NEVER MIND MILLER....IT'S VOTING TIME!

THE CENTURION CHRONICLE
Special Issue – Nov-2010

NEVER MIND MILLER….IT'S VOTING TIME!
(it's a serious occasion….so no mail-in procedure for me)

Tomorrow, at the earliest I can bestir myself from my slumbers, I'm going to crank up and get ready for my usual ritual of getting primed to get out there and go vote….in person. Never mind MILLER….it's voting time! It's a serious occasion….so no mail-in procedure for me.

I don't know about anyone else out there, but all these new gimmicks to make voting "easier", more "convenient", and otherwise less of a "burden" is nonsense. They diminish not only its meaning, but the value of that right as well.

Too many people seem to have gotten fat and lazy about – voting – these days. Many don't even register to exercise that right. Others, though registered, just don't bother to vote, equating it apparently with another citizen's right (and duty)….jury service. What they overlook is…IF YOU DON'T VOTE….YOU DON'T COUNT!

I suppose it's a matter of values, what's important. Hell, they'll line up in droves, to camp out all night, just to be the first in line for the opening doors of a "blowout" sale at Walmart, Target, Macy's, or even Nike, to get their hands on some cheaply made-in- China or elsewhere imported "stuff", palmed off on them as a deal….at over-inflated prices. But….having to stand in line to vote….or spend maybe an hour….to do so. No on your Nelly! Horrors!

As for me, I like to make it a formal ritual, giving the exercise of my right to vote its proper respect.

Though rising early for the occasion, I will have myself a nice leisurely breakfast of some favorites. All the while, solemnly re-browsing through my sample ballot, verifying my initial selections, or, making any final changes I think are necessary. In this instance, having previously decided not to support any Democratic or Republican candidate for any office, I'm re-checking the alternative choices for each of the offices in play. There aren't a lot of them, but they do pique my interest, so I go over these again, narrowing things down to an ultimate choice.

It's a process of elimination for me, mostly determining which ones seem to have the most likely and broadest perspectives, rather than any single issue narrow focus. It's not easy, but I'll soon have my picks sorted out . Frankly, it's a lot like trying to pick a winner at the racetrack, either way, you pay your money and you take your chances. But the way things are these days, and in our present circumstances, the odds are about even for making an alternative voting selection this way. They sure as hell can't be any worse than what we're being offered by our two major parties.

Well, that's what and how I'll vote tomorrow. It's my right as a citizen of this great republic of ours, and the devil take the hindmost!

Besides, if none of these yoyos work out, I can then righteously bitch and moan, rave and rant about anything. Democracy let's you vote –dumb- as well as – smart -.

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LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE

THE CENTURION CHRONICLE Special Issue – Sept 2010

LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE (only exists under secular law)

America’s stability as a nation for the past two hundred odd years is due, in large measure, to its constitutional provisions for liberty of conscience within a framework of secular law. In that respect it is unique compared to the rest of the world, where church and state are so closely entwined such liberty does not exist.

The major organized religions, that is, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, are inherently doctrinaire, dogmatic, and uncompromising in their respective ideologies. They are thus mostly intolerant of other faiths, and, only pay lip-service to inter-faith ecumenical relations. Given half a chance, they would happily impose their own doctrines, observances, and rituals on everyone else, using the sanctions of law to do so.

The historical records of these major religions clearly show that (although Judaism has been the least violent about it). Their violent disputations on matters of doctrine, their vicious conflicts between a multiplicity of sects within them, not to mention the confrontations and contentions between them (which continue to this day) have always been a danger to the ideal of personal liberty.

The founders of our republic were well aware of, and understood, that history, and thus extremely concerned with devising ways and means to prevent it from ultimately destroying what they were trying to create. Their solution was – The Constitution – and – The Bill of Rights -, by which liberty of conscience (that is, freedom of religion) was carefully contained within a firm framework of secular law, thereby assuring that the separation between church and state would be absolute, and never breached. That principle is what has allowed us to be both a religious and secular nation, at the same time, with minimal conflict. Fortunately for us their design has stood the test of time, defying many efforts by both the majority and the minority elements of our society, to subvert it.

