Blogging Through the Gas Mask

Egyptian authorities quickly and neatly shut down all communications in an attempt to disrupt grass roots coordination of demonstrations and protests against President Mubarack.  What the government seems to miss is that frustration and anger with the government has gone way beyond posting one-liners on Facebook. The communication has gone super-personal… face to face… and texting for the moment anyway, is not relevant while you’re throwing rocks at policemen, ducking bullets and running from tear gas clouds.

The very neat and clean shut down of 21^st century communications is just another example of why the people have gone to the streets, and if nothing else, reinforces their resolve for democracy and fuels their anger to seek reforms in the face of real and personal danger to their lives.

We’re witnessing a modern day storming of the Bastille. Our Government is caught mumbling for restraint, calm, and talks with both sides because we’re “all-in” with Mubarack and have been for decades. Egypt receives the second largest amount of foreign aid from the US. And while we like the notion of democracy, we still prefer a dictator who will take our money and do our bidding in the interest of “stability”, rather than allow the people to choose a government that may not be a puppet of our economic empire.

Authoritarian dictators supported by the US rule most of the Arab countries. If they lose control, we lose control. When the chips are down, we’ll choose preserving our economic empire over human rights and liberties of any people. This is only the beginning of what may be a long and ugly moral dilemma for our Government in the Middle East as we struggle to maintain control of the regions oil resources.

Flash- Crazy Man Goes Crazy

I’m as appalled as everyone by the senseless shooting in Tucson, but as much as I’d like to blame it all on Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh, that’s a putt too far for me.  Civility has long since left the political lexicon. And yes, we need a return to more civility and more respect for people with opposing views- even radical views, but that's a different issue.  Jared Loughner has a history of untreated mental illness.  He’s a sick person. Sick people do crazy things. How he managed to go through life undetected and untreated is yet another issue for discussion in this tragedy.

But let's be frank. There are a lot of crazy people in the world. Politicians and radio talking heads could be blamed for firing them up, but hey, these people are already pretty fired up and ready to commit atrocities. Like all crimes, they need means, motive and opportunity. Their illness is their motive. It's up to the public to deny them the means (guns, bombs, etc) and opportunity ( such as public gatherings). Blaming the shootings on Sarah Palin is a joke. We should cut the Momma Grizzly a little slack. Her target metaphors are no worse than when President Obama said, “… if you want to win a knife fight, bring a gun…” 

What we really need is an adult conversation about gun control and how we can establish limits on what can be purchased.  The second amendment was written when all rifles were single shot muskets. We don't allow fully automatic rifles. Why can't we have protection  to prevent people from purchasing high capacity 30 bullet magazines for pistols? That’s what’s crazy about this tragedy.  Why should any civilian need to kill something 31 times in self-defense? It's time we limited all large capacity ammo  to law enforcement and the military, period.  


When crazy people do crazy things, they’re not in control of their actions, they're just the delivery agent. The gun is the murderer.  The NRA should stop looking at the world through its rectum and start promoting safer gun laws rather fighting every attempt by Congress to improve gun safety. We can’t eliminate crazy people, but we can make the world a little safer by eliminating crazy guns.

What happens when China starts to behave like America?

Think about it. Everything we do in the international community is done because our interests are at stake. Or we perceive they are. Or we convince the world it’s the right thing to do. Or if we don’t take action, then nobody will.

We were the world's leading power of the 20^th century. Now China is well on its way to replacing us in this century.  Since 2009 China is the largest energy consumer, so what might we expect them to do? Follow in our footsteps?  We could view this push to the backseat as a threat to our world dominance, or we could breath a great big sigh of relief and let China become the world’s whipping post.  We might need to suck up our pride to in order to sit comfortably as number 2, but life could become so much simpler. We could live in the shadow of China, and be more like, you know—Canada, UK and Australia.  We might have to change our national bird to the Turkey- something more conciliatory than a predator. This would make Ben Franklin very happy. And of course China could become the majority financier of the UN and have the privilege of hosting the UN in their country. 

I can’t wait until the next world crisis comes along and Chinese President Hu Jintao says, “Bring it on”. Can’t you just see him landing on an aircraft carrier with a huge banner (electronic no doubt) that says, “Mission Accomplished”?  Then maybe we can go off quietly and fund domestic things like health care, infrastructure and education. Someday we might even be manufacturing goods that are exported to China and sold at the Beijing Walmarts.  Yep, that would be the life.