SEX!!

Now that I have your attention let us talk about…okay sex.  Specifically, sex scandals.  This is a fascinating topic because it is the only legal way left to kill a king. Don’t believe me?  Think about every politician from the last fifty years who resigned from office (Nixon don’t count) and if you can name one which was not the result of a sex scandal then you get a cookie.  Anyone?  I’m sure there are a few who have resigned because of corruption or fraud but they are not the ones you remember.  Embezzling money from public funds is not as sexy as getting caught accidently tweeting a picture of your junk to all of your followers.  This has become the biggest breach of ethics for a politician to commit, but why?  No politician was forced to resign over the collapse of the economy in 2008 or for voting for the resolution to invade Iraq in 2003 by using misleading and false intelligence (Oh burn! What a timely joke). 

 In a recent episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, Bill’s mid show guest was former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner aka Carlos Danger.  They of course mentioned his sex scandal, resignation from office, and his losing bid for Mayor of New York City.  Bill made a point how sex scandals should not be an issue and we should not be focusing on politicians personal lives.  Bill then mentioned how we keep losing smart politicians to scandals and a few politicians he mentioned were Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and Eliot Spitzer.  Let’s pump the brakes for a second because I have a thought.  Maybe politicians step away from office for various criminal and immoral reasons but the scandal is the smokescreen designed to fool us.  To turn the tables and ridicule us for judging them.  Let’s unzip this and get to the meat of…what did I just say?  I will try again and look at the recent examples I mentioned earlier to show why the problem is not always sex.  I will grab this by the haunches and get to the bottom of…sigh.  I guess Freud was right. 

 I am going to quickly get rid of the old dogs mentioned earlier; Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy.  Obviously, Prez Billy Jeff did not resign from office but the fallout from his affair with a White House intern effectively destroyed whatever political clout he had left in his second term.  Putting this in perspective, Clinton was overwhelmingly voted into office and the Democratic Party was in control of both houses of Congress.  Fast forward to 1996, the Republicans are in control of Congress and Bill Clinton became the first president to undergo impeachment proceedings since Andrew Johnson.  At this point, Bill Clinton must be pissed the TV show Scandal is not based on a true story.  Ted Kennedy was also mentioned on Real Time but he clearly stayed in office till his death in 2009.  Teddy was described as forever acting like a drunken frat boy and is probably the reason why he was unable to run for President in 1972 and 1976 because his personal life would kill any chance.  I respectfully disagree with this and all I have to say is Chappaquidick. ‘Nuff said.

 Arguably the two biggest political sex scandals of the last decade involved former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner.  Mark Sandford would have made the cut if it was not for the fact he was legitimately in love with his mistress, married her, and won a seat in the congressional district where his political career began.  Mark’s hike off the beaten path actually worked in his favor and is living proof that sex alone is not always the real scandal.  

How about we start with age before beauty (which is which in this scenario?) and talk about the “luv guv”, Eliot Spitzer.  A highly popular New York state Attorney General, Governor, and widely expected to be one of the ranking contenders for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 2008.  At least he was until his unusual banking habits led federal law enforcement to his rabbit hole.  Spitzer’s activities led to his indictment and the indictment of several employees of the Emperor’s Club in New York City.  The Emperor’s Club was considered by many to be the highest paid escort service in the world and catered to the most influential people in entertainment, industry, sports, politics, and even royalty.  Spitzer was known as Client #9 in the account book of the service and you know others were named as well.  Think about it, he inadvertently brought down this escort service and simultaneously pissed off the most powerful people in the world.  Spitzer bumble scooted his way into enforcing law without order. 

Finally, let me say a few things about former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner and his alter ego, Carlos Danger. 

The name's Dangah. Carlosh Dangah.

 

There has been a millenniums worth of blogs, articles, and tweets about the adventures of Carlos Danger and the Lost House Seat.  His indiscretions have been covered from every angle on every news and entertainment show in this hemisphere.  You can read his texts to certain women while he was in office and running for mayor of New York City at your own leisure.  Personally, I find them strange and confusing which means they are the hottest things I have ever read. 

Whoops! My shirt fell off.

