Then, of course, there was the "bitter Pennsylvanians comment." I thought the flag would surely fall that day and for the week that followed. Sad thing is, I know exactly how I would feel if I were one of those people and bitter wouldn't come close to describing it.
Guess what! It's just gonna get worse, for our compatriots in Pennsylvania and for many, many others all across this country. It's gonna get worse all over this planet, but I shall try to stick to our country for the moment. It's about all I can handle for now and you shall soon see why.
But just in case, my fellow independents and all other visitors, let me spin out a scenario for you, after some reassurances and bad news for a few of my own known compatriots:
1) No one is going to take your guns away, unless you think you need a 50 caliber weapon, which could bring down an airplane, with which to go buck hunting and an automatic assault weapons for the shooting range. If that is the case, you are blind as a bat and probably should not be firing a gun, fools. No, it is not a slippery slope. Any knot-head knows that we do need hunters. Without them, herds of animal life grow to thick, many would become ill and die from some pretty horrible diseases. So, thank you, hunters. Were it not for the hunters who abide by the laws and show good common sense, our over-presence on this planet would bring more harm than it already is. I personally do not have a problem with guns for protection in many circumstances.
However, lets not be totally delusional here. If anyone actually thinks, as I have heard some say, that the second amendment right to bear arms is for the very good reason of protecting the people from a government gone mad, no longer functioning as the government of a Democratic Republic but, rather, as a tyrannical government, using the most efficient means available at the time, to oppress the people. While I agree with the sentiment, the whole idea is quite nuts today. I have a pistol which once belonged to my father, but I do not delude myself that it would protect me from my own government, should that become necessary, unless I plan to put a bullet in my own brain.
2) Josh and Ken will not be getting married anytime soon, no matter who is in the White House, though they may well gain their civil rights. Anyone who does not have a problem with other people being denied their civil rights is just begging to have their own taken away, and much sooner than they would ever guess.
3) Roe V. Wade may well be overturned by the Supremes, but I doubt it. The GOP will have a collective meltdown should that happen. Without abortion, they might not win another election for 7 generations. Even if Roe v. Wade is shot down, it will not stop abortion any more than outlawing plants made our kids safe from drugs. More people will die as a result of outlawing abortion, just as they have in the war on drugs. The poor will suffer to a far greater extent than the wealthy. That's what happens with, essentially, unenforceable laws; always has, always will.
4) No one is going to outlaw any nutty belief system, unless those who harbor such belief systems also begin amassing a medium to large arsenal and/or are suspected of physically or sexually abusing children. (It matters not how psychologically abusive such people and their belief systems are to adults and children. No one cares if they mess with your head as long as that's all they do.)
So, what is going to happen? Let's speculate based on the headlines of today and the recent past:
More human beings will die in Iraq, possibly Iran and the entire world if BushCo starts a nuclear conflagration and who would put it passed them?
The American economy will collapse, starting a worldwide collapse that will make the Great Depression look like a slight correction in the markets.
The U.S. will be a second rate country in about 5 years time, if not sooner as the dollar hits bottom and bounces. Visualize soup kitchens, people dying from the cold in winter and heat strokes in summer; numbers of people too big for the news media to ignore, as is their current practice, unless it happens in "old Europe," of course.
China will be the only remaining superpower. Russia will revert to some form of Communism and will be China's greatest ally. The U.S. will have no clout, thanks to the greedy, lustful idiots in the White House and their friends in Congress, as China and Russia make alliances with South and Central American countries.
Americans will be shocked to learn that government databases and corporate databases will be one and the same, for all practical purposes, as governmental agencies inform private corporations of questionable behavior on the part of their customers which has been gleaned from satellite photos, medical records, credit card information and such.
For example, let's take Billy Bob Scranton. Mr Scranton is a gun-toting, church-going, good old boy who is today's real kind of hero; one every child should have in his/her life, be it man or woman.
He takes very good care of his wife and child. They can afford to work schedules so that their kids do not have to spend huge chunks of time at home alone or running the streets. Everyone likes Billy. He coaches Little League baseball and soccer. He's the kind of man you know you can rely on in a pinch. He has no criminal record and is kind to the elderly, little children and the family dog. He's a nice guy and anyone who knows him will tell you that.
One day he finds out from his employer that his health insurance premiums have skyrocketed, over night. His health insurance company has learned that he routinely eats fast food for lunch, consistently drives 10 miles over the speed limit on a state highway near his home (never mind that he does this late at night when there is not another car in sight), drinks beer several times a week at a neighborhood bar. He also has a medical history of elevated blood pressure, high cholesterol levels and is 15 pounds over-weight. If he cares so little for his health, he is informed, why should other responsible people in the group have to pay higher premiums? Billy's habits are simply too expensive. He is going to have fun finding another insurance company that won't rob him forty ways from Sunday. Think it can't happen? It's already happened. All Kinds of insurance companies have done background searches, and worse, for years. Only the tools have have changed and become far more efficient
A week later he gets a letter from his car insurer. They have learned that he had several seizures of unknown origin when he was a teenager. They will no longer insure him at all, as it is against their policy to insure anyone who has ever had seizures that could possibly reoccur, but he can contact the good folks at highwayrobbery.com for a quote. They often insure folks who are risky. Of course, Billy will have to undergo an entire neurological workup at his own expense to be insured by them.
Our friend, Billy is in big trouble. No, he has committed no real crime. Of course, there is the speeding thing, but no one is threatening to put him in jail or anything like that. There are no scary judges, no judgmental jury; just the rest of his life without cost effective insurance.
There is no public transportation where Billy lives. There is a cab service. It Could be that the cab service is owned by the same people who own highwayrobbery.com. Their pricing is similar.
Naturally, his wife's insurance premiums go up as well. After all, she had the bad judgment to marry such an "irresponsible schmuck" in the first place. The kids can forget driving as long as Dad is still paying the bills.
(If you have teenage boys, you might as well move to a huge city the moment they are born and teach them all about subways and trams.)
Billy never worried about all the government and corporate data-mining, domestic spying nor even the satellites that were going to be used against Americans as law enforcement tools. "Hell," Billy said, "I don't break the law. I'm not worried about that stuff. I want 'em to get the terrorists, the drug dealers, illegal immigrants and all the other scum who are ruining this country."
What Billy didn't understand is that he was breaking the one major, while unspoken, law that simply must not be broken in a uniquely American fascist society: Thou shalt not cost thy corporate overlord one red cent more than necessary.
Two months later, his father and mother have lost their house to some reverse mortgage or other financial scheme and have no savings, as his father had been a pilot for an airline and his pension had suddenly ceased to exist several years before, but they hadn't told Billy as they didn't wish to worry him.
His brother had, however, burdened him with the knowledge that he had lost his good software-writing job to a guy from Saudi Arabia who had a work VISA for two or three years, would work for less and didn't need insurance, as his family has more money than god. Oil wealth, you know.
Poor Billy. His friends would love to help him out, as he has many of them so often, but the plant that keeps the town afloat has just closed and they are scrambling to move away from Billy's dying town, if they can afford to go.
As his father's car pulls into the driveway, pulling a small U-haul trailer behind it, Billy is reminded of what he used to say about Social Security and Medicare: "These are socialist programs that have no place in America. Everybody ought to take care of his own. That's how I feel about it!"
No criminal he, our Billy's life has gone, in less than three months, from a happy, ordinary life to a rapidly approaching nightmare. He has a wife, three kids, a mother, father, brother and a hound named Mulder. He is one accident or major illness away from ruin. So is his entire family.
How in God's name did this happen?
Quietly, Billy....oh so quietly.
The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.
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