Down the Dumb Staircase

NOTE:  This was originally written in September, 2023 but just finished and published November 2024

So without further adieu, I present today's rant - Doughnuts!  Yep, that's right.  After 5 years of a world gone whack I ought to be ranting on everything Trump and the unbelievably rotten Republican party or the hottest summer on record in Phoenix or the degradation of society from social media or inflation's bite or any of these exhausting topics riling our lives.  Maybe another time.  Today it's doughnuts baby, and I'm talking about the latest company out there hawking these things covered in Oreos or bacon or globs of some material I can't even describe.  And there's a line out the door to purchase these fat bombs at the local VooDoo Doughnuts.  So is it this intriguing name that has humanity waiting for their chance to try a fried puff of sugar dough that is somehow different from Dunkin or Bosa or Krispy Kreme?  I have to believe so since a doughnut is, well, just a doughnut.  Or, perhaps VooDoo provides the American consumer with the needed excuse to try a "new" incredibly unhealthy food to soothe the ache of their sugar craving bodies.  Now I'm not opposed to someone having an occasional splurge, and I'm not really interested in writing yet another article on the horrible state of food in this country and the two thirds of overweight adults that inhale it.  No ma'am.  My beef is the state of capitalism and the idiocy of giving people what they think they want!  But wait Frog, isn't that the basic tenant of a capitalistic society?  You build a better mousetrap and society will swoop to your website and clean out your shelves?  Well yes, that used to be the idea.  But today, the dumbing down of the American population has enabled the advertising by corporate America to convince A LOT of people that it's perfectly fine to make irrational, personally harmful decisions about how they conduct their lives and spend their money.... and vote.  Pharma ads empowering your hypochondriac leanings,  investment "gurus" as the only answer to your financially illiterate mind and yes, eat this food cause it's easier and oh so satisfying in the moment.  These are not better mousetraps, they're just lazy, thoughtless outcomes that are not going to catch more mice.  

Pure capitalism does not work as efficiently with an educated, informed society.  Advertising by default is simply appealing to the lowest common denominator of the potential viewers.  How many millions of people would handle their own money more effectively if personal finance was still taught in high school?  How about personal health?  How about teaching children how their minds work through cognitive behavioral introduction, thus giving them the tools they need to understand normal life events are not the end of the world.  Instead, social media feeds show an idealized version of beautiful people's lives that they then monetize, making money off the hordes of young wanna-be's.  This has now turned into a sad increase in the suicide rate of young girls.  You are not good enough because you don't look like me!  And part of that reason is you're not thin, which brings us back to doughnuts.  

The relentless pounding of advertising in all it's forms will continue to take a toll.  My argument is it needs to be countered with education.  Which will win out?  Duh.

What, Me Worry?

Those immortal words from my old pal Alfred E. Neuman have been bouncing around in my head lately.  Mr. Neuman didn't have a care in the world back then, and as a 10 year old Mad Magazine reading fanatic, neither did I.  I clearly remember scanning the magazine stand at our local IGA Food Town store around the first of every month hoping the new issue of Mad was out and wondering what delicious farce would grace the front page this time.  Man I loved that magazine, and as I retrospectively contemplate the brilliant satire Mad offered it's quite clear this magazine had a profound impact on my developing mind and general outlook on just about everything in life - relationships, politics, religion, media, etc.  And, of course, the underlying message of being worry free!

A bit later in life came National Lampoon, and the lovely satire of life continued in the written pages on this fab magazine.  Again, there I was every month scouring the magazine stand at the local drug store, at least until I figured out one day that a person could actually subscribe to the mag and it would magically be delivered to your residence (yeah, I've been slow my entire life to embrace technology).  So what Mad Magazine had done to nourish my awakening mind, National Lampoon continued to do with its "adult" observations of the absurdness and hilarity of life and the message that you cannot, let me repeat - you cannot take this shit seriously.  Again - what me worry?   

Then I got married.  I was in my late twenties and National Lampoon had lost some of it's great writers (P.J. O'Rourke became a conservative for hell's sake) so I cancelled my subscription and it was time to leave the irresponsibility of youth behind and get fucking serious.  No more worry free life for you amigo!  Pretty soon the kids came along and several different career changes and money was tight and and later on a cancer scare and all the other ups and downs and the growing poppensity to take anything and everything too seriously and the continuous nagging at the back of your mind that something needs to be shaken up and what the hell is really going on here and............  OK, I actually never experienced the nagging and doubt thing. 

