Party On

Here I am at o250Hrs in the morning, or as we called it in the military "O-Dark-Thirty," finding myself part of a neighbor's Halloween Party, whether I want to be or not. I'm just the part that gets to listen to his music selection and a few drunken arguments. Hopefully soon, in typical El Mirage, AZ fashion, shots will ring out and the party will break up before the police get there.

But then I'd rather listen to the music and arguing vice police sirens and the news helicopter that would invariably be hovering right over my house. In the old days it used to be buzzards circling a corpse, now it's news helicopters. I like the buzzards better, they are quieter for one and don't tend to crash into your house if things go terribly wrong. We had two news helicopters crash here, and of course the media hails the crews as fallen heroes, when in fact they were way too close together and in the course of trying to be first to get the scoop they crashed. Nothing heroic about bad pilots making stupid mistakes.

Here in the US we have a misplaced sense of what heroics is. The people in the Twin Towers were heroes. Well, some were, the ones that tried to help others escape without thought of their own life. The others were just poor bastards that were in the wrong place when Osama bin Obama, excuse me slip of the tongue, Osama bin Laden (AKA The Goat Fucker) decided to punish America. Fortunately he is he now living comfortably in the country of our Bestest Ally Forever (BAF) Nutjob Packistan - have I mentioned they have nuclear capability and a country full of extremists? Anyway, a hero is someone who puts it all on the line to help another, plain and simple. The news chopper guys didn't think they were putting their lives on the line so channel X could be the first to show a car chase through Phoenix, their death did nothing to aid humanity or their fellow beings, it was just senseless, not heroic. Sorry but there you are. Want a helicopter hero? There was a paramedic/police officer involved in rescuing an injured hiker off a mountainside that was hit by one of the blades of a helicopter and killed - hero. He took a risk to help a fellow human and unfortunately lost his life in the attempt. It was a selfless act and he knew he was risking everything, but helped one of his fellow beings anyway.

A few more days and we will be suffering under a new government, whether Republican or Democrat because Americans are sheep (no offense Little Lamb) and have swallowed the media blitz put on by the two big money parties and ignored third party opportunities. I played my part in the train wreck that is called the American political system, and voted for the Constitutional candidate. Since he hasn't raised millions of dollars the media ignores him, he gets no press save a few radio spots on NPR, that come on at about the time I am writing this. His name doesn't even appear on the ballot, you have to write it in a chore too tough for most Americans, especially the NASCAR set, those backwoods inbred roadkill eating beer swilling droolers that seem to make up the bulk of our population.

Ah well, here I go politicking when I promised I'd do no more. My only excuse is the hour of the morning and the disgust I feel for our current system, or I should say what our system has become. The Founding Fathers wanted to make it a model for the rest of the world, but they failed to take into account the natural compunction of politicians to vote party lines, fill their own pockets, screw and/or drink everything in sight, and ensure their votes on the Senate floor go to the highest bidder, amking us a laughing stock vice a model. Anyway, for those of you not inclined to read through the wandering poorly constructed rant above, here's a picture to look at...