politics

Politics: The Spectrum vs. Alive/Dead

Sorry about the title but I couldn't really come up with a summary. I personally hate the Left vs. Right definition of the political spectrum. It may be OK for those with an IQ similar to that of a carrot but thinking that political positions can be placed along a line is, well, dumb. For as long as I can remember, if forced to come up with a position for someone with a low IQ, I try to get them to at least see that a ring is a better representation.

Political Discussions

When I started this site I told myself I was going to avoid "political discussions". I have almost done that. But, that doesn't mean we don't need a place for such discussions. Unfortunately, every time I go looking for such an arena I find things that are either US-centric or just full of "my party is better than your party" BS. In other words, things that don't discuss issues, just blame all the problems on "the other party".

Still Mad at Jimmy

It's been over 30 years and I am still mad at President Jimmy Carter. I finally decided I better tell him while he is still on the planet. I'm sure he reads this blog so here goes.

While it isn't totally Jimmy's fault that the U.S. never really went to the metric system (details available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_States ) the real problem was that he was an honest man, not a politician. He said, probably in 1976, that the U.S. would be on the metric system by 1978. I believed him.

Political Bandaids

The U.S. Supreme Court decided that non-persons (corporations), while they don't get to vote get to bribe make political contributions. As there was no such thing as a corporation when the Constitution was written, it seems to be that the solution is to eliminate them.

Radical idea? Not really. With infinite life, limited liability and a goal of maximizing profit for the stockholders, they really aren't compatible with a democracy that is supposed to just be representing people.

Who Runs the U.S. Government?

The obvious answers, depending on how aware you are, is either the President or Big Corporations. But, today, it looks a bit more complicated. I will assert that while the U.S. government is there to serve corporations and friends in high places, there is now a very interesting division of power within that government.

Looking back to the Bush II administration, it was pretty obvious that the government was there to serve corporate interests.

Why More Troops for Afghanistan

I ended up reading an interesting article for a very different reason that anything related to Afghanistan. And my intent with this blog is to offer good, useful information rather that get drawn into "political slime". But, this article just tells so much I felt it worth the link.

The article is about Craig Murray, a 20-year veteran of the British Foreign Service whose career was destroyed after he was posted to Uzbekistan in August 2002 and began to complain about Western complicity in torture committed by the country’s totalitarian regime.