In reading many other blogs, I've noticed my blog differs in one very obvious way. I rarely talk about politics.
Well, allow me to set a few of my political beliefs down here, so as not to be "left out" of the general trend in the "blogger community".
I am an American. My direct ancestors are very clearly traceable to 3 important periods in my family's past. The citation for this is obtained from a geneology I purchased many years ago.
1. Immigration from the tumoultous times of the 17th century from France to Quebec. The genology places the three branches of the Chausse family that immigrated to The New World at around the year 1640.
2. Consolidation into the Anglo-Franco union that became Canada in the 18th and 19th centuries.
3. The desire for the younger generation of the late 19th century to seek a better life for their families. My line sought work in the bustling textile industries of New England at this time. Woonsocket, Rhode Island became a haven for immmigrant labor from Quebec due to the vast need for new workers and the growing community of French-Canadian immigrants to that region, allowing for a somewhat familiar footing into American life.
I still cry, to this day, at a good rendition of the National Anthem.
I was born in this country, in a state which, I arrogantly contend is more American than almost any other state for these reasons:
Rhode Island was one of the 13 original colonies which comprised the United States.
Of the those 13, it had been well-known as the most independent of all.
Rhode Island's colonial assembly declared independence from England well BEFORE the official Declaration of Independence ratified on July 4, 1776 by 2 YEARS...Rhode Island maintains it's independence date as May 4, 1774!
Rhode Island was the LAST state to sign the Constitution because it wanted to insure fully that it's individual rights would be preserved fully under the new nation, and, it is presumed many state rights that would have been relenquished prior to the "Rhode Island Delay" were reinstated because of this tactic.
Rhode Island was the first state to officially recognize the division between Church and State and the first to recognize that it's citizen's had the right to practice ANY religion (or no religion) they chose. Because of this Rhode Island was the birthplace of the first Baptist church (then considered radically new), the first synagogue of the Jewish faith in the New World and the harbor of many other persecuted or discriminated practices such as Wicca.
Although I live in Florida, because of the more favorable weather...I am still at heart, a Rhode Islander.
Like an old Yankee, I am independent to the core. I would rather die, in many circumstances, then ask help of others.
The Southern "hospitality" of using "Sir" and "Ma'am" are irritating and actually, to my ears, more condescending. To true Yankee's, even if they are elderly, calling them "Sir" or "Ma'am" is actually negative. I have known so many octegenerian "Jane Doe's" that would cring if you called them "Ma'am" or even "Mrs. Doe"...call them "Jane" if you want their respect. Yankee old-timers don't want you to "curtsey" to them like their Southern counterparts, apperently...they want to be a member of your group, whatever age bracket...so treat them as such! That is respect!
If someone calls me "Sir" more that 2 times, I'll let them know that it offends me. Blows the mind of the Southern kids who were "brought up" to "respect their elders"...no, like so many Southern errors, they were brought up, in a very slick, passive-aggresive mode to "put thier elders in their place" as non-essential, almost-dead entities. How wrong!
George W. Bush.
I have never felt as badly about an American President as I have about him. From the early stages of media coverage of his gaffs and blunders seeing him as a total buffoon, to the over-the-top handling of the 9/11 crisis and the ensuing years in which he would try to portray himself as a strong President leading the Nation into a "rightous war"...I just never, ever, bought it, and was amazed at how many others did.
Don't get me wrong. I am not the total bleeding heart liberal you may think because of my sexual oriention and religious beliefs.
In fact, in the '80's, despite disagreement with the way he handled the growing AIDS crisis (eh, he just wasn't well enough informed), I was a big supporter of Ronald Reagan.
When he gave his Evil Empire speech after the downing of Korean Airlines 007, I cried. I fully wanted us to punish the Soviets. They were the cause of so much of our misery. They should be wiped off the face of the Earth. I personally felt we should consider a "Pre-Emptive First Strike" against them with our nuclear missiles.
How naive of me.
But, the nationalistic spirit is hard to temper.
When I was in high school, my friend Steven Glasscock and I would use our study periods doing poli-sci, geo-political investigations in the library and try to postualte what trends were in the air and what was going to continue.
We both noticed, even then, the growing American GDP against the rest of the worlds nations.
Steven thought it would culminate in a crash sometime in the mid-eighties and the US lead would be reduced to more competitive numbers. I didn't agree. I saw, even then, the Soviet system for what it was, and any system built on it as critically impacted. The oil-rich nations were mono-economic, they depended too heavily on one income source. Third World nations were still in the post-independence political shuffling that would occur for at least another 10 years in most cases as most had only been independent for a decade or so. I foresaw that Europe would unite, if not entirely politically, at least economically, but even this was not going to stop the juggernaught.
The USA was going to be, I predicted in the very early 1980's, the most powerful and weathly nation on the Earth and, when compared historically to past glorious empires (Egypt, Alexander's, Rome, Persia, China, Mongol, Mughal, Incan, Aztec, Spanish, Napoleonic, British, etc) it would surpass all.
