The Main Problem

I think that one of the biggest problems with this country is that people just don't want to grow up. I think it started with the Baby Boomers. The generation that was going to "change the world" during the sixties and seventies spent their lives searching for eternal youthfulness but all they achieved was perpetual immaturity.
By the time the eighties rolled around the boomers had given up and sold out, and spent the following decades pursuing one get rich quick scheme after another. I think that's why they embraced that stupid movie "Forrest Gump;" it was the perfect depiction of a generation that in the end had no goals left other than to make a pile of money and marry their high school crush.

Unfortunately, however, the Generation Xers who followed aren't any better in this regard. Exhibit A would be Christine O'Donnell, who at 41 possesses the tone and body language of a clueless 18 year old. Then there's that idiotic show on ABC "Cougar Town" about a 40 something dingbat who thinks life is like the stupid movies from the 80's. And let's not forget the poster boy for immaturity, Charlie Sheen, still acting like a 19 year old frat boy.

I think that future historians will wonder how in half a century the USA declined so badly. The problem, incredible as it may is that in this country people refused to act their age.

The Downfall of Dr. Paul

Ron Paul gained a lot of attention several years ago several years ago for his opposition to the invasion of Iraq and the "Patriot Act." He acquired a reputation as a "libertarian" even he opposes abortion, and has become the latest incarnation of the "cool Republican"( for people who believe such things.)

Recently, Paul addressed a home-schoolers rally in Iowa in which he lashed out at public education. He called the public schools a "propaganda machine" which "indoctrinates" children to believe in "Un-American" ideas such as sex education and environmentalism. It seems that right-wing nuts have been throwing this rhetoric around since the 1970's.

Paul also wants to abolish the Federal Reserve and do away with paper money. Given his positions overall, it's fair to say that Paul isn't a Libertarian but a Paleo-Conservative: a less obnoxious version of Pat Buchanan. We should be carefull about embracing a candidate just because we support a few of his position. As they say, all that glitters isn't gold.

The Full Extent of the Horror

There is lingering controversy over the US military's use of depleted uranium. The "liberation" of the Iraqi city of Falluja in 2004 has resulted in an abnormal number of birth defects in that city. Some of them are extremely gruesome: children born with severe deformities such a multiple limbs, two heads or even three. There are also reports similar birth defects from other Iraqi cities.

The official Pentagon story is that depleted uranium is harmless. The Pentagon has not adequately explained the relationship between depleted uranium and the Gulf War syndrome from the war of 1990-91. It seems reminiscent of the massive cover-up the Pentagon conducted about the effects of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. Then the Pentagon insisted that the defoliant Agent Orange was safe for humans even as evidence mounted of the devastating harm that AO had upon the Vietnamese population as well as on US veterans. But if the Pentagon doesn't care about its own troops it probably won't care about the "natives."

More research probably has to be done about the relationship between depleted uranium and birth defects and other health problems. But this should be at last be the end that any good came out of the Iraq War.

The Crusade of the Blockheads

Peter King, the blockheaded Repub from New York State, is leading a Congressional investigation into the "radicalization" of American muslims. But everyone knows this is just a political witch hunt that panders to anti-muslim bigotry. This is in line with the xenophobia of the "Tea Partiers" with which the Repubs identify.

It is important to remember that an overtly Islamophobic America will have no credibility in the Middle East, or the rest of the Muslim world. But the Tea Party is alliance of fanatics and opportunists united in ignorance.

George Will Goes Primitive

George Will, the right-wing "pundit" turned shill, formerly used the term "primitivism" to refer to the backwoods, ultra-right wing yokels from button-down East coast conservatives such as himself. Will's downfall came after 2001 when he became a Bushie sycophant of the worst order.

Will's descent into imbecile status is shown by his recent editorials "Why Liberals Love Trains," in which he argues that the Obama administrations promotion of railroads is really a conspiracy to impose "collectivism" on Americans. Following this sort of "logic" New York City, should tear up the commuter rail lines that connect it to Long Island and New Jersey. Why should the center of global capitalism have to rely on a "collectivist" form of travel?

This article demonstrates the problem that East Coast conservatives face in trying to pander to the ignorance and stupidity of the so-called Tea Party. We all know that hanging out with losers turns you into a loser. Will shows that hanging out with idiots turns you into an idiot.