More New Year’s Flashbacks to 1999

8/6/99: President Clinton vowed again today to veto the House and Senate’s proposed 792 billion dollar tax cut, claiming that: “We need to invest the surplus revenue (The USA actually had a budget surplus back then) in America's children's future.” The magic word is “children.” So employers will continue withholding large percentages from every workers paycheck and turning over the loot to the Authority!, along with every scrap of private information about them.

If you don't want to pay, then you can't work anywhere, and if you try to hide your income, they'll find it, find you, take it, and put you in jail. They seem to know everything you’re doing, every dime you're making, every penny you're spending, and on what. They even know what you eat, what you read, and what kind of toilet paper you wipe your butt with. They know everything about you they want to know, and they'll continue to squeeze you like a lemon for the last drop of juice.

Meanwhile, Republican presidential contender, George W. Bush, is still deflecting questions about whether he might have tried cocaine during his youth, "a serious felony," croak the tube puppets.  Maybe we should make him pee in the jar too, or at least send a SWAT team to bust down his front door, cuff him, and search his home. If he did use it, and he's elected president, how can we ever justify our zero tolerance for drugs? What can we tell our kids? What message will we be sending? "We'll find a way," chime the hypocrites. 

The rev. Jerry Falwell opined that if G. W. tried cocaine 20 years ago, that should not prevent him from being president. That’s nice. I agree with that. But would his opinion be the same if Georgie had robbed a liquor store at gunpoint 20 years ago? Both offenses carry the same penalty. They are equally “serious” crimes. But that makes no difference to a hypocrite.

There is a peculiar madness in the land concerning the recreational use of drugs.  If George’s dentist gave him some cocaine for a toothache that's fine, but if he took it on his own just to feel good he's a felon. Drug use is OK if prescribed -- never if imbibed.  A prescribed drug is often described as a miracle.  An imbibed drug is described as a demon. A prescriber is a hero. An imbiber is a criminal.  And cultural madness reigns.

The single most dangerous aspect of illegal drugs is that they are illegal. All the violence and damage associated with the distribution of illegal drugs is directly the result of illegality -- never the drug itself.  If GWB tried cocaine in his youth, what damage did it cause him aside from the threat to his presidential candidacy?

8/20/99: Mississippi school Authority! has ordered a Harrison County high school kid not to wear his grandmothers Star of David medallion at school because it might be mistaken for a gang symbol. Naturally, no one objects to kids wearing Christian crosses -- which might be mistaken for Ku Klux Klan symbols.

10/18/99: Congress is poised to double federal spending on programs that advocate sexual abstinence until marriage bringing the total funding for such programs to $68 million. A separate sexual abstinence program receives another $50 million per year in federal funds. Both programs require grant recipients to teach that sexual activity outside of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects, and abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, and other associated health problems. Condoms and contraception are not supposed to be discussed except to stress failure rates.

 The Authority! is spending big money in the guise of "education" to indoctrinate youngsters on what to think instead of how to think about sex. Kids might not be able to read, write, or figure very well these days, but they’re force fed with your tax dollars to "know" that sex is bad outside of marriage and should therefore be sacrificed for the collective good. But, if teen sex is the business of government Authority! then what isn't? The “thing” wants to teach kids that critical individual thinking is bad for them. Government Authority! will never be satisfied until all the "correct values" are taught in the public schools.

10/25/99:  Famed professional golfer, Payne Stewart, was tragically killed today in a plane crash.  Immediately the media began to tout his very recent renewal of religious faith in Jesus Christ as part of why he was such a great guy. No one wondered about why this powerful renewed faith in the Lord didn't prevent his untimely death. No, God didn't get any of the blame for this unfortunate accident, but, of course, if Mr. Stewart had survived the crash, the media would have dubbed it 'God's miracle.' God would get the credit for his being saved by his faith. The faithful always have it both ways. If Stewart had been an atheist, the faithful would have given God credit for punishing the sinner with death.

10/28/99: A recent Newsweek poll revealed that almost 40% of Americans believe the world will end as the Bible predicts, in a battle at Armageddon between Jesus and the Antichrist. It is a miracle that human civilization has managed to survive as long as it has.