What a nice republic it was

All day yesterday I couldn't help but feel strong elation at the success and achievement attained by my company as we conducted a group from Stanford University on a natural history tour for the past two days. I am extremely proud of my employees (and new trainees) for shining so brightly for a customer that closely scrutinizes the value and worth of your work every minute you work for them. It is a real triumph for me, as a professional, to be recognized for the excellence I can deliver in my chosen field. It is what I set out to do six years ago and feel that I have at last accomplished. I will endeavor to maintain it. Owning a business definitely has its rewards.

Meanwhile there is the background radiation of current events, like $70 a barrel oil---and the immediate implications for an already shaky economic picture. Then Shrub goes over the airwaves to say that the best way to honor our fallen and dead soldiers is to simply keep maiming and killing more of them, which sounded to me like the sinister utterings of an old world, castle cloistered, vampire. Is he feeble or evil---or both? And where exactly is Count Cheney's comfy & cozy mobile coffin (with a shovel full of his native Wyoming soil sewn into the lining) being hidden these days ?

I then noticed that the Department of Homeland Security are the mandarins calling the shots in "hurricane ravaged" New Orleans and giving out the official pronouncements. I think FEMA was absorbed into Homeland and so now disasters are yet another "official" duty for this large and ubiquitous bureaucracy.

Have you also noticed how every natural disaster is now a national thriller for a few days of headlines with which to feed the ever hungry 24-hour news mill? It is also becoming an opening for the feds to come and spend millions on reconstruction and aid administered by those wonderful saviors from the Department of Homeland Security. In this particular scenario the natural elements do the destructive work instead of American bombs, but all of the reconstruction and subsequent puppet master control is the same as is in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else the imperial guard happen to cast their gloomy shadow down upon, be it a country, city, gulag or Yosemite. The same uniform attitudes of self-importance and sacred mission along with deep seated feelings of arrogant superiority over any and all local peoples is abundantly evident. The whole rotten structure is a reeking insular hell only tax dollars could fund. It is definitely EVIL. Not just the bombs but the bondage it holds over the liberties we need to function as complete beings. It MUST be destroyed. If Iraq is the crack that will break their back (good rap from Beamis) than so be it. Long live the insurgency!

Yesterday on my motorcoach tour all kinds of cops were pulling folks over everywhere along the road. Some of the people on the tour even commented on it, and I've been pulled over twice this past month, and heard similar stories from friends and associates. It seems that Homeland Security fever is gripping law enforcement nationwide and I happen to live near Interstate 15 which is a "drug and alien corridor" into the interior of the U.S., so the cops seem extra itchy to have any reason at all to pull you over for inspection and to show zem zee papers. Ja mein Herr!
The American West used to be way more laid back, but no more.

I'm finally coming to grips with the messy chaotic, and yes EVIL, country that I live in. It hurts my heart deeply because I love where I live very much, but totally despise the gangsters who have stolen the old republic away from us all. Yes folks it is bald thievery when about 50% of your productive capacity is stolen from you (if you are honest with all of the governing bodies seeking to put a levy on your output). Starting from this crime don't be surprised that we then proceed to create a population that is dependent, shallow, petty and selfishly venal. Why shouldn't they be? They are just following the example set by their rulers. After extracting so much from the living tissue of the community for mostly destructive purposes, how else could it ever be?

Wealth stealing parasites are subverting a once proud republic of self-interested and self-motivated individuals striving to achieve inner peace and independence through good works and the principles of respecting thy neighbor and prospering with your family and immediate clan. It was all about being a piece of a particular locale and contributing productively, whether it was making moonshine or tanning a hide. This was a great republic up until about 1840.