Powers on Politics Issue XI

Powers on Politics

Issue XI

There are things that I believe that I shall never say, but I shall never say things that I do not believe.

New Week: New week people and not an entirely new stack of problems but you know…we’ll still talk about them. Before we do, however, I would like to issue an apology to everyone because I will not be discussing the one world currency problem as of yet…I still need to get in the mood to depress myself. Hopefully we have some fun in this issue, though, because I’m trying to choose some good things to talk about. To begin with we are going to focus on the upcoming holiday of Thanksgiving and I’m going to attempt to tell you the true story-not the crap that you learn in school about the retarded (heck yes I just said that word!) pilgrims and the thoughtful Indians who got small pox in return for their kindness (that story is so touching isn’t it? Brings a tear to my eye-and syphilis to countless numbers of Indians (that’s right I’m calling them Indians-and I’m making a parenthetical notation within a parenthetical notation-just breaking all the rules today!)). On that high note I hope you enjoy what is to come.

The Real Thanksgiving Story: Apparently everything you’ve heard in school about Thanksgiving is wrong-who’da thunk it for that price…. Let me guess you were told that the Pilgrims had nothing when they landed at Plymouth Rock and were starving because they were physically and mentally inept to help themselves so the kind and caring Indian people (whom we later diseased, and abused) brought all of their goodies over and everyone celebrated happily ever after…THE END.
WRONG! Welcome to the real story, and there’s even an economic moral to it as well (aren’t you lucky, here I’m promising to tell you a nice story and then I go in and throw politics into it…that’s just how good I am)
In 1623 the Pilgrims all sat down for a bountiful feast thanking god for bringing them out of an earlier famine and giving them an amazingly bountiful crop that year. What had caused such a drastic change, you may be asking yourself, well Governor Bradford’s diary-an elder of the Puritan colony-tells us the story.
Upon arriving the Pilgrims decided that they were going to do things completely different from what England had been instituting. They abolished private property, and decided to live in a collectivist community where rewards were drawn from the group effort. Every part of life was done as a community job, and the hope was that the result would be great prosperity and “brotherly love”. That was the last thing that came from their little experiment.
“The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato’s and other ancients applauded by some of later times; that the taking away of property and bringing of community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God. For this community found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard (I’m not the only one who uses the word-see!) much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For the young men, that were most able and fit for labor and service, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense. The strong…had no more in division victuals and clothes than he that was weak and not able to do a quarter the other could; this was thought injustice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and equalized in labors everything else, though it some indignity and disrespect unto them.
And for men’s wives to be commanded to do service for other men, as dressing their meat, washing their clothes, etc., they deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could many husbands well brook it. Upon the point all being to have alike, and all to do alike they thought themselves in the like condition, and one as good as another; and so, if it did not cut off those relation that God hath set amongst men, yet it did at least much diminish and take off the mutual respects that should be preserved amongst them…Let none object this is men’s corruption, and nothing to the course itself. I answer, seeing all men have this corruption in them, God in His wisdom saw another course fitter for them.”
For the space of two years the harvest failed to produce enough food to feed everyone in the community and many starved and died from famine. Faced with this the elders gathered and decided that if something didn’t change then they would surely die. Instead of committing themselves to disaster it was decided that all property and fields would be split up and given to each family as their own. Whatever they grew was theirs, whatever they produced was theirs, and if there was excess then they could use it to trade to their neighbors for something else.
Suddenly the sloth, envy, and resentment were replaced by Industry, effort, and joy. In fact the bounty of that year was so great that they began trading amongst the Indians in the forest. In November 1623 they held the now famous feast to celebrate their accomplishments and invited the Indians over to share in thanking God for the bounty.
So remember that we are not only celebrating the things we are thankful for but we are also celebrating industry and the triumph of capitalism and the spirit of enterprise in America!

HAPPY THANKGIVING
www.fee.org/thanksgiving
For more information or your own copy of the True Story of Thanksgiving.


