And this is a problem that I often have while I'm thinking about the social and political dichotomies that exist in our world today. When I talk about what I and many others like me believe in, I always hear "You're anti-government, aren't you?"
And my response is "I'm anti-corrupt government. Are you saying we can't have one (governemnt) without the other (corruption)?"
Which is something that you really have to think about hard. The old adage is that "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." And this seems to be eternally true. Our elected representatives are, to a certain extent, placed into power over us. And it seems inevitably that with this power we grant them to reflect and enact our collective wills over each other they go to expand their powers beyond those originally granted them, allowing themselves to do things (they believe) that they have no business doing.
Once again, its just a question of where do we as a people draw the line? Where can we draw the line? I'm not entirely sure, but we need to do it and we need to do it soon.
Not much, just a thought for the day.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Social Attrocities On The Part of the Current Administration
Everyone knows I hate Bush. Trim it, wax it, I don't care. Do what you've got to do, but get rid of it.
Oh, and then there's the matter of our illustrious president and his staff. I'm no fan of this group of cretins. At first it was my disgust with their collective lack of intelligence. Then it moved onto their abuse of this "war on terror" nonsense.
But now, my disgust has gone to brand new levels. These people need to be removed from their positions as soon as possible.
Consider for a moment the recent allegations of the electronic monitoring of communications of American citizens. Yes, we all know that its "to fight terrorism" and is only done to "suspected Al-Queda affiliates." That is complete and utter bull, and has been shown to be such. We know that its used on American citizens and extends beyond terrorism and even the pretense of crime=terrorism.
But there is one thing that makes this worse: the obvious misunderstanding and misuse of the President's "Commander-in-Chief" status. They apparently think that this gives Dubya carte blanche to do whatever the hell he pleases. A staff member was even caught on tape at a recent speech at a major university saying that, if he wanted to, the President could order the torture of a suspected terrorist's child to illicit information from the suspect, even by such means as crushing the child's testicles.
No, I'm not lying. A camera was snuck into this speech / presentation which cameras were not allowed at (no wonder why) and this person was caught on tape saying these things.
Tell me this is not wrong. Tell me that we as Americans are not so collectively numbed down that we can accept this. Even having this on our television shows is one thing (not an okay one), but to let ourselves become so dead inside, so numb to this sort of thing due to overexposure from the media is almost as bad is it happening in the first place. Its almost as bad as saying that is okay, that he has the right to be order that it be done (even in the broadest, most theoretical sense).
American society is dying inside.
Its time we all stand up and say "This is not okay. This is not acceptable. Leave your office so we can put someone sensible, moral, and still human in your place."
Oh, and then there's the matter of our illustrious president and his staff. I'm no fan of this group of cretins. At first it was my disgust with their collective lack of intelligence. Then it moved onto their abuse of this "war on terror" nonsense.
But now, my disgust has gone to brand new levels. These people need to be removed from their positions as soon as possible.
Consider for a moment the recent allegations of the electronic monitoring of communications of American citizens. Yes, we all know that its "to fight terrorism" and is only done to "suspected Al-Queda affiliates." That is complete and utter bull, and has been shown to be such. We know that its used on American citizens and extends beyond terrorism and even the pretense of crime=terrorism.
But there is one thing that makes this worse: the obvious misunderstanding and misuse of the President's "Commander-in-Chief" status. They apparently think that this gives Dubya carte blanche to do whatever the hell he pleases. A staff member was even caught on tape at a recent speech at a major university saying that, if he wanted to, the President could order the torture of a suspected terrorist's child to illicit information from the suspect, even by such means as crushing the child's testicles.
No, I'm not lying. A camera was snuck into this speech / presentation which cameras were not allowed at (no wonder why) and this person was caught on tape saying these things.
Tell me this is not wrong. Tell me that we as Americans are not so collectively numbed down that we can accept this. Even having this on our television shows is one thing (not an okay one), but to let ourselves become so dead inside, so numb to this sort of thing due to overexposure from the media is almost as bad is it happening in the first place. Its almost as bad as saying that is okay, that he has the right to be order that it be done (even in the broadest, most theoretical sense).
American society is dying inside.
Its time we all stand up and say "This is not okay. This is not acceptable. Leave your office so we can put someone sensible, moral, and still human in your place."
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
The Start of Daily Posts
Starting today I'm going to be back on daily weekday posts.
Honest.
Hand to god!
I figure since part of my resolutions are to become more disciplined for the new year, part of executing that resolution is setting and adhering to schedules. So part of that scheduling is that I'm going to set aside time to post each day.
Yeah, I know what you're saying. "He's not going to. He's blowing smoke up our sphinctoral orifices."
We shall see.
We shall see.
Honest.
Hand to god!
I figure since part of my resolutions are to become more disciplined for the new year, part of executing that resolution is setting and adhering to schedules. So part of that scheduling is that I'm going to set aside time to post each day.
Yeah, I know what you're saying. "He's not going to. He's blowing smoke up our sphinctoral orifices."
We shall see.
We shall see.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Happy New Year All! I'm Back, Refreshed, And Ready To Take On The World!
I've gotten all the bad funk out of my system, got the good funk on. It was a funk-transplant!
And, like everyone else, I've got a few resolutions for the New Year. Let's go over them in order, shall we?
1) I resolve to be more disciplined. I've really let myself slide a lot, especially over this past year. I'm not proud of it, and it really hurts me physically and emotionally.
2) I resolve to keep my cool. I let my emotions, anger especially, get the best of me more often than I'd care to admit.
3) I resolve to act with more common sense. The rest of the world could also be better off for following this one. I just need to think things through more logically and look at all the facts before rashly jumping to conclusions.
4) I resolve to live by one simple inspirational quote.
This is the note I'm going to leave on for today. Its a quote that I've long drawn inspiration from and most everyone, especially everyone would do well to follow. And here it is...
"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture and if it were possible, to speak a few resonable words."
~Johan Wolfgang von Goethe
And, like everyone else, I've got a few resolutions for the New Year. Let's go over them in order, shall we?
1) I resolve to be more disciplined. I've really let myself slide a lot, especially over this past year. I'm not proud of it, and it really hurts me physically and emotionally.
2) I resolve to keep my cool. I let my emotions, anger especially, get the best of me more often than I'd care to admit.
3) I resolve to act with more common sense. The rest of the world could also be better off for following this one. I just need to think things through more logically and look at all the facts before rashly jumping to conclusions.
4) I resolve to live by one simple inspirational quote.
This is the note I'm going to leave on for today. Its a quote that I've long drawn inspiration from and most everyone, especially everyone would do well to follow. And here it is...
"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture and if it were possible, to speak a few resonable words."
~Johan Wolfgang von Goethe
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