The Sky is Falling

A general trend the last seven years has been to keep everyone scared. The Catholic Church used to do this in the middle ages to keep their flock subservient on the outside chance there really was a hell. Now politicians do it to keep people marching lockstep behind any inane policy.

The saddest part of this is that some people know better than to scare people but they do it to hold on to power. The other people just are susceptible to fear. If there is a .0000000000001 percent chance the sky could fall they will act as if there is a 99.9999999999 percent certainty that it will.

Some smart and not so nice people know that about you.

Tribunals vs. Court System

The only reason beside expediency on the battle field for tribunals is to obfuscate or hinder the exposition of the truth. All criminals, no matter how hideous, should be tried in our court system, in the open, with no secrets so that there is not even the hint of any impropriety. The reason certain high value detainees are not being tried in the open is that it would reveal how horribly the Administration trespassed on the Constitution and defied our current civil and military laws. All because of their small dicks, including the second in command.

Illegal Immigrants and the Law

Make no mistake: The people who consider illegal immigration to be a law and order issue are the same ones who look the other way when the very politicians they support break the law.

Silver Bullet

There are some really stupid sayings in the political world. One is Silver Bullet, as in, "We don't have a silver bullet that will fix that problem," or some other meaningless variation. This is a saying used by a famous formerly gap-toothed Secretary of State and others in the same Administration to refer to a "magic cure" or "solution." Maybe they mean to say magic bullet. Or could it be that they are referring to The Lone Ranger or computer jargon which don't make sense either.

The silver bullet is more properly and commonly thought of as the thing that kills werewolves or a common nickname for a popular light beer, not for solutions to the world's complex problems. Idiot sayings, idiot policies.

Decline of Our Country

What more proof do you need of the decline of our country than the amount of senseless crimes, including murder, that are commited? A society that doesn't care for its own breeds individuals who don't care for themselves or others. It might be helpful for all the conservative folks out there to re-evaluate their belief in letting people fend for themselves until they are so screwed up that they commit crimes.

If we cared for our citizens we would not have the epidemic of violence we currently have. Just another symptom of the culture of responsibility. Translation: Culture of you're on your own.

Don't believe me? Listen to a certain fat radio host and then decide what kind of country his vitriol would create. Or there's that Skeletor looking blonde lady that spews venom. Yeah, their beliefs would make the country more peaceful. I've also got a bridge that I'd like to sell you.

State of the Union

Divided and not well. Correction: the rich are doing well. Everyone else gets to gleefully participate in the euphemistically named culture of responsibility. Let me translate that in case people don't realize what culture of responsibility really means. It means you're on you own.

Never Forget

All these well meaning groups and organizations that never want to forget their cause are missing a key point. To heal you have to acknowledge but be able to let go. Constantly reliving trauma doesn't help anyone heal. This country needs some more healing not more fixation on mourning.

Reactionary Vs. Progressive

There's a reason conservatives are reactionary and liberals are progressive. Reactive thinking waits for something to happen and then does some lame thing to try to fix the problem after the fact. It usually involves some sort of hard ass action like cutting government or going to war. Proactive thinking means you plan for contingencies and deal with them before they happen. It avoids having to run around like a chicken without a head because you have a system in place to increase the likelihood of success.

Examples:

*Giving poor kids afterschool activities and hope instead of locking them up once they've committed a crime.

*Planning economic policy to help the greatest amount of citizens rather than trying to fix a recession because too much money has been siphoned to the rich.

*Developing alternatives to oil instead of willy nilly drilling for more of the stuff that's going to run out anyway.

*Using diplomacy to talk to the world and avoid conflict instead of knee-jerk war.

Try some proactive (or progressive) thinking sometime. It might be a little more difficult up front but the pay off is that you have more sound policy driving the country.

Problems with MySpace and Facebook

If you have a child who is obsessively involved with MySpace or Facebook - online social networking - to the point that it is dangerous, you might want to look at your parenting skills rather than blaming everything on society. Try listening to your child once in a while instead of always wringing your hands and prohibiting things.

Did you know there are actually millions of parents in our country that believe that children are to be seen but not heard. Then they whine about the child reaching out to others to be heard.

Then the familiar, "He seemed like such a nice boy, quiet."

Don't talk at your kids, listen to them. You'll be amazed what you find out. Or you can keep promising them they'll go to hell, that works great.

