You never know what we'll churn up in cleaning a stall
Time for true conservatives to weigh in.
Take back the GOP.
(From the super-rich.)
(From the off-the-chart far-right-wingers.)
(From the anarchists masked in their midst.)
We’ve already paid enough.
Just run the numbers. The full cost of everything, far beyond war and taxes.
WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one
international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the
losses in lives.
Maj. Gen. Smedley Darlington Butler, USMC
— from War Is a Racket
Woodpecker had been wondering, How would it feel to get in a right-wing tone of voice, but coming from the left? Not the content, just the … invective? Or at least the wild emotions, instead of continuing to attempt reasoned discourse with the unruly classroom.
That’s what Woodpecker asked me.
An opportunity to stop by the periodicals room in a well-stocked town library had me sensing something had shifted since my last visit. The room itself, at the heart of an 1884 building, is gorgeous, with tabletop reading lamps and much dark woodwork. The local history archives are in a tall-ceilinged room behind glass at one end, while the rest of the chamber is embraced by an open contemporary addition from 2006.
This time, though, as I looked around, I realized how few of the shelves had magazine covers facing me. Mostly it was the plain metal finish. And then what hit me was that of 14 of us sitting quietly there, all but two were working on their own laptops. We could have just as easily been at Starbucks, apart from the no talking and no food requirements.
As I read short stories in Ploughshares, with its heft an assurance in my hands, I reflected on the paradox of being one who treasures a room like this and its contents and then being one who’s appearing more and more only in digital formats read on these flickering screens.
What are we to make of it, ultimately? The library has posters telling patrons they can now access their favorite magazines online at home, thanks to an institutional subscription. So how do we simply wonder and peruse, open to whimsy and discovery? What are we losing and gaining in this exchange?
Conservatives who don’t know history are dangerous. What are they conserving, anyway? If there ever was a golden era in American history, just consider the years after World War II when the New Deal direction really kicked in. (The “socialist” programs they’ve always derided.) And we’re seeing all of its downsides, as well – sexist, racial, environmental polluting, smug.
As for solutions? It’s safe to bet their ideology would lead to yet another banking meltdown. As I said about history? Bush I and Bush II, or even Harding-Coolidge-Hoover, illustrate that point.
Without banks, there’s no modern economy. (What would you barter for a computer, for one thing?)
Oh, but if you’re truly conservative, what would you need a computer for, anyway? Or anything more than a mattress?
One of those interludes when our Internet connection crashed – this one lasting more than a weekend – had me reflecting on how embedded the Digital Age has become in our daily activity. And I’m not even one of those who’s texting much or has his ears plugged into thin wires except rarely.
On one hand, apart from a bit of twitchy readjustment, it was rather liberating. I found myself catching up on a stack of magazines and a couple of books and just hanging out in the house.
On the other hand, though, I wasn’t getting my emails or making sure scheduled blog posts had run properly, much less interacting with the comments or our WordPress Reader. For that, I wound up running out to the nearby Panera for late Sunday afternoon pastry and WiFi.
Still, I’m uneasy about all these digital changes in our lives. There’s too much else right at hand we seem to be missing. Just a thought. As for you?
In the World War, we used propaganda to make the boys accept conscription. They were made to feel ashamed if they didn’t join the army.
Maj. Gen. Smedley Darlington Butler, USMC
— from War Is a Racket
America – and the world – needs a Congress that can solve problems.
Not make them. And not pretend they don’t exist.
The public needs to take back the House and Senate and stop marching to the tune of the One Percent. Or the lunatic fringe. Or the National Rifle Association. What kind of Congress runs scared in the shadow realm as this one does? Denial is not an option when it comes to the real issues before us. (All of us.)
One man can’t do the job alone. No matter how valiantly he’s done in the face of such ill will and obfuscation.
Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys who were sent out to die. This was the “war to end wars.” This was the “war to make the world safe for democracy.” No one told them that dollars and cents were the real reason. No one mentioned to them, as they marched away, that their going and their dying would mean huge war profits. No one told these American soldiers that they might be shot down by bullets made by their own brothers here. No one told them that the ships on which they were going to cross might be torpedoed by submarines built with United State patents. They were just told it was to be a “glorious adventure.”
Maj. Gen. Smedley Darlington Butler, USMC
— from War Is a Racket
How many of those scoffing at climate change also think Darwin was all wrong?
Even while planting hybrid seeds or taking medicines developed through application of an understanding of evolution?
For that matter, speaking honestly, they’d probably still have the world flat rather than global.
It’s not all that they’d flatten.
Jnana's Red Barn 