What if?

What if Bush/Cheney and the neocons had not lied about WMDs and a relationship between Saddam and al Quaida in order to con us into a "war" with Iraq? What if they had said something like the truth: oil is the lifeblood of our economy. We must have oil and a reliable source of it. We do not ourselves have enough oil so we have to look elsewhere for it. Iraq is sitting on an enormous pool of oil. They are at the moment basically helpless, so we propose to invade them and take control of their oil. In ordinary language, we intend to steal their oil. Bush/Cheney and the neocons apparently must have believed that had they told the truth about their intentions the American public would not have agreed. What do you think? Historically we seem not to have had any qualms about taking over Mexican lands or the lands inhabited by American Indians or the Phillipines. We seem to think it is perfectly fine for the Israelis to steal Palestinian land. It clearly has to do with the way it is presented. You can't just say you are going to steal something. You have to say those who possess what you covet are evil, or dangerous, about to attack you, or even less than human. It seems to work every time. Thus it is that those terrible, evil, less than human, Muslim savages trying to defend their natural resources, are bad, bad, while we, who want their resources are good, good, good. Can you believe it? I suggest you believe it because that is what is happening in front of your eyes. Look at the last suggestions of the Baker Commission report about Iraqi oil.

The United States has more people in prisons than any other country on earth. Somewhere I saw that one of every thirty two people in the U.S. is incarcerated. We must be very bad people indeed. The percentage of black males in prison is so great (I forget what it actually is for the moment) you can only conclude that they are really bad people. It seems we just cannot build prisons fast enough to keep up with the offenders. We apparently spend more money at the moment on prisons than we do on Universities and Colleges. This is becoming a serious financial problem. There is a very simple (but for some unfathomable reason, unthinkable) solution. Legalise drugs, especially marijuana. Our laws having to do with this plant are, plain and simply put, totally absurd. They are so absurd that even having to say they are absurd is absurd. Our prisons would be more than adequate sans marijuana offenders and the black community might even have a chance at a better life. In fact, I strongly believe we would all be much better off if all drugs were made legal (as, for example, in the Netherlands). But as we are not likely to do anything sensible I guess we need to step up prison construction.

Where did the idea of pricing things at $1.95, 5.95, 10.95 and so on ever originate. Or similarly $9.99 , etc.? Is anyone deceived by such prices? Are they truly so interested in saving one or two cents that they think these are bargain prices. It is basically just a pain in the butt for everyone concerned, especially I should think for cashiers and bookeepers. One of our two grocery stores is constantly putting wine on sale. Sometimes you can save a dollar or two, or even more on certain wines. There are little tags that say how much you can save. Sometimes they actually have tags that say your are saving one cent! Is this not some form of madness? Like, what is the point? It probably costs them more than that just to print the tags. There are features of American culture that are just simply ridiculous. But I should not get started on that as I doubt I have enough time left to even begin such an analysis. I even have a simple way to conserve a great deal of energy - turn off the lights at night (especially in skyscrapers). Oh, well, what's the use?