Selecting a Figure Head

May 13, 2008 by obbop

America’s political system, especially at the federal level, seems to be owned and operated by America’s elite class and reinforced by the relentless indoctrination/brainwashing of what to me is mainly a nation of befuddled sheep/citizenry.

As things are is proper, as it should be, the masses bleat in contentment.

Sadly, the elite-owned mass media appears to be the main decider as to who the masses gets to select from.

Well, at least a minimum of 17 percent of Americans are non-sheep considering that is the percentage of votes Ross Perot received when he ran for president.

When will we, the people, ever cast off the damnable two-party system that maintains the status quo so harmful to the majority of Americans?

Considering the stranglehold the elites have upon the many systems and bureaucracies that have immense power and control within the USA, only an insurrection, Constitutional convention or military coup could make any meaningful changes.

Meanwhile, the jack-booted thugs continue their training, their preparations to murder as many Americans as needed to maintain the status quo.

How many sharpshooters have been trained, I wonder, since that FBI marksman earned his pay and pension upon Ruby Ridge when he murdered a mother holding her baby?

I do not fear foreign terrorists. I fear America’s elites and their lackeys.

Create Your Own Ethnic Group

May 9, 2008 by obbop

When I first built my tipi, I declared myself my own race of people, separate from all other ethnicities of the world. What is my new race, you ask? I’m a Garufite. All I need to do is find a wife who is willing to have a lot of babies and before you know it, within a few generations, there will be thousands of Garufites! We will be our own race of people, a mighty nation to be reckoned with! You’ll see. And the key tribal function of my race will be all the girls get to play chess with me!”

http://www.stevegarufi.com/article3.htm

I wish the chap well. Anybody who builds their own tipi deserves his own ethnic group.

Not the typical whining

May 8, 2008 by obbop

The Old Coot, a generic descriptor vice a specific label for me…. your oblate-spheroid-shaped crotchety curmudgeon, despite notions about me that could be obtained from reading my incessant griping, is capable of seeing a wee bit of shine within the clouds of doom constantly encircling our communal pointy little heads.

Want to read a tale of semi-joy? Of perseverance? A tale spanning decades and and multiple trips across a continent? A story of disappointment and dreams and desires dashed upon the rocks of despair?

Well, so would I and with so many gosh darn books I bet Amazon.com could help you find that tale.

I have used Amazon.com for several years with excellent results so far. As with any on-line e-commerce firm it pays to compare prices with other on-line firms and with local brick-and-mortar businesses.

An advantage with local firms is the opportunity to place your grubby paws on the goodies. And, to try on apparel and other things you can’t do over the Web.

Oh… yet another advantage with shopping locally is being able to bargain. Ask for a discount!! Ask if a local firm has a veteran’s discount or an old-fogey discount. If you have a kid and you’re buying for them ask for a student discount.

Heck, be bold. Ask for a corporate discount even if you are not incorporated or not involved with a corporation in any manner.

It’s surprising how compliant some firms can be.

Oh… that wondrous tale.

I have one!!!

Wheeee!!!!!

Riding in a nifty Datsun 260-Z waaaay back in 1974, headed for Yosemite National Park and a day of frolicking in a lovely piece of the planet, I heard a splendid song gurgling out of the FM radio. As typical, the DJ did not give the song’s name but the tune was so gosh darn good I just knew I would hear it again.

Yeah, right. Silly me. I never heard it on the radio again. But, it stuck in my mind along with a few of the lyrics.

The years crept by. Faster, seemingly, as I aged. Yet, still no-go on identifying that song.

In 1993, with some spare time available, I started digging through lists of “top” songs listed by year and seeking them for a listen at several local used record stores. Hundreds of songs later… no luck.

Sniff.

Then, in 1996 I entered the world of Webdom. Cool!!! Such a handy resource. Akin to many others at that time I started off with AOL before quickly learning the “real Web” was to be found elsewhere. However, while still stumbling through the learning process with AOL I found a neato message board where folks gathered to identify songs; just what I had been doing with that long-ago-heard tune.

It is tough trying to describe an audio memory but I did the best I could. I described the tune in general, mentioned the “ethereal chorus of female voices” at the end of each refrain and wrote the 12 or so lyric words I remembered.

Lo, a few days later a chap from Ohio responded and offered a guess.