Washing Hands after Going to the Bathroom

Have you seen these people who don't wash their hands after going to the bathroom. What kind of jerk do you have to be to do this. "Nobody's gonna tell me what to do." Then they go shake other people's hands and use the office microwave. Just because you don't care about washing your hands doesn't mean you have to affect other people with your ridiculous actions. These are the same people who don't give a hoot about poor people and couldn't care less about helping anyone with anything. I guess some people are just rude.

Against Political Correctness

The only people against political correctness are those who feel their political views are the only ones that are correct. Must be great to see the world from only one perspective, for simpletons. Problem is there is more than one perspective on pretty much everything. Not everyone thinks your view on taxes is correct.

Those railing against political correctness tend to be those who want to hang on to awesome beliefs like racism and sexism. I'd be upset too if I had to defend beliefs such as those.

Imposing Your Beliefs

People seem to be so sensitive about defending their points of view and beliefs. They can't seem to see the world from any other perspective but their own. When one can only see the world from one perspective, one finds other opinions and ideas to be threatening. If we would focus more on understanding others we wouldn't always have to be fighting so hard to defend our beliefs. People also get really hurt and angry if someone challenges their beliefs. Country full of babies.

So what if someone doesn't agree with your beliefs? Move on. Why does everyone have to impose their beliefs on others? Grow up, live the best life you can live and leave everyone else alone.

Gay Bashing

You ever wonder if the guys so intent on bashing gays are actually trying to deny their homosexual tendencies by appearing hyper macho. Why else would you be so scared of gays? Oh, I forgot, The Bible. I'm sure Jesus was all for bashing people.

War Mongers

War mongers don't realize that it's their belief that there will always be war that perpetuates perpetual war. If you begin to believe that war can be eliminated you start doing things differently than the war mongers and it leads in a different direction.

If you say, "There will always be war," you create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Also, always remember who benefits from war. Hint: think of who is making money off the war currently.

Fighting for the Past

People idealize the past and wish for the good old days when this country was more pure and people respected each other and...people were segregated. Good grief.

Freedom to Be a Jerk

I wonder why people fight so hard to hang on to beliefs and practices that hurt and offend others. Why be a jerk when you could do something other than bother someone else?

Long Hair and The Bible

You ever meet these people that think a woman isn't a woman unless she has long hair? Same people who think a woman's place is in the kitchen and pumping out babies. It would be great to see those guys in the kitchen and pumping out babies instead of hanging out with their buddies , drinking beer, farting and/or interpreting the Bible.

P.S. A "literal" reading of the Bible usually means giving dudes all the rights and keeping the women subservient. Don't let anyone pull the wool over your eyes on this one and, especially, don't let anyone take away your rights because they say the Bible says something.

Voting Your Interests

Next time you vote you might want to consider voting for people who will actually help you and your family get ahead. The proof is always in the results. Are the rich getting richer at the expense of the middle class? Is the middle class healthy and enjoying upward mobility? Are the leaders creating more poor people? Results speak much louder than any words about how well the country is doing.

Also, denying people the right to abortion or instituting prayer in schools will not put food on your table or get you a better job.

Atrocious Spelling

Look online or around town sometime and witness the disastrous spectacle of spelling malpractice. It's like staring at the sun. Examples seen recently:

Your my best friend.
He's a looser.
Its my brothers car.
Let me give you some advise.
We have seperate beds.
My donations are deductable.
I here you.
I recieved the gift's.
I spell good.
I have good grammer.
I would of gone.
I have more then him.
He blatently told me off.
The dog at it's food.
I ain't done nothing wrong.
He definately told me that.
Please be quite.
He took they're order.

Why does this matter? You don't want a country full of people that can't write their own language do you? Where are the English as official language people when you need them? How about teaching the populace how to spell, whatever happened to that? You'd have to fund education for that and educated people threaten those who already have stuff. I'm starting to see a pattern here. Who knew spelling was a leading economic inequality indicator?

Conservative Values

So let me get this straight: We don't want government in our lives or government to run anything. So that leaves, I'm assuming, the corporations to run everything and perhaps the military to run the rest. Isn't that what happened in Italy and Germany?

Government is set up to help the people. Unless you've never needed a business license, a school, a road, a fire or police department, a court, a post office etc. etc. People seem to forget that private corporations aren't set up to be the government. Yet conservatives keep touting the need for less government.

Love less government? Then you must love our current gas prices, food prices, healthcare costs, sub par educational system, Enron, mortgage mess and insert your other free-market success story. Government can actually help keep these things in check but there's a lot of people out there who would rather bask in all this wonderfulness.

P.S. In this country the government is you. If the country fails it's your fault.