The Wisdom of George Carlin

A few days ago George Carlin died. It really bummed me out. George Carlin was a hero of mine. He had the ability to cut through all the smoke and mirrors by which the establishment operates and give us an unfettered view of our reality. I can't think of anyone who can replace him.

In a tribute to George, what follows is an entry I made here about a year ago.

"Some of our greatest social critics are comedians. They really good ones have the ability to hold up a mirror so we can observe the absurdity our societal conditions.

In their nightly monologues Jay Leno and David Letterman give us a glimpse of our deteriorating political situation, something the mainline media portrays with sobriety.

One of the greatest takes on what’s happening to the American people was summed up by George Carlin in his most recent HBO special.

Here it is (expletives deleted):

“ … The owners of this country don’t want (educated people).”

“I’m talking about the real owners now, the big, wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. They’ve got the politicians … politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice.

You don’t. You have no choice. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls … They’ve got the judges in their back pockets.

And they own all the big media corporations so they control just about all the news and information you get to hear.

They’ve got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want. We all know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everyone else.

But I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking.

They are not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s not in their interests. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they’re getting f----d by a system that threw them overboard thirty f------g years ago.

They don’t want that.

You know what they want? Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork and just dumb enough to passably accept all the increasingly sh---y jobs with lower pay, longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime, and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you get to collect it.

And now they are coming for your Social Security money. They want your f-----g retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it from you sooner or later ‘cause they own this
f------g place. It’s a big club, and you’re not in it!

You and I are not in “The Big Club.” By the way, it’s the same big club they use to beat you over the head all day long where they tell you what to believe, all day long, beating you over the head in their media, telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy.

That table is tilted folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. Good, honest, hardworking people in white or blue collars—it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on—good, honest, hardworking people continue to elect these sick c---------rs who don’t give a f--k about you. They don’t care about you at all, at all, at all …

And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners (of this country) count on, the fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue d--k being jammed up their a------s everyday.

Because the owners of this country know that truth is called The American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.”

Copyright 2005, George Carlin, HBO

Are we going to remain ignorant? A few media voices are speaking the truth about the loss of good jobs, the influx of illegal workers across the border, and the corruption of our politics. If you’d like to stay abreast of how our country is being sold out you might want to tune in Glen Beck (syndicated radio and CNN Headline News), Lou Dobbs (CNN), and Jerry Doyle (syndicated radio). All have web sites for additional information.

Remember, the first three words of the U.S. Constitution are “We the people.”"

(And if you read this far, you might want to consider the very next entry.)

The Mess We're In--A Different View

When I first began this blog I wanted to share my take on things. I felt a certain passion for the subjects about which I wrote—illegal immigration, corporate malfeasance, profiteering in our healthcare sector and, of course, the so-called ‘War on Terror.’

I’ve followed the ongoing presidential campaign, initially with interest, but to the eventual point of boredom. During that time I contributed little to this blog. I was trying to make up my mind. Who was right? Who was wrong? The candidates who said the things I wanted to hear are no longer in the race. It doesn’t matter who they are. They’re history.

A couple of friends send me information promoting their political philosophies. One is the conservative’s conservative, the other, the liberal’s liberal. I read what both send me. But I’ve come to the conclusion that neither philosophy has a franchise on the truth. Though I’ve always tended toward the conservative, I now believe that situations are constantly changing. Some situations call for a conservative approach, and some, the liberal.

I've gotten to the point that I don’t trust either one of the major party candidates. In my opinion neither one presents a good choice. The American people are presented with the same problem they’ve faced for nearly thirty years. The major parties present two imperfect choices. Each is beholding to interests that do not serve the best interests of the entire country.

I used to be a news junkie. Now I rarely watch it. With very few exceptions, it’s as though the major broadcast media is feeding us a daily diet of Pablum (fills you up with words and pictures, but contains little in the way of substance). Thank God for the Internet! How else would we really be able to find out about things? We can access an almost infinitely diverse range of opinions.

In entitling this blog ‘Middle Class Warrior,’ I wanted to promote the idea that war was being waged on the American Middle Class. Since I wrote my first entry we’ve experienced the mortgage/housing crisis, and now we are dealing with ever increasing gasoline prices. The latter is not only draining our wallets at the gas pump, but also showing up as higher prices in most commodities (food, clothing and all other goods that require over-the-road transportation).

