1.30.2006

An Eternity Without Happiness

In my old age, I find that my most vivid memories fit into two categories. First there are those so sublime that you can rightly say they are painfully sweet. Almost all of these are from earlier in my life. Gentle, innocent, sweet, just plain happy. They are rich with the sounds, colors and even fragrances of the experience. Of a certain wonderful vacation day with my mom and dad. Of a heavenly day spent with my girlfriend. Of my first glimpse of my firstborn child and oh how beautiful was that little angel's face.

Then there are those memories so sour they are almost crippling. You can never get past the bitterness. They persist like a sentence in hell. Luckily for me most of these happened after childhood. While they hurt, they didn't leave scars like terrible experiences do to children.

It occurs to me that these two extremes of memory are really and truly what heaven and hell are all about. I often wonder if when you die, the last thought in your mind is the one that stays, eternal, replaying itself like and endless loop in your fading consciousness. This would seem like eternity to you because that's all there is. You and your last thought.

If the thought is one of the sublime ones, you are in heaven. If it is one of the others... I pity your endless anguish. Perhaps for some people there is a purgatory of no thoughts or unemotional thoughts. Maybe people who live their lives unemotionally don't have vivid, sweet or horrible torturous memories at all.

Of course, what I consider a good memory may not be another's good memory. While it is difficult for me to believe, I suppose it's possible that for some, a sublime memory is one of doing terrible harm to someone. A child perhaps.

No. This is not plausible. Such a memory would sour over time, hurting can never leave a human mind at peace. Such a mind would soon be in a hell of its own making.

It is with this in mind that I congratulate all who have managed to make it through the obstacle courses of this life armed with good memories. And I pity the others who look back on their lives and see an empty vessel with nothing worth remembering. And nothing to look forward to but an eternity devoid of happiness.

1.29.2006

America's Curse

There are many who believe America is cursed because of her past sins.

Some believe God cursed us because the earliest white settlers forced the native Americans off his land and confiscated the country for the settlers' own selfish uses.

Others believe the curse resulted from slavery.

There may be still others who feel cursed for reasons blurred by that most psychologically crippling device, the lens of politically-correct revisionary history.

I don't think there is any kind of curse. I think the problem is liberal thinking.

America, liberals tend to say, is always wrong. It's no matter what we do. Some call these people the America-Lasters. The Cindy Sheehans and Bill Moyerses and John Kerrys. If we respond to attacks on our country, we are being too hasty. Too aggressive. Not living up to the expectations of our friends, the French. The opportunistic French who planned to attack America from below the Mexican border after we were drained by the Civil War. You can thank Lincoln for saving us from that mess as well. If we don't respond to threats fast enough, we are asleep at the wheel. If we react to threats in just the perfect amount of time, we are still wrong because we didn't beg them for a permission slip first.

The worst of this liberal mentality is the never-ending attempt to gin up the pain of Native Americans and African-Americans, and more recently, Latin-Americans. Now there is no doubt that many of the things the early American settlers did were self-serving and many were morally wrong. But the way I see it, history on every continent and in every age is filled with injustices. Entire continents were overrun by barbarians and then reconquered and then lost again. Europeans seem to have no sense of guilt over this. Even the Germans are shedding their feelings of guilt over WWII. As long as there are three people on Earth, there will be arguments, fist-fights and maybe even killing.

So what should we do about these past transgressions? Of course the moral thing to do is fix what some of our ancestors may have broken. Make it better than it was. But I'm not sure a landscape dotted with casinos run by the once proud Indian Nations makes it better for any other Native Americans other than the few who run the casinos. Is creating a permanent underclass of poor black Americans, as we witnessed after Katrina hit New Orleans and the levees collapsed, making it better for black Americans? Is caving in to the infantile demands of the various Mexican movements, on the promise of a few more votes, making it better for the many fine Mexican-American citizens? Most of us know the answer to all these questions. No.

If Liberal politicians and others believe America is cursed, and they want to remove the curse, they must first acknowledge the simple truth. Bad things happened in the past. We can't change the past. But none of us alive today did any of these things, so there is no point in feeling guilty. Of course for some politicians guilt is the gift that never stops giving. It allows them to whip up a few more votes or stir up a controversy that will get them one more minute in tonight's newscast.

Liberals who feel guilty, who secretly wish for punishment in ignominious defeat for their own country have become a curse in and of themselves. They can't seem to ever feel positive about what their ancestors fought and died to create for us all. They can't seem to see the goodness about them in every big city and every small burg in this amazing country. We have all the resources we need to fix any problem we have in America. What we don't have is the leadership and the will. The will to say "No!" to the same old broken-down politics.

