A Citizen's Candid Letter To A Congressional Representative

Tweeting furiously about the unjust state of things is not only fun, but it's also a positive way to get things off our collective chest (sorry GOP, I know how you feel about the term 'collective'). I should know, as I am quite a furious tweeter. But preaching to the choir is only so satisfying, so I wrote my representative in Congress.
I happen to live in the 29th Congressional district of New York State, and my representative is a Republican named Tom. Tom has reportedly accepted extravagant vacations and other kushy gifts from big corporations. I know... this is nothing new. But I wanted to tell him as straight forward and succinctly as possible with a short e-mail (we know about their attention span don't we?) outlining a few things that stick in my proverbial craw, and many others' craw as well, including many of the craws of my 3,765 Twitter followers.
Here it is:

To Representative Tom Reed of the 29th Congressional District

Dear Tom,
I just wanted to drop a line to give you some insight into what's on the minds of many of us who you are alleged to represent:

* We really wish you guys wouldn't favor big corporations over the people. Oh don't try to deny it -- you used to be able to get away with quite a lot, but we peasants now have the best information source in history.

* The fact that we have a healthcare system based on for-profit insurance companies is lunacy, and the main reason why the costs are out of control. Even "Obama-Care's" architect Liz Fowler is a big-time corporate health insurance insider from Wellpoint, and now, after writing corporate favors into law, is off to Johnson & Johnson. This is not the only example of the greasy corporate revolving door of Washington to say the least. The founders would be quite dumbfounded.

* All this fiscal "cliff/slope" nonsense could easily be solved by imposing a Wall Street financial transaction tax (Tobin tax). After all, there is ten's of TRILLIONS of dollars in derivatives trading alone! Our deficit could also be diminished by ceasing to tax gambling speculators & hedge fund managers at a lower rate than the rate that those who do the real work in our country pay. And what's worse? We apparently are now responsible for these gangster-banks' bad bets. When they are are guilty of fraud, bid rigging and naked short-sells of financial products (which is becoming the norm) to extract more wealth from the country, jail 'em. Don't impose a relatively tiny little fine that they regard as merely the cost of doing business. Ya know, common sense things.

* We should assuredly cut this huge surveillance apparatus that does nothing but infringe our rights and dignity, all in the name of 'terrorism,' which kills less people than bed-sheets. We know what it's about; a perpetual war that greases the palms of corrupt 'Defense' contractors, and keeps the populace in fear indefinitely, thus more easily manipulated.

* None of you seemed to notice that there's been a melting polar cap, record fires, heatwaves, and storms. Remember Sandy? Do you really think this will all magically resolve itself? Are you gambling that technology will solve it just in time? I wouldn't take those odds. You should take the billions shelled out in corporate welfare checks to big oil and use it to develop a renewable energy future. Germany showed us how, but that's probably out of the question because big business has to remain the status quo -- I guess that's why you conservatives don't sufficiently embrace change(or facts for that matter). Regardless, you should all stop drilling our children's future into the shale. It's not very nice at all.

Suffice to say that empire takes a terrible toll on those in it, especially when it declines. It doesn't have to, of course, but you guys must know these things. Don't you? I mean, all of you have been formally educated and we assume your capable critical thinking. You must have taken history classes, you know that old maxim; "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it?" But then maybe the appeal of short-term gain has completely short-circuited your long-term cognitive abilities.

I would like to close with a warning:

History shows that the people will only take so much until they start taking heads. So dig your bunkers deep.

Sincerely,
Jennifer Merrill, Citizen

What Is Civilization?

It just dawned on me that most of my posts here began as responses, in one way or another, to a friend or Twitter follower who made certain comments or statements to me. Here is the latest.

One of my followers on twitter asked me to elaborate on what I meant by civilization in this tweet I posted:

"We May Be Able To Delay The Collapse Of Civilization A Little Longer http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/07/opinion/going-beyond-carbon-dioxide.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0 … ...But not likely."

@jennyfrky replied, quite unexpectedly, with:

"Can you give me your definition of civilization?"

(The little devil thinks she's clever doesn't she?)

