The entire health care debate has been radiating sheer stupidity for some time now. Skipping past the usual idiots on both sides and their insane fundamentalist rhetoric… vaccines. It seems like, on average, there is less than 3.2 seconds between someone screaming about an optional government health plan because the government is evil and Obama would run death panels, and then wailing about the lack of H1N1 vaccine. I have to ask, while my mind is trying to process the thought pattern (if any) here… do you want the government involved or not? Since it seems that about 49% of the country doesn’t want the government involved in health care (because it will kill them, obviously), they shouldn’t be able to get the vaccine. I’m sure private industry will step in and provide an affordable and widely available vaccine any day now, since they have been at liberty to have been doing that all along.

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Now, I should note at the start that I am pro-”socialized medicine”, at the very least the public option plan, and I’m glad this is a serious public conversation we’re even having.

However, I think Obama has horribly, horribly mistimed his proposal. The main problem is that in light of dealing with the economy and the wars, public healthcare is a hard sell. We are still in the recession, and Obama is juggling too many initiatives at once. The Dow is steadily just below 9500, which is good, but unemployment is high and we’re just getting into debt. Public option healthcare would be nice for the unemployed if it were already in place, but the startup costs just make it a stupid thing to be pushing in this economy.
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I mean to speak of economic/political pork projects. One man’s pork is another man’s project. People like John McCain have come out to protest pork, which is fine… however, we have to be careful what we label pork. Pork in a bill may be a waste of money, or it may finance a bridge retrofit that can save lives or enliven a community. Funds “wasted” on things like researching pig pheromones can actually be funds leading to important medical discoveries, new chemicals, or new ways of understanding and approaching problems. Very little, I think, is actually useless. Occasional projects like the Bridge to Nowhere are probably involved, and given the number of bills and projects done, this probably results in a lot of waste, indeed… but I think, not as much waste as is being proclaimed.
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You should note that I am all for rewriting the entire Constitution, so bear that in mind (me being liberal nut job).

The Second Amendment serves no purpose at all in modern society. In fact, it serves a a disservice by being unclear and mucking up the entire issue. There are many things that make it downright retarded, but I’ll focus on two; technology and scope. Having said that, I’ll go in reverse order. Continue reading →

After reading several books on the subject, I’ve come to a few conclusions…

I think that a modern Islamic state needs to be something like Iran. I mean, Iran is not an ideal state, but the basic framework is there.

Unlike Christianity and Judaism, Islam views the state of the community as a reflection of their piety and their responsibility on Earth. This is especially true as modern Western states are essentially secular. I do not think that an Islamic state can be secular, barring a complete revision of Islam.
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Is the modern free media actually making our voices less powerful?

In a recent conversation comparing outcry against Iraq with outcry against Viet Nam, I came to the conclusion that yes, it is. Even if something meets tremendous public outcry, there is far less public pressure on our democratic system.

If something were protested in the ’60s or ’70s, the only recourse most people had were demonstrations, marches, sit-ins, rallies. The news media was fairly limited, and the only way people had to express their discontent was to take it out in public displays. People en masse either directly demonstrated or were part of a counter-culture movement.
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It is a rather simple tenet; it is easier to redirect a river than to block it. Works for philosophy, physics, and sociology. An obvious example is convincing Africans to use condoms, which many of their religious leaders condemn. Rather than try to convince them that their beliefs are wrong, it is easier to work with the beliefs.
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It was no secret a decade ago that we would be facing a tremendous energy crisis. Well, that time has come to reality. Oil and coal prices shoot higher by the day. I remember a few months back, when oil was at “record highs” of $60 a barrel – it is now twice that. Know what? That is freaking scary. We needed to start making changes a decade ago, or over a decade ago, but this country opted out. We’re paying the price now – and the problem is not limited to gasoline prices. It costs more to produce and ship items. Inflation is beginning to kick in, and the dollar is collapsing. We have to now take the solid steps we neglected to for decades.
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For the past seven years, the country, the media, the world has declared the 9/11 attacks as “unprovoked terrorism aimed at civilians.” This has never sat right with me. There are a number of reasons I will outline in this short article about the motives and operating procedure of Al Qaeda. First, the notion we have been indoctrinated with that Al Qaeda is actually a coherent group with a command structure. Second, is that the attacks were anything but random terrorism against civilians, as we see most notably in Israel, but also throughout Asia and Africa. Finally, I will stick my neck out and say that, frankly, we had something like this coming, as tragic as it may be.
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