Run Sarah, Run

Well, your friendly neighborhood political junkie is back. I’ve been on hiatus dealing with the complications of moving my family to a foreign country. Things have finally calmed down, so I decided to check in on US politics today. It looks like my boy Barry had a majority of “approval” for a fleeting moment recently. Hopefully, by the end of the year more Americans will realize that Black + CINC ≠ 3rd anti-Christ, and that he is pretty damn good at doing the toughest job in the world.
It’s too bad that Sarah Palin is fading away and being dismissed (even by conservatives) as the uneducated narcissist that she happens to be. The 2012 Presidential debates would be highly entertaining if she was the pachyderm candidate, and Obama deserves to play a little wiffle ball after all the stressful issues he’s been handed.
I guess it is up to the Mormons to produce an easily defeatable GOP candidate. Jon Huntsman Jr. and Mitt Romney are both intelligent men, but let’s face it-a Mormon is unelectable. I’m not saying it’s right; I think it is just as wrong that a Jew, Muslim, or atheist (heaven forbid our leader make decisions based on logic as opposed to divine providence) is unelectable. Mitt is a good businessman, but he is also a power-hungry snake oil salesman that tells whatever constituency he is speaking to whatever they want to hear. Jon Huntsman seems like a good leader with a tendency to find the middle ground on issues-Evangelicals and Tea Partiers hate that.

Fahrvegnugen

I don’t mean to sound like slaggy Eurotrash already, but the German driving laws are much better than the U.S. They are actually designed to keep traffic moving. There are yield signs unless a STOP sign is absolutely necessary, their traffic lights turn yellow before green so you can prepare to get moving and then there is the fabulous autobahns, which are equivalent to U.S. freeways. Here, the right lane is the cruising lane and the left lanes are passing lanes, not fast lanes. Trucks are not allowed to pass cars if there are only 2 lanes, which is sweet and keeps everything moving. Contrary to popular belief, there are speed limits on many autobahns, but when there is no reason for a speed limit, there is none. And damn, people do haul ass.

Germans take driving very seriously. No one eats, smokes, talks on a phone, or texts while driving. You don’t have to be aggressive to survive the roads in Germany (unlike Las Vegas), but you do have to be very alert.
To sum up in a very stereotypical way, the Germans are just more efficient when it comes to driving.

Just Repeal it Already

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has the same origins and ramifications as “Separate, but Equal,” and the former will ultimately go the way of the latter. They were both implemented as compromises to hotly debated issues. On one side, there was group that thought we should tolerate, accept, and love our fellow human beings regardless of how God made them. On the other side we had devoutly religious people. These pieces of legislation were steps taken to get a foothold for certain groups to get equal civil/human rights. At the time of implementation, the conservative opposition to empirical logic was too great, so progressives took what they could get. Ultimately however, all of us must realize on some level that neither of these policies were sustainable long term. The ban on openly gay Americans serving the military is going to lifted eventually, so how about we just get it over with an move on to other issues.

I Still Believe in Hope

What is with the "I told you so" attitude of conservatives these days? The right wing media has brain-washed their followers into thinking Obama is a constitution-hating tyrant that is destroying America. I've seen signs with a picture of George W. Bush with the caption "Miss me yet?" Umm...no. Bush bankrupted America and accomplished nothing besides inciting the ire of the world with his wars. Obama has stopped the bleeding of the economy and passed lankmark legislation improving our healthcare and financial regulation. These pieces of legislation are far from perfect, but at least he is doing something constructive.

President Obama tried to make progess in a bi-partisan fashion and his outreached hand was slapped away time and again. Watch out conservatives, because while you are busy trying to campaign for 2010/2012 and overturn the progress that has been made, our President just might fix our climate policy or God-forbid, improve education.

BP=Big Problem

BP: The oil company formally known as British Petroleum currently goes by Beyond Petroleum. They've moved beyond petroleum because they never thought about how to cap a leaking oil well. Really?! They figured out how to drill a mile deep in the ocean, but never had a contingency plan to stop a leak? No, they don't have a high tech sealant, but maybe golf balls and shredded tires will stop it. Wow.
The part that kills me is that people are holding Pres. Obama responsible. A recent poll showed 69% of Americans think he is doing a poor job of handling the crisis. They are calling it "Obama's Katrina." First of all, no human lives are in jeopardy and second, what the hell do you want him to do? Maybe he could go to the beach and drive golf balls into the ocean. That's how W. would have handled it. On Bush's watch the Minerals Management Service accepted cocaine and sexual favors from oil companies in exchange for lax inspections. Let's keep some perspective and blame those actually responsible.

An Improbable Victory

Congratulations to congress for taking a giant step toward securing better medical care for all Americans. We should keep the momentum going and get at some of the roots of our soaring healthcare costs. We need tort reform, stricter fraud enforcement, and we need to plainly live healthier. Health is a human right, and like most rights, it comes with responsibility. We should have the right to be treated for unforeseen accidents and genetically or environmentally induced ailments. We should also be treated for conditions caused or exacerbated by our choices, but we should pay for it. Cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana (once legalized), and even fatty foods should have ridiculous taxes levied on them, and that money should go directly into subsidizing health care. Yes, I believe that french fries, Doritos, Twinkies and the like should be taxed at ridiculous levels. Americans will continue down the self-destructive path of obesity as long as it is cheaper to eat unhealthy. As Americans get fatter, health care costs will go up astronomically.

We do have the best doctors and hospitals in the world, but we do not have best system of delivering care. Canada and other countries with socialized medicine have their problems, but their systems are sustainable, and no one in Canada will be financially ruined by a health problem. Some paranoid citizens say they don’t want the government to get between them and their doctor. Do they really prefer stockholders who make more money if a patient dies or doesn’t receive treatment at all? Capitalism cannot be trusted when it comes to our health and safety. Profits=cutting corners. So, if you are really going to call socialism a great evil, then from now on you must boycott it. That means home-schooling your kids, delivering your own mail, putting out your own fires, policing your own streets, and growing and inspecting your own food.

Haiti...

The earthquake in Haiti is the worst natural disaster I can remember. The human suffering is unimaginable. Please don't forget about them. It will take a decade at least for them to recover and the aid workers on the ground are simply overwhelmed.

This is the best depiction I have found to actually get a sense of the enormity of this disaster. Look at these photos and really try to imagine what these people are going through. Subtleties like children with bandaged faces that are still covered in ash made my heart sink. Someone put a bandage on them, but didn't have time or water to clean their face first because so many others are waiting for treatment.

Yes, they had the audacity to put a commercial in front of it, but watch it anyway. There are almost 300 photos and if you can get through it without tearing up, you are stronger than me.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2010/01/12/GA2010011203712.html?sid=ST2010020803656