My Political Views
I am a far-left social libertarian
Left: 7.62, Libertarian: 5.47
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My Foreign Policy Views
Score: -7.45
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My Culture War Stance
Score: -7.93
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Absolutely no surprises here.
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This morning, while dropping my kids off at summer camp, I heard the big economic news on NPR. This news is covered, also, on the Washington Post, European, and Asian News Sources.
Japan Joins Recent Wave Of Economic Expansion
Germany, France, and Japan are all in recovery with expanding economies. In this same period of time, the US economy continued to shrink by about 1%. I find it curious that countries those on the right like to call socialist and brand as inferior are recovering and showing growing economies when we continue to decline. Of course, those countries are not socialist and Conservatives would not recognize socialism if it bit their behinds. But countries that are willing to regulate banks and industries prove that regular monitoring of a economy is better for its health.
Last night I heard good news. Olberman Lambasted Bill O’Reilly and Fox news. What is good about that? Well, other than hearing someone say something about the Fox Propaganda outlet, it proved that a story “Voices From Above Silence a Cable TV Feud” was either grossly wrong or simply made up. I mean, I wouldn’t have been surprised if Corporations like Fox and GE colluded to remove some unflattering bit of information about their respective corporations. But I was disappointed. Now, I am not surprised that the New York Times (falsely accused of being a liberal news outlet) would print a story that has proven to be so wrong. But my happiness over hearing Olberman’s O’Reilly voice wins out.
For years, I have hung out at a virtual place on the web called “WrestoftheStory.” This wonderful community grew up in the aftermath of the 2006 Israeli/Hamas war. It became a place where we could hang out, talk, argue, and fight cosmic battles over the nature of the world we live in. I met great people like Spencer, Donna, Joe, Kathy, Lance, Mark, Senator Hatrack, Black Rain, Bryan, Al, Sandy, Martha, and way too many to name here. It has been one of the most valuable experiences of my life and changed me for the better. I did not always agree with these people. With some of them, the disagreements were epic. But as the Wrest closes its doors I find myself remembering all of them fondly. I will miss this place and I will miss those that I will never talk with again. May you all live long and prosper.
From the Republican party has come the strategy to ship conservatives from around the country into town-hall meetings where Democrats are seeking to answer questions from their constituents. This originated in a leaked memofrom Robert MacGuffie. The right knows that a huge percentage of Americans want the health-care system fixed. Rather than try to put forth their own ideas or discuss rationally, Republicans and Conservatives have chosen to sell terror. This plan to ship in a tiny minority to terrorize those who disagree with them politically and make people think that they are actually large group goes back to 1921 and the formation of the Sturm Abteilung by Adolf Hitler. The people we see storming the town hall meetings are modern day brown-shirts, and that is the best thing I can say about them.
My first thought, don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.
Palin resigns as governor, leaves plans secret
Still, I wonder why. I mean, if she wants to run for President, quitting in the middle of her biggest job because she could not stand the heat doesn’t look good. Well, it doesn’t look good to me. At Redstate.org, she is just moving on to get ready. No one asks will she just quit in the middle of a Presidency if she should win in 2012? Over at Free Republic they have that same kind of adulation.
Is there a big old scandal coming down the pipes? I she resigning because she is facing a criminal indictment? Is she just a wimp. This is a story to be watched.
T.A.N.S.T.A.A.F.L. (There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch) was coined by Robert Heinlein in his 1966 novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. The phrase passed from fiction to fandom to physics to economics and even Libertarians. The concepts origin goes back to the 30’s and 40’s when bars would advertise a “Free Lunch” but you had to by drinks, and the lunch was added to the drinks. Heinlein’s lunar colonists used to describe a concept as essential to economics as it is to physics. Nothing in the universe is free. There are costs in everything, and more often than not, they are hidden. It comes about as close to describing the Libertarian idea of a man’s relation to government as it is possible to get. T.A.N.S.T.A.A.F.L. reveals that any government benefit comes only at a cost of freedom. Balancing the two, even in the ideal government, is difficult on a short term and impossible in the long term.
That is something that we all should think about in these times, even if like me you are not a Libertarian. What do we get from anything, be it a pet, a shiny new car, a functioning economy, or a shiny new government benefit? What will it cost us, in the short term and long term? Does the cost outweigh the benefits?