God, didn't curse America, He blessed America. Twist His blessing into a curse and you will surely be damned.

1.28.2006

This Ain't General Patton's America

Imagine if we had told General Patton and the brave men who risked their lives in WWII that the America they were fighting for would become thus:

An America where every sort of murderer, rapist, drug dealer and perv is entitled to be heard in a court of law. But God's Ten Commandments aren't.

A country where you can have your children taken away from you if you smoke when they're in the same room. But if a pervert rapes your six year old daughter for four years, he gets a slap on the wrist.

If you spank your child for doing something wrong, you can be charged with child abuse. But if you aid and abet a pervert who kidnaps, rapes, and then buries a little girl, oh... let's say in Florida... you get to walk away.

Kids can wear wicken make-up, devil-worship tattoos, metal bars through their ears, nose and tongue to school. But if a teacher wears a necklace with a cross on it, she loses her job.

Our European ancestors who came here legally through Ellis Island and other legal POE's couldn't get driver licenses or mortgages until and unless they were citizens. But 12 million people cross the Mexican-American border illegally and we want to give them licenses to drive, low interest mortgages, free medical care and the vote.

Don't teach schoolchildren how to use math. Teach them how to use condoms.

Neither Patton nor anyone he knew ever owned a slave, knew a slave, or even saw a slave. No one Patton ever knew or saw who was alive even back then ever was a slave. But we will be asked to pay reparations to them.

If you try to vote more than once in an election, you can be jailed. But if you are wealthy, you can buy as many votes as you can afford and become, oh... Governor of New Jersey or Mayor of New York City to mention a couple.

If you drive an SUV, you are a piggish gas-guzzler who Lefties like Arianna Huffington want to spit on. But the guy who doesn't speak English driving the even bigger and more gas-guzzling pick-up truck that's smoking heavily and doesn't have good brakes right next to you on the freeway is just a hard-working guy trying to support his family.

Ask the ACLU to represent a parent's right to keep their child on life support and the ACLU will run the other way. But they will fight to the death for the right of men to marry men, for men to have sex with little boys and teachers to have sex with their underage students.

Support gay marriage and you are considered a sophisticated Progressive. But support our troops in Iraq or anywhere else in harm's way, and you are a far Right wing yahoo.

You can't smoke in public places, but you can burn an American flag there if you like.

You'd better not have a home protection gun in your bedroom. But have all the vibrators, dildos, cameras and porn videos you like.

Had we told the good general these were some of the things we wanted him to fight for, I wonder if he wouldn't have shot us instead.

1.27.2006

RIP: America's Pioneering Spirit

Exactly when did America stop doing great things?

We were the first to the Moon, and then we stopped being daring in space. What happened? The French are building fantastic new bridges, we can't even repair our old ones. The Brits and French built the "Chunnel" - an incredible feat of engineering; we're still relying on the Lincoln Tunnel. The Japanese have long had the world's fastest trains; we limp along with Amtrak. The Russians claim the largest commercial airplanes; well, big ain't neccessarily better I suppose. But it sounds good. Our ships look rather dull. Our automobiles are unimaginative compared to others. And ours wouldn't be as well-made were it not for robotic techniques developed elsewhere. One can argue our domestic food ain't all that terrific either. Unless we get that new replacement for the World Trade Towers up in the near future, we will never regain a claim to the world's tallest building. Or the world's most creative architecture. Or even a better class of doorman.

We used to be better. What happened to us? Where is the adventurous spirit that broke the sound barrier first? That built the first transcontinental railroad? The medical breakthroughs that rocked the world? The best phone system? The best highway system? The best airports and airlines? We have crumbling infrastructure, failing corporations and a timid Congress which will do nothing to rekindle our Yankee ingenuity and pioneering spirit. Timid is the most flattering adjective we can attach to Congress. They are inept, bickering, many still living in the '60s, and totally bereft of any exciting new idea that might spark the nation's imagination. What happened to "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what can you do for your country"? What happened to the Super Collider? Why haven't we gone back to the Moon, or landed on Mars? Why do we give millions to Jerry Lewis's medical research charities and get nothing but "Hey Layyy-dee!" for it? Cloning, stem cells? What about fusion or anti-matter or other new sources of energy? Do liberals really think windmills are the wave of the future? Didn't they burn Frankenstein's monster in one of those things hundreds of years ago?

