Random Political and Social Crap

I'm up drinking cheap decent rum. I'm in The Tropics (officially). Please DO NOT READ this post if politics will offend you. Just skip this post and I'll put a better post up after this. I avoid political posts and this one should be the only one.

I avoid political posts and this one should be it. I know it's an early post on this site, but after many experienced years of my life, I mean it -- this should be the one and only POLITICAL post. Fuck. I'm sure since you're still reading this, you probably will get pissed off, but read the rest of my stuff and make up your decision of me from that. If you have any suggestions, please email them to me. I've got ears (although halfway deaf through loud music and motorcycles) -- I'll listen. I read the posts that Ted Simon (motorcycling world traveling author of Jupiter's Travels) got after 9/11 and I don't want those. I'm really easy going. I've got a thick skin. It's very hard to piss me off. So, just skip this post if you want to avoid a political rant. Okay, thanks.

I've been getting email and posts that say, "whoah, we're really in the soup now" since Shrub got elected. Yes, that's elected as in, The First Time, because as everyone knows, left and right wing, there were a bit of problems with the last election. Hey, don't blame the messenger -- everyone knows that one registered mighty high on the fraud scale.

As far as I know, the last president who made it in with such blatent fraud was John F. Kennedy. So many dead people voted for him in Illinois that it was his choice if he wanted to be president or not. No really, he was 2nd choice of his dad, John's older brother was the one conditioned to be president but he got croaked. Try looking this up, you've got google, don't you? In 1960, during the election, the quote was supposed to be: John F Kennedy, "I don't know if I want to be president" and Robert Kennedy answered, "The Illinois count isn't in yet, so it's your choice" which I think the idea is basically true. The union (aka mafia in the USA, not kidding again) had so many dead guys vote for JFK that it's the same as so many black Floridians not allowed to vote for Gore. I can say this because most of my friends think I'm a loony right wing guy anyway because I like guns. I'm also pro-choice and anti-death penalty so as an American, I don't have a party out of the 2 choices.

It's going to be a crazy next 4 years in the States. Good thing California voted in Arnie Schwartzenegger, because if we had a democrat as Gov, we'd be as fucked as I assume Massachuetts will be. Not kidding again there.

Bush has that weirdo Good Christian Thing around him. Probably because of getting his (DUI/DWI) Driving While Intoxicated violations (and wasn't there a cocaine bust that has been expunged from his record?). I'm not mentioning skipping out on Viet Nam because EVERYONE in the USA knows that Badge of Red Courage was written by Stephen Crane, a guy who WAS NOT even alive when the Civil War happened. Trust me, we know it because of Cliff's Notes and most people, I hope, have given up on this post and moved on. Anyhoo (skip up in the paragraph to figure out this next sentence) Bush is some sort of AA thing. Alcholics Anonymous for people in other nations. People who are addiction prone because they need to have something to Believe in, are show The Way To God instead of drinking or drug abuse.

I don't know how many countries use AA but it does an okay job in the USA. It's much easier for the general population to have some Crazy Addicted Nut be a Religious Nut instead of an Amphetamine Addict who's breaking into your house in a paranoid rage who might shoot you for a $50 television.

But as Bush enters the US into some sort of looney religious war with the Middle East, this should be an Interesting Time to live in. First time since The Crusades, I think. It's Christians vs Islams vs Moslems going at this again. Of course, there's also the benefits of Oil vs Euro/US Dollar thing going on as well (once again, try looking that up -- not the Crusades but euro vs. dollar). As more countries realize that the US has sunk itself, they'll move to the Euro instead of the American Dollar to base their currency on. But as the USA sinks itself into a dark hole economically, some of us notice it, but most won't, so don't worry about the Good Ol' USA invading your counry. We don't travel much, so no point (yet) in having to make anti-USA regulations, and besides, Bush has made this a religious war, and I assume that if you're reading this, you'll be on Our Good Christian Side.

Don't worry, some of the Americans might remember that we did the same thing to The Yellow Plague last century, but most won't remember that we passed laws against the Chinese and Japanese (don't let whitey think he's coming out ahead because the laws against Italians and the Irish were bad too). And by using the Chinese to make railroads to make property go up, and the Japanese to further build up property and business values (that we kicked them off) the Americans did themselves fine. We didn't go even half as far as The Roman Empire went, but we had a pretty good shot. A candle that burns on both ends burns twice as bright but only half as long.

