Mayday Mayday

We died and never knew,
But, well or ill,
Freedom, we died for you
Went the day well?
--John Maxwell Edmonds

But let judgment run down as waters,
and righteousness as a mighty stream
--The Bible, Amos 5-24

Take me to the water, drop me in the river
Push me in the water, drop me in the river
--Take Me to the River, Talking Heads
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May Day ushered in two highwater marks for America: The Great Flood of 2011 and the killing of Osama bin Laden. They are both symbolic as well as literal events.

Osama bin Laden's death is being heralded as the crown of a meaningless War on Terror. Contrast that one death that came at such an astronomical price with the rampantly overflowing mighty Mississippi River, breaching levees and flood controls as easily as a terrorist might elude the U.S. defensive plan.

We are told the waters are being diverted to Louisiana lowlands in order to prevent New Orleans from another Katrina-magnitude flood. Both the Phony War on Terror (PWOT©), the inundation of the '05 hurricane and now the flooding of the Mississippi show the weakness and reactive nature of our government planners, all the while feigning that we are shaping events.

Why haven't the levees of New Orleans been fortified to repel any potential floods? We are told Billions of dollars are needed for such a project, money we don't have, yet the U.S. spends $100's of Billions on operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya. Meanwhile, our people suffer grave losses because the Billions we need are not being allotted to shore up our infrastructure. Our efforts are akin to sticking our finger in a dike.

The U.S. is vulnerable and monies are not available to repair our eroding infrastructure, much less keep necessary government functions running on a daily basis. Why not pull in the perimeter and handle our domestic issues, prioritizing the welfare of U.S. citizens?

Six years after Katrina the waters are still flooding, and the best we get is half a gunfight, half a world away. The efforts to staunch the Mississippi are metaphor for our reactions to terrorism: Great efforts are undertaken to prevent terrorists from following a natural course, but regardless of our action (or inaction), they will follow a natural flow and flood the lowlands.

The U.S. spends $100's of Billions -- perhaps Trillions --on containing terrorism and find it impossible to do, while ignoring the very real destructive flows on our own soil. The floods are neither Acts of God nor unpredictable, just like five foreigners training in a Florida flight school to fly planes but not lands them.

Instead of building new dikes along the Mississippi, why not just get a few SEALS to shoot it in the headwaters? Cheaper, and could all feel warm and patriotic.

Entropy in FLA

Dracula: Blade, ready to die?
Blade: I was born ready motherfucker!
--Blade (1998)

The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle
--The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats

I can feel it coming in the air tonight, Oh Lord
I've been waiting for this moment, all my life, Oh Lord
--In the Air Tonight, Phil Collins
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RAW's on the road this week, and wished to share this celebratory marquis discovered in the Jacksonville Beach area. (Note the un-posed slabside behind the sign, sans rear hubcap, and the general crummy condition of the parking lot tarmac.)

But . . . Osama bin Laden is dead, dontcha know? And even though our infrastructure is crumbling nicely about our ears without any help from Mr. bin Laden (From God you come and to God you return), we still find cause to celebrate, like the musicians on the deck of the Titanic. We in Florida have always been privy to a certain genteel poverty, but is becoming more ubiquitous daily. But as long as they have a fight song, a team or a tribe, Floridians and much of the nation have a reason to believe.

Damn the flooding Mississippi dams, forget the BP oil fiasco, come hell or high water, there will always be a heathen hadji to fight. Hence the reason for some glee at the Pawn shop selling weapons, some to would-be Green Mountain Boys planning on going varmint hunting.

The sale wouldn't be because people lack the money to buy even those things pawned, would it?

Dogpatch

On a long and lonesome highway
East of Omaha
--Turn the Page, Bob Seger

I rolled on as the sky grew dark
I put the pedal down to make some time
There's something good waiting down this road
I'm picking up whatever is mine
--Running Down a Dream, Tom Petty

Is it tomorrow or just the end of time
--Purple Haze, Jimi Hendrix
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Our homeland is resembling Dog Patch more by the week. Is anybody in authority aware of this fact?

Example: U.S. Federal Highway 77 in Ohio, specifically from Akron to Cleveland, is in reprehensible condition -- full of potholes, cracks and shoddily-repaired areas. The rest areas are closed. What does this mean?

We see these things repeatedly throughout our daily lives, but they do not register. Highway 77's degraded condition was obvious to me because I'm an outsider.

Aside from the crumbling infrastructure, there are myriad other indications large and small that the U.S. is experiencing a comedown:

In some municipalities, government offices closed on Fridays; niceties like time and temperature services are closed; grocers are leaving items on the shelf past due dates; restaurants are substituting margarine for butter, artificial "creamer" for cream. Wait times for phone assistance are extended, and when halp arrives, it is often less-than-capable.

Things are a little less nice all 'round. If you live in a gated world, you may be immune to these changes, but for the rest of us they are unmistakable.

We are a nation-building nation yet we're falling apart at the seams. Does this make any sense?

Do our Federal overseers ever ever travel these highways and byways of a once-proud nation? If so, it is from behind shrouded glass and done by a chauffeur.