Archive for the ‘Policy and Government’ Category
If Gun Violence is the Answer, Then What is the Question?
Recently, I setup a script to automatically publish Joe Nocera’s daily Gun Report to my Twitter feed. We have to get the word out about how our country is suffering from gun violence and accidental deaths. Joe is going his part, and I want to help him.
Every day, Nocera cites news reports of gun deaths from across the country. From Tuesday’s report…
Take a look at the second shooting in today’s Gun Report. A toddler gets a hold of a loaded gun and kills himself. I keep coming back to this particular kind of shooting: children killed or maimed after finding a loaded gun. Not because they are so heartbreaking, but because they seem so preventable. I wrote a column 11 days ago about the possibility of childproofing guns. Not surprisingly, gun absolutists find this idea appalling.
An Idea for Solving the Problem of Illegal Immigrants
I don’t know very much about immigration, and it’s possible that I’m out of my depth here, so forgive me in advance.
I do know is that every one of us is the sum of our ancestors, so unless you are a Native American, then you are an immigrant too. In other words, it behooves us all to be more compassionate on this issue.
And, I also know that our country is built on the backs of immigrants…it always has, and despite what people believe, continues to this day. Immigration is the fuel that allows us to enjoy a continuing high quality of life.
On Why Mitt Romney is Not Qualified to be President
President Obama gets this exactly right:
When some people question why I would challenge [Mitt Romney's] Bain record, the point I’ve made there in the past is, if you’re a head of a large private equity firm or hedge fund, your job is to make money. It’s not to create jobs. It’s not even to create a successful business – it’s to make sure that you’re maximizing returns for your investor. Now that’s appropriate. That’s part of the American way. That’s part of the system. But that doesn’t necessarily make you qualified to think about the economy as a whole, because as president, my job is to think about the workers. My job is to think about communities, where jobs have been outsourced.
“Why can’t they just hire a lobbyist like everyone else?”
Upon complaining about the online activism of SOPA opponets, one Congressional aide remarked:
Why can’t they just hire a lobbyist like everyone else?
Well, maybe because we don’t have the money that the major media corporations do!
Cheezburger Celebrates 5 Years with a SOPA Protest on January 18th
Cheezburger recently turned 5 years old! Hooray for us! Who would have ever thought that a silly web site about cats could transform into the leading destination for online humor?!
Sadly, after 5 years, Cheezburger, and the entire Internet, are facing the most serious thread of censorship that has ever existed in the United States: SOPA.
In protest, Cheezburger will protest SOPA legislation with a “blackout” on January 18th. From Geekwire: Read the rest of this entry »
Was the Occupy “Clean Up” the First Battle in a Civil War?
The span of history is a never-ending conflict between the haves and the have-nots:
…the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on “how to suppress” Occupy protests…when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence.
This article from which this quote comes is worth the read…it presents the Occupy Movement in rather clarifying terms.
Is Bloomberg blowing it?
From Occupy Protesters and the Police Clash in Lower Manhattan: Bloomberg backs the police in Occupy violence.
I thought Bloomberg was The Great Independent. The Benevelont Billionaire.
Are his true colors starting to show? Is he really just an ordinary oligharch…using the police and state to protect his interests?
“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own — nobody.”
Elizabeth Warren, candidate for Senate in Massachusetts:
I hear all this, you know, ‘Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever. No. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own — nobody.
You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory — and hire someone to protect against this — because of the work the rest of us did.
Repeal Cannabis Prohibition
Yesterday, in an e-mail exchange with a co-worker, I wrote:
I don’t have any anti-[insert his project] bias. I have an anti-doing-things-that-are-illogical bias.
Which leads me to the topic of today’s blog post: Cannabis Prohibition.
Simply put, there is not one logical reason why cannabis (a.k.a. marijuana) should be illegal in our country. Don’t take it from me: spend a few minutes today researching cannabis prohibition and learn for yourself. (Here’s one well researched fact sheet if you don’t want to spend the time.)
Are You Hungry? Have You Ever Had to Worry About Food?
Hunger is simply a terrible thing. I can honestly say there has never been a single day in my life that I have had to worry about food. Have you ever had to worry about food? About where your next meal was going to come from? I’m going to guess that 99.9% of the people reading this have not.
Hearing stories of hunger breaks my heart. And, child hunger is even more heartbreaking. Depending on exactly what reports you read, roughly 15 million…15 MILLION CHILDREN…live hungry, in homes where food is scarce.
Maybe it’s not exactly 15 million. Maybe it’s only 10 million, or maybe it’s 20 million. Does it matter? The fact that it’s a non-zero number is a problem in my view.