Category Archives: Uncategorized

Centerton Arkansas July Fourth 2012; Civil Unrest Beyond Party Lines

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As we celebrate this Independence Day and what the celebration represents we should never forget that men died to uphold the original Declaration of Independence. Often it seems that the original dream has been clouded by hot dog eating contests and fireworks displays when the true celebration should be a remembrance of the brave, prescient and independent thinkers whom in 1776 drafted a document against the oppresion caused by the British Empire. The king of England being entirely removed from their plight, their needs and ignorance of their ability to govern on their own.

Our present situation seems to very much echo the same dissatisfaction of 1776. Our current leaders and governing legislatures have clearly lost touch with what the heartbeat of the country is foreboding. This feeling of our failed leadership goes beyond party lines. People are just plain fed up with rhetoric, lies and being treated like they are stupid! The time is coming where if something doesn’t change for the better and change damn quickly, the people will rise up in a mass protest and demand a new government. Gone will be the lying congressmen and senators who are representing their lobbyists and denying the best paths of action for their people and the environment. Gone will be the senators and congressmen with no backbone who are afraid of alienating any constituents for fear of losing reelection in their repective state or district. The time for action is now the people can’t take any more. Patience is very thin. The people know when the politicians are lying now. They know when they are saying anything to get elected and are quite inauthentic.

Sad that in our democracy we needed to reach such desperate times to read the pulse of the people. For far too long the two party system has clogged up the works. Greed has permeated the beltway and the stink of this greed has reached every citizen of the United States. Greed is not good! Greed destroys families and greed destroys the planet. No one can foretell the future precisely but if something doesn’t change and change damn quickly there will be big changes inside the beltway and a lot of legislators and lobbyists out of work. Maybe they can qualify for food stamps. Who can say? The situation is grave and desperate. The drafters of the Declaration of Independence paid in blood. Will it come to that again?

Get off the cell phone and Drive! — Jake Shween

The Death Panel Speaks; Fear and Loathing on First Street

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Imagine if you will a world without doctors. A world where if you are sick and dying your fate is decided by judges instead of doctors and nurses. As you lay dying on the operating table you are surrounded by apparent experts on the law and its applications. It’s reminiscent of a black mass. They are all dressed in robes. You think it’s your appendix as the pain is in your side however more than half of these judges are prepared to give you brain surgery. As you lay there writhing in pain they argue as to which among them should wield the knife and cut something.

The room is dark and foreboding. Instead of antiseptic aromas all you perceive is the smell of musty tomes of musty words. Instead of a scalpel a dark figure hovers over your helpless body with what appears to be a letter opener. Another holds a gavel. The gavel rises and crashes into your temple. Unfortunately you are still half conscious as their macabre ritual proceeds. Finally, since you clutch at your side, the judges, after hours of infighting, decide to stab you in the side. Some of them turn to avert their eyes. Some of them stare with indifference as the crude instrument impales you below the rib. Immediately a mixture of blood and water flow out.

Life ebbs out of you slowly as the black figures circle you. Behind them you can see rows and rows of books that are filled with nothing that can help save your life. Did any of them consult a doctor before deciding to impale you with such a crude instrument? No that would have been too kind and merciful. Instead they proceeded to ignore any healing procedure whatsoever. They acted solely upon their apparent expertise at something, something which had no purpose other than to officiate argument. Sadly you die. One of many faced by the death panel. Profits remain sacred. Human life is but a trifle. The law must be upheld at any cost!

“If you’re going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you’re going to be locked up.” — Hunter S. Thompson

“Politics is the art of controlling your environment.” — Hunter S. Thompson

Get off the cell phone and Drive! — Jake Shween

Fast and Furiously Ignoring the Obvious

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Anyone watching the news this past week would have found the congressional grilling of the current Attorney General Eric Holder at center stage. Somehow with the congressional approval rating at an unprecedented low these republican clowns can still find time to divert the countries attention from the fact that they have stonewalled every Obama initiative at every turn. So instead our tax money is now paying to watch these boobs grill the attorney general about a program that had little effect on the country other than to possibly help out the NRA by bringing more guns into public circulation.

