Sorry, I am in a mood to rant about the 3 evil P’s: politics, politicians, and policies.
A Rant about Legislation of Morality
I was listening to the news yesterday and our fearless leader, President Bush, believes one of the most important things he can do RIGHT NOW is to add a constitutional amendment that specifies that marriage is solely between a man and a woman — this in the wake of Massachusetts (and other states) deciding that same sex marriage is A-OK. WHAT? This is absolutely crazy. While I am not personally gay, I believe morality judgments like this should be left to the individual and the individual’s immediate community. If a community wants to accept same-sex marriage or civil union of same-sex partnerships, that should be up to the community — it should not be a federal decision made by a small handful of people. Whatever happened to the concept of acceptance of others, even when their beliefs are different? Agree to disagree. Just because I don’t personally like purple clothes doesn’t mean I should be able to stop you from wearing them — I just won’t wear them myself.
The same thing goes for decriminalization and/or legalization of drugs such as marijuana. Again, I am not personally a pot smoker, but, has the federal government even read any of the studies about marijuana use for medical use, much less recreational use? The fact that it is far less toxic than tobacco or alcohol? That it is, unlike tobacco and alcohol, non-addictive and has very strong medicinal properties? Instead, they prefer to treat it as if it were evil personified. They ignore the facts and when cities and states to realize the potential benefits, the feds come in and slap the states, believing that they, the feds, must always know better. What good are decisions and laws made on the city and state level if they can immediately be trumped for no good reason by the feds.
Using a hammer to stop an ant colony
The War on Terror and the War on Drugs. Again, our fearless leaders just don’t get this either. It is like having a 10 foot wide stream of water and trying to stop the flow with a 1 foot wide dam — it just cannot be done. Even if you had a 10 foot wide dam, the water would creep around the sides. An appropriate dam can not be bought with money, guns, or fear — they are wars that must be fought with education — real education not lies and scare tactics. While there continues to be a demand, drugs will be available. While there is hatred and oppression, there will be terrorism. If you kill a terrorist, one will step up in his place and call the previous one a martyr. We, the USA, believe we are the worlds peace keepers but we are often little more than bullies: If you won’t do things my way, I don’t want you to do them at all. Back to the purple clothes.
On the lighter side
My computer is back up and running. Also, I am taking a trip down to Himalaya Bay, Mexico to do some nice beach camping and scuba diving. Life is generally good.