 

As amusing as those stories were it is now time to explain why everyone who believes sex was the primary factor was wrong.  Bill Clinton’s fall from grace and impeachment proceedings was because he lied under oath to a congressional committee.  We can argue all day if this is the business Congress should be involved in (Nope. Not even a little bit) but this is the fun of politics.  They can determine what they investigate and waste time on.  Teddy had a party boy reputation which would not have slowed him down if he had run for president.  The Chappaquidick event by itself would not have slowed him down but both his reputation and the scandal were a fatal stumbling block.  The American people were willing to accept Jack Kennedy’s shenanigans because he represented a new youthful generation and he was a genuine war hero.  Robert Kennedy was a war hero as well and had a stellar reputation.  What this means is that the people would not have accepted a younger Kennedy brother who had not proven himself at anything except being a Kennedy and a human distillery. 

You cannot talk about the rise and fall of Eliot Spitzer without mentioned the elephant in the room; prostitution.  It does not matter what your opinion is on the subject.  Does not matter if you think it should be illegal for moral or ethical reasons.  Does not matter if you think it should be legal because it is a matter between two consenting adults or regulation will make the business safer.  The only fact that matters is that currently, it is illegal.  Also, Sptizer is a hypocrite and terrible with finances.  Spitzer made the push from Attorney General to Governor because of a high profile bust on a different New York escort service that he led and vigorously prosecuted.  What got him caught with his hand in the honey pot (I can’t stop at this point can I?) was a $15,000 withdrawal from his bank account to pay for a weekend with an escort which was a violation of the Banking Secrecy Act.  The financial watchdog of New York got caught making a stupid financial transaction.  How many lives and careers did he destroy to become governor and why are we to blame because he got caught doing the same thing? 

As for Anthony Weiner, he did one thing wrong and it was not sending pictures of his genitals to random women.  Let me explain.  He did not have sex with any of these women and never cheated on his wife (that we know of).  This situation is embarrassing and disgraceful for a Congressman and that was it.  This situation did prove one thing, Anthony Weiner is a coward.  He did nothing which required him to step down from office.  He played the same old game where you step down, beg for forgiveness, and then resurrect your character and career.  Shockingly, it did not work.  He left office because it was easy.  Out of office he began blaming the public for thinking about his personal life and tried to guilt New Yorkers into making him mayor of New York City but they saw through his arrogance and he lost.  For that, he is a coward who showed his true colors. 

If you did not know any of the information above other than boys will be boys, do not feel bad.  No one ever remembers anything beyond the headlines and people love a good sex scandal.  Hell, I could not even get past the second paragraph without devolving into a drooling monkey.  When a story like this breaks our minds immediately go to the juicy parts, the media plays on it, and scandalized politicians try to play it to their advantage.  Keep your minds open next time and see what they are really being chastised for and I guarantee it is not always who they are boffing on the side.  If you will excuse me, I am going to put my shirt back on and get some real work done.  

Common Notions

I have been reading ancient philosophy the last few days because I have that kind of time.  What sparked this personal revival, if you will, was a past discussion I had with a professor of mine in graduate school.  The chair of the department would teach a course in the summer titled, Advanced Research and Statistics.  The purpose was to make students better researchers and how to use a statistics program.  One of the course readings was, “The Philosophy of Research”.  The purpose of the reading was to show how the rational investigation of questions about existence, knowledge, and ethics is essential to research regardless of the topic.  Hang on; I’m coming to my first point. 

The discussion with the chair involved the writings of Plato.  He theorized that Plato had proven the existence of God over two thousand years ago.  Plato accomplished this through logical reasoning.  No fancy mysticism or prophecy, just logical reasoning.  Plato was able to logically prove the existence of God by asking himself two questions.  Just two questions and some down home logic.  Plato began by asking himself:

1.       Is there a God?

A perfectly sane and logical question.  I am going out on a limb and stating that every person who has ever existed has questioned the existence of God or of some divine creator.  We would not be human if we did not ask this question at least once.  Plato followed up with his second question:

2.       Am I God?

He began his reasoning with the idea that if you have to ask then you cannot afford it.  If you are questioning your own divinity then you are probably not a God.  Plato reasoned that because he is able to ask these questions and think on these matters, then he must be part of an imperfect situation.  If there is an imperfect situation then, logically, there must be a perfect situation and if there is a perfect situation then there must be a perfect being.  Guess who Plato theorized was the perfect being? 

