Being an expert means realizing you don’t know it all.

The greed epidemic has enlisted its old buddy, hatred. The Tea Party people, for a less-than-shining example, disguise themselves as patriots and preach hatred. They call President Obama a tyrant, the new code for “Nigger.” Their mercenary mouthpiece, Sarah Palin, spreads lies, fear and hatred for $100,000 per speech. As a bonus, she also incites violence against our lawfully elected leaders, urging her audience to “reload.” They are the reverse image of the peace and civil rights movements of the 1960s and 70s, railing against “the system.” Only this time around, they advocate, rather than protest, violence and hatred. They further enlist religious faith as an instrument of evil, a ruling class trick as old as religion itself.

The simple truth is that hatred, greed and violence are evil. There is no middle ground here. Greed is wrong, hatred is wrong and violence is wrong. No religion leaves any wiggle room on that score. As flawed as they are, the 10 Commandments cover these things unequivocally, and anyone claiming to believe in them while espousing hatred, greed and violence is also a liar, another no-no according to the Commandments. None of these things are okay, not in good times, bad times or in between times.

Using evil as a means to an end is what created this mess in the first place. The orgy of greed by wealthy individuals robbed trillions of dollars from the working classes in a reverse Robin Hood scheme: robbing the poor and giving to the rich. Millions of lives were damaged for the greed of a few. When the house of cards erected by the financial manipulators collapsed, the right-wing administration that participated in this looting was voted out of office, handing the White House and both Houses of Congress to the Democrats, in the process making history by electing America’s first black president.

So massive was the damage done to America by the right wing, the cleanup job they left us will take years. Greed and corruption has become endemic, and America’s economy resembles the city of New Orleans, thrown an anchor when it was drowning by the Cheney Administration. For years after the 2004 hurricane that nearly destroyed it, New Orleans stood as a rebuke to the right wing by thriving among the ruins, slowly rebuilding itself while the Federal Government fiddled. From 2000 to 2008, there was no help anywhere in America for citizens who were not wealthy. For the very wealthy, the United States Treasury was open for Looting Season.

Their naked greed very nearly ruined the greatest economy the world has ever seen. The Cheney Administration oversaw the biggest peacetime transfer of wealth in human history, with less than 1% of the population now owning more wealth and assets that the bottom 95% of American citizens combined. On top of that, the corporate princes wanted the only thing that greed demands – more. Already fabulously wealthy, the greedy corporate princes resorted to fraud and larceny on a previously unimaginable scale. Now they refuse to recognize the will of the people who voted for reform of the system they corrupted.

The disgraced phonies who were voted out of office did not repent or show any shame at all, nor did they even acknowledge in any way how vast was the damage they wrought. Instead, they turned on a new President who was generously trying to work with them. So quick were they to bite the hand of friendship and bipartisan cooperation that Mr. Obama is lucky he still has 10 fingers. Now they field the Tea Party movement, founded on fear, ignorance and hatred. Talk about not getting it.

This is one of those movements guaranteed to get more press coverage than votes. Sensationalism might sell, but it has a shorter shelf life than cottage cheese. Only a small minority of Americans are stupid enough, venal enough or naive enough to support these puppet-masters of the Tea Party movement, whose only agenda is regaining power for greed’s sake. If greed needs fear, hatred and violence to achieve its ends, then it will use fear, hatred and violence. If it needs to corrupt and misrepresent religious teachings, it will not hesitate to do so. If greed needs to sell out all our tomorrows for a tidy profit today, consider it done. Greed is all about now.

Let these people admit what they are doing, and openly proclaim their greed and hate and their violent intentions. That won’t happen of course, since they are cowards and charlatans. Only a cowards hate, and only charlatans hide behind a God that stands for the opposite of everything they stand for. Only a fool swallows any of this, those poor souls incapable or even worse, unwilling to think this whole thing through to its logical conclusion; evil begets evil, with no exceptions.

