STRAIGHT OUTTA’ DENVER

So how about I say a little about myself before everyone around here gets the wrong impression of me. I was one of your average run of the mill conservatives supporting the usual conservative view of the world and I still do hold true to most if not all of the typical conservative way of thinking. And that’s an easy thing for everyone around here to confirm, all you have to do is take a good look at my posts here about two years back and you’ll easily see that I had all of the talking points set and was committed all the way to the conservative cause. I’ve even been accused by Bieren of being the poster boy of conservatism and I was honored to receive that supposed cut down by Bieren (I still don’t consider that to be a cut down). I used to listen to talk radio at least 8 hours a day to the greats like Rush Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt and Dennis Prager. And just like all of them, I still do think that Obama is just about the worst president we have elected in quite some time even though I do like the guy, I just never thought he was right for the job and with how the events have unfolded recently, looks like I was very much right about that. Along with all of the rest of the good conservatives, I fought hard to get McCain elected even though none of us wanted the guy but that we thought he would just be slightly better than Obama, and he did make us all happy with nominating Sarah Palin and calming our fears that we would just get pushed to the side once the election was done. But we didn’t win that one, and now I do find as least for myself that it was a good thing that McCain didn’t win. Not because I enjoy seeing this country going to shambles whenever I briefly have a look at the news but that I did get the chance to completely rethink the whole idea of the conservative movement and for that matter I started to find a problem with our entire political system as it is. The truth is: this system is completely unsustainable and impractical right from the time that we (as a country) started capitalizing on the industrial revolution. The unfortunate truth is that when we (as a country) started making capitalism the reason for why we exist then that’s when it started to no longer be one nation under God but rather one nation under the mighty dollar. As we keep on making the dollar and this entire system work for us, we keep finding ourselves enslaved to this system and even start finding ourselves enslaving other countries to it as well. Sooner or later something has to give, and the more and more our economical crisis continues, the more and more likely people around the world are going to be demanding more world government and more world economical integration. It’s not really a question of if this will be, it’s much more a question of when. The idea will keep looking and sounding reasonable on paper but if we start calculating the realities of human nature you’ll find that it’s just going to persist this problem. So may I suggest an alternative? How about an opt out plan?

The bureaucratic issue
We have a big issue going on in this country today! It’s just the fact that this country’s government is swollen with way too much bureaucracy that’s just sucking out all of the real freedom around here. In reality we are not much of a free country at all. We can elect a completely different group of people who say the exactly opposite thing but yet the same things just keep on happening. For example all of the people that really wanted us to stop all the wars and get out completely, they just do things the proper way and gather up support for Obama and push all the way to win the election! And Obama didn’t quite do as he promised by moving Iraq and instead did the same exact thing in Afghanistan that Bush did in Iraq! So may I ask what really is the difference here? They both say opposite things only to do the same actions. They both spend way too much money on things that don’t work and all these governmental programs just keep failing. So why exactly are we spending all of this money on things that don’t work? Why are we spending all of this money on a system that doesn’t do what it’s suppose to do?

Now it’s an easy argument for a conservative to say “well that’s because the liberals have abandoned the constitution and start making up their own law!” Now to an extent that is true because it was a liberal president named Franklin Delano Roosevelt who started a trend to nominate supreme court justices that would do as the president pleases rather than rule on what the constitution says. That sort of judicial ruling has showed up all over the country in situations like when California had used it’s supreme court to put same sex marriage in place despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of citizens in that state voted against same sex marriage. So ruling like that one have effectively made voter initiatives practically obsolete in this country. However, liberals would argue that it’s the big business in this country that’s tearing this country to shreds and that’s also true. With how financially irresponsible that most all of the larger corporations have been, it’s lead to the financial collapse that we see today. The large banks around this country liked making all of that money they were getting off of the bad loans they were handing out so much that they didn’t check to see what would happen if the housing bubble would pop. Thus, there were a lot of people left out in the cold when they couldn’t pay the loans they had. So there is plenty of blame to go around and most certainly lots of people around the country have been making sure they push that blame out there. All you need to do is turn on the news and you’ll see somebody (no matter who it is that’s on) blaming someone else for all of the problems of the country. This problem gets so absurd that certain people have made t-shirts saying “pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8.” Now that doesn’t sound so bad until you look up the verse and see “May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership.” Well that’s not very good sportsman like conduct there and I find anyone who would use the bible in such a manner utterly detestable. So Why do we have to put up with this failed system? But still we’re not a the root cause of what’s wrong here.

The Irony of it all
You can actually trace all of these problems back to the American Civil War and even further back to the founding of our nation. The question here is why exactly did that war start in the first place? Considering that every southern state left the union because of slavery, that does mean that we started off as a nation living in violation of one of our most core values: that all humans are created equal. In order to change this Violation, we required a Civil War so that we can remove the inequality from our nation, but have we really started to live as our principals say that we should? So that we could win the civil war Lincoln had suspended habeas corpus allowing him to detain confederate soldiers without trial so that things could operate more smoothly and allow for a victory. Lincoln had also spent money that was not approved by congress yet and kept pushing all to win the war and never held back. While I’m not wiring this to demonize Lincoln, what he did had corrected a great injustice in our society that should not have been allowed to exist in the first place but yet to correct that problem we ended up having to throw away most of our principals to win. This did create a sense of pragmatism that’s created a false mindset in this nation: that we will go to any length to achieve our objectives no matter the rules that we have. This is an American problem that both political parties adhere to and this is shown in every element of our society from the way that it spends it’s money to the way that we talk. Everything is geared to making America the bright shining city on the Hill without thinking of what’s truly the right thing to do. The political talk is always about what is best for America rather than what is the right thing to do. Just as Lincoln had done in the past, so too, every president had continued following his example up to the present day in some from by placing America before all other concerns. As a result, we have ended up wiping out most of the native Americans, we have imprisoned Japanese without cause, we detain people of middle eastern decent and we keep people from coming into our country when it is not to our benefit. We demonize groups of people when they don’t line up with our core values when we have a political difference or a cultural difference. We place that we are first, right in what we believe and anyone that sees it differently is then someone who needs to change their perspectives to our view for things to come out right. We decide that we must implant our culture into other societies, regardless of the cost to them, because we are the ones who live right. We place blame on others when things don’t go right when they are not the problem. The true problem is how we think. We are a country that holds to the ideas on individualism and we think that each of us individually can make it on our own without any help from the people around us, other countries or even God Himself. We say “yes we can” prove that we are the great thing in the world when this is not true. We are arrogant.

A deceleration of dependence
In our founding document, The declaration of independence, the defining words are “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” At the time that was written, it was intended to convey to England that they do not have the right to take life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness away from us and that is a true statement. However, as we have aged as a nation, that statement has evolved even further to mean that our government must provide these things for us when our government can not provide. In order to provide life for our citizens then that means that we must go abroad and take life from others to ensure that we have it. In order to ensure liberty for our citizens then we have to take it from our own people so as to not trample on others rights. Finally, to create the possibility of the pursuit of happiness then we create a system that leaves many loop holes and allows for people to get caught up in and they never find what they were looking for. Most of the wars that we have fought were because other people were living in a way that we did not like rather than because we had to fight that war so that we would survive as a nation. The only two wars we have fought where we would not have continued existing as a nation if we had not won was the revolutionary war and world war two. With all of the wars that we keep on fighting, it only continues to keep fueling the hatred for our nation because we fight every war with the assumption that we are right that may or may not be the case. Thus, we continue taking life so that we can provide it for others. We enforce copy write laws to ensure that people to do not take someone’s work and use it for a profit when they themselves have taken that idea from someone else. There is nothing on this earth that is truly new and in reality, everything is just a recycled idea applied in a different way like having an internal combustion engine replace a horse or replacing a mud hut with wooden and steel houses. We stop certain people from releasing a song because they have certain words that are the same to another that may be right or may not be right. Or we take the house of another person so that we can build a highway to move people faster around the country. Thus, we take the liberty from others to ensure it for others. We have created the market economy so that the people that work the hardest are the ones that reap the most reward out of this nation but yet what it all comes down to is blind luck. Everyone in the housing market was making millions of dollars and was working really hard to get there only to find that we built too many houses and no longer needed so many thus causing them to loose out on what they worked so hard on. While at the same time a kid who has never worked a day in his or her life can just get all of the money their parents earned and just waste it away. At the end of it all, I keep finding that the most ambitious people in the world are also the most unhappy. So to ensure the pursuit of happiness usually ends up creating our own unhappiness. We don’t follow what we preach in this country!

Let us take a step back for a moment and realize certain truths of this world that we can not change. Life is not ensured because at any moment you can die in millions of different ways. So in reality, the very fact that you take another breath is actually a gift because you may not take another. Liberty is never ensured because anything that you want can become something that controls your actions and thus you end up enslaving yourself to your desires. To truly be independent of everything means that all of your actions must be devoid of all passion. Happiness is something that things can not provide for you but it is something that you have to choose to be on a daily basis despite what this life brings you. So the more and more that we keep on focusing in on how to fix problems that are part of a world that we can never change, the more that we will keep spending and fighting and working we keep on pushing ourselves into slavery. Every single person on this planet is a slave to something and your only choice is what you choose to be a slave to. So given all of this, what can we possibly do about our problem here? The only answer here is to take everything that we have in this world with gratitude and live the best that we can and allow forces that are greater than us to correct what is wrong in this world. We need to push aside our arrogance and admit that we don’t know everything and that we can’t correct everything in this world. We need to live a little simpler with our minds set on where we are truly headed all together as a whole. We need to realize that everything in this world is a gift and that we are only still living by grace that this world have not taken our lives yet. We need to stop thinking of what we are entitled to but rather what we can do to celibate the fact that we are still living. We need to declare that we are dependent on each other and need to keep focused on the people around us rather than focusing on things that we can not change. I propose that we change the way that we think.

Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do despite your country
We are a country were most of the population clams to be Christan but yet the funny thing is we rarely act like Christians in this country. So it’s really quite funny to see every president tout their Christaness about when they never do things that are “Christan.” For one, Jesus was never concerned about popularity and in fact usually said things to purposefully drive people away when He would start to get popular. Also, He never cared much for government workings and in fact usually attracted hatred from government officials. However, for the purpose of this post I am not talking of evangelizing people, that is a subject that I have talked about and will spend a lifetime talking about but for now I’m focusing in on how we act and think. For example, our founding fathers had the Boston Tea Party where we destroyed the property of the British to make our point that we didn’t like the taxes England was placing on us. But on the other hand, England was paying for a costly war that we had benefited from and they had bills to pay. Now was it right for England to be placing all of the high cost on us and enforcing the control on us? No but we were also not right in destroying what was not ours. And we constantly keep doing this by butting our heads into conflicts that are not ours to deal with. So why didn’t we go about this another way? Why didn’t we work off the dept that we had accumulated for that war and then continued on living our lives as if the king of England didn’t matter to us? But we can’t change what happened in the past so we can’t possibly know what would have happened if we had followed that course. So let’s just fast forward 234 years to the present and ask the same question, why don’t we live as if the federal government doesn’t matter? Well then that means that we won’t be worried at all about who’s in office and might not even bother to vote at all. That doesn’t mean that we keep ourselves out of the loop and not know what’s happening but instead of worrying about the things that we can’t control, we keep focused on what we can control. We can’t control what Washington is going to do but we can control what we say and what we do. So if we live life with the principals that government is by about and for the people (even though it’s not) then that means we don’t have to stress ourselves over everything the government is doing. We can better focus on the people around us and our local communities if we’re not worried about government. We don’t have to waste our money on a system that’s completely broken and almost useless. We don’t have to keep fixed into the 9 to 5 work week and then go home and quickly lock the door to make sure the neighbors are thous scary terrorist that we keep hearing about. No, we can get to know our neighbors and actually find out for sure if they actually have bad intentions. We can turn off the TV and and just not care about all the useless hype that we have going around the country. We can instead look to helping out the people in our own back yard instead of relying on a system that doesn’t the people that it hands out checks to. May I suggest that we stop relying on the government.

Now don’t misunderstand me here– I am not suggesting that we start another revolution or march on Washington and demand changes. No, I really mean pretend that it doesn’t matter. Not that we decide to not pay our taxes or anything illegal like that but just that we live without the government in our heads every day. So in order for us to start moving us forward in a manner that allows for us to correct our local problems despite what the government is doing I have a few points to think over.

1. First things first– smash your TV! or at lest stop watching the political news and hyped up television that will have you constantly griped by by the culture. All of the constant reports are just things that will keep you worried over one thing that you can’t change to the next thing that you can’t change and so it’s just something that’s just going to keep draining you out. It’s wise to know what’s going on in the world but news papers and other such media formats are less intrusive and allows for deeper thought than TV news.

2. Find a community– Churches or your local temple of your religious believes are by far the best places to go for this or if you happen to be atheist or agnostic then I suggest you try one, it might just be a good experience for you. And pay close attention to the people there, find out what they are like and what they need and help out if you can. Don’t look at it like it’s a place for getting good and services like your local market but more like a second home with people that you can help and can help you. Let it enrich your life with cares that have nothing to do with the government.

3. Form a new identity– We all have been living in a culture of being Americans first that overrides everything else in this life and we need to break from that habit. We need to care more about the people around us and the world at large rather than our country or creed. America is not the most important thing in this world and someday it will fall just like all of the empires and countries in the past have also risen and fallen but the world keeps on going on despite that. So don’t let that trouble you! Instead, try loving the people around you just as you love yourself and place more value on being part of your community rather than a citizen of America and this also goes the same for all of you living in other countries as well.

4. Work with others– Start living a little simpler with what you have! Instead of rushing out to buy that nice car you always wanted, find one that meets your needs. Don’t rush out to buy the big nice house but find one that meets your needs. With the excess of money that you save here then you can pour it into your local community to help out with others helping build an establishment that you all can benefit from. It’s easy to tear down but it takes generations to build up places of shelter and comfort. As you work and commit to a place to build up, you start to leave good traditions in your children and the people around you.

5. Take joy in your life– None of us was given the choice to be born into this world and none of us has the choice on when it will end. So take hold of that! Live your life as if it were all as song of praise for all that you have been given. Yes, you will have pain in your life and yes you will be hurt and will hurt others, this is inevitable but your only other option is to end it prematurely. But that would be a horrible same for you to do such a thing! If you have people around you that love and care for you, then take hold of that for that’s more precocious then all of the finest gold in the world. Fame will fade in time and countries will eventually die out but the people that you encourage and love will turn around and bless others. That’s what changes societies!

None of what I suggest is going to be easy but if we are to move forward in this country then we are going to have to start learning how to straighten out our priorities. We have lost our way completely! We no longer do what is right in this country but rather what is more expedient and easy to do and that’s caught us in a terrible snare. Life will go on despite what this country does, so why should we let us control us? There’s so much more out there than this country has to offer.

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Youtube Reviews #1: The Amen Break

Posted on February 4th, 2009 by Distinguished Bean.
Categories: Political, Film, Reviews, Media, education, Economics, photo/video, Cultural.

Read AFTER watching video:

As defined by Dictionary.com, a market is trade or traffic, esp. as regards a particular commodity or idea. So what does this 6 second drum beat loop have to teach us about markets, you ask? It actually brings great understanding to a system that has been ruined in so many ways by so many people. To some extent, the goal of a market is to bring the quality of an object to the greatest potential it can; really, increasing to some unknown and unreachable infinite value of quality. This drum beat proved that regulation on commodities or ideas is criminal and only hurts the quality of a product or object in the long run. Had the spread of the drum beat been cracked down on and regulated, who knows what would have happened. Now, there is a possibility that the fathers of hip hop and marketers of commercials would have just found another drum beat loop, but how would that have sounded different? Maybe better, maybe worse… Due to the extreme success of how the styles of music and marketing outlets has turned out, I don’t think we really want to know how it would have been without this Amen Break. Sub-consciously, the public has grown to enjoy this rhythm, this timing of sounds, and thus it has been able to transform certain aspects of media, increasing the quality, as judged by consumers, over a period of time. The Amen Break has done great things, even if people do not recognize its depth of influence.

So what does this have to say about regulation in the larger sense? Well, with this example, and countless others, we are able to see that regulation only hurts the quality within a market. Regulation on music, such as harsh copyrights and limits, have only hurt the spread of music and the quality there in. The same can be said of numerous products within our economic system. As Pepsi copied Coke, and Qdoba copied Chipotle, the de-regulation of commodities has only increased competition and thus quality. In art, regulation could have done much damage. What if people had rejected Shakespeare due to his great amount of plagiarism of the time, what would have happened to poetry? What has the spread of certain techniques done for painting and photography? In most all cases, if there has been large amounts of regulation, the product’s quality is weakened, whereas, with no regulation, the quality has increased to an amount we may not even recognize.

So can this idea of the greatness of de-regulation be applied to the much broader economy as a whole? The government, especially now, with stimulus packages and business regulations, seems to encourage the halting of commodity and idea flow. We may not even recognize the damage that is being done. What would a system without harsh regulations really look like? I believe it would be a beautiful thing, that would increase quality and bring glory to our market as a whole. Just look at certain cases where ideas have been able to spread, de-regulated. Wikipedia has become one of the largest sources of information available due to its great freedom. Not just Wikipedia, but the Internet as a whole has shown the greatness of the free spread of ideas. So I have a great hope that people will begin to recognize the destructive nature of regulation, and accept the idea of freedom that our country was largely founded on. May this freedom cause the quality of the market and ideals within the country to sky-rocket in value and increase in worth. The Amen Break is a great symbol that, although seemingly unknown, will hopefully bring greater understanding to how people run markets in the future.

The Amen Break was a 6 second loop that transformed music… What are we stopping from spreading now, that could transform our lives today and into the future?

In the end, the only thing that should be strictly regulated is the New York Yankees…

4 comments.

A journey into the political ideas of Distinguished Bean… (Compare/Contrast with the Congressman from Texas)

Posted on January 17th, 2009 by Distinguished Bean.
Categories: Political, Abortion, War, Law, Constitutional Law, Terrorism, education, Economics.

When i began to develop politically, morally, and economically, i took on specific views on most of the issues spanning the political spectrum of today. I began to take stances and apply my own intellect onto the issues, however, something was weird. I was raised old fashioned Republican and thought it was faultless, however, when i began my journey i began to contradict myself and confuse my past. My views didn’t fit one political party, let alone a single frame of thought. I suddenly realized that there was a party out there that, for the most part, was saying what i was thinking. However, even then, i felt very confused. Suddenly i read and studied the history and ideas of the 10 term congressman Ron Paul from Texas. I was absolutely amazed on how much i lined up with his political thoughts. I truly and honestly believe that if people could step past party boundaries, politicians like him, who actually thought ‘outside the box’ , would have a chance at positively influencing the country. I have recently read his book Revolution: A Manifesto. I felt like he did an incredible job of covering the issues pressing our nation today, so i have decided to post brief summaries that i found on the site http://www.ontheissues.org/Revolution_Manifesto.htm, that sum up his views and political thought.

