Issue: 2 items from Omaha Nebraska:
1) Breaking News - As many as five people have been shot at a shopping mall in Omaha, Nebraska; police are searching for a gunman, CNN affiliates report.

2) Emerging from Air Force One at Eppley Airfield near Omaha, Mr. Bush said it was clear from the intelligence assessment “that the Iranian government has more to explain about its nuclear intentions and past actions.”

Specific: These items are directly connected in political rhetorical terms. They are related to the shooting in Lancaster, Pa. not long ago. They connection is the collective mindset of the nation. My prediction for the shooter is Neb will be for no reason - Much as the shooter in Lancaster, Pa. The specific issue is that President Bush and very specifically the Neo-Con movement is to blame for making it legitimate and ok to act without logic and reason.


Comment: I have been wanting to write about this for sometime. The inspiration was the Lancaster Pa. shooting in an Amish school house. If I remember correctly, the President was in that area about a couple of months of the shooting. The sense or emotion was the pointless nature. The unpredictable nature. The Terrorist nature of the act. Just as this Omaha shooting already being labeled. "Who have thought..." is what witnesses are already saying as they come out of the Mall.

The world is a dangerous place. Death comes to all. The world, this planet and America will end - some day. How it ends is a key subject for discussion. How a life begins and ends involves a great deal of human choice. A key subject for discussion is the path followed and life lead are important.

Much literature is devoted to these subjects. The Bible, Star Trek and even the Wizard of OZ or the current "Tinman" if not taken too far, offer great life changing insights. These are not the only writings or even the best.

"Too much or anything is not necessarily a good thing..."

President Bush and the Neo-cons since the mid-90's have been setting this stage or environment we are in. The Neo-cons have allied with Fox News and the Enrons other "Supercapitalists" to create a national mindset that we all want to get along and possibly profit from, but can't.

This is another key subject for discussion. A specific example of this is the story on 20/20 recently about a McDonalds manager who followed company policy strictly, that with she stripped a customer naked and accused her of stealing on the word of a voice on the phone. The story went onto explain that the voice was not even in the state and was impersonating a police officer.

Assuming there was no sexual perversion in the motivation, one significant motivation of this manager was the strength of her desire to please and adhere to the policies of the corporation. More than she simply didn't want to get fired. She must have had some thought that it would be good for the company that she caught someone stealing from the corporation.

This story highlights the crossed line between the "capitalist" and the "Supercapitalist". These folks in a local McDonalds acted without logic and reason of their own. These folks are no different from the staffers at Enron who the executives destroy the company. The common element in both companies is the encouragement of the pursuit of power for the sake of power - not pursuit of power for the sake of benefits.

In my humble opinion, the capitalist is one who knows the where the line is that if crossed they become a supercapitalist. The function and purpose of any business is to benefit society because society is the customer. Without a functioning society then business cannot survive. A functioning society is one that in which there is minimal instability in both the short and long terms. Business cannot survive instability.

Yet the Supercapitalist Neo-Con's of which the President is to be included, might assert that the purpose and function of business is to make business only - and that society is almost irrelevant. I would speculate that he has not given this a thought.

So where does that leave us, well the McDonalds employees, Enron and other must feel like the fans of the Texas Rangers when Bush traded Sammy Sosa to the cubs. Frustrated and unsatisfied.

Here is a speculation or conjecture. The connection between the shooters and the President - and hence the concern. The President is showing signs of succumbing to the environment he help to create. The shooters in Lancaster and Omaha, have some level denial about the consequences on those left behind.

President Bush in denying ALL of OUR intelligence services is also denying logic and reason. Logic and Reason are the first bricks toward wisdom.

Wisdom is the only path to follow in a dangerous situation. Wisdom is what the Bible would want us to learn. I'm not exactly a religious scholar or a very religious person, but I can't imagine any version of God of the Bible wanting mankind to give up wisdom.

My daughter and I had a loud discussion recently about her future, college and our current financial condition. There are hard realities for her that only logic, reason and wisdom will be able to resolve. President Bush, the Supercapitalist and the Neo-con ideologies and the national mindset will not resolve these things for me and her.

Presidents, corporations and conservatives have in the past been inspirations for national mindsets that have enabled families of those times to resolve their issues.

I'll even say it again, if President Bush and and his administration bring Peace to the middle-east - I stand in line to add his face to the Mount Rushmore.

This can be written off as the rants of just another loon.
That's perhaps the most gauling thing of all.
No matter how high gas prices get, my wife insists that a 10 dip in prices is a good thing. She ignores that prices have not yet gone to pre-Katrina prices.

I'll get the cheaper gas but I won't like it. I will be angry.
I'll buy the President's line and the next, but I won't like it. I will be angry.

I've lived a life and chosen paths that were right.
I've married, raised 2 daughters to maturity, worked hard and even tried to be an entrepeneur. Yet the world is not a better place because of other like me. It has changed in large measure to the effort of President Bush and his peers.

This was not the promise of Kennedy, Goldwater or Reagan.
The constitution says that "We the people..." have the power, if not those like me then who does?

Does this mean I'm absolved of giving a damn?
If I don't have a share of power then am I responsible for my share of the nations state?
If I'm not responsible then please explain to me why I should give a damn if there are shooter's in the mall?
If I'm not responsible then please explain to me why I should give a damn if the shooter in the mall is a Iranian, Iraqi, Saudi or Korean - terrorist or not?

I am....
I know...
I will...
And that's why...