Conservatism's greatest blunder

What youth associate with Capitalism, c. 2023

Was confusing the defense of corporate interests with defending capitalism.  

Back in the 1990s, when I was still in seminary, our oldest son was born.  At that time insurance companies were making news by cutting back on the days they would cover for new mothers.  By the time our oldest came along, it was dropping to a single day - 24 hours from the moment of birth - and then out you go. 

Now, if you've had a kiddo, you know that it takes more than a couple days in some cases for new moms to be ready to move out, or to make sure kids are altogether healthy.  In our case, he was born around 11 AM.  By the next day, he was supposed to be discharged.  The nurses knew neither he nor my wife were ready, though there was no 'smoking gun' problem to cite. They fudged things so she didn't have to leave until noon (and then dragged their feet about another hour getting things ready), so we didn't actually leave until about 1 PM.

That night, fluid developed in our son's throat that caused him to choke and stop breathing.  Fortunately my mother-in-law was staying with us.  As grandmothers are what I call 'pro-parents', she swung into action and was able to get him to cough it out and breath again.  Had she not been there, these two young and stupid parents likely would have been burying a first child. 

By the pediatrician's admission, this would have been avoided with an extra day or two of observation at the hospital.  Because of that, I became a staunch supporter of making insurance companies stop the madness.  I openly supported then President Clinton when he signed in the New Borns and Mothers' Health Protection Act of 1996. That act required insurance companies and hospitals to keep new mothers and newborns in the hospital for at least two days (48 hours).  Though I had several colleagues disagree with me and his legislation because free market and corporate liberty, I maintained something had to be done.  After all, it was obvious that insurance companies were happy to let come what may where kids' survival was concerned.

In subsequent years I had more than one colleague or acquaintance debate me on this (and other similar stances).  In almost every case the argument centered on some 'it's the government's fault, or this or that historical development's fault', but free market!  To which I would say it matters not, fix the cause eventually, but right now things have to be done to keep people from dying.  I especially enjoyed it when colleagues would explain to me that women were having babies for ages before our modern hospitals  (so obviously you don't have to have a hospital) - while deftly ignoring the cataclysmic infant mortality rate accompanying that fact.

The problem was that by the 90s, many conservatives decided that a company doing stuff and things for the bottom line, no matter what, was the deal breaker; the debate stopper.  That was it.  There is no moral compulsion for insurance companies, like any companies, to do anything other than what it takes to make gobs of money.  Never turn to the Government.  Perhaps consumer pressure in a better world.  But first and foremost it was that precious bottom line that was the Holy Grail.  No matter what insurance, or other companies, did, it was that bottom line that mattered.  The fault of anyone and anything might be true, but it always came down to defending corporate interests at all costs. 

That also included the clear and obvious development in the market we've seen in recent years of 'how to give less for more.'  Whether less includes shafting employees, bilking consumers, providing slipshod quality or diminishing quantity for ever higher prices - it was always defended under the principle that a corporation has got to corporation, and that's the important thing. 

If pressed, I would be assured that market forces would save the day.  Eventually those market froces will rise up and smack the corporate interests around and force them into a world where providing  the most for the least and encouraging competition and quality would once again rule the day. As if the global economic context of the market in the age of Lady GaGa was no different than the global context of Tommy Dorsey. 

Of course that didn't happen.  I see more and more conservatives starting to wake up to the realization that corporations have finally learned that countries based on democracy, freedom and equality, as well as civilizations based on loving God and your neighbor as yourself, are no longer needed for that magical bottom line.  Those conservatives may still try some 'it must be the government's fault' appeal. Others might hyphenate the situation.  That is, add something like 'crony' to 'capitalism' to explain what happened.  But more are starting to wake up and smell the frozen coffee.

What happened is pretty simple, and pretty historical, IMHO.  Capitalism arose at a time when multiple other developments kept it in check.  For the longest time, those with the money and power decided it was in their best interests to support and defend and advance such freedom and Golden Rule thinking, along with a robust free market, since that was where the money was.

Today that's no longer the case.  With China, you have 1.4 billion customers.  And a brutal Communist totalitarian regime that has learned it can set its lofty communist principles aside in order to court vast corporate interests, and ensure those interests they have little to fear but an increased bank account when doing business in China.  Likewise, in more than one part of the Islamic world, traditionally conservative states are learning to loosen up a bit - at least for those wealthy and powerful.  We're talking billions of potential costumers here.  What is America, with its paltry 330 million population, next to that? 