Abortion is murder
A popular academic argument for abortion demands that we think of the child in the womb as a parasite.but the same argument justifies infanticide, since it applies just as well to an infant outside the womb.newborns require even more attention & care.

People ask an expectant mother how her baby is doing. They do not ask how her fetus is doing, or her blob of tissue, or her parasite. But that is what her baby becomes as soon as the child is declared to be unwanted.
Source: The Revolution: A Manifesto, by Ron Paul, p. 59-60 Apr 1, 2008

Roe v. Wade decision was harmful to the Constitution
The federal government should not play any role in the abortion issue, according to the Constitution. Apart from waiting forever for Supreme Court justices who rule in accordance with the Constitution, Americans do have some legislative recourse. Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to strip the federal courts of jurisdiction over a broad categories of cases.

Wasteful government spending backed by both parties
Truth is treason in the empire of lies. There is an alternative to national bankruptcy, a bigger police state, trillion dollar wars, and a government that draws ever more parasitically on the productive energies of the American people. It’s called freedom.

School prayer is not a federal issue
[Limits on Constitutional authority] holds true for issues like prayer in schools. Such issues were never meant to be decided by federal judges. The whole point of the American Revolution was to vindicate the principle of local self government.
Source: The Revolution: A Manifesto, by Ron Paul, p. 61 Apr 1, 2008

Private funds for arts work better than government funds
Some Americans appear to believe that there would be no arts in America were it not for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). While the government requested $121 million for the NEA in 2006, private donations to the arts totaled $2.5 billion that year, dwarfing the NEA budget. NEA funds go not necessarily to the best artists, but to people who happen to be good at filling out government grant applications. I have my doubts that the same people populate both categories.

Free trade agreements threaten national sovereignty
I opposed both the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization, both of which were heavily favored by the political establishment. Many supporters of the free trade market supported these agreements. Nearly six decades ago when the International Trade Organization was up for debate, conservatives and libertarians agreed that supranational trade bureaucracies with the power to infringe upon American sovereignty were undesirable.

The “living Constitution” is the death of democracy
A living Constitution is just the thing any government would be delighted to have, for whenever people complain that their constitution has been violated, the government can trot out its judges to inform the people that they’ve simply misunderstood: the Constitution, you see, has merely evolved with the times.

Those who would give us a ‘living’ constitution are actually giving us a dead constitution, since such a thing is completely unable to protect us against encroachments of government power.

Replace Medicaid with volunteer pro-bono medical care
In the days before Medicare and Medicaid, the poor and elderly were admitted to hospitals at the same rate they are now, and received good care. Before those programs came into existence, every physician understood that he or she had a responsibility towards the less fortunate and free medical care was the norm. Hardly anyone is aware of this today, since it doesn’t fit into the typical, by the script story of government rescuing us from a predatory private sector.
Source: The Revolution: A Manifesto, by Ron Paul, p. 84 Apr 1, 2008

Private medical savings accounts, not government meddling
The most obvious way to break this cycle is to get the government out of the business of meddling in health care, which was far more affordable and accessible before government got involved. Short of that, and more politically feasible in the immediate run, is to allow consumers and their doctors to pull themselves out of the system through medical savings accounts.
Source: The Revolution: A Manifesto, by Ron Paul, p. 89 Apr 1, 2008

Conscription is unconstitutional–including National Service
Nowhere in the Constitution is the federal government given the power to conscript citizens. The power to raise armies is not a power to force people into the armies.

Lesser forms of the draft, such as compulsory “national service” are based on the sam unacceptable premise. Young people are not raw material to be employed by the political class on behalf of whatever fashionable political, military, or social cause catches its fancy. In a free society, their lives are not the plaything of government.

Contract with America was a toothless cop out
The Republican leadership urged these freshmen congressmen to focus on a toothless, soporific agenda called the Contract with America that was boldly touted as a major overhaul of the federal government. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The Brookings Institution in effect said that if this is what conservatives consider revolutionary, they have conceded defeat.
Source: The Revolution: A Manifesto, by Ron Paul, p. 3 Apr 1, 2008

11/5/07: Set fundraising record of $4 million in single day
I was a reluctant candidate, not at all convinced that a sizable enough national constituency existed for a campaign based on liberty and the Constitution rather than on special interest pandering and the distribution of loot. Was I ever wrong.

On November 5, 2007, we set a record when we raised over $4 million online in a single day. Not only is the freedom message popular, it is more intensely popular than any other political message.

Terrorism is just like any other murder: you look for motive
People were bound to start wondering eventually, why we were attacked? Not because they sought to excuse the attackers, but out of natural curiosity regarding what made these men tick. Looking for motive is not the same thing as making excuses; detectives always look for motive behind crime, but no one thinks they are looking to excuse murder.
Source: The Revolution: A Manifesto, by Ron Paul, p. 15 Apr 1, 2008

War in Iraq was senseless invasion of sovereign state
The war in Iraq was one of the most ill considered, poorly planned and just plain unnecessary military conflicts in American history.and I opposed it from the beginning.
Source: The Revolution: A Manifesto, by Ron Paul, p. 21 Apr 1, 2008

Mandate declaration of war before military aggression
In 2002, as war with Iraq loomed, I proposed that Congress officially declare war against Iraq, making it clear that I intended to oppose my own measure. The point was to underscore our constitutional responsibility to declare war before commencing major military operations, rather than leaving the decision to the President or passing resolutions that delegate to the president the decision making power over war.

And finally, due to the recent heat of the conflict in Israel/Palestine, i have found an excerpt from a speech he made concerning the conflict.

“collective punishment” against Palestinians is immoral.

“Many innocent children are among the dead. While the shooting of rockets into Israel is inexcusable, the violent actions of some people in Gaza does not justify killing Palestinians on this scale,” said the outspoken Republican.

Israel launched Operation Cast Lead on December 27 against Gaza to put an end to rocket attacks launched from the coastal enclave.

At least 888 Palestinians have been killed during the Israeli operation, while some 3,700 others are reported wounded. At least 10 Israeli soldiers have died in the now 16-day onslaught.

Hamas, the democratically-elected ruler of the impoverished strip, demands a cessation of an 18-month Israeli blockade on Gaza before it stops rocket attacks on Israel.

The US Congress endorsed a resolution Friday to support Israel in its offensive in Gaza, “recognizing Israel’s right to defend itself against attacks from Gaza.”

Congressman Paul, however, says the resolution “clearly takes one side in a conflict that has nothing to do with the United States or US interests.”

“At the very least, the U.S. Congress should not be loudly proclaiming its support for the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza,” Paul added.

The Israeli operation has entered its third week now, despite international calls and a UN Security Council resolution which urge an immediate end to the attacks against the densely-populated strip.

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America’s Two-Party System: Going 90 Miles an Hour down a Dead End Street

Posted on November 20th, 2008 by Distinguished Bean.
Categories: Political, Party System, Law, Constitutional Law, Philosophy, Media, Republicans, Democrats, education, Economics.

A famous American novelist in the mid twentieth century, named Gore Vidal, once said that “It makes no difference who you vote for - the two parties are really one party representing four percent of the people”. It is this idea that has scared many people concerning America’s current two-party system. These skeptics of the two-party system say that it is wrong due to its tug on all politics to one point on the political spectrum that lacks representation of a big part of the country’s political wants and needs. However, is a two-party system inevitable for a nation like America? Since the beginning, from Hamilton’s Federalists to Jefferson’s Democratic Republicans, America has had a two-party system to some extent, and it has brought many years of successful governing to a country based on freedom and liberty. On the other hand, France, which has had a multi-party system since the French Revolution, has undergone over thirteen changes in their governmental leadership and style, damaging the progress and development of their nation. Obviously, in order to successfully rise to power and rule according to the people in a nation where a democratic voting system is in place, a party must win over a majority of the political opinion within a country. A two-party system seems to be the most natural and obvious way that this can work out. Although not all extreme political views of the society are represented, a two-party system is able to easily represent the middle, moderate, and majority of the opinions of the people. On the contrary, a two-party system can effectively, if both parties move too close to each other, become a one party system, where someone, even many, who disagree with the one prevalent political philosophy that embodies the two major parties, will not be represented. So the question is: Is America still a positive and productive two-party system, or is it moving more and more into the realm of becoming essentially a one-party system?

On the surface America is seen as a truly dynamic and productive two-party system, where all have a say, vote, and an opinion. Its government is seen as being truly representative of its people and the popular political opinion. It is seen as an un-manipulated, fully representative system that fits the ideals of freedom and liberty that the country was founded on. However, a deeper look into the political system, as well as some manipulative factions of the country’s political mobility shows a possibility of the opposite being true. Yet a few small changes to the political system and process could rid of these negative contributions to the nation’s political progress. So although the idea of a two-party system is somewhat inevitable, the present two-party system of The United States of America is ultimately a negative contribution to the progress of the nation and should be changed through banning polling, allowing third party candidates the same rights, rules, and privileges as the primary parties, and reducing the size of each district in order to represent the peoples’ opinions more clearly.

