I would die a happy man if I never again heard that old saw that epitomizes the beliefs of Voltaire, but is misattributed to him: "I disagree with what you have to say but will fight to the death to protect your right to say it." Over the past few years, there has been a mentality in this country that says "If you don't agree with me, then get the hell out." More specifically, this is a mentality that is embraced by those on the religious right. They go even farther, delving into outright hypocrisy; they crow about free speech and the First Amendment, but if it goes against their beliefs, tough on you. While that's just an example, I offer up three cases of people whose speech was denounced because of the message.
Earlier this week, Sean Penn actually got some credibility back with me when he called out President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, and Condoleeza Rice for their misuse of our military. Normally, I think the guy is a nutjob, but what he said had to be put out there. Senators and Representatives who might ordinarily stand up to their superior won't, because they fear for their jobs. People who have been saying "Support our troops and not the war!" are marginalized by hawks who wrongly say you can't have it both ways, and that those who don't support the war are cowards or something.
The sad thing is that it took Sean Penn to get the message out.
2) Personally, I'm tired of high schools becoming battlegrounds for political action committees, and this case is no different. The "Day of Silence" is an observance that seeks to increase awareness of the harrassment of homosexuals in schools. (A fine thing to have an observance about, if you ask me.) Anyway, Heidi Zamecnik wants to wear a shirt bearing the words "Be Happy, Not Gay," clearly demonstrating her position on the issue. As you might expect, school administrators nixed the shirt, or said that she couldn't wear it without blacking out "Not Gay." Apparently, it's OK for one group to protest, but when someone else tries, no dice.
3) While we're on the subject, Monroe, Wash. high school student is against the War in Iraq. He chose to protest the action by refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at school. A misinformed music teacher said that the law requires students to stand and recite the pledge.
That teacher was wrong. One hundred percent completely out-and-out wrong.
I'm not sure what's worse: that a teacher would bully a student like that, or that the teacher was so badly mistaken when it comes to the law. You can read the article to find out just how far the teacher went in verbally castrating a student just for having a differing view. This is possibly the worst of the trio of stories, mainly because the teacher was dead wrong on the facts.
By allowing these deplorable events to happen, we are degenerating the level of discourse in our country to that of ad hominem attacks, rather than open-minded discussion of issues that are important. We cannot let that happen, and we cannot let events like these continue to take place, otherwise we'll never get there.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Saturday, March 24, 2007
More Socialist Stuff
More fun from the Washington State Legislature: currently in the hopper is State Bill 6185 which modifies the Family Medical Leave Act, providing paid leave for employees. We already have unpaid leave for people who need to take care of their families, and I have no problem with that. Sometimes there are just circumstances that mean you need to take some time off, but I resent having to pay for it.
As the bill stands, people can take off five weeks per year paying $250.00 per week for medical leave. In order to pay for this, each worker in Washington state will pay 2¢ per hour into this slush fund to pay for this. This comes out to a bit more than $40 per year.Because I'm a numbers geek, I've done a bit of figuring this stuff out.
Assuming a person invented a sick uncle to care for and ditched the deep fryer at La Taco for five weeks a year for 45 years, Jose Nosepicker would soak the state of Washington for $56,250.00 over that time. For me alone to pay off Jose's time drinking Coronas on the beach for those five weeks of just one year, I must work for 45 years. Assuming someone were to take the entire allotment, that person would have taken off four-and-a-half years for vacation all told over their working life.
I haven't even taken into account the cost of administration and beauraucracy for this program; I'm just doing figures on the cost of people drawing the checks. When you add in the cost of making sure people are actually helping their sick uncle and not on the beach, and the other office type stuff, it becomes clear that we're on the way to some bad news. It's a pyramid scheme for anyone who looks even a bit below the surface of the whole thing, but Washington state's legislature is in some sort of contest with California to become the most socialist state of the union, so we're going to be seeing more of this silliness until someone steps up to smack all of these nutjobs down.
As the bill stands, people can take off five weeks per year paying $250.00 per week for medical leave. In order to pay for this, each worker in Washington state will pay 2¢ per hour into this slush fund to pay for this. This comes out to a bit more than $40 per year.Because I'm a numbers geek, I've done a bit of figuring this stuff out.
Assuming a person invented a sick uncle to care for and ditched the deep fryer at La Taco for five weeks a year for 45 years, Jose Nosepicker would soak the state of Washington for $56,250.00 over that time. For me alone to pay off Jose's time drinking Coronas on the beach for those five weeks of just one year, I must work for 45 years. Assuming someone were to take the entire allotment, that person would have taken off four-and-a-half years for vacation all told over their working life.
