Disgruntled

Dear Everyone,

I've quit politics, anybody who read this blog probably already knew that.

For real though, I just don't have anything to say. I mean, I have things to say, they're just not constructive. Frankly, they aren't even funny.

These were my guidelines for posting on politics:

1) Is it important?
No: Post it
Yes: See 2

2) Are you angry?
No: Post it
Yes: See 3

3) Are you going to make someone laugh about it?
No: See 4
Yes, Me: Post it and pretend to be mad
Yes, Everyone: Post it and make others happy

4) Will it generate any new thoughts?
No: Don't post it
Yes: Who are you kidding? No it won't.



More or less, politics find humor on their own, and everyone who thinks otherwise is humorless. I have more important things in my life these days than to be angry about politics, and sadly, I lost the ability to stay tongue-in-cheek.

A is for Agitprop is dead for now, but I leave you with this final message: Join the Ron Paul Revolution in '08!!

Al Franken

I agree with everything he said today.

I just find it hard to believe that I'll agree with how we'll get there.

Jonah Goldberg on Trent Lott

"Lott is a bad face for the Republican party. Period. Full stop. If that’s unfair to Trent, boo hoo for Trent. Somebody buy him an ice-cream cone."

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An Illustration of the Previous Post

On a completely unrelated note, there was some completely nonsensical comment on my last post. The comment went on longer than my post itself did, and I didn't know the author. So I deleted it. Dear author of that comment, don't blog on my blog.

The Kerry Gaffe, Looking Ahead

Personally, I'm not surprised by his recent remarks at all. I would imagine some of you agree with them, but by and large it would seem to me that these would be widely interpreted at completely offensive.

This is the sort of attitude that the Republican party had been capitalizing on for the last several years quite effectively. Until Bush spent all his political capital on an unpopular war, and the GOP congress completely abandoned the Conract with America, this was going to be the way the GOP was going to completely change the face of the Federal government. It's astounding to me that these Beltway buffoons continue to alienate constituencies.

The Republicans are pretty much toast in this election cycle; however, Kerry just proved that when Bush is gone, the Democrats are going to keep letting idiotic things comee out of their mouths. If the GOP can come up with something like the Contract with America again, or better yet, just re-propose the Contract with America, they'll be in much better shape in 2008.


From what I've gathered from this election season, it's more about purging than anything else. Nothing is going to get done in the next two years, I can pretty much guarantee you that. I might as well jump ahead to '08, since I'm already bored with '06.

Barak Obama, I've said this before and I'll say it again. Voters love Obama because he's got the social justice of a Clinton Democrat, with the positivity of a Reagan Republican. You CANNOT lose with that sort of personality. People get so mad at me when I say he talks like a Republican. He DOES! He's not bitter, he's not crabby, he's not filled with spite for his opposition.

So, he's popular. So what? Well obviously people are already pushing him. I think it remains to be seen whether he's up to the task. He's very untested, and for presidency that can be a killer. Still, he's incredibly likeable. I like him, I liked him right away. Doesn't mean I agree with him, but I'm one of those weird political animals who figured out a way to hate the people I support and like the people I'm against. That's going to be where Obama can succeed though, he has this, dare I say it, Wayne Brady quality. He's a black man that White Middle America can't help but love. I want him to run, I won't vote for him. (At least I don't think I would) I want himto run because he'll move the debate to the issues and away from personal politics. How do I know this? Because he's pretty good at moving past the attention on him. Today in Milwaukee he told a reporter that he's just, "the flavor of the week." While that may be true, I think a lot of the base is going to keep that flavor going strong.

A Bitter Pill,

now swallowed by a journalistic hero.


Funny how the cliche states that conservatives don't self-evaluate. Perhaps some lefties will start to see that they do.

How to run for office?

So, I told my dad the other day that I don't think I'm going to vote in this election. It didn't go over well.

He told my brother that I didn't think I was going to vote. That didn't go over well either.

Today I received a letter from the Doyle campaign, reminding me to vote for him. I laughed out loud.

My dad quoted Sean Hannity. My brother talked about civic duty.

I don't think I should vote, because I don't like my options. I don't think I should vote, because my vote for any candidate is one more nod for their approval.

