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On May 26, 2010 a column appeared in the Los Angeles Times written by Harold Meyerson, editor at large of the American Prospect and an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post. Meyerson’s column was written as a glowing tribute to the numerous Hispanic individuals in attendance at Barack Obama’s White House state dinner honoring Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

The purpose of Calderon’s visit with Obama paled in comparison to Meyerson’s apparent amazement that the majority of the attendees were from Los Angeles. A city he referred to as “the de facto capital of the Latino United States.” Of even greater importance to Meyerson’s slightly tilted perspective was the fact that most, if not all of the Los Angeles contingent were not simply Hispanic advocates, but that most of them were active or former labor organizers and union activists who form the close-knit Latino Labor alliance that is now the most dominant force in Los Angeles County and California state politics. Myerson’s amazement continues as he notes that among this nation’s largest, most populated areas, Los Angeles is the most heavily Latino area in the United States, and that by virtue of the hard work and dedication of the Latino labor movement leaders in attendance at this celebratory event, the Latino population in Southern California has become a comprehensively solidified tool of organized labor. He further notes that as a result of the Latino solidarity so evident in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, the expanded membership growth of the labor groups representing primarily Hispanic workers has resulted in a proportionate expansion of their collective union treasuries. As a direct consequence, the Latino led L.A. County Federation of Labor and the massive Service Employees Union have funneled massive financial contributions into the campaign coffers of Democratic political campaigns and liberal lobbying efforts favoring the Hispanic agenda. The unparalleled generosity of L.A.’s Latino led labor organizations has allowed them to buy most of the state’s politicians, solidify the Democratic Party’s iron-clad hold on California politics, and finance the campaigns and political careers of questionably qualified and ethically challenged Democratic politicians such as Hilda Solis, John Perez, Xavier Becerra and the very ambitious Antonio Villaraigosa.

As far as politics are concerned in the state of California, whether you are looking at student political action groups at the local junior colleges and state universities, or at the level of city, county and state government, the primary movers and shakers, the king makers, character assassins and final approvers of who gets elected and who gets sailed off the back porch like a dead Easter chicken, are the agenda setters at the head of the Latino labor movement table holding onto the bulging checkbook.

One of the more important facts that Harold Meyerson failed to mention in his glowing praise of the Latino Labor movement is, that while Felipe Calderon may be an important character in Mexico, his opinion doesn’t mean squat in this country unless he backs it up with hard cash in the way of campaign contributions and election support like the Latino Labor Unions have done. In Washington D.C. the only language that matters is money.

It is possible that the American people ought to forget the fence along the border and just put one up around California.

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In February of this year I became sixty years old. Sixty years old is still fairly young, especially to somebody who is 73 years old or 85 years old, but believe me, with the aches in the morning, an inability to hear what is being said by others less than 18 inches away, the pain suffered as my back settles to conform to the back of a car seat, the dwindling hair, the arthritic knuckles, teeth, respiration and heart function, sixty years old seems ancient, and when I look around and discover that all of the playmates of my youth and most of the friends I developed in later years as well as both parents are long dead and gone, sixty years old seems old to me. To be quite honest, if you are over seventy, 80, 90 or whatever and consider 60 as being still pretty young, I don’t really give a flying fuck. You’re probably a senile old fart anyway. Then again you didn’t come here to hear me bitch and moan.

At any rate, having recently turned sixty gives me semi-official license to express my thoughts with the broad perspective of the greater perspective that comes only at the expense of having been around for three score years, furthermore, being intelligent and having retained a fair degree of mental agility is an added benefit. I am not sure that it is worth the accumulated losses, but I do have to admit that I would rather be sixty years old, intelligent and sharp of mind than be sixty, have the maturity of a 14 year old gum-smacking, text message addicted girl, or worse yet, be sixty and still be a gullible, guilt-ridden, neurotic, Zanax popping, kool-aid drinking, gym going, yuppie sheep with an ill-fitting wig hanging out in singles bars trying to pass myself off as a virile 40 year old stud worthy of being bedded by young ladies who are, at best, a few years older than my daughter. All things considered, being sixty is not that bad and despite the fact that I never thought I would live this long, I have, and somehow in the process of attaining those sixty years I have been blessed with a truly angelic and unconditionally loving wife of magnificent beauty, an oversupply of projects and challenging interests to keep me physically and mentally occupied for another 200 years, and a collection of children and grandchildren who love and respect me and are constantly awe struck by the amazing array of strange creations and devices I am constantly churning out. My son is one of the only young men I am aware of who can honestly admit to having been clubbed senseless by his father’s robot. If I croaked off today there is little doubt that I will be long remembered.

Despite all of that BS, this posting is not merely my chance to wax nostalgic. There is a point beyond the nostalgia, and despite the diversions above, slowly but surely I will eventually get there.

As I stated above, having been around for sixty years gives me a bit broader perspective, especially because my memory is so very good, and in fact, good enough to remember what life in the United States of America used to be like, and those very clear memories give me a much better understanding of what the American people have lost and how much our cherished way of life has suffered over the passage of time. Unfortunately, for the reader to comprehend that perspective you will have to slog through my explanation of what it used to be like around here back then.

I was born in 1950. World War II had been over for a brief five years and as the third son of an Army captain and a combat veteran of the South Pacific theater who was still active in the National Guard, my birth enabled my mother with the ability to veto my father’s acquiescence to the Army’s orders to report for redeployment to Korea. He was willing, and probably wanted to go (he may even have felt that it was his patriotic duty) but she wouldn’t have it so she called his commanding officer and asked the man how in the hell she was going to pay for their $18,000 new house in the suburbs of Los Angeles and feed her three kids in his absence. Inasmuch as the Department of Defense had adopted a policy of not recalling veterans with three children, he was forced to stifle the urge to go slaughter the slanty eyed commie bastards in that far off land rather than continue his less-than-glorious employment as a low-paid pencil pusher at Title Insurance & Trust in downtown Los Angeles. In retrospect, I doubt he ever dared to criticize my mother for her interference, but I suspect he held me responsible for hampering his legitimate ability to scamper off to the more honorable pursuits of waging war. This may have been the reason for the strained relationship we always shared but that is mere speculation on my part and since he has been dead for so many years there is no way for me to verify this suspicion. It really doesn’t matter anyway.

My two older, and evilly inclined elder siblings and myself, along with our parents lived in a three bedroom lathe and plaster house on a non-descript street in Compton, California. It was one of Los Angeles’ numerous new suburbs quickly slapped together following WWII to accommodate the growing number of ex-WWII veterans who elected to remain in California after the end of hostilities in lieu of returning to the ramshackle, backward, burgs of their origin. This was very understandable considering the fact that California was rolling in money, employment; women, cheap land, new empty houses and more opportunity than the ex-soldiers had ever seen anywhere. Compared to the decrepit, clapboard domiciles, two-seater outhouses, one-room schools and vast unemployment of their hometowns, many found the decision easy to make. Besides that, their former till-death-do-us-part high-school sweethearts, those charming nubile starry-eyed waifs who jilted them six weeks after they enlisted were, by this time, married to the former high-school quarterback draft dodger who had become the towns biggest spouse beating drunk, their coltish young bodies were now burdened with the additional load of 150 pounds of ugly fat and formerly tight butts now resembled pink tinged aerial reconnaissance maps endlessly crisscrossed with varying elevations of cellulite on a fat woman’s rump. For many, there was nothing left at home and no compelling justification to warrant the trip back in time.

In those years, California was definitely the place to be. The jobs, the opportunities, the unmarried young women sporting the beginning of newly liberated life styles but still conventional enough to hang on to societal demands of marriage commitments, the requisite 2 1/2 kids per, a house in the suburbs and a hubby to goad into shoving a push mower around that 2500 square foot patch of crab grass everybody called a lawn. The kids were in bed by 7:00 or 8:00 every night of the week, the martinis were quickly and artless thrown together, 76′s spinning softly with romantic waltz music and nine months later another brat to anchor the poor sap down even more securely than before. Life was sweet, ignorance is blissful.

