Wednesday, February 25, 2009

The Sea Change

Pres. Obama's State of the Union address last night will keep both houses of Congress busy these next 4 years. All the media refers to his programs as "sweeping changes" and one guy called them, "audacious and ambitious changes." They are: health care reform; education; the economy; and balance our trillion+ dollar deficit by the end of his first term.
Everyone is saying how impossible it is to make so many promises and keep them. Most of the people saying so just happen to be Republicans. Republicans who allowed the problems we're facing to continue, even when opportunity was at their doorstep 16 years ago to prevent this. Republicans who NEVER conducted oversight of themselves. Republicans who've profited by the lack of non-enforcement of regulations, laws, and unethical practices in our banking system, Justice Dept., our tax laws, and the blatant favoritism at the hands of Pres. George W. Bush, IN THE NAME OF FREE-MARKET ECONOMIC CAPITALISM.
Now that Democrats have more power, the wind has shifted to the left, which strikes fear into the very core of staunch conservatives. It HAD to shift, because government under Republican ideology(see above) was manipulative and abusive, and neglectful of the very things that keep a country healthy. Capitalism, under laissez-faire economics, only works when responsible, ethical people are at the helm. It's only right that now the Republicans aren't controlling government any longer. New regulations have to be put into place by Democrats( it would be nice to have Republicans participate when it's the RIGHT thing to do), to keep our government, its agencies, and major corporate institutions from behaving as though the Old West were in full sway once more. History DID repeat itself under George W. Bush. And now we're all paying for it because Republicans couldn't restrain their abject greed.
The one thing that Republicans refuse to see is that change IS necessary, because THEY ACTIVELY PARTICIPATED IN THE DOWNFALL OF OUR ECONOMY, through NEGLECT and ADEHERANCE TO A FAILED IDEOLOGY. They cannot change what they believe, so they attack those who adapt to change. Everyone, everything evolves over time. So too, economics. The time is ripe for capitalism to evolve, from an antiquated ideology to something combining capitalism and socialism. It's NOT a bug-bear, to those who research what I'm saying. It's a natural maturing of our successful economy. When people are successful, people demand more services, and pay for them with their taxes. Under Republican dominance, we got NOTHING for our tax dollars. Under socialistic reforms, we will get what we voted Democrats into Congress for--the programs we kept INSISTING we needed, but were not given, by Republicans. This is only the first month of Pres. Obama's term in office. If one of his reforms is successful, I will look at him as a miracle worker, and wait for the others to take place.
The time is right for the Republicans to pull their collective head out from their collective ass and become good, loyal Americans once again and put the country above themselves.



Saturday, February 7, 2009

I LOVE ABSOLUTE RADIO!

Absolute Radio(aka AR) in the UK is simply great. I've never had such fun, made such good friends, as I have on their blog site. The sites I've been on in the US were ok for a time, but a lot of people are mean-spirited, selfish, confrontational, and tend to form cliques, which makes it difficult to establish friendships. I like making friends, keeping them, and having fun.

I've thought about this dynamic for sometime now, and in my view it's because of our culture in the US. It's markedly different from AR, even though the culture on that site is as diverse as ours. Yes, weirdos, lonely people, neurotic people, are out there blogging, joining public chat groups, etc. But they don't manifest FEAR! whenever they are on site for the first time. Nervousness, perhaps, caution, definitely, but not FEAR.

The US media, through terrible actual incidents directly connected to internet contact, which is aired/printed in various media, have instilled abject fear into people whenever they surf the internet. It's almost as if Americans EXPECT to be victimized, or to DO the victimizing first! I understand the dangers of the internet fully, but I doubt anyone has used common sense in explaining this to others!
The US media just love dangers, victims, suspicious people/circumstances, criminal behavior, and blare it LOUDLY, REPEATEDLY, until one has become desensitized to it all.

When will people learn to use common sense and stop acting like decapitated chickens????