Archive for the 'Political' Category
Thursday, November 20th, 2008
Crude Addiction
Dealers and Users have a very unique symbiosis between them. The Dealer provides, the User uses. Typically, this relationship follows a direct supply and demand curve, but oftentimes the Dealer will artificially create shortfalls in supply or increase cost based on overwhelming demand to maximize profit. This is a natural dance, and it is one that this nation has been doing with oil for decades now.
Only recently has the country become truly aware of the narcotic-like qualities our dealer/user relationship regarding oil has taken on. Take a look at the past 8 years. Perspective is everything, and when Dubs, a failed oil man in the pockets of the Saudis and Halliburtonians took office, gas was a buck and a half a gallon. Gasoline was cheap and a secondary thought in the budgetary considerations of millions of Americans. Transportation taken for granted.
Over those 8 years though, they, and by “they” I mean OPEC and Veep Cheney’s friends, gradually raised the price of oil, sneaking it up a dime when no one was looking. Up a scooch because of “turmoil in the middle east” and “reduced refining capacity”. These excuses, which we swallowed coated in that thick oil slick, gave oil companies carte blanche to fiddle with prices. Oil companies have been making ungodly amounts of money for the past 8 years, record-shattering profits never before seen in the world market being made at the expense of us, the oil-addicted user.
That outcry reached its peak this year when gas tipped out at $4.25 a gallon. Oil companies at that point began to detect that perhaps they had indeed gone too far. An undercurrent of enraged citizens suddenly found their personal policies shifting towards practicality - a determined shift in destroying the hold oil has over this country. This confluence of concern is one of the big reasons Republicans, longtime pruned in husbandry to Big Oil, were swept out of power.
Big Oil, like the Insurance Companies, got scared of this movement about a year ago and started putting together TV ads. Well hey, did you know that BP is *actually* championing the move to greener energy? And did you know that ExxonMobil labs are among the leading national research institutions aimed at cleaner use of fossil fuels and more affordable solar energy? Right. And Phillip Morris would please like for you and your children to stop smoking.
At $4.25, we did not believe them. We’re not really too interested in hearing what solutions the Oil Companies have for solving our addiction to Oil. That’s the equivalent of McDonald’s starting up their own Anti-Obesity Diet Program, or the Krispy Kreme fight against Diabetes. Oil has one other tactic that they can, and are employing. A horrible one. Probably the worst.
Up the street at the Murphy Station attached to the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Store, gasoline is $1.92 a gallon. It will likely continue to drop. Why? Because while we as a nation are collectively on the verge of starting a 12-step, a new shipment just came in, and our dealer wants to offer its repeat customers first crack at some of the quality stuff. Cheap. You know, like old times, when we first started this “business” relationship.
And while we are suckin’ down the sweet, rich crude for pennies on the dollar, our rage subsides and our resolution to get off this shit weakens. What grave, national impetus is there to leave something so satisfying, so cheap. It’s time to go on that roadtrip or buy the SUV you’d had your eye on. One more hit, a little one. It can’t hurt.
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
A Bittersweet Victory
Obama won by doing something so remarkable that we haven’t seen in American politics for many, many years. He transformed his campaign into a movement. In casting a vote for Obama, we cast a vote for the idea. In the same way that Raj Al’Ghul informed the fledgling Batman that you can fight a man, but not an idea - Obama embodied the idea of Hope and Change.
How could McCain have won out against the strength of such concepts?
Watching McCain’s concession speech was the sad frosting on an even sadder cake of a run for the presidency. Even at that late point, as we all looked on to see what backpedaling John would do, his crowd boo’ed not only his opponent but also him. I couldn’t help but feel both pity and embarassment as his own political operatives in the crowd tried that timeless technique of three-word chant to shut up the hecklers in his own faithful.
Then I remembered, this is a McCain/Palin rally. Why would the level of civil discourse be any different from their other rallies, concession notwithstanding. “Please believe me when I say that no association has ever meant more to me than that.” Right. “The failure is mine, not yours.” *Noo! Boo!* (Cue 3 word chant: John Mc-Cain, John Mc-Cain!). When he mentioned Sarah, you could hear half boos, half cheers, as though the crowd wasn’t sure where it should place blame.