Fortunately for the puppet masters, the Good Lord who’s name they cynically invoke at every opportunity has provided them with no shortage of fools to do their bidding. No army ever marched without somebody convincing them that God is on their side. For greed to succeed, the rest of us simply have to shut up about all this. Any volunteers to hold your tongue while evil bigots attempt to capture America for their greedy overseers? Our silence will be taken as an endorsement. It’s good versus evil time. Speak up while you still can.

Might as well accept it, none of us will ever be as cool as Steve McQueen.

Check out these developments:

Is there a better name than “Bombshell McGee” in the news lately? Women’s nicknames don’t get much better than that. Well, this tattoo-covered siren actually has a second wild nickname, “Evil Cunt,” which is sort of intriguing too. Too bad about all that Nazi stuff. That just ruins the whole deal. Call people stubborn, but the fact is that no one likes a Nazi. They just don’t want to hear about the “good parts” of the Third Reich.

Speaking of Nazis, the only Pope to have ever worn their uniform, the come-hither Hitler Youth ensemble, Pope Benedict XVI seems not to have learned all that much about character judgement since those days. It turns out that a few years back when he a was only Cardinal Ratzinger, he let a pedophile priest in Milwaukee off the hook rather than risk any embarrassment for The Church. He chose not to defrock the priest who sexually molested 200 deaf boys. Nazis and Chesters? Wow. How would you like to be the priest who has to explain these things to the faithful? Don’t look for this guy’s name in the Pope Hall of Fame anytime soon.

The financial collapse of 2008 has claimed its first European country to go bankrupt, Greece. From the sound of things, Germany and France are negotiating a leveraged buyout of that ancient nation. Greece, the Lehman Brothers of nations

Now that the Republicans have succeeded in inciting violence by their supporters against Democratic legislators, it’s a little too late for them to act shocked and condemn all the the violence and death threats. They should have thought of that when they were egging those people on and waving their banners for the cameras from the steps of the Capitol Building during a rally earlier this week. Now these Tea Party cretins are feeling their oats so much that they’re planning to march on Washington carrying guns. That ought to convince people they’re just like anyone else. That is, anyone else who thinks its okay to attack Congressmen and pack heat in the supermarket.

Speaking of sour grapes, Sarah Palin has joined the Tea Party Tour as their featured speaker for $100,000 a night, just in case someone thought any of this made sense. Now there’s a lady who knows how to turn a tidy profit on a resounding electoral defeat, and doesn’t let her ignorance hold her back. Hell, anyone can learn stuff, but it takes a special brand of person to make idiocy a political asset! You have to hand it to all these people, they’re batshit crazy and don’t care who knows it.

Coming in under the news radar is the announcement that America and Russia have agreed to significantly reduce their nuclear arsenals, down from enough nukes to toast the planet 50 times over to about enough to toast the planet only 30 times. Apparently President Obama has been busy with other stuff besides Health Care and trying to convince Republicans to act like grownups. This is good news, which is probably why it was ignored by the media. No toothless goobers with Bibles and guns, no tattooed Nazi bimbos, no Tiger Woods and his baker’s dozen girlfriends who look just like his wife, just guys in suits negotiating the elimination of a bunch of bombs and missiles, each one of which can destroy a major city in flash and render the surrounding area uninhabitable for millennia. Let’s hope they keep this up.

Now that Google has committed to defying the Chinese government over the issue of Internet censorship, the rest of Corporate America hasn’t exactly rallied to their side. The silence of the corporations is pathetic. Not surprising, but pathetic just the same. This example of standing on principle (proper, ethical behavior) seems to perplex the Corporate Princes. As little as we expect of these people in the way of character and common decency, they still manage to disappoint. They had their chance to reject tyranny but put profits first instead. Sort of like the American corporations who did a brisk business with the Nazis until the day they declared war on us. Looks like Google is on their own here.

When leaders have no conscience, duck.

