A Brief Relapse

Well, here it is - A journalist, taping a protest, shot at with rubber bullets and flash grenades by the police - not in Iraq, not in China, but in St Paul, MN at the Republican Convention.

http://hefestusproject.com/?p=44
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8CTdzA2DI8
Mass arrest of journalists at RNC

Of course the Democrats are going to scream that it is all a Republican plot, that it is all a show of their evil power. They don't know that 260 delegates inside the convention - good, stout Republican delegates - were detained as well, stripped of all brochures and signs and paraphernalia that supported a candidate other than McCain. Five will get you ten that the same thing happened at the Democratic Convention - a show of unity, a show of togetherness, a show of solidarity, demanded, emphasized, and enforced.

In other blogs this morning, folks are lamenting the downfall of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, saying it has been happening since 2007; lamenting the collapse of the retirement investment funds. 2007? 2007? Where have people been the last 20 years? The artificial, on-paper recovery has been a farce since the 1980's, when dot-coms and Savings and Loans were allowed to fleece the market by government sanction. The artificial growth period was enhanced by the "Out of money? Why we'll just print more!" attitude of the Federal Reserve. When your money is based on a Ponzi scheme of fiat money, it will lose value, and so will everything you buy with it - no matter how many investments you make or how you make them.

And do you know why I don't bother to write political commentary any more? Because there's no point. Folks are more interested in who Paris is sleeping with or who Britney is screaming at now. People will believe what ever they choose; telling them different only makes them want to scream insults, accusations, or vituperations. They don't read, they argue. Alan Greenspan's book is not on their shelves; neither are Milton Friedman's. They read a 250 word blog and think that they know all there is to know about a topic; don't research, don't educate, don't delve into the whys and wherefores. After all, Headline News and text messages tell them all they need to know, why bother?

Sorry. I guess what pissed me off the most was the lament of the journalist who wrote the above story link... His total shock at what had happened, his total disbelief that such a thing could happen in America of all places. Yup, well, I've been seeing it and commenting on it for 20 years, and no one believed me then. No one will believe this now. It will be swept under the rug like everything else; people quietly apologised to or paid off with non-disclosure riders. Keep your mouths shut. Everything is FINE. Dissent with the status quo is unhealthy - whether it is the status quo of the Republicans, the Democrats, or even the Libertarians. Not to mention a monumental waste of time.

OK I'm done. Next blogs will be a return to the pastoral, back to the social commentary again. Pardon my rant - I just get aggravated every once in a while. People who suddenly discover that they've been wearing blinders all of their lives, who gasp in horror at something that has been going on for decades right under their noses, stories and tales that they sarcastically dismissed as being circulated by Conspiracy Theorists and loonies, just irk me a little. Make more room in the fallout shelter and the loony bin - here comes another handful of wide eyed, stunned believers.