There is a lot of talk on Capital Hill about passing another stimulus package. Many Republicans are saying that the first stimulus package was a bad idea, and they are looking in the 4th dimension. In order to be a true leader you need to see in the 5th dimension.
Dimensions. The first dimension is a line with no thickness. The second dimension has vertical and horizontal axes. The third dimension is what we see with our eyes, vertical, horizontal, and depth. The fourth dimension is time. The fifth dimension is parallel universes, or what would happen if something didn't happen.
Many people on the conservative right say that we need to allow leaders of companies to have their companies fail if they do economically risky things. This is an extremely capitalist viewpoint. They forget that who the burden really falls if the company, be it Chase, Bank of America, Washington Mutual, US Bank, Ford, Chrysler, Dodge, General Motors, etc., fails. It fails on the millions of workers who work for those companies. The 7 car manufacturers I mentioned employ 390,200 people in America which would be a huge hit to the economy. The 3 banks I mentioned that still exist hold $4.6 trillion that would then have to be spent by the federal government to make sure that their customers keep their life savings. It is scary to think of the Federal Government spending $4.6 trillion in one year making sure that people don't lose their life savings as opposed to spending no more than $1 trillion in order to avoid spending $3.6 trillion dollars more (more than the annual budget) to make sure people have money to live.
Another thing, the GDP of America decreased from 1929 to 1933 when the government under Herbert Hoover's administration did nothing. Hoover could have proposed to Congress to stimulate the economy, but he didn't. In 1933 President Roosevelt proposed a stimulus (New Deal) to bring us out of the depression, which it did.
Food for thought: Where would America have got the money in 1933 to go to war? How did America have enough to go to war in 1941 without running trillion dollar 1940s dollars deficits as opposed to the much smaller amount in 1941-1945?
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Why renewables are the answer to the high costs of fuel.
Everyone knows that gasoline is expensive all over the world. Exxon Mobile makes gigantic profits year after year and there is nothing to stop them. This is because they have a near-perfect monopoly on oil sales throughout the entire world. There is no incentive for them to lower their prices because it will decrease their profit and that is not what a rational company does. Being rational and being benevolent are completely different.
There is a simple solution to this problem. It has been done before too, and it worked. Early 1900s, Standard Oil owned more than 90% of the world's oil reserves making Rockefeller the richest man in the history of the world. He had no reason to decrease the prices because there was no competition and he created the market price. In the 1940s the US government decided that Standard Oil had to be divided, and the prices went down because every company had to take the market price determined by supply and demand.
There are solutions, and they are being taken after being put aside for at least a decade. The US government is funding more research into renewable energies to make them efficient, which will make them viable competitors to internal-combustion engines.
First, the idea of drilling in the arctic is a short term solution. What do we do when the oil there is depleted? We have to move somewhere else and spend more money moving equipment to other places and more research. An extremely short-term and inefficient solution to the oil crisis.
So, the US government funds scientists and they work hard over the next ten years making fuel cells extremely efficient. We need to make sure that the fuel cells have hydrogen to run. The solution to this is simple. Water is a common resource, hydrogen is a limited resource. What we need to invest in is a way to use nuclear fission to separate the hydrogen and oxygen in water atoms and then put them into cars. We put the hydrogen into the cars and you drive off. Simple. The argument that hydrogen is flammmable is true, but not viable because gasoline is also viable. Light a spark next to gasoline and it will start combustion at an uncontrollable rate. Hydrogen may not be stable like water, but neither is gasoline. Nothing in terms of safety will change, and the transportation of hydrogen is silly because we will produce it on-site, which makes it better than gasoline.
Now, who will provide the converters? Companies of course! There will be many companies eventually and people will purchase them, there will be competition, and it will work.
Another thing is, what about the desert? If we can make hydrogen out of water, we can make it out of any thing in the Universe. We just need to improve nuclear fission.
There's the answer to the energy crisis. In essence, it is water.
I don't claim these as my ideas. I am merely putting together ideas from many places.
There is a simple solution to this problem. It has been done before too, and it worked. Early 1900s, Standard Oil owned more than 90% of the world's oil reserves making Rockefeller the richest man in the history of the world. He had no reason to decrease the prices because there was no competition and he created the market price. In the 1940s the US government decided that Standard Oil had to be divided, and the prices went down because every company had to take the market price determined by supply and demand.
