Monday, September 24, 2012

The Not So middle Middle East

     I have been pretty disgusted with response, or lack of a response to the violence and attacks surrounding the U.S. embassies in the middle east.  I remember when I was a child.  Most of the violence occurred in the middle east.  As I've gotten older the violence has steadily spread around the globe.  Our values haven't changed and their values haven't changed either.  What has changed as their ability to hold the rest of the world hostage.  Democratic countries for whatever reasons continually allow students, business professionals, immigrants from the middle east to their countries, all in the hope, or guise that increases in education, humanity, and oil will come to and from the middle east.  What really pisses me off is that every day, EVERY DAY somewhere, many times a day in several locations in the middle east, they educate people to hate the West.  They train fighters to kill their people and ours.  They continue to oppress their women and anyone who thinks differently than they do.  All the while most western civilized people go about their everyday lives not giving any thought to whats going on in the middle east.  That is until some Crackpot from here makes a film for YouTube, which I have taken the time to watch, and they get pissed off.  It supplies the fuel for the radicals in the middle east to set off the violence.  It is a stupid film and anybody with more than half a dozen brain cells would realize just what a farce it is.  But in oppressed countries, they are just simple enough to get pissed off.  Violence ensues.

     I have a solution.  It is the year 2012 and those that want to live in a global economy, and global society need to get a real grip on themselves because I my solution shoots that theory right in the ass.  I think it's time to shut them off.  No money, No food, No technology, No Education, No travel. No humanitarian aid.  NO ANYTHING.  Turn them off.  Make them totally self sufficient.  Bring our people home.  Bring our businesses home. If we isolate those people totally, No more students coming here.  Make them educate their own people Make them treat their own sick.  Make them build their own cars and guns and raise their own food.  Until they realize that they can either get along, or slowly suffocate and die.  Now I realize that we will suffer too.  But we have the technology and the natural resources available to us to overcome whatever we get from the middle east.  And frankly it would be cheaper and safer to do so. 

     I realize I'm going to take a lot of shit for having this opinion, but frankly when is enough.  If those peoples choose, CHOOSE not to evolve with the rest of the world, then it's time to leave them behind. 

Thursday, September 20, 2012

An American President.

     Last night I met a friend for snacks and happy hour at a little Irish pub in Chandler,  the quality has taken a real dive, but that is fodder for another blog.  As always happens this time of year the conversation turned to politics and I made the statement that I wanted a true American to run for president.  I was asked what is that, what is an American, I answered of course but since then I've had a little time to think about it and here is a better answer. 

     My American president could be of any lineage, Black, White, Asian, Indian, I really don't have a preference.  I'd like him to be well spoken, a good speech giver, the kind of individual that takes the microphone and starts to speak and everybody listens.  Someone who can command respect as a leader in a room full of leaders from other nations.  I don't have any preference for military service, but I expect him to have a deep respect for the military, and have the intelligence for when is the right time to flex our military might and when it's time to send them in and defend our interests.  I don't care what his religious beliefs are.  Those are none of my business anyway, and being in America we are guaranteed the separation of church and state anyway, so I would hope that while I would respect his deep convictions of his own faith.  He had the intelligence to make his own decisions on policy and human rights and not base those on some interpretation of the bible.  It is the year 2012 he should respect human rights, he should respect equal rights for men, women, gays, lesbians, they get their own category because there is nothing like them, and people of all ethnicity's and religious beliefs.  I want him to be strong enough to stand up to the various political parties in the united states and walk down the middle of the road so to speak and have the guts to tell them when they have gone too far.  He should be strong enough to tell the senate and the congress to get off their asses and make the right choices.  You see it's the year 2012, it's not about Republican or Democrat, or tea party or independent.  We are the United States for Christs sake!!   He should tell the public utilities to get off their collective butts and develop safe nuclear energy, wind, solar and hydro power and do it now so that we can save what fossil fuels we have left can be used economically.  I understood in High School.  over 20 years ago that fossil fuels were a finite commodity.  We can put a man on the moon, Shuttle into space, support a multinational space station, Land a rover on mars that has enough power to transmit back to us experiments that it is going to conduct for two years!!!! and we haven't developed viable energy alternatives yet.  That my friends is inexcusable.  My Corvette gets 30mpg on the highway and has a smaller carbon imprint that a Pruis and marketing has convinced us that we are saving the world by driving them.  Chevy produced the Volt, which is a great car, because they had to, to get their bail out.  Government should not have that kind of power. 
    My American president would have to guts to run the special interest groups and lobbyisst right out of Washington.  One of his main agendas would be to bring manufacturing back to the U.S.  Tax breaks for small and large businesses that can manufacture American made products, Benefits to those that can do it with the least amount of pollution produced.  I expect him to take health care by the neck and choke the graft and waste out of the system.  Above all he is intelligent enough to overhaul our tax code, make is simple enough that we would be proud to support the programs that it would be needed for. 
     You show me a candidate  that has the guts to Run on that platform and he will get 100% of the support of the American Public.  The President who believes in America strong enough to run on a platform to reform and rebuild the very things that made America so great in the first place.  The American president who can defend the beliefs that our forefather fought so hard and risked so much for would undoubtedly be the American President because he would have the backing of all us Americans. 
     Somebody please find me that candidate so we can be proud of our American President again.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Defining Moments

