrong. They are targeting emotions, people who would rather feed their emotions than be free or do the right thing, and they are targeting relatively illogical and dimwitted people.

The game is worsened by the thrill that comes when it is open season on some specific person or group. For whatever reason, our setup has locked it up so only two teams have a chance in this game. Now we can find labels, which become cliches, for the other team and their despicable fans. The actual substance of how the job is going to be done, and with what, often gets lost in the cheers and jeers.

I'm not sure I even want to hear more. In the past few years I've heard elected members of the US Congress gush about Cuba's healthcare system, which doesn't get good reviews from people I know who have either visited or experienced it first hand, claim that China's system of everything is a model we should emulate, and then they turn around a claim they are going to make my life better. Silly me, I thought their job was to keep force and fraud away so I could make my own life better, as I see fit--or not.

To realize that there are people in power who see examples of tyranny as role models is not comforting. They cheer states and leaders who saw fit to commit mass murder to solidify their power. Odd that humans haven't evolved a collective survival instinct which would make the Ches and Stalins of the world unthinkable considerations for leadership roles.

It's the cringe factor in overdrive. I know that there are people running for things who, in some ways represent me more than those in power, especially in Ca, but holy smoke, they can say and do the goofiest things, and in the goofiest ways. It is as if they do it to fuel the opponents. It offers such temptation for people to make fun of them and further ignore the true nature of political "issues". The damned issues are largely the result of overstepping proper functions, "partnering" with various companies and industries, and generally encouraging government to become a monster which can't stop feeding and growing.

The other part of the issue generation syndrome is the fact that most people have a very weak moral compass. They can't resist minding the affairs of others when it doesn't concern them. Particularly when life is tough, they suspend certain values if they can somehow blame others or society in general, and they become ripe for those who buy their votes with talk of how their government has failed them. Their problems aren't their fault, or the nature of life, they are the result of government not doing more, and all you need to do to make the pain go away is vote for me.

My only problem with that kind of thing is that after awhile, they come up with so many more things to do, and laws, that I cannot avoid being affected by it. Not that I am doing anything to harm or deceive anyone. You just can't live without permission, and that trend is on the upswing. It has been all my life, I guess.

We still have people who are fool enough to actually believe the circus barker rhetoric advertising what is in store if we just buy the right ticket. It is crazy. University professors, teachers, thugs, you-name-it, all suckering and hoping they'll get a little something for nothing, even if it is only a bit of power. No moral compass at all. Their values are based on whether everyone else accepts the same shady garbage wrapped in self righteous nonsense.

I do know it can be worse when a place goes all out and declares itself a people's state--marxist totalitarian set up. Now, anything can be seen as not in the interest of the collective, as defined by the party leaders, and the individual is on thin ice if he likes to disagree or rebel, even intellectually. I think we are on our way, but it is still subtle enough that the less sensitive among us do not feel it. Frogs in the slowly heating pot of water.

I'm wondering why people still assume that all people of a particular race or gender are supposed to think alike? That seems highly racist and sexist to me. But it is rare that white males find that requirement placed upon them. The accusation is sometimes launched that they all look out for one another, but a quick look around shoots that all to hell. I'd be repulsed if someone came to me to join a "white caucus", or white man's basic labor and handyman association, or white male lawyer's association, etc. Those things don't fly. Yet, if a non-white rejects such things, that person is a traitor their condition of birth.

I have a feeling that I will die before anyone cares what I think or that any of this is not considered subversive and all that. It is upside down. I'm against oppression and divisiveness. You keep forming little clubs based on physical characteristics in the world of social philosophy, peace is unlikely to result.

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Saving Time and Money

Do they use tax money on these athlete doping fiascos? I guess so, since Congress likes to poke its nose into baseball and such.

For the record I do not care if athletes use steroids, or other drugs which have initials and possibly fatal side effects, or no side effects. I do not care. If it is really bad, then the punishment is in the crime.

It won't solve the deficit, but removing any and all law enforcement and grandstanding charlatan politicians' official involvement in such matters is a move in the right direction.

Just do not care. Do you take vitamins or drink coffee to wake up? Oooh, that is knowingly taking something you believe enhances your performance in some way. I won't even address the viagra implications. If a drug or supplement does not enhance performance, health or do something to alter the status quo, why bother?

Mostly, I Don't Like Quotes

Sure, the previous post was nothing but Voltaire quotes, but it annoys me most of the time when people spout quotes. When you are trying to make a point or have a discussion and the other person says, "Well, Kennedy said, 'blablabla'", I see it as a way to use the propaganda technique of appeal to authority to bolster the argument by quoting something from a source they consider infallible.

I love the times when a person says, "Someone once said, "gibberish gibberish blablabla". Someone once said? Someone once said all kinds of things. I'm pretty sure that someone once said any word I have ever used, and any phrase, as well. Given that the word is actually a word. Pregumptiousness may be my own.

People like Garrison Keeler use that "someone once said" bit. It is generally delivered in a lofty tone, but I think it is bizarre. Who once said it? Someone once said, "we're going to hell in a handbasket". Hmmm, so deep and meaningful. If you said it without telling me that someone once said it, the gravitas would be conspicuously lacking.

I guess I like quotes OK when in the context of crediting the creator of the quote with insight, wit or whatever. It is when it is used to somehow grab a little undeserved value on the part of the person quoting that I get bored.

Maybe it is useful for making a point. I don't know. It usually sucks when it finds its way into the political circus. I cringe more than not, even if I am hoping that specific political person will win some points.

Someone once said, "any port in a storm", and I'm reminded of my many follies over the last five years or so and the preceding decade as well, which brings to mind the words of a great leader, John Paul Jones, "We've not yet begun to fight!!". Or something like that. Remember the Alamo. Damn the torpedoes, and as someone once said, don't take any wooden nickels.