The first way to positively change the system is to ban polling and clear up the corruption within the media. The media is the single most effective political motivator within the American political system. It is due to media coverage, opinion, and polls that many candidates are able to achieve the support and votes of the people. But the media is ran by people who have opinions themselves and a majority of the time fit the center of the political spectrum, either Democrat or Republican. So it is rather puzzling that these few, the people who run the television and radio stations, have such great power in swaying the nation towards their own political opinion. Polling is one of the most widely used tools by the media to manipulate elections and political opinion. Yet many do not see the corruption within the very idea of polling, that is that “polls are an addiction that also distort our political feelings and actions even as they trivialize political campaigns, and they allow our political and media suppliers to manipulate us ruthlessly” (Schwartz). The fact that the public political opinion can be highly manipulated by corrupt polling shows how it negatively influences the true representation of the peoples wants. Polls should be banned by the public media due to its proven manipulation and corruption. The deep problem with the media and polling is that “poll bashing is still a frequent phenomenon in the media, polls are ubiquitous, and attempts to mislead deliberately occur” (Erikson 47). Although in itself polling is obviously not a corrupt action, it is now used by the media to sway the public toward its own opinion. Due to this, any ideas or candidates that differ from the center of the political spectrum are shot down by manipulative polling that has nothing to do with a fair representation of the public’s actual opinion. However, even within the two major parties polling has been used to discriminate against candidates who are not popular to the centrist views of the media.

The discrimination used by the popular media towards certain candidates, even within the Democrat and Republican parties, is unfair and proves to be another reason why public media polls should be banned. One strong recent case of this was that of Ron Paul in the Republican primary election. Although “Ron Paul led all other candidates by a more than comfortable margin in the online polls, [he] was hardly even considered a ‘dark horse’ candidate by the offline ‘scientific’ polls” (Bowery). It is bewildering to assume that the online polls could have been that much different than the public media polls. Had the television channels even reported the activity that was going on online, Ron Paul may have been given a more equal chance in the primary. Ron Paul is an old style Republican congressman with Libertarian tendencies which makes the media polls even more suspicious, seeming as though they were not wanting to allow a candidate whose opinions differed from the ‘norm’ to have a chance. The media should not have the power to put any political candidate at a disadvantage due to a disagreement with the popular opinions of the media.

Each American presidential election should strive to represent the country’s citizens’ wants and opinions as closely as possible. Any factors or tools that can exist or be used, by the public media, to incorrectly manipulate the opinions of the country on a certain candidate or issue should be banned, due to how they skew the results of the voting process. Tools such as polling, which the television stations and other forms of public media has wrongly used, should be changed and outlawed, in an attempt to better represent the peoples’ wishes. Although there are others, polling really is the most obviously manipulative tool that is presently being used. It is clear that “polling certainly deserves a critical look. Many surveys are badly conceived, poorly executed, and incorrectly interpreted” (Erikson 24). Polling has created a discriminatory, systematic problem in the voting process of The United States of America that has put many candidates who have attempted to change the system at a disadvantage. Overall, a political system being centered on the political spectrum is obviously not wrong and may be inevitable in certain cases, including America. However, discouraging, as well as unfairly hiding, progressive and un-centered ideas and candidates is un-democratic and eventually will kill the progress of a once positively evolving political system. This would, in actuality, create a one-party, media ruled system that discourages diversity and distorts opposing ideas to its artificial ‘norm’.

As well as polling, many other discriminatory factors within the political process put third parties and ideas at a major unfair shortcoming within the electoral competition. Although, obviously, no third party will have a great opportunity to win a major election any time soon, they should not be dejected from the process or put out of the competition. Third parties do a wonderful job of keeping the Democrat and Republican parties honest and pure. Third parties bring up issues that the two major parties could not bring up for risk of being labeled extreme or out of the ‘norm’. Throughout history, “it was third parties who first introduced ideas like restricting slavery, granting suffrage to women, establishing minimum wages and controlling child labor” (Lichtman). Though third parties have not had many victories in major elections, they have introduced ideas and philosophies that have proved to positively affect the country as a whole. So the limitation on them and discouragement of them is un-democratic and will only hurt the development of the country. One way that the third parties are limited is the difficult process set up for them to get on the ballot. Both major parties are easily passed and let onto ballots due to their past popularity and financial success, whereas, third parties are forced to gain large amounts of signatures and pay dues that put financial strain on their campaigns once on the ballot. It is clear that “the difficulty of getting on the ballot state-by-state is surely a barrier deliberately erected by the major parties to keep third parties out of the field of play” (Lichtman). It is a serious problem that a party has to be financially successful just to be put upon the ballot. If third parties are given easier opportunities to get on election ballots, it will encourage the competition of parties that is so necessary for a strong two-party system. For “in order to enjoy the benefits of a healthy two-party system, we must encourage the growth of new parties. And if we are ever to replace one of the two major parties with a new party (something that even the opposition acknowledges is possible, and something that we, the voters, ought to have a right to do), it will only be done if we life the current ballot-access restrictions on third political parties” (Winger). Third parties are actually a very positive and helpful thing for a two-party system and it only hurts a two-party system to deny or make difficult political accomplishments for third parties, such as easy ballot access.

The financial strain of ballot access for Third parties is a definite blockade for their ability to positively affect the political system and process. The electoral process should allow for equal opportunity for legitimate Third parties who would be able to better the development and progress of the political establishment as a whole. Presently, the scary aspect of the electoral system is that “it seems that in American government, one must buy their ‘equality’. Only the wealthiest parties and individuals have equal access to the electoral system” (Sandusky). America should take no pride in the fact that it has established an electoral procedure where only the wealthy may influence it, unequally putting the poorer intellectuals at a major disadvantage. For what reason should one’s socioeconomic status govern whether or not he or she should be able to run for office? If all other credentials are met, financial strains should not be able to hinder rising politicians in their goal of running for political office. If the large fees are removed from ballot access, the political system would benefit through having a wider span of political ideologies and greater representation of different social classes within the country. It would allow third parties to be able to be more competitive with campaigning due to the money they would save, not having to spend it on ballot access. This competition would, like the American capitalist system itself, enrich the politics of the country and give a wider range of people the ability to become the influential leaders this country needs.

The final way that the electoral process should be changed in order to promote Third Party competition is through allowing Third Party candidates to participate in the Presidential debates. The Presidential debates have recently become more and more about physical appearance and image rather than political intellect and intelligent responses. If a candidate can look good, then what that candidate says means a lot less. A lot of the deterioration of the positives of the Presidential debates is due to the fact that the Democrats and Republicans are the only two parties represented and mostly agree with each other. So the debates have become less about the content and more about whether or not they can make the opponent look bad. In the recent election this was made tremendously clear. It was obvious that “one problem was that in a debate, it is important for the debaters to actually disagree. Yet Senators Barack Obama and John McCain substantively agree on many issues. That is one major reason that the debates should be open, and that major third-party or independent candidates should be included” (Goodman). What’s the purpose of debating if both candidates in the debate are very close to the middle of the political spectrum and have little disagreement? If Third-party candidates were allowed to participate in the debates it would not only be fair to them, in giving them a equal chance in running, but it would also enrich the debate for the other two candidates, giving them actual positions to disagree with. Once a major party candidate is forced to disagree with someone, it is more clear to see what that candidate actually believes. So even if Third-party candidates didn’t necessarily win elections due to benefiting from debate participation, they would enhance the whole process for the Democrat and Republican candidates, achieving a better election process altogether.

The final way in which the American two-party system is failing is that it seems to be harmfully moving our nation is into easily corruptible waters. Two-party systems automatically are set up to be vulnerable to corruption. If the two major parties of a system move closer and closer together, as they are in America, it becomes a simple task for them to dictate corrupt and wrong political ideas that will hurt the country. It is this monopoly of power that is being created in the American political system that all should be afraid of. The two parties are seen as the only capable parties now and that, in itself, can lead to corruption. The debate over which party is better than the other wages on, stronger than ever, when the “truth is that one is no better than the other. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Our system is no longer set up to benefit or protect us” (Wade). The system now is more about profits for political icons and for the wealthy in power more than for protecting life, liberty, and property, the nation’s early ultimate goal. It is for making those who want to be represented fit the two parties in power, rather than allowing other parties, that truly represent different sects of the people, gain potential leadership. The more parties there are that have a chance, the less likely the system is going to be easily degraded.

Corruption can also spread through the stereotyping of parties. In the present American political system people are seemingly forced to support a party, and along with it, all of its stances on all of the issues. People are looked as outsiders of the party if they disagree with even one of the issues, so they, on purpose, conform their views to fit their parties. This causes our political leaders to represent an image of the people rather than just the peoples’ opinions themselves. This is why “Representatives and voters have come to the conclusion that all Democrats and Republicans are the same, more or less, and that they all have the same ideology” (Bechtold). The way the two parties have moved together as one ideology that is supposed to represent the whole country is a negative and has discouraged people from thinking for themselves. It has caused great disagreement over petty issues, while big issues are ignored and left for the greedy politicians to gain power off of. This marriage of ideology of the two parties will only create a bigger, more powerful government that is sure to use its power in guiding the country. However, as history tells, ultimate power is followed by ultimate corruption. This idea is clearly evident in examples such as Stalin’s communist rule in Russia and Hitler’s fascist rule in Germany. America better heed the warning signs of the harms of big and powerful governments, and better change its policies now, in order to make sure it won’t become what it has opposed in the past.

