Bush's Stasi

So it seems that, once again, I am in the distinct minority on my fears for the diminution of our cherished freedoms. That's the problem with Zero Base Thinking. When one thinks for oneself, one will always come out against the common knowledge, which is almost always wrong, by the way.

Zero Base Thinking in anything but cynicism. It's not even contrarianism, although it leads one to contrarian conclusions most of the time. Zero Base Thinking is a mindset without mental cliches, (although I use literary cliches). It is merely a system of thinking for one's self, with a skeptical eye to anything called "fact." Many, if not all "facts," are lies. Ditto statistics, times nine. Everyone, including me, has a bone to pick, an agenda to promote, beliefs that, we would feel better, if they were shared. I learned critical thinking in my high school debate team. I can argue most anything either round or flat. That helped a lot in my business career. But here, now, only my vanity is on the line. I can only argue the truth these days. Whether you believe me or not. Even if I'm wrong (it's possible), I need to cut through the lies and the bullshit. And there is no greater bullshit lie in the world today than that we need to fight terrorists with American spies in the Midwest. The fight is in the Middle East. Here, we have enough police forces to enforce laws against pot smoking, speeding, and sex acts between consenting adults. If we have enough police agents to arrest Hugh Grant for getting a blow job, why do we need millions of spies to find men with guns and bombs? Here's a fact for you: There has been not a single terrorist attack in the USA since 911. Our police have been totally successful at stopping terrorism in this country. Why do we need to emuate a police state now?

Thank God for George Bush. He's not Al Gore. He didn't need to study what to do on the 12th of September. No blue ribbon commissions. No breast beating over "cowardly criminals." No cruise missiles. No high altitude strikes. No plausible deniability. WAR. TERRORISTS. EVIL. He had all the words. Fought the good fight. He even had the courage to do the right thing by Israel.

What happened to him? Why can't he veto anything? Why can't he lead anymore? This snitch program is not the first boneheaded idea he's gone along with. The education bill he signed is shameful; no other conservative in history would have signed it. He's about to criminalize and regulate Wall Street, whose biggest problem, from a conservative point of view, is over regulation. And he's the Conservative Hero? Just remember, the last running conservative, serving liberal president, was Richard Nixon. The last republican president to abandon first principles, and lose his base and his job as a result, was Bush Senior.

Maybe he has a secret plan to end the war. Just like these two predecessors, maybe he will just declare victory and end the war. Then we won't need millions of secret, amateur spies. But he'd better act fast. T.I.P.S. begins next month.