Your Daily Mindjob
This is my personal blog where I'll offer up some political straight talk as well as thoughts on technology and pop culture. That should give me plenty to talk about. The world can give you one heck of a mindjob. Think like me and get your daily dose.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

How do you feel about the Koch brothers?

If there's one incongruent thought floating around out there in conservative voter's minds, it's that while politicians are all the same, governed by private interests and corrupt money, when it's a Republican politician receiving the boost, it's okay. Yes, it's an extension of the IOKIYAR problem. In order to remain consistent, one would have to be opposed to corporate influence on the political process.

So here's my question and I'm asking it only to conservative voters.

What is your opinion of the Koch brothers?

Are you proud of them? Do they just belong to your "stick it to liberals" club? Are you okay with their money influencing your candidate just because you want your candidate to stick it to any and every liberal out there?

Or do you find their influence to be equally deplorable? How do you feel knowing that your candidate is not chosen by voters, but bought?

Let me know. I'd be curious to see just how angry you are at government corruption. After all, the Tea Party is nothing more than a Koch brothers' production. This isn't about unions. This isn't about Democrats. This is about your personal ethical standards by which you choose to live by. This is about what it is you are willing to support and what you refuse to put up with as a voter in America.

Stop Invoking "Common Sense"

When we face problems in the United States, we often rely on what it is we have learned over the years to combat similar problems. These lessons largely get lumped into the world of something people like to call "Common Sense." The thing is, common sense is not so common.

Let me elaborate.

As Americans, we sometimes pay the least qualified to do the most important jobs. We set up rules and regulations that make sense to us, personally, and unleash them on the general public. As Americans in 2011, we have to recognize one thing. We're stupid. We're selfish. We're whiny. We're impatient. If you cannot admit those things about Americans, then you are living under a rock.

In light of those idiosyncrasies, we have to admit that coming up with a common sense solution is like asking a dog to perform neurosurgery. It just isn't going to happen. A common sense solution is one that we all generally understand, isn't it? Obviously, this isn't the case in America anymore. Just because it makes perfect sense to you does not mean it will make sense to your neighbor. We will all disagree on the solution and because we disagree, it is not common. The commonness is simply not there. When we expect it to be, we are simply fooling ourselves.

Politicians like to fall back on the "Common Sense" buzzword in their stump speeches. We really need to stop invoking the "Common Sense" crap on that leve because it does not exist. We cannot employ that which does not exist.

In essence, what I'm saying is, we are our own worst enemy. Our nuclear waste is facing a fire risk and we are complacent about it. Our water company employees, gas company employees, cable tv employees, and electric company employees have no idea where the lines for their individual services run. On the flip side, tech support, whether online or over the phone is so robotic, useless, and utterly mundane and frustrating that those of us who need help cannot get it, but the algorithms in place are there because our fellow citizens are clueless.

We suffer at our own hand, folks. It is because we are stupid that these solutions that we find deplorable and stupid must exist. The next time you invoke "Common Sense," make sure you understand your opposition first. Then, it all might actually start to make sense. Until then, you're just one more selfish mouse in a maze after your own block of cheese, and that selfish behavior I cannot condone.

Until you know what common senes actually means, you'll just be spewing more useless information into the vacuum of space. A solution is just that, another alternative to a current problem. There is no right or wrong. There is only trial and error. Humans are prone to error, so don't expect us to be mistake-free. We cannot escape our own stupidity.

Quality craftsmanship...dead.
Pride in your work...dead.
Desire to achieve great things...dead.
Admiration for higher education...dead.
Honest employees...dead.

The customer is no longer right.

What did you expect to happen under these circumstances?

Monday, June 13, 2011

51 to 38 and how these polls don't matter

For those of you paying close attention to the Republican presidential candidate field, the polls regarding who will be the best possible option in 2012 might be grabbing your attention. The polls tend to imply that, although front-runners exist on the Right, when put up against President Obama, none of them have a snowball's chance in Hell. The competitive nature of these elections feeds the media monster and the ultimate goal is not to report news, but generate drama to boost ratings.

What our journalists aren't considering at this point is the Electoral College. They may be talking about individual state elections, but those are primaries and the implications regarding primaries can be derived to suit any viewpoint about the general election in 2012.

While Mitt Romney may lag behind Barack Obama in what, to me, is nothing more than the popular vote, anyone who was an Al Gore supporter knows just how meaningless the popular vote can be. What we should be talking about is how voter fraud and manipulative positioning will be an issue on a state by state basis. Individual politicized initiatives always get placed on the ballot in different states to improve voter turnout in favor of one party in particular. The popular vote doesn't tell me anything. I want to see the Electoral College map for each Republican candidate who could go up against Barack Obama. Is that too much to ask?

