Charlotte Disturber

Articles like this (you may need to register, and that's what bugmenot.com is for) gripe my butt. It talks about a new bill before the NC state legislature that would create a commission to study the effects of carbon dioxide and its effect on the environment. Now why would that bug me? Because this bill is such a huge waste of the taxpayer's money. It's been compromised to death. It's not there to say "hey, our environment is in trouble" but rather, "let's look to see whether this is a problem."

And I have a problem with this, because I think by now we can all admit that while global warming may be just a natural cycle in the constant change of the world, it may not be, and humans are doing plenty of other things to mess up the environment. For the sake of argument, let's say that carbon dioxide isn't causing global warming, but it seems that it along with the other pollutants usually expelled by fossil fuel burning plants and engines are just plain bad, causing increased acid rain, smog, and even negatively affecting our health. Let's make it stop. There have been enough studies on the subject. It's safe to say it's bad, mmkay.

Compromised to Death, that's what’s happened to this bill. So we may find that yes, humans and their use of technology may have a somewhat detrimental effect on this planet, which may result in events which we will find are even more detrimental to ourselves. Like that last sentence made sense, what are we going to do about it? According to this bill, nothing. Oh, a few recommendations will be made, but nothing will be done about it. So really, what's the point? Why waste money trying to figure out to see if a problem already exists when there have been plenty of studies already done on the subject.

It gets even better. Rolf Blizzard the vice president of governmental affairs for the NC Citizens for Business and Industry had this key nugget to add, "Our membership is of the very strong opinion that just doing something in the state of North Carolina is not going to correct anything." Great attitude. This state is only a few hundred square miles and 8 million people, changing the way that 8 million people and the way they conducted business wouldn't change a thing. Blizzard, you're names cool, but you sound like a moron with that quote. We shouldn't even try to do anything, because it might not make a difference. I'll have to remember that one next time I walk past some trash and decide to not pick it up, because it's not going to make a difference anyway.

And I'm spent. Read the article, I have more to add, but this level of useless stupidity has me ticked off. Who says dictatorship is a bad idea?

Fireworks On the Fourth.

Yeah, so technically it's after the 4th of July right now. Today I felt remarkably apathetic. About the holiday, this country, even what Independence day represents. I can't name the reason for what I'm feeling, but that's the way it is.

Today is supposed to be special; we sit back, take a day off, do yard work, have barbecues and reflect on the founding of this country. While it wasn't really the founding, it was more like just separating ourselves from England. I'm no historian, but I wonder if the founders really knew what they were going to do next. After all, it took until 1787 to get the Constitution and the rough outline of the government as we know it today. Did life drastically change for the vast majority of the people in the colonies at that time? Did they realize what they were getting themselves into? Did the common citizen really grasp the self-evident rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? They were self-evident right? But what truly revolutionary ideas they were to bring on the Revolutionary war. But it really wasn't total freedom for everyone, it was just the beginning and we're still fighting for freedom to this day.

So on this day I wondered what those words on the paper meant, and if America has finally reached the ideals that the founders laid out in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. And sadly, I don't think we've yet reached our true potential. We've gotten close, and the progress that this country has made in 229 years has been astounding, but I'm convinced that we can make it better for all people who may be different colors or have different ideas and beliefs.

Tonight as everyone went to watch or set off their own fireworks, I sat at home feeling unpatriotic and hearing the sounds of cracks and booms through the walls and windows. It sounded like gunfire (and kind of like Jimi Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner - kindof) and I thought of all the men and women over seas that are fighting right now. Say what you will, I know I'm rather cynical and I'm not the only one, but many of our soldiers believe they're fighting for freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq. I'm not going to say it doesn't matter why or under what circumstances we went to war, but I'm going to say that in this case now it's rather pointless to argue. We're there. It's almost as if the President was like the founders, he had a goal, he wanted freedom from fear created by two tyrannical governments, and he bumbled into the current situation with seemingly little realization of what comes next.

Now it's time to be like the boy scouts and leave those two countries better than we found them. And it might not seem like it, but we are and can make a lasting difference in the lives of those citizens. And it's the men and women of our Armed Services that are doing this. It's a big job, an important job, but a job that must be done. And we can do it. A democracy can exist in the Middle East. There is nothing holding it back. They’re just people, not much different from us. And it's up to us to ensure life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for the people of Afghanistan and Iraq.

I woke up feeling unpatriotic, and I will go to sleep believing that this country is great, but can be greater still.

That's my rant of the day, it's not perfect, but few things are, and Hicks is right, it's just a ride. *Bang* *Bang* *Boom*

Genius.

"The world is like a ride at an amusement park. It goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question: Is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, "Hey – don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride ..." And we ... kill those people. Ha ha, "Shut him up. We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up. Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and my family. This just has to be real." It's just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. Jesus murdered; Martin Luther King murdered; Malcolm X murdered; Gandhi murdered; John Lennon murdered; Reagan ... wounded. But it doesn't matter because: It's just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love.

The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace. Thank you very much, you've been great."

