Which party is promoting a police state?

The GOP and people on the right are complaining and screaming that the Obama administration is trying to turn the US into a police state ala Hitler. Yet, it is the GOP and folks on the right who are the one proposing all the policies that would turn us into an actual police state.  And at this point, I am starting to get pissed.  Mostly because they are proposing such legislation in Florida, where I live.

Humanists believe in personal responsibility. Realizing that you need to think before you act because anything and everything you do has consequences and you should therefore take care to make sure those consequences are good is a central tenet of the philosophy. Obviously, some behaviors and actions are more risky then others. But from the Humanist perspective, if you aren't willing to pay the price of the consequences of your risky behavior, you should not engage in it. If you do, then you own it. In other words, if you break it, you should fix it.

Regulations are good for business. 
Seriously – they are.

4/30/10

I know pro-business types like to claim that regulations are harming businesses and preventing them from competing in the market place.  They are wrong.  Dangerously wrong.  Most common sense regulations actually help businesses while protecting consumers and the environment. Seriously – they do.

For instance, good regulations help ensure public safety, guarantee an even playing field for all business competitors and … here’s the best part … act as a barrier to entry for any new competitors to an industry.  What’s not to like!  Really.  When I was working in big business part of my job was to participate in our industry association.  My job was to encourage the industry association to promote more regulation of our industry.  We wanted to make it as hard as possible for other people to compete with us.  Regulations do exactly that. They are also beneficial to our consumers and the environment. This is what is known as a win-win-win scenario.  An additional benefit is that your entire industry won’t get branded with a horrible reputation because one stupid idiot who wanted to get ahead by cheating single handedly creates a mega-disaster. Businesses and industries benefit from regulation! Really, they do.
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Biden v. Cheney – the F-Bomb debate

3/24/10

Ok – so on Tuesday Biden dropped on F-Bomb on Obama telling him that signing the health care reform act was a big effin deal.  Which it is. When I heard about this though, I laughed. That’s so Joe.  He is often off color and always says what’s on his mind.  But then I realized that I did not like it at all when Cheney used the exact same word on the floor of Congress a few years ago.  So… what’s the difference and does context really matter?  Yes.  Yes it does.

Changing your Mind

3/24/10

It’s ok to change your mind.  In fact, admitting you were wrong is a sign of intellectual maturity.  It is something we Humanists pride ourselves on. We want our opinions to be educated opinions. What I don’t understand is why people, when faced with overwhelming evidence that they were wrong stick to their unfounded opinions.  It doesn’t make any sense to me. What is even harder for me to understand is why people, when they find out they have been lied to don’t turn around and get mad at the people who lied to them.  Especially when you find out a politician or political party you trusted lied to you.

Crist and the Atheists

03/10/10

Over the weekend Florida governor Charlie Crist had a negative encounter with an Atheist (read details here).  I think this confrontation is important as we Floridians evaluate Crist as a potential Senator.  The question we need an answer to, is why did he loose his cool with this guy.  I have a hard time imagining Crist would loose his cool with anyone having met him years ago when he was still just a local representative.  However, if he has become so intolerant of Atheists that he can’t contain his feelings in their presence anymore, then perhaps his religious views have been radicalized since he became Governor. 

For the moment, let’s assume the atheist was a complete and total jerk to Crist. It does not appear that he was, but it is a common assumption being made to excuse Crist’s truly nasty response to one of his constituents. A jerk being obnoxious to the governor of one of the largest states in the union is not unusual. And it certainly shouldn’t be enough to cause a polished politician like Crist to loose his cool.  He’s a professional politician! He encounters crazy people all the time.  He has to deal with people who vehemently disagree with him ALL THE TIME! Angry voters approach him all the time.  It’s part of his job description. So why did he loose his cool with this guy?  And why did he only loose his cool AFTER this guy told him he was an atheist?

My state of the union fantasy

What I was hoping for is that Obama would get up there and say – the state of our union is absolute crap.  And here’s why.  (He then starts pointing to individual senators)  You’re a jerk.  You’re a jerk.  You’re a jerk.  (He searches in the audience until he finds who he is looking for) You’re a jerk.  Oh, and you’re a total douchebag (pointing at Lieberman).   Obviously that didn’t happen.  But it would have been awesome if it had.  The one positive note, aside from Florida getting some of the high-speed rail funds, was that he did not say, “The state of our union is strong.”  It clearly isn’t and it would have been really annoying if he had lied to us about that.  I think his ending struck the right tone when he said we have it within ourselves to be strong again.  Now we just need to figure out a way to bypass the Senate.