So what’s going on? The Republicans blame the Democrats and the Democrats, the Republicans. I’ve come to believe that it’s not that simple. There is another agenda that we rarely hear about. It is one that manipulates both parties. It does so through political contributions and extortion.

If you look hard enough and listen well enough, you’ll find and hear dissonant voices. These are people who believe that there is a hidden agenda whose objective it is to destroy this country. It is an agenda that is covertly sponsored by people who consider themselves the world’s elite.

Yes, Virginia, there is a movement to expose the truth, but you won’t find it in the mainstream media. You won’t find it in the ‘liberal’ or the ‘conservative’ press, either. You might hear hints of it on popular ‘talk’ radio, but only on those programs that are willing to explore the unusual, like Coast-to Coast AM with George Noury.

But if you really want a heavy dose of an alternate theory, you need to check out Alex Jones. Over the last ten years, through his radio program and documentary films, Jones has built an impressive cottage industry exposing the existence of a cabal of elites attempting to control the world. I’ve been listening. Do I buy everything Jones and his cohorts are saying? Not everything. Yet. But I'm listening, and I’m wondering. Could it all be true?

If you’d like to consider what Jones says for yourself. You can access his radio program through his two web pages. They are http://www.prisonplanet.com/ and http://www.infowars.com/.

If you’d like to contribute to the foregoing, you can comment on this site by becoming a ‘blogger’ or you can e-mail me at WGDavis46@aol.com.

My Unknown Friend - Thanks for the Kidney

Eleven years ago I received a death sentence.

It was the same sentence that had been handed down to my grandmother, my aunt, my mother and cousins too numerous to list. I was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease, a hereditary affliction that has plagued my mother’s side of the family for generations.

The condition is particularly insidious in that it is not painful, and without blood tests one wouldn’t know one had it. Over a period of years, cysts form in the kidneys until the organ eventually ceases to function. When it no longer works, the victim succumbs to the inability to of the body to eliminate its liquid waste.

There are no cures for this disease. There are treatments. The most common is kidney dialysis by which the patient’s blood is circulated through a machine and filter that strains the blood of most of its impurities. The second treatment is a kidney transplant whereby a donated organ is grafted into the patient’s body.

I was lucky to have been treated by a very knowledgeable physician. Through medication and attention to my diet, he and my wife kept my kidneys adequately functioning for a number of years. He understood the progression of the disease and prepared me for eventual dialysis. He also arranged for me to be placed on the nationwide kidney transplant list.

Two and a half years ago I had to go on dialysis. My denial that I was sick finally met reality. Though at the time I felt my life had ended, I adapted well to the treatment. It required being on the machine three and a half hours three days a week. With commuting time to and from the dialysis clinic, that meant five hours a day or a third of my waking life three times a week for treatment. That’s not bad considering the alternative is death, but it still puts a dent in your life.

I remained on the kidney transplant list for nearly five years. It required my carrying a cell phone with me at all times, so that if an organ became available, I could be contacted and get to the hospital within hours. When you first go on the list, you expect a call at any time. As the years pass, you begin to think that it will never happen. That’s the way I felt until a month ago when I got the call from Shands Hospital at the University of Florida. “We have a kidney. Do you want it?”

Of course I did, and the operation so far has been a success. The doctors are pleased with my progress. I had almost forgotten how it feels to have properly functioning plumbing.

This means a new way of life for me. I would like to thank the family and loved ones of the person who was considerate enough to donate his/her organs. I have no idea who the donor was, but organ donation is one of the most loving things one human being can do for another.

If you have not yet designated yourself to be an organ donor, think about it. It is one way to help another human being when you can no longer help yourself.

If you have volunteered to be an organ donor, I thank you for myself and all future recipients.

Pagan Moon

Some of have heard that I wrote a book. It’s a mystery/thriller with a supernatural undercurrent. It’s called Pagan Moon. Some of you have read it. Most who have read Pagan Moon have liked it. Some thought it would make a great movie.

