A friend of mine has stated that there are people who, since the popularity of the teabagger movement, have been preaching tea party tag lines and in some instances are preaching contradictory ideologies.
I just want to go on the record. These are my beliefs. I am not saying I have a full understanding of political ideologies. I am not going to tell you I am a Conservative, a Liberal, a Democrat, a Republican, a Libertarian, a Socialist, a Communist, a Green or one of about 10,000 other relabeled hacked together ideologies that, like every other religion (yeah I am calling them religions) out there, profess to be the best. I guess if you held a gun to my head, I would say the ideas proposed by Libertarians interest me the most. In their purest form, I think they are somewhat impractical, but they are pretty good. Here's what I believe. On the record. For all to see. Take it for what it is worth.
In a political system, I want a few things. I don't think I am asking for much here. I believe in the following for every person. It's a long list. It is going to be tough to comprehend.
1) Everyone has the right to life. Duh.
2) Everyone has the right to pursue their happiness. What is the point of life if you can't be happy?
3) Everyone has the right to attain and RETAIN the things that enhance either their life or their happiness.
4) Under no circumstances can someone's pursuit of their rights infringe on another person's rights.
WHEW! I don't know about you, but I need a nap. But seriously, that's it. It's not complicated.
I believe first and foremost in CHOICE. An individual's right to choose is instrumental in exercising their rights. Taking away an individual's choice, is the biggest violation of a human's rights that I can conceive of. Anything that a government does to limit choices of an individual are, in my opinion, wrong. Here is what I think government SHOULD do. Protect it's citizen's rights. Fairly simple and straight forward. Allow me to preserve my own life and the life of other people. Allow me to pursue things that make me happy. Allow me to keep my stuff. Prevent people from stopping me from exercising my rights.
1) I don't need a government to tell me what to do. In my house, I do what I want. I choose what I do and when I do it. If I go to dinner at a restaurant, I don't need the FDA telling my chef how much sodium chloride to put in my food while they are cooking it. I don't need them telling my beverage companies how much sugar they can put in my beverages. I don't want the government telling my restaurants how small of a smoking space they should have. There is not a person out there that does not know that if you are fat there are three options for you. Reduce caloric intake by restricting fat, carbohydrates and protein, increase your physical exertion, or better yet, both. It's not rocket science. There is not a person who does not know how bad smoking is for them. There is not a person out there that doesn't know that drugs and alcohol are bad for you. It is not news. But it makes people happy. You want to tell someone they shouldn't eat at McDonald's? Go ahead. But don't tell McDonald's they can only salt their fries with a single arch of salt instead of the standard two arches of salt. (Yeah. That's seriously how they dose the salt. The make a pair of arches, just like on the sign.) It is up to the individual to make that choice. What I think government SHOULD do in this situation? Make sure the ground beef doesn't kill me by making sure it is safe from microbes and toxins. Make sure that the conditions that limit food contamination are in place. I am even OK with them SUGGESTING how I should eat. But they should not force me to eat that way. That's it. Not complicated.
2) I want to smoke me some crack. It's awesome. It's the best thing ever. You know what I want the government to do about it? Make sure there isn't drain cleaner in it. Make sure I'm not high off my ass when I am driving down the road endangering other people's lives. Maybe come up with recommended maximum dosing. That's pretty much it. It's simple.
3) I have a nice pile of cash in the middle of my living room. It's a good five feet high and full of $50 and $100 bills. Must be millions of dollars in it. I like to roll around in it. I want it to be there when I get home from making more money. I then want to take that money I made and add it to the pile in the middle of my living room. If someone comes into my house and tries to take my money, I want to be able to defend my money. My life too if necessary. All he government has to do is not get in my way. If they manage to get my money? I want them to work on getting it back. If they can prevent it in the first place? Even better.
I don't think I am asking a lot here. I don't have a problem with being taxed to provide for these things. Military, police, firemen, FDA inspectors? All good. I don't have a problem with regulations that support these things. Paying taxes is a requirement. HOW those taxes are spent though, is another issue.
Taking my money so that you can then subsidize farmers? Not cool. Let the market set the prices. You want to cut taxes on farmers to ease their expenses? Fine. Don't pay them to dump out milk. Don't pay them to not grow crops. (Sadly, both happen.) Taking my money so you can subsidize solar panels? Not cool. Instead, tax breaks would be appropriate or, heaven forbid, making them complete on price instead of giving them money so they don't have to. Tax credits for people who buy energy efficient appliances? Appropriate as well. Taking my money so you can conduct a "war on drugs" is not cool. Prohibition didn't work for alcohol during the depression. Why would it work with drugs now? Stop filling prisons with people whose sole crime is they like to get high. On top of the cost of a war against people who like to get high, I have to feed and clothe them in the name of this holy crusade against the evils of drugs. At the very least, conduct the right war. Go after the dealers if you are going to go through with something this stupid. You know. The drug dealers. The people who actually sell the drugs? Now if they happen to harm someone while they are high? Throw the friggin' book at them.
