Category: Conservative

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Pledges and Candidates

Sadly… Also a demonstration of the sad state of our political process and the more or less poor quality of our political candidates.

It’s pretty well known that our politicians are out of touch with the “common man” What’s surprising is that three of our presidential hopefuls are also out of touch with the Constitution.

There was an article yesterday in which NOM (The National Organization for Marriage) was crowing about Bachmann, Romney, and Santorum having signed a pledge stating what these candidates will do in office if elected. I have another name for NOM but will refrain from putting it in print.

The summary of this pledge is below, the full text is available here on NOM’s website

  • Support and send to the states a federal marriage amendment defining marriage as one man and one woman,
  • Defend DOMA in court,
  • Appoint judges and an attorney general who will respect the original meaning of the Constitution,
  • Appoint a presidential commission to investigate harassment of traditional marriage supporters,
  • Support legislation that would return to the people of D.C. their right to vote for marriage.

I’ve got some questions about this.

I was under the impression that STATES Rights were supposed to supersede federal power, particularly in the cases like marriage. Isn’t this why individual states can vote to allow same sex marriages even though the federal government doesn’t recognize them?

DOMA? I think that everyone agrees this is a toothless act and should have been struck down a long time ago. Why do our politicians insist on wasting time on dead horses like this? It was poorly written, poorly executed, and has cost us millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars in paper, time, and the salaries of congressional aids, and other government workers. I’d think the president of the United States would have better things to do with their time than screw around with a meaningless act.

When they talk about the “Original Meaning” of the constitution… WHICH ORIGINAL? If you mean the constitution pre amendments then black folks can’t be married or free. Women can’t vote, in fact no-one except landholders would be allowed to vote. Sorry, all you renters you’re now ineligible. And Ms. Bachmann shouldn’t be out campaigning for office… she should be home, making babies,  regarded as chattel  waiting to serve the Master of the house. Don’t forget divorce is right out of the picture too.

The appointment of a presidential commission to investigate harassment of marriage supporters… I wholeheartedly AGREE with this one. Organizations like NOM, The Westboro Baptist Church and others SHOULD be investigated for their continuing harassment of supporters of marriage. For example all those gay folks who have tirelessly campaigned for Equal Treatment and the ability to marry. It cuts both ways, gay folks trying to get married are by definition supporters of marriage.

Supporting legislation that allows the people of Washington DC to vote on Marriage? Well folks, which is it that you want? At the top of your pledge, you’re talking about making Marriage a Federal matter, now you’re saying you’re going to give the District of Columbia individual rights?

The saddest part of this for me is that these politicians are supposed to be leaders and well educated. On it’s face, this pledge is pointless, puerile, unrealistic and frankly insulting. Unfortunately, it will swing votes toward these candidates as well. There are far too many people who have bought into religious fundamentalist viewpoints regarding gay people.

Lets think about this a bit.

Latest polls say that around 50% of  “Average Americans” don’t really give a shit about same sex marriage one way or another. Most of them don’t see a problem.

I’ve never understood how Same Sex Marriage is a threat to Marriage in general. You’d think that more people getting married would re-affirm the institution not harm it.

Some of the fear mongering spouted by organizations like NOM say that churches will be forced to perform marriages when they don’t philosophically agree with same sex marriage.

Really?

What makes them think that same sex marriages would be ANY different from a situation when a Minister or Priest refuses to marry a couple that has not been through couples counseling, or someone that has been divorced but who hasn’t had their previous marriage annulled?

It’s unlikely a divorced Catholic couple with no annulment is going to demand to be married in a mosque.  It’s equally unlikely any same sex couple is going to choose to get married in a church where they are surrounded by hate. It’s simply a non-issue, yet another red herring from NOM like their dark scary clouds commercial.

Marriages don’t have to be performed in churches. Regardless of WHERE a marriage is performed it confers spousal rights and privileges the minute it’s registered.

It’s those rights and privileges that same sex couples are seeking to secure for themselves, not the destruction of Western Civilization.