But I could have.  I could have questioned the unanswerable and doubted the obvious and fretted over social status and spent my precious time doing that one thing - you know, worrying about shit.  Of course I was born white, middle-class and blessed with loving parents who stayed together to the end, so I began life in a much more worry-free existence than many others.  But it hasn't been a bowl of cherries, and there was never a silver spoon in this mouth.   But I had something much better than silver, something intangible, something that could never be taken away, something no one really ponders and best of all something that frees the mind and feeds the soul.  I had this:  the ability to see the utter ridiculousness in life's everything, even the less than good stuff.  What, me worry?

As I have blogged about previously, people tend to seek their own. I believe this applies to those who cannot, despite themselves, take life too seriously.  Those, like me, who share a bit of a cynical side and see things mostly in the gray area and view others in an empathetic light because we can't help it.  My wife, children and friends are pretty much like this and what sensational people they are!  Caring, giving, loving and FUNNY.  Fun and funny.  Life doesn't get in the way for this bunch. 

That's not to say we are magically problem free.  Oh no.  Life and living is fraught with potholes of varying sizes.  As mentioned earlier, being diagnosed with cancer presented a pretty major road hazard, but I took a detour, maintained an attitude that leaned to the positive side and 12 years later all is well.  This is where leading a proactive life, which is made easier by worrying less, really comes into play.  I firmly believe many among us don't want to know uncomfortable truths as they will trigger worry symptoms, or require an action that is counter to the make-believe world that has been created by them to square with their beliefs.  Be it politics or religion, this approach to keeping the worry down is often detrimental to all of us.  Why should I worry about climate change when it's much easier to pretend it doesn't exist and therefore no action is required?  Yeah right.  Besides, if it's a religious based perspective, the man is returning to earth soon enough to wipe out the sinners and save my praying ass so the forests burning and oceans rising have no long term consequences.  As I said, detrimental to all of us.

A better way is simple and it's called empathy.  This means taking the approach that regardless of my belief system, I must understand that not everyone shares this outlook.  Using climate change as an example, isn't it better to accept what science is telling us and join in the effort to minimize the disasters that await if nothing is done?  Where have you compromised your beliefs?  Jesus may still be coming but you have a moral and ethical responsibility to try and leave this world a better place than you found it for our grandchildren and beyond.  Why not run with that and keep that worry at bay because you're DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT!  Isn't that simpler?

Cynicism has it's place in this discussion.  While it may seem to be at odds with empathy, a questioning approach to life only feeds the proactive side of decision making.  For instance, should I just assume this person is truthful and empathize with him/her, OR should I spend a minute investigating and understanding what is being said so I can decide for myself and therefore make an informed choice that will, hopefully, be one of many billions in this world that moves us collectively forward because it's based on fact, not bullshit.  How could such a lying, vulgar sociopath as Donald Trump be elected the leader of the free world by voters with a touch of cynicism?  This questioning has it's place, and it is not counter to blind faith in religion.  Oh no.  Believe as you will but don't get suckered by the next in an endless line of con men who consider your belief system to be a sign of weakness and ripe for exploiting to their advantage.  I guarantee you this way of living is much less stressful and, as a result, more worry free.

So laugh at yourself, laugh at sarcasm, laugh at the ridiculous, love your empathetic and curious life and if you've never read one, pick up the latest copy of Mad Magazine at your local book store (yes, it's still published) and laugh at the wonderful sarcasm Mr. Neuman needs you to embrace.   Seriously, why not take life a little less seriously?    









   

Make America Great-Ful Again

WHOA!  Apparently 4 years, 2 months and 27 days have passed since my last rant and here I am sitting at a newer computer pondering this fact and wondering what the hell happened???  There has certainly NOT been a lack of subject matter, and as my dear spousal unit would testify there has been a time or two when I was encouraged to shut the hell up or go unload on the blog (usually after stupidly reading Charles Krauthammer c/o the Arizona Republic).  Yet, as time passed by and life unfolded, the call to rant has slowly receded - until now!