In a shocking development, a huge international corporation grew a conscience. The search engine Internet giant Google, who had earlier bowed to the Chinese government’s demand that they censor their content in China, reversed themselves and refused to alter their site. They shut down their Chinese operation and directed users to their Hong Kong site, which, though still in China, is not censored. This is a huge deal and an international confrontation between a brand new Superpower feeling its oats and a communications giant that dominates the world wide web, these days the most essential and influential communication and marketing tool in the world.

The whole idea of the Internet is the free and uncensored flow of information for the benefit of all, a place where anyone can communicate and do business across the entire globe in an instant. Somehow, miracle of miracles, nobody owns the damned thing, by its nature no one can own it. Since no one owns the world wide web, no government can nationalize it. There’s nothing to take possession of with armed troops. It is the most insidious of enemies; silent, invisible and completely democratic, not caring one way or another who reads or writes any of the information it contains. Anything goes on the internet, and it’s just getting started.

The prospect of where it will go from here must scare the shit out of tyrants. Think of how rapidly it has changed and progressed from one year to the next, and how a typical web site of 5 years ago is antiquated and low tech by today’s standards. Without realizing it, computer users all over the world have constantly learned new and better computer skills to keep up with the flood of new technology. As astounding as it has become, even more awe-inspiring is its potential.

Now there’s things like Twitter, the slacker’s silly pastime in America, but something that proved to be a very effective communication tool in times of global crisis. During last year’s riots in Iran, for example, their government tried to black out any news broadcasts of any sort. Turns out they didn’t figure on Twitter and, in 140-character bytes, the cat was out of the bag on some fairly nasty brutality by Iran’s Republican Guard. The same ever-changing technology that keeps us all on our toes trumps the tin pot dictators’ efforts to suppress this massive and very indifferent flow of data.

The Internet doesn’t give a crap about cultural differences or the whims of leaders, it’s just there, and people will find a way to access it. As lethal as armies, information and education can topple oppressors. When you’re in the business of telling a country the sky is supposed to be yellow, the last thing you want is more information about the outside world handy. The tighter they control it, the quicker people upgrade their skills to beat the censors.

Granted, some totalitarian governments can and do censor the web every chance they get, mostly having to do with sex and politics, but they require the cooperation of large corporations to do that. As anyone who has even heard of a corporation knows, lots of money turns their principles into loose guidelines at best. Ironically enough, most of the world’s computers are manufactured in China. In exchange for cheap labor and overhead, computer manufacturers agreed to install a censorship gizmo in computers sold to Chinese citizens so they couldn’t hook up with the world they are supplying with computers.

One after the other, they caved. Last year alone more than 40 million personal computers were sold in China. In order to gain access to 1.3 billion potential customers, corporations knowingly participated in beginning the process of bringing the Internet under control. Control means ownership. Even the dominant e-mail carrier and search engine Yahoo caved in, along with Google, betraying the wide-open medium that made them wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. They were biting the hand that fed them billions.

Then Google changed the game by growing a conscience and a pair of balls. They told the Chinese government to stick their censorship where the sun don’t shine. Few governments can be as unreasonable as the Chinese government and right now they are at the height of their power, the second most influential country on Earth. Never in her 5,000 year history has China wielded even a fraction of the global power and influence she enjoys today. Modern China is a manufacturing and financial powerhouse, much like Japan of the 1980s.

Lucky for the future of the Internet, the people who run Google grew up in America, the most influential nation on Earth and a place where people pick up radical notions like Liberty, Equality, Freedom of The Press, Free Speech and so forth. Although it is hard to portray a mega-rich corporate giant as some sort of David standing up to Goliath, it’s at least an Us vs. Them deal. Google is doing the right thing and should be applauded and supported in this confrontation. Supported by their fellow communications giants and computer manufacturers too. They’re rich and successful with or without China, and got to be so in an atmosphere of free and open exchange of ideas.

