Monday Morning... November 2, 2009
Headlines: Front page - the Las Cruces Sun-Times:
Header Line: "FINAL STAGES"
Federal Courthouse Nears Completion:
91.2 Million Dollar Project....
The existing courthouse isn't adequate for handling a burgeoning caseload....
****
City Closes Ballfield:
Branigan Park Closed.....
City officials "It has fallen into disrepair.. determined to be a safety hazard for residents...
Estimated costs of needed repairs - $25,000.00 - $40,000.00 - "too much for the city to afford.." Mark Johnston (City Parks and Rec. Director)
****
Consumers turning to layaway for holiday shopping:
"the thought of plunking down a couple of hundred dollars in one outing is not attractive - I use it a lot (layaway)".
****
"FINAL STAGES"
Any questions about:
The priorities of our fearless leaders?
The direction they're dictating for us?
We're a pretty sorry species...
Monday, November 2, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
National Service
This is the one to watch for folks...
I posted this view on March 8, 2009. The following article appeared in the New York Times on March 16, 2009. The article describes the plan for increasing "National Service" rolls.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/congress-prepares-to-expand-service-program/
As unemployment figures skyrocket in the coming months, watch for the development of "National Service" programs...
During the "Great Depression" FDR created "works projects" to employ millions of Americans.
These projects:
The Civilian Conservation Corps - CCC
The Works Project Administration - WPA
The Tennessee Valley Authority - TVA
These government sponsored programs enabled millions to escape the devastating unemployment and poverty of the times and accomplished great infrastructure development in our country. These "camps" were largely commanded by ex-military officers and structured and operated by military standards and procedures.
While these programs succeeded in employing so many and accomplishing so much, their accomplishments were achieved at the expense of deepening the deficit. The American economy only truly recovered from it's deficit and vast unemployment when the nation geared up it's manufacturing and recruiting for the military and engaged fully in World War II. The stock market that crashed in 1929 (for the same reasons it's crashing now) only returned to it's highs of the 1920's after the war.
While campaigning for the office, our now "President" Obama made on several occasions, references to "National Service".
It may seem an odd coincidence. The government's "non-response" to the housing crisis, and completely mis-directed bailout policies for banks and other financial institutions, have not eased the stress on our economy nor the accelerating free-fall in job losses.
Could it be that the intent of our benevolent corprastocracy is to allow/generate enough hardship, fear and despair that Americans will "volunteer" by the millions for the as yet undefined "National Service"? If creating such a dynamic is not our corporate driven government's intent, then at best, they're failing magnificently at their purported commitment to righting the economy and saving/creating millions of jobs.
In a world where those who control the levers of power, create what serves them best, my argument is that we're being led toward a National Service Program.
In some civilized countries, "National Service" is a requirement that's generally positive and accepted. Unfortunately, it was also utilized as a primary recruiting tool for organizations like the Nazi Party during the depression that followed WW I.
Will it be a volunteer program? Will it be the form of "unavoidable volunteerism" spawned by the choice between eating and starving - between being homeless and having a cot in a barracks? Or will it become a mandatory obligation that all of us will, by law, be required to fulfill? Will this form of "National Service" create a standing (or kneeling) labor reserve for direct and indirect support of the US military?
During the Great Depression, tens of thousands of those employed in the military style New Deal Works Projects Camps, segued directly from the camps into the military.
Does this sort of malevolent manipulation seem unlikely? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
So, National Service? Watch the trends and directions that government policies encourage. I urge you, for your sake, and the sake of your children and grandchildren, to remember your history - connect the dots - keep your eye on this one.
I posted this view on March 8, 2009. The following article appeared in the New York Times on March 16, 2009. The article describes the plan for increasing "National Service" rolls.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/congress-prepares-to-expand-service-program/
As unemployment figures skyrocket in the coming months, watch for the development of "National Service" programs...
During the "Great Depression" FDR created "works projects" to employ millions of Americans.
These projects:
The Civilian Conservation Corps - CCC
The Works Project Administration - WPA
The Tennessee Valley Authority - TVA
These government sponsored programs enabled millions to escape the devastating unemployment and poverty of the times and accomplished great infrastructure development in our country. These "camps" were largely commanded by ex-military officers and structured and operated by military standards and procedures.
While these programs succeeded in employing so many and accomplishing so much, their accomplishments were achieved at the expense of deepening the deficit. The American economy only truly recovered from it's deficit and vast unemployment when the nation geared up it's manufacturing and recruiting for the military and engaged fully in World War II. The stock market that crashed in 1929 (for the same reasons it's crashing now) only returned to it's highs of the 1920's after the war.
