Shorter Days

Summer slowly is drawing to it's close here at Bradland. There are cloudy skies today with a chance of rain. An occasional occurance in Summer, soon it will be the rule. Nighttime temperatures are dropping a couple of degrees with each succeeding week, and the leaves on the deciduous trees are beginning to yellow. The Octoberfest room's exterior is now complete and the insulation work and interior walls will soon be started. Firewood, at least three more cord, needs to be ordered , paid for, and stacked out of the weather. The pipe on the wood-burning stove needs to be replaced before this years fire begins to burn. The pipe for the outside faucet needs insulation. Time for the chores of Autumn.

Autumn, of course, is the most beautiful time of the year here.. The evergreen covered mountains become the canvas for the red and yellow leaves of the less predominant oaks and madrone trees that paint the landscape. Clouds begin to appear above the mountainous horizon to the north daily on their travels eastward as the stormtrack slides south with the season. Upon the blue and green canvas of the forest and sky, the clouds and leaves paint their seasonal masterpiece daily until winter when grey consumes all.

'tis the season; mild, beautiful, serene. The Quail pair are now a covey, The small deer are bigger and losing their spots, Bears get drunk on berries fermenting in their stomachs and, like all drunks, become bothersome and too friendly with people's homes and livestock. Farmers all over the valley are making preparations for the Fall harvest; the Blueberries are in, the Blackberries ripe. Winter straw lies in circular bundles awaiting rhe barn.

Campers will abound from now until the end of Labor day and the close of Summer. The Fall hunters will be fewer in numbers but louder. Hunters need to be careful in the woods of southern Oregon in the Fall, they might find something they are not looking for and a helluva lot more dangerous than Bigfoot; Mexican nationals, or worse, local boys . "Get caught, get shot" is what one local put on a plywood billboard . Careful out there, and don't be a trespassin' ......

Keeping America's Old Alive

Now that it's time for some serious baby-boomer retirement, now that Social Security is about to reach the point of liability and cost more than it produces, and now that greater numbers of people are going to reach old age and live longer, all at once, it's a good time to hurry through legislation that provides adequate preventive health care for the young while letting the old and less rich die.
Let me put it another way...
If you had contracted a fleet of cabs and, according to contract, you had to insure, maintain, store and fuel the cabs as long as they ran, and the cabs had become old and were a liability, would you maintain the fleet until each cab could no longer be fixed and only then sent to the junkpile, losing money all the while, or send the cabs to the junkpile as soon as they broke down, immediately ending the losses on that individual cab?? Every cab to the boneyard would save you money. And really, why spend a bunch of money saving old cabs that cost you money only as long as you save them?
A friend of mine recently underwent open heart surgery, quadrupal bypass or something. He's recovering slowly. He's eighty something. He can afford the little extra time he has bought. A lot of us couldn't, and neither can the Government afford to buy us, all of us, that extra time either. Consider what they're getting for their money; ...future expenses. Besides, with every cab that dies they get to keep the money we paid to them for years
Guess what? Time marches on. The cycle of human life is short. Too short to worry about the last few years, but also making those years precious and worth elongnating. Especially as individuals. However, heritage, and the choices we've made in life will determine longevity for the greater number of us. Count on that and not the Government for your health care. Obviously if you are reading this you're still in the game. Why worry? We've made it this far.
Timewise... we have less to lose each day we live. Yet, in our daily circles, are we risking more because life is more precious as it diminishes in time, or less because there is less to lose? In the miracle of life is the miracle of death. Health care or not, religious beliefs aside, no mortals are surviving life, and your government can't change that.
That said, be realists: in a capitalist country, where money and greed are part of the system, keeping a large mass of old people alive so they can live a Lonnnnnnng, relaxed, retired life before they die, is a bad investment. Period. There ! All those people screaming about the end of Capitalism can relax and die in peace at their own expense. No long illnesses in my life.
We live by the sword of Capitalism. We will die on the edge of that very same sword. Time to sacrifice for the better-ment of American corporations and the ultra-rich. They run Health care, and Money is not going to keep a bunch of old people alive to die. Everybody wants to live forever. True believers fear not the next portal. I fear missing something.
And No Bitching ! America, and the British, and every other Empire that could get away with it has exploited others for the enrichment of "their's" throughout history. In the case of the American people and Health care, TARP, Bailout for banks, etc., the government is exploiting its own citizens. It was ok when we benefited.
It's a lot more personal when it's happening to you. How much richer and more powerful has our government, and those involved with it, gotten recently while the country goes broke? Did the government stop the fleecing of people's retirement funds? Why do they care if you live or die? A retiree dying saves them money.
Knowing the boomers are a bad investment at this point, look for a bill of preventative medicine for the young and lots of red tape for the old and inevitable. It's our lot. The American Way. Be thankful you 're facing old age and how to live longer.