In fact, not only are those lofty old Western principles no longer that big of a deal, but increasingly they could be seen as an obstacle.  After all, if you're making bank on countries that routinely oppress, discriminate, marginalize and outright persecute swaths of their population, it's tough to do if you're singing the praises of good old Western democracy and values.  But let people believe that the West is as bad, if not worse, than any other place in the galaxy, and you're free to do as you please.  After all, what right does a slave owning, genocidal racist nation have to complain about doing business in China, huh?  Huh?  

Despite all this, I still see conservatives beholden to the unchecked support of any corporate decision because of course they do.  Last year I caught a radio program interviewing some fellow who wrote a book about the harm being done in the name of transgender ideology.  Apparently his book was banned by Amazon.  His conclusion?  He wasn't happy, but he would gladly defend Amazon's right to ban his own book.  A book that could, by his own admission, help save young people from suffering under the crazy.  He did this because free market and corporate interests you know.  There's saving youth from suffering, but then there is the bottom line. 

There's a time when an unwillingness to see the writing on the wall ceases to be conservatism and becomes foolishness.  I'd say those conservatives continuing to support the goals and agendas of the marketplace today without hesitation, given the marketplace's growing war against that which conservatives are supposed to value, might just be getting close to the second observation.  Or, what they meant by conservative was a world of difference than my understanding of the term in the first place. 

Yes, I've actually seen these fictional characters defended over the years in the name of Capitalism

Long and short summary:  Capitalism should ever have been the means to an end, and not the end itself.  Having forgotten that, and having allowed the market to become the antithesis of the market, has allowed young people to see Capitalism not as conservatives insist it once was, but to see it for what it has become.  And that's something conservatives had best see soon, or they'll loose both bathwater and baby where the economy and society are concerned. 

Starbucks and aiding abortion

I'm not one for boycotts.  They never seem to work.  Sometimes they do I suppose. But only if they have the press and general media culture at their back.  If you're spitting into the media whirlwind, it's typically a waste of time.

Nonetheless, I will never again grace the doors of a Starbucks.  Not that I ever have.  The only Starbucks coffee I've had was one cup seven years ago.  On my last day at the bank I worked for, one of my coworkers who knew I had never gone to a Starbucks bought me one of their cups of coffee.  Eh.  I wasn't impressed, though the gesture was nice. For me, coffee is coffee.  As far as I'm concerned the most impressive part of a can of coffee is a cheap price tag.

In any event, Starbucks has gone beyond simply throwing its support for abortion rights, which I expect from most of corporate America today.  Nope.  Starbucks has said it will pay actual money for its employees to travel to different states to get an abortion if Roe is overturned. 

Again, I get why Corporate America long ago threw the Christian element of our heritage out the window. A faith based on 'Blessed are the Poor' is anathema to the bottom line.  Plus, sexed up, drugged up godless narcissists with nothing but animal pleasures in this world are a marketing department's dream come true. 

Nonetheless, I have my limits.  When a company doesn't just endorse, but actively helps, grave and intrinsic evils, then by golly they'll never sell me my second cup of coffee if I have anything to say about it. 

It's time to say goodbye to the Lamb and Flag

So the news broke yesterday that the Lamb and Flag pub, made famous by Tolkien and Lewis and the gang, is closing for good.  Why?  Need we ask. Covid restrictions that have happily avoided doing anything but buttress corporate fortunes while obliterating endless millions of middle and lower class livelihoods, have struck again.  This is the first time in history that I'm aware of where the measures used to fight a pandemic will do harm to so many millions that will far outlive the pandemic itself. 

I can't even name from our area the number of small business owners and middle class entrepreneurs who have seen their dreams and fortunes dashed.  All while millionaires and billionaires videochat from their mansions about how important it is to sacrifice millions of shmucks heroes so that they can remain healthy millionaires and billionaires safe in their mansions. 

My boys also pointed out something I hadn't thought of.  They said that in recent years, things like pub crawls, pub Dungeons and Dragons, pub gatherings, and American versions of the same had become quite popular.  People turning away from the Big and Small Screens and actually finding ways to have fun with friends and acquaintances around a pint was helping the already struggling pub (and similar) industries mount a comeback.

