Obama Lowers Himself to Attacking McCain’s War Injuries

I’m no fan of McCain and although I’m a registered Republican, he won’t be getting my vote come election day. Instead I’ll be casting my ballot for Bob Barr, in disgust at the direction the Republican Party is heading in. That being said there are some things that should have all people regardless of political affiliation shaking their heads. In Obama’s newest ad, seen below, he takes aim at some of McCain’s deficiencies; can’t use a computer, can’t send an email, doesn’t understand the economy and wants 200 billion in new tax cuts for corporations.

Now, I completely agree that McCain doesn’t understand the economy, and his tax cut ideas leave a bit to be desired, but there’s a history lesson to be learned on McCain’s computer “illiteracy.” After five years of torture (which does not make a person more qualified to be President) he lacks the ability to type, and cannot use a mouse without experiencing extreme pain. The ad outright lies in saying that he doesn’t know how to use a computer, because he can with assistance and has a handful of favorite news sites he goes to often, along with his daughter’s blog.

The Obama Campaign left out of their ad that he also can’t comb his hair, tie his shoes, or raise his hands above his head, come on McCain get with the times.

Obama says he wants a campaign that doesn’t sink to mud slinging, but I’m just not seeing it.

Possible Unprecedented Third Party Debate

This coming Wednesday, September 10, 2008 there will be a major announcement at D.C.’s National Press Club, interesting to note Constitution Party candidate Baldwin, Libertarian Candidate Barr, Green Candidate McKinney, and Independent runner Nader will all be in attendance. Also in attendance will be Republican Congressman Ron Paul who rocked the Republican Primaries by twice holding record fund raisers that brought in more money than had ever been raised online by a candidate in a single day, by raising more money from active military personnel than any other candidate from either party, and by holding rallies that pulled in thousands of supporters. Unlike the third party candidates, Congressman Ron Paul has stated that he will not run third party, though others have quoted him as saying that he will run for as long as his supporters want him to, the statements are hotly debated. Either way speculation swarms as to the purpose of the meeting.

Before information leaked that Nader and McKinney would be in attendance, the reigning opinion was that the Libertarian and Constitution Party would unite for this election putting Ron Paul at the head of the ticket and promising Secretary positions to the current ticket heads, VP most likely given to Barr. Highly plausible since Parties are allowed to change the names of the candidates on the ballot until fairly close to the election. Due to Ron Paul’s prominence in the Freedom Movement, his name at the top of the ticket would bring far more votes than either Barr or Baldwin could get on their own. However, with the addition of McKinney and Nader, thoughts of a Unity ticket are highly unlikely. Besides the mutual agreement that the establishment is going the wrong way, ideologically they stand at the opposite end of the room.

That leaves one very likely scenario, that Ron Paul and his newly fashioned, yet powerful, Campaign for Liberty will power a debate between the third party candidates, each candidate by agreeing to debate with the others would bring credibility to third parties in a way that has never been done before. The practicality of “fringe” ideas has always been at the forefront of American’s minds but could they be attracted by the appeal of watching an Environmentalist going toe to toe with a Libertarian over the environment? Or watching a Strict Constitutionalist and Ralph Nader debate the merits of a large government as opposed to one that holds to the Constitution.

Could we finally be seeing the beginning of the day where third parties have a place in American Politics and third party ideas are no longer discounted. A Republican fears voting third party and giving the election to the the Democrats, would he be as scared if there were Democrats on the other side doing the same thing? All third parties growing at the same rate.

By opening our minds to discounted ideas, could we become a better people?

Penndel Borough and Robbins Ave.

Quietly nestled behind a row of houses and riddled with more potholes than actual concrete, Robbins Avenue from the outside looks like your typical poorly maintained small, town road. Though slightly uncommon for a town like Penndel Borough that does a moderately good job of keeping its roads paved. In any other place it would probably be quickly forgotten by everyone, excluding those unfortunate enough to have to drive over it on a daily basis. So why is it that everyone in the surrounding area knows about Robbins Avenue, if not by name?

Possibly because before the FBI drug raid the year before last it was often rumored to be the biggest seller of heroine outside of Trenton in the Delaware Valley? One can only feel bad for the blind-sided renters of the Oxford Grant apartments who couldn’t have had any idea what they were getting themselves into.

So who owns Robbins Avenue in Penndel Borough and why won’t they pave and maintain it? Well that’s the problem, no one will stand up and take responsibility for it. Only three groups whose property connects to Robbins Avenue actually open onto it; the Oxford Grant Apartments, PBU dormitories, and an unfortunate double-house that has been crammed between the two. PBU and the Oxford Grant apartments have taken the position that Robbins Avenue is a public road that isn’t their responsibility . Whilst Penndel Borough refuses to take responsibility for Robbins Avenue, claiming that it’s a private road (although it’s listed on numerous maps and benefits more than one Penndel landowner.)