Everybody went to church on Sunday, most of the neighborhood kids were right there in Sunday school with you listening to same stories year after year, attending the same neighborhood schools, punished for the same infractions by the same wart-nosed old spinster witch, boys hanging out with boys and girls with girls, doing boy things and girl things to one degree or another as we all struggled to grow up and survive amidst school yard fist fights, after-school fist fights encountered on the walk home and the numerous accidents suffered by all curious children with copious free time and freedom to explore our surroundings when not otherwise engaged with group projects like building forts and waging war with home made spears and catapults capable of launching boulders the size of toilets at one another in the numerous vacant lots present in every neighborhood.

Every parent was a member of the PTA and every adult worth his or her salt fulfilled their patriotic obligation to vote in every election that was held. Back then, as now, people were either Democrats or Republicans, but unlike today, political affiliation was more flexible and the decision to vote for one candidate or another was less dependent on party affiliation than on the candidate’s ability to sway the masses on the basis of personal integrity, intelligence, character, honesty or willingness to move the country in some way that would benefit the citizenry as a whole. Generally, people figured the government was a good thing even when the other side won, and regardless of who won the election, the country came first. That was just the way it was. Like all good sheep we kept our heads down and grazed contentedly with little fear for what might come.

In retrospect, while I still ascribe to some of the beliefs that were instilled in me at an early age, I have to admit that most of it was crap. American history has always been taught in a way that justifies whatever atrocity we were engaged in at the time from slavery, genocide against the American Indians, justifications for freeing the slaves and justifications for going to war with Mexico and snatching a good portion of their country for ourselves. We were never told the truth about any of these things. That doesn’t mean that I would give Mexico back their land or reverse anything that appears to be advancement, but it would have been nice to know the truth instead of being taught a bunch of white washed bullshit.

Essentially, I figure that nobody told the truth back then because they feared that we would end up where we are today much sooner because the citizenry would know that their government was working to benefit only itself and despite that much revered constitution and the Bill Of Rights, the U.S. government has been moving slowly but steadily towards a full blown tyranny for more than two centuries and what we are witnessing today is merely the culmination of many small steps on a path that was intentionally designed to led us away from liberty to a point of contented slavery.

If you believe that I am overstating the situation in the U.S. today you are mistaken. I would venture to say that most of the people reading this article have never read the U.S. Constitution and have no idea what it says. To take it one step further, most of what those readers believe the constitution guarantees them, it doesn’t. “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” is a phrase that comes from the Declaration of Independence, and none of these things are specifically guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. “Of the People, By the People, For the People,” does not appear anywhere in the U.S. Constitution. That phrase came from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. No where in the U.S. Constitution are the citizens specifically guaranteed the right to vote. The U.S. Constitution does not guarantee anyone an absolute freedom of speech; it merely states that the U.S. Congress cannot restrict speech. There is nothing to stop other federal agencies or state or local governments from stifling your ability to speak freely or even to restrict them from punishing you for saying things they do not approve of. There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that guarantees the people any right to be represented. Our elected “Representatives” form an independent body throughout their term of office and while they are charged with the responsibility of acting in the people’s interest, they are not proxy representatives and are, therefore, entirely capable of acting in direct opposition to the will of their constituents. The U.S. Constitution contains no guarantee that the American people will be kept informed of any potential changes regardless of how significant they might be or how adversely those changes might affect us. In fact, the U.S. Constitution expressly establishes “Executive Privilege,” a provision that provides the U.S. President with the ability to keep any or all proposed negative changes in complete confidence. Nobody is required to ask you whether or not you want a new government policy change or not and nobody in the government really give a furry rats butt if you like the changes they are planning or already implemented by the time you discovered them. If you honestly believe that, as an American citizen, you are guaranteed an established number of God given rights, you arte either below the age of twelve, had a really hard time graduating past the level of kindergarten, or you are a full-blown delusional, kool-aid drinking member in good standing of one or more political parties and/or special interest advocacy groups, you graduated from high school and may even have a degree or two, or three from one of this nation’s institutions of higher learning. In fact, the better educated you are and the more years you have spent in school, the higher the probability is that your delusions about government are greater because you have been indoctrinated more thoroughly than those who spent less time in classrooms having your head filled with myths, lies and propaganda. Don’t get me wrong here please, I am not against education, but there is a distinct difference between education and indoctrination and the majority of American colleges are more interested in indoctrination than education. Most American colleges offer new sophomores the opportunity to take a one semester class in Critical Reasoning. Critical Reasoning is an elective course and students are normally given a choice between it, cultural anthropology, basic psychology and a few other selections. The material taught in most basic psychology classes is far too generic to be of any real use, furthermore “psychology” is not a real science by strict definition because the results of identical experiments often vary over a wide spectrum whereas the results of scientific experiments following a strictly adhered to procedure end in the same results repeatedly. Chemistry is a science – psychology is a study. Most basic cultural anthropology classes have become courses in ethnic appreciation and are designed to enhance the student’s awareness and appreciation of racial diversity. While some genetic information is offered, most of the sound scientific evidence indicating genetic differences existing between different groups of peoples has been suppressed, if not outright rejected as being contaminated by excellent scientific minds suffering from deep-rooted racist tendencies. Critical reasoning is quite different because it gives the students their first contact with the process for logical thought. Not only should critical reasoning be required for all college sophomores, it should be taught in elementary schools, junior high schools and high schools as a large part of the required curriculum because it is the foundation for effective thinking and if we want our children to actually learn and our nation to really prosper then the first step on the path should be to teach kids how to think logically.

Your average 1st and 2nd grade school child has the capacity to absorb and memorize the alphabet, the proper sequence of numbers from 1 to 100 and the identification of colors. Soon following, they are memorizing multiplication tables, learning to divide numbers and discovering fractions. Certainly if children can fathom basic mathematical procedures they can be taught to understand the rudimentary logic and given the tools that would enable them to analyze materials in a reasonably critical manner. The problem here is that the myopic tyrants our society now refers to as “educators” are just bright enough to understand that once you give children the tools they need to analyze the questions and situations they encounter in their young lives, the process you started by teaching them to think in a critical manner doesn’t end when the homework assignments are completed. Unlike most of the inane drivel children are taught in school, teaching them to think analytically has a very obvious and entirely useful purpose. Even young children would soon realize the value of this ability. The upheaval and chaos that would replace the well-ordered, pre-programmed and politically correct public indoctrination centers we, so charitably call “schools” would destroy the entire process of indoctrination as millions of mentally free children began to question the veracity of the numerous fairy tales their so-called teachers tried to pass off as factual information. Entire generations of children would grow up intelligent, curious and with an excellent grasp of logical reasoning that would render them completely untouchable and unfazed by the politically controlled media attempts to manipulate the masses with overblown fear and hollow threats. Then again, for the benefit of those still looking for the point I promised earlier, hold your water, I’m getting to it.

Between September 7, 2006 and mid-January, 2010, the author has posted more than 714 separate articles on Fungazi.com. On more than a few occasions the author has posted as many as five articles in one day and many of the postings contained herein include extensive research on the topic discussed. In many cases the postings are quite lengthy and it is not uncommon for them to exceed as many as ten typewritten pages. These discussions have been read by many people, U.S. Senators and members of the House of Representatives, state governors, legislators at every level of the state and federal government, aspiring politicians, the employees of various government agencies, representatives of national and multi-national corporations, lobbyists, special interest advocates and private citizens from every walk of life. Fungazi.com has been visited by as many as many as 9,000 individuals in a single month and is, to this day, reviewed daily by as many as fifteen major news sources operating within the United States and abroad. After approximately 1500 pages of opinion, commentary and observation related to government mismanagement, immigration issues, ill-conceived military adventures and the certifiable lunacy of our elected representatives in Washington D.C., the power behind Fungazi.com threw out the anchor. Since November 2009, the author has contributed less than a dozen new postings to this site and other than the preceding, and very brief article, it has been over a month since I last broke my silence on any topic, and even longer since I last attacked anything of real merit. Like many of the hundreds of registered Fungazi subscribers, the entirely worthless and self-serving American politicians, the bought and paid for editorial staff members of the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Congressional News Service, the legions of blog raters, and admittedly, the sole proprietor, author and administrator of Fungazi, the number one question in this regard seems to be, “What Gives?”

