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An argument frequently used by the Libertarians is that good government is hard. They think that by doing away with government programs that the problem dissappears. This is nonsense. If we ditch Medicaid we don't magically get rid of all of the disease and suffering. If we stop all regulation and rely on market forces, then each and every one of us take up the burden of policing corporations ourselves, which is an impossible task.
Democracy is the worst kind of government except for all of the others. Regulation and government programs are the same. They are messy, require constant adjustment and can lead to corruption and unfairness. But every other solution is worse.
America needs a hobby!
I recently sent a letter to our local newspaper concerning the Orlando, Florida, groups who were feeding the hungry in a public park and being arrested because they did not have a permit. The groups can only get two permits per year, and feeding more than 25 people at a time required the permit. Lots of folks getting arrested.
The local paper thought my letter was about feeding the hungry. It was not. The point was that I had to seek the news on my own because local media ignored this and many other relevant stories so they could do their infotainment routines.
One positive takeaway from this trial, to me, is that when people have lots of information, I think the opinions they form are better than if they only have information that is filtered thru people in the media or politicians. Why not have the Don Siegelman case plastered all over and let people know what is going on? That’s what the media should do, if it were responsible. We liberals have to find a way to appeal to the media-crazed sensationalistic American public instead of our normal way, which never seems to work. It works for Fox.
Maybe the movie "Running Man" was not science fiction. It could have been a documentary from the future.
Thom, I was wondering if you saw this story from the website Too Much about a young forgotten patriot named Robert Coram? He is credited with establishing the public school system in this country. I read the story in Too Much and they had a link to American Political Writing During The Founding Era 1760 - 1805. The writings are contained at the Online Library of Liberty. I especially liked this quote concerning public education which shows the prescience and the vision of some of the founders:
Above all, watch carefully over the education of your children. It is from public schools, be assured, that come the wise magistrates—the well trained and courageous soldiers—the good fathers—the good husbands—the good brothers—the good friends—the good man.—Raynal.
Check it out and comment when you can. It is amazing to read the vision of this young man who was a teacher in Wilmington Delaware after the Revolutionary War. How would the backers of charter schools rationalize this? I am still exploring these writings in my spare time between work and more work but I am happy to find this resource as I am sure you will be too if you aren't already aware of it.
http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php?title=2068&chapter=188771&layout=html&Itemid=27%20(1761-1796)
http://www.toomuchonline.org/tmweekly.html
I want to give a big thank you to both you and Louise for the massive amount of time and energy you two put into the education of your listeners.
Peace,
Doug Orians
Marion Ohio
Re: Casey Anthony:
I was sick of hearing about the case and didn't follow it, but you couldn't help but hear about the case because it was everywhere. However, I disagree that people only formed their opinions based on the lawyers on tv--you could watch every bit of the trial online (as my obsessed mother did) or watch most of it on tv (which edited out all of Casey's swearing, etc.).
The jury knew Casey went on a wild partying spree for the 31 days after her child was dead, till she was caught. They saw pictures of her drunken in bars, getting a tattoo; they knew about her lies about "Zanny the Nanny" (she pumped her kid full of Xanax); they knew she Googled "chloroform" 84 times (the kid was chloroformed); they knew her detective father smelled a decomposing body in the car; etc. etc. Ordinarily I would think that how you react to a case (like a rape charge) shouldn't be held against you. But this female showed not one ounce of compassion and acted in a way that no sane or innocent person would act. Coupled with the myriad of evidence the State came up with, plus the fact that no one on the jury even took one note in the 32 days of testamony; it was very, very difficult to understand the "not guilty" vote, even for someone like me who didn't follow the case (got my info from all the articles yesterday and my obsessive mother).
Blame the prosecution all you want, but sometimes, no matter how much proof you supply, people refuse to believe it. Look at the birthers who still believe Obama was born in Kenya or who don't believe in climate change, even tho' the polar ice caps are melting.