My dad warns me of what could happen if I don't vote. My brother suggests that I at least vote for myself. I think they both sound like Sean Combs.

The thought of voting for myself amuses me. I've already done it. Unfortunately I only received three votes for Soil and Water Commissioner. I was handily defeated by Mickey Mouse (Among others).

Frontline did a special about Net Neutrality tonight. It boiled my blood a little.

I thought again about what my brother said. He's partially right. He missed a key point though -- it's not that I should vote for myself, it's that I should run.

How do you run for office? Clearly it can't be that hard, idiots on both sides win all the time. I just need to sell myself and my ideas to others. (Put all that Best Buy sales training to noble use.)

It's 2006. In two years I'm going to run for something. First, I need to figure out what that something is; then I'll start figuring out how to win.

In the mean time, I realized that I'll probably have to vote -- gotta stay on the record right? *Sigh*

Time to vote Libertarian.... *Grumble*

Pro-War // Anti-Torture

Contradiction? Perhaps. However, I like contradictions. Cynical Optimism, that's my world-view. Some say I can't put those together, and yet I hate people and I think they have no chance; yet, I wake up every day hoping that things will get better. Cynic? Clearly. Optimistic? Probably stupidly.

Pro-War:
Orwell once said something to the effect of "If your neighbor is building a cannon and promises to kill your mother, you better stop him." He was talking about fighting. Adolf Hitler killed millions of Jews, handicapped, and others of assorted maladies. The world fought him. Clearly there was no other choice. CLEARLY, war WAS the answer. Some say, "War is never the answer." War is many times the answer. Pacifism gets you moral highground, high self-worth, and a dead family to boot. Proclaiming, "War is never the answer!" to the high heavens is convenient when others will fight in your stead.

Atrocities abound around the world, and I'd like to believe we can stop them all. There was a time in my life when I believed we could. Naivete is a tough shell to crack. Then you suddenly realize that it's not a shell at all. It's just layers of pudding with varying clarity. I hope you get my drift.

When I was a young boy, I saw my first war. I was into G.I. Joe, and Cobra always lost. I had to expect the same from real life, and there it was before my eyes. The TV washed in Night-Vision green. My pre-adolescent eyes staring in wonder of the power wrought by the nation I called home. We collected trading cards featuring vehicles and politicos. We tied ribbons around our trees and heard stories of much older siblings and cousins hanging out in the desert, waiting to clear the world of some man that I cleverly named Saddam WhoIsInsane.

Lex Talonis // Code of Hammurabi
Law of Retaliation // Eye for an Eye -- Tooth for a Tooth

We didn't get him. I asked my dad why. How could he explain such politics to his son? I can't tell how I would have, I'm sure it would have been terrible. So we left, and it would be years before I really grew to understand what had happened. In the mean time I learned about pregnancy, and in turn, how certain girl soldiers came back preggers themselves. It still strikes me at this moment how we humans cannot ever escape sex anywhere. I learned about Hitler, and I learned about torture, and I learned to have a moral streak that was propped up by unyielding vengeance. All the time I thought Saddam should die.

Saddam was a killer, and we had every reason in the world to go get him. He killed and tortured many thousands of people. Well, at least he ordered it. That's wrong. Interesting how it takes less brass to do people in, than to actually do it yourself. Perhaps he was a coward? Not really sure, he sure did raise two hells of sons -- one would have to believe that Saddam really did have some brass.

How do you deal with such a tyrant? Well, you go to war. Maybe there's a better way to deal with it; but, in the end, there is always going to be a fight. Perhaps the fight didn't have to happen when it did. I'm pretty certain now that it did not, but that is for another day. Today we speak of why we fought, we fought so that others would not have to be tortured again. Kill the killers, maim the maimers, bring forth the mass of the most power nation the world has ever witnessed.

Perhaps I was bullied too much growing up, it probably explains my willingness to fight pretty neatly...

Anti-Torture
It's a simple concept. People hate war because they morally object. Unfortunately their objection is ill-defined. Their objection is to murder and violence. Everybody who lives in society (modern human society) objects to murder and violence.

I OBJECT TO MURDER AND VIOLENCE.

War is murder and violence, but at least it is focused. At least it keeps you and the future you care about alive when the other person in opposition to you wants that ended.

