8 March 2004

Not really sure where this should go, but I'm gonna put it here, so deal with it.  It's actually a rant from me, then a rant from someone else.  It all started with an e-mail from one of my loyal readers:

Kenny.

I am new to your site and I have to admit it is very entertaining. I am also impressed with your historical knowledge and your use of words that the average person couldn't even look up in the dictionary. I admit that I am no super brain and my grammar isn't that great but I do have a somewhat half assed education. I would like to hear your opinion on the subject of corruption and greed in our own government. Now don't get me wrong I was ready to turn Afgahnistan and Iraq into a glass parking lot after 9/11 and I was disgusted with the pictures of muslims all around the world dancing and cheering about it, but after reading Michael Moore's book I have to admit that there are some questionable things going on. So I put it to you to answer my question. Did big business have a big hand in 9/11 and the whole Iraq deal or should I stop reading anything by Michael Moore and if I should, who and or what should I be reading to give me a better objective point of view?

Thanx.   BT.

I replied:

One thing I have learned over the years is you can always tell when a politician is lying, because their mouth is moving. Yeah, I'd say our government has pulled some shit recently, but then again, our government has been pulling shit ever since the early 1800s, so it shouldn't be a big surprise to anyone. Do I think that a politician would form policy in order to line his pockets? Do I think the sun rises in the east and sets in the west? Sure. The only difference between our government and every other government is the land mass it controls. No government is perfect, it's just easier to bash the fuck out of ours because of freedom of speech. If Michael Moore had lived in Kiev in the 1970s and tried writing what he's wrihe'd have a beautiful three-room apartment in Siberia, assuming they hadn't killed him right there on the spot.

The fact is that there are ALWAYS questionable things going on. There are questionable things going on in the house next door to you. At the gas station. Big "big business" have a hand in 9/11? I seriously doubt it. Iraq? I don't know that they formulated or influenced war policy, but I'm sure that there are a few rebuilding contracts that were given to friends. How do you think those fuckers got elected in the first place? Can I say that FDR knew Pearl Harbor was vulnerable to attack and basically ignored it because he knew an attack on the U.S. was the only way to get America into WWII? Only because the U.S. military had been running war games for 11 years prior to December 7, 1941, and every time, Pearl Harbor was bombed. Do I think that there was knowledge - CONCRETE knowledge - of September 11th and our government did nothing in order to get us into what we're in now? I think that anything's possible. And while I wouldn't like to think that, I also have to resign myself to the fact that the possibility - no matter how disgusting, no matter how small - is there. I don't put anything past anyone.

What or who should you read? The Sunday comics. Reading and arguing politics is like getting on an airplane and worrying about it crashing. You're not flying the fucking plane, so you might as well sit back, put the headphones on, and close your eyes and hope the fucking thing lands. Because Michael Moore can make all the movies he wants and all the speeches he wants, and people like you and me can sit around and argue and bitch and defend and complain, and everything Michael Moore says and everything Bill O'Reilly says and everything you and I say is worth a small, steamy pile of beagle shit. There was a time when one man could make a difference. Now that one man needs 10,000 friends and a shitload of weapons. The world has changed, and I don't know who's in charge, but I know he's fucked in the head. I've got my headphones on, wake me when we land.

The human race would be so much better off without all the people fucking it up.

--kenny

So, sounding pessimistic, BT rebutted:

O.k. I see your point but your arguement is a little pessimistic which is logical by all rights. You only have to look at the world around us to validate that pessimistic view point but do you really think that we have gone that far beyond the point of no return? Wouldn't logic dictate that if one man, say Adolf Hitler for instance can change the course of history for the worse shouldn't one man be able to acomplish the opposite? I mean are we really stuck in a downward spiral of atrophy?

Normally I would agree with that prognosis but lately I'm beginning to wonder. Shouldn't we at least try? Maybe what we need is someone with a sac big enough to swing around and start knocking these dickheads out of office someone who really cares and is as fed up as we are. Granted thats a tall fucking order to fill and as far as I know Superman is dead and he probably ended up that way trying to acomplish just that, so filling his shoes isn't exactly at the top of anyones list but isn't it worth fighting the good fight even if it costs you everything including your life? What if we all have our headphones on and we are about to land on the WTC? Figuratively speaking of course.

I'm with you. This world is full of greedy loathesome sneaky backstabbing motherfuckers that want to make a dime off of you by sticking it in your ass every chance they get and when you complain about it they get invited over for dinner and fuck your wife in front of you with a smile and the rest of the planet is either so self involved that they could care less about whats going on outside of their gated community or they are so terrifyingly stupid that if brains were shit they couldn't fertilize a flower pot. The rest of us are doomed to float in this reality knowing the location of the door of salvation but the motherfuckers, self importants and retards have the key to opening it and won't give it up. I don't know about you but I'm tired of thinking thats the end of the story and we can't change it. You get the 2 cycle oil I'll get the chainsaw that fuckin door is toast. Shouldn't that be what we should be thinking?

