Does any of this ring a bell?

Do these sound familiar?

1. Abolition of Private Property
2. Heavy Progressive Income Tax
3. Abolition of Inheritance Rights
4. Confiscation of Property from Emigrants and Rebels
5. A Central Bank
6. Government Control of Communication and Transportation
7. Government Ownership of Factories and Farms
8. Government Control of Labor
9. Corporate Farms, Regional Planning
10. Government Control of Education

The principles from the Communist Manifesto as defined by Marx and Engels are worth another look.

Does it frighten anybody else to read these again and discover how many of these have already happened in America, and that a major political party is seeking the power to implement the rest?

The Death of Objectivity

The evidence is overwhelming. From Fannie and Freddie to Lehmann and AIG, no major news outlet has yet taken the time to investigate the root causes of the meltdown and report back to the American public.

Where are the multi-part investigative reports on the news that cover the history of Fannie and Freddie, the conditions that caused the mortgage mess, why they happened and who were the key players?

Has anyone answered to your or my satisfaction these basic questions? --

Why were mortgage brokers allowed to sell mortgages to unqualified borrowers?

What was the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the buying and selling of these mortgage-backed securities throughout the financial industry?

Who ran Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Since they were quasi-government institutions, who in the government was responsible for their oversight?

Was there anyone on Wall Street or in the Federal Government who saw this meltdown coming and tried to sound the alarm? If so, how did authorities respond? If not, how could that happen?

What Federal Agencies were responsible for regulating Fannie and Freddie? Did they discover the problem and try to do something about it? Or were they stopped by politicians higher up the ladder?

Instead of independent investigations giving the public facts on these and other questions, all we see is a megaphone handed to Obama with a slap on the butt and a "go get 'em tiger!".

And that's the answer to the basic question I've posed. If such an independent investigation were to take place by reporters who are willing to report the truth, no matter how it might reflect on one candidate or the other, it could kill the candidacy of their own favorite candidate.

Objective journalism appears dead, and with it American democracy. When the press becomes monolithically partisan and chooses to withhold the truth from the public if it might reflect badly on their chosen candidate, the dream that was America is lost.

Did you know?

These things about Obama -

Jeremiah Wright was his pastor until a couple of months ago?

Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers are his neighbors, political sponsors, and friends?

That he padded his resume?

That he's closely tied to a radical left voter-fraud organization known as Acorn?

Obama's stand on late-term abortions where babies are born alive?

That he interfered with negotiations to wrap up the war in Iraq?

That he got help buying his home from friend and convicted felon Tony Rezko?

In Search of a Clue

It's sobering.

While the stock market plunges, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are absorbed by the government, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch fold or are absorbed into other giant financial mega-corporations, the presidential candidates seem to be completely clueless.

Instead of thoughtful and substantive ideas about what can be done to clean up this mess and get the American economy back on its feet, the candidates focus on the inane.

Obama: McCain's old. He doesn't even know how to use email. Palin is, well, so many distasteful and offensive things I can't even bring myself to print them.

McCain: Obama's a lightweight. He's no reformer, he's just a puppet of the Democrat/MoveOn machine.

OK, so I tend to agree with McCain. But he still can't seem to verbalize anything that makes any sense about his ideas for reining in this financial mess, other than something like "changing the way government works".

Funny, I thought congress created Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, appointed Bill Clinton pals to run them, encouraged them to fund mortgages for the less fortunate (read: bad credit risks), then pretended to be caught by surprise when it all came crashing down.

Now they seem to support nationalizing everything. Fannie and Freddie - already owned by the Feds. Bail out Lehman and Lynch? So far it looks like the answer's going to be No (thank goodness). Bail out GM/Ford/Chrysler? Please let that answer be No.

How about some fresh ideas?

Get rid of Fannie and Freddie. Lenders should make loans based on the qualifications of their customers. Period. They will be more responsible if they are actually taking the risk for borrowers with bad credit.

Increase Energy Production. I'm an all-of-the-above person. Our economy is based on energy, despite the desperate hopes and dreams of leftists everywhere. Go get all the oil, gas, shale, wind, solar, hydro, non-food organic ethanol you can find. Stop messing around and make a deal with Iraq - we get to buy as much of their oil as we want at a discount, and we'll keep them safe from their enemies. Get us into a place where we're getting all of our energy either domestically or from countries that don't hate us.

