Thursday, December 25, 2014

soma cocktail

The leaders of two of the most powerful countries on earth, Russia and the United States, have bestowed yet more unending blessings on their respective constituencies:

-- In Russia, President Vladimir Putin appears to have put his foot down and order that the price of vodka be held in check. It's hard economic times in Russia at the moment and Aldous Huxley was not just whistling Dixie when he reconfigured the drug "soma" in "Brave New World."

-- Meanwhile, the United States is planning to increase the potency of its favored soma, fear and terror, as it gears up to send more military "contractors" (they used to be called "mercenaries") to Iraq ... a venue the United States planned to withdraw from eight or ten months ago. Sending contractors boosts American industry (patriotism flowers) and frees people like former Vice President Dick Cheney to expound American exceptionalism without getting blood on his family doormat. If my children are not being killed and maimed, it can't be that bad, right?

I wonder if Americans will ever decide that death really is not the worst thing that could happen.

Not before Cheney and his 'patriotic' ilk have made a 'coincidental' fortune is my bet.

1 comment:

  1. I think this sums up the purpose to which we're committed:

    Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright said there is only a handful left now and they report to the State Department. In late 2013, the Pentagon still had 6,000 contractors in Iraq, mostly supporting U.S. weapon sales to the Baghdad government, Wright said.

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