Too Much Regulation or Too Little?

     The answer is yes to both.  I will say that where regulations are needed such as Wall Street there aren't nearly enough the recent economic crash can be cited, although that is another issue for another post.

     As those who know me personally can attest to I love Lemonade, or more accurately 
I LOVE LEMONADE!!!!!!!  And I was surprised, I haven't seen nearly as many as I used to so being the lemonade addict that I am I wanted to know why.  You know what I found, I found that the police are actively going after kids lemonade stands.

     So I can go into a fast food joint whose tables haven't been washed since opening day, go to Taco Bell and order a Beef Taco without any real meat, go to a Wendy's whose floor is vacuumed about once every 10 years but a five year old can't sell lemonade?

     I have four words.

BACK THE F*CK OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     Was that clear enough, how about solving the real problem, no one has ever gotten sick from buying a 10 year old's lemonade, they might actually have been helped by being hydrated after riding their bike in a record heatwave.  The job of the officers of the law is to protect and serve.  The only thing they are protecting is well there not actually protecting anything.  Their just taking away a child's pocket money.

     Their parents are out of work they want a new toy what better way than to cell lemonade?  I know I made money by preforming magic shows, $0.25 per trick per person.  I didn't see the need to go and get a permit.  If the cops are really that bored there are a lot of other pointless laws they can enforce.

Laws More important to enforce:
The law that prohibits the playing of domino's on Sunday, this is obviously a large public danger and must be treated as such.
Another Law that should take priority is the law prohibiting the wearing of a mask in public.
I could go on and on forever.  But I wont.  Do you want to know why?  I'll tell you anyway, BECAUSE IT IS POINTLESS AND ABOUT AS RELEVANT AS SHUTTING DOWN A LEMONADE STAND.

CULTure

     Yes the capitalization of the first four letters was on purpose.  Every society has given a certain idol status to it's celebrities.  In short they have their own Cult of Personality.  Some say that it isn't harmful to our society.  I disagree.

     Look at how hard it is in this country to convict a celebrity, at how difficult it is to prosecute them.  And how they are treated by the law.  Ordinary people are held to the letter of the law, every day of their lives.  Celebrities seem to see the law as something to use when convenient to them.  And we allow it.

     This society and every society has a mandate to see that all people regardless of status are held equally before the law.  By refusing to do so we in effect create a shadowed Aristocracy.

The Supreme Court Ruling And The Future Of Healthcare

     The Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Healthcare Law Passed in 2010 is in my opinion the right one.  Although I despise the current system in regards to healthcare, I feel as though it is better than nothing.

     For this is not the end of the struggle in this country over Healthcare, but the beginning.  It is the beginning of healthcare as a fundamental right in this country.  As shocking as this may seem to some it reminds me of Plessy v. Ferguson.  From which we got the "Separate but equal" the following was copied and pasted from www.watson.org

"That [the Separate Car Act] does not conflict with the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery...is too clear for argument...A statute which implies merely a legal distinction between the white and colored races -- a distinction which is founded in the color of the two races, and which must always exist so long as white men are distinguished from the other race by color -- has no tendency to destroy the legal equality of the two races...The object of the [Fourteenth A]mendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either." [5]

The lone dissenter, Justice John Harlan, showed incredible foresight when he wrote

"Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law...In my opinion, the judgment this day rendered will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott case...The present decision, it may well be apprehended, will not only stimulate aggressions, more or less brutal and irritating, upon the admitted rights of colored citizens, but will encourage the belief that it is possible, by means of state enactments, to defeat the beneficient purposes which the people of the United States had in view when they adopted the recent amendments of the Constitution." [6]

     Justice John Harlan was a man who was truly wise and although a much different case, his words cannot be denied, as they ring true despite the passage of time.  "Our Constitution ...neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens"  In the preamble of our constitution the Founding Fathers in the name of the "We The People"  ordained and established this constitution for the United States of America.  Now healthcare does discriminate on a defacto class basis, not on color but on wealth.

     The law passed in 2010 will work on giving more Americans access to the franchise, not of voting but of healthcare through insurance.  In order to achieve healthcare equality, and quality in this nation we must all be guaranteed an equal level of care, this will be fought by the insurance corporations, but it is a fight we must prepare for it is necessary that we win.

     In order to speed up this process laws must be made which prohibit all health insurance companies from creating and selling plans only in certain states, a Republican idea to drive down costs.  This would give more power to the federal government to regulate it as interstate commerce.