We used to be the home of brilliant inventors. Edison. Bell. Whitney. Franklin. Westinghouse. Tesla did his best work in America. These and others brought electric power to our homes. The first telephone system. The first artificial music system... the phonograph. The electric light. The gasoline engine. The automobile assembly line. Elevators. I hate to rub it in but even the home computer is well over twenty years old. iPods? Whoopie.

Okay, I will grant you tv's are bigger and sound better. But tv sucks, so what have you gained? Tivo? You can cut out the commercials which in many cases are more creative than the tv shows they are cut from. Computers are smaller and faster, but the monitors are wider so my desk still has no room. GPS systems for our cars are a good thing for those who hate to ask for directions. But they can't compare to a Thomas Guide. The boring newsmen on tv have been supplanted by very attractive and sometimes literate women. This is a good thing. But the make-up departments make the girls up like trollops. This really isn't so good, is it? Except maybe in Greta's case. But I digress.

Perhaps our "shadow government" has some deep "black projects" going at places like Area 51 and China Lake. Is H.A.A.R.P. perfecting weather modification? Or microwave weaponry? Are there flying disks which can travel through wormholes to other Galaxies at Area 51 or Papoose? Unless any of these things are happening, I see no reason to believe we are leading the world in anything anymore. Except for wishful thinking.

So just in case there are bona fide geniuses reading this who just need a little burr under their saddle, here are a few ideas off the top of my head.

Every year we hear that one part of the country is having the worst drought ever, while another part of the country is being inundated with the heaviest rainfall in history. Duh. When are we going to have a water channeling system joining every corner of the U.S. like the Egyptians had along the Nile thousands of years ago. You got too much water in Seattle? Channel it to Kansas. You can even charge for it. Forest fires in California and Colorado? Get that floodwater from Mississippi on its way to douse the fires. "Oh, but it costs too much, it costs too much" the pencil-neck geeks scream. I say Go to hell you jerkwater morons. Find a way to make it pay instead of whining.

Every day the ocean tides rise and fall. Twice! Duh. A free source of enormous power right off the coast. And America has a huge amount of coast. "Oh, but it will spoil our view and kill the little fishies" the environmentalists squeal. To hell with them, they're among the dumbest, least imaginitive people on the planet. How can we even listen to people who push old ladies out of the way in order to kiss a dolphin and believe Nemo is real?

Trucks and cars should not be sharing the same roads. Duh. What an opportunity to rebuild the entire national highway system! One highway built for trucks one for cars. Think of all the concrete contractors and earthmovers who will be happy and get rich! Think of all the children who will not be killed in horrible accidents involving trucks and cars.

I could go on, but why should I? I'm just a prophet. I know Yankee ingenuity is still out there. It's just been repressed by the unimaginitive scientific Establishment, even less imaginitve big business, and draconian government regulation. Geniuses, remember what Tesla had to endure. He wasn't afraid to do big things. Don't YOU be afraid either. Damn them all. Rebel! There's plenty of inventin' still to be done.

1.25.2006

The Sad Plight of America’s Most-Hated Minority

Today, this minority is almost universally mocked, abused and despised. America’s white males seem to be on the way out. Oh yes, white males are a genuine minority; just check the UN worldwide census statistics. Now if there are in general more white women than men, and women are called a “minority,” well? It stands to reason that white males are even more of a minority.

But, unlike most minorities, white men – and especially “old, white-haired white men” – are dissed, accused and blamed for virtually everything which has ever gone wrong in the history of Mankind on planet Earth as far back as The Deluge. Then there was the Dark Ages, The Plague, The Red Death, The Inquisition, The Crusades, America’s Civil War, every World War, AIDS, the subjugation of every other minority, global warming, on and on ad nauseam. Yup, we horrible honkies are universally despised.

Apparently, even we whites have little use for white men. How often have you seen a tv commercial or sitcom in which the white guy wasn’t the butt of some embarrassing joke? The pasty-faced nerd is mocked and humiliated by the spiteful wife, the snippy children, the black neighbor, the blonde co-worker, and even the tv announcer. Kemo-sabe is the perennial Homer Simpson, an idiot who doesn’t understand anything except (depending upon his finances) chardonnay and golf, or canned beer and his rifle collection. Thankfully the wife, the daughter or the black neighbor is there to straighten out this poor sap. 

Oh yeh, the white man is a clueless cracker. Proof? Just look at Congress. But, c’mon doesn’t even a white mack deserve a smidgeon of the “tolerance” doled out to every other minority?

