I decided that I'm going to do an essay about things that STILL bug the hell out of me. These have been "Settled" for a long time among my political circles, but they're things that every time I think of them, make me go "There's something WRONG here." I bring this up because there are a lot of accusations of Conspiracy Theory brought up when even the hint of questioning the official story comes up. However, this is a new place and a group of people who have proven to be open-minded and fair. So, without judgement of the relative truth of the official stories, here's three things that just BUG me.

1.9/11

This has been bugging me for a LONG time. Not just because of the circumstances surrounding it, but by HOW quickly everybody immediately snapped into line. I remember being called into my bosses office (Local Government, Monterey, CA) at the time (I had just returned from Gencon '01 a couple months earlier) and was told that my interests in wargaming was a bit suspicious. It wasn't that they were making accusations, but I was told that my speculations and comments regarding the event that was going on were not going to be looked on favorably. Especially my online writing that suggested we were going to be going to war soon. That just wasn't OK.

I bring this up because my first thought on that day was "This is a set-up for a war". It's never gone away, and I learned long ago to always go with your gut. The fingering of the suspect came too fast. The country that we chose to invade just felt wrong. As the time continued to press on, little details kept cropping up, and were summarily dismissed by the MSM and Serious people as being CT. There was no plan in place to take advantage of such an event. Doesn't matter that the Patriot Act was signed into law not a MONTH later, with all of the radical changes it brought. There was nothing to see here.

It still bugs me. Whether it was just politicians taking advantage of a situation that came across, it felt far too "Showroom Ready". It felt like this plan was revved up, ready to go, and moved into position while we laughed at the guy we thought was a Harmless idiot in the White House. Fifteen years later, older than my children, and it still goes on. And something still stinks, but we may never find out what it is thanks to the universal institutional Silence on it.

2. The 2000 Election

It was far too convenient that we still hear the same widely debunked story about how Nader was the villain.
It seems almost too good to be true. Manufactured outrages in Florida, a non-precedent setting precedent setting decision by the Supreme Court which didn't even have Jurisdiction... and to top it all off a Democratic Candidate who didn't even feel the need to fight when all the evidence was clear that something smelled badly. And yet, somehow, we ignore all of that evidence as Conspiracy Theory and come back to the idea that Independent candidates ruined it.
I can only think of one time it did happen like that, and it was 8 years before, 1992, when Amazingly enough, CLINTON was running. I'm not saying that there was a conspiracy, just that it's an amazing coincidence that when we start hearing how we must unite behind a candidate or else the independent vote will change the election, there's the same people, running for office.
Something smells here, and it requires a lot of thought. But even that thought is dismissed as CT.

3. The War on Drugs

This one still bugs me. Every facet, every bit of it. It's all too well designed NOT to bug me. My kids still hear the drug warrior nonsense in school. It's nearly an article of faith among our police forces. Our media always talks about the evils of the drug pusher, right before a new "Ask your Doctor" ad.
It ties in with why we can't have good healthcare in this country. Money, money everywhere, and it's so obvious that it's insane, but somehow it's ludicrous to question why the government still is punishing some and rewarding others for essentially doing the same thing.
I guess I'm just a young foolish hippy, but after truly encountering what is the closest thing to a cure, and to know that if I were to step outside my state with it I could be sentenced to life in prison just brings the insanity into focus.
It stinks to high heaven, and watching the government divide and conquer those that want to end it just reinforces my theory that there's a strong profit motive, that you're not allowed to talk about of course, because it's CT.

Sigh. So forgive my paranoid rantings. I just think that these things are things we could talk about more, and examine more. Perhaps even find someone responsible for these awful sins of the past that we are supposed to "Look Forward" and ignore. The only things I know of that ONLY look forward have blinders on.