Bibles, Babies, and Bullets

There are some 10,000 people trapped in the New Orleans Superbowl. Normally the Superbowl crowd is white (caucasian); poor African Americans who live in poverty stricken New Orleans can't afford tickets to the football games. Well, Katrina changed all that. The wretched and the poor who had nowhere else to go are finally sitting in the stands! But instead of cheering for a touchdown, thousands of African Americans are watching the roof fall down as the toxic, polluted water rises all around.

The US has the biggest, most expensive Department of Homeland Security in the world. Evidently its only function is to "protect American lives" from terrorists. It's indifferent to and helpless against other catastrophic events, especially those  that are known to be coming.

In Bush's America there's a scientific explanation for doing very little or nothing in advance to save lives from storms of "Biblical proportions." No amount of information and preparation can prevent God, the Intelligent Designer, from clobbering your poor neighbor. Bush could have cut his vacation short last weekend; the Department of Homeland Security could have orchestrated the appropriation of buses and trucks to evacuate the residents of New Orleans (90% African American). However, it's a proven fact that God only helps those American citizens who can afford to help themselves. So in New Orleans, the blessed and worthy jumped into their cars and got out of town while the rest went to the Superdome.

Mood: Satiated and lethargic
Listening to: "Old McDonald Had a Farm"

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Take the recent photographs of the anti-war and pro-war protestors in Crawford, Texas USA.  Look closely at the group shots---there are some good ones available on powerline.blog/ Lights, Camera, Protest.  Look at the people and you'll see a big difference in average body type and size. Cindy Sheehan and the "anti war" protestors look a tad underweight,  maybe even undernourished, compared to those who agree with President Bush that "our freedoms and way of life" are worth fighting, killing, and dying for in Iraq. The pro-war males and females are no lightweights! On the average each seems to have 50 pounds more of patriotic  commitment  to the American way of life than the skinny, scrawny Sheehan types.

From an anthropolitical (sic)  perspective you can view and evaluate the difference between the anit-war and pro-war protesters in terms of size or pounds per protester. It takes energy to produce all of those pounds and keep them there. A lot of that energy comes from oil (petroleum). You'd be surprised how much oil  it actually takes for an American family to drive and eat at McDonald's, sometimes without even getting out of the mega-monster SUV. Americans don't live in stone age! It takes a kazillion barrels of oil to run farm equipment, grow, harvest, distribute, process and sell those "Happy Meals" and fries at McDonald's; and the food doesn't walk to McDonalds any more than people do, so it also takes a kazillion barrels of oil for American familes to get to a McDonalds, even if it's only a few blocks away. Look at it this way, why burn human lard when you can burn Saudi or Iraqi oil with a hell of a lot less personal effort and pain?  Pound per pound that human lard represents a HUGE "freedom" and "way of life" that no American should have to give up without a fight.  As Bush and his Crawford supporters point out, all of the fighting, dying, and killing in Iraq is a small, necessary sacrifice. Soldiers like Cindy Sheehan's son made the ultimate sacrifice to protect us from those who don't know the meaning of "adult acquired diabetes"....they just hate our way of life.

Mood: I TOLD YOU SO!
Listening to: "Oh, what a lovely war!"

This is something I wrote, published and distributed in February 2003. Although I reside in a university dominated American community of approximately 80,000 people, the local newspaper refused to publish THE FACTS on grounds that they could not be  verified. I agreed with the editor that “the facts” listed below could not be verified unless he opened a book, a real newspaper, or one of the websites mentioned.  To the best of my knowledge he has yet to do so.  

Listening to: Pink Floyd "The Wall"

Welcome to college 101....it’s spelled c-o-l-l-e-g-e....college! 

Does everyone have a pencil and paper? You’ll need to write a few things down. How many of you practiced writing in high school? I see...but you’re in college now and here’s how it works. I lecture and you take notes; you don’t have to write down everything that I say, just the important stuff. How do you know what’s important? Well, you begin by reading the assigned chapters in the textbook. Do all of you have the textbook? Be sure to remove the wrapping, it won’t open otherwise.

Any questions? Yes, you’ll have to take written exams, do you know what those are? Well they’re not as hard as you think. I give you five or six questions and you answer them in written form. For example I could ask you to “Explain the difference between a library card and a credit card.”  They’re both made of
plastic, right, but they’re used for different reasons to get different things. To do a good job answering the question, you’d have to write at least five or six sentences describing the important differences, such as the difference in late fees. No, actually credit cards do have late fees....so I would take points off of your answer if you said that only library cards charge late fees.

Let’s move on to the next requirement, the research paper. How many of you......ok...but don’t worry, the research paper is just a longer version of an exam question and you have thirteen weeks to work on it at home; that’s like writing a page a week. How many of you email and chat on-line at least a page a day? Great! So a page per week should be no problem. No, you don’t get to pick the topic, it’s not “show and tell.”  I pick the topic and you do the research and the writing. To make it fun, I won’t pick a boring topic
that millions of people have already researched and written about, I’ll pick something interesting and very current such as the proposed city ban on “happy hour specials” I agree, it sucks! But you’ll have fun defending your liberty to binge drink through the ages starting with the Code of Hammurabi. What’s a
“Hammurabi?”  Well, it’s your job to find out now that you’re in college.

Any other questions?  No, I don’t give or deduct points for attendance. Those of you who can pass the exams without coming to class or reading the textbook, see me after class. I have copies of the exams and you can take them today, just be sure to turn in the research paper on time. The rest of you do have to attend class on the days of the exams; you can take the exams early or flunk them late, it’s your choice. Sure I’ll accept some excuses, but if you’re in a car wreck I’ll want a copy of the accident report or if your sister’s in the hospital, I’ll want to send flowers, so you’ll have provide me with her name and the hospital address.  Good question! If you do have a contagious disease on the day of the exam, don’t worry, you’re in college now, most of you will come down with the “chicken flu” on exam day, so you might as well all
come in sick to your stomach together and do your best to pass this course.

Good, this should take care of most of your questions. Now  how many of you are enrolled in this class? My roster indicates 32 and I only see 8 of you left...the "chicken flu" sees to have hit early this year. That's too bad, but let's begin with a simple question: what type of government does the US have,  is it a democracy, a federal republic, or what?