Now I'm a Community Organizer Too

I've lived in a quiet middle class subdivision for the past 30 years where I raised three daughters in a safe, nurturing environment. There was the occasional unruly teenager or odd neighbor but mostly we felt safe.

Last year a lumpen slut moved into the neighborhood with her three multi-hued children of three different drifter sperm donors. Weeds grew, doors fell off the house and the little unsupervised sociopaths in training created various havoc in da hood. The responsible adults in the neighborhood tried to reason with the little thugs without success. So we turned to local government, who asked "what do you expect us to do".

Last spring our lumpen slut found love and took a paroled felon into her home. He pitched a tent in the front yard and started having beer and pot barbeque's as often as possible. Perhaps it was just a marketing plan for his dope dealing business that he ran out the lumpen slut's home. He also brought two cuddly pit bulls to the property that often escape from the house to maul schnauzers and chase 80 year old women into their homes.

The police were repeatedly summoned and ignored by the parolee. The party and drug dealing would subside until the police pulled away then resume apace. Generally the police considered the citizen that called being the problem, because they had "bigger fish to fry". So, I thought to myself, this is how crime-ridden ghettos form.

I spoke with a buddy who was a cop and he advised that this was going on in every neighborhood in town and that the police were undermanned and prosecutors had no will to put these sociopaths out of business. Policy was to go after the drug gangs not the small time dealers and users. At least he was honest.

I pondered all this and looked for leadership examples that might help me fix this problem. I found the perfect example in the power-crazed, cult of personality messiah in coming, our presidente! I too could be a community organizer.

I began calling politically ambitious city councilmen and explained the transformation that our neighborhood was undergoing. One particularly ambitious councilman was able to influence a police official to put some heat on the residence. Police drivebys were executed, a letter concerning general public nuisance was delivered and I suspect that a parole officer had a frank discussion with the felon.

As a community organizer, I visited the neighbors, explained who I spoke with and what I said then encouraged the folks to call the police every time the was an event or even a suspicion of an event. Most retorted that the cops wouldn't do anything but I advised that a problem not reported is a problem that doesn't exist. Squeaky wheel and all that stuff.

The transformation was striking although incomplete. The tent-hut was removed, the parties became few and far between and the dope dealing slowed. Swarms of sagging, bagging, pot-smoking gangsta thumpers and bumpers no longer visited the crack house. The felon spent less time cribbin at da crib.

The pit bulls still live at the house but they are mostly confined indoors. Several of us community organizers have been seen outdoors with 12 gauge shotguns as our grandchildren ride their bikes. Even a stupid felon could add up the signs and get the message. We takin the hood back.

In the event that the pit bulls maul another pet we have "The Plan" in place. It seems that if you file a homeowners insurance claim that the insurance company for the home of the dog owner is contacted and they take a dim view of pit bull claim losses. Yep. Either the dog goes or your insurance is cancelled. You can't have a mortgage without insurance and even landlords have insurance. And insurance companies maintain large databases of losses so forget changing companies to circumvent the problem.

One wise city councilman called the presence of pit bulls "soft terrorism". The dogs intimidate the neighbors just like the gangsta rap, the hard look sagging and bagging and surly glances. But every community organizer knows how to use the system to get his way.

It would have been far more emotionally pleasing to get a grizzly bear who sometimes escapes to munch on pit bulls or gone vigilante on this third rate felon dope-dealer. But all over this country there are fat, stupid, white lumpen sluts who bring a diverse felon dope-dealer home for some rough comfort. Sperm has to go down the drain somewhere. Why not pass through their rotten plumbing on the way to the city waste treatment plant?

I'm enjoying being a community organizer who clings to his bible and his guns. We have patrol captain's cell phone numbers programmed on our phone speed dial, have chatted with our local insurance representatives and 12 gauge shotguns to fend off wild beasts. Surely God will protect us all our days.

Now we can rejoin history and mankind

This year marks 40 consecutive years of full time work during my life. Some would say this is too long but by historical standards it is quite normal, if one even lived that long. I have always planned on working full time as long as I could and then working part time until it became impossible to work.