T.A.N.S.T.A.A.F.L., the concept, is something we should all think about as we read through the news. Every one of history’s acts is the product of T.A.N.S.T.A.A.F.L. Somebody, probably you and me, are paying for it. We will not know the cost until long after the last bill comes due. But just because something is expensive and loaded with hidden costs, to our wallet or even some freedom, doesn’t me we should not buy it. It just means we should be aware of what we are buying.
Considering a Movement of Non-Violent Non-Compliance to End the War in Iraq/Afghanistan, Divest the United States of Empire, return power to the hands of the people, and Bring Peace and Stability to the U.S.A.
Liberals are in disarray after their willing seduction and abandonment by the Pragmatists of the Centrist Branch of the Democratic Party led by President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, DNC Chairman Tim Kaine and other “Leaders” of the National Democratic Party. Many people searching in the blogosphere and living in the atmosphere will find that statement ludicrous. A party in disarray should be on the run from their enemies. The Democratic Party in is not in shambles, but the grass roots of one of its constituencies, that being the liberal left, finds itself half in the wilderness and half linked by an umbilicus of belief to a party that uses them for elections and forgets in the pragmatics of governing.
The Liberal Left that came out in force for Barack Obama, seeing him as the man of the hour who would carry the standard of peace for a desperate world, now find him a disinterested peacemaker. Obama has declared an end to the adventure in Iraq while charging willfully into the wilderness of Afghanistan. The war does not end, it only moves to a different location. Obama has not ended the Don’t Ask Don’t’Tell policy designed to enforce societal concepts that gays and lesbians as lesser human beings. He has resisted holding the Bush Administration responsible for violations of law and even protected them by reneging on the promise to release torture photographs. In his acceptance of the CIA’s just following orders defense used at the Nuremberg trials he has become an accessory after the fact to torture, and complicit in torture. All of these actions are abominable by the left.
News happens every day whether we want it or not. It’s been a while since I rounded up the information dogies. So without further ado about nothing…
A Genetic Clue to Why Autism Affects Boys More
Among the many mysteries that befuddle autism researchers: why the disorder affects boys four times more often than girls. But in new findings reported online today by the journal Molecular Psychiatry, researchers say they have found a genetic clue that may help explain the disparity.The newly discovered autism-risk gene, identified by authors as CACNA1G, is more common in boys than in girls (why that’s so is still not clear), and the authors suggest it plays a role in boys’ increased risk of the developmental disorder. CACNA1G, which sits on chromosome 17, amid other genes that have been previously linked to autism, is responsible for regulating the flow of calcium into and out of cells. Nerve cells in the brain rely on calcium to become activated, and research suggests that imbalances in the mineral can result in the overstimulation of neural connections and create developmental problems, such as autism and even epilepsy, which is also a common feature of autism.
So much has happened, politically. Obama became President, he had a good 100 days, Arlen Specter changed parties. Republicans look at it all and are making predictions.
Inhofe believes that Specter’s change of party is part of an act of purifications. Once the party is pure enough, the American people will bow down and worship at the Republican alter once again.
Well, I find this idea fascinating. The Republican Party, by shedding its moderate members and voters in droves, is somehow going to find their way back into the good graces of the people. They seem to believe that Bush and the Rove’s Permanent Republican Majority weren’t really Conservatives, though they claimed to be and those still in the public eyes still say their are “Conservative.”
So, for what it’s worth, I’m going to watch this. Stand by. Lets see if 2010 returns Republican’s to power, or if the continue suffering shrinkage.
I’ve never been a member of the NRA. I’ve never owned a weapon, though I trained with and used a weapon while in the military service. After years of listening to guns rights advocates I have seen the light. With the force of a fifty caliber HEI round striking me between the eyes, I’ve realized that within the text of the second amendment can be found the answer to most of our national problems. The answer lies within a full implementation of the intent of the second amendment which reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Cleary, our founding fathers did not grant American citizens the inherent right to bear arms out of a the goodness of their creator. The opening clause “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State” explicitly reveals that the right to bear arms hinges on the need of the nation for a “A well regulated Militia.” But there is nothing in the modern United States that corresponds to a citizens militia, well regulated or not. So I propose that President Obama and the Congress of the United States create a Citizens Militia consisting of every adult US citizen between the ages of 18 and 65.