Well, that immediately turned my briskly posted tweet into a deep philosophical and scientific question that I felt required to answer, as though I had pulled a fast one, hoping no one would notice I was brushing over my failure to define the terms. Of course, this led me to reply with three tweets that was a summation of what I fleshed out after the fact.
The flesh I outed was this:

What, exactly is 'civilization'? Some would say "Well, civilization is when we can make things like cars, phones and what have you." (Of course, the Romans didn't have the same things we have, but the principle is nonetheless the same.)

Others would say "Well, civilization is when groups form governments, and then make laws to make sure things don't get out of hand."

And still others would say "Well, civilization is when you have most of the population making all the stuff that everyone uses and getting paid for it so that they can live."

Well, the real definition is obviously a combination of these and probably a few other archetypical descriptions ...and I believe it would go something like this:

Civilization is said to exist when a species (In this case, humans) form a larger group with sub-groups working together to make their existence individually and as a whole, more comfortable through the use of the various tools the groups can assemble. The advancement naturally increases over time because improvements are made to the existing tools, thereby making a wider variety of tools.
The production and use of these various tools (everything man-made is essentially a tool; a car is a tool to move you to other places, using minimal effort. Television radios etc., are tools to spread manifestations of information, that all initially begin as ideas), are divided into subsets of groups who receive compensation for the expense of their time and energy, thereby allowing them to continue living in the greatest amount of comfort that the current technical advancement level of said civilization can provide
The global group will also set up a much smaller architecture to place controls on society and administer the rules, thereby enforcing order. These subgroups can use one or more of various established political ideologies or religious ones (religion and politics were once one and the same, but as civilization evolves, the two begin to separate due to the speculative nature of religion) that comprise the foundation that the structure of this enforcement of rules is based upon. After all human brains are the most complex structures in the universe that we know of, and the most unpredictable.
There is a system in place that enables the dissemination of ideas from one individual or group to another group or individual by means of invented tools. In our case, writing, which was the first iteration of artificially produced 'external memory', then radio, TV and currently our artificially simplified brains, other wise know as computers.

So, this is the best short-paper of a description that I can come up with at 3:14 in the A.M., hastily cobbled together from what started as a response to a tweet. So I'm sure there are other aspects of civilization not thought of by me at this present moment, likely because my eyes are staring to droop and my bed is beginning to seem very appealing. If anyone would like to expand or add to this (without writing a college thesis), I would encourage you to do so if I was still awake! (Please do.)

G'nite/morn y'all!

A Letter To An Old And Dear Friend, pt2 - Deflating The Lies Of The GOP.

Those of you who read my first letter know what's going on here. For those of you who are new to my blog, it's about a friend of mine, who now resides a couple of thousand miles away now, who has recently been spouting some of the fallacious diatribe of the right. He's said things refering to Obama as a Muslim (even if he is, so what?)and that POTUS will take his guns away.

This second letter is in response to some of his statements.


Dear *****,


Why do you call Obama 'Obummer'? When he took office, unemployment was at 10%, now it's at 8%. He restored our auto-industry, effectively Saving More Than 1 Million Jobs of jobs. If the GOP obstructionists in the House hadn't blocked a roosevelt-type jobs bill, millions more would have jobs. Obama has made healthcare available to 6 million more citizens. Is that really a bad thing? The republicans objections to "ObamaCare" are simply reactionary rhetoric from those who prefer a feudalistic society. Yeah, it's a bummer all right, a bummer he was blocked from helping the citizenry as much as he may have.

Obama doesn't 'appease rogue states', he deals with them in a more sensible manner. Besides, I think if Iran did have nukes, it would restore the balance of power left vacant by Georgy-boy's OPEC sponsored destruction of Iraq (which was actually a relatively mellow place till our 'brave' warriors showed up), maybe Israel wouldn't keep stomping on the palestinians and poisoning their water supply as much as they do. We always villify the opposition to our interests, even when our interests are less than admirable.


