If your answer is 9.11 ties, you’re wrong. There are no ties to 9.11 and Iraq or Hussein. There are ties to Saudi Arabia but for some reason they were ignored and we’ve still yet to address them from a federal level.
If your answer is WMD, you’re wrong. For the sake of the argument, I’ll concede and say Iraq had WMD. They’ve been found, destroyed, deactivated, moved, etc. by now. If this is why we went there, because of WMD, why are we still there?

Personally, I’m struggling to find an acceptable reason for going to war in Iraq. Not to mention that there probably isn’t one, but we should have known something was up when war wasn’t properly declared. We were too upset about 9.11 to question our Commander in Chief at the time. This is completely understandable. We wanted vengeance for our dead. In retrospect, we can’t say it was right, but it was understandable.

What does this have to do with bread and circuses?

During the 2008 Presidential election, Obama was trumpeting his plans to end the Iraq war. To this day I remain convinced that this is exactly why he won the election. That, and because McCain said he’d stay in Iraq indefinitely. So it is now two years after his campaign and we’ve yet to see any signs of our military leaving Iraq. We’ve had a “declaration” from Obama naming July 2011 as the drawdown date for the Iraq war. But we also have General Petraeus noting that he reserves the right to tell the President it was “too early.” because the drawdown is “conditions based” and evidently there is some sort of benchmark they’re watching.

Well given that nothing has changed from George W Bush to Barrack H Obama over the absolute biggest item from the 2008 Presidential campaigns, surely the voters are upset and the media is reporting on it. Oh silly me, I forgot we’re now back to our apathetic and complacent selves. We’re literally fighting secret wars, permanently harming a new generation of Iraqis, all the while being told that the Iraq war could go on until an unrealized, undeclared goal is met. Oh and remember, the war in Afghanistan is also going well… Given the recent news about Russia supplying Iran’s nuclear program, we’re also hearing the drums of war rumbling as the saber rattling begins.

Ignore all that though. Our media has the “politically active” up in arms about the proposed racists in the conservative group or up in arms about the millions of illegal aliens in the country. More recently, we have the news that a Muslim community center containing a mosque is being built two blocks away from the World Trade Center’s ashes. Some people haven’t learned from the blindness and unquestioning actions our country undertook when going to war in Iraq. Some of us now think it should be illegal for a person to build a community center with a mosque just because their religion is incompatible with the attacks of 9.11 and their vicinity of the World Trade Center. Let me ask you this, do you really want to give the power to the government to allow or disallow a person buying property and building what they want on that property? Do you see any sort of slippery slope here? I digress.

As important as the enforcing of laws and the rights of private property are, we’re missing the point!

This is the modern day circus. In the fall of the Roman Empire, the people were given bread and circuses to distract them from reality. Well guess what folks, this is our circus! The 24 hour news cycle and constant barrage of Internet news and commentary is our circus. We love getting all puffed up and energized and feeling righteous about OUR cause and those in charge of the circus know that. The lines are being drawn between you and the person you have ideological differences with. In the middle of the fuss, while we’re all distracted, trillions of dollars are going from tax payers to corporations. The medical industry, military-industrial complex, the financial industry, they are all laughing their way to the bank.

The quicker you realize the distractions divide you from your fellow citizens, the quicker you can find a common ground in collectively refusing the ruling class to continue it’s fleecing of the people.

Most people, regardless of political philosophy, would agree that constantly taking money from the taxpayer to bailout private companies is bad.

Most people, regardless of political philosophy, would agree that trillion dollar deficits are incredibly detrimental to the country’s future.

Most people, regardless of political philosophy, would agree that the phony paper money system we’ve been tricked into adopting is absolute garbage.

Most people, regardless of political philosophy, would agree that the endless wars, death, and chaos that WE are responsible for needs to come to an end.

Stop with the upholding of the two-party system and the bickering and thinking of your neighbors as philosophical enemies and realize there are very important things that need to be addressed. We all need all the help we can get.

It is here. At some point, I was expecting the government to step up and make service mandatory. The draft was too inflammatory as far as political correctness goes. But “serving your country” in other ways will be construed as patriotic and American. Well here it is.

The sponsor of the bill probably won’t shock you.

Charles Rangel
Democrat – New York

That’s right! The same guy who has lied about owning property abroad to avoid taxation and who is now under investigation for tax fraud amongst other things, he is proposing that if you’re between 18 and 42 years of age, you should be required to “serve” your country in some form or another. Doesn’t that just sound like liberty incarnate. I, for one, would love to serve this guy! He seems like an honorable, moral, freedom loving guy. I’ll serve two years being watchdog of crooked Senators and Congress-critters. How about that?

Oh my goodness! Did you hear Tiger Woods is cheating on his wife!? Did you see Avatar!? I really like Johnny Depp! Check out my new iPhone!

We are in historic times for some pretty terrible reasons and it seems some people are intoxicated on pop culture society. We’re breaking records for bad things in America and the Oscars are the focus of our attention.

