LEAVE
IT TO PEEVER
I want to be relevance
— Bumper sticker of
the week: The world is full of apathy, but I donÕt care.
— Quotes of the week:
ÒThe past is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future.Ó
Jessamyn West
ÒPeople get the history
they deserve.Ó Charles de Gaulle
— Privatization is a
bad idea: Admittedly, the government has a bad record for running business
ventures. But as fate would have it, private business is worse. People have a
way of cheating one another. In a capitalist society, we call it profit, to
disguise the theft. You deserve a return on your investment. Seems reasonable,
until that return gets out of hand, and the safety and well being of the public
gets undermined and trivialized. To quote Marx, ÒCapital is reckless of the
health and length of life of the laborer, unless under compulsion from
society.Ó Government regulations are necessary in a democracy. Business is
ruthless and uncontrollable. It always has been.
— Latest approval
rating of Bush: 24%
— The country is in
worse shape than it was before his presidency: 66%
— Those that approve
of his handling of Iraq: 29%
— Those that approve
of his handling of the economy: 28%
The worst president in our
history is going out like a true chump. He will end up with the worst approval
rating of all time. Clinton went out with an approval rating of 66%. The moral
of the story: Bush needs a blow job.
— Bonus bumper
sticker: Impeach Bush/Torture Cheney. (Cruel, but theoretically possible.)
— Imagine:
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everyone having a place to live.
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no one going to bed hungry at night.
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getting adequate health-care when you need it.
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a Department of Peace.
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a college education being free.
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that we placed environmental concerns ahead of profit.
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a fast rail train system between all our major cities.
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no laws or policies being passed by Congress without first giving consideration
to how they would effect the next seven generations.
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no single individual or family being about to accumulate more than 25 million
dollars of wealth.
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being able to retire after 25 years of work.
Someone imagined going to
the moon. Someone imagined a device that could store unlimited data and
immediately feed it back. Someone imagined a defective human heart could be
repaired or replaced. Someone imagined a cure for polio. Someone imagined we
could fly like birds. We no longer have to imagine those things. So the
question becomes: Why not the above list? Imagine that.
— President Bush is
looking to remain relevant as a lame-duck president. I got some real bad news
for him. He wasnÕt relevant when he was involved with the Texas Rangers (he was
the managing partner after putting up only 1% of the cost, but he did get the
taxpayers to build Arlington Stadium for the Rangers), or when he was in oil
(Arbusto, and Spectrum 7 Energy Corp., both bought out by his daddyÕs rich
buddies before going bust), or when he was Governor of Texas (he presided over
143 executions, the most ever in our history by a governor, drove the
educational system into the ground, and helped Texas become the most polluted
state in the union), or when he landed on that aircraft carrier pretending to
be a soldier. So I ainÕt quite sure how he intends on becoming relevant now. He
has taken us on a trip down mediocrity lane, which has apparently been a life
journey for him. Hail to the Chief.