     I believe that everyone has at least one defining moment in their lives.  Some people have more than one. I believe these moments can define ones life, either for themselves, or for other people.  They can change their lives when they have these moments, or not, the same goes for their friends, supporters, or others within their sphere of influence.
     I have had a few defining moments in my life.  Each time I've recognized that I need to make a change in my life and I have.  Either for better or not, but it has been a wholesale change, and I haven't gone back later and said I need a do over.  I've watched friends, individuals I've done business with, acquaintances, and people that I have never met, and people in the public eye have defining moments.  I've based some of my decisions on how they have reacted to their own defining moments. 
     The September 11th attacks on the world trade center was the defining moment for George Bush's presidency.  I believe it shaped the rest of his elected years, and may have shaped the rest of his personal life as well.  For me his defining moment and how he handled the attacks was a defining moment for me.  It shaped how I would perceive his presidency.
     I believe that today was one of those moments for Barack Obama.  The two attacks on the U.S. embassy's were an opportunity for him to step into the role as the most powerful leader in the free world.  Weather or not he felt they were a defining moment in his life,  they were a defining moment for me.  You see good or bad, religious beliefs, personal beliefs aside.  I prefer a president that is a leader.  Just like the boss at work that you may hate, but you respect because he is a really good boss, because he is good at his job so you  try to do a good job as well. 
      Today Barack Obama failed at being a leader.  You see Republican or Democrat, or Independent, Methodist, Catholic, or Muslim, if you live in the United States as a citizen of the United States, there are certain rights and privileges that you are allowed.  The right to bear arms, the right to worship as you choose, the right of freedom of speech just to name a few.  As the president of the United States, you are elected by the people because the majority of the people believe that you will uphold those rights.  You believe in them as well.  You believe they are worth fighting for.  You were not elected to force your beliefs on the people.  You work for us.  In the same way that if you are the president of the United States.  We the people will do our best to defend you.  There are men in the presidential secret service detail that protect you and your family who may not have the same political agenda, and religious beliefs but they will defend you to the death if for no reason except for pride in their jobs.  If you actually believe that you need to apologize for a non main stream film on YouTube because it offends a small faction of radical Muslims.  Then you Mr President are no leader and do not deserve to be the leader of the United States.  Freedom of speech allows us the opportunity to produce films, music, write books, even write in this blog.  Apologizing for that right is a disgrace to your office and an embarrassment to the People of the United States. 
     Regardless of your beliefs on gay rights, the women's right to choose what to do with her body, health insurance coverage, or your own religious beliefs.  I can look past all that.  What I can't look past is your continual disdain for the very rights that allowed you the very successes that you have achieved.  YOU BARACK OBAMA DO NOT DESERVE TO BE THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.  I may not like Mitt Romney, in fact most of his policies are just as offensive as yours, but above all I believe he is an American and will protect those rights which our forefathers fought so hard for.