the holcasaur

Again, someone not from DC, who doesn’t care nor understand anything about DC, who is directly affecting DC because of ideology.

Let’s say you’re from Texas.  How much would you like someone from Massachusetts to be entirely in charge of your county?  Or vice versa?

Well that’s what DC gets.

Please people, write to your representatives telling them to give DC the vote.

Sure it’s highly unconstitutional, but looky here:

D.C. Voting Rights Bill Clears Senate Hurdle, 62-34

Can’t wait for it to go to the supreme court and get rejected.  Maybe then there will be enough momentum to go all the way and just amend the damn constitution.  The bill as-is only gives us a voting member of the house and EXPLICITLY PROHIBITS senate representation.  An amendment would fix the thing once and for all… the wording around the part in question has always been ridiculous but then again it comes from the same people who thought up the whole “3/5″ of a vote thing.

And no, becoming part of Maryland is not an option.  And no, we’re not too small to be a state.  We are as populous as Wyoming and almost as populous as Alaska (which, by the way, gets more federal money than anybody), only in 10 square miles.  Seriously, please be quiet.

For some more information on this:

Recent Slate article

Wikipedia entry on DC Statehood

Thanks for listening.  By the way, Eleanor Holmes Norton is hilarious.

Bad logic.  Ignorance of facts.  Sure the last 8 years have been great, but with those damn democrats coming back we might have to learn some new rules regarding rational arguments and how to talk about issues.  I’ll try to help out the best I can with my limited understanding of how logic works and hopefully we can all work out what’s cool and what’s not.

Not Cool:

So does this mean I don’t have to pay for my mortgage?  I’ll just get checks in the mail, right?

Firstly, the not paying for your mortgage thing was actually McCain’s idea.  Secondly, it wasn’t even really anybody’s idea since McCain just wanted the government to back mortgages at face value and refinance them (which already happens, minus the face value part).  This statement makes the outrageous connection that helping anyone even in the slightest make the payments on their home is the equivalent of completely subsidizing everyone’s mortgage.

Not Cool:

I don’t make much money and I’m worried that it will be taken and given to all the welfare queens.

That don’t make no sense neither.  Welfare is there to help people who aren’t making much money, like yourself.  There are not a lot of people on it, and it doesn’t cost a lot (relatively).  The tax increases proposed come from the top 5% of income earners which it sounds like you are not a part of.  Also the term “welfare queen” has a racial connotation which is not very cool.

So in general, a few pointers:

1. source your information.  in fact, multiple source it, then check those sources.
2. use actual logic.
3. find some examples, but keep them in context.

Alright people, seriously, enough.  You are no longer authorized to complain about anything.  Yes, I can do that.  There is no level of battered wife syndrome that comes anywhere near what you are doing right now.

If you are so stupid as to repeatedly be willing to believe lies, so willfully ignorant as to ignore science, the world around you, to pretend to inform yourself by watching cable news, you are beyond hope.  Disengage yourself from the process immediately.  In battered wife terms, don’t call the police, don’t try to help him.  Get the kids and go.  Doesn’t matter where.

Why am I being so bitter?  Well because you’re not the only victim.  Sure you’re voting against your economic, social, and political interests, however, you’re also voting against mine.  Despite what you’ve heard and blindly believed, we are all in this together.  What angers me is that you’re not keeping up your end of the deal.  You are your brother’s keeper, and an exceedingly lousy one.

So drop out.  It is not important for you to vote.  The grown-ups have this covered.

politics is frustrating.

I don’t know man… so Obama listens to some slightly off-kilter preacher (nevermind the argument that what he says might be true)?  Umm how about this and this and this?  I’m more upset that he listens to a preacher at all… he seems like a reasonably intelligent person, so why buy into this kind of shammery?  My hope is that he only goes so he doesn’t look like a damn, dirty athiest to the voters.

bah, as usual.

My wife and I were talking about health care the other day (there was a very uninformed but very loud debate on the radio for some reason) and somehow it came up… if you want universal health care, someone’s going to have to pay for it.

No shit.

I dunno, maybe it’s because I don’t have kids or something, but I could give a rat’s ass if my taxes get raised, as long as it’s for something good.  I could go into my sci-fi hippie “we are all connected” spiel again, but instead, I’ll give a good example of why we should have universal health care…  On any given day, I can be accosted by 2-3  people who want money.  A majority of them have mental issues.  If mental health was addressed in our universal coverage, my walks could be much more pleasant.  And I’m willing to pay quite a bit for that.  I guess you could do the whole “more police / get them off the street” thing, but I bet if you did a cost/benefit analysis, universal health care would win that argument, since it benefits both the taxpayer (me) and the guy on the street.  But woe, the poor insurance company middle-manager bureaucrat!

QED.  Now somebody make it happen.

Addendum: I also want real municipal wifi.   New Orleans tried to do the earthlink bullshit, and it was horrible.  Please take my cash money and turn it into a fat pipe I can use anywhere.  And other people too I guess.  This probably won’t happen either, for the same reason as universal health care, too many stake holders in the status quo.