The remembrance of this discussion got my creative juices flowing and I decided to re-familiarize myself with the classics.  Eventually, I stumbled onto Euclid’s Elements.  Euclid was a Greek mathematician from around 300 B.C. and his book details early mathematic principles and axioms (yes, ladies I am single).  His works are still used today because we still hold them to be true.  The first book of Euclid’s Elements is titled Common Notions and one of these notions set off a mind grenade in my brain.  Common notion one states, “Things which equal the same thing also equal one another”.  By now it should be obvious what I am really talking about.  Yup, gay marriage.  Ha!  Didn’t see that coming did you?!

I will make this quick and I will not be too preachy.  There is a raging debate going on in the U.S. Supreme Court and across the nation on the topic of gay marriage.  Most people do not change their minds based solely on logic, but, I am going to lay out a logical argument without appealing to raw emotion, prejudice, or guilt. 

There is an important passage from the Declaration of Independence which is the basis of our society and legal system.  The passage states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”.  Remembering Euclid’s first common notion, let’s loop this through the current issue.  If you believe in the premise of America, that all men are created equal, then we are all deserving of equal protection under the law.  The arguments before the Supreme Court are discussing if gay marriages can be recognized under federal law which would determine tax statuses, inheritance, last wills and testament, and wealth transference.  That should be the entire argument.  No morals, religion, or family values.  If you agree that all are created equal then we are all deserving of equal protection under the law and no one idea or religion should be favored above all else.  That should solve this dilemma and should be the sole basis for any argument on the topic.  You are welcome America and where is my Nobel?

Above The Law if you are Out For Justice but we are all On Deadly Ground

Let me start off by saying I am not mad.  I am just disappointed.  When I last spoke with you about gun control (in relation to the shooting at Sandy Hook elementary) I know I mentioned that something needs to be done.  In hindsight, I should have been clearer on what is needed from all of you.  It should have occurred to me that giving the general public a blank slate and letting them run wild with it was a bad idea.  Left to their own devices, people tend to do irrational things; the shake weight comes to mind.  There is a lot of uncertainty and fear right now.  People are worried about the safety of children and themselves in this country and most people feel inadequate right now.  People feel like the world is out of control right now and some are willing to do anything to feel like they have control, but, it is just an illusion. 

People are reacting differently to the school shooting in Sandy Hook and most of them have legitimate concerns and intentions of trying to do some good.  Sheriff Joe Arpaio is not one of them.  Why is that do you ask?  Maricopa County Sheriff’s office has a posse program that is made up of volunteers and who perform various law enforcement functions.  They do not draw a pay check, but, they are under the counties insurance plan and provide for their own guns and handcuffs which can add up to two thousand dollars.  Recently, Sheriff Joe has been using his posse to patrol schools within his jurisdiction and have orders to only intervene in the event of an active shooter situation.  Sheriff Joe has called for more people in the county to sign up for that purpose specifically and they have been undergoing training for a school shooting.  A group of armed men (I haven unable to determine if women are members of the school guard posse) with nothing to do during working hours in schools, what could go right?  To those of you reading this who think I am being an elitist dick; keep in mind this group of volunteer armed school guards have been receiving weapons and active shooter training over the course of a single weekend.  It takes ten thousand acts of repetition for an action to become muscle memory and a weekend training class is not long enough.  Oh and I almost forgot, they are receiving this training from Steven Seagal. 

Yes, Steven Seagal, with the full support of Sheriff Joe, has been training his school guard posse on how to take down a shooter in a school.  Seagal is a member of the Maricopa County posse as well as a reserve member of other Sheriff’s departments in New Mexico and Texas.  He resigned his status as a reserve deputy with Jefferson Parish Sheriffs and what a lucky break for Sheriff Joe that he was available.  Naturally, many people are not pleased with this publicity grab by Sheriff Joe and Seagal but they have stated that anyone opposed to this program or Seagal being involved is an “embarrassment to the human race”.  Embarrassing myself is a source of pride with me and here are three reasons why this circus act is a bad idea:

1)       Steven Seagal is an actor, not a Navy SEAL

Whether or not you enjoy his films is subjective and pointless.  “Hey buddy, he has been in law enforcement for twenty years”!  Seagal has never graduated from any police academy, he has no peace officer certification, and his position with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office was ceremonial.  When questioned on his qualifications, Seagal stated he has put in hundreds of thousands if not millions of hours into his weapons training.  Millions of hours of weapons training sounds convincing, if you are an idiot.  One million hours is equivalent to one hundred-fifteen years.  This doesn’t sound unreasonable coming from Seagal since he has claimed supernatural abilities before. 

