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April 12, 2004:
The Fiction of Modern Man:
Everything on this page may be made up and may or may not be
true. It is an American cultural fiction.
This Is a Reminder:
It's as much for me as for anyone else because I forget often.
When you get something on your desk, there are only three things
you can do.
You can decide to discard it immediately, the best thing to do
when possible.
You can resolve and deal with it immediately, the second choice.
You can defer it and put it on your calendar, the worst possible
choice.
If you defer it you must put it on your calendar and forget about
it. If you don't you will likely fret about it. if you fret about
it, it will take your energy and focus away from the task at
hand.
The same is true of sending things around. What goes around
comes around. Therefore, you need not fret about something you
have sent around. It will announce itself when it comes around.
Then, and only then does it become an item on your desk, a task.
When you do something and send it around, you can prepare any
necessary groundwork for its return and then forget about it.
Groundwork may include putting a follow up reminder on your calendar.
The point is, don't fret when you could be doing something useful.
Catch and Release:
In LA they are putting people in jail and letting them out the
same day. The LA cops put them in and the sheriff lets them out.
How does this square with their three strikes policy? Maybe they
just let them out twice, then they put them away for life. Who
knows? It's California after all.
Kerry and His Uniform:
Mr. Kerry, please! You saw actual combat. Hence, that uniform
is not just a uniform such as George might wear. It is a symbol
of membership in a very exclusive fraternity of people who were
really in war. Don't use it as a campaign tool. Don't dirty it.
Please don't betray our fraternity.
Hired Guns:
There are private guard companies getting about 100 billion bucks
a year doing things in Iraq that the United States army should
be doing. Our military is the largest single employer of mercenaries
in all of history. It's handy for George. If a mercenary gets
killed there is no official record. The army does not know how
many of them have been killed. The death does not become part
of our growing body count. What's next, rent-a-sub, rent-a-navy,
rent-an-airforce? How about rent-a-president? Perhaps we could
get an honest one from some other country.
A New Plan:
The rumor is our attorney general has a new plan to seize all
medical records of all Americans. The rational is it is necessary
to investigate claims of medical fraud against those kindly insurance
companies by some of our citizens. Medical providers who refuse
to cooperate will be sent to Guantanamo.
Alert:
On the Homeland Security front we have a new threat. According
to the people who listen to the chatter, the terrorists are planing
an assault on our food and beverage industry. They plan to contaminate
all of our pepperoni and hamburger with chitlins. In a parallel
move they plan to infiltrate our taverns and substitute real
beer for the lite beers. They hope to distress a large number
of people and incapacitate America.
Poor Colin Powell:
What happens when an ethical man gets involved in politics? It
seems he is between a rock and a hard place. Here is a quote
from the old general. "Don't let adverse facts stand in
the way of a good decision." Could it be that in the case
of Iraq, he dropped the word good from the good decision part
and went along? How much pressure can one man stand before he
will break down and lie for his boss? Now he is saying he had
bad information, but they presented it to him as good information.
Does anyone remember Goldwater claiming he had been brainwashed?
That finished him.
High Gas Prices:
Grin and bear it. The King's cronies are making big money. That's
all that counts.
The Race:
Again, we have Tweedledum and Tweedledee. They are both talking
about their plans and the other guy's plans. Neither of them
has a clue as to what a plan is. To have a plan, you must have
a goal. Mr. Bush what is your goal for America? Mr. Kerry, what
is you goal for America? We know what your personal goals are.
Power at any cost! What about us? Liar, liar, pants on fire!
You don't have a plan for America because you don't have a goal
for America. What you have are a few positions on a few issues.
That's all!
Before you can act, you must have a plan. Before you can plan,
you must know your goal. You must understand what problem you
want to address. To know that, you must study history. To plan
a good way out of where we are we must figure out how the hell
we got where we are. If we had done that, we would not be in
Iraq now.
Phony:
The phoniest phrase in the world is "The battle for hearts
and minds."
Nader:
He pretends he is trying to do something. The fact is, he is
a washed up usetabe who is trying to be somebody. He says George
Bush should be impeached, but that is rhetoric. He is doing more
than most Republicans to make sure George wins reelection.
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