Secure our borders. Keep people who are not authorized to be here out, especially people who would like to blow us up, or sell us drugs, and provide a path for people to come in. One of the best things about this country is the way we USED TO mix and match ideas and get the best of both worlds. Having points of view from other cultures made this country strong. We still need fresh ideas from other cultures. I am all for people coming here the right way.
I hope it is clear. If you have questions, please post below.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Stories I am tired of
The good news, no guns. The bad news, in this post, racist teabagging and the gulf.
Well... I guess Bill Maher is a teabagger. He will be thrilled to hear this. I mean, teabaggers are racist and this has got to be the single most racist thing that I have heard said about Obama in either public or private conversations. Check it out here and tell me what you think. There is, of course, the obvious exception of black comedians who, by definition, cannot say anything racist about black people and since they are black, cannot possibly be a member of a racist organization.
The thing is that I am getting a bit tired of this story. Outside of the one incident with the black representatives heading in to the health care vote, I don't know of a single instance of any kind of racist sentiment being uttered by a teabagger. Whenever the teabaggers are called racist, that is the only example I ever here. I guess that it could be a function of the media that I am exposed to. The only media that I read really are articles posted by people I follow on Twitter (mostly conservative with a dash liberal thrown in), some Daily Show, some Colbert Report, and every once in a while, Rachel Maddow. I know. Rachel Maddow is a bit of a guilty pleasure. It's like watching a mirror-universe version or Bill O'Reilly, but with boobs. Boobs are good. If you're wondering, the mirror version of Glenn Beck would be Keith Olberman, who has no boobs. In Glenn Beck's case, boobs are not good.
You know the other story I'm getting tired of? The "BP is evil" story. Look, I am not by any stretch an environmentalist. If you want to hug trees, go check out my friend's blog "Musings of a (Fairly) Young Contrarian". It's a good read. He blogs about the environment, human rights, social issues and unfortunately, soccer. It is not for the faint of heart. I mean how much soccer can one person read about? Anyway, back to my thoughts. I don't mean that I am tired of the oil spill in the gulf story. Far from it. I am as interested as anyone else. It's an important story and I believe that a lot can be learned from what happened and changes can be made to make sure that it either doesn't happen again or, at the very least, that the impact is nowhere near this degree of severity.
Understand this. I am not happy about the situation in the Gulf. I am angry that it happened. I am angry that there are people out of work. I am angry that people lost their lives. I am angry that there is an ecosystem that is all but destroyed. I am angry that there are ways of life that are likely to come to and end for families that have been working for generations. I am angry that it has taken so long for any kind of functioning solution to show up. I am angry that the US government has taken precisely ZERO actions to assess or direct the response. I am not happy that they were impotent to stop BP from spraying the most toxic versions of the chemical dispersants into the ocean further damaging the ecosystem. But I am probably the MOST angry that the best response to this disaster that I have seen has come from KEVIN FREAKING COSTNER! Given all of this, I don't think BP is evil. Negligent? Yes. Incompetent? Certainly. But "evil?" It's a bit of a stretch. In my mind evil implies an intention to cause harm. That is the single over-arching goal. Death, destruction, mayhem.
Of the how many oil rigs in the gulf, what is it 3,500? This is the first one I have heard of with a significant oil spill. Did their safety measures fail? Yes. Did they have multiple layers of fail-safe systems fail? Yes. Was it their rig? Yes. Did they fail to keep these systems functional? Yes. Was it their fault? Yes. But was it their intent? Only if they are the real life incarnations of Bond villains. I mean come on. Seriously. You think that they were bored and said, "Let's dump a shitload of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and wreak havoc on the environment, sabotage our political win for new offshore drilling, cost ourselves billions of dollars and do irrevocable damage to our reputation. It will be... wait for it... LEGENDARY!" Do I fault them? Absolutely. It was the grossest form of negligence possible in an oil organization. I also fault the government that was supposed to regulate them. Why the hell are they taking my money to pay inspectors and fly them around the gulf and, you know, inspect stuff, if they are not finding things EXACTLY LIKE THIS? Isn't it their job to find this stuff and stop it before the worst case scenario happens? But on the flip side, as much as I fault BP, they are probably one of the few organizations that can mobilize and fund the efforts necessary to clean up the mess. And they are incentivized to find a solution and find it quickly. They do not have a bureaucracy (why the hell does that word have so many consonants? Even its spelling is wasteful.) to deal with. They don't have to have committee meetings in front of television cameras and posture for reelection. They are far more nimble than the US government.