At the local used record stores I sought the song but… nope, no used copies available.

Sniff.

Time marched along relentlessly. With the song’s name firmly implanted within the voids inside my head, I made regular trips to those record stores. Then… a few months later, at Kanesville Collectibles in Council Bluffs, Iowa, I saw a used copy on 45 rpm 7-inch vinyl. Tossing it upon the record player within seconds I heard that song for the first time in 20-plus years.

Whoooopie!!!!

I paid the 99-cents and clutched the lusted-after critter to my heaving bosom. Well, the closest thing an old fart could have comparable to a heaving bosom. I was just glad I am not prone to “airs” thus evaded swooning.

Joyous at the success of such a lengthy search I communicated with the replier to my query on that message board and informed him of my success and desire to reward him. Giving me a snail-mail address I sent the chap five bucks worth of fast-food joint coupons.

Well, not an Earth-shaking tale but it shows what diligence and luck can do. And, the final result made me happy. Not ecstatic but it was a sense of satisfaction.

Oh, the song?

That’s Where I Went Wrong by The Poppy Family.  A two-person grouplet from Canada with Terry Jacks heading the husband/wife duo. Terry Jacks is likely best known for his song Seasons in the Sun after he went solo.

With the help of the Web and the ability to hear song snippets at several Web sites I solved another musical mystery last night. Another song I had heard only once around 7 or so years ago.

I thought I had recognized the singer’s voice so that narrowed the search greatly. However, despite listening to every record by Gordon Lightfoot at the used record stores none of them was the song. Darn.

Well, some of the on-line CD sellers have greatly increased the number of song snippets avaiable for listening since I last searched.

That sought-after tune entered my mind last night and with the “power of the Web” I found it within minutes.

Hooray…… Lightfoot’s THe Circle is Small from 1968 or thereabouts will soon be in my listening rotation.

Gosh. It doesn’t take much to make an Old Coot happy.

Who Protects the Common Folks?

May 7, 2008 by obbop

If you “cure” a patient you have eliminated a portion of your cash flow.

It took awhile before I realized that the several dentists I hired over the years were not curing my periodontal disease…. they were merely using a “bandage approach” to keep me coming back over and over and over.

Eventually I was in an area with a dental school where students worked on me. Sadly, it was too late, I lost some teeth but, for the first time, my condition actually improved.

The profit motive was missing at that school compared to the for-profit private practice dentists I used previously.

I talked to the president of that dental school and told him of my belief. He stated that dental schools attempt to convey to their students a sense of morality but that the dental profession’s leadership was aware of “certain problems” and tried to limit dentists taking advantage of patients by turning patients into a long-term profit source by avoiding curing problems.

Yeah… right. Strenuous efforts, I am sure. BS!!!!!!

The American Dental Association (ADA) is akin to the lawyer’s Bar and the American Medical Association. Self-policing agencies, akin to the guilds of old, that are woefully lacking in any concern for their cash cows…. the general public.

It appears to me that maximizing revenue and keeping their self-policing stranglehold on their trade is the prime goal.

If the common folks try to grab a little power to improve their lot in life, via unions for most of us…… the propaganda machine works full-time to make unions appear BAD and the elites are quick to attack unions….. those pesky uppity commoners trying to emulate their betters… the AMA, ADA, etc. etc.

Look how President Reagen destroyed the air traffic controller’s union.

Well, where are the efforts by the elites or their lackeys (politicians, bureaucracies, etc) to control the upper-crust’s “unions” (that’s basically what the AMA, ADA, etc. are…unions) and the many abuses they inflict upon the people?

It is VERY difficult to prove a case against a doc or dentist. Just try to find a doc or dentist who will testify that, in his/her expert opinion a dentist purposefully limited treatment to ensure you had to continuously return, paying $700 each visit, four times per year, year after year, without doing all that could be done to solve the problem once and for all.

Well, there ARE expert witnesses you can hire, usually via a lawyer, a very costly lawyer, to testify at a trial, a very costly in time and money to you lawyer and trial, that the majority of Americans can not afford to engage in. At the dollar level involved, good luck trying to find a lawyer to take your case. Oh, sure, fork over $10,000 cash to START the litigation but be prepared to cough up more later….. for a case that will assuredly, even if you win, return to you far less than the trial’s cost.

