On Thursday the voting members of the executive counsel of the Boy Scouts of America voted to lift its ban on gay scouts, but not on gay scout leaders. 61 percent of the voting members voted to lift the ban on gay members but not on gay leaders siting issues of safety. This ban doesn’t only apply to homosexual males, it applies to homosexual females as well. So, it doesn’t seem to me to be just to be about safety. To quote BSA’s Chief Executive, ”This has been a challenging chapter in our history,” Wayne Brock, said after the vote. “While people have differing opinions on this policy, kids are better off when they’re in Scouting.” While some church groups and very conservative leaders are upset by this decision I think it is a step in the right direction. Scouting may not be the most popular institution anymore, but maybe making this organization more inclusive will help. We are a nation that says “bring me your tired, your poor and your hungry,” and yet an organization, that does receive government subsidies, that bans members based on sexual orientation doesn’t teach this to children. Children should be taught to love one another. Hopefully this lift on gay members, but ban on gay leaders doesn’t cause issues and threats within the ranks of BSA. I hope that once the BSA sees that gay members don’t ruin the organizations, that these gay scouts will fight to become gay scout leaders and this ban will completely be lifted within the next few years.
What is it with the Democrats and getting themselves in these political scandals. I know that some of it is an outgrowth of the 24 hour news media, the “CNN Effect,” as it is now called. Imagine if CNN existed during the Kennedy administration. There would have been Marilyn watch, or maybe it would have been called something funny like “Some like it Hot in the Lincoln Bedroom.” The first president who was, I don’t know the right word for this, subjected to this real scrutiny from the 24 hour media would be Clinton. From day one there was Whitewater, I don’t know how many “gates” they gave him, and then there was Monica, the sweetheart of the news media for a good long while. Now don’t get me wrong, Bush got it just as bad as Clinton did. He did way less stupid things in his personal life. News shows literally had countdowns of stupid things that Bush said or mispronounced. Now we have and all the right wants to do is find something that can cause a scandal in the Obama administration. There have been a few as well, birthers, umbrella bitchers, and church fixators.
I am only commenting on the way the 24 hour news media focuses on the private lives of political officials, or about the parts of their lives that have nothing to do with the way that he runs the country. There are plenty of political controversies that have to do with the way that a president runs his administration. I am only using him because there hasn’t been a her yet. I feel as though policy discourse is a good thing. I feel as though allowing the news to be a circus of “oh my god Obama let a marine hold an umbrella, and it was the same thing when Bush was photographed doing the same, then we are missing the point. The point of the news is to allow the will of the people to be known and to check the power of politicians, by not allowing him or her to do whatever he or she wants in secret. If all the news does is focus of personal scandal and political substance than the news isn’t doing its job.
I have a question for all Americans, what do you think the founding fathers REALLY meant by the second amendment? The truth is we know that these men had not long before fought a war against what they felt was a tyrannical government, and wanted to give the citizens of the United States the ability to protect themselves and the country as a well armed militia. So does that mean that Thomas Jefferson believed that ordinary citizens should have the right to own predator drones and aircraft carriers? We cannot look at the second amendment and assume we know what the founding fathers were thinking because, the didn’t have a clue how technology would change. I seriously do not believe that Thomas Jefferson or James Madison could have even dreamed of semi automatic weapons or predator drones. Alright, lets take the founders out of this. Why should the ordinary American have the right to a weapon? To protect his home and property. Makes since. Should there be restrictions on this, I already made one. I said “ordinary.” The definition of ordinary implies there are people who aren’t ordinary, an other. Who would I personally place in this “other” category, convicted violent felons, the mentally handicapped, those who have not taken a gun safety class, ANYONE under the age of 18 shouldn’t be able to own a gun, and you shouldn’t be able to use a gun without taking a gun safety class, and maybe adult supervision. Do I think the American people would be OK without having the right to own an automatic weapon AT ALL, yes. Politicians and news agents make you think that your “fundamental liberties are being taken away, but I feel more of my liberties being snatched going through airport security then the idea of not owning an assault weapon, or having to have a background check before owning a gun. Where were these politicians when the rules came in saying that we had to take off our shoes? It’s the same idea, a short inconvenience, in order to do something that you want to do. F*ck it, maybe I’ll just move to Australia. Gun control has worked there. The big difference between them and us, that isn’t discussed, they are an island, without a southern border connected to the black market, but maybe, just maybe politicians can learn something from a country that enacted gun control laws that worked.
Last night I was having dinner with a bunch of Americans, and at this dinner were four teachers from Boston. We were trying to discuss everything other than this event. This one scary event that all in all just pissed them off. The truth is we don’t know why this happened. Everyday all over the world bombs explode at large events, and we as Americans take pity, maybe even feel sorry for these people, but we feel happy to be in the comfort of America, where things like this don’t happen. Or do we have a short memory. Acts of terror happen all the time in America, but we don’t want to admit it, or maybe the media doesn’t just so they can sell news time and magazines. I don’t like to speculate, and I won’t do it. I hope that whomever is responsible is found out. I hope that this act of terror doesn’t require me to touch my nose and say the hokey pokey whenever I go on an airplane. I hope that rather than having a blame storming session that the Massachusetts government and the federal government can look into what happened and learn from it. I just hope this isn’t another incident that will take more of my liberties as an American.
That is literally a sentence that a friend of mine said to me while I was walking to work today. Why would she say this to me, because North Korea has been threatening to blow up, fire, shoot nuclear weapons at Japan, South Korea, Guam, Austin TX today. Well it’s the 15th of April, almost midnight here, and nope, not dead yet.
