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A Majority Will Not Vote For the Rights of a Minority

May 142012

Bigoted voters were represented well in North Carolina on the 8th of May as a bill banning same sex marriage, civil unions, and common law marriage was passed with overwhelming support.

On Tuesday May 8, the state of North Carolina joined an incredibly long list in an embarrassing part of American history as much as the human condition: by a 61 to 39 margin the rights of homosexuals to marry, have a legally recognized partnership, or just live together for a long time and receive “common law” recognition were struck down by the bigoted, backwards-thinking, homophobic voters of the tar heel state.

It’s okay though, North Carolina. You’re not going to be unfairly singled out here. In fact, you’ve joined a long line of states that have decided to dictate the terms of love and a lifelong relationship to others. You have friends in Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Depending on which way legal winds blow, you might have friends in other states too. Yes, North Carolina, welcome to the majority – the majority of 31 states that just outright ban homosexuals from marrying.

Also! Welcome to the majority of states that have seen a majority of voters dictate their beliefs to a minority of the population. The same number of votes, 31, have occurred in various American states and have in one way or another denied the same legal recognition to a loving couple of the same sex as those of the opposing. The tyranny of the majority is alive and well!

Greeks Fire Government, Extremists Fill The Void

Writings & Musings No Responses »

May 092012

Greek voters took to the polls over the weekend to politically punish everyone who had anything to do with the austerity agreements that have devastated the country.

In addition to the end of the conservatives’ run at the top of French politics, in local and national elections across the continent the refrain was repatitive and loud: we don’t want austerity, we want growth. No where were these calls the loudest than in the country where the effects of austerity have been the sharpest and most severe: Greece.

So severe has austerity been there, and so turned off by the prospect of even more the population is, that in weekend elections the population basically threw out en-masse the entire apparatus that supported the austerity regime, and filled the void with quite literally anyone else.

The neo-Nazi party in Greece now holds 21 seats in the Hellenic Parliament. Financial crisis collateral damage.

Austerity Claims Sarkozy’s Presidency

Writings & Musings No Responses »

May 072012

Socialist Francois Hollande celebrates his 6 May victory in the French Presidential Election.

Socialist François Hollande celebrates his 6 May victory in the French Presidential Election.

In the aftermath of The Great Recession’s initial shock years of 2008 and 2009, new political realities have slowly continued to dawn in the western world. Many in power at the time of the collapse sought to blunt the effects of an economic downward spiral by reducing spending instead of increasing borrowing – convinced that even in a rapidly cooling economy, stimulus as it had been seen in previous economic crisis, was no longer the solution.

Over the years to follow, the supposed nay-sayers were proven correct time and time again – cuts in government spending and the implementation of austerity-based policies led to weaker economic growth, higher unemployment, and a lack of optimism for the future. As terms of governments, prime ministers, and presidents have come up during these austerity years a number have found their selves voted out of office in favor of regimes who think cutting government to the bone isn’t the end all cure for a flailing economy.

Introduce to this new dynamic now the case of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. He will become the former President on the 15th of May, having just been defeated by Socialist candidate François Hollande. The defeat of Mr. Sarkozy brings to an end seventeen years of Conservative rule in France – first from the right-wing “Rally for the Republic” party of former President Jacques Chirac, and more recently under the banner of Mr. Sarkozy’s right-centrist “Union for a Popular Movement”. This will be the first time that the French left will have control of the Presidency during the age of the European Union – which could have potentially far-reaching ramifications for that organization’s current role in implementing austerity on weaker members with no other choice for economic stability.
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The Slog of All Slogs: Election 2012 Begins

Writings & Musings No Responses »

Apr 182012

Quickly now, grab your split-panel Obama/Romney pictures. It's general election time!

Like a band-aid you have to rip off but don’t want to, the time has come for the most modern of American traditions – the knock-out sports-for-non-sports-fan over-budgeted escapade that is an American Presidential Election. Two men enter (others pretend they do but never really count for anything) and one man wins the honor of being erected on a pillar as all that is wrong with the planet by the opposition for the next four years.

Some optional governance is possible.

Our returning champion, President Barack Obama, was last electorally seen cruising to a 365 – 173 Electoral College pasting of Senator John McCain – taking the national vote by 7.2%. It was the largest margin of victory since independent Ross Perot siphoned off enough Republican votes to help President Bill Clinton top Senator Bob Dole 379 – 159 on an 8.5% margin.