Well, no more.  Those pastimes have almost died.  My sons, who are connoisseurs of modern pop culture with a finger on the pulse of the Fantasy/Sci-Fi world, have informed me that the latest D&D renaissance is floundering, in large part due to closing the stores and other venues where people were meeting to play.

And what is left?  Well, since you aren't supposed to mix and mingle, you stay home with the family and either have a stack of board games, or turn on the Big Screen and veg, staring at the entertainment industry's paltry offerings, laden with sponsors and propaganda, making them richer in the process.  In addition, you have no easy way to communicate except via digital social media, controlled by corporate tyrants almost proud to monitor, and even censor, wrong think and offensive discourse.  

Covid will go down as the human catastrophe that helped solidify the global oligarchy of modern corporatism.  At this point, I don't even think they bother pretending not to be doing what they're doing.  And what are they doing?  They're setting up a global market where millionaires can become billionaires, billionaires can become trillionaires, and most of the human race can get back to the hides and the cotton fields where they belong.  

The birth of Jesus has served its purpose

Yep.  It's that time of year again, when we can stop wasting time with that Jesus born in a manger rubbish and get on with the next consumer feeding frenzy.  

I love the two shoppers looking at the paltry remnants on the shelves.  It's as if the store is saying, "Sorry about your luck, but you should have given a damn about Jesus a week ago when it was good for the bottom line!"

Ages from now conservatism's blind, slavish devotion to corporate interests and board room priorities in the name of defending Capitalism and the Free Market will be seen as one of the great strategic blunders of human history.  A free market is one thing.  A soulless consumerism that becomes so jaded it can watch corporate interests piss all over the sacred and virtuous for a buck is a threat to our most cherished values.  The result of ignoring this fact speaks for itself as we watch corporatism emerge as one of the single greatest threats to all we hold dear that we've ever encountered.  

Goodbye Cleveland Indians

I was never an Indians fan, so I don't care.  This is just the latest in the move to destroy the United States and its heritage.  Trump did nothing to stop it.  In fact, it was using Trump at Hitler that the Left stepped forward and put its plan to destroy the US and the greater Christian Western tradition into full gear.

The thing that caught everyone by surprise has been the speed with which Corporate America jumped on board.  Sure, corporate interests always go the way of the profit, and more than once they have changed to keep up with the latest sensitivities.  It isn't as if all those companies gave a rip about the environment when they were all putting out commercials about how much they cared about the environment. They were just looking at market trends.

But joining in the whole 'America as racist Nazi state' seems to have caught people - especially conservatives who long defended the interests of Corporate America - flat footed.  But it shouldn't.  My boys made a good point about this some time ago.  

Basically, the reason we have America in the first place is because the people with the wealth and power wanted it to happen.  Out of good fortune, those people also happened to be invested in finding a way to build the better political mousetrap, and had the character to see things through following the Revolution.  But they did it all because it was in their interests to do so. The reason why they took the stand they took against merry old England was because they benefited from their decisions to stand up to England, or at least not to back down.

Now the people with the wealth and power benefit by beating America into the ground; by convincing people that antiquated ideals like freedom of speech or religious liberty or due process are in need of reimagining.  They benefit by convincing Americans that it is our country, and no other, that is truly reprehensible and that we are beneficiaries of the most evil and wicked of all nations.  Why?

Hard to say. My boys believe it's because China and India are the Boardwalk and Park Place of the global market.  Was a time, only back in the 90s, when broadening trade with China raised eyebrows on both sides of the political aisle.  After all, China had only recently slaughtered thousands of student protestors in Tiananmen Square.  And that was par for the course in China.  It sill is.  China may have broadened its market, but it's still a brutal totalitarian communist state that oppresses, enslaves, persecutes and even murders its own citizens (or others if they can).

Our betters reaching out with love and bank accounts to such a nation might just raise a few eyebrows here at home today.  Some might not like the idea of making money off of a nation like that, or other places where slave labor and child labor are business as usual.  It might be a problem in a country that still believed it had the moral grounding to have a say in such things.  But a country that was convinced it and it alone is the true source of evil in the world?  A nation where people believe almost anything to do with our own country is racist evil, and we are the most murderous genocidal nation in the world?  Why, what right do we have to complain about people or corporations or anyone else reaching out and doing business in China or similar nations?  It isn't like China could be worse than America or anything. 

