Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Another Civil War is brewing...

People don't believe me when I say that another Civil War is brewing. These Tea Party people are really getting out of hand. Instead of rational discussion over the issues they'd rather try to take to arms... smart. Just what we need. I guess this is what I would expect out of people who's collective education is probably just shy of "High School Diploma."

Take a look here at The Moderate Voice.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Bad News: Oh, the horror...

Multiple kids get gunned down in DC and all the media can talk about is a poor 15 year old girl who hung herself after being "bullied" ... and we say that preferential treatment is non existent anymore. More lives lost - and more tragically in DC - but the young white girl from Ireland gets the big story. And the whole idea that we cannot blame this young girl AT ALL for killing herself is ridiculous. People want to wonder why teachers/administrators had no clue what was going on... it's in the article! Phoebe kept to herself. She didn't really tell people what was going on. Her friends probably knew better. Where were THEY? Her parents SHOULD have known better. Where were THEY? We all want to blame someone but the obvious people, but at the end of the day she tied the noose and stepped away from the ledge. She hung herself and she didn't have to. Yes kids are cruel. And they will never stop being cruel. To think we can police this in schools will just push it out of their jurisdiction back to the parents who don't even have a clue of what's going on in the children's lives. Ridiculous. Personally, if we get choice over who to blame, I blame the Pope.

Monday, March 22, 2010

The Health Care Chronicles: The Health Care Debate

If the following words/names come out of your mouth when discussing the Health Care bill, I will not be willing to debate with you the merits of the bill because I will already know where you get your news and how you feel about the bill:
1) Socialism/Communism/Marxism/Maoism
2) "Obamacare"
3) "Ramming it through" or "Ramming it down our throats"
4) "Backroom deals" (or any of the "Lousiana Purchase", "Cornhusker Kickback", etc.)
5) Tea-party (if spoken about positively)
6) [Will continue to update as I hear more talking points]

On my own personal note, I'm not entirely sure how to feel about this bill that passed last night. I don't know enough about it yet. I am looking forward to learning what it contains before I make an up or down decision on it, but I will say that I fundamentally agree something needed to be done. I will also say that I hardly believe this to be a bill containing Socialism on the level many Republicans believe - we are not going to be standing in Soviet-style bread lines, or taking our marching orders from Stalin now. I am skeptical however at the fuzzy math that suggests we may be able to pay for this over the long-term. This country is deeply in debt (thanks largely to 2-3 decades of BOTH parties spending on their favorite items - defense, social programs, etc.) and I'm interested to get a chance to read the CBO estimate as to how this will be paid-for. I'm also keen on seeing some independent review of the CBO's numbers or interpretations of the bill - as long as it's coming from NON-PARTISAN sources. Whether or not this will reign in costs will be left to be seen soon.

Oh, and to all of those who claim to be Christians in America these days, I'm hardly a church-going Christian, but I know that Jesus would not have denied health care to the working poor. If you do not believe that health care is a basic human right of a developed nation, then you need to search deep down and ask yourself just how Christian you are.