Sound effect of three shots, Hicks pretends to fall down dead, lights go down.

-Bill Hicks
(Revelations)

Can't touch this.

So House Majority Tom DeLay seems pretty much like a scum bag. To save you, the reader, the hassle of actually reading up on current events (better get back to the MJ trial) I'll paraphrase, the Hammer as he's known for his love of MC Hammer or being a bad ass politico basically took money from people he really shouldn't have. And then he was heavily connected with another guy who had some shady dealings with doling out money as well. Anyways, he's in hot water.

My question is why are the Republican's supporting this guy. Rep. Chris Shays is one of the few who isn't supporting him, but it seems he stands fairly alone. After the fuss that came up over changing the House rules on whether or not the Majority leader would have to resign after being indicted (which it looked like would happen at the time due to some "irregularities" in Texas) you would think the Republican's would slowly step away from Rep. DeLay, I would at least. Why would you want to protect a guy who is making a farce of the system, someone who is cheating in the land of the free and fair. He's making the Republicans look bad. But I don't know what's going on. I understand that DeLay has been a very powerful force for the Republican party of late, but this is politics, when you miss your step, you fall. Maybe it's some of that Bush loyalty that we've heard so much about. The administration is using it's power in the party to protect Rep. DeLay. Who knows, anyone have any other ideas?

D-E-M-I... whatever

So I was watching CSPAN like two days ago. Yeah that's right, I'm a lazy slacker that watches CSPAN for fun while others work. But anyway in the House they were discussing the Estate tax and whether or not to permanently repeal it. Rep. McDermott (D) from Washington got up there and started talking. That's fine, I'm not into the whole tax thing, but in this great country we have representatives who try and make the right decisions.

But Rep. McDermott gets up and talks about Teddy Roosevelt and the Republicans. I can't even tell you the what he was arguing about besides obviously he was against repealing the tax. He said it would create an oligarchy (he said it, not me!). So then he says, "... Republican, R-E-P-I... whatever..." Brilliant. You can't even spell Republican. Listen, I'm no genius, but I'm also not in the House of Representatives. And I don't mean this to be an Ad Hominem attack (which it is), his argument may have been good (I didn't pay attention).

But I got to thinking, where is the CSPAN bloopers tapes. He's certainly not the first to be stupid on television, so let's get all the silly moments of Senators and Representatives on CSPAN 4 (or whatever). I scare myself with my own brilliance. (And yeah, I probably misspelled something or some grammatical error, sue me.)

CNN is a bunch of posers.

I saw a news nugget on CNN the other day (Maybe Tuesday/Wednesday, I don't remember) in which they alluded to the fact that a "wave of democracy" (my words) seemed to be sweeping through many countries recently. They had a few people come on and these people were asked how much President Bush and recent American foreign policy had to do with these new developments. So the talking heads gave their opinion (unfortunately not the band, that'd be much more interesting) oh whether or not President Bush's recent decisions had to do with all these new movements of self direction. And of course one person said it had nothing to do with the President, and one said it had everything to do with the President. And at the present time, I really couldn't care. Yeah, it'll be great to look back on it in ten years time to see whether the President was proved right by his decisions, but at the current time, all of the movements seem tenuous at best. Like they could crumble with one charismatic leader who wants ten of his own palaces. So how about we throw more effort at supporting these fledgling democracies and worry about giving credit to whomever in ten years time. I understand how it's important now for the future of how American decisions are made, but do you think the current Administration will change either way? So whatever, I'm just watching too much CNN.

No Child Left Behind, so slower for everyone

I've been thinking a lot about education lately, for whatever reason. I recently stumbled upon an interesting discussion at Plastic.com about the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). So if making standardized tests, which pretty much by default seem to be dumbed down to multiple guess questions to make it "fair to everyone," is the way to go, we seem to have problems. Surely there is a way to protect students and make sure that they are learning what they need to know to grow and achieve a higher level of education without mandating it by the government which simply seems to lower expectations of what the students can do. And allowing teachers more options as to how they teach the material, and to a large extent, what they teach. What use is an art class, or a music class, or for that matter an ancient history class? Not much if you're simply preparing the students to get a job after they finish high school and go on to a college that follows the same general procedure of education. But we're not trying to create worker bee's. We need to strive to create artists, musicians, historians. Afterall, it was the ability of man to create more food than he needed that gave rise to these interests in the first place. We need scientists for science's sake, artists for arts sake, historians for history's sake. Most importantly, we need for all of our sakes.

So I don't really know where I'm going with this ramble. Just that they system is broken, and we need to, and we can find a way to fix it. So that's what I'll try to do, but it's going to be a very slow process. I'm going to come back to it, but I'm tired and I just ran out of steam. choo choo.

Cynics and Virtue.

