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The Daily Dose/July 14, 2011
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Notes from around The Human Experience...
NOTHING OF SUBSTANCE: The specific details of what is being proposed in Washington regarding our national debt and the debt ceiling is not even worth going over because it's all card shuffling and smoke blowing and finger pointing designed to make us think the president and Congress are actually doing something.
Come On, What's Really Happening: They're not really doing anything, of course. All that is really going on is everyone is avoiding making any substantive decisions about what not to spend money on because no one is willing to make a decision that will offend anyone.
And there are lot of people dining at the government table right now, so there will be lots of opportunities for Electorate Annoyance.
Dry, Technical Matter: Entitlement programs take up about 60 percent of the federal budget and - and we found this both interesting and moderately disturbing - over half the citizens of this country get a sizeable portion of their income from the government, either through having a government job or a job dependent on government spending, or because they receive Social Security or some other government pension, or they receive some other government subsidy or grants.
The Bottom Line: The hand basket has already delivered us to Hell. We're just knocking on the door now, waiting to be admitted. Consider this:
What The Hell Is Going On Here? We're $14.5 trillion in debt and not doing anything about it except yap at each other. We are getting no leadership from anyone in a position to do anything. None whatsoever.
And That's The Way It Is: We have a media that happily accepts whatever it is spoon fed and takes no one to task anymore, except adulterers, as if adultery is something new. Politicians who keep spewing the same sputum year after year without doing anything except getting reelected get free passes.
Ah, Hell: In 30 to 40 years this nation will spend all its income on entitlement programs, obliging us to borrow to pay for roads and an army and everything else we spend money on.
Super Size Me: Only one-third of us are in reasonably good physical condition (re: not fat or obese). Outside of the fact this had made us fat and trivial and a nation that only wants to eat and be entertained (which is rich coming from someone who posted about his recent haircut ad nauseum on Facebook), it will pose the practical problem of forcing to cope with a large number of completely preventable health problems in the coming decades.
3...2...1...Blastoff...Psych, Just Kidding: Later this month we won't be able to put anyone into space, anymore. The final space shuttle flight will land on July 20, and we noted in a previous column July 20 is also the date, in 1969, our once-proud space program first put man on the moon. Our government is transferring space travel to private industry, which we applaud, because anything the government can do private industry can probably do better.
Stop Us If You've Heard This Before: But had we cared to, this nation could have had, with some effort, man on Mars in the 1980's. Without breaking a sweat we could have done it before the end of the century.
Oh, Jesus H: I don't know. I hope I'm wrong. But you can't help thinking that the clock is ticking on this once great nation and some exercising of our Second Amendment rights might be useful because we will be fending for ourselves here in a generation or so and a good shotgun might come in handy.
MORE GREAT MOMENTS IN AMERICAN GOVERNMENT: The Sedition Act is signed into law on this date in 1798.
Damn The First Amendment! Full Despotism Ahead! The Sedition Act was the fourth and final law of the Alien and Sedition Acts, which, in theory, were designed to protect the United States from foreigners but were really just a way for the Federalists to stifle criticism and keep the Democratic-Republicans from bothering them.
The laws were signed by President John Adams, one of our freedom loving Founding Fathers, and an unlikely candidate to put up with shenanigans like this. And, to his credit, Adams did not originate or actively support these laws, though that didn't stop him from signing them into law.
Dry, Technical Matter: Adams' vice-president, Thomas Jefferson, however, did oppose them and when he became president in 1801 Jefferson pardoned those still serving sentences stemming from Sedition Act convictions.
Dry, Technical Matter II: The Sedition Acts anal violation of the First Amendment began right off the bat, too, with the first line, decreeing it against the law for anyone to:
…combine or conspire together, with intent to oppose any measure or measures of the government of the United States...
Things like this - not to mention our $14.5 trillion debt - happen when citizens don't pay attention to their government, and that line is really funny because not only it is our right to oppose a measure or measures of our government, it is our duty to do that.
Up Against The Wall And Spread Them: Penalties for violating the law were steep: a prison term of between six months and five years, and a fine of $5,000, about $62,000 in today's dollars.
Thought For The Day: In times like these, it helps to remember there have always been times like these. - Paul Harvey, American radio commentator.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The shortest amount of time it took one person to earn two Medals of Honor was three days by Army 2nd Lieutenant Thomas Custer, who earned his in the final days of the Civil War. The first was on April 3, 1865, the second on April 6th. A reading of his citations shows he was awarded them for, more or less, being good at capture the flag.
Today's Stumper: What international episode was the United States involved in in 1798 that prompted the Alien and Sedition Acts. - Answer next time!
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