There are solutions, and they are being taken after being put aside for at least a decade. The US government is funding more research into renewable energies to make them efficient, which will make them viable competitors to internal-combustion engines.
First, the idea of drilling in the arctic is a short term solution. What do we do when the oil there is depleted? We have to move somewhere else and spend more money moving equipment to other places and more research. An extremely short-term and inefficient solution to the oil crisis.
So, the US government funds scientists and they work hard over the next ten years making fuel cells extremely efficient. We need to make sure that the fuel cells have hydrogen to run. The solution to this is simple. Water is a common resource, hydrogen is a limited resource. What we need to invest in is a way to use nuclear fission to separate the hydrogen and oxygen in water atoms and then put them into cars. We put the hydrogen into the cars and you drive off. Simple. The argument that hydrogen is flammmable is true, but not viable because gasoline is also viable. Light a spark next to gasoline and it will start combustion at an uncontrollable rate. Hydrogen may not be stable like water, but neither is gasoline. Nothing in terms of safety will change, and the transportation of hydrogen is silly because we will produce it on-site, which makes it better than gasoline.
Now, who will provide the converters? Companies of course! There will be many companies eventually and people will purchase them, there will be competition, and it will work.
Another thing is, what about the desert? If we can make hydrogen out of water, we can make it out of any thing in the Universe. We just need to improve nuclear fission.
There's the answer to the energy crisis. In essence, it is water.
I don't claim these as my ideas. I am merely putting together ideas from many places.
Monday, March 1, 2010
On Perry v. Schwarzenegger
To find the information on the current case see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_v._Schwarzenegger and http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/tag/perry-v-schwarzenegger
I think this case is extremely important. Gay rights are just right in a free society for the following reasons:
1. Love makes a Family. People need to have the right to marry whoever they want. If we don't give people the right to love they will be miserable for no reason, and anyways, healthy families are built on love.
2. The arguments made are based on religion. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. This is the American creed. The arguments against gay marriage are based on religion and gay marriage should be allowed because of this.
3. They are no different than heterosexual families. We need to get past the idea that women and men are completely different. People generally don't follow the extreme right's assumption that they are different. I have met many people and people are diverse beyond what form their body takes.
4. Connecting to my second point, other nations that punish gay marriage include Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia who kill gays among others. Nations that allow gay marriage are Canada, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, and Belgium. There are also some parts in America and Mexico City. We need to decide to side with free nations as opposed to genocidal (Sudan), unfree (Saudi Arabia), unstable (Somalia), and bureaucratic nations (Iran).
5. People that go against Gay marriage include Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Osama bin Laden, and many others.
6. They are a minority and are committing a victimless crime.
Because of these 6 reasons, gay marriage must be allowed in the United States of America.
Originally written on 18 January 2010
I think this case is extremely important. Gay rights are just right in a free society for the following reasons:
1. Love makes a Family. People need to have the right to marry whoever they want. If we don't give people the right to love they will be miserable for no reason, and anyways, healthy families are built on love.
2. The arguments made are based on religion. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. This is the American creed. The arguments against gay marriage are based on religion and gay marriage should be allowed because of this.
3. They are no different than heterosexual families. We need to get past the idea that women and men are completely different. People generally don't follow the extreme right's assumption that they are different. I have met many people and people are diverse beyond what form their body takes.
4. Connecting to my second point, other nations that punish gay marriage include Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia who kill gays among others. Nations that allow gay marriage are Canada, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, and Belgium. There are also some parts in America and Mexico City. We need to decide to side with free nations as opposed to genocidal (Sudan), unfree (Saudi Arabia), unstable (Somalia), and bureaucratic nations (Iran).
5. People that go against Gay marriage include Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Osama bin Laden, and many others.
6. They are a minority and are committing a victimless crime.
Because of these 6 reasons, gay marriage must be allowed in the United States of America.
Originally written on 18 January 2010
The Greatest Threats to American Freedom
I have talked to many people about political issues and through these I have grown to become more centrist. I am taking Economics at my local community college and have become a lot more centrist than I used to be, but also have found that some policies make sense, regulating health care, not being afraid of intervening in the economy through a Stimulus or New Deal, or looking over banks, keeping them from doing shady deals that put the economy of the entire world in danger.
There are many threats, Terrorism, drugs, shady deals, there are too many to count! But when you get down to it, the one threat that I think is the biggest threat is two closely related threats, 1. The distrust of all elected Politicians regardless of party, and 2. The fear of knowledge.