Where is Alberto Gonzales at a time like this? We need a champion of Attorney General Justice from the former glory days of the Bush administration. You know, the guy who willfully fired U.S. Attorneys that Bush had hired in the middle of their terms because they refused to enforce Republican principles and or initiatives. Thankfully Fox News has hired this legal wiz kid as a talking head. Now if he would only get on his soap box and let us know the proper punishment for Eric Holder instead of harping on the pending Supreme Court decision regarding the Obama Health Care initiative. Or having the asinine audacity to proclaim that Obama is violating his oath of office with his new immigration announcement.

Once again lawyers are proving why they make such lousy leaders. Most of them would rather hear themselves talk than make any progress towards a better future for everyone. Their biggest thrills come from out bullying each other. What’s that you say? Obama is a lawyer? Indeed he is and a graduate of Harvard Law School at that. He’s needed now as he is up against a prime example of a bully from the business world. Willard Mitt Romney of Bain Capital. Check out the picture of him and his cronies waving cash around back in the eighties. What a country!

What a gleeful bunch of guys! How cheery to think of them as rich elitists running things! What rascally frat gags can we expect if Romney gets elected?

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

“I can make more generals but horses cost money!” — Abraham Lincoln

Get off the cell phone and Drive! — Jake Shween

Soft Drink Danger and Other Reasons to Leave Home and Vote

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This past week saw a wild rumpus ensue when the sometimes controversial Mayor of NYC, Michael Bloomberg decided to ban the sale of sodas over 16 ounces that contain 50 or more calories. Considering all the very real dangers that face us every day it is interesting to zero in on something as relatively harmless as what some consider to be a rather delightful beverage. While it is a fact that government needs to establish certain regulations to protect the populace isn’t this notion of controlling what we choose to drink going a bit far? Next will we be required to consume vegetable juice every day to ensure we get the proper dose of fiber and nutrients? Why not? If the government can forbid us drinking sweetened soda why shouldn’t it require us to drink vegetable juice?

Here’s an idea for all health conscious mayors across the country. Put a ban in place on the use of elevators in all buildings except in emergencies. This would require everyone to use the stairs. What better way to get a work out particularly if one works on the 50th floor? Maybe all the public water fountains should be boosted with vitamin c. That way we could prevent the rampant scurvy that is occurring in our cities. Have the TSA enforce a rule that anyone who wanted to ride the subway for twenty blocks or less would be turned down and forced to walk instead. Never mind inclimate weather! The harsh conditions might burn even more calories. For that matter steakhouses should be forced to serve beef in 6 ounce portions or less. Otherwise a heavy fine should be levied against them to fund cardiologists nationwide!

Dear reader it is easy to see how easy it is for government to overstep its’ bounds and dictate our lives. The Declaration of Independence states:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Has the mayor of NYC read these very words? How can it be dictated to us what our personal definition of happiness is? Perhaps ones happiness is guzzling a big gulp on a hot day and belching at a passing police officer. It is a sad day when our country begins to dictate our habits. The term for that is dictatorship as opposed to democracy. Government need not enforce common sense. Let us concentrate our efforts on more vital matters. Perhaps the proliferation of firearms and the clear and present danger the possession and use of such weapons causes. After all, people don’t consume a soda and drop dead like they do when they’re consumed by a bullet.

 “Speaking for the great white father in Washington and all the American people, let me say we respect you savages for your native ability to instantly adapt and survive in whatever Godforsaken wilderness we move you to. Out there. Sign here.” — Firesign Theater from: Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him

Get off the cell phone and Drive! — Jake Shween

Waiting On The Trickle Down

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Clem stared at the copper tube winding down from the top of the still. The tip rested on  a porcelain jug that sat on an upturned crate. He was quietly mumbling to himself as he had done every night for the last seven years. “Dang God of the still have mercy, lemme see a trickle down of your blessed juice.” The stool he sat on creaked as his knees knocked together. A fat spider scrambled underneath the copper pot where the fire should have been. The kerosene lamp sputtered. Clem got up and turned the wick up a bit. “Damn” he muttered “seven years and not a drop”.