So what needs to be done to Robbins Avenue to bring security to the area and pleasant driving to all? To start, Penndel Borough needs to step up and take responsibility for Robbins Avenue, it is clearly the town’s road. Even if it wasn’t, it has obviously been abandoned by the real owner and negatively affects everyone in Penndel Borough, being the hot spot for Penndel crime. After they do that, cut the road in half, go slightly to the right of the double house and take out about twelve to fifteen feet of the road and build a small, large windowed, Penndel Borough security office there and get rid of the old one because your police station should be where your crime is. Crazy? Absolutely, however, less crazy than uniting our police force with the neighboring towns which will bring nothing but higher taxes, and would be far more affective in stopping Penndel crime. If nothing else, it can stand as a sign to possible Oxford Grant renters that they might just want to take their family somewhere safer. Then, pave both roads, make the Oxford Grant road West Robbins Road, and make the one that connects to the PBU dorms and the double house East Robbins Road.

When all that has been done, Penndel would be justified in taking down the white tennis shoes that hang above Robbins Avenue.

Finding a Hero

I guess I’m something of an oddity. In my entire life I’ve never looked up to anyone as a hero, or set anyone up as my role model.

I could look at someone and admire things about them but that never disguised their flaws. Even my parents, and grandparents; i loved them, but I still saw things they could be better at. So many people get these obsessions while growing up; wanting to be their dad, looking up to batman, grandfather, soccer coach. I never had anyone like that, I wanted to be better myself, but I wasn’t emulating anyone.

Which is why, as I’m preparing to start my last year of college, I find it so odd that I’ve developed such a strong admiration for Congressman Ron Paul (This isn’t a bump for his presidential campaign since it’s quite clear that he’s ended it.) There has never been another person that I’ve developed such a deep respect for, the kind that if he said something that contradicted one of my beliefs, that I would carefully re-evaluate it. The type of political ideology he preaches is one self governance, returning to the constitution, reigning in government to the limits it once held; holding true to the idea that government’s role is to protect the liberty of it’s citizenry and that alone.

More than is ideology, however, is the type of man that he is. A faithful husband (sad how that has become a virtue through a lack in common practice,) a dedicated ten term congressman, and still small voice in the void of our countries atrophy; our cradle to grave mindset. Who can fault a man who practices what he preaches. To be ridiculed, looked down on, and openly laughed at; anyone in Ron Paul’s place would have lashed out but people watching the debates couldn’t help but feel admiration for the only man on stage who never threw dirt on his opponents, endured the majority of the onslaughts and when allowed to respond, acted in the manner of a true statesman; a true representative of the people. How sad that a man so humble, so unwavering in principle, would endure twenty years in congress , not fighting for himself but for the people of this country with a lone vote no against an onslaught of tyranny and that hardly anyone would notice and when notice was taken; call him crazy.

How much better our country would be if we were all a little more like Ron Paul; the old man in the corner, on his knees, hands folded, head bowed in prayer. Not telling people how to live, but proclaiming and defending their right to live how they want. The type of argument you’d more often hear from a social deginerate whose breaking societies norms not the type of argument you’d expect from a 72 year-old Republican, fundamentalist christian. No surprise that he was the first person to ever herd cats, except he didn’t find the cats, the cats found him.

Many have dubbed Ron Paul Thomas Jefferson and I see the similarities but there is another Founding Father I see much more clearly in Ron Paul; George Washington. Because few people have the unwavering principles that Washington possessed working along with a stalwart humbleness that allows them to be given enormous power and not only not abuse it but to go one step further and to state; “This power is not mine, it is the people’s”

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The Disaster that is Penndel Borough Officials

You would think being an official of an area only .4 square miles would be easy, apparently it’s not. Unless of course it is easy and the residents of Penndel are just cursed with representatives whose intelligence is subpar. Looking at the Renaissance Plans, the so-called vision for the future, makes me think it’s the latter. Do Penndel voters ever even look at these plans that their elected representatives are toting will bring a renaissance to our borough? Firstly the “business” section of Penndel is dying, now I say that with hesitation because I would prefer to say it’s dead. When the most vibrant businesses are a porn shop, a gun shop, a gas station and a Burger King; things aren’t going well. Especially when almost all other businesses have closed, oh but wait, although Al’s Place has closed a go-go bar will soon take it’s place… yay renaissance? But really blaming the go-go bar on the Penndel Borough officials would be a compliment, we aren’t getting the bar because of our officials actions but in spite of them. The taxes and regulations that the town has leveled against our businesses is to blame for so many windows being boarded up, and when honest business can’t survive who should be surprised when a go-go bar pops up.