Cancel CAFE standards on the Car Manufacturers. Let them build and sell any vehicles for which public demand is high, and stop telling them what they can and can't build.

Enforce Anti-Trust Law for a change. Competition is the way to get business booming. Stop letting the mega-corporations gobble up everybody so they can own their market. Let the companies that made bad decisions go bankrupt, then open up the market to start-ups who will compete with each other to provide better services to consumers.

Congress is clueless. The presidential candidates are clueless. The voters are clueless sheep.

I need to do something tonight to get away from this and get my spirits up.

Object Lesson in Propaganda

It's a very old cliche.

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.

Obama used it in a speech to his adoring Democrat followers to describe John McCain's economic policies. The crowd clearly latched onto it as a backhanded slap against the GOP Veep nominee, who was famous for her joke about lipstick being the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull. Therefore the cliche drew a standing derisive ovation from the partisan audience.

The other campaign seized on this apparent slight with amazing speed and created a YouTube ad questioning the judgement and character of the Democrat candidate. Other leftist partisans managed to add fuel to the fire with overtly slanderous comments comparing Gov. Palin to Pontius Pilate against Obama's Jesus and suggesting her only qualification for VP was that she hasn't had an abortion.

So Obama decided to respond to the McCain campaign's response to his lipstick cliche with his own outrage, suggesting that they were unfairly characterizing an innocent comment. He angrily called out the opposing campaign as outright liars for making a campaign issue out of something that he claimed never happened (i.e. calling Gov. Palin a pig).

Obama's sycophants in the media immediately set out to echo his outrage, showing multiple politicians (all Republicans, of course) using the overused lipstick/pig analogy, ending with the piece de resistance, McCain himself using it.

The whole incident is rather comical, but more instructive in the fact that both parties seem to view the American public as a mass of sheep who are easily fooled. I mainly wonder how many were fooled either way.

The conclusions about the phrase itself are pretty easy for any objective person. Just take the facts:

Obama's statement clearly was referring to McCain's economic policies and never mentioned Palin, even tangentially.

The crowd obviously connected the lipstick on pig to the lipstick on pit bull, thus the derisive standing ovation.

Did Obama intend the linkage? Maybe not, but certainly he understood the audience's linkage. For him to pretend otherwise is disingenuous. The projection of outrage against the opposing campaign for feigning their own outrage is sort of an outrage itself.

The opportunistic ad run by the McCain campaign was pretty effective, if misleading. It was a great example of taking something out of context to convey a message completely different from what was actually spoken.

Guilty of propaganda? Both sides.

Did it work? Hard to say, but it might be safe to assume the true believers on each side believed their own side's version of the story. I wonder how many understand the whole story. Those who do won't find anything on either side worthy of their support.

Government Mismanagement

The quasi-governmental Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the Federal Government in an attempt to stop the bleeding in this major mortgage mess.

Following congress' strong desire to make home ownership more accessible to citizens, they actually created the monster that has so damaged the financial markets through massive mortgage defaults.

In an age of 100% home loans routinely made for borrowers that clearly had no ability to pay, congress has little right to point fingers at irresponsible lenders. They and their politically-appointed cronies at those government created monsters are at least equally to blame with the lenders and borrowers that simply took advantage.

I was thinking about my grandparents' generation. They lived through the Great Depression, and their remarkable frugality was often puzzling to me. Here were people who had, at least from my young perspective, plenty of cash and no debt. Yet they drove old cars, made sure no lights were on unnecessarily, were careful with their grocery budget, and would never consider buying luxury items.

We seem to have forgotten those lessons. The people and their government spend recklessly, don't save, and borrow as much as a lender will allow. So many people, including those making decent salaries, are leveraged so badly that if there is any lapse in income, they will face immediate bankruptcy.

Working with employers and seeing data on their employee's 401K retirement funds, I've been shocked at the high number of people who raid their retirement for more spending money. Many people participate to get the employer match, then take the maximum allowable loans so they can spend the money. For those people, there's no retirement nest egg, but a debt that must be repaid or they'll be faced with penalties and interest.

