Michael1942's Blog

The recent murders of  American civilians and Military personnel in Afghanistan (and possibly others areas) has pointed out again that we no longer need to do any more than leave the middle east areas where we are not wanted and can do no more to help the locals. We have attempted to assist with military , financial and civilian aid for the past 10 plus years. This attempt has led to an outlay of millions of dollars (or billions) with seemingly no assistance from the UN. My opinion  while perhaps not correct politically would save us those outlays of cash and put it toward balancing our own budget. I suggest a coded order to remove all troops and support within a 30 to 90 day period, the local government is not functioning in a democratic way and probably will  not in the forseeable future with or without our aid. The act of burning the Quran in an inappropriate manner was no more than an excuse to kill and protest against us. The people who really need and appreciate the aid given have no power in the government and are not receiving nearly the amount of help needed and given. So this aid is going where? not to the public. The enemy is the government not the people and unless we can reach them  the problem will never be resolved. So I suggest that we weigh anchor, haul A**, get out of Dodge Middle East) and leave.

I have noticed on various server web pages the pop up ads always show attractive women for  ads like “this single mom made $8000.00 working from home”. The perception could be that this “single mom” is a working  “escort”. The other ad I have noticed is another attractive woman with the ad lead in stating “a remarkable method of sleeping all night”, again what does this indicate? This reminds me of the outpourings by the current Presidential pursuit group. There are too many semi truths and lesser truths being extolled as fact yet these incantations when exposed for what they are barely causes a ripple in the big river of politics.

Advertising may be described as the science of arresting human intelligence long enough to get money from it.     Stephen Leacock

I ran across this quote as I was perusing some reading material today. It reminded me of the current political campaigns. These wars of words are so much like the companies that manufacture products for consumers. Each company has on staff or hires an advertising agency to tout their products and its merits compared to similar products  from other suppliers or manufacturers. What we as voters or consumers are required to do is select one and use it to determine its merit or lack of. This is  a relatively easy thing to do with products and other consumable goods but when it comes to a  person we elect to serve, the effects can be devastating and long lasting. We have several candidates vying for our support and each one offers the same thing with a slightly different twist. The worst part of this is , once in office these folks face bigger problems than they realized and very often fail to produce as promised. We have an ongoing problem with the people who enact our laws as too many of them have been in office too long and owe too many debts to backers with deep pockets. There will never be a perfect solution but we need to treat these long serving politicians as we would any product we were not satisfied with- do not buy it again.

Years ago it was a common practice for unscrupulous butchers to put a thumb on the scales when weighing a purchase. When city officials set up a method of monitoring these situations by inspections of the facilities and their weighing equipment, this practice ceased or went underground to a point of near extinction. The current legal method appears to be just giving a little bit more than you asked for but asking your approval before finalizing the sale. This asking if its OK is just another “thumb on the scale”. If we as consumers would pay closer attention we would realize that we are getting thumbed in more ways than one. Take “2 for” sales, you are offered more of a product than you require by offering additional product for a buy one (or two or more) and get one or more for the same price or less. This is thumbing but sometimes we do receive some value for this thumbing if the product is something we definitely use regularly, other times not so much. Our political system works the same way, through the use of advertising like phrases and honest sounding catch phrases which result in thumbing the scales but with no oversight other than our own common sense.

A recent opinion by a local newspaper reader has given me hope that most folks are reading more than the sports and comics. This writer has posted the thoughts and opinions  I have long held, that we need to start seeing the current office holders out.  It is true that there are laws in place that limit the Presidents time in office but in reality we ( the people) are the true determinants of term limits and who  serves the people. I say hallelujah for this writer and others who see the big picture.

The Governors mansion  lies vacant except for the touring visitors and the maintenance staff. I am wondering if it is possible to generate some additional income from this property by renting it out for banquets, some public functions or seances since it reputed to be haunted. Just think of it, this could cut the budget shortfall by as much as 20 thousand dollars a year or at least pay for the  upkeep and the folks who now do that work. This would not disturb the Governor as the Mansion was extended to accommodate the office holders family (he is hardly there anyway). This may not totally offset any great amount of budget shortfall but it may generate some interest in using this structure to better advantage.

Perception as defined is : observation (see perceive) b : a mental image. Deception is: befuddlement, deceit, bluff, mystification, bad faith, and subterfuge are acts to propagate beliefs that are not true, or not the whole truth (as in half-truths). Many of us do not  think about these two words together or possibly singularly yet they collectively have given us the type of Congressional members who have all but subverted the offices of Congress. The advertising community has used perception and deception to entice the public to buy  goods and services Our political system has adopted these same concepts in political campaigns and subsequent elections. If a person has to convince us to support and vote for them why is it perception and deception even a part of the process? During the war of a political campaign the opposition denigrate their opponent with deception and sleight of mouth. How can we trust them to operate in an honest manner once elected? The worst of these 2 words is deception,  openly and with bad intention a candidate seeks to focus on the personal life of their opponent as a way to create an unfavorable view of them. This focus goes beyond the candidate and extends to  their families who are innocently dragged into the spotlight. It would be ungracious to say so what but what if it were you? What is the point here? The point is: “even generals at war spend no time “trashing” their opposition, their time is spent on learning the habits and abilities of the opponent to bring about a successful outcome. The office of President is an “on the job training” position that requires concentration on the tasks at hand rather than the rantings of other Government officials who often do not have all or any of the answers.Perception of deception is not necessarily fact.

The personality of a tube sock, this metaphor came to me as I searched for a way to explain the current crop of candidates. looking at the tube sock, for the most part it has no heel so can be worn on any side, The only feature that designates the toe is the seam and the manufacturer’s name or logo. So by its nature it can be worn in any fashion giving it a longer life albeit less comfortable than a conventional sock. The candidates running for office are to compare like tube socks, they can be worn anyway at all but the toe remains the same. Like a tube sock they can also slip around your foot and be completely reversed at anytime during the use of it.So what we have are tube socks running for office and hoping that the toes hold it all together.