Free to Be Drowned Out by Eardrum Bursting Sound Cannon

U.S. authorities mobilized "non lethal" wartime weapons at the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh. What's good enough for Somali pirates and Iraqi insurgents is good enough for protesting American citizens. According to a reporter, a Defense Department source said the sound cannon can burst eardrums, cause internal ear bleeding, even cause fatal aneurysms for those within 30 feet.

One of the first posts on this blog dealt with the Government Industrial Monstrosity, Eisenhower's Military Industrial Complex on steroids. Uncle Sam provides the seed money, uses cost plus indefinite quantity/indefinite delivery contracts, while shielding the manufacturer from liability. Both parties play the game.

It's a sweet deal when the government funds your R&D, guarantees your profit and shields you from liability (not to mention criticism). Yet, the steroid induced GIM wants more, flying into a fit of profit rage. American Technology Corporation is behind the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD). The salesman wouldn't identify which government agency purchased the weapon, but was proud of its deployment. ATC wants every police department in America to have one.

One might expect the usual leeches on the carotid artery of the federal government to invest. The sound cannon is one of many innovative battlefield technologies, lethal and non lethal. Other products used against protesters in Pittsburgh, gas canisters and shotgun fired bean bags, are made by a Carlyle Group affiliate, Combined Systems Inc.

The race to the moon brought consumers Velcro. America's tampering in Iraq is yet to bring cheap oil, but it did provide new ways to control the public. What voice can be heard over an ear drum shattering machine? None, and that's the way the GIM wants it.

Power and greed drive America's abysmal leadership. The race to the lowest global common denominator continues for worker pay/benefits, taxes and regulation. Ignore the Obama fluff language, full of generalities and devoid of specifics. It's intended to divert the masses. Look at Congressional implementation. It fosters corporafornication at every turn.

Exempted from the race to the bottom? Executive compensation, lobbying and political donations. The GIM would have it no other way. How many ways can this message be drowned out?

I'm sure the Carlyle Group has a division capable of doing that very thing. Maybe the tech arm of Booz Allen Hamilton, Nielsen or one their dozens of technology, defense or media firms?

(P.S. The story behind the The Drowned Leander Borne by Nereids painting might imply America's democracy has drowned. What else could die with it? Civility and honesty are already gone.)