The government is no different. They spend way beyond their tax collections and borrow the difference. Now we have a federal budget that has to spend a significant amount of tax collections on debt service. Republicans were supposed to be the fiscally responsible party, but when they got control of congress, they somehow forgot. Democrats make no pretense of fiscal responsibility, but promise to raise taxes to cover their planned massive spending increases.

It seems our entire country is on the verge of bankruptcy, and there's nobody even close to doing anything to stop it.

Theme Songs

I just realized that the easiest way to describe the choices between our candidates is in the theme songs of each candidate and their larger party philosophies.

McCain and the Republicans: God Bless the USA (Proud to be an American) - Lee Greenwood

Obama and the Democrats: Imagine - John Lennon

Listen to the two songs and perhaps you'll agree with me. Little more needs to be said.

Olympics Observations

Watching the Olympics over the last couple of weeks has been fairly entertaining. The US has been impressive in events like basketball and volleyball, gymnastics, and track and field. It's actually been encouraging to see more overt patriotism from the American athletes than we've seen in previous games.

That patriotism seems to bug the NBC commentators. Chris Collinsworth seems to be one of them, based on his nauseating interview with Kobe Bryant. Too bad, because I've always thought Collinsworth was a pretty good NFL commentator. Maybe he fancies himself turning into the next Olbermann. Hope not.

The flap over the Chinese gymnasts, who certainly look closer to 12 than the minimum 16, is sort of interesting. Is anybody surprised that the Chinese cheat? Remember how the Soviets and East Germans were masters of cheating in the 60's and 70's? They had team scientists feeding their athletes all sorts of performance-enhancing drugs with the precision that guaranteed they wouldn't turn up positive when tested at the games. I remember the East German bearded women who were built like men taking the gold medals.

It's what communists do. They lie and cheat. Think anybody can prove those Chinese girls are under 16? Not in a society where the government can compel everyone to lie, and create all the false documents they want to "prove" whatever they need. The investigators have to find the evidence of cheating to make a charge, which won't happen.

It has been disappointing, especially in the case of Marion Jones, that US athletes have cheated from time to time. But at least that's because of their individual bad decisions, not because of a government athletic drug program.

Better than the Olympics, football is about to start.

My Gas Story

The gauge on my Volvo S80 was brushing the red at the bottom eighth, so I pulled into the station on the way to the office this morning. Despite the pain of the high gas price, I was still encouraged by the fact that the posted price this morning was lower than I've paid all summer.

I followed the usual procedure and began pumping the mid-grade fuel into my nearly empty tank. Things went along normally until I glanced at the pump. The dollars and cents were rolling along very slowly, which initially made me think the pump must be extremely slow. I had a mildly irritated thought that I'd have to wait a long time for my tank to fill.

But then I looked a bit closer, and noticed that the gallon counter was moving pretty fast. I quickly discovered that instead of $3.87.9, the gas was actually pumping at $0.387. When the tank was filled, I saw that instead of costing more than $60, the tank only cost a bit more than $6.

It didn't require much thought for me to conclude that the right thing was to inform someone at the station about what was obviously a mistake. So I walked into the convenience store and handed my receipt to the clerk, saying, "Either I just won some sort of contest, or the pump price isn't set right."

The clerk's eyes opened wide, and she said, "I can't deal with this." She immediately handed the receipt to someone else behind the counter, who must have been a supervisor.

The supervisor looked at the receipt with a sigh, apparently thinking she was about to have to handle some sort of customer complaint. She asked without looking at me, "What am I looking at?"

"The price."

Suddenly her expression changed, I heard "What!?", and she quick-marched over to the machine that I presume manages the gas pumps at the other end of the counter.

While the supervisor was busy punching buttons on the machine, I stood at the other end of the counter, unsure whether I should wait for her to return. After about a minute, I picked up my receipt, which she had put down on the counter in front of me, and walked to where she was continuing to work on the machine.

I asked her, "Do you need anything else from me?".

Again without looking up, she said, "Nope. Ain't nothin I can do with yours anyhow."

I thanked her and left, wondering a bit at the bizarre experience but thankful for the 1960's gas price.

