Forget the Spanish inquisition we have republicans

Always like to call things out for what they really are. Some insurance nerd would love to sell you "life" insurance but that's not what it truly is. It's death insurance plain and simple. They don't pay you for living, only when you die. Same thinking with funeral homes which is a real load of baloney. Trying to preserve a rotting corpse in some hermetically sealed package is plan stupid. It's a feeble attempt at going against the laws of nature. I've covered the possibilities in my mind and come to the conclusion that cheap is better. A simple cremation and a cardboard box will suffice. It's only deciding on which piece of ground I'll be fertilizing that has me stumped as I don't care to be fish food. We never seem to step back and look at the entire picture realistically on so many fronts and facets of our lives.

An aircraft looses cabin pressure and the oxygen masks falls into position. A mother with baby at her side grasps a mask and first places it over the baby's mouth and nose all the while forgetting her own need for air. This would be one of the few cases where self sacrifice will result in the death of both involved. The mother will die from lack of oxygen and the baby won't make it either when mom is gone. But such is the case of backward thinking. You would think that after a few thousand years we'd start to get things at least a little right but no.

Take the economy for example. It can be ours or anyone else's in the world. They all pretty much work the same. We know from history what has worked in the past and what won't. The last major downturn "the Great Depression" resulted in the creation of Roosevelt's New Deal. And believe it or not it is still providing benefits to our economy some 75 years later! And yet somehow the bill of goods is being promoted that we can cut our revenues (taxes) cut spending and by some magic Tinkerbell fairy dust everything will work out. Look no further than Greece to see what will happen with that plan. Austerity does not make for good times and yet we have a whole bunch of folks buying into the myth. The Kool aid must be mighty tasty. They either aren't paying attention or they don't read. Jeez if I were hiking and I saw the guy in front of me go off a cliff you think I'd follow the same path? But I guess there's some, make that a whole bunch, in this country that can be lead around by the nose even when it's not in their own best self interests.

There still remains the issue of exactly how we got to our present situation. It was an easy matter of "boiling the frog". Gradually taxes went down for the upper income class. They did after all take over our government. And as funds shrank our educational systems lagged. Case in point a university degree was two thirds paid for by state and federal funds. Now it's 40% or less. The income of the upper class went up several hundred percent while those in the middle and bottom saw their income shrink. And while costs kept going up the benefits and profits went to a select few. There was a time when a CEO made four or five times what the average worker made. Now that figure is more like four or five thousand times.

Eventually there will be a breaking point and that may be very soon. There is the great budget debate coming as the December surprise. We'll have to wait and see. Once again it will be like a Mexican standoff with us as the hostages. But what the other side seems to fail to see is that the people they represent will be the victims of their draconian cuts. For their constituents it will be like the cheering on of the torturer. "Beat me again because the last time felt so good." Should they have their way with us like the rape victim we are then this nation will begin to look more like 1912 than 2012. They'll not be satisfied until they squeeze us for our last drop of blood.

Gad and I thought Halloween was over.