Progressives stand, like the greatest president ever, Franklin Roosevelt, who single handedly created the worlds largest middle-class, for moving humanity forward to a truly egalitarian society. The fascist-baiters of the Gop want a better society for the corporations and themselves, the public good is not even on their list.

So I do hope you are reading this w/an open mind and seeing that this is the reality of things, without the stench of corporate propganda from those who, as george carlin so aptly put it, "'Don't give a shit about you, they don't care...they don't care!"

Jen

In Defense Of Atheism And Reason-Based Thinking

Atheism is not a belief, just a greater awareness of the real nature of reality, untarnished by our ancient past's emotion-based thinking.

I'v read the Bible 3 times (twice in the Iron Bar Inn!) and extensively researched history particular to that time-frame, and I can say with great certainty that anyone who knows the larger context of the history of religion knows that the Bible is a horrid bit of ancient mythological nonsense that advocates slavery, advocates stoning to death as appropriate punishment for ridiculous transgressions, was assembled primarily by tyrants, and used to exploit and control the masses.

There is very little truth in the Bible. Except for a few philosophical ideas that anyone with any modicum of ethics would presume. It's mostly a gallimaufry of mythologies by bronze-age cultures that had not an inkling of understanding of physics or gravity or the properties of light, molecules or atoms, and who thought the earth was the center of everything.

The Jesus story is simply a rehashing of so many earlier mythologies, including the Ammen-Ra myth from Egypt ('Amen' at the end of christian prayer comes from Ammen-Ra), and Dionysus from the Mycenaean culture, all of whom were born of a virgin, had 12 disciples, walked on water, performed miracles and were crucified or killed and then resurrected after 3 days. These ubiquitous ideas represented the winter solstice when the Sun is 'Dead', or lowest in the sky and in the vicinity of a constellation called 'Crux', or cross, for three days between Dec 22 & Dec 25. On the 25th the sun starts to climb higher every day, forshadowing spring and renewed life. Thus, the sun died on the cross, was dead for three days, and then resurrected. This is what the Jesus story clearly represents, and the meme is from thousands of years before "Christianity" was even a twinkle in Abraham's eye! Seriously!
(Islam, Judaism and Christianity all share the same heritage, as sons of Abraham)

And last but assuredly not least is the unmitigated fact that there has been more suffering and death in the history of the world due to the Bible than by any other cause besides plague and famine.

Just the facts man.

Think for yourself. Question and research EVERYTHING! Don't take others word for it, after all, we're all born atheist.

Letter To An Old Friend

Sorry I defriended you on Facebook, I was pissed because you said Obama's a Muslim, I thought you were better than that, that you could see through the thin veil of deception of the GOP. They are not the republicans of your grandfather, these people hate the middle-class, always had, and are willing to destroy our nation and economy because Obama has tried to actually be helpful to regular people.

Paul Ryan is a follower of Ayn Rands perverted glorifying of selfishness. I have read her books, and if that'writers' philosophy influences a person in government than we are all in shits creek. They have explicitly said they hate the new deal, regulations, and appropriate taxes on the rich to contribute to the well-being of the citizenry, those same things that made the greatest middle class in history. Wall Street People like Romney casually do horrible things to people to bolster their bottom line.

They want to privatize the very programs that benefit me, you and millions of regular folks like us. The elites today, just as the feudal-lords & robber-barons of yor, view us as merely as commodities, The actions of the investment banks are sound evidence of this.

Thomas Jefferson stressed the importance of a FREE and open university system so as the public can better make truly informed decisions, yet Romney/Ryan would make it much harder for us, not them, to get higher education.

To top it off, I truly believe that hiding money offshore in the caymans and such, from the nation that helped make them successful, like Mitt, borders on treason, and Jefferson certainly wouldn't approve. I've read the entire Federalist Papers, and the Constitution and can come to only one conclusion, that our government that we have today, including BOTH parties, would completely disgust the nations founders.

Obama's the best option of the two, and no, he's not coming for your guns, that's just a bunch of reactionary claptrap with a hint of racism.

I really thought you wouldn't buy into the oligarchs propaganda.

