Post #151: Random Thoughts

The following are an unconnected hodgepodge of thoughts that I gathered from my notebook for no other reason than the fact that I was bored senseless:

POT SHOT
By the time one gets to be my age (Madonna and I will be fifty on August 16) one has personally known - at the very least - one hundred people who have died as the result of the intake of too much alcohol, and another hundred who have died from too much nicotine. Now ask yourself the following question: how many people have you known in your lifetime who have died as a result of the abuse of marijuana? Not only have I never known anyone to die in that manner, I am not aware of it happening in all recorded human history. Sure, there might be a debate to be had that it is a "gateway drug" that leads inevitably to harder substances, but that argument is defeated by the undeniable fact that your average junkie started his or her life of addiction by drinking beer. Although I quit smoking pot a long time ago (sometimes I wish I hadn't) I find it hard to believe that seventy-one years after grass was made illegal, we're still having this stupid debate over its decriminalization. I am not advocating the use of marijuana. I am only stating the obvious: it is a relatively harmless drug that has been proven to have some very real medicinal benefits. Sentencing people to long stretches in prison for its use is not only counter productive, it is criminal. Truth be told, I would sleep better at night knowing that a child I loved was a pot head rather than a alcoholic. BEEN THERE, DONE THAT....

THE DEATH OF AMERICA: AUTOPSY RESULTS
When the coroners report is finally made available, the cause of death will be crystal clear: the American experiment died of starvation. America could have been a paradise. And now our very survival depends on us keeping the world supplied with weapons of death. Think about that. Were world peace to suddenly envelope the Planet Earth tomorrow, the United States of America would whither and die overnight. Oh, no. We cannot allow that to happen, can we?

JUST WHAT IS IT ABOUT TEXAS?
For the second time in a generation, a halfwit from Texas has led this country into an untenable quagmire in a far away land. Come to think about it, that last sentence was grossly unfair to Lyndon B. Johnson. For all of his faults (and there were many) at least his heart was in the right place in most respects. For all of his epic flaws, a lot of good things came out of his administration. When the dust is finally settled and historians are able to objectively search through the wreckage of the last seven and a half years, it will be said that not one positive thing was achieved for the American people during the eight wasted years of George W. Bush's reign of terror and error - not one.

LOSE, LOSE OR DRAWL
On the night of April 24, Chris Matthews reported on MSNBC that the president of the United States made an appearance on a TV game show called, Deal or No Deal. A GAME SHOW! Can you imagine - in your wildest, weirdest dreams - Jack Kennedy, Dick Nixon - or even a moron like Ronald Reagan - doing something as foolish and demeaning as that? How much further is this fucking idiot determined to trivialize the presidency? Enquiring minds want to know.

HOW MUCH MORE EVIDENCE DO WE NEED?
This week it was reported in the New York Times that the Bush administration used taxpayer dollars in order to propagandize the American people into signing onto a war that has proven to be the worst military blunder in American history; a war that has left over one million people as dead as an infinite pile of door nails. If I am not mistaken, that is a crime, is it not? The law clearly says as much. Call it a hunch, but my suspicion is that anyone who might be found to be behind such hideous machinations would be more-than-eligible for a very long, permanent stretch behind the walls of a federal prison.

That we were lied to is no state secret. What is astonishing is the effort they put into the spreading of those lies. As John Stauber asked in an excellent piece on AlterNet this morning [see link below], who in their right minds could have imagined the extent of the deception? The fact that the main stream media is ignoring what can only be described as the most important news story in years is disturbing and shameful. That is why the next president and congress needs to re-regulate the FCC. The future of our democracy depends on nothing less. Don't expect that to happen if John McCain or Hillary Clinton are elected in the Autumn.

CUTTING OUR LOSSES
Those who babble on about the consequences of America losing this war if we withdraw miss a crucial point: this war was lost in March 2003 the moment the first boot set foot on Iraqi soil. This war was lost when the FIRST FOOL stood on the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, with that stupid, perverted smirk on his face, under the banner which proclaimed, "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED". Looking at that footage today, it is almost touching how gut-wrenchingly ridiculous our commander-in-chief looks. Show me a person who still thinks that sending this disgusting piece of shit to the White House was a good idea, and I'll show you someone who has overdosed on Stupid Pills.

The assault on the men, women and little children of Iraq is going to end disastrously for this country. It matters not whether we pull out in 2009 or in 2109, we will lose this war. We lost it years ago. Wake up.

McCAIN ISN'T ABLE
It is clear that unless the Dems come up with a compromise candidate that the party can unite behind, someone who isn't damaged goods like Clinton and Obama, a McCain administration is all-but-certain come January of next year. John McCain is a doddering old fool. The best thing that can be said of the man is that he is a shade smarter than George W. Bush. Seriously, that's not much of an endorsement, is it?

2008 is going to be a nightmare. At no time since 1932 has the need to go in a new direction been as painfully evident as it is at this moment. And yet it seems that November of 2008 is only going to bring more of the same. Good going, America!

BY GEORGE!
"Senator Obama, who is more patriotic: you or Reverend Wright?"

Congratulations are in order to George Stephanopoulos for asking the dumbest question thus far in this campaign. All one has to do is watch a video of the 1960 Kennedy/Nixon debates to be shaken awake as to how dumbed down America's national political conversation has become in the forty-eight years since. The American Broadcasting Company's April 16th debate was beyond embarrassing - it was a disgrace.

JAIL TO THE CHIEF(?)
Truth be told, I don't want to see George W. Bush go to jail (or "gaol" as the English spell it....what's up with that??) for his crimes against the human race. "Jail" is where you go to when you've had one-too-many on a Saturday night and you accidentally back your car into the plate glass window of the local pharmacy. I want to see George W. Bush sent to prison for the rest of his life.

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THE DEMOCRATS ARE WORTHLESS

The 110th Congress will be remembered as the most cowardly, pathetic legislative body since the invention of dirt. Never has there been such an abundance of evidence that warranted the impeachment of a sitting president. Ten years ago Bill Clinton was almost removed from office for telling a little white lie about having a fling with a half-witted intern (It is helpful to remember that he never actually had sex with "that woman, Ms. Lewinsky"). Why, then, are Bush and Cheney still in power? Why have they not been impeached? What the hell has happened to the party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt?

Once again, the Democrats have been handed a bottle of finely aged, twelve-year-old scotch and these gutless assholes have turned it into donkey piss.
*****
There. I feel better already,

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

Link to the John Stauber piece on AlterNet:
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/83541/

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Special thanks to brother Pete Degan for the Harry Truman photo.