While campaigning for the office, our now "President" Obama made on several occasions, references to "National Service".
It may seem an odd coincidence. The government's "non-response" to the housing crisis, and completely mis-directed bailout policies for banks and other financial institutions, have not eased the stress on our economy nor the accelerating free-fall in job losses.
Could it be that the intent of our benevolent corprastocracy is to allow/generate enough hardship, fear and despair that Americans will "volunteer" by the millions for the as yet undefined "National Service"? If creating such a dynamic is not our corporate driven government's intent, then at best, they're failing magnificently at their purported commitment to righting the economy and saving/creating millions of jobs.
In a world where those who control the levers of power, create what serves them best, my argument is that we're being led toward a National Service Program.
In some civilized countries, "National Service" is a requirement that's generally positive and accepted. Unfortunately, it was also utilized as a primary recruiting tool for organizations like the Nazi Party during the depression that followed WW I.
Will it be a volunteer program? Will it be the form of "unavoidable volunteerism" spawned by the choice between eating and starving - between being homeless and having a cot in a barracks? Or will it become a mandatory obligation that all of us will, by law, be required to fulfill? Will this form of "National Service" create a standing (or kneeling) labor reserve for direct and indirect support of the US military?
During the Great Depression, tens of thousands of those employed in the military style New Deal Works Projects Camps, segued directly from the camps into the military.
Does this sort of malevolent manipulation seem unlikely? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
So, National Service? Watch the trends and directions that government policies encourage. I urge you, for your sake, and the sake of your children and grandchildren, to remember your history - connect the dots - keep your eye on this one.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Okay.... Go Figure...
Las Cruces Sun-News Front Page March 6 2009
"Texting, driving ban is cruising."
Referencing the momentum being gained in Santa Fe as the Senate voted to prohibit -
Guess What? Yes! Reading and Writing (texting) while driving! DUH!
God help us people! We have become so stupid that we need elected representatives in the state capitol, (at great taxpayer expense), to make it a "criminal offense" to be reading and writing while we drive.
Why can't we figure that one out on our own?
Fortunately this sort of police-based parenting policy coincides with our spending hundreds of millions building new courthouses and prisons to process our responsibility impaired population. Of course if we spent that money providing quality public transportation, we could sit and text, and read and write and (can you imagine) talk to our neighbors all we wanted to, on our way back and forth to school, work, shopping, recreation. But hey! We're gonna' have all this new criminal processing capacity! Might as well create some more criminals, I guess. Gotta justify that building expense. Good thing we're so stupid that we'll surely see lots of new laws to criminalize ourselves and pay people to protect ourselves and others, from ourselves and others. Again, on taxpayers tab and at the expense of our freedom.
Q: How stupid are we?
A: Way Stupid!
More laws - more broken laws - more fines - fines equal revenue. It all makes sense if you're in the business of extracting profit from governing a nation of fearful, irresponsible sheep who are actually willing to pay others to control their lives... Hey, good work if you can get it, and given our soaring unemployment numbers, I guess it's a blessing that we're a nation of bleating, herd animals.
I'm not arguing against the legislation. Realistically speaking, remember, we need it. Seriously. We really are that deficient. We're unfortunately that impaired. Just two days ago, a friend of my son's, while stopped at a red light was rear-ended by - yes, you guessed it - someone texting. Totaled his car, and sent him to the hospital.I'm merely voicing my astonishment at our level of ignorance and required supervision and surveillance.
We are in fact, out of control. We are so stupid that we actually choose to take at least one hand (if not two) off the wheel - look away from the road and traffic, and indulge in writing and reading messages on little devices. I mean how weird is that?
It's true. In our behaviour, we cry out for someone, anyone, to make our decisions for us. Weirder yet, we're willing to pay others to make laws that actually criminalize our lack of common sense. After all, if we don't hire Big Brother to watch us, just imagine, (if left unsupervised), how stupid we'd be.
In fact, there's a new medical term that defines people suffering from a previously unidentified, life threatening condition. They're called "Text-Walkers". (This is for real - if you don't believe me, "google" the term) Hospital staff all over the country are seeing ever increasing cases of people who literally walk out in front of cars and trains while texting. Text-Walkers also fall into manholes and ditches - fall off train platforms, staircases, escalators, aircraft boarding steps, and walk into doors, walls and other people, crash their cars and bicycles and apparently trains. This is real. Duh!
What could we be texting about that's so important? I mean - how dumb are we?
That's the question that keeps coming up. "How dumb are we?" What's happened to us? How have we allowed ourselves to become a nation of adult children that need to pay parental/police overseers to enforce common sense?