Energy Truth

In the energy debate, Pelosi and Obama have both made anti-oil statements in defense of their blockade of any legislation that includes permission for domestic exploration and drilling. There are only two possible explanations for their outrageous statements; either they are astoundingly ignorant, or they are lying through their teeth.

They've been caught in some whoppers.

First, I heard Natasha spit a venomous statement about the group of GOP congressmen using the floor of the house to continue to demand a vote on their comprehensive energy bill. She called them the "handmaidens of the oil companies".

Mike Pence from Indiana is one of the leaders of the little energy revolt in the House. He's from Indiana, which is hardly an oil state. I looked up his political contributors - it's public information after all. He's taken in about a million dollars this past year, which is nothing in this age of big money politics. The top 5 industries contributing to his campaign?

Retirees
Israel Supporters
Real Estate
Investment
Lawyers

And the biggest group, retirees, barely topped $50K in contributions. So Ms. Pelosi, how again is Rep. Pence a Big Oil toady? Could it be you've told a whopper of a lie in that statement? You certainly have convinced me you're jaw-droppingly stupid, so I'll have to give you the benefit of the doubt that the statement wasn't an outright lie, just dumb.

Speaking of stupid, how about Obama's speech yesterday where he proposed a goal of eliminating oil completely in 10 years? Does he have the slightest clue how much of all our daily lives are impacted by oil, both for energy and in the products we use?

During this whole debate, Democrats across the board have been speaking loftily about eliminating fossil fuels in favor of clean, renewable energy. I've been wondering something - how many people drive cars that aren't powered by gas or diesel? Aside from an infinitesimal number using natural gas or batteries, pretty much nobody.

Do Obama and his disciples really believe we can eliminate all coal, oil, gas, and nuclear power and replace them with wind and solar? In 10 years? Hundreds of millions of Americans will have to scrap their gas-powered vehicles and buy new miracle cars within 10 years using what money? Millions will have to replace their oil and gas furnaces with new miracle solar panels that, last time I checked, didn't really work?

So Obama's either frighteningly stupid and naieve, or he's lying through his teeth. No other option is possible.

But his disciples have blind faith in The Great and Powerful OB. Will that faith continue when the country falls into a deep depression after access to energy is shut down by OB and his minions, Boris and Natasha?

Boris and Natasha

I loved Rocky and Bullwinkle when I was a kid. That's why it was so easy to figure out that the Democrat dictators of the House and Senate are actually Boris (alias Harry) and Natasha (alias Nancy).

What's hilarious about Boris is that he shut down all debate over domestic oil production while pretending he was being reasonable and the other side was the one playing politics. I'm not sure that would even be believed by his own base, although I'm sure that base is happy with anything he does to stop the evil "Big Oil".

But the biggest belly laugh was provided by Natasha, who vindictively shut down the House and turned the lights, cameras, and microphones off on the Republicans.

Meantime Barack has lost his lead in the Presidential race. Worthy of a chuckle is that Boris and Natasha are oblivious to the fact that their own actions blocking even debate of energy policy are responsible.

What a great corner Boris and Natasha have painted themselves into; if they allow debate and a vote on energy, they force the Great and Powerful OB to cast a vote that will be used against him in the campaign.

If they continue to block any votes, they are rightly vilified for doing so, taking the Great and Powerful OB down with them in public (dis)approval.

Just like poor Boris and Natasha, suffering defeat and humiliation every time they try to destroy that heroic little flying squirrel.

Warehousing Children

The front page photo in this morning's Republic newspaper sent a shiver down my spine. The image showed a baby lying in one of those infant carriers in the foreground, with a rank of infant cribs and a daycare worker sitting in a rocking chair with another infant in her arms.

The photo was intended by the newspaper to depict a positive image of the local daycare center that was the subject of the article. That made me shudder every bit as much as the image itself - most people seem oblivious to the terrible implications of these child warehouses.

The article itself decried the fact that this daycare center, perhaps the largest in Columbus, was closed indefinitely because of the recent flood. How were these mothers going to find "quality daycare" to replace what had previously been provided by the center?

My fervent hope is that at least some of these mothers will come to their senses and realize their children need them more than the big house and new car and fulfilling career.

I've blogged before about the epidemic level of narcissism we've reached in this country. This article hit me like a bolt of lightning with the primary root cause of our societal illness; children raised by minimum-wage workers in baby warehouses.