I’m not going to go over why McCain lost. The reasons are too numerous to count, and surely include his “palling around with” the worst President our country has ever seen, an incendiary line of negative and tenuous “terrorist” links that bordered on the inciting lynchmob, and a complete ignoring of the destitution of the middle class. When at an Obama rally in a speech given by Barack, he mentioned John McCain and heard loud “Booo!”s, he said “Hey, now, we don’t need that. But on Tuesday, go out and vote.” That’s the difference.
It is a grand victory, a healing victory. All over the world the planet is celebrating the American election as a change in the way we’ve done business. Hope is contagious, and the global community has certainly breathed a sigh of relief that we aren’t going to have “FOUR MORE YEARS” of disastrous Bush/Cheney policies. Obama has won in a landslide, not only electorally, but taking the popular vote to boot. The Democrats have control of *both* House and Senate. Two out of three branches of the United States government are now under Democratic control, after 8 years of Republican monopoly.
Not all is cake and rainbows though.
Amendment 2 to the Florida State Constitution prohibits civil unions, domestic partnerships, and gay marriage three times over. And it has likely passed. Prop 8 in California which specifically removes the right of gays to marry has been approved.
It will take a little bit for those amendments and propositions to take effect, but on the whole it means that there is now only one state in the country where I can get married. It means that my health insurance benefits through my partner’s company may be revoked. It means a number of other “I’m straight and I take this for granted.” aspects of equality have been removed, to enumerate any further here would make me sick to my stomache.
So this is a bit of a bittersweet victory. But I’m hopeful. I’m hopeful that when California citizens realize they have voted to -remove- a right previously granted to them, the courts will intervene. I’m hoping that the President, or a brave member of Congress will propose overturning DOMA, the insideous “Defense of Marriage Act”. I’m hoping that the doctrine of Fair Faith & Credit that effects current marriage, currency, and everything else passed from one state to another becomes grounds for marriage equality at the Supreme Court.
Hope, after all, is what we got.
Saturday, August 16th, 2008
Gun Control
Hoo boy. This has been a long time in coming.
See, I was raised by my grandfather, a strong gun-owning conservative. He taught me to shoot, he taught me to respect guns, and he taught me that every once in awhile a government might need to have itself overthrown by its own citizens, which was why the framers put safeguards like the 2nd Amendment into the Constitution. Throughout my years, the issue has plagued me. Are guns good? Is a well-armed population more apt towards protection or random violence? Do I favor gun control, or a personal right for a citizen to own a gun?
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008
Paris Hilton’s Energy Plan
Thursday, July 17th, 2008
Ken’s Ten
Warning. Strong language and political ranting ahead.
There’s this guy running for Representative in the district near the one I live in, whose name is Ken Babington. Ken is what you might call a “pillar of the community”, as he is Floridian nobility, which means either Baptist pastor, real estate mogul or orange grover. He operates a church out on Satellite Beach that got semi-famous for having its steeple fall into the roof after a particularly nasty hurricane came through.
Ken Babington is politically, for all intents and purposes, evil incarnate.
His website is rife with self-promoting content, as any politician’s should be, but the wording used is what really caught my attention. Let me ask you a question. Does the number of spawn you and your significant other pump out have a direct bearing on your abilities as a lawmaker? Does the geometric increase of baby units THOSE spawn have increase it still even further? Does the number of years you have managed to remain legally tied to a single partner make me feel that your respect for my rights will remain unwavering?
So, here this old republican is, crouched over his desk and petering out GOP slogans drenched in double-meaning in full video on each page of his “family-focused” site, and his run is punctuated by a list of promises to the district. Let me paste those here for you, and what they actually mean.
Reduce government spending and transfer many agencies to private, free-market industries. The government is designed to protect the citizens, and should not be in competition with private businesses.
Like welfare, social security, medicare, and national defense.
Life begins at conception, and the law should clearly state that.
The Bible, which is his justification on the matter, is mute on the subject. Actually, the Old Testament tends towards life being a lot less sacred and a lot more random genocidey. I have no problem saying life begins at conception, but that will require the concession that there are different varieties and values to different types of “life”.
