Gun Crazy

I sometimes hear hardcore right-wingers crow about their guns, especially when they're drinking. Gun madness grips the people and poisons public living. People seek retreat behind closed gates, closed doors, high walls. The relationship of Americans with fast cars, alcohol and guns is a sick one. What is the solution? There may not be an easy solution. Perhaps victims of gun violence should seek vendetta, as was the ancient practice, and when a mad person kills their loved one, seek out the mad person's family--or tribe--and take blood price. That sort of cycle would grip the American public's imagination in a powerful way. Once the public perceives interwoven chains of blood vendettas causing public shootings, not just once a week, but multiple times daily, that is when America would wake up and smell the coffee, observe it is bitter, and throw it out with the guns.

The trouble with guns is they offer an "easy out" to the mad Desperados of the world, those in blackest despair and depression, who have given up on life and have no love in their soul for anyone or anything in this world and crave only death. The only glimmer of desire left in their vapid souls is a desire to cause pain and suffering. They are possessed by demons, indeed. They run amok, let the demon have full control. Depriving such fools of guns would not eliminate their threat, by any means, and no one should suppose that would be the case. It would however raise the bar, so that a fool would be required to put on his thinking cap (I use the masculine pronoun, because so often, the mad shooter is male) and exert courage, creativity or resoucefulness, all of which tend to be in short supply in such ignoramuses. Craven cowards lacking any imagination, mad shooters gone amok can scarcely reason their way out of a box, let alone wield a melee weapon in close quarters or aim a bow. A fit, able-bodied person would have better odds at survival against that sort of threat. Pointing and shooting a gun requires so little skill and so little will, and that is why it is perceived to be a tool of evil. Good men hate guns, but keep them handy in order to protect others from evil men. Evil men love guns and fill their minds with thoughts of killing.

The Anti-Apartheid Movement

Good liberals from back in the day opposed apartheid in South Africa and prayed for its overthrow through peaceful, non-violent means. (Radicals are a different story.)

Fast forward to 2018. South Africa's economy isn't looking too well, and the black-majority government wants to steal land from the whites and give it to the blacks. A lot of liberals think this is perfectly O.K., you know, "karma, man."

I am against communism, which is what this is, in a nutshell.

It seems to me that nowadays, the only accepted and widespread form of racism evident is anti-white racism, encountered from blacks and from the media at large. The slightest incident, the tiniest misjudgement on the part of a white person results in nationwide media coverage, humiliation and oftentimes, getting terminated from one's job. Whites get no protection. Meanwhile, the laws and public opinion favor blacks. And the situation over in Africa, where white people are just made victim and then told, "Oh well, historical injustices coming due," is atrocious.

All of this explains to a large degree Trump's successful playing of the Race card. Chickens coming home to roost. Of course whites feel like they are encircled by whooping Indians and outnumbered, and the cavalry ain't coming. That's why whites have gone crazy in some respects.

Yes, whites have gone crazy. There, I said it, so the real white racists are already rolling their eyes and hovering over the escape button to banish my thoughts. Oh, no! Liberal trap!

I think that there is a middle-ground where fairness and equality can come together. Yes, there were grievous historical wrongs visited upon the black ancestors of long ago. For that reason, we should not venerate the Confederacy or anyone associated primarily with the defense of slavery. Take down those monuments, rename those buildings and streets. It is a minor concession, a matter of manners and common sense. One should not uphold sinners. We exclude the Founding Fathers from this list because they founded the country and operated at a time when opposition to slavery had not taken hold of the country's imagination. They are excused because they operated in greater ignorance than those that came after. They are excused because their importance to the country in other respects outweighs their sin. With the Confederate Generals, politicians and so on, pull down the monuments already. In truth, it should have been done long ago. They never should have been raised in the first place. The Confederacy was a stupid idea that brought ruin to the South, and the South would have been a lot better off without it. The North was willing to compensate the South for its slaves and ship them back to Africa, you know. Think about all the money that was instead wasted on a bloody war, and for what? What did the South gain out of the deal, except exercising its foolish pride? Nothing but beautiful, gallant corpses.

In matters of history and society, I would make concessions. All should have equal rights under the law. Agents of the law must treat all with equality and be colorblind. If a business harms a person of color, it too must be held accountable. I do not sympathize with anyone who harms another based upon something so trivial as skin color. Most everyone agrees with these things in this day and age. Now, for these beliefs, I consider myself not to be racist, and yet there are many who would argue I am racist, because I do not bend over backwards and accuse my own skin and offer to pay amends in cold hard cash for the victims of my great-great-grandfathers. I am racist because I don't reject myself? Well, then, that kind of attitude results in a situation where there are a lot of racists. It is possible to manufacture racists, where none were present before.

In the present day, I do not believe that a white man, born long after the last slave died, owes anything to a black man. The sins of the grandfather are not to be visited upon the grandson. That is not justice, but racism, pure and simple, and will be perceived as such, correctly. Thus, I say no to affirmative action, and no to redistribution of property. Thou shalt not steal.