Is it possible that my sixty years of existence yielded 1500 pages of scornful invective and my fuel supply is now depleted? Like a rocket that has reached its apex, its fuel supply spent, its ascent gradually slowing to the point where it rotates on its axis and begins the brief but fiery descent to the inevitable destruction of impact. Have the last three and a half years effort to maintain an average of 1.171 postings per day entirely exhausted the 60 years of accumulated frustration suffered while watching Washington’s political elitists gradually transform the most formidable power on Earth to a nation with less credibility than France, the political clout of Malawi and the prosperity of Tristan da Cunha, or is merely a case of common burn-out, the result of personally investing more than 1200 days of high charged emotional output acknowledged by a scant handful of immature comments.

In response to the latter excuse I emphatically retort “bunk.” Where and even if I am rated I could care less. My meandering style drives some people nuts but it suits me fine and I don’t plan to change. I am not aiming for popularity, fame or wealth and if I am supremely successful at anything, it is at avoiding all three. An occasional two way discussion might be nice but even that is not necessary. While commentary has always been welcomed, and I have resolutely maintained my founding policy of publishing every comment in its original and unedited entirety, the opinions expressed by readers of the contents of these pages are, admittedly, of little importance to the author. If those comments exhibited originality of thought, broached factors unconsidered or posed credible concepts in a light previously unconsidered by the primary author, they might be given more importance. Multi-faceted discussions among enlightened individuals could be entertained and errors could be made evident by the glaring brilliance of well-grounded logical thought. However, that has not been the case and 99.9% of the comments received for publication have been limited to the fallacious argument that the author is wrong because the article being addressed smacks of a predisposition towards racism, xenophobia, paleo-conservatism, political extremism or an insulting adversarial take on some long cherished sacred cow held dear to the heart of the person waxing critical. Regardless of the content of these less than intelligent expressions, I have published every one of them in their original form. That was my promise and founding policy and it has not been altered even slightly throughout the three and one half years of my administration. Furthermore, in the event that I continue from this point forward, that policy will remain intact. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in sæcula sæculorum.

If there is one concrete reason for the dwindling number of postings appearing on Fungazi it is undoubtedly the dawning realization that the pugnacious author of these countless calls for reason is engaged in a battle in which he finds himself hopelessly outnumbered on all sides. The struggle to maintain American freedom and independence, the fight for American liberty, if it can even be called a fight anymore, has become the personal conflict of a handful of persistent diehards entrenched against an assault force of millions of faithful, but completely mindless, adherents to a multitude of conflicting and oftentimes entirely false and fabricated causes. In short those who would defend American liberty are outmanned and outgunned at every turn and what should be a pitched battle between opposing forces is more like one of those barricade situations on the news where the sole individual holding out is about to be annihilated by an overwhelming force of arms. Until recently I held on to the delusional hope that “things” could get better, that some brilliant and charismatic young man or woman would step forth from obscurity and make it all right again. Sort of like a conservative Obama, except this person would be an American citizen, intelligent and honest. Admittedly, that is a fairly delusional dream and if such a person did manage to get elected no amount of Secret Service guards would be able to keep him from being perforated with more holes than my dead grandmother’s finest Irish lace.

Regardless of which party controls the congress and the presidency nothing has ever been made better. Government has never been downsized, taxes have never been significantly reduced, the deficit has never gotten smaller and abrogated rights have never been restored. This is a historical fact of record regardless of which political party is in the dominant position.

The other day when the 2010 U.S. Census form arrived in the mail the front of the envelope displayed a rectangular box down in the left hand corner threatening me with criminal charges by the United States government if I failed to fill the thing out and return it in a timely manner. My initial response was to write “Fuck You” across the front page using an extra-wide Sharpie and send it back, but a government that will blow off the head of a breast feeding woman and kill her 14 year old son by shooting him in the back because the father sold a shotgun that was 3/8 of an inch too short on the wooden end, is not a government to be trifled with in a capricious manner.

We can point fingers at the civil rights abuses in China, the despotism of numerous dictatorships past and present, the outrageously harsh treatment of citizens in nations run by Islamic fundamentalists, but when you get down to the basic truth of the matter, tyranny is tyranny, and the United States government is nothing more than an over bloated tyrannical government wrapped up in a gaggle of myths and outright lies and no matter which political party pulls the strings that makes it work, it works only for the small group of powerful elitists who are immune to the laws that the rest of us are forced to obey under threat of imprisonment or death. The American government cannot be fixed. No well meaning politician with a pure heart and honest intentions will ever have the capacity to make it right, steer it back onto the proper course, or turn it into the fairy tale we believe it should be. It is a government and like all governments, it is about power and the politics to increase power and power comes from force and the willingness to use force against the people governed to ensure compliance. That is not something that can be fixed. Liberty has not been lost, it has been exiled and it will remain in exile until the pain and suffering of tyranny and oppression becomes so great and so painful to endure that men, once again begin to dream of individual freedom. It may take years, it might take centuries, but the natural state of man is freedom, and ultimately, after much pain, great oppression, abuses, outrage and intense suffering at the hands of self-serving tyrants, Liberty will be born anew. The shackles of servitude will be cast off by the masses and mankind will be given another chance to live their lives in the state of true freedom that nature intended and the long, slow cycle will begin once more. In the hearts of all men and women, Liberty maintains a resolute shrine.

Up and down the meandering, convoluted verbiage of this narration my point has been stated and here I will close. I don’t know when or even if I might post again. It could be today, tomorrow or maybe I’ll just dump this damned effort and walk away. I’ve got a lot of subscribers but they’re a quite lot and I suspect that, with the direction my postings have been going and the people I’ve angered, more than a few of those subscribers fit neatly into the category of enemy agents. That might be considered a bit paranoid if it actually worried me, but it doesn’t, and my real concern is for those who subscribed because they see here the expression of conclusions they too have reached. At this point I have no idea if I will continue. Planning leads to predictability and I usually avoid doing it when I can. Furthermore, the money to maintain this site is getting tighter all the time and it comes down to eating or writing this thing may suddenly disappear for lack of funds. This is not the point to make that decision. I’ll continue to play it as it comes day to day and together we will see where it ends up. Until that time I will leave you with one absolute, Liberty will never die, so long as one seed remains buried in the shrouded quiet corner of a single soul it will continue to exist. It is the immortal dream of all true men and women and the natural state of all that exists. Throughout the long history of mankind governments have stifled it, starved it, imprisoned and killed its adherents, but still it lives on. When the time and conditions are correctly aligned the seed of liberty will sprout anew, grow straight and tall, taking nourishment from the blood of oppressors and tyrants until they are no more, and the cycle begins once more.

ela patzân min bischa

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Syrian anti-American protesters looking to get their gripes translated into English found a real deal when they used an American consultant employed by an insurance company in Syria. Unfortunately, there are no reports disclosing how much the Syrian protest organizers paid the retired U.S. Army Sergeant for his translation assistance.

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An article in the Los Angeles Times “World Briefing” section for Sunday, November 15, 2009 relates the news that Russian law enforcement officials arrested three homeless people who are suspected of eating a 25 year old man that they killed and butchered. Apparently the police began their investigation after human body parts were discovered near a bus stop in Perm, which is approximately 720 miles East of Moscow. The victim was killed as a result of being stabbed with knives as well as injuries suffered from multiple hammer blows. He was subsequently chopped up into a variety of different cuts and consumed over a period of days. The meat that was not eaten by the three cannibals was sold to a local fast food establishment specializing in kebabs and it has not been established whether or not any of the remains made it down the gullets of the restaurant’s customers.

