See Where You Stand...

I added a link to a libertarian page sponsoring "The World's Smallest Political Quiz". I took the quiz, and the results did not suprise me, I am, and proudly so, a social liberal.

What did suprise me is the non-judgemental way the purveyors of the quiz presented the results. I expected some sort of spin to try to convince me of the error of my ways, but that was not present on any of the pages the results linked to.

In short, it's a fun little page that may help you sort yourself out.

Does Government Really Need a Colander?

Its kind of interesting to listen to folks on the "Right" howl treason when somebody that they can link to the Democratic Party "leaks" classified information that would show government wrongdoing, and disquieting to listen to the silence when their own Leaker-In-Chief admits to "de-classifying" information that effectively outed one of his own CIA agents... I would submit that this facile partying around with truth in the White House is far more damaging to our country and way of life than ol'Billy-Boy's lying about getting a hoover. Nobody was even threatened with death over that blow job; an outed CIA operative becomes a target quickly.

In other news, noted pundit and blowhard Rush Limbaugh will not be tried for "doctor shopping" or illegal possession of Oxycontin. Limbaugh, who has ranted on his program about drug users and how they should all be jailed, will not get the fine opportunity to bunk with people who did not get the quality of drugs he used for even a week. I guess that millions of dollars to spend on lawyers and rehab make it all right. I hope I'm not the only one that can smell the hypocrisy here.

I Wonder If There's a Market for Telemarketer Stew..

First, let's kill all the marketing professionals....

Doesn't have the same ring as Shakespeare's comment about the legal profession, but one wonders how he'd feel about the constant flood of stuff trying to sell him things today. From the relatively innocuous study of how to place merchandise advantageously on store shelves to the sinister, but unproven, practice of placing products subliminally, these guys are everywhere in our lives. Like Tom Cruise in Minority Report, we will soon be submersed in targeted ads that will follow us wherever we go, through our cell phones, our computers, our cars.

I don't think I'm alone when I think they have gone way too far.

Even now, there are marketing flyers in with my credit card bills and every business I have a relationship with thinks they have a right to fill my email with spam.

I don't like spam.

I am sure there are folks out there that are so lonely that any semblance of human contact is welcome, even if that contact is only a spammer or a telemarketer. I am not one of those people. I have specific sources I go to when looking for information on sales or just browsing for bargains. They do not have to seek me out to target me; I will find them. (The Sunday paper is one source; I find it relaxing browsing the thick stack of ads that come with it.) I understand that there are valid relationships between media and marketers--such as those between radio programmers and the folks that buy and sell the commercials, and the television stations that need to sell ads to provide content. There are also websites that have ads that I must view in order to use content. I understand this relationship; it's relatively straightforward--you want content, you get ads.

Where I rebel is when they get sneaky and obnoxious, or where I am paying for a service and they continue to market to me.

Is it really going to break a movie theater to not show paid ads before a screening of a film I went out to see? Is it really necessary to bend art to position product within that film? Would Bond really drive a BMW?

Is it really necessary to pelt my computer with spyware that tracks my surfing preferences so it can rat me off to a supplier of pop-up ads? Or plant a beautiful woman in a bar to spread buzz about some lame product?

Is it necessary for every company I do business with to have a 10-page privacy policy with tons of fine print informing me that unless I take certain steps to "opt-out" they will "share" my personal infomation with whoever they can sell it to?

Marketing, in short, has gone from being merely crass and intrusive to downright rude and intrusive.

This is a profession that, at best, feeds off of gentle misrepresentation of product, to, at worst, complete thievery and fraud. This is a profession that needs to police itself in its ethics and methods in the worst way, before others do it for them. The national "no call" list is only a beginning to what needs be done.

Laws are needed holding companies responsible for the content of their ads. If a company wants to advertise a product, that ad should contain statements about the product that are demonstrably true, without disclaimers in tiny print that anyone without training in speed reading will not be able to read as they scroll by. If a product is being advertised to brighten and whiten teeth, we should not need to read tiny print to find "side effects may include syphilis, flatulence and green tongue."

Speaking of side effects, we should not be inundated with ads for drugs that we cannot go down to the store and buy. If your doctor, as your health advisor, does not recommend a prescription drug, companies should not market to us to pressure them to prescribe it.

Laws need to be amended to cast real penalties on virus and spyware writers. Spammers need to be bankrupted rather than slapped on the wrist with small fines. Perhaps the idea of spending 10 years in a prison cell with a bodybuilder with an appetite for forced anal sex will deter some. Perhaps the reality will change others.

