I am seriously considering a way out of this great nation again. I considered it in 2008. Now I am considering it again. Some that know me would say its because I don't agree with a republican majority in congress and things of this nature. That is partly true but not the whole picture. The truth is I am tired of both ends of the political spectrum. And even if I don't leave I am changing my registration to independent. Both parties are completely full of crap. And neither appears better than the other. Both sides would ask me, "But why?". I answer with the fact that both are completely corrupt and selfish and do not represent those of us who are citizens of the United States.
You might ask for examples. On point Eric Cantor acted like an idiot today regarding foreign policy in Israel against the foreign policy of the executive branch. The very same thing happened a few years ago when Pelosi and others were in Syria and talked to Assad against Bush's wishes. It goes both ways people and its ridiculous. Furthermore, Charlie Rangel is under investigation for House Rules violations which actually doesn't surprise me. From the moment he was going to be placed on the house ways and means committee I thought he was a shady character. Now he is in trouble on 14 counts and walks out. Democrats want to claim "better" or more "ethical" behavior for this nation and they don't show it. Then republicans (esp the teabaggers) take up the flame to claim their moral superiority and yet they do not show it either.
For those extremists from both sides who claim they are doing something good for this country. Think again! It is tearing us apart. I've had enough and both parties are in bed with special interests and corporations to the point that all they worry about is money, votes, and the next election cycle. I cannot fix this alone and I doubt that most people who read this blog post would come close to agreeing because they are too busy acting like "good little extremists".
Fine, but its time to start planning my way out of this nation after I am done with school. It is getting ridiculous and I see where it is headed. Duplicitousness and division do not solve anything. One's evil is the next guy's morality and its not right. But what can I do but leave before this place falls into a giant cauldron of conflict and dare I say riots and armed raids from one side against the other. No more nonsense. It is time to start planning the leave after I am done with school.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Gay Suicide and Bullying
Where to start with this one? I was reading an article about Brandon Bitner in Pennsylvania who ended his life after being mistreated. Of course, as with recent cases, he was gay and had a different kind of personality, dress, etc from most people at his school. Actually, being poked fun of for the clothing is not that unusual. However, the homophobic bullying is a serious matter. And anyone who reads this and is proud of themselves for hating gay people need to realize just how horrible homophobic behavior is. Some of the things that described his situation didn't sound so different than what I went through with this in middle school and high school.
A lot of this stuff starts at home. Parents teach their children to hate and then they go to school and mimic what they see at home. Worse, I doubt that all of the parents reprimand their children if their negative behavior is reported to the principal, etc. Many of them probably support their children in their disgust for a gay person. And for what reason? What did a gay person or lesbian, etc ever do to them?
And do not even try to tell me that your religious persuasions support this kind of behavior. There is nothing that Jesus himself said or did that would ever support this kind of behavior. So that ends the arguments from the religious point of view. There is nothing further to discuss from this angle.
I have seen many overtones of homophobia as well that have been politicized by that nasty old tea party. The fact that they use an issue like this to get votes from bigots explains why that group(s) is a cancer on society. They cannot be outlawed. However, they must be opposed at every turn and obstructed from their actions as much as possible.
A lot of this stuff starts at home. Parents teach their children to hate and then they go to school and mimic what they see at home. Worse, I doubt that all of the parents reprimand their children if their negative behavior is reported to the principal, etc. Many of them probably support their children in their disgust for a gay person. And for what reason? What did a gay person or lesbian, etc ever do to them?
And do not even try to tell me that your religious persuasions support this kind of behavior. There is nothing that Jesus himself said or did that would ever support this kind of behavior. So that ends the arguments from the religious point of view. There is nothing further to discuss from this angle.
I have seen many overtones of homophobia as well that have been politicized by that nasty old tea party. The fact that they use an issue like this to get votes from bigots explains why that group(s) is a cancer on society. They cannot be outlawed. However, they must be opposed at every turn and obstructed from their actions as much as possible.