Granted, you may consider it somewhat odd to find a posting on this site about cannibals, however, inasmuch as my past thoughts on cannibals have resulted in the formulation of one very important rule in my personal set of codes and guidelines, a rule I recently related to my son during a conversation just last week, I consider it relevant and therefore I will continue unabated.

The idea of cannibals has always sort of puts me on edge. The idea of getting killed by a murderous bunch of thugs is bad enough, but the idea that they might eat me afterwards is simply over the top according to my way of thinking. For this reason I have, with much reflection on the subject of cannibals, developed a simple guideline to follow in life that will hopefully make the likelihood of being eaten by cannibals less probable. Modern day cannibals select their victims on the basis of opportunity so it is important to avoid hanging out in places where cannibals are likely to congregate. It should be noted that anyplace on the planet is safe to travel in without fear of cannibals as long as you are well armed and have plenty of ammunition and maintain a state of general caution, but if you are squeamish about shooting people who would like to have you over for dinner you should avoid deserted towns in the middle of nowhere, unpopulated areas connected to large metropolitan slums, and the small villages filled with people who appear to be genetic anomalies or the product of generations of inbreeding are good places to avoid. Any isolated community at the end of deeply rutted dirt road, select areas of Riverside County, California, Joshua Tree National Park, Banning, California, the Great Smoky Mountains, Appalachia, the Ozarks, the sprawling slums existing in parts of Los Angeles and New Jersey and most of the state of Michigan also seem like good places to avoid if you don’t want to run into groups of cannibals. Anyplace in Russia, North Korea or Africa should be considered off limits to those who would avoid cannibals. However, in the event that you disregard this warning, hang in places where cannibals are known to congregate and find yourself trussed to a pole and being carefully basted with teriyaki sauce in preparation for the barbecue and inevitable consumption by cannibals, there are things you can do ahead of time to prepare for the situation and make it less likely to be eaten.

1. You can work out a lot and become anorexic. This would make you skinny, tough and unpalatable, therefore less likely to be eaten.

2. A steady diet of wheat germ, half-raw chicken, fish oil, raw garlic and boiled eggs would, after a few days, saturate throughout your body and a foul putrescent odor would begin to emanate through your pores. Only a desperately hungry cannibal would ever consider eating you, and all of your friends would desert you long before you ran across a cannibal that didn’t gag at the thought of eating you.

3. You could develop a repertoire of jokes suitable to cannibals; they might keep you alive while they ate somebody else because you would taste funny.

4. You could learn to do a lot of different and very useful things, thereby making yourself far too valuable to eat.

The first three items probably might not save you, and I merely threw them in because they popped into my head as I wrote this, however, the fourth item is a sure thing providing you live long enough to demonstrate your many talents. Furthermore, the fourth item is the entire reason why I wrote this thing, and that is because it not only works with cannibals, it works well in other situations. Being able to do many valuable things is an asset in every aspect of life because the more you know the more independent you become. People should motivate themselves to become as self-sustaining as they possibly can become. They should know how to do basic carpentry, plumbing, metal working, perform basic mathematical equations to the best of their ability, cook food that is palatable, grow a garden, generate electricity, fix mechanical and electrical items or dissect them and build something useful from the parts, know how to hunt, skin and dress out an animal, self-defense, develop basic sewing skills, learn how to tie useful knots, how to catch a fish, build a fire without matches and cook it without a pan, how to direct a conversation without appearing clumsy, negotiation skills, basic book keeping, how to show someone that you love them, and just about everything else that is out there and worth learning. Knowledge is an asset, you can be broke but valuable, and chances are if you gather together enough skills, you will never be broke, and best of all, no cannibal would ever want to eat such a useful human being. It has worked pretty well for me because I am nearly 60 and nobody has eaten me yet. If I ever get caught by cannibals I intend to by them all bus tickets to Washington D.C. because there is plenty of useless food walking around in that town. Its all well fed, nicely manicured, well dressed and serves no useful purpose to anyone at all. Politicians are the most useless creatures on the planet and desrve to be eaten by cannibals. D.C. would be a cannibal’s dream come true.

As a side note I should add that I doubt that anyone would come to this site looking for a motivational bit of inspiration so I feel like I am breaking new ground here by offering this fine self-help advice to everyone without charges, taxes or permit fees included. Do not let this posting cause you any concern. I am sure I will regain my sanity by tomorrow.

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Generally speaking web blogs contain brief postings averaging from one or two paragraphs long or approximately two hundred words, to somewhat longer articles averaging around 30 short paragraphs running slightly more than 2,000 words. While there are rare instances of brief one of two paragraph postings appearing here on Fungazi, brief articles are more the exception than the norm. My last posting ran over 30,000 words, and when I created it in MS Word the entire posting was more than four pages long. Extremely long articles seem to be more the norm than the exception and I am considering the possibility of changing the format of this site to one that includes both a web blog as well as a weekly e-zine for the publication of these more extensive postings. I have not yet decided if this is necessary or whether, in fact I will actually make this change, but it is something I have been considering. The demands of creating regular postings are time consuming and there is so much going on in the world today that It is impossible to cover everything. I tend to focus on issues of personal interest and events that strike me as being particularly outrageous rather than make brief statements about a the multitude of offensive items continuously passed off as new worthy by the media. There is only so much time in a day and I can’t hit every target out there as effectively as I would like. One or two article a week in an e-zine might be a better way to go, but as I said, I haven’t decided anything at this point. Apparently the articles I write are being read because more and more individuals are registering as subscribers all the time. Obviously these people either like what they are reading, they detest my opinions so much that they feel it necessary to keep track of what I say, or they are all federal agents breathlessly waiting for me to say something that I can be prosecuted for. I have received twelve new registration notices in the last 24 hours alone. Since I first began this effort the accumulation of subscriber comments made on my postings is less than a third of the number of subscribers. I haven’t figured out the reason for this situation yet. The statistics indicate that Fungazi periodically receives a lot of traffic, and I have found references to articles that I have posted here on the web sites of U.S. Senators, Congressmen, at Opencongress.org, city-data.com and all across the spectrum of blogs related to immigration reform, amnesty, and population control (both pro & Con). These findings seem to indicate that I should leave things as they currently are, but the urge to attempt improvement is growing so don’t be surprised if you see some changes here in the next few months, if not sooner.

Regardless of any changes in format that may or may not happen, the essential content will remain the same because while my perspective on the important issues constantly evolve as event unfold before us, my sense of ethical values and my personal philosophy remains unchanged. As long as the American news media continues their effort to manipulate the minds of the American people and both the Republicans and the Democrats endeavor to destroy the inalienable rights of all human beings, I will continue to expose them to the best of my ability. Free and open debate, the quality that made this nation great, powerful and prosperous remains under siege. The forces of evil are many and I consider it a sacred obligation to wage my personal war against them. I am optimistic enough to believe that one person can make a difference and pragmatic enough to realize that no matter how many battles I lose along the way, the tyrants will inevitably fall. The desire for freedom and liberty are not philosophical concepts that sprang into existence with the formation of this nation’s original government, they are instinctual desires engraved by the one true God in the hearts and souls of everyone that has existed in the past, lives today or will be born in the future. The desire for freedom and liberty is now, and always will be an integral part of human nature. Mankind will always struggle to overcome tyranny and rid themselves of the shackles of servitude. The apathetic American people may lose their freedom and their liberty to a socialist government. Their fears may prompt them to trade freedom for safety and America may ultimately fall, but the desire for freedom and liberty will continue to exist forever and those who feel its power will once again gather and the effort to rebuild what once existed will start again. As long as I can string words together I will continue to encourage the exercise of our natural rights and expose those who would deny them. When I can no longer continue someone else will take up the effort. The appearance might change but the essence will remain the same and the one guarantee I can make it that, as long as there are those who would destroy what is good, the fight against them will continue.