Even if you are awarded lawyer’s fees there is no guarentee you will win and most folks can’t cough up the funds anyway.

Doctors, dentists, etc. know they are basically immune being “called to task” for their abuses!!!!!!

Sure…there are honest moral dentists, docs, etc. BUT…. since entering adult life…. I do not believe I have encountered even ONE honest dentist… other than those students whose reward for their performance was a grade, not money.

Be aware, folks. Propaganda and indoctrination has resulted in many Americans placing docs and dentists (and other professions) upon a proverbial pedestal.

But, I am convinced that too many atop those mental pedestals are unworthy of being there.

As an aside…. after 9 years of constantly fighting cancer, though I am unable to prove it but I did read up on the condition constantly…… I am convinced that several of the doctors treating my Mother’s condition used methods to maximize their income… using chemotherapy methods, dosages, etc. that research indicated were less effective than other treatment types.

I tried to inform Mom but…… she was well-indoctrinated in youth. Doctors are atop pedestals. And, what was more important to her… was that the doctor was “nice” and that he or she “cared” about her.

Would Mom have died anyway? Eventually. We all die some day. But, the effects of years of chemo were Hell-on-Earth. And… the exorbitant costs… some treatments were $6,000 per dose, twice weekly, month after month… AND, constant MRIs… very expensive… well, the taxpayer and YOU via your health insurance coats, paid for it all. And… remember, it is typical for doctors to get a “cut of the money” from drugs, treatments, MRIs, etc they prescribe. Deals are worked out, etc. etc.

And, what I found interesting…. one doctor prescribed many more MRI scans than the other doctors… and as I learned later, that doctor, along with several others docs, owned the facility where the MRIs were done.

Sigh…………………

Follow the money trail, folks. Too many of us pay such a HIGH cost and much loss while those playing the “system” amass such enormous amounts of wealth at we, the people’s expense.

Federal Tax Code

April 28, 2008 by obbop

Vile disgusting putrid unAmerican anti-freedom politicians and their masters, America’s elite class, corporations, special-interest groups, etc. use the tax code to benefit the “worthy” of the USA and to control the common folk’s behaviors.

A pox upon those enslaving us.

Here’s what others have to say about this general topic:

“A certain degree of inquisitorial scrutiny is, therefore, inseparable from an income tax.”

Sir Robert Peel, 1842

“Congress went beyond merely enacting an income tax law and repealed Article IV of the Bill of Rights, by empowering the tax collector to do the very things from which that article says we were to be secure. It opened up our homes, our papers and our effects to the prying eyes of government agents and set the stage for searches of our books and vaults and for inquiries into our private affairs whenever the tax men might decide, even though there might not be any justification beyond mere cynical suspicion.”

T. Coleman Andrews, IRS Commissioner for 3 years.

“By what possible stretch of the imagination can current IRS procedures be justified under this Amendment? Does the Sixteenth Amendment repeal the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Amendments? Certainly the examples in this book would indicate that the IRS seems to think so.”

Congressman George Hansen

“The imposition of the [income] tax will corrupt the people. It will bring in its train the spy and the informer. It will necessitate a swarm of officials with inquisitorial powers. It will be a step toward centralization…. It breaks another canon of taxation in that it is expensive in its collection and cannot be fairly imposed;… and, finally, it is contrary to the traditions and principles of republican government.”

U.S. Representative Robert Adams, January 26, 1894.

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The class war is obvious to me. When will the masses of citizens set aside their apparent continuous lust for entertainment and notice what is happening to us.

Where is the new set of Founders to arouse the citizenry and lead the fight to regain freedom?

The elites will not easily allow the status quo they have created that is so beneficial to so few to slip out of their greedy fascist hands without a fight, of this I am sure.

In the meantime, little sheep. Just obey. Obey your masters. Bleat with delight when your masters proclaim their delight with your docility.

Open Question

April 20, 2008 by obbop

How many lives of the “commoners” will America’s elite class and their vile lackeys be willing to lose to keep or increase their wealth and power?

How much wealth do the very small percentage of elite-class Americans lust for at what cost to humanity?

How long will the masses of Americans continue to be brainwashed into accepting a status quo wherein a privileged class appears to have no concern that American citizens have to die or be maimed for life to preserve America’s elites?

