Jean Ritchie singing Blue Diamond Mine....
Friday, February 19, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
Partisan Politics
John W Phipps in his blog, http://johnwphipps.blogspot.com/ , was talking about the Federal Deficit and peripherally about partisan politics. One comment was to the effect that partisan politics was not necessarily bad. That got me to thinking, was partisan politics bad?
Partisan politics is the way the government is run, that seems very evident. It has been run that way as long as I can remember. It seems that the partisanship is running deeper now, and more vehemently. I have observed for some time, that what the Dems (or the GOP) introduce this year as a good idea will become the most horrible idea of all time, when re-introduced by the opposing party. The same bill with the same results is a bad bill when introduced by the 'other guys' party.
So is this bad? Or is it good that our government is run that way. Or is it 'not run' that way? It seems that getting anything done is more difficult that way. I am not sure that getting anything done is a good thing. That is dependent on whether or not what is getting done affects me positively or negatively. Notice I said 'affects me' positively or negatively. That is a key point. Whether or not I am in favor of a particular piece of legislation makes a huge difference. If I favor the legislation and the opposing party is not allowing it to pass, then partisan politics is definitely bad. If my favored legislation is going to be passed because of partisan politics then partisan-ism is good. In that case, getting something done is good as well.
But that all begs the question. I believe that basically partisan politics is not a good thing. It is bad. No one is looking at the legislation on the merits of the legislation or how that Bill affects the citizens of the US of A. We have elected individuals who do not even have the courtesy to consider the pros and cons of a piece of legislation. It is easier to be a member of Congress if nothing has to be considered except which party introduced it. I don't believe Congress was elected to do the easy way out. I believe they were elected to consider the pros and cons and vote accordingly. (Actually, they are supposed the vote the conscious of their constituents, but usually getting a consensus is impossible.) Partisan Politics keeps that from happening. So there is much legislation that is ill-considered and just plain detrimental to us Citizens.
My answer to the original question is Yes, Partisan Politics is bad, even when my ox is not the one being gored. If 'business as usual', the 'status quo' is one's goal, the partisan politics is not a bad thing. If one believes as I do, that we are paying those people to think and to not just blindly follow their party leadership then partisan politics is bad. Bad. Bad!
Partisan politics is the way the government is run, that seems very evident. It has been run that way as long as I can remember. It seems that the partisanship is running deeper now, and more vehemently. I have observed for some time, that what the Dems (or the GOP) introduce this year as a good idea will become the most horrible idea of all time, when re-introduced by the opposing party. The same bill with the same results is a bad bill when introduced by the 'other guys' party.
So is this bad? Or is it good that our government is run that way. Or is it 'not run' that way? It seems that getting anything done is more difficult that way. I am not sure that getting anything done is a good thing. That is dependent on whether or not what is getting done affects me positively or negatively. Notice I said 'affects me' positively or negatively. That is a key point. Whether or not I am in favor of a particular piece of legislation makes a huge difference. If I favor the legislation and the opposing party is not allowing it to pass, then partisan politics is definitely bad. If my favored legislation is going to be passed because of partisan politics then partisan-ism is good. In that case, getting something done is good as well.
But that all begs the question. I believe that basically partisan politics is not a good thing. It is bad. No one is looking at the legislation on the merits of the legislation or how that Bill affects the citizens of the US of A. We have elected individuals who do not even have the courtesy to consider the pros and cons of a piece of legislation. It is easier to be a member of Congress if nothing has to be considered except which party introduced it. I don't believe Congress was elected to do the easy way out. I believe they were elected to consider the pros and cons and vote accordingly. (Actually, they are supposed the vote the conscious of their constituents, but usually getting a consensus is impossible.) Partisan Politics keeps that from happening. So there is much legislation that is ill-considered and just plain detrimental to us Citizens.
My answer to the original question is Yes, Partisan Politics is bad, even when my ox is not the one being gored. If 'business as usual', the 'status quo' is one's goal, the partisan politics is not a bad thing. If one believes as I do, that we are paying those people to think and to not just blindly follow their party leadership then partisan politics is bad. Bad. Bad!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Check this out!
Food for Thought! Check out this website. http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts01272010.html
Monday, January 25, 2010
What the....
So now the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are people? What? And as people are entitled to all the rights in the Constitution? So said 'people' can make as big contributions as they want to political parties or politicians, because corporations are people!
Now if I were a cynical person, I might believe that 5 of the Justices in the Supreme Court are being...what is an appropriate word here?...bribed...paid...in the pocket of...or some other phrase or word denoting possible dishonesty. Heck let's make that Probable Dishonesty. Of course, I am not a cynical person. But if I were Oh my! Once again my idea that the problem with cynicism is that it is so often right would come into play.
Now pundits are saying that 'Campaign Reform' is dead. I agree. However, it was never really alive in the first place. In a way, having corporations actively contributing, openly contributing to political parties will let voters know which candidate is favored by 'Big Business'. So maybe this will be a good thing? Now contributions will be scrutinized, and not hidden? Well maybe. Maybe it just means that what the corporations are doing...have been doing...won't be illegal anymore. Our election process can continue to be hijacked by moneyed interests, but now legally. That has to be an improvement, doesn't it?