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As I stated earlier last week I just dragged in from two weeks of “Vacation” and I’ve spent the last couple of days trying to recover from walking 400 miles through New York, 200 miles through Washington D.C., snaking through some woods in South Carolina, stumbling around Charleston for a few hours and then spending four days wandering up and down the streets of New Orleans. During the entire two week period approximately 5 hours of it was spent behind the wheel of a car and most of that during the drive from Lamar, South Carolina to Charleston, South Carolina. As it turned out that rental car cost me more than a plane ticket from Los Angeles to New York City. In case you haven’t noticed airline tickets are cheap these days. It costs less to fly from LAX to JFK than it would to take a bus. The train we rode from New York to Washington D.C. cost nearly as much as the flight to New York. Initially our plan was to drive the whole thing because there is a lot of interesting stuff to see on the way but when we found out that flying was cheaper we figured we could fly one way and drive a rental car back. This was a bad idea we scrapped as soon as we discovered that the drop off price in Los Angeles for a rental car from New York was $2000 and that didn’t even include the cost of the rental or the mileage charges or the massive tax they tack on just to piss you off. I decided that seeing the world’s largest cross, the Route 66 museum and stopping in a few souvenir stands along the way wasn’t worth the cost. Once we decided to fly both ways we discovered we had a lot of extra time and that’s when we figured we may as well spend that extra time visiting the most humid and miserable place anyone could ever visit in the summer, so we booked a flight to New Orleans. We got rained on in New York, Washington D.C., South Carolina and despite the heat we even got drenched in New Orleans, but all things considered, we had a great time.

New York City is a great place to visit. You can get anywhere you want to go and some places you didn’t intend to be just by hoping on a subway. You can get a seven day pass for about $27 that lets you ride any subway in town as many times as you want. It’s probably the best value available in the entire country. Everybody in New York rides the subway, rich people, and poor people, working people, bums, school kids, crazy panhandlers and tourists with enough sense to leave their cars at home. About 90% of the cars on the streets of New York are taxi cabs. You can stand on any corner and watch a constant stream of taxi cabs speeding around, all honking and yelling at each other in 80 different languages. Television has given New York City a bum rap. I’m sure it’s got some funky neighborhoods but the streets cleaner than they are in Los Angeles and we walked through Central Park after midnight without getting mugged. I didn’t see one rat or cockroach the whole time I was there. The people are friendly, especially to lost and clueless tourists, and if you’re into shopping you can find stores in New York that sell everything you can imagine at prices way below what we’re used to seeing in Southern California. The city is dripping with fine old buildings, great architecture, museums and history and you don’t need a car to get to anything as long as you’re willing to cram yourself into a subway car that’s already packed full of people and hang on to a pole till you get to your destination. I think the subways play an integral part in the psychology of New York City’s population. To get anywhere they eventually have to ride it and everybody is crammed in together regardless of their station in life, the color of their skin or their national origin. Every car contains a cross-section of the entire city and nobody seems to get their hackles up as those subway cars lurch around and people are tripping over each other or falling in their laps. You could slide into one of those things dressed like Bozo the Clown with a giant rubber dildo sewn to the front of your pants and nobody would even look at you, let alone say anything.

Washington D.C. has changed a lot since I was there about ten years ago. I think a lot of it is because of 9-11 but that doesn’t account for everything. I don’t think they are as afraid of Islamic terrorists as much as they afraid of the American people. Homeland Security is everywhere. They rush up and down the streets in their white vans like something is about to explode somewhere and in many parts of the city you can see groups of them on roof tops looking through spotter scopes for potential right-wing extremists and soccer moms with anti-Obama bumper stickers. I don’t know what they did with all the homeless, the panhandlers and the junkies that were wandering around that town ten years ago but they aren’t there anymore. I think the Democrats must have rounded them all up and got them elected to office. D.C. has a subway system as well but we didn’t ride it. We walked from the hotel to the Capital building and then down to the Lincoln Memorial, took in the gaggle of war memorials and a two of the Smithsonian museums but by the time we made it to the Air & Space Museum it was closed and our feet were sore and we were tired of walking so we caught a ride in a pedi-cab back towards our hotel, had dinner and crashed early because we had to catch our plane to South Carolina the next morning.

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In Charleston we took a ferry out to Fort Sumter where the first shots were fired during the Civil War. In New York and Washington D.C. the memorials are for the Union Army Generals, but in Charleston and New Orleans the Memorials are for the Confederate Generals and soldiers who served the Confederacy. The story behind Fort Sumter is amazing.

South Carolina declared its secession from the Union on December 20, 1860, five days later U.S. Army Major Robert Anderson spiked the cannons at nearby Fort Moultrie, abandoned what he considered to be an indefensible fortification and under the cover of darkness secretly relocated his two companies of the 1st U.S. Artillery Regiment to Fort Sumter. At 4:30 am on April 12, 1861 a single mortar round fired from Fort Johnson exploded over Fort Sumter but they did not begin their bombardment of the island fort until 7:00 am when Capt. Abner Doubleday fired a shot at the Ironclad Battery at Cummings Point whereupon the Confederates opened fire from their 43 guns and mortars at Fort Moultrie, the Floating Battery of Charleston Harbor and Cummings Point. Fort Sumter fort had been designed to hold out against a naval assault at a time when naval warships carry guns capable of elevating high enough to fire over the walls of the fort, however, the land based artillery manned by the South Carolina militia were capable of lobbing round after round directly over the walls into the fort, thereby limiting Major Anderson’s use of the Sumter’s upper levels and restricting him to the lowest levels where the cannons suffered a limited field of fire. The Confederate troops fired some 3000 rounds into Fort Sumter over a period of around 34 hours, and after one of their rounds took down the flag pole envoys were dispatched to the island to see if they were ready to surrender. Major Anderson agreed to surrender providing he be allowed to re-raise the flag and lower it with a 100 gun salute. The Confederates acquiesced to his terms, the flag was raised and when the 47th gun fired a spark ignited several nearby cartridges killing one soldier instantly and seriously injuring the rest of the gun crew. The salute was halted after fifty rounds were fired and the surrendering Union troops were placed aboard a Confederate steamer where they spent the night and were transferred to the Union steamer Baltic resting outside the harbor sand bar the following day. The injured gun crew was taken to a Charleston hospital where one later died from his wounds and the remaining soldiers were sent back to the North. The two men killed by the accidental explosion were the only casualties in the opening battle between the states.

An 1861 engraving shows the nearly completed Fort Sumter as was constructed on a man-made island of sea shells and granite from northern quarries. The fort’s strategic location in the center of Charleston’s harbor provided the Confederacy with a near perfect location for ships carrying much needed supplies to run through the Union blockades. The fort itself is a pentagonal structure; originally it’s walls were fifty feet high and eight to twelve feet thick. The first Union attempt to regain control of Charleston harbor began on April 7, 1863 when Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont, commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, moved the ironclad frigate New Ironsides, the tower ironclad Keokuk, and the monitors Weehawken, Passaic. Montauk, Patapsco, Nantucket, Catskill, and Nahant into firing range of Charleston’s Confederate controlled coastal defenses. The Union fleet of ironclad ships never managed to effectively engage and the 154 rounds they fired were answered by more than 2,209 rounds fired by the Confederate defenders. The ironclad Keokuk sustained so much damage during this battle that it sank the following day a little more than one mile off the southern tip of nearby Morris Island and two of the ship’s massive 11 inch Dahlgren guns were salvaged by the the Confederacy who moved one of them into Fort Sumter where it was put to use defending the fort against further attacks by Union forces. On the night of February 17, 1864 eight ill-fated, but courageous crewmen manning the 40 foot long Confederate States Ship H. L. Hunley were killed following the first successful submarine attack sinking the 1124 metric ton USS Housatonic in Charleston harbor. While the Hunley survived the attack, she foundered and sank while returning from her mission and the wreckage of the Confederate submarine was not recovered until April 17, 2004. The eight Hunley crewmen who drowned inside the primitive submarine were interred in Charleston’s Magnolia Cemetery with full military honors.