Harvard Needs to Overcome Its Racism

Like many universities in this era, Harvard is adamantly racist and filled with irrational hatred and fascism against white and Asian students. Eligible white and Asian students are turned away from admissions based on what? On the color of their skin. Nothing else. There really should be a class-action lawsuit filed against these universities. I hope that the Justice Department engages in litigation against Harvard and all other universities that seek to discriminate based upon the color of one's skin.

There is a strange siren song of fascism that appeals to a certain breed of liberal, wherein they hate their own race, because they hate themselves, desire death and suffering and ultimately want to die. Thanatos explains this impulse, the innate desire of a human being to annihilate self. However, the Justice Department has deeper pockets than Harvard U., and can keep them in the courts for decades, if need be.

Rather than lower academic standards in order to correct perceived societal ills, the universities should keep standards high. Of course they have not, and the result is that a four-year degree is not worth what it once was. Let Harvard spend all, preferably every last dime, of its considerable endowment defending itself in court against obvious and true charges of racism. I am sure that donors with any sense will observe what their money is being used for and draw the appropriate conclusions.

Cynthia NIxon and Cuomo

Somebody over at the Washington Examiner is having a good laugh watching the fracas between liberals Cynthia Nixon and Cuomo over in New York. Over at the Washington Examiner, they are conservative, so they could care less who wins. I browsed Nixon's platform, and disagree with allowing public sector strikes and with universal health care. Universal health care is good in principle, IF it is nationwide and IF managed and rolled out in an intelligent manner. A single state would likely make a botch of things and attract all the sick and invalid from neighboring states like a magnet. In the end, debt would destroy the program. Businesses and individuals flee the state in search of lower taxes. No one really wants to pay for other people's health care, if they perceive no benefit to themselves.

Only a massive entity like the U.S. Federal government has the clout to implement rules and bully providers, such as doctors and hospitals, into delivering efficient, cost-effective service. The reason health care costs so much is that 90% is waste and fraud. Everyone is motivated by profit, wanting to make money off other people's pain. The U.S. government can come in and educate a million doctors and nurses and technicians, paying for their education, room and board, and giving them a subsistence stipend to get through all of their training, and then they will have the clout to really set prices any which way they want to. A doctor should earn about $40 an hour and see no more than seven patients per day. Today's reality is far different from that.

Probably, the best the government can do, given today's political divisions between Democrat and Republican, is to demand efficiency among providers. Less useless tests that cost so much. Faster visits, less time in the waiting room. More doctors - much more. That is why we really need to just train doctors for free, so that they graduate without any debt at all. Money should not be a barrier to medical school. Hospitals should probably be run by the Federal government, and hospital stays should cost a lot less than they do. Many hospitals seem to price-gouge patients. Patients should be charged true cost, nothing more, and emphasis needs to be placed on economy. There should be no shareholders to a hospital. Now, I suppose this is what the Republicans think of as Socialism, but you know, the police department is run by the government, too. I suppose that if the Republicans had their way, even the PD would be privatized, as indeed, used to be the case in certain towns in the pioneering West. Now those towns eventually converted over to the "socialist model" of law enforcement, on a voluntary basis I might add. Wonder why that was?

Also, people should be allowed to buy prescription drugs from Canada, which has adequate safeguards and protections for consumers. It is not right that Americans pay more for medicine than any other people on the earth. It is not right that the pharma companies are making a huge profit off the pain of Americans. That whole industry seems filled with fraud, corruption and profiteering off the misery of others.

I do not support public-sector unions or the ability for them to strike. I think that if you work in public service, a higher standard of conduct applies. It's not just a job, it's a vocation, and just walking off the job to pressure the community for higher wages is really bad form. Loyal, dedicated employees are needed as teachers, firefighters and police. Unions and strikes may be O.K. in the private sector, but in the public sector, there is a higher moral standard, because service to the community is the motive, not just profit.

Trump is Low

Trump is really low for not lowering the flag for McCain, for mocking him for his military service, and generally just giving insults to a dying man. Trump skipped out on 'Nam due to being a false lying coward. Anyone who supports Trump should have their head examined. You know what, integrity matters. Honesty matters. Ethics matter. Those people who think otherwise, there is a word for them. Evil.

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe offers an example to neighboring countries such as South Africa. There is nothing like a liberal tradition in black culture, as opposed to white culture. Blacks reject liberalism wholesale and prefer totalitarian forms of government. Liberalism is a foreign imposition, suitable on a temporary basis for purposes of political alliances, but nothing more. Seldom is representative government or protection of minorities encountered outside of Western, white countries. The ideology and philosophy of the black community is most eloquently expressed by rap music. One man, with all power and riches, disposing of enemies as he pleases, doing as he pleases, whenever he pleases, ruling by the gun.