Rick's b.log - 2012/04/25
It is the 21st of November 2024 You are 18.224.53.246, pleased to meet you!

America, WAKE UP!

Really, what is it that you, the voters, seem to have completely missed the point?

First, the candidates. One believes in creationalism which in my book means he is fifty one cards short of a full deck. The evidence to the contrary is mind-blowing. It's an argument I am not going to bother with here, I'll take the Richard Dawkins approach and shrug and ignore it.

Then the other guy. He is probably the epitome of the American ideal with all the cash following him around like glittery confetti. But all I can think of to say is "what a wally". He reminds me of those super-sexy-red-cars that you're like "whoa!" and then you see the driver is a crusty middle aged bloke with a wife the age his granddaughter should be, and you think "what a wally". Or those rappers (I can't bring myself to call them "artistes") with gold dollar medallions and crap hanging from their neck, and your only response is surely "what a wally". I guess it is a peculiarly American thing to want to remind the world that they're rolling in it every chance they get. But, you know what? It is utterly tasteless. The many poor in the world will not think of it as a worthwhile thing, and Old Money in Europe will cringe. If you have money, you live in a better house and you dress better. You hang out with the soigné crowd. You never ever hang bling around your neck. And it is painfully obvious to all but the ill-educated that you are from a well-to-do background, so you don't need to point it out. Constantly.

Having shot down the candidates, let's shoot down the voters.

Explain to me why the person matters? He should matter only so much as taking his character to assess if he (or she, perhaps?) is going to be a trust-worthy person. In reality, it could be an ugly guy with grey hair, diapers, and a motorised wheelchair - so long as he is capable of leading the country. But this being America, his injury will have to be something epic like taking a bullet for Nixon in 'nam or some rubbish like that.

Now let's cut to the important issues. Your manufacturing sucks, your economy sucks, your social welfare system is a joke, and you are over-extended in military incursions in other countries.

I'll now break it down. Manufacturing - you are getting your asses kicked by China. There are plenty of resources and potential workers in America, yet the iThingy (designed by an American company) for the American market (and others) is assembled in China. Why can't it be done within the country? Why aren't you able to be competitive?

Perhaps even American companies are realising this as much of their stuff is made in China and on home ground they are waging battles within the farcically broken patent system. Hell, companies that invented nothing and produce nothing try to make their fortunes buying cheap patents, putting together a portfolio, and clobbering international manufacturers for everything they can. This, ultimately, will be damaging to your industries.

The economy. The amount of suck in the American economy is legendary. How's your debt running today? Can you even remember all the digits? This is having a knock-on effect in jobs and job creation; although I think it is slowly dawning on various EU countries that austerity doesn't work very well (a short time saving in fewer public sector employees translates to a longer term problem in unemployment and all that that entails). The logical way forward is to encourage growth, to stimulate the economy, not apply bandages to it.

Healthcare? This will always be a contentious issue for Capitalism is more or less another word for Greed. However socialist policies will require somebody to pay for somebody else. Is this a bad thing? Right now a whack of my pay goes to pensions and such. Each year I pay takes to keep the street lights in town working (although they don't benefit me at all) and to keep the children educated in the village school (although I have no children of my own). Part of my pay goes into a pot to pay the unemployed. I do not begrudge this as circumstances can change. I could end up with a family, or be laid off. I expect, as a result of my various contributions, the state to go a way towards providing a cushion for me in such events. This is how it is supposed to work. Medical? The state looks after 70%, and I have a top-up to cover the remaining 30% (your employer should see to this, but you normally need to be on a decent sort of salary to get those sorts of perks).
Oh, and for some Americans, please learn two things:

• Socialism is not another word for Communism.
• And, for what it is worth, proper Communism is not the same as the old Soviet era - that's about as close to the spirit of Communism as Scientology is to Christianity...

