April has passed and so have the non-sequential short stories. Writing shorts is a good exercise, particularly when you feel free explore different styles, different tenses and different situations. Irrespective, it’s good to put them someplace public such as this not as an exercise in narcissism, but to expose them to criticism. Nobody likes criticism and it takes a certain effort to put them up in s public forum. Thank you for your feedback. I have a few saved so they may leak into the coming month on ‘slow blogging days’.
May Day (May 1) is here and perhaps it’s time to return to political commentary if only briefly. May 1 was chosen as the date for International Workers’ Day by the communists of the Second International to commemorate the Haymarket incident (Chicago, May 4, 1886) wherein rioting/demonstrating communists threw a bomb at the police, which detonated. A few of the communists were imprisoned. Still others were executed. The communists were outraged that they had been held accountable. My take: Don’t throw bombs at the police and that won’t happen.
Communism has never worked…anywhere. It’s simply a tool for creating another ruling elite through revolution. Swapping one set of power hungry bastards for another is never the solution to the problems associated with governing and being governed. The best government is one that consciously stays out of the way of people, their commerce and their lives to the extent possible. It allows people to fail and allows them to succeed.
In the US, politicians tax and use a portion of those funds to buy votes. It’s simply how the situation works and no complaining or griping will change that system. It’s become worse in recent years because it’s directly connected to greater national control over matters best left to states, communities or people to solve for themselves. And we are left with vast and possibly enduring dysfunction.
Obama and the recent progressives are the next generation – they see that communism and socialism has not worked, and European Social Capitalism is failing…so the solution is to transform America into the utopian land of fairness. Why can't they see that it is FREEDOM that has worked?
Freedom means that government is necessarily weak and you can't loot the nation three ways from Sunday (Chicago style) if government is weak. The stronger the control, the more you can squeeze from We The People. I think that even they know that the utopian fairness is an Animal Farm style of fairness.
Barack Obama grew up at the feet of his mother and grandparents who thought that Das Kapital: Kritik der politischen Ökonomie – Marx, was the bright shining light of the future. In that world where he grew up, it was also necessary to hide that fervent faith in Marxisim to some extent. But I think that his soul and those of his progressive friends is control of as much as possible because you can steal more when that is the case (Animal Farm style).
Commie shouts for "Freedom," while while stealing same are common. We have far too many laws. We need fewer, better enforced.
Lawyers (who are legislators) feel that the best way for them to make themselves useful to solve problems is to make more laws. Nationally there must be 10,000 new laws a year. The new laws serve to demonstrate to the generally ignorant voting public that something is being done.
In reality, we remain in the same grind and more laws don't fix things.
It is now to the point that partisanship is the RULE rather than the exception, and the Dems are deathly afraid of losing power… EVERYTHING they do is aimed squarely at staying in power, to hell with what it does to the country!
Yes, politicians have always used money to buy votes. The difference in our current situation is a ruling class that has ensconced itself and then protected itself behind the huge bureaucracy. The leaders and the bureaucracy both have then become immoral and unethical institutions.
And, as you know, bureaucracies like the NSA or CIA develop a culture that becomes so out of touch with reality that it thinks nothing of the abuse of its own power.
Top that with a president who refuses to reign in those under his control, and in fact, encourages unconstitutional behavior, and we are fast-tracking ourselves into an authoritarian state.
It will be interesting to see how they play the 2014 gambit. If they lose power, there is the issue of impeachment.
The Justice Department used to be the watchdog. Now, they are the lead jackal in the pack.
You gotta love an out-of-control agency that even bit Diane Feinstein on the butt. (Sorry for THAT mental picture.)
It's an ample butt and an easy target to hit. After all, her husband only gained $1 billion in conflict of interest. No Mainstream Media coverage on that? Why would there be? It's only a billion…
I really enjoyed your stories Larry. You are a gifted man with a lot going on inside that clever head of yours.
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