In the end, if policies aren’t put into place to stop the media from using fallible polls to manipulate the system and control the political opinion of the populous, then the country is going to be harmed through an established unanimous political camp that rules all and represents far too little. If policies aren’t put into place that give third parties a greater chance to be represented and to be competitive possibilities for leadership, the political system will be debilitated to the point where both parties could become essentially one ideology that un-democratically rules over the nation. Finally, if policies aren’t put into place that stop the potential corruption of this country’s two-party system, then each and every citizen’s democratic voice and opinion could be ignored altogether. However, it is not just the establishment of a two-party system that brings about this negativity, for that establishment may be inevitable, it is the way in which the American two-party system is moving that appears detrimental to the ideas of liberty and equality in this country. Just because third parties have a great chance and voice in a political system does not mean that it has to be anything more than a two-party system. If third parties are given that chance they will enrich the system and craft the major parties into parties that would better represent and lead according the people. It is this great outcome, of two truly different parties that accurately represent the populous, that once flourished in America and must be attempted to be put into place again by this country. For democracy may only exist if those that vote are those that govern the policies of the country and republics may only exist if those that are put into leadership positions actually represent the people. So is America’s Two-Party system headed in the wrong direction? Is it becoming more and more un-democratic? Is it becoming essentially a ‘one-party’ system? America must proceed with caution and a great critique of itself if it wants to thrive as it so successfully has in the past.

Works Cited

Bechtold, Joe. “The Flaw of the Two Party System .” 23 Feb 2008
emid=83>.

Bowery, James. “Ron Paul Demolishes Other Republicans In Online Polls.” Majority Rights 05
May 2007 .

Erikson, Robert. American Public Opinion. 6th. New York: Longman, 2003.

Goodman, Amy. “Open Presidential Debates to Third Parties.” Seattle Pi 10 Oct 2008
.

Lichtman, Allan. “3rd Parties: What They’re For and What They Do.” The Jim Lehrer Newshour
22 Oct 1996 .
Sandusky, Trent. “Why the Two-Party System is Un-American.” 12 Nov 20 .
Schwartz, Michael. “Polling: The Opiate of the Electorate .” Common Dreams 06 Oct 2004
.

Wade, Anthony. “Corruption-Lite and The Two Party System That Has Choked the Democracy
out of this Country. ” Oped News 23 Oct 2005
.

Winger , Richard. “The Importance of Ballot Access.” Massachusetts School of Law Spring
1994 .

3 comments.

The Sinking ship called the United States of America

Posted on November 16th, 2008 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Political, Environment, Ethics, Party System, War, Law, Philosophy, Creative Writing, Israel, Christianity, Economics.

I’m actually taking great pleasure in writing this! I can’t deny this any longer. Our country is dieing! Now if you have voted for Obama because you believe that he will have an epic presidency and he will bring us out of the dark ages that Bush has put us through, then I think that you should stop reading this post now. It’s your time now and you should live it up to the fullest! Celebrate this and remember this to your dieing day! Really! Don’t let this bigoted fool spoil all of your fun! God bless all of you and just keep on going because nothing I have to say here that is going to be helpful for you. It’s just going to make you upset and I don’t want that. However if you voted for Obama because you thought he was the best man for the job or if you voted for anyone else or didn’t vote then this post is for you. Believe it or not I am not saying this because Obama was elected. In fact, I really think that politics should just start becoming a sporting event for everyone! I’ll root for my team, the republicans! My great friend can root for the democrats (who will not be named in this post, but sorry, girl, what just happened between us is just too essential to the point of this post for me to pass up!) D. Bean can root libertarian, P Muse can root Nater while Bieren can root for the no vote. We can just have some fun at it all! But I say that when the voting is done we get back to the business of the real kingdom because this country started dieing a long time ago and we’re still in that process. Obama’s election really just acted as a conformation of the fact that this country is sinking. Or we could say that his election was a diagnosis of a disease that our country has and it’s a terminal one. Now if you have voted for Obama then you did exactly what God wanted you to but we have a caner growing in our country and eventually it will kill our country. We could try a surgery on it; a revolution per se. But that’s not going to work one bit! this caner is too big and will kill the patient if attempted. That would be a lot of bloodshed in a hopeless cause so don’t attempt it! No! There is no reasonable why to remove this caner at all! This country is doomed to death. And it’s really quite simple why it will die! Our country will die because of just two sins: greed and coveting. Now I must first warn you before you keep reading this: This post is intended to challenge you! It’s not meant to gain agreement with me in any way at all but rather it’s meant to confuse. It’s really meant to screw your thinking up! So if you keep on reading this then you’ll be entering the world of a ravening lunatic! However this lunatic is a bondsmen to Jesus and that Guy has more power than you can imagine to just mess with your mind! So read on if you dare and if you do then I pray that He will start screwing with your mind and conforming it to what He wants. If you stop here then I pray that He will bless you and give you great Joy. If you have any challenges of me if you really do dare to read this, then please bring it on. I could really use much more challenges! If you have any hate filled comments then please send them. I have a funny way of always starting to pray for people who hate me so you’re really asking to trouble yourself with God. And lastly if you have any praise for me, well I’ll accept them but they’re just going to end up in Gods hands so you might as well just throw them up to Him now. That’ll just be quicker. But then again all of it will end up with Him anyway!

A far fetched grasp to what God sees
That title to this section is just my way of saying that this is what I think God was thinking when he allowed our nation to be born. Not that I am saying that I know what God is thinking by any sense of the word. If I knew what God is thinking then I would be God. But no, I’m not. I’m just another fool trying to make sense of this world. But as we have had a look through the bible we see a nation, Israel, that is one that always had God directly involved in all of the inner working of it’s government. God brought them out of Egypt, showed them their path to follow, destroyed their enemies for them, showed them how they should march in battle, how they should conduct their daily lives and when they started to complain that they didn’t have a king like the rest of the nations, he also selected a king for them. If you trust the bible on all that, then you can’t deny that He was running the whole show there. He even told them ahead of time how they could fail and get Him to kick them out of the land He promised for them.

Deuteronomy 30:15-18
“Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy.

“But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.

So in Israel of that time, anyone could look up in their book here and see why God is punishing them and why their doing badly. You’re not doing what God wants so you’re going to get disaster! You see it all throughout the old testament where Israel goes up and down. As soon as they start to forget God then they start doing badly and when they turn back then God blesses them and then they go back to forgetting Him again. That cycle kept on going on and on until they really upset God and he had Babylon come in and take them all away for 70 years. Just read through Jeremiah and you’ll get a sense of how upset God can really get! But as God had promised, He brought them all back again and it was back to the same as usual. However now this time God decided to really shake things up. He sent Jesus to turn everything up on it’s head. Jesus paid the price for the law so that now we’re not following the letter of the law but rather the spirit of the law. Now we’re to do what the law was always meant to do but because of sin everyone was unable to do it. The price of the law was paid in full and while it still applies, it serves as only as a mirror to show us our sins so that we may run to Christ and receive His free gift to pay the price for the law. That’s a concept coming directly from Paul where he says:

Romans 7:4
So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God.

And here in verse 7:

Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”

So now something takes the place of the law:

John 14:15-17
“If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.

The Holy spirit takes the place of the law and acts as our guide. So that means that we no longer need direct laws and miracles from God in order for us to follow His will. That’s not to say that He doesn’t do miracles anymore, there have been many that people have experienced and I have seen these miracles for myself as well. However God always seems to make them much more settle lately and their not obvious for the whole world to see like He did for the Jews in early Israel. So God has never directly controlled our country. He in fact had allowed us to set up our government without any direct guidance from Him but rather our forefathers set this country up based upon the principles that we find in the bible. I think that God set up a second Israel like nation as the United States only this time He held back and instead of direct involvement in every inner working of our government, He instead granted the wisdom to us on how we should run this country according to His will and gave us the right people to run establish this nation. However just like the first test He had with Israel, we still had sin in our country from the very beginning that will, just as early Israel did, eventually lead to our death as a nation. The first one we have had entrench before we even became a nation: Greed.

The original sin of the United States
Greed is our original sin as a country! It’s the most obvious sin we have going around. We saw that all to clearly with our finical collapse we are going through. It’s all due to the fact that people we getting greedy and taking loans that was beyond their means. It’s a hard thing to control just due to the fact that we do have a finical system that is set up to encourage greed. Now a little bit if greed is actually not bad at all! It’s what keeps us driving to bigger and better things in this country. We need a little bit to keep our economy going because people want to make their money so that they can live out their life and reach for their dreams. The problem is when we get too excessive with that dream. A little greed is good but we have to realize that we use it only so that we can survive, enjoy life and to give to others! Where it gets us into trouble is where it starts to rule our lives so that the obtaining of wealth becomes most important aspect to our lives. That’s why we allowed our first horrid injustice form: slavery. We allowed the south to buy people as though they could be bought like a plow and use them to make money for our selfs. That’s a dark sin on our country that we have paid a horrible price for it through war. Our civil war left a massive scar on our nation. However, going overboard on greed is just something that cuts at out nation and if thous cuts don’t kill us on impact then we find a way to move forward in this country and repair the damage that was done. We have seen this all the time in out nation! We get a little bit overboard in our markets and then we get punished with recessions and then we go back up again. It’s quite a cyclical thing in our country and it’s happened many times before. So just like how people get an occasional bum and cut all the time and they heal back up, so too our country goes through these bums and cuts and also heals back up again. However just like how people can get an infection or a disease through a wound that is exposed, so too we have let a caner into our country through our exposed wound of greed. That’s a caner that is less obvious to see and feeds off of our nation; growing to eventually take the life of our nation. That caner is coveting.