Each of my employers over the past 40 years freely offered a modest pension as part of my employment compensation. No one held a gun to their head to demand a pension. Employers promised a future pension in lieu of pay for work done each day. Lately, most employers have abandoned pensions in favor of 401k retirement plans (aka gambling).

The government demanded that I pay social security taxes on my current employment compensation with the implicit promise that I would be eligible for future benefits. Most people considered social security as a type of forced saving for retirement. I always viewed social security as just another tax and a pig in a poke.

Me and my age cohort considered pensions, social security and savings as our means of support in old age. We had faith that employers and the government would fulfill the promises that they made while 401k fund managers and bankers would refrain from drunken gambling.

During the past year one of my former employers reneged on their pension obligation to salaried employees and another will probably follow suit in the near future. The obligation was handed to the federal PBGC which is already underfunded and likely to collapse without subsidies. I'll consider myself lucky if I get even a third of the pension benefit that I earned from two employers.

Meanwhile my 401k investments have lost 40% of their value and will probably never recover from these losses. 401k fund managers and bankers got their fat commissions and bonuses as they recklessly gambled my investments away. Mark off another third of old age income that I counted on.

Now the government reports that an increase in early retirements is straining an already overburdened social security system that is forecast to go belly up in 2037. The government will have to cut social security benefits or raise social security taxes and retirement age. Probably all three options . It appears that the government will break their promise of benefits to one of the most vulnerable groups of the population.

Raising social security taxes will remove disposable income from an already fragile consumer economy. This will result in additional job losses for older workers who would have to abandon retirement plans to meet older social security minimum age requirements. Many employers consider applicants too old in their 50s let alone 60 or 70.

Even as the social contracts of pensions, employment, investments and social security fall apart our congress and president decide that we need to add the promise of health care for everyone as they save the planet from the basic building block of carbon.

Such arrogance and gall.

The success that America achieved was due in large part because we were a high trust society. A man could have faith that responsible, God fearing men would keep their promises and protect the lives, property and rights of his fellows.

What differentiated Mexico from America? Both places had abundant resources yet one thrived while the other merely survived. Trust enables building a vibrant society while mistrust saps away vigor.

The self-induced economic bubble, subsequent economic collapse in 2008 and the lies and manipulation by national leadership in 2009 has resulted in the loss of trust in our society. Here and there you will still find isolated trust but by and large it has evaporated. With the loss of trust American exceptionalism is dead. Now we can rejoin history and mankind.

Autumnal equinox

At 1718 EST tomorrow the autumnal equinox will signal the end of summer and start the progression into fall. The Celts never celebrated equinox but surely they noted the night of equal days and nights as a sign post of the approaching Samhuin.

In 22 nights, the natural world will die to be reborn again with the rising Soltice sun in December. The Celts would be busy harvesting grains, fattening live stock and gathering firewood to prepare for the long winter. They would finalize the commitments that they made the previous Samhuin, making daughters ready for marriage, livestock ready for trade and goods ready for sale. The Celts would also be planning the next round of negotiations that we be bargained and committed to on this Samhuin.

I celebrate the equinox as a time of reckoning. I take stock of the summer's garden, stock firewood and put summer toys in the shed to be stored until Beltaine. Tis my linkage with the old ways when people lived with the land.

The Celtic blood must run deep in my veins, for I have always loved Fall best. The death of foliage on Samhuin is the Old Year's End and Solstice the New Year's Day. Not the contrived calendar based new year's celebrated in modern times.

This Samhuin I will bury fear, unemployment and 2009 and await the bright future that awaits with the Solstice.

Note to Reader

I've been busy since I started the new job. Long workdays, one hour/one way commute and life have left me little time to write. Today I posted four pieces that I've been pondering for the past month.

I am blessed to be working. God made it happen with a little help from me. I do what I can every day and have faith that God will continue to look after me and mine. I am not in charge.

The following postings are both gloomy and cynical, so if you don't need that in your life just navigate away.

All glory to God.

From One Crisis to Another

I am not a conspiracy theorist but recent events have given me pause. We seem to be bouncing from one crisis to another, each time surrendering freedoms and power to government. And most of these crisis are predictable, as well as preventable.

