Obergefell v. Hodges

Obergefell v. Hodges is the name of the same-sex marriage case heard by SCOTUS today, April 28th, 2015.

On this, the day that the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments about the “right” of Same-Sex Marriage, I thought two new thoughts.  But before I speak them, I want you, my reader, to be crystal clear where I stand.  One, I am 100% with the proponents of the right to same-sex marriage who want to be treated the same as traditional marriage couples in civil law, as it does no harm to anyone to allow them to share this “right” with opposite-sex couples.  And, two, this issue does not seek gay access to religious marriages; churches or congregations may continue to do as they want – let them marry gay couples or let them not marry gay couples – let them have their own internal struggles with this issue, and I am sure that many churches and surely many more congregations will fracture over this “right.”  So be it.  There you have it, FOR same-sex marriage in its CIVIL sense only, and FOR the freedom of religious institutions and religious practitioners to continue to discriminate (is this really a Christian thing to do?) against gays at the same time.  I am not threading the needle, I am NOT having it both ways, but no one is asking for private non-discrimination, only governmental non-discrimination.  If you, dear reader, think I am wrong, prove it; show me with a citation of a legal action to compel a church to officiate and/or to recognize a same-sex marriage.

SETI – The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence

OK, this short blog post is a reality check.  “Are we really alone?”  Is Earth-based humanity the only intelligent species in the whole universe?  OK, we are pretty sure that we will find life – elemental life, single-celled life – pretty nearby and soon, on Mars, on one or more of Jupiter's or Saturn's moons.  But how about intelligent life, more intelligent than us – from whom we might learn SO much that would solve SO many human problems – how about really intelligent life?

A Modest Proposal

The genus Homo appeared on planet Earth about 2.5 million years ago, the species Homo Sapiens appeared roughly 800,000 years ago, and the subspecies Homo Sapiens Sapiens (double-wise?  Hah!) (that’s US, modern humans) about 200,000 years ago (as I am no paleoanthropologist, I can be excused for mis-stating the dates, but that does not affect my argument).  We modern humans traded hunting and gathering for the domestication of animals and agriculture a mere 12,000 years ago.  The Industrial Revolution (beginning with steam power) began less than 300 years ago, and the wide-spread use of electricity took place over decades from the late 1880’s through the Great Depression (still on-going in many places in the world).  Before that transformative transition, all of your ancestors knew what the Milky Way* was (they could see it, even if they didn't know what it was!) and they could see it every night.  And the stars that they could see with the naked eye!  Not hundreds, not thousands, more like 100,000 - uncountable.  The advent of Cell Phone technology in the 1990’s and of “Smart Phones” (Blackberry, iPhone and Android) in the last fifteen years signified the last nail in the coffin of our being able to differentiate work from play and rest, and our entire dependency on Industry, Electricity and Technology.  When you go on vacation today, even if you spend it on Tahiti; do you really go on vacation, are you really isolated in any real sense from your workaday world?  Even there, a real night sky overhead, do you ever look UP?  What is the difference between you and a robot that mimics you?  Today, we "know" the difference, but the tomorrow when we won't see the difference is not that far in the future.

The Sixth Extinction

“WTF is 'The Sixth Extinction' and why should I care?”

King Ludd is Dead; Long Live King Ludd!

Ned Ludd is alive and well and having a rebirth in Austin Texas, at the SXSW Music Film Interactive festival.  Ned Ludd, of course, is the late 18th century English weaver whose name was immortalized in the word Luddite, someone who is anti-technology, because advances in technology cost jobs.  They are at it again in Austin, Texas, mostly a tech crowd protesting the further advance of technology.

A Strong Dollar

Most Americans are simple-minded.  Well, that is a libel and in addition, it is not true.  How about this?  Most simple-minded Americans are simple-minded.  Well, OK, still a libel even if it is undeniably true, as most (really ALL) simple-minded Germans are simple-minded too.  And Frenchmen, Japanese, Chinese, etc.  Simple-minded people are simple-minded and even if we don’t have a monopoly on simple-mindedness, we have our fair share.

Here is an example of simple-mindedness: economics is just common sense.

OK, how about this economic statement, uttered more than once by Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew: “I have been consistent in saying, as my predecessors have said, that a strong dollar is good for the United States.”  It sure sounds obvious, but is it really true?  Is a strong dollar good for the United States?