Today, unfortunately, too many of our career politicos, in their pursuit of perpetual re-election to public office, are quite prepared to subvert that principle under the guise of politically correct “accommodation”, just to pander for votes. The current controversy in New York is a prime example of that, being a largely manufactured controversy for political purposes, because it carefully ignores the fact that the existing structure on that property has been used for the same purposes intended for the proposed new structure for several years, with nary a peep from anyone….before now. It should also be noted that there is also another mosque facility in the same neighborhood, and no one seems to have been upset about that. Such political machinations and maneuvers simply endanger what the founders created for us.

Those of us who truly abide by upholding the provisions of the Constitution and the Bill of rights, no matter what, need to constantly remind others that liberty of conscience, within the framework of secular law, is the only thing that prevents our poly-cultural and secular society from falling apart….and plunging into the abyss of sectarian conflict and theocratic tyranny.

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A BOGEYMAN SYNDROME

THE CENTURION CHRONICLE Special Issue – Aug 2010

A BOGEYMAN SYNDROME (and, please, check under our beds too!)

The proposed Muslim cultural center and mosque project in New York City, several blocks away from – Ground Zero - , is causing a firestorm of hysterical protest in reaction to it. A hysteria unwarranted by the facts of the matter, and one which not only reflects poorly on us as Americans; but also, highlights our collective sense of mistrust and fear, and insecurities about Islam itself. All of which must have the militant and radical elements of it chortling with glee, more convinced than ever that they can ultimately overcome us….with terror tactics.

So, whatever happened to the home of the brave, folks? Was our national psyche so traumatized by those 9/11 events the mere mention of Islam, in any context, turns our guts into jello, and unleashes a raging bogeyman syndrome, convinced that Islamic terrorists are lurking behind every bush (and perhaps even under our beds too)? If that’s the case, then our country is in worse shape than we realize, and all those screaming-mimis in the media, on talk-radio, in the blogosphere, and on the streets….prove it.

In many ways our reaction to 9/11 much resembles what happened to us at the time of another traumatic event called….Pearl Harbor. With identical hysteria, we stampeded ourselves into arbitrarily rounding up every Japanese-American in sight on the West Coast, and forcibly dumped them all into nothing less than concentration camps (but, without ovens).

This time around, we stampeded ourselves into enacting the Patriot Act, created an overlord security apparatus named – Homeland Security – (an unfortunate choice of labeling since the literal German translation for that is Geheim Stadt Polizei, the ill-famed acronym for which is …GES-TA-PO), and declaring that anything Islamic is, at best, satanic. We then followed all that up by militarily storming right into the solar plexus of the world of Islam, like a wounded raging lion, shredding and mangling everything in sight….ostensibly to teach it a lesson….Don’t tread on me, buster, or I’ll fang you! All of which slacked our thirst for revenge, gave our enemies pause and marginal food for thought, but otherwise did little to really drive that lesson home to them….even after ten years of trying to do so.

Thus, without any signs of clear-cut results and accomplishment, the entire episode has simply imbedded a massive dose of mistrust about it in our hearts and minds. Perhaps it’s time we asked ourselves if that’s not what’s driving such an extreme reaction to an otherwise banal property development issue?

One of the more obvious factors involved here is the failure of our present national leadership to adopt a balanced position towards Islam. The main perception being its apparent apologetic and appeasing posture towards it, and, favoritism besides, since it took office. We have nothing to apologize for, and appeasement, never works. Worse yet, displaying public favoritism towards Islam, to the exclusion of traditional Christian ceremonials at the White House, was an insensitive gaucherie which most of our people has resented.