"All that evil requires to suceed is for good men to do nothing."

 

Thanx. BT

OK, so I guess I have to get even more pessimistic.  The response was in two parts, edited to look like one continuous e-mail here:

First of all, Hitler took advantage of a unique situation: a bankrupt country stripped of its former glory and national pride, led by a government seen as having sold out to the Allies, in the midst of a global economic depression and backed by an army of thugs and miscreants who basically beat the fuck out of anyone who opposed them (the Sturmabteilung). My argument has always been that France was as responsible for Hitler's rise to power as anyone - if they hadn't dismantled the Saar factories and taken them to France, perhaps - just perhaps - the Great Depression never would have happened, or wouldn't have been as severe as it was. It was a variety of factors that gave the NSDAP the opportunity to seize control of the Reichstag. Such a situation does not exist here.

No person worth a shit is ever going to sit in the Oval Office again, because U.S. politics is all about one thing: money. Has been, is, and will be. It's the old saying, I love my country, but I fear my government. This isn't a government of the people, by the people, and for the people - not anymore, anyway. It's a government of who has the most money and the most corporations behind him to bully him into the White House. Instead of the brownshirts, they have the NRA, Coca-Cola, and Microsoft. Policy is determined not by what's best for the country as a whole, but what's best to keep their scrawny asses in office and their party in control of both houses of Congress. And God (or insert your deity of choice) forbid anyone with the fortitude and balls to stand up to them makes even the slightest stir, they'll have people going through your underwear drawer looking for anything and everything to discredit you.

I went to see Lewis Black film his new HBO special last week, and he hit it right on the head. We have a two-party system, he said. Which, legally, we don't - the Constitution not any other document of its kind makes any legal provision for political parties (unlike the German constitution, which figured that one out once they set up shop in Bonn). But, de facto, it is a two-party system. Anyway... he said, "The Republican party is a party of bad ideas. The Democratic party is a party of no ideas. And the way it works is, a Republican stands up in Congress and says, 'I have a really bad idea!' And then a Democrat stands up and says, 'I know how we can make it shittier!'" And that, in a nutshell, is how the U.S. political machine works. Ask anyone you know - how is the U.S. budget appropriated? How much does the federal government have allocated for education in 2004? Public health? Scientific research? Don't know? That's because no one does. The U.S. budget for FY2005 (if I'm reading this right) is $2.4 trillion dollars. The deficit for next year ALONE is $477 BILLION. Do you know what that means? If you were the only person in the U.S., you'd have to cough up $477 BILLION next year. Better start checking between the car seats for loose change. Go to the GPO's website and look up next year's budget. It's a 67 Mb pat on the back with lots of pretty numbers, but there's no real breakdown. Where EXACTLY is that $17 billion for AIDS research going? If I get audited by the IRS, they want to know IN DETAIL what every receipt I submitted was for and why. Try calling 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and getting the same cooperation. You have a better chance of getting a threesome with Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan.

We can figure out to the cow where the mini-outbreak of Mad Cow Disease came from, where the cow came from, the stall it stayed in, the poop it made, but they can't find Osama bin Laden? Oh, fuckin' blow me. The guy has to be making a phone call at some point, trace the fucker. We're winning the war on terror. Just like we're winning the war on drugs. How much is budgeted for THAT little annual circlejerk? How many hundreds of millions of dollars is the DEA going to get to stop something that I can buy right now in a hundred places without even batting an eye?

But the truth is, the general American populace doesn't care. We want to be given the reacharound while the boys in D.C. give us a good cornholing, because we like being lied to. We're winning the war on terror (any convoys in Iraq get shelled today?) We're winning the war on drugs (I can get anything I want right now). Our economy is strong (yeah, try finding a job right now). A little extra spit on the tip, please, my asshole's chafing. And don't squeeze my balls quite so hard.

I honestly don't think that one man can change anything anymore. I realize that I'm starting to ramble, so I'll stop. But just think about it: this year presidential election is a choice between having your balls slammed in the car door of a 1957 Buick or having them cut off with a rusty chainsaw. No door number three, Monty Hall ain't gonna help ya even if you're wearing the chicken suit. Car door or chainsaw, take your pick, because you're gonna be stuck with the fucker until January 2009. Can I get a hallelujiah?