Remember when white U.S. Presidents had official holidays? Lincoln. Washington. But when PC infected DC, Abe and George were stripped of this special honor, replaced by some vague day called Presidents’ Day. And the cowed white male rolled over like an old Ford Bronco II. Now the only “official” day which has a person’s name attached to it is Rev. Martin Luther King’s Day. Oh, we still have Columbus and Saint Patrick’s Day. But progressive white historians everywhere are hard at work trying to discredit their own kind, stripping ol’ Chris of his standing as the nominal discoveror of America. According to them, everybody knew America was here well before 1492. Why, according to some, the Atlantic Ocean was awash with ships going to and fro America; the Sargasso Sea was crowded with fearless captains and crews willing to chance sailing off the very edges of the Earth into the abyss. Yes indeed, America was a regular vacation spot for Vikings, Celts, the 12 Lost Tribes, Polynesians, and any non-white with a canoe and paddle back then.

Oh, let’s not forget Saint Patty. Well, he’s a Saint... and his is not an “official” holiday. Folks of all colors still go to work pretending they are Irish, wearing something green to prove it, so they can get hammered at some point. And there’s that State/religion line thing. Which brings us to Christmas. An awkward situation for our PC fanatics. An official holiday dedicated to the birth of some possibly white kid two millennia ago. No worries, his message of love, goodness and peace is being stripped of any spiritual significance whatsoever. Get rid of those loathsome Nativity scenes; more room for displays of expensive toys and video games.

According to statistics, white boys apparently have little ability to play most sports as well as other races. Except maybe hockey, because that's normally played on cold ice; and as we all know, white people live up there where hockey was invented in the real icy cold regions that darker-skinned folks don’t like all that much. But white guys are pretty good at inventing sports, and working hard to make them popular across the world. As soon as the sport become an enormous money-maker, he feels guilt-bound to turn stardom and ultra-high salaries over to other races as a show of his boundless fairness and tolerance. Fairness and tolerance which seem to somehow elude the non-white players.

Recently there’s been a lot of talk about “white privilege.” Statistics gathered over hundreds of years show there is such a privilege. White guys have the great privilege of doing most of the dying and bleeding in America’s wars; from our Revolution (50,000 casualties) to our Civil War (646,392 casualties to free non-white minorities), and saving Europe from Hitler (1,076,245 American, mostly white casualties in World War II) just to name a few. But we still have Congressman like Charlie Rangel wailing about how there is a disproportionate number of non-whites being killed in battle. Wrong again, Charlie. The Congressman apparently is blinded by his bling.

So, since we have now canonized Black History Month, wherein politically correct media outlets (which pretty much covers 97% of them) espouse the great contributions of non-whites, I’m proposing a White Guy History Month. Now let’s see, what contributions can the loathsome white man claim?

How about the very idea of democracy. The Magna Carta. The Constitution of the USA. The discovery of atoms and their constituent parts. Electricity, magnetism, chemistry and its periodic chart. The telescope, thus all the planets and most of their satellites. The expanding Universe, the Big Bang, the size of the Milky Way, the speed of light, relativity and quantum theory, radar, the steam engine, the Diesel engine, the gasoline engine, railroads, steamships, skyscrapers, underwater tunnels, and hey, surf boards.

How about those Seven Wonders of the World? At least five of them were designed by whitey. The tallest structures in the modern world, the longest ones, the widest ones. The brassiere... now there's something we can all hoot about! Let's not forget little things like radio, the telephone, television, computers, compact disks, the internet, iPhones, iPods and Blackberries. How about the automobile and the concrete highways they travel on. Automatic transmission, snow tires, the SUV, 4x4’s and bobble heads to go in the rear window. Then there’s stuff like the aforementioned football, golf, baseball, The World Series and the Super Bowl. Speaking of bowls, how about Sir Thomas Crapper's invention? And its corollary rolls of paper, shower, shower cap and rubber ducky. Most modern medicine, the machines used to diagnose diseases, X-rays, MRI's, microscopes, hypo’s and all that stuff we don’t like touching us.

White boys started up most of the major corporations for which most of you work. The lunch hour and most of its deli foods. Elevators, escalators, fountains and aqueducts. Rockets to the moon. One of us Cauckies was the first to go into space, and another the first to step on a heavenly body. And I personally met Neil in a recording studio, so I know he is white. 

