True patriotism means advocating what’s best for the country. It means working with those who disagree even though you may not get what you want. On this 4th I wonder if those who wrap themselves in the flag might be the opposite by wishing more ill on their country for profit and political gain.-kwc

 ”Don’t bother rinsing. We want all that fecal matter all over everyone. In fact there’s not enough. Stand still while we repeat.”

 And the black water hose, under increasing pressure, opens up again.
 Example: guns. OK, you believe, of all the amendments, that this one, you know: the one that has this clause with the modifying words, “well regulated?” …that this amendment actually means “no regulation whatsoever.” But who in the hell in their right mind would suggest that if an entire theater had been filled with gun packing citizens, with no mandatory training, that this armor wearing, terrorist would have been taken down, and no other lives lost? Who in their right (sic) mind would be crazy enough to believe that a dark, noisy, theater would be better off with citizens taking pot shots at where they thought the danger was coming from?
 Yes, “terrorist.” I know the right doesn’t like that applied to anyone other than Muslims, or oddly: environmentalists who might hug a tree or two in protest. We’ll get to that in a second.
 More guns would have solved the theater shooting, made it better, when even trained policemen have missed the target and shot citizens instead?
 No, in that case it would have made it worse.
 Yet I imagine if that had happened the suggestion would have been even more guns would have made it even better.
 You do know in the actually not so “wild” west most taverns insisted patrons check their guns at the door, right? Guns do not auto equal safer. Indeed it can be the opposite.
 But it sure sells guns, eh? Even more important for some on the right it makes less stable citizens among us more afraid. And that can be used to sell more guns and encourage them to hide behind the skirts of froth at the mouth gun advocates. Or just come out shooting at anyone they think might be a threat, you know, like Stand Your Ground encourages?
 Now there’s a bad idea where the intent sure seemed to be to make things worse.
 Now, about that use of “terrorist.” Every time some right wing crank shoots up some UU church, just for one example, the objection to the use of “terrorist” is loud and long. Bundy’s defenders? I’m sorry, Turner Diary-like groups are, by definition, using terror, therefore terrorists. But, if you insist it all comes down to one person’s personal responsibility and the Limbaughs, the Becks, the Hannitys, the O’Reillys egging them on bear no responsibility whatsoever, well that “insisting” only encourages more violence, more terrorism. Hmm, is that the plan? It’s like claiming the bullies who encourage the kid on the playground to bring a gun to school and shoot a teacher are pure innocents when it happens. Better example, like Goebbels, Hitler, etc. were blameless… only the poor schmucks who followed their orders should be “responsible.”
 Once again: more violence, more promises to fix with solutions that will make it worse.
 Privatization? Well, let’s make the post office pay for benefits 75 years in advance. That will kill the post office and the right’s business buddies will take over. You know, the ones to whom profit matters more than delivery to rural areas… so much so they have the post office deliver for them to many of those areas.
 Go back into Iraq, continue Gitmo, perpetual war in Afghanistan? Don’t get me started.
 I can’t think of one right wing wet dream that hasn’t, and won’t, make things worse: and it’s not just right wing. Every administration we’ve had since at least Reagan (Carter somewhat) has been infested with “free traders.” The oxymoron “free trade,” by definition means we compete with the lowest denominators, economically. That way, unless we rely on prison labor, slave labor and hideous working condition: we lose. The end result: a country filled with an increasingly idle workforce, empty rotting factories, and a situation so bad that stats on unemployment are defined by “only for a brief time:” long term unemployment no longer counted as part of stats. But it does give out stats pols point to proudly. Fake stats. Phony stats.
 Sweep the people under the rug and everything is “better…” not.
  Empty factories?
  Idle workforce?
  Look across America today, and what do you see?

                                                     -30-

 Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over 30 years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks and into the unseen cracks and crevasses that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.

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Ken Carman and Cartenual Productions
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