Ken's space

For all you have done well, thoughtfully and benevolently, we salute you.

I love the TV show The Sopranos. I have each season on DVD. One would think that I would watch it more often than I do (which is effectively never). But it was great TV. One can see far to many comparison between that show and reality. Take the case of one Davey Scatino: a high school classmate of Tony's that didn't get in to The Life. Davey becomes a gambling addict. Tony gets Davey in to his organization's private high-stakes poker game. Davey blows the rest of what ever he has liquid in his life at The Executive Game, so he is forced to hand over his business to Tony, Paulie, Silvio and Pussy who "liquidate" it like a a bunch of drunken pirates. Davey looses his home and family, too...there's more, but you can go out and rent the DVD.

When I think about how conservative fanatics want to reduce the size of government, I think about this story arc where another sap looses in a Faustian bargain s/he made with Tony Soprano. I can't figure them out; I ask them the same questions that I've asked full grown (at least 50 years of age) anarchists:

• will the trash take itself to the dump?
• will the streets pave themselves?
• will water flow out of my bathroom tap of its own goodwill?
• will Sempra not jack-up the cost of electricity or natural gas because they have consciences?
• who will pay for good schools for our kids to learn in?

...none of them have an answer. Anarchists talk about personal freedoms that are curtailed by government in manner similar to libertarians. Conservatives talk about how wasteful government is, therefore it should be thrown out, not fixed. My fundamental education in economics has lead me to be suspicious of them. But what's more, I have to wonder about these people true motivations are. If Massachusetts is any example, they are less than noble.

Proposition 1 asks if the commonwealth should slash spending on social programs. Seems like a Bust Out of Massachusetts to me; I don't know if there are any organized crime figures in and around that would comment on the comparison publicly - I'd love it if there were that would. I'd also would like to learn their opinion about the supporters of Prop. 1 busting out their own campaign before election day. All I know about the mob is what I see in movies and TV, so all I can do is to figure that this bust out happened prematurely...if these guys kept cool, they could have busted out all of The Bay State.

...what can you expect from fanatics, anyway? Not professional acts of crime, that's for sure.

For over a year now, I have had a link in my Craigslist profile to a link to a petition to impeach Vice President Cheney. The George W. Bush Cabal has nearly served both terms he purportedly won. The time has come to give up that effort, unfortunately.

More than a few times I was taunted by this effort, started by Rep. Dennis Kucinich. And now, the morlocks have their last laugh on me...at me, you chose. I don't get anyone in the executive branch impeached. No one is found guilty for exposing a CIA officer's cover, no one found guilty for the mass dismissal of U.S. Attorneys for political reasons (yet). Barely any concern for what I  have seen as the theft of both elections that sent Bush to The White House twice. No investigation in to war profiteering. A poverty of action trying to right this ship of state. No one reigned in the exaggeration of Executive powers and privileges.

Who is the real loser? I am I the only loser? I'm not the only one hurt by these actions: the whole nation is. I cannot help but compare the way the U.S.A. carried itself in reacting to the 9/11 attacks with the attack on Pearl Harbor. It seems that we just crapped our pants or had a series of fire drills instead of bucking up, wising up and dealing with the problems at hand. The U.S.A. didn't and still really hasn't looked in to how it contributed to the attack (not to be confused with deserving / earning the attack which mental midgets or sinister opponents would suggest). It's like Uncle Sam can't see his feet standing up yet becomes indignant when another suggests that he's overweight and should do something about lest it do him in. I could go on about the nation being in denial, the evils of nationalism (and how we've all forgotten our high school lessons about jingoism.

I once read an account of a public discussion by two ideological opponents that both agreed that we get the kind of government we deserve. The best I can do is to figure out another way to get others to agree to work with me or in a way that I and others see best for our nation. That way we don't get dicked over again.