2)      What floats to the top is not always cream

An all volunteer force rising up from the ashes of a crisis to defend freedom and protect the weakest among us is an ideal American trait.  This harkens back to our militia days during the Revolution.  Unfortunately, the standards for this type of service have not aged well.  Anyone seeking membership to the Maricopa County posse must be at least eighteen years old and possess a valid Arizona driver’s license.  That seems to be the only criteria because a CBS investigation discovered that many members of the posse have criminal charges including assault and battery, domestic abuse, attempted sexual assault, impersonating law enforcement officers, and drug charges(dealing and selling drugs such as cocaine).  How could people like this pass a background check and be given law enforcement authority? 

The county regulations on the posse program states that you cannot have committed a misdemeanor or a felony within twelve months of applying or record of improper personal conduct.  A background like that would not allow you to become a sworn police officer and criminal convictions of the kind I mentioned earlier would prohibit someone from even possessing a firearm.  Maybe I am being too judgmental and these are just acts of youthful indiscretion.  We all make mistakes and no one should be judged their whole life for one or two felonies.  This might be their way of repaying society for what they did and maybe they are not all that bad.  I mean it is not like there are members of this posse who are child molesters.  Wait, there are? F@#*!  It takes a lot of commitment to guard a school that you are not allowed within five hundred yards of (I would like to thank Stephen Colbert for that joke). 

3)       This should not be a publicity stunt.  Real lives are at stake here

If the thought of a roving band of criminal guards, who were trained by Steven Seagal, patrolling schools is not scary enough, maybe this will finally convince you.  America is a huge country with over one hundred thousand schools and would require about twice as many guards.  The United States has averaged ten deaths attributable to school shootings over the last ten years.  Hundreds of thousands of poorly trained guards interacting with millions of students would not take much for incidents to happen that would beat that average.  The chances of incidents such as guards misinterpreting a student’s actions (i.e. a student being shot for having a toy gun), a fight where a student grabs a guards gun, an actual school shooting where kids are killed in the crossfire, and a crazy guard going on a shooting spree would increase exponentially.  This may sound like worst case scenario, but, lack of background checks or simply not caring would make this reality.  The cure is deadlier than the disease in this case. 

Heading back to Arizona for a second, what if schools do not want these armed school guards to be patrolling in their neighborhood?  Sheriff Joe’s official statement is he will let them patrol and he will do what he wants as long as it falls under his jurisdiction.  Reading between the lines, “This is my county and if you don’t like it then you can lick my sack”. 

People feel vulnerable in light of recent events and they want a serious response to these serious problems.  We are not going to get serious on this issue if publicity hounds like Sheriff Joe and Steven Seagal keep extending their fifteen minutes by putting school children in danger.  Unfortunately, Sheriff Joe will probably die in office before he is replaced but we can do something about Seagal.  I am calling on everyone to buy copies of his movies so studios will green light projects for him to star in.  With your help, he may go back to being a legend in his own mind and we can decide what is in the best interest of our schools and our children. 

Birther Control

Honorary Texan.  A good friend of mine from college and a native of Texas enjoys calling me that.  He once said, if I had not told him that I was originally from California then he would have just assumed that I was another southern boy like him and his friends.  I attended graduate school in Arlington and have been living in the Lone Star State for a little under four years now.  To hear that from someone who is fiercely loyal to a state that takes pride in something like this, I choked up a little.  I love living in Texas and I love the people.  This is why it is so aggravating when someone makes me lose faith in a state I refer to as home.  Who is the culprit that is making every Texan look like a backwards dumbass?  This person is State Representative Bill Zedler (R-Arlington).  What did he do which is so aggravating and an embarrassment to the entire state?  He introduced a bill on January 23^rd.  No big deal, right?  Wrong.  Wrong.

