From the ashes of Heaven

Good God. Journalism is dead.

I’m sure it is no suprise that I fall into the camp that believes the media (in general) did everything possible to get Obama elected and is still doing their best to keep Obama’s image positive (usually by blaming someone else for failures in judgement or omissions of common sense). To those who would like to beat me with a billy club for saying such things, please read this article from CNN. Yes it is listed as a “commentary”, but if this doesn’t show how much some of the media is just deep throating Obama, you are just being deliberately obtuse.

And I quote: “Whether it’s creating commissions for women and girls, ordering the investigation of President Bush’s use of signing statements, or jamming a huge stimulus package through Congress, the man is working his tail off. And he seems to be loving every minute of it. It’s almost as though our president was born to do exactly what he’s doing.” This commentator managed to show everything that is wrong with Obama’s administration and Obama’s excessive narcisim all at once. Then goes on to say, “He’s leading, and boy, is that refreshing.” The whole thing comes across as sarcastic… but then you keep reading… and its not.

Archangel / March 17, 2009 / Personal, Political / 0 Comments

Politics… enough to make you sick?

Rush Limbaugh, despite his seething hatred for liberals (which it seems is all he can talk about), made a very interesting point during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) yesterday. I’d like to highlight the following section:

Now, this is not prosperity. It is not going to engender prosperity. It’s not going to create prosperity and it’s also not going to advance or promote freedom. It’s going to be just the opposite. There are going to be more controls over what you can and can’t do, how you can and can’t do it, what you can and can’t drive, what you can and can’t say, where you can and can’t say it. All of these things are coming down the pike, because it’s not about revenue generation to them, it’s about control. They do believe that they have compassion. They do believe they care. But, see, we never are allowed to look at the results of their plans, we are told we must only look at their good intentions, their big hearts. The fact that they have destroyed poor families by breaking up those families by offering welfare checks to women to keep having babies no more father needed, he’s out doing something, the government’s the father, they destroy the family. We’re not supposed to analyze that. We’re not supposed to talk about that. We’re supposed to talk about their good intentions. They destroy people’s futures. The future is not Big Government. Self-serving politicians. Powerful bureaucrats. This has been tried, tested throughout history. The result has always been disaster. President Obama, your agenda is not new. It’s not change, and it’s not hope. [Applause] Spending a nation into generational debt is not an act of compassion. All politicians, including President Obama, are temporary stewards of this nation. It is not their task to remake the founding of this country. It is not their task to tear it apart and rebuild it in their image.

I like good intentions and I like helping people, but bringing the rest of the country down to almost lower class status is not the way to help others. Spending us into oblivion is going to do nothing but force taxes to a new and catastrophic level. Obama is not creating the utopia he sold to the masses, he is creating a nation of fear, ready to hand over our money and freedom because we HOPE he might help us. For what its worth, Obama is doing everything he promissed, so shame on us for selling our own futures to him.

I don’t agree, in large part, with Rush Limbaugh’s rehetoric, but after these last two weeks… $787B in fake stimulus, $250B (which was supposed to be $75B) in more money to self destructing banks, another $16B to a flawed and failing auto industry, untold billions promised to homeowners who took loans that were out of their pay grade on the hope they could sell for more, and a new national budget that promises my great grandchildren a debt never to be repaid… I echo Rush’s comments… I HOPE Obama fails. For the good of my family and friends, for the future of my country which provides a freedom I would fight and die for, I hope the powers that currently preside over Washington fail completely and take as few of us with them as is possible.

Archangel / March 1, 2009 / Political / 7 Comments

My silence is horror, not indifference.

So… the stimulus bill was passed and we’re all left holding a bill from the government for nearly $800B. The details of this bill have been muddled and changed and merged and obscured… There are so many things we need to know that we don’t. Congressmen and Senators alike have admitted that the best they could do was have their staff read the “important parts” and no one can tell us that they really expect this to work. This was rammed through as fast and hard as possible to satisfy President Obama and to some just to give the appearance of doing something. Go read the highlights of the bill yourself, it disgusts me with things like offering incentives to people to quit part-time jobs in favor of just looking for a full-time job. Yes, this bill has things in it that were probably needed, but to say this bill was absolutely necessary because of a minority of provisions were good is appalling. The bill has already passed so I shouldn’t waste my time being sick over it, but there are two questions that are absolutely necessary that we as a people need to ask and GIVE answers to our representatives for.

1.) What happens when this bill fails to help? We know that more than 50% of the spending in this bill won’t go into effect until after 2010 and we know that most of the funds immediately available will not create “four million” jobs (likely only in the thousands or tens-of-thousands), so what do we do when this bill does nothing but give us more debt? I’m sure Nancy Pilosi and her ilk are having a party, but what do the people get other than a pole up the ass?

2.) What does the government do when they’ve finally created a system that “helps” people so much is just as easy to not have a job as to have a job? We’re getting to the point where society as a whole believe that no matter what everyone must have a quality life with hearty food, a good home and lots of opportunity. Kids must have the best education and access to college no matter who pays for it. So what happens when people get sick of working to pay for everyone instead of just their own family? What do we do when people see that they can live the same life they have but just not have to work? What do we do then?

Archangel / February 14, 2009 / Political / 2 Comments

The sky is falling and Congress doesn’t see it.