Free Trade and Outsourcing
Once again another hot topic in the economy came up today. It had to do with an article on cnet regarding Intel keeping jobs and manufacturing in the US instead of sending our skills abroad. At least I read both sides of the argument before I posted in their forum. And I can say i don't have any absolute answers to the problem. This outsourcing phenomenon has intrigued me for a while now. Actually, when i was in college a couple of years ago I traveled over to bangalore. And let me tell you that there are huge buildings there from american companies like google, yahoo, apple, M$, IBM, oracle. Pretty much all of them are over there. The thing is not only a cost advantage (which is withering by the day if you didn't know) but also a huge pool of talent there. They have very smart programmers and engineers in that area. In fact, the Dravidians of southern india have long been famous for their science and mathematical skills.
Which brings us back over to the "good old" United States. Not everyone has the right set of skills to fill the demand for jobs from these companies. Also, they are not willing to work for the 1/3 of american standard pay for a programmer that exists in India (give or take a little). It still concerns me though because when someone says that we are moving our knowledge and manufacturing skills to another country they are absolutely correct.
However, I think the solution is creating new industries that cannot be easily outsourced to another country. We have to be clever. Furthermore, education cannot be second class anymore. Without education we are doomed. Education should be the #1 priority of any nation (government). I do not think that massive government policy will fix the problem. Though i do think that we should raise tarrifs on imports and keep it that way until the chinese stop devaluing their currency to create an artificial advantage. And you should sleep well at night knowing that the chinese cannot do this forever. Artificially devaluing your currency and government ownership of industry is not sustainable. Now there are some who complain about GM but they will not be government owned for long. I am still angry at the banks though. However, it should be noted that many of the banks have already paid back the TARP money because they wanted the government off their backs to begin with.
Education combined with moderate, sensible trade policy while creating new LOCAL (mostly non outsourcable) industries is the answer. If another country wants free access to the US then they will have to learn to play fair. Then I'll consider the idea of dropping the tariffs when they stop devaluing their currency on purpose and when their government sells off their banks and companies back to private ownership. Until then, the chinese or others wouldn't have a darn thing to complain about.
Companies, by the way, should not have individual rights as a person. This is nonsense and that ruling needs to investigated and reversed including visiting the supreme court on the issue if necessary.
Which brings us back over to the "good old" United States. Not everyone has the right set of skills to fill the demand for jobs from these companies. Also, they are not willing to work for the 1/3 of american standard pay for a programmer that exists in India (give or take a little). It still concerns me though because when someone says that we are moving our knowledge and manufacturing skills to another country they are absolutely correct.
However, I think the solution is creating new industries that cannot be easily outsourced to another country. We have to be clever. Furthermore, education cannot be second class anymore. Without education we are doomed. Education should be the #1 priority of any nation (government). I do not think that massive government policy will fix the problem. Though i do think that we should raise tarrifs on imports and keep it that way until the chinese stop devaluing their currency to create an artificial advantage. And you should sleep well at night knowing that the chinese cannot do this forever. Artificially devaluing your currency and government ownership of industry is not sustainable. Now there are some who complain about GM but they will not be government owned for long. I am still angry at the banks though. However, it should be noted that many of the banks have already paid back the TARP money because they wanted the government off their backs to begin with.
Education combined with moderate, sensible trade policy while creating new LOCAL (mostly non outsourcable) industries is the answer. If another country wants free access to the US then they will have to learn to play fair. Then I'll consider the idea of dropping the tariffs when they stop devaluing their currency on purpose and when their government sells off their banks and companies back to private ownership. Until then, the chinese or others wouldn't have a darn thing to complain about.
