Rational Thought

Where do Republicans go from here?

Although this TV episode is fictional, the facts in it are not. You can argue with the way they are presented, but I see no lying here, perhaps just a little exaggeration. I personally like how the anchor stated his Republican beliefs. 

Now that the election is over, the country welcomes a real debate on issues, and real work on solutions to our problems. We need Republicans to help lead these solutions, people who embody individualism, strong families, and fiscal restraint. What we don't need is the Republican party, which seems to be focused only on helping the rich, denying rights to gays, refusing to compromise, punishing the poor, denying science, restricting women's rights, and remaining ideologically pure. Now is the time for Real Republicans to stand up and take back their country -- from the Republican party!

The Role of Government

AARP's John Rother said the role of government itself is at stake in the election. "Should government take an active role in managing the economy or providing a safety net for people, or should it take a more reduced role and leave greater room for the private sector and individual responsibility?" said Rother, executive vice president for political strategy and international affairs. "Everything else follows from that."

I have created another set of competing definitions for the role of government. I think I've distilled these down to their basics...

Winner Take All Every man (or business) is free to swim or sink by himself, and keep government out of the way. Government should leave citizens alone, except to enforce "moral" behavior. Government is a problem.

Help Everyone Do Better Government should provide basic services to all citizens, and protections from those that abuse the philosophy to the left. Government should try to help it's citizens. Government is a solution.

Everything the two parties do seems to be based on these visions for government. Republicans value above all else freedom to make businesses and their owners successful. Democrats value finding ways to improve the lives of the middle class and poor.

In my opinion, the role on the left is essentially what our government was at the end of the 19th century. Such unrestrained business freedom allowed the economic and social disasters of the 19th and 20th century, and precipitated the landmark laws of our country -- civil rights, voting rights, union rights, social security, food and drug safety, banking regulations, stock market regulations, consumer protections, .... too many to list.

Martin Luther King said "we aren't trying to change the heart, we're trying to restrain the heartless". I think thats the kind of government I'd like to see.

A job-killing government takeover of the facts

I read a lot online from all sources, but I do tend to favor liberal media sources. Most people favor the sources that bolster their point of view, and I'm guilty right along with the rest of you. But it helps to keep coming back to the fact-checking sites, to get an in-depth analysis of claims made by both parties.

The two I like the best are FactCheck.org and PolitiFact.com. Start at the home page and read through the list of lies, half-lies, and deceptions told by both sides. it will be good for you.

I just read two very thorough articles about the lies told about the Obama health-care law. We've all heard the claims: Job-killing, government takeover, bad for small business, too expensive. All those claims are debunked in this article at FaceCheck.org posted Feb 21, 2012, and this one at PolitiFact.com posted March 21, 2012.

The "Mainstream" Media

As someone who took "Intro to Logic" way back in Freshman year of college, I have a problem with the conservative opinion of the Mainstream media.

Conservatives are always decrying the "Lamestream" media. But if such media sources are "mainstream" doesn't it mean by definition that they are mostly middle-of-the-road, large media sources, with large readerships? You don't get to be a large media source by having fringe content and views, you get there by having "mainstream" content and views. See my point?

A free press is one of the hallmarks of our democracy, one that we all use as an example of why American is different from other countries. But conservatives continue to say the media is controlled or influenced by liberals, that the "lamestream" media consists mostly of left-wing opinions, that our free press isn't free. Hogwash. By the very fact that certain media outlets are considered "mainstream" it means that their content is generally mainstream too. Mainsteam = majority.

So keep decrying the "mainstream" media conservatives, but realize what you are really saying is that most Americans disagree with you.

For a look at how conservatives view the mainstream media, check out the opening paragraph of the definition of "mainstream media" at Conservapedia -- the Trustworthy Encyclopedia. I guess conservatives need their own encyclopedia too, to get away from the liberal biased ones.

Too Bad to be True

You know the old saying -- "If it's too good to be true, it probably isn't." But isn't it the same for things that are too bad to be true?