Penndel residents, however, have a lot more to worry about than the fact that their officials like Mayor Michael Sodano are quite possibly insane to truly believe that they’re going to build massive parks and sky-scraping hotels and art studios. Like the places where they intend to build these things; your homes and businesses!

Just take a quick gander at these plans: http://psabcontent.com/penndelboro/content/renaissancearealview.html http://psabcontent.com/penndelboro/content/renaissancegraphic.html

As you do you may wonder why there is an “Eden Gardens” on top of your house or why your entire block has had a road moved over it. I see one big clear message when I look at these plans, well maybe two; 1. the officials of Penndel Borough could care less about the actual residents and business owners of Penndel, they care more about “progress” and 2. they’re are quite possibly insane.

What Penndel Borough needs is for it’s government to be streamlined. You can’t cut corners, you can’t bring in massive regulations for businesses that don’t exist yet. The majority of our residents work outside the borough, and we’re in the middle of a heavily regulated township, to turn ourselves into a massive business center we need to be more business friendly than our neighbors; low taxes, low regulations. There isn’t any other way.

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The Lack of Science in Evolution

God can exist without evolution but evolution cannot exist without God. There are far too many errors and gaps in the evolution theory to hold up without the aid of an intelligent designer, and with the intelligent designer present; what need have we for evolution?

To start things off I should make it clear that I don’t feel threatened by evolution (unless we’re talking about being forced to believe it at the barrel of a gun.) I do not see it as a religion shaking theory that will destroy the foundations of my beliefs. Could God have used evolution to create life on the world; sure, why not. My biggest beef with the theory is the close-minded ignorance it’s defenders subscribe to. While watching the Golden Compass, I felt modern science could have been the best fit as the antagonists of the story. Where once the Catholic Church cracked down on anything that disagreed with the misguided beliefs they posed as facts forgetting to hold only to the truths of the Bible, so now do Scientists crack down on anyone who strays from the Science establishments approved line (nicely funded by government cronies.) Don’t think so, keep an eye on any Scientists or Science journal writers who say one nice thing about I.D; their career is quickly over.

Now let’s make it clear, I do not believe that religion should mix with science, religion is based on faith and science based on reason. There is no science in evolution, science takes the facts and tries to come to a conclusion. Evolution takes the theory of evolution and looks for evidence to support it among a slew of evidence that contradicts it. I would also say that Creationism does the same thing, it has the idea of Creationism and tries to prove it. Intelligent Design, however, takes the facts and concludes that all evidence points to some sort of intelligent designer. You don’t have to believe in a religion to believe in intelligent design, agnostics believe in intelligent design. It is the most logical answer to the data around us.

I’m not a biology major so I’m not going to drown myself in a science that I’m not well versed in. I am a Social Science major, ah the soft sciences, constantly looked down on by the hard science establishment and thankfully largely grassroots. By grassroots, i mean still a real science that bases itself on real scientific principals. So instead of attacking evolution for its biological errors, I’ll attack it for it’s errors in human nature’s survival of the fittest. A quick look at a society would tend to support Darwin’s theory that the fittest in a society survive as the most intelligent tend to rise to places of power and prominence. So over time these controllers of our society would continue to gain in power, breed with other intelligent people and lead us towards evolving into a higher life form. One problem, actually a couple, the first being that as people gain prominence in a society, with the exception of kings, they tend to have few or no children whilst failures at life breed like rabbits. To add to that, humans by nature tend to grow mistrustful towards people who show advanced forms of intelligence. From the French Revolution to the Nazi to the ravages of the Khmer Rouge we’ve learned one thing by way of human history; the intelligent successful minority gets killed off. So looking at Darwin’s theory logically we should be getting less and less intelligent as time progresses, however, we are not. Take someone born in 1000 B.C. and someone born in 2008 A.D. and their propensity for knowledge is the same.

Another thing to note, “hard” Scientist’s denounce the Nazi’s eugenics theories, however, they fit perfectly with evolutionary theory.

The Fall of Greece

A country’s success is bound by the people that inhabit it. It doesn’t matter how libertarian inclined or wise a country’s leaders may be in a democracy, if their people are uneducated and uncreative the country will gain nothing. Whereas a country whose leaders stagnate the economy, treat it’s people like sheep and enslave them to un-needed regulations may still be lucky enough to be dragged along through prosperity if it’s people are deep thinking. Though in time it’s people are forced to do one of two things, revolt or become what it’s government wants, obedient sheep. This can be helped along by working to placate and dumb down the population; aka television and public education.

