“Show me somebody who is always smiling, always cheerful, always optimistic, and I will show you somebody who hasn't the faintest idea what the heck is really going on.”   ―   Mike Royko As a child, I read Mike Royko everyday. In fact, I write here probably because of the influence Royko had on me. I can't imagine what might have happened had Royko (who might have been the greatest smart ass columnist of all time) lived in the days when computers spawned bloggers. For the record I believe I was born an optimist. In an effort to keep my sanity, I have turned into a cynic. It is my refuge against what is true and if there is anything I hate worse than a flaming liberal wanting to tell me how to live- It's an optimist denying the truth in favor of his or her own fantasy version- of how things are. I have known four dyed in the wool optimists. I can tell you with absolute certainty that I have hated all four of them. They are delusional creatures. These people

In the movie "Red", former spy John Malkovich's character is portrayed as a delusional and paranoid sort who thinks his former spy friends as well as himself, are being followed and watched. The characters in the movie treat Malkovich like a "nutter" up until such point- that Malkovich is exonerated- when suddenly his group of former spies are attacked by the people watching them. It's very difficult for people to grasp the idea of conspiracies. Throughout my lifetime, people have dismissed conspiracy talk as the venue of the mentally ill and paranoid. Unfortunately, at no other time in the history of this country, have I seen more conspiracies taking place. Perhaps the term collaboration is more palatable. Conspiracies occur for a variety of reasons but are always motivated by perceived needs. For example, if the few major oil producing companies want the most profit for their product- they have the money and motive to keep prices high- by conspirin

In 2009, I was well aware of what our government was becoming. Ever since the banking oligarch helped themselves to a couple trillion of taxpayer dollars with the help of a paid off Congress and President- things have become far worse albeit camouflaged for the time being. The trade off or camouflage came in the form of free money and food to help keep the mouth breathers and disposable class at bay, while re-inflating the stock market so that the people with real influence and clout would also shut up and fall in line. Government is learning, quite well, that you must keep the angry and hostile disposable class well fed and shut up. The elite just sit at a different table. It would be a great plan except for a couple of things. Mostly, you run out of money and printing capacity. And then the real ugly stuff happens. With all of this debt to pay and a miniscule number of elite to steal tax money from, all you can do is declare war on the big demographic- the debt slaves and serfs

Yesterday, the UK's Guardian broke the story that a 29 year old government contractor, Edward Snowden, was the man who snitched off the National Security Agencys' version of Spynet. http://news.yahoo.com/nsa-contractor-risks-steep-jail-time-data-leak-102058950.html His resume looks like a history of failure. High school dropout, college dropout, security guard, and then Information Technology whiz kid making 200k a year. I actually like that resume. That's a resume of a patriot. A kid who made the most of what he had by thumbing his nose at the credentials offered by Ivy league schools for a king's ransom. The government can't make a wage slave out of you if you don't buy into the school mortgage theory. Maybe, just maybe...Snowden is who he says he is. A patriot. This is what Spynet and the NSA can do. Both papers have published a series of top-secret documents outlining two NSA surveillance programs. One gathers hundreds of millions of U.S. phone

...and now we have one." A very funny video of a Jay Leno monologue.