Author: leeduigon(patty)

Let’s see what’s in this pile of fresh news clippings… The state of Missouri has undercover agents to bust farmers for selling raw milk to “strangers”… The city of Chicago forces city employees to join a “wellness program” complete with “wellness goals” and “wellness activities” and inspections to make sure you aren’t cheating… The federal government, by executive order of the king–er, “president”–wants to force schools to enforce discipline on a racial quota basis…

City, state, federal… at all levels, our government is devouring us. Eating our freedom. You can’t have raw milk. You must do more jumping-jacks. The president will decide who gets suspended for throwing radiator parts at the classroom teacher, and who doesn’t.

Are you getting the picture?

Now, there is a simple solution to this problem–so simple, even a fantasy writer can tell you what it is. Ready?

Cut off the money!

You see, government does these things to us because government has too damn much of our money. Take the undercover agents on raw milk patrol. They have salaries, benefits, and pensions: the state will go on paying them until they’re planted in the ground.

Cut off the money. It’s as simple as that. Government does not have insufficient funds. It has too much. Squeeze them until they can’t squeeze back. Take away their power to do mischief.

I’ve been reading about how much money the state of California is obligated to pay public employees not to work–that is, their pensions–and how much of that debt is not covered. Depending on whose article you read, the shortfall ranges from $300 billion to over $800 billion.

Remember, this is money that’s meant to pay people for not working, for being retired. In return for their 300 to 800 billion dollars, the taxpayers of California will get absolutely nothing. Zilch. Bupkus. For all the good it does them, the taxpayers might as well rake the money into an enormous pile and burn it. Meanwhile, Californians are in line to enjoy the blessings of high-speed rail–just like China!–and their state’s very own save-the-planet cap-and-trade scheme. These programs will cost hundreds of billions of dollars and be of no benefit whatsoever.

I write fantasy novels. The governor and legislators of California write public policy. Whose ideas are farther off the deep end? Whose imagination is more feverish? Whose fantasies are more fantastic?

Wouldn’t it be nice if the politicians left the fantasy to the professionals and tried to confine themselves to policies at least tangential to reality?

We don’t have television, but lately we’ve been watching old shows on our computer. Among our favorites are “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Night Gallery,” and “The Outer Limits.” We’re always surprised and delighted by the high quality of the acting, the writing, and everything else about these shows: not like today’s reality shows starring nobody.

In wandering up and down the various eras of television, it seems to me that by the 1970s TV had become, at least for practical purposes, a province of atheism. Not that I expect long scenes of people praying, reading the Bible, or going to church. But the characters in these shows, with more and more uniformity, live lives untouched by God. Granted, they are fictional lives: but the shows were expected to be convincingly realistic.

I remember a “Millenium” episode in which the hero consulted a priest and his superiors held a special meeting to discuss whether he was going off the deep end. They called in his partner, and she let them have it with both barrels. “Of course he talked to a priest! He’s Catholic! Is that supposed to make him unreliable?” And she walked out in a huff.

That was a great scene! Yes, I know Chris Carter, the creator of “Millenium,” had a lot of New Age ca-ca floating around in his mind. I don’t offer him up as someone who understands Christianity.

So where is God in all these fictional people’s lives?

And where is God in real people’s lives? I think the condition of our country today answers that question for us.

Patty and I were stuck all day in the doctor’s office yesterday. A giant TV screen dominated the waiting room, like the guy with the whip who walks up and down between the rowing-benches to clout any slave who rests his oars.

Of course the Olympics was on. Hours and hours of it. Sports that nobody watches except during the Olympics. Sports that nobody even heard of. I mean, really–women’s four-man kayak racing? I guess we missed the bottle-cap swallowing, the men’s typewriter-throwing, and mixed doubles beach cockroach racing.

In one of the horsey things, the obstacles the horses had to jump over were very nicely decorated with castles and palaces and… well, a great  big head of Charles Darwin. What’s that about? It seems sinister.

But, hey–I guess if they tell millions of people they’re passionately interested in women’s four-man kayak races, then millions of people are passionately interested in women’s four-man kayak races. Every four years.