Thanks, Mac Johnson!
What vile miscegenation is this? Star Wars over-merchandising was not enough. Now there must be an unholy melding with the Transformers franchise. Hasbro's ad-mensches worked overtime for their big slogan:
- Buy that lawn sprinkler.
- The kids are graduating, you really need a new camcorder for that.
- Grocery shop on May 1, and double up on staple items.
- Go to a fruit stand, and get the first fresh watermelon of the year.
- Johnny S, come home and buy summat!
- If you can use two of a thing, buy two.
- Go here, and order a case of the paperback FairTax book to give to friends, family and co-workers. Or just a few. But order. On May 1
- On May 1, do your American Duty and BUY STUFF.
- Fill your gas tank.
It’s funny how one thing can lead to another in life, and life with all of it’s twisting and wending of ways leads one to places and things that otherwise might not be experienced. And that’s why I’m here! It’s in response to your comment on “Albert of Europa” that I finally managed to visit your site ... Great words and great art too.
I don’t think ergot is so common with corn, but there is that little thing called huitlacoche ... corn truffle, and I love it. I use it when I make fresh pasta, and in soup, and as a burger sauce etc. Though I somehow doubt that it contains hallucinatory properties, but they say Mexicans dance on their hats, so maybe corn truffle is behind that!
Both A M and I are on short sabbatical. But we spoke recently when I visited his home town. His neighborhood and his neighbors look like an exact replica of a Jimmy Neutron stage set; A M was sitting down against a tree trunk, hands folded behind his head, and staring up at the sky, (for that's what poets do) he remarked that, “It’s code,” I said, “Surely you mean cold,” but no, he meant code; Computer code that is. He’s real busy ... we both are. And our busyness has coincided with some interesting events both in the States and in Europe;
The Italian election result was announced on the same morning that a certain Mafia head whom the authorities weakly claimed to have been looking for for forty years, was finally captured. He’d been living in his home town all this time, and no one had apparently noticed! What a coincidence. I wonder what names will turn up at his plea-bargaining session. Now we all can sit back to watch Prodi obliterate the Italian power industry. I wrote about Prodi and his “power plans” back in July, 2004, in “Crème de la Kremlin” when I said,
“In another speech, June of this year, Romano Prodi spoke of a meeting and a signed agreement which concluded the “bilateral market access negotiations for the accession of the Russian Federation to the WTO,” signed by EU Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy, and the Russian Economy Development and Trade Minister, German Gref.
Romano Prodi went on to state, “This includes a commitment that the price of gas for industrial users covers costs, profits and investment needed for exploitation of new fields. Russian gas prices to industrial users would be gradually increased from the current $27-28 to between $37-42 by 2006, and $49-57 by 2010.”
Those goals could never be guaranteed without removing private sector control over oil and gas in Russia.”
And that’s what Prodi is about to do in Italy. The EU Commission recently stated that “community power interests must replace national power interests” or words to that effect, because several of the EU hoods have said the same thing in several different ways recently. Communists still can’t come to terms with that thing called “nationalism” ... the apiary thing. They believe that we’re all the same under the skin, and through political winding and weaving the individually minded homo sapien will come round to their way of thinking, and adopt their scheme of things.
Bertrand Russell held, in his day, the qualities of being both a genius and an idiot at the same time. But sadly the latter quality as regards his vision of the forthcoming NATO and UN entities and their workings became the dominant factor. He believed that if the world had a supreme governmental force with the only military and navy, all others abolished, peace would be quickly forthcoming in the world! I refer your readers to his work entitled, “Political Ideals” because if you have any who hold pro-UN/EU leanings, they’ll soon drop ‘em after reading that book! I guess, in hindsight, my use of the term idiot to describe Bertrand Russell, was misplaced; Dullard is a better term. Here’s how the Devil’s Dictionary defines the condition ...
“DULLARD, n. A member of the reigning dynasty in letters and life.
