germ limits

Imagine having the same president for 50 years..

I hope that at some point (soon), Americans will get motivated to impose (Constitutionally amended) term limits on our Senators.  I was thinking about this when Kennedy passed away recently.. the guy was a Senator for over 45 years !?

  (the so-called 'Last Lion' Ted Kennedy)

(Sen. Strom Thurmond {I believe he was still living when this picture was taken})

and it wasnt just Kennedy.. Byrd has been in the Senate for 50 years, and Strom Thurmond wasn't too far behind.. These guys are also some of the most polarizing figures in the Senate too.. I mean it's probably easy to make enemies when you strive to hold onto power over other ppl for 50 years.. My feeling is that the reason our Founding Fathers never designed term limits is bcuz they couldn't conceive that humble public servants would ever evolve into a deeply entrenched petty tyrants.. Their oversight was unfortunately naive & idealistic. (no disrespect to some of my heroes.)  Washington voluntarily left the Presidency & Jefferson stated on numerous occassions that he was itching to get home to his business & studies (which he did)

In my opinion, It's nice that the American voters can continue to endorse a popular Senator, BUT the marathon Senate terms are corrupt for 2 principal reasons. First long term Senators become rich from long term lobbying relationships, so they continuously get name exposure & cash, which has been proven to be a key in winning elections.. not neccessarily their actual views or voting record, but your ability to run ad after ad and implant your name in the public's mind. And secondly bcuz marathon terms attract the WORST type of human beings into office.. it attracts ppl who are greedy for power.  Short terms would attract short-term public servants, who know that they will have a life to live outside of & beyond politics.

 So, like I asked, imagine having the same leader for 50 years ?

 ppl in Massachusetts didn't have to imagine it..

http://www.senate.gov/senators/Biographical/longest_serving.htm

Wal*Marx

A woman in China lost her life recently after being accused of shoplifting at a Wal*Mart & then accosted by some overzealous employees. (here's the link to the original report: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jUcqst3ZW9cVVaQV7XKG3y8SYSIg )

"Police said the five Wal-Mart employees had stopped the woman in the street and demanded to see her receipt, but she refused because she could not verify their identities, it said."

Triumph of the Will

A fundamental question that I rarely hear asked in our country's ongoing debate over Illegal (Mexican specifically) Immigration is why is there such a disparity between Mexico's quality of life & America's quality of life (and more specifically, why do Mexican nationals continuously flock here, as opposed to fixing their own society & creating their own in-house opportunities)? I'll even get it closer- the difference between life in Texas & life in Mexico.. nearly identical natural resources, both share a similar history of colonizing by Europeans, etc.. and yet Americans in the West have enjoyed a higher standard of living and a much greater degree of political stability than their next door neighbors south of the Rio Grande..

If two people possess similar resources to work with & they share a similar backstory, & one suceeds, while the other fails, then the fundamental distinction (in my mind) is the people themselves internally (not external circumstances).. it's not the country's fault that people are failing.. it's the people's fault that the country fails..

(Rosie the Riveter is still hot)

but what is at the nucleus of that distinction between Mexicans & Americans.. race ? beliefs? luck? etc.. 

in spite of all their moral failings, one thing I believe that the Nazis deeply understood (and preached) was the power of personal & national will. The Nazis were convinced that against the odds their will would conquer Europe, and they almost did, but they underestimated the WILL of the free Western world to resist.  Will can make people do & produce incredible things.. things that they may not have realized they could do..  but what happens to a society if it loses it's collective will, or continously ingests immigrants who lack their same historical will ? If you take in people, and are raising people to believe that everything should be given to them.. especially by the government, (welfare, free health care, section 8 housing, etc.) How can a great standard of living & production be sustained?

It cant... & I believe we are on a slippery slope of dependence & Third World living conditions, bcuz we are losing the will to stand up to decadent trends in the US (ESPECIALLY GOV'T DEPENDENCY).. the only way it can be reversed will be thru a recalling of sheer political will power by patriotic, self-sufficient Americans.

"the difference between a successful person and others..is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge..but rather in a lack of will"

-Vince Lombardi

what is truth

Jesus says to Pilate, his Roman executioner.. 'I came into the world, to testify the truth...Everyone on the side of truth..listens to me' 

and in (my opinion) one of the most brilliant lines in the Bible, Pilate responds to Jesus,

'What is truth ?'

but the follow-up that I wish hadcome out of Pilate's heart & mouth was

 '.. and, where is truth?'  

I see everyday, events that are interpreted completely differently , not because one party/interpreter sees the event as truly good (and the other party) as truly bad.. I believe we all know the distinction between good & evil, right & wrong.. the different interpretations are based on efforts to consciously (& sub-consciously) hide the truth, to bury it for the sake of idealogy..

for example, when a Senator of your party commits adultery, it's an insignificant personal mis-step, that has no bearing on his job as a public servant, but when a Sen. of the opposing party commits the same act, it proves how immoral & unfit he is for public service?  

when Jackson died yesterday, some remembered him strictly as a manipulative pedophile, while others seemed solely focused on his life as a brilliant entertainer.. but is the truth that he was both?..

you would never come to find that truth, by listening to the incomplete narratives that willfully cloak the complete picture..

How many people in the media.. religion.. our families willfully hide the truth from us, and not to righteously protect our feelings, but in order to deceive us into embracing their own ideas/views.. 

I've known people who spent the majority of their lives destroying themselves without really understanding why, until some personal truth was revealed to them, about their family, or things that happened to them,.. a thinly hidden truth was eating 'em up.. it was only when that truth was confronted, could they move forward

ultimately, I ask myself, what is the role, that I play in hiding the truth from myself.. and others ?

how deep do you have to go.. to retrieve that truth ?

Currently Black Aria By Glenn Danzig see related

the wisdom of mothers-in-law

the other day.. my mother-in-law, (who struggles to remember how my last name is spelled), was boasting that she possesses a "photogenic" memory..

 p h o t o g e n i c memory