Of course, there are naysayers out there who will, no doubt, be driven to apoplexy with the very idea. A Citizens Militia would save vast sums from military spending, serve as a boon to health by requiring certain minimum physical requirements for all citizens, implement a national health care system to keep citizen militia members in good health, provide a cheap labor pool that will end Americas addiction to illegal labor, and many other benefits. The Citizens Militia would work in the following way:
Upon a citizens 18th birthday, all American citizens would report for 1 year mandatory training. During their year of training, citizen militia members would train in the use of weapons, small unit combat tactics, threat identification, and use of force. No waivers for conscientious objection, wealth, marriage, pilonidal cyst, or other minor excuse are allowed, though objectors would serve with the medical corps or within an entertainment/stress relief unit to fulfill the fantasies of those bearing arms. After completion of the year of service all citizen militia members will be issued a state of the art combat weapons system to be maintain at the citizens own expense. Medical and entertainment/stress relief unit members will be require to carry maintain their own gear. For three months of every year until the age of 65, all citizen militia members will train with a unit. Only a verifiable medical emergency will exempt a Citizens Militia member from training, though training must be completed upon the first induction date after a complete bill of health is obtained from the National Militia Health Care System.
A benefit of a citizen militia would be the abolition of the US Army, US Marine Corps, and National Guard. The existence of a National Citizen Militia would make such organizations redundant and unnecessary. The Navy and Air Force would be reorganized. Militia members, after their initial year of training, would be allowed to volunteer for service in these organizations. While maintaining the required standards of weapons training, they would serve for three months on naval craft and operating Air Force assets. Considerable savings would be achieved through the use of a unified command structure and bureaucracy and by standardization across the Citizen Militia.
The necessity of maintaining one quarter of all adults in the military at any time would require an efficient national health care system. The current maze of competing insurance companies with different plans is simply too inefficient and costly and would leave millions of Citizens Militia members without adequate health care. Health care would also be required to ensure that a minimum level of conditioning be met by all members of the Citizen Militia. Grossly overweight Citizens Militiamen would not be able to carry 75 pounds of equipment to the top of Mount Rushmore to defend the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. Maintaining an overall high level of diet and exercise would keep Americans in fighting trim and lead to happier, healthier, and longer lives.
Other benefits accrue form the establishment of a Citizen Militia. Members in training cannot perform calisthenics or target practice 16 hours a day. They would form a gigantic cheap work force that can be utilized to build and maintain infrastructure, harvest crops, or fill any other task that illegal aliens perform today. What Citizen Militia Member would not be willing to perform back breaking labor at minimum wage for three months of every year as a duty to country. Use of Citizen Militia assets to perform necessary work could be contracted out to the highest bidder at a considerable savings to the US treasury. For their work, an additional benefit for the Citizen Militiamember would be found by providing the minimum wage to all serving Citizen Militia members tax free for their three months of service each year in addition to three hots and a cot every day and 16 hours of healthy recreational back breaking labor.
Lest prisoners serving time for crimes against the people of the United states be considered to be getting a free ride, prisoners would not be exempt from their required service. They would be required to take moral and ethics training classes while serving in the Citizens Militia to address the deficiency in their upbringing or personality. As with America’s prison population, elected members of the government would also be required to fulfill their service each year, though they would be required to serve in the entertainment/stress relief because citizens would enjoy screwing their representatives for at least three months of the year.
There are those who will complain that requiring a quarter of the adult population of the United States of America to complete military training and public service for three months of the year is too harsh a sacrifice. But with great power comes great responsibility, and the privilege of being an armed and dangerous US citizen should not come cheap.
Desperation is goad of success, or at least the elect cattle prod. The continuing collapse of the economy makes my work toward my degree in English and a teaching credential an ineffective way of making a living. California, you see, is laying off another 26,000 teachers. So I will be going back to looking for technical writing, and pushing very hard to complete write full time.
Think of this as my year of writing dangerously. Red Tears is close, and another novel in the works, Oubliette, will bend the fantasy and Science Fiction Genre in ways that, I hope, will resonate with agents and readers. But I really haven’t a choice.