Thursday, July 8, 2010

Me and the Tea Party

I have seen the error of my ways!  I am joining the Tea Party!  All my conservative friends have finally had their influence on me.  No more nanny state.  No more ObamaCare!  Let private industry reign supreme, we can trust them (except maybe BP).

Government is Evil!  Government is Bad!  Let's start with the Feds - according to the Constitution, the only thing the Feds should do is protect our borders.  Heck, in Arizona, we (I say "we", because after all, we are ALL Arizonians!), we don't even need the Feds to do that.  Let's just form our own militia and keep the evildoers out of our borders.   Second Amendment Baby!!

Once we get rid of the Feds, we can go to work on the State Government.  They're just a bunch of fat cats anyway (especially in Georgia!).  Who needs the state to tell us what we can do with our water?  The water is in Georgia, we'll do what we want with it!

Next up is local, county and city "gummints".  Dump them as well.  Who needs fire and police protection?  If a house catches fire, let it burn.   As long as it's not my house, why should I care?  We'll fight our own crime with our own guns.  Once everyone carries, no one would be stupid enough to mess with us, right?  They can have my gun when they pry it from my cold dead fingers!

As the hippies used to say, it's time to go back to the garden, or perhaps the jungle.  Survival of the fittest - that's the Darwinism I believe in!  Let the strong survive, let the weak eat dust.  As Jesus said, "To thine own self be true" (maybe it wasn't Jesus, but it was SOMEBODY important!).

In closing, I ask for your vote.  Elect me, and I will go to work for you to start dismantling the government piece by piece until there's nothing left.   Trust me ...

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Health care debate gets buried by hyperbole

This blog was inspired by seeing this billboard posted on facebook:



One of the comments underneath the facebook posting of that billboard reads "I have my gun ready."   This is ridiculous!  Methinks the rhetoric and hyperbole have gone too far.  I don't remember the reaction being this strong in 2003 when Bush involved us in an (IMHO) unnecessary war that killed thousands of Americans. Other examples just from this morning's read of the newspaper:

  • several states threatening lawsuit over the 'unfunded mandates' of the health care law (nevermind that the charges to states budgets don't kick in until 2017 and then only a small percentage)
  • protesters hurling racial and anti-gay epithets at Congressmen on Sunday (the irony being that John Lewis was one of the targets ... kind of takes you back to the '60s, doesn't it?)
  • Sarah Palin saying "Don't retreat, instead RELOAD"
  • all the comparisons of Obama to Hitler and Stalin
It's perfectly fine for people to protest our government and it is our right to vote against incumbents that we don't like.  But when people resort to violent rhetoric (and actions) a line has been crossed.   I am actually starting to feel nervous that we are headed for a violent split in this country.  Technologies such as twitter and facebook have helped to amp up the volume.  Our divisions seem to be deepening, and hardening and we are forgetting the many things that unite us.  Politicians on both sides contribute to this by demonizing their colleagues in the other party and by drawing comparisons to socialism, totalitarianism, even fascism!  Go and read up on those ideologies and you will see that nothing that we are doing today remotely approaches those forms of government.  Yes, the Obama administration believes that government has a role to play in the protection of the people; reasonable people can disagree with that and prefer to let the free market sort things out.   That's what elections are for.  My point is that we should engage in a reasonable debate over the role we want government to play.   Let's do that and drop the hyperbole.

As to the health care law, I have a couple of points I want to make, with regard to some of the reactions I have heard:
  • People are criticizing Congress for going against the wishes of their constituents.  They forget that Bush was praised for not being a slave to the polls.  They also forget that in 2006, Bush ignored a wide majority of the American public and the recommendations of his own blue ribbon, bipartisan panel, and he escalated the war in Iraq by going forward with the surge.  Guess what - that worked out pretty well!  Sometimes a politician has to do what he or she thinks is right even if public opinion is opposed.
  • The issue of the constitutionality of the individual mandate is very interesting.   Supporters cite the commerce clause as justification.  I read one blog that said that, while the current interpretation of the commerce clause probably exceeds the original intent of the framers, several Supreme Court decisions in the mid 20th Century expanded the modern definition of the clause to cover a wide range of legislation.  Other examples of individual mandates include Social Security and Medicare taxes, and income taxes in general.  So there is precedent, and the likelihood of the issue even getting to the Supreme Court is remote.  Most scholars that I have read believe that, despite the current conservative leaning makeup of the Court, if it did reach that far they would uphold the law as written.  As recently as 2005, Justice Scalia wrote "noneconomic local activity" can come under federal regulation if it is "a necessary part of a more general regulation of interstate commerce." 
  • The other constitutionality argument being made by several states is that the government is imposing an unfunded mandate on the states by expanding Medicaid.  Here, the "supremacy clause"(Article 6) states that "the laws of the United States ... shall be the supreme Law of the Land".
  • The health care law is not a "socialist" law.  A single payer system would be an example of a socialist policy.  Even with the "public option" this type of legislation was never part of Obama's recommendations.  The law Obama signed on Tuesday keeps private insurers in place, and is, in fact, a very moderate change in policy.  Yes it will cost more, and there are legitimate concerns about what it will do to the deficit.  However, it is not socialist.
OK, I've had my rant.  Feel free to comment / rebut as you see fit!

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Random musings from sick bay

I'm not really much of a blogger, given that this is my first (attempt) at a blog since mid November.  I've always thought of myself as having some writing talent, but my life is (thankfully) pretty boring and there's just not that much inspiration.

So what prompted this blog?  Only the most boring weekend I've had in years (which is not in and of itself a bad thing, mind you!).  I was supposed to go to Brunswick with Kathy on Friday to see the grandkids but my 10 day old cold turned into a sinus infection on Thursday night.  With the way I was coughing, Kathy (rightfully) declared that I had no business hanging around a 1 year old (or a 6 and 4 year old for that matter!).  So she went on to Brunswick and I went to the doctor and got some antibiotics.

I'm always saying I wish I had more time to read.  So here I am with 3 days stretched out in front of me with no obligations, and what do I do ... I rent 3 movies!  My excuse was that I didn't have the mental energy to focus on a book (I did catch up on Time Magazines!).  So I rented 3 pretty mindless comedies, all of which were entertaining enough to keep my mind off how badly I felt.  What were the movies, you ask?  Well, I'm almost embarrassed to say, but here goes ... "The Simpsons" (I have never watched the TV show and I am always missing character references); "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" (the music was pretty good and Michael Cera and Kat Dennings were good together) and Woody Allen's "Whatever Works".  That was the best one, but I have always enjoyed his movies (even while not approving of his life choices!).  I don't usually like Larry David, but he was softened by Evan Rachel Wood, one of my favorite actresses, who was barely recognizable in this movie.

I did do some chores, caught up on laundry, read my Disciple, and kept the kitchen cleaned up!  One strange thing I did was re-read the entire US Constitution and Declaration of Independence!  Why would I do that?  Someone at church made a comment the other day about this being a "Christian nation".  Depending on what you mean by that, that can be true or not true.  But it prompted me to do a little research about Jefferson and Madison, and while doing so, I decided to go straight to the source.  It reminded me that too often we all form our opinions based on other people's opinions without making any effort to focus on the source, whether that be a book or an essay or a speech or whatever.    With the internet we often have the opportunity to see for ourselves but instead we let talking heads tell us what to think.

OK, that's my philosophical comment for this blog.  Over and out!