Ms. Ann Thrope

( 9:16 AM ) sisoflexx

You're An EXTREME Redneck When.....

1. You let your 14-year-old daughter smoke at the dinner table in front of her kids.
2. The Blue Book value of your truck goes up and down depending on how much gas is in it.
3. You've been married three times and still have the same in-laws.
4. You think a woman who is "out of your league" bowls on a different night.
5. You wonder how service stations keep their restrooms so clean.
6. Someone in your family died right after saying, "Hey, guys, watch this."
7. You think Dom Perignon is a Mafia leader.
8. Your wife's hairdo was once ruined by a ceiling fan.
9 Your junior prom offered day care.
10. You think the last words of the "Star-Spangled Banner" are "Gentlemen, start your engines."
11. You lit a match in the bathroom and your house exploded right off its wheels.
12. The Halloween pumpkin on your porch has more teeth than your spouse.
13. You have to go outside to get something from the fridge.
14. One of your kids was born on a pool table.
15. You need one more hole punched in your card to get a freebie at the House of Tattoos.
16. You can't get married to your sweetheart because there's a law against it.
17. You think loading the dishwasher means getting your wife drunk.

Courtesy Of Ameena

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( 3:09 AM ) sisoflexx

I recently watched a movie set in Australia called "The Castle", which dramatizes the battle between Government's power of Eminent Domain and a family's right to keep their home. Eminent Domain is a power by which the Government is allowed to seize private property for public use, provided just compensation is provided to the owner. In the movie, a proud and happy family discovers that their life long home is to be seized by the Government on behalf of a large corporation that plans to expand their business interests onto their property. Their home is appraised by a Government agent, a market value sum of money is offered to them, and they are told they have to leave. The family has no intention of leaving their home, though, not for any price, and the battle begins. Just when they are on the verge of losing everything a high profile Constitutional lawyer comes to their rescue and wins the battle for them by not only defining for the court what a "home" actually is, and what it is actually worth, but by showing that "just compensation" does not exist when coercion is used. The family may have been offered market value for their house and property, but a Home is more than just a dwelling and the land it sits upon; it is a place invested with memories and life experiences, a place where people feel safe and secure, a place where a family chooses to stay, and a place they refuse to leave for any reason. These are abstract yet vital values that a simple price tag for acreage and square feet of building materials cannot cover. Further than that, just compensation can not exist for someone who is robbed of a home they did not want to part with, for a sum of money they never wanted in the first place.

This movie, believe it or not, is a comedy. Even though it is set in Australia, it's subject matter is very relevant to us here in America. Government's power to seize private property for any reason is a potential threat to all of us. When this power is used to advance the private interests of businesses and corporations at the expense of the individual citizen, it endangers the rights and liberties that we, as Americans, are supposed to cherish, rights and liberties that countless men and women have given their lives for throughout our history.

The old American political division of Left vs. Right, Capitalism vs. Socialism, does not fit the reality of our actual situation. America is not a capitalist nation, nor is it a socialist one; America is a corporatist nation.

Free market capitalism is a system where businesses are privately owned, where individual rights and private property are inviolate, and where transactions involving money, goods, and services are voluntary and devoid of the intrusion and coercion of Government.

Socialism, practically the opposite of capitalism, is a system where businesses are government owned, where individual rights and private property are secondary to Government interpretations of community needs, and where transactions involving money, goods, and services are managed only by Government agencies.

Neither of these truly describe the system we live under, which is corporatism.

Corporatist America maintains the outward form of capitalism, for it allows private ownership and management of businesses, while Government itself guarantees the flow of material goods. In other words private ownership, private management, and the profit motive of classical capitalism are allowed to remain, while in every other aspect Government controls and manipulates market transactions in order to channel profits towards specific constituencies, and back towards itself in the process.

Corporatist America represents a dangerous alliance between corporate interests and the coercive power of Government, an alliance that defies the principles of a free market, making it distorted and un-free. Corporatist America is run by powerful interest groups that increasingly exclude the participation of it's citizens. Government decisions in our country today are influenced by policies that lead to greater profits for favored companies, and which harm any potential competition that does not contribute to the money trough. Politicians pass laws designed to enrich their friends and themselves, all the while claiming that they are doing it to create "better jobs" and "greater economic opportunities."

