sad state of education, scary appointments and wasted money...

I managed to catch the final moments of the miss teen usa pageant the other night...and I am sure you have heard by now, it was a frightening experience. four young ladies left on stage, put under the bright lights and asked really tough questions like "why can't americans find the united states on a map?" the answer was just painful and sad to watch. something about south africa and iraq and helping educate those folks...not only a non-answer of a simple question...but a non-answer to any question. no matter what was asked...that answer would have made no sense. it was a rather damning indictment of the american educational system...one that provides braindead sheep capable of worshipping the likes of friedman and crying from the rooftops the joys of financialization and never-ending growth...all in the midst of a crumbling market and vanishing economy...yet it cannot provide the one simple thing education was meant to provide...not business leaders...not money-grubbing slaves to Big Corporations...but informed citizens. people capable of thinking for themselves and examining the world and their place in it. so if you are a student, stay away from business...it is a joke and a lie and nothing but an opportunity to sell your soul to god of the almighty dollar - a god that doesn't seem to have much pull in the heavens these days. instead, get into an art classroom...a history classroom...a science classroom. study something that makes you a better person, not a better bottom-line.

alberto gonzales is gone...cheers. yes, the man was a complete shitbag incapable of understanding what the american "way of life" actually means. yes, the man was instrumental in ensuring that your rights and liberties fanished more by the day...and sent kids off to kill and be killed for the death of liberty. yes, the man turned the justice department into yet another political hackery. but one of the most frightening things about gonzales is how incredibly inept he was as a lawyer and a manager. just some texas asshole that bush decided he liked and pulled him up from private practice to the governor's mansion, to the state supreme court, to the white house, and then to one of the most important positions in the country...and at no step along the way did he prove to be capable of anything but patting the boy king on the back. and this is one of the worst aspects of the boy king...his loyalty never seems to be to accomplished or capable people, but to yes men. and here I always figured that in the most important decisions it would be expected that differing views would be raised and discussed. but then analytical thought isn't exactly a staple in texas educations these days...so perhaps that is asking too much of an intellectual midget and his band of incompetent boobs.

and speaking of inept leadership...the boy king is sending a budget to congress that will include over $650 billion on the machinery of death and destruction. think about that for a minute......$650 billion.....on killing. and now look around and you will see none of your neighbors have access to affordable health care...you will see many foreclosure signs popping up in your neighborhood...you will see the school down the street forced to share textbooks and use trailers to house students...you will see your children stifled by rising debts while they try to educate themselves...you will see your pension wiped out, even though they told you it was better to have a 401k than a guaranteed pension...you will see your roads crumbling and your bridges collapsing...and you will see the graveyards filling up...and you will never see a flag at full-mast...and you will see more and more prisons rising up and yet crime rates continue to rise...and you will see so many families weeping over a flag in a triangular fold, the boy king's way of saying "thanks for giving your loved one so that I might destroy your life." and maybe, just maybe, you will wonder if there is not a better way to spend $650 billion dollars next year then in the art of killing.

"As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular." - Oscar Wilde