OK, so I'm still typing. Here's one example of how fucked our government is. Ephedra: Steve Bechler, an overweight minor-league pitcher with the Orioles, drops dead during spring training. He was taking Xenadrine to lose weight. Xenadrine contains ephedra. So, ephedra's bad, right? Forget that he was taking two or three times the maximum dosage on the label and had a heart condition which they say see a doctor before taking it. Nope, he died, ephedra, ephedra bad. The FDA bans ephedra the end of December 2003. Sixty days after the edict, ephedra sales will be illegal in the U.S.

The FDA attributed 153 deaths to ephedra.

Sixty people die of aspirin overdoses every year, and 5000 are admitted to hospitals for it. No one has said boo about banning aspirin.

A thousand people a day die of tobacco-related illnesses (I think), and the only reglation on that is you have to be 18 to buy it.

Even after the ban goes into effect, ephedra and ephedra-like products will still be available in things like over-the-counter allergy and cold medications. Read the label.

And if ephedra is so bad, why was it allowed to be sold sixty days after the FDA announced the ban? "OK, if your kid plays with this toy, it will explode and kill him, so in two months, you can't make the toy anymore. Until then, you can keep buying it." Sounds dumb, huh?

VPX Pharmaceuticals makes sports nutrition supplements. One of them was Liquid Clenbutrx. It was for weight loss and contained ephedra. A 480 cc bottle could be purchased for about $85 before the ban. After the ban, the same bottle - if you could find it - went for almost double that.

Show me the logic.

--kenny

And, the final reply.  Can you guess how many cocktails went into THIS tirade?

O.K.  I will conceed that it was not Hitler alone that changed history but you have to admit that all it takes is for one nutjob who likes to smear himself in peanut butter and talk to a ouija board to gather up a bunch of retards or people that are pissed off or pissed off retards and tell them that the headaches will go away if they set their heads on fire and headbutt everyone they see on the street to send the general public into a pattern of destructive behavior. Lets face it people are stupid. I know this for a fact because I have been to almost every state and have met with probably about 250,000 people over the past 2 and a half years from all walks of life and the ignorance that I witnessed on just a general level was scary. I met people that I wouldn't let babysit a pet rock let alone make a decision that would impact my life on any level political or otherwise. Here is where the smart people come in. The smart people(You know who you are) are supposed to look out for the stupid people. Kinda like taking the roman candles away from the kids cause no matter how entertaining it might be you just couldn't live with yourself if you let them set poor little billy on fire. But instead of saving little billy they take the roman candles away and give the kids some bb guns, now little billy has a hard time passing through airport security and the kids now have to keep buying more bb's cause billy isn't allowed outside anymore but there are plenty of cats in the neighborhood. And what did this change? One thing, money was made. Smart people make money off of stupid people and thats how it has always been. I know alot of smart people(and you know who you are) out there that should be ashamed of themselves. It's ok to make money off of stupid people you are providing a service (insight,intelligence, education etc.....) but don't screw'em. Greed fucks everything up because it upsets what would otherwise be a pretty good balance. Kinda like the company that could have everyone with a decent wage and benefits and the company would flourish cause people would stay but Noooooooo. The owner or top executives all need BMW's or Bentley's and the owner needs to buy a private jet and most of them are planning vacations in Madrid or the tropics not to mention the $400,000plus 25 bedroom houses they all have to have, plus money to burn on coke, hookers or just shit to impress the jones's with, so sorry but benefits are just not an option, my toys are more important than your health and by the way we're laying you off so we can put your salary to work for us in the stock market or buy new desks for all the exec's or wait! An executive lounge complete with a document shredder and a secret escape hatch just in case one of us gets too greedy and rats us all out to the government who is doing the same fucking shit we are and is pissed only because they don't like to be out done. Soooooo people get fed up, they quit then the company has to spend more money training new employees that they snowed with some brilliant PR who are going to quit and the cycle continues. Then reports come out WOW look at all the money we are losing on employee turnover we need to do something. Should we improve our employee compensation package? Na..... fuk'em lets move the whole operation to the phillipines cause I just made a down payment on a new 60 foot yaht cause the jones's next door have one. Way to go corporate America "sniff...." I feel so proud.  Fuck the Jones's! If your neighbor bought a brand new solid gold dildo to shove up his ass and showed it to you would you run right out and buy one covered in diamonds(OUCH!) just to one up him? Don't get me wrong I like to have nice things but Damn! The path to enlightenment is not the road of excess. Damn after writing all this shit I think I need a drink......Anyone got the keys to the executive lounge?

A little rambling, yes, but somewhere under all of it, there is a point.

There, my rant on U.S. politics and BT's on corporate evil, rolled into one little page for your reading displeasure.