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News Archives - Posts #47-55, 4-8 to 4-19
#55
2004-4-19, 23:16 PDT
Another crosspost from OSP:
I am left to wonder what the point of idolizing icons is. Take the US Constitution: it is an icon for almost all Americans, and consequently most people consider unconstitutionality as a valid point against something. Just look at all the "X is unconstitutional" arguments almost everyone in this country uses: gun nuts point to the second amendment as an argument against gun control, secularists stick to the first amendment rather than show why separation of church and state is good, etc. Very few gun grabbers, on the other hand, will say something like, "the second amendment outlaws many if not all forms of gun control; gun control is a good thing; hence, the second amendment needs to be repealed"; fundamentalists often try to exploit the vagueness of the first amendment coupled with out-of-context quotes rather than say, "the establishment clause of the first amendment needs to be repealed." Some do, but they are in the minority.
This brings me to the question: what is so good about the US Constitution that justifies revering it? Its phrasing, after all, is vague, outdated, and redundant, and in fact the same principles and points expressed in it can be expressed much more clearly and concisely. For instance, the total number of words in the various amendments concerning voting rights exceeds 200, whereas the clause, "All United States citizens aged eighteen or more shall have full voting rights" has only thirteen; adding, "except convicted felons" will increase it to sixteen. And yet the patchwork system increases the number of words to more than ten times what is needed.
Further, the US Constitution is full of loopholes. Disenfranchisement based on property qualifications, sexual orientation, or religious tests is still permitted. The eighth amendment is void of content (anything can be justified as "not cruel or unusual," and anything can similarly be attacked as "cruel and unusual"). Amendments four to seven are confusing and, again, don't fully protect the rights they mean to protect. The "no person shall" or "Congress shall make no law" phrasing allows the government to subcontract the violation of the said rights, whereas the more modern phrasing of "every person has the right" does not.
Then, there's the point that most of the document was written in the 1780s. It speaks of militias and grants rights to states that are almost on a par with what nation-states have today. The electoral college had become an outdated drag on democracy by 1820, when it first deprived the democratically-elected candidate of the presidency. The right to bear arms may have made sense in 1787; today it only causes more crime. The document doesn't even mention monetary policy or a central bank.
And yet people revere the document, despite these immense flaws. The argument that "it holds the country together" doesn't hold water; 200 years of democratic tradition do. It is similar to the United States' founders; some of their ideas are good and some are bad, and yet people accept "the founders' wishes" as an argument in support of a position.
In short: even if something is in the US Constitution, it doesn't mean it should be regarded as necessarily true.
I'll try and get around to posting things exclusive to this page - don't worry...
#54
2004-4-19, 01:17 PDT
Something I posted on OSP two days ago:
Clear Signs of Economic Recovery: Unemployment, Deficit Down
2014-1-11
Washington--Economic data from the last quarter reveals that the recent recession is coming to an end, with the economy in full swing. Official unemployment is down to 13.1% in the fourth quarter of 2013, the lowest since 2011-Q2 (in which unemployment was 12.6%). Further signs of economic recovery include the fact that only 27,000 jobs were lost during the last quarter, down from 219,000 the previous quarter and 113,000 during the final quarter of 2012, and the growth of GDP, which for the first time since 2002 surpassed the growth of the national debt, now at 93% of GDP.
White House Spokesman Andrew Clay commented on these news: "This is clear evidence that the Republican policies of lower taxes on the rich, lower wages, reduction in welfare to families in absolute poverty, and creation of jobs by increasing military spending work. The President inherited a recession worse than any since the Great Depression, and soon is going to transform it into immense growth, as seen for example in 2003 and 2004. In fact, unemployment is better than it seems, because 13.1% includes all registered unemployed, who include gays and atheists who gave their jobs to pious, straight, hard-working Americans under our Jobs for Morality program."
A chief economic advisor to the Democratic National Committee commented, "On the contrary, President Mills' program only slows down economic recovery; the real unemployment figure is higher than 13.1%, as the elimination of unemployment benefits removed the incentive to register. The only reason this recession is contained now is the policies of the former Democratic President, which include reductions in welfare, taxation, and non-military spending. It is important to note that Mills' tax cuts go only to the rich, whereas our Party considers reducing the middle class's tax burden as paramount to growth."
The President of the AFL-CIO blamed the outsourcing of labor for the onset and continuation of the recession, saying, "Even if Indian workers are paid one-third, work more hours, and do better jobs than Americans per hour, corporations must not outsource labor. American jobs are called American jobs for a reason, and foreigners must never be allowed to get them." Some political leaders in India and among some immigrant communities in the United States, in particular Indian-Americans, objected to the statement on the grounds that it was racist, but the President of the AFL-CIO brushed off such claims, "These unpatriotic people think that despite the fact that I am an American, I should care about whether non-Americans have jobs or not and forget my solidarity with the exploited working class."
In related news, several tens of protesters were killed yesterday afternoon in Houston in a protest concerning welfare and food aid. Lieutenant Governor Spalding permitted the police to shoot to kill if there was fear of a riot, and after a group of protesters shouting anarchist slogans such as "If they don't give you bread, then take bread," the police shot live fire into the crowd; out of about two thousand protesters, 53 were killed and 77 were injured.
Responding to claims that the situation was still dire, and atheists and gays were particularly prone to be destitute, the Republican National Committee's chairman responded, "Those people who say that this recovery isn't a good thing are obviously anti-American extremists who would like to see a second Great Depression; as for atheists and gays, not only does the government refuse to condone their immorality and their frightening assault on American values, but also they can leave to other countries, if this is so bad."
#53
2004-4-19, 01:12 PDT
I hate Microsoft.