Here's the Deal

"Life is good", as my buddy Gary would say. Gary's been there and done that. He used to ride shotgun with 40 cal.'s in Viet Nam. He used to watch the Shell tankers within firing range of the enemy never get fired on. He knows about wars for money. Money controls both sides .
Gary's life is good. His life, like most of yours', is damn good by 'World Standards'. Gary has earned his good life, like most of you have, with work and perserverance .
"My life is good", is what Gary called to tell me. Not as good as his (he didn't mention that), but good enough, and he didn't want me to forget that large fact in my rantings about 'Bama and the boys... give the guy a chance. He's still better than Bush and Cheney. Except... if the Obama administration continues the same Imperialistic policies of the Bush administration, which I might remind you are based on lies and a Zeitgeist, then he is just another puppet, and one puppet is the same as another, no better.
Thirty thousand more troops in Afghanistan... for what? Finish the Job.
What job? Catch Osama? ...No, the job is to clear the TAPI* pipeline route. Nobody's looking for Osama. Money wants to start the project in 2010.
Troops might be clearing poppy fields, but I have the feeling their efforts are a drop in the bucket. I mean, why is Heroin as cheap as a six pack of beer in the Northeast USA?
Our troops might be fighting bad guys but for what? There are bad guys all over the world and not everybody thinks we're the good guys, so why are we losing lives, taking lives, and destroying worlds we have no business even being in ...except for profit? Profits from Oil, War, and control of the Opium market. I can't agree with a war for these profits. I damn sure wouldn't want my sons risking their lives for these objectives. I don't want other American sons lost for profit either.
I don't think continuing to give the people of Afghanistan a deal they can't refuse is necessary for American Safety or the American Standard of Living. Our good standard of living. But do I really care? Do you?

What the hell do you care if you can have whatever you want for lunch? Everyday. Every American good day. In every American good life. Especially mine.

How can we relate to people living on grass soup in Afghanistan, when we can't decide to take advantage of cash for clunkers and buy a new jeep? They live in a different world. Their everyday life is like watching an episode of 'Survivorman'. Americans relate better to the world of Star Wars.
If a Supreme being was to appear from the heavens, see me in my New Jeep Wrangler Rubicon chewing on fast food chicken with ranch style dressing and Pepsi to wash it down, and was to judge me, would the supreme being judge me strong and good, a survivor at the top of the top of the food chain? Rr would judgement be of my compassion? My world citizenship? Is it- God helps those whom help themselves, or be thy brother's keeper?
I can have what I want for lunch. Everyday. I could cut back to two meals a day, too, if I wanted. I don't own a Ferrari, a boat, a vacation home. I'm still buying the property I Iive on. I don't own anything I haven't earned through my own laborious life. I don't begrudge others what they have earned either, but I think it's time the average man came to the conclusion that those with the most could live on a lot less if it meant the end of wars for profit.
My personal belief is mankind is nothing more than algae in the pond, and the only real signifigance of life is life, or the miracle thereof. Therefore, it seems to me a great crime to deny others their life so that we might have a better one. As a nation it works the same. That doesn't mean we shouldn't enjoy our good life. No, we should celebrate every lucky moment. What we shouldn't do is force the consequences of our lifestyle on others.
I do not agree with the Imperialistic ideal that profit and progress gives the modern world eminent domain over those who don't agree with a deal they can't refuse.

Now, I can't see what the harm is in the TAPI pipeline. It's progress American style, for a profit, and seemingly benefits the countries involved. There might be great benefits to the Afghanistan people too, but it is not my country, it is theirs, and they don't seem to want us there any more than they did the Russians (whom we helped them fight). How fast the pendelum of righteousness swings, huh?
So the question is... if it makes US more comfortable (as the top of the top of the food chain) do we care about those who stand in the way of our Comforts? Our Oil, Our Blood Diamonds. Our Seal Skin Fur coats, our Ivory Tusk piano keys, our Whales? Our profits?

Bring the Troops Home Now! It is not their job to deliver deals the world can't refuse, and that is all the world has seen from America in the last eight years.

Bradman

*The Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline (TAP or TAPI) is a proposed natural gas pipeline being developed by the Asian Development Bank. The pipeline will transport Caspian Sea natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan into Pakistan and then to India. Proponents of the project see it as a modern continuation of the Silk Road. The Afghan government is expected to receive 8% of the project's revenue.