And we wonder "What's wrong with kids these days?"
The simple answer is "us". "We" are what's wrong with kids these days. We the adults, the leaders, have built a society based on values that disregard obvious common sense, personal accountability and ultimate quality of life. We exchange quality of life for irresponsibility, blame-shifting, multi-tasking, quantity of stuff and social status, greed and maximum consumption - at any cost.
The fruit of the tree we've grown is being harvested (for profit of course) in the ever increasing populations of our adult and juvenile prisons and probation/parole systems.
So, what's next? Are we going to see legislation that prohibits stuffing beans into our noses, or poking ourselves in the eye with sharp objects?
Do we need legislation to enforce wiping after we go potty? Given the destruction of the constitution in the past 8 years, police and even the military (yes, the military) have the right to burst into our homes without a warrant, abduct us (and our children) and detain us indefinitely without charge, representation or disclosure of our whereabouts. That's the law. Did you realize that?
That's been done "for" us in the name of Homeland Security - The Patriot Act. We allowed that to happen. We embraced that. We kept in office, the representatives who voted it into existence. We traded freedom for a false sense of government assured security. Gee, ya' know. I don't feel all that secure.
But, Hey! Maybe the absence of constitutionally guaranteed rights will support enforcement of the new "wipe your butt" legislation. The newly created crime of "Failure to Wipe in the Furtherance of Terrorism" can easily qualify as a Homeland Security "biological terrorism threat" in That'll keep a lot of lawyers and prison personnel working - (hey, we're in an economic downturn - gotta save and create 3 million new jobs). That kind of legislation will keep lots of taxpayer funded, government scientists conducting "studies". Can't spend too much on Homeland Security you know - Gotta keep America safe from biological threats...
Now, there's a real "Weapons of Mass Destruction" threat to get "preemptive" about. 300 million potential "Bung-Berry Terrorists" - right here on our streets. Gotta stop us! We don't want the smoking gun to be a bung-berry cloud. Please stop us! Please help us! We can't wipe our own butts! Please don't let us become a threat to our own National Security. Please make us wipe after we go potty, or arrest us if we don't.
Soon, the dialogue between the first two police officers or soldiers on an accident scene could sound something like this: "Joe, I'll check the text messages and, well, this one looks particularly stupid - better call Homeland Security to do a "bung-berry bio-terror threat assessment on him".
This is the direction we're going in faster and faster. Every time we allow common sense to be legislated, by virtue of our own neglect and irresponsibility, we inch closer and closer to being a fully realized nation of prisoners - held in shackles of our own creation.
So... Anti-texting laws are the cause of all this? No. This legislation is a small thing. It doesn't sever a limb from the body of our freedom - it's a small cut. Anti-texting laws are one small and clear example of how, by refusing to take responsibility, we give away individual power in exchange for the "security" of having overlords who make decisions for us. We're like irresponsible children. Please take our power away from us. And make us pay for for it - from our pockets and our cache of freedom. This legislation is only a small cut to the body of our freedom - but one of the cuts that causes "death by a thousand cuts".
We created it. We deserve it. We get to live with it... or change it.
I pray we can change it. Else, our children and grand-children must see us as the pathetic generation that cowered in the face of personal responsibility, fled from freedom, enabled the overlords to save us from ourselves - and subsequently handed them a world in which they are merely tax generating units. A world wherein the right to self determination is only a memory - perhaps, just a myth.
Las Cruces Sun-News Front Page March 6 2009
"Texting, driving ban is cruising."
Referencing the momentum being gained in Santa Fe as the Senate voted to prohibit -
Guess What? Yes! Reading and Writing (texting) while driving! DUH!
God help us people! We have become so stupid that we need elected representatives in the state capitol, (at great taxpayer expense), to make it a "criminal offense" to be reading and writing while we drive.
Why can't we figure that one out on our own?
Fortunately this sort of police-based parenting policy coincides with our spending hundreds of millions building new courthouses and prisons to process our responsibility impaired population. Of course if we spent that money providing quality public transportation, we could sit and text, and read and write and (can you imagine) talk to our neighbors all we wanted to, on our way back and forth to school, work, shopping, recreation. But hey! We're gonna' have all this new criminal processing capacity! Might as well create some more criminals, I guess. Gotta justify that building expense. Good thing we're so stupid that we'll surely see lots of new laws to criminalize ourselves and pay people to protect ourselves and others, from ourselves and others. Again, on taxpayers tab and at the expense of our freedom.
Q: How stupid are we?
A: Way Stupid!