A particularly devastating bombardment by Union forces between August 16th and the 23rd of 1863, Union batteries with vastly improved artillery pieces continued their bombardment of Fort Sumter firing more than 5000 projectiles at the rapidly diminishing fort and successfully dismounting all of the parapet guns. The Confederate soldiers worked tirelessly to salvage the remaining undamaged cannons from the ruins and managed to get four 10 inch columbiads, a single 8-inch rifled columbiad, and two rifled 42-pounders all of which were mounted in the left face, bottom tier casemates of what remained of the devastated fort despite further bombardment by the Union batteries aimed at hindering the repairs. With the loss of their most effective artillery pieces and the fort in ruins the tenacious Confederates manned the ruins of the island fort with capable infantry forces.

The Union Generals no longer considered Fort Sumter an effective part of Charleston harbor’s defense and this bit of delusional thinking led General Quincy A. Gillmore and Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren, now commanding the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, to the determination that they could easily take Fort Sumter down with a combined land and sea assault during the first weeks of September, 1863. However, Gillmore and Dahlgren both seriously underestimated the strength and tenacity of the Confederate defenders, and the uncoordinated attack was a fiasco from start to finish.

Admiral Dahlgren, apparently a stubborn gentleman who desired full credit for taking Fort Sumter, estimated the Confederate strength on Fort Sumter to be at most, limited to 6 to 10 men remaining from a corporal’s guard unit. Dahlgren delegated Commander Thomas H. Stevens of the monitor Patapsco to lead a force of 400 sailors and marines in 25 boats to overcome the few remaining Rebel troops and take possession of the fort. Somewhat reluctantly, Stevens proceeded with the attack but less than half of the 25 boats managed to land and those that did landed on the right flank of the fort where they could not scale the fort’s walls rather than on the gorge where a passable breech existed. When the defenders realized the attack was underway the garrison fired a signal rocket and their compatriots at Fort Johnson opened fire on the invading Union boats while the Confederate gunboat Chicora opened fire upon the boats and landing party. The remains of the landing party took refuge in the shell holes blasted into the side of the fort’s defenses while the sailors and marines in the retreating boats fired blindly at the fort endangering the exposed landing party more than the Confederate troops inside. Eight Union soldiers were killed, 19 were wounded and 105 were captured while the Confederates suffered no casualties at all.

The Union Army flotilla, under General Gillmore’s command was staged between Morris Island and James Island where Gilmore’s engineers had constructed a battery in the marshlands. An exceptionally low tide delayed their scheduled departure to join forces with Admiral Dahlgren’s naval assault force and by the time the tide reversed sufficiently to free their movement the Confederate’s had already defeated and captured most of Dahlgren’s surviving force and it became clearly evident that any further attempt to assault the fort would be pointless. General Gillmore’s Marsh Battery contained an 8-inch mounted Parrott Rifle which was considered the cutting edge of modern artillery at the time. The thing weighed 16,500 pounds and used a 16 pound charge to fire a 200 pound projectile over a maximum range of 8,000 yards at it’s highest elevation. Gillmore’s troops nicknamed the gun the “Swamp Angel.” Without regard for the innocent non-combatants including many women and children, on August 21, 1863, Gillmore ordered his gunners to commence firing incendiary and explosive shells into the city of Charleston causing many fires and great destruction. On the 32nd volley, much to the relief of Charleston’s citizens the massive cannon burst apart.

Following the failed assault, the bombardment of Fort Sumter recommenced and proceeded with varying degrees of ferocity until the war ended. Despite their many casualties, the stalwart Confederates continued to salvage guns and ammunition from the ruins and their highly capable sharpshooters harassed the Union batteries with deadly accuracy. The Confederacy never surrendered Fort Sumter. The granite stone blasted from the top two tiers was moved outside and stacked up against the remaining walls along with sand bags and palmetto logs while rendering the fort even stronger and more defensible. The Confederate infantry successfully continued their defense and full control of Fort Sumter until the Union General William T. Sherman’s advance through South Carolina forced the evacuation of Charleston on February 17, 1865. On April 14, 1865, the retired Major Robert Anderson returned to the fort and raised the same Union flag that he was forced to lower when he surrendered the fort to the Confederacy exactly four years earlier.

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Shortly after our visit to Charleston we flew down to New Orleans where we discovered a climate so hot and humid that condensation was dripping off the fogged up windows of the airport. We caught a shuttle to our hotel in the Garden District near St. Charles and Josephine Street, checked in, unpacked our luggage, cooled off in the shower and went out to explore the city. We walked down Josephine to Market Street, turned left and continued walking all the way to the shops along the riverfront near Canal Street. By that time we were both drenched in sweat, so I sat in the air conditioned mall while my wife shopped for some more appropriate clothes and shoes (of course). We took the trolley down Canal to St. Charles and caught another that dropped us off near our hotel where we immediately took another shower before going back out. Over the next few days we wandered around Bourbon Street, explored the much of the French Quarter, rode the trolley down to Congo Square, wandered through a endless graveyard the size of a small city and spent more than a few evenings futilely trying to squeeze some winnings out of the slots at Harrah’s Casino at the end of Canal Street. As far as casinos are concerned I have seen few that are tighter. I estimate that the odds are you could win more money from a pay phone than you could at that casino’s best paying slot machine. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing pennies, nickels, quarters or dollars, you are guaranteed to come out with less than you start with because they’ve got those machines screwed down so tight that the reels barely spin. It might be that I’ve been spoiled by playing the slots in California, Nevada, New Mexico and a half dozen other states where it is actually possible to win once in awhile, but as far as I’m concerned, that big glitzy casino at the end of Canal Street in New Orleans exists only to fleece the tourist trade and the next time I visit New Orleans I won’t waste any time in that establishment.

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The most interesting time we spent in the Big Easy was the afternoon we spent at the Confederate Memorial Hall Museum located down Howard Street from the traffic circle where the memorial to Robert E. Lee was built. The Confederate Memorial Hall Museum is a beautiful old ornate brick and stone building with a great deal of fine architectural detail. The interior is a massive continuous open hall with an open timber framed ceiling with several heavy solid trusses running across the width of the structure. The careful craftsmanship expended on the framing of the ceiling alone is staggering and the entire building is one of New Orleans most beautiful examples of fine Southern architecture imaginable. The collection of artifacts displayed within the museum includes the personal effects of many of the Confederacies most notable leaders such as General Beauregard, General Polk, Brigadier General Gibson, Colonel Mouton and General Hood. The museum also contains the symbolic crown of thorns sent to Jefferson Davis by Pope Pius IX during his two years of solitary confinement at Fort Monroe following the end of the war. There is a great deal of Confederate history carefully preserved within those walls and some of the finest examples of exquisite sabers, rifles, pistols and an ample collection of portrait paintings, ambrotypes, tintypes and daguerreotypes of individual soldiers, Officers, and civilians of the Confederacy. There is also a large display of personal effects and old photographs of the numerous African Confederates who voluntarily served the Confederate cause; a historical detail often omitted from historical discussions of the Civil War.

While in the Confederate Memorial Hall Museum I had brief chat with the one of the curators regarding the legality and justification for the secession of the Confederate states. The commonly held belief is that the Civil War was fought to free the slaves, at least that is what most of us have been told in our American history classes, and it is actually a myth. When South Carolina seceded from the union in 1860 and Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 Union troops to go down there and screw their feet to the floor he had no intention of abolishing slavery. The fact of the matter is, Lincoln expressed the belief that the institution of slavery was provided for under the provisions of the U.S. Constitution and even though he did not believe that slavery was morally correct he would do nothing to abolish it because he took an oath of office that required him to uphold the provisions of the U.S. Constitution. Ultimately, abolishing the institution of slavery in the Confederate states had nothing to do with equality for the black slaves. The abolition of slavery was implemented as a method of punishing the Confederate states for their secession from the Union and the primary driving force behind it was the political desire of the new Republican Party to destroy the economy and rapidly dwindling political influence of the southern states.