How long?

Public Education…elite class indoctrination of commoners?

April 18, 2008 by obbop

Dr. Samuel Blumenfeld, educator and author:

The sad truth is that public education has destroyed the American dream for countless numbers of young people by preventing them from acquiring those academic skills needed to achieve success.

The purpose of Compulsory Education is to deprive the common people of their commonsense. - Illustrated London News, September 7, 1929

Frank Chodorov:

The more subsidized it is, the less free it is. What is known as “free education” is the least free of all, for it is a state-owned institution; it is socialized education - just like socialized medicine or the socialized post office - and cannot possibly be separated from political control. Why Free Schools Are Not Free

C. C. Colton:

Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer. - lacon: Reflections, No. 322

Benjamin Disraeli, former British Prime Minister:

Wherever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery.

Tammy Drennan, Alliance for the Separation of School and State senior writer:

Don’t wait for the perfect moment to break free — there isn’t any. Don’t let officials, relatives or anyone else intimidate you into sacrificing your children. If you want to help public schools, give them your money, give them your time, give them your house and your car — but don’t give them your kids. There’s a world of support out there for home schoolers. If you can’t home school, find a decent private school and sacrifice for your kids’ education like you would for that fancy car you want or that vacation or entertainment center or big house. Whatever you’d sacrifice for the thing you most want in life, sacrifice ten times as much for your children.

John Taylor Gatto, award-winning teacher and author:

Government schooling is the most radical adventure in history. It kills the family by monopolizing the best times of childhood and by teaching disrespect for home and parents…. - The Underground History of American Education

Who besides a degraded rabble would voluntarily present itself to be graded and classified like meat? No wonder school is compulsory. - The Underground History of American Education

Our form of compulsory schooling is an invention of the state of Massachusetts around 1850. It was resisted - sometimes with guns - by an estimated eighty per cent of the Massachusetts population, the last outpost in Barnstable on Cape Cod not surrendering its children until the 1880’s when the area was seized by militia and children marched to school under guard. - The Underground History of American Education

Helen Hegener:

Our tightly controlled educational system mocks the promise of democracy. With a closed educational system we simply cannot have an open political system. The current situation allows the government and big business to manufacture and maintain our culture for us, and in turn, control remains in the hands of the experts and institutions. The ability to change this situation is in the hands of the individuals and families who understand why change is necessary. Alternatives in Education

Ivan Illich:

Two centuries ago the United States led the world in a movement to disestablish the monopoly of a single church. Now we need the constitutional disestablishment of the monopoly of the school. - Deschooling Society, p. 16

Walter Karp:

Something had to be done quickly or democracy might one day break out. Educational leaders quickly worked out a solution. Let the secondary schools teach the children of workers what was fit only for workers. As Woodrow Wilson, president of Princeton, sternly advised the Federation of High School teachers: ‘We want one class of persons to have a liberal education and we want another class of persons, a very much larger class of necessity in every society, to forgo the privilege of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks.’ Since there was no way to stop ‘the masses’ from entering high school, the only way to meet the crisis, in short, was to prevent them from learning anything liberating when they got there. - Textbook America

Richard Mitchell:

Where once a tyrant had to wish that his subjects had but one common neck that he might strangle them all at once, all he has to do now is to ‘educate the people’ so that they will have but one common mind to delude. The Underground Grammarian

Far from failing in its intended task, our educational system is in fact succeeding magnificently, because its aim is to keep the American people thoughtless enough to go on supporting the system. The Underground Grammarian

Petronius (d. circa 66 CE):

I’m sure the reason such young nitwits are produced in our schools is because they have no contact with anything of any use in everyday life. - The Satyricon

Dr. Benjamin Rush, Signer of Declaration of Independence and early reformer:

Let our pupil be taught that he does not belong to himself, but that he is public property. Let him be taught to love his family, but let him be taught at the same time that he must forsake and even forget them when the welfare of his country requires it. - from Separating School & State, How to Liberate America’s Families by Sheldon Richman, p. 37

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Brainwash the masses!!!! Control the commoners!!!! Maintain the status quo!!!!

The wealthy elites seldom send their kids to public schools and, often, only certain private schools are acceptable to the upper crust.

Why?

