As IF Times

link Palin Success Triggered FCC Complaints | The Smoking Gun.

This story line has been worked over pretty thoroughly, but I will add just one more comment.  Only to point out the rabid insanity of many people out there who are obsessed with the activities of the Palins, mother and daughter.  Clearly the uproar over the younger Ms. Palin is not over her dancing ability, or lack thereof as some are claiming.  Here’s one of the more comical utterances:

“…I want my Government to protect me the viewer from deceptive practices…”

!!!  That is one of the best quotes ever which sums up succinctly the mentality of many in America.  And when I say many, I mean the left and liberals. Clearly this individual and his/her ilk are expecting to be spoon fed in all manner of things affecting their lives including entertainment.  I’m not sure such a groundswell of outrage erupted when a player got voted off Lost or some other ‘reality’ show? I wonder if they get all apoplectic when their football team loses?  What if Cam Newton doesn’t win the Heisman?  I wonder if they go postal when their orders at McDonald’s aren’t filled properly?

The world of should be and the world of what is, most clearly separates liberals from more conservatively minded individuals.  It is the difference between “Oh, that bear can’t be chasing me, I love animals” versus “run this way and bring the shotgun”.   It is the difference between “well, someone should feed us”  versus ” we’d better go out and find some food”.  In some ways, it is protracted adolescence wherein no responsibility is taken for anything since mother will ultimately take care of things.  It may stem from brainwashing by popular entertainment in which slackers and stoners are glorified and depicted as sympathetic  anti-heroes.

Somehow, western society has become soft from generations of affluence.  The mindset has changed so that many willingly listen to and believe people who tell them that all will be taken care of by an omnipotent  and compassionate government.  We have in essence become a society of domesticated dogs who are dependant on their handlers for every aspect of their lives.  This of course, is very sinister, for what eventually happens is that you create  a society of those who are governed and those who are in charge.  I invoke Animal Farm for the 30th time in my musings, but those who haven’t read the book, should make it a priority over the upcoming holiday season. 

We witness acts of outright stupidity and entitlement such as people calling 911 because they didn’t get french fries or enough shrimp  in their fast food order.  In our neck of the woods, a family was berating the government because they weren’t looking after their mentally challenged family member.  Even after all the hard lessons that have been taught over the past few years, there are still those who expect government to take care of their housing, their schooling, their health care, their security and now their entertainment.  Domestic animals indeed.  People like those in the article only make it easier to slip the collar on.

link WikiLeaks cables reveal how US manipulated climate accord | Environment | The Guardian.

Setting aside the indignation and embarrassment of the Wikileaks ‘cables’ into the public space, are there really any revealing tidbits from this avalanche of ‘top secret’ documents?   While no one wants to have their dirty laundry exposed in public, some of the earthshaking revelations are hardly shockers unless your birthday happened to be last week.  Let’s assess some of the ‘shocking’ exposees…

“U.S. manipulated climate accord”.  What!!?? Do you mean to say that the  merits of proposed climate change policies weren’t immediately obvious to all participants?  They had to be bribed and cajoled to agree to them?  Weren’t photos of Polar Bears with suntans enough evidence?

“Saudi Arabia a cash machine for Terrorists”.   Whoda thunkit?  Hmm, let’s see, Bin Laden is from there…the dysfunctional Saudi Royal family of 5000 princes have unlimited access to capital…bombs and rocket launchers cost money….it’s either Cuba or Saudi Arabia…hmmm…

“China Leaders order hacking on Google”.  Well given that the Chinese hack into every other industrial process, why would tinkering with a few bits of code be out of the realm of possibility?

“Meddling by neighbors adds to Iraq’s woes”.  Like any domestic squabble, the in-laws and friends are bound to take sides and stir up the pot.  In this case, where a political vacuum appears to exist, everyone wants to get a seat at the controls.

“U.S. embarrassing assessment of foreign leaders”  Like Berlusconi who’s proud to be a non- gay man?  Like rabbit ears Sarkozy whose most frequent utterance is, “who said that??”  Like always bad Ahmedinejad?  Like David “lightweight” Cameron of Britain?  That the U.S. thinks lots of world leaders are schmucks? Well, there goes all the diplomatic leverage.

As the police chief in the classic movie,  Casablanca,  exclaimed, “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”

The disclosures of names of those who have been siding with the U.S. is the real tragedy of course.  What the world calls diplomacy is essentially lying through your teeth to orchestrate a desired outcome from other countries.  Or, as someone famously remarked, it’s the art of saying “good dog” until you can find a big enough stick to hit him with.  The only big mystery is how such an enormous cache of ‘sensitive’ information could have been accessed by Wikileaks.  From watching enough spy movies, we are led to believe that governments, especially the U.S. government, has the use of all sorts of high tech and mystical tools for security and espionage.  The big shock for everyone is that this is false.  That would be the real scandal.