I’m going to take two very different ideas and meld them together in that fusion that is best achieved by way of science-fiction. Continue reading
The Noise IS the Signal
Tag Archives: Politics
What really matters
This image was part of a story about how the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice was declining to defend the section of DOMA that preventing the recognition of gay 
spouses and denying those spouses benefits. A move I fully support, I think a generation from now this whole period will be looked upon with the same sort of distaste as we have for the Jim Crow era, and I will be proud of my support for equality.
What struck me interesting though was my reaction to the photograph, and instantaneous and un-contemplated reaction. No, it wasn’t that strange erotic thrill that so many men get from watching or conjuring up the thought of two women having sex. The first and foremost emotion I felt was one of sincere and profound happiness.
I have been a sailor in the United States Navy, having toured once the Western Pacific (WestPac) in a several month cruise. It is a hard and at times very lonely task. To come home to such warmth and such love is truly a blessing and it moved me to see this image, which captures the ideal so perfectly. I have no idea who the sailor is in the image, but I am terribly pleased that a person sacrificing for my safety and my rights has such love waiting here at home.
All this flashed through my mind and on a deeper than conscious level before it even registered with me that this were two women kissing. That element was trivial, not worthy of notice or consideration. What mattered here was the love.
In the end that is all that matters.
(Updated to include the link)
Our science-fictional world.
Two weeks ago researchers UC Berkley reported a breakthrough in understanding human speech, a breakthrough that could someday shatter many of our social conventions. The scientists, studying the patterns with varies subjects’ brains, were able to determine what words the subjects hearing by the brain’s activity alone. It is a small step from there to deciphering the unspoken words thought by a person. The researchers are developing this technology to medically help people with severe brain injury and disease. We could even learn just what is going on in a person who is in a persistent coma state, breaking through to these terribly isolated people. Continue reading
The Occupy Movment
So now I will babble about problem in the left and in particular the ‘Occupy Movement.’ I am, at heart, a person who likes to find solutions. One of the joys I get from crafting a story is finding the solutions to the unique puzzles that each story presents. I dislike complaining just for sake complaining. If there is a problem, sure bithcing about can help identify it, and help motivate others to help solve it, but bitching in itself never solves a damn thing, and in my unhumble opinion the Occupy movement is little more than a giant bitch session. Continue reading
Additional political thoughts
There’s no doubt now that Rick Santorum has become the latest, last, Not-Romney to capture to attention of the conservative base. This I think will swing the next couple of contests from arguments about who funded what and who spent what to the social conservative issues of gay, abortion, and contraceptives. Continue reading
The Race That Keeps On Giving
Just when I thought the Republican Primary race had settled down to the terribly boring, utterly predictable, and fatalistic finale end game, Rick Santorum goes and proves that the ‘Not Romney’ votes still has life. Continue reading
Does The Bloodbath End Tonight?
Today is the 4th Republican Primary as they attempt to select a Presidential Nominee to contest Obama for the White House this fall. After a seeming endless series of debates, the rise and fall of countless not-Romney stretching from the credible to the incredible, the field has been narrowed to four candidates left standing; Romney — leading in the polls and very likely the nominee, Gingrich — the current not-Romney, a man with a volatile personality and checkered political past, the current vessel for the hopes of dreams of the hard core base (though how a man who lobbied for Medicare Part D, the individual mandate, and action on Global Warming, wins the support of that base is a manifestation just how unloved Romney truly is by the base.) Santorum – social conservative, his says all the right things about abortion and gays, but he can’t seem to fire up the base and lastly Paul – the ‘libertarian’ though he strike me as less libertarian and more like someone who felt that the Articles of Confederation were the right path.
The aggregate polling indicates that Romney is the likely winner tonight. I think the essential question is not if Romney wins but by how much and does that stop the fighting? Continue reading
Why should I vote for the Republicans?
I know a number of people who do not approve of the Obama presidency, and I can tell you that stating it that way is as mild as it gets. IT has been interesting watching them shift from potential Republican nominee to the newest acceptable nominee candidate as the field shrinks and their prefer choice is eliminated.
There is no doubt that when the election rolls around many of these friends will walk into the voting booth and pull, punch, mark, or otherwise indicate that their selection is for the Republican candidate.
What I wonder is if any of these people, or anyone else out there who has been really animated against the current administration, can argue for me why we should vote for the Republicans, without mentioning Obama or democrats? Can they make a positive case for their side, instead of a case based upon, “The other guys are worse?”
p.s.
For what it is worth I consider Obama to be a merely mediocre president. He could have done better, he could have done more, but I don’t consider him to be the abject failure that some paint him to be, or the sainted hero people wanted him to be.
Mitt Romney, Bain Capital, and the politics of hatred
Mitt Romney’s career as a venture capitalist has become a point of attack by his political enemies, both Republican and Democratic.
His supporters have fallen back on the defense that these attacks are about class warfare, envy and a hatred of success. It is an understandable, if misguided defense.
I have sympathy for the people trying to defect this line of attack. This is an emotionally very charged and very effective line to use against Mitt Romney, but why is that? Are these charges generated by class envy, by people who are jealous of Romney’s success and vast fortune? Continue reading
And Now another Elimination from Republican Idol
Thursday Gov. Rick Perry of Texas announced his withdrawal from the train wreck that is the Republican Nomination process for President of The United States of America. I remember before Perry got into the race, when Bachmann was the surging anti-Romney, and many people we thinking that there was a Perry shaped hole in the field. Evidently Perry thought so as well. He leapt into the race, shot to the top like a rocket, and turned out to be a firework and not a single-stage to orbit craft. A quick flame out, and a few attempts to reignite his engine failed, Perry has now crashed, leaving a crater where his ambitions once stood. Continue reading