Why now?  Well, for beginners I retired, and lo and behold there is more time for pursuits beyond working.  I also became a grandfather which has been an amazing trip. There is also another presidential election unfolding and this time we have a real whopper going down.  I recently logged on and read through a few of my old blogs and it was quite apparent that not only has little changed over 4 years but some things are undoubtedly worse.  Of course, Mitt Romney lost the 2012 election (as I boldly predicted...... OK it wasn't all that bold). The Middle East remains a slowly evolving catastrophe, the rich are vastly richer, the climate is hotter every year than the last and to top it all off, Obama still hasn't ended the beyond stupid War On Drugs (more on that later)!  The Repubes are scarier than ever considering the unthinkable fact that reality TV moron Donald Trump is their presidential nominee, and they've controlled both the house and senate since the 2012 election. And, apparently a whole bunch of un-college educated, older Republican white dudes are really, really pissed off (thus Donald Trump).  So while the world is looking as fucked-up as ever, I.M. Frog's outlook on things has actually been headed the other direction.  That's right - I have never been more optimistic about the future than I am today. This is not to say I have given up the fight.  No way!!! When the revolution comes, and assuming I'm still walking the earth, count me in!  And, an occasional rant on the state of the current affairs is not going away.  Yet with the benefit of today's hindsight, this ranting amphibian has chilled baby, and the need to chronicle political bullshit going on in this world has faded, replaced by both a measured acceptance for the way things are and a creeping feeling that the future is slowly brightening, like a beautiful sunrise as you wait for the first light of the sun to crest the horizon.

So, it's pretty cool to realize this.  Like looking in the mirror one day and wondering who that person is staring back at you, these moments of clarity are a necessary part of both aging and acceptance. Cool is not really the word I would use to describe looking older, and I would be lying to say I don't miss being a younger fellow at times, but being okay with this fact is very cool.  So as the horrors of life for so many millions of earth's inhabitants has continued to be daily news, my gratitude for the incredible life I get to live has grown immensely.  Being born white in America puts me in the top 5% of all human life on earth, and this reality means that the opportunities that came my way were made possible by this luck of the humanity draw.  I'm one lucky sucker, and how could I possibly believe otherwise?  For that matter, how could anyone in a comparable position believe otherwise?

Good question.  A recent poll I scanned contained this result:  "Ideologically, those who identify themselves as very liberal are far more pessimistic about the direction of the country than those who identify themselves as very conservative, while African Americans, Hispanics and Asians are more optimistic than Whites".  No shit?

I know many people with a perfectly fine standard of living that have obtained money, status, etc. yet continue to believe that things are horrible and the country is a presidential election away from being flushed down the toilet .  I get the previously mentioned Trump supporters and their mis-directed anger, but what about all of the peeps living the good life that are certainly less angry but just as negative about what's going on.  Where's the gratitude America, and why do you fall for all the lies about the state of society and the bogeyman that is waiting around the corner to take your guns, money, liberty or whatever?  Oh I know, you worked hard and sacrificed for a career and money and finally achieved that American Dream while all of the luckless deadbeats just want free shit.  And then there's you overly pessimistic uber-liberals who didn't get your man Bernie nominated and know Hillary hates peace and can't wait to draft your children to march on Benghazi.  So you're pissed and now voting for the Libertarian who doesn't know what an "Aleppo" is.  Sure, America has warts a plenty but it's nothing that we can't fix once we stop seeing the glass half full of Flint water.  Come on man! Ever considered how damn lucky you are to be living without fear of starvation or dysentery from drinking sewage infested water?  Probably not.  Ever considered that you have never been forced to flee your home before being bombed to hell and then watch your precious child drown while trying to cross water for a better life anywhere else?  I didn't think so.  We have lost our way and more importantly our perspective while engaging in a circular game of shit's bad and so it is. Time to lighten up!  If you have family, shelter, food and a friend or two then you are one lucky son-of-a-bitch.  You are a lottery winner and it's time to cash in your winnings and get behind the revolution to make society a more gracious, caring place for all of us.  Even a Republican can ignore the agitators and empathize with their fellow citizens that need a helping hand. Turn Fox News off and look around.  Sure, there are those who game the system and get away with some extra food stamps, but most of our fellow citizens are basically decent people and would work their asses off for a fair paycheck and the chance to get a little ahead.  And a lot of those same people apparently have a rosier outlook on America's future than us privileged, whiny whites.  That's really messed up. Drumpf has it right people, let's make America great-ful again!

He's Playing Chutes & Ladders

The other day I'm watching Rachel Madow interview Frank Rich from New York Magazine and they're in this deep discussion about the current strategy being deployed by Mittens Romney and his gaggle of hacks and it suddenly occurs to me that I'm watching a rerun of the brilliant 1984 movie Being There.  The movie, based on a novel by the late Jerzy Kosinski, features the incomparable Peter Sellers as Chancy Gardner, a complete and total dimwit who only knows the world through a lifetime of watching television.  Through ummm, chance and just dumb luck, the character ends up befriending the richest man in America, meets the POTUS, and as the movie ends, he's about to be called up to run the largest company in America by it's board of directors.  Substitute Mitt for Chancy.

