It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To!

I have spent much of my time watching C-Span and C-Span 2. Seeing and listening to our elected officials speak is both thrilling and enlightening for me. Thrilling since I get to hear some of the best orators of our day use their skills to debate on the world stage. Of-course not everyone of those speaking is a great communicator so one must listen to all to discern what is transpiring.

The enlightening happens when one hears between the words to understand what the speaker, she or he, is trying to accomplish. Although the subjects are many, and may be complex, it does not ensue that a clown like me, living in a somewhat rural and small city or town, cannot find the import and direction the speaker is trying to herd us to. In fact, it is relatively simple to judge the political alliance or mindset of the speaker. And if careful listening is not your thing, the vote tallies at the end show the aims of the words spoken. At the end of the day it is the vote that reveals the true colors of what's going on.

So, here we are. The first thing I would like to speak to is the way the budget is being held hostage to a political agenda. We know that a plethora of the budget is not the reason for the continuing impasse. It is an ideological divide and lust for complete power that is at issue here. LOOK AT THE VOTE TALLIES! I guess old George Washington was "right on" when he admonished us to avoid foreign wars and political parties!

The charts and studies all sides seem enamored of are of so little real value I view them more as a visual form of trickery than an informative tool. It seems that there is a chart to support any view if you have selective vision when searching for one. Nobody's right if everybody's wrong! We, the Electorate, need to do a better job minding the store and rely less on a proxy citizenry of paid actors.

I could provide links, but why?

To those that know who they are I really miss talking to you. I tried to keep it light. So sorry I let you down as a friend.

The Divine Right of Kings...or as it is better known now-a days; The Divine Right of Money

Well the health care mess sure is a sight to behold. I can't say I'm surprised. Those that can afford it can get all they need. Most of us work our lives away, raise our children, love our pets, are good neighbors, mow our lawns, etc.. Why on Earth do we think we deserve the best in health care?

Women in general are an oppressed majority. Children are too in many ways, in many countries. Animals, the water, the air, the land, all are the fodder for the cannons of the privileged. It is not anyone's mission to change what is the way things are in a system that can be changed. Why should anyone give up anything just so the rest of us can share in the world we built? And died for? I ask you! Selfish Have-nots, anyway.

Matrix-esc

As we hurl with an escalating rapidity toward a future where the lines between reality and the artificial disappear with each keystroke, I wonder why I even try to remain me. I mean, if I am given an identity that is not born of my inner workings, but rather is crafted, assumed, or mistakenly assigned to me by others, either in the real world or in the on-line stew, why should I care? Allowing myself to believe what is said to me is a no-win game. I can't know what is real and what is not even if I am always truthful with others. And the fact that I can be dismissed at any time for any reason means, in reality, there is no me.

But yet my heart aches in real time with real sighs. As we leave our physical selves on the Net floor and assume the life of a file in some coded number game, I often think if we are truly progressing or just masking our descent. There is no denying that most of our lives are already at the mercy of numerical manipulation. The bad and the good share the same pathways and can, without our knowledge or consent, establish any us they choose.

We need to reclaim ourselves and stop viewing our freedoms as a balancing act between the economic and the human.

The main justification I hear for this state of affairs is that we must balance economic interests and human interests so our freedoms will not be abridged. If I must live in fear of not being who I really am, how are things really more free than they were many years ago?