Despicable us came up with Coca-Cola, the Big Mac, Dairy Queen, pizza, and Cheezits. Chainsaws, pile-drivers, snow plows, tractors, and busses. He carved Mt Rushmore, built the Golden Gate Bridge, the Empire State Building, Miss Liberty, created Disneyland and Vegas. He invented the money system, banks, the stock market and treasury bonds.

Railroads, steam ships, lumber mills, light bulbs, tv remotes, glass bottles, aluminum cans, refrigeration, typewriters, keyboards, wireless, ice makers and ice crushers. I could go on for hours, the list grows longer even as you read this, but I think the point is made.

Oh wait, I just remembered a few more somewhat monumental accomplishments by honkies worth mentioning... nine from Beethovan, four from Brahms, nine of Dvorak’s, and Mozart’s many, many. Bach, Mahler, Puccini and Richard Strauss come to mind as well as Bill Haley and the Comets, and let’s not forget Elvis, Frank and the Big Bopper. I think Michelangelo, Bernini, DaVinci, Rembrant, Shakespeare, Bacon and Spinoza alone deserve a month. I’d be devastated without the invention of the Gibson, Gretsch and Strats. Did I mention moveable type, the printing press and Playboy?

Whoa! ...How could I have forgotten one of life’s very staples... white bread.

Let’s face it, gringos have lifted civilization from caves and animal skins to whatever period you believe was the high point of civilization here on planet Earth.

Surely some of these things make the white devil deserving of one measly month?

Of course, none of these things are allowed to be taught in school now because as we all know, the white male is an irrelevant minority today. Soon, a mere footnote in history. It’s his own fault. Perhaps exhausted from the horrors of WWII, wanting peace and good will, he allowed his offspring too much slack. Too many white boys became, well... feminized. They began accepting the guilt heaped upon him by the envious world, resulting in a generation of white males who are willing to rush out and apologize in public for anything that goes wrong, because they accept the proposition that they are to blame for whatever goes wrong.

But when the hammer falls (and it’s as inevitable as sunrise and sunset... it will eventually fall again), who will don the white hats and ride to the rescue? The flood of illegals? Today’s metrosexual momma’s boys? Hairdressers? Progressive University prof’s? Liberal commentators? The weenies who sit in front of video game screens and mistake it for reality? It will be those mean white boys who by some miracle of nature still manage to have retained some measure of testosterone.

Now, my tongue may or may not be firmly planted in my chubby white cheek, but in fairness maybe non-whites, white women and ladies of all colors, as well as certain self-loathing white males should knock the chips off your own shoulders, and rethink your ungrateful attitude toward white males specifically and whites in general. Criticize away at specific individuals for the things they may have done. But painting all white men with the broad brush of racial innuendo should be beneath cultured people.

Oh, one last suggestion; Hollywood maybe ought to stop glorifying white ignoramuses... stop celebrating stupidity... you’re not helping at all. Just a thought.

1.21.2006

RATS IN A CAGE

Decades ago, research scientists showed that when a population of rats in a closed environment grows beyond a certain density, the rats began to display aberrant behavior, ie: the more rats, the crazier.

This is a perfectly frightening model for what’s happening in the realm of humanity. Let’s talk about home. America.

Whatever the causes may be, the number of “misfits” in our society has increased greatly. They have come out of the closets and dark basements. But they are still more comfortable in the shadows. Some may actually be intelligent, but unless genius is applied to solving societal problems or somehow enriching our culture, it is actually of little value. Unfortunately, many who feel outcast from normal society, those who have been rejected by their peers for various reasons, especially in youth, gravitate to taboo enterprises which can be carried out in the penumbra of our culture. Sexual deviancy, gambling, drugs as a lifestyle, binge drinking, extreme tattooing and body piercings of all kinds, neon hair, a fascination with death, zombies, ghouls, vampires and Satan. Dark films, music and gaming. Political rabble rousers, street thugs. Just plain misfits.

The farthest borderlands of culture are populated by extremists of all kinds. The worst are attracted to mass murderers, jihad, suicide; making secretive plans, writing bizarre manifestos in their twisted attempts to be enrolled in the grisly pages history. Today, with access to vast audiences in the cyberverse, self-produced videos often display their aberrant ideas, getting heroic followings.

Rather than following the well established paths out of their jam-packed cages and into the antiseptic light of the sun, those just barely on the wrong side of “normalcy” tend to prefer the irresponsible ways of the shadow world. After all, many of these rats will procreate. What chance do their offspring have of leaving the cage? It takes work and dedication to get out. Often, interest in the most elemental current political, military and world events which will radically affect their lives in the near future seems to be completely off their malfunctioning radar screens.