A strong dollar IS good for those of us traveling overseas where our dollar buys more stuff than the weaker currencies it can buy more of, but it is bad for Americans working in travel-related firms in the U.S.  A strong dollar IS good for our citizens who shop at Walmart and anywhere else that sells goods manufactured outside our borders, whose currencies are not so strong.  But a strong dollar is bad for American manufacturing as our goods are now more expensive on the foreign market.  And a strong dollar is bad for American labor for the same reason: reduced demand for more expensive American goods overseas.  A strong dollar is also good for creditors, who will be repaid in more valuable dollars than they loaned out; and that same strong dollar is bad for those in debt who now have to pay off their debts with more expensive dollars (so, good for the top, not so good for the bottom).  And, last but hardly least, a strong dollar is bad for our Balance of Payments as that strong dollar will buy more foreign goods than foreign currencies will buy American goods, so more dollars will fly overseas than Euros and Yen will re-patriate here.

So, is a strong dollar good for the United States?  Surely the answer is never a simple “yes” or “no,” the answer is always “it depends on who you are and where you live.”

To My Countrymen

My book, To My Countrymen: The Essential Handbook for Tea Partiers, Occupiers, and Every American Who is Mad as Hell and Isn't Going to Take It Any More, is about the American democracy  that was and what you can do to restore it.  My hope is that you buy it, read it, recommend it to your friends, and take action.  If you and enough Americans follow its plans, the forces that control America today MUST yield to the strength of your passion, your commitment, and your numbers.

Clean Bills, Poison Pills

The American public gets it.  The same American voters who replaced spineless Democrats with fire-breathing Republicans get it.  They are faulting the Republicans – the folks they just voted into majority power in both houses of Congress – for bringing government to its knees: with a shutdown of government, with a threatened default on our debt payments, and with the most recent threat not to fund the Dept. of Homeland Security.  And they are doing so even though they voted for those rascals.  Perhaps the American public really likes gridlock or brinksmanship government, perhaps they prefer do-nothing Congresses, perhaps they prefer confrontational government, it makes good theater, it IS exciting after all.

Putting aside the public’s involvement in government by crisis, there is a common denominator in all these cliff-hanger shutdowns and defaults, and that common thread is called “poison pills.”  A “poison pill” is an amendment to a “clean bill” before Congress that a) has nothing to do with the subject matter of the underlying piece of legislation being debated and voted upon and b) forces members to vote up a measure that they do not support (the poison pill amendment) in order to pass a measure that they do support (the clean bill).  A “clean bill” is, of course, a bill before Congress all of whose parts are on the same topic.   And poison pills are invariably attached to bills that have bipartisan support, like funding the military or the government as a whole.

There is an underlying cynicism at work here because the party that introduces the poison pill amendment knows from past experience that it will be blamed for the shutdown or the default, yet they go ahead anyway.  One has the sense that they believe that the American public will forget by the time the next election cycle rolls around.  And since it has been Republicans who have written all the poison pill amendments lately (yes, sure, the Democrats have done the same thing, just not recently), and they keep getting elected, maybe they are right, maybe we forget by the next election cycle.  Or maybe enough Americans think that there are more important issues than shutting down the government or defaulting on our debts.

In the end, in a democracy the people get what they want.  Or deserve.

No New Taxes

No New Taxes is a hard slogan to run an electoral campaign against.  Walter Mondale discovered that when he was honest enough to declare that new taxes were necessary.  George H W Bush, #41, raised taxes after campaigning long and hard on “read my lips, no new taxes.”  His own party fried him in Texas oil and has not forgiven him to this day.  Even without examples, it is hard to imagine anyone running a campaign asking for a tax hike.

Concealed Carry

I am not against the U.S. Constitution, I am not against the 2^nd amendment’s right to keep and bear arms, I am not against gun ownership in general, but I am solidly against the push to legalize concealed carry in the country at large.

Here’s what I foresee as the result of concealed carry legislation.  All of a sudden, all those law-abiding folks packing concealed firearms will imagine everyone else with a concealed firearm.  Now I realize that that is part of their argument: no nut case will dare to do anything stupid when he could be cut down by anyone carrying a concealed firearm (of course, many if not most of the mass killings in the last fifteen years have resulted in the gun man killing himself, so it wouldn’t stop THAT kind of nut case, would it?).  But here is another way to look at it.  Every concealed carry person will imagine everyone else as carrying, and they will be at the ready, always.  And, inevitably, someone will make a movement that some concealed carry person interprets as threatening and out will come HIS firearm (or out will come THEIR firearms) and someone (or more than someONE) will get shot, by accident.  Imagine the 2012 Aurora theater shooting where 12 innocent people lost their lives (and 70 more were injured), think of all those concealed carry guys reacting swiftly to the lone gun man and everyone aiming at the original gun man, imagine the cross-fire carnage.  Worse yet, imagine YOU reacting to the gun man closest to you and how many guns will be aimed not at the original gun man but at some concealed carry owner trying to do a good deed.

So, here is what I think: let the states experiment with concealed carry, one by one, and let’s revisit the subject at a federal level in ten or so years when we have a track record of what happened where.  OK?