Republicans, Procopius, and Titan

Today's post is going to be a bit rambling, as I am having a hard time focusing on one particular subject. First I have to thank all my readers for their nice comments on the last post, I hope it was helpful, even if in a small way. The posts I read are instructive, and have helped me to put a few of my own life experiences into better perspective. The insights provided can only make me a better person.

First up today, the election. I live in a liberal part of a liberal state surrounded by liberals. Point in fact, the liberals are the conservatives in San Francisco and the Bay, given the host of radicals that live, work and breed here. I am a moderate, fiscally conservative, but socially tolerant and environmentally aware. (Not, however, vegan, veggian, or a member of the green party). I have a lot of conservative friends (my brother is an evangelical preacher, no less) and a ton of liberal friends, and ex girlfriends of all shades.

Most were dismayed by the recent election, convinced that either A. The American people are stupid or B. that Karl Rove stole the election AGAIN. Now anyone who read my previous posts know that I'm very critical of the entire Iraq debacle, and am none too happy with the current National Security/ Defense Department leadership. I also find John Ashcroft a tad bit scary. But, no, I do not think that the republic is about to fall to some neo fascist cabal, nor do I see the dark hidden hand of a Skull and Bones shadow government slowly taking the reins of the government away from the people.

Sorry folks, that stuff makes for great Grisham novels, but rarely happens in real life. I was in the Navy for years, with a clearance. Trust me, no one is that good at keeping secrets. The government is frankly, a sieve. Twenty years ago, you wanted to know Classified US Navy ship movements in the Pacific fleet, you did not need to break a code or compromise a sailor, just ask the Olongapo hookers. They always knew, their livelihood depended on knowing the movements of their regulars.

Part of what drives this kind of thinking is the notion that a large number of Americans seem, from the liberal perspective, to be voting with corporations against their own economic interests. Pundit after Pundit states this "truth", that Ohioians are voting for the guys that are moving their jobs to India and against the labor backed people that promise to keep jobs, a car for every garage and a chicken in every pot for the beleaguered American Worker. The reasons for this range from disbelief (these people are just stupid) to dastardly (these people are really voting for us and the election is being stolen) to denominational (these people have been duped into thinking that voting republican is voting for God).

Now, I can see how the cultural issues do impact this election, and it is a factor. But lets be clear, nothing, not one thing in nature, acts against its perceived self interest. If you even hypothesized such an organism had ever existed, it would have died off eons ago. I have yet to meet the rational man, woman or dog that would take consistent, deliberate action to deny its own food bowl, and I am not ready to grant that over half this country is suffering from mass psychosis (though the popularity of reality TV can cause me sometimes to re-evaluate that statement.)

What my liberal friends in all their ranting on the evils of corporations, Republicans and the like, forget is the real distaste and despair engenderd in the average American by the government.

What are the three greatest lies?

The check is in the mail.

I won't cum in your mouth

I am from the government, I am here to help.


Some add the fourth as the response to the third: Oh really, I am glad you are here.

You have to look not at the theoretical, but at the day to day, where people live. We all share the same experience. First, taxes. Remember your first paycheck, how great it was to get it, and how small it looked after taxes. Remember your first raise, an entire whopping 6%, that evaporated in the increased deductions? Remember your first bonus, and how it seemed like it should really be written, bone us? You get the picture.

Now close your eyes and try to remember all your interactions with your government servants. What was it like? Was it customer friendly? Were the lines short? Could you find even one nice person? Did anything happen the way it was supposed to, even on the second or third try.

Now take a moment and remember all your interactions with union members. How did that go?

Now let me say for the record, I have had some great experiences with public servants. But in almost all those situations, it was with the small town variety. The principle and teachers at my son's old small town elementary school, the lovely and highly competent people at the Saratoga Springs town hall. The ladies and gentlemen of the Pleasanton, California police department. All of them, professionals to the core.

And I have nothing but respect for firefighters, cops, park rangers and paramedics everywhere.

But there is also the Oakland School district. Yes they have problems, but they have squandered a fortune on unneeded administrators, foolish programs and stupid initiatives. Anyone remember Ebonics. The Bay Area Air Quality District does good work, but have over the years treated Motorists as pariah, when in California saying "motorist" is like saying "citizen" or even "anyone over the age of 16 and breathing". This, the richest state in the country, richer that the entire country of France and with some of the highest tax rates in the nation, is deeply in the red, spent mostly on a legion of state workers and retirees with benefits well in execs of anything that the average citizen can command.

Hey, I am all for special retirement deals for front line cops, but meter maids? Give me a break!

The bottom line is, my liberal friends see a world where government is the solution. But government, their employees and the unions that represent them have not acted exactly like solution providers. Instead, following their own self interest, have carved out a nice life for themselves at the expense of the rest of the populace, and have created Byzantine bureaucratic systems that seem more intent on thwarting than promoting the common good.

Now yes, corporations do the exact same thing, and sometimes with catastrophic effects. However, a corporation cannot put you in jail or bankrupt you with a prosecution.

And you cannot just quit, you are stuck.

Now I have drawn some broad strokes, and broad brushstrokes are by nature unfair. But you see the picture. Over half of the country voted republican, in part, because over half the country has seen the evil that is corporations, and the evil that is government, and chose the lesser of the two.

They did not vote to drill in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, they voted to be able to drill a well without having to navigate an increasingly expensive regulatory labyrinth.

And thats the truth.

I am reading Procopius now, and it helps me get the argument. Procopius is the great historian of the sixth century, the chronicles of Justinian the Law Giver and Belesarius the Great Captain. His histories are instructive, but one small volume, "The Secret History" is his backroom revelations of the venality and greed and corruption of Justinian and his consort, Theodora. Reading its pages, you realize that no swindler on earth can dispossessed you faster than one in the seat of government, for Caveat Emptor does not help you with the tax man.

We all read about the Fall of Rome, but few ever get to read the parts where the populace was praying for the barbarbians to come and relieve them from the burden of the Roman Tax Collector.

Read Gibbon, and Procopius, it will change your perspectives, or at least illuminate the problem.

You also will get an idea as to the words and idioms that a classical author uses to describes a blow job, anal sex and group sex. Turns out Theodora was a bit of a vixen.

Ok, so that is the dissertation for today. In later blogs I promise to offer up some solutions, only pointing out problems is tiresome and ultimately unproductive.

Oh yes, Titan. The Huygans probe landed on Titan, a moon of Saturn, last night, and the images and data are just coming through. Titan is the only moon in the solar system to have a substantial atmosphere, thicker that Earth's. This is history and science in the making, I highly recommend following its progress. Look here athttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm

Tomorrow, more dissertation, then time for a sex blog again. Something from my history, I promise that it will be juicy.