Honestly, when is the last time you saw a body count of our dead soldiers since the conflicts started in the middle east? Do you have any idea the thousands of American families who are torn apart from their loss? What about the estimates that show that over a million civilians are injured in Iraq? You may never face these people are your peers or neighbors but if you have a soul you have to know they’re as much human as you are. And when you did hear a tremendously high number pinned to blood, death, and pain, how much did you feel the pain?

I was watching an interview today where a talk show host asked a former congressman how to fix the corruption in Washington D.C. The answer wasn’t too surprising to me but it went something like this: “I have no idea!” A congressman spending six years eyeball deep in the politics that control the people (as well as condemn them to future debts, war, etc.) says the corruption is destroying the federal government and he has no idea how to fix it. Think about this… Is there truly a fix? All of our history books says empires always fall. No matter how great they were or how gracefully they fall, they always fall. With that in mind, guess what folks? We have a military base in more than 130 countries in the world and we’re worse than broke. Where on the timeline of an empire are we? Our people are glued to frivolous pop culture as our so-called leaders are looting our lives away at record breaking pace. If you were objectively estimating the future of the world, where would America be in 20 years?

America is getting worse yet apathy is growing. Where do these two intersect? Are we on a non-stop train pushing a cure for apathy with a prescription for pain? Do we really need the country to descend into darker and darker times before we even acknowledge a problem and fight for a fix? Is there any other way than wait for the pain to get so bad the it effects the masses enough to break their attention away from American Idol?

That being said, it is strange that so much can be going wrong with America yet the American machine keeps pushing through it. It just keeps going like an NFL running back with defenders riding his back. Just keep in mind that eventually the strongest running backs fall. We’ve got all of history’s lessons to prove that.

Are you still there? Eyes still in head? Jaw not on the floor? What in the world could I be talking about?

How about this, give me one good reason that the United States has the right to put a missile shield in someone else’s country where it could possibly attack its neighbors?
How about this, give me one good reason why we should be promoting an imperialistic America.
How about this, give me one explanation how you can be against high taxes, inflation, and big government and still be for the missile shield?

To the first question, we cannot be a country that goes to war without being attacked. We have seen where that leads us and hopefully now realize that we’re not the imperialistic bully of the world who makes the rules.

To the second question, it goes against the constitution and the way this country was founded. We are to be strong national defense in the sense that we defend our country and our countrymen. You cannot distort this into growing our military into the “Democracy spreading at gunpoint” machine. It is possible when focusing on small government, low taxes, and liberty.

To the third question, the war machine that we as a country have created is a tremendous part of our annual budget and increases constantly. When we’re a country facing a tremendous economic crisis, we don’t have a choice to keep spending our military across the world. The spending causes either taxes to be raised even more, inflation from borrowing to pay for the wars, and the infrastructure of a tremendously top-heavy federal government. Do not skimp on defense but do not distort offense into the perverted definition of defense.

What does all of this have to do with blindly accepting news you ask? Well one of the biggest talk radio and television host personalities, Mr. Glenn Beck, decided that we have sold out by getting rid of the missile shield. His train of thought connects the missile shield program discontinuation to the talks between GE and Putin… I won’t get into that and I can’t say either way which is right or wrong. I do know this, the missile shield would cost the country a lot of money it doesn’t have and increased the empire we have to financially and ideologically support. Not only do we have to carve our more of our GDP or add more to our debt, but we also have to be able to face the rest of the world and say, “We have the right to put missiles wherever we want to defend from anyone we please. It doesn’t even matter if it is our land we’re defending and it doesn’t even matter if it is YOUR country we’re aiming at. We can do it, but you can’t!”

Personally, I disagree with that mentality. I am tremendously in favor of having the world’s strongest and smartest military, but I cannot see a logical reason for pushing for imperial ideals, actions, and goals.

The ultimate reality is, the missile shield being canceled is a great thing. It saves us from more inflation, taxation, federal debt, and a few more coats of that imperialistic paint that we’re being covered with by countries and people with anti-American rhetoric. We cannot continue to have a “holier-than-though” mentality and wonder why people speak against us or why terrorists bomb us. To be the best, we must act like the best. This does not include being the global bully, democracy enforcer, Christian spreader, or any other role that we would reject ourselves. This simply does not pass the “What if they did it to us?” test. If Russia put a missile shield in Cuba, we would have a fit (and rightfully so). If China put military bases all over North America to “stabilize” our continent, we would have a fit (and rightfully so).

We cannot continue to lie to ourselves and promote ourselves as immune to the idea of liberty for other countries and regions or claim we’re operating under a different set of rules.

I cannot say that Beck would disagree my statements but I have to disagree with how he presented this. We have to be careful about how things appear and be very clear how we feel on things so we don’t inadvertently give the wrong idea. When we speak, we must be thorough and specific on what we believe to be the truth. If I were a casual listener to his radio program and picked up on this show, I might have reacted with something like “Well what in the world are they doing? We can’t appear weak! Put that missile shield up! Obama is making us less safe!”