I personally think it’s time for NOM, the so called “Family Protection” , and other ultra conservative religious organizations to get off the opposition to same sex marriage bandwagon.

Perhaps they should use their millions upon millions of dollars to set up food banks, homeless shelters, and pay for medical services for the needy in their communities.

Same sex marriage is a non-issue for at least half of America, but unemployment and hungry families are big issues to every American.

NOM, would you and your ilk please go do some good for a change?

I have to thank NOM for one thing though, It just eliminated three candidates from my voting pool.

I may be a conservative but I’m not a complete moron. Bachmann, Romney, and Santorum are no longer even on my personal radar except as candidates to be avoided at all costs.

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It’s about damn time!

Our leaders have to be out of their damn minds!

All their political posturing has completely screwed us.

The hell with the debt ceiling! Our leaders have damaged our credit worthiness, probably hindered any recovery from the recession, and have hurried us on our way toward being a 3rd world cesspool.

When the President of Russia describes our country as a parasite that is dragging the rest of the world toward an even deeper recession.

We need to recall ALL of our leaders then elect people that are interested in actually doing good things for the country instead of beating their chests to highlight how important they are. This debt ceiling discussion should NEVER have reached the level it did.

How about this? SPEND WHAT YOU HAVE!

Washington, like Sacramento seems to think it has limitless credit cards funded by the taxpayers. I say it’s time for the taxpayers to start rejecting the charges.

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I was thinking about what I’d do to stimulate the economy…

Here are some ideas. They may not be good ideas, but they’re ideas nonetheless.

Make offshoring illegal! 

Ohhhh I know that sounds bad doesn’t it? But think about it. If companies have to use laid off American workers uhhh it creates jobs.

Cancel all New H1B1 Visas, Don’t renew old ones. 

This sounds horrible! Again, if there’s an American worker to take the job you’ve just put an AMERICAN back to work in their own country. 

One of the dirty secrets in High Technology over the past decade or so is that you can hire an H1B1 worker for pennies on the dollar compared to an American doing the same job. It’s created what I think of as a labor force akin to slave labor. 

The corporation has the ever present threat of canceling the workers visa and sending these folks back to their own country. With that threat hanging over their heads… H1B1s work like slaves. 

I’ve seen these people carried out of work by EMTs because they refused to take a sick day. Of course they expose everyone to whatever they’ve got but they keep working until they drop.  

Nobody considers the additional cost of the EMT call, or the lost work because everyone else in the department was sick too.

Lighten EPA restrictions

I’m not talking about to the point of creating Love canals all over the country but how about we give corporations more choices than closing shop or moving to a third world cesspool?

California has lost tons of companies large and small due to onerous regulations regarding so called “toxic” materials in their business.  By “toxic” I mean chemicals that you’d find under your sink. Ammonia, Acetic acid (main component of vinegar), Acetone, I could go on but you get the picture. 

The United States is following California’s lead and making it harder for companies to do business AND be profitable. 

I’ve wondered how much the BP spill in the Gulf was the result of cutting corners to make numbers and how much was just negligence or bad design? I wouldn’t be at all surprised to discover that really expensive “mandated safety systems” were installed at the cost of overall safety.

Reduce Immigration Quotas

Another hot button. If we have 12% Reported unemployment in this country we probably in reality have closer to 24%. This disparity in unemployment figures is because of the unrealistic way the government keeps count. 

Why not automatically reduce immigration quotas by double the unemployment figures? If we can’t find jobs for the people that are already here what makes us think that immigrants will fare any better?

As for the illegal immigrants (of whatever ethnic origin)… they should be returned to sender. The third time the same person is caught here illegally… they should be clapped in irons and put to work as part of a prison work gang. They’ll be fed, clothed, and they will work, just they’re not going to be sending money home.

Institute a flat rate tax

One tax rate. No state income taxes, JUST ONE flat percentage and that’s it.

No more IRS filing, no more gamesmanship on April 15th. 

Everyone pays the same amount. Corporations, Poor people, Small businesses, Rich people, the Middle class, EVERYONE.