Companies, by the way, should not have individual rights as a person. This is nonsense and that ruling needs to investigated and reversed including visiting the supreme court on the issue if necessary.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
NC in the 2010's
Here we are in a "new" era for North Carolina. Some say its the best thing to happen to this state in 114 years. The Republicans (boosted by the tea party) have control of the general assembly for the first time in 114 years. I was reading some posts on a forum today regarding education funding. It is interesting that the very first thing that the extremists want to attack for cuts is education. I knew that would happen which is why I generally refuse to vote for republicans (and esp for the teabaggers). Without education a society will not last (in the long run). I created this blog with the intention of using it to express to others my frustrations with the current political and social trends in the United States.
I do not worship either political party though I am a registered democrat (which I still consider better than being associated with the republicans as an ignorant fool). I do, however, realize the importance of education. NC has had a difficult uphill climb for education. It is far from where it should be but it has improved a great deal over the last several decades under democratic leadership. Now that republicans "rule the roost" you can expect to see our graduation/dropout/income statistics to slowly plummet to the status of our neighboring southern states. Places like GA, AL, SC!, MS, and LA! Why do we want to go the direction of ignorance.
I do believe that the biggest political challenge of our current generation is balancing state and federal budgets. Fiscal responsibility is paramount! It will tear us apart if we don't start fixing it soon. The republicans claim they will but they never have in the past. Why should I believe them now because they shout about fiscal responsibility with spit flying from their mouth?
The Tea Party is a cancer on society. NO one I think is completely prejudice free and least of all me. But they strike as a bunch of greedy, racist, homophobic thugs who are hell bent on merging corporations with the state (government). Mussolini even called this FASCISM. And yet people fail to see the danger in this. Everything is "socialism" that doesn't agree with the tea party people. And yet socialism is in one way or another the merger of corporations and state which is exactly what the tea party wants. It is a form of duplicity they practice and it is dangerous. The Nazi Party carried out similar actions prior to WWII. They presented themselves as a popular Nationalist party for the common man. Look what happened there?
Can no one see this? I can clearly see it and history has plenty of information to teach us all about the direction the tea party (and some republicans) are headed? Do you really trust bank executives who crashed banks 2 years ago to run our government? Or would you like to continue to retain the ability to vote and actually have your real opinions represented in the federal and state governments?
It is important to consider these questions in light of history. There are some who say that those who don't agree with the tea party version of history are revisionists. Another example of duplicity. Do you realize how people really were prior to the revolution? It was not a Christian, puritanical society as a majority (though they did exist in significant numbers). In fact, alcohol was consumed at its highest in the US during this time and sexual promiscuity was everywhere (not saying that is always a good thing but history tells us this particularly in the large cities like Philadelphia, NY, Boston, Charleston, etc). The founding fathers certainly respected Christians and their right to practice their religion. But Thomas Jefferson and others were also very distrusting of religious influence and control over a secular government. This is what they left in Europe!
Some other Christians say that many of the founding fathers were ordained ministers. I'd like to know where they invented and conjured up that cracker jacked nonsense. I will investigate and research that topic one day as I don't have complete clarity on it. But even if they were ordained ministers I can tell you that many of their writings were not in support of a Christian government but rather a secular government representative of the people. I am a Christian myself and some will smack heresy over what I just said because after all the other Christians already have all the answers and having a different opinion means you simply haven't "accepted the truth". Whose truth? Their revisionist truth? :)
I suppose that tonight's post is quite a long rant. There are a few things I agree with "conservatives" on. For instance, if I told people right up front how I felt about the second amendment they would just assume I drive a pickup with an NRA sticker on the bumper and rifle up on a rack in the back window. Actually, it couldn't be further from the truth. But in this case, the constitution was clearly written by the founders to protect individual rights to own firearms. I will not mess with that because I think it is very clear what the founders meant.
So you see, I don't drink water from the Elephant or the Donkey bowl either one. But, I try within certain parameters to consider history, current circumstances, and human nature to decide for myself what I think is going on and what should be done. Sometimes I am wrong. I am human and I don't claim to have all the answers. But, I am also a bit cynical especially when someone tells me "thats the truth". Well, I won't ask them to prove what they say. Thats foolish and best left alone. But in my own mind I will automatically assume that i need to find out for myself since many times the things that people told me were the "absolute truth" turned out to be a pile of rubbish even within the reality framework of human life and human nature.