Could be.  Whatever the reason, Wall Street and Madison Avenue and Hollywood and other power players no longer feel lifting America up is best for their bottom line.  Beating it down, shaming it, joining in the move to eradicate as much of Christian Western and American heritage as possible - that's where the money is.  For whatever reasons, that's what the powers that be want, and just like those who inherited a nation of the people, by the people, for the people centuries ago, the hoi polloi will inherit what the powers of today want them to inherit. 

Burns Sears Burn

Me talking to Sears customer service

So Sears is nearing its much deserved end.  Once a titan of American commerce and the retail giant of all retail giants, Sears is down to only a few dozen stores left open.  The new big game seems to be investors and market watchers betting if this is the year Sears finally gets nailed in the coffin.

I must say, good riddance.  Two years ago we purchased a dishwasher from Sears and, as of now, we have yet to have a working dishwasher.  We also had purchased a washer and dryer from them many ages ago.  To this day, the dryer is still not working properly.  And that's after I purchased extended protection plans for the warranties. 

The reason?  Lousy customer service and, to be honest, I'm guessing Sears is hoping it can drag things out and not have to give us anything else.  Week after month has gone with broken promises, poor customer relations, no callbacks or follow ups, and endless dozens - perhaps by now, hundreds - of hours on hold, on chats, on forums trying to get the situation resolved.

Last month the replacement dishwasher was supposed to be delivered, only to see the wrong appliance delivered instead.  So the actual dishwasher replacement was moved back another whole month to this last Wednesday.  On a lark, I decided to call to verify that the delivery was on and all was going to finally happen with the delivery. And - you'll never believe it - turns out they don't have the dishwasher in question and they'll have to kick it back to sometime in October.

After hours of chats and phone calls, I finally got connected to the ones in charge of all this and was more or less told 'sorry about your luck.'  Though the rep pointed out she never said any such thing, I informed her that was her attitude.  Basically, if I wanted to do the footwork, I could always find a different dishwasher that might be in stock, go through everything myself. and it might get here sooner.  Or might not.  Or I could suck on it and wait for the one that may or may not ever come. 

That's Sears.  A far cry from the retailer my Dad swore by back in the day.  A far cry from the store my Dad would patronize when it came to its batteries, auto service and, of course, Craftsman Tools.  Heck, it's a far cry from the Sears I first dealt with in the first decades of my adult life.  

And it deserves to die.  Few seemed to really care about fixing the problem, and Sears has no provisions for fixing anything.  It is as if it just isn't trying.  Why is that?  I don't know.  Somewhere, the great promise of Capitalism - that it would lead to better innovation, better products, better services, and competitive prices while encouraging the best and brightest employees for that corporate edge, has fallen on its butt.  

Today, the Marketplace is about giving the least possible for the most imaginable.  It's about cutting corners, slicing service, and minimizing quantity.  It's about putting the screws to as many employees as possible.  And it's about sucking up to whoever has the money, and if that means encouraging something like the United States - that might block such aspirations - to die, so be it. 

One big claim made by defenders of Capitalism and the purity of the free market is that government is inefficient, and the market is all about success and profit, and therefore efficient. Perhaps in some age of bygone days age that boasted residue from that Protestant Work Ethic, that was true.  But I've worked in large, multi-billion dollar corporations, and I've dealt with such corporations, and I can assure you that today there is little difference between government and private sector where efficiency is concerned.  And if outcome is the decider, tell me when the last time that American industry and innovation was the envy of the world.  Given what I've experienced in dealing with these companies, I have a hard time believing it's all the government's fault. 

Personally, after watching things for years, I wouldn't mind seeing more vast, corporate interests go the way of the Sears-like dinosaurs.  I'm more and more convinced that the great multi-zillion dollar global interests are as antithetical to a competitive market as any intrusive government interest.  In fact, the two often seem impossible to distinguish. 

Of course there is little I can do about my own problem.  I either suck on it and wait until we get a replacement or I bite the bullet and buy the appliances from another retailer, assuming any other cares more than Sears.  Such is the problem in the modern retail marketplace.  Ages ago, I would go down to the shop and confront the craftsman or merchant face to face.  Today, I speak to someone somewhere out in the world who apparently isn't the least bit interested in helping because she has nothing to lose by merely echoing her employer's own apathy regarding its customers.  Costumers who, it seems, are best for the bottom line when they are reduced to as low as you can go. 

