Ryan's post

Ryan's Slice of American Pie wrote a post about the state of cannabis sales and legality in America, particularly California. Although a very well written post, I have couple of bones to pick. The first being the consistent use of the term "marijuana", which was the language used to aid in perpetuating a negative connotation with the plant during the time when it was first prohibited. Ryan concludes by stating that the solution is decriminalization. Well decriminalization does not get rid of the black market, it merely creates glorified drug dealers posing in the name of "compassionate care".
Cannabis legalization is a necessary issue to think about in the future. The drug war is obviously not working, but neither are the state solutions that I have seen so far. But before it can be legal there needs to be great education about the subject. Ryan lists a lot of good reasons to make it legal, but neglects the fact that it is a drug with the potential for abuse, and the potential for hurting peoples' lives if they cannot control themselves. When we can openly discuss the issue and present fair minded education for the masses then we can begin thinking about federal legalization.

Professional Politicians

The elected individuals who govern our country are supposed to uphold the constitution, our individual liberties, and act on behalf of the people. However, because of the retirement perks, the advantage of incumbency, and the way campaigns are ran, US representatives are really more professionals at getting elected than lawmakers. Most of the work a politician will do in their political career will not be done making laws, changing lives, or protecting personal freedom. Most of the work a politician will put in will be during an election. It is very expensive to run for a seat in the government, and because most politicians do not run with their own money the money they use to run for office comes at a price. So even after a politician manages to get elected and most of their work is finished, what little effort they put in to actually governing will already be bought by money coming from somewhere dictating what a politician will do with their power. There should be maximum terms one can run for every office, maximum amounts of money one can receive from people with political agendas. There should be no retirement perks for a lifetime of government servitude. Public leaders should be business owners or otherwise gainfully employed. They should have to look after their business whilst in office, grounding them to the pains of the civilian and not allowing their elevated government position to change how they perceive the real world. There should be advisors in place to help the newly elected members of the public create laws, and any and every law should have an expiration date so that it must be debated upon again so laws will stay valid and relevant. Once politicians are more concerned with making the will of the people into law than getting elected and re-elected America will be a better place.

Drawing parallels between Vietnam and Afghanistan

Lost in Transformation made a post about a poll cnn took that found most Americans believe the war on terror has become similar to the situation we faced in Vietnam. It is pointed out that a main difference is that Americans can link the war on terror to the attacks that occured on 9/11. This war is fought by volunteers, no one is being forced to die for a cause they don't believe in. And although any of our servicemen losing their lives is a tragedy, we have faced a mere fraction of the casualties experienced in the Vietnam War.

According to the blog post 59% of the public disagrees with sending more troops to Afghanistan, but at the same time 2/3rds of the public believe that without sending troops in, we will not be able to "prevent terrorists from using Afghanistan as a operation base for planning future attacks." If people are not willing to send more troops, but believe that without troops we endanger our safety, it is no wonder Americans believe that we are working our way into a war that we will not be able to pull out of successfully.

The poster believes that by speeding up fighting in Afghanistan we can avoid another Vietnam. But that is too convenient. It would be great to blink your eyes and the situation goes away, but that is not happening. Killing more people faster is not going to change their culture in a way that makes us safe from terrorism. There has to be a change from the ground up in the civilization.

The biggest factor is yet to be seen. If we stay another 8 years and end up leaving with our tail between our legs this may even be worse than Vietnam. However, if we can succeed in changing the culture and their view on our society then maybe the war will be able to end positively.

Health Reform in the General Public

According to Stanford’s “Building Sensible Health Care Solutions” project 7/10 Americans agree the current health care system is a major issue that needs to be addressed immediately by Congress but they were very divided about what exactly is wrong and how to fix it. This is a trend found not only in the American public but within our lawmakers as well. Everyone can agree the system is broken, but no one can agree how exactly to fix it. There are, however, some startling contradictions like 62% saying they were fine with the current system, and 68% saying that it does not work for most Americans. Perhaps revamping the entire system is not worth it if 60% of America is doing fine? These figures make it seem like taxing the so called “Cadillac” insurance plans would sacrifice the 60% of Americans who don’t have trouble with their current insurance plan. The public option and the private firms should be able to exist independently without hurting each other. If the only way to cover the 40% of Americans without adequate coverage is to take funds away from those who feel they have enough that solution simply is not viable. The goal should be that 100% of Americans have an equal opportunity to medical treatment. Politicians and consumers alike should be ready to face trade offs in order to meet the needs of the intended goal of 100% coverage for all Americans. Luckily Stanford’s “Building Sensible Health Care Solutions” project can give our politicians a better grasp on what exactly Americans want out of their health system.

Age Discrimination

An editorial in the New York Times entitled Preventing Age Discrimination (October 12, 2009) talks about discrimination based on age. The author says a new Supreme Court ruling makes it harder for people who have experienced age based discrimination to receive compensation. The reasoning is quite sound in that the victim of another form of discrimination in the workplace would have more support by law than the new ruling allows.

This is a problem because as the author points out, according to the AARP older people have more trouble finding jobs and in today’s economic climate that is dangerous. The article also points out that age-discrimination being reported was up 29% in 2008. Committees in Congress are already working on bills to reverse the Supreme Court’s ruling. The article concludes by saying that it is “up to Congress to put the teeth back into the law”, a valid conclusion. It is logical that age based discrimination holds as much weight as racial or sexual discrimination. The author cites a case where “relief was denied to an underpaid woman”. If there is a dispute about other forms of discrimination, it is up to the workplace to prove they did not act discriminatively. However, if someone experiences age based discrimination they are on their own to prove that they were treated unfairly. Age should not be the only reason someone gets fired if they are perfectly capable of doing their job. The Supreme Court should be protecting peoples’ rights not making it more difficult for them to receive compensation if their rights have been violated.

Is The Fence Worth The Cost?

The New York Times editorial wrote an article entitled “Border Fantasies” which talks about the difficulties the border fence is experiencing and the money it is costing taxpayers. It is directed towards that wide spectrum of people who don’t believe spending billions of dollars on something investigators “concluded that there’s no good way of gauging the effectiveness of” is a good idea(New York Times, September 21, 2009). That argument is backed by an eight digit long budget that seems out of place given the current economic climate. Is a multi-billion dollar symbol worth what it really buys?

The article ties the fence to the Bush administration, a tactic dating the proposition immediately. Of course, any new idea for immigration reform will eventually be dated and will most definitely cost a lot of money but a fence is not a solution. A solution will come when resources are spent centering at the heart of the problem instead of cleaning up the mess made by current geo-political and economic occurrences.

Any solution will take time, but the fence is already losing time. The entire project is seven years behind schedule, and when we get into solutions that span generations it is probably a good idea to reframe and evaluate ideologies that may not also span generations.

I am not sure if the article intentionally directing it so but Texans in particular should be interested in this article because the fence spans from San Diego, to Brownsville Texas. Perhaps the people in Congress should be more concerned with the people crossing the border than the technology used to monitor it.

Texas Unemployment Rate Rises

Despite many people's views that Texas' strong economy is outside the realm of national recession, Texas' unemployment rate experienced a slight rise this month. Although this shows that the nationwide recession is in fact having an impact on the Texas economy, Texas' unemployment rate is still far below the national trend. The Dallas Morning News reported that although the employment of financial and education and health services are on an upward swing, other industries are still below what one would consider healthy in better economic times. This is important because although many consider Texas and its economy something to itself, we are not beyond the repercussions of an economic recession.