But you won’t find Pagan Moon in traditional book stores. Now you can order it through a book store, but you’d end up paying more than you would for a traditional trade paperback. That’s why I’ve never encouraged interested parties to go that route.

Most people have asked if they can buy the book from me. Sure you can, and that’s okay, except that I have to order it from the publisher. Then I charge its listed price plus my shipping cost ($15.00). And I don’t take credit cards. But I thought if anyone on this list is interested, you can go directly to the publisher and buy Pagan Moon there for about the same price I’d ask for it. That would save you about 35% from what you’d pay at Barnes & Noble or Amazon. That’s the best deal and it’s priced right ($12.95 plus shipping). And they take credit cards!

Here’s the link to Pagan Moon at the publisher’s site:

http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemDetail~bookid~3431.aspx
Future Plans (for those who are interested):

I’ve completed 2 more books as follow-ups to Pagan Moon. Neither has been published since I’d have to make a certain investment to make them available. I’m considering doing so if I can increase Pagan Moon’s readership. So if you’ve read Pagan Moon, and liked it, I’d appreciate it if you’d recommend it to someone you know who enjoys reading. Increased sales will encourage me to publish the other two books.

And since several people have mentioned that it would make a great movie, I’ve started sending Pagan Moon out to a select group of Hollywood production companies. I plan to continue doing so during the next twelve months. It’s a long shot, but who knows? Maybe I can get someone interested. I’ll keep you posted.

So if you’ve read this far, I hope you don’t feel this is shameless self-promotion. If you’re not an avid reader, there’s no sense for you to buy Pagan Moon. If, on the other hand, you are, or know someone who is, and you’ve gotten tired of the ordinary, maybe you’d want to give Pagan Moon a shot.

And thanks for reading this shameless self-promotion.

Why We're Failing in Iraq

After we were attacked by Al Queda I—like many Americans—felt a need for payback. 9/11 created a sense of unity in our country, something that may not have existed since the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

We were scared. We wanted retribution. We wanted to know who had done this to us, how it happened, and why. But most of all we wanted the culprits caught and destroyed. Mentally and emotionally we were ready for war. Tens of thousands of our finest young men and women volunteered for military service. They wanted to defend our country from its sworn enemies. With the image of George W. Bush addressing recovery workers on the rumble of the World Trade Center, we left it up to our new president and his team to carry us through to ultimate victory.

So with that mindset, we watched as our armed services successfully wrested control of Afghanistan from its radical Taliban leaders. But one of our main objectives, to kill or capture Bin Laden, failed.

Why?

Then the administration began touting the danger posed to us from Iraq. We were told that the Iraqis had huge stocks of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD’s) stockpiled throughout their country. Supposedly they were in bed with Bin Laden and would supply these weapons to the terrorists. The case was made for attacking Iraq.

How did this happen and why?

With our overwhelming military force we had no problem defeating the conventional Iraqi army. Iraqi citizens were dancing in the streets with joy. We felt that we were liberators. At that point we had an opportunity to stabilize the country with a series of intelligent decisions. But the decisions that were made only led to hostility and persistent attacks on our service personnel. Four years later, with over 3,000 dead and more than 20,000 wounded, those attacks continue.

Why? How did we screw up so badly?

The answers to many of those questions are revealed in a new book by Andrew Cockburn, RUMSFELD, His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy ($16.50 in hardback at Amazon.com). It is a scathing attack against Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, his leadership of the military establishment, and the decisions he forced through regarding our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. While I don’t know enough to concur with all of the author’s conclusions, the book offers fascinating insights into Donald Rumsfeld’s ambition which was limitless, his intellect which was overestimated, and his management style which was Machiavellian.

We may be analyzing what went wrong in Iraq for years to come, but if you are interested in the subject and those questions plague you as they did me, then this book is a fine start.

If you’d like to contribute to the foregoing, you can comment on this site by becoming a ‘blogger’ or you can e-mail me at WGDavis46@aol.com.

Visit my web site: www.authorsden/williamgdavis

The Wisdom of George Carlin

Some of our greatest social critics are comedians. They really good ones have the ability to hold up a mirror so we can observe the absurdity our societal conditions.