We start with the crisis of the attacks on 911 and the resulting Homeland Security legislation. Open borders are a sure way of letting all manner of barbarians in the wire. We let the 911 terrorists in the house and gave them aid and comfort until they murdered 3000 Americans. As a result, grandma jumps through bureaucratic hoops to get her papers in order then stands in line to be stripped, probed and have her nail clippers confiscated by illegal aliens at the airport. Feel secure now?

Then we have the financial system meltdown because, darn it, unemployed people deserve to own a home too. And there's commissions to be made on ARM mortgages; who cares if the buyer can pay the mortgage. As a result, government ends up either owning or controlling vast swaths of the nation's wealth as trillions of dollars change hands. Only God knows where the money went but you can only guess that insiders are shitting in tall cotton.

Now we have the health care crisis where 46 million people are dying on the hospital steps. No? Well they're worried that they might even if no one ever has. Even illegal alien gangbangers shot in gunfights that they start get lifelined, treated and rehabilitated for free. The proposed solution; let government provide care. In other words, make me pay for your care. Tis only fair. The government gets more power while I get poorer.

Soon we will debate the global warming crisis. The proposed solution; Make me pay more for energy by taxing the bejebus out of me and let the government decide what to do with the proceeds. Oh yeah, and pay reparations to Zimbabwe and North Korea for the carbon sins of our forebears. Tis only fair. The government gets even more power while I get poorer still (and probably blisters from walking and cold hands and feet in the winter).

And finally, the H1N1 swine flu crisis that the government and media are hyping out of all proportion. Be terrified! The nanny state is teaching us how to cough and wants to inject us with magical serums that we must take or die. Yeah right. I'm gonna get in line for a potion from these flim-flam men. Czars are drafting plans as I write that will invoke martial law and have government agents ransacking our homes for pandemic contraband before they padlock us in to die. Tis so Dark age. Once again, the government gets more power, but this time I may not only be poorer but dead.

See any patterns emerging? Government becoming a tyranny involved in every aspect of our lives. Nanny state deciding what you can drink, where and how much you can travel, what temperature your home is, what disease you can have treated, how much you get paid. Sounds like the Soviet Union you say? Never happen here?

It already has, is and will continue. One crisis to another. Only government can save you. Just stand back, your betters will look after you. "Lugh, more than one Coke a week is bad for you. If you want two you'll have to pay an extra $50 to the Treasury." "Lugh, step outside for your weekly healthcare walk, then you won't need that stint. C'mon, we don't want to have to Tase you. Besides it will warm you up from sitting in that 50F house all winter." "Never mind those ACORN folks, they are checking your underwear drawer for H1N1 microbes." "Gun!" As Lugh is wrestled to the ground, bagged and tagged as a threat to society, er, the government.

These manufactured crisis are bald-faced fabrications designed to grab power. Be terrified!

Peacocks for Dinner

I believe that man spends his life looking for meaning beyond mundane activities such as finding food and shelter. The less time man has to spend finding a meal and a cave to eat and sleep, the more time man has to ponder why we are here and what we are supposed to be doing. When man no longer has to worry about being devoured by beasts or having his meal and cave taken over by a more powerful man, he can start pondering if that new hide loincloth or bigger cave will make him more attractive for reproduction or survival. We are just peacocks with bigger brains.

We seem to be programmed by God to primarily look after our own self-interest, then our family and finally our tribe. But we only look after our tribe because we know it is in our own self-interest. All the while, we seem to be surrounded by angels who whisper suggestions to our conscience. Some good and some bad.

Depending on our own personal self-interest at a given moment we dismiss or accept the whispers to our conscience. For example, union members decry the greed of CEOs even as they dismiss their own greedy demands as social justice. No better angels there.

We are all subject to selfish human nature, the whispers of angels and a constant search for meaning in our lives. Absent knowledge of God's plan we create our own trivial meaning for our life in the moment. But we won't know the truth until we depart this mortal coil, if then.

Our conscience seems to be God's seat in us. We must recognize our nature, recognize the angels by their whisperings and have faith that God has a plan that will bring meaning to our lives in the Afterlife. Otherwise, we are just peacocks for dinner.

