Spdsk8er
Pebble Pounder
Sorry for all the posts. but I think his is a really true and deep statement. Its what i feel about our GOVT. From a great blog. www.chrisdiclerico.com
Warning: Very long post with lots of cursing.
I just spent the last two hours sobbing like a little girl while I watched a leaked BitTorrent copy of Michael Moore’s Sicko. I am a changed person, and there isn’t the least bit of humor in that statement for a change.
I am appalled, angry, sad, and sick to my stomach over the US system(s) of everything. Politics, healthcare, education, it’s all completely screwed up. Normally I am embarrassed over how the world feels about us, about our war on terror, about our bumbling president, about our 15% passport penetration, and our waterboarding technique (not really torture). But tonight, I am embarrassed at myself. We should look around and be saddened by the brainwashed ***-****ing we’ve been taking for so long. It is all so stunningly like religion that I don’t know what to hate more.
We are great, generous, loving, caring, beautiful people, who live in a ****ed up country, with ****ed up values, and ****ed up laws, and most of us don’t even know. We are led by corrupt men bought and paid for with nobody’s best interest in mind except their own. This is not a Republican or Democrat thing at all. They are all in it for the same reasons. Get the money to stay in power to get the money to stay in power. While we sit and argue about who is right and who is wrong and who is the bad guy and who is the good guy and what team you play for, they sit and laugh their way to the bank. It’s a ****ing scam and it is time to really wake the **** up.
It is time for a massive change. The change we need is so big it seems impossible, and that’s how they like it. The powerless and the demoralized do nothing. We are afraid of everything, from terrorism to unemployment, from an emergency room visit to college tuition. And that’s how they like it. Poor, afraid, in debt, unhealthy, and too tired to do anything about anything. We beat the “best country in the world” status into the hearts and minds of our kids from birth, but it doesn’t feel like we’re living up to that monicer. It feels like we are just following another religion based on fiction and fear.
But I’m not one to complain without a solution. I’ve been thinking about this all for too long, and have said little because the problems seem so overwhelming. Unfortunately there are many problems to solve before we can sleep. They are big too, but they must be done. Call me a socialist, a communist, a liberal or an asshole, but here they are.
10 of DiClerico’s Completely Serious Solutions (10DCSS):
1. Universal Healthcare: I don’t know or care what it cost. I don’t care if taxes go up to 50%. None of it matters. Free, quality, universal healthcare access for every American, now. Incentivise doctors, just like in England, to increase the health of their patients to increase their salaries. Doctors with patients with the lowest smoking rates, lowest blood pressure, lowest cholesterol, least heart attacks, healthiest weights, etc, get lots more money. It’s a simple solution. It works. In fact it works all over the Western world. Everyone but here. Oh yeah, drugs free too. Or at most, VERY inexpensive. (Watch the lady in Cuba buy her $120 inhaler for 0.05 cents and tell me it’s not the right thing to do.) **** rich doctors, **** the drug companies, and **** the HMO’s. Kaiser Permanente, Signa, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, kiss my ****ing ***.
2. No more campaign contributions: That’s right, none. It should be illegal for any politician to take money of any kind from anybody. Simple fix to a complex problem. All campaign finance will come from public money. Tax money. We’ll create a system based on voting and petition where different numeric milestones are met to earn the candidate more public money. e.g. 100,000 signatures gets you $100,000. Something like that. Instantly there is no lobby, no special interest groups, no more corruption, at least at that level. Right now every politician wins an election with advertising money, plain and simple. They take millions from private companies who want favors in return, and they spend it on TV ads that influence the sheep into voting for them. Then they win and they make good on their promises to the big companies, and make nothing of the promises they made to me and you. It is completely broken, ****ed up system, and it can only be dealt with wholly. There is no partial fix for this one.
3. No more 2 party politics: This is more of the same broken system. Religious. Red and blue in a dark gray world. I will not choose teams. I will not swing the balance. You don’t vote for a man, you vote for a party. Stop now. The only thing that matters in the man is charisma. Once elected, it is over - he votes on the party line. He supports his team. he keeps his power. It is broken. You are powerless this way. Wake up, stop following the crowd. Stop calling Democrats liberals, and republicans conservative. Stop calling names and making judgments about “the other side.” You are contributing to problem. Break the system.