Even if the Chinese government doesn’t blink and banishes Google from their shores, Google wins. It’s still Google, the preferred search engine all over the world. China is all about commerce these days, and without Google they are handicapping themselves. World opinion seldom sways the new Commu-Capitalists in China, but loss of market share gets their attention every time. World opinion will make Google even stronger in what has become an international debate over Internet censorship. The Google executives hold the high ground, the side of no private or national ownership for the web.

They have to remember that they didn’t get to be Google in an environment of censorship, ownership and control. LIke brilliant innovators in every age, they came up with the right product at the right time, made a huge fortune and became a household name, synonymous with accessing accurate information. Its users trust Google to direct them anywhere on the web they choose to go and billions of people use their services many times a day, every day. The advertising revenue alone handled and distributed by Google is in the hundreds of billions a year, with their take over $10 billion, about $1.30 for every person on the planet.

These people have a huge stake in keeping the internet just as accessible and freewheeling as it has always been, the glorious make-it-up-as-you-go-along dynamo that has literally transformed human life. It is that powerful, that universal, and such major a step in history that the beginnings of the Internet will overshadow everything else that happens in this era, as dramatic as they may seem to us. The story of the Internet is bigger, more important, and permanent.

We might not recognize the internet 100 years from now, but we are living the beginnings of the next Age of Man, like the first guys with Bronze swords back in the day, or deck hands on the Santa Maria. The temptation to seize control of this behemoth like the Conquistadors took the New World will always be a powerful temptation for powerful men. Someone somewhere had to stand up to them and  say “no more!” To our surprise and delight, it is Google. In the battle for ownership vs. no ownership of the Internet, it’s Google – 1, China – 0.

If they lose, we lose, because that will be a blow to freedom of information and the beginning of the end of this People’s Forum, the Internet as we know it. The Chinese government won’t be the last to try to own and control the web, and it is in everyone’s interest whose life is even remotely touched by the Internet (in other words: everybody everywhere) to thank them to keep their grubby hands to themselves. It is refreshing to see a corporation take a stand on something besides their bottom line, to take the initiative in a battle over (!) ethics. Most of us thought that went out of style in corporate circles back in the ’60s. Kudos.

If you want to see how all this turns out, just Google it. If you can’t, we lost.

There are some people who don’t like baseball. Pity them.

Editor’s note: While we still don’t have comprehensive socialized medicine in America despite the new Health Care Reform Bill, it’s at least a step in the right direction. For 40 years the most successful and cost-effective health insurance has been the governement-run Medicare and Medicaid programs. This is socialized medicine for, respectively, senior citizens and poor people. Unlike every other industrialized wealthy democracy, America does not provide national health care for every citizen and this law won’t change that sad state of affairs. It does force private insurers to shut down their death panels by making it illegal to deny coverage for preexisting conditions for the applicant or their dependents, so that’s something. Long used as a curse word by conservatives, socialism is part of the fabric of American life and always has been to one degree or another. Ask the Chinese Capitalists, who in a startling role reversal, now call us “Running Dogs of Socialism.” Bobcrespo.com ran the following piece on September 4th of 2009 in anticipation of our Congress growing a spine and implementing socialized medicine to accompany the following social programs. That didn’t happen, but it will in the near future.

Here’s a partial list of Federal socialized programs in America.

THE ARMED FORCES: The United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard are sworn to defend their nation and protect every citizen without sending an itemized bill to anybody.

THE INTERSTATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM: Our extensive system of interstate highways are free for anyone to drive anywhere they like, even New Jersey.

FEDERAL WATERWAYS: Any craft from a canoe to an ocean liner can sail to their hearts’ content on the rivers, streams and lakes of America for no charge.

THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: If somebody kidnaps you or commits some other federal crime against you, The F.B.I. will spare no expense to hunt down the perpetrators, for years if they have to, at no charge to you.

BUREAU OF PRISONS: Once the F.B.I. locks up the bad guys they get to stay in Federal prison for the duration of their sentences on the government’s dime. The Feds also feed and clothe the criminals and provide them with health care, education, libraries, religious services, recreation, visitors’ facilities and legal counseling. For free.