Thus, the legacy of Capitalism:

Really, when was the last time you pulled up to a service station and had an army of workers jump out and clean, service and check your car while they put gas in the tank?  And have gas prices gone down with the shaving away of such services?  Since Wall Street and Corporate America have joined to destroy the American experiment, its freedoms and liberties, and are openly making war on the Church and its teachings, the clinging to the marketplace and the high ideals of Capitalism as the path to salvation is one that will challenge the most credulous of us, if you think on it. 

When the Left became all about loving Corporate Interests

So the big story isn't that obviously anyone who doesn't vote the Biden/Harris ticket is both a racist and sexist.  Nor is it the stories of left wing outlets preemptively saying the only redemption for America as a sexist, racist genocidal Nazi state is to vote Biden/Harris.  It isn't even that Biden picked a woman who painted Biden as a racist during the primaries.  

The big story is that Corporate America and multi-zillion dollar tech mega-opolies are rejoicing with great joy that Harris is the pick, since she's a sure bet to glad-hand the billionaire interests that, well, apparently the New Left loves so well. 

Here the left of Lenin outlet Vox gushes over how Harris and Silicon Valley are a love story made in liberal heaven.  Of course Tech Companies have been in the front lines of turning America into that communist inspired socialist state the Left has dreamed about.  Using the 'fake news' template, they are free to shut down any and all speech and expression tied to anything not left of center.  And don't try to scream censorship.  Once again. the Left changes the rules per convenience.  When a record store owner didn't want to carry a Madonna album, that was censorship.  When billion dollar communications industries want to ban non-leftist speech, that's never censorship.  Remember, the left cheats. 

So now we know.  The Left loves those multi-billion dollar corporate interests, and rejoices that left wing politicians will be in power to ensure those multi-billion dollar corporate interests continue to do what they've done so well - and that's help push America into that Lenin paradise they've been desiring for so many years. 

The NFL continues to flip off its fans and America

Believing it knows the way the wind is blowing, the NFL's branch of  the new oligarchy has decided to continue flipping the bird to its base and the country in which it exists.  It can tell a dying giant when it sees one.  

The hilarious part is that it won't allow performances of the National Anthem due to Covid-19.  I have no clue what that means.  In college football, the National Anthem is typically performed by marching bands.  OK, close quarters I guess.  But in the NFL, it's typically a lone singer or performer.  How does a single performer singing in an almost empty football stadium spread Covid? 

Answer: it doesn't.  America's capitalist oligarchy has fulfilled the ancient prophecy that capitalism without Christ is no better than communism.  In fact, our beloved corporate world is becoming one of the biggest boons for America's communist inspired revolution.  And I don't just mean those rascally zillion dollar corporations either.  All around us, businesses big and small are pledging fealty to BLM, decrying our genocidal racist state and its repulsive Christian values, supporting the eradication of the Christian West, and anything not in line with the emerging Leftist State.  

I used to say you don't need to ban freedom of the press when the press willingly jumps on board with the power of the State.  Same here.  The Free Market and Capitalism cease having meaning when the benefactors of those very principles become the biggest threats to those same principles.  Who needs socialism, after all, if corporate America willingly declares itself the fourth branch of a totalitarian government? 

Chick fil A surrenders again

Dan Cathy know that my son's skin color proves he's a racist

After coincidentally severing ties to charities targeted by the LGBTQ community, CfA's CEO Dan Cathy said it's time for people who look like my 10 year old son (pictured to the left smiling because he's not aware of the guilt he bears for everyone who looks like him) to repent of the vile racism of those who have looked like him through the ages. The finger in the air for moral guidance continues apace.

Chick fil A is as good example as any when it comes to the mistaken loyalty placed by Christians, Americans, and people of common sense to the efficacy of the Free Market.  At least where being a stalwart defense of anything important is concerned.

I think if the prevailing winds said it's time for Gulags, then most companies today would begin donating the tools and materials to build them.  And with the power of multi-billion dollar influence and intimidation, there isn't much the average schmuck on Main Street can do about it.

And yes, I resent Mr. Cathy saying my 10 year old son must apologize due to his skin color.  The growing idea that Jim Crow was the most awesome thing in the world, it merely had the wrong ethnic group, is one of the most stupid developments in an era of stupidity.  That so many corporate interests are endorsing it should explain those racist advertisements and product placements from old.