Now, looking at the present situation, we are, I feel, in the early years of our nation's Golden Age.
I may be a liberal in everyday personal and lifestyle issues, but I am actually a bit over-the-top compared to today's politically-correct thinking when it comes to world issues and international policy.
I think the United States should make a move towards World Domination.
Okay, I know this has a lot of negativity attached to it. Hitler really screwed it up big time. Since he was obviously after World Domination, and so many demogogs and dictators before him (Napoleon, Attila the Hun, Ghengis Khan, etc.) with bad reputations had aspired to the same goal, the whole idea, nowadays, sound so archaic and insane.
But, come on, consider it...One World Government. One Allegience. One Nationality!
I dislike religion like the next athiest, but, it really isn't the schism between Isalm and Christianity and Judeaism that harbors much of the world's "mot de guerre", Reason for War, it's a concept known as "National Pride".
The concept of individual nation-states has met it's terminus. It is obsolete.
I am right now, typing on a keyboard manufactured in Taiwan, looking into a monitor manufactured in Singapore by a firm headquartered in Korea. I have tonite visited web sites housed on servers in Brazil, Norway, Japan and Canada. I am listening to internet radio via a radio station in France. For breakfast today I had toast and peanut butter, a foodstuff developed in the United States and Costa Rican coffee, for lunch Chinese buffet and for dinner Morroccan couscous and Jamaican oxtails, washed down with Mexican Margaritas and later Swiss cheese snacks with Australian Shiras red wine.
I am not alone in this diversity of sources of who I am. I am a citizen of Earth!
But, of course, being American, I would want it to be...The United States of Earth. If we focused our energies even just a little bit, this would be very achievable.
I mean, really, who would, or could oppose us?
Here's a quote from Military Spending of The USA on Wikipedia:
So our goal should be to get rid of this idiot and his short minded cronies in the White House who are all about gouging the US citizens to profit on their oil stocks, and get true Globally Minded, New World order thinkers in there, (people kinda like his father), so we can be in a position to "accept" the "affirmation" of a grateful world community at being allowed to participate in the unification of man into One World Government, a feat strived for by many, but not achieved, until, so I predict, the United States does so in the year 2054.
The year I turn 90.
Hope I get to see it.
Well, allow me to set a few of my political beliefs down here, so as not to be "left out" of the general trend in the "blogger community".
I am an American. My direct ancestors are very clearly traceable to 3 important periods in my family's past. The citation for this is obtained from a geneology I purchased many years ago.
1. Immigration from the tumoultous times of the 17th century from France to Quebec. The genology places the three branches of the Chausse family that immigrated to The New World at around the year 1640.
2. Consolidation into the Anglo-Franco union that became Canada in the 18th and 19th centuries.
3. The desire for the younger generation of the late 19th century to seek a better life for their families. My line sought work in the bustling textile industries of New England at this time. Woonsocket, Rhode Island became a haven for immmigrant labor from Quebec due to the vast need for new workers and the growing community of French-Canadian immigrants to that region, allowing for a somewhat familiar footing into American life.
I still cry, to this day, at a good rendition of the National Anthem.
I was born in this country, in a state which, I arrogantly contend is more American than almost any other state for these reasons:
Rhode Island was one of the 13 original colonies which comprised the United States.
Of the those 13, it had been well-known as the most independent of all.
Rhode Island's colonial assembly declared independence from England well BEFORE the official Declaration of Independence ratified on July 4, 1776 by 2 YEARS...Rhode Island maintains it's independence date as May 4, 1774!
Rhode Island was the LAST state to sign the Constitution because it wanted to insure fully that it's individual rights would be preserved fully under the new nation, and, it is presumed many state rights that would have been relenquished prior to the "Rhode Island Delay" were reinstated because of this tactic.
Rhode Island was the first state to officially recognize the division between Church and State and the first to recognize that it's citizen's had the right to practice ANY religion (or no religion) they chose. Because of this Rhode Island was the birthplace of the first Baptist church (then considered radically new), the first synagogue of the Jewish faith in the New World and the harbor of many other persecuted or discriminated practices such as Wicca.
Although I live in Florida, because of the more favorable weather...I am still at heart, a Rhode Islander.
Like an old Yankee, I am independent to the core. I would rather die, in many circumstances, then ask help of others.
The Southern "hospitality" of using "Sir" and "Ma'am" are irritating and actually, to my ears, more condescending. To true Yankee's, even if they are elderly, calling them "Sir" or "Ma'am" is actually negative. I have known so many octegenerian "Jane Doe's" that would cring if you called them "Ma'am" or even "Mrs. Doe"...call them "Jane" if you want their respect. Yankee old-timers don't want you to "curtsey" to them like their Southern counterparts, apperently...they want to be a member of your group, whatever age bracket...so treat them as such! That is respect!
