Mowing and Musing

I’ve had a lot on my mind, recently, and it’s been swirling around without any focus. Until last night, when I was mowing my lawn, when it came to me:

“Santino, come're. Whattsa matter with you? I think your brain is going soft from all that comedy your playing with that young girl.

Never tell anybody outside the family what you're thinking again!”

Yes, words of wisdom from Vito Corleone.

America’s brain has gone soft. Soft from all the comedy it’s playing with it’s culture of consumption and gratification. From the overweight kids playing their Playstations, to the parents over-leveraged with consumer debt (spent on stuff that the debt will outlast) to the politicians who pander to the self-indulgent.

Thanks to our Incontinental Congress, and their Media enablers, everyone in the world knows what we’re thinking (or that we’re not), and knows the limits of our fortitude.

Everyone now knows that 2.500 dead troops will make our people squeamish and our politicians start looking for something white to wave. Everyone now knows that if a force can keep us tied up for more than a year or two, we’ll throw in the towel. Everyone now knows that if they can bloody our nose, they can expect an apology FROM US for making them angry.

What’s now to stop China from taking Taiwan?! Or is Chuck Hagel (or any in the Yellow GOP) thinking beyond the next election? Don’t pander to the American people, as they’ve become too soft-headed from a couple generations of affluence without sacrifice.

Avenues

"As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils. Such an attachment of a small or weak towards a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.

- George Washington, Farewell Address

10% Less, Right Now

If our national security is compromised by our fuel consumption right now, why wait ten years to cut usage by 20%. Let's start right now. Being January, we're at the beginning of a new year, so let's see if we can't drop our own usage by, say, 10%.

Ten percent, right now. How, you may ask? Make fewer trips to Walmart (another issue tackled later), use public transportation, plan your errands to reduce inefficiency, car pool. Use your imagination.

During World War II, gasoline was rationed. We were at war, and had to make sacrifices. Why not bring that same level of urgency to our consumption now?

While we're at it, another threat to our national security is looming in the form of our trade and currency imbalances with China. Not only have they siphoned away our manufacturing base with artificially low labor costs and created a trade imbalance with low-cost goods, but they've bought enormous amounts for U.S. debt, guaranteeing their leverage over us, economically.

Let's also buy less from China, say 10% less, right now. Every purchase, evaluate the need for the item, and look for non-Chinese alternatives. It will involve some time, research, and some sacrifice, but remember: This is our national security at stake!

10% less gasoline use, 10% less Chinese trade. Let's do it.

Ahh, the World, pt. 112906

Bears cannot change stripes-

A makeover, wardrobe overhaul, and name-change doesn't change who you are. Just look at Russia. It's the same viscious Stalinist state, but stripped of a layer of bureaucracy of the Politburo and the superficial rhetoric of being "for the worker". Picture Stalin in a pin-striped suit instead of the Red-trimmed uniform. Just in recent memory:

- Poisoning an unsympathetic candidate in a neighboring country's election
- Shutting off natural gas supplies to a neighboring nation to influence policy
- Mysterious murder of a journalist investigating government malfeasance
- Radioactive poisoning of a former spy, turned critic of the government
- Sales of defensive missiles to a state that's creating banned weapons
- And a host of other diplomatic maneuvers designed to foil scrutiny at the U.N.

And our President looked deep into the soul of the Russian president, eh? Just another questionable judgment call.

Islamic Communion

The vicious sectarian violence in Iraq is enabled by the lack of a central religious authority in Islam, and by the lack of a peaceful hermeneutic to guide the discussion of the different interpretations of the Q'uran and Hadith. It's the same authority vacuum that enables Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hez'b allah to use their religion to authorise their violence against the rest of us. They claim their sacred texts are the only authority needed.

Well, you know, Gene Robinson and Fred Phelps claim to reference the same Bible. So much for authority.

Little Sympathy

For all the people who let them selves be herded through the chutes on Red Friday, and eventually sheared, why are you willing to endure or inflict injury to get a $40 DVD player? Injuries are reported in Torrance, CA, in another shopper stampede.

Santa v. Jesus

Yes, It's that time of year again, when parents cringe when turning on the telly, or going to the mall, or even getting the mail. We are beset by advertisements, enticements to avarice and discontent, and all under the smiling visage of 'Santa Claus'. It's hard enough for adults to keep a clear head between Halloween and New Years, but how do we keep our kids focused on Christ for Christmas?

In past years, I said nothing of Santa, or as age demanded more details, I told my kids the history of St. Nicholas. But, being now in school, they're surrounded by kids with other notions of Christmas. Call me a grinch, but I'm not inclined to tell my kids that an ancient saint is going to bring them the things they ask for, as seen in the latest 'Toys-R-Us' advert. I'd rather have the Incarnation be the focus of our festivities, rather than the consumerism.

And, by the by, the Chinese are positioned, once again, to make a killing on our fiscal incontinence. I wonder if anyone sees the irony in the primary color of holiday trappings as being Red.

Parents out there, what do you do?