Justifying Occupy Wall Street contradictions, and just doing what you can do
Wednesday, November 16th, 2011Here’s a confession for you: I’m not perfect.
Now that I have that off my chest, I need your help. All this Occupy Wall Street stuff has really got me thinking. I’ve been hearing quite a bit of criticism of the Occupiers, and aside from the ridiculous, trivial accusations which usually seem to assume that all of the protesters are homeless, jobless losers, there are some aspects that warrant real consideration.
I’ve been hearing accusations that all those who agree with the Occupy movement are basically contradicting all that they are protesting with with their actions. Meaning: The Occupiers rail against Corporate America, demonizing all that it stands for, but then turn around and support Corporate America with their actions and their dollars by using Facebook, owning cell phones, drinking Starbucks, on and on.
Now, I didn’t say this is an accurate accusation, I said it warrants some real consideration. But here’s […]
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Thoughts about Occupy Wall Street
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011The Occupy Wall Street movement has been going on for over a month, and has since spread to cities across the country (and world) and doesn’t seem to be slowing down. That being the case, I thinks it’s time for to weight in.
Right off, I will say that I agree with the general concept behind the protests, and certainly feel that the level of economic inequality and corporate greed in the world is reaching a point that does not bode well for the future of the economy, the United States, or any other country for that matter. Now, I’m not advocating for Socialism or Communism any other extreme system that right wing crazies like to assume all liberals want. I am not naive to the free market and how it works, and I don’t think more government is the answer. In a free market there is nothing wrong with making […]
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The best, yet least discussed, solution to healthcare
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009With all of this raging healthcare debate lately, it seems that the focus (besides the cost I mean) is on medical care and fixing people. While I of course think each person has a right to have affordable medical coverage, I also think the priorities of our health care system (now and in the future regardless of what Congress comes up with) are wholly messed up. We all know that the majority of the money in the system is spent on curing and healing those who are not well. But what you don’t hear very often is the word “prevention”.
Sure, in some ways you do, as in don’t smoke, exercise daily, eat from the major food groups. But if you go to the doctor with high blood pressure, or any of the many issues related to obesity, the doctor doesn’t ask how often you eat fast food and […]
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San Diego and California, you puzzle me
Thursday, July 9th, 2009Please tell me Oh City of San Diego, it’s no secret that you have been having financial problems, so why are you redoing the sidewalks in my neighborhood that were just fine, with private contractors, of all things?
As we know, there were last fall’s budget cuts, there is the pension crisis, and there are potholes so big that they are damaging cars, so why has the sidewalk on every corner of my neighborhood been dug up when there were no apparent problems. I jog the neighborhood several times per week and with a few exceptions have seen no breaks in the sidewalk or any real reason they weren’t good enough.
What it looks like is that each corner is being replaced with a handicap accessible ramp. So ok, I get it, but still it doesn’t seem to me enough to warrant the time and resources of hiring […]
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On the Somali Pirates’ side
Thursday, April 16th, 2009
Somali Pirates
I have read a couple articles recently which actually don’t paint the modern day Somali pirates in a negative light, and wanted to share this one that I’ve most recently read. And no, it’s not about defending their actions or what they are doing, but it certainly paints a picture which is different from that which we read in the press.
So go and read the article and let me know what you think.
If you don’t want to read this article, basically what it says is that since the collapse of the Somali government, the lack of oversight in the area is now being exploited by first world countries. Specifically by dumping waste and over fishing the areas that are around Somalia. Hopefully they’re not doing these two things in the same place because that would […]
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Should the United States Legalize Drugs?
Thursday, April 9th, 2009I came across this commentary article on CNN couple weeks ago about the legalization of drugs and figured I’d share a few thoughts I have.
First of all, I truly believe that our “war on drugs” doesn’t work. Just because something is illegal does not mean people don’t do it. Look around, people do illegal things every day. And trust me, same goes for drugs, I was in college once upon a time. And I also don’t buy the fact that making drugs legal will increase their usage. Drugs are easy to get and people who want them get them.
Secondly, though I don’t think drugs are in any way a good thing, I sort of believe that what people choose to do in their own time is their own business. Granted, hard core drug users can cause other problems that don’t stay in their home, […]
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A letter to the City of San Diego
Thursday, November 6th, 2008It just came out in local news here in San Diego that Mayor Jerry Sanders is proposing some serious budget cuts. Among some of the cuts are the following:
Four of seven deputy chief operating officers will lose their jobs
Operations suspended at nine recreation centers, seven libraries and all six of the city’s customer service centers
The number of civilians in the SDPD’s admin staff and community service officers will be reduced by 37
The number of fire companies active on any given day will decrease from 60 to 58
On the bright side, they claim that all cuts are in the office, and that the number of police officers and fire fighters won’t be affected.
I realize times are tough and you have to do what you have to do, but to me Rec Centers and libraries are what make communities … well, uh, communities. So I went ahead and wrote a […]
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