If someone calls me "Sir" more that 2 times, I'll let them know that it offends me. Blows the mind of the Southern kids who were "brought up" to "respect their elders"...no, like so many Southern errors, they were brought up, in a very slick, passive-aggresive mode to "put thier elders in their place" as non-essential, almost-dead entities. How wrong!
George W. Bush.
I have never felt as badly about an American President as I have about him. From the early stages of media coverage of his gaffs and blunders seeing him as a total buffoon, to the over-the-top handling of the 9/11 crisis and the ensuing years in which he would try to portray himself as a strong President leading the Nation into a "rightous war"...I just never, ever, bought it, and was amazed at how many others did.
Don't get me wrong. I am not the total bleeding heart liberal you may think because of my sexual oriention and religious beliefs.
In fact, in the '80's, despite disagreement with the way he handled the growing AIDS crisis (eh, he just wasn't well enough informed), I was a big supporter of Ronald Reagan.
When he gave his Evil Empire speech after the downing of Korean Airlines 007, I cried. I fully wanted us to punish the Soviets. They were the cause of so much of our misery. They should be wiped off the face of the Earth. I personally felt we should consider a "Pre-Emptive First Strike" against them with our nuclear missiles.
How naive of me.
But, the nationalistic spirit is hard to temper.
When I was in high school, my friend Steven Glasscock and I would use our study periods doing poli-sci, geo-political investigations in the library and try to postualte what trends were in the air and what was going to continue.
We both noticed, even then, the growing American GDP against the rest of the worlds nations.
Steven thought it would culminate in a crash sometime in the mid-eighties and the US lead would be reduced to more competitive numbers. I didn't agree. I saw, even then, the Soviet system for what it was, and any system built on it as critically impacted. The oil-rich nations were mono-economic, they depended too heavily on one income source. Third World nations were still in the post-independence political shuffling that would occur for at least another 10 years in most cases as most had only been independent for a decade or so. I foresaw that Europe would unite, if not entirely politically, at least economically, but even this was not going to stop the juggernaught.
The USA was going to be, I predicted in the very early 1980's, the most powerful and weathly nation on the Earth and, when compared historically to past glorious empires (Egypt, Alexander's, Rome, Persia, China, Mongol, Mughal, Incan, Aztec, Spanish, Napoleonic, British, etc) it would surpass all.
Now, looking at the present situation, we are, I feel, in the early years of our nation's Golden Age.
I may be a liberal in everyday personal and lifestyle issues, but I am actually a bit over-the-top compared to today's politically-correct thinking when it comes to world issues and international policy.
I think the United States should make a move towards World Domination.
Okay, I know this has a lot of negativity attached to it. Hitler really screwed it up big time. Since he was obviously after World Domination, and so many demogogs and dictators before him (Napoleon, Attila the Hun, Ghengis Khan, etc.) with bad reputations had aspired to the same goal, the whole idea, nowadays, sound so archaic and insane.
But, come on, consider it...One World Government. One Allegience. One Nationality!
I dislike religion like the next athiest, but, it really isn't the schism between Isalm and Christianity and Judeaism that harbors much of the world's "mot de guerre", Reason for War, it's a concept known as "National Pride".
The concept of individual nation-states has met it's terminus. It is obsolete.
I am right now, typing on a keyboard manufactured in Taiwan, looking into a monitor manufactured in Singapore by a firm headquartered in Korea. I have tonite visited web sites housed on servers in Brazil, Norway, Japan and Canada. I am listening to internet radio via a radio station in France. For breakfast today I had toast and peanut butter, a foodstuff developed in the United States and Costa Rican coffee, for lunch Chinese buffet and for dinner Morroccan couscous and Jamaican oxtails, washed down with Mexican Margaritas and later Swiss cheese snacks with Australian Shiras red wine.
I am not alone in this diversity of sources of who I am. I am a citizen of Earth!
But, of course, being American, I would want it to be...The United States of Earth. If we focused our energies even just a little bit, this would be very achievable.
I mean, really, who would, or could oppose us?
Here's a quote from Military Spending of The USA on Wikipedia:
The United States military budget is larger than the military budgets of the next twenty biggest spenders combined, and six times larger than China's, which places second (although it is widely believed that China significantly understates its actual military expenditures). Dollar for dollar, the United States and its closest allies are responsible for approximately two-thirds of all military spending on Earth (of which, in turn, the U.S. is responsible for two-thirds). Military spending accounts for more than half of the United States' federal discretionary spending, which comprises all of the U.S. government's money not accounted for by pre-existing obligations. [7]
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in 2003 the United States spent approximately 47% of the world's total military spending of US$956,000,000,000.
So our goal should be to get rid of this idiot and his short minded cronies in the White House who are all about gouging the US citizens to profit on their oil stocks, and get true Globally Minded, New World order thinkers in there, (people kinda like his father), so we can be in a position to "accept" the "affirmation" of a grateful world community at being allowed to participate in the unification of man into One World Government, a feat strived for by many, but not achieved, until, so I predict, the United States does so in the year 2054.
The year I turn 90.
Hope I get to see it.