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After Smoking My Medicine...

I smoked my medicine this morning after watching the Thom Hartmann show on Free Speech TV, and a strange connection occurred to me. Thom had mentioned heroin addiction early in the show and the “dumbing” down of America by the WMDs (Weasels of Mass Deception) of right wing propaganda dung merchants later in the program. I began to wonder if the two are related by some coincidence or if there is an underlying and even worse addiction than heroin.

Are we addicted to insanity?

Einstein mentioned that a person, who repeats a task over and over and expects a different outcome, seems to suffer from insanity. For decades we have repeated the same or similar tasks a multitude of times. Take tax cuts for the uppity crust. It didn’t just start with the late Actor in Chief Ronnie Ray-Gun in the eighties; we have seen this in the twenties leading to the first great depression. Stand by for act two.

Take the war on some drugs. We tried that with alcohol prohibition in about the same era, the late teens and the twenties. Of course the eighteenth amendment gave rise to organized crime among other evils. Thank you, temperance league. The eighteenth was amended December of 1933. The same folks would supported and campaign for yet another prohibition. This time it was over a plant that grows naturally, not a manufactured drug like alcohol. Enter the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. Add to that wars and other society destroying tactics such as increasing the chasm between the rich and the rest of us and the above mentioned act two can’t be too far in the future.

So let me ask again? Was the old guy with the crazy white hair right? Are we addicted to insanity? We sure act like it. Presidential elections draw maybe 2/3 of eligible voters, if that many. Mid-term and primaries rarely get even close to that. And when we do go to the polls, more often than not it is a choice for the lesser of two evils. And I’m sure there are folks on both sides of the aisle who share these sentiments. And yet, every two years for whatever reason we opt for the more factually confused and the obvious “more of the same” candidate. I’m talking about Congress, not 1600 Sesame Street.

The above mentioned WMDs share much if not most of the blame. Once, ABC and the rest of the alphabet soup of networks provided real news. Today even the weather forecast seems to be slanted. Last summer in San Diego, during times of marine layers the weekend forecasts seemed a lot more optimistic than the delivered results. But then, San Diego is depending on tourism….

The reason for the slant is painfully obvious. The reporting and dissemination of information is geared towards making the enablers happy, namely the advertisers. The same spending top dollars for advertising time exert a tremendous amount of pressure on our representatives. Political pressure on the hill goes hand in hand with financial interests at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

And finally, if we are addicted to insanity, will it take what it takes for many heroin addicts? That is of course the need to hit absolute rock bottom before seeking treatment. I just hope that we as a nation don’t have to go that far.

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I smoked my medicine this morning after watching the Thom Hartmann show on Free Speech TV, and a strange connection occurred to me. Thom had mentioned heroin addiction early in the show and the “dumbing” down of America by the WMDs (Weasels of Mass Deception) of right wing propaganda dung merchants later in the program. I began to wonder if the two are related by some coincidence or if there is an underlying and even worse addiction than heroin.

Are we addicted to insanity?

Einstein mentioned that a person, who repeats a task over and over and expects a different outcome, seems to suffer from insanity. For decades we have repeated the same or similar tasks a multitude of times. Take tax cuts for the uppity crust. It didn’t just start with the late Actor in Chief Ronnie Ray-Gun in the eighties; we have seen this in the twenties leading to the first great depression. Stand by for act two.

Take the war on some drugs. We tried that with alcohol prohibition in about the same era, the late teens and the twenties. Of course the eighteenth amendment gave rise to organized crime among other evils. Thank you, temperance league. The eighteenth was amended December of 1933. The same folks would supported and campaign for yet another prohibition. This time it was over a plant that grows naturally, not a manufactured drug like alcohol. Enter the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. Add to that wars and other society destroying tactics such as increasing the chasm between the rich and the rest of us and the above mentioned act two can’t be too far in the future.

So let me ask again? Was the old guy with the crazy white hair right? Are we addicted to insanity? We sure act like it. Presidential elections draw maybe 2/3 of eligible voters, if that many. Mid-term and primaries rarely get even close to that. And when we do go to the polls, more often than not it is a choice for the lesser of two evils. And I’m sure there are folks on both sides of the aisle who share these sentiments. And yet, every two years for whatever reason we opt for the more factually confused and the obvious “more of the same” candidate. I’m talking about Congress, not 1600 Sesame Street.

The above mentioned WMDs share much if not most of the blame. Once, ABC and the rest of the alphabet soup of networks provided real news. Today even the weather forecast seems to be slanted. Last summer in San Diego, during times of marine layers the weekend forecasts seemed a lot more optimistic than the delivered results. But then, San Diego is depending on tourism….

The reason for the slant is painfully obvious. The reporting and dissemination of information is geared towards making the enablers happy, namely the advertisers. The same spending top dollars for advertising time exert a tremendous amount of pressure on our representatives. Political pressure on the hill goes hand in hand with financial interests at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

And finally, if we are addicted to insanity, will it take what it takes for many heroin addicts? That is of course the need to hit absolute rock bottom before seeking treatment. I just hope that we as a nation don’t have to go that far.

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