To quote Eddie Vedder, "It's evolution baby!"

We go to war to stop further death. Bombing for Peace is not Fucking for Virginity. Bombing for Peace is Cutting off the Infection Before it Spreads.

After you cut the arm off, you need to keep the patient away from the infected arm. You don't toss the arm back to the patient and ask her to heal it. You burn it up and never expose anyone uninfected to it.

The US has reintroduced the infection to Iraq.

I am not pleased.

Link 1
Link 2

Props to Pelosi

Seriously.

That was honestly heartening to read. Even as bitter political enemies at home, sometimes we can still be united against dicks who live across the sea.

This marks the first nice thing I can remember saying about Nancy Pelosi. I hope I can add to it in the future.

Jeremy prompted this

Jeremy sent me a link to a BBC News article to which I replied, "Funny how a man who invokes religion, also sees fit to quote the nihilist Chomsky."

Jeremy replied, "I hadn't even thought of that dichotomy, how wonderfully inappropriate."

I'm proud of that observation, so I'm sharing it with the rest of you. =D



Here is the article that I speak of.

Bush is a Nazi!

Any time I hear or read that, I get quite confused.

Bush doesn't kill Jews, in fact he is one of the most vocally pro-Israel presidents that we have had.

Bush isn't a fascist. You can still vote. You can still dissent. There are no secret police waiting to throw you in jail.

Quite frankly, the only Nazi thing I can really say Bush has in him is his big government Republicanism. It's a wee bit too socialistic for me, so I guess that's kinda Nazi... but even still, he isn't to ACTUAL Nazi-level socialism. Honestly, most people who call Bush a Nazi as a perjorative would likely appreciate more socialist government programs...

Come to think of it, those that call Bush a Nazi are often "anti-zionist."

Which also reminds me, leftists are more abusive than rightists on college campuses. I know first hand, I experienced it. The fact of the matter, is that there is a de facto cultural secret police that lives and breeds on college campuses. Isn't silencing others a major tenet in the creation of a fascist state?


In this light, I'm afraid our leftist friends are a little deluded, and perhaps they suffer from a bit of projection??

Why you need a sense of humor in this world:

I seriously considered posting this to A is for Awesome under the auspices of a joke... but, well, it's hard to actually laugh.

These people are not Christians, at least not Christ-followers...

God Hates America
God Hates Fags
God Hates Sweden



Oh, there's this one too: God Hates Canada

Unfortunately, everybody already hates Canada, I guess God caught on to that one a little late...

Communism=

A friend once told me that Socialism in the United States was inevitable, so I might as well give up. It always amuses me how he sounded just like the Borg in Star Trek, "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated." I make no distinction between Communism and Socialism (Diet Communism). Since I make no distinction, I pray to God that we never go down that path, because the only thing that lays down that path is:

THIS.

With a Nod of the Head to Mr. Lubke

It is staggering that anyone could be so self-infatuated as to single out their own particular policy preferences as "anti-war." Anyone who is not a sadist or an idiot is anti-war. The only serious issue is how best to limit, deter or conclude war. But responsibility for confronting this issue is evaded by those preoccupied with the moral preening of being "anti-war."

Thomas Sowell

Relient K Lyrics?

Seriously?

Sure! Why not? I highlighted my favorite line in the song for everybody.

"The Only Thing Worse Than Beating a Dead Horse Is Getting On One"

Just listen to the
Politician
Wishing his
Position
Wasn't missing everything
His heart would like to say

And a constant in the
Consitution
Is that there can't be
One solution
It'd be so far from the truth
And we would hate it anyway

Opinions are
Immunity
To being told you're wrong
Paper, rock, and scissors they
All have their pros and cons

And all of us
We will endure
Just like we always have
But you just can't
Be too sure
How long this will last

'Cause we control the chaos
(In the back of our minds)
Our problems seem so small
But they grow on us
Like gravity
But gravity still makes us fall...