Just then he heard a rustle in the dirt behind him. He turned around and with a jaundiced eye saw his neighbor Billie standing in the door of the ramshackle shed. “Clem you have plum lost your foolish mind,” proclaimed Billie. “For seven damn years you’ve been huddled over this stinkin’ still every night waiting for a trickle from that cold pot. I told you once I told you a thousand times welladay you got to light a fire for that damn thing to work.” Clem stood up and spat out a chunk of tobacco he’d been roiling in his mouth. “Shaddup Billie. Just shaddup. You know this here is a magic still. I got it from the old still god Ronnie Reagan. He said there is no way it wont work afore he dropped dead.” Billie shook his head. He took off his hat and held it like a preacher. “Clem old pal, every day you work for that mean old straw boss Willard. You give him and his people all your best corn. You shovel out his stables. You done break your back every day working at Rove Farm. Not once have they ever done a thing for you. A man like you oughtta wake up and smell the coffee!”

“Aw hell” Clem grumbled. Billie turned and ceremoniously replaced his hat on his head and walked away into the night. “Plum foolish old coot, be dead afore he sees a trickle.” As Billie got further away his words echoed in Clem’s head. Clem thought to himself what he had been told. If he did what the straw boss Willard told him to do everyday. If he kept the Rove farm clean and free of undesirables. If he gave all his best corn up to them. The magic Reagan still was supposed to trickle down. He imagined in his head hundreds of full jugs of the sweet elixer. He remembered that Reagan once told him that: “Facts are stupid things.” In his mind he agreed. He was glad Billie had gone. He sat back down on the stool, his knees knocked together. He grabbed another wad of tobacco and took up his mumbling. “Dang God of the still have mercy, lemme see a trickle down of your blessed juice.”

“Facts are stupid things.” — Ronald Reagan

“Money doesn’t talk it swears.” — Bob Dylan from the song: It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)

Get off the cell phone and Drive! — Jake Shween

Super Pac Mumbo Jumbo; Sealing Wax and You

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Prepare yourselves dear readers for the most obstreperous and blatantly misleading political ads you have ever seen in this election year. The coffers will be opened wide as the giant political machine spews foaming masses of disinformation into our eyes and brains hoping to twist the truth into anything that favors the agenda of convincing us that there is no climate change, the poor deserve to be so and we should strip mine Canada for dirty shale oil just to name of few of the preposterous notions that are supposed to be good for America and will keep us on top of the industrial dung heap that our world is becoming. Don’t expect any truth out of these ads. Sadly their teams of lobbyists and lawyers are able to skirt any enforcement of the Truth in Advertising Laws as enforced by the Federal Trade Commission.

This is a very good time to be the national sales manager of any television station mind you. Television stations will have a very generous stream of revenue as has never been seen before from now until November. Unfortunately for the viewer the stations have little control over the content of the spew they will be airing. Obvious human sacrifice will be illegal of course but slow death by poisoning will still be par for the course. The most ridiculous solutions will be offered for very complex problems by spin doctors who have little or no conscience and but one goal in mind: To get their candidate(s) elected at any cost. Yes that reads ANY COST. Logic and principle will fall by the wayside. In their place will be reckless and unfounded facsimiles of such virtues.

It might be simple if it was only money that was motivating the hoped for results. Sadly it is more than that it is hatred. Hatred is what these warmongers will be spewing at us. Remember the candidate can now say that they have no control over the Super Pac and thus wash their hands with scented soap as the spin machine rolls on spewing poison. Dear readers guard yourselves carefully against propaganda. Keep in mind this is eerily similar to what brought the nazi party to power in the last century. The deficit this country has now is a direct result of the administration that started two wars and slashed the taxes for the rich. Don’t be deceived by disinformation. Hopefully, one day, this country will learn from past mistakes and lead the global community by example instead of imposing the will of the so-called Christian conservatives on the world. It is fine and just to adhere to moral principles but please make sure that they are just that: “moral”.

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things: Of shoes and ships and sealing wax of cabbages and kings and why the sea is boiling hot and whether pigs have wings.” — Lewis Carroll

“You don’t have to create it; You just have to reveal it.” — Paul Simon

Get off the cell phone and Drive! — Jake Shween

Facebook Fiasco; Wall Street Strikes Again!

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Once again Wall Street has proven it is quite alright to rip off the common investor. The old “hot dog on a string” routine has succeeded in ripping off thousands of small time investors while the big underwriters of the IPO for Facebook have walked off scot-free, for now! Morgan Stanley brilliantly decided to set the price for Facebook’s initial public offering at a lofty $38.00 per share. Now this decision is under question as Facebook shares closed at $32.00 per share on closing Wednesday. Well it seems like business as usual except for the fact that this was such a highly publicized IPO there may be a slight chance that an investigation may yield some form of stilted justice. What a field day for lawyers and regulators alike!