I personally believe that we’ve incorrectly villainized  the wealthy. 

Not everyone was born wealthy. And many of the wealthy became so, by hard work and astute business dealings. I believe that making the wealthy “villains” because they capitalized on opportunity does us all a dis-service. 

We should point to those folks and say “See, anyone can make it with hard work.”

But I think they should pay the same percentage of tax as all the rest of us. 

Make the governments (US and State) spend within their means

With a flat rate tax in place, the government can predict how much they’ve got to spend on an annual basis.

That should mean that  the budget is predictable too. No borrowing, no raiding of social security, no raiding of road taxes. The politicians will know beyond a doubt how much they have to spend, and they’ll have to allocate funds to essential services first. 

If the economy is doing well and the citizens are making more money, then there’s more money to allocate to non-essential services. If the economy is bad then the converse is true.

I think that this would act as a very effective check / balance for the size of our government and would force our legislators to focus on what’s really important. Like the PEOPLE they’re supposed to represent. And…You know, minor stuff like maintaining a growing economy….

Remove immediately any politician that is late on or obstructs budget decisions 

Yes up to and including the President!

The American people deserve better than to be used as bargaining chips in a personal battle of wills between politicians.

When the President threatened to withhold Veterans and Social Security recipients checks. It demonstrated just how far removed he is the common person. It also demonstrated the contempt he has for the American people in general.

So I think it’s time to make sure that politicians KNOW THEIR PLACE! They need to be reminded that they ARE OUR EMPLOYEES. They are paid and employed at the sufferance of the American People. A few instant firings of these arrogant parasites might bring all the others to heel. If not… well then I guess elections come early this year.

Start Charging for Military Intervention

I think we should bill any country where we’re expending military resources. 

I think we should bill the UN for Peace Keeping missions.

I even entertain the idea of us renting our military forces to other countries. 

I’m not talking about currency as payment either. I’m talking natural resources, Oil, gas, gold, silver, rare earths, in short any commodity that our nation could use. 

Why the hell should the United States taxpayers keep footing the bill?

If someone needs our forces to settle a dispute… well they can damn well pay for it.  I also think that our troops should be very well paid for their services and that could easily happen if we were billing countries that asked for our help.

It might also make folks think twice before going to war if they knew their opponent could afford to field our military against them. 

The world has cast America in a peacekeeping role. Lets make it profitable! 

Empty the Prisons

Every convicted prison inmate has two choices:

  1. Military service outside the United States. 
  2. Prison Work gang.

The goal is to make use of the standing labor force that’s just sitting around costing money but returning very little to the society.

I’m sure the ACLU would have a heart attack if any of these ideas ever were implemented.

I don’t know if any of these ideas would work…

I do know that continuing on the way we have been will lead to our becoming a third world cesspool, and I’d hate for that to happen.

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Bad… Spooky bad

I read this article this morning and it sent chills down my spine.

This is bad ju ju… very very bad ju ju.

Apparently in addition to having to worry about your credit score (BTW… a completely subjective, fictitious number anymore after the banking / mortgage disaster…) now you’re going to be graded, rated and judged on your influence score.

Yep, Your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts now are going to be used to create an influence rating. That rating may be used by others to decide if you’re worthy of perks. The article suggests that perhaps even jobs would be offered or withheld based on your influence score.

Klout allows you to log in a see your score right now. I didn’t check mine…

Personally, I see this as a very good reason to delete all my social media accounts so that I’m not in the system and therefore not scored.

I could see a situation 20 years in the future… “Oh no sir we’re not allowed to perform medical procedures on you… Yes Sir, I understand you have enough cash but your influence score is just too low. You’re not relevant enough to continue to live. NEXT! Please sir, step aside for someone who is more motivational.”

After all, we all know just how well the credit scoring system worked. If your credit score is too low you couldn’t buy houses, or cars, or get credit cards. That way the financial system in the United States is protected from bad debt. YEAH RIGHT!

Folks we need to move away from shit like this!