Now, to be clear, I am not calling Romney a dimwit.  But as I sit watching all of these MSNBC pundits yakking away about the Romney camp and doing their best to decipher the latest anything being said, it's clear to me these people are playing chess while Romney and his crew are playing Chutes and Ladders.  I mean, come on!  Mitt and his band of bozos have yet to articulate anything with meaning.  How will the deficit be reduced?  What will he do about entitlement programs?  How will he, the great job creator of yesterday, create jobs tomorrow?  Oh yeah, by being a venture capitalist.  The first thing those sharpies do after acquiring a business is ask how much fat can we trim (i.e. workers dismissed).  It was NEVER about how many workers can we hire.  The only economic anything from this guy to date is endorsing the Paul Ryan budget plan, which is, unbelievably, a plan to cut taxes further (especially for those rich mother-fucking job creators), give more to the Pentagon and starve social programs.  OK, but there is just a couple of tiny issues with all that.  Tax rates in the US are already at historic low levels and tax revenue is a 20 year low.  You can't cut enough from Planned Parenthood or NPR to make the slightest dent in the deficit, and if cutting Social Security and Medicare is your solution for the deficit, you have NO chance of being re-elected.  Don't forget Mitt, the tea-party is on Social Security.

During the primary and since he was the last moron standing, Mitt Romney has told anyone that will listen what a suck-ass person the other guy is and of course how the Prez has done nothing right, including saving GM and getting Bin Laden, which are both things he later took credit for.  WTF?  To date, Mittens has been only offering syrupy Americana and off-key singing of the national anthem to the masses at his campaign stops, and what a truly embarrassing thing that is to behold.  Now I know Rachel and the others need some red meat, but it's bordering on pathetic when they and their guests spend agonizing minutes pondering what Mitt said in his latest speech, which is basically nothing.  Just like Chancy Gardner, very smart people are doing their best to understand the deeper meaning of Mitten's blather when there is no deeper meaning.  He's just continues to rehash the same shit as he did in the primary with no specifics, and it's just not possible to analyze it.  Even the Republicans are starting to carp about his lack of anything concrete to say.

As I said beforehand, I do not believe Mitt Romney is a dimwit.  But there are a host of other adjectives that work quite well, and I feel just a bit more authorized to offer them than perhaps your everyday political hack. You see, I've seen this type of creature before.  My personal experience growing up in Utah and knowing many, many Mormons has afforded this point of view.  In a peculiar twist of logic, many worshipers of God are actually quite convictionless.  Their moral high ground is often a cover for a shameless, opportunistic pursuit of money and power, closet racism and for many men, a comfortable dominance over the fairer sex.   I've seen it first hand with my own Father being ripped off repeatedly by his fellow brethren and the prevalent, unintended but impossible to miss attitude of authority toward women.  Venture capitalism is the crowning glory of this - a soulless approach to taking advantage of the weaker in society; i.e. weaker companies with weaker workers and their weaker unions and doing it with other peoples money, not your own.  Mitt Romney has displayed these characteristics over and over.  Remember, he was once pro-choice when it suited his needs, a stance the Mormon church adamantly opposes, as it now oppose his heartless positions on immigration and slashing the welfare system budget.  As I said, free of convictions that his own church preaches.  But there is one area that Mitt Romney has no equal - lying with conviction.  My God he's good.  Most recently, his absurd accusation that the bankrupt Solyndra had provided money to the Obama Administration's friends and family was called out by even conservative people as a lie.  Yet Mittens continued with it and even doubled-down in a later speech.  In my view, this pathological lying is the old religious conflict between faith and facts.  Again, being Mormon inevitably puts you in the position of having to accept faith trumping evidence - like carbon dating to establish the age of the earth (hint:  it's more than 7,000 years old dude).  The cumulative result of this nasty conflict is the ability to lie and to no longer feel any remorse about doing it.  And when you grow up in the privileged class, this ability is reinforced from a lack of anyone calling you out on it.  So the media, once again trying to play chess, spends bullshit time having to report about the lies instead of reporting on anything of substance that voters could use to make an informed decision.  Taken all together, Mitt Romney is a very scary creature indeed.  Which leads me to ask this obvious question:  how could anyone want this lying, shallow, wooden, convictionless, money-grubbing douche-bag individual as the next president of our country??