They jury didn't even find this woman guilty of child abuse or endangerment. People want to know that the justice system works, and when they are flooded with information and the result doesn't make sense, they get upset. Liberals get upset at regressive court decisions that affect us detrimentally. If we only heard the Nancy Grace's of the world and not a speck of what went on in the trial, then I would agree with you. But there was so much in this case that was known, proven or admitted that they jury was privy to, and they still didn't want to convict (i.e., one juror had a cruise to get to on 7/8).
I think this case just struck people as a huge miscarriage or justice. The real problem, in my mind, wasn't that this particular case was on all the talk shows and CNN (annoying as it was), it's when cases like this or the Aruba girl case are plastered all over the tv in order to take people's minds off what is actually happening in the government so we don't notice.
As with everything the media is involved in, it's all about the ratings.It is totally against everything we stand for as Americans to see a trial sensationalized as some high profile trials have been. I am proud to say I didn't waste one minute of my life watching this trial. The case in and of itself is really sad but the style of the coverage of this trial is totally sickening.
Peace
Spreading the critical thinking skills inherent in atheists is going to be a crucial part of winning this class war where the masses are so easily duped into giving up their rights and their interests in a fair & just present in exchange for a pretty afterlife. Absolutely, atheists need to be more proactive in teaching the messages of science and critical thinking. I think they've been pretty tolerant of religion and everything society forsakes in its name--too tolerant. As have we all.
Tim Minchin's Storm the Animated Movie
http://youtu.be/HhGuXCuDb1U
Actually, atheism is to religion as good health is to disease. Similarly, bald is NOT a hair color. How is a lack of belief a belief? Is everyone required to be in a religion, in your view? We're not allowed to opt out? By the way, a 501(c)(3) is an IRS designation for a non-profit, usually charitable organization - that doesn't make it a church. That includes the Humane Society and Doctors without Borders - are they churches? Were you just trying to goad your guest?
I was waiting for you to put on a tin hat after awhile. Seriously, you were arguing against existence? Were you high?
Re: The lady who is so disgusted with Obama but will vote for him anyway, because she doesn't want a republican in his place.
And you wonder why Obama doesn't listen to you? Why should he? He knows you believe you have no where else to go.
Is it freedom when someone is convicted 24/7 in the press? How can anyone be innocent until proven guilty that way?
We need more freedom of the press not less. I agree the whole mediafest is a bit much, but kick 'em when their down kick 'em when their up.
The "rights of the accused" exist to PROTECT THE INNOCENT not to priveledge the guilty. Dispensing with those rights is a major step in laying the foundation for a police state.
Thom, Re "Obama to stand up & start punching.
Don't think it's going to happen...
Obama Has Finally Become Dick Cheney
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/06/obama-has-finally-be...
You'd think that President Obama would take a different view. After all, he might not be in the White House today if the Bush Administration would've succeeded in keeping all its secrets: the torture, the detainee deaths, the abuses at Abu Ghraib, the spying on Americans, the faulty pre-war intelligence in Iraq, and all the rest. One would expect Obama of all people to see the value in Risen's reporting - the real ways in which he has helped to preserve civil liberties, American freedom, and accountability in government - and to weigh that against the national security implications of reporting in 2006 on a bungled CIA effort that happened way back in the year 2000.
Instead, a president who once championed whistle-blowers has adopted Cheney's view, and as Glenn Greenwald puts it, "the Obama administration appears on the verge of fulfilling Dick Cheney's nefarious wish beyond what even Cheney could achieve." All this while failing to prosecute the much more serious Bush era illegal acts that Risen has uncovered in his reporting.
I normally agree with much of what you say, that is why I am so disappointed with your equating Science with Religion. Are you going to tell us the world is flat or Jesus had a pet dinosaur next? Science is about proveable, testable, repeatable observations, religion is the exact oppisite. I am not saying religion has no benefit, just that it has no basis in science or historical fact.
The real issue is that rather than deporting them -- which is what used to be done -- they are housed by private for-profit prisons for months waiting to be deported so that these politically connected and favored prison companies get paid to house them before the government deports them. That's what privatization of the public sector really means. This is what small government really results, only its not really small at all, because we are paying more money housing them in private prisons. Outsourcing government functions to private companies results in this type of expensive inefficiency.
