HOW TO FUCK UP A WHOLE COUNTRY WITHOUT EVEN TRYING

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In days of yore there were widely respected rules for meriting inclusion into the middle class.

Of course, there were rough patches, but all in all it was a satisfactory formula.

 Then something happened.

 We all realized that we were being played for suckers.

 Somehow we allowed our leaders to make rules that are just fucking foolish.
- We allow our money to be taken away from us and given to people who don't work; plus we reward them with more money for every child they have. It's like encouraging the stupidest people in the country to have more children than the brightest. It's insane.
- We allow companies with the fastest computers to buy stocks nanoseconds before we can, thus insuring that they make millions...nay billions...without being any better at actually picking the stocks. And we do nothing about it.
- We incarcerate more people in the world over a "WAR ON DRUGS" that we all know was lost a long, long time ago and had no chance of victory.
- We have the most demand for gas, yet we have one of the lowest gas taxes in the world, even though we know that with higher prices Americans will find ways to consume less.
- We pay farms for not growing crops.  Think about that a minute. And we know that most of the money goes to huge corporations.
- We wage wars and make absolutely no demands on the populous...no higher taxes, no conserving, no nothing. Shit we just pass the cost on to our children and grandchildren.
- We give tax breaks for companies sending manufacturing jobs overseas.  Look it up. It's insane.

 I could give hundreds of examples of collective insanity, but what's sad is that you know them already. Our tolerance of this foolishness is why it is guaranteed to get worse. But we cope...

 Suicide is on the rise.

 Pills are being popped in record numbers just to keep people from screaming every second of every day.

 I predict that soon it will be the people who know how to fix a car motor, or plant crops or rewire a motor who will be most prized.

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It used to be that you weighed your talents against various rewards and made choices that more or less made sense.

Now it seems that no matter where we try to turn there is someone telling us that we screwed up. There are many "experts" saying that a college degree is now a waist of time and money. People...Americans...are mostly clueless.  We just float along on a wave of ignorance that will, at the shore of reality, crash into some real bad shit. You can't expect the government to just keep printing money and think you, much less your children, will live happily ever after.  Sorry.

 Modern life in America is like navigating complex intersections without a map. I don't profess to be any sort of guru.  I am as confused as anyone else, but I'm not blind...and hopefully, I'm not stupid.  But my prediction is that this shit is going south and it could get very ugly.

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 We know how to ease this economic stagnation, but we fail to act in our own self-interest. If each and every one of us refused to buy anything made in China and instead bought only US made goods, the tables would be turned instantly.  But we don't. It is a good individual strategy for the short term because we save some of our dwindling cash, but it's a disaster for long term national interests. But we do it anyway.

(I only included this graph because it makes no sense whatsoever. Check it out again)
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HEALTH

The item below is humorous because of the ad placement, but the stats are dead on.  We know we eat crap, but we do it anyway. The power of advertising can (DOES) convince us to do things that are, in a word, irrational.

 We have people telling us that we are a fools for eating meat. As if all that evolution was for nil. Soon we may have no options.

 But take a look at the stuff we do eat. Here's one example of our shared stupidity. I call this kind of stuff "Marginally Consumable Stuff From Dow Chemical".

 We know we should exercise more and we don't.  We know that single occupant commuter vehicles is irrational, yet we do it anyway.

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WAR

We are at war and are forced to push our soldiers way beyond their breaking point because we simply don't have enough warriors. And we do it year after year after fucking year and not one student picks up a picket sign in protest. After Vietnam we have been taught that protesting a war is the same thing as disrespecting the soldiers.  I DON'T SEE IT THAT WAY!

 No matter how you feel about the wars, you must know this. One side beheads their prisoners and (pictured below) Americans fight to save the lives of wounded enemy.

 I'm glad we are the biggest dog on the block...It helps me sleep better at night...

 ....but we are facing an enemy like no other we've ever fought. (Does she look like a "radical Muslim"?

 And there are side effects of all this stress, these next two are but a couple...

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SOCIAL INSANITY

I know that there are good people who think curtailing the speech of others is for the common good.  They aren't evil people, but who's job is it to decide who can and who can not be offended and who exactly gave them that authority?

 If I say that we were attacked by Muslim on 9/11, I will be reminded by good honest people that we were attacked by "Radical Muslims". Well, we don't say that Pearl Harbor was attacked by Radical Japanese or that we were at war with Radical Germans. We know that if all those "Moderate Muslims" rose as one to condemn the insanity and ratted out the murderers, then the problem would be solved...but they don't.  And I might add, we have nut cases in this country.  There are the Oklahoma City bombers, and the abortion doctor murders, etc, but Americans WILL rat these people out.  There is a difference there that can't be ignored.

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It used to be that unless you showed great respect to a police officer, you could expect to get your ass kicked.  We all knew it and, quite honestly, we liked it that way.

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PURITANS AT THE GATE

As you probably know by now, Puritans drive me up the fucking wall. They scare the holy shit out of me. See, they don't have a world view that they think is good, they have a world view that they know is good....therefore, it should be imposed on the rest of us.

 In the rest of the non-Puritan world, the female form is celebrated in art. In America we get this...

 Yes, that is a fake ship's front part thing that I can't remember the name of in an aquarium. There were complaints and they were forced to put a bra on it. This next image below says it all.

Poetry that.  

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EDUCATION

I don't like being the one to tell you, folks, but we as a nation are getting stupider.

 While the rest of the world rushes headlong toward the sciences, we are falling farther and father back...and nothing suggest that will change anytime soon.

 We laugh at own own stupidity...

...but a smarter, more innovative populous used to be our strong suit. Now schools are just  wells where we keep throwing more and more money with worse and worse results.

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MISCELLANEOUS 

Did you know that there are millions of children in America today who have never seen the night sky in all it's glory? It's called light pollution, and I find it rather sad.

I am not guilty of class envy, but if you desperately need more revenue, I would think it logical to go where the money is.

I predicted that after having free access to pornography, the thrill would wear off and the demand would fall. I think that is happening now. The jury is still out on whether that is a good or a bad thing.

I am as guilty as anyone, I guess, in putting too much stock in what the experts say. That is getting more and more difficult, however, what with them getting so much shit wrong.

Think of the shit we put up with. I think it all started when McDonald's (decades ago)  convinced us all to clean off our own tables when we finished their hamburgers. Now there seems no limit of the hoops we Americans will jump through without so much as a whimper of united protest.

The key words in the last diatribe was 'united protest'. Americans don't unite with anyone. We don't trust anyone enough any more to put our ass on the line for a common cause. Think of the ATM fees, the credit card bullshit, the "I will give anyone a loan" bullshit, and we....
just.......take.....it.
Well, not me, by god! I'm pissed!! I'm going to write a blog!!!!!
(How fucking sad is that?)

One of my very own...

PS: And one more insight that didn't quite fit in with any of the images....
It used to be that to eave drop on another person's telephone conversation was considered bad form.  When you were in a room with eight people and the phone rang and it was for you, the other seven people quietly drifted away so as not to appear rude.
Now you have four people at one bar screaming into a tiny device (for no technical reason) and we are forced to listen to every private chat and.....well, we older people consider this very bad form.  You show me a man or a woman who, upon receiving a phone call and walks outside, and I will show you a gentleman or a polite woman.
Oh, and if you think you have the right to yell into a phone seated next to me a the bar, then FUCK YOU IN THE ASS WITH A FUCKING BAR STOOL LEG YOU ARROGANT PIECE OF DOG SHIT.....but that might just be me.

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PPS: Did you know that in 1987 American Airlines saved $40,000 just by eliminating one olive from each salad served?.....neither did I.
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