I'll tell you who does.  Join me next time as we explore further this nearly impossible to fathom concept of Mitt Romney being the next POTUS and then I promise to provide my dear readers with all the reasons he will not be elected; unless he happens to pick tea-party darling Rick Santorum to be VP and under this cover promptly tacks straight to the center and starts telling the truth.  But he's too big of dimwit to do that, right?

Independent = Hipster Asshole

I'm an Independent.  Yeah, I don't belong to the Republican or Democratic or Green or any other political party, nor do I feel the need to say I'm a member of any church or other organization where the powerful concept of independent thought and actions may be encumbered by the dogma and ideologies of that organization.  Oh, and it also means, according to a friend of my daughter, that I'm a hipster asshole.

You see, for most of my life I have been unable to understand what is apparently a fact of life for many people - that based on their beliefs, they need to surround themselves with groups of like minded people.  Now I'm not referring to the natural grouping of friendships forged through years of being friends, or family members that have been raised to believe a certain way where love and familiarity trump differing views.  No, I'm talking about the next layer of acquaintances beyond that inner circle, and even layers beyond that.  And so with this lack of understanding, I've found myself asking the question:  why is this need to collectively believe such a powerful phenomena in people's lives?  Is it simply a need to reinforce the belief, or just a mechanism for socializing with others or possibly nothing more than the wearing of some label because everyone else in your outer circle does?  Hardly a day goes by where I don't read or hear someone proclaiming their point of view is not just right, but it's so right it makes your point of view absolutely wrong and by God I'm going to tell you so and then very likely ignore your rational response.  It's manifested in the embarrassing name calling on Facebook, or in countless letters to the editor, or on the political evening talk shows and sometimes in just an overheard conversation.  Is this desire to be right then a basic need of most humans, like eating and sleeping? 

My declaration of Independence is, I suppose, along the same lines of needing to label a belief system.  For instance, I have contributed time and money to a movement entitled "No Labels" that seeks non-partisan solutions to our hopelessly partisan federal government.  But that's about as far as the conformance thing goes for me since the whole meaning of the word independent is, in a way, just the opposite of conforming.  As an Independent, I will not necessarily accept the herd mentality on a given subject.  While this approach to critical thinking is, in a way, a pipe dream since no one is really above being human and influenced by all life's lessons and experiences and the resulting effects on mind and body.  But the thought of just saying "OK, I can't be bothered with definitively figuring this out for myself, so I'll just jump on board with this somewhat like minded bunch and ride it out" is not just perplexing, it's downright frightening!  Of course for many people, it seems obvious to me that a political or religious point of view that runs pretty much with the herd is not a scary thing at all.  Certainly every political leader finds they must embrace the dogma of their party (whether they believe it or not) in order to get elected.  And religious leaders thrive on this "conformance of the masses" as it is often their occupation in life and collections from their believers helps pay the bills.  But what to make of supposedly critical thinking people like scientists who claim to believe in God and Divine creationism, attend a church every Sunday that reinforces this idea and then show up at work on Monday to complete their carbon-dating project!  There's comfort in numbers and like mindedness - can't disagree with that.  But what about the rest of us that wouldn't join a country club that would have us for a member (thanks Groucho)?  Why does this idea of just joining and believing seem so foreign?

When I was in my early teens, the church I was basically forced to attend taught several great and noble concepts for living.  One was called free-agency.  This is supposedly how each church member is able to make the greatest of all great choices - to believe or not believe in God.  Of course, if you chose the latter, your free-agency was quickly circumvented buy all those who chose the former - parents who worked the guilt trip angle; siblings who questioned your love for them and friends who could no longer be your friend.  As a result, the seeds of my independent tree were planted early and over the years every opportunity to be boxed in became another sprouted branch until one day I suddenly noticed the tree had not only matured, it was bearing fruit.  And this fruit of independent thought was surprisingly good.  I mean, how could a tree fertilized with something as bitter as cynicism and skepticism and other isms be tasty?  Wasn't I doomed to live a reclusive, unfulfilled life by not joining in?

Apparently the answer is no.  My early efforts to not be a joiner have been rewarded with the ability to see other points of view, and experience other facets of living and learning and to enjoy experimentation with things that someone had once warned me to stay away from.  Of course, this someone had never actually experienced this thing for themselves.  "Just trying to save you a little grief" is the response.  But how can one accurately formulate a belief if it's just based on the experiences and resulting biases of others?  Isn't this the wayward result of the mass Kool-Aid suicide that Jim Jones fostered on his bunch down in Guyana?  And don't get me started on the myriad interpretations of the man-made writings of the Bible and how it's used to manipulate folks.  And so as time moves on, I have come to realize that this independent thinking thing is actually of critical importance, and weirdly in harmony with that " free-agency" religious concept from so long ago.   

