Archive for 'political' Category
2010.02.06
Cutting Services
I read this article and my first thoughts were, “Holy shit!”
COLORADO SPRINGS — This tax-averse city is about to learn what it looks and feels like when budget cuts slash services most Americans consider part of the urban fabric.More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops — dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled.
The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter.
Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to local green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two weeks. If that.
Water cutbacks mean most parks will be dead, brown turf by July; the flower and fertilizer budget is zero.
City recreation centers, indoor and outdoor pools, and a handful of museums will close for good March 31 unless they find private funding to stay open. Buses no longer run on evenings and weekends. The city won’t pay for any street paving, relying instead on a regional authority that can meet only about 10 percent of the need.
Yet the more I thought about it, the more I came to appreciate what was happening, especially in places where people are averse to taxes. “You don’t want to pay taxes, then here are the consequences.” I think this is pretty much what the state of California needs to do. You don’t want to repeal Prop 13? You want to keep heaping on voter initiatives that cost the state money? Then you will have to deal with the consequences and, like Colorado Springs, it will be painful.
2 Comments | Catergorized: political thoughts2009.08.13
“Socialized” Medicine
I am a proponent of universal health care. Let me tell you why.
When I was kid growing up in the military we had a sort of universal health care. I say “sort of” because it only applied to military families. It was, within the context of the military, completely universal.
Whenever I would get sick, there was a hospital my parents would take me to and that would take care of me. We would go in and my parents would show their ID and that was it. Later, when I had an ID of my own, I could do all of this myself.
Military doctors, as I recall, aren’t necessarily the best doctors in the world. They aren’t called in to Harvard or Stanford to perform surgery on world leaders, for example. However, they are smart, efficient, concerned about your actual welfare as just an ordinary person. I hate hospitals. I have in innate fear of medicine. It’s completely irrational and based on a nurse who couldn’t find a vein in my arm to get a blood sample and took a few too many tries. Aside from that, though, military hospitals were the best. They take care of you. They help you because that’s their job and they can focus on that instead of insurance paperwork.
The United States military medical system is the greatest socialized health care system in the world.
When I finally got out into the civilian working world and had to face the civilian health care system I was completely overwhelmed. PPOs, HMOs, each from different providers with different kinds of coverage (and no coverage) based on the chance that you might get sick or injured. Worse, if anything goes even slightly wrong with the piles of paperwork you’re screwed because your health care insurance provider may cut the amount it pays or simply not pay. $5,000 may not seem like much to have to cover on your own for major cancer surgery, but you’re just as likely to have to pay $5,000 for a simple blood test if you’re not careful. Meanwhile the insurance company pockets your money. Cha-ching for them and bankruptcy for you!
Personally I live in fear of our civilian medical health care system. I know we have excellent doctors and nurses but what’s the use if the insurance, that I and my employer have been paying into regardless of having needed to use it, won’t cover my needs? Universal health care alleviates this problem. I walk into the hospital, I show them my ID, and I’m taken care of. That’s it. How much more simple could they make it?
3 Comments | Catergorized: political thoughts2009.05.28
CA Prop 8: The Defenders
Without going into detailed analysis of why I think the CA Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Proposition 8 was flawed, I would like to simply say it is sad -pathetic, really- that we still live in a world that would curtail rights for anyone. Which is why I think this video, called The Defenders (via SFist), is pretty good except the ending, which probably actually hurts the message.
I’d also like to repeat a previous proposition that by law we should simply ban marriage and institute civil unions. If people of faith want to preserve the symbolic meaning of marriage they can but their marriage will not be recognized by the government in any sense. Maybe that’s just me, though. Honestly, I don’t understand what those folks are defending. They treat the word marriage like a trademark. I would remind them of what happened to words like Kleenex or, I believe, Xerox and is in the process of happening to. Marriage is now a generic term and nothing people of faith can do will ever change its impending genericide.
2 Comments | Catergorized: political rights thoughts2009.03.19
BSG Takes Over UN
The United Nations hosted some of the cast and creators or Battlestar Galactica. Cool enough by itself but Edward James Olmos, impassioned by the misuse of the word “race”, got the halls ringing with So Say We All.
At one point the discussion lit a fire under the Admiral, and the talk of human rights turned personal for Edward James Olmos. The “Old Man” launched into a passionate speech about casting off the idea of race as a cultural determinant, and said we were one race, the human race. His voice echoed throughout the chamber growing louder until – I kid you not – he was yelling, “So Say We All,” and the crowd answered right back. Hell, even I yelled it, I was in the fraking United Nations with Adama, the gods themselves could not have stopped this moment.
Video of this event is available from the UN (in RealMedia? Really?), but here’s the So Say We All moment. If anyone finds or converts the whole video shebang into something a little more open please post a link in the comments!
All via Slashdot.
2 Comments | Catergorized: geek political tv2008.11.12
2008 Election Maps
I love maps. I always have. I knew there would be some interesting ones made surrounding the 2008 presidential election, but the first maps I found showed the results of the electoral maps since the first American election. What I like about the site is it shows the candidates, their running mates, the results of the electoral college and the popular vote, and takes you to useful Wikipedia entries about the elections. Very nice.
But what I really wanted to find was the national map that showed a simple red/blue of America and I found that, and more, here.
What I love about this map is that it seems to show that there is no way Obama could have won by as much as he did over McCain. But what this map doesn’t take into account is that the population of each state varies. So the site provides two other maps that change the size of the states based on it’s population or it’s number of electoral votes. Here’s the one based on population.
What is immediately obvious is that the center of America, which voted generally for McCain, is not very populated while as the coasts, which voted primarily for Obama, have quite large populations. The electoral college map is very similar with a slight bias towards small states.
