Economy, environment, education or 3E if you will. While seldom at the top of the page with all the death, destruction, and deceit that seems to dominate the headlines, 3E should be the most important topics of our time.

Consider economy, do you feel like you are being paid what you are worth and how much you need to survive. If a major recession hit, would your job be in peril? Without the JOB or small business opportunities, over 90% of the US is vulnerable to some degree or the other. Since W and his henchmen have managed to mangle our economy through that bottomless pit in Iraq, and secure his families fortune through high oil prices don’t you think they should think about the rest of us. Sure they should but get real, ok.

Consider environment, if we don’t have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, adequate food supply, and a temperate climate, what chance to we as a species have? Look at Africa and all the suffering. That region of the world is so strife with violence, poverty and pestilence, it is amazing that anyone lives there. And if we believe the more gloomier forecasts on global warming, you ain’t seen nuthin yet. Have you ever seen the movie Day After Tomorrow?

Consider education, if We the People are to remain competitive in this quickly changing world economy, reverse the effect of pollution and global warming, we must provide our people with adequate training and education. Note that I have training and education separated and indeed they are two distinct needs. Training for specialized jobs and specific fields that require a much more detailed and hands-on regimen of instruction. Universities and centers of learning are useful for higher levels of research and scholarly endeavors but reliance on them as a means of adequately training every person for the job force is not only impractical but not realistic. For many years now it has been incumbent on the employer to hone and fine tune the detailed job skills needed for that particular industry. Most of the menial jobs are shunned by Americans and left to the “lower” class. But we aren’t training our people to do the high tech jobs. The enrollment in Computer Science and technology training is at an all time low in this country. Technical jobs are outsourced to India and Asia. The good old USA will no longer be the “leader” in so many ways.

How do fix this? Like anything worthwhile, it won’t be easy but we must find a way to get these essential E’s to the top of our political agenda. I know, I know our greedy, self-centered politicians aren’t interested in addressing the absolutely critical needs of We the People. The only realistic solution that I can see is to vote them all out. We need to figure out how to enable our political system to return to the roots and concepts that once made this country great. We need to enable visionary citizens who are not interested in being a career politician but as intended, a public servant. We have to somehow take the money out of politics so that ordinary moral and decent people can once again serve the public. Strict term limits are absolutely necessary.

I could go on and on but by now you get the idea. You will see this theme in many of my posts. Bottom line is You have to involved. You have to take action, You have to or no one else will. I hope if nothing else through my ranting and raving, it motivates at least one person capable of rising to this challenge then all then I can die a happy man. Think about it.

PEACE!!

The Sage

If you haven’t figured it out yet, We the People have been and are being deceived by the very people we  have entrusted to run our country. It is so unbelievable the magnitude of the lies and deception that we can’t force ourselves to even believe it. Carl Sagan said “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. The bamboozle has captured us. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”

The administration and powers that be have used their power to manipulate mass media and convinced us all that we are under attack when they may very well be the ones who orchestrated the attacks that spawned this war in the first place. There is strong evidence to suggest our government was, if not involved, at least complacent in the events of September 11, 2001. Because of the power of these despots wield, We The People have not seen all the evidence and those dissenting voices are being ridiculed or otherwise coerced to silence.

Another famous person said: “Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” This person should know, the man that said this was Hermann Goering

The Bushovites and neocons are at least smart enough to learn from the masters of propaganda on how to drag a country down some insane path. So instead of Goering and Hitler we have Rove and Bush, wonderful. They have bamboozled us into thinking we were attacked by some shadowy terrorist organization that has resulted in our great country being bogged down in the sand covered Vietnam that is Iraq and Afghanistan. They have greatly miscalculated the response of the Iraqi and Afghan people, lamely believing that they would line up behind us because we are the righteous Americans. What unadulterated arrogance and stupidity.