Prior to the Civil War the Southern States were dominated by large labor intensive agricultural plantations. The institution of slavery was firmly established in the American colonies at the time of the American Revolution. It was most important in the five southern states from Maryland to Georgia, but the total of a half million slaves were spread out through all of the colonies. In the South 40% of the population was made up of slaves, and as Americans moved into Kentucky and the rest of the southwest fully one-sixth of the settlers were slaves. During the Constitutional Convention of 1787 the one issue where compromise was found to be impossible was the issue of slavery’s abolition. The Christian concept of morality could not overcome the pragmatism of a society that was then heavily dependent on the agricultural industry’s need for laborers and the influence of Southern representatives made the national abolition of slavery very unlikely in the foreseeable future, the dominance of the Southern state’s influence was made evident by the 3/5ths compromise reached during the 1787 Convention which allowed three-fifths of the population of slaves to be counted for enumeration purposes regarding both the distribution of taxes and the apportionment of the members of the United States House of Representatives. Nonetheless, a small antislavery movement, led by the Quakers, had some impact in the 1780s, and by the end of that decade all of the states except for Georgia had placed some restrictions on the importation of additional slaves. When the slave trade was outlawed in 1808 most Americans felt that the issue of slavery had been resolved. The small group of Southern states continued to hold a great deal of influence over national politics because of the 3/5ths compromise and it was a never ending source of frustration for the Northern states where their economy began to rapidly grow as a result of industrialization, mining, commerce and transportation coupled with a growing urban population fueled by a high birth rate and large numbers of Irish, British, and German immigrants. The Southern states had little immigration, few towns and cities and beyond the large plantations, most of their non-agricultural industry was limited to small manufacturing enterprises in a few border areas. As the economy and population of the North continued to swell it became increasingly difficult for the South to continue to influence the national government and many Southerners were worried about the relative political decline of their region. In the attempt to maintain unity, most politicians continued to moderate their opposition to slavery in the South, but the sectional ideologies in national politics became increasingly virulent and hostile. The old second party system collapsed in the 1850′s and the Republican Party began to gain popularity in the Northern states where most of the industrialization was taking place as well as in the agrarian Midwest as the northern states became more committed to the economic concept of free-labor industrial capitalism. For the South, the issue of slavery was wrapped tightly around the constitutional concept of property rights and the abolition of slavery was considered a death sentence for the Southern economy.

The states that seceded from the Union and formed the Confederacy considered the issue of slavery as being merely a part of their justification for secession. The American Revolution against the British Empire resulted in the Colonies Declaration made on the 4th of July, 1776, “”that they are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do.” The federal government of the United States had strayed far afield from the original vision expressed by the founding fathers of the nation and many in the Southern states viewed the overbearing acts of legislation enacted by the U.S. Congress as blatant violations of the U.S. Constitution because those laws encroached heavily upon the reserved rights of the States. Inasmuch as the Declaration of Independence clearly established that whenever any “form of government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government.” Following the Declaration of Independence each of the thirteen original states exercised its separate sovereignty, and one by one each adopted its own Constitution, appointed officers for the administration of its own government in all three departments, Legislative, Executive and Judicial, and each formed its own militia for the common defense of its citizens. In 1778 the thirteen states entered into a League under the provisions of the Articles of Confederation and thereby allowing a common agent to administer each state’s external relations. That common agent was the United States Congress, however, the second Article in that agreement declared in simple, clear terms, “Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.” Following the logic derived from the historical documents substantially and credibly recording in very clear language the details and intention of all agreements, declarations and laws established, the states that seceded from the Union, beginning in 1860 with South Carolina, were legally justified in their actions by reason of two primary, and well established principles, namely, the right of a State to govern itself; and the right of a people to abolish a Government when it becomes destructive of the ends for which it was instituted.

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While the discussion above may seem like another historical diversion, it is in fact, very relevant to the essential nature of this blog and the author’s personal viewpoint that the United States of America has lost its moral compass, the nation’s current economic path is unsustainable, the government has become far to tyrannical and that the division that once existed between the two primary political parties, the division that provided our government with a true sense of balance has eroded to the point that both parties are pretty much the same, no real balance exists, representation of the American people has ceased to exist and corrupt professional politicians dominate a political environment in a government that has become far too large, convoluted and lumbering to benefit the citizens it is supposed to be serving.

The healthy secession movement that is growing in the state of Alaska is fueled primarily by the tremendous amount of highly questionable legislative acts passing through the United States Congress to eventually become laws that are then supported by a Supreme Court, whose members are more than willing to redefine the terms of our constitution according to the whims of self-serving politicians.

On April 15, 2009, the Governor of the state of Texas stood on the steps of the State House in Austin and publicly threatened to pull Texas from the Union and form an independent, sovereign republic because a rapidly growing number of that state’s citizens are entirely fed up with the blatant corruption evident in the federal government.

In Vermont a retired economics professor leads a growing secessionist movement called the Second Vermont Republic made up of a rapidly growing network of citizens who are dedicated to separating their state from what they view as the “the American Empire.”

In the northwest, the citizens of Oregon, Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia are banding together in a separatist movement to form the independent Republic of Cascadia.

Secessionist movements have sprung up in New Hampshire and Hawaii as well, and one recent poll has indicated that more than 20% of the nation’s population has expressed their support for succession. While many American citizens and most elected officials in Washington D.C. have dismissed the sentiments of these secessionist groups, all available evidence indicates that an increasing number of American citizens, including a large number of U.S. Military officials, are dismayed by the ever accelerating erosion freedom, liberty and formerly considered “inalienable” rights once guaranteed under the provisions of the U.S. Bill of Rights. There is good reason for their dismay. Virtually every inalienable right expressed by our founding fathers has been abrogated by Congressional action or subjected to multiple re-definitions by the radical activists appointed to the Supreme Court for their eager willingness to legislate from the judicial bench infringements that cannot be accomplished by political means.

History indicates that the secession of individual states may not be the most intelligent course of action. In the current case the states that are most actively leaning in this direction are scattered across the entire nation. New Hampshire and Vermont are relatively small states with small populations that are primarily oriented toward political liberalism. Hawaii, while isolated by distance, is fairly similar in nature. It’s population is small and the citizens lean predominantly to the left of center, however, the state of Hawaii is about as far from New Hampshire and Vermont as it could possibly get and the possibility of these three states achieving any sort of an effective alliance ranges the spectrum of possibility from slim to non-existent. It is fairly easy to dismiss the ranting of liberals as frustrated political rhetoric. As far as the visionary independent Republic of Cascadia is concerned, that is a movement that has been underway for years and it appears to have about as much credibility as the Flat-Earth Society. Secession would be drastic step for any state government to take and it is difficult to imagine any state where the citizens are sufficiently united against the current administration to pull off a successful effort in this regard. However, it is only a matter of time before the current crop of politicians in Washington D.C. step over the line from acceptability to outrage. Their own arrogance will ultimately drive them to make one completely egregious error of judgment that will tip the scales of freedom and liberty over on its side and the people of this nation will finally see the line in the sand and either take matters into their own hands of accept the bonds of lifelong servitude to a government that exists for it own benefit and serves the interests of the elite.

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All things considered, including the temperature and precipitation, we had a great time everywhere we went. The Eastern seaboard of this nation is dripping in great history from one end to the other and there is a lot of American history that is conveniently left out of this nation’s textbooks that should be known. As a native Californian, I envy the New Yorker’s subway system. As rickety as some of those trains are they provide the best rapid transit system I have ever experienced and it certainly beats the heck out of the parking lot we call the 405 freeway. The oddest thing I noticed about New York is that, despite the fact that in many areas the trash is picked up three times a week, they don’t recycle anything and New York produces trash like no place on Earth. They could probably create a billion dollar a day recycling industry in that city with all of the cardboard and glass bottles that are stacked up on the streets every single day. It amazes me that nobody has figured this out. As far as New Orleans is concerned, they are still struggling to recover from the damage of hurricane Katrina. Construction is going on everywhere and the evidence of ruin is apparent in the many boarded up buildings and demolished houses that have yet to be torn down and hauled off. Among the citizenry there appears to be some degree of displeasure for FEMA and you can buy T-shirts in local shops that bear the FEMA logo and the message underneath it saying “Find Every Mexican Available.” Obviously, FEMA hasn’t exactly gone out of their way to hire the local contractors and the people down there seem to be under the belief that much of the towns reconstruction is being given to contractors from out of state using low-paid illegal alien workers. I don’t know if this is true but it seems to be the general sentiment among the local populace. At any rate we had a great trip, and we were glad when our last flight touched down at LAX.