I do not worship either political party though I am a registered democrat (which I still consider better than being associated with the republicans as an ignorant fool). I do, however, realize the importance of education. NC has had a difficult uphill climb for education. It is far from where it should be but it has improved a great deal over the last several decades under democratic leadership. Now that republicans "rule the roost" you can expect to see our graduation/dropout/income statistics to slowly plummet to the status of our neighboring southern states. Places like GA, AL, SC!, MS, and LA! Why do we want to go the direction of ignorance.
I do believe that the biggest political challenge of our current generation is balancing state and federal budgets. Fiscal responsibility is paramount! It will tear us apart if we don't start fixing it soon. The republicans claim they will but they never have in the past. Why should I believe them now because they shout about fiscal responsibility with spit flying from their mouth?
The Tea Party is a cancer on society. NO one I think is completely prejudice free and least of all me. But they strike as a bunch of greedy, racist, homophobic thugs who are hell bent on merging corporations with the state (government). Mussolini even called this FASCISM. And yet people fail to see the danger in this. Everything is "socialism" that doesn't agree with the tea party people. And yet socialism is in one way or another the merger of corporations and state which is exactly what the tea party wants. It is a form of duplicity they practice and it is dangerous. The Nazi Party carried out similar actions prior to WWII. They presented themselves as a popular Nationalist party for the common man. Look what happened there?
Can no one see this? I can clearly see it and history has plenty of information to teach us all about the direction the tea party (and some republicans) are headed? Do you really trust bank executives who crashed banks 2 years ago to run our government? Or would you like to continue to retain the ability to vote and actually have your real opinions represented in the federal and state governments?
It is important to consider these questions in light of history. There are some who say that those who don't agree with the tea party version of history are revisionists. Another example of duplicity. Do you realize how people really were prior to the revolution? It was not a Christian, puritanical society as a majority (though they did exist in significant numbers). In fact, alcohol was consumed at its highest in the US during this time and sexual promiscuity was everywhere (not saying that is always a good thing but history tells us this particularly in the large cities like Philadelphia, NY, Boston, Charleston, etc). The founding fathers certainly respected Christians and their right to practice their religion. But Thomas Jefferson and others were also very distrusting of religious influence and control over a secular government. This is what they left in Europe!
Some other Christians say that many of the founding fathers were ordained ministers. I'd like to know where they invented and conjured up that cracker jacked nonsense. I will investigate and research that topic one day as I don't have complete clarity on it. But even if they were ordained ministers I can tell you that many of their writings were not in support of a Christian government but rather a secular government representative of the people. I am a Christian myself and some will smack heresy over what I just said because after all the other Christians already have all the answers and having a different opinion means you simply haven't "accepted the truth". Whose truth? Their revisionist truth? :)
I suppose that tonight's post is quite a long rant. There are a few things I agree with "conservatives" on. For instance, if I told people right up front how I felt about the second amendment they would just assume I drive a pickup with an NRA sticker on the bumper and rifle up on a rack in the back window. Actually, it couldn't be further from the truth. But in this case, the constitution was clearly written by the founders to protect individual rights to own firearms. I will not mess with that because I think it is very clear what the founders meant.
So you see, I don't drink water from the Elephant or the Donkey bowl either one. But, I try within certain parameters to consider history, current circumstances, and human nature to decide for myself what I think is going on and what should be done. Sometimes I am wrong. I am human and I don't claim to have all the answers. But, I am also a bit cynical especially when someone tells me "thats the truth". Well, I won't ask them to prove what they say. Thats foolish and best left alone. But in my own mind I will automatically assume that i need to find out for myself since many times the things that people told me were the "absolute truth" turned out to be a pile of rubbish even within the reality framework of human life and human nature.
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