H.B. 650 states that in order to be placed on the ballot in Texas to run for President and Vice President of the United States, they must provide the Texas Secretary of State with a birth certificate from the original issuing authority and proof of residence and this will be a public record.  Wow.  Just when you thought all the birther nonsense was over and we could all return to normalcy.  The more things change the more they stay the same.  Let me Tarantino this by starting from the end and working my way backwards.  The birther movement and this bill are racist.  Nothing more.  At this point you must be rolling your eyes but deep down inside, you know I am right.  Zedler is a Tea party politician and they seem to be the only ones keeping this idea alive.  Naturally, most Democratic Party members and Progressive groups in Texas and around the nation are outraged at this, but, it is interesting to note that even most moderate Republicans are shocked at this as well.  The general consensus is Bill is a day late and a dollar short.  Bill states, “I think there is a minimum standard of information that ought to be required of all candidates”.  All candidates?   Really?  If it is for all candidates then why does this only pertain to people running for President and Vice President of the United States and not every candidate in Texas? 

Zedler has assured us this bill has nothing to do with Obama but he did introduce this bill two days after the Presidential Inauguration.  Ah Ha! A Clue!  This whole movement came about because of the election of the first African American President.  It was never an issue before Obama and he is the only one it was aimed at.  No one was demanding to see the birth certificate of John McCain in 2008 or after.  I can feel people screaming at their screens right now.  Why would they check his birth certificate?  John’s a war hero who would probably bleed on the flag to ensure that those stripes stay red, but, he was not born in the United States.  That’s true; I did not just pull this fact out of my ass.  His parents were American citizens and he was born on a U.S. military base in the Panama Canal Zone.  Military bases in foreign countries are not considered sovereign U.S. soil.  McCain is an American citizen because his parents were and I do not doubt his citizenship or his devotion to his country.  My point is why is his citizenship more sacred than the Presidents?  What is the primary difference between McCain and Obama?  Is it because one is a Republican and the other is a Democrat?  This is doubtful and the fact that it has been definitively proven that Obama was born in America just makes it seem like this is about race. 

Many republicans and tea party politicians are trying to change the game so they win more elections.  Gerrymandering did not work and now they are trying to introduce new state laws that would award electoral votes based on congressional district results and not majority votes.  Do people really think that candidates for President are not vetted and determined if they are American Citizens?  Candidates for national office are constantly vetted by the FBI, other government agencies, and private citizens working on campaigns to find anything that would disqualify them from office.  This is the greatest country on Earth and there are ways of keeping just anybody from running for President. 

Zedler has said this bill is not about Obama, but, this would not be the first time he has not been honest.  This bill is pointless and just provides another layer of unnecessary government bureaucratic red tape.  I thought the point of the Republicans and the Tea party was to keep these kinds of intrusive government laws from happening, but, I guess I am wrong.  This bill would provide politicians with ammunition to hurt their opponents.  If you oppose this bill then what are you hiding?  Why won’t you turn over these documents if you are an American citizen?  I doubt this bill will pass and if it does than in the future there will be a Supreme Court decision overturning this law.  In the meantime, this bill harms candidates and pushes Texas even close to turning into a blue state in 2016.  What this bill really does is address certain groups of people who may want to run for office and tells them no matter how much you accomplish or how high you ascend, you will never be accepted.  You will never be one of us. 

Too soon to discuss unless your plan is to do nothing at all.

I had awoken early this morning because I had so little to do and so much time to get it done.  Wait a damn minute, scratch that and reverse it.  Much better.  My plan was to eat a healthy breakfast and exercise without feeling rushed.  I do not like to be rushed in the morning, so that means I have to wake up early or shelve my entire day.  What the hell, I’ll get all the sleep I need when I am riding the midnight train to slab city.  Today was an important day because it was the second inauguration of President Barack Obama.  I made sure to get my morning routine fully completed before the President was publicly sworn in so I could watch history being made and get my work done for the day at the same time.  Multitasking is a big part of life and the most successful people are the ones who can walk and chew gum at the same time.  This was a big day in history, beyond the obvious.  President Obama is the third consecutive President to be sworn in to a second term.  The only other time in history this has occurred is with the successive presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe.  I mention this because there will be a quiz afterwards.

Today also happens to be Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  Today is a milestone day in history and this fact was not lost on me.  Nor did it appear to be lost on the President.  He choked up at the start of the oath of office and it was clear that the full magnitude of the moment had just hit him. His inauguration speech was a mix of solemnity and hope.  Change and Hope are no longer the watch words of this President, but, they are there.  They are underneath the surface but still the driving force of his agenda.  His speech talked about the progress we had made as a country and the progress we still need to make.  It was fitting for this day because it echoed the legacy of Dr. King, that we still have a ways to go but we can get there.  United we are stronger than divided and that if the lowest of us succeeds then we all succeed.  Out of many, one.  It was a king hell bastard of a speech. 