Again, lesson learned.  Capitalism without Christ is no better than Communism.  In fact, as we're seeing, Capitalism without Christ could become one of Communism's greatest and most powerful allies.

Oh, and no more chicken sandwiches from Chick fil A.  They're no doubt betting on the usual 'non-leftists are loser dolts who will still make us rich no matter how much we crap on them' principle.  Let's prove them wrong.

It was Capitalism all along

In a reminder that Capitalism without Christ can quickly spiral into the next Communism, once again we have the biggies of Corporate America, darlings of the free market, champions of Wall Street, joining forces to threaten within an inch of their financial lives those in Texas who dare blaspheme the gospel of the LGBTQ movement.  Just like N. Carolina not too long ago.

I was once asked how something like Capitalism or the Free Market could ever become like Communism.  Well, this.  And this is while we're still technically a free country.  Imagine what would happen if we weren't.  It might not be the government that steps in and destroys the precious freedoms of the market as much as the market that  hijacks the goverment and uses its own infinite financial resources to put a bullet in the 2500 year climb toward democracy and liberty.

As I said, our march toward tyranny and a Marxist totalitarian state based on debauchery and blasphemy would be nowhere without Madison Avenue running along, encouraging every step of the way.

Bonus: Another Godfather reference that came to mind when thinking of conservatives who still fall on the sword for the Market, even as we have to realize it has been the Market handing us hammers and nails with which to crucify Jesus or else:

I really need to watch that film again, it's been too long.

The press as enemy of the people

Reflected on at The Federalist.  What we are watching, and what we may never learn about, was the attempt to steal a valid election from the opposition party.  Leftist pundits and reporters were correct, it does make Watergate seem like a spitball contest by comparison.  But it wasn't Trump.  It was the Left, perhaps including the Obama administration, FBI, US news media, the Democratic party and even the DOJ.  I don't know.  We'll never know, because the only thing that might dig in and find the ugly truth was clearly behind the attempted coup. 

BTW, as a family member pointed out, this threat to our freedoms would be nowhere but by the support of the free market which, apparently, has read the ledgers and concluded all things sex, drugs and Marxism is the way to go, and punishing, firing, and wrecking those who dare cling to the old ways is good business sense.  So whatever economic benefits the free market brings might just come at the cost of losing everything else to have them.  Just an observation that I'm at pains to refute. 

The fate of the GOP and its tax cuts hangs in the balance

So my wife was given a promotion.  Yay!   It was submitted last August.  We couldn't wait.  One step away from a VP.  And our enthusiasm wasn't just because of the title of course, but the raise.  I held off and waited to readjust our budget.  How much would it be?  I didn't want to get my hopes up, so in my typical manner, I assumed low.  Nonetheless, I waited to see before making any big plans for the future.

So we waited.  And waited.  And waited.  September came and went.  Then October.  November and Thanksgiving.  Then it was my birthday, her birthday, and the Christmas season!   Still no final word on the promotion.

Then came the New Year.  Nothing.  And we waited.  Pretty soon it was going to be the annual review, when the employees are notified every year that they would not be getting much of a cost of living increase.

And then she was in her annual review.  And guess what.  She was given a cost of living increase!  Oh, and her promotion.  See what they did?  They held out until the annual review, gave her a few pennies more than everyone else for the less-than-cost of living increase, and dumped a boat load of extra responsibility on her, more or less for free.  Brilliant.  And all of this only a day after her company's CEO was on FOX News gushing over the company's record breaking year.

Again, if this becomes the norm, then kiss the GOP, Republicans, their tax cut, and any hope to resuscitate any fealty to Capitalism goodbye.   I know a lot of companies are running around throwing out bonuses here and there.  Those are nice. But they're pittance.  The proof will be in the long term pudding.

If the market continues to produce crappy products, crappy services, dwindling quantities and all the while CEOS and upper management screw over their employees while pocketing exponentially growing amounts of wealth for themselves, expect there to be a backlash.  Not just in the ballot box, but in society's way of thinking.  Why do so many youngsters have such a low opinion of Capitalism?  I give you exhibits A through T.