A recent blog post on the Heritage Networks blog "The Foundry" led with this headline "Obama Couldn’t Wait: His New Christmas Tree Tax", and went on to describe a new 15-cent tax on Christmas trees proposed by the Obama administration. The author closes the blog post with "Just because the Obama Administration has the legal power to impose its Christmas Tree Tax doesn’t mean it should do so. The economy is barely growing and nine percent of the American people have no jobs. Is a new tax on Christmas trees the best President Obama can do?"

But it was really the comments (almost 3,000 of them) made by readers that showed the true impact of this article.

Is it now OK for Politicians to Lie to Us?

Politicians have always bent the truth a little to make themselves more appealing, and we've rarely deemed it "lying". So why should we start now? To me there is a big difference between statements of opinion and statements that sound like facts. Take these two statements:

— "I think obamacare will hurt small businesses in this country."
— "Obama's stimulus package created zero jobs."

Which one is opinion, and which one is not. The second one surely reads as if it were a statement of fact. The problem is that it's wrong. The consensus of many reports says the stimulus increased employment by creating or saving around 2.5 million jobs, and Politifact has awarded the speaker (Rick Perry) a "pants on fire" verdict for making this untrue claim previously.

Soap Dries Your Skin

Usually I can put up with watching television commercials, and I find the really creative ones actually entertaining. But sometimes the ad agencies extend "creativity" too far.

Take this new TV commercial for Dove soap. The commercial shows a bar of soap sitting on a counter, and over the course of time, the bar of soap dries out. The voiceover states: "If soap dries itself out over time, imagine what it can do to your skin over time".

We've got several bars of soap laying about the house, some for months, and I can tell you that none of them look as dried out and cracked as the one in the commercial. Even so, are we being told that if something dries up after sitting for several days or months, it will also dry out anything it touches, like our skin?? Who came up with this reasoning? The Marx Brothers? So by this reasoning.... if I leave a dish of water on my kitchen counter and a week later it's all dried up, obviously that means that water would also dry up my skin! Horrors! For the love of Pete -- stay out of the water!

Congratulations America -- the elections are over

I am so glad this election is over. I can't take any more robo-calls!

And I can watch TV again now that the attack ads are over. All the billions of dollars wasted on campaigning.... Seems there would be more useful ways to spend all that money. Meg Whitman alone spent over $150 Million to lose the California governor's race to a guy who spent one tenth of that. Most of the negative ads are for local races, but some are very well-produced and funded by unknown groups and just attack the government in general.

One attack ad that got my attention depicts a Chinese college class of 2030, learning what led to the fall of the United States. You've seen it. Here it is...

It was paid for by Citizens Against Government Waste, whoever they are, and blames the future downfall of the US on:

• Stimulus spending.
• The health care bill.
• Government takover of private industries.
• China holding our treasury bonds.

Let's look at each of these:

Putting your worst face forward

You're looking into the camera, posing even, and after the flash fades the proud photographer shows you the picture. Uugghhh! Can we take another?

We've all been there, right? How many photos of us look really good? If you're like me, not too many, and that's when we know the camera is pointed at us and we're trying to look our best. How about candid shots, how many of those look really good?

But all is fair in politics and now is the season when our mailboxes and computers and airwaves are full of unflattering photos of the opposition candidate. While in the candidate's own mailings, her photo shows her as attractive and engaged.

What Fuels Voter Anger?

All the pundits and talking heads are talking about voter anger, and obviously the anger is real. Tea Party candidates and others who tap into this anger have won several primaries. But what exactly is this anger directed at? What I keep hearing is "High Taxes" and "Big Government". These are a little vague, but let's look closer...

High Taxes
Federal, State, and local taxes are actually at their lowest level in several decades, due in large part to the Bush tax cuts. (Read: USA Today or US News). Coming from a budget surplus under Clinton, the Bush tax cuts are what started us on the road to the high deficits we see now. So when the tea party and others rally against high taxes, what are they rallying against, or did they simply not do their homework?