Tuned into Sirius News yesterday and they reported Barack O’bama said he will not respond to their “smear campaign” but, instead will “address the issues.”

What are the “issues?” Or is it just one big “issue?”

…avoiding the Great Endarkenment.

Our forefathers chose “reason.” Many of them were Deists, or had Deist tendencies: hence The Bill of Rights; which was inspired by Enlightenment-era ideas, particularly in the religious sphere. Newton, Pascal, Galileo… these greats also helped create the Era of Enlightenment; so Science was considered critical to enlightenment.

It’s hard to imagine that we’re almost 300 years from that era and quickly going… backwards. Despite the McCain camp’s claim that they; and too many who support them; also known as our present President’s “base,” are the ones who want to go forward: the evidence of the opposite is quite obvious. Sarah Palin being protected from witches by spells? Eliminate tax breaks for businesses, taxing health care benefits, “deregulate” the health care industry so they can kick anyone out… or refuse anyone.. for any reason: ungiven?

What’s next? Taxing leeches?

During the 60s: an era Neo Cons loath and love to mock, a small program called Star Trek premiered. Gene Roddenberry’s notion that with good Science and not only multiculturalism, lack of racism and absence of gender discrimination: but also a rejection of speciesism and non-interference, seems so antiquated now. Well, that’s what some Neo Cons wish we all believed. Some days I believe the future may be behind us as I sense the darkness descend.

While doing our laundry Sunday the boob tube there was offering up a Goosebumps marathon. I had never watched a full episode before. It seemed the typical Supernatural, X-File, Sanctuary, Torchwood fare’, but designed for kids, where everything we imagine is real and Science be damned. I enjoy such… in limited doses. Vampires, werewolves, ghosts… anything that clumps, bumps or harrumphs in the night: all real. A son in a family is the star of the series and in one episode turned to his parents and said…

“I know you and Dad want to base everything on Science, but what do you do when you know something’s true anyway?”

Well, the answer to that does exist in Science: you sample, you test, you review the hypothesis. If you can’t prove your hypothesis right, well that doesn’t mean it isn’t: just keep collecting more data. Plus, there’s nothing wrong with believing something’s true, as long as you don’t insist everyone has to accept and agree, is there? Of course, how you act upon that belief is another matter. Challenging is commendable, as long as if you don’t believe in gravity you don’t do it by walking off cliffs, or dropping puppies from your second story bedroom window, just to give two examples.

Oh where, oh where, did our Star Treks go?

Oh where, oh where, did our reason and rational thought processes go?

And that is the crux of the matter. Those who believe, who wish for Dark Ages to return, to help clang the death bell and demand the poor only get willfully given alms amongst Scrooges… demand… no often “insist” we agree, accept, or at least do not dare to question. They have little problem with a government that doesn’t react to a state of National emergency they themselves declared while a plague’s worth of floating bodies rot in the water. They don’t care about torture as long as they think the ends justify the means, or massive: yet missing, amounts of WMD lead to millions being exterminated.

When people will accept anything as probable, running scams and eliminating those who are on to you is soooooooooooooo much easier, isn’t it?

Have we even heard an, “Oops, sorry about that,” yet?

And we won’t, because anti-enlightenment, pro-dark forces always feel justified in the torture, torment and murder: whether heretic, witch or someone who was pointed out as “terrorist” by a neighbor with a grudge. These days every time I hear “liberal” used as a curse word I notice it’s used in the same manner as “witch” used to be. Well, considering spells used to protect Palin, maybe I should revise “used to be” with “is?”

We are getting further and further away from anything remotely like “enlightenment,” to where a candidate can spout any lie they want, a president can declare himself immune from any oversight: do anything he wants, deregulate business and then demand we cough up trillions of dollars to cover their posteriors for implementation of their ill-conceived notions.

Impeachment is off the table?

We’re not going to address the smears, the lies and the utter obscenity of candidates claiming to hold some moral high ground while splattering fecal matter in the form of lies on their opponents?

Barack, if you do not address this, who will? Who will hold up the enlightened lantern and guide us away from suspicion, fear and lies they want the gullible to accept? The path, while darkness gathers, is still somewhat clear. But letting the obsidian shadows gather strength is only a method of achieving failure and more darkness.

It’s up to you.

-30-

Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over thirty 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.