The killer germ
Doesn’t that seem like the odd commandment out! Looking through all of the other commandments, their all ones that you should do something or not do something. You know, Don’t murder, or worship idols, or you should honor your parents and the sabbath. But then he throws in “You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:17) Isn’t that one a little strange? This is the only one that tells us not to want something, or one that tells us not to think something. So of all of the commandments this the one weird zinger at the end! Why would God do that? Well this is the interesting don’t think something commandment. What does it really mean? You’re not to want something that someone else has. It doesn’t say that you can’t want things. There are plunty of times where it’s good to want things. It’s alright to want a nice house but it’s bad to want your neighbor’s house. It’s alright for a man to want a wife but it’s bad for a man to want his neighbor’s wife. So why should you want anything that your neighbor has? Could it be because you think you’re more deserving of that than your neighbor? That’s the real problem! thinking that because your neighbor did something wrong means that you should get what your neighbor has! Does that sound familiar? That’s all that Obama talks about! Just because the poor have been crushed by the rich means that the poor should be given what the rich has. Now again I was just getting into how bad greed is. Letting that greed go wild can create this situation but it doesn’t make it right. Why can’t we just trust God to set things right? Why do we have to start getting envious of what these rich people have. They have far more problems to deal with than the rest of us who don’t have that much money.

Isaiah 3:14-15
The Lord comes forward to pronounce judgment
on the elders and rulers of his people:
“You have ruined Israel, my vineyard.
Your houses are filled with things stolen from the poor.
How dare you crush my people,
grinding the faces of the poor into the dust?”
demands the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

Why couldn’t we just trust in God like our coins say? But instead we have chosen to make coveting a governmental issue! Did you ever wonder why we have never prevailed in the war on poverty. We’ve been doing it for around 40 years and it’s never gotten better. In fact I would say that it’s gotten much more worse! When you eliminate the principal that if a man doesn’t work that he doesn’t eat then what happens? He just doesn’t work! So when everyone wants to just let others do the working for them then how’s going to do the work? The only people who work are like me who know there is a God in heaven that I am really serving. I don’t work hard at my job just so that I can live, I could just take it easy just like the rest of the people at my work and just do enough to get by the day. But I work harder than them because I want to give that up as an offering to my God! And I really asking for forgiveness right now because lately I’ve been loosing sight of that with all the things going on in my life. However when the weight of people that just want to be lazy gets greater than the weight of thous that are pulling them, then how is the cart of our economy going to get pulled? You can’t do it! So just by the sheer laws of economics that God has put in place, our country is just going to die. So when everyone thinks they’re owed a free ride then the economy will collapse, hence the commandment do not covet just so that they can just keep on going about their business and not worry about who has more or who has less. instead Jesus told us to be concerned with the least of these. I’ll tell you what, voting for someone else to be concerned with the least of these is not being concerned with the poor! Sitting down and taking to such people is and helping them get out of their situation is helping the poor! You’re just pushing it one someone else rather than dealing with the problem that you see. But we have all been raised in a now oriented culture and we just want to see the problem to go away right now! But these things don’t go away immediately, It takes a lot of time and effort. Just giving a hand out just makes the problem worse! Not only do you need to stop the problem but you need to fix what created it in the first place. So I can give you a problem of mine to illustrate this better. I have this Truck that I absolutely love! That thing can haul things really well. At the time that I have bought I, it seemed really reasonable to me! It was only 9 Grand and It had a V8! I love big engines! So it seemed that it was really well with in my means. However The gas prices went up and then I’ve had both axles brake on me and now just the rear axle just locked up on me. So now it’s become a whole lot more expensive for me! So is the solution to just keep on borrowing money from people so that I can say afloat? (and I am very grateful that I have amazing people in my life that have helped me out here). No! The real solution is for me to get rid of that truck so that I can live a little bit better in my means. So if I just keep on asking for money from the people around me pretty soon I am going to run them dry and also make them angry with me. However our whole country is not doing that! we just continue to borrow from others for something that we really don’t need. That’s all this welfare and social security. All of these thing made to make us feel better for not really caring for the poor our selfs like we should have. All of this to conceal the greed that we all have (and this is me much more than most).

The land of the slaves and the home of the timid
We are slaves to this country! Now in relative terms we’re quite free in this nation. Now, in comparison to North Kora we’re really free! But we’re still not actually free. To Illustrate my point further I just have to go to Joesph. Just a little refresher, he was the one that sold into slavery to Egypt and interpreted Pharaoh’s dream to him. Pharaoh then put him in charge of everything in Egypt and so when the famine came everyone came to Egypt because Joesph had plunty of food stored up. First he took all their cattle for the grain he gave them but the famine was still relentless. So all of the people sold their land and themselves as slaves to Pharaoh. So what was the consequence of that action?

Then when you harvest it, one-fifth of your crop will belong to Pharaoh. You may keep the remaining four-fifths as seed for your fields and as food for you, your households, and your little ones.”

Or that’s 20% of everything that they make goes to Pharaoh. So we get about 17% in income tax but you also have to add in state and sales taxes and not to mention that any tax on companies gets installed into the price of what they sell. We’re well beyond that 20%! Not to mention that now the government is going to be buying up the bad houses and while I did support that idea at the time, that’s just going to make us even more enslaved to this government. I still thought that McCain would win when I had supported the idea so I thought that it would eventually get sold back to the market, but with Obama I just think that it’s going to get a whole lot bigger! But we do have a freedom in the sense that we still can control our own lives to a certain extent. We can still decide for our selfs what line of work we want or who we want to marry and such things like that. But when all of our money goes to this system, does that really make us free? We can’t really do everything that we really want with all of our money because we have a demand on us from this government to give a good bit of it to what government wants to do! Why should we be saves to this government! It’s all because we have decided to make our selfs slaves to this government. By voting in policies that forcefully take from the rich and give to the poor, we have decided to enslave ourself to this government. And that’s just going to become more and more true as more and more welfare policies go up. Now I have been one of the biggest patriots this country has ever known! I very much grew up that why and I guess one of my biggest sins early in life has been one were I would put my trust in this nation rather than in God. I didn’t trust myself at all and at the time I though God hated me, so the only thing I had was this country! So I got very interested in politics, listened intently to talk radio all so that I could understand it all extremely well. But right now God is dealing a really harsh reality to me that I have been afraid of all my life. The reality is that any system ever conserved by man is doomed to failure just by the very fact that it has been made by sinful men. It doesn’t matter what system it is, it’s doomed to failure just by the fact that we are sinful, we’re human! Now in the past we have seen a perfectly controlled society that could not fail in early Israel. That system was one in which God Himself pronounced the judgments and rules to His people through His judges and He went ahead and won the battles for them. But what happed to that system? The people wanted a king to be like all of the rest of the nations.

1 Samuel 8:7
“Do everything they say to you,” the Lord replied, “for it is me they are rejecting, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer.

Doesn’t this sound a bit familiar? What is it that Obama is all about? Being liked by other nations! We just all need to get along. Well just getting along is not why we are here but to do God’s will is why we are here! So we are rejecting the same God that has blessed us so much just the same as early Israel. We didn’t trust God we he wanted us to help each other out and be a blessing to the rest of the nations just the same as early Israel did. God used two different methods to prove His point, that without Him we are meaningless. In early Israel he used the method of direct involvement in every aspect of the country and in our country he used the method of just giveing the principals, wisdom and His Holy Spirit to guide us. The results was and will be failure just because we are sinful humans and we always fail. So there’s really no hope here! The ship is sinking here and anything we do with this government will just be putting a little sock in the massive hole. There’s no hope to stopping this patent from dieing! If you try to remove the caner by revolution then you’ll just end up killing the patent. That’s a horrible bloody thing to be thinking about and just a lot of people would die for no reason. So you can count me out on any sort of idea like that. I just won’t have any part of that. So without some sort of miracle, then this patent is going to die sometime soon. I can’t say when, I’m not a prophet by any sense of the word and God has never talked to me directly but rather by implanting ideas in my head and I just struggle my hardest to make sense of it all. So what can we really do when someone is dieing from a caner? Pray for a miracle and be there as much as we can. But what can we do when a country is dieing from a caner? Become the miracle!

Finding a miracle in a broken country
That great friend of mine reminded me of a line from Shane Claiborne a few weeks back that said- “We need to find some way to teach people to live more simply…so that others may simply live.” I have to admit that it really did seem like a really simplistic line to me at first! Almost like the liberal version of the conservitive line “eat your food because there are kids starving in China.” Oh! So does that mean that if I just eat my food then some kid in China will have his stomach filled? I had a similar reaction to this line thinking, “Oh does that mean that money will just get shipped of to Africa if I don’t make that much.” No that doesn’t translate at all! If I just don’t make the money then someone will just do it. You just can’t force wealth to be spread you have to get others to make it for it to be spread. But as I had mentioned earlier the rear axle in my truck had just locked up on me a few weeks back. After I had gotten it back to the shop and heard how much it was going to cost me I just couldn’t help but think, “man I just need to live a little simply so that I can just live!” Then it just hit me, that’s exactly what the whole country needs right now! To get rid of the excess and just live simply for others! Which is exactly what my friend was getting at in the first place! Now I just have to admit that Shane was right, God just has a funny way of just slapping what you dismiss right back in your face (and that’s why I still say that He has a really sick sense of humor or maybe He just does that to me because I like it). But we just can’t go up to congress and demand that they just stop doing things, they don’t care! They’re just going to keep voting for what gets them elected and getting their bribes. And both parties do that! We can’t get a governmental fix here because of all this greed and coveting! So what’s the miracle?

