Beelzebub's Trough

Now I bet you niggers do think y'all white.
College don't mean shit.
Y'all niggers, and you gonna be niggers forever
--School Daze (1988)

I'm a little bit country
And I'm a little bit rock 'n roll
I'm a little bit of Memphis and Nashville
With a Little bit of Motown in my soul
I don't know if it's good or bad
But I Know I Love It So
--A Little Bit Country, Marie Osmond

Academy: A modern school where football is taught
--Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

A mind is a terrible thing to waste
--United Negro College Fund motto

A mind is a terrible thing
--Eddie Murphy, SNL
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Let's talk about socialism in America today. We will begin with the public school system.

Aviator47 @ Milpub today posed the question:

"Why does public education exist? Does it exist to help/please/entertain the student or the parent, or to meet a societal need? I doubt that the way we implement it in the US is really about the needs of our society. If it were, then a diploma would be a clear credential of an identified level skills, knowledge ability in specific subjects."

The only thing most people agree on is, education is a mess. But why do we even have public schools? The question is anathema. Why don't we allow some students to follow a vocational or IT track (the equivalent of the old "secretarial")? Anathema, again. We hew to the fallacy that education is about leveling the playing field, making it so that you, too, might be president one day.

But that's folderal, for if you are to be president, you better be a good money-maker (if not born into it), a good entrepreneur, and have all the skills that accrue to that undertaking. We don't teach that in school -- that's privileged information, and those that have it are averse to its wide dissemination, or we would have a different sort of educational system.

And how is this socialist mosaic funded? Partially through Ranger's property taxes on an investment property in a county in which his children could not attend school anyway, even if he had them. His assessment (above) shows he pays three school-related taxes amounting to over $1,000, which gets funneling through the tax collector to be distributed by the school board.

Ranger pays taxes for somebody else's kid to have a seat in the classroom, and is this not a definition of socialism? The involuntary redistribution of Ranger's wealth, without his input. Is this just and equable to pay for goods and services that one does not use? Why not tax only families utilizing the school system? Why not a "special purposes" fee?

The U.S. has made a societal choice to socialize at the local level, while the conservatives continue to rail at this de facto situation. Socialism is the devil, so your kids are feeding at beelzebub's trough.

These education taxes are but one example of the contradictions and fictions that guide our clueless and hypocritical political and personal lives. Do you take a commuter train to work? You, too, are benefiting by socialism at work. Many of the loudest voices still understand the need for public transport, for how will their household help make it out to the suburbs to service their every need?

Schools are also funded through the Lotto -- gambling, an activity skewed to taking it out of the poor. Just like socialism, gambling is an evil to the likes of the conservative crowd, but they somehow turn their heads like Linda Blair in The Exorcist in order to allow its funds to trickle into the slumgullion that is socialized education in America. We can't be honest, but we have mastered averting our eyes.

Here is the humdinger: We will oppose socialism with all of our might -- with wars and violence -- all while meekly paying our taxes.

Can you say, "hypocrisy"?

--Jim and Lisa

The Picture of Dorian Gray

How dreadful!" cried Lord Henry.
"I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable.
There is something unfair about its use.
It is hitting below the intellect."
--The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
__________________

Well, it seems we have come to the apotheosis of Mr. Bush's ownership society in the government's takeover of the banks (Bailout Becomes Buy-In as Feds Move Into Banking.)

Just as likely, we ain't seen nothin' yet. It is odd to have a group called the republicans who claim to champion small government acting so blatantly against their stated position (Signaling a Shift to Europe's Path.) FOX news economists reassure their legions that Paulson and Bernanke are free market economists, yet they fully support the bailouts and nationalizations. Either one is or it isn't; one can't be both.

How can the small government republicans, responsible for the largest budget deficits and largest expansions of government via the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) and the recent bailouts, still say with a straight face they support limited government and will slash our taxes? How can they look at themselves in the mirror each morning?

All of this is saying, "Vote democrat." The question is, "Why is that?" There is no division between the democrats and the republicans, other than their rhetoric, and their words are lies. And the lie is, we are still a democracy.

While most see this latest move as socialism, economist blogger Dark Wraith says it has moved beyond that, into "definitional 'fascism': the fusion of corporate and state sovereignty into a governing coalition."

It all feels like the people are being given a bum rush to judgment.