I am someone who believes in a manner of speaking that I "wasted" almost four years of my Air Force career learning about and then teaching Electronics followed by three years in order to become an Electrical Engineer.
I am not happy about that and in fact I am very sad about it. Perhaps sad is not the proper word; a better word would be regret in that I could have and should have spent the time studying economics, history and language or other disciplines that could have assisted me in my later life, but alas I did not. There is no great benefit in being able to convert Fahrenheit temperatures to Celsius in my head.
Now having said all of that my unending series of metaphors come from my experiences growing up, life in the streets, my media life, and to a greater extent movies and television.
A landmark film for me in this regard is and has been Network. In this brilliant 1976 Paddy Chayefsky film, Arthur Jensen, played by Ned Beatty (who Carl Rove undoubtedly used as a role model) bellows to Howard Beale played by Peter Finch, (possibly a Bill O'Reilly role model) a television news anchor:
You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale and I won't have it! Is that clear? You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, Reich marks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU...WILL...ATONE!
Paddy Chayefsky was prescient when he wrote this and has become a "contemporary Nostradamus" to me! In another scene the deranged Beale while on network television says:
I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks are going bust, shop keepers keep a gun under the counter... I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE! I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell -- "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: [screaming at the top of his lungs] "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"
I would like to see a less deranged broadcast network anchor repeat the same thing during the network news instead of the banal things that they regularly report. Will the Walt Disney Company, General Electric, News Corp, or CBS/Viacom DARE to fulfill their broadcaster obligations and "take on" their governments, past and present?
Would things be any different had the broadcast networks been "free" to keep America informed about our wars and the constitutional violations as well as the entirety of the run of the mill transgressions perpetrated by the Bush/Cheney administration?
We can all be as mad as hell and we have no choice but to continue "to take what the system gives us." How many times has anyone heard the Broadcast Networks say "boo" about anything done, or contemplated, by Bush/Cheney or Obama/Biden?
Nevertheless I support everything that President Obama has done since assuming the Presidency; however, I am extremely disappointed that the crimes of the Bush eight year administrations have apparently become "of lesser importance." Get caught by the cops with dope and you go to prison, violate the Constitution as well as the public trust by lying, and retire in Texas.
The "evil" Carl Rove has found a new life on Fox News that serves to demonstrate once again that those with power speak with the loudest voices, and "the powerless" are forced to continue "taking it." Has anyone ever heard Rove say a single word in retrospect about our contrived Iraqi war and the death and injuries of both their and our boys and girls, men and women? When I hear "them" connect 9/11, terrorism, and Iraq I say that, "I'm mad as hell and I have no choice but to continue taking it." "They" should be in prison and they are not. I have wondered in recent years if it is the system or the individuals involved in the system that are corrupt. Sadly my conclusion is that it is both.
It is as it had been difficult to watch the transgressions of the Bush administrations sail by under the present government's apparent mantra of "first we will fix the economy and at some time in the future go after a few Constitutional violations, wars, and other felonies of the prior administration." This is an example to me of the apparent serendipitous actions of the Feds as they consider the punishment of "selected violators."
Is the President concerned that former Vice President Cheney will not like him?
Is the President afraid that the Republicans in Congress will not support his policies if he moves against Bush?
The President in my opinion should "call a cop" and investigate EVERYTHING including those minor Constitutional violations and wars we have endured.
My epitaph could say: It Just Isn't Fair.
Paraphrasing Mel Brooks in the 2000 year old man: A lion is chewing my foot off, will somebody call a cop?
We need "law enforcement" very badly.