"Who's jobs, and who's opportunities?" we might ask!

Consider the new Georgia House bill that keeps the details of recruiting negotiations between businesses and Government secret from the public. Could these negotiations involve the future use of Eminent Domain? Is it possible that a business might stipulate that one of it's requirements for locating in Georgia is that the Government use it's powers of Eminent Domain to seize any private property it may desire for a future expansion? If so, it is no wonder our legislators want to keep these deals secret from us citizens, for we might cry "Foul!"...and rightly so.

Corporatist America sends politicians to Congress and every State Legislature in the land with padded pockets and stuffed campaign chests in order to write laws that give an advantage to specific business and corporate interests. These advantages create larger profits for these businesses and corporations (profits gained by Government influence, not market success) which in turn keeps the money flowing into politicians pockets and campaign chests. These politicians are further rewarded with executive positions, high powered lobbyist jobs, and cushy salaries once they retire from public office. At this point I must suppress a wave of nausea.

America is not the only country to function under this system, either in the present or the past. History has other examples of corporatist systems, most notably Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. This should inspire some food for thought for anyone who is observing the political and cultural developments that are transpiring in America today.

What can be done? It is all so vast! The trends and practices that have created our corporatist state reach far back beyond all of our life spans, and the life spans of our immediate ancestors. What we can, and should do, is focus on the particularly obvious injustices that are occurring right now in front of our very noses.

We must oppose all attempts to shadow Government deals in secrecy. We must oppose all attempts by the Government to seize people's property only to hand it over to some business or corporation that does not want to play fair with the citizens of this nation when they desire to expand at our expense. Eminent Domain is a dangerous and destructive power that can tear this nation apart. It must be used only in emergency situations. Seizing property in order to hand it over to a business interest does not qualify as "public use".

We must remind our elected leaders that "economic improvement" does not occur by the coercion and robbery of the American people. We must remind our elected representatives that they work for us, that they do not know what is best for us, and that they are not allowed to make deals in secret that will effect us. One way or another, this madness must be stopped.

Werbinox

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( 1:37 AM ) sisoflexx

A good friend of mine informed me that Hunter S. Thompson had died. He said "I hope he died in a way that was befitting." As it turned out, that way was suicide

I thought about it; "What kind of death does befit him?" The way he lived his life with heroic drug use, violence, insanity (albeit mixed with humour and wit) leaves any possibility as - possibly befitting! His bio was rather dark, with lots of wife beating and anger, whereas his cultivated image had a cartoonish quality to it, a drug soaked gun toting acerbic witted Superman prophetically consigning American idiocy to an apocolyptic abyss.

I could not imagine him dying any other way than with a drug overdose, or some crazy gun battle waged in a psychadelic state against his "enemies" (the current crop of rulers) That would fit his image.

But what of the reality that inevitably lurked behind the image? Suicide was all too real an ending for him. I would like to think he did it because, after Nixon, he just couldnt stand the Bush Administration and New Fascist America. He did kill himself on Presidents Day, lest anyone miss the point. In truth it was probably for more personal reasons, as it would have to be for anyone who lets national and political events effect them that much. Hell, it is amazing he lived as long as he did (like William S. Burroughs)

Although suicide is pathetic, there is a kind of awesome self willed "master of your own destiny" quality to it, perhaps an ultimate demonstration of will, next to the one that wills in the opposite direction, of course (to invent and re - invent your own life / to live despite all) yet he did plenty of that already. For some people it is just over, end of story. I bet he had no intention of being some object of veiled pity in a nursing home somewhere, some barely living wax statue in a museum of counter culture icons.

I could write an obituary for him in his own style, which would include something like "Good riddance to you, ya contentious bastard! I hope the vultures pick your bones clean. The world will NOT be better off without you. You will be missed."

Being a writer, especially the kind of writer he was, I am sure he left a suicide note, and I am sure it is some good, dark reading. I imagine it contains a line that goes something like this -

"It is all over now. The Pigs have won."