If there's one thing I know from my life experience, it's this simple fact. Children need their mothers. They need their mothers to feed them, teach them, protect them, love them.

What's the lesson a child learns when their mother races back to work within a few weeks of giving birth?

That Mom's car, the nice house, her career, the resort vacations, her social status, are all more important than you, her child. So you grow up ingrained with the idea that life means getting all you can for yourself. Children are inconvenient, so they must be warehoused in daycare, then preschool, then school, so you can be free to be, and get, all you can.

Relationships are fleeting, because there's no such thing as lifetime commitment to anybody else. Sacrificing for somebody else is unnecessary. Why commit to a husband (or wife) when somebody better might come along?

I grew up before this sickness took hold, but I fear my generation may be the the first to become infected with the narcissism virus. We were given prosperity by our parents and grandparents, who learned the importance of family and morality from the hard times of the Great Depression and WWII. But like the rebellious children we were, we rejected and ridiculed the lessons they tried to teach us and spawned the amoral "me first" disease with which the majority of Americans are now infected.

Those who run the child warehouses are nurturing the disease by teaching the children how to be good little narcissists so they can grow up to protect and nurture the virus for the next generation. These factory babies learn less about traditional skills like reading and math and history, and much more about celebrating diversity and Darwinian evolution and hatred for religion, capitalism, and the white male.

All the while their parents trade partners and pursue their next big house, nice car, expensive vacation, and are irritated that their children come out of the warehouse so unruly.

Marketing Genius

Recent events in the presidential campaign have led me to conclude that the Obama campaign may be the best-organized and well-conceived marketing campaign ever. The armies of adoring media types who represent the vanguard of Obama's army have created an amazing image-making machine that is now telling the world that the great and mighty BH Obama is already a shoo-in for January's inauguration.

By comparison, McCain's marketing seems inept. If you were visiting the US from another country where you didn't know or care anything about American politics, a few minutes watching TV news would convince you that OB was already the country's president. And McCain's some old coot who snipes at the Great and Powerful OB now and then.

Interestingly, the marketing campaign has been very careful and successful at avoiding specifics. Keeping it at the level of "Hope" and "Change" without getting into any specific message about whose "Hope", or what "Change" seems to be working marvelously.

Not to belabor the obvious, but it's become painfully obvious that the marketing wizards behind the campaign includes all the major Television and Newspaper "news" outlets. It seems they're all donating their own free services to the marketing juggernaut so determined to place the Great and Powerful OB on the throne.

The election has become not between the Great and Powerful OB and John McCain, but a simple referendum, yes or no, whether the American people (plus the illegal immigrants and dead people the Democrats can find to vote) want the Wizard of OB as president.

The marketing campaign says the "Yes" votes are leading.

All Thumbs

I allowed myself to be cornered into a little home improvement project. Making the purchase of the needed materials at the local home improvement store, I spent the afternoon fretting over my usual fear that I would make a mess of the project.

And what a mess I made. Spending well into the evening, the project blunders got progressively worse. The only good news was that I had Chris to help me. With no experience with these things, he's already better at them than I. At least we got more accomplished than I would have on my own. Still, the project was a disaster. A day later, sitting at my computer, I'm still upset by the whole ordeal.

These little projects look easy when everybody else does them. Like on the TV home improvement shows, or when other people do it, or even when I help somebody else do it.

Not for me. I'm so horribly deficient in all things mechanical that I now have an ugly mess that I may have to pay somebody else to clean up. Nearly every step that looks so easy when done by others is for me a herculean task.

See, I married a fearless do-it-yourself-er who would never pay somebody to do anything to her home. But she'll happily browbeat her incompetent husband into making a fool of himself and making the project cost twice as much.

See, this is why I went to college (for 3 different degrees). So I wouldn't have to get stuck in these situations. So I could hire people who actually know how to do these things while I go to work pounding a computer keyboard and wrecking my eyesight all day.

Now I suppose anybody who happens to read this who also knows who I am now knows my terrible secret. I'm a mechanical idiot incompetent.

Our Societal Epidemic

Narcissism. Selfishness and self-centeredness. Ruthless and heartless disregard for others. Always asking, "What's in it for me?".

