Politically Inconsistent

This is what I was talking about in one of my older blogs. I think the one about losing faith in democracy. I briefly mentioned how the politicians of today's world try and cater to everyone's wishes, instead of having their own. They are just trying to win, thats all political seats are now, prizes, trophies. That is the source of lots of people's frustration now. They can't find one decent candidate now who is running on their own ideals. And when they do find someone who is running on their own ideals, its usually some crazy far out there extremist. Anyways, I am bringing this back up for a reason, I recently found a solid example of a presidential candidate doing what I just described. The culprit is Mitt Romney. It seems that Romney is slightly confused when it comes to his opinions on gay marriage, stem-cell research, abortion, ect. When Romney was running for Massachusetts governor in 2002, he attended a Gay Pride rally and handed out fliers proclaiming "All citizens deserve equal rights, regardless of sexual preference". Then, in 2003, he came out as a leading voice against gay marriage. Apparently, according to the paper, this isn't the only occasion where Romney's position has drastically changed, he has changed his position on abortion, stem-cell research, and other such issues. Talk about annoying. Honestly, I wouldn't care if he had the complete opposite views on every single issue I just mentioned, as long as he stuck with his ideals, I wouldn't care, I wouldn't vote for him, but at least I could respect him. Now, I can't respect his as much, because he could be just another contestant in it for the prize, doing whatever it takes to get the presidency. 

Sunny Acres

For those of you who don't know, Sunny Acres is a piece of land out on Los Osos Valley Road. The owner, Dan Devaul, has, for some time, been using it as a homeless shelter/recovery home. Homeless people, drug addicts, alcoholics, and other such people go there for a place to stay and work. Devaul lets them stay on the ranch, gives them work, feeds them, gives them a second chance. However, the local government has been blocking his efforts of this, because the buildings that the homeless are staying in are not up to code. This is ridiculous, here is a man, who is trying to help unfortunate people, and the government is trying to directly oppose him! Okay, so they want safer buildings, but instead of trying to work with him, all the government does is work to stop him. That is just messed up. Maybe this isn't the whole story, there could be some crucial part of the story that I am missing, does anyone know? 

Strict or Loose?

Do I believe our government should follow the constitution strictly? Honestly, I don't know what this means. The constitution was written in very vague terms, and with very broad statements. I think the founders wrote it this way on purpose. They were aware that the country would not be the same in the future, they knew that the world would change. They weren't sure how the future would be different, so the only way to plan for the future was to give guidelines that the country could follow, and shape to fit their own times. Thats what the constitution is, a set of guidelines that our government is supposed to follow. The problem that I see, isn't whether to follow it loosely or strictly, at this point in time, it would be very difficult to follow it strictly, the problem is the people whose job is to interpret it. I feel like they could twist their interpretations to serve them best, so they benefit from what they say. I guess I just don't trust politicians. 

Too Open Minded?

So there is this thing going around where people should be open minded. Honestly, its getting annoying. These open minded people argue that we are going into a new age and that we should shed the silly ideals of the past and go into the future with acceptance of everyone and everything. Okay, maybe thats not the whole argument, but the gist is that they want acceptance of everything. I can relate with the idea of acceptance, but some of these people take the idea way to far, and that is where it bugs me.
Let me say this, just to give some idea of where I am coming from. My dad is very conservative, and he doesn't like, well, I don't know what to call it, but lets just call it change. He is very firm in his beliefs of politics, and he never gives any credit whatsoever to the opposing side of a debate. Actually, he never really has debates, he just yells over the person he is talking to. He gets very adamant when talking about politics, but whenever I pose, what I would consider, a good question, he shoots it down as a dumb idea. He can't see both sides of a debate, he only sees his. What I am trying to say is this, when it comes to a debate, I really do try to understand what both sides are saying, which means accepting both side's viewpoints as valid.
So  yes, in a way, I am more "open-minded" than my father. I realize that a certain degree of open mindedness is good for the brain. However, many people can take this way to far. They start to accept things that are just wrong, or stupid. This goes past the political realm of things, and into every day life. Being open minded to things that can be harmful. Unfortunately I can't think of any specifics at this moment, so.... I'll come up with some later.

Not enough jobs?

