The Man, The Boy and The Donkey

Let me tell you a story I heard as a child.

An old man, his young grandson and their donkey set off on a long journey.  The old man was riding the donkey while the boy walked beside them. As they passed through a town, the townspeople took notice of them and many were offended.  They demanded to know why a grown man would force such a small child to walk while he rode.  The man and the boy thought about it, realized they were right and so switched places.

Soon they reached another town and again people took notice and were angry.  They demanded to know why a healthy young boy would ride a donkey and force an old man to walk.  The man and his grandson thought about what they said, realized they were right and decided to both walk.

Again they came to another town and again the people took notice and now scoffed at them.  They demanded to know why the man and the boy were walking when they had a perfectly good donkey to ride.  The man and the boy realized they were right and decided to both ride the donkey.

Again they reached another town and again the townspeople were unhappy with them.  They demanded to know how the man and the boy could be so cruel as to overburden such a poor donkey.  The man and the boy felt horrible for what they had done and decided to make up for it by carrying the donkey.

While crossing a bridge, the two lost their grip on the donkey.  The donkey fell into the river and drowned.

Moral of the story:  If you try to please everyone, you'll eventually lose your ass.

Big Oil Continues To Screw Us

Major traffic jam on North Texas freeway....  Wouldn't have happened if they had a light rail system.  But no.  Big Oil has bought all of our politicians and Big Oil wants us to guzzle as much gas as we can.  This corporate greed is why public transit in the US sucks outside of New York.  It's why car manufacturers aren't allowed to improve gas mileage beyond a measly 20 mpg at best.  It's why the electric car is so expensive-  so people can't afford to buy them and have no choice but to use Big Oil's gas. 

And stupid people not only accept this, they encourage it.  Every time they buy an SUV they encourage Big Oil to keep financially raping the world.  Every time someone thumbs their nose at public transit or doesn't want to invest in clean energy, they are giving a big fuck you to their fellow humans.  And things like this aptly named Trafficopolypse will just keep happening. Wake up and smell the fumes.

For an example of what I mean, please see the link below.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/03/18/driver-mayhem-on-interstate-635lbj-in-dallas/

Putin's the "Dick" in Dictator

Make no mistake, Vladimir Putin was neither legally elected nor has he ever truly spoken for the Russian people. We just don't get to hear any of his detractors speak because they're all in prison. Putin is a dictator and we can't pretend otherwise just because he isn't Middle Eastern or South American like all the other dictators we know.  This guy not only trumps them all, he is far more dangerous.

Putin has almost single handedly destroyed all the advancements Russia made after the Soviet Union went bankrupt and collapsed in the 90s.  Russians finally had freedom to speak their mind, to go to church, to no longer have to stand in bread lines.  The people finally had a little money to make a decent living on.  They didn't have to worry about the secret police executing them if they weren't perfect little obedient communists.  And they LIKED it.  So why would they agree to go back to the hell hole that was communism?

THEY DIDN'T.  The Russian people don't want to go back to communism, but their government - many of whom were left overs of the communist regime (like Putin) - want to return to the level of power THEY, this small handful of people, had under communist rule.  So they rig elections to put communist sympathizers in power.  They pass laws to take away the people's new found freedom.  Suddenly it's a crime to be gay. Suddenly it's a crime to hold a protest against the government. Russian leaders put on a good show for the rest of the world.  They hid their evil designs in the beginning, but now they have reached a level of control similar to what they once had in the old Soviet Union and no longer feel it's neccessary to hide their agenda.

Russia's descent back into communism was the greatest con job of all time.  We just weren't paying attention. Did we learn anything from Sochi and the way they proudly sugar coated their Soviet past?

Now communist Russia has invaded Ukraine, their former territory who broke away from Russian communism to form their own sovereign nation.  It's obvious that Putin holds a grudge against anyone who dares to want out of his regime.  The Ukrainian people are fighting against the dictator Putin hand picked to rule his former property.  They want justice, freedom.  They know they can't get that from Russia so they turned to the west.  Another affront to Putin.  Make no mistake, Putin did NOT invade Ukraine to defend native Russians and help stop a civil war.  HE HAS NO INTENTION OF LEAVING.  He just took back the land he lost to those pesky freedom lovers who took it away from him before.  It was revenge.

And it's a dangerous kind of revenge that the rest of the world can't ignore.  Putin is actively seeking to expand his empire and he won't stop at Ukraine if he isn't checked. There are a lot of former Soviet states. A man trying to rebuild the Soviet empire is going to want them all.  This is how world wars start.

I've used the analogy of the Nazi invasion of Poland to show the similarities between that dark page of history and the one Putin is currently writing.  It's scarily accurate so far.  No one told Hitler, "Hey, dude. You can't just invade Poland because you don't like Jews."  If they had, he couldn't have so easily taken over all the other countries he did.  The world kept saying it wasn't their problem until it was almost too late.  If we had spoken up earlier, World War ll could have been a lot shorter and cost a lot less.

We have that opportunity now. We have to stand up and tell Putin he can't keep Ukraine.  Ukraine is Putin's Poland. Don't wait until he's already built the death camps to say genocide is wrong. Stop it before it gets that far.

Because you'll regret it if you don't.  Russia is a nuclear power, my friend, and the Cold War never ended for people like Putin.

We're tired of war and yes, we have our own problems.  It's tempting to say we aren't the world police and let someone else handle it. The problem with being a world power is, you don't really get that option. You have treaties to uphold, trade partners to appease.  The world is a small one and what affects one country can have an impact on us all.  The US can't turn it's back on Ukraine just because they don't give us oil.  Oppression is supposed to be our enemy, remember?  When Ukraine erupts into a civil war (and it will), they will ask for help in fighting the invaders. If we say no, not only are we allowing Putin to commit a crime, but we're losing our credibility as the defenders of freedom we made ourselves become from the moment our nation was born.  We should have helped the Syrian people sooner.  Now it's too late.  Don't let Ukraine be the next Syria.

If there is no other option but to fight, then let it be for freedom. Not just for our own but for anyone who wants it.