More laws - more broken laws - more fines - fines equal revenue. It all makes sense if you're in the business of extracting profit from governing a nation of fearful, irresponsible sheep who are actually willing to pay others to control their lives... Hey, good work if you can get it, and given our soaring unemployment numbers, I guess it's a blessing that we're a nation of bleating, herd animals.
I'm not arguing against the legislation. Realistically speaking, remember, we need it. Seriously. We really are that deficient. We're unfortunately that impaired. Just two days ago, a friend of my son's, while stopped at a red light was rear-ended by - yes, you guessed it - someone texting. Totaled his car, and sent him to the hospital.I'm merely voicing my astonishment at our level of ignorance and required supervision and surveillance.
We are in fact, out of control. We are so stupid that we actually choose to take at least one hand (if not two) off the wheel - look away from the road and traffic, and indulge in writing and reading messages on little devices. I mean how weird is that?
It's true. In our behaviour, we cry out for someone, anyone, to make our decisions for us. Weirder yet, we're willing to pay others to make laws that actually criminalize our lack of common sense. After all, if we don't hire Big Brother to watch us, just imagine, (if left unsupervised), how stupid we'd be.
In fact, there's a new medical term that defines people suffering from a previously unidentified, life threatening condition. They're called "Text-Walkers". (This is for real - if you don't believe me, "google" the term) Hospital staff all over the country are seeing ever increasing cases of people who literally walk out in front of cars and trains while texting. Text-Walkers also fall into manholes and ditches - fall off train platforms, staircases, escalators, aircraft boarding steps, and walk into doors, walls and other people, crash their cars and bicycles and apparently trains. This is real. Duh!
What could we be texting about that's so important? I mean - how dumb are we?
That's the question that keeps coming up. "How dumb are we?" What's happened to us? How have we allowed ourselves to become a nation of adult children that need to pay parental/police overseers to enforce common sense?
And we wonder "What's wrong with kids these days?"
The simple answer is "us". "We" are what's wrong with kids these days. We the adults, the leaders, have built a society based on values that disregard obvious common sense, personal accountability and ultimate quality of life. We exchange quality of life for irresponsibility, blame-shifting, multi-tasking, quantity of stuff and social status, greed and maximum consumption - at any cost.
The fruit of the tree we've grown is being harvested (for profit of course) in the ever increasing populations of our adult and juvenile prisons and probation/parole systems.
So, what's next? Are we going to see legislation that prohibits stuffing beans into our noses, or poking ourselves in the eye with sharp objects?
Do we need legislation to enforce wiping after we go potty? Given the destruction of the constitution in the past 8 years, police and even the military (yes, the military) have the right to burst into our homes without a warrant, abduct us (and our children) and detain us indefinitely without charge, representation or disclosure of our whereabouts. That's the law. Did you realize that?
That's been done "for" us in the name of Homeland Security - The Patriot Act. We allowed that to happen. We embraced that. We kept in office, the representatives who voted it into existence. We traded freedom for a false sense of government assured security. Gee, ya' know. I don't feel all that secure.
But, Hey! Maybe the absence of constitutionally guaranteed rights will support enforcement of the new "wipe your butt" legislation. The newly created crime of "Failure to Wipe in the Furtherance of Terrorism" can easily qualify as a Homeland Security "biological terrorism threat" in That'll keep a lot of lawyers and prison personnel working - (hey, we're in an economic downturn - gotta save and create 3 million new jobs). That kind of legislation will keep lots of taxpayer funded, government scientists conducting "studies". Can't spend too much on Homeland Security you know - Gotta keep America safe from biological threats...
Now, there's a real "Weapons of Mass Destruction" threat to get "preemptive" about. 300 million potential "Bung-Berry Terrorists" - right here on our streets. Gotta stop us! We don't want the smoking gun to be a bung-berry cloud. Please stop us! Please help us! We can't wipe our own butts! Please don't let us become a threat to our own National Security. Please make us wipe after we go potty, or arrest us if we don't.
Soon, the dialogue between the first two police officers or soldiers on an accident scene could sound something like this: "Joe, I'll check the text messages and, well, this one looks particularly stupid - better call Homeland Security to do a "bung-berry bio-terror threat assessment on him".
This is the direction we're going in faster and faster. Every time we allow common sense to be legislated, by virtue of our own neglect and irresponsibility, we inch closer and closer to being a fully realized nation of prisoners - held in shackles of our own creation.