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In case anyone has been wondering, I’ve been on vacation. I will get into more details later but for now I will just say that in the last two weeks I’ve been to New York, Washington D.C., South Carolina, and New Orleans. We flew home yesterday with a brief stop in Texas and arrived home late last night. Once I get my head back to normal, allow my feet to recover from all of the walking and get everything unpacked I will get into some more detail about the trip. I took a few thousand photos while I was gone and decided to share the most memorable one in this posting. It’s a demonstration of highly opinionionated free speech. Until them you’ll just have to be patient.

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In case you all havent figured it out, I am vacationing temporarily and will return soon.

As if there were not enough to worry about, the Wall Street Journal reported last Saturday that according to researchers, parasitic infections and diseases commonly associated with third world countries are popping up with alarming frequency in American states along the U.S.- Mexico border. Some of these infections are transmitted by bug bites and some by animal feces contaminated with parasite larvae but many of them are viral infections easily spread in overcrowded areas by contact with malnourished individuals with poor personal hygiene. Parasitic infections, such as those now on the increase in the United States are a significant cause of heart disease, seizures and birth defects. Government and private researchers are just now beginning to assess the depth of the problems associated with the rapid increase of Chagas and dengue fever as well as toxocara infections among young children and cysticercosis, which has risen to 3500 new cases per year and causes irreversible damage to the heart, lungs and brain.

The U.S. government’s friendly acceptance of 40 million illegal aliens, primarily from Mexico and South American countries has exacerbated the spread of these infectious diseases, and the outbreaks are no longer isolated to the sanctuary cities of Florida, Texas and California. The relaxation of immigration enforcement including Barack Obama’s curtailment of work place raids have resulted in illegal aliens migrating to every state in the nation, and the formerly exotic parasitic infections are cropping up in places like Iowa, Missouri, Ohio and Oregon.

As the Democratic controlled U.S. Congress pushes its proposed healthcare legislation down the throats of American citizens, the Washington liberals have termed these parasitic infections euphemistically as “neglected infections of poverty,” and they have called for the compilation of a report to determine the financial consequences to their healthcare reform plans as illegal aliens and the parasitic infections they carry with them continue to spread unabated across our nation.

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Contrary to his own published administrative policies, campaign promises and expressed opinions on maintaining the transparency and openness of all government dealings, Barack Obama is now hiding behind the same Bush Administration exemption that outraged the Democrats and the news media and resulting in widespread public criticism of the previous presidential administration.

Requests for information related to Barack Obama’s meetings with 18 executives representing health insurers, drug makers, doctors and special interest groups playing a major role in the debate over nationalized healthcare and the massive healthcare reform that the Obama administration is currently planning to unleash, ran up against a stone wall as, at the direction of Barack Obama, the U.S. Secret Service, the agency responsible for replying to requests for executive disclosure responded by invoking the argument used by President George W. Bush that such information are considered “presidential records” and are therefore, exempt from public disclosure laws. Obama’s use of the controversial “presidential communications privilege” shields him from disclosing the frequency and nature of discussions held with lobbyists.

Barack Obama’s reliance on the same anti-transparency, pro-secrecy presidential privilege that the Bush administration so often favored is a clear indication that Obama’s primary campaign promise of “Change” in the way the American government operates, was completely hollow and without substance. Furthermore, this is not the first time that Barack Obama has relied on the disclosure exemption provided by “presidential communications privilege.” The government watchdog group, “Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics” has already sued the Obama administration for its failure to release similar information regarding the frequency and content of Obama’s secret meetings with executives and lobbyists representing the American coal industry and they are now preparing to file a similar lawsuit against the Obama administration to force the administration’s disclosure of details related to this latest round of secret meetings Barack Obama has held with health care lobbyists.

Throughout his campaign, Barack Obama repeatedly stated that the discussions formulating his healthcare reform plan would be televised so that all American citizens would be able to view the negotiations as they progressed. Obama’s refusal to disclose the frequency and content of his secret meetings with health care lobbyists is clear and irrefutable evidence that Barack Obama had no intention of fulfilling his campaign promise and that his promised transparency was a blatant and bald-faced lie.

To date, Barack Obama’s administration has met in secret with Billy Tauzin, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), William Weldon, chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson and J. James Rohack, president of the American Medical Association. These individuals are the Chief Executive Officers of the primary lobbying groups involved in the healthcare reform debate.

The Pharmaceutical industry lobbyists, PAC funds and individual representatives have funneled more than $16,034,688.00 in the last two years directly into the coffers of the Democratic Party for the sole purpose of influencing the outcome of the healthcare reform debate. The Democratic Party has also received more than $27,684,414.00 from insurance company lobbyists and $54,012,294 from the lobbyists representing health care professionals all with the intention of influencing the healthcare reform debate.

During the 2008 campaign cycle, Barack Obama received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from high placed executives and attorneys directly representing PhRMA, Johnson and Johnson put the squeeze on their employees for individual contributions amounting to more than $200 thousand dollars to Obama’s campaign fund, and there are far too many health insurance companies to sift through in the effort to discover, with any accuracy the amount of contributions their individual employees contributed to Obama’s campaign. Normally these contributions would be bundled together under one or more “Political Action Committees” or PACs but when Obama declared that he would not accept money from PACs, what he was really saying was that the bundled contributions of individuals contributing through political action committees would have to be sent to him as individual contributions so it didn’t appear that he was allowing political action committees to influence his future decisions. The Democratic Party didn’t express any concern about the appearance of being bought off and gladly accepted more than $97,731,396 in contributions from the Pharmaceutical industry, insurance companies, and health care professionals, much of which was used to further Obama’s campaign efforts but because of their presidential candidate’s weasely approach to accepting contributions from groups involved in lobbying efforts, it is nearly impossible to accurately estimate how many millions of dollars went into his campaign fund directly as the result of healthcare reform lobbyists. Obviously the amount was substantial enough to justify Barack Obama’s back flip over the campaign promise of government transparency, but as long as that information remains the guarded secret of a presidential administration willing to hide behind “presidential privilege” the American people will never know the truth and they will never know the extent of these lobbyists influence on how Obama’s healthcare reform effort finally shakes out. The most obvious question is why wouldn’t Barack Obama come clean about these secret discussions if there was nothing to hide, and the equally obvious answer to that question is that he won’t come clean because he is a corrupt political hack with no sense of honesty, integrity or decency and he never intended to do anything beneficial for the American people.

Barack Obama condemned his predecessor for being dishonest and in some respects George W. Bush could have been more honest about what he was doing and why, but he was the personification of truth when compared to Obama. Everything that Barack Obama has done since he first entered office in January has been aimed at paying back his major contributors, special interest groups and the labor unions that paid his way into office. The American people have gotten sky-high unemployment rates, bankruptcy, home foreclosures and more debt than they could ever hope to pay off in ten lifetimes, and now in the name of healthcare reform we will be restricted to lower quality health care with limited access, and we will be required to pay more than ever for less than what we already have. The pharmaceutical industry, insurance companies, the health care professionals and the federal government will reap the financial benefits resulting from Obama’s healthcare reform and the American people will be left holding the stinky end of the stick. All things considered, this is going to be another classic example of what Obama meant when he promised “Change” and the American voters were too apathetic and ignorant to ask what change he was talking about.

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Barack Obama, special interest, healthcare reform, Unemployment, bankruptcy, home foreclosures, pharmaceutical industry, insurance companies, labor union, George Bush

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