Color me highly skeptical about the Tea Party. For one thing, just from the interviews I've seen, none of the candidates (even though that got elected) know much about how the world works. I mean, it's OK to be anti-intellectual, but that doesn't excuse ignorance or stupidity.
Case in point: Tea-Partiers seem to think that we can cut our way to prosperity; if government would just get out of the way, we'd all be better off.
On the face of it, that's not a bad sentiment. But, what do you cut?
To make any real dent in the federal deficit, you have to cut entitlements and defense. The TPs don't seem to want to cut defense because, well...I don't know really. There's about 400 billion to be had if we'd just scale back military spending. It is a new world, after all; I'm not sure who we are afraid of in Europe. China's not interested too much in military domination; they want to own the world, not rule it.
We could empty out a Wal-Mart and take on North Korea, so anything we do militarily there will be overkill (sorry).
That leaves Iraq and Afghanistan. Why are we there again?
Anyway, the GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER of healthcare didn't happen in Obamacare and won't happen with the nitwits that just got elected. So, we'll have more conversations about runaway health care costs, see more pictures of pitiful looking seniors in campaign ads...and nothing much will get done. Why we think doing nothing solves problems is beyond me; but hey, I didn't vote Tea Party.
Tea Partiers are good talk show hosts, ghostwrite darn fine books, and rabble-rouse with the best of them. I think they'll be crappy legislators, but then again...you get what you pay for.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
For all candidates this November
If you are running for office, don't tell me what a horrible person your opponent is. Guess what? He/she uses the same voice-over announcer to say the same things about you!
Tell me what you would do if elected. I don't care about what you did (or didn't do) years before. Quit talking about the past.
I don't want to hear how you are going to "take on Washington" (because you aren't...and can't). You will become part of the same machinery as everyone else...or you'll go by the wayside.
I want to hear concrete ideas.
What a fantasy world I live in.
Tell me what you would do if elected. I don't care about what you did (or didn't do) years before. Quit talking about the past.
I don't want to hear how you are going to "take on Washington" (because you aren't...and can't). You will become part of the same machinery as everyone else...or you'll go by the wayside.
I want to hear concrete ideas.
What a fantasy world I live in.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Tax and Spend vs. Borrow and Spend
If anyone is reading this...sorry for the lack of activity. Sometimes you just wonder if there is any point in trying to use reason to cut through all of the crap we hear on a daily basis. It gets you down.
Anyway, I've starting following a few pundits on Twitter in order to keep up on the latest propaganda. Karl Rove made a comment a few weeks ago that Obama letting the tax cuts expire paints him as a classic tax and spend liberal.
Well...you know, Mr Rove, you had a big role to play in the passage of these cuts. It is my understanding that the expiration date was put there because, strangely enough, you (and others) thought that the country could not sustain them any longer. Now, with the deficit exploding, we can't let them expire because it "punishes" those earning more than $250,000 a year.
I think if I were earning that amount of money, I'd be grateful to live in the US and see that as the "cost of doing business."
I tweeted back to him that, by his comments, are the folks on the right "borrow and spend" conservatives?
He didn't respond.
Anyway, I've starting following a few pundits on Twitter in order to keep up on the latest propaganda. Karl Rove made a comment a few weeks ago that Obama letting the tax cuts expire paints him as a classic tax and spend liberal.
Well...you know, Mr Rove, you had a big role to play in the passage of these cuts. It is my understanding that the expiration date was put there because, strangely enough, you (and others) thought that the country could not sustain them any longer. Now, with the deficit exploding, we can't let them expire because it "punishes" those earning more than $250,000 a year.
I think if I were earning that amount of money, I'd be grateful to live in the US and see that as the "cost of doing business."
I tweeted back to him that, by his comments, are the folks on the right "borrow and spend" conservatives?
He didn't respond.
Friday, July 9, 2010
A Moderate Look at Social Issues
It's tough being a moderate on social issues in the United States. Both sides are completely nuts on basic social issues, and if you aren't with "us" you're with "them." I'd like to think that, in a country of 300 million people, that the two parties (I'll deal with the Tea Party later) aren't stupid enough to think that there are only 2 sides to an issue.