Already some employers are asking for your social media accounts and blog addresses as part of the application process.

If an HR person doesn’t like something they see, or you don’t “friend” them fast enough you can loose job opportunities. It’s no longer about what you can do for the company…  it’s about your personal life as well.

We need to start dealing with each other Face to Face again. Arbitrary indexing and scoring is simply another way to strip us of our humanity.

Maybe I’m wrong here but this just feels like a very slippery slope.

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I’m in a strange place

It’s a place I’ve been in for a number of years, if not most of my life. But right here and now I have an opportunity to choose a different direction.

I just don’t fit.

Since I’ve been off work for a couple weeks now, I’ve been considering what to do next, and where to go from this point in my life. (I suppose this is part of the normal decompression process.)

Trouble is that I’ve always been a bit of an individual and frankly feel uncomfortable in most of the places that I’d traditionally be pigeonholed.

For example I’ve got this really conservative bent. But I’m just not conservative ENOUGH to feel comfortable in the Republican party and I suspect that the Tea Party may be pretty much the same. (I’m still checking…on that one.)

I’m not comfortable as a liberal although I do have some liberal leanings.

However in general being around a high percentage of liberals will eventually irritate me until I’m just PISSED off.

For example, bin Ladens’ death, For me it was like OOOORRRAAAHHH! Leave scorched Earth behind. For my liberal friends it was like Oh now why did the kill him and what about the other people in the compound? Should the children and wives have been exposed to that kind of violence?

GRRRRRRRRRR!!!

I’ve not ever been comfortable in religion. For someone that thinks like I do, religion is at minimum mildly confusing and at maximum downright OPPRESSIVE.

I just can’t consolidate ME with the fire and brimstone I was raised around in the South. Even the much more moderate religious leanings of the Episcopal and United Church of Christ leave me feeling vaguely unsettled.

It’s not that I don’t believe in a creator, it’s how Man interprets that creator and then attempts to impose that interpretation on others.

Why you may ask am I thinking about all this?

Well, the company that I was working for, I joined because I naively believed I could contribute to the good in the world.

Yes it was a defense contractor, but what I was working on was something that would protect our troops, not necessarily kill our enemies. (not that I particularly have a problem killing our enemies)

Ok, maybe that’s hair splitting but I wasn’t creating particle beam weapons or figuring out how to bombard specific targets on the planet with asteroids.

The point is I wanted to and still do want to do good with my knowledge and skills. If I have to work for somebody, then I’d really like to contribute something back to society.

So I’d been thinking about working in the public service sector. But That’s when I run up against the not fitting problem. It seems that many of these jobs are heavily, (Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, Tea Party, ACLU, Non-Profit, etc.) I’m not terribly sure how or if its possible to break into one of these areas.

I’m concerned about wasting another block of time working in a situation that is inherently not compatible with who I am.

I’ve thought about working in the gay community, but then I REALLY don’t fit. (I have a lot to say about the Many, Many, Many, ways that I don’t fit there, but that’s a posting for another time.)

For those of you that have Sirius-XM, there’s a radio station called Out-Q. Lets just say… I’m 180 degrees and several THOUSAND lightyears from what those people are, or what they think is important.

So as I said, where to from here?

I’ve been working on a list of possibilities

Artist – Many people seem to think I have something special when it comes to photography.

Writer – I do have a fertile imagination and am working on a book now.

Computer Geek – Been doing that most of my adult life.

Bar Tender – I think I’d like it. Have little idea about what’s involved.

Escort – I’m probably well past my “Sell By date”

I also just read a posting on a friends blog about being authentic in our lives. His posting resonated with me. I really need to do something that is more about who I really am and find joy in that. Of course the question is … can I get paid for being who I really am??

Then I read the edgy husband post here and thought yeah, I get what he’s saying too. Made me ask, have I been unavailable to myself in my life? Hummmm, Maybe I should pay attention this could be a message.

Before I get all wrapped around the existential axle, I’m heading out to run the weed whacker and then work out.

Like most men, accomplishments make me feel better and clear my head.