So in an ironic twist, independence is freedom, and I must thank everyone along the way of life that inspired me to question everything which, in turn, provided the freedom of thought I now enjoy.  All the tea party masses crying out for liberty and freedom have, on a basic level, already torpedoed their freedom.  Ahh, but I made the choice to belong to this party a member will say and this choice was made as a free thinking person!  Okay, then why the bullshit line about needing freedom?  You just stated you have it.  What you are really proclaiming is I need YOU to be like me or my liberty will be in jeopardy!  Yes, the more of you like me reinforces me and in turn makes me more right! 

Which leads me to being a hipster asshole.  While this was said with no particular person in mind, the message is still loud and clear - belong to what I belong to or you're something less than what I am.  You see by not joining in, you are sending a message that you're either above it all (too cool to commit) or afraid to commit.  But the other option of choosing to not commit as a result of careful consideration doesn't seem to occur to those that have already committed.  And so I am a hipster asshole, which is hilarious as hell when you consider the following:  I will never, ever be labeled a hipster again under any circumstances as I'm a 50's something suburban white guy with little taste for fashion or style or whatever else lands one in the hipster category these days.  But more importantly, I actually am an asshole, just an independent asshole who happens to be right!

The Hypocritic Oafs

My dear, dear readers, I am back!  It's been a tough stretch of verbalizing my rants and I know the people who bear the responsibility of hearing them are wondering why the hell I am not at the computer unloading this shit to my trusty blog.  This is certainly a good question for which I unfortunately do not have a good answer.  Possibly, my absence has been the result of an overwhelming amount of material worth ranting about.  One day I'm thinking this issue has to be the topic of the week and later that day I'm reading some other unbelievable story and pretty soon it's brain gridlock!  But today, I really cannot take it any more.  Today I reached some invisible quota of perplexing, annoying doublespeak from the political right in this country and I really can't take it any more.  If just one more phony-ass Repube says something you know is complete, unadulterated bullshit, I might quit watching anything on TV except maybe Wipeout and reading anything but the Sunday funny papers.  I might, you know, become more like THEM! 

It is beyond my comprehension to comprehend how someone can live their lives in total hypocrisy and somehow delude themselves into believing this is fine.  A telling article in the New York Times last week did a masterful job explaining this phenomena.  In some ultra-conservative podunk town in the Mid-West, a number of liberty loving (i.e. Obama hating) people were interviewed for this article and asked about their contempt for people who are sucking the government tit for assistance to live.  This country's diabolical march to socialism has them terrified.  These people are all working multiple jobs and sacrificing and going without the niceties of life and on and on.  There's only one problem - every person interviewed for the article was, in fact, accepting government assistance.   Free school lunches for their kids, unemployment benefits, social security disability checks, rent subsidies, etc.  That's right, every one of these unbelievable hypocrites is collecting money from the government, and every one of them has somehow, someway, convinced themselves that they're not and that's just fine.  They're deficient on reality.  They live a lie and do it with fucking conviction!  One woman actually broke down and through a stream of tears "confessed" to accepting government assistance, as if the reporter had finally stuck enough burning cigarettes into her face and she caved.  How can this be?

It can be because it's become a way of life for these people.  They are unmercifully caught between their conservative outlook on social issues and the fact that the Republican party to which they belong has economically fucked them every which way but up.  On one side there's Rick "the dick" Santorum declaring how Obama is getting America hooked on the "narcotic of dependency" and Mitty warning that government programs "foster passivity and sloth".  Euwww, who wants to be sloth?  The Times article went on to point out that the top 10 "most conservative" states as ranked by Gallup received 21.2% of their income in government transfer while the number for the top 10 most liberal states was 17.1%.  That's right, the safety net is much more red than blue.  Of course, this is not a big surprise for anyone that takes a minute to think about it.  The most conservative states are also the more relatively poor states and have greater dependence on the safety-net of government programs, especially Medicaid.  Contrary to the blowhard Gingrich's claim that Obama is the "food stamp" president, Obama has not expanded this program at all.  Rather, the poor state of the economy has reduced incomes and made more people eligible, and low and behold a majority of these people are from red states.  Those are, as Joe Friday would say, "just the facts Ma'am".  So why on earth are these needy people voting for politicians who detest these safety-net programs and are campaigning to dismantle them?  It's simple, really.  The GOP is a master at exploiting social issues, and these legions of brain-dead conservative sheep simply vote against their own economic interests over and over again so, you know, gay people can't legally marry and Hispanics can't live the American dream.  Many people remember the old hypocrite in her motorized wheel chair yelling about how Obamacare is socialized medicine in one breath and then telling the next politician that showed up to keep their dirty hands of her Medicare.  Have they no dignity?