John 17:13-19
“Now I am coming to you. I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy. I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do. Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth.

Retuning to what Jesus told us! We were not called to be engulfed by this world but to be in the middle of it and not represent any part of it. The sneaky betrayal of this country is that it started off representing that but as the devil has gotten a hold of over this country then he twisted it to something completely different. From being in this world but not of it to taking thous who trust in it to slavery to the devil. This is something that I am just now realizing because I was so caught up in it! But now I must call that we turn this country off even though it has done so many great things in the world. However this county is not the same as the heavenly kingdom that we are apart of! This one will burn! But yet by the fires that will burn this country, there will be a purification of thous that are not part of this world. Like a crucible the burns off the trash and reveals the pure gold so to will this world be burned by fire. The hope is not that we leave this world but that God will come and burn off all of the evil that has infected this world and bring us to His special home. So it becomes, especial now, massively important that we become part of the gold that will remain when the fires start! For if the death of a smaller nation like early Israel lead to God giving us the gift of Jesus and His Holy Spirit then what would the death of this nation mean? It would mean the beginning of the fires that burns off the trash and the return of Jesus. And that’s all that our hope is warped up in! But how do we make our selfs pure when we have a nation that makes us slaves to the devil by giving us what we desire most. We start a revolution! One not of bloodshed or even one that has any violence at all to it. One that’s just really Irresistible!

The Irresistible Revelation
Now that’s not an original line! That’s a title to a book that I have reviewed here on this blog. That was written by Shane Claiborne and he has a funny little disclaimer at the beginning of it. Something similar to the disclaimer that I made a the beginning of this post. That’s a disclaimer that you should pay attention to because it does mess with your mind! You just can’t get it out of your head until God just makes you pay attention! Because it is just so irresistible to just absolutely not care for the things of this world and just care about the smaller things of life. And that’s what we need to do! Start giveing into God and start releasing our selfs from the slavery of this country and enslaving our selfs to Jesus and we can do that right now in a piratical way! All we have to do is just stop depending on government as much as possible and start depending on each other as much as possible! Not that we don’t pay our taxes or anything like that but just that we should just make it harder for them to tax us. May I be so bold as to say that we should just give unto Obama what’s Obama’s and give unto God what’s God’s. And when you count for the fact that God wants every part of us then you just have to say that Obama really doesn’t get all that much (that’s just to give a little twist on what Shane had said). However as Paul had told us:

Romans 13:1-3
Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished. For the authorities do not strike fear in people who are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong. Would you like to live without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and they will honor you.

This is not a rebellion in any sense of the word but yet it’s one rebellion that will absolutely drive everyone mad (just like how I am just going crazy!) The one thing that going to get everyone ticked of the most is just the fact that we just will not conform to their thinking like they want us to. The battle is in being surrounded by this world but not being in it so then we must not live anything like everyone else. We should go into every place with a smile so big that no one can figure out why the heck we can even smile. I can tell you what: I have that key! It’s really very simple yet really hard to do! But it only has two steps to it. The first step is pretty hard, you have to realize that all of your suffering is your own fault! (I really messed up on that line, I explain here.) After that the next one is really easy. All you have to do is just love everyone around you intensely just as if they we’re your own child. Once you do that then you’ll find out that you haven’t suffered at all! I’m telling you that it’s really a great feeling that you just can’t help but smile! I’m telling you that once you start doing that then you’ll find that you just never fit! Could we say that it’s just like repenting and serving? Now why does that sound familiar? Could that just be exactly what Jesus called us to do? Isn’t that “three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13) We are called to do everything that we do in this life for God with great love for others! That’s what just makes this so Irresistible! It’s because God himself just keeps throwing zingers at us all the time! However the zingers are just too small for our humanly eyes to see! We just have to trust him to let us see them and you’ll just be amazed at how much the smallest things can make the biggest impacts of all. So to borrow another line from Shane that we are “committed to doing small things with great love.” And when we do that for each other and everyone else then the world view then start to crumble around us. But yet we have to keep on making that commitment over and over again because the eyes God gives us are small and need constant maintenance to keep us focused on the little things that God has. When you let an engine run without oil for a long time the thing just breaks down! Then you have to rebuild it that engine to get it working again. So to when we let our selfs loose the sight of the little things that God does for us then God needs to take apart our brains and just rebuild it so that it can function properly again. Hence: my prayer that this is screwing up your thinking. Well Shane just did it to me, can’t I just start throwing it on you now!

I have come here a sinner but I will leave you a saint
I am really ashamed to admit it, but just this week the thought of some sort of suicide for me was quite temping the other day. That was the first time I even had ever though that I could do such a thing. Just in the past few months everything I have though and believed in was coming crashing down before my very eye’s and there was nothing I could do about it. That’s the hardest thing for me to deal with because understanding is one of my most valued assets. But yet being a bondsmen to Christ means that he owns everything even my flawed way of thinking. So when God had planted the idea in my head that there’s this girl who’s going to love you sitting right there (and now I am really putting you on the spot here girl! Sorry if you still reading this). God told me that he had something for me to do first before I could get it. So being a raving fool that I am, I just start looking for every little thing about her to find out what it is I have to do! That’s been causing a wreaking ball in my head trying to figure it out! God’s just used this whole situation to completely blow up my mind! Till finally I just had the wild idea that I should just tell her the whole thing! A very frighting prospect to me because I just felt so ragingly mad over everything. And in the end I didn’t get that girl of my dreams here but yet she still really did love me. Not in the way that I wanted her to but, yet, in the why that I needed her to. That’s doing a simple thing with great love! For though it all I was able to find myself once more. For God’s grace is sufficient. He always does what he promises to do but its our own flawed thinking that makes us wrong with Him and we need Him to rebuild our minds every now and then. Through it all I just had to keep my hope in God and while He didn’t do anything that I wanted, He did what I needed. That’s the most valuable thing we can take from this right now! Through every shattered thought and dream the words God had told me have never left: “Don’t worry my son, I AM still in control.” God wants us to have great joy in our lives but He will do what we need first. So even if all of the doom and gloom happens then God is still in control! If all of the doom and gloom doesn’t happen then God is in control! If everything that I strive to try to achieve doesn’t fall through THEN GOD IS IN CONTROL! I would have been dead so long ago if it wasn’t for God being in control and well for that matter there’s nothing. For what does one gain when he sells his soul to get what he wants? I’ll tell you! A world full of greed and coveting! Let’s let God have our greed and coveting (and we all do it!) and give all of our work up to Him in everything that we do. That’s being a bondsman to Christ.

7 comments.

Election time is coming soon!

Posted on October 27th, 2008 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Political, Ethics, Philosophy, Republicans, Democrats, Christianity, Economics.

We’re getting close to the big election day on November 4th! Right now I just have to come down to one simple truth about this election that going to be what determines how people vote. It’s all really quite simple! The choice is all about whether or not you would like to see our country look more like western Europe. If you like how western Europe is run and see that system to be better for our country then you should vote for Obama. However if you don’t like how thous countries are run and would like our country to look more like how it was traditional intended to be run then you should vote for McCain. I fall into the latter category so I’ll be voting for McCain. Why would I mention western Europe? It’s simply because they value equality over everything else and they’ll use any means to obtain it. Dennis Prager has a great article describing this:

The left subscribes to the French Revolution, whose guiding principles were “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” The right subscribes to the American formula, “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” The French/European notion of equality is not mentioned. The right rejects the French Revolution and does not hold Western Europe as a model. The left does. That alone makes right and left irreconcilable.

And that pretty well sums up this whole election in a nutshell! There are two completely opposing value systems here that can not be equally obtained. In order to obtain equality of outcome then you will have to give up liberty and vice versa. So the left wishes to archive equality of outcome for everyone so that we can have this utopia where theirs no fighting. The right doesn’t think a utopia is possible in this world and instead reaches for equal liberty for everyone so that they can reach to achieve their dreams. These are two completely different world views and we can not achieve both of them. Obama is looking to create this utopia by the sheer force of redistributing wealth equally to everyone. This from Boston.com:

Conservative bloggers and websites have been flogging it, and now John McCain’s campaign has put its imprimatur on it: a newly disclosed radio interview in which Democratic rival Barack Obama talks about the redistribution of wealth.

The interview, first reported by the Drudge Report, was with a Chicago radio station while he was an Illinois state senator on Sept. 6, 2001.

Obama is talking about the victories of the civil rights movement, and says, “You know if you look at the victories and the failures of the Civil Rights movement and its litigation strategy in the Court, I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed peoples so that I would now have the right to vote, I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order as long as I could pay for it I would be okay. But the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society…. And one of the I think the tragedies of the Civil Rights movement was because the Civil Rights movement became so court focused I think that there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change and in some ways we still suffer from that.”