The somewhat sobering realization that has been taking hold of me lately is that it's not just a phenomena of the younger generation. Nor is it just the atheistic and non-religious. It seems just about everybody has contracted the disease.

It's understandable that the large and growing anti-religious crowd would tend to be self-indulgent. After all, where there is no morality there is nothing more important than oneself.

But these days it seems this disease also infects the religious. This is just an individual's observation, certainly completely absent any sort of scientific study, but it seems the more someone wears their religion on their sleeve, the more likely they are infected.

My own lifelong study in the Christian faith informs me that the behavior of those professing the faith is far more important than the act of profession itself. Those uber-Christians (or uber-Catholics) I encounter these days have confused Christian Witness with Pharisaic elitism. They show off their piety and austerity and moral superiority, while separating themselves from the world full of people less worthy. And in so doing, they lose the entire point of the Gospel.

Unfortunately, I have seen and experienced firsthand more backstabbing, slander, gossip, and plain meanness from the Pharisaic Christians than those without faith. It seems to come from the elitist attitude that gives them license to mistreat others whom they deem inferior.

The lesson I will try to reflect in my own dealings with others is simply to abide by the golden rule. I will neither bury my faith nor wear it on my sleeve, hoping that my decent behavior will somehow counterbalance that of my Pharisaic brethren.

The only hope for our way of life is that the citizens rediscover the light of faith and truth, and thus inoculate themselves against the epidemic of narcissism. To do so, the light must be rekindled by the few remaining who can reflect it.

History

Maybe it's a sign of age, but my interest in history grows in direct relationship to my advance in age. I have been reading some historical books, and find it remarkable how little things have changed. Particularly remarkable is how people learn nothing from the experience of their forefathers.

The ancient Greeks were being invaded by the Medes and Persians. They had a sort of political party back then that strongly protested going to war against the invaders, preferring to negotiate peace. They didn't want to fight, did not believe their democratic society deserved to survive the invaders, and some of their numbers actually allied themselves with the invaders. Only the strong leadership and heroic exploits of some notable generals saved them from slavery and domination by the repressive rule of Darius.

But of course the Greeks still eventually lost their civilization to an increasingly comfortable and slothful population that was easily defeated later. But that civilization became at least an inspiration for the Romans, who of course also lost their empire due to the same sorts of sloth and decadence that brought down the Greeks.

The parallels with today's America are striking, and the enemies who would destroy this country all too evident. They may not be massing as armies along our borders this time, but with the technology of nuclear and biological weaponry, they don't need an army. And we have an entire political party that hopes to negotiate peace rather than fight for our continued freedom. Even some notable advocates in that party have gone so far as to ally themselves with the country's declared enemies while the government fears to even speak out against their seditious rhetoric.

America has reached the depths of the same sloth and decadence that led to the destruction of the Greeks and Romans. Citizens are no longer permitted to speak out against such things, lest they be persecuted as "intolerant". The decadent plurality now in charge of the government will not tolerate any call for return to the core values that founded America, nor will they tolerate any military action against the country's declared enemies.

The destruction of America and enslavement to a totalitarian government seems imminent. It may come to pass before I pass.

All substantially because the citizens have been systematically brainwashed by government schools that fail to teach history. In its place they teach a socialistic version of history that calls western society evil and repressive to all those who are not members of their race and religion.

My Chicago Adventure

I snagged a ticket to the Cubs versus Reds since I was in Chicago anyway. It turned into an interesting adventure that I mostly enjoyed, even the parts that I normally wouldn't normally find enjoyable.

About an hour before gametime, I went down to the hotel lobby and asked the bellman how to get to Wrigley field. He pointed to the stairway right outside the door and told me to take that train north. Wow, that was too easy.

The underground train station was like an urban cave. It was dirty, smelly, and full of a mix of other fans going to the game with businesspeople and others headed to their own destinations.

The train arrived, the doors opened, and people crowded in. I held back a bit, and feared I wouldn't make the train because it didn't look like there was room for everyone on the platform. But somehow, right before the doors closed, I saw a small gap and jumped in.