Okay, there probably aren't enough jobs for everyone in the U.S., but there are jobs out there, some people aren't willing to go out and work them. What brought this subject to my mind was an article in the paper about apple orchards in Washington state. The farmers needed people to come and pick apples and they were offering hundred and fifty dollars a day. No one took the offer. These farmers were even willing to buy the bus tickets for people to come out to the orchards! This is a state with an unemployment rate of about nine percent! I think the problem is over education. Most kids go to school and picture themselves doing something where they work in an office. No one is willing to to physical labor. Its underneath them. What confuses me though, is that sitting on the couch receiving unemployment is not underneath these jobless people. Ughh, welfare is a topic for another rant. Anyways, people not taking the apple picking jobs is not the worst part of the whole situation, the proposed solution was what really killed me. Instead of doing something to motivate Americans to take the jobs, which would be better for our economy, the Washington government suggested that the federal government should make it easier for illegal aliens to get into America. That way, the illegal aliens could go up there and pick the apples. The whole situation disgusts me. The fact that some people in our country are to lazy to get up and get a job, instead they would rather wait comfortably on welfare, taking money from other honest workers, and then the government wants to fix this by importing workers from a different country? I don't see how this fixes the bigger problems, this solution just deals with the minor problem of people not getting their apples! They aren't factoring in the big picture, how Americans need to make money, how this would help our economy a lot more than if some illegal alien took the money and sent it out of the country, never to return again. Jesus, the whole thing just bemuses me. Stupid people.

Losing Hope In Democracy?

And yet again, let me start this post with a warning, I am not going to be very factual right now, I am going to just throw around ideas that are in my head. I promise that later in the year I will research my posts more, but for now, bear with me. So, are people losing hope in democracy, or the government? In my mind, those are two completely different things. No one should ever lose their hope in democracy. There is a reason that people want to live in the U.S.A. There is a reason why America is great. People want to live here because we offer freedom. We offer a chance to get ahead in life using only your own hard work. Democracy is, in my opinion, on of the best forms of government that exists in this world. Of course, socialism is a great idea, but to be perfectly honest, I think it puts to much faith in human beings. We aren't perfect, we will always be greedy, some people will always lust for power, we will always screw up. That is why socialism will never work on a large scale. I'll get into socialism and democracy later, but for now, thats all I am going to say on that subject. No, people aren't losing faith in Democracy, they are losing faith in our government. Our government that has grown to value power more than serving the people, our government that has become so twisted and complicated, our government that worries more about staying in power than doing something. That is what people are losing faith in. Basically our corrupt government. Now, I am in no way insinuating that our government is corrupt like some third world country or something like that. No, I am saying that our government has become so different than what it was planned to be. Instead of serving the peoples needs, politicians work only to get reelected, they don't do anything to rash, so they can stay in power. What we need are politicians who aren't worried about staying in power, we need people who are willing to act on what they believe in, act in a way that will cause change. I think that we shouldn't pay politicians so much. That way, we could cut away all of the useless candidates who are just in the political scene for money. Only the people who actually care, who actually want to make a difference, will be in the running. Of course, that wouldn't cut out the power hungry, and I have no idea how to get them out of the picture. And now its late, I am going to cut this off at a sort of random point, but with a promise, I am going to write about more specific subjects later, for now, this will have to do.  

Lets Talk About Debt

First and foremost, my view of debt is very rudimentary. I am not aware of the reasons that are given to explain why we are in debt, or why we cannot get out of it. The only knowledge on debt that I possess is a very, very basic understanding.
From what I understood in my U.S. history class, the idea of national debt being a good thing started, at least in the U.S., with Alexander Hamilton. He believed that a running national debt would keep other countries more invested in our economy's survival. To me, the idea makes sense, if someone owes you money, you wouldn't want them to go broke, otherwise they couldn't pay you. This is just on a bigger scale, we owe other countries, they want our economy to do well so we can pay them back, so they trade with us. Yes, this makes sense, but, as to how much debt we should maintain, there is a line, and in current society, we have crossed that line.
Having a little debt can be healthy, having to much debt can be dangerous. Our country has to much debt. I don't know how we accumulated so much debt, probably something to do with the war, but I do not believe that that is the only cause. I'll look into that subject, and talk about it later. Right now, I'm going to offer my opinions on what the government should do, and again, these are very basic ideas. For one, I think the government is to big. It has grown into a monster that the U.S. can't get ride of. The founding fathers never planned for a big government, actually, they planned for the opposite. they desired a small government, one that barely intervened in the people's lives. Not only should we respect the ideals that our country was founded on, but a big government does not make sense. How can something that only generates income by taking other peoples money survive? In order to keep growing, is has to tax more and more. If it keeps growing, it will employ more people, that may sound like a good idea in our current situation, but it's not. The more people in the government, the less people that pay taxes, the more money the government has to generate, means more taxes. Now, in order to get out of this depression, we have to tax people, I agree, but not like this. We need to start creating more non-government jobs, jobs that actually generate money. The Great Depression's end was credited to Franklin D. Roosevelt. In an effort to try and raise the economy out of the dumps, he created numerous government agencies. The New Deal alphabet soup. Many people credit the end of the Great Depression to these government agencies. I think not, I think that these agencies might have mitigated the damage of the present, but in actuality, they probably prolonged the depression. What really saved our economy was World War Two. Now, we are in our own war right now, and thats one of our problems, so what's different? Well, frankly I have no clue.