On top of being very clear about what we speak, we have to be vigilant about what we’re reading, hearing, and seeing. We cannot let any one man or woman or show or network become the ultimate source of flawless information which should never be scrutinized. This creates an unbalanced and callous mindset.

Former President Carter sounded off with a terrible charge that basically builds the case that you’re racist if you’re vocally against the policies of our current President Obama. Don’t get all uppity on me yet Republicans. Do you remember how the attacks of 9.11 and the flag were used for marketing of the war in Iraq? Does anyone remember how you were anti-American if you were against the Iraq war? Well this is the other side of the coin we are seeing here. You must be a racist if you don’t agree with Obama. First off, that’s incredibly insulting to say that it is your skin color or heritage that decides your political views. Isn’t he also implying that a black man can’t be a fiscal conservative or disagree with Obama? Wow President Carter I don’t believe that’s true or even productive.

Now the another side of his statements. Is there truth that there is racism in the country? Unfortunately, yes there is racism in the United States. And just for argument’s sake, is it not to be assumed that a white person who is racist is going to be against a President who is of mixed races? Well duh. So is there a point to bringing it up especially on center stage in the media? Not in a traditionally logical sense. But I would propose that the goals of saying that those who are against Obama are racists, are an attempt to discredit them and create a social stigma on questionining the President or the current administrations agenda. The small government crowd is already being advertised as “working-class, largely rural and elderly white people” by Joe Klein of CNN. He isn’t alone in his ignorant assessment either. Many others have been proposing that big insurance companies are paying for the health care reform protesters implying that their outrage was fake and it was just greedy big businesses trying to keep their profits high and the poor folks poor.

But what does the publishing of all these ideas really tell society? Anyone against health care reform must be a big idiot because the health care reform is going to help everyone and get rid of those ridiculous high profits of insurance companies. Don’t you understand that health care reform is going to give you money that the insurance companies used to get to keep as profits? Now we can make the rich people pay for everyone’s health care! Well hmm… noble in effort I guess. Not constitutional or ethical in thinking that you have the right to take other peoples money to fix your problem. Yet it is noble in a shallow thinking Robin Hood sort of way. I’m still trying to figure out why those “Harry and Louise” advertisements that were against health care reform in the mid-nineties are all of a sudden for the new health care reform. I have to keep in mind these are advertisements paid for by the Health Insurance Association of America (health insurance companies). I’m sure all of these insurance companies are lining up to sacrifice their profits to help pay for the health care of all Americans (legal and illegal). It makes me warm and fuzzy on the inside to know that all of a sudden, insurance companies are more worried about giving their money away forcefully than having the highest profits.

So you have some major players speaking out attempting to paint the anti-big government crowd as racists. Then there are people in the media making “teabagger” jokes about people who are so furious with the direction the country is headed that they actually go to protests such as the 9.12 rally in Washington D.C. You know, the rally where anywhere between 70,000 and 1.5 million people showed up. Strange how those numbers are all over the place. I’ll believe the pictures and video but it truly is irrelevant. Hilarity ensues when the liberal blogs and media instantly make it out to be a tiny crowd while the tea party goers themselves fall right into the trap and start arguing about the numbers with them. What the protesters fail to realize is as long as the real, true issues are out of the picture, the group in power gets to keep moving along doing whatever it is they want to do. Their protest is neutered just as soon as we get into “gotcha” journalism or debates about crowd numbers or racism or any other sort of joke.

The sad part is, when this happens, the people suffer and their voices are muted again and their message is watered down again, and their frustrations build again. The people who want their voice heard and want a real debate to be had and don’t want to get into name calling and don’t want to be called a racist or call others racists, those people get their voices silenced. All the while, the agenda proposed gets moved along and the media argues between Beck and Olbermann about what the real number of people were at the 9.12 rally.

Yet whether it is health care reform bill or the war in Iraq/Afghanistan/Pakistan/Somalia or whatever project that is the current crisis (so says the White House and their media brigade), it all keeps moving along the conveyer belt. Frustrations elevate and people start to act irrationally (e.g. “You LIE!” -J. Wilson). People get called racists and know they’re not racists but immediately defend themselves not thinking about the true reason behind their statements. They’re controlling the conversation. If you want to see truth spread and brought into politics, you must have honesty and true debate. No name calling from either side. No “gotcha!” journalism. No invalid arguments about irrelevant issues. True and honest debate is the only tool to educate the masses and remove the negativity from politics.

The next time you’re watching your favorite media outlet, or listening to your favorite talk show host, or watching a politician speak who is pushing an issue, ask yourself this…
Is what he or she saying relevant to the issue at hand? Do the research.
Is what he or she saying true? Do the research.
Is what he or she saying trying to group people together while turning those groups against each other? Do the research.

So no, it’s not racism and I don’t appreciate you changing the subject. No, it’s not racism and I don’t appreciate you trying to control the topic of  public debate. No, it’s not racism and  I don’t appreciate the false debates and false choices and bending of the truth. No, it’s not racism and I don’t appreciate legalese that tricks people into thinking what you’re saying is the whole truth.

This post was written in response to this terrible piece of writing.