The ride was maybe 20 minutes, and I stood in the aisle with the crowds the entire way. If a seat opened up, I tried to be chivalrous and help any nearby woman take over the seat. Handholds were minimal, and it was challenging at times to stay on my feet when the train rounded corners, accelerated, or braked. At the same time I had to focus on keeping my big feet from stepping on the feet of the seated passengers.

Arriving at the Addison Street stop, I emerged from the train station to find the stadium only a block away. I found the ticket window and picked up my "Will-Call" ticket and proceeded to my seat on the lower level, third base side.

The stadium was packed. I didn't see a single empty seat anywhere, including the rooftops outside the stadium. I wondered how that worked, buildings outside the Wrigley outfield placing bleachers on their roofs and selling tickets. I wonder how much the building owners have to pay to the Cubs for selling tickets to their rooftop bleachers.

The game was fairly entertaining, with some highlight-quality defensive plays and a couple of home runs. The fans were enthusiastic, and more into the game than any other sporting event I can recall attending.

Remarkably, as the game approached its end with the Cubs leading 7-1, I looked around and saw very few heading to the exits. The vast majority of the crowd stayed to the last pitch. Another unique observation, as pretty much every other professional sporting event will see the stadium or arena empty out as soon as the outcome is settled.

Then there's the singing. The CSI actor William Peterson led the crowd in "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh inning stretch, and it was remarkable to hear the whole stadium singing the song loudly and enthusiastically. And as soon as the last out was made in the 9th inning, a Cubs song began, and I was astounded to find nearly everyone around me singing it loudly, with many dancing to the song. And the crowd began moving toward the exits, but there was no sense of any racing to be first out of the park.

The huge crowd jamming into the train station caused me to wonder how long it was going to take for me to get a spot on the train. Surprisingly, it wasn't as long as I expected, and once again I was jammed into a train car where I tried to keep from stepping or falling on someone as it transported me back to my hotel.

I think I'd do it again. It would be a lot more fun if somebody was with me next time, but I still enjoyed my little Chicago adventure.

Trying to Buck Up

Hopelessness, helplessness, a little fear. All of it I'm feeling lately. Because apparently it's true that ignorance is bliss, as a plurality of Americans appear to be in a state of pure bliss. That bliss named Barack Obama, of course.

My discomfort comes from many areas of observation and conversation, what I read, and what I experience directly. For the first time in my adult life, I truly believe we have reached a crossroads. To the right lies freedom and security and continued prosperity. To the left lies misery, war, and oppression.

Don't get me wrong, as I'm neither a McCain supporter nor an Obama detractor. The bottom line is that both are poor choices for the most powerful office in the world. It's not just those two individuals, though. The fact is that our entire democratic system of government has been co-opted. It has been taken over by the elites in both political parties who, I am now convinced, are driven by a long-term vision of a single, socialist, worldwide government.

No more pride in American exceptionalism. No more freedom. America will become indistinguishable from Canada or Europe. The European Union started something that will gradually lead to the North American Union, African Union, Far East Union, and eventually the model of global governance. Which will be oppressive, restrictive, and brutal to its detractors.

And political talk around this presidential election centers around whether McCain is too old (maybe) or whether his captivity and torture in Viet Nam is an asset or detriment to his ability to hold the presidency (I think asset); or whether Obama is a "flip-flopper" on issues like Iraq (I think he said whatever made his audience happy) or if his association with Rev. Wright is an indication that he shares his pastor's rather extreme anti-American views (I think he pretty much does).

Nobody has much of anything to say about actual policy. And the news there is bad. Both are open borders advocates, both are globalists, both are environmentalists demonstrably willing to destroy the economy in the name of stopping the mythical "global warming". And, as far as I can tell, both are socialists. McCain just a bit less than Obama.

But nobody seems to understand issues and ramifications. Those who want an immediate withdrawal from Iraq are naieve both about what such an action will cause in terms of terrorism and war and genocide, but also naieve that their candidate (Obama) will grant their wish. Those who think we can somehow eliminate oil as a source of energy in the forseeable future are jaw-droppingly naieve, and unfortunately both candidates and a plurality in Congress share in that mass stupidity.

Of course, when the topic of the war on terror comes up, an entire political party says either "what war? there's no terrorism." or "America is the real terrorist!".