The lesson they are apparently chose to ignore is that other nations will not long tolerate such lunacy and will unite to stop the madness. Do they not realize that many people in Europe and Asia are already drawing these comparisons. The Nazis found out what a determined group of allies can accomplish. How can we forget these basic lessons of history. The imbeciles running the show in Washington are too drunk with power to care. Don’t be deceived by the Dumocrats and Congress, they are just a culpable and liable as the Rebumblicans and the President.

I believe the only way to stop this madness is to take back our Government, after all it does belong to We The People. We the People should not idly stand by and watch the very fabric of our country disappear in this insane empirical dream of a few megalomaniacs. Take action, write or vote out your representatives, join the fight, our country is at stake.  PEACE!

The Sage

Let us assume for a moment that we actually did go to Iraq to take the battle to the terrorists, eliminate the WMD threat, and to free the Iraqi people from a brutal dictatorship. I know its a hard sell but bear with me for a minute. The question would still be a resounding WHY!?!?!?!?!

The Thousands Year War continues in the Middle East with much of the the same theological conflict, assassinations, and power struggles that have been going on since the beginning of time. Anyone not aware of this would be professing ignorance of the greatest historical documents ever assembled. I am of course talking about the Holy Bible. So our President who says he is a “devout Christian” has obviously not been paying attention, again. From Genesis to Revelations, the books are filled with violence, oppression, political aspirations, intrigue, you name it its in there. Not that I rely totally on the Bible as a historic fact, but I’m using something the neocons can’t dispute without blowing their cover.

Why would anyone think we can export our Western values and morals and harbor expectations that we could quickly pacify everyone with a Walmart in every ghetto? What kind of stooge would think that we could remove the only vestige of discipline (that would be Saddam) that the Iraqis have ever known and expect them all to line up for conversion to good old USA philosophy? Well obviously someone sold We the People on the concept and we bought it hook, line and sinker. Let it be known that I have never been nor will I ever be supportive of our country’s involvement in Iraq. Even Afghanistan though equally full of good intentions and ideals will result in the same quagmire. We are nothing short of occupiers and that will continue to fester and breed contempt. Since W was playing hooky from the Guard and obviously didn’t hang with any military types, the lessons of Vietnam are lost on him and his boyz.

The argument that we stay and win is lunacy. If you expect “Victory” to be when they all line up in the new downtown Walmart, forget it, it ain’t gonna happen. Not in our lifetimes anyway. Let’s face it, the various factions of Islam are going to continue to be at war with each other just like they have been for all of recorded history. Only the various dynasties and dictatorships of Egypt, Rome and the Ottomans have been able to brutally force a brittle and fragile truce. Even now the demographics of a country provide majority populations as with Saudi Arabia (Sunni) and Iran (Shia). I will leave it to you to compare the methodology that either of these countries now employ to keep the peace. Throw their mutual admiration for the Israelis into the equation and you have a real mess.

Back to point in Iraq - Shia and Sunni are both Muslim people yet they fight over the most ridiculous reasons. Do you realize why they brutally kill, torture and abuse each other? It is akin to Baptist and Methodists killing each other because the differ over a few basic religious philosophies. Time Magazine has a really good summary piece I highly recommend for the uninformed. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1592849,00.html

The divisions in all major hotspots of that volatile area defy logic, cases in point include: Hamas vs Fatah in the Palestinian crisis and Lebanon’s situation with Hezbulah is no different. They can’t even decide amongst themselves so just like the well intentioned playground referee, we step in to help them settle it. You remember the playground referee don’t you? The guy who always interjected themselves into every conflict and everyone’s business. Don’t you remember, you didn’t like them did you? Well neither do the people of the middle east.

The moral of this story is simple. Just like the proverbial horse and water, we can’t force our beliefs, culture, and logic on people who have no conception of what we are even trying to give them. Even though we are lucky enough to live in a country where Walmarts aren’t always revered it just demonstrates the opulence and decadence we come to expect as “Americans”. In a place where you need to dodge gun battles to go get bread for your table, how can we expect them to even vaguely understand the rewards of our society. They don’t have the wealth of information, multimedia and propaganda that tell us how great we have it. Even if they did, it would probably be revolting to their version of morality.

