Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin

Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin – the “handwriting on the wall.” When Daniel translated it, we are told, it was actually written on a wall of the King Belshazar’s palace. No translation now, is necessary of course. The “handwriting’ for the United States is everywhere. It’s in the apartment complex where I stay currently, in the form of garbage strewn everywhere by the wind, pets, and animals which are now beginning to frequent the place. Oh, this is a nice place, high rents and the like, but the tenants are “Americans” (I always point out that there are thirty-four other nations in the hemisphere). Americans are simply too lazy or too stupid to close the dumpsters the complex management provides in profusion. They simply refuse to close the receptacles, the result being that the contents are soon scattered all over the place. During my morning exercise, I pick it all up and put it back, same thing every morning.

“Americans” never prepare for anything, you see. You can warn them again and again. It’s no use; they have better things to do with their precious time. From Pearl Harbor to today, we get caught with our pants down every time anyone chooses to give us what we deserve. Literally thousands of Americans knew something like the World Trade Center attack was coming, hundreds wrote about it long before (I was one, and several times). No one listened, as obvious as the threat was. Neither is the recent carnage and devastation done by Hurricane Katrina an exception. As hateful as it sounds – the truth is so often that way – we got what we had coming.

What’s the reason “Americans” are so stupid? Invariably, it’s their dependence on government. “People,” Michel de Montaigne said, “always have the government they deserve.” So there’s your syllogism. People rely for their safety on government; the people know that government is always careless with the result that people die; therefore, when people die, the nation deserves what it’s gotten. The corollary is that the nation is responsible for the devastation and death. No way out of it.

In the decade that I was a “storm trooper” – the insurance adjuster who works disasters like Katrina - I never once saw local Civil Defense prepared. It just doesn’t happen. Once, arriving within minutes after the strike of a tornado (I used to hunt them both out of youthful daring and scientific interest), I personally ran necessary Civil Defense search and rescue operations for two days – until organization could be accomplished. The sheriff, returned the first day from ferrying injured people to the local hospital, had no idea what to do, and finding someone who did already in charge, he had the good sense to become a subordinate. That was another time, of course, when people in government had that kind of character.

"Americans" have unfortunately and unwisely let themselves come to be like the Dodo and the flightless birds of the Pacific islands. Protected too long from natural enemies by oceans, freed of natural tougheners like weather and the elements by "climate controlled" environments, and having surrendered most of their freedoms in return for the security of virtual prison, they have let their natural defenses – intelligence is the human being’s principle defense against nature and his enemies – devolve. The result is that they are nearly helpless when catastrophe comes, powerless against things like the guerrilla and special warfare their effeminated natures must label "terrorism." Faced with devastation and death like that resulted from 9-11, Hurricane Katrina, and the ominously obvious promise of the breach in levee that is our border with Mexico, they dither fecklessly, bleating for their supposed savior, federal government, to do something. As they do with just about any problem, their response is to pick up the phone and call someone. “Call 911.”

And, as we’ve heard ad nauseum, when help arrives, almost invariably far too late, it's in the form of a woman cop, or the Bush Administration.

But people have what the government they deserve. They let it get that way. Their choice. Never mind that anyone who has any knowledge of our system knows that it is a system not unlike a sewer. Certain things always tend to be on top. Ponds and stagnant water are like that, too. Scum on top. A nation that puts in charge of their money and economy the most greedy, power-mad people it can find ought not complain when their money begins to vanish in mountainous proportions. It shouldn’t be surprised, either, when their “leaders” are too busy looting the treasury to stand guard – one of the very few things they are actually put in charge to do.

I’ll try – one, more, time – to put it all in perspective. WHAT IN HELL KIND OF PERSON DO YOU THINK WANTS TO CONTROL THE LIVES OF OTHER PEOPLE? WHAT KIND IS IT THAT THINKS HE KNOWS WHAT IS GOOD FOR EVERYONE ELSE? WHAT IN HELL DO YOU THINK IS THE REASON HE SEEKS PUBLIC OFFICE?

So let’s cut the bullshit about Katrina. You saw your “leadership” in operation after the World Trade Center attack. The border with Mexico is STILL so wide open that private citizens – the government calls them “vigilantes” - are trying to help. Four years later, any commando worthy of the name could take the heart out of a major city, and kill tens of thousands, even millions. AND WHEN YOU PUT THE SAME GUARD BACK ON DUTY, AND A “TERRORIST” NAMED KATRINA CAME CALLING, YOU WANT TO SAY YOU AREN’T RESPONSIBLE?

Go to hell!