blackcat Validated Poster
Joined: 07 May 2006 Posts: 2376
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Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:41 pm Post subject: The Shell Game |
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THE SHELL GAME will be available in bookstores in November/December 2007.
Quote: | The Shell Game
It dates back to the 15th century. Three shells, a flat surface, and a soft little ball. The street vender performs his magic, maneuvering the shells in patterns of intersecting circles, then asks the viewing public where the ball is. Place a wager and lift one shell, expose the ball and you win. But the shell game is neither skill nor game of chance, but an act of deception, for the ball has been switched from the obvious shell through a sleight of hand and any prior "winners" were all part of the con.
On a grandeur scale, the shell game is a democracy broken, cloaked by a veneer that alters society’s perception of the world -- lies based on spin, truth without fact. It is a hypocrisy that tears at the fabric of society – radicals who kill innocent people in the name of God, politicians who favor loyalty over competence, corporations that profit from bloodshed, and the media outlets who slant their broadcasts to meet the needs of their advertisers. It is legislation based on greed instead of need – health care systems that feed pharmaceutical companies instead of the sick, energy policies monopolized by the private sector, safeguarded by members of Congress who suckle off the teat of campaign donations. It is policies that protect the needs of the powerful and loopholes which encourage Wall Street raiders to seize worker pension funds. . . the system’s reward for a hostile takeover. It is a Federal budget that invests billions into weapons of mass destruction and pennies into its fighting soldiers, hiding the grim reality that one in three adult homeless males are combat vets, that one in four veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan suffer mental health problems – that our nation’s warriors have been left behind by an Administration that wraps itself in the stars and stripes but refuses to provide adequate
funding for our soldiers’ needs. |
Much more at http://www.stevealten.com/Shell_excerpt.pdf |
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