CENSUS BUREAU: They count our heinies every 10 years for free.

CONGRESS: Our elected officials in the House of Representatives and the Senate charge us nothing for looking after our interests (and their own).

THE PRESIDENCY: Again, no matter how good or how lousy are our presidents, they have to make do with their salary, the While House and Air Force One and can’t send us a monthly bill for their services.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, AGRICULTURE, STATE, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, EDUCATION, INTERIOR,COMMERCE, ENERGY, TREASURY, TRANSPORTATION, HOMELAND SECURITY, JUSTICE, ENERGY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: All of these federal departments provide their services to American citizens for free, whether or not we know what the hell they all do.

BUREAU OF ENGRAVING: They run the U.S. Mint, printing our paper money and minting our coins. There is no surcharge. A $5 bill costs $5 and they don’t get to charge 26¢ for those fancy new State Quarters.

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION: This agency does everything all the other ones don’t, just in case the government missed anything. Anybody recall ever getting an invoice for services rendered from these people?

THE SURGEON GENERAL: Neither a surgeon nor a general, The Surgeon General of The United States harangues us about our nasty habits just for the fun of it, sort of a Civic Inquisitor with no power. Good thing, too, they’ve got some pretty peculiar ideas. Truth be told, however, the government usually picks someone who’s very amusing, so it’s all in good fun. No harm done, really.

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: Next time you swim in the ocean or wander around some forest, don’t look for turnstiles to charge you on the way in.

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: The world’s largest library, it is open to anyone wishing to do research or just read rare books and manuscripts. The price? Nothing twice!

SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION: Of course we pay into it though payroll deduction contributions, but unlike private investment firms, there is no charge for managing the largest and most successful social insurance investment in history and there is a guaranteed return for contributors and cost-of-living adjustments. The second largest and equally successful social program? Medicare. Our retirees are very well looked after.

That’s quite a list of social benefits available to Americans, and by no means anywhere near a complete one. Wouldn’t it be great if we had free medical care so we could all live long and healthy lives in order to better enjoy these things? The taxes we pay have created all these wonderful departments and agencies. If we spend 10% less on just one of them, The Department of Defense, we could all have comprehensive health care. There is no reason why our tax dollars need to continue spending more on weapons that the rest of the world combined (you could look it up at the Library of Congress) while 50 million Americans have no medical coverage at all. Either that, or eliminate the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and farm out their functions to other agencies. Whether or not they charge for doing whatever it is they do, that combination just seems like an ugly incident waiting to happen. Hardly seems worth it, even for free. Better we should look after our nation’s health.

Whichever came first, the chicken or the egg, the omelet came third.

Sammy Science back in the house. I’ve decided to avoid engaging in debates with those who dispute proven scientific facts. Once something is proven beyond doubt, what else I can say? If people don’t want to believe in proven facts there’s not much to be done. Insisting you are right won’t help with people who are uncomfortable with truth. Ask Galileo how beating his head against that wall worked out for him. Almost cost him his life and the rest us his crucial life’s work. As just one scientist among millions across the globe, let me just say to some of my religious antagonists that my team has proven a whole lot more of our claims that their team has. If these debates were a basketball game, the score would be more one-sided than a Harlem Globetrotters rout of the Washington Generals, something like a 5,000 – 0 shutout.  Let’s see what’s in the inbox:

Dear Sammy Science: It gets me steamed when a construction project is held up because it “might” be hazardous to some endangered species. This time around it’s a wildflower that’s holding up an important development that will provide vital jobs and services. Don’t we have enough damned flowers? – Rocky Mountain Joe

Dear Rocky Mountain Joe: With a name like that you ought to be more aware of the interdependence of flora and fauna. Who knows what this flower provides the ecosystem? What if it is the plant where Fig Wasps nest and lay their eggs? No big deal, you’re thinking, there’s plenty of other wasps around, and you would be right. But if you like figs that might be a problem, since the Fig Wasp is the only pollinator of fig trees. No flowers for Fig Wasp larvae, no more Fig Wasps, no more Fig Wasps, no more figs. Ever. Who’s going to pollinate the millions of fig trees, you? There are other wildflowers that have provided us lifesaving medicines. I’m not saying that the particular flower you refer to is that important. Perhaps it is only beautiful. Isn’t that quite enough in itself? We already have plenty of box stores and luxury condos, not one of them as beautiful as a flower.