A friend, in another post, asked me if he thought I believed we as a people had any moral responsibility to help the unfortunate in our society. I’m not sure I have an answer to that question personally as it depends on who we’re talking about. Are we talking about the people who are skilled but can’t get a job? Then yes. Are we talking about those who live off the welfare system? Then no. Are we talking about people who can’t afford their mortgages because they took a loan they couldn’t afford? Most definitely not. Are we talking about families who can’t pay their mortgages because food, gas, medical and other expenses have risen faster than their pay, sometimes by orders of magnitude? Yeah… I can see that…

In general, the people have said through polls enough is enough. Its something around 70% of American’s are worried that our government doesn’t have the money to pay for bailouts (considering that our budget was already in deficit before any bailouts were made… that is a safe bet). Around 80% of Americans want the bailouts to stop… Congress, in their infinite wisdom of knowing what Americans want more than Americans have now given a blanket YES to bailouts it seems. Off hand, I don’t remember all of the numbers to what industries but the total was somewhere near $2T… How are we affording the bulk of this now? We’re borrowing large sums from China and printing the rest… How will this help the economy exactly?

The auto industry says if they fail 3-4 million jobs will be lost. However, if we just give them $25B, they’ll just fail next year… so where is the benefit? Of course they don’t mention that Chapter 11 bankruptcy doesn’t halt business… it just lets the company renegotiate contracts and liabilities. So perhaps it is telling that the hardest lobbying for the auto bailout is coming from the UAW… who flat-out refused to reduce pay and benefits to keep the companies afloat… much less keep jobs. If the government approves this bailout, they had better replace the money lost in my parents’ 401k plans… its the same damn thing. It is also interesting that when asked if he would be willing to reduce his pay to $1 like the Chrysler CEO in the ’80s, the GM CEO said, “I think I’m good where I’m at.”

Add on top of this the recent mortgage bailout approved ($200B directly to banks and $600B to buy up “toxic assets”), the fact that the home builder’s association is now asking for money because not enough people are building homes, the possibility that Hollywood will be asking for money since not enough people are going to see their (SHITTY) movies, the money just given to CitiGroup, and the second bailout given to AIG… American’s can’t possibly afford the tax burden that most definitely must come… there isn’t enough in the budget for Obama to cut to cover this… and now he’s is talking of a $600B minimum economic stimulus package… most of which would not go to the people but instead would be spent building roads (… yes I mis-characterized that on purpose, a lot of money would go to schools, etc).

I know I’m not the only person worried about this… but why the hell isn’t Congress scared shitless?

Archangel / November 26, 2008 / Political / 2 Comments

Since when does a word have so much power?

Laddies and gentlemen, I give you George Carlin: “The original seven [dirty] words were, shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits.” Obviously, these words have specific connotations that aren’t acceptable in society, but why do they have such an effect on some people? Well, arguably because much of America is prudish, at least by world standards.

Anyone pay attention to the California general election last Tuesday? Proposition 8? Earlier this year, the CA supreme court overturned an appellate court decision banning gay marriage, which obviously allowed the marriages state wide. In this past general election, the CA people vote in favor of proposition 8, which was a general ban on gay marriage. So what happens now? Protests, lawsuits, and general stupidity. If any law was violated in the passage of this law… I’m not sure it should matter much since a large majority of CA citizens voted for it (that is assuming the accusations of Mormons from out of state aren’t true). Although, they may have considered that CA is one of the most liberal areas of the nation and if the homosexuals can’t get what they want there, they might just be SOL.

You might be wondering what the two preceding thoughts might have in common. Everything. This battle is over one word… Marriage. For (likely thousands of) years, churches have joined their believers in unions under the (presumptive) blessing of their god(s). Through the evolution of society, these unions have become known in all faiths as one thing… marriage. To a person of faith, the word marriage implies something very specific: it implies a joining of two people sanctioned by god. This implication is made even more powerful when most mainstream faiths today consider homosexuality a sin. Unfortunately, this word became much more complicated during the “New Deal” when FDR came up with a number of social programs to bring our economy out of the toilet. Most relevant, the Social Security Administration and Internal Revenue Service were created. Why? Taxes! The new system of federal taxes quickly realized that most married couples had children and that a married couple with children spent more per-capita than a single person so the SSA and IRS began to recognize marriage as a lawful construct so that they could use it as a deduction on taxes to that families could more easily support themselves.

So whats the problem? Churches want to maintain the meaning of the word marriage; Homosexual couples want all the rights that a heterosexual couple has (which I support – “separate but equal” was rightfully done away with decades ago); The US government has annexed the word “marriage” to mean something in law. The first two ideas are put into direct conflict because of the third.

I have a solution, and to be honest, I’m somewhat surprised no one has (publicly) proposed this. Christians have been arguing for some time to give gay couples a civil union instead of marriage. The issue for (most – I hope) Christians is maintaining the sanctity of marriage, not denying homosexuals fairness under tax and family law (yes, that second point is definitely arguable). My solution is to go through all federal and state documents and laws and perform a find/replace on the word “marriage” with “civil union”. Force everyone who wants to be recognized officially by the government as a united couple to have a civil union (and obviously grandfather all current marriages) thereby allowing churches/faiths to individually decide how to control marriages in their own faiths. Which is really how it should be… the government controlling who can be legally joined because of moral, not ethical, reasoning is akin to the government supporting religion, and we all know that is specifically forbidden.

Sorry for yet another politically related post… I’m just sick of the news concentrating on this. Although, its nice to see less of McCain and Obama.

Archangel / November 8, 2008 / Personal, Political / 9 Comments

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