Perhaps businesspeople of good will will realize that the best way to market a product is to find a true need, and design effective, fairly-priced honest solutions for those needs. Perhaps.

About that time, I fear, Satan will be fielding a Major-League Hockey team because hell will have frozen over. Until then, the rude rip-off will continue unabated.

Maybe There is Hope...Thanks, Jim

Sometimes I get down in my cups, alcohol, after all, is a depressant. Sometimes it's about silly crap like a total lack of a love life (due to a total lack of social skills or realistic expectations), other times it's over "The State of The World." In those World-Depression moments, I am sometimes haunted by the images on TV showing how much people in the Islamic world hate us Americans, and I get to thinking genocidal thoughts about how, if our liberal, free society is to survive, we must war upon Islam. I was having one of those gloomy, genocidal drunks a number of weeks ago, when a good friend of mine, Rev. Jim (whos blog http://jimsbell.blogspot.com/ I have linked to, even though he disagrees with everything I believe in) told me of another blog http://www.sandmonkey.org.

Again, the politics there are not always those I agree with, but the free-spirited banter and humorous approach to the "Middle Eastern Problem" are interesting and amusing enough to make me almost believe there is a way out of this mess without having to kill all adherents of a religion....

Anybody Got A Plan?

With the Republican party divided on issues and racked by scandal, one would think that Democrats would be licking their collective chops at the prospect of the fall elections. Twelve years after Newt congress's "Contract With America," congressional Republicans have shown themselves no better than the Democrats they replaced when it comes to controlling spending, controlling the size of government or even providing moral tone for the country.

With the Abramoff scandal and George Bush's increasingly unpopular and bloody little war dragging on, support for the Republican government continues to fall, and with more and more of Bush's earlier statements turning out to be demonstrable lies, the hole gets deeper and deeper.

So where are the Democrats?

Nowhere to be found, it would seem.

In news reports, we read nothing from the opposition about concrete plans to extricate ourselves from the Iraq quagmire, nothing about how we can re-create the budget surpluses of the '90s, not a single thing about how to keep our representatives hands out of the till. Is the opposition totally out of ideas?


It may play out that the Republican party manages to soil itself out of control in the House of Representatives, but they aren't getting any help in that goal from Democrats. All they are able to do is naysay the Republican program.

I have a few suggestions on issues that Democratic policy wonks could busy themselves on...how about...

....A concrete plan to contain health care costs while expanding coverage to all Americans...

...A concrete plan to make sure the top one percent of the money earners in the country pay a share of taxes commensurate with their degree of political control (after all, if they want to buy the government, they should be willing to pay a fair price)....

...A plan for oversight of government contracts and spending that ensures that nobody lines their pocket while in public office without spending a long time in a crowded, violent prison...

...A plan to restore civil liberties to all people under American governance...

...A plan to close the earnings gap between the richest and poorest Americans...

...A plan to reconsider the things we jail our citizens for, so we can relinquish the dubious honor of being the nation with the highest number of prisoners on the planet...


Please note that all of these ideas are prefaced with the phrase "a plan". Without solid ideas on how to achieve the goals that have been traditionally espoused by the Democrats, we are in for a muddy season of character assassination and obfuscation, and, worse yet, the possibility that the current gang of thieves will retain control of the finances and policies of our nation.

Too Little Too Late?

More Than 1,000 Undocumented Workers Arrested
by Jennifer Ludden
All Things Considered, April 20, 2006 · U.S. immigration officials announce their largest ever worksite enforcement action. In raids across the country, agents arrested more than 1,100 unauthorized employees at IFCO Systems, a distributor of wooden pallets. They also arrested seven officers of the company.
The executives are charged with conspiring to "harbor and induce illegal aliens to reside in the U.S." Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff says the operation is part of a shift in strategy aimed at reversing widespread tolerance for the use of illegal foreign workers.....




This action is politically expedient, performed by an administration that needs to show it is "doing something" about the issue. Much more needs done. Perhaps if the executives responsible for the recruiting and hiring of these illegals could be deported "sin dinero" to Guatemala....

More True than Ever...

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre." Frank Zappa (1977)

Work is the Curse of the Drinking Man

I don't like to work. I am not one of the people who can get up every morning, raring to go, glad to be on the way to their job. I'd rather be slacking, riding my scoot around the countryside on a beautiful spring day.

