School is in SessionHere in metro Atlanta, and probably in your neighborhood, too, the schools are already back in session. Some were already back by the first week of August. Doesn't that seem strange? Back when I was in school summer lasted until mid-September because that is, indeed, when summer ends.
Why are we rushing kids back to school so fast these days? School until mid-June, then one whole month off in July, then back to school again by August 5th. What's the fun of being 15 anymore?
It's probably because of the kind of lectures we were already starting to hear when I was in eigth grade: that the Japanese didn't have summer vacations, that their school lasted longer hours than ours, that they were doing advanced trigonometry in third grade and were programming computers blindfolded by the fifth. We must be competitive! Capitalism! Dollar! Profit! Free market!
And who have we been told are bums? Europeans. Way too many social welfare programs; month-long, government-sponsored vacations; government-paid maternity leave with free nannies. Where is their motivation to kick ass and achieve like we Americans and Japanese?
Now look around and see who's kicking our ass. Is it the Japanese? No, it's the Europeans! Who just bought Anheuser-Busch? Belgium, one of the highest-tax countries of all! Who's currency is worth more than double ours? England, with it's universal healthcare system! Who's creating all of our TV shows? Britain's Nigel Lythgoe, who has somehow fought off the laziness his country's semi-socialist government encourages to dominate American television with scads of reality contest shows. Those well-rested, job-secure, nanny state Europeans are running all over us!
If America really wants to get back on top, I propose we bring the kids back home from the classrooms and let them stay up until all hours watching David Letterman, eating Chips Ahoy! cookies and wanking to the Playboy channel like I did. This is the only way America will ever be on top again.
America has been making some really embarrassing missteps on the world stage of late, in my opinion, and I've begun to think maybe feelings of nationalism are for the naive.
So how surprised was I when I saw Mike Phelps hit the pool in the Olympics Sunday night to feel a burst of flag-waving adrenalin running through my veins? The way he attacked the water and immediately began leaving the so-called competition in his wake really made me proud to be an American (for the first time in my adult life?) for the first time in awhile. He was two full body-lengths ahead before they knew what hit `em; it was like he was a Great White on home turf and they were tourists from Michigan. He snagged yet another gold and, I like to think, proved there really is something exceptional about this country.
In the early 1990's a friend called me up and insisted I come to A Comic Café to hear a comedian named Ron Shock. With the death of George Carlin I became curious to look Shock up and see what he's up to these days. I remember his show as being pretty good, but his political rants are really making me put my fists in the air! This guy makes some damn great points in
this blog post.
However, from what I briefly perused, it seems he's rehashing a lot of the tired arguments I've heard a million times before.
"If men could get pregnant, abortion would be legal and free." That makes for a great one-liner, but it's a ridiculous argument.
He thinks Obama's universal health care idea is a good start. What about those of us who feel a "good start" would be a libertarian universal health care plan, where people who willingly abuse their bodies (obesity, smoking, drinking) can live however they want, but can't show up at the emergency room uninsured when they have a heart attack?
He speaks of conservatives parroting the day's talk radio points, but he's saying nothing new or original from the leftward bent.
Bill Hicks was the same way. Brilliant comedian, not-so-brilliant politically.
1.) People say, "I don't know enough about Obama." He's written two books that are available in most bookstores and libraries. How about starting there?
2.) "Obama doesn't outline his ideas." He's got a downloadable PDF on his site. How about the hours and hours of debates as something to draw from?
3.) "He's going to raise my taxes." Not unless you make over $250,000 a year, which very few people do. As to the Atlas Shrugged theory that this means the wealthy will stop creating jobs...they're sending the jobs to India and China already.
4.) We're already paying for health care in the products we buy. If we have national health care I very much doubt we'll see a reduction in the costs of the things we buy, anyhow.
The abortion stuff was secondary to me.
1) How many of his supporters have read his books? Yes, he sold a lot of copies...but have they actually read them? I point to Obama supporters in my own life. Not one of them knows anything he stands for.
2) Believe it or not, many of us have studied his websites and watched the debates, more so than his supporters. I point to my "progressive" co-worker whose own life would be affected adversely by her chosen candidate achieving office.
3) Who set the arbitrary figure at $250,000? Why is that considered worthy of onerous taxation? Does Obama have some magical means by which he determines folks making a quarter-mil per year aren't "earning" their salaries? How 'bout a 90% "windfall profits tax" on people who write memoirs at age 35?
4) I still go back to my Libertarian plan for health care. Free market health care, pay according to your lifestyle. In cases of "uninsurable" folks due to genetic causes, government provides a safety net. A person can't read a newspaper without a couple stories on Medicare/Medicaid waste and fraud. We want that for all healthcare?
Ron Shock wasn't talking about if his supporters had read his books. He was replying to the people who say, "I don't know enough about him." His supporters must feel like they know enough about him to choose him whether or not they've read the books.
2) Believe it or not, many of us have studied his websites and watched the debates, more so than his supporters.
Once again we're not talking about the people who say, "I've seen him on TV and understand what he's about." Shock was talking about the people who've managed to watch 10 debates and say, "I haven't heard his stance on anything."
3) Who set the arbitrary figure at $250,000? I'm not a Harvard economist, but it must be that when you take the national debt vs. the income of U.S. citizens, the $250,000+ range is the range where you can raise the revenue to take care of the debt while affecting as few Americans as possible. Just a hunch. I don't think it' s a random figure.
4) I still go back to my Libertarian plan for health care. Free market health care, Hillary Clinton had a good debate with Bill O'Reilly on this topic that's on YouTube where she said something along the lines of we're already paying in insurance premiums the same that we would pay under her setup and more people would be insured. I think that was it.
Fortunately I'm in good enough health that these insurance issues never affect me. However I've got a friend who's wife has lupus and he says they raped on a monthly basis. My mom also talks about having to figure out the costs of name brands vs. generics, but is the dosage the same, or can she get the pharmacist to prescribe the dosage she needs in the cheaper format? It's a shell game. As Shock says, doctors and nurses may be happier if they didn't have a bean counter controlling their ability to perform their skills.
Where's Joe ("VJ") in all of this?