Category Archives: politics

Moon Unit Gingrich

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I thoroughly support the space program. I am no astrophysicist or astro-anything, but I recognize that some of our greatest recent innovations came from the space program, and our ability to live on as a species may well be directly tied to our ability to colonize other planetary objects. I don’t for a minute believe that in my lifetime I will see any of this, although I still dream of looking at Earth from outside of orbit and bearing witness to the amazing sight of the planet from beyond its confines. But I’m a realist, and the odds that I will ever see that are diminishing, not that they were ever great to begin with.

I’m glad to see Newt Gingrich show his support for the space program. It’s just a bloody shame that he’s done it so manipulatively. Newt was in Florida, and he said that he knew that America would have a permanent moon base by the time of his second term in power. That almost sounds like a great thing, doesn’t it? Only it wasn’t.

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Religious Freedom And Freedom Of Speech

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I have written this article at least four times, each time tossing it out as I was unhappy with either my stance or my tone. You see, this is a tricky business for me. This is an exact example of where lines cross in unpleasant ways, and I have to figure out on which side of those lines I land. And it’s all because of a fundamentalist Christian whom I consider dangerous, whom I consider ridiculous, and whom I must now defend.

William Whatcott is a nut, as near as I can figure. He’s against being gay and he’s against abortions. Now, I’d be fine with him being against HIS being gay and HIS having abortions, because that’s his opinion about his own body and his own sexuality, and more power to him. Where we run into difficulty is that he’s against ANYONE doing those things. And he’s one of those remarkably loud people who winds up in the public eye (and the legal eye) for his efforts.

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A Reminder And Some Perspective

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Jesus Hogwart Christ, do we ever live in an amazing country. Sometimes I get lost in my own passion to see it get better, and it’s dreadfully important to remember just how good we have it. I just read this article and found it a great reminder of that fact.

With the victory of an Islamist political group in elections in Egypt, belly dancers and entertainers are concerned about their futures. And well they should be, as an Islamist leadership can really put a kink (no pun intended) in their career plans. There is a very real threat that laws will be passed (especially with support owned by Al Nour, the surprisingly popular ultra-conservative party that came in second in the election) that will take away freedoms in Egypt.

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Rick Perry’s War on The War On Christians

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Rick Perry has a new ad going. This is because he is now at the point of being a laughing stock in the race for leader of the US Republicans, and he’s swinging for the fences. However, as with baseball, boxing, and every other time we desperately start swinging for the fences, this ad just didn’t connect. I’ll include the ad below the fold.

Rick tells us that he’s a man of faith, and that he (like you) knows something is wrong with the US. After all, queer people can be queer in the military! And you can’t say Merry Christmas without having someone shoot real bullets from a queer gun in your face! Rick is tired of Obama’s war against religion, and he’ll fight for you to his dying breath. It’s a truly touching and beautiful sentiment, if only there were any actual validity to it. Instead, it’s just another swing-and-a-miss from another failed Republican leader.

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Changing RICO

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Last night, I had a conversation with The Lovely Lady that inspired this post. I had an idea that blossomed into what I hope is going to be a significant change to things. Things are not good right now, and I’ve said on this blog a few times that what we need is a change to our leadership.

Anyone who’s watched an HBO TV series is at least marginally familiar with the term RICO, which is an acronym for the Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act. This is legislation that was brought in for the sole purpose of giving the government additional powers in fighting organized crime. If you’re a fan of the Sons of Anarchy, RICO is your enemy, but RICO is an extremely important bit of legislation.

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Did Capitalism Fail?

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One of the signs I’ve seen in the Occupy movement camps claims that capitalism has failed. I disagree, but only a little bit, and I thought I’d comment on that here. Capitalism is an economic system, and is a system that is thriving now more than ever. In capitalism, there is the concept of an invisible hand that ensures that economic powers recognize the benefit of meeting societal needs, even they have no altruistic intentions in doing so.

In practice, this has proven to be flawed thinking. There is a reason that no system of pure capitalism exists for long, and that is largely because the invisible hand really doesn’t do a whole hell of a lot. A good example would be the automotive industry. The business sense behind laying off hundreds of thousands of people in favor of moving manufacture to third world countries does not in any way benefit the society, and in fact is decidedly detrimental to the local society. Like so many other industries that decided to cut costs by off-shoring their work, the decision to do so left utterly destroyed towns and cities in its wake, and left many people in dire straights. Where was the invisible hand in a situation like that? And that is but one example.

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Drug Testing For Welfare

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Oh Facebook, you bastion of ignorant twats.

I just answered “No” to this poll which asks the question “Do you support drug testing to get approval to be on Welfare?”, and I am sad to say that the Nos have 103,225 and the Yes’s have 2,095,951. That means that No represents 4.7% of the responses. That means that 95.3% of the people polled actually suck.

I don’t do drugs. I’ve been known to very sporadically have a puff on a joint, but I really don’t enjoy drugs. Marijuana makes me far too stupid. I love conversation, and I can’t do that when I’m even a little buzzed, and I get entirely frustrated with my inability to follow my own thoughts to their conclusion, so I Just Say No like Nancy told me to. But I don’t give a red shit in Hell if other people do drugs. I’d rather they did the safer drugs than wind up freaked on crack or meth, but it’s their business. If someone on welfare is nursing a $500 a day coke habit, that’s weird and probably worth looking into, but if someone loses their job and goes to welfare, then it doesn’t matter to me if 8 days before they had shared a joint with a friend.

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Oh No You Di-int… Rick Perry Hates Education

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Yeah, Rick Perry floundered at the debate last night. It happens. Everyone draws a blank sometimes, and given George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, you would think that somehow is an endearing quality for Republicans. However, I watched the video this morning and had the same reaction as PZ Myers. Did he just say he was going to do away with education?

So I want to know how the Republicans who would agree with such a policy think that the US should ensure that their future generations of worker drones are properly educated. What is his plan for ensuring a quality education for the people? Let me guess… Turn the power over to the individual states?

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(Making) Less Is (Making) More

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I keep hearing people here in Calgary totally miss the point of what the Occupy movement is about (especially those people who claim to be a part of it, sadly). It is not about wanting things for free or having expectations that are unrealistic. It’s about the fact that our lives are more and more desperate every day. For me, my income is a great example of this.

When I graduated college, I got a job as a software developer and business analyst. I was the lowest man on the totem pole, but I happen to know what the company I worked for billed me out at, and it was $x per hour. Yeah, like I’m going to tell you what $x is…

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Pay No Attention To The Person In My Womb

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I know, kind of a blue title for this post, but I’m annoyed and when I get annoyed, I get a little racy with the language. Once again, we’re using distraction politics to keep the people comfortably restless. This time, it’s the Great State of Mississippi (which I memorized as a child and still spell in my head in a sing-songy voice that goes M-i-s-s-I-s-s-I-p-p-I) and their extremely important vote tomorrow. Obviously, in a world where that voting right is something that people are prepared to die and to kill for, we should only have Very Serious Votes. Right?

Naw, let’s just give them distraction votes to make sure that they feel like they are a part of the system without giving them any real say on things. Forget all the Occupy stuff, all the legitimate threats at the local, state, and federal level, and all of the things that you might actually want a say on. Mississippi, you have the opportunity to do something science has never done. You have the opportunity to decide when a person is a person.

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