Dear Sammy Science: What’s up with this whole Green Movement thing? Aren’t these people politically motivated? I think they are for the most part crazy liberals who go too far. – Boris DeSpida

Dear Boris DeSpida: Perhaps some of the more extreme Green Movement people are politically motivated demagogues, but that’s what you get when for the whole of the Industrial Revolution we have been shitting where we eat. Had we followed from the beginning the simple laws laid down by our mothers about cleaning up after ourselves, we wouldn’t have to put up with a lot of the fools who advocate that mankind revert to living as we did before we invented electricity, internal combustion and little amenities like modern medicine. That’s not going to happen nor should it. Life spans back in those days were roughly half of ours. The idea of progress is to progress, not go backwards. Being clean is merely common sense. How many ruined pastures and waterways and deaths from pollution do we need before that sinks in? Mankind is a long way from inhabiting another planet so it’s a good idea to make sure that living on this one isn’t like living in a subway men’s room. To my mind, being Green is being clean, and both liberals and conservatives should be able to agree on that. Who wants to be identified with filth and poison?

Dear Sammy Science: I say there is no such thing as ESP. What do you think? – Doubting Thomas

Dear Doubting Thomas: I knew you were going to ask that! Just kidding. The truth is that ESP, or extra-sensory perception, is a real form of communication, just one we do not understand. Ants, for example, have no vocal cords or ears, yet they communicate quite effectively over some distance. While some humans have been proven to have an ability to sense things or to communicate in non-traditional ways, there is of yet no solid method of measuring or even identifying the source of these extrasensory receptors and transmitters. To deny something exists because you yourself do not experience it is ridiculous. As a male, you cannot menstruate or give birth. Do you deny that these physiological functions are part of the human experience? The Flat Earth Society went out of business a long time ago, Thomas. Keep your eyes and your mind wide open.

Dear Sammy Science: Does science recognize that man has a soul? This is not a religious question, and you can call our souls whatever you like; spirits, life essence, whatever. It just seems to me that the life force that distinguishes a living creature from a dead one is quite palpable and of interest to a scientist. – Lance Boyle

Dear Lance Boyle: Man’s soul, or spirit, or life essence, seems to at least this scientist to be a separate and identifiable part of a human being, as much as toes, fingers, eyes or kidneys. Unfortunately, just as with ESP, there is currently no sure scientific method of identifying our souls. Barring a clear and concise way of identifying its components, some scientists deny the existence of the human soul. Others study what we came to call our souls, and I for one welcome their efforts since it seems obvious that people do have an element within us that makes us human, and often more than human. No other species practices kindness towards others, or cruelty either for that matter. No other creature writes poetry. No other creature seems capable of the intuitive leaps of intellect that have provided mankind with technology far beyond beaver dams, gopher holes, ant hills and birds’ nests.

Human beings are creatures with a wider range of personalities within a species that any other life form we have studied. Frogs, for example, never exhibit any behavior that is un-froglike, and there are no frog priests, frog scientists or frog entertainers. Other creatures do, however, possess what we can call a life essence, a soul if you will, since we can tell a dead one from a living one. Whether or not our souls rot along with our bodies when we die is a powerful question, and I think one worthy of scientific research. Every new generation of scientists proves somebody wrong and confirms others’ suspicions, and perhaps someday science will discover and map the soul like we have our organs and our DNA. Good question, Lance, and good questions are the basis of all science. We wonder, and so we investigate.