Somali Pirates: Not quite the Jack Sparrows of our time the Somali Pirates have taken a Ukrainian ship 200 miles off the coast of Somalia last Thursday and only want “just money”-the self proclaimed leader Sugule Ali informed a New York Times writer by the name of Jeffery Gettleman.
If you haven’t heard this story yet then get ready for something you were probably not prepared for. After hijacking the freighter Faina they found to their huge surprise that there were arms on board (I’m going to interject here…OF COURSE IT HAD ARMS ON BOARD!) Really the plan didn’t seem too thought through when Sugule said “We just saw a big ship. So we stopped it.” (brilliant) Apparently their desire to get money is not quite unfounded with this ship because the worth of the weaponry on board is estimated at about $30 million. Apparently there is also another reason for this whole take over, maybe (if you are an enviro-hippy) “to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters.” OH MY GOSH! People, why are we this way, why is it so acceptable for these sorts of acts occur just because it’s in the name of “the earth”?! Currently I’m getting this information out of the New York Times website, and the article is entitled “Somali Pirates Tell Their Side: They Want Only Money” Oh, is that all? I-wow-I feel terrible…how could I just simply think that these pirates were doing wrong when in fact all they wanted was some extra cash? You know what, I’m going to take this chance to apologize to the pirates…. Give me a break people! This is wrong, it’s just like that dumb whale show on Animal Planet that follows a bunch of “whale lovers” around as they go and attack the whaling ships out in the ocean because they disagree! Why is this suddenly so acceptable? We cannot allow this to go on, it is WRONG to promote this kind of behavior and even violence against others just because we don’t agree, or believe the same things that someone else does.
Alright now that we’re past my little “come on people!” moment let’s get on to something that’s sort of funny. The pirates-as reported on www.bloomberg.com are reducing their desired ransom payment to $25 million. I believe the original answer was somewhere around $35 million. What makes me laugh about this is that the 2 million barrels of oil that are on the ships alone are worth $110 million…I don’t know if it’s just me but…they’re kinda shooting a little low aren’t they? Asking only about a quarter of what their booty is even worth? Definitely no Jack Sparrows. Oh well…I’m sure that we’ll figure this one out eventually….


All I Want for Christmas is a BIG Bailout: I believe this is the theme for American businesses for Christmas 2008. Starting in September (I believe…or was it August?) the government has become the big Sugar Daddy for American businesses. So just who has had a bailout…well there’s Wall Street, Fannie, Freddie, Banks, as of today (11/24/08) Citicorp (which includes Citibank, and Citigroup), television stations are beginning to feel like they deserve one, and then the Auto Industry. Now I don’t mean to be a downer, but what makes this worse is that the Government is feeling EXTREMELY giving. Although the Big Three have not been officially given the bailout money that they desire, yet, but that’s just because the Democrats don’t want to take the imminent fall for handing it out. In fact Nancy Pelosi told them quite sternly that they’d have to have a plan before she’d be willing to “show them the money”. Furthermore the democrats who had promised that they had an agreement with the republicans (sound familiar to anyone?) actually didn’t have any such thing so they had to cover their tracks. (Darn Republicans, making life so hard for everyone else!)
It’s getting to the point where we’re spending several million dollars every day on bailouts for this failing organization, or business, and all the while it seems that the American people are just giving up on trying to fight this. There is just the angry murmuring of those who feel like they are being slighted. I don’t know how, but someone needs to stand up to these people and tell them that we are going to let every business that is begging for a bailout to go the way of the Titanic and sink. If you don’t like the way Capitalism works-leave. Maybe for Christmas I can have my own bailout…I can think of a few books that I could buy with it.

‘Till We Meet Again: With three issues discussed and me being terribly late in releasing this particular issue (though I think a good excuse is that I wanted to bring you the story of Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving is a pretty well spun tale) it is time for me to say adieu. I promise that I will be on time next week, I’ll stop lazing over my issues and get things accomplished-this is my promise! Until next time everyone, I hope that you had an enjoyable read!


Chene’