We have to begin phased pullouts of Iraq immediately, to delay only means countless more precious young Americans will be sacrificed to the continued lunacy of this war. We have more important things to worry with at home to have delusions of nation building. What a bunch of arrogant clods We the People have elected to run our country. Take back our country, fire all the Liars!!

PEACE NOW!!

The Sage

I believe that we are at a crossroads of the American dream and that We The People are in danger of losing our freedoms. The democracy that our fore fathers dreamed of during the American revolution is grave danger of failing. We The People don’t run the country anymore, instead it is ruled by an elite class of politicians and bureaucrats that have through privilege and power created a closed world unattainable by We the People. A few individuals with iron will, dogged determination and resources $$$$ can achieve this status but only by selling their soul to the gods of power.

Lord Acton said “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Those men and women in power now are no exception. The temptations of privilege, the intoxication from power coupled with the pressures, hoop jumping and politics of our sadly deteriorated bureaucracy leaves little room for the needs of We The People.

I believe we need to get back to what our fore fathers intended which was the citizen politician, someone who had a real job and only went to Washington when needed. Which is why I ask: do they have to go to Washington anymore?

The advantages of technology today provides a logical alternative for routine business through telecommunications and computer links. This would result in a tremendous savings in travel expenses, and keeps our homegrown heroes away from the cesspool of corruption that is Washington DC. Our leadership should be here with us representing our needs instead of being pampered and privileged by lobbyists and special interests with fat wallets.

How do we get back our government? Do we expect that those privileged individuals running the US Government to change themselves. Why would we think they would volunteer to give up that good life of power and privilege? If you believe that then do I have a deal for you I believe the only solution requires We the People to raise the alarm and spread the word. We must raise awareness, educate voters and apply pressure to the elected representatives of We The People. I believe this is going to be more difficult than anyone imagined but if we are to take back our freedoms and ensure them for future generations then we must succeed.

I believe dark times may be upon us if the NeoCons succeed in creating their version of “Utopia”. I believe that we have been fed the biggest lie in recent history with the public account of 9/11. The are many reliable sources of FACTS that go ignored by big media. If you have not had exposure to the NeoCon threat and an absolutely excellent reference sight is WWW.WHATREALLYHAPPENED.COM. Michael Rivero’s sight is a gold mine of information that you don’t see on the network news.

I Believe if we don’t exercise or constitutional rights then We the People will loose those special freedoms that have already begun to slowly disappear. Take action, write your congressman, start a blog, vote for anyone other than the incumbent; push your representative for mandatory term limits; investigate the National Initiative for Democracy (www.nationalinitiative.us); but in the final analysis We The People must become more personally involved. I could go on and I will in future posts but for now lets keep it short and I hope interesting. As always, responsible comments and critiques are welcome.

Keep the Faith & PEACE
The Sage

After some time invested in brainstorming and researching, I make my tentative first step into the on-line world at large. While this blog doesn’t focus on a singular topic, it is generally intended to point out some of the more ridiculous lines of reasoning used by people who should know better.

As you might deduce from that statement, many of my initial posts will be centered on the outright lunacy going on in Washington D.C. these days. Other areas for exploration include information technology, security, stupid people, crazy drivers and even religion. You can assume that I am not politically correct but will try not to be too insensitive.

One of the first things I want to do is to start a little contest that will feed into one of my future stories. The first person that can correctly identify me will receive a free MP3 player. Of course those that have helped me with this are exempt. I know some of you techno nerds may take this as a challenge but it is not intended to be an insult to your abilities, just a little fun.

I invite any reasonable comments, suggestions or requests on the site and content, but reserve the right to ignore whoever I choose for whatever reason.

A few initial hints on my identity are fairly obvious: I live in the southern United States and I am a Mac user forced to live in a Windows world. Anyway, just wanted to get something out there for testing and first steps. Hope to here from you soon.

The Sage