It doesn't take much. All anybody has to do is a bit of reading. It is possible to find facts, as long as you exercise a bit of discernment between fact and spin (or lie). Then just apply a bit of logic and common sense to carry forward the facts and analyze the political positions and figure out how they'll impact the country and its citizens.

Evidence is clear. We are in for an extremely painful, expensive, difficult, divisive, and possibly disastrous next four years. Almost certainly under President Obama. Very probably also under President McCain.

Defining Social Justice

As the left continues its political ascendancy, their boldness increases to the point where I'm hearing more and more about how they plan to wield their power. One of the catch-phrases I keep hearing is Social Justice.

I've been hearing the term for just about as long as I can remember, but never really figured out how it was defined. My vague understanding was that it must have something to do with treating everyone fairly and not allowing the poor to be abused by evildoers.

Ask me to define Social Justice, and I might suggest it might be efforts at insuring that everyone have fair access to freedom and the American Dream. Nobody should be forced to live anywhere, told where or when to travel, what to eat or drink (aside from reasonable restrictions on public drunkenness), what they read or believe, or with whom they associate. Pretty much the Bill of Rights.

But as I've come to understand it, the prevalent definition of Social Justice by the Left is simply Socialism. They seem to be saying that Socialism is the only "fair" path to Social Justice. But Socialism by its very nature is opposed to freedom.

When the government bestows the "rich" label on certain citizens and proclaims all "rich" are evil and deserve to have their wealth confiscated, that's antithetical to Justice. When the government takes over half the income of the majority of its citizens, keeps most of it, and gives the rest to those who do not produce anything, that's not Justice.

When the government decides to give special privileges to certain people based on their skin color or behavior, threatening to prosecute churches who preach the behavior is immoral and businessmen who don't hire specific quotas of those groups regardless of qualifications and suitability for the jobs, that certainly isn't Justice.

We will always have poor. It seems to me that Socialism simply makes the poor minimally less poor in return for complete and total dependence on the government, while making everyone else much more poor by confiscating their wealth and taking their freedom.

It seems to me that instead of promoting Socialism and its direct opposition to the American Constitution, maybe government should focus on working with the citizenry to make sure the doors are open for anyone from any race, class, or gender to walk through if they're willing to work hard and prove themselves. Then perhaps others would be inspired to achievement based on the pioneering example of those who successfully pulled themselves up from poverty to success and happiness.

Sadly, it seems that most of our citizens have decided they are willing to lose their constitution, freedom and wealth to a corrupt Socialist government that will become the new "rich". And by then it will be too late to go back.

Stream of Consciousness

Even though I have work to do, it's mid-evening and I'm avoiding it.
So here I am on my blog, but I don't really have any burning topics to write about.

There's the flight yesterday where I was stuck on the plane while it sat on the tarmac in Indy for about 3 hours. Believe it or not, I actually arrived at my destination, even though it was about midnight.

TV is the default passive activity for the evenings out of town. But the primetime lineup is inane, and baseball's the only sport available. And I care about baseball, well, not really at all.

Something that worries me lately is that I find most of the people I meet on the road nice enough, but mostly stupid. Today I had a sort of secret panic that I might somehow let that attitude show, which doesn't bode well for a consultant. Are people really getting more stupid, or am I just getting intolerant? I really don't know.

Something sort of related to that last ramble is that lately everything has taken on a certain clarity. I feel like I understand things on an incredibly deep level, and suspect nobody else has a clue. It's not some sort of sudden arrogance; I despise arrogant people and hope never to come across as such. But I seem to have gained some weird insight on the world and God and history and people. But at the same time I feel constrained against sharing it.

I was really hungry last night. Probably from traveling 12 hours without the benefit of a meal. But tonight my survival instinct must have kicked in, because I've had dinner but still think I could eat another one. So part of the blogging is trying to stop thinking about eating, but you can see how well that's working.

Many times I have thought, wouldn't it be cool if I could go back to about age 14 and relive my life knowing everything I know now? But that's not the way life works, and instead of thinking about that, maybe I should start thinking about living the rest of my life the way I could look back and be pleased about. So when I realize how difficult that is, at least for me, I realize the whole going back to childhood idea wouldn't work.

Iyam what Iyam and thats All that Iyam. - Popeye the Sailor Man.