I haven't even taken into account the cost of administration and beauraucracy for this program; I'm just doing figures on the cost of people drawing the checks. When you add in the cost of making sure people are actually helping their sick uncle and not on the beach, and the other office type stuff, it becomes clear that we're on the way to some bad news. It's a pyramid scheme for anyone who looks even a bit below the surface of the whole thing, but Washington state's legislature is in some sort of contest with California to become the most socialist state of the union, so we're going to be seeing more of this silliness until someone steps up to smack all of these nutjobs down.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Viaduct Vote
Last week, Seattle held a meaningless "advisory vote" to see what citizens of the area wanted to do regarding the aging Alaskan Way Viaduct. The citizens were given two yes/no propositions: whether to replace the viaduct with another elevated highway or whether to replace the viaduct with a four-lane underground tunnel. The elevated highway garnered a total of 45% of the vote, the tunnel went down like a stack of bricks: out of nearly 100,000 votes, 30% voted for it.
The problems with the vote were many and storied. Firstly, as an advisory vote, it held no sway with what might actually happen. Secondly, with only two measures, each as yes/no, it left out options such as "I would prefer a bridge spanning Elliott Bay," or "I would rather retrofit the viaduct."
Even after both measures go down to defeat, Seattle's very own Mayor Quimby takes the microphone and proclaims "The voters said we do not want another freeway along our waterfront. They want us to find a better answer. Now we have to work hard on how to get it done." Never mind that the voters basically said that they didn't want the tunnel, Mayor McCheese is getting up in front of everyone, and he won't let go of his pie-in-the-sky idea.
What's interesting about this whole thing is that it took me until yesterday to find the quote from the day-after press conference. All quotes I found from Mayor Nickels were from a later speech he made, bloviating about how he is now looking to compromise with everyone on this issue, completely covering up the fact that he got smacked down in the voting booth only a few days ago.
The problem here is a failure on the part of the voting public to toss this guy out. Clearly, he's working for his own self-interests, and the people of Seattle can go screw. Only after they get a vote of no-confidence, or something similar, will the state of affairs improve in the northwest.
The problems with the vote were many and storied. Firstly, as an advisory vote, it held no sway with what might actually happen. Secondly, with only two measures, each as yes/no, it left out options such as "I would prefer a bridge spanning Elliott Bay," or "I would rather retrofit the viaduct."
Even after both measures go down to defeat, Seattle's very own Mayor Quimby takes the microphone and proclaims "The voters said we do not want another freeway along our waterfront. They want us to find a better answer. Now we have to work hard on how to get it done." Never mind that the voters basically said that they didn't want the tunnel, Mayor McCheese is getting up in front of everyone, and he won't let go of his pie-in-the-sky idea.
What's interesting about this whole thing is that it took me until yesterday to find the quote from the day-after press conference. All quotes I found from Mayor Nickels were from a later speech he made, bloviating about how he is now looking to compromise with everyone on this issue, completely covering up the fact that he got smacked down in the voting booth only a few days ago.
The problem here is a failure on the part of the voting public to toss this guy out. Clearly, he's working for his own self-interests, and the people of Seattle can go screw. Only after they get a vote of no-confidence, or something similar, will the state of affairs improve in the northwest.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Washington State Senate: Out of Touch
If you want an example of how the Washington State is quickly becoming a socialist dystopia, I give you this example. State Senator Adam Kline is one of seven sponsors of SB 5544, an "environmental noise abatement bill" that would make it nearly impossible for anyone to operate an "off-highway vehicle" (ATVs, Quads and the like to you and me) on public lands.
If that was all Kline was after, I wouldn't mind it nearly so much. The problem is that the bill is written in such a way as to suggest that the point of the bill is to reduce noise on public lands. If that were true, there would be no mention of ATVs, personal watercraft, and other noisy vehicles; it would just say "it is against the law to create a noise louder than (x) decibels while on public lands without a permit."
Senator Kline has stated in public e-mails that he dislikes not only off-highway vehicles, but he has outright contempt for those who operate them. He goes on to say that those who disagree with him should feel free to not vote for him next time out. I would wholeheartedly agree with that.
Rather than legislators who are looking out for the public good, we have people who are drunk on power, trying to impose their will on the populace by shoehorning bills through the Senate and House at an unprecedented pace. If we were not at the point of "us against them," that point is rapidly approaching, because at this rate, it won't be long before citizens of Washington state have no rights at all.
If that was all Kline was after, I wouldn't mind it nearly so much. The problem is that the bill is written in such a way as to suggest that the point of the bill is to reduce noise on public lands. If that were true, there would be no mention of ATVs, personal watercraft, and other noisy vehicles; it would just say "it is against the law to create a noise louder than (x) decibels while on public lands without a permit."
Senator Kline has stated in public e-mails that he dislikes not only off-highway vehicles, but he has outright contempt for those who operate them. He goes on to say that those who disagree with him should feel free to not vote for him next time out. I would wholeheartedly agree with that.
Rather than legislators who are looking out for the public good, we have people who are drunk on power, trying to impose their will on the populace by shoehorning bills through the Senate and House at an unprecedented pace. If we were not at the point of "us against them," that point is rapidly approaching, because at this rate, it won't be long before citizens of Washington state have no rights at all.
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