go ask Alice

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall (“White Rabbit”), Jefferson Airplane

Confusion- Impaired orientation with respect to time, place, or person; a disturbed mental state.

Corporations are sitting on trillions of dollars in profits. They say, since corporations are people, as defined by the Supreme Court, that it is most important to hoard their money as none of them really know the state of our economy. They say that jobs are important, but they who have trillions of dollars refuse to spend their money on hiring because what if the economy goes into recession again. Corporations say that workers are the bane of the problem in this nation, no they don’t speak openly about that but instead they either secretly fund super PACS supporting their puppets the Republican/Bagger politicians, or they filter their talking points to the inept marauders of mischief on FOX News. They have the anti American propagandists on FOX News say things like unemployment insurance makes people lazy, that food stamps dis-encourage people to work.

I don’t understand, how if a person has little money to spend, how she/he can become a consumer purchasing the goods from corporations or businesses. I don’t understand why the corporations don’t stop this incessant circle of no new capital, no new jobs no new products, by saying the American thing is to help. I don’t understand why the business/corporate community does not take even one third of their trillions in profit and begin to hire workers who receive money who then become consumers to buy the products manufactured. I don’t understand how those Americans who have little to spend are expected to spend when they are poor, unemployed or underemployed. I am confused!

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Call Alice
When she was just small (“White Rabbit”) Jefferson Airplane

Flabbergast- to overwhelm with shock, surprise, or wonder

Mitt Romney is looking to quadruple the size of his $12 million California home, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. The GOP presidential candidate has filed an application with the San Diego government to bulldoze the 3,009-square-foot beachfront house in La Jolla and replace it with a 11,062-square-foot property.

Mr. Romney, the Republican/Bagger presidential hopeful, who tells those awaiting him at rallies that he like many of us is unemployed, wants to expand his home because it is inadequate for his 5 married sons and 16 grandchildren. This home by the way is the third for the Romney’s, the other two include a townhouse in Boston and a $10 million vacation home on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire.

Mr. Romney wants to become the president, because he has stated over and over only he truly understands the needs of Americans. Because of his experience in the private sector he is the only one able to connect with the worker. Because he understands the strife of being unemployed he can solve the issue of jobs. Mr. Romney said he is not in favor of increasing taxes for the wealthy, he has not said anything about stopping the shipping of jobs overseas, he did say he would have let the debt ceiling go sky high. And he still has the audacity to think he represents the average American. This is America and God bless him for being able to afford three homes and remodel any and all. But this man speaking for my needs as the leader of this country “ain’t” no way!

When men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low
Go ask Alice
I think she'll know

Frustration- a deep chronic sense or state of insecurity and dissatisfaction arising from unresolved problems or unfulfilled needs

The 1967 Oil Embargo began on June 6, 1967, one day after the beginning of the Six-Day War, with a joint Arab decision to deter any countries from supporting Israel militarily. Several Middle Eastern countries eventually limited their oil shipments, some embargoing only the United States and the United Kingdom, while others placed a total ban on oil exports. The 1973 oil crisis started in October 1973, when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries or the OAPEC (consisting of the Arab members of OPEC, plus Egypt, Syria and Tunisia) proclaimed an oil embargo. The 1970s energy crisis was a period in which the major industrial countries of the world, particularly the United States, faced substantial shortages, both perceived and real, of petroleum. A crisis emerged in the United States in 1979 during the wake of the Iranian Revolution. Amid massive protests, the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, fled his country in early 1979, allowing the Ayatollah Khomeini to gain control. The protests shattered the Iranian oil sector.

We were told that US would never, ever, ever, never, be held hostage to the whims and politics of the Middle Eastern and OPEC nations. Self sufficiency new technologies, the American know how would never, ever, never, never lead us to this road of relying on others. By God this is America we were told by politicians who never told us just how much they owed to their puppet masters, the oil conglomerates.

44 years has gone by since the first Oil Embargo hit the streets of America, and we are still arguing that drill baby drill is the answer to our oil needs. We are preached to that we need oil too much too fast to even think about alternative fuels. We are told alternative fuels are job killers and we are even told as politicians hold the New Testament in their hands that Jesus would not want us to save the planet from polluting this planet. And so, when we had the chance 44 years ago to plan for the future, 44 years later we did nothing but ruminate, blame and promise. And we have some elected officials who still look at the value of their kickbacks rather than the values for America.

Delusional- A false belief strongly held in spite of invalidating evidence, especially as a symptom of mental illness.

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's "off with her head!"
Remember what the dormouse said:
"Feed your head
Feed your head
Feed your head" (“White Rabbit”) Jefferson Airplane

In 1966, I was finishing my junior year of high school. I was clean cut, trying to be popular and involved in the Jewish Community Center of Pittsburgh. I had seen pictures of hippies, protestors and perceived to be Un American hooligans dressed in colorful T-Shirts, bandanas, men with tattoos, and women without bras. I knew some BAD kids tried drugs, I could almost pronounce the drugs they used, had no idea what they did but tried to be cool enough to sound like I was up on my pop culture. In 1966 Gracie Slick wrote “White Rabbit” and for me this song was all about debauchery, depravity, and destruction. As I grew older and I presume a bit wiser and maybe bitter I grew to LOVE this song, and loved all of the hidden, subtle not so subtle innuendo and accusations brought to life in the lyrics.

Here I am in 2011, and when I contemplated the news and the news makers of the day, thinking about my Blog, my brain suddenly went to this song. Seems that all of America is on a pill that we are told will make us happier, make us richer, make us more productive, until another pill is found that we are promised will make us do all of the above but better. My pill, my way, no my pill my way is recited we are bandied about as yo-yo’s on a string. We are told my pill is good their pill is bad. And I find myself feeling like Alice who fell through a rabbit hole hoping to find a better way. Perhaps I will awake in the year 2012 to find, like Alice this was all a dream a delusional delirious dream and all that I thought was tall is small, all that I thought was wrong is right, all that I thought was bad is good. All that I thought was Un-American is AMERICAN!

Or maybe I should just go ask Alice...