I hope you're enjoying a week off :)

I'm gratified to see a number of employers rewarding their faithful hirees with extra vacation time this week.  In similar spirit, due to a number of other obligations and factors, I've decided to take this week off from many of my usual activities.  This includes the blog, which will resume in 2010.  Have a lovely week, all.

Best wishes for the new year,
MK

Unaffiliated: The Third Party

Many people identify with one of the two big parties on paper, but in their hearts they feel misrepresented.  Perhaps this is why many, like myself, have chosen "unaffiliated" as our official designation on our voter registration cards.  I've long held that we need a third party to represent middle America, and I'll tell you why by recounting two friends' perspectives on the parties.

My Republican friend views the constituents of the Democratic party as a bunch of communist, eco-terrorist, tax raising, big spending hippies in suits out to suppress religious freedoms. 

My Democratic friend views the Republican party as ultra-conservative, corporate owned, gun toting, fundamentalist religious nuts bent on seeing us cast into the dark ages of homophobia and Christian creationism as the only possible explanation for life.

Do either of these sound like the majority of Americans?  I don't think so either.  Yet the most vocal portions of these parties, the people who represent these parties, the very small percentage of these parties that make sure their faces are on camera- these are the people who create these perceptions.

I say we let them have their parties.  Let's form our third party for middle America and let the extremes have the parties they hijacked.  One day, perhaps, they'll hold the same political weight as the Whigs and Torries.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and so I sign off until Monday.  Have a lovely weekend, friends, and a very Merry Christmas.

Take care of each other,
MK

The Poll Results: A Trick Question

As my first poll, I thought I'd have a little fun.  I asked the following:

Which of the following would you trust more with your money?  An auto company, A big bank, A failed brothel, or the US government.

Of the six responses I received, four said they'd trust their money more with a big bank, and two said they'd trust the failed brothel.  Now, as you've guessed from the title of this post, the poll was a trick question: all of the answers are the same entitiy.

I assume I don't need to explain the first two answers in light of today's economic climate.  As for the brothel, in 1990 the IRS siezed the Mustang Ranch in Nevada for tax evasion.  Due to a quirk in the law, the government was required to operate the brothel for a time.  The business was shortly sold again, primarily through piece-meal sales of the various physical assets.

Our government failed to make money selling sex and alcohol, and this week it is likely they'll take over the health of 300 million citizens.  We continue to elect people who hold no other position, who've had no career outside politics, and we think they have the experience, the capacity to run major operations like national health care?  They might know how to win elections, ladies and gentlemen, but they have no idea how to improve your lot in life.

So the next time you're sitting in a doctor's lobby or the ER waiting area, you can play a little game to make the time pass.  Look at each of the people around you, and ask yourself: how hard would it be to sell a lapdance to him?  Does she look like she could use a drink?

Maybe our government will take a cue from Wal-Mart, where you can eat McDonald's, have your picture taken, and get your eyes examined just after your salon appointment.  When you walk into a hospital in the near future, there might be a banking counter to your right, an auto dealership to your left, and on the third floor, well, that's only for patients with no history of liver or heart trouble.

Stay healthy,
MK

Small Government: Big Responsibility

Today's blog post will be rather short; we have very little time left until Christmas, and I have cookies to bake.  Still, the fact that I am summarizing my perspective a bit should not diminish the weight of my message.  To put it succinctly, small government is not for the weak.

Living in a nation as ours was intended to be requires a great deal of personal responsibility.  Basically, I believe that government is there to do for us as a group what we cannot do as individuals.  Primarily, those things are wage war, uphold contracts, and regulate trade when it crosses state and national boundaries.  The government is not here to save us from ourselves.

I know it's sad when a small child drowns, but does that really mean we need a law to protect every child in America from ever sticking its head in a bucket again?  I know it's sad when a kid dies in a car accident, but does that mean the parents have any right to crusade for a law that takes away my parental rights to decide when my kid is big enough to not require a child seat?

Please, I beg of you all- think about the rights we chip away when we pass these laws.  Think about the added expense and bureaucracy our government requires to enforce them.  Please- stop trying to protect me from myself and the world around me.  I can take care of that, and if I fail, well, that's on me.

Respectfully,
MK

University of Phoenix: Enroll Now

I heard an odd comment the other day, and it disturbed me deeper than I first realized.  A man in his forties said, "It's not my fault I didn't go to college.  No one ever told me I could."

My initial reaction to this was a bit skeptical.  How does someone get through four decades of life and not realize how many opportunities there are to go to college in this country?  No, it's not easy, nor is it cheap.  It's not a secret, though.

Next I felt a bit sad for the man.  Everyone should have someone that believes in them.  Every child should be told that, if college is their dream, nothing should stop them from getting a degree.

My pity faded, though, on the realization that this man was blaming everyone in the world for his lack of education except himself.  I can understand this in a kid, but is this even remotely acceptable for a person in his forties?  I've seen entirely too many people overcome incredible hardships to earn their degrees.  People make it through college with no money, working two jobs, supporting aging or ill parents, dealing with pregnancies and marriage, and living with physical disabilities and learning impairments.

I'm sorry, sir.  I think you're lying to yourself.  By now you should have learned to cope with not receiving a special invitation to the academic world.  You have society's permission.  By all means, please get your degree.

Sincerely,
MK (NCSU class of '04)