The Mega Foundation
Some Real Election Issues

September 22, 2004

Health Care and Social Security.
    It has just been presented on the news tonight that 3,000,000 illegal "wetbacks" entered the United States last year, bringing the total number of illegal Mexicans who have entered the U. S. over the past four years to 12,000,000! There are plans to grant amnesty (again) to these illegal aliens, and concerns that this will bankrupt our Social Security sytem (including Medicare and Medicaid?) There was also something on the news just now about a secret agreement between President Bush and President Vicente Fox (of Mexico) to admit additional Mexicans. Industry welcomes this because these illegal immigrants are coolie labor.

Can We Win the War on Terror?
    Terrorists have always been with us, and they'll probably always be with us. The first terrorist organization of which I'm aware was that of the Hashish-ins (corrupted by now to "assassins"), the 11th-century terrorist ring established by one of Omar Khayyam's schoolmates. During the 19th century, the Russian nihilists, exemplified by Michael Bakunin, the gentle bombmaker and assassin, reached their zenith with the assassination of Czar Alexander II, leading, as always, to results diametrically opposed to what the nihilists were seeking. World War I was triggered by Gavrilio Princip's assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Today, there are various terrorist groups such as the Shining Path in Peru, the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, the Chechnyan rebels in Chechnya, and al Qaida in the Muslim world. I predict that 50 years from now, there will be new terrorists, and new terrorist organizations.
    Our approach to fighting terrorists seems to be akin to that of fighting poisonous spiders by trying to hunt them down and shoot them with a pistol. Of course, if you were really interested in exterminating them, you'd do what exterminators do:  you'd set out poisoned bait or you'd lure them into a trap. If you were fighting swindlers, you'd set up a sting operation.
    Can we win the "war on terror"? You know the answer. Any group of disaffected nuts can become a terrorist organization. And as for focussing all our attention on terrorism, that's obvious folly. The Russian government didn't devote all its resources to a "war on terror" after Czar Alexander II was assassinated. The world didn't focus all its attention on Serbian terrorists after World War I. I think it's a good and necessary thing that we protect ourselves against terrorists, but I don't think it can be allowed to be the only thing we think about. Short-term, I think the Bush administration has done a very good job of protecting the U. S. public against further terrorist attacks, but long-term,.as the world's most hated nation... as the recognized enemy of the Islamic world and the perceived-partisan supporter of the current Israeli government... the United States is, as I read the tea leaves, in steadily increasing danger. I believe that neocon strategists have correctly understood that fear is what drives U. S. voters, and particularly, U. S. women, and that playing on those fears can win the election for them. The flip side is that far greater danger lies in wantonly stirring up hatred 

    The art of the con consists of diverting your victims' attention from the swindle you're setting up to some other attention-getting activity until the trap is set.

To Be Continued