Bring em Home

I was a strong supporter of the Bush administration policy to crush and depose the tribes of Afghanistan and Iraq. My vision was to kill as many of the people in these places as was necessary to make them beg us to stop. In other words, the same approach that we used in every other war in America's history.

However our will failed before we broke the will of the people in either tribe. We began nation building well before victory. In other words, we lost the war against both tribes. There was no common will therefore there never could be success.

I am not naive, I never expected an American victory along the lines of our defeat of the axis powers in WW2. But I believed that America could teach the world that we were willing to bleed to protect ourselves and our interests. That would at least give the global thugs some pause when they considered some outrage against civilization.

All cultures are not morally equal, as some believe. Tyranny, rape rooms, ritual beheading and justice by wood chipper are different than Western cultural norms. I wish tribal culture was better but frankly, if the people in these places want to put up with that crap, it is their perogative. I don't want this behavior in the West and I will fight and die to prevent it from spreading here.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. We tried to show other cultures a better way to live but it takes centuries to change human nature. We never stood a chance at nation building. All we could do is kill a generation of male barbarians to reduce the risk to our culture.

Instead, we ruined our culture and now we get to suffer the consequences. We showed the world just how weak and indecisive we truly are. We will reap the whirlwind.

Our men and women in the military are the finest is the world, and maybe the finest in the history of mankind. They are a finely honed knife capable of cleanly cutting the work. But our government has used our military as a hammer and has broken the blade. We have wasted their blood and lives for nothing. A great shame on us.

I believe we should withdraw our combat troops from Iraq, Afghanistan and probably South Korea. They have become cannon fodder just as in Vietnam. We have no will to win so their blood is wasted trying to change human nature. Tis better to let the natives fight and die to advance their civilization.

The Beginning of the End of the West

The United States of America seems to be coming apart at the seams and with it the entire Western civilization is crumbling into irrelevance. I suspect 2009 will be recorded in history as the beginning of the end of the West.

The US is hopelessly divided along class and political lines to the point that there is no longer any common welfare and defense. There are no leaders capable of bridging the differences even in time of war or crisis. The republicans couldn't accomplish anything meaningful when they were majority and the democrats have morphed into communist thugs on their watch.

The present regime has drastically increased their power while destroying American freedoms, standard of living and security. Appointed czars either ignore the Constitution or create new rights without even bothering to consult the electorate, which they consider to be mob of terrorists. The dollar has been printed and borrowed into losing it's status as the world's reserve currency. The US government security commitments are abandoned without regard even as we lose the war against a ragtag Taliban through impossible rules of engagement in Afghanistan.

The conventional family of father, mother and children is the basic building block of Western civilization. But families are being replaced by government supported women with children. The children get basic support from tribal czars but have no sense of belonging to a loving group. So America becomes a nation with hordes of self-centered drifters and whores looking for a handout from the tribal-government czars. There is no regard for responsibility or the future. The government will take care of every problem.

The number of dictators for life is growing around the world. These tyrants are not prepared to relinquish power. Putin, Chavez, Ahmadjihad, Il Jong et al have won concessions from the current regime and the West. Obama, Clinton, Reid and Pelosi seem to admire these thug tyrants. Perhaps they wish that they could enjoy the unfettered power of dictator for life.

America is headed down the path of the Roman empire. First the crisis, then the caesar, then the over-reach followed by decline. The resourceful will make other arrangements, just like the feudal lords of Dark age Europe as the empire collapsed.
New Attilas such as Putin, Chavez and others will pick over the rotting corpse of America.

Dark age Europe rallied under the banner of Christendom to defeat those who would loot the remains of the Roman empire. Can the West rally under the banner of the Cult of Carbon Sequestration? Will the sons of drifters and whores fight for their right to tribal subsidies? Or will they hire their services to the tyrant?

Feeling gloomy about the future? You betcha. I won't see the end through mortal eyes but my wretched grandsons will. I will teach these sons of drifters to fight for God's will and seek the Kingdom of Heaven. The kingdom of man is doomed to become a living hell.