I define my first one is the belief that no matter what you say the politicians will always only do what they want and will not listen. The second one means being afraid of Websters, meaning not looking things up, which means when you reach a big word you won't expand your vocabulary.
This threatens us all because it makes so that the corrupt politicians really can do whatever they want because the average American will not look up what their Representative, Senator, Governor, or President are doing beyond the corrupt news media on both sides of the aisle. (the only American sources I have seen that are neutral are NPR, and CNET.) People honestly believe that the politicians are out to get everyone, and they don't care about the people at the bottom and the middle. They need to look at what their representatives, senators, and the President are doing from an open mind, and listen to any addresses that they might have.
One prime example is someone I love. He/She said that Obama isn't for bipartisianship. He/She said listening to the State of the Union was a waste of time, and doesn't listen to the Weekly Addresses. He/She frightened me by his fear of Democrats. He/She decided to look at summaries of the State of Union and assumed he/she heard everything. By not doing this he/she is worse than a slave because he/she is being manipulated every day by Fox news spreading only the things that make Obama look bad. He missed one important detail from the speech and I quote: "That's why I've called for a bipartisan fiscal commission, modeled on a proposal by Republican Judd Gregg and Democrat Kent Conrad." ~Barack Obama State of the Union. The summaries wouldn't report this because it makes him look good. It isn't the President who is locking out Republicans, it is the Senate and the House. They should be ashamed. He didn't hear that or any of the Weekly addresses, which means that he doesn't hear this message. When Rush Limbaugh, or Fox quotes the President they will quote "We want the taxpayers’ money back, and we’re going to collect every dime." which makes it sound like he will hike taxes up. What he really said was, "Many originally feared that most of the $700 billion in TARP money would be lost. But when my administration came into office, we put in place rigorous rules for accountability and transparency, which cut the cost of the bailout dramatically. We have now recovered most of the money we provided to the banks. That’s good news, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s not good enough. We want the taxpayers’ money back, and we’re going to collect every dime." The first one makes it sound like he will hike up taxes on families, when in truth, he will actually be having Banks pay back the stimulus, just like a loan.
Second, I hear people say that someone proposed an amendment, but they won't look and see if it passed the vote. You can propose as many pork amendments as you like, but if they don't pass the vote it won't happen.
Finally, there is the problem, but how does it hurt our freedom? It makes it so that when Congresspeople vote on a bill without anyone reading it they will all be fired if they do enough serious offenses. When the media says that Congressman Joe Bob from Mecca made an amendment that would give all Meccans a tax break on said tax, they will assume it is part of the bill. They do not go to the bill, download the text, and then press ctrl-f and type in Mecca, and then see that the amendment isn't part of the bill because it was voted down! This makes it so that good legislation is shot down when it could save the economy. Yes, I am talking about the Health Care bill. We need to not be afraid of long texts and know that we can pull a single uncommon word out of Ulysses on a computer in less than 10 seconds if it runs. We must do this. If we don't than lobbyists that are not there for charity will continue to rule Capital Hill. If we do, than we will not shop at those places, they will close, which means that the purpose of lobbying has gone away.
America, please do not be afraid of your politicians. They are literally your servant and if enough people look and report the truth of what they are doing they will have their careers ruined, which solves the problem of corruption because it will not benefit anyone. If every able American spent at least 5 minutes a day, watched the speeches, looked into the bills, than they would be unable to do the amendments because their in-boxes would be full and then be voted out at the next election. Democracy is strong and beautiful, and good votes rely on information, but as the display at my local fire station says "The Majority Rules, but only if the Majority Votes."
How to win the War on Terror
The most pressing issue today is how to defeat terrorism. Personally, I am not a Christian and don't want to be, I'm UU so I feel that while the Terrorists are treating people in my country as Christians that what I say here is not trying to expand any religion, but to save lives. People have the right to worship
The radical so-called Muslims at the top have perverted their religion and have distorted it to where they worship one out of 5 pillars, Jihad. Jihad means "struggle for the faith." One American Religion, Mormonism has a practice that I believe is supposed to be what Jihad is meant to be, to spread the faith and word of God. The Quran says in the Cow: "62. Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians,- any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve." The Terrorists conveniently forget this all the time. By fighting the Western World, which is mostly Christian, they are going against the very religion they say they are part of. They are no Muslims. The Quran has all the major figures of Christianity and Judaism. Becausethey believe in what Jesus taught, than they technically believe in "love your neighbor," which means that by fighting they are further Blasphemizing against their professed religion. There is also the fact that if they scroll the Quran they will find that some parts bash Christians while others don't, just like any old religious book that was written by multiple people.