Military incursions? Well, for starters it is somewhat amusing that you're busy trying to bring liberty, freedom, and democracy to other more oppressed parts of the world when you've not yet sussed offering it to your own people. America is a Constitutional Republic. It was originally set up to empower the citizens (remember the bit beginning "We the people"?) and the constitution gave rights not only to the people, but also took rights away from the government so it could not devolve into a form of tyrannical rule. Yet, in recent years, the pandering to wealthy business (SOPA, ACTA, etc) and the pandering to phantoms (The Patriot Act) have surely stepped beyond what the founding fathers envisaged for the country? This isn't to say that copyright and terrorism should be ignored, but when you start treating swathes of your own population as potential criminals, you might want to step back and re-evaluate the situation.

Speaking of which - why do you seem to think your way is right, taken to the extremes of that MegaUpload case? Sure, the guy comes across as very slimy and people like that are probably guilty of something - though I must ask - is this enough to have the FBI and such stomp all over New Zealand? This is a huge embarrassment for New Zealand that they appear to have let their legal process be trumped by the Americans, and an equal embarrassment for the Americans as...frankly... you just can't do that. Your jurisdiction ends at your borders. If you want the guy, apply for extradition and cough up some evidence. You know, the normal way this sort of thing happens.

There's no use trying to be the world police and bringing "democracy" and justice to the world when you can't sort out your own country. In what sort of civilised nation is it acceptable for a person to use deadly force in self defence against an unarmed person? In fact, what is the deal with Americans and all their guns? What do they think they are trying to protect? Invasion by the Canadians? America is a part of NATO, the UN, blah blah. They also have plenty of nukes. If any country is actually dumb enough to try to attack America, I'm quite sure there will be plenty of people willing to take up arms and fight for Uncle Sam. So what are the guns for? I'll tell you what - those guns are so people can protect their own prejudices. And, furthermore, a country full of gun-toting Chuck Norris wannabes did not stop, or even affect, the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

The world is changing, sometimes at a scary rate. America is in a crisis it doesn't want to acknowledge. The currency is poor, and the outlook is gloomier. The President should not be a personality or a celebrity but very simply the candidate that has the most viable solutions.

You shouldn't care who he prays to, but you ought to care how he plans to balance the budget.

You shouldn't care how much money he has, but you should care a lot how he plans to make sure you don't lose what you have.

You shouldn't care about his ethnicity, but rather if he is going to do what he can to keep your cosy neighbourhood cosy.

There is something worse than having no money and no place to live. That is to have no hope. Which of the parties, right now, can offer you hope? That is for whom you should be placing your vote.

For God's sake, America, WAKE UP!

Your comments:

dunno, 27th April 2012, 04:02

fashist

Rick, 27th April 2012, 06:37

I think you'll find the word is "fascist".  According to Wiki "Fascism seeks to purify the nation of foreign influences that are deemed to be causing degeneration of the nation or of not fitting into the national culture" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism], therefore really it might be better to know what you are saying before you misspell a single word insult.  Thank you.

CaptinAmericaFnarrFnarr, 1st May 2012, 03:29

oughta be p**sed at ya poking dem holes in all ours lections an ecnomical probs but there is summat i cant defend  was we dumber to get in place where sarahf***inpalin coulda bin da vice or was we dumberest to have da bush man two times  i dunno man i dunno  s**ts f***ed up here real bad  cant gets me job dun like mitt man be flashin wad around yas right it give offense man it put the hurtin on real bad [edited lightly by Rick for language - all hail the venerable asterisk!]

Rob, 1st May 2012, 10:20

Now I know some people do actually speak like that, at least on TV where everything is dumbed down to the <i>n</i>th degree, but why go to the trouble of typing something and then attempting to make it read like that? It must actually be harder than writing properly? I can only assume you have a Troll about, Rick.     It also means that whatever message they were trying to put across is totally obscured by the language used, so I have absolutely no idea what it even means. 1/10 for effort. Fail.

joe, 11th May 2012, 14:15

Hi Rob,  here are few for you:  debar - de place you drink  debark - de fing from de tree  debate - de fing you catch fish wif  debit - de piece of samfing  delay - de woman dat sleeps around  deride - de fing you get from delay  destress - a lot of work  decode - de fing in the computer  decry - de emotional person  defence - de fing around the house  defer - de fing dat covers de cat  deliver - de fing next to kidney  defrost - de fing on the ground in winter

Rick, 11th May 2012, 15:06

De...licious! ☺