     Once health insurance companies simplify their various plans and all options are available to all people throughout the country, legislation can be written, a rebirth of the public option, or as some have called it a medicare for all.  This legislation should be written so that this public plan will cover all required health needs of the people.  This will guarantee a basic equal level of healthcare for all citizens, and with all citizens in the pool it's costs will be lower.  Health insurance will then cover all other nonessential aspects of the healthcare industry, and supplement the government public plan lowering costs even more for the consumer.

     Conservatives such as the infamous John Stossel will say that we already have the best healthcare and that numerically based evaluations are not an adequate measure. and had this toy say "a country with high-quality care overall but 'unequal distribution' would rank below a country with lower quality care but equal distribution." And he is right, you can get the best care here in many respects, but only the best can afford it.  Another thing to take into consideration is that their people are healthier from the start, their water is held up to higher standards, as is their air, they produce less harmful emissions in lesser quantities and their healthcare systems focus on keeping a person healthy not just treating them when they are sick, hence our great pill pushing culture.


     John Stossel and his peers would love to live in the Victorian age, technology was constantly evolving and changing more and more products were invented and only a select few could afford them.  Society has evolved from that era in time just as we have evolved from the days of slavery,  and just like the days of slavery they must be remembered but never should we return to them. 

Moderate Republican's An Endangered Species? or Extinct

     Where have they gone?  It is as if they have all disappeared.  And the sad thing is that quite a few have died in office, most have lost their bids for re-election, to the conservative wing of the party, and of the once near tie between the moderates and conservative republicans only 11 of them remain in the US Senate.  Some such as the most notable John McCain a man whom at one time I truly respected has had to move to the right to survive politically.

     Is it such a wonder that partisanship has gridlocked our nations lawmakers.  The electorate has managed to oust the moderates those who would make an actual compromise of give a little take a little are now gone.    The ultra-conservatives in the US Senate and now the house expect the democrats to do all the giving, and until they put their foot-down they remain, well jackasses.  When these new conservatives ask for bipartisan support for their ideas it is not as an equal partner, but as master and servant.

     They would ask for our unconditional surrender on the left, for only an unconditional surrender on our part to them would be bipartisan, this can not be done.  Although I am far to the left wing ideologically I will settle for half the loaf at a time, I will not cut off my nose to spite my face, and thus I will compromise.

     Our nation, our very Constitution is but a list of compromises, we would not be a nation if America's founding fathers could not compromise with one another.  There are only a few times in history when a true compromise does not leave both sides unsatisfied, but that is the nature of the beast.  For the general will is composed by too great a multitude to be singular.

The Gold Silver or Bronze Plan

     Where is the will of the people?  O of course now I remember, it is on life support.  Why would I say that the will of the people is on life support; well I'll tell you why.  It is our healthcare, and contrary to many other issues it will kill you.  It will kill your friends, your families and everyone close to you.

     But before it does it will drain you dry, it will take your house, your car and all of your worldly processions.  Then it will be you with the worn unwashed cloths.  Slowly wasting away on the steps of the hospitals of the greatest nation on earth.  A bottle of liquor on the ground next to you as you try to forget what promise your life had.  What dreams you had, the un-reached summits, and a life never truly lived.

     As quality healthcare becomes more and more un affordable to the average American this not a vision out of a novel fiction, this is quickly becoming a reality for many.

     Saint George slayed the dragon, Hercules slayed the Hydra, we face a monster more fearsome than any dragon, and more challenging than any Hydra. We face our most dangerous enemy, our own apathy, our own complacency.  This is the enemy of virtue, an enemy greater than any King, and that is our willingness to concede defeat to this criminal syndicate of an industry.  Earlier I said wealth was not evil, what was evil was how it was used and acquired.

     This industry as it is in America is an evil.  A conscious and deadly evil whose only purpose is to make a profit.  Until it is reformed or prohibited it will continue to do harm to our society to our brothers and sisters, to ourselves.

The Syrian Revolution

     The violence in Syria seems to have no end. But before blames Bashar al-Assad as I will confess myself guilty to have done.  Let's actually look at the mans past.  He was the second son of Hafiz al-Assad his father who took over Syria in 1971 as the head of the Ba'th party.  In 1994 his older brother Basil, the heir apparent to his father was killed in an automobile accident.  

