Thank you, President George Bush!

While the majority of the media revels in denigrating the last moments of former President Bush's Presidency, I thought it only fair that some commentary be dedicated to the matter that actually contains a bit of intellect.

George Bush served two terms in extraordinarily trying times. He was President for less than 8 months before the infamous 9/11 attacks on our nation. It has been over seven years since that dark day and most have forgotten how it felt to be fearful. The sense that our water supplies, power supplies and cities were in very real danger created a new America that day. The United States had never suffered bombing in WWI or WWII. We had never experienced a large foreign attack on our soil that generated so many civilian casualties. From that moment on, our nation changed - and so did our President.

The happy-go-lucky Bush was gone. Bush had to pull up his bootstraps and make tough decisions few individuals would ever enjoy making. The thirst for blood and revenge were high in America. Bush did not act rashly, but waited. When Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban were indicated we offered to have him extradited and a pursue a police like action with this global criminal. The Taliban refused and the rest is history.

The great deciding issue of his Presidency has been the invasion of Iraq and the ousting of dictator for life, Saddam Hussein. It was for years depicted as a failure by the media. The French sponsored insurgency finally ceased in Iraq when we granted French oil giant TOTAL a multi-billion dollar contract and suddenly (surprise surprise) Iraq is much more peaceful and the insurgency is all but dried up. Bush's low approval ratings right now simply illustrate the power of the media to create whole cloth illusions and portray them as fact.

Bush made tough decisions. He was unapologetic and played right into the hands of the media who wanted to portray him as a crusader hellbent on his own agenda. He became a perfect scapegoat for the perpetually unhappy leftists, just like Ronald Reagan before him. The amount of sheer hatred directed towards this one man far exceeds the amount of hate almost anyone has received. Mass murdering dictators Stalin and Pol Pot have received less global hatred than George Bush received over the past few years. Even Hitler hardly generates the mouth foaming frenzy that the name Bush stirs in the rabid, unintelligentsia of this world.

George Bush was the tyrant who was going to declare martial law and become President for life. Bush was going to collect dissident citizens in cattle cars and send them off to concentration camps. Bush was going to rig the election machines so that John McCain would win. Bush was going to pardon himself and Cheney and a "neocon cabal" who were supposedly guilty of unspeakable crimes.

None of this materialized. As I type these words, George Bush has returned to Texas. He has endured 8 years of serving the nation and as a parting shot he got to listen to President Barack Obama's speech that was filled with barely concealed little stabs at Bush's Presidency. Not very class, but quite fitting from the man who could flip off Hillary clandestinely during his campaign.

George Bush's wife Laura has been a superb First Lady. Her class, warmth and efforts for the peoples of the world have made this world a slightly better place.

I can't tell you how many e-mails I received from folks asking me if I still "like George Bush" - referring to my blog entry about him during the 2004 campaign. The answer is not hard to give. I still do like George Bush. I think history will be very kind to him. Not historians alive now with their 2009 politically correct sensibilities, but the historians that follow after and look at the facts of his Presidency without the rancor or red-eyed glare of Bush derangement syndrome interfering with the assessment of the achievements.

Yes, achievements.

Bush has many to be proud of. Ousting Saddam and the Taliban are high on the list. His efforts to roll back taxes are another. His efforts at curtailing nuclear proliferation. His efforts to fight slavery are yet another. And first and foremost are the way he managed to rally America back after 9/11 and convey to the world that the US was not going to be pushed around and that terrorists were no longer going to be able to hide. This post 9/11 nation owes President George Bush a great deal of gratitude. I'm quite pleased to be able to contribute to the miniscule amount of positive press he has received this day.

Thank you George and Laura Bush for your service to this nation. By those who appreciate what you have done - you will be missed. However, you both have well earned a rest from the stress and the heartache.

With heartfelt gratitude,

SDAI-Tech1

The Inauguration

It would be all too easy to look at the spectacle that occurred today in Washington DC and become rather cynical. For all the talk of change, amazingly all the same faces are still there with the same messages. The inaugural speech today became a sermon and religious fervor replaced wisdom and sacrifice is demanded from the people. Requesting sacrifices, calling on the American Spirit while at the same time saying America must change its ways, all these conflicting messages can be delivered in a sermon and the listeners don't quite perceive the conflicts.