Immigration control is a critical need for our security and safety. By holding employers responsible for their hiring practices, and by providing no benefits for illegal workers, Florida will not be their ‘home of choice’!
Wow. So much wrong here. Illegal immigrants don’t feed at this imaginary “trough” of “benefits”. Holding employers responsible is a nice idea, but that’s just treating the symptom, rather than the cause. Our “safety” is not intrinsically tied to immigration control. The 9/11 guys were here on legal visas. Are you just not following along?
We need to be drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. America should be energy independent, and Florida can lead the way!
A pro-oil, pro-drilling Republican? Surely you jest. You know though, I actually agree with the old coot here. We do need to have energy independence, and we DO need to drill our country like crazy. I’m pro-environment, mind you, and drilling doesn’t do as much damage as the ecostremists would have you believe. We need to nationalize the drilling, pumping, distribution and refinement of oil in this country. Take it out of the greedy grubby hands of Big Oil and make it a nationally regulated industry.
Florida must promote an atmosphere for entrepreneurial enterprises. We should encourage business start-up by Florida citizens, and we should constantly encourage those businesses. This can be done by aggressive financial start-up incentives. We provide tax incentives to bring businesses to Florida. Why not help Florida residents start businesses!!
Mildly sane recommendation.
Parental involvement in education is critical. Parents should be allowed to decide where their children are educated and how. The funds should follow the student, whether the student is public, parochial, private, or home educated.
Hah! Check the sly wording on this one. Reading between the lines, it says “PRO VOUCHER!”. Kids educated through home schooling aren’t exposed to a lot of life lessons and social situations that kids who attend public school are, and in my experience tend to be stunted, sheltered little dweebs. Parochial schooled kids are worse, as creationism is taught as fact and the Bible shares a backpack with science books. The education system should be federalized, and should occupy the primary budgetary expenditure of this nation.
The Public School System should teach the heritage of our great country. The Founding Fathers, in their written testimony and Congressional records, show our rich history, and students should be taught these facts.
By “heritage” he means the religious leanings of the founders. By “rich history” he means how Jesus mowed down redcoats with an M16 alongside George Washington.
No “PORK” should be included in any proposed Bill. If a Legislator wants a law passed, it should stand alone, and should not be included, or slipped into, another proposed Bill.
I understand the Republican inclination and desire to re-write most of our Constitution, including the state ones - but can we talk turkey here for a moment? A lot of “pork” are actual bills that fund social and infrastructure programs. The KENNEDY SPACE CENTER would be considered “pork” under this definition.
Lobbyists provide important information for Legislators to make intelligent decisions. That information should be provided with no exchange of anything, and lobbyists should never be allowed to contribute in any way to any Legislator, their staff, or campaign. So, lobbyists should be for information only, and any transfer of any type of funds should be criminal!
Someone should really quickly tell you that you are actually in the Republican party. Tobacco, Oil, Defense Contractors… or are you planning on keeping it local? Abramoff will be disappointed. And, you know the biggest contributors to political campaigns? Churches.
First-time offenders should learn quickly that the Judicial System has teeth. First-time drug-related felonies and D.U.I. offenses should have mandatory jail time, with no negotiation.
Matthew 5:39, you hypocritical shit. In accordance with the will of Murphy and the laws of shenannigans, I hereby lay a minor curse against the younger of your family. May your own words come to be through incidence and circumstance, and may mercy pass over your children or your children’s children in the same manner as you would have it pass over others.
Home property insurance and health insurance are critical issues. Both could be supplemented by associations at reduced premium expenses to the citizen. These associations should be private industries, rather than the State of Florida, and the private, competitive sector will make these services solid and affordable.
So, your solution to the home and health insurance disaster is to privatize it even further? Well, garsh. What a solution. You probably look at what happened with HMOs as a shining example of how to make the industry better.
The 10th Amendment in the United States Constitution guarrantees the State of Florida certain authority and power. We, as a State, must exert this power, and as your Representative I will strive to bring back to our great State the powers we have neglected by letting the Federal Government have non-delegated authority over us.
Scariest statement so far. States Rights is a good issue, but can you really imagine what the kind of sovereignty this nutjob envisions would have Florida doing? I’m picturing Harry Potter book BBQs and the Florida Highway Patrol detaining same-sex or interracial couples at the border.
