Happy WHAT Day, now? o_O

I’m not here to harsh anyone’s buzz on a day of beer, bratwursts, and bothersome relatives, but a quick thought just crossed my mind.  Just how “Independent” are we as Americans?

I know that people used to get pretty nearly crucified for mentioning that the government might not be operating in our best interests back in George W. Bush’s days, but this is the presidency of Obama, right?  Times are different/changed, etc., etc. – right?

With NSA wire tapping, Guantanamo Bay still being open, the economy in the toilet, national debt on a rocket-ship to Planet Being-Owned-by-China, and certain Congressmen/women still saying that torture (any kind of torture) is a method that we should still be able to employ (as if it ever produces any worthwhile results)… I sincerely doubt it.

And if it weren’t bad enough that we surrender our civil rights every time we get on a fucking plane (Seriously, TSA?  You need full-body, nude X-rays of grandpa and grandma?  Trust me, dumbasses – we’ll take them out if they get terrorist-y.), not one in ten thousand people in this country are financially independent!  We struggle under a double yoke (Thanks for insisting on women in the workforce, feminist morons!  Now home loans can be expensive enough that we need two providers to pay for it… and it’s still overpriced!!), personal debt is at an all-time high, and true asset acquisition is reserved for only the richest of our citizenry.

But yeah… let’s relax with a beer and pat ourselves on the back for being the “best country in the world” – while our educational system is 17th in the world.  Honestly (and I’m being more blunt than I’d like to be), I give us three generations before we’re too stupid to defend ourselves properly.  Good news for me?  I’ll be dead by then.  However, it’s really shitty news for my kids – who will still be grandparent age.

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Look, folks – I may not have all the answers to America’s ills, but I’ve got quite a few.  Because I have to go to work early today, I’ll limit this to naming my favorites:

* STOP POLICING THE WORLD!  It’s fucking expensive, no one really wants our carriers in their harbors, and our forward presence is unnecessary.  The world doesn’t need a babysitter, and we don’t own the world (Congress – take note!).
* STOP DEFICIT SPENDING!  Look, Congressional assholes – most normal Americans have learned to spend within our means, why can’t you?!?  In fact, if you stopped spending about a billion or two short of our GDP each year, we might actually see our debt paid down in our lifetime.
* STOP INFRINGING ON OUR CIVIL RIGHTS!  You know what you’re doing – cut it out!  Benjamin Franklin said “Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither”, and he was fucking right.  Stop passing laws that you yourselves have no intention of ever being inconvenienced by, you jerks!

Those are the big three (to me).  Any true patriot would be concerned about them.  Even Thomas Jefferson urged us to have “entangling alliances with none”, and yet we are beholden to so many other nations these days.  It saddens me, but I can’t help feeling like we have become the very tyrannical king that we were originally trying to escape.

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Honestly, I didn’t mean to bring anyone down today.  For all its faults, I am still thankful to live in America.  I just want us to be vigilant, and continue the fight against tyranny (concentrating first on domestic tyranny before we saddle up to right the rest of the world’s wrongs) – so that we and our progeny until the end of time may also feel that Universal gratitude.