Despite all this and much more, I will not be cynical. Being cynical will not change things for the better or help my readers. So instead of pointing out the many inconsistencies in the rhetorical narcotic delivered, I will try to point out that all things have equal positive and negative sides and only from any unique frame of reference do those aspects get viewed as either good or evil.

Even as our nation seems to be in decline, our morals fractured, our families dysfunctional, our children degenerate and our electronic communication leading to a total lack of civility and standards of conduct, dress or behavior in public, we must remember that these declines are natural and inevitable. Laws compel citizens to do things, while morals are rules of conduct that are exhorted. Our nations morality was founded in agricultural roots and those morals required strong families, hard work courtesy and working for a common cause to survive. In the industrial age morality shifted. Women and men could fraternize anywhere and everywhere. Families were optional. Adultery, child abandonment and abortions were fine with people who lived in the cities and did not depend upon the family structure for their survival. Civility and neighborly courtesy was not necessary either. In the cities, one could ignore ones neighbors and be as rude as one wanted to be. So the gangs, prostitutes, violence and incivility flourished in the cities.

Now the industrial age has brought us the internet. The internet facilitates the lowest segment of society to infect the minds of those who normally would not interact with this lowest segment. Pornography, violence, profanity are spread virally - like a disease. Worst of all this infection now reaches children who were normally sheltered from the lowest of depravitiy until their minds and bodies were fully formed.

History tells us lax morality has always existed in every society. That pornographic literature already found a hungry market in ancient Greece and Rome, homosexuality and lesbianism found willing defenders in the humanists who wrote about it with affection and gambling, prostitution and vice date to the beginning of recorded history.

So none of this is really new. Our technology simply has facilitated the universality of decline, rather than limiting it to certain ghettos or economic geographic barriers.

The bordello is taken from the ghetto and into the masses' homes. The hate speech is no longer delivered in the back room of a pub or a warehouse and delivered to a group of twenty or thirty eager ears but appears instantly upon the monitors of millions. Sadism, 'snuff' films and music videos with abhorrent content now are seen not just by a few, but by many - and by children. The damage to society is beyond all calculation when so many are tainted.

In such a time the religious overtones and words of Obama's speech is actually a great improvement over their normal thoughts and interests. So it does do good. For some it will serve them superbly to go forward and live a better life. Each era seeks out its own level. Obama may very well be the best leader for today's young generation who sought out someone to defy the past, break with old traditions and morals and be the champion for the era of change.

People are sheep. The masses all too readily illustrate this constantly. The reason the internet can poison so many is because of the near universality of weak wills and minds that absorb and repeat that which they see. One child repeats a curse word that he has seen or heard at home, on the internet or television and suddenly a whole classroom of kids now repeat its usage. One political activist with a fervor and a website can attract thousands of minds to follow and embrace his worldviews. Most people do not discern sufficiently. Our industrial and now computer-based society has let the power of discernment diminish to such an extent that it is almost completely absent in large numbers of our populations. They swallow what they are exposed to willingly. They endlessly mimic and imitate those they see. The fashion industry thrives on human sheepishness as does the entertainment industry. Independent thinkers and unique minds and views are an anathema and are the enemy.

My message today is to comfort my readers about the "change" that is more evident with each passing day. To remind them that the world is neither only going to hell in a hand basket or is about to be saved by a new shepherd. You, yourself must draw your own lines in the sand and live your life to your own developed sense of morality. You must live your life not based upon those others you see around you - allowing the inner sheep to guide you - but rather you must evaluate all that comes to you in your life and chart your own course, your own style and your own measures of good and evil.

If you do this, it will not matter one iota whether or not the masses around you decline, because you, YOU will move forward and progress.

Humanity and the universe demand nothing less of you than your complete dedication to self-betterment.

Lies

Truth is a very important commodity. Most civilized people realize deception always backfires.

Though as much as we may value truth as a culture, it is amazing the sheer quantity of lies we produce.

Children are instructed to lie and deceive by parents who lie and deceive. Politicians lie and deceive almost constantly, a different lie for whomever they are currently addressing.