The other factor fostering mistrust and suspicion is Islam itself. Of all religions conceived by humans it is the least accommodating and most intolerant of other faiths (to be fair, many others have the same problem). However, Islam is somewhat unique in that respect because it is inherently dedicated to achieving an ultimate absolute theocracy, and secularism such as ours is anathema to it. That is the crux of its conflict with us. Unfortunately, too many of its clerics aggravate that conflict by emphasizing that difference between us in mostly pejorative terms, making us the problem, rather than condemning the radical elements of their faith who undertake atrocious acts of terror. We have yet to hear of any of its clerics openly and publicly declare to their co-religionists, from their pulpits at Friday prayers in their mosques, that such acts are not only criminal, but defame Islam besides. Nor do we hear them condemning the ongoing slaughter of other Moslems, by Moslems, with similar terrorist acts. Thus by their silence they condone them.

Is it any wonder then there is such mistrust and suspicion here about Islam?

It all boils down to this, in this context and situation, the onus for changing such mistrust and suspicion lies with the clerics of Islam….not with America.

As for those who vehemently oppose this project as an unwarranted intrusion upon sacred ground, it is understandable, but one must ask….if this is such sacred ground why is all that heavy construction being done on it? If it were truly “sacred” the only thing we would see there today would be a truly magnificent memorial park….and nothing else….much as we see in that distant field in Pennsylvania.

But this is New York City, folks, and prime real estate secular value takes precedence and priority over sacred sensibilities.

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A Growing Cancer In America

THE CENTURION CHRONICLE
Special Issue – Jul 2010

A GROWING CANCER IN AMERICA
(from the viral infection of an ever expanding Federal authority)

Our American republic faces a potentially terminal cancer, one which grows ever more dangerous to our ideals of personal freedom, un-constricted innovative enterprise, economic mobility and prosperity. It threatens the very structure of the Founders’ finely crafted and delicately balanced system for the separation of powers between State and Federal authority. And that cancer comes from the viral infection of an ever expanding concentration of power into the hands of our Federal establishment, thus upsetting that balanced system of checks against government intrusion into our personal lives.

As that “imbalance” grows, we see the insidious effects of it every day as towns, cities, counties, and states line up, with their begging bowls in hand, to maneuver for Federal handouts to fund their needs, instead of making independent decisions for themselves. Our society is thus drifting more and more towards the reefs of statism and authoritarianism, far removed from the provisions of our Constitution. At the rate that drift is moving, we, the people, may soon find ourselves no longer the land of the free, but, tightly enclosed in a sheepfold of authority where everything that is not forbidden….is strictly compulsory. At that point, America, as we have known it, will be no more, leaving us only with an empty shell of what it once was.

Why is this happening? Well, sadly, it’s because ever since the end of WWII, we’re the ones who’ve allowed it to happen. We’ve been so busy over all those years pursuing “the good life” and “happiness” we ignored and forgot about that more critical part about “liberty”, without which, there can be neither “life” nor “happiness”.

We’re paying for that inattention about that today, having allowed ourselves to be cajoled and conned into believing that collective dependency on Federal largesse, rather than individual effort, is the only way to achieve the American dream. More and more we’ve become conditioned to accept that a Federal program of one kind or another is the only way we can achieve that dream. Not as a need, but as an inalienable right. Is this what we want for the future of our great republic? The answer has to be….absolutely not!

So what can we do about it now? We need to re-focus our collective attentions on that part which concerns “liberty”. And to restore our American definition of what “liberty” means, we now have to make that class of career political elites we’ve allowed to take over our lives, return our system of government back within the balances and constraints prescribed by our Constitution. Of course, these have grown accustomed to their brand of “the good life”, and privileges accrued for themselves, so they’re not likely to quietly give all of that up without resistance. We’ll have to force them to do so, not by the bullet, but with our ballots.