     Now what is interesting is that Bashar was not the first possible successor to the title of heir apparent, but the youngest child   Maher al-Assad, who followed Basil into the military and already a high ranking officer in the Syrian military, who had strong connections with several other high commanders in the Syrian military.

     Why would Hafiz make his son Bashar his heir?  On the surface most would say "now he is the eldest son, so he should be the heir"  Although it was and still is a single party system it was still a political curve-ball.  If anything bringing in Bashar would destabilize Hafiz's reign over the military officer corp. who would and did favor Maher.  It is unlikely that we will ever know the situation but we can draw our own conclusions in an intelligent manner.

     Bashar took over in 2000 after the death of Hafiz, there was still talk of Maher ascending to the presidency, however he was too "hot tempered" and Bashar was ultimately placed in the office of President.  I use the word place because before Bashar became the President of Syria Maher took over the Republican Guard, the forces which are placed in Damascus to protect the capitol.  

     Based on these facts it is my own conclusion that Bashar has been puppetized by his brother Maher.  

     Bashar has been seen by many in the region and around the world as a reformer, who worked to weaken the  Ba'th party's power in Syria, loosened his father's restrictions on freedom of expression and pulled back the Syrian army that had occupied Lebanon since 1976.

     He was reelected in 2007 by an overwhelming majority, many authorities call the election a sham, and it probably was.  Yet his popularity in Syria was high, and from what information I can gather before Arab Spring did not seem as if it was a cult of personality produced by pure fear.  

 

     Then Arab Spring came and swept through the Middle East.  One would think that the public would support Bashar, but no suddenly violent uprisings by "pro-democracy" protesters spiked around the country.    

     How did Bashar wish to respond?    

     

     It was not with his brothers military reprisals, but with further civil reform, he changed his cabinet, and ministers, he abolished the Syrian Emergency Laws, and he even dissolved the State Supreme Security Court. 

     How did the public respond when these actions where executed and implemented, when their demands were being addressed, they did not go back to their homes, more violence then ever before.

     A student of history can't help but be reminded of King Louis XVI who was sent to the guillotine, a man who was politically weak, dependent on his advisers and a man who just wanted to be a locksmith.  

     

Revisionist History And It's Attack On Virtue

     One of the things that I love about history is how it can be debated, how open to interpretation it remains, as if it was a poem to be dissected mercilessness with all the subtly that a high school English class process's.  But one thing that disturbs me is revisionist history, making up facts and presenting them as historical facts.  It is slightly disturbing, and it continues to happen without much of a public response.

     The founding fathers of our nation are given near Olympian status, we forget that they were but men with many faults, who never claimed to be gods and were more then ready to declare their own human frailty and did realize that to err is to be human.  They could not create a perfect system but they endeavored to create one that would produce the greatest possible results, and the methods to check it should it ever overstep it's bounds.

     If we acknowledge this simple fact then we can be better citizens, and better people, enrich our society in the way that truly matters.  We can live in a land ruled by virtue should we so chose, without a terror, for the informed citizen is the citizen who process's virtue.  It is in this aspect in which I do b believe Robespierre to be incorrect.   Virtue without terror is not powerless, for the enlightened citizen is the citizen who will safeguard the republic.

The Cause And Solution To All Life's Problems

     No I am not speaking of alcohol as one familiar with the Simpsons would believe.  No I am speaking of wealth.  I do not believe as most do that wealth is a good thing.  Nor as the few do, who believe it to be a bad thing.

     What makes wealth  a problem in our society and any society is how it is acquired and how it is used.
   
      Today's economic crises is the result of exploitative and unsustainable business practices, that allowed a temporary boom that few profited from and than many suffered from when the bubble popped, even those who never made the "bad decision".  
   
     Greed has been the greatest motive for the worst of man's crimes.  It has driven the machine that we call imperialism and will continue to do so until society as a whole changes the way it looks at wealth.

     Wealth is just a tool, and like all tools it must be used for the betterment of society, refusing to do so directly harms society.  Which must make all question if wealth is not being used for the betterment of society than what exactly is it's purpose.

"What is the aim we want to achieve? The peaceful enjoyment of liberty and equality; the reign of that eternal justice whose laws are engraved not in stone and marble, but in the hearts of all men, even in the heart of the slave who forgets them or of the tyrant who disowns them." 

The Incorruptible Maximilien Robespierre