Because our ruling class do not want THEIR kids brainwashed, indoctrinated, lied to and treated like cogs in a machine.

The elites want their kids to know the truth, to know reality, to actually know hoe America operates within its many systems.

If I had kids and cared about them I would do everything possible to keep them out of the schools the elite class, the upper-crust, the power brokers of the USA wants them to attend.

There are some highly-intelligent folks who want to kick the government out of schooling. Some of those folks spent a career in education and became disgusted with what they saw in the past and are becomingly increasingly concerned as pandering politicians become ever-more involved with education.

http://www.schoolandstate.org/home.htm

Peek at the above Web site. Consider joining the fight against the enemy of the common folks, the tyrants who started the class war against we, the people.

Fight tyranny and tyrants!!!!!

Educate yourself. Educate your kids. Do not allow your enemy to do the educating!!!

Spewing Politicians

April 17, 2008 by obbop

Just heard it again. This time it was that Hillary creature. Listening to the radio newscast the typical 3-second sound bite tossed Hillary’s gurgling voice at me. Yuck. What an icky feeling. Hilliary and Hubby Billy are multi-millionaires. Why don’t they retire and move away into the mountains where Hillary can perform what’s likely her only truly useful function; baiting Billy’s fish hook with a writhing worm?

Anyway, Hillary proclaimed she wouldn’t raise taxes on the “middle class” if enough idiotic brainless-tumor voters, who actually believe that voting has any real impact upon the elite’s federal government, voted her into the presidency.

“Middle class.” I hear that label over and over and again, endlessly, relentlessly. By Hillary and every other putrid vile disgusting politician hoodwinking the masses.

I have never been a member of this obscure undefined middle class. None of my friends considered themselves middle class. Very few co-workers ever considered themselves middle class. Some of the firms I worked for, the owner(s) and a few top employees considered themselves middle class but I never heard them define the term.

With so many Americans in the “working poor” category we feel left out!!! It seems that only the middle class count for anything!!!

Why do the politicians so seldom mention America’s working poor? When I was in the military I noticed the vast majority of us were from the lower classes, the working poor. We were the dregs of American society sent overseas to protect America’s elite class business interests, to ensure the elite’s foreign-source money flow was not disrupted.

I have pondered why politicos refrain from uttering what is apparently a nasty word to politicians and America’s elite class. That reason is, I believe, related to the methods used to indoctrinate/brainwash the masses of Americans. The ongoing relentless so-far successful attempts to convince the masses that as the USA is is proper and as it should be. That the status quo so beneficial to the elites is the only proper way that America shoud be run, that our internal and external affairs should be conducted.

Basically, the term “working poor” is shunned since the term contradicts the elite’s propaganda.

Mention the working poor too much, make people think about the USA’s HUGE underclass, and people may actually begin to think, to think of the inequities created by an elite class to skim enormous amounts of wealth from the labors of the working poor.

Mention the working poor too much and it reveals the elite’s propaganda as a self-serving lie.

Boortz Bloke

April 15, 2008 by obbop

I have e-mailed the Boortz dude who has a broadcast radio show that can also be heard via the Web.

For those who shun television his show allows some noise to enter the shanty and perhaps provide enlightenment, entertainment or, in Old Coot’s case, constant head-shaking at the, in Coot’s opinion, drivel unadulterated by logical rational thinking based upon real-life experience.

But, that’s okay. Boortz is entitled to babble, spew, rant, proclaim, and generally transmit messages that are intended to attract listeners so that ad revenue can be maximized.

Utterly baffled by some of the babble I felt compelled to send those mentioned e-mails to berate the Boortz unit.

Surprisingly, a response was received albeit by Boortz lackeys vice the head Boortz dude.

Both responses used knee-jerk rhetoric to lambaste my critical comments.

Appears I am guilty of “wealth envy.”

Pondering the dearth of rebuttal and the use of rhetoric to support the general Boortz belief of how the USA and all its systems should function I suppose that “wealth envy” is as good as any descriptor for those disagreeing with Boortz.

I’m just glad a different type of “envy” wasn’t used since the Coot doesn’t “swing” that way.

Conundrum

April 15, 2008 by obbop

Is it mental illness as proclaimed by a huge industry that wants your money or is it merely a coping method that allows you to exist within a sick culture?