MSN Messenger refuses to sign me in.
Reason? "A newer version is available. You must install the newer version in order to continue. Would you like to do this now?" Unfuckingbelievable (well, it is believable considering that it's MS...).
Before any Mac fan tells me how wonderful the garbage that Apple produces is, just know that Mac OS is even worse; it's just that hardly anyone uses it - for every Mac OS user, there're over 20 Windows users, IIRC.
I am now very serious: next computer I use will have Linux.
On the other hand, MSN Messenger will continue to have mandatory upgrades, and so far I'm using it to talk with a certain someone who won't sign in to Yahoo.
#52
2004-4-17, 14:03 PDT
Yes, I know - I haven't posted lately. I have responded to the comments to my posts in OSP, though... :-)
Anyway, you should check OSP's new design, which is more group-blog- than e-zine-like.
I've already posted a mock news article similar to the one in this pseudo-blog's post #20, this time about recovery from recession.
#51
2004-4-12, 22:00 PDT
I promise to start posting more, both here and on OSP, this Wednesday.
I'm having some pressure at college, so I can't just sit in front of my computer and spend an hour replying to comments to my posts.
On Wednesday I'll be freer, though, so, Kenneth and Pedro, don't fret - your comments will be replied to ASAP.
I also corrected two typos in the posts below, namely changed "nkow" in post #50 to "know" and changed "on aside from that" to "aside from that" (the "on" is a typo because it was meant to begin "on top of that," which I then changed to "aside from that" while forgetting to erase the "on").
Speaking of typos, I at first spelled "forgetting" in the previous sentence as "forgettign"... ;-)
#50
2004-4-11, 21:28 PDT
Riverbend is saying that 600 Iraqis were killed in Fallujah...
I don't know what the population of Fallujah is, but as I am fairly certain it is lower than 4 million, it means that the probability of a person in Fallujah to have died in the USA's retaliation is higher than the probability of someone in Greater New York to have died on 9/11.
And speaking of 9/11, Disinfopedia is saying that the death toll from the environmental hazards casued by 9/11 is expected to exceed the death toll of the attack itself.
From the "liberation, my ass," and "whitewash" files.
#49
2004-4-10 - I completely forgot to note date and time when I wrote this so I can't get any mroe specific *L*
Continuing with the Kos comment: Jeff Seemann, the Democratic Party's Congressional candidate in Ohio's 16th district for the 2004 election, says what I said in post #46, only more in length and with the obligatory reference to "American values."
Blogs like Daily Kos are some of the best byproducts of the country we live in....a country that cherishes its' right to speak freely. Weblogs and other independent forms of expression are extremely important today because they allow for everyone’s voice to be heard.
We were saddened to hear that three advertisers pulled their ads on the site because of the remarks posted on the blog. The comments may be controversial, but they are just as relevant. The ability to allow comments like those read on Daily Kos is a testament to the virtues this country was founded on, especially the right to free speech.
Our campaign has decided that because of the recent events we will step in and advertise on www.dailykos.com. We have made this decision for two reasons:
1) We firmly believe in the First Amendment and everyone's right to say whatever he or she chooses on their own website.
2) We refuse to allow our campaign to be bullied by the right wing like they bullied Kos' previous advertisers.
We entered this campaign for Congress based on courage and the desire to stand up to the Republicans who are destroying our country with huge deficits, unjustified wars, and a blatant disregard for Americans and the challenges they face in their daily lives.
We understand that the decision to launch this advertising campaign will attract attention, both positive and negative. We will make no statement regarding the actual content of Kos' controversial statement, but we will always stand up for his right to dissent. Furthermore, we are campaigning to return this country to a Democratic majority in Congress and we will not allow our message to be written or altered by our opposition.
A quick analysis of that post: the patriotic references should be deleted for the sake of telling the truth, and the reasons given for keeping the ad should be augmented by what I said in post #46 about individual commitment to free speech.
That said, Seemann should still be commended for keeping the ad. I might have even contributed money to his campaign just for that, if I had any...
Racism is a good analogy here. The Constitution forbids the government to discriminate among races, but aside from that, individual people should not, either, even though the law permits them.
The law allows and should allow you to be stupid, to commit suicide, to hate gays, etc. - but it doesn't mean you should.
As you can see, I archived posts #35-46, so if you're wondering where post #46 went, it's in archive #4.
#48
2004-4-9, 02:19 PDT
For the sake of analogy, suppose that American liberals - or, if you will, American liberal bloggers - are the Communist Bloc during the Cold War.
I'm not saying that liberals are communists, of course; I'm just using an analogy.
Then I would probably be Tito, or even Ceausescu, as both were hardline Stalinists on the home front (Ceausescu, who ripped a part of Bucharest apart in order to build himself a lavish palace, more so than Tito), but were foreign policy mavericks - again, I'm not saying I'm a totalitarian dictator.
I think this holds because in my views I'm completely liberal, as my Liberal Manifesto's "From Back-End to Front-End" part will attest, but I have no allegiance to liberals or ilberal bloggers as a group.
The most I do is participate in OSP, but even there I write articles that attack American-liberal icons such as the Democratic Party, Howard Dean, and even liberal bloggers.
I'd ask for people's thoughts, but I know that the people who read this page don't comment on it, at least not in places where I can see.
#47
2004-4-8, 11:07 PDT
Just a thought: the United States should not be scolded for not signing the Kyoto Treaty.
See, it's a question of local culture. In Europe, Canada, and Japan, the accepted method of helping the environment is reducing CO2 emissions and other similar measures.
Not so in the United States, which concentrates on battling overpopulation by reducing life expectancy (by gutting welfare and Medicare), bombing non-Americans, and executing Americans.
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