(Edward Ruscha)
There was an Edward Ruscha exhibit that went through Orlando when I was younger. It was a rarity. Most of the exhibits that the Orlando Museum of Art would host were centered around Meso-American pottery. I do not kid here. It is well documented, by them. It is a vast and silent place where cracked pottery from the Mayans goes to live on without fanfare for the remaining, waning years of The Humanican race. The term derives from when all humans eventually submit and confess to being Americans.
I chose the image above for today's blog post because, for me, it evokes the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, without which this country might have been formed along very different lines. It is difficult to speculate, but there were several precarious, and sometimes arbitrary, factors that led to America becoming the country that it did.
But today's post is more about that country that it has become. The National Defense Authorization Act will very likely be passed by Barack Obama today. If you read the comments of our elected leaders concerning this act very carefully you will discern the problem. They are all denying that the bill grants the military the right to indefinitely function as a law enforcement agency within our borders. This "war" on terror now extends into and across this nation, as it already has others, and affects how and when the military can detain America citizens without due process and/or the right to a speedy trial. But wait, there's more... if you only worry about what it can do to our citizens...well, it grants itself much more room to act willfully and without question on "others."
A footnote was added to the bill stating that it in no way affects the current and existing laws concerning American citizens but one need only look at The Patriot Act to see that the tide of constitutional freedoms has flowed and now ebbs.
E pluribus peril.
I'm once and for all finally embarrassed for this country and wish that sometime in the very near future every lawmaker who voted first for The Patriot Act and now for this act will be tried as traitors. I do not kid at all with this. It is my sincere wish that the people who have destroyed the liberties of the constitution be imprisoned, and by the military.... My fingers slipped and I used the word "trial" in the first sentence of this paragraph. I meant only that they would be subject to a military tribunal, only if the forces-that-be deem it necessary. They are not worthy to serve because they do not understand the principles behind the doctrine that is the force keeping this country from being a despotic tyrannical empire. Do you see how naive I can be when I choose to be..... I meant, being a despotic tyrannical empire towards its own people.
This act places The National Guard Bureau Chief on The Joint Chiefs of Staff....!!! If any of you have had any doubts about the direction that this nation is going in terms of military rule then please consider, if you understand at all, what this adjustment means for all of us. The nation is at war and it is a purely ideological one but with immense implications about how we will live our lives here in the future. Your elected lawmakers are acting in an extremist fashion and directly against the founding document of the country, and they're doing so for your protection... Sound familiar ? It will no longer be an occasional occurrence that the military becomes involved in civilian affairs. In the past they only did so when there was a crisis of some sort, and they were there to presumably help. But military divisions operating within the borders of the country to effect arbitrary laws and force against suspected terrorists will soon become a commonplace event. We now live in the perpetuity of said crisis.
Ok, enough. I have seen the future.
"Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope." Interesting that the Supreme Court justices dress much like Jedi warriors and are tasked with a similar charge, to serve and protect the republic from conflict and political instability. I kid, of course, because this act that will be passed into law it is very, very serious. One can only hope now that the act will be questioned legally and that the case will make its way quickly to The Supreme Court on appeals where it will be shot down. Those 9 humans have the responsibility of deciding the constitutional legality of any and all matters that come before them and their verdict is final. All of my readers, please pray for Clarence Thomas to announce his retirement..... He has done as much damage as any one human should be allowed to.
Ok, again I quit, before The Department of Homeland Security dispatches a brigade of soldiers to question me both persuasively and indefinitely on what exactly I meant by questioning our crisis.
A person who questions a crisis, or creates one: a crisisist.
I love Wikipedia and have donated a little money to them to help them remain in business. It's a good starting point for basic internet research, with its crazy democratization of fact. But every now and then you come across a stated gem that could only be produced by the genius of the anonymous, semi-literate mob...
"The Vikings had first visited the America nearly five-centuries earlier that Colombus, and had made trips there since." from the Wikipedia article on Christopher Columbus