I should explain that train of thought. One of the best, and worst, things about the USA is, we don't have memory. As an American, we don't get mad that Turkey slaughtered Armenians 100 years ago. Japanese slaughtered Chinese. English vs. Irish. Even American Jews these days buy German cars -- but that was 50 years ago. Short attention span. It works because we don't get mad over some sort of Hatfield vs. McCoy feud (trust me, I'm related to one side -- no really). Who the hell cares? But, in the opposite, because we don't remember, we get annoyed and pass laws like "all Asians can't breed and go to jail" (I'm not kidding on that one, that's 2 different laws in one short but true bit). But luckily, that doesn't last long, we forgive, and we forget. Unlike the Balkanization that occurs in Europe, I'm not going to slaughter Robert, my brother in law, because he likes old Fords and I prefer old Chrysler cars. Isn't that the same half-assed shit that people in Europe are killing themselves over?

The laws here are crazy. Some of us Unwashed Masses in America, like to pick on the phrase "America: Land of the Free" as there's not much real freedom left. It's way worse here in Australia. I try to present myself the other way because I always thought the USA was screwed. I am left leaning, but here in OZ, under years of Left thinking with the usual Conservative crap in the way, it's way worse than the US to live. People here are much nicer though, and living isn't bad (although Aussies have lower economic standards than the standard American). Entrapment is probably what bothers me most at the moment and I'm sure that's influencing me. Entrapment is a-okay here from the cop point of view.

An example, which might be too gear headed is, a cop can pull up next to you at a light in an unmarked race car, rev his engine trying to get you to race, and if you squeal your tires when the light turns green, your car can get impounded. He entrapped you into racing. Or what should make sense to my drug taking friends, if you like smoking pot, an undercover cop can come up and say, "hey, I want to smoke some weed" and then arrest you if you pull any out. Not sure if they call marijuana "weed" or "pot" here but that's how it goes and for such a half-assed "drug" such as marijuana who the hell cares?

Yes, that annoys my ever so delicate American sensibilities (there's sarcasm there, you betcha). It works the same way for other worse crimes, but Police and Government will Always take the worst way of getting somewhere. The USA is worse than Australia on most points, but on many important points, it's worse here in OZ. Which is to say, I don't have a valid opinion. 6 of one, half dozen of the other based on local bits of local events. I suppose I've just been wasting your time, but hey, don't say you weren't warned -- especially if you've sent stuff saying you'd like to move here to avoid Bush's regime.

A great thing about Australia is, it's mandatory to vote and most workers are in unions. I don't know if the mafia has destroyed unions here yet though, so I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but on the surface it sounds great. Of course, on the surface, socialism sounds great and Mussolini made the trains run on time. Just don't know how bastardized and evil it is here yet because I don't, and probably never will, work under Australian union regulations. But mandatory voting seems like a great idea.

And yup, I lost my ability to spell although drinking rum hasn't helped. I'll try to make up for this crappy political post in the next post, where I'll really try to explain The Cost of My Bike including my dotted eye.

I think I have a general anthropologist (try looking that up at http://dictionary.com/) point of view that humans are a virus and we've destroyed ourselves and the world. I bet, and this is a common belief among most of the Anthropoligists that I talked to at San Francisco State University when I graduated in 1996, that we've sucker punched ourselves hard enough that we've passed the High Point of human evolution and we're on the down turn now. Couldn't tell you how much longer we're going to last as a species, but hey, we had a great time and that's all that matters.

You can't invent the Winchester Model 97, Vincents, Ducati 750s, Dodge Darts, the Ramones, beer, or the Wild Bunch without a few problems. Gabba gabba hey, gabba hey, gabba one of us. We're all in this together, and whether you spend your spare time sniffing glue, designing bevelhead motorcycles, the almighty slant six, or writing "Chinese Rocks", in a short time, when we're all dead, what will matter?

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Posted by DaveSmith at November 7, 2004 04:03 AM