Take abortion, for example. The right (aggressively) wants to overturn Roe V. Wade. I really do not understand this.
My view is that abortion should be safe, legal and treated just like any other medical procedure. The activist judges that the right rails about have seen fit to extend constitutional rights to a "person" that has no legal proof of citizenship. I just don't understand it.
Making people is pretty easy (and, with most people, fun). We are in no danger of running out of them. Yet I have been to baseball games with people carrying signs of fetuses that have been aborted.
At a baseball game.
I simply cannot believe that pro-"life" people cannot, uh, get a life. Of all the issues you pick for your cause, you pick one that has the least amount of impact on the well-being of your life. Then again, the right does think they are the arbiter of moral issues.
The left, well, they are on the side of government staying out of your body. Which, oddly, is typically a view of the right.
Religion - I'm not that religious. Not outwardly anyway. As a moderate...knock yourself out. Be what you want to be. Just don't try to tell me that you are right. Because you have no way of knowing if you are.
I'm not an atheist, although I don't see anything wrong with it. I just think religion is personal. I don't want to pray with you, I don't want ten commandments on the walls, I don't care if politicians go to church or not. It's all about belief...believe what you want.
The left sometimes looks down on religion because, as a really famous lefty proclaimed, religion is the opiate of the masses. I think that's the point...it's supposed to be. Religion is something that is supposed to show how good and giving humans can be.
It's late and I need a moderate amount of sleep. I'll expand some of these issues a bit later.
Take abortion, for example. The right (aggressively) wants to overturn Roe V. Wade. I really do not understand this.
My view is that abortion should be safe, legal and treated just like any other medical procedure. The activist judges that the right rails about have seen fit to extend constitutional rights to a "person" that has no legal proof of citizenship. I just don't understand it.
Making people is pretty easy (and, with most people, fun). We are in no danger of running out of them. Yet I have been to baseball games with people carrying signs of fetuses that have been aborted.
At a baseball game.
I simply cannot believe that pro-"life" people cannot, uh, get a life. Of all the issues you pick for your cause, you pick one that has the least amount of impact on the well-being of your life. Then again, the right does think they are the arbiter of moral issues.
The left, well, they are on the side of government staying out of your body. Which, oddly, is typically a view of the right.
Religion - I'm not that religious. Not outwardly anyway. As a moderate...knock yourself out. Be what you want to be. Just don't try to tell me that you are right. Because you have no way of knowing if you are.
I'm not an atheist, although I don't see anything wrong with it. I just think religion is personal. I don't want to pray with you, I don't want ten commandments on the walls, I don't care if politicians go to church or not. It's all about belief...believe what you want.
The left sometimes looks down on religion because, as a really famous lefty proclaimed, religion is the opiate of the masses. I think that's the point...it's supposed to be. Religion is something that is supposed to show how good and giving humans can be.
It's late and I need a moderate amount of sleep. I'll expand some of these issues a bit later.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Let me introduce myself
Hi there. I'm one of the rare species of Americans known as a moderate. Please do not tap the glass as you walk by.
I started this blog to see if there are others out there who are tired of hearing 5 second arguments from both sides of the aisle and actually want to think about the issues (political, social and economic) that face the U.S. and the world.
I really am doing this to put some thoughts down and see if I'm the one that's weird or if the world around me is as out of control as I think it is.
My first real post will focus on politics and why the right and the left are poor excuses for what purports to be rational discourse.
I am not an elected official or do I strongly identify with either party. I hope you find this interesting. All I ask is that if you comment, please come up with something original...talking points from either side are really not welcome here. If you can think for yourself, you are welcome here.
I started this blog to see if there are others out there who are tired of hearing 5 second arguments from both sides of the aisle and actually want to think about the issues (political, social and economic) that face the U.S. and the world.
I really am doing this to put some thoughts down and see if I'm the one that's weird or if the world around me is as out of control as I think it is.
My first real post will focus on politics and why the right and the left are poor excuses for what purports to be rational discourse.
I am not an elected official or do I strongly identify with either party. I hope you find this interesting. All I ask is that if you comment, please come up with something original...talking points from either side are really not welcome here. If you can think for yourself, you are welcome here.
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