And then there's contraception, the issue of the 1970's that has suddenly exploded into one of the most fake outrage issues in recent memory.  Oh, what hypocrisy looms here.  Obamacare requires contraception to be available on healthcare plans that have federal government backing.  Not on private plans mind you.  But it seems that churches like the cheaper government programs, which is no surprise considering that around 80% of the revenue to the Catholic Church comes from the federal government, and they and their associated businesses like hospitals enjoy tax-free status through this association.  But the Catholic Church preaches no contraception to their masses, and have since the dark ages when having a zillion kids was a game of numbers as most children didn't survive childhood and the more you had, the better the odds that some would make it to adulthood.  But this concept seems just a little bit dated in 2012.  So, the old white men leaders of the Catholic Church conjure up this fake outrage despite multiple polls showing that up to 98% of Catholic women use or have used birth control.  Oh, no shit?  Jeez, I thought that the much smaller families of Catholic leaning people these days just meant Mom and Dad weren't having sex any more.  Are they all going to hell then?  And what about the non-Catholic people working for these hospitals and schools that the quasi Catholic/Federal Government Church associates with?  Are they screwed out of health insurance provided contraception because of where they work?  The Republican leadership is going to shit in their nest in a very Terri Schaivo way if they keep going after Obama on this.  Women of all backgrounds are already outraged, and they represent, to say the least, a fair amount of voters.  So listen Bishop Olmsted, when 98% of your membership is breaking a rule, no greater hypocrisy exists than demanding that the rule be universally accepted and respected by everyone else in this country.  Besides, you've spewed so much hypocrisy in your lifetime (covering up pedophile priests and hitting a pedestiran and leaving the scene of the crime, among other transgressions) that your allotment is up.  Just slither away, please.

This hypocrisy is actually gathering momentum with the Republican candidates.  There's Gingrich trying to appeal to family value conservatives against a background of souless wife cheating.  How the fuck does this guy look in the mirror everyday and not just cringe?  Mitt Romney told a gathering recently that he was an "intense conservative".  This is a fucking lie and everyone listening to this moron knew it.  His tale of how he was actually for the bailout of GM and Chrysler is more convoluted bullshit.  This bunch just keeps spewing out lies, but somehow, someway, this has become acceptable to their loyal followers.  Once upon a time, lying was discouraged, and I think telling the truth is one of those nic-picking commandments that Christians hold in high regard when it's suitable.  But there is no longer any stigma to blatantly lying to people, and the people who practice this art know that those listening are simply co-conspirators, so bogged down by the weight of their own monumental hypocrisy that they can only listen and vacantly nod.  This is not a recipe for success when hustling votes from Independents and other centrists of either party.  As a result, the Republicans will fail to win the White House this fall, and with an uptick in the economy and the realization by a majority of people that Obama's first term was actually OK, they will lose the House.  Then the Democrats had better show the days of rampant hypocrisy are over.  If not, I will vote for Mitt Romney in 2016!

Come On, Give The Guy A Break

Such strange times we live in.  Several days ago the Iraq War ended and apparently hardly anyone noticed.  I suppose the lack of shock and awe meant most Americans couldn't be bothered.  There was just one last oh-so solemn flag folding ceremony and then Secretary of Defense Panetta spewed a few words and that was that.  Here's the final scoreboard:  4,486 dead; 32,226 wounded, many so seriously wounded that they would have died in earlier wars; somewhere north of 800 billion spent, all of it borrowed and flushed down the toilet; 9 billion lost and unaccounted for; 550 million in spare parts vanished; 1 billion in trucks, tractors, and other assorted vehicles missing and approximately 190,000 weapons misplaced.  And all for what - to replace Saddam Hussein with fucking Nouri al-Maliki?  Can anyone point out to me what the fuck else we accomplished?  Excuse me while I go vomit.