Werbinox

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( 1:31 AM ) sisoflexx

People often speak of the Balance of Nature as a principle that administers justice in the universe, a justice that eventually produces consequences for every action, and evens out all inequities across a span of time. This span of time can be so vast, however, that most of us never live long enough to see it played out. What we do witness is a mutli - year drought disposed of by a four month deluge. We see that nature can be alternately fertile and desolate with intense unpredictability. We see earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, tsunamis, and fires - all processes of a living planet - occur without any consideration for our homes, cities, and desires for permanence. The forces of nature go about their way with total indifference to our human presence.

Imagine indifference itself as a kind of power. How can human beings live according to a universe that does not even notice them, let alone consider them? How can mercy and justice be derived from natural forces that exemplify indifference because they possess no consciousness at all?

For some the answer is - "there must be an Entity like ourselves (conscious ego) that exists behind these forces, a Being who controls these forces. This means that everything is an expression of will, a Divine will!" - and with this kind of thinking the concept of God was born, and continues to exist to this day. It is important to understand the sense of security and power that can be gained by postulating a conscious Entity behind the indifferent flux of natural phenomena; with this idea one seemingly conquers indifference, and can appeal directly to the Being who controls nature, a being who "notices you"!

Every religion, faith, and invention of God so far has been, amongst other things, an attempt to escape the horrifying idea that the universe is ultimately and totally indifferent to us. Better to believe in the fires of Hell itself than to know that there is no Cosmic Moral Order, no Scorekeeper, no Witness, no Judge, no reward or punishment in an Afterlife, and no supernatural audience.

It is the same in our interactions with other humans. People demand an audience for their virtues and deeds. "Where is the value of an action" many unfortunately think, "if no one is there to witness it?" - as if value is bestowed by a spectator, by the mere presence of a spectator!

Love and hatred are fine for most people, as long as they are noticed. It is to be treated with utter indifference that is the greatest blow.

-Now extend this hatred of indifference to nature and the cosmos. People would rather believe that tragedy and disaster are delivered upon their heads deliberately by a "god" with a plan and a "higher purpose" than to think that it happened for no reason whatsoever. All magnitude of tragedy can be endured so long as a purpose can be found in it. When none can be found the human survival instinct must manufacture one.

The Greeks could not endure suffering that had no purpose, so they invented an audience of gods to witness their strife. Purpose was found in being a Divine Spectacle.

The Jewish people could not endure slavery under their rulers who worshipped a multitude of gods, so they invented a single all-powerful God to serve as their liberator and protector; a God who later served as their great punisher whenever they failed to obey a strict moral code, which allowed the ruling priesthood to interpret every hardship and defeat as the will of God (Yahweh) and therefore deserved.

In each case a god was created to serve the self preservational imperative of the people who needed it, and later to preserve and expand the power base of a ruling order. It is no different today. "God" comes from human psychology, not from empirical evidence in nature. Though a complex order of magnificent and robust design is ever revealing itself within the workings of nature, it is human psychology that extrapolates this evidence into "proof" of a Conscious Entity that spawns and controls it all, a conclusion that is anything but scientific in its willingness to declare that "intelligent design" proves the presence of an "intelligent designer".

Many people are fond of seeing a god's will in everything, from disasters to elections to an acorn falling at their feet at the right moment. This is to make God the Ultimate Conspiracy Theory.

If a tornado destroys one church, but not another
- "It is God's will."
If someone loses an election
- "God has spoken."
If our nation hits hard times
-"God is punishing us."
If I get constipated
-"God is punishing Me."
If our enemies are destroyed
-"God is Just."

This anthropomorphic thinking is an attempt to recreate nature in our own image. It assumes that behind every Deed there is a Doer; behind every chance or accident there is an ego conscious entity exercising it's will; behind every event, no matter how large or how small, a master hand is placing pre-determined puzzle pieces. This psychology reinvents the universe into the ultimate conspiracy theory.

This view may serve the preservational imperatives of many amongst us, but it is far from any criterion of truth, or necessity to believe. How could the rational amongst us live according to such an all pervasive entity? One would have to kill such a god to exist at all, let alone be free. It is a good thing for us that "God" is a creation of the human mind - for the mind, and it's hidden psychology, is our ultimate guide and ruler.