I wonder does this ruling allow foreign corporations constitutional rights? Can a corporation doing business here in the United States, but owned by foreign nationals now enjoy all the rights of an American Citizen? Which in effect would make it a citizen without taking any of the oaths that real foreigners have to take to become Citizens? If that were the case, would it not seem that Citizenship was being purchased? Would that be a good thing?
If Corporations are Citizens...or people...can the time be far behind when people are not Citizens, but non-people because Corporations are people? Is it possible that we will lose our peoplehood, and our rights?
Is that thinking too far fetched?
No it is not!
Now if I were a cynical person, I might believe that 5 of the Justices in the Supreme Court are being...what is an appropriate word here?...bribed...paid...in the pocket of...or some other phrase or word denoting possible dishonesty. Heck let's make that Probable Dishonesty. Of course, I am not a cynical person. But if I were Oh my! Once again my idea that the problem with cynicism is that it is so often right would come into play.
Now pundits are saying that 'Campaign Reform' is dead. I agree. However, it was never really alive in the first place. In a way, having corporations actively contributing, openly contributing to political parties will let voters know which candidate is favored by 'Big Business'. So maybe this will be a good thing? Now contributions will be scrutinized, and not hidden? Well maybe. Maybe it just means that what the corporations are doing...have been doing...won't be illegal anymore. Our election process can continue to be hijacked by moneyed interests, but now legally. That has to be an improvement, doesn't it?
I wonder does this ruling allow foreign corporations constitutional rights? Can a corporation doing business here in the United States, but owned by foreign nationals now enjoy all the rights of an American Citizen? Which in effect would make it a citizen without taking any of the oaths that real foreigners have to take to become Citizens? If that were the case, would it not seem that Citizenship was being purchased? Would that be a good thing?
If Corporations are Citizens...or people...can the time be far behind when people are not Citizens, but non-people because Corporations are people? Is it possible that we will lose our peoplehood, and our rights?
Is that thinking too far fetched?
No it is not!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Under 6 or over 65 Consult Your Doctor Before Use
Yesterday morning I woke up with my allergies just raising all kinds of hob. I could not stop chasing my nose all around. It was running so bad. So before breakfast I took some generic Dayquil. Then I had breakfast and took my wife to work. I was miserable at McDonald's during my coffee hour with the guys. I came home and used some 12 Hour Afrin. I expected that to finish the work I hoped the Dayquil was doing. It didn't, so around noon I took some more Dayquil.
That seemed to be ineffective as well. I waited a couple of hours and then found some 12 Hour Benedryl. Generic of course. I took that as well. I then picked Lori up from work, still using Kleenex by the carload. We went to Mexican Restaurant for supper, and I was still pretty unhappy. I decided that I should buy some more Dayquil and take another shot. Which I did.
Finally, my nose started to stop running! Success! About darn time! We continued to the Grange to play music.
Soon it was our turn to perform. Lori chose That Was the Last Thing on My Mind . She kicked it off, and I started to sing. Absolutely Nothing went right! My fingers didn't make the right chords...I sounded like I was singing inside a barrel, and then the words all fell out of my mind! I forgot what I had just sung! OMG...disaster.
The band played on, until I just said Stop, we can't do this song! They did and I did...I sort of saved the day, by doing Paradise. I got through that one OK...but I have done it a thousand times. I explained what had happened, and the audience loved it! Lots of laughter! Evidently that was just too much cold medicine in 10 hours! But at least I could breathe!
I took Nyquil before I went to bed...are you surprised to learn that I fell to sleep immediately? I did make it into bed first. This morning it is as if I never had any trouble yesterday. Almost. Last night in my dreams I was floating down a river in Africa on a log, nearly naked, in cave man days, opening up a market for selling milk in plastic jugs. It was Warm in my dream, though.
That seemed to be ineffective as well. I waited a couple of hours and then found some 12 Hour Benedryl. Generic of course. I took that as well. I then picked Lori up from work, still using Kleenex by the carload. We went to Mexican Restaurant for supper, and I was still pretty unhappy. I decided that I should buy some more Dayquil and take another shot. Which I did.
Finally, my nose started to stop running! Success! About darn time! We continued to the Grange to play music.
Soon it was our turn to perform. Lori chose That Was the Last Thing on My Mind . She kicked it off, and I started to sing. Absolutely Nothing went right! My fingers didn't make the right chords...I sounded like I was singing inside a barrel, and then the words all fell out of my mind! I forgot what I had just sung! OMG...disaster.
The band played on, until I just said Stop, we can't do this song! They did and I did...I sort of saved the day, by doing Paradise. I got through that one OK...but I have done it a thousand times. I explained what had happened, and the audience loved it! Lots of laughter! Evidently that was just too much cold medicine in 10 hours! But at least I could breathe!
I took Nyquil before I went to bed...are you surprised to learn that I fell to sleep immediately? I did make it into bed first. This morning it is as if I never had any trouble yesterday. Almost. Last night in my dreams I was floating down a river in Africa on a log, nearly naked, in cave man days, opening up a market for selling milk in plastic jugs. It was Warm in my dream, though.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Music for a cold winter day
Tom Paxton and Ann Hills Home to me is any where you are...beautiful music
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