The best part is that when all is said and done, nothing will change. BP will get a slap on the wrist. Their profits last year were a little over $16 Billion dollars. See page 3 of this report from BP's site. The government will institute some meaningless and toothless regulations that looks like they've put BP in their place, but will result in no change in the safety of the environment, and no change in BPs practices. It will however make it look like they were tough on "Big Oil" and those "evil" profit making companies. Because everyone knows that making profit is evil. I've said my piece. Feel free to comment below.
Well... I guess Bill Maher is a teabagger. He will be thrilled to hear this. I mean, teabaggers are racist and this has got to be the single most racist thing that I have heard said about Obama in either public or private conversations. Check it out here and tell me what you think. There is, of course, the obvious exception of black comedians who, by definition, cannot say anything racist about black people and since they are black, cannot possibly be a member of a racist organization.
The thing is that I am getting a bit tired of this story. Outside of the one incident with the black representatives heading in to the health care vote, I don't know of a single instance of any kind of racist sentiment being uttered by a teabagger. Whenever the teabaggers are called racist, that is the only example I ever here. I guess that it could be a function of the media that I am exposed to. The only media that I read really are articles posted by people I follow on Twitter (mostly conservative with a dash liberal thrown in), some Daily Show, some Colbert Report, and every once in a while, Rachel Maddow. I know. Rachel Maddow is a bit of a guilty pleasure. It's like watching a mirror-universe version or Bill O'Reilly, but with boobs. Boobs are good. If you're wondering, the mirror version of Glenn Beck would be Keith Olberman, who has no boobs. In Glenn Beck's case, boobs are not good.
You know the other story I'm getting tired of? The "BP is evil" story. Look, I am not by any stretch an environmentalist. If you want to hug trees, go check out my friend's blog "Musings of a (Fairly) Young Contrarian". It's a good read. He blogs about the environment, human rights, social issues and unfortunately, soccer. It is not for the faint of heart. I mean how much soccer can one person read about? Anyway, back to my thoughts. I don't mean that I am tired of the oil spill in the gulf story. Far from it. I am as interested as anyone else. It's an important story and I believe that a lot can be learned from what happened and changes can be made to make sure that it either doesn't happen again or, at the very least, that the impact is nowhere near this degree of severity.
Understand this. I am not happy about the situation in the Gulf. I am angry that it happened. I am angry that there are people out of work. I am angry that people lost their lives. I am angry that there is an ecosystem that is all but destroyed. I am angry that there are ways of life that are likely to come to and end for families that have been working for generations. I am angry that it has taken so long for any kind of functioning solution to show up. I am angry that the US government has taken precisely ZERO actions to assess or direct the response. I am not happy that they were impotent to stop BP from spraying the most toxic versions of the chemical dispersants into the ocean further damaging the ecosystem. But I am probably the MOST angry that the best response to this disaster that I have seen has come from KEVIN FREAKING COSTNER! Given all of this, I don't think BP is evil. Negligent? Yes. Incompetent? Certainly. But "evil?" It's a bit of a stretch. In my mind evil implies an intention to cause harm. That is the single over-arching goal. Death, destruction, mayhem.
Of the how many oil rigs in the gulf, what is it 3,500? This is the first one I have heard of with a significant oil spill. Did their safety measures fail? Yes. Did they have multiple layers of fail-safe systems fail? Yes. Was it their rig? Yes. Did they fail to keep these systems functional? Yes. Was it their fault? Yes. But was it their intent? Only if they are the real life incarnations of Bond villains. I mean come on. Seriously. You think that they were bored and said, "Let's dump a shitload of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and wreak havoc on the environment, sabotage our political win for new offshore drilling, cost ourselves billions of dollars and do irrevocable damage to our reputation. It will be... wait for it... LEGENDARY!" Do I fault them? Absolutely. It was the grossest form of negligence possible in an oil organization. I also fault the government that was supposed to regulate them. Why the hell are they taking my money to pay inspectors and fly them around the gulf and, you know, inspect stuff, if they are not finding things EXACTLY LIKE THIS? Isn't it their job to find this stuff and stop it before the worst case scenario happens? But on the flip side, as much as I fault BP, they are probably one of the few organizations that can mobilize and fund the efforts necessary to clean up the mess. And they are incentivized to find a solution and find it quickly. They do not have a bureaucracy (why the hell does that word have so many consonants? Even its spelling is wasteful.) to deal with. They don't have to have committee meetings in front of television cameras and posture for reelection. They are far more nimble than the US government.
The best part is that when all is said and done, nothing will change. BP will get a slap on the wrist. Their profits last year were a little over $16 Billion dollars. See page 3 of this report from BP's site. The government will institute some meaningless and toothless regulations that looks like they've put BP in their place, but will result in no change in the safety of the environment, and no change in BPs practices. It will however make it look like they were tough on "Big Oil" and those "evil" profit making companies. Because everyone knows that making profit is evil. I've said my piece. Feel free to comment below.
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