Amerika, the police state

Notes by the poster of this video on YouTube: As Congressman Paul Ryan cracked a joke about him, Tom Nielsen found himself face down on the floor being handcuffed by police. The 71-year-old retired plumber from Kenosha was thrown to the ground, placed in handcuffs, and arrested for trespassing and resisting arrest after objecting to Ryan's plans to gut Social Security and Medicare during his congressman's only public appearance scheduled during the August recess -- a $15 Rotary Club luncheon in West Allis on Tuesday. Nielsen repeatedly told police that he wasn't fighting them and that he didn't want to make any trouble. He also told them several times that he had a broken shoulder. Police officers ignored his comments as they wrestled him to the ground despite his howls of pain. I've been to Rotary meetings and you don't just blurt out and yell and it's rude and crude but I don't think he should have been arrested. (Thanks and a hat tip to Joe My God blog for this). Additonally, you can see another YouTube video here showing people being arrested when trying to speak to Mr. Ryan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRhFnLeDdzM&NR=1. It seems to be a repeating occurrence for this Congressman. So much for "land of the free", eh, Mr. Ryan?

Unintentionally funny blurb in the KC Star today

I got a big kick out of a small column today in the Star in its "In Brief" section on A8.

They noted that "Rotary Club 13 won the 16th annual Corporate Spelling Bee to benefit Literacy Kansas City.

Good on you, Rotary 13. (Side note: Rotary International does terrific work. All they do is try to raise money to give it away. No buildings. No big staff. No "secret handshakes" or abusive rituals, just people trying to help people in a spirit of terrific camraderie. But I digress).

What was amusing about the small column was that it also pointed out that the Star's own team participated.

The local newspaper staff lost in a spelling bee.

That's good.

Maybe later his year they can win the Corporate Editing Competition.


Enjoy that perfect weather out there, folks and let's have a great weekend.

We need a new world model

When watching the television mini-series "Rome" some year or two ago, I rememeber a scene in which it was suggested that a law should be made to outlaw war.

Yeah, outlaw war.

Internationally.

And that many hundreds of years ago.

Then there was the League of Nations.

And then the United Nations.

And we got closer--for a while.

Well, the time has come.

After reading the paper today and taking stock of so many world situations like Darfur, Zimbabwe, modern Europe, hell, the United States and our mess and messes, along with the countries that are working like in the Netherlands (read: socialist), the time has long since come for a new world model--a new way to run things.

And here it is--at least suggested. Here are some things we should do, collectively, as a world.

For starters, yeah, outlaw war. Outlaw war and unilateral attacks from one country on another. (Hear that, George W. Bush?). If one country were to attack another, the rest of the civilized world would come down on them.

The fact is, this kind of unprovoked attack is already against international law. This would just be a logical extension of what we're already practicing and believing.

The next thing, Socialize banking, energy, oil, health care, everything.

Everyone in the United States will say this is crazy and crazy talk but it's not.

The fact is, nothing we're doing now is working.

From Russia to, again, Zimbabwe, to the EU, virtually the entire continent of Africa, reallly, again, virtually everywhere, all the old systems are broken.

Governments would have to be reworked, too, of course.

A new model, where they truly work and government officials don't practice graft and cronyism but, instead, practice the good government we need. They wouldn't be taking bribes and scamming money off projects.

Clearly, this is the difficult part.

Rotary International practices and emphasizes honesty and truth, literally, all 'round the world, in nearly all countries. I think they could be counted on to assist with both setting up and maintaining good, working, honest, effective governments.

We need a new order. We need solutions. We need things to work.

Right now, worldwide, they aren't working.

President Obama could and should be the one to start this discussion. He'd be the perfect person, at this time, to begin the thoughts and discussions to this new world we need.

The United States can no longer act unilaterally. We need to work with all the other nations of the world in alliances.

Then, while we're doing all this, let's start talking about how we can all work for everyone's benefit--everyone's business, everyone's health care, everyone's decent living and existence. Instead of pitting ourselves and our countries against one another, why can't we all decide we're going to work together for all our benefit, advancement and progress?

We could all agree that a certain standard of living had to be achieved for all of us, along with health care, education, jobs and mass transportation for all. We'd do away with nuclear arms, eventually, in this ideal world.

The old question from the 60's was "What's the opposite of competition?"

The answer was "Collaboration." (It was an old Shawn Phillips album).

Is it going to happen right away? No, no it's not.

But couldn't we work that way, toward collaboration and solutions, all on one planet?

Shouldn't we?

Because we sure need solutions.

Particularly now.

The current, tired, old model isn't working, that's for sure.



I can dream, can't I?