This brings me to my major point. Because the people of Afghanistan and other nations where they get there recruits from mostly can't read, the way to defeat terrorism is for peace-loving nations around the world to send people to those places to teach people how to read so that they can read the Qur'an and the Bible so that they can know that by going with the terrorists they are blaspheming against their religion. If this is done thousands if not millions of lives will be saved and Peace can be on Earth and the Human Race may prosper and this type of Evil may go off the face of the planet. It won't stop all of them, because there are people who are mean and unintelligent who don't ask questions and want to mean things in many places. But if more people in the Middle East and North Africa who are Muslim are able to refer back to the source of their religion, more people will decide to follow their religion and do what is right to every good person's perspective, no matter what his/her religion is.
Originally posted on January 3, 2010.
The radical so-called Muslims at the top have perverted their religion and have distorted it to where they worship one out of 5 pillars, Jihad. Jihad means "struggle for the faith." One American Religion, Mormonism has a practice that I believe is supposed to be what Jihad is meant to be, to spread the faith and word of God. The Quran says in the Cow: "62. Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians,- any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve." The Terrorists conveniently forget this all the time. By fighting the Western World, which is mostly Christian, they are going against the very religion they say they are part of. They are no Muslims. The Quran has all the major figures of Christianity and Judaism. Becausethey believe in what Jesus taught, than they technically believe in "love your neighbor," which means that by fighting they are further Blasphemizing against their professed religion. There is also the fact that if they scroll the Quran they will find that some parts bash Christians while others don't, just like any old religious book that was written by multiple people.
This brings me to my major point. Because the people of Afghanistan and other nations where they get there recruits from mostly can't read, the way to defeat terrorism is for peace-loving nations around the world to send people to those places to teach people how to read so that they can read the Qur'an and the Bible so that they can know that by going with the terrorists they are blaspheming against their religion. If this is done thousands if not millions of lives will be saved and Peace can be on Earth and the Human Race may prosper and this type of Evil may go off the face of the planet. It won't stop all of them, because there are people who are mean and unintelligent who don't ask questions and want to mean things in many places. But if more people in the Middle East and North Africa who are Muslim are able to refer back to the source of their religion, more people will decide to follow their religion and do what is right to every good person's perspective, no matter what his/her religion is.
Originally posted on January 3, 2010.
On the Health Care Bill.
Here are the facts. If the bill works as it is supposed to it could reduce the cost of medicine the federal government has to spend greatly. If everyone had health insurance, like people in Washington need car insurance, than tax payers won't ever need to cover these people again and they will be less of a drain on tax payer's dollars. 1/4 dollars spent by the Federal government in FY 2000- FY 2007 was spent on health care. source: http://www.usaspending.gov/source if we bring down the cost of health care by requiring people to be fiscally prepared for health visits, the Federal deficit could be eliminated while decreasing taxes for ALL AMERICANS. If we did this than the national debt will decrease to nothing and another major drain on America's fiscal resources could be eliminated reducing taxes EVEN FURTHER.
That is what we must do if we are to continue to function as a stable society. However, there is one issue that disturbs me during the passage of this bill.
The Republican Party is living in the past. They are afraid of big government, but more than that, they are afraid of Socializing things. It doesn't matter how big the government is as long as it is organized to increase efficiency and takes care of the people that put them in office. Other free nations in Europe, Canada, and others socialize medicine which raises taxes, but eliminates the cost beyond that. There is a reason you don't have health insurance in Canada, it is because you don't need it. If there are problems with how quickly services are provided on a 20 year old system, it should be perfected, but that is their issue, not ours. Other nations nationalize things that help their people live not for power, but to improve their people's lives.
The fear of Socialization goes back to the most evil American who held office. A man who was so evil, that even though he was 1 out of 46 Senators, an entire era is named after him. Joseph McCarthy. We need to get past his dogmatic scare tactics and go forth onto a new era. To live in the past does not help anyone. We have no choice but to leave his ideas.
I am sure it will work and look forward to a day where the costs of government in that area are reduced so that we never have to borrow money ever again.
Originally written on December 24, 2009.
That is what we must do if we are to continue to function as a stable society. However, there is one issue that disturbs me during the passage of this bill.
