Epitaph

Stalking ex-girlfriend
Idaho man tosses used
condoms on her lawn.

The other day when my mind was idling along as it is wont to do I suddenly came up with what I thought would be a suitable epitaph: Boy, Was I Stupid! No I don’t mean I was stupid to come up with an epitaph, I mean that’s it, my epitaph. Of course I then realized that as I wish to be cremated in the least expensive manner I wouldn’t have a tombstone to put it on. Perhaps I’ll have a skywriter hired to spell it out in the heavens. Anyway, in the meanwhile I keep having some really stupid ideas. I guess they are stupid because I don’t believe anyone would take them seriously.

For example, it occurs to me that if we really wished to make prescription drugs more affordable it would be relatively easy to do. If we simply made it illegal for them to advertise drugs on TV, something that is totally unnecessary, but that they spend billions on every year, no doubt drugs would become much less expensive. Whatever happened to the simple idea that doctors prescribe the drugs you need without having to have you ask them about them all the time? I’m sure you have all seen the virtually unlimited ads asking you to “Ask your doctor if you need x, or y, or a,b,c, or whatever.” You know, if you have something bothering you health-wise you should see your doctor and he tells you what you should try, just like the good old days before all this nonsensical advertising for drugs people don’t need for ailments that are sometimes invented as an excuse to manufacture another drug. Similarly, we got along fine for years without liquor advertisements on TV, so why did they begin again? Why should there be anything like tobacco or liquor ads on TV in the first place?

Similarly, it occurs to me that vast amounts of energy could be saved by the simple step of making it illegal for buildings, especially skyscrapers, to leave their lights on all night long. I’m sure you’ve seen cities at night with every huge building lit up for no apparent reason. Could it be the case that 24 floors of a building could all be burglarized at once? Wouldn’t it be cheaper and probably more efficient to have a night watchman? Probably many building both leave all their lights on and have a night watchman. What do I know?

Then there is the constant Israeli/Palestinian problem. This is pretty widely regarded as the source of most of the conflict in the Middle East and it has been dragging on for years. I see today that Netanyahu has announced that parts of the West Bank will be “Israel’s forever.” Given the fact that the West Bank is acknowledged to belong to the Palestinians this does not seem entirely reasonable and is in violation of all past agreements and etc. The Israelis are also demanding a permanent military presence in any Palestinian state, a sure killer of any potential negotiations for such a state. It would seem to my simple mind that Obama could simply say to the Israelis, shape up and cooperate or you will no longer receive any aid, military, financial, political, or otherwise from the U.S. It is surely clear by now that Israel has no intention of ever seriously negotiating with the Palestinians, does not want a Palestinian state, and continues to steal more and more Palestinian land and water. The entire world knows this, but no one, least of all the U.S., which could solve the problem, does so. I realize this is not a simple as it sounds, but nothing worth doing is ever entirely simple and sometimes everyone has to bite the bullet and make the best of things. Not so, the Israelis, who have been allowed to ride roughshod over International Law since the beginning.

The Supreme Court (if it can even be considered a court any longer) has come up with the most god-awful decision ever, or certainly since Dred Scott. As it was the same court that illegally gave the Presidency to George W. Bush, it is now completely obvious that the court has become political and is doing things it should not be able to do. As the only way to get rid of a Supreme Court Justice, as far as I know, is impeachment, that is what should be done. I don’t see anyone promoting impeachment, instead suggesting ways to change the laws to reverse the decision or get around it in some way. This, I believe, is not going to change the present composition of the court, which is the basic problem. I don’t know what will eventually happen, but you can be pretty sure it won’t solve the problem. Simple solutions do not seem to make sense to anyone but me (I guess that’s why I’m so stupid).

Surely the “war” in Afghanistan could be solved easily. The President could simply announce it was a terrible mistake by the previous administration, withdraw our troops, and offer whatever other assistance the Afghans might desire (that we clearly owe them). Or, conversely, the Congress could simply cut off any further funds for that ridiculous enterprise, but of course neither of these things will ever happen, they are apparently solutions far too difficult for our leaders to comprehend (and they might upset all the war profiteers).

As near as I can tell, there are no problems facing the U.S. that could not be solved if someone had the will to solve them. But as no one seems to have the will they will not be solved. I guess simple things are just too complex, even though complex things can often be simple. I confess I wonder now if anyone has any idea just what the hell it is they are doing (and I fear they do not).
LKBIQ:
Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.
Lao-tzu

TILT:
There are about 4000 species of cockroaches.