Manifest Lunacy

As I look at the United States in the year 2010,  I can't help but to feel fearful. Among the facts that give me pause are the following:

• In 2009, nearly half of all Americans will pay no income taxes (Yahoo Finance April 2010), meaning only 53% of American households pay 100% of all taxes.
• The unelected, unaccountable Federal Reserve just printed $600 Billion, and devalued our currency (Quantitative easing ) trying to dig our way out of a hole.
• Our country is becoming risk adverse in the extreme
• The TSA is now patting down grannies and kids (among others) to make sure "every plane is safe" (ABC News)
• We pay much more attention to the Presidential elections than local and state elections, even though we, as citizens, have much more impact at a local level than the Federal.
• Our government routinely ignores its constitution, and we ignore their ignoring.
• Our Federal debt is at an insane level
• We pay far more attention on who is on American Idol or Dancing with the Stars than to the body politic.

In 1845, John O'Sullivan coined the phrase "Manifest Destiny" to give a name to the idea that the American civilization would spread from "sea to shining sea."

I am afraid that our nation has gone crazy.  Will history record us as the nation who stuck its fingers in its ears and said "lalalalala" while everything fell apart?

Why I love my Driod

My lovely bride bought me a Motorola Droid for our anniversary.  The difference between this and my old phone is the difference between night and day.

What I hate!

First, let me tell you what I dislike about it.

• Getting to the camera takes a few seconds more than I like.  There is a camera button on the side, but I can't seem to get it to work most of the time.  While seemingly minor, this means that some of those "just happens" kinds of shots are missed fumbling. with the camera.
• The touch screen gets smudged, and makes it difficult to read.
• You can't read the screen in full daylight, it washes out badly.
• It sucks the batteries very quickly.  The more you do, the faster it goes.  A full charge is gone in less than a day.
• It gets confused at times.  I've had to take the battery out several times to force a hard reboot to clear the confusion.
• The slide out keyboard sucks in a big way.  The keys are much too small for my fingers, and I feel very cramped.  My old phone (LG ENV-3) was far superior in this manner.
• The on-screen keyboard that comes with it also sucks, for much the same reason.
• The OS has no explicit way to terminate an application, requiring the downloading of third party apps to do so. 
• Often, download of data seems very slow compared to my wife's Palm Pre (with the same service provider, same data, her phone seems faster)

But, the thing about this device is that it is so much more than just a phone. I've found that it's become an indispensable part of me.  Actually, you could turn off the phone-portion of the device, and I still would use it every day. 

It's the Apps! 

The Droid is a mobile computer with wireless Internet Access, GPS integration, a five megapixel camera, compass, and a microphone.

• Sticher Radio- is a free streaming podcast service which streams the latest of your favorite podcasts!  I listen to this all the time!
 

• Pandora - a free music streaming service that reads your mind and plays music you like.  Enter a song or a band and a custom radio channel is created just for you.
 

• PDA.Net-Allows you to use the Droid as a wireless modem.  Connect a laptop and you have wireless Internet access!

•  Ebooks-I love to read.  The Android platform has at many ebook readers which allow you to read full books on your phone!  I have used the Kindle app and Nook app (my wife has a nook.)  Both of them sycronize your library to the device, so you can start reading a book on your nook, move to the phone, then back to the nook. Laputa is an ebook reader that also provides hundreds of free ebooks from sites like Blazer.  This is an awesome app!

• Google Calendar is a wonderful thing.  I can view, add and change appointments and tasks on my calendar from the web, my phone or my desktop (I synchronize  my desktop calendar at work with a nifty app from Google.) 

• Social Integration
• Facebook -Facebook has a custom application that runs on everything (Palm Pre, Iphone, Android,etc) and it gives me real time access to my profile.
• Twitter- I can tweet and read other twits' tweets.
• Email access
• Including Gmail and Yahoo mail integration that makes accessing these accounts seamless and easy.
• Internet access
• Google voice integration

There are thousands upon thousands of applications!  Play guitar?  There's a guitar tuner app.  Always forget to feed the parking meter?  There's a Parking Alarm/ Car finder app.