Capitalism is merely a means to an end.  If the end becomes one of a growing number of people being shellacked for the sake of a dwindling few, then assume its days are numbered.  I'm not saying it's good or bad, but it's the way of things.  If Capitalism fails to deliver on its promises, then it will go the way of any other human idea or movement in history.  It's time will come to an end.

If Ohio State loses to Navy

I won't care.  Why?  Because I can't watch it, since the ever entangled mess of corporate contractual agreements which see churls consumers as pawns to be played has shut off access to the game unless I buy yet another addition to our cable package.  Therefore I've decided to give away my tickets and move on in life.  I'll still pay attention and may even watch a few of the biggies this season.  But I grow tired of the almost flagrant disregard that such corporate interests as cable providers, television networks and universities have for the people they laughingly try to convince us they care about.  Maybe I'll go back to the NFL.  At least that is flagrant in its disregard for morality where financial profits are concerned.

Ron Paul defends Mitt Romney

Not surprisingly, he defends the one area of Romney's record and positions that most Americans are the most turned off by. For some odd reason, I'm not at all surprised that he would choose to defend Romney's oft criticized business record.  It's actually quite consistent with Paul's politics, his take on Ayn Rand, and his libertarian ideals.  The irony is, how many Catholics who have trashed the Ayn Rand approach to our economic system, or have spent the last couple years attacking Capitalism and the Free Market for its rather Darwinian tendencies, see Paul as a knight in shinning armor.  Oh, they admit he's not perfect, but my how they trash anyone other than Paul for holding in moderation many of the views that Paul holds in the extreme.  Politics does create strange bedfellows, that's for sure.

Stocks continue to climb!

As unemployment and inflation continue to devour the American consumer.  How is this possible?  Well, I'm no economist.  By my guess has been for some time that, for all those decades companies begged us to 'Buy American', Americans forgot to ask those companies to 'Stay American.'  With shipping jobs overseas for slave wages, in addition to the exploding markets in places like India and China who, combined, have a potential market in excess of 6 times that of the United States, most companies no longer need the American worker to work in order to rake in the big bucks.  In fact, sometimes if wages are low or benefits are being cut, it might be just the thing to help the average Wall Street investor line his or her pockets with the misfortune of the Main Street American.  This article on The Lookout, not the best source I admit, seems to quote some folks who at least somewhat agree.  We'll see.  But it's nice to know that, while most Americans are struggling with gas prices, grocery prices, unemployment, and diminishing benefits, our Wall Street execs are bringing in unprecedented profits for themselves.  

Toys R Us appears to heart money more than family or tradition

It looks to me like Toys R Us has made it clear that there is no god but money, and the bottom line is its profit (a little wordplay there, if you don't mind).  As the increasing intolerance of anything that doesn't let to net financial gain creeps into our commercialism society, the glaring problem behind a financial theory based only on the bottom line is becoming clear.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  Capitalism without a heart and soul, or dare I say a Christian foundation, is no better than Communism.  Well done Toys R Us.  I think we'll look elsewhere for our kids' toys this year.

Black Thursday?

So I caught the tail end of a story on CNN this morning talking about the slow creep of greed by our retail industry.  Apparently, more stores are beginning to open earlier, and earlier, and earlier on Thanksgiving.  Or rather, that annual celebration of evil racist genocidal murders butchering hapless fowl in order to applaud their rape of a pristine and Utopian paradise.  Given that Thanksgiving is, almost by definition, an affront to the sensitivities of our Big Politically Correct Brother, the dogmas of post modernism, and the teachings of Multi-Culturalism, I figure it has about thirty years of life left, if that.  Oh, there will be something there.  Something around the holiday formerly known as Thanksgiving to officially tell us it's time to shop, buy, get, and consume.  Already the notion of giving thanks [to God] has been dispensed with, replaced by some abstract notion of thankfulness during a time of family celebrations.  Of course family itself is being redefined as quickly as possible, and the notion of thanks almost assumes that I didn't have it coming to me in the first place.  Having long ago dealt Easter the death blow of modernity, and cast the shepherds and wise men into the trash heap to make way for our yearly orgy of consumerist greed, I can't help but see Thanksgiving as next on the chopping block, if you'll pardon the imagery.  At the end of the day, Darwinian Capitalism, greed without a heart and soul, is no better or safer than Communism.  America: worshipping drugs, sex, and money.  But the greatest of these is money.