California Expert Software

Introduction

As a child, I used to listen to the radio a lot. It spoiled TV for me, which I never really "got into."

As I remember it, one radio program featuring a frog was sponsored by Buster Brown Shoes. Froggie's magic twanger was the invaluable deus ex machina, extracting the players from all sorts of difficulties they brought on themselves. The existence of that twanger, however phoney, was reassuring. In that 1940s world, things would be put right.

I emerged from that memory with this question: Just how long can things go on like this?

It's a stupid question, because I doubt anyone can give an exact answer. I know I can't. But even if I don't know how long it will be until The End, it's pretty clear The End is coming. It is not something I am hoping for or causing. Even if a few religious nuts wish for the Rapture and Apocalypse, it's not something most people hope for or would cause. What's strange, and unlike other times, is now we know there is an end, whether or not anyone wished for it. This is coming about because of self-inflicted fatal wounds.

The United States government, run by the Bandit, is making it so in our name. Of course, the Bandit doesn't believe he's making things worse or causing any problems; au contraire. He doesn't know what he is doing because he has very limited methods of measuring results. Like his Religious Right supporters, the Bandit is trapped in his cultural assumptions. Because of his aristocratic background, he only knows how his actions affect others like himself. The Bandit has no idea of what it's like to be poor, a minority, disabled or cast out by our society. The Bandit is a modern version of the Biblical Pharisee. It's hard to blame the Bandit and his gang for everything, for 'they know not what they do.'

So, I'll just cite a bunch of little things.

	General Motors is laying off 25,000 workers. It can't sell its gas guzzler SUVs. On CNBC, someone said GM spent too much time pleasing Wall St and not enough time making good cars.
	The Bandit was full of justifications about the "modified" science reports that played down global climate change. Untrained Banditos are fully qualified to determine what the scientific conclusions should be.
	The Bandit rejected the notion implied in PM Tony Blair's comments, that the United States ought to do more to help Africans. Fact: the U.S. is near the bottom of the list of donors to those in need.

The Bandit is on the warpath about Chinese imports, again. It's all their (the Chinese) fault people are losing jobs in Red States that voted for the Bandit. What this proves is the U.S. minimum wage should be reduced.

The Bandit, guided by hired guns Cheney, Rummy, Condi et al, wants to put Nukes in Space. That's the next logical step, of course, in the never ending war against The Threat. They don't tell us everything they know about The Threat because that Thing is too awful. It's better for us if we don't know.

The Bandit isn't interested in helping Africans, or Americans for that matter. That's why he's limited Stem Cell Research, chased after near-death MaryJane users, let his drug pusher friends charge whatever they want for their non-MJ pills, reduced payments to Medicare and Medicaid doctors, kicked kids off Medicaid, and handed out useless R_x "discount" cards.

It's getting late, and I'm getting sicker and sicker reciting these things. How long do you think the country can last with things going this way? Maybe we should form an Apocalypse Pool?

Or, maybe we could just bring back Froggie and his Twanger. I know in my dreams he sets things right. It is one of the few remaining privileges of old folks to nod off, to dream, isn't it?

Plunk your magic twanger, froggie ...