Quite a few years back the Director Mel Brooks wrote (along with Norman Steinberg) and directed a bathroom humor comedy called “Blazing Saddles”.  In it he seems to have been prophetic about a new sheriff, a leader in a western town where the old town coot was the lookout while the whole town waited for the sheriffs arrival. As a cloud of dust rises over a hill signaling the impending arrival of the new sheriff the towns people wait anxiously and the old coot strains his gaze ready to shout to the towns folk his first look describing the sheriff from afar. 

Is racism really still an issue in America?  It seems so obviously so by just watching the comments of both private citizens and elected politicians as they are commenting on things as common and benign as the President making a speech to and about school children and the importance of education.  What we are being reminded of through these public statements is that this president is black and in a very subtle, despicable way.

Statements about his patriotism, his authenticity of birth, his political intentions are all subtle ways of inflecting something there, something amiss or just not right.  What is it about him that is different, hmmm?  Oh I have it now, he is black!  That is what it is, he is a black man that has been perhaps influenced by Islamic religion, he lived overseas as a child, he... well he is a black and everyone knows, good God to beware of the black man!   

The Governor of Texas, Rick Perry has said about the upcoming Presidential speech to school kids that he disagreed with some conservative groups and individuals that want to keep their children out of school.  But he inferred that somehow the White House (the President) was to blame for not letting parents and school officials know what he was planning on saying to these children.  The inference is clear here and the Governor is complicit in his support of that inference.  It is a despicable way for supposedly educated elected officials to get what they want.  Of course racism has not intellectual or any other boundaries, but it is despicable non the less.

Let's just call things what they are, stupid is what comes to mind. The moronic jibberish that Sarah Palin posted on her Facebook page about the Obama healthcare plan, the lobbiest coordinated, scripted and funded disruption of town hall meetings, conservative public representatives unwilling to denouce the vile hate rehtoric is both disgraceful and dishonerable. (not to mention just outright lies) 

But who are the Limbaughs and the Becks appealing to?  Those that are unable to form their on cognative opinions and those that are ignorant and yes, stupid. 

Stupid because being ignorant is not knowing any better and because stupid is just allowing yourself to be so.  These are all great liars in their own right, but not worth speaking more of other than to mention that they appeal to a frieghteningly large and seems to be getting larger group of the American public.

Having to make financial decisions like, re-roofing your home or having a preventative medical procedure done on your child.  Having a 50 year olds colonostopy procedure or paying for gas so one can commute to work during the year.

We see the air of deceit in everyday life all the time.  Free credit reports but we need your credit card registered for us and trying to find where the free report information is, in order to request it is virtually impossible.  100% natural, 100% pure fruit juice, 100% money back guarantee, you’ve seen the claims but we know now that our government (that’s to special interest lobbyists) allows advertisements and packaging like these to exist.  Protect your identity, but the laws governing how personal financial information collected by a financial organization can be shared with third parties by default. (It used to be the other way around, but lobbyists made quick work of that and turned it upside down.  Now by default, your creditor or financial institute has the right to share your personal information by default.  Go figure, it’s not hard.  It is once again all about money – the acquisition of it by these big, obscene corporate ****s!)

The Enron scam, Anderson Consulting, our political leadership...

Everyday people, colleagues at work, neighbors bend rules and rationalize to support their own truth or reality, generally for their own personal benefit in one way or another.  Where will this lead us and should be really be surprised when ethical and moral decisions turn on us?

Do the little lies become a larger issue perhaps later effecting our social structure as a whole?  Ethical decisions become contorted and convoluted in order to support profit or a point of view.  Where is truth, real truth in all this?

The truth is that it is hard for those that truly have a conscience and empathy for others to go on day after day, after day and not feel anger or disgust or utter exhaustion.  Exhaustion and frustration over the idiocy, lack of common sense and shear deceit of government.  Those in this classification grow up learning to believe in fairness or a justice of sorts and that those (at least the majority of which) that choose to serve to represent the masses will have at least some of those same traits. 

I have no doubt that those in public service - or at least most of them truly believe in their cause and opinions and that they will represent their constituents thusly.  Or, they have created an extreme rationalization to support their screwed up prospective - which is probably the truer of the two!

This is what has been often referred to as "the Rat Race".  For now it has seemingly lost many of the naiveties of long ago and takes on an even more insidious ruthlessness in many cases.

Comments...?

Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis talks turkey with New York Attorney General... or would it be more accurate to refer to it as the waste product of a bull instead of the turkey earlier mentioned?

I know that Congress and the previous administration believed that the banks and Wall Street would act in an appropriate, honest, responsible and ethical manner as they received billions in bailout cash.  Most of the conservatives I know thought it a joke to have no restrictions or oversight when handing over the bailout monies and the liberals I know could not have agreed more!