In their nightly monologues Jay Leno and David Letterman give us a glimpse of our deteriorating political situation, something the mainline media portrays with sobriety.

One of the greatest takes on what’s happening to the American people was summed up by George Carlin in his most recent HBO special.

Here it is (expletives deleted):

“ … The owners of this country don’t want (educated people).”

“I’m talking about the real owners now, the big, wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. They’ve got the politicians … politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice.

You don’t. You have no choice. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls … They’ve go the judges in their back pockets.

And they own all the big media corporations so they control just about all the news and information you get to hear.

They’ve got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want. We all know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everyone else.

But I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking.

They are not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s not in their interests. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they’re getting f----d by a system that threw them overboard thirty f------g years ago.

They don’t want that.

You know what they want? Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork and just dumb enough to passably accept all the increasingly sh---y jobs with lower pay, longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime, and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you get to collect it.

And now they are coming for your Social Security money. They want your f-----g retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it from you sooner or later ‘cause they own this
f------g place. It’s a big club, and you’re not in it!

You and I are not in “The Big Club.” By the way, it’s the same big club they use to beat you over the head all day long where they tell you what to believe, all day long, beating you over the head in their media, telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy.

That table is tilted folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. Good, honest, hardworking people in white or blue collars—it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on—good, honest, hardworking people continue to elect these sick c---------rs who don’t give a f--k about you. They don’t care about you at all, at all, at all …

And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners (of this country) count on, the fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue d--k being jammed up their a------s everyday.

Because the owners of this country know that truth is called The American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.”

Copyright 2005, George Carlin, HBO

Are we going to remain ignorant? A few media voices are speaking the truth about the loss of good jobs, the influx of illegal workers across the border, and the corruption of our politics. If you’d like to stay abreast of how our country is being sold out you might want to tune in Glen Beck (syndicated radio and CNN Headline News), Lou Dobbs (CNN), and Jerry Doyle (syndicated radio). All have web sites for additional information.

Remember, the first three words of the U.S. Constitution are “We the people.”

Iraq - Time To Go

As a former U. S. Marine and stepfather of a serving Marine, I am faced with a gut-wrenching dilemma.

Like most Americans (and all politicians), I support the troops. Their quality, intelligence,and dedication has never been higher. And by supporting the troops I mean providing them with all the necessary weapons, supplies and equipment required to complete their missions and to defeat our enemies.

But I believe we are at the point in Iraq that we have to ask ourselves whether the battle is still ours.

When we took over the country and ran Saddam and his cohorts to ground, we accomplished what most thought was our original objective. We found no weapons of mass destruction, this administration’s the excuse for invading the country. Then we sponsored the first free elections Iraq has experienced in decades. They elected their leaders. But unlike us, they resolve their political differences through violence. Now we appear to be in the middle of it, attacked by all parties because they resent our presence.

Let’s face it. We can’t solve the Iraqis’ problems. Only the Iraqi’s can solve Iraqi problems. They may choose to do so through violence. So be it, but we don’t have to in the middle of it. We’ve given them a chance to live in a free and democratic society. That’s all we can do, to provide them the opportunity. Tribal warfare and being conquered by foreign invaders has been their history. We can’t undo a culture that has been in the making for thousands of years.

So let’s tell the Iraqis that it’s all theirs now, and that we are leaving.

But what about al Queda? And what about the Iranian influence? What about “fighting al Queda in Iraq so we don’t have to fight them in America?” It appears we may stand a greater danger from al Queda by not securing our own borders than we do by letting them die on the vine in Iraq. Middle Eastern documents have been found in the Texas and Arizona deserts. That points to the possibility that al Queda has been infiltrating our country through Mexico. There’s no doubt that the “War on Terror” is real, but we couldn’t we fight it better if we withdrew our troops from Iraq and started rebuilding our forces for other possible conflicts?

Our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have performed exceptionally under difficult and dangerous conditions. There is no dishonor to them to bring them home. We should honor them as the true patriots and heroes that they are. We are not going to change a people and a country that has been in conflict and blood feuds for thousands of years.

If you want to know the true cost of staying in Iraq, I would encourage you to view the following web site:

http://www.pcsuccess.us/yrg/farewellmarine_final.swf