The same software was used for the Worldmapper project, which takes data of all sorts and increases or decreases the size of the country based on that data. For example the world population cartograph looks like this.
It’s kind of scary to see so clearly how huge China and India are, but it’s pretty cool stuff regardless. Interestingly, the software that created these maps is free.
1 Comment | Catergorized: geek political2008.11.05
Yeehaw and WTF
Yay! Obama won. When the TV showed him over the top we could hear cheers out on the streets. I was, for the first time in my life, quite emotional about a political race.
Yet this morning I woke up to check the CA and San Francisco results and WTF?!? Proposition 8, which would create a CA constitutional amendment to ban the rights of same-sex couples to marry, rent a car bulgariapassed. Unbelievable. I am very disappointed that this passed and yet a proposition to protect the “rights” of food stock animals passed. I feel like we just went back to the era when inter-racial marriage was illegal. California, you just disappointed me in a way I’m having a hard time expressing.
Still, most of the election this year was phenomenally positive. And on January 20th, 2009 we will have a new president. Alas that Obama has to fix, clean up and repair the mountain of crap that Bush and the Republicans have left behind. I hope he can do it.
“Yes we can.”
5 Comments | Catergorized: grrr life political rights2008.11.04
Biggest Election I Can Remember
Today is Election Day here in America, and it’s turning out to be one of the biggest I can remember. I voted pretty early this morning and the line was typical… Only one or two deep. I was in and out in a jiffy. When I went to work about half an hour later, though, the line was getting long. My commute also takes me by several voting stations and they all had rather long lines, too. People are voting in numbers I’ve never seen. I wish it were like this every year, but I’ll take what I can get.
For once I’m rather excited about the election, too. Regardless of who wins the presidential election, the Bush era will soon be over and both candidates will be an improvement (though I prefer Obama in this one). For a Tuesday night there are tons of people out on the streets. Will they be celebrating here in San Francisco an Obama victory or if McCain wins will there be rioting in parts of the country?
I don’t know, but I do know I’m watching websites trying to keep up because this is going to be a big year. I’m worked up. My friend J. at work is going to an election party. If Obama wins they will break out the really good wine. If McCain wins they’ll break out the whiskey to drown their sorrow and put aspirin on the nightstand. Either way, it sounds like there will be a lot of drinking tonight.
If you’re in California and haven’t voted, you have one more hour. Don’t miss this opportunity to make history.
No Comments | Catergorized: life political san francisco2008.10.24
Getting the Nerd Vote
1: Broadband Everywhere.
2: Universal Healthcare.
3: No Federal Taxes on Internet Purchases.
4: Renew a Commitment to Education.
5: Renew a Commitment to Science.
6: Real Changes to Transportation.
7: Allow Early Voting by Mail.
8: Revamp Copyright/IP Law.
9: Fund the Patent Office So It Can Do a Better Job.
10: Open Government.
The only thing missing from the list is to make me absolute ruler of humanity.
No Comments | Catergorized: geek political2008.10.17
Presidential Election Levity
With all the ugliness revolving around the presidential battles between McCain and Obama it’s somehow absolutely awesome that the two of them could come together, honestly and with good humor, rib each other, and have a good time. Normally I don’t embed videos directly to my site here, but these are worth it.
Here’s McCain:
And here’s Obama:
1 Comment | Catergorized: political2008.09.22
Liberal Versus Progressive
Reading this article by Wick Allison, while very interesting of itself, got me thinking about how Conservatives are always ranting against Liberals (though not the topic of the article itself). Mr. Allison gives an interesting definition of Liberalism.
Liberalism always seemed to me to be a system of “oughts.” We ought to do this or that because it’s the right thing to do, regardless of whether it works or not. It is a doctrine based on intentions, not results, on feeling good rather than doing good.
I’ve said it before: I’m not a Liberal. I’m a Progressive. But what does that mean to me? I think both would be considered “left of center” if you want to use the very bad, linear view of politics. So how are they different?
Both ideas deal with what ought to be. There ought to be equality of the sexes, the races, the sexual orientations, economic prosperity, healthy and educated citizens, etc. The difference between Liberal and Progressive is subtle and it deals with reality and time, with culture/society as a crucible.
Liberalism dreams up the end goal and immediately tries to implement it, regardless of real world elements that oppose it or make the goal simply unattainable. Therefore liberals often fail in attaining their goals despite their best intentions. They cannot simply wish something into reality and make it so. You can think of it as trying to force a round peg into a square hole. Maybe the peg should fit into the hole but it just won’t and wanting it to fit doesn’t change the reality of the situation. The only way to make it “work” right now is to bang it with a hammer… until something breaks.
Progressives think of an end goal and make plans, step by step, to bring that end goal into reality. Instead of going straight to the end goal they take things in stages. This takes patience which Liberalism inherently lacks. Each incremental stage of change is designed so that society understands the change and benefits. When the next step is taken the previous step is already a part of the culture. Society sees the new changes as a normal continuation… A progression. You still have the round peg and square hole, but you use some tools to make the hole a bit rounder and less squarish, and later you might lathe the peg to be a little smaller. Eventually you could have them fit easily though you no longer have a “square” hole or exactly the same peg.
My thoughts haven’t exactly gelled with this idea, but I think it’s rather valid. Liberals are, in a sense, quite extreme in that their method is to skip to the end and the end justifies the means. Progressives know that the means justify the ends, and that it has to be taken in stages. In this sense I can almost hear Mr. Allison in his article calling the current batch of “so-called conservatives” the most Liberal of them all.
7 Comments | Catergorized: political thoughts
