Wednesday, February 11, 2009

A Hot Shower

Taking a fairly long, marginally too hot shower is one of the few pleasures I indulge in, in this world. During my stay in Iraq taking an intermittent 2 minute long shower in Euphrates Poo Water was a continual low light in a thankfully uneventful deployment. Along with piss bottles and hairy chicken wings.

Now, I don't feel guilty about using so much water, although I did install a 1.5 gallon per minute shower head in my new home, but what my stint in the Corps and deployments to Kabul and Ramadi did instill in me was how fortunate I am to live in the early 21st century. I'm more privileged than 99% of mankind. I have an abundance of free time away from my work, I read, do physical exercise for it's own sake, travel and enjoy a "life of leisure". And this understanding of the good, long, healthy, full life most Western people now enjoy is exactly what those who run society and use you fall back upon as the under current of maintaining the status quo.

Herbert Spencer noted over 100 years ago the following,
"Yet while elevation, mental and physical, of the masses is going on far more rapidly than ever before - while the lowering of the death-rate proves that the average life is less trying, there swells louder and louder the cry that the evils are so great that nothing short of a social revolution can cure them." "From Freedom to Bondage", 1891, The Man Versus The State pg. 490

Spencer invented the termed "Survival of the Fittest". Spencer's theories were unfortunately bastardized into the odious theory of Social Darwinism. Social Darwinsim, as most people other than creationists know, is not Evolution. And as it was applied was the antithesis of Darwin's Theory. Social Darwinism was unnatural selection. However, it also turned out to be another tool the Ruling Elites used in order to continue their explotation and murder of the poor and working classes. It afforded those in powerful positions in Church, Industry and the State to applaud themselves and turn a blind eye to the continual suffering they impose on the less fortunate. And fueling the Myth the rich get rich because of merit.

Which gets me back to my privileged position of today. I peruse the blogs and sites which have been sounding the call to combat the Islamo-Marxist Nazification of American under Hussein Obama since before he was elected. It's a fascinating descent into willful ignorance, myopic avoidance, an absence of critical thinking and transference on a WWW scale. Most of the evils and turmoils which have been ascribed to Obama were committed for years en masse by Bush, Cheney and their toadies; who cared more about stealing Trillions, breaking laws they found inconvenient, controlling all facets of government, expanding the American Imperial Empire and enriching their families, friends and cronies and the expense of the little people.

The Stimulus Bill expansion of government Obama's signed into law is less than what was spent in one year in Iraq under Tipsy Canoe and Cheney, too. So, the money isn't the issue. I discussed this with my friends the Queen of the Harpies and Ran. Ran theorized a refunding of the IRS leading to audits of those who've pilfered Billions over the last eight years could be behind the marching orders the Republicans in Congress have received.

But, even with the deluge from the Toxic Commentators, like Hannity, indulging in orgasmic displays of Hijacked America! and the studiously prepared American Exceptionalism firmly entrenched in their mind's eye it's hard to understand why Americans accepted the criminal largesse under Bush while seemingly wanting people to lose their homes.

I think I need a shower to wash the toxic filth away.

1 comment:

ran said...

Well, I wouldn't call it a theory so much as a conjecture. :P

Upon reviewing the text of the stimulus bill, I see it contains some IRS funding to cover the costs of administrating the tax credits but not much else.

I'm curious to see if the audit trends change under Obama:
Will this trend change course? Will audits go back seven years like they used to instead of the three they recently switched to? Will what IRS audits are allowed stop engaging in class warfare?

Under Bush, an underfunded and misdirected IRS was made to ignore tax evasion by the elites while they raided the treasury right along with our pensions/401(k)s. Of course, the corporations and other mechanisms they use as shells are stateless entities and thus have no inherent need to be loyal to our country, humanity, their stockholders, or anybody besides themselves. The people that run the corporations have reaped the profits and passed the losses on to their shells.

The stimulus bill seems to have taken a holistic and pragmatic look at the economy, helping those that may actually help the economy (the lower 95% including the 50% of Americans that have no money invested in the stock market). I'm trying to figure out how this gels with the disastrous bailout bill which basically just fed money to the irresponsible elites to no effect.