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Today, with a broken immigration policy, America has been packed tighter and tighter with diverse cultures – each with its special “demands” – none of which have any desire to melt in the pot. In the past, little attention was paid to these demands because the groups were small with little in the way of lobbying funds. Today, the groups are large, well-funded by foreign sources, and refuse to adopt traditional America values. Add to this the apparent fact that our Federal Government seems unable or deliberately flouting their duty to keep track of the whereabouts of these new entrants.

As a result, the country has become increasingly Balkanized with larger and larger non-traditional groups with special demands, too large for uncaring politicians to reject, and large enough to elect their own representatives and local officials. Is this the kind of freedom the Founders had in mind? Is a divided house what The Constitution ultimately leads to? Did not Lincoln declare the Civil War in order to keep the Union undivided? Can a divided house stand?

Let us take a look at just one aspect of all this. Michael Savage’s best-selling book, “Liberalism is a Mental Disorder” – funny title? – pretty well describes just one of the kinds of aberrant behaviors you might expect from a cage packed too tightly. Looking at every day’s news, it’s not so funny is it?

It’s humanity – people – not rats, in this cage called America. Of course, not every rat in that cage goes whacky. The soft-minded ones lose it first. In the case of humans, I suggest it’s those who grew up with their mommies and daddies (if they were around), teachers (if they had any), politicians (especially on the left), Big Media, and social media “friends” reinforcing all the things progressives and socialists believe. For example – and this is just one simple example – the government should take care of people who can’t (or refuse to, or don’t have a lick of sense to) take care of themselves and their families.

Now this must have seemed like it might be a good idea way back when. But it can only happen when the rats are so densely packed that they can no longer think straight (assuming a rat ever did). Densely populated humans are just like that... dense. They still do not grasp what the pages of history show... well-intentioned ideas always have unintended consequences. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” 

This well-intentioned idea has created a large and exponentially-growing class of citizens who are now dependent upon the government to take care of them. A permanent underclass; people who feel entitled to an ever-growing list of free benefits. And this class merrily passes the sense of entitlement (I’d call it helplessness... or maybe happily gaming the system) ...passing it all along to their young’uns who are raised with the curse of hopelessness weighing on them like an over-fed albatross. This is nothing better than caged rats who attack one another for no other reason than density. Like people packed tight in cages called cities, living day to day without hope, stealing scraps from one another to survive; attacking, and now cannibalizing themselves with huge numbers of abortions, drug addiction, loose guns and knives. How can a child hope to overcome and escape the cage? There is nothing more awful than extinguishing the spark of enthusiasm which is borne in the eye of every child.

The Great Society is not great. It is a failure. Some smart, upstanding, responsible individuals among the poor have fought their way out of the cage pretty much on their own initiative. Some have done it with the help of government programs – but certainly not enough to justify a continuation of this boondoggle which will never free us all from the cage. Obviously this doesn’t matter to politicians because, hey, the poor rats will always be there to vote for the rat keepers who promise them a little more grain. Libs may be crazy but crazy like foxes (or is it rats). They have engineered an ever-growing base of voters, most of whom either don’t believe, or don’t care, that they are being had by their smiling, fast-talking, rat-loving representatives. Caged in perpetuity.

A wild guess of course – but the population of the US was at its most efficient when it stood at about 125 million. It’s a virtual guarantee that unless we get down to that level again, things will only get worse in the cage. Don’t even think about trying to get into a better cage. A better cage is still a cage. Most of them are over-filled anyway, with occupants acting even crazier than us.

We have two choices. Either the rats have to be culled, or the cages must be expanded. The cage can’t be expanded to any of its sides for they’re pretty much butted right up against other cages. It might be expanded upward or downward. If we can’t manage the upward thing (downward is just a big grave) we will have to go through the culling. 

But culling!? Ah, don’t worry, we probably won’t have to do it ourselves. When the density reaches critical mass, nature steps in, as it always has in the past, and will do the job for us. In the case of rats, their chemistry changes and they begin attacking and killing one another without provocation. In the case of man, well there’s always the old reliables: violent mental disorders, disease, natural disaster, man-made disaster, war, “social engineering” like that which limits or eliminates procreation, or perhaps a giant flaming asteroid... nature’s quiver is full of poison arrows.

So, what are we doing about all or any of this? I will leave you to ponder: a Congressman of my acquaintance tells me he believes this is all poppycock. In his view, things are peachy.