obama pros and cons so far

I have to admit I'm surprised by some of Obama's early moves after winning the election and most of the surprises are not good ones, although the alternative most likely would have been worse.

Positive surprise:

1. His plan to give trials to all Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Score one for the Constitution and for humanity in general.

Negative surprises:

1. Waints to bail out the auto industry, which is failing because of their inability to see trends that 8-year olds could have seen coming decades ago. If he cares about renewable energy and climate change (as he says he does), let planet-destroying companies fail and the void will be easily filled.
   
2. Plans to use executive orders to reverse Bush administration executive orders. The right way to do this is with Congress passing bills and for the President to sign them. The balance of power needs to restored to prevent future Presidents from abusing power.
   
3. He believes the neo-con lie that the biggest threat to the world is international terrorism. Until we get over this nonsense, we won't be able to stop interfering in the affairs of other countries, which will perpetuate the hatred fostered during the past 60 years under both Democrat and Republican presidents (mostly Democrat, not to be partisan, but it sometimes surprises people to realize that fact).
4. The inauguration will have "free speech zones" just like the Bush administration was famous for (and profoundly criticized for). Now, there's no outrage because a good guy is in charge. Hypocrisy. I suggest the whole country be designated a free speech zone like in the good old days of 8 years ago. Oh, I forgot, we face the threat of international terrorism!
   

The litmus test for granting government new powers should be: How would you feel about granting this power to George W Bush? If you wouldn't, then don't grant it to Obama or Congress or the Judiciary, because at some point down the road, one or more of the branches may be controlled by people with no humanity. That's why the Constitution is a brilliant document that we should start following again.

my townhouse renovation is complete

In a previous posting, I talked about my planned renovation of a townhouse in Santa Cruz where I used to live.

I've put up some stunning before and after photos of all the rooms in the house. It's currently available for rent, so contact me if interested!

vote NO on everything by default

Every election cycle, California and other states put propositions on the ballot. The best rule of thumb, in my opinion, is to vote NO by default unless you have read and analyzed the entire text of the proposition and all the arguments FOR and AGAINST. As with almost everything associated with government, the primary goal is to take money from taxpayers and to funnel it to those who funded their campaigns, as well as their friends, family, and business associates. So your best bet is to vote NO by default, since most of them involve spending huge amounts of money over decades (mostly interest). Here's how I plan to vote:

• Proposition 1A - High Speed Rail: NO. Mass transit is great and we need more of it, but regional transit is significantly more important and our money is much better spent getting people to and from work every day than on transporting people across greater distances. Even if the proposition were focused on our severely lacking regional transit, the proposition is an open-ended spending of money with no actual plans, timetable, or promise of completion. There is no mention of an open bidding process, which is a red flag that the money will be funneled to companies chosen by legislators not based on merit.
• Proposition 2 - Standards for Confining Farm Animals: YES. I'd much rather see a proposition that required companies to fully disclose everything about their operations and allow public visitation of all their facilities at any time, because that would quickly bankrupt the inhumane companies and the problem would solve itself. In the absence of that, I would support this because it allows farmers to compete on a level playing field, and I think that's one area that government can serve a useful and positive purpose without spending ridiculous amounts of money.
• Proposition 3 - Children's Hospital Bond Act: NO. Adding to an already huge mountain of debt so that morally corrupt corporations can get another windfall of money (like with the recent federal prescription drug bill) is something we can't stand for. The fact that the proposition authors use children as bait so they can line their pockets more is pretty twisted.
• Proposition 4 - Waiting Period and Parental Notification Before Termination of Minor's Pregnancy: NO. Government and abortion should have nothing to do with each other. The nation will always be deeply divided on the issue, which means the government should stay out of it.
• Proposition 5 - Non-violent Drug Offenses: YES. People should never be incarcerated for victimless 'crimes' and this is a modest step in the right direction.
• Proposition 6 - Police and Law Enforcement Funding: NO. We don't need to waste taxpayer money throwing more people in jail for victimless 'crimes'. This proposition has some of the most asinine shit in it, like requiring gang members to register with local law enforcement. If you want to reduce crime, legalize drugs and all other victimless crimes. When someone harms someone ELSE or their property, that's a crime.
  
• Proposition 7 - Renewable Energy Generation: NO. We'd all be using renewable energy for everything by now if not for government involvement. If we stop subsidizing oil and stop subsidizing government-selected replacements which all suck (ethanol, hydrogen, etc), there will be a level playing field and renewable energy will win because it's better, cleaner, and cheaper (when it's not competing against subsidized alternatives).
• Proposition 8 - Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry: NO. Government can't take away human rights unless another person is harmed.
• Proposition 9 - Criminal Justice System. Victims' Rights. Parole: NO. This is completely unnecessary. We have a court system and it's imperfect and you just have to accept that, no matter how horrific the crimes are that people sometimes commit.
• Proposition 10 - Alternative Fuel Vehicles and Renewable Energy: NO. Same reasoning as voting NO on Proposition 7. We'll have an amazing future of alternative fuel and renewable energy if the government stays out of it.
• Proposition 11 - Redistricting: NO. Redistricting should not be intertwined with politics.
  
• Proposition 12 - Veterans Bond Act of 2008: NO. Life sucks for many people, regardless of whether they served in the military or not. If I get shot as an innocent bystander in a drug-related shooting, where's my low-interest loan? Government shouldn't be involved in slippery slopes.