I know. It's early. I just feel like watching any news on the 2012 race at this point is meaningless without considering the E.C.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Vitter vs Weiner

This is modern US politics. When a Democrat does something underhanded, a witch hunt on the Right brings him down. When a Republican does something underhanded, there is no witch hunt and he is re-elected. Of course, I am speaking about the Anthony Weiner scandal. I am also comparing it to the David Vitter scandal.

This is the problem with our current political system. If you are a Conservative in this country, your voting strategy is as simple as not voting for any Democrat. Any Republican in the mind of a Conservative is better than a Democrat, even if the Republican is the biggest hypocrite and scumbag on the planet. A Conservative will still vote for anyone who has an R next to their name over anyone with a D.

That's just sad.

Let's just remind Conservatives that what Anthony Weiner has supposedly done was not illegal. It was wrong, but not illegal. David Vitter was a patron to prostitutes. That was and still is illegal. Republican leaders don't have a strong record of asking their criminals to resign, so why should someone resign over something that isn't against the law? Republican congressmen have escaped punishment over worse circumstances.

Regarding Vitter...
Where was the Right Wing witch hunt? I never saw it. The general public never saw your outrage. If it existed, show me. Show me the pages and pages of comments at the end of news articles clamoring for Vitter to resign. Some commenters want Anthony Weiner to go to jail of all things. Show me the Republican equivalent in the Vitter scandal.

Anthony Weiner will likely resign. David Vitter ran for office again and Louisiana voters sent him back to work in DC. Weiner will not see the same fortunate outcome. Nancy Pelosi is calling for an ethics investigation and Democrats have attempted to distance themselves from Weiner. He will be urged to resign. Vitter should have been urged to resign. Pretty simple response to bad behavior, if you ask me. If it makes the party look bad, resign.

The same thing is going on right now with John Edwards, but what about John Ensign?

You can take this argument all the way to the outrage toward Obama over spending that George W. Bush never saw from the Right.

You need to understand that Republican politics is about the hatred of Liberalism. Liberal politics is about finding answers and solving problems, even if the policy may not work. Liberal policy is not about the hatred of conservative principles and ideas. It never will be. Liberals support tax cuts. Liberals support the free market. Liberals are not opposed to capitalism. Liberals are not happy Anthony Weiner did what he did, but if Vitter can get away with cheating on his wife with hookers, then Anthony Weiner can get away with some photos and correspondance with women. Small potatoes compared to prostitution. Liberals also tend to hold their elected officials accountable when they screw up. That behavior is less prominent on the Right.

This is all about Weiner being a Democrat. That's all it boils down to. If you're a Democrat, you've expressed your disgust accordingly with consistency. You likely wanted Vitter to resign. You're not proud of John Edwards. You're not proud of Bill Clinton's blowjob scandal either. So in turn, you're most certainly not happy about Anthony Weiner's problems. If you're not a Democrat, your response to this story is firmly rooted not in fairness and right and wrong, but rather, the cookie cutter hatred for those on the Left.

Conservatives are proud to be assholes. Democrats frequently seek out compromise and give in. For Republicans, it isn't about right and wrong. It's about winning. If you're going to be the kind of voter who defends your own kind, and in doing so, you choose to be an antagonistic hypocrite about it, you deserve to be called an asshole. It's time to give Democratic politicians the same leeway Conservatives give their douchebags. It may not be right, but what do we have to lose? Our souls? US politics is already in the crapper. Who cares? It's time for Democrats to be assholes too. It's time to get our hands dirty. In politics, the moral high ground is frankly a road to nowhere.

Let me show you something else.

Links to Breitbart.com David Vitter Stories:
Despite scandals, Vitter the La. primary favorite
Sen. Vitter easily wins GOP nomination in La.
Vitter won't say whether 'serious sin' broke law
New Orleans Madam Names Sen. Vitter

What do all of these articles have in common? Aside from all of them apparently being AP News articles reposted on Breitbart.com, the other thing all of these articles have in common is a lack of outrage. Where are the comments? There are none. NONE. Not one. Not even one from a Democrat.

I'm not holding Breitbart's feet to the fire. I'm holding Republican voters accountable. They have plenty of time to write foul comments on these articles. Starting from the top, there are 134, 103, 97, 158, 120, 229, 143, and 208 comments, respectively, at the time of posting this photo which shows recent Anthony Weiner articles on Breitbart.com.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Libertarian teachers should be pissed off

Did I just hear that correctly?

Did Ron Paul just say we should not depend on our public education system? We should be home schooling?

Just when you think Ron Paul is nuts, he outdoes himself again. If you work in our public education system, from grade school all the way into state universities, you should be up in arms over those comments. This is where Conservatism's rubber hits the road, friends. If you want to be consistent in your beliefs, you end up shooting yourself in the foot. You are forced to vote against your own interests.

Libertarian teachers should be more than a little angry with this comment.