Here’s how: The mid-term election this coming November is a golden opportunity to give them a wake-up call, and shake the foundations of their political world to its core. Let each of us simply decide not to vote for any incumbent or candidate belonging to either of the two major parties. Instead, let’s all just vote for anyone else on our ballots but these. Whether it be for Libertarians, Tea-Partiers, Green Partiers, Independents, the Sons of the Pioneers, or even Lady Ga-Ga, it doesn’t matter, as long as it’s anyone other than a Democrat or Republican. If enough of us do that it will send them a very powerful message ….change your ways….or face an even stronger backlash in 2012.

It’s up to us!

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Sound Bites Of Reality

THE CENTURION CHRONICLE
Special Issue – Jun 2010

SOUND BITES OF REALITY
(not bits of mutiny-on-the-Bounty)

The General McChrystal affair is clearly a case of sound bites of reality, rather than one of mutiny-on-the-Bounty. It reveals the glaring disconnection between the realities on the ground in Afghanistan, and the political pipedreams being spun back in Washington. And those realities are that, despite nine years of effort by us and our NATO allies, the Afghans have yet to get their political act together to put their national house in order.

To be blunt about it, they’ve been playing roulette all those years with our soldiers blood and lives, and, of course, our taxpayers’ dollars; and, with no end in sight to their continuing gaming of the situation. So it shouldn’t have surprised anyone that things came to a head in this manner. Two successive administrations have gone along with this sorry state of affairs, without resolving the problem. The odds are that it can’t be resolved, not so long as the Afghans continue gaming the situation they way have; and, not so long as our politicos plan strategies based upon potential political benefits to be gained back here at home, rather than on what might best work to secure Afghanistan. Meanwhile, our soldiers’ lives are the price being paid for that situation.

A gross example of that are the public pronouncements of the President, the Vice President, and others in the Administration, about a 2011 withdrawal date for our troops. Militarily, and otherwise, it was an idiotic thing to do. Why tell our adversaries when and how we might leave? It strengthens the Taliban’s position, the few Afghanis who might make a stronger effort to rebuild their nation have been left hanging out to dry, and our troops on the ground, instinctively, have been left wondering – what the hell are we fighting for here?- which no amount of spin, nuancing, or glossing over about it being about “freedom”, ”democracy”, and “mom’s apple pie” can overcome.

Given Afghanistan’s historical matrix of being a tribal and warlord society, from the moment we stormed into it, in retaliation for 9/11, to clobber the Taliban thug regime there and its al Qaeda associates, we based our entire nation re-building efforts on the false premise we would be able to create a strong and effective central government structure for it.. None of our predecessors were ever able to do so. Not the Persians, not Alexander the Great, not the British, not the Soviets, not even the Taliban. The only thing any of them were able to do was to impose greater warlord overlordship over some of the lesser local ones, and always not for very long.

But that’s not the American way. We’re conditioned to overwhelmingly storm in, kick ass, then get the hell out as quickly as possible, and sooner rather than later. We’ve never cared much for becoming overlords ourselves, especially if it means we have to remain one for any length of time. It’s this underlying aspect of our national character which has plagued our efforts in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

General Petraeus’ anti-insurgent success in the Anwar Province of Iraq worked because it was focused on local village and provincial interests, not a national one. Once tribal and other leaders realized that, with our direct military support, they could not only defend themselves, but also otherwise fend for themselves without much help from a so-called central government, the province was pacified, and largely remains so to this day. In effect, it was the application of the – Magnificent Seven- concept, on a much large scale. It’s a concept that works.

In Afghanistan, besides having a less than reliable central government to work with, we have a multi-pronged situation. The first prong is the ongoing purely military one of suppressing the Taliban ability to come raiding in from neighboring Pakistan. The second prong is concurrently suppressing, if not wiping out, as much of its local elements in key provinces such as Helmand and Kandahar. The third, and most critical prong, is applying direct support at the local village level to activate self-directed efforts to defend themselves against Taliban incursions, and to improve their economic and living conditions as well, all on their own. Such efforts have to be local, and have to be able to deliver immediate results local villagers can see. Anything less won’t cut it.