An old professor who I haven't seen in about 2 years got me thinking the other day (and that's the sign of a good teacher) about the meaning of certain words. He used to call me a Cynic, and he explained why, but it wasn't until recently that I really wondered why. According to Merriam-Webster it's just someone who believes in virtue, self-control, and independence are the key. Whatever, the actual etymology of the word is a bit harsh, but the modern version of the undercase cynic is someone who simply doesn't believe in much, except that everyone is out to get everyone else. So, independence and self-reliance, these are two key values that America has always seemed to have and cherished. But what about virtue, now there's a word. When I was suffering through Latin classes, I remember trying to translate this word. There were only about 7 different meanings to the word. Merriam-Webster has a few different meanings, with (in my so unhumble opinion) somewhat contradictory meanings. The first definition, a conformity to a standard of right. Does America seem to have this, sure. A later definition however states that virtue is "manly strength or courage." So those that are right are strong? Or those that are strong are right? Wow, a question that's been asked in too many philosophy classes I'm sure, and I never paid attention to those classes. I also found it odd that another definition was "a capacity to act" with the synonym being potency, with another definition being "chastity." That discussion is better left to a feminism lecture. So what does this all mean? Nothing. We chose to live by these values that we have assigned names and definitions too, but we're not always sure what they truly mean. In fact, we, Americans are sometimes confused about what we stand for. Maybe it's time to settle on better definitions.

Got me a movie...

where there aren't millions dying from AIDS, where we don't spend money on fancy cars, fancy clothes, fancy games. Got me a movie where we don't just forget about those suffering from whatever is there plight. I got me a movie where faces aren't screaming out in despair from the lack of oppurtunities to just do something, anything to change the circumstances. But I'd rather just fast forward and watch some American Idol.

Guilty as charged and I don't care.

Going to throw this up

Because non-profit's really shouldn't be making profits, and I know one of the guy's behind it.

Why the AARP is evil incarnate.

Well, not really. They're a pretty decent organization. My main gripe is that they are one of the most powerful lobbying organizations in the US and they don't represent me. But it's just not me. They really don't represent anyone under 50. I have a problem with any organization that is making decisions that will affect me for the rest of my (hopefully) long life for the benefit of it's members who have much less life left on this planet. Don't get me wrong, the rights of senior citizens (oh to be politically correct) should be protected, and the AARP seems to do a fairly good job at this. But is there policy good for me? Is it good for the other 20 somethings, and 30 somethings? I'd have to go for what is no on that one Alex. I want a group that represents me. It's impossible to have a President that does. He or She must be 35 years of age. Even a Senator must be 30. Forget about all this talk of making a constitutional amendment to allow foreign born citizens to become President, allow younger members to Congress and the Presidency.

Of course, even if that was to happen, I'd still have to lay the blame at the feet of the young ones. For whatever reason, we don't seem to want a lobbying group. We don't want to vote. It may have to do with being disenfranchised of the sense mentioned above, but I kind of doubt it. It probably has more to do with being wild and not tied down to any responsibilities. Whatever, we're getting beaten on by the older generations. They get our money now, and maybe we'll get someone else's money in the future.

And of course this all has to do with the latest Social Security row. So what do I want? I want a deal where the government can in essence just not tax me now, and not pay me later. Or better yet, give me cash now, and I'll just pay it back later. When I'm 75, I couldn't care less what type of car I'll be driving (if I can drive at all, that is). I want a better, faster car now. I'll pay you back. This is debtors country, what's wrong with the government getting in on the game? Tell me.

Wikipedia.

It's like crack.

Cotton

I know about nothing of farm subsidies here in the United States. But this interesting story in which the US has lost another fight in the WTO, this time to Brazil about subsidizing cotton production. And the first thing that came to mind is, what next? Will other products such as milk and corn be the next target? I have a feeling the corn export credits has something to do with it, but I really have no clue. Someone educate me. I just find it strange that we've lost yet another war within the WTO (which we supposedly have enormous pull over, because we pretty much pay for it) this time over subsidies. So exciting. Or not. But it's fairly important to the future of free and fair trade and the United States. The real question may be, are we going to actually follow the WTO's ruling, or just ignore it?

A communist regime by any other name?

So Gazprom and Rosneft are going to merge (these are the two giant oil companies of Russia with incredibly strong ties to the government). However, there will be some limited trading of the shares of Gazprom now (though it sounds like very limited trading). Gazprom makes a lot of profits for the Russian government right now, and is one of the reasons why the economy is doing so relatively well (relative at least for Russia). But is the strong connection to the Kremlin a good thing for Russia's economy in the long term. The strange part is the fact that the former Yuko's subsidiary, Yugansk, which is the center of much of the controversy is not part of this merger. The chaos of the Yuko's ordeal (in which the majority shareholder was imprisoned unfairly for playing politics) would seem turn many investors away from Russia, will this new merger bring in new capital or will more needed capital flee Russia? They don't pay me enough to answer the hard questions. But I'd bet this is not a good thing for either Russia's economy (a too strong reliance of the government on oil revenues) or for the future of democracy in Russia, but only time will tell.

So the TV stations are controlled by the Kremlin, the Gas and Oil industries are controlled by the government, and second/third parties are being pushed out of the political system. How democratic is Russia?