A Tradition of Liberty (Streaming Consciousness)

The United States was obviously founded with the notion of liberty for all as a large cornerstone. Our inability to appreciate this is rather troublesome to me. I'm not going to bother with creating an argument of whether or not we are ignoring liberty, I'll save that for another day. For a long, long time, Americans have lived in a world where every little freedom they have is taken for granted. Often, we worry about the most mundane issues because any little shock to that system and we don't know what to do. Since we have been raised in liberty, we are of liberty. What I mean is, our minds cannot possible understand how to process under the coercion of others. Now, of course we do live under the rule of law; of course we say, "Damn the man for all my troubles." However, that ignores the big picture. We can come and go as we please. If we don't like the US, we can just leave. The ability to end, the ability to conclude, to make final -- that, I say, is ultimate liberty. States originally were created with the concept that the right to secede was intrinsic, the Civil War proved otherwise. The North had morals, and the South had principles. Which one deserved to win? Obviously the victors once again wrote the history books. That was just one more lever of liberty forever removed for our use. Most people today don't care. Perhaps they should, leftist and rightist states are becoming more and more prevalent in our union. Massachusetts and Mississippi clearly have very different views as to how a nation should be run, as proven by those they chose to represent their states. I imagine that leaders in both states would gladly take back powers that a federated union such as ours should afford them; unfortunately, the reality is that we now live in a centralized nation where laws are the same by and large in every state. How did this happen? I like to bring up the legal drinking age. Alcoholic consumption is a very cultural issue, in Europe it is generally acceptable for teenagers to drink. In Utah you can only buy watered down beer, and in Minnesota you can't buy alcohol on Sundays. Drinking age is generally determined by what a culture deems as adulthood. Clearly the effects of alcohol should controlled by someone of enough emotional strength to deal with it. That's why legal guardians in Wisconsin can allow those in their care to drink in their presence. Minnesotans are shocked and appalled by this. Even some of the most liberal people I know there go into a crazed puritanical rant when this idea is suggested to them. Clearly, liberal doesn't mean what it used to... So anyway, back in the day, you could often buy alcohol at 18 and 19 in states around the country. Sure, this caused kids to drive across state borders to buy alcohol. But that is a cultural decision that local bodies should decide. Instead of letting the culture decide, we acquiesced and let the government decide for us. Now you cannot buy alcohol anywhere in the states under 21. Recently there was a federal highway bill that laid out new drunk driving guidelines. Many states said the legally drunk blood alcohol content was .10%. This new bill laid out .08% as the new standard. Should a state not adopt this policy, they would not get federal highway dollars.

Did you get that?

Each and every state pays income taxes, partially in order to build federal highways. Generally a good citizen will pay his or her taxes because they know it will be distributed back to them in an orderly fashion by way of infrastructure and government services. This is supposed to be with no caveats. If money is deemed necessary to be allocated to a certain region, there should be no strings attached. Yet, we foolishly allow the majority to control the minority in order to feel better about ourselves. The tax payers of .10 states paid their taxes fairly. Suddenly, they are being coerced into changing their own local laws because the rest of the nation does not approve, just so that they can get access back to the funds that they paid out. Where is the liberty in that?

Cliches about Crossroads

Well, here it is.

I warned a few of you, however, you may be surprised what you find here.

I believe my first attempt at blogging was marred by the simple fact that I tried to mix it up too much. Having a personal blog and a political blog seems to be a good solution. They may bleed back and forth, but by and large I'll attempt to keep separation.

I haven't had a stable political stance (for the most part) really ever. It took me until the age of 19 to decide I was probably a Republican. I voted in my first election on a whim coming back from class the week before I turned 20. I had a modest idea of what was going on. Well, not really, at the time I believed I was well enough informed. Luckily, it turned out that Norm Coleman was probably a good pick. Maybe. Throughout my life, one thing has always carried me forward: making sure I was right. If I'm wrong, I'm unhappy and I intend to correct myself.


This blog is likely about correcting myself.


I'm afraid that I may have been misguided in some of my principles, specifically in regards to Neo-conservatism.
To be clear, I am by no means a neocon as they call them.
In fact, I tend to abhor neocons.
...yet somehow I think that it's possible that myself and others like me have played into their hands all too well.

Joe Lieberman left the Democratic party this evening. I respect the man a great deal. I think perhaps that I may join him in leaving my party soon too.

There's a lot to be said, but I currently have all the time in the world to say it. I think for now I'll leave my words where they are for the evening.