We anxiously await the legal morass and numerous loopholes that will most likely avail the public of little or no justice as usual. The lawyers are certain to make piles of money! Brace yourself for the ridiculous arguments that will proceed from such a clear cut case of the great American rip off. Imagine that! Bankers who are underwriters ripping off the public! As Yogi Berra would say: “It’s deja vu all over again!” How long can this obvious failure of our system of regulation continue? Will the Security and Exchange Commission show their compliance?  What will the fines, if any, be? A few million? What the heck another slap on the wrist to an industry that is rife with corruption. We like to think that China is corrupt and we are clean but please reserve that judgement. Let us see how this plays out. Nice to see it on such a grand scale! Bravo Facebook! Touche!

Thank goodness for the Occupy Wall Street movement. It is high time the American Public payed much closer attention to what goes on in the great world of finance. What will it take for true justice for the American Public? Will we ever really know how much insider trading and tip offs actually go on every single day? Alas, time will tell. Thankfully this has happened on such a grand scale maybe, just maybe the American Public will pay attention, particularly after our collective appetite has been whetted by the mortgage derivative disaster that threatened the banking system of the entire world. Beware of any politician who calls for less regulation! Their Superpacs are most likely being funded by faceless suspect entities with a vested interest in the great American rip off. The time has come for more people like Elizabeth Warren to enter politics. It’s time for honesty and integrity to become the new morality. This nation needs a healing.

“Be a terror to the butchers, that they may be fair in their weight; and keep hucksters and fraudulent dealers in awe, for the same reason.” — Cervantes

Get off the cell phone and Drive! — Jake Shween

Kick Boehner’s Can Down the Road!

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Once again the federal debt ceiling is up for debate. House Speaker John Boehner states: “The American people think we’re crazy.” That is quite correct Mr. Speaker. You absolutely have that statement correct. Of all the times you have falsely claimed to be in tune with what the American public wants and been completely out of touch this time you have it right. The American public is sick and tired of you and your cohorts windbag rhetoric. Your do nothing politics arguing about how to spin gold out of straw or medicare or food stamps is dreadful and punishes the people you should be striving to help as the public servant that you claim to be.

For once it would be merciful to see you and your band of idiots do the right thing. Tell Eric Cantor and Mitch McConnell to get their giant heads out of their asses and follow suit. Here is what needs to be done: You must let the Bush tax cuts expire! Trickle down economics have absolutely no basis in reality. The theory simply does not work. George Bush Sr. himself admitted to that calling them: “Voodoo Economics”! Next you must trim the defense budget. That will not leave the nation defenseless mind you just trim the bogus operations like the F-22 Raptor boondoggle that wasted millions on a plane that is unsafe at any speed. Just those two simple steps would help this country immensely. There would be no need to stop helping the people who elected you for God’s sake! The same people who need help the most!

Crazy to think that the people you do help are the one percenters! Yes the people who never fight in the war. Time and again we have heard you say that: “The American public have spoken” well then isn’t it time you actually heard us and did something constructive? Get off of the golf course, take the cigarette out of your mouth and do what’s right. It’s as simple as that. Make the rich pay for their protection like everyone else. The idea that the budget deficit will ever be solved by cutting every good program that has the potential to move this country forward is not only greedy Mr. Boehner, it is evil!

“Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.” – P.J. O’Rourke

Get off the cell phone and Drive! — Jake Shween

Government Should Not Define Marriage

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Sadly yesterday the voters in North Carolina decided to narrowly and insensitively define marriage by approving Amendment One. It is rather preposterous that such an ideal should be defined by a public vote. The key word here is public. Marriage is a private matter. It should be up to each individual couple to decide on their own personal definition of marriage. In a broad sense, if you truly love someone and wish to devote the rest of your life to them, that is a very personal decision and not up for any vote or for any court to decide. How strange that in a country that was founded on the precept of freely practicing your religion of choice, without fear of persecution,  we should once again try to tell people how to think and how to behave. In a country that purports to be against bullying many of the population have turned into bullies!