4. Separate church from state: If you want to be semi-retarded and worship Batman, go right ahead. But you cannot use my money to do it. You can’t trust god on my money, and you can’t have commandments in my court rooms, you cannot swear on a bible, and you will not have a tax shelter in your homeless shelter. Nothing. No religion in my public schools. No prayer time. Liquor WILL be sold on Sundays. If a president mentions praying as part of his contemplation to make a decision he should be impeached. Science and public opinion must rule, not superstition and fiction. God did not create the heaven’s and earth in 6 days, and my kids will not learn that he guided evolution along. There is no soul in a zygote. Stem cells should be researched and babies should be aborted. (kidding about that babies part, but it IS the woman’s right to choose…)
5. Free public universities: Our state and city schools are a joke. They aren’t free, and mostly they suck. It is time to subsidize the whole thing. Take it out of tax money. Give it a value, and then give that money to kids if they choose to go somewhere else. Same goes for high schools. Public schools are free, and worth thousands. If I go private, you don’t have to pay for me in public, so I should get the money to contribute towards my private school. Give it a value and give it away. Watch how fast dwindling public school attendance will cause massive changes in the system. Then lose the standardized tests - leave every child behind. I don’t give a ****. Get an education. Have a real curriculum with math, science, and history that are taught right. Let’s start with English, Math, and Science for little kids. Let’s not bother with history until a bit later, until you know, they UNDERSTAND english. Then teach all the history, not just the US version of it. Teach evolution the right way, and computer science from an early age. I could go on for days about this, but it’s yet another completely broken system. Oh yeah, one last thing, HIT THE KIDS, they’ll be fine in the end. Just keep your genitals away from them.
6. It ain’t easy being green: Yeah, I know I sound like Al Gore, but it is time for a change here. It is time for some really strict standards and some viable technology options. Mandated MPG for car manufacturers, solar energy that can get sold back into the grid, investments in high tech wind and water based power, and massive nuclear plants. I LOVE nuclear energy. I particularly love the waste products. What the **** can you do with the waste? I don’t know, but firing it off into space seems like an awesome idea but I guess I don’t really know the logistics. Bottom line is that this country needs to be leading the way for every possible reason, from foreign energy independence to simple morality. And I don’t care who goes broke along the way. Find a new job.
7. Flat tax: I don’t care how much it is. Lose the laws. Lose ‘em all. Do you have any idea what we would save if we just flat taxed the whole ****ing thing? 40%, done. No paperwork, nothing. There is absolutely no reason for the massive complicated system we have now, except to help rich people find loopholes so the middle people can do all the heavy lifting, as usual. 40% of your money goes away, but you get healthcare, dental care, high school, college, retirement compensation, and peace of mind. That’s worth 40%. Oh yeah, then lose all sales tax completely. Doesn’t seem fare that I pay tax on my earnings, then tax to shop owner, and then he pays tax on that and all his employees pay tax on that, and so on. Tax comes from income alone. After that Uncle Sam is on his own. And maybe the H&R Block folks can go work in the solar power station.
8. Broadband internet, free, everywhere: It’s time to make this investment before Google does. Suck it up and pay for it. Make information universal. Everyone gets super-fast internet access for free, unfiltered, unedited, untapped, everywhere. That’s how you change the world. Communication, information, education, and entertainment - everywhere, for everyone, at any time. Internet access will change the world, I promise.
9. Public, transparent, secure, online voting. No more booths, lines, polls, or TV coverage. Nothing impacts the vote. You get an email on your free internet access, with a link to a site, and a clear, easy to use, in-every-language, website where you click on who you want to represent you in the government. There are no parties, but there are websites with information on each candidate, and you can take your time, reading, researching, pondering, choosing. Take all the time you need because the polls are open for a month. Nobody knows anything about anything until it’s over. Then instantly you have a winner. He takes office within the next month.
10. Complete overhaul of the US patent and IP system: We are killing ourselves and our ability to compete by assigning intellectual property to the obvious. We are wasting our money battling in court where we should be competing in the marketplace. Sure, I want intellectual property holders and innovators to be able to benefit from their inventions, but not at the expense of a free market. Our system now is outdated, slow, and based on an industrial factory economy from 100 years ago. 100 year old laws should no be governing digital rights to innovations in software, and IP laws based on a phonograph should be mandated where I can listen to my music. This system needs a complete overhaul so we can catch up to our technology.