The Republican Party is living in the past. They are afraid of big government, but more than that, they are afraid of Socializing things. It doesn't matter how big the government is as long as it is organized to increase efficiency and takes care of the people that put them in office. Other free nations in Europe, Canada, and others socialize medicine which raises taxes, but eliminates the cost beyond that. There is a reason you don't have health insurance in Canada, it is because you don't need it. If there are problems with how quickly services are provided on a 20 year old system, it should be perfected, but that is their issue, not ours. Other nations nationalize things that help their people live not for power, but to improve their people's lives.
The fear of Socialization goes back to the most evil American who held office. A man who was so evil, that even though he was 1 out of 46 Senators, an entire era is named after him. Joseph McCarthy. We need to get past his dogmatic scare tactics and go forth onto a new era. To live in the past does not help anyone. We have no choice but to leave his ideas.
I am sure it will work and look forward to a day where the costs of government in that area are reduced so that we never have to borrow money ever again.
Originally written on December 24, 2009.
Every American's Power
I am an American, and I love my country just like 300 million other people. I have seen a lot of lies being passed around in the media recently having to do with the past year's deficit. I was bothered by this because they didn't quite sound right, were consistently different, and sounded too high. I was right, they were lying.
If every American went online, at home or at a library, we should all go to one website filled with facts and statistics that give us bundles of information. It is www.usaspending.gov which has every federal report from 1999 to 2007 and the information for the past year's spending by category.
I also must say to people who have been throwing out inaccurate numbers on this past year's spending, you aren't helping your country by starting rumors. It is time to stop playing party politics, and to be one nation indivisible.
Okay, down to facts, the number that usaspending.gov gives for Fiscal Year 2009, adding up every category is $1,000,232,810,837. One trillion dollars!!! This sounds like a lot of money, and it is. However, you have to keep in mind that this country has 307,711,711 people (at 12:01 on October 16, 2009 source: census.gov) so that means, to put it in perspective, the government is spending $3,250.55 per every American, (source wikipedia.org) or about the amount a person would have to pay in tuition to go to a community college for one year. (collegeboard.com)
I could stop here and those facts would be good enough, but a trillion bucks is a lot of money! $3,250.55 is still a fair chunk of change! We need to put in perspective how much that is for our country's budget. Let's put it in perspective.... In 2007, which is the last year I can get an official fiscal report for, the averaged amount for the two approximations for spending on the fiscal report, is $2,556,213,000,000. (page #1 or the 27th page on the pdf) To average that with the population of the United States on July 1, 2007, (source census.gov) which was 301,621,157. The $ per capita is $8,474.91. That is more than twice the amount spent in Fiscal Year 2009.
Take these as you will.
United We Stand, Divided we fall. Out of many, one. Let Freedom Ring.
Originally written on October 16, 2009.
If every American went online, at home or at a library, we should all go to one website filled with facts and statistics that give us bundles of information. It is www.usaspending.gov which has every federal report from 1999 to 2007 and the information for the past year's spending by category.
I also must say to people who have been throwing out inaccurate numbers on this past year's spending, you aren't helping your country by starting rumors. It is time to stop playing party politics, and to be one nation indivisible.
Okay, down to facts, the number that usaspending.gov gives for Fiscal Year 2009, adding up every category is $1,000,232,810,837. One trillion dollars!!! This sounds like a lot of money, and it is. However, you have to keep in mind that this country has 307,711,711 people (at 12:01 on October 16, 2009 source: census.gov) so that means, to put it in perspective, the government is spending $3,250.55 per every American, (source wikipedia.org) or about the amount a person would have to pay in tuition to go to a community college for one year. (collegeboard.com)
I could stop here and those facts would be good enough, but a trillion bucks is a lot of money! $3,250.55 is still a fair chunk of change! We need to put in perspective how much that is for our country's budget. Let's put it in perspective.... In 2007, which is the last year I can get an official fiscal report for, the averaged amount for the two approximations for spending on the fiscal report, is $2,556,213,000,000. (page #1 or the 27th page on the pdf) To average that with the population of the United States on July 1, 2007, (source census.gov) which was 301,621,157. The $ per capita is $8,474.91. That is more than twice the amount spent in Fiscal Year 2009.
Take these as you will.
United We Stand, Divided we fall. Out of many, one. Let Freedom Ring.
Originally written on October 16, 2009.
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