Stuff We Aughta' Do - Part 1

Common sense Ideas for (and from) Exceptional Idiots...

1. Switch to the Metric System

2. Use retired Army medics and Navy corpsman (E-7 and up) as a first line of defense in health care.

3. Stop giving credit to terrorist groups on the news.

4. Calculate every government spending program at 140% of expected cost and count every new revenue stream at 60% of estimated return.

5. Require that all laws be written to the “reasonable man” standard, so a reasonable man could readily understand the law.

6. Stop replying to things Kim Jun Un says.

7. Make business start ups easy as opening a preferred customer account.

8. Teach entrepreneurship in elementary school and high school.

9. Redefine the word “community” as a verb.

10. Make the board of directors of pharmaceuticals take every new medication for a month prior to approval.

11. Stop glorifying violence as a way to resolve conflicts.

12. Let others make their own decisions.

13. Teach children that respect is earned but courtesy is given.

14. Have American car design, American innovation, and American Product, etc. competitions to inspire American ingenuity.

15. Do campaign finance reform so only registered voters may contribute a maximum of $500.00 and all money not spent on the current campaign are used to fund campaign finance enforcement.

16. Write a national law which will require transparency for all political parties. All internal documents, video, or other media would become public domain after two years.

17. Slowly transform Social Security from a Ponzi scheme into a means tested investment program.

18. Promote and facilitate the creation of tiny house communities in and around major urban areas.

19. Offer a tax credit for residential, commercial, and industrial properties which  increase by 30% or more their thermal insulation up to the recommended amount.

20. Outlaw lobbyists.

21.No, I mean really outlaw lobbyists.

Red, White, and Blue Light Special

What does it mean to “support our troops”?

• Does it mean that we accept every war without question? I would hope not, because that bumper sticker would read, “slaughter our troops", or “screw our troops”, or maybe just “use our troops”.  

• Does it mean that when they come home from whatever conflict they sacrificed through service to our nation, that they will be cared for by the nation who put them in harm's way? One would hope so, but a cursory review of American history doesn't support this expectation. We do not always support our troops when they come marching home. Sometimes we treat them rather poorly.

• Does it mean that we will exhaust every other conceivable option before we put their lives at risk? No, our leaders often incite us to dance to the rhythm of their war drums based on lies and contorted half truths, but we dance all the same. 

• Does supporting our troops mean that in those very few exceptional cases when armed conflict is absolutely necessary that we will ensure that they have the best training, equipment, and standard of living to complete their mission? Here we do support our troops fairly well, but we could always do better especially when it comes to financially compensating them for their commitment. Shouldn't an E-1 make as much as the person who types up the lunch menu at General Dynamics or drives the on-campus bus at Raytheon? Shouldn't they?

• Does it mean that when we do send them into combat we will provide them with clearly defined and realistic victory conditions to attain which will result in most, if not all, of them returning to their loved ones back home? I believe this is one of the most important ways we can demonstrate support for our troops and I believe this is where support for our troops is abysmal. When conflicts drag on for years and then into decades, we are doing a piss poor (pardon my military vernacular) job of supporting our troops. We might as well have them standing in a parking lot at parade rest as we walk past the dress right dressed soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines and crack each one between their eyes with a ball peen hammer. Not hard enough to kill or cripple them, but just hard enough to make them really hurt, and eventually resent us for the way we “support” them. Well, if we draw blood, I suppose  there are always plenty of bumper stickers floating around to bind their wounds, their minds, their families, and their broken lives.

• Or does it mean we were willing to spend $2.75 once on the cheapest form of patriotic fervor money can buy?

Supporting Endless War is not Supporting our Troops, 
it's Abandoning Them.

Eclipse 2017

Not so long ago, we lived in rural, pastoral villages dotting the fertile lands between great city-states. Once in awhile, we were caught between their feuding kings and the wars they waged over land, resources, and matters of wounded pride. Their armies would steal our crops and burn our villages as payment for the starvation they brought. We lived in the light which fed our crops which fed our children. We lived in the light which fed the trees which built our homes and warmed our hearths. We lived in the light with our families, three generations to a home. We lived in the light which allowed us to see wolves and serpents before they could strike. We lived in the light and we feared the darkness. When the Sun disappeared behind the moon, we trembled with fear for we lived in the light.

Today, we live within nation-states packed into cities one atop another. We live among strangers. We leave our children and elders in their care. We fight battles with one another for land, jobs, water, and all else we need to live. The wars we wage with one another are endless conflicts for subjective fairness, justice, and equality. The wars we fight with other nation-states provide background noise to our more immediate struggles. The predators are us, our neighbors, our institutions, and those who kill for the blessings of a capricious God in the hope of attaining paradise. We live in darkness now. When the Sun disappears behind the moon, we trembled with excitement, and we rush to stand in awe of the fading light because we live in darkness now and we curse the light. We live in darkness now and we curse the light.