The Dullards came in with Adam, and being both numerous and sturdy
have overrun the habitable world. The secret of their power is their
insensibility to blows; tickle them with a bludgeon and they laugh
with a platitude. The Dullards came originally from Boeotia, whence
they were driven by stress of starvation, their dullness having
blighted the crops. For some centuries they infested Philistia, and
many of them are called Philistines to this day. In the turbulent
times of the Crusades they withdrew thence and gradually overspread
all Europe, occupying most of the high places in politics, art,
literature, science and theology. Since a detachment of Dullards came
over with the Pilgrims in the _Mayflower_ and made a favorable report
of the country, their increase by birth, immigration, and conversion
has been rapid and steady. According to the most trustworthy
statistics the number of adult Dullards in the United States is but
little short of thirty millions, including the statisticians. The
intellectual centre of the race is somewhere about Peoria, Illinois,
but the New England Dullard is the most shockingly moral.”
OK, after reading that, I’m still avoiding any reference to that “State” called Palestine, and Russia’s dogged funding of it’s terrorist activities! But I’ll say this at least ... The fact that Bertrand Russell could foresee the beginnings of the New World Order was in itself interesting, but for me of greater interest was his complete lack of reference to Islam, Mohammed or Mohammedism. He formed his one-world vision from a communist mindset, and did not foresee the rise of Islam and it’s world-domination plans! Which is a common trait amongst socialists and communists, for to believe that all of us are the same under the skin is a denial of the events leading up to the Tower of Babel.
Communism is “ignorance is bliss” gone wrong; There’s good ignorance, bad ignorance and indifferent ignorance. The bad and indifferent are apt descriptions of our modern day communists and liberals. I might be described by that film title, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, for it’s all true, but indifference is not part of my makeup ... and it ain’t yours either Aardvark. Keep them thoughts comin’ ... Johnny D
Thanks, Johnny. You are welcome on my beach anytime!
Darling, I have no wish to contradict you, at all, at all. I am not a Public Policist. But, if I may, I wish to offer a bit of perspective.
The going wage rate in Mexico, the last time I lived there, was 50 pesos a day. This converts to just under five dollars. A day.
The going types of available jobs in Mexico consist primarily of things like breaking rocks with a blunt axe, working in chemical factories with no safety controls which occasionally explode and blow people's legs off, housecleaning for the ladies, and very little else.
There are no such things as 'business loans,' credit cards with which to start one's own business, unemployment insurance, or investments.
Any human being with intelligence and initiative who is born to the campesino class in Mexico is across the border by the time he or she turns twenty-one. These people accept the first minimum-wage or sub-minimum wage job they can, and send the vast majority of their wages back home to sustain their 6 or 7 younger siblings, while their parents continue to break rocks and clean houses.
Some of them eventually manage to save enough money to get an education and start their own business. The ones who make it do so because they work very, very, very hard, with morals and integrity.
It has been my empirical observation that individuals such as these contribute, in real terms, a great deal more to the American economy, in taxes and productive labor, than they extract from it in social services. Most of them are too frightened of deportation to attempt to collect 'benefits'; they're here to work.
Of course it would be best if they all obtained green cards. I do not know if you have ever attempted to navigate the labyrinth of constantly shifting bureaucracy that this requires. Suffice it to say that it is difficult, capricious, highly liable to failure, and too time-consuming for an individual whose family is likely to starve in the meantime.
Obviously, it would be best for all concerned if the Mexicans in Mexico did something about their corrupt and abysmal economy. Unfortunately there are many reasons why this is slow to happen, none of which we, as Americans, have much control over.
I, personally, do not begrudge these heroic people any job in this country that they can earn and perform to their employer's satisfaction. You are perfectly free to disagree with me.
The Aardvark sez:
Y'know, PL, you should start a blog!
I mean, your comment is longer than most of my posts! And excellent to boot! Thank you.
Understood, my sweet, and there are a myriad of injustices in the world at which to tilt. The US is number one in charitable giving, private and government. How much more must we do? (I know the answer; I am Waxing Polemical.)
My concern is law. Without law there is mass rapine, and riots in the streets, and people breaking in and stealing Pretty Lady's pretty things. There is nothing to prevent anarchy, nothing to bring the miscreant to book in a just manner. "Oh," you say, "The Goodness of Mankind!". My Calvinist upbringing is ROFL!
That said, I have to turn to Acts.
"Obviously, it would be best for all concerned if the Mexicans in Mexico did something about their corrupt and abysmal economy. Unfortunately there are many reasons why this is slow to happen, none of which we, as Americans, have much control over."
""When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."