Well, that’s it for now. That’s what happens when I get pissed off. You can thank Michael Moore by going to see his movie instead of stealing it off the internet (search for “sicko”). He won’t mind.
Warning: Very long post with lots of cursing.
I just spent the last two hours sobbing like a little girl while I watched a leaked BitTorrent copy of Michael Moore’s Sicko. I am a changed person, and there isn’t the least bit of humor in that statement for a change.
I am appalled, angry, sad, and sick to my stomach over the US system(s) of everything. Politics, healthcare, education, it’s all completely screwed up. Normally I am embarrassed over how the world feels about us, about our war on terror, about our bumbling president, about our 15% passport penetration, and our waterboarding technique (not really torture). But tonight, I am embarrassed at myself. We should look around and be saddened by the brainwashed ***-****ing we’ve been taking for so long. It is all so stunningly like religion that I don’t know what to hate more.
We are great, generous, loving, caring, beautiful people, who live in a ****ed up country, with ****ed up values, and ****ed up laws, and most of us don’t even know. We are led by corrupt men bought and paid for with nobody’s best interest in mind except their own. This is not a Republican or Democrat thing at all. They are all in it for the same reasons. Get the money to stay in power to get the money to stay in power. While we sit and argue about who is right and who is wrong and who is the bad guy and who is the good guy and what team you play for, they sit and laugh their way to the bank. It’s a ****ing scam and it is time to really wake the **** up.
It is time for a massive change. The change we need is so big it seems impossible, and that’s how they like it. The powerless and the demoralized do nothing. We are afraid of everything, from terrorism to unemployment, from an emergency room visit to college tuition. And that’s how they like it. Poor, afraid, in debt, unhealthy, and too tired to do anything about anything. We beat the “best country in the world” status into the hearts and minds of our kids from birth, but it doesn’t feel like we’re living up to that monicer. It feels like we are just following another religion based on fiction and fear.
But I’m not one to complain without a solution. I’ve been thinking about this all for too long, and have said little because the problems seem so overwhelming. Unfortunately there are many problems to solve before we can sleep. They are big too, but they must be done. Call me a socialist, a communist, a liberal or an asshole, but here they are.
10 of DiClerico’s Completely Serious Solutions (10DCSS):
1. Universal Healthcare: I don’t know or care what it cost. I don’t care if taxes go up to 50%. None of it matters. Free, quality, universal healthcare access for every American, now. Incentivise doctors, just like in England, to increase the health of their patients to increase their salaries. Doctors with patients with the lowest smoking rates, lowest blood pressure, lowest cholesterol, least heart attacks, healthiest weights, etc, get lots more money. It’s a simple solution. It works. In fact it works all over the Western world. Everyone but here. Oh yeah, drugs free too. Or at most, VERY inexpensive. (Watch the lady in Cuba buy her $120 inhaler for 0.05 cents and tell me it’s not the right thing to do.) **** rich doctors, **** the drug companies, and **** the HMO’s. Kaiser Permanente, Signa, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, kiss my ****ing ***.
2. No more campaign contributions: That’s right, none. It should be illegal for any politician to take money of any kind from anybody. Simple fix to a complex problem. All campaign finance will come from public money. Tax money. We’ll create a system based on voting and petition where different numeric milestones are met to earn the candidate more public money. e.g. 100,000 signatures gets you $100,000. Something like that. Instantly there is no lobby, no special interest groups, no more corruption, at least at that level. Right now every politician wins an election with advertising money, plain and simple. They take millions from private companies who want favors in return, and they spend it on TV ads that influence the sheep into voting for them. Then they win and they make good on their promises to the big companies, and make nothing of the promises they made to me and you. It is completely broken, ****ed up system, and it can only be dealt with wholly. There is no partial fix for this one.
3. No more 2 party politics: This is more of the same broken system. Religious. Red and blue in a dark gray world. I will not choose teams. I will not swing the balance. You don’t vote for a man, you vote for a party. Stop now. The only thing that matters in the man is charisma. Once elected, it is over - he votes on the party line. He supports his team. he keeps his power. It is broken. You are powerless this way. Wake up, stop following the crowd. Stop calling Democrats liberals, and republicans conservative. Stop calling names and making judgments about “the other side.” You are contributing to problem. Break the system.