Speaking of prisoners and law enforcement, how is it that U.S. Constitutional rights are now, suddenly, not applicable to foreigners when they are under action by U.S. authorities? How is it less important that foreigners are not wrongly convicted and punished?
People like Katherine Herridge of Fox News would deny accused terrorists a fair trial because "they are not like us". Do, then, only people who we like personally deserve any due process? Is it only important that people we like personally are not wrongly convicted? Then we might as well dispense with any fair method of establishing guilt or innocence and just imprison or kill everyone we don't like. I susect that that is the kind of system of "justice" that Republicans ultimately want.
These are the "rights of the accused" we are talking about. The rights of the accused exist to PROTECT THE INNOCENT not to priveledge the guilty. Dispensing with those rights is a major step in laying the foundation for a police state.
Genesis of the debt ...post Carter.
So my kid was saying the other day,
" Dad, when you cut back on the monies going into the treasury by having tax cuts, isn't that just like NOT paying your monthly credit card bill & watching the balance get larger?"
Good point son! Not bad for an 8 year old. You have a better handle on economics than politicians, particularly republican.
The republicans are not serious about the budget or the debt ceiling. They themselves could not pass a balanced budget 3 months ago. That is right the republican House passed a 1.5 trillion deficit for 2011. Same as the 2010 budget. even the 2012 budget if all goes as they plan will have a 1 trillion deficit. So my question, How could they have complained about a Obama's 2010 budget deficit when they just passed the same? Hypocrisy.
Speaking of races to the bottom, what good is a job that is at less than minimum wage? What good is job creation that doesn't enable people to subsist?
The Republicans want the pauperization of the United States. The Republicans are not for freedom. They want freedom for a minority segment of society. They only want freedom to enslave the majority.
In response to the person who was berating Obama as a masked republican!! That is one perspective!! What if these guys are so entrenched in the system, that taking them on as we thought he could do, was impossible without really putting us(the people) in dire straits. What if he's holding them at bay until his next election, when he might be able to really do something without any concerns for keeping his seat. What if, when he took office, he found out what really takes place up there. Perhaps his family was in danger!! We really have no idea what happened when He took office, but one thing is clear. The last several decades of thinking in the white house, has put us in extreme danger, and no one person is going to get us out of that. We need to take responsibility and do something at the grassroots level. He has said that over and over again, and a few are listening to him. He can't do it alone. It's too big!! I think he's done the best he could with what he now knows, as he's a very thoughtful and brilliant mind/heart, someone who many don't recognize, as he's refusing to play the game as it has been played for decades. He is solving the problems from a different level than they are being created on--something that most of us have yet to understand how to do, so there are always different perspectives, and we need to learn that lesson before we can make substantive changes.
I'm so in line with your thinking, and thinking does nothing but get people worked up in their heads. We need more grassroot efforts, media coverage, and unfortunately, something big to go along with it. I'd like to see the workers of this country take a few months off like the Europeans do. Let's see how long their companies, offices, etc. can run without us. The French have used this tactic to their advantage for years, and it works big time!! Sometimes, it takes a drastic move to wake us up!! We seem to be still too comfortable with too much to lose, to really put our thoughts on the line. So what's it going to take???
Ok now, I just think you're being entirely too hard on those poor CEO's and on Sheriff Joe, because I'm sure that if they give it a thought or two, they'll realize that more than anything in the world, they want to invite those illegal immigrants to move in with them, into their gated communities so they can lend them their BMWs. Or, another solution would be to deport Sheriff Joe and the people who hire illegals; send them to Mexico and the other third world countries that they have turned into third world countries with their inhuman foreign policies, misdirected foreign aid, ridiculous drug laws, and so on. Maybe a few years of having to walk five miles to get drinking water will put the milk of human kindness into them. And maybe eating a few teaspoons of rice and beans a day will make them appreciate the desperation of the illegals. Every single one of those hypocritical, cynical, mean-hearted idiots who wants illegals treated badly, would do exactly the same thing in their shoes. In fact, if the wealthy republicans were in those illegals' shoes, they would be killing people to get better shoes.