Tag Archives: government

Vote…

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…for change.

For the past six or more years, I’ve been watching my country — and my town — deteriorate as the result of bad decisions by our leaders.

We go to war in Iraq, spending $341.4 million per day. Thousands of people die — our soldiers and Iraqi civilians — and many thousands more are permanently maimed with lost limbs and worse. We lose the respect of many nations because of our arrogance and stubborn refusal to “lose” a War we can’t win and probably never should have started in the first place.

Our country is in financial meltdown because of bad lending practices and other policies of greedy financial institutions. The “flip this house” mentality has caused thousands of people to invest in properties now worth far less than they paid. Rather than pay mortgages they can’t afford, they’ve been mailing their keys to the mortgage holders, leaving them with properties they have to maintain and sell in a market they’re not willing to lend to.

Businesses have sent thousands of manufacturing and support jobs overseas, leaving fewer job opportunities at home for Americans. With the economy tanking, thousands of people are losing their jobs every month. People without jobs don’t have money to spend on the goods and services still offered in this country, so they’re not buying. Less revenue for U.S. businesses forces them to cut staff even further. It’s a vicious circle.

The country has split into two factions: conservatives, who strive to force their values on everyone, and liberals, who want the true freedom this country promises. Among those freedoms are the freedom of speech, so recently misunderstood by a vice presidential candidate. Yet when we speak out about what’s wrong with this country, we’re labeled as unpatriotic traitors.

Clearly, the country is sick and needs a cure.

I’m voting tomorrow and I urge every U.S. citizen reading this to do the same. It’s only by voting that we can make a difference in our country. Vote for a change. Vote to make things better. Vote because it’s your right and your responsibility.

And don’t let the polls con you into staying home. Your candidate needs your support.

Get out and vote.

Bail Out

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So much for bail out.

Got this this morning from my friend Ray, who probably picked it up elsewhere on the ‘Net.

Back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it.

They failed and it closed.

Now we are trusting the economy of our country to a pack of nit-wits who couldn’t make money running a whore house and selling booze?

If this is yours and it’s copyright protected, let me know and I’ll pull it immediately.

The Children of Men

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Futuristic social commentary by P.D. James.

The Children of MenI just finished The Children of Men by P.D. James. James, who normally writes mysteries featuring her series detective, Adam Dalgliesh, wrote instead of a futuristic world 25 years after the birth of the last-born child. In the world of this book, there are no children, no babies, and no hope for new human life.

James paints a sad picture of that world. Schools are converted into housing for the elderly, colleges now teach courses of interest to adults who don’t have their time occupied by their offspring. Playgrounds are gone. The government is trying to centralize the population in big cities so it’s easier to provide services as the population dwindles and only a handful of elderly people are left.

[This might sound weird, but it reminded me a bit of the retirement town I live in. Of course, there are some children and young people here, but the majority of residents and voters are retired so there isn’t much emphasis on things that would benefit young people. The local school board, for example, was unable to pass a school bond in the most recent vote — people don’t want to foot the bill for education when they don’t have kids in the system. The local Center for the Arts released its 2007/2008 schedule last month, and for the first time since opening about 5 years ago, there isn’t a single family-oriented program on the schedule. Are they giving up on children here in Wickenburg?]

The book has a hero: 50-year-old Theo. Theo is first cousin of the Warden of England, Xan, a self-made dictator first elected as Prime Minister years ago. Xan makes extreme decisions that benefit the apathetic public, by enhancing safety and reducing the cost and bother of supporting the aging population. But a handful of people aren’t happy with his decisions and want to stop him. They go to Theo, hoping he can convince Xan to change things. To say much more would be a spoiler, but I will mention that there appears to be hope for the world when a woman becomes pregnant.

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I enjoyed the book’s fast pace after its initially slow start. A lot of background information was presented in the form of Theo’s personal diary before a third person narrator stepped in and picked up the story. It wasn’t a long book — I read it over a weekend — and the pages turned quickly. Now I’m waiting for the movie based on the book to appear in a Netflix envelope in my mailbox. I have a feeling that the movie will be a lot more exciting than the book, focusing on the events that occur after the pregnancy is discovered, Hollywoodized for maximum visual impact.

Did I like the book? Yes, I did. It made me think. And in today’s world of eye candy entertainment, that’s saying a lot.