Those applications are the feature that makes this integrate to my life so deeply, and they are why I love my Droid!

All Our Eggs in One Basket?

The Chief Technology Officer of the State of West Virginia is proposing to consolidate and outsource all the state data centers, application support programmers, mainframe computer, and other associated staff.  The State workers in question will be let go from the state and hired by a private company.

While Chief Technology Officer Kyle Schafer was telling legislators that plans for outsourcing Office of Technology jobs are in the very preliminary stages, some OT employees said Schafer advised them it's a done deal, with the RFP for the outsourcing contract to go out by September, with the contract to be awarded before the end of the year - prior to the 2011 legislative session.
Some OT employees have been meeting with representatives of state Public Workers Union UE 170 regarding organizing efforts.  WV Gazette-Mail State House Beat, June 20, 2010

It's true that I am potentially in the group of people to be outsourced, and that may color my opinion.  But am I the only one who thinks that relying totally upon an outside company to host, protect and maintain the states data is not a good idea?

Think about it.  The State Police database, the Medicaid data, birth, death, marriage, data, among so many others will be in the hands of the lowest bidder.

Not to mention that savings are in doubt.  State employees do these jobs now, and most of these workers are underpaid (the state's salaries are significantly lower than the private sector counterparts.  For example, median U.S. Salary for a programmer is about $55,893.  State, $33,036.)  Sure, there are lazy, worthless state employees (just like there are lazy worthless private sector employees.) 

If the state goes this direction, reversing course will be extremely costly and nearly impossible. It's like putting all the state's eggs in one basket, then waving it over your head.

Envy

I had an epiphany today which helped me to understand  about 80% of liberalism's basis. It's envy.

Liberalism, in it's current form, is a offshoot of Marxist theory. At the heart of Marx's ideas is the concept of class struggle. Formally, it's known as conflict theory. In a nutshell, the idea of conflict theory is that people are always going to revolt against upper classes because of inequity.

That, folks, is the crux of the matter. Somebody has something you don't so you're upset. You're not just upset, your mad and willing to fight over it.

Liberalism today seeks equity.  Don't believe me?  Take these few examples.

• The earned income tax credit gives poor people who don't pay income tax needs to get a refund too!
• Affirmative action programs force fairness in hiring, and enforce this fairness by assuming that any differences between the population of the workforce and the population in general are the result of racism.
•  Not keeping score in little league, because somebody will lose. 

Here is a shocking truth. People aren't equal.

Compared to me, some people are smarter.  Others are faster.  Some are healthier.  Lots are better looking, a few are harder working.  No society can ever ignore those differences.

Liberals want to. When they see one person who has more of something than someone else, it causes envy. Envy leads to guilt, so they want to take away that thing.


Fairness is not the government taking money from one and giving it to someone else.  Fairness is setting the boundaries, and letting the players play the game, using all the talent, skill and work ethic God gave them.

Invention of Lying

Saw the movie "Invention of Lying" this weekend. I rate it a 2 out of 10. I give it such high marks because of the creative and interesting premise the movie is based on.

For those of you who've not yet wasted your money to see this movie (don't by the way), let me give you a plot synopsis.

In a world where everyone tells the truth, all the time about everything, there is no fiction (since it is basically not true), all movies are a retelling of history. The Hero is a not-so-attractive writer for the movies who gets fired (his last two screen plays were based around the black death of the 1300s), then evicted from his apartment because he only has $300 in the bank, and rent is $800.

He has a love interest who doesn't think that he is a good genetic match to her ("our kids will be fat kids with pug noses)

He goes to the bank to close out his account, and their system is down. they ask him how much he has in the bank (nobody can lie, remember) and he says $800. The computers come on, they say "The system says you only have $300, so sorry for our mistake"

The main crux, though, starts when he tells his dying mom, who is afraid of the nothingness of death, that there is life after death. He is overheard by some nurses, and it just goes downhill from there.

