Real Problems

Lots of talk these days about terrible, terrible problems. Big Government! Deficits! Same-Sex Marriage! The Income Tax! SOCIAL Security! Abortion! Immigration! The problematic natures of none of these things are even worth refuting. There are, however, some real problems facing American society in this vomitous horror known as “The Twenty-First Century,” to wit:


The Unitary Executive

You can Google this one to discover what a huge, unwieldy thing the Presidency has become since the start of World War II. All of the vast national security apparatuses that have grown up to protect America are part of the executive, the Presidency, after all.

Sixty something straight years of emergency powers, the Nazis, the Japanese, the Soviets, not to mention the War On Drugs, and now Al Qaida and the Taliban. Where will it end? It will end, won’t it? When it does, hopefully there will be one or two people remaining alive who remember what “normal” was like.


Corporate Personhood

Corporations are artificial entities which by definition have agendas that are hostile to anyone and anything that exists beyond their own well defined four corners. As such, they should be handled with the same extreme care that should be exercised with plague infested blankets, loaded firearms, or poisonous reptiles.

Instead, corporations have achieved the status of persons, with the same rights and privileges as you and me under our own, United States of America, still-respected-around-the-world constitution. This result is counter-intuitive, morally reprehensible, and stupid.

And now they can even donate unlimited sums of money to political election campaigns. What fun!


Inadequate, Inappropriate Taxation

Many Americans laughed at Social Democrat inspired European levels of taxations, evincing that vaguely superior “we prefer freedom” posture that is so popular in our own era. They did this without recognizing that in return for paying those taxes, those European taxpayers got free, no-questions-asked, high quality medical care, a fail-safe safety net, generous vacations, and lavish retirement benefits. As a result, European workers had standards of living, peace of mind, and life results that in America were reserved for the way prosperous.

In America, our “Freedom” program is to tax the lower ranges of the income spectrum to pay not only for their own meager benefits, but also for the lion’s share of the sixteen aircraft carriers and the several ongoing, more or less permanent wars.

Plus, I don’t know about you, but I find it offensive that a system could exist under which all of the descendents, for all time, of one person who became accidentally, fabulously wealthy, should be able to enjoy the benefits of that money, i.e., the money that was stolen so long ago from the working people.


Pay-To-Play Politics

This one should be self explanatory! Meg Whitman is running about even with Jerry Brown in the polls for California governor, although she has invested sixty or more millions of her own dollars so far, and Jerry has spent almost nothing. What’s wrong with this picture? Don’t even get me started about Carly Fiorina (sic, if applicable, I have better things to remember than the spelling of this failure’s name).

It’s not only the millionaires, paying their own ways to power. It’s the regular guys and girls who take the various monies to enable themselves to get elected and then vote accordingly.


Religion

My official position on religion is that I respect the various religions of the world, although I do not chose to practice any. This position is somewhat disingenuous on my part, suffice it to say.


Discretion

The majority of the America people hold reasonable beliefs on almost all of the debatable issues of our society. They do this quietly, with great discretion, choosing not to go demonstrably forth and proclaim their beliefs to the world.

For this reason, the slightly retarded minority of Americans who shout their idiotic beliefs from any available rooftop get all the play. This is a shame.


The Almost Universal Inability To Separate Fantasy From Reality

Guilty! Let’s get that out of the way right off.


Help me out here . . . what am I forgetting?