America News

Can America Be Motivated?

12:31 pm EST January 23rd, 2009 | Uncategorized | 7 Comments

obama inauguration In the wake of President Obama’s inauguration I was recently discussing with some friends: Can America be motivated? We all agreed that one of the biggest failures of Bush was his inability and unwillingness to make a call to action for Americans, and that Obama set the right tone on day one on this.

But, can America answer that call? The baby boom generation did not have any of the pressures of the generation before them who lived through WWII and the Depression. The idealism of Vietnam protest was eventually given up for the “Me” ’80s and the ’90s boom. In many ways I think they’re a lost cause as far as being aroused to national service. I’m aware I’m speaking in huge generalities here.

Generation X and Y have probably had it even easier, but maybe because I’m an optimist I think they would respond to a national call to service from the President, and not just because its Obama – I think the American people are naturally inclined to respond to their president, regardless of the party. Especially for those (I include myself) who experienced 9/11 as a singular momentous moment in their lives.

Topic: America, President Obama

Oh By The Way

6:44 pm EST August 27th, 2008 | Democrats | 27 Comments

The Democratic party just officially nominated a black man to be its nominee. I thought that was worth noting.

Topic: America, Democratic Convention, History, President Obama, Race

Apollo Is Calling

11:07 pm EST August 7th, 2008 | News | 8 Comments

From a new Rasmussen poll:

With energy issues taking center stage in the presidential campaign, 81% of Americans see development of new energy sources as an urgent priority. Only 9% disagree.

For nearly two-thirds (65%), finding new sources of energy is more important that reducing the amount of energy Americans now consume. Twenty-eight percent (28%) think reducing current usage is more important.

At the time President Kennedy announced the beginning of the Space Race, much of the fuel behind it was a belief that America was lagging behind the Soviet Union in science and math. To win the cold war, it was believed, required a massive investment in our tech infrastructure and the Apollo mission was the most visible outgrowth of that.

Video: Kennedy Apollo Speech

We are faced again with another crisis, with effects far more wide reaching than the gap with the Soviet Union ever turned out to be. We need fuel to make our economy grow and sustain our livelihood. At the same time, we need for that source of fuel to not have the side effects of leaving us beholden and in debt to despots and robber barons, while also not destroying the planet in the process.

I think that even in the middle of an economic crisis the American people are ready to invest in a serious mission to get off of oil and find a new energy source. We’ve spent decades now in the fairytale of belief that the oil companies are working on this issue. They likely spend more on commercials claiming that they’re working on alternatives than they actually are spending. They are focused on their bottom lines, their quarter to quarter profits (recently at record levels) and not on a long term solution that might have the added side effect of putting them out of business. It’s like expecting Horse & Buggy Inc. to invest in creating the internal combustion engine. Not going to happen.

At the same time, finding an alternative to oil is not a cheap mission, and not the sort of thing likely to be invested in by a startup or other private company. Like the audacious idea of sending a man to the moon and returning him safely to the earth, this is a job for the much derided government. Much like how the Internet evolved from a military research project into one of the greatest economic engines of all time for private industry, we have to put up the resources and get the best people working on this issue immediately.

WWII Plant Workers in Sylacauga, Alabama

Instead of empty slogans like “Drill now!” – a feel good bit of marketing whose best result is likely a few barrels of oil and a few more Exxon Valdez incidents – we need to do what America has a long history of doing well, mobilizing nationally against an oppressive force.

Topic: America, Energy, History, Newsweek

Happy 4th Of July

9:35 am EST July 4th, 2008 | Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Remember, America, it’s hot out there. Be careful.

Giselle Bundchen in American Flag bikini

Giselle Bundchen

Topic: America

Bubba America: Call The Cops On Gay Men Kissing

11:26 am EST April 28th, 2008 | News | 54 Comments

When I see nonsense like Newsweek’s cover about the so-called “Bubba Gap” for Sen. Obama and other members of the punditocracy saying that the path to the presidency can only be achieved by pandering to these larry the cable guy (mostly southern) conservatives I always have to roll my eyes (I also roll my eyes at so called independent pundits always rushing to the same wrong conclusion, as usual). Because for a considerable amount of our national history these people are on the stupid and wrong side of most major issues.

ABC did a test to see what the reaction would be to two men kissing in public in Alabama. They called the cops.

A police officer even arrived at the scene after a woman called 911 because she saw Kaolin and James kissing each other in public.

ABC News obtained a copy of her call:

Operator: “Birmingham Police operator 9283″

Caller: “We have a couple of men sitting out on the bench that have been kissing and drooling all over each other for the past hour or so. It’s not against the law, right?”

Operator: “Not to the best of my knowledge it’s not.”

Caller: “So there’s no complaint I could make or have?”

Operator: “I imagine you could complain if you like ma’am. We can always send an officer down there.”

And they did. One of Birmingham’s finest came to Five-Points and spoke with Kaolin and James. Though city officials and the police department signed off on ABC’s social experiment, this officer was somehow not in the loop. The officer told our couple that the police dispatch received a call because the two of them were making out.

“Just don’t do that in public,” he told them before leaving the scene.

Now, look, these folks have a right to their own personal beliefs, but we debase our politics if we try to pander to them. We have only moved forward in this country when we ignored the loudest voices in the “Bubba” contingent who were never quite ready for women’s rights, equal rights or gay rights.

Larry the Cable Guy can be amusing, but I don’t want him dictating the future direction of western civilization. That probably makes me a coastal elitist snob from the midatlantic, but so be it.

Git ‘R Done.

(via)

Topic: America, Anti-Gay

America Is 230 Years Old; Doesn’t Look A Day Over 150

3:07 am EST July 4th, 2006 | Uncategorized | 19 Comments

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred. to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Topic: America

A Thought About Patriotism

8:04 pm EST April 6th, 2006 | Uncategorized | 84 Comments

I have an American flag on my bookshelf at home. It’s a cheap flag I picked up on the Fourth of July in Boston. I like that flag, but I don’t neccesarily need it to remind myself of patriotism. I don’t need to wave it around or drag it to work with me to show off how much I love my country… because I do it every day.

Topic: America