Still love ya,
Jen

David Gregory's Dereliction Of Duty As A Journalist

I saw the David Gregory interview with Willard Mitt Romney today on MSNBC, and noticed an obvious question that should have absolutely been asked of Romney. below is a letter I wrote to NBC expressing my chagrin at David's dropping of a very big ball.
Read on.

To: steve.capus@nbc.com

From @jennifermerril2

This in response to David Gregory's missed opportunity during his interview with Willard Romney.
Romney said that his economic plan would need 8-10 years to implement safely. Mr. Gregory obviously should have asked why Willard expected that Obama's recovery could be done in 4yrs, and I found myself screaming at my TV for him to do so (too bad we don't have 2-way TV's). In my opinion, that was a dereliction of David's responsibility as a journalist. There is so much at stake in this upcoming election that journo's need to do what they used to do, and call these crooks on their BS. Unless, of course, you don't want to offend your corporate sponsors, like it would if you responsibly reported on the impending disaster that is climate-change.


Befuddled,
Jennifer Merrill

I certainly don;t expect a response, but I simply had to get it off my chest.

Theater Shooting Indicative Of Systemic Deficiencies

Today a friend of mine who happens to be a member of the NRA commented on the Aurora, Colorado Batman shooter. He said; "A gun didn't kill those people; a criminal did. With sympathies for the families and swift justice for the shooter." I replied by telling him that I obviously agree with his statement, but unfortunately life isn't so simple as to be explained away with a cliched altruism. I reminded him that the tension in our social environment is highly palpable, there's a great deal of divisiveness in ideologies and younger people are sensitive to this hostile atmosphere. Most kids today haven't known a time when our country wasn't at war with some nebulous entity that's ready to strike from the blue with an act of terror. They are fully aware of the financial catastrophe that looms, and their entertainment reflects their angst with the failed system. They see rampant fraud pervading just about every aspect of their lives, from GMO's to muni-bond bid-rigging schemes of wall street that put communities and entire nations into debt simply to loot their resources.

Added to these stressors is the violence in the video games and movies. I'm not blaming these products, but the producers market them in a way that makes violent crime and war glamorous. - Much of what passes for music these days seems to be all about 'popin caps' in someone, drug-dealing or 'bitches'. - Kids shows are a fast-paced barrage of flashing images and loud noise. - The commercials foster envy of the other kids that have these great shiny toys. The companies behind the ads do a great job of hiding the fact that, to them, their young impressionable audience is a huge market that needs to constantly be 'harvested' (marketing term, I kid you not). All this combined fosters cynicism, aggression, resentment and creates heightened social tension so that when you mix someone who's already on the edge mentally, and weapons that are too easily obtained, we get this.

I haven't heard any reports of neighborhoods, cities or states doing battle with each other (yet), so what other reason to have multiple assault rifles, thousands of rounds of ammunition, gas canisters and masks? For hunting? I'd say the critters are outgunned as it is. The fact that these items were legally obtained, even over the course of a few months shows that there needs to be a mechanism that alerts authorities when an individual buys weapons, bullets, body-armor or anything else that seems like the purchaser likes to play navy-seal as a hobby. How did this get past anyone? I'm sure the merchants of death are of the attitude "I'm not concerned with what they do after they leave the store." What a sense of community, huh? Every time someone buys munitions their name should be put in a data-base and, like many credit card companies, trigger an alert when any unusual patterns emerge.

While all this is bubbling just below the surface of our culture, the "war on terror" industrial complex seems more concerned with feeling up granny at the airport than conceiving a realistic and effective way of deterring nuts like this. Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel is a good model of what counter-terrorism should look like here. They use simple but effective tactics including bomb-sniffing dogs and profiling, Not racial profiling, but common sense observation of behavior. I suspect the various homeland security contractors here in the U.S. are more interested in assembling a security apparatus that maximizes profits in a way that looks like they're really concerned with our safety. Who knows, maybe James Holmes was a Manchurian Candidate let loose so as to promote gun control policies, or maybe he was just an ordinary guy, crushed by enormous debt, that became severely unhinged. Whatever the case, someone shoulda been hip to this cat weeks ago.