The sickest thing of all is that this bastard is most likely going to get elected.
Thursday, June 26th, 2008
My Opponent Hates Puppies
Handful of things-
Doing a lot more in the way of tickets and shows and things lately. As I grow older, culture seems to be more and more a product that can be purchased and consumed. Going to check out Arabian Nights horse show, looking into the Orlando Science Center and potentially a cruise for an upcoming vacation. I’ve never quite been out of the country, and the Bahamas or Mexico would *totally* count.
I’ve been meaning to get back into cooking. The creation of a really awesome meal as a reason for family to get together and the exhilaration of trying a new recipe (or three) is something that really appeals to my nesting nature. Southern Fried Chicken (without cheating), fresh green beans with those little bits of bacon in them, seasoned red potatoes and a big boiled pot of super-sweet Zellwood yellow corn would make for a perfect summer “Just ‘Cuz” feast. Chalk this Normal Rockwellesque delusion of a Publix commercial style family get-together to a heat stroke.
The likelier outcome of an attempt of the above would be a war with blood pressure as I figure out how to precisely burn or undercook the chicken while fending off the dramas of the ol’ dysfunctional gang. Ah, but anticipated failure never stopped ME from doing anything! Something to brew about, anywho.
In other news, I’ve been playing a handful of newly released games here and there. The Guild 2 came out with an expansion, and it feels pretty close to a massively single-player game, something along the lines of a Port Royale and The Sims. Manipulating your dynasty for monopoly over the Hanseatic League is fun, until you run out of buildings to buy and towns to subdue.
Settlers 6: Rise of an Empire is a giddy-making game, and it has me mired for hours on end (when it works). Some of the scenarios are really quite well thought out, and it really took me back to strategy 101. My singular peeve is that in each scenario, you start with this hideously designed infrastructure with roads going every which way and all your necessary shops arranged in an insanely inefficient circle, rather than grid format. So you have to wait until you can safely kill off that first iteration or try to build around it. I’m sure that’s how regular old cities worked out, but ugh, annoying!
Supreme Ruler 2020 was an absolute abysmal failure in every single regard. It is as though someone took everything that could even be remotely classified as “global strategy” and shoved it without care into a hideous, unintuitive, mind-searing interface and slowed any semblance of time lapse to a crawl. Inflation is unexplained, nations gradually grow to hate you for no other purpose other than your continued existence, the supply chain from natural resources to finished products is obscure at best. Domestic and international trade are meshed together with no clear figures about what’s going to who or where or why, or how much of it. The resource progression is arcane and non-intuitive. Short on timber? Think making more Timber Yards will fix it? Think again. A horrible game that could have been a shining jewel.
As for Age of Conan, well, I haven’t touched that game since a few days after it came out. Yes, it runs on my machine, but it doesn’t run what I would classify as “well”. And I have a damned good machine. If your minspec is too high, it doesn’t matter if your game has content and fun - if I as consumer-player perceive the reduction in QUALITY as greater than 50% of what the game is intended to run at, you’ve lost me at the gate. I could probably run WoW on my blackberry. And I haven’t heard any word-of-mouth stories about Conan that would prompt me to overlook the initial 5 FPS tutorial barrier to entry. Eve Online also take note - reduce your “tutorial” to less than 48 hours of my life and we’ll talk.
The Political Machine 2008 was eh, alright I suppose. A fan of the 2004 version, I was really hoping the latest installment was going to bring a lot more features and fun to the table. Apart from the Bobblehead thing, umm, yeah, not much change. There’s a handful of new issues to take a stand on, like High Gas Prices and the Mortgage Crisis, but there are still no debates, still no primary season. As a player, what’s the point on taking a stand on any of the negative issues if there are no rewards involved in assuming that risk? I’m walking through the game as Joe Pishgar up against Giuliani to Lincoln and beating them squarely by 10% or more every time by simply coming out in favor of The Environment, The War on Terror, More Jobs, Social Security. If real politics is anything even remotely similar, I’m going to have an easy race when I run for congressbastard in a few years. Here’s how one of my ads will go-
America is a great nation, a nation of ideals and courage. As a person of ideals and with great faith in our country, I’ve always stood in favor of oxygen. It’s in the air we breath, the water we drink, and through it we have one of the most powerful rights in the history of the world - the right to free speech. Oxygen is an important resource and should be recognized for the pivotal role it plays in our day to day lives as Americans. Come November, you are going to have a choice in candidates - I’d be honored if you put your faith and trust in me. I’m Joe Pishgar, and I’m in favor of oxygen for America.