So... Anti-texting laws are the cause of all this? No. This legislation is a small thing. It doesn't sever a limb from the body of our freedom - it's a small cut. Anti-texting laws are one small and clear example of how, by refusing to take responsibility, we give away individual power in exchange for the "security" of having overlords who make decisions for us. We're like irresponsible children. Please take our power away from us. And make us pay for for it - from our pockets and our cache of freedom. This legislation is only a small cut to the body of our freedom - but one of the cuts that causes "death by a thousand cuts".
We created it. We deserve it. We get to live with it... or change it.
I pray we can change it. Else, our children and grand-children must see us as the pathetic generation that cowered in the face of personal responsibility, fled from freedom, enabled the overlords to save us from ourselves - and subsequently handed them a world in which they are merely tax generating units. A world wherein the right to self determination is only a memory - perhaps, just a myth.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Debate: Police Versus Guards
Well, I'm admitting my astonishment.
Las Cruces Sun-News article - Front Page - March 5 2009
Debate: Police versus guards...
The "debate referenced in this headline is one regarding whether it's wiser to have LCPD or private security guards in the schools. The debate is largely over comparative costs... Most recent contract between Las Cruces Public Schools and Las Cruces Police Department - $427,000.000.
Nearly half a million dollars to have 8 armed police officers and one supervisor present in our middle and high schools.
Are there violent, armed, drugged, criminal youth in our schools? Yes. If I had a son or daughter at risk of being physically and/or psychologically ravaged by these thugs, (or perhaps worse, becoming one of them in self-defense) would I want him or her protected - even if it required intervention by an armed adult? Yes. Is the presence of armed law enforcement in schools justified. Yes.
I don't deny the justification. And, it's not just here in Las Cruces - or New Mexico - it's everywhere. I'm just deeply saddened that this reflects the kind of culture we've created. How did we do this? How did we let this happen?
And, what happens when the money runs out and the kids accustomed to being held in check by armed police, realize they can run amok? Or, perhaps, we'll never be able to stop funding this insane band-aid practice. Perhaps we'll have to continue spending millions of dollars (much needed elsewhere, and harder and harder to come by) to keep our children under guard at school. What sort of nightmare have we created?
My Question - Why aren't we debating how to have a family, a neighborhood, a city, state, country and society that doesn't need armed law enforcement of any kind, in any schools?
Why isn't the debate centered on what's wrong with our culture? What's wrong with a culture that produces children so damaged, disillusioned, disrespectful, angry and violent that the presence of armed adults seems to be an accepted necessity?
How do we fix it? I mean - FIX IT - at the core. That is the debate we should be living, every day, until the solutions are recognized, accepted and acted upon.
Is it just too late? Are we so far down this road toward utter failure that we're unable to turn it around? Do we just resolve ourselves to living in a world gone mad?
Step back once in awhile and take a look at what passes for normal in our culture...
Las Cruces Sun-News article - Front Page - March 5 2009
Debate: Police versus guards...
The "debate referenced in this headline is one regarding whether it's wiser to have LCPD or private security guards in the schools. The debate is largely over comparative costs... Most recent contract between Las Cruces Public Schools and Las Cruces Police Department - $427,000.000.
Nearly half a million dollars to have 8 armed police officers and one supervisor present in our middle and high schools.
Are there violent, armed, drugged, criminal youth in our schools? Yes. If I had a son or daughter at risk of being physically and/or psychologically ravaged by these thugs, (or perhaps worse, becoming one of them in self-defense) would I want him or her protected - even if it required intervention by an armed adult? Yes. Is the presence of armed law enforcement in schools justified. Yes.
I don't deny the justification. And, it's not just here in Las Cruces - or New Mexico - it's everywhere. I'm just deeply saddened that this reflects the kind of culture we've created. How did we do this? How did we let this happen?
And, what happens when the money runs out and the kids accustomed to being held in check by armed police, realize they can run amok? Or, perhaps, we'll never be able to stop funding this insane band-aid practice. Perhaps we'll have to continue spending millions of dollars (much needed elsewhere, and harder and harder to come by) to keep our children under guard at school. What sort of nightmare have we created?
My Question - Why aren't we debating how to have a family, a neighborhood, a city, state, country and society that doesn't need armed law enforcement of any kind, in any schools?
Why isn't the debate centered on what's wrong with our culture? What's wrong with a culture that produces children so damaged, disillusioned, disrespectful, angry and violent that the presence of armed adults seems to be an accepted necessity?
How do we fix it? I mean - FIX IT - at the core. That is the debate we should be living, every day, until the solutions are recognized, accepted and acted upon.
Is it just too late? Are we so far down this road toward utter failure that we're unable to turn it around? Do we just resolve ourselves to living in a world gone mad?
Step back once in awhile and take a look at what passes for normal in our culture...
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