KILLING THEM SOFTLY

Uncle Sam should hang his head in shame over the record suicide rate for active duty servicemen. 154 suicides were reported in the first 155 days of 2012, up 18% from last year and 16% above the previous record year for suicides in 2009. Suicides far outnumber combat deaths in Afghanistan.


Whatever the myriad of reasons for military suicides, it doesn't help that the American propaganda machine endlessly promotes the mystical bravery and selflessness of ordinary men and women sent to fight, kill and die in senseless, murderous and bankrupting wars that have much more to do with maintaining the power and glory of the military-Industrial-Congressional Complex than defending our freedom.

To reduce the military suicide rate, end these self destructive overseas wars of occupation. It will also reduce the untold thousands of civilian causalities we needlessly inflict upon those hapless lands Uncle Sam chooses to conquer.

GOD NEVER CREATED A SINGLE JOB

My IL 6th District Congressman, Peter Roskam, likes to tout endless tax cuts for the billionaires and mega millionaires based on the pitch they refrain from creating millions of desperately needed new jobs due to those pesky, onerous taxes. By endlessly referring to them as "creators", Roskam and his fellow GOP leadership, frame them with the God like term "Creator" to justify lavishing them with endless largess paid for by firing hundreds of thousands of public sector workers, and discouraging any government spending to rebuild America's crumbling infrastructure.


Congressman Roskam would do well to study one of the most famous of those mega millionaire entrepreneurs, Henry Ford, who knew instinctively that he didn't create a single job. In January, 1914, Ford's revolutionary mass production techniques caused his car capacity to far outstrip consumer demand. What to do? Ford turned to the real job creators, working folk, and raised his own workers' pay to an astonishing $5.00 a day while shortening their work day by one hour. Ford's concept percolated through the entire manufacturing sector, resulting in demand that now outstripped capacity. This caused the hiring of millions of new workers to satisfy those job creators. The emergence of the famed American middle class, now under attack by Roskam and fellow austerity hawks in the GOP House leadership, can arguably be traced to Ford's wisdom.

The real job creators didn't rest on the seventh day. They went for a drive.