While Many Things You See And Read Are Lies….Not Everything You See And Read Is A Lie

While you should not believe everything you see and read….

Nor should you assume that everything you see and read is a lie.

Regretfully, figuring out what is true, and what is not true is not always this easy.

( Photos copyright 2011 Neil Aquino.)

Just As Ayn Rand Took Social Security, Have You Seen Any Conservative Sacrifice Anything?

Does it surprise you at all that the novelist Ayn Rand accepted Social Security benefits?

(Above–Ayn Rand looking on as Franklin Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act in 1935. Ms. Rand is glad about what she is seeing because she is going to take the money.)

Ms. Rand talked about rugged individualism in her novels, but she took the government money when it suited her purposes.

Ms. Rand fits in well with today’s fiscal chicken hawks.

Have you seen any Republican/Tea Party voters refuse government benefits? Have you seen Republican voting government employees volunteer to give up their job so budgets can be balanced? Have you seen any Tea Party backers organizing volunteer parties to build roads and maintain public parks so the role of government can be scaled back?

We’ve not seen any sacrifice at all. What we’ve seen is an attack on children, the sick, the poor, and anybody else who reminds bullying people of human frailty.

What a bunch of lies from the right.

Have Republicans Taken Over North Korea?—It Is Obama’s Fault

North Korea has lobbed shells at South Korea.

Two South Korean marines were killed and many houses were destroyed.

(Above–North Korean soldiers peering into South Korea. Like you and I, these troops in the picture are people in a world they did not create.)

This took place on Yeonpyeong Island. This is not the first conflict between the two Koreas over this island.

President Obama has said that the United States will help defend South Korea if that is what is required.

With all this trouble, I found myself wondering if Mitch McConnell and John Boehner had taken over North Korea.

We already know the Republican Party wants the economy to fail as long as President Obama might get the credit for things going better.

We also see with the START Treaty that Republicans will undermine our foreign policy  for no other reason but to offer up opposition.

A New Korean War could be used to go after President Obama in many ways—

* President Obama could be blamed for failing to keep the peace.

* When focusing on war strategy, the President could be attacked for not working on job creation.

* The need to fund the New Korean War could be used as a pretense to further gut the social safety net.

* Munitions blasted into the air during the war could be blamed for climate change— Though even better for this purpose would be an exchange of nuclear weapons.

* Both North Korea and South Korea are in Asia. Since many Muslims live in Asia and since Obama is a Muslim, the New Korean War would be the fault of Muslims like Obama.

* And, of course, a New Korean War would show that this is the right time for tax cuts. The fact that the sun rises in the morning is also a reason for tax cuts.

The Republican party is very clever to take over North Korea. They will no doubt be able to cause a lot of trouble for President Obama while running North Korea.

Beyond hassling Mr. Obama, it has been more than 7 years since Republicans lied to start a war. I’m certain they feel it is time to start a new war under false pretenses.

Here is some basic history of the Korean War. A well-reviewed book on the Korean War is David Halberstam’s The Coldest Winter.

Here are facts and  history about North Korea from the BBC.

Here are facts and history about South Korea from the BBC.

(Above–American troops in the Korean War. The killing goes on and on in this part of the world. My father was a medic in the Korean War. I’m certain he saved many lives.)

When The Mayflower Landed In West Texas—In Texas You Can Teach Schoolchildren Nearly Anything At All

As many know from following the news about the Texas State Board of Education, it is okay to teach Texas schoolchildren nearly any type of wrong information.

Evolution is a crock and Thomas Jefferson was not a significant participant in U.S. history–This is what you can learn in our Texas public schools under the new standards.

Far right-wing ideologues have taken control of the Texas Board.  As a result, kids in Texas are not getting a clear view of the facts as they really are in the world.

Why would employers want to hire people educated in such a way?

Above is a picture illustrating how the landing of the Mayflower is taught here in Texas.

Here is the lesson as I am nearly sure it is being instructed—

“When the Mayflower landed in West Texas (See the cactus?), the Samuel Slater bobble head got out of the ship and was greeted by a Care Bear.”

In Texas, you can teach our kids anything at all. It’s like a Wild West of education.

You can teach anything you want so as long as you don’t get to close to what is actually the truth.

Money Does Indeed Grow On Trees

I bought the Texas Lottery instant ticket you see above, called Money Tree, because it confirmed my long-held suspicion that money does in fact grow on trees.

I think it is great that the State of Texas sells to its people a lottery ticket called “Money Tree.”

Money is easy to come by!

I wonder if the money on the money tree has grown on the tree like leaves, or if it became stuck to the tree after falling from the sky.

Poor people play the lottery more than other folks. States know this when they establish lotteries. But setting up a lottery is an easier way to raise revenue than taxing the people who would most able to afford paying taxes.

It Was Always A Lie That Public Money To Build Stadiums For Reds And Bengals Would Help Downtown Cincinnati

When hundreds of millions of dollars in public funding was approved in the late 1990’s for new stadiums for the Cincinnati Reds and the Cincinnati Bengals, the public was told that these new stadiums would help revitalize Downtown Cincinnati.

When you take a walk around Downtown Cincinnati, you know that this promise was not kept. Downtown is no better, and quite possibly worse, than when the stadiums were built.

Though the fact is that the public money was always about helping the Reds and Bengals and never about the larger community.

Imagine if the public money had been spent to help people buy homes or get health insurance or go to school.