I have a new Blog

I have a new home. For the few who actually read this blog, just follow the link here to get to my new blog!

The Nature of Evil

I've been thinking of evil and of what it is and even if it is. Tonight, I'm toying with the idea that evil isn't inherent. It's not what someone is but it's what someone does. Case in point; most of the fundamentalist Christians i run across are the happiest, most caring people, you would ever hope to come across. They are genuinely good people.

However, when they get into positions of authority they most often pass the most (sorry) God awful policy it's ever been our sorry fortune to witness. Hate against sexual minorities, hate against a woman doing with her own body and life as she chooses, weird ideas about taking government out of our lives in all the ways it can best help people with, and on and on.

These are times in which a large section of our country view the other sections as evil. That's extreme, but extremity in and of itself isn't what's evil. What's evil is acting on that extremity without regard to Jesus' commandment to 'do unto others as you would have done unto yourself.'

Evil is a verb, not a noun.

Little Bright Creatures

I just created a blog where I'll be putting what I've learned about economics into. I wouldn't expect much, but if it helps me learn I'll be worth it !

The Loose Cannon Mavericks

The lies the McCain camp are telling are wrapped their cloak of the "I'm a reformer image" and they press that image so hard that i would suggest that it's too difficult to try to fight it. Instead, we should do a little political ju-jitsu and agree with the McCains. Yes, they ARE mavericks. Who else but mavericks would reuse the same discredited lies? They are such mavericks that they are loose cannons that will destroy this country in their wild stampede to power. If the O's get on that one message and beat it to death I think before long maverick would equal loose cannon.

PS. I sent this as an email to Talking Points Memo. Just in case we never see hair of this again I put it up here.

Be Careful With Your Vote

McCain may be sending odd absentee ballots to people who live in battle ground states. Be sure you know who you're voting for !

2 tricks

Voter Caging

Fake Ballots

Voter turnout is high for Democrats this year (or should i say democrats?) so one tactic that will be employed by the Republicans will be in challenging those registrations and votes. Like in my fake ballot example, if everything isn't perfect on the absentee ballot it will be rejected. So make sure check that you're a eligible voter AND that your ballot even has a check box that you can check. It's a bogus requirement but voter suppression has long been a tactic in US politics and those little details get many every year.

No Game, No How

After Sarah Pailin accepted the nomination, all hell broke loose. Republican were now energized. The Dems were now scared and wide eyed and pleading with their candidate to make some move to counter the R attack. What was happening? Why did it all go so badly so fast? What was the world coming to????

Only, it was all gas.

There's no there there. Peel away Sarah Pailin's appeal to the fanatic faithful and what do you get? Nothing. OK. She's bright. But, there's still nothing there. She has had up til now no interest in the larger world around her. Until recently, in fact, she was a member of an Alaska successionist movement. In short, the R's have nothing.

Everything since the nominations.... all the mud flying, all the innuendo, all the lies, the frenetic attacks and assaults this week, and what? This week we see them repositioning on global warming; Sarah never meant to say that global warming was a myth (even though you could tell by her face she knew it was a lie as she was saying it to Charlie Gibson).. and i predict you will see much much more repositioning in the weeks to come. Why?

Because they have nothing. They have no positions and they said it themselves that they were running on character. Well, that only goes so far. You see, LAST election and the election before that they ran on character. However, the last two elections they also had simple and easy positions to defend.

They had tax cuts, gay marriage, and the usual host of conservative talking points which have mostly been cut out from under them this season. You see, in the past even, when they ran on character, they still had some platform. This year they have nothing but smoke and fun house mirrors. They have distraction and spectacle.

Yes, they have the conservative religious base, and that means that they have more numbers with them than they would have otherwise. But, it's not enough and they need to keep the excitement of the easily swayed undecideds. They have to keep those fickle voters that go with whoever they think is a winner or who reminds them of who they are. Would you stay with someone who changes positions quickly and who all of a sudden has most of the position sof his opponant?

Would you support a man who consistently and provably lies and distorts? Many will.. but the peopel they need will abandon him and go for Obama. Or stay at home and sit on their hands.

NO Blinking!

NO second guessing Israel! They are completely in charge here, ya hear? No blinking!

So, our foreign policy would basically become an international game of "chicken."

The one that that doesn't charge blindly forth heeding Israel (who's interests are we guarding anyway, theirs or ours? O.o) loses.