Ironic too that one main source of this need to control and define the way people should behave and live comes from the Christian church. Dr. Franklin Graham was on television telling us how to vote. The very people that should be striving to emulate Jesus Christ have turned instead into sad and fear mongering vassals of insecurity and hatred of all that they do not understand and therefore fear. Jesus Christ preached tolerance, a detail that many of them conveniently choose to ignore. One passage that the pastor never ignores is the part of the bible which references tithing to the church. Fascinating how a book that was written by poor people scraping out an existence in the desert thousands of years ago and tripping on God knows what can be twisted and perverted in our day and age to confuse and confound so many people.

Doubt not that if Jesus Christ did indeed return to this earth amongst his followers he would be labeled a lunatic. Unless he seriously kicked some ass to protect himself, which never was his style one will notice, he would be summarily be shot by an enthusiastic member of the NRA or the John Birch Society. If he did seriously kick some ass he would be called out as the anti-Christ and the results would be the same.

Will mankind ever be civilized enough to resolve these issues of humanity by relying on logic and perception and not some microscopic view of the universe? The year is 2012. By now we should be seeing some hope of a new way of thinking. The world is indeed hungry for answers and not some skewed perceptions from small minded hate mongers. When the prophet arrives will it be too late? Or is the time of prophets past altogether? Perhaps a giant supercomputer can tell our feeble minds the answers we crave. Or maybe the prophet is a woman! Now that’s a controversial idea!

“I have no objection to any person’s religion, be it what it may, so long as that person does not kill or insult any other person, because that other person don’t believe it also. But when a man’s religion becomes really frantic; when it is a positive torment to him; and, in fine, makes this earth of ours an uncomfortable inn to lodge in; then I think it high time to take that individual aside and argue the point with him.”
― Herman Melville

“Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith. I consider the capacity for it terrifying.” — Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Get off the cell phone and Drive! — Jake Shween

Rupert’s Folly; Newt Bites It

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Looks like the end of Rupert Murdoch’s reign as the head of the News Corporation. According to the parliamentary committee in London he is “not fit to exercise the stewardship of a major international company”. This calls to question: will this affect the credibility of his news operation here in America? That remains to be seen. His current cast of bozos seem to be in denial. Perhaps they all actually believe in their own twisted perceptions of reality. It would be bombastic if any of them could admit to the fact that their boss is a bully and no better than a mob boss. Even a pirate has more conscience than a man who would freely let his underlings hack phone lines and then deny any knowledge of their behavior. Oh how the mighty fall!

Not that long ago in March of 1985 Rupert embarked on his plan to establish a new network in the United States. His plan was bold and quite unconventional. Many naysayers thought that the network was doomed from the start with it’s assortment of untested shows that first aired in October of 1986. Many of those early shows met a quick demise but some survived as Rupert was not afraid to spend the money to keep talent. In October of 1996 he set his sites on a 24 hour cable news network. Almost immediately he resorted to tabloid journalism. The Fox News Channel now consists of loud mouth imbeciles who sadly spew doctrines of hatred and division endlessly. Sad that anyone in their right mind would subscribe to such blabbering which seems beyond right wing. In fact the opinions expressed on Fox News border on and fall into the fantasies of what you might call the lunatic fringe. What will Rupert’s next quest be? Well at 81 perhaps there is an opening for him as a consultant to Mitt Romney. Antique thinking seems to be the case for the GOP who want to return us to a pathetic bunch of brain bashing Luddites while they escape with all of our hard earned cash to their sterile fortresses.

Oh Newt how big you once talked! Now it looks like its back to the scum filled pond you crawled out of. (Sad that you share a name with a noble member of the amphibian species.) You will have to support Romney now! You said such nice things about him. It’s like you two guys could not get enough of each other. Don’t worry Newt! At 68 you can always hook up with Rupert Murdoch. Maybe you two can become the new Laurel and Hardy of the Fox News corporation. Now that would be a show we could all enjoy! The Newt and Rupert Comedy Hour exclusively on Fox News Channel. Has a nice ring to it. You could do a live broadcast every night of the week and compare notes and crazy rantings! Good luck Newt! We will miss your gay stay puffed marshmallow head spouting vague references to ill conceived notions and mean spirited but well meaning diatribes! Don’t forget to give Romney a big wet kiss as you depart!

“The Big Show is inside my head!” — Kurt Vonnegut

“I don’t care what you say about me, just spell my name right.”— P.T. Barnum

Get off the cell phone and Drive! — Jake Shween