That said, I go to work instead. It's not simply that I need the money--I can certainly use it--but that it is a responsiblility that I have assumed by choice; a decision to not have someone else take care of me.


I have not always been this way about work. When I was much younger, I "retired" for a few years, doping, slacking, hitchiking around and panhandling for whatever I could scrounge. It was fun and educational. One can really survive out of dumpsters. (Or sleeping in one, if it's raining hard enough and there are no other options.)

I developed a few habits after those years---eating unspoiled food, wearing clean, dry clothes, enjoying a heated place to defecate. I got soft, college-educated, and finally, when I could avoid it no further, a full-time job.

I didn't get a high-paying professional job, no, not me. I wound up with a series of low-paying houspainting and retail jobs. I could bitch about the hourly, but it all taught me. There is honor in doing any job well.

Which gets me to the meat of this rant--the social contract between all members of society should provide these four things at a minimum to anyone that is willing to work a full-time job in that society. They are:

• Sufficient good food.
• Warm clothes.
• A roof over their head.
• A visit to the village shaman should they become ill.

Now, none of these things need be luxurious. Food can be simple, but healthful, clothes simple and non-stylish, housing cramped and unassuming, medical care simply adequate...but they need to be affordable in the aggregate. In some American communities, sadly, this is not the case.

This is the issue that minimum-wage laws were meant to address. Unfortunately, they have not done so to great effect. The working poor, as a class, are increasing in number, both as a percentage of the work force as well as raw number. As more and more people are unable to provide the four items I bulleted before, the social contract breaks down. Hungry people do stupid, desperate things. When they do these things, we put them in jail, which costs taxpayers money.

One wonders, what costs less....jailing people, or making sure they can get a living wage?

What Cheek! What Brass!

NATION/WORLD
AP Top News at 2:00 p.m. EDT
ATLANTA (AP) - Tens of thousands of immigrants spilled into the streets of Atlanta and other cities Monday in a national day of action billed as a "campaign for immigrants' dignity." In North Carolina and Dallas, immigrant groups called for an economic boycott to show their financial impact. In Pittsburgh and other cities, protesters gathered at lawmakers' offices to make their voices heard as Congress considers immigration reforms......



One has to admire the gumption of people that will risk death by exposure in the desert, brave possible deportation and detention, tolerate low pay and miserable living conditions for the dubious joy of doing our scutwork. That many of these people are willing to actually appear "en masse" in public to demonstrate for "immigrant's dignity" is a source of amazement.


Proper respect is hereby given.

Now they need to leave.

It is commonly observed that illegals take jobs "Americans do not want". What these observers fail to do is complete the statement. Illegals take jobs "Americans do not want at the wage that employers are willing to pay." When there is a shortage of a commodity (in this case labor) the price tends to rise, when there is a surplus, the price declines. What is happening in the case of illegal immigration, is that government and business are colluding to keep the price of labor low by leaving the borders open and winking at the people that break our laws by working here.

I am not going to blame the immigrants...they are simply doing what makes sense to them, leaving their homeland and coming to a strange (and occasionally hostile) land to make what seems to them to be extravagant wages doing hard work.

I blame the American employers who ignore immigration law by hiring either undocumented or falsely documented workers, lured by the promise of a cheap labor supply. I blame the government that inadequately funds the departments that are responsible for detaining and deporting these people and punishing the employers.

There was a proposal in Congress to make people in the country illegally felons. I believe the focus of that proposal is flawed. What they need to do is make the meat packer, the concrete contractor, the lawn service owner and the lettuce farmer that uses this labor felons. Were that enforced, the migrants would stop coming, and we could have a legitimate debate in this country about what our real labor needs are. We could then create a program to allow workers in the country for a period, legally, to work in industries that have trouble filling jobs with Americans at a fair wage, rather than acknowledging the status quo and offering a blanket amnesty to both the immigrant and the employer who exploits this source of cheap labor.

A New Start at a New Hobby, or Virgin Experiences

Revelation to all...writing has never come easily to me--choosing words and placing them on a clean sheet of paper has always been like sucking concrete through a straw. It's difficult and not easy to enjoy, nor always profitable. I post here out of an exaggerated sense of self-importance; I feel that my opinion, unlike most others, does not stink, and, of course, the rest of the world "Just Does Not Get It."

All rants here are mine, and only mine, unless credited to somebody else.

Now that I have this started, I think I'll have a couple of drinks....