Problems
Before the political analysis, I just want to point out some plot holes big enough to drive a bus through.

• In the movie, everyone is both truthful (a good thing), and lacking in any compassion or tact (not quite so good). They will say things that are hurtful, if true, without any concern about what how they are saying affects the other person. I can tell someone the truth without hurting them. Why would people lack the ability to care for each other just because they tell the truth?  If my wife asks me "honey do I look like a supermodel?  I would answer, "To me, you're just as beautiful, but your body type isn't one that would classify as a supermodel", not "No, you're too fat."  Both are true, the latter is hurtful.
 

• It is possible to speak what you think is the truth, but be mistaken. Sometimes, I forget about a transaction or two, so my account balance is not what I thought it was.  Why would the bank assume that that there was no mistake in fact.

• In the movie, nobody believes in God.  They have a comparable level of technology.  That means that speculation is possible, for without it, there can be no possibility of technical advancement.  Even, for the sake of argument, we ignore the fact that God did tell man He existed, why could not someone speculate on the biggest questions man have ever asked (e.g. "why am I here?"  "How did I get here?"  "What is the purpose to existence?" "Do I have a meaning?"  "What happens when I die?")

To say the movie is disparaging to religion is a rather gross understatement.  It makes the belief in God more laughable than Santa Claus. 

The movie, though, shows some thought (at least what passes for thought for pop-culture atheists.)  One point, a magazine shows the title "Finally, a reason to be good", referring to the 'man in the sky' God reference.  It also shows the meaninglessness of life and death in the absence of God, thought it doesn't really dwell on it.

Overall, this movie stunk.  Don't waste your time.

Obama a Socialist?

I made a statement that I believe that Obama is a socialist. That was not meant as an insult to him, nor was I trying to throw verbal firebombs. I am only obectivily classify his belief system.

I will attempt to explain why I say that, but first, let us start with the definition of Socialism. According to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Socialism is.

1. any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods


2. (a:) a system of society or group living in which there is no private property
   (b:) a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state


3. a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

It is in the manner of definitions 1 and 2b that I refer to President Obama as a socialist.

Since being in office, he's

• taken effective control over many banking companies (Through TARP)
  
• taken control over GM and Chrysler.
• attempting to eliminate surface mining in WV by having the EPA endlessly review mining permits that have already been approved.

These three steps shows governmental control and ownership over the production and distribution of goods.

If the Health Care legislation goes through, nearly 1/6th of the economy will be under either direct or indirect control of the government.



Birds of a Feather
Obama's goal is to make the U.S. like European powers, which are uniformly socialist. The Euro-style socialism is less insane than the Easter European model (U.S.S.R style), and less totalitarian and brutal than the Nazi National Socialists.

This is a telling quote from a communist group

"This group is for self-proclaimed Marxists/Communists/Socialists for the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency. By no means is he a true Marxist, but under Karl Marx's writings we are to support the party with the best interests of the mobilization of the proletariat." from http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/group/MarxistsSocialistsCommunistsforObama

Or another socialist group seeing Obama as a candidate who can move the nation towards their goals.

DSA believes that the possible election of Senator Obama to the presidency... represents a potential opening for social and labor movements to generate the critical political momentum necessary to implement a progressive political agenda. We know that a proactive and progressive government can come only on the heels of a broad coalition for social justice united against a reactionary Republicanism as well as a Democratic neoliberalism. Democratic Socialists of America Statement on the 2008 Election

The ten points of the Communist manifesto sound a lot like the DNC national platform. Here are seven of them. Remember that Communism IS socialism but taken to its logical extreme. USSR stood for United Soviet Socialist Republics

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. (EPA routinely goes after private land for 'environmental' purposes)
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan. (Read GM)
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production.[8]

I believe that Obama has good intentions, but what was the statement about the pavement on the road to hell?

Some other good links
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/why_obamas_socialism_matters_1.html
http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2008-06-12.asp