Lying is morally insidious because it spirals down to further lies and often eventually even criminal activity. The man who can lie to his wife, children has no problem lying to his teachers and employers. The lies just keep compounding. Pretty soon they can steal from their extended family and their employer and not think twice about it. When you are already engaged in constant lies - trickery and deception are your trades. The leap to theft is a small one when one has slowly destroyed your core of morality. And then after petty theft it may evolve into grand larceny and other felony crimes. Eventually even murder is not that great a leap, because the slippery slope of dishonesty always gets one into deeper and deeper trouble. Each law - each moral fortitude - becomes easier and easier to break when you start with the simple little "white" lie.

When one lies one pushes away those who speak truth and attracts only other liars. Pretty soon the lives of a liar are filled completely with people who are equally dishonest. This tends to compound their problem because they "see" dishonesty everywhere they turn - and so buried are they knee deep in liars, that they world of honest people is like some mythical and faraway land, whereas the land of liars is their homeland.

And what of the children of these types? How on Earth do they reconcile their lives when they have no positive and honest role models to speak of? When their parents are morally bankrupt what sort of people do they become? What happens to their self-esteem? When life, as far as they have witnessed it in their family becomes all about deceiving others simply to further your own selfish ends? The answer is generally depressing. The brighter children may resent this dysfunctional existence & rebel against their parents and see in them many flaws, but the bottom line is they have known little else and usually end up imitating them. Like a computer program with only one set of experience data they have nothing else to base their own relationships upon.

The son of the abandoned woman may plan not to walk out his children and wife the way his dad did on his mother, but more likely than not he will do the exact same thing and justify it because after all his dad did it, he doesn't love the "scheming" mother trying to entrap him and hey - life is tough.

The son of alcoholics may hate the way they were treated by their parents, they run away ASAP, join gangs and do drugs and alcohol and "rebel" against their abusive parents while unknowingly become mirror images of them. Before they know it they are tied down in a miserable marriage and have kids that they ignore and abuse.

The abused child seeks solace and affirmation outside the home and attract relationships and eventually a marriage that is just as abusive and dysfunctional. They end up abusing their kids - intentionally or not.

The unloved child seeks love outside the home and find themselves in exactly the same position - in relationships with those who do not love them. Before they know it - they are the unloving parents and the cycle has regenerated.

Yes, sadly the children often mimic their parents even when its the very last thing they want to do.

So one generation of liars spawns another generation. Truth is now a liability - an inconvenience. The ability to lie well becomes an ever larger facet of their lives. And each time they lie, they slide down deeper into that moral abyss and their lives always seem to be miserable.

And yet not one of them - have even the vaguest clue as to why life seems to be falling apart for them and how they are responsible for their own decline.

You MUST become the sort of person you want to be surrounded by. If you are needy - you will be surrounded by needy people. If you lie, you will be surrounded by liars. If you are emotionally insecure - you will be surrounded by these types. If you are critical - you will be surrounded by the same. If you are unhappy - you will be surrounded by the same. If you are selfish, greedy or are a materialist - these will be the types in your immediate social network.


See how it works? Everything is frequency relationship. There are no gods who punish you for your sins. You do this to yourself. Constantly.


Do you want to be around honest people?

Be honest.

Do you want to be loved?

Love others.

Do you want to be around caring people?

Care.

Do you want to be around fun people?

Be fun.

Do you want to be around good people?

Be good.

Do you want to be around generous people?

Be generous.

If you feel you are being shortchanged by your environment, look closer at yourself. Look a lot closer if necessary. No one likes being told they are the cause of all their own problems - but it is the truth.

If you are unhappily married, have a terrible job, feel you are underappreciated and that everyone is conspiring to make your life miserable - check your premises.

If you are lonely, friendless, feel life is passing you by and are awaiting "mr./ms. Right" to come along and save you from your miserable existence - expect one long wait. All you will attract unto you are other "lonely, friendless types" who feel exactly as you do and have no idea why are *really* unhappy. And although misery loves company - who wants to be in such company?

If you want a happy, constructive life and desire peace of mind, stop lying. That's the first step. The "small" lies start the rot in ones soul. Becoming mentally healthy again and attracting other happy, well-adjusted and honest people requires one no longer becomes a willing agent of untruth.

I don't write these entries to hurt my readers feelings. I don't write them to lift myself up and tear others down. I don't want to increase anyone's feelings of insecurities or unhappiness. I write these entries because they are the truth. There always must exist an outlet for such unfiltered, un-pc truth. Even here on the internet of endless deception!

That's what you get here on this blog - unrelenting, unedited (and often unpopular) truth.

Congratulations! You earned reading this.