Why would North Korea pick what seems to be a random monday? Is it because of tax day? Nope, it’s because it would have been the 101st birthday of North Korea’s first leader. It would be a birthday present for Grandpa? TO START A NUCLEAR WAR. I am sorry, I am just finding this insane. Well, we all are.
Basically this new leader in North Korea is trying to show his might. He is trying to show that he is as brave and as strong as his predecessors, by showing his guns, literally. And the US and the rest of the world, in political spheres aren’t buying it, especially since China isn’t backing them up. Isn’t it funny how a country that is trying to show how powerful it is, only has power when one of its neighbors decides to help it?
Mozilla Korea, Firefox 3.0 launch 9804 (Photo credit: Gen Kanai)
I know, as a political commentator I should have commented on this a long time ago, but I haven’t. Why you may ask me. One, I find this story interesting, but I have found other things more interesting. What is going on in North Korea, to me, seems like a kid having a tantrum in public, waiting for someone in the international community to give him what he wants. Although I don’t see a unified Korea anytime soon. Each time there is a new leader in North Korea something like this happens, or whenever there seems to be any sort of political uneasiness. What we all have to remember is this isn’t new. This isn’t the first time that North Korea has threatened to start a major war with South Korea. And in recent times North Korea looks to China for back-up, and China has said no, and North Korea has backed down because they know that if they attack South Korea that the United States will attack them back with more firepower than they could dream of. North Korea has nuclear weapons but the confirmed ones couldn’t reach the US mainland, but that doesn’t matter because if North Korea used nuclear weapons, we would, and I do think that China would get involved at that point. Of corse this is pure speculation, but this is taking history and political ties and treaties into consideration. I can’t tell you what will happen next. All I know is we have a nuclear power acting like Dennis the Mennis with his hand itching over the red button.
I don’t know if you have read about this or not, but there is this amazing new technology called 3D printing. To be honest, I don’t understand how it works, and I was introduced to it via a cracked.com article a couple of weeks ago The 4 Worst Things People are Making with 3D Printers. So I didn’t really think about it too hard. But in this article the number two item is, weapons. That idea scares the crap out of me. After what has been going on in the US over the last few years the idea that you can copy and print a weapon scares me. It is completely legal to create your own weapon with a 3D printer, just not distribute them. So any criminal organization doesn’t need to steal a gun, they just can print out a new one, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a good gun or bad, just as long as it does the job, because eh, you can just print out another one. And from what I am reading many people are planning to make the software freeware. Am I the only one nervous about this idea?
At the beginning of January I wrote this article, “Two Supreme Court Cases that are BIG for Gay Marriage Rights” and earlier this month I wrote this article, “Popular Sovereignty, Still Applicable?” So I think you know my opinion on the big Supreme Court cases going on. But in case you don’t know. I believe that a government should treat all of its citizens equally and fairly and not discriminate based on age, religion, sexual orientation, size, disability, or anything else I couldn’t have thought of in that string. To me the easiest way to do that is not to make a law about it, but to not have a law against it. But because we as Americans are stupid at times, we will probably have to make a law protecting those rights. It’s a bit sad.
Now about my news feed. I just find it a bit strange that everyone is changing their profile picture to an “=” sign to show support for those who believe in equal rights. I know that I might receive flack for it but I feel as though it’s a pointless gesture. It is easier to change your Facebook profile picture than write your congressman. Hopefully when the decisions are stated the country is a stronger one.
Wow, is all I have to say. Paul’s Filibuster has been an amazing piece of politics. Now there are two questions that we should ask ourselves and that we should be asking our government officials. The first being, does the US government have the right to attack non-combatant on US soil with unmanned drones? The Attorney General has already states this, no. Clear, concise, and to the point. Now a better question to ask would be this, “why did Paul have to filibuster to get a straight answer?” I think this filibuster says something about the nature of government, with all its want for transparency, there is none. Hopefully this filibuster will be a public display of stupidity and things will change. One can only hope.
I enjoy my YouTube subscriptions here in China and I watched this video today that made me ask these questions,
So in short a Sequester is a mandatory cut in federal spending to help with the long-term budget problem. This took effect because Congress isn’t willing to compromise with each other and they didn’t create a budget that cut 1.5 trillion dollars over ten years. This is a very important thing to remember, that news agencies try to not remind people of, the president, it doesn’t matter if it’s Bush, Obama, Reagan or whoever don’t set the tax rate and don’t set the budget. They can ask Congress nicely and they can put in their suggestions, but when all is said and done it is up to Congress, and when Congress can’t work together we get a bill like the Budget Control Act of 2011, that has a ticking time bomb in it. And that is what this Sequester is, the explosion of a time bomb that wasn’t averted by our congressmen and women. Oh how I love that congress allowed this to happen, in a recession allowing for something to take effect that would allow for greater job loss. I am curious what will happen next. The national news seems to be focusing on the fact that the White House has shut down tours, while they aren’t focusing on the human impact of the choices they make. I can’t wait to see what happens at election time.
And why is Sequester fun to say, because it has a “Q” in it. New word for Words With Friends I guess.
We over here at Petdal have finished up the long awaited delivery of The Sexy Politco website. We gave the site it’s own scheme of purple and orange and made it 100% interactive with the users. It’s not just a blog, it’s a place for real knowledge developed by great political commentators. We would like [...]