In other news, work is proceeding apace. I’m pleased as punch that I get to design a community infrastructure from the ground up. Who knew there was so much delight in affixing the nuts and bolts to a sequence of policies and initiatives? It’s fun, but very documentation intensive. I don’t think I’ve ever really thought this deep about how communities are formed from nothingness. Usually there’s a community already *there*. On the flip side, most of the major issues I’ve encountered in the past have been the result of missed steps or incorrect assessments during the infrastructure planning phases. So, I’m TOTALLY going to be the guy to blame if I accidentally miss a disciplinary policy or skirt a half-dozen less dynamic pylons of the infrastructure. On the other flip side though, if it works like a well-oiled machine, I’m absolutely going to patent the accursed thing. (Can you patent a process handling philosophies of formative relationships in a socio-psychological online group dynamic?)
Friday, October 19th, 2007
Quiet Examples
It is rare that I feel that Sanya (blessed be her name) is wrong on an issue, but the particular sentiment expressed in her recent post regarding minorities and special interest groups has me rethinking the entire concept of activism. From what I understand of history, the bulk majority of equal rights for special interest groups like women, gays, and black people have been brought about as a result of a large societal push spearheaded by activism. Speaking out and getting involved are the motivators of these civic changes, and obviating the differences and the built-in unfairness is the only way to raise awareness of such issues. I don’t see anything wrong with someone saying, “hey, I’m a woman or other minority and I’m being treated unfairly, so let’s talk about this.”
Those “pink panels”, while undoubtedly a novelty and patronizing are still about awareness and in some limited capacity empowerment. There’s a reason the majority of developers in the industry are white males and that diversity in this field is a running joke. Changing common perceptions is all about speaking out, and speaking out often. Quiet examples and non-participation are fine and dandy if you are comfortable with the perpetual marginalization of your given difference, and are certainly admirable by any measure. But in order to see actual change happen, you have to have unity, awareness, and activism. You can’t just look at your difference and say, oh well, I’m being treated differently for it, so I’m just going to ignore it. You should not only obviate it, but celebrate it. The alternative is passive acceptance of a system constructed to keep you at the bottom.
Sure, you may not think that you represent your given differences, but to those around you, it is simple human nature that you absolutely do. The upper brain may not judge and label out of some civic conscience, but the unconscious mind catalogues your actions under very precise labels in a system that makes gmail look light in the shoes on the cross-referencing. I am in no way as eloquent as Sanya, but my point is that Dr. King and Susan Anthony weren’t quiet examples, and that occasionally being active and vocal in special interests doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
The general objective isn’t to push forward an agenda or self-flaggelate, but rather to unify in the face of an incestuous network of good ol’ boys, who-knows-who and business-as-usual discrimination. The precious veneer of progressive high-techers tends to strip away real quick-like after a given head count in any game company staff photo.
There are marches for a reason, damnit.
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007
1st Amendment Tazered
This actually really upset me quite a bit when I first saw it. Firstly, this is a student. In a University. Universities are where actual revolutions tend to start. Secondly, this feels like a type of tipping point. This is one of those oracular signs that you get when a democracy starts to fail on a myriad number of levels. It reminds me almost of when that fingerman shot the little girl in the movie “V for Vendetta”.
I don’t know if folks are going to quite grasp the symbolism behind this incident, or exactly what it means on the scale of our nation’s well-being. This is indicative of a society content with base animosity against free speech. Five police officers holding down and tazering a university student for passionately asking the questions that many wouldn’t dare? Disturbing and iconic. Not to overreact, but this is people getting on a train that no one knows where its going. This is a picture of a man standing in front of a tank in a public square. What this means is that we are headed to a very bad, very difficult to get out of place, or that we are already there.