nice post. this is another reason why having raving religious fundamentalists front-and-center helps the aristocrats as well: churches are a decent way for regular people to share views and organize, so it's best to drive all thinking people away from them.

And it all starts with net neutrality. Price bloggers out of the market.

And it all starts with net neutrality. Price bloggers out of the market.

Sorry for extra posts. Don't know what was happening.

We do not know who these posers on Alpha Centuri are, but we here circling Alpha Centauri ceased moisture farming decades ago when we discovered single malt scotch.

BTW, we seem to recall this same Jefferson quote from some time ago. We were stunned at the time. It is a most succinct statement of a truth we can assure you is universal. This Jefferson fellow must have been, how do you say, one hep cat.

We enjoy reading you and would like to visit in person(s) one day, but hydrogen costs are frightful (damn OHEC) and the interstellar SUV only gets eight parsecs to the kiloton.

OHEC is very funny. You've earned 2 points!

Compare and contrast is always a good strategy.

Recently I moved to small town where there are little tiny pockets of liberals amidst a sea of conservative rednecks who do manly things, dress manly, talk manly and drive manly trucks.

Yesterday I saw this guy in a truck which was flying two very large flags whipping valiantly in the wind. Of course one was the American flag and the other was a California flag. Now most are contented with the usual small flag but not this guy. His flags were of the size you see flying atop poles at public schools etc. I guess the message is the bigger the flag the bigger the patriot and how much better that person is than non-flag-flying people, kind of a snob thing I guess.

When I think of someone like Thomas Jefferson and compare him with this modern day American the possessor of an unfathomably deep and heartfelt patriotism it makes me wonder if evolution has died.

Rob - I've said that for years.

It used to be simple. Some trigger-happy idiot in some government somewhere would start a war, and we sent our worst and most stupid - right next to some of our best and brightest - to the front lines of whatever conflict the political idiot had fanned the flames of. This, generally ensured some degree of evolutionary progress, as the idiots most usually became cannon fodder, and those who had some skills/intelligence/wisdom or combination thereof usually found ways to survive.

Since WWII, and specifically since Vietnam, the U.S. instead had gone the other way, attempting to only allow the best and brightest into our Armed Services, while leaving the morons and criminals behind to become lawyers, politicians, mebers of the "Moral Majority" and most recently, Faux "News" employees.

Obviously this has NOT been a good strategy.

So I really think we need to go back to how things "used to be" - but with a twist.
Instead of punishing our best and brightest by sticking them with idiots and criminals, I think we should develop a WHOLE NEW branch of the Armed Services called "T.H.E.M." (The Hypocrites Elite Military) Anytime some idiot in government - ours, theirs, someone elses - decides, "The U.S. Military MUST get involved in OUR cause..." we'd say, "SURE! Send T.H.E.M. in!"

While they (T.H.E.M.) would be well-trained, and (nominally) well-equipped, they would do whatever half-assed, ridiculous thing the politician in question would ask them to, without any ugly things like questions, or expectations of plans or outcomes.

And since all of T.H.E.M. would be required to swear complete allegiance to whatever the cause of the day the idiot politician declared, there would be no reason for any of T.H.E.M. to leak information that might make T.H.E.M. look bad.

This would also leave our regular Armed Forces to only get involved in, say, wars declared by the Congress, and supported by the People. That would also leave our best and brightest in the rest of the Armed Services, making all branches of the U.S. military as strong as possible.

At the same time, politicians could continue to be irresponsible, and start (or force the start of by some other government) wars anytime they'd like. Of course, chances that their own family members would be one of T.H.E.M. would likely increase drastically - but as so many politicians (like joe Lieberman) have said, "We have to be responsible..." and "We can't 'Cut & Run'."

Such an added military branch would also have the added effect of adding the American Population back into the evolutionary chain, would likely drastically reduce the number of lawyers and politicians, and drastically increase both the EQ and IQ of the entire country within a decade.

Of course, leave it up to me to come with strange ideas like this one. I also have some ideas other people keep calling "strange", like hot fire and wet water.

But, no. Evolution hasn't died. It's just been subjugated to the will of the wealth idiots, temporarily. Something tells me THAT won't last, long term.

What is it that's saying that to me?.... OH YEAH!
MILLIONS OF DEAD SPECIES (and more importantly for us, dead SUB-species) over millions of years.

So just remember - as long as WE outlast them, we'll get back what we lost. It may take some time - and of course if we added T.H.E.M. to the mix, it would likely go faster - but I can wait.

In the meantime, we can play with the tiny brains and oversized egos of many of those who would be T.H.E.M. You'll usually find them driving cars marked with "W", "Bush/Cheney", or "i Hate Ned Lamont" stickers, or online desperately hoping to be noticed/ignored/beaten/had their soul sucked out by Ann "McNeeds a Soul" Coulter.

Good luck, and enjoy the wait. :-D

Silversmith,

Yeah, I know just how you feel about these knuckle draggers but the real culprits are in the Whitehouse and in congress and sitting in the ivory towers of the think tanks. Especially the think tanks because these people know they are wrong but they don't care.

And God, the moral majority, what a bunch of banana brains, voted for their morals but what is moral about war or their moral leaders who take bribes from the few to screw the many and that makes the moral majority feel they are better than the rest of us who worry about things like jobs and paying the bills.

I saw a picture of the torture being done by the orders of people like Cheney, voted in by the moral majority. It showed two Iraqi lying on the ground hog tied, face up with a mask over their eyes and this big muscle bound American busy punching them in their faces that were covered in blood. That was about the most moral thing I have ever seen. Maybe I am just an idiot but I failed to see what beating the crap out these guys was accomplishing. It was just so stupid and pathetic just gibbering and pointless idiocy.

There must be a tendency to believe that because we have all the trappings of civilization that we are civilized or more civilized than our caveman past but all we are is a bunch of chimpanzees with car keys. Same brutal and primal urges just dressed up in modern technology.

I remember a movie called "The Day the Earth Stood Still" about this guy who comes from Venus, a kind of interplanetary cop, who tells the earth that they better shape up and stop the violence. This guy was totally disgusted with us primitive earthlings but his message was cut it out or he would destroy the planet. So here is this guy from an advanced civilization and his only answer to violence was more violence. You go figure.

I am afraid that violence is just engrained in the human species and though there are some who strive to rise above it doing away with war is something that lays far, far into the future long after you and I are dust in the ground.

Exactly, They despise grassroots democracy, which is of course real democracry and this is one of the reasons why they don't like Howard Dean's 50 state strategy because it will decentralize power from DLC DC Democrats and return it to the state level where it should be. With what is currently happening to Joe Lieberman it is quite obvious that just any old wild card populist can cause big problems for a GOP lite DC Democrat like Holy Joe. These are some frightened people and with good reason.

Scott,

That is interesting what is happening to Holy Joe (nice name) and it shows just how wrong the DLC is. I agree about grass roots movements (as opposed to Astroturf movements) and that they are what more people need to involved in which is probably what it is going to take to get things back to some semblance of balance. Let us hope these guys are scared for good reason.