So, for the first time in many years, I'm actually voting YES on some of the propositions. One day maybe we'll have a proposition that mandates a balanced budget and a fixed timetable for paying off all state debts. Then, we can create an endowment with the budget surplus and know that future generations will have a better life rather than a mountain of debt and nothing to show for it.

both parties are to blame

Yet more evidence that both major parties are the same and both are to blame for everything that's a major screwup in the last century is this article from the New York Times from 1999, which explains the origins of the subprime crisis:

Fannie Mae Eases Credit to Aid Mortgage Lending

The key point here are that it was under pressure from the Clinton administration that this took place, which flies in the face of the typical knee-jerk Democrat response that everything in the last 8 years in Bush's fault. Freddie Mac was created during FDR's presidency with a strongly Democratic congress. Fannie Mae was created under Nixon with a Democratic congress. The takeover of them recently as well as the bailouts of various banks and investment firms were supported by both parties. Both Presidential candidates support the bailout. The Bush administration supports the bailout. The Democratic congress supports the bailout.

Both parties are to blame and it's the unholy alliance of government and private corporations (or pseudo-private corporations) that is the cause of the problem and their solution is a stronger unholy alliance between government and selected giant corporations. How fair is that to companies that play by the rules and don't risk the loss of their customers' assets and homes in the relentless pursuit of profits? Companies that make stupid, selfish decisions should go bankrupt, not be propped up. Then they get bought up by smarter companies and life goes on. The scare tactics of saying there will be a global economic meltdown will only lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy as the media parrots this in every article about the bailout as if it's fact. If everyone panics, we WILL have a global economic meltdown.

A very telling event during the debate in the House this past week was the shouting out of how far the Dow was dropping as dissenters were airing their opinions on the House floor. Further proof that the bailout is about Wall Street and juicing up the stock market and not about preventing an imagined global economic meltdown.

The bailout will pass, it will cost far more than projected, it will never pay for itself, and we'll need another unholy alliance in the next decade to fix the mess it created. Lather, rinse, repeat. Yet another reason to completely reject both parties (who have melded into one) and vote third party in this and future elections.

a third-party vote is the most meaningful vote

Most of my friends are die-hard Democrats and have been duped by the media into these twin notions of a 'wasted vote' and a vote for one person leading to another person winning. So, let's make attempt #487 to debunk these outright falsehoods:

• There is no such thing as a wasted vote. To even call a voted wasted is insulting to the notion of people's opinions actually mattering in an election. If you vote for someone and they lose, that's not a wasted vote. If you vote for someone that gets very few votes, that's not a wasted vote.
• A vote for Person C doesn't help another Person A win unless you would have voted for Person B. The Democrats love to blame Ralph Nader for Bush winning in 2000, but it's probably the most thoroughly debunked theory in the history of politics. The easiest statistic to debunk it is that 25% of ALL registered Democrats in Florida voted for Bush. Nader made no difference and I've yet to meet a Nader voter than would have voted for Gore.
  

Because the system is rigged to favor the two major parties, both of whom are virtually indistinguishable if you actually sit down and think about where they both stand on the issues that really matter, the most meaningful vote if you care about the long-term survival and happiness of our nation is a vote for a 3rd party candidate. The more votes that go to 3rd parties, the more chance they have in the future to overcome the built-in obstacles to being allowed to actually participate in the process.

Despite what most people think, we have a one-party system, not a two-party system. Neither party really cares who wins because they are all scratching each other's backs and they both win no matter what the outcome of any given election. The status quo is perfectly fine for them and as long as they take turns being in power, it really doesn't matter who wins any given election. The moneyed interests that support both of them virtually equally also don't really care who wins, because they'll get their corporate welfare and their handouts eventually.

The most important issue in this election and any Presidential election is who is going to end the massive amount of death and suffering around the world that is caused by our military and economic interference in more than 100 countries. Neither candidate and neither party has been interested in that for almost a century. The second most important issue is who is going to end the unholy alliance between government and corporations that has led to untold suffering and hardship in this country for decades. Virtually everything that is wrong with the country, from health to crime to poverty to economic inequality has been directly caused by this unholy alliance. Neither candidate and neither party will end this.

Vote 3rd party whenever possible. It most likely will make no direct difference in this election or maybe the next few elections, but the more votes that go to 3rd parties, the more chance we have to get our voices heard and have real debate, change, and progress in the country. Think of the long-term, not just the next election. Look at other countries where there is healthy political dialog and courageous change and none of them are two-party systems (or one-party systems).

No matter who gets elected, we're equally fucked. We'll still have troops in over 100 countries, we'll still have huge deficits, we'll still have subsidized agriculture that causes us to be the most unhealthy nation in the world, we'll still have gigantic corporate bailouts, we'll still be passing unconstitutional laws on a daily basis, and so on.

End the madness.

serf to surf balm

I'll state up-front that this is a product that I'm also selling in my online store (a recent hobby of mine), but you'll just have to trust me that I'm touting the product because of my belief in it.

Serf to Surf sells a bewildering array of balms for anything from sun protection to dry skin to wound healing to hair care. I've been using their products for more than 5 years and have yet to find something that uses all natural ingredients with no artificial fragrances or chemicals and is also incredibly effective. In the winter, the backs of my hands would get so dry that they would crack and actually bleed. No lotion or balm I could find ever provided anything but temporary relief. But Serf to Surf Essentials did the trick.

After a shower, I put it on my face every day, and in the winter, also use it on my hands or any other areas of skin that are especially dry. When I have a cut or scrape, I apply it to the wound and put a bandage over it and it really does speed the healing process and prevent infection (in my experience).

All the products are hand-made in British Columbia and come in reusable and recyclable metal tins. The product is typically in a round 'puck' form, so you can pop it out of the container and rub it wherever you need it and then put it back in the container. They come in a variety of natural and very pleasant scents.

You can buy them directly from Serf to Surf or I have the Essentials product line available (including a free sample) in my online store.

truth in advertising