Werbinox

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( 1:25 AM ) sisoflexx

The Republican Party is not even a full month into their historic session controlling the House, Senate, and Executive office (on both the state and federal level) and already they are a disgrace. Having campaigned for years on the promise to reduce the size, cost, and intrusion of government, the Republicans are now running amok with coercive legislation designed to expand the power of government to a level that will dwarf all past expansions in our history, and are showing themselves to be true believers in the power of government to control all aspects of American life.

Our men and women in the armed forces are fighting a war in Iraq to ostensibly bring freedom and democracy to a region that has never had it, while We the American people are actively throwing away the last remnants of the freedom we have left. In all fairness to the Republicans this trend towards more government and less freedom has been eroding our liberty for decades. It is the Republicans, though, who campaigned on a pledge to reverse this trend towards Less government and More freedom. Yet now, after the last 4 years, and especially this month in Georgia, I can foresee a day in the very near future when a Republican will be laughed out of a room if he or she attempts to give the standard speech about "getting government off of our backs".

Our lives are now so threatened with surveillance and legislation that the idea of America as the "land of the free" is nothing more than a horrible joke, and I for one am not laughing.

Whether a friend or foe, no one can ignore the religious agenda that the Republicans are pushing. On issues ranging from Abortion Rights, Education, Science vs. the Bible, Sexual Orientation, to the display of commandments that are derived from a specific religion, the Republicans are on a headlong drive to turn America into a "Christian Nation", or more accurately, to re-fashion it according to their own misguided and contradictory notion of what Christianity means. It must be grasped that a Christian Nation is not a Free Nation. Does the religious right know this? Do they care? Probably not, because only their own agenda matters, and those who are not compatible with it do not matter to them.

Let us focus on how the GOP has been behaving here in Georgia. The controversial creation of legislative "Hawks", who can swoop into any committee and add extra voting power if the initiatives of the House leadership are in danger, has been justified by the observation that it is not any different from what the Democrats did. That reasoning misses the entire point of the Republican victory and it's historic opportunity. The GOP may have gained control of the State Legislature, but their confidence in their grip on it seems very insecure. This insecurity will cause them to try to gain extra advantages over and above their electoral mandate, which will produce a backlash that will pave the way to their downfall. It happens to every political party in power, and the GOP is already proving itself to be - just another party in power.

Worst of all, the State House has just passed a law that allows them to keep secret from the public the details of the deals they make to recruit industry. The Republican party, it seems, does not actually trust the Georgia electorate that voted them their historic opportunity. What does this say about their mandate to govern when the very people who gave them the mandate in the first place are now to be kept in the dark about the deals their elected representatives are making? Rest assured that those who keep secrets - have something to hide!

There is a positive side to this. No one can undermine a victory more completely than the victors themselves. The Republican party, fresh and giddy with their recent triumph, are already planting the seeds of their future defeat at the polls. It will then, hopefully, be a long time before they can sell the American people the same old line about how they support greater freedom and less government, for their actions in power show us the exact opposite.

Werbinox

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( 7:56 PM ) sisoflexx

Hey - did you hear Johnny Carson died ? What about the tsunamis ?

Just wondering if I was the only one out of the loop, is all.

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( 7:52 PM ) sisoflexx

Oh, here's the reason I haven't been blogging at all lately. I'm pumped for the competition this weekend.
Wish me luck !

Just kidding. This was a pic Ameena sent me.

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( 7:44 PM ) sisoflexx

Okay, so I'm the worst blogger in the bloggasphere.
So bite me.

This post isn't any better, but it's to let you know I'm inviting Werbinox to befoul your minds with his evil thoughts. In other words, he'll be posting until he gets the hang of it and gets his own damn blog. I'm paying for the domain, and yet here it just sits...
I'll try to be better about it, but if all I'm going to post about is trying to post more, it's not worth it to anyone, right ?
At least Werb likes to write. And do I mean like to write .

Thanks to all who've beared ? with me. Suckers.

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Ms. Ann Thrope

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