Since the 2008 election the Great Recession has ended. An anemic recovery has ensued, facing strong headwinds from a shattered real estate market that may take a generation to recover, relentless cuts to the public sector that have methodically chipped away at job growth, European trading partners held back by a widespread debt and currency crisis, and the continuing crippling debt brought on by two unfunded wars started in the dawning years of the last decade. Unfortunately for Mr. Obama it is exceedingly hard to prove a negative, so while it is within all fair assessment to assume that a President McCain administration continuing previous policies would have exasperated the bleak economic times in 2009, without a way to visit alternate realities one cannot confirm this.

Trial for Norwegian Mass Murderer Anders Breivik Begins

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Apr 162012

Showing no remorse for the lives he took, Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik started his court appearance on Monday with a defiant salute. (photo: Reuters)

The trial for Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian terrorist who killed 77 people and wounded an additional 242 in a matter of hours via a car bomb in downtown Oslo and a youth camp shooting rampage, kicked off on Monday with Mr. Breivik taking the stand to plead not guilty of all charges – that furthermore he was operating in self defense.

Giving a close-fisted salute that bore just enough similarities of the Nazi salute, was allowed to enter his not guilty plea after a psychiatric evaluation declared him sane on 10 April. Without that clean bill of mental health, it is likely that Mr. Breivik would simply go straight to a mental institution and would never have to answer for his crimes. His rationale for why he carried out this atrocity has remained the same: he “acknowledges” the acts he committed, but maintains that they were in response to the oncoming threat of a multicultural (Muslim integration) Europe which would erase the influence of Christendom. Mr. Breivik released a digital manifesto to this end on the same day as his attacks, stating that the death toll and violence was merely a marketing tool for getting his message out.

The courts can still find Mr. Breivik criminally insane – in which case he will not be jailed but placed under psychiatric care. If the court does not rule that way and instead finds him guilty and sane, he will get the maximum jail sentence allowable by Norwegian law: 21 years. It should be noted that a review process at the end of the jail term can still declare him a threat to society, and extend his sentence further if need be. Norway does not have capital punishment.

SCOTUS Rules 5 – 4 In Favor of Strip Searches For Any Reason

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Apr 042012

Albert Florence & his attorney Susan Chana Lask. Mr. Florence lost an appeal to the supreme court arguing his 4th Amendment rights were being violated over two forced strip searches relating to a traffic stop for an unpaid ticket.

In another controversial 5 – 4 ruling by perhaps one of the most conservative Supreme Courts in modern history, it was decided that anyone picked up by the police and taken to jail for a booking could undergo an invasive strip search for any reason deemed necessary by the local authorities – regardless if the original offence was of a violent nature or not.

The case was brought forth by New Jersey resident Albert Florence, who is the unfortunate victim of some bad paperwork. At the beginning of the last decade, Mr. Florence was charged a fine for fleeing a traffic stop. He paid the fine in full, but that was never quite documented correctly by the state of New Jersey. Having his plates ran and being subjected to multiple traffic stops since, Mr. Florence carried documentation on his person indicating that the fine was paid in full. This did not help him in a March 2005 traffic stop. Mr. Florence was pulled over again and whisked away to jail, leaving his pregnant wife and four-year-old daughter behind with the vehicle. The official documentation meant nothing to the state trooper.

Mr. Florence was taken to the county jail in Burlington County, where he was strip searched. He was held without charge for the next six days before being transferred to another jail in the city of Newark, where he was strip searched again. After another day without charge, a judge released him.

In Review: Heatwave for the Ages Replaces Winter with Summer in North America

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Mar 282012

Departure from average land temperatures for 8 – 15 of March. The deepest reds indicate readings 15°C (27°F) above normal.

March 2012 has produced one of the most remarkable heat waves in North American history. Records fell by the thousand as large swaths of the continent saw winter abruptly end and summer-like conditions arriving well before the first day of spring. Plant life responded accordingly with seasonal blooms being recorded some 5 – 8 weeks ahead of time in areas. It is likely that the March 2012 heat wave was the warmest for this time of year in North America seen in hundreds of years.