OK, that was not pleasant.  For those of us who lived through the Vietnam years, guess what?  We got fooled again.  Suckered like the suckers we are.  However, there was one fellow who warned the nation of this potential disaster, who as a member of the U.S. Senate opposed attacking Iraq.  Oh yeah, Mr. Barrack Hussein Obama, that chump of a president that not even half the country say they would vote for again at this point in time.  Really?  I have to wonder if any of these American citizens have paid any attention to what the other side is offering.  Or is it just "I ain't voting for that chump because the economy sucks and it's all Obama's fault.  So there!"  Then who, pray tell, are you planning to vote for people?  Jesus, it's a scary bunch of Republicans - Gingrich the narcissistic, money grubbing cheat; Romney the private sector hack that has yet to meet a social issue that he can't embrace if it means a vote; Rick Perry the, the, the, oh fuck it this guy's too stupid, fake and creepy to categorize with any fifty- dollar words.  Ditto for Bachman.  Then there's Ron Paul.  What an unbelievably awesome election it would be with Obama running against this crazy Libertarian.  Whoah!!  And of course there's my man Huntsman, who I picked to win the primary because I actually thought the Repubes would figure out that he's the only one that makes any sense and who could possibly beat Obama.  What a shithead I am.

So, what's the downside of re-electing Obama?  Now, readers of this blog know I have my problems with this dude, and many of them he hasn't done much of anything to change (piss-poor communicator, totally fucking up the issue of states rights to implement medical marijuana and others).  However, it's really quite surprising when one stops and considers what this guy has done in three years.  Let's see:
     -ended the Iraq War
     -cleared up the dumbass "don't ask, don't tell" policy of gays in the military
     -extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees
     -appointed first Latina to the Supreme Court
     -signed the START treaty with Russia to reduce nuclear weapons
     -repealed the moron Bush's ban on embryonic stem cell research
     -established the credit card bill of rights
     -passed health care reform bill
     -shored up the Veterans Administration medical service, which was an absolute disgrace under Bush
     -extended Pell Grants
     -saved General Motors and Chrysler, almost singlehandedly
     -got Bin Laden
     -ARRA

Not bad!  Now, the ARRA (economic stimulator bill) isn't without controversy.  But when it comes to the economy, this much must be said - it's NOT Obama's economy.  I am so sick and fucking tired of hearing how Obama's failed policies haven't made the economy magically better, or that Obama's stimulus didn't work, or that Obama hates big business and the greedy rats that run them.  This last one is a real laugher.  His Justice Department has yet to press criminal charges against one motherfucker with obvious responsibility in nearly toppling the world economy.  There have been civil charges.  Ha, big deal.  But here's the bottom line - the 2008 collapse of the economy was decades in the making.  The amount of debt created in this world over the last 30 years is beyond comprehension - European countries with 80-120% of debt to their GDP; the commercial and residential mortgage debacle; the huge unfunded pension liabilities of cities and states; and tens of TRILLIONS of dollars in credit default swaps, those nasty side bets on anything and everything that no institution accepting the bet had to actually have the goddamn money on hand to pay out in case of , you know, an actual default!  WTF?  And, of course, the unbelievable amount of credit card and student loan debt taken on by people as well as corporate debt created by the likes of Mitt Romney and other raiders to finance takeovers of companies that would then be torn apart and the pieces sold to the highest bidders while the investment bankers and the deal makers pocketed boatloads of borrowed money for making the deal.  And people, lots of people, laid off.  All of this done to buy today what could be saved for and bought tomorrow.  But why the fuck would anyone do that?  So here we are, and guess who inherited this train wreck from the most inept administration in US history.  That's right, poor old Obama.  The greatest deleveraging in modern times and Obama doesn't have a magic wand to wave to make it all better.  Boohoo. We are talking massive, massive deleveraging, which robs everyone of the ability to spend money right now, even borrowed money since banks are shoring up their depleted capital reserves and aren't lending.  No buying means no selling, and that folks is why we have a snail's pace recovery.  Everyone, and I mean everyone who could have done something to prevent this catastrophe either ignored it or kicked the turd down the road for the next sucker to deal with.  The turd ended up sticking to Obama's shoes.

As with some past second term presidents (not Bush - too dumb), I believe Obama, if re-elected, will be what many centrist and liberals were hoping for - a tough, my way or the highway guy who isn't faced with having to run for office again and will then tackle the thornier stuff.  We'll see. 

Yes, the times are strange - but not hopeless.  In fact, I sense a shift, a slight change in the greater psyche of this beaten down country.  2012 will be better.  I honestly believe that.  So this New Years Eve, raise that glass of champagne at the stroke of midnight and toast yourself and the ones you love and the ones that love you and even the ones that just kind of like you.  You know who they are.  And for God's sake, remember to watch out for the stumps!