Blogging everyday trained me to constantly think about topics I'd like to discuss -- however, blogging everyday often meant I didn't get to put as much time and thought into the writing of those topics. So many thoughts have just sat and sat at the back of my brain for months now. And I must set them free. So here you go.
1. I don't understand the support for the Keystone Pipeline. First, oil prices are down and countries who have built economies on oil are seriously struggling (Russia and Venezuela -- just to name a couple). It just doesn't seem like the best time to "invest" in oil. Invest sits in air quotes because what really stumbles me is the mix of public and private interest here. I understand eminent domain, and I just can't come up with any sensible way that it applies here (except that Conservatives wrote special legislation to make it so). The company wanting to build the pipeline is a private, for profit enterprise, so why don't they have to play by the same rules other private companies play by? They want land for a project, work with the individual land owners along the path to buy the land needed. Which would be simple if the land owners wanted tar sands running through their farms. But they don't. I just find way too much irony in the conservative support of the pipeline. What about the freedoms and land rights of the individuals along the path? I suppose those individuals aren't paying for campaigns. What a shame.
Video: Jon Stewart's brilliant take on the blatant hypocrisy
2. I'm not sure I can write about the CIA torture report without having my head explode. But I'll try. I can't promise I'll be nice in what follows ... okay, I can actually promise I'll be quite rude. So let's keep this simple. Only Godless jackasses think the constitution is reserved for American born citizens. The idea that all men are created equal, and that all men deserve due process, and that all men should be protected from cruel and unusual punishment does not end once you leave American soil. Everyone, no matter how horrid, is a child of God. Yes, this is the point I remind myself that those self righteous jackasses are also God's children, so I should show kindness toward them. But seriously, I don't get how anyone with half a brain can justify letting an innocent man freeze to death in the name of justice and counter-terrorism. That isn't counter anything, that IS terrorism.
Candidate for best political speech of the year: How a former prisoner of war responds to the CIA torture report
3. I've decided to embrace all the nasty names given to those of us who want socialized health care. Here's why. If you look at the list of countries who make sure all citizens have basic coverage, whether it comes through a mandate or a tax supported system, and then compare that list to countries that don't offer universal health care -- well, I'd way rather be on the first list. Call me a communist if you must, but at least I'm aligned with successful nations like Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, Australia, Brazil, Canada, all of Scandinavia, and every other developed nation in the world. I'd rather keep company with them than China, North Korea, Venezuela, Myanmar, Somolia, Syria, Pakistan, and every other morally bankrupt (and actual communist) government(s) on the Earth. Just a thought. A really serious thought YOU should take into consideration.
From The Atlantic: What's astonishing is how cleanly the green and grey separate the developed nations from the developing, almost categorically. Nearly the entire developed world is colored, from Europe to the Asian powerhouses to South America's southern cone to the Anglophone states of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. The only developed outliers are a few still-troubled Balkan states, the Soviet-style autocracy of Belarus, and the U.S. of A., the richest nation in the world.
1. I don't understand the support for the Keystone Pipeline. First, oil prices are down and countries who have built economies on oil are seriously struggling (Russia and Venezuela -- just to name a couple). It just doesn't seem like the best time to "invest" in oil. Invest sits in air quotes because what really stumbles me is the mix of public and private interest here. I understand eminent domain, and I just can't come up with any sensible way that it applies here (except that Conservatives wrote special legislation to make it so). The company wanting to build the pipeline is a private, for profit enterprise, so why don't they have to play by the same rules other private companies play by? They want land for a project, work with the individual land owners along the path to buy the land needed. Which would be simple if the land owners wanted tar sands running through their farms. But they don't. I just find way too much irony in the conservative support of the pipeline. What about the freedoms and land rights of the individuals along the path? I suppose those individuals aren't paying for campaigns. What a shame.
Video: Jon Stewart's brilliant take on the blatant hypocrisy
2. I'm not sure I can write about the CIA torture report without having my head explode. But I'll try. I can't promise I'll be nice in what follows ... okay, I can actually promise I'll be quite rude. So let's keep this simple. Only Godless jackasses think the constitution is reserved for American born citizens. The idea that all men are created equal, and that all men deserve due process, and that all men should be protected from cruel and unusual punishment does not end once you leave American soil. Everyone, no matter how horrid, is a child of God. Yes, this is the point I remind myself that those self righteous jackasses are also God's children, so I should show kindness toward them. But seriously, I don't get how anyone with half a brain can justify letting an innocent man freeze to death in the name of justice and counter-terrorism. That isn't counter anything, that IS terrorism.
Candidate for best political speech of the year: How a former prisoner of war responds to the CIA torture report
3. I've decided to embrace all the nasty names given to those of us who want socialized health care. Here's why. If you look at the list of countries who make sure all citizens have basic coverage, whether it comes through a mandate or a tax supported system, and then compare that list to countries that don't offer universal health care -- well, I'd way rather be on the first list. Call me a communist if you must, but at least I'm aligned with successful nations like Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, Australia, Brazil, Canada, all of Scandinavia, and every other developed nation in the world. I'd rather keep company with them than China, North Korea, Venezuela, Myanmar, Somolia, Syria, Pakistan, and every other morally bankrupt (and actual communist) government(s) on the Earth. Just a thought. A really serious thought YOU should take into consideration.
From The Atlantic: What's astonishing is how cleanly the green and grey separate the developed nations from the developing, almost categorically. Nearly the entire developed world is colored, from Europe to the Asian powerhouses to South America's southern cone to the Anglophone states of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. The only developed outliers are a few still-troubled Balkan states, the Soviet-style autocracy of Belarus, and the U.S. of A., the richest nation in the world.
1 comment:
That's my girl!!!
Post a Comment