It perplexes me how so many Americans keep saying that Mandarin will soon replace English as the world’s trade language. The thought I would assume comes from the idea that if our country’s dominance ceases, so will our language. It is completely false. The Greeks, led by Alexander the Great conquered the known world by force of arms, though their culture made a far stronger impact and it’s language which had been set up as the world’s trade language; remained dominant for centuries after the fall of the nation. As the Roman nation rose, Greece fell to in-fighting, the Romans didn’t rise in spite of the Greeks but instead used it to propel them. The Romans had already begun to emulate Grecian culture, Greek slaves were prized by wealthy Romans; the educated revered as teachers. And when Greece fell, Rome gained the philosophers, the artists, the poets and the like by way of immigration. It seems like a modern idea, but the cultured of the world have always gravitated towards new happening places; The Greeks left a dying Greece to go to Rome, the Romans left for Constantinople as the Roman Empire began to fall, Mansa Musa of Mali was such an inspiring figure that he sucked talent from Europe and the Middle East creating a Golden Age in Timbuktu that even now we don’t fully know the extent of it, When Constantinople fell the cultured came to Italy and sparked the Renaissance, and of course the United States of America has had massive migrations of talent from around the world; the greatest example being the Jewish-Germans thinkers that immigrated during the Nazi reign of terror. America’s dominance in the world is waning, but will our culture and our language disappear from the scene; unlikely.

Now I hate to bring China up but I have little choice. China is not a free nation, it’s economy is controlled and it’s laws are merciless. I bring it up due to it’s people’s thirst for American culture and language, the former for it’s entertainment and the latter for it’s economic purposes. In my model of a Roman-Greek relationship China is most certainly the Rome to our Greece; something to keep in mind as you chuckle at China’s Shijingshan Amusment Park (a blatant copy-off of Disney World) or beam with pride as they ship students to our Universities and hire American computer scientists for their own Silicon Valley. They seek to emulate us because they seek to replace us. Now the question is, will they. I would say they have a very good chance to. They’ve done a great job of opening up the market and turning themselves into a massive producer of raw goods, refining goods, and consuming goods; loosening up restrictions on those in the dense south-east while keeping those in the north and west drowning in poverty seems to be working for them. Also with massive increases in education, the Chinese are turning into a smart little bunch. Now the double-edge sword of education is the more educated a person becomes the more restless the need for freedom will be. That along with Christianity spreading like wildfire (bringing morality to a secularist people) has a good chance of turning China into a very strong free nation.

Now, you may be asking yourself, how can I profit off of my homeland’s fall? What a despicable thought. Here’s how; In our ever globalizing world taking an overseas position can have massive payoffs. Companies opening up new branches overseas often want to bring their own people over as managers, overseers and trainers but Americans hate leaving home so the benefits tend to be substantial. Good to keep in mind if you’re sensing your company is going to export yours and your fellow co-worker’s jobs; a potential problem can turn into a new beginning if you look for it. Also just having a good command of the English language is extremely valuable, even without TESOL certification (though it’s great to have) there are countless jobs for English speakers abroad, many in Asia, where when cost of living is factored in; you can make out quite well. People around the world love us, don’t ask me why; we’re rude, loud, pay no attention to our host culture and act like we should be treated like royalty. But for some reason they do; milk it for what it’s worth.

Slightly off topic, but quite typical for me; Estonia. Remember the name, keep an eye on it, the gains they are making in terms of freedom and economics are fascinating. They are well on their way to first world status. Libertarians have a habit of sounding off on which countries they’re going to immigrate to due to this or that law being passed, this country should be first on their list. I stand in awe of what the Estonians have done since gaining independence from the Big-Momma. I keep going back and forth on whether I want go for my masters at Tartu University in Baltic Studies, they keep up the good work and I’ll probably be set.

It was 1546, Christianity’s lowest hour

when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the Wittenberg Church doors. Now, for many who pay any attention to American politics, it certainly seems like freedom’s lowest hour… thus far. Because lets face it, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Laws restricting American freedoms will get worse, privacy will become non-existent, and the fate that has befallen our enemy combatants of war will begin to be met out on any who speak out against the government. I don’t write that with the eagerness of a flag-burning liberal. I am a Republican. Once a proud Republican, now somewhat disheartened. I’m no Luther, not brimming with the ideas of one of the greatest men that creation has ever spit out of it’s muddy mouth. I am just a fellow freedom lover who speaks when he should more often listen. But nonetheless stands at Liberty’s door, banging away, hoping his point sticks and that the slumbering one will wake up and answer. Because let’s face it, America isn’t America without Liberty.

Yes, I write Liberty with a capital L. Why? Because in my mind Liberty isn’t an idea, she’s a semi rotund woman with a weak chin.

Will all my posts be so vague without properly addressing any topic? hmmm, what did you ask?

The main focus of my blog is liberty in the U.S. but I will at times deviate and hit off on other subjects.