During the speech, the President discussed a recent event which shocked and outraged the entire nation and has brought forth more public discourse than any other event in recent history.  The President discussed the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary on December 14^th of last year.  Jesus.  Was it really just over a month ago that this happened?  The magnitude of what happened and the aftermath feels like it was much longer.  We’ve all heard how this individual (who shall rename nameless) killed his mother as she slept, then proceeded to the elementary school with an assault rifle and two pistols, and murdered 26 people before ending his own life.  The events that transpired are known to everyone and are too horrifying for me to recount in a detailed basis.  Besides, that is not the point.  The point is that this is now part of our political and societal discourse.  It has become the primary domestic policy issue for the Obama administration and will be outlined in his State of the Union address, according to more knowledgeable people than myself.  The problem with this point is at first, many people refused to discuss it because it was too soon.  What followed was even worse.  We can no longer have a discussion in this country without people harassing others or without threatening violence themselves. 

I have no desire to state my opinion on the events that transpired.  What I wish to convey is that we have not had a sane, logical discussion about options.  The public discourse on this tragedy ranges from logical to insane.  We can have discussions about public health, the state of mental healthcare in this country, and the influence of media and violent video games in our culture, but, when the topic moves to guns and gun control, look out!  You cannot utter the phrase gun control without being shouted down as a leftist pansy that should go back to Nazi Germany.  There has not been a debate about guns in our culture because one side is adamantly opposed to the idea of gun control.  It is very hard to have a debate when one side is constantly accusing the other of using the graves of dead children as a political tool.  Both sides use this tactic but it seems to be alright on one side if they are using it to destroy any conversation about gun control. 

Last Tuesday, the President outlined a series of proposals given to him by an advisory council, headed by Vice President Biden, on gun control.  The idea was to put forth reasonable steps that that can be taken to reduce gun violence in America.  The proposals ranged from executive actions the president can do on his own to actions that Congress would need to create legislation for.  The top three things the President proposed:

1.       Universal background checks on all gun sales

2.      Ban on high capacity magazines

3.      Congressional reinstatement of the assault weapons ban.

With these proposals, people went ape shit.  The sale of assault weapons has skyrocketed and try finding ammunition anywhere now.  Gun sales in general are up because nuts jobs like Alex Jones and the NRA are screaming that King Obama is going to try and take away all of your guns.  Obama is being referred to as a tyrant and that we all need to stand up to him and his army because they will take our guns.  The biggest supporters of our military and who proudly flash their bumper stickers to prove it are also the people who believe we need to be armed to kill them when they turn on us.  People have also been going on television and spouting historical revisionist nonsense such as, if Jews in the Ghettos had guns then would the Holocaust have happened?  I have several questions related to these statements:

1.       Who believes that we should not have background checks for all gun sales?

2.      How is the President a tyrant when one of his proposals is politely asking this country’s legislative body to pass a law?

3.      If it took the collective militaries of the world and six years of warfare to stop Hitler then what chance would a small minority of Jews had if they were armed?

4.      If our government and military declares war on its citizens and moves in to disarm us, what tactical advantage does your AR-15 assault rifle have against an Apache helicopter or a Predator Drone armed with hellfire missiles?

None of this makes sense.  We cannot have a polite and logical discussion on the topic.  The bottom line is that we no longer trust each other.  Today, the President put it eloquently when he stated, “Our journey is not complete”.  The President was talking about protecting our citizens from gun violence on a day commemorating the life and work of Dr. King, who died before he saw the completion of his journey more than forty years ago.  How much longer do we have to wait?

I just fed my dogs dinner and it is making my stomach grumble.  I am thinking about dinner while I am trying to think of an ending for this piece.  I have been staring at my computer for the last hour trying to think of a suitable ending, but, I am failing.  Maybe this is too big and too complex for me to finish alone.  I will let the last great American poet finish this for me.  He penned this more than thirty years ago.   The population numbers are dated but what he wrote will outlive all of us:

“This may be the year when we finally come face to face with ourselves; finally just lay back and admit it-that we are really just a nation of 220 million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns, and no qualms at all about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable”.  –Hunter Thompson, 1973.