The point is, if local people are helped to take control of their affairs, and helped to use their own resources and skills to improve their conditions, they will be much more inclined to fight to the death against anyone trying to take that away from them.

Unfortunately, the ability of our military to provide such support there is hampered by political considerations back here at home. Among other things, those in political power today have boxed themselves into the no-win situation we face in Afghanistan today. All because, as far back as the 2006 mid-term election cycle, they were busy stampeding the electorate to vote them into power because, if it did so, they would have all our troops out of these Middle East adventures within 100 days, etc., etc. This was again repeated in the 2008 presidential elections, although in much more hedging language by then. Now, facing a serious electoral backlash in the 2010 mid-term election cycle, their politically driven objectives here at home are what is getting in the way of accomplishing any kind of success in Afghanistan. The General McChrystal affair has simply been the symptom of frustration with that situation.

Whether General Petraeus, as his replacement, can somehow pull another rabbit out of that sorry hat, is an open question. If he can, and for our troops sake we sincerely hope so, it won’t be because of anything our Washington politicos have contributed to the cause.

Such are the sound bites of reality in Afghanistan.

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A Rising - Priviligestsia - In America

THE CENTURION CHRONICLE
Special Issue – Jun 2010

A RISING – PRIVILIGENTSIA– IN AMERICA
(everyone is equal – some are just more equal than others)

Despite the underlying egalitarian foundations of our republic, we’ve always had a class of economic and social elites. Most of the founders of our republic were products of such a class.

But they were self-made elites who, by sheer skill, talent, innovative pragmatism, and strength of character, had achieved such status before the Revolution began, thus becoming its leadership. Even so, they thought of themselves as just models for the ideal that, such status, was an obligation rather than a right to extreme privilege. So they gave as good as they got, to demonstrate and promote the notion of how our society was open to economic and social mobility for anyone who cared to make the effort to achieve it. It was the essence of the America they fought to create, and later, bequeathed to us.

Not so with our leadership of today.

Since the end of WWII we’ve allowed the evolution of a new breed of national leadership that is becoming a more rigidly fixed, and impermeable, caste of career politicos to run our lives. A caste composed of over-educated intellectuals, Party aparatniks, and bureaucrats, all of whom spend their lives feeding from the trough of – public service – as they maneuver their way towards maintaining and strengthening their oligarchic hold on the levers of economic and political power, to the exclusion of anyone else not of their class.

To that end they have created a matrix of inter-connected dynastic political families and alliances, almost feudal in character and dimension, fuelled by a corrupt system of money and influence. A new aristocracy dedicated to having rights and privileges far beyond the norms and constraints imposed upon the rest of us ordinary citizens. Like all aristocracies the world over, they consider such privileges as an unquestionable right, and anyone daring to question that right, is to be branded a rabid anarchist, a godless communist apostle, and thus an enemy of the people, etc., etc..

Meanwhile, their intellectually muddled minds are forever fixated on ideological and social engineering theories, rather than on productive pragmatism and common sense. Much like a parasitic succubus they prefer, instead, to devise ever more devious ways to tax our vast pool of middle class enterprise and innovation, to feed their ideological illusions. In the process they ignore, or fail to realize, that by doing so they are slowly strangling the goose providing them with all those golden tax eggs.

To justify such measures they’ve also carefully cultivated, and played upon, the sense of obligation among those instant millionaires springing from professional sports, entertainment celebrity, and techno-wizardry, conning these into make voluntary “contributions” of much of their wealth, to support their fake populist efforts to help the less fortunate and underprivileged members of our society.

It’s these aspects of their machinations which have the most insidious, if not subversive, impacts on our democratic ideals. Mainly because, by such means, they have now bred and promoted a growing uneducated, unskilled, and highly unstable underclass. An underclass now long conditioned into dependence on government largesse in the form of social programs of one kind or another, while it is kept mired in place with alcohol, drugs, and violence. It’s a latter-day version of the old Roman –bread and circuses – mentality, as the means of keeping that underclass firmly attached to themselves, and paid for, from all those taxes skimmed from the pockets of our working middle class.