4. Separate church from state: If you want to be semi-retarded and worship Batman, go right ahead. But you cannot use my money to do it. You can’t trust god on my money, and you can’t have commandments in my court rooms, you cannot swear on a bible, and you will not have a tax shelter in your homeless shelter. Nothing. No religion in my public schools. No prayer time. Liquor WILL be sold on Sundays. If a president mentions praying as part of his contemplation to make a decision he should be impeached. Science and public opinion must rule, not superstition and fiction. God did not create the heaven’s and earth in 6 days, and my kids will not learn that he guided evolution along. There is no soul in a zygote. Stem cells should be researched and babies should be aborted. (kidding about that babies part, but it IS the woman’s right to choose…)
5. Free public universities: Our state and city schools are a joke. They aren’t free, and mostly they suck. It is time to subsidize the whole thing. Take it out of tax money. Give it a value, and then give that money to kids if they choose to go somewhere else. Same goes for high schools. Public schools are free, and worth thousands. If I go private, you don’t have to pay for me in public, so I should get the money to contribute towards my private school. Give it a value and give it away. Watch how fast dwindling public school attendance will cause massive changes in the system. Then lose the standardized tests - leave every child behind. I don’t give a ****. Get an education. Have a real curriculum with math, science, and history that are taught right. Let’s start with English, Math, and Science for little kids. Let’s not bother with history until a bit later, until you know, they UNDERSTAND english. Then teach all the history, not just the US version of it. Teach evolution the right way, and computer science from an early age. I could go on for days about this, but it’s yet another completely broken system. Oh yeah, one last thing, HIT THE KIDS, they’ll be fine in the end. Just keep your genitals away from them.
6. It ain’t easy being green: Yeah, I know I sound like Al Gore, but it is time for a change here. It is time for some really strict standards and some viable technology options. Mandated MPG for car manufacturers, solar energy that can get sold back into the grid, investments in high tech wind and water based power, and massive nuclear plants. I LOVE nuclear energy. I particularly love the waste products. What the **** can you do with the waste? I don’t know, but firing it off into space seems like an awesome idea but I guess I don’t really know the logistics. Bottom line is that this country needs to be leading the way for every possible reason, from foreign energy independence to simple morality. And I don’t care who goes broke along the way. Find a new job.
7. Flat tax: I don’t care how much it is. Lose the laws. Lose ‘em all. Do you have any idea what we would save if we just flat taxed the whole ****ing thing? 40%, done. No paperwork, nothing. There is absolutely no reason for the massive complicated system we have now, except to help rich people find loopholes so the middle people can do all the heavy lifting, as usual. 40% of your money goes away, but you get healthcare, dental care, high school, college, retirement compensation, and peace of mind. That’s worth 40%. Oh yeah, then lose all sales tax completely. Doesn’t seem fare that I pay tax on my earnings, then tax to shop owner, and then he pays tax on that and all his employees pay tax on that, and so on. Tax comes from income alone. After that Uncle Sam is on his own. And maybe the H&R Block folks can go work in the solar power station.
8. Broadband internet, free, everywhere: It’s time to make this investment before Google does. Suck it up and pay for it. Make information universal. Everyone gets super-fast internet access for free, unfiltered, unedited, untapped, everywhere. That’s how you change the world. Communication, information, education, and entertainment - everywhere, for everyone, at any time. Internet access will change the world, I promise.
9. Public, transparent, secure, online voting. No more booths, lines, polls, or TV coverage. Nothing impacts the vote. You get an email on your free internet access, with a link to a site, and a clear, easy to use, in-every-language, website where you click on who you want to represent you in the government. There are no parties, but there are websites with information on each candidate, and you can take your time, reading, researching, pondering, choosing. Take all the time you need because the polls are open for a month. Nobody knows anything about anything until it’s over. Then instantly you have a winner. He takes office within the next month.
10. Complete overhaul of the US patent and IP system: We are killing ourselves and our ability to compete by assigning intellectual property to the obvious. We are wasting our money battling in court where we should be competing in the marketplace. Sure, I want intellectual property holders and innovators to be able to benefit from their inventions, but not at the expense of a free market. Our system now is outdated, slow, and based on an industrial factory economy from 100 years ago. 100 year old laws should no be governing digital rights to innovations in software, and IP laws based on a phonograph should be mandated where I can listen to my music. This system needs a complete overhaul so we can catch up to our technology.
Well, that’s it for now. That’s what happens when I get pissed off. You can thank Michael Moore by going to see his movie instead of stealing it off the internet (search for “sicko”). He won’t mind.