The heatwave was marked by its extreme as well as its longevity. In Chicago, for instance, a record high was either set or tied for nine days in a row from 14 – 22 of March. With the exception of the 19th, the temperature broke 80 degrees each day, and averaged 82.2 degrees. The average high during that same period is 47.5 degrees – a difference of +34.7 degrees above normal, on average. The chart below shows just how absurd the difference from normal was compared not just to March, but to the entire rest of the year:

2012 March Heat Wave vs. Yearly Averages

The only month of the year with a hotter average than what was seen in the March heatwave: July. Records weren’t just broken, they were smashed – 81 degrees on 15 March beat the old record by 8 degrees. An 85 degree reading on the 20th beat the old record by 14 degrees. Such occurrences were by no means limited to the Chicago area by a long shot, either.

SCOTUS Takes Up Health Care Reform

Writings & Musings No Responses »

Mar 262012

The Supreme Court of the United States will hear arguments for and against the 2010 health care reform bill, rendering a decision on parts or the entire law by the end of June.

The final test for the Obama Administration’s bid for healthcare reform is finally upon us. After passing the House by a narrow 219 – 212 margin, the Senate by a filibuster-proof 60 – 39, and signed into law by President Obama on 23 March 2010, a legal challenge is the last thing standing in the way of the law being fully implemented over the remainder of this decade.

The fog in the media surrounding this case is extremely thick, with hang-wringing opponents of the bill making this out to be an apocalyptic showdown between the forces of free market capitalism and a Stalinist dictatorship, “death panels” and all. If you can get past that, you’ll find that over the next three days the Supreme Court of the United States will spend the most time deliberating on a case that they have for decades, and are expected to reach a decision in June that could have far reaching impacts on the implementation of the law, the continued existence of the law, future budget deficits over the decade to come, the political capital of the Obama Administration heading into the full campaign swing, and potentially the outcome of the 2012 elections. With all of this in mind, it is surely one of the most important decisions that the Supreme Court will have handed down in our lifetimes.

The campaign? Oh it’ll get worse.

Writings & Musings No Responses »

Mar 132012

“Perfect storm” is played to death, so let’s just go with “perfect combination”. Whatever your terminology of choice, the stage is set and the evidence is bubbling to the surface of what will be, as soon as the Republican primary season wraps up, a long and absolutely ugly Presidential campaign. Vast and unchecked amounts of political dollars will be able to tap into this ever-prevalent yet somehow ill-defined world of seething discontent among a certain subset of the population.

A rational observer might cut through the b.s. and say that the “subset” of the population are better described as “white, religious, and conservative” and that the “ill-defined” nature can be easily described as overt racism and sexism, but to bring that amount of candor to the table is to be labeled an elitist.

Consider the following political cartoon that almost made its way into the News-Tribune of Rome, Georgia:

This cartoon is what one might consider "racist" and "sexist."

Dozens of Young Iraqis Stoned to Death for Dressing Western

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Mar 122012

In Iraq, wearing this might as well be a death sentence in the eyes of religious militias.

Sadr City is a conservative district of Baghdad, Iraq, known during the Iraq War for being a focal point of anti-American resistance. Multiple sieges, lock downs, and arrests of criminals top kidnapping ring leaders led to a steep decline in the number of murders emanating from there – whether it was attacks on troops or civilians. The very conservative worldviews that led to violence were not eradicated however, and in recent weeks it appears there is a new group for the violent to center their hatred on – young people who dare to dress Western.

Latching on to the “emo” label but really, in general, just dressing more like one would expect a Western teen than traditional Iraqi dress, these young people wanting a different world than the one they have grown up in appear to be on hit lists of local armed gangs and militias. Reports as to how many have been killed vary widely – from as low as 14 to well over 100. The reasons for and methods of killing remain the same – brutal stoning and crushing to death with cement blocks for the crime of having different hair and dress than what is considered “acceptable” by the local violent conservatives:

Militants in Shi’ite neighborhoods where the stonings have taken place circulated lists on Saturday naming more youths targeted to be killed if they do not change the way they dress.

The killings have taken place since Iraq’s interior ministry drew attention to the “emo” subculture last month, labeling it “Satanism” and ordering a community police force to stamp it out.

“Emo” is a form of punk music developed in the United States. Fans are known for their distinctive dress, often including tight jeans, T-shirts with logos and distinctive long or spiky haircuts.

At least 14 bodies of youths have been brought to three hospitals in eastern Baghdad bearing signs of having been beaten to death with rocks or bricks, security and hospital sources told Reuters under condition they not be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

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