Some see all of this as a parallel with what happened to bring about ancient Rome’s demise. In this instance, however, I’m more inclined to the parallels more closely resembling the situation leading up to the French Revolution. A situation where a similar overly-privileged aristocracy of “elites” found themselves facing a new word in their vocabulary – la Guillotine.

Well, old Thomas Jefferson is probably looking down on us right now, grinning from ear to ear, and saying…see, I told you so!

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Never Murphy's Law Disdain

THE CENTURION CHRONICLE
Special Issue – Jun 2010

NEVER MURPHY’S LAW DISDAIN
(it will kick your ass if you do – every time)

With any inherently dangerous enterprises such as coal mining and deep-ocean oil drilling, one should never Murphy’s Law disdain. It’s an immutable one, and it will always kick your ass if you do so.

BP’s deep drilling project in the Gulf of Mexico is a prime example of that. The very negative PR and the severity of the financial impacts of the situation are only just beginning to kick its corporate ass, and will probably continue to do so for a long time to come.

What’s apparent here is that BP, for all of its expertise and hard-earned experience with such projects, failed to have effective contingency measures ready to activate against such an eventuality, thereby allowing Murphy to strike with his usual style of catastrophic frenzy, just to remind BP of that failure.

One of the contingency measures that should have been considered, before any drilling even began, was how, and with what means could such an event be contained to limit its polluting spread. A consideration that’s especially important in a marine environment, even more than on dry land. Understandably, however, BP’s immediate focus was how to stop the resulting gushing outflow of oil and gas from that damaged well head. Containing its spread was secondary to that objective. Meanwhile, the ever expanding volume of oil grew, and grew, and grew, into the monstrous ameba-like blob drifting in the Gulf’s waters today.

And in all these weeks that have passed since this began, it’s also very apparent that BP is not the only one at fault for being without contingency plans for this kind of situation. From the office of our ass-kicking President, on down, nothing was done to immediately mobilize an effective system of in depth defensive measures to protect the shores of the most likely state to be impacted by this event. Even a fifth-grader could have understood, and foreseen, that with such a volume of oil pouring out into the water, inevitably, it would reach those shores.

But the mindset of our government’s bureaucracies, not to mention that of our elected officials, seems to have been – since BP was the source of the problem, everyone should wait and see how and what it would do about it. So, a multitude of “joint” local, state, and federal conferences, nit-picking arguments about jurisdictional responsibilities, and PR gavottes by the score, were the only actions taken. A more glaring example of paralysis from analysis would be hard to find.

We may fault BP for its errors in handling such a catastrophic event, but, our own government authorities are even more at fault for their limp-biscuit reaction to it. To be blunt about it, the moment BP’s floating rig caught fire, exploded, and sank, every level of our government should have been mobilized for the counter-measures that would be needed to protect those shores. It should have done so with no delay or hesitation, while telling BP to concentrate its efforts on capping and staunching the outflow of oil from that damaged well, as the government handled any containment and clean up efforts needed, and for which, it would send the bill for those efforts to BP later.

Unfortunately, such a common sense approach didn’t happen, and as a result thousands of folks’ livelihoods in Louisianan, Mississippi, Alabama, and now Florida, are in dire jeopardy, and actually, may never recover. Thus the negative economic consequences of such delay and inaction, on these states, will thus linger on for a long time also. All of this because our government sat on its collective asses arguing about who should be doing what, just as it did during the Katrina event, instead of taking immediate action.

So to now hear our President’s and our politicians’ sanctimonious cries of outrage about BP’s failures, would seem laughable, if their hypocrisy about their own failure were not so outrageous.

The question all boils down to this: Who’s to do the ass-kicking whenever our government fails us so miserably?

Well, perhaps the answer will be….we the people will do that ass-kicking….next November.

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