Obama is a socialist. That’s not a dirty word and I’m not calling him any names here but it’s clear that he wants to take all of the excess of the rich and give it to the poor. Obama is a good man, and I would like to go out and have a beer with that guy but I would not want him in leadership over my country. This line of thinking is going to push everyone down into the pits. We may all have equality in outcome but it will be equality in the depths of despair. But just consider this: if I were to go up to a rich man hold him up at gunpoint and take all of his money and then go give it to the poor grama on the street who has nothing to eat, would that still be stealing? Of course that’s stealing! So what really is the difference between that and what Obama is going to do? The only difference is when Obama “redistributes,” it will be legal. If I were to take that money from the rich man on the street so that I could give it to the poor, then I would go to jail. However when Obama takes the money from the rich by his taxes and gives it to the poor by his programs then the rich person will have to go to jail if he doesn’t pay up. So what do you think the rich person is going to do when Obama gets elected? He’s going to get his money out of the country so that he doesn’t have to pay up! So how exactly is poor grama going to get the help she needs if the rich fat cat takes all his money and leaves? Can Obama just magically make that money appear so that he can give it to the poor? No! All that money is going to start leaving the country and start being invested in other countries that will allow for the liberty for people to succeed. Now you may want to see that happen so in that case you should vote for Obama. However we’re still not going to be able to help garama on the street! McCain on the other hand had this to say:

“That is what change means for Barack the Redistributor: It means taking your money and giving it to someone else. He believes in redistributing wealth, not in policies that grow our economy and create jobs. He is more interested in controlling wealth than in creating it, in redistributing money instead of spreading opportunity. I am going to create wealth for all Americans, by creating opportunity for all Americans.”

And that’s the problem! The left sees wealth as a pie that you can just cut up and spread it around and then everyone will be happy. Unfortunately that’s not true at all! Wealth is not fixed but is much more dynamic and it changes. It can grow and diminish given time. Just like your dog has to be fed and walked in order to grow health and strong, so too is true of an economy. An economy must be feed with ideas and exercised with competition in order to grow. As an economy grows, it produces wealth. Then you have the nice little pie that you can cut up and spread around! But everything in the economy is working together to make that pie and if you keep taking it away then theirs no point to making it! If they get no piece of the pie that they have worked so hard for then why keep on working? So while you may be upset at the greedy fat cats that take such big slices of the pie, you still remember that they are also necessary to making more pies. So you can’t help grama to get her slice without thous fat cats making more pies because theirs not enough to go around. When you get rid of the top level then you have no one to employ the lower level. So then how are the pies suppose to be made? So when you take the pie away from the fat cats and give it to people that don’t work then you get more people who don’t work and less people who strive to make money. Thus the wealth diminishes and you don’t have any of it to spread around. Our system is one that thrives on the excess of the market and without that no one will strive to make what we need. The point of it all is to work hard and to make a living but under Obama’s plans that will be far more difficult to do.

Greed is a terrible thing that can utterly ruin things in peoples lives and we’ve seen it a lot lately. I am not a supporter of big business because they are A moral and would most likely sell their mothers if they could. But greed is something that can not be eliminated completely from human nature. So instead of setting up a system that required perfect elimination of greed our forefathers set up a system that can use it to the benefit of others. Allowing us to work hard and reach for our dreams gives us the opportunity to make a better life for everyone. Now the greed fuels the drive to make a better country. However this system requires people who police them selfs so that we people will work within the system to make the money they need. When you start to need government to police everyone to do the right things in this system then it gets in the way so that no one can be productive enough to make what they need. Government makes life more difficult and not more free. It all a matter of what you put your faith in. Everyone must put their faith in something because we are all made flawed. We all need a hope that our life counts for something for otherwise there would be no point to living! So you can put your hope in flawed humans who may help you out with government handouts or you can put your hope in something higher. Do you really think that just voting in a certain man can make all of the problems of the world just go away? No! Not a single man on this planet can just correct the flaws of this world. However you can work hard with other to just make it a little better. With all of the sweeping promises that Obama makes and all of the things that he promises, how is he going to pay for any of it? He likes to talk a lot about change but what does that really mean? What is he really going to do if Israel starts bombing Iran or vise versa? What really is his goal? What will he do? He sure does give great speeches but he never goes into details on what he means by them. We really don’t know what Obama is going to do except raise taxes and spend a lot. Is that really going to help? If you raise taxes on the “rich” will they continue to employ people? Who’s going to employ that person when no one has the money to do so? The real question is: can we afford Obama?

However we can try something completely unoriginal. Something that has always worked. We can have government get out of our way so that we can work hard for our selfs. And as we do that then we can take that little excess of the pie that we get and then look to make an investment in something else. We should be the ones to help poor grama on the street. Government is an entity that has no care or love in it. It just hands out what people vote on and takes what people vote on. Do the people in the welfare office really care one bit about the grama on the side of the street that their stamping that check out to or are just thinking about getting through the day and getting their check to get by that month? Is a check in the mail really compassion or is helping grama off the street the real compassion. Why should government be in control of something that is so good and joyful for the rest of us to do? Why should we look to government to solve things when we our selfs find much better solutions to problems than they do? The more that government takes of our excesses means that it’s just that much less that we our selfs can use to help others. When things are bad, then it’s much better to have the helping hand of a fellow human being rather than the helping hand of some government office. I have never look to government to solve my problems but rather to let me help others to solve theirs. Obama is going to try to take that away from me, but that’s still not going to stop me. I’m still going to try to help others even if he ends up crashing this economy so that it makes is impossible to make a buck. Maybe I’ll start picking up farming and then share of that excess if he makes it impossible to do so with money. So it still comes down to who you put your faith in. I can still think of helping others in the real sense even though everything for me is going to shambles. It’s because I put no faith in this world at all but rather in a God who can redeem it.

Update: I just stumbled on this psalm that is applicable to what I have said:

Psalm 146:3-5
Don’t put your confidence in powerful people;
there is no help for you there.
When they breathe their last, they return to the earth,
and all their plans die with them.
But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.

And this is good too:

Psalm 147:10-11
He takes no pleasure in the strength of a horse
or in human might.
No, the Lord’s delight is in those who fear him,
those who put their hope in his unfailing love.

2 comments.

Amendment 58: Win, Win for me, Win, loose for you!

Posted on October 10th, 2008 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Political, Economics, Local.

This one is going to tax oil and gas more so that they can fund more project that won’t work, well except for public transportation (hence win, win for me). Since I work for a busing company that means more money in my pocket but it also means really high gas prices. So now you have a decision. You can vote yes and have more protection of wildlife, more reeducation so your kids turn away from your values and more windmills, or you can be able to drive you kids to school and soccer practice and back. There’s provisions in this to go to public transportation and since I work for a busing company that does mean more money in my pocket but also if this one fails then that mean I can dive my truck. So you decide! Ether way it’s good for me but since I want to see the whole state succeed and not encumbered by high gas prices, I’ll have to say no on this one.

Here are the amendments.

0 comments.

Amendment 50:For goodness sake! Let them gamble!

Posted on October 9th, 2008 by Distinguished Bean.
Categories: Political, Economics, Local.

Amendment 50 would allow Casinos to set a higher max bet, taking the regulations off and allowing for more freedom. It would also have the Casinos re-evaluate gaming tax revenue and give a portion to community colleges. I would say vote Yes on 50, simply on the basis of lowering regulation. Governments shouldn’t be able to tell a Casino what it can and can’t do. Let them gamble! Yes!

Here are the amendments.

2 comments.

Amendment 59: What are they thinking?

Posted on October 9th, 2008 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Political, education, Economics, Local.

So let me get this one straight! You want me to give up my state tax refund so that you can take that money and put it into failed schools? Why? Time and time again the government keeps on pumping in more and more money to the public school system and we never see any better results. After awhile you start to think that maybe this system is not all that it’s cracked up to be. We spend way more per pupil than Japan and they still beat us all the time in education. So maybe it not the funding that’s the problem but rather the system. How about we give that money to the parents and let them decide! Wait we already voted yes on that one a few years back and our supreme court ruled it unconstitutional. Can’t give the teachers unions any trouble! Eventually we really need to say stop when we keep on pouring money into a failed program and start rethinking it. Not to mention that in a bad economic time raising taxes is just going to hurt us even more. “See Jonny I voted yes to this big tax increase so you can master putting on a condom! Oops, now I can’t afford that car so you can even get with that chick!” This just isn’t going to help anything. So I have to say no.

Amendments are here.

3 comments.

Amendment 51: A Wolf in sheep’s clothing!

Posted on October 9th, 2008 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Political, Economics, Local.

This one seems to have the right idea but it’s still way off. This one’s going to raise taxes and use a portion of it to go into a disabilities fund to help out the poor suffering people. It’s not going to do much good for them because raising taxes now is going to crash the economy. I know the disabilities is going to tug at your heart strings but in the long term the people with disabilities are going to suffer more. If you crash our economy then we’re not really going to have much money to help the people with disabilities now will we? I think it’s time to take that sort of responsibility off the government and we should start handling this our selfs and get government to butt out of this. I have to say no.

Amendments are here.

1 comment.

Economics

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Youtube Reviews #1: The Amen Break

A journey into the political ideas of Distinguished Bean… (Compare/Contrast with the Congressman from Texas)

America’s Two-Party System: Going 90 Miles an Hour down a Dead End Street

The Sinking ship called the United States of America

Election time is coming soon!

Amendment 58: Win, Win for me, Win, loose for you!

Amendment 50:For goodness sake! Let them gamble!

Amendment 59: What are they thinking?

Amendment 51: A Wolf in sheep’s clothing!