Please write your representatives today -- NO to SOPA

Today is a great day to register at www.congress.org.   In one fell swoop, you can send a letter like this to all of your representatives:

Dear ,

The internet has grown into a massive provider of jobs, services, and a richer life experience for people all over the world.  The freedom of communication has created opportunity for poor and rich alike.  There are countless ways for anyone to derive revenue by providing services on the internet. 

Since there are so few rules, a person only has to worry about providing a good service.  The bar for business entry is low.   Commerce on the internet is thriving because of this.  If we increase regulations, fewer people will benefit from commercial activity, this is a simple but absolute fact.  It will be more difficult for the average citizen who you represent to derive revenue.

There are liars among us who claim that they are "losing" money because of the internet and the freedom of exchange of digital media.   This is a ridiculous argument because without the success of the internet, a hugely lower percentage of people would ever even know that their media existed.  Profit in media is derived from audience size.  Which would you rather have, a penny from 5 billion people, or $10 from 100,000 people?   If some businesses are losing money, it is because they need to adapt their business model, NOT because the internet needs to be regulated.

Please, I implore you, protect the freedom that exists on the internet. People in every corner of the world are counting on your opposition to SOPA and PIPA.

Redneck Art?

Worshiping the beer gods?

It is colorful.  It is eye-catching.  Hell, I'd even go so far as to say it's provocative ... or, maybe I'm easily entertained, but I did stop to take a picture.   Some might say it's trash, or maybe a redneck version of a totem pole.  Is it art?  Who am I to judge ... though I must say that I have a preference for angles carved into rock.


My secret garden is kind of an interesting social experiment now.  It's like a little "un-controlled" park.  More have been coming to enjoy this place lately, and I'm happy for that.  Unfortunately, people are freaking messy.  There are beer cans and trash everywhere now.   This is odd to me; people come because the garden is a pretty place to hang out, but people leave their trash everywhere and make it NOT a pretty place anymore.  Oh well, at least I know that if I'm ever homeless and destitute, I can come here for a steady supply of aluminum cans to cash in.


I'd give anything to hear the thought processes that led up to the decorated tree.   "...damn, Bubba-John, this place looks like shit.  We oughtta try fixin' it up a little or somethin'."  "...yeah, that dead tree over there depresses the hell outta me ... it needs some beer-corations."

Ron Paul 2012 - Phone From Home Volunteering

If you really want to get involved in politics this year, please consider joining Ron Paul's phone from home army.  You can sign up for it here:   http://phone.ronpaul2012.com


I just finished my first session.  It's pretty easy, and you can even play games on your laptop while you do it because very few people actually answer the phone.   Most of the time you are just sitting there listening to a phone ring.  I definitely recommend a headset though.   My old elbow got tired pretty quick while holding a flip phone.


I only found 2 people to complete the survey.  One guy was firmly voting for Newt, and another lady was undecided.   I was sad about her because she said that she lost a cousin in Iraq.  She was also firmly convinced that we need to keep Iran from getting nukes.  That made me even more sad because now someone else is going to lose a cousin.   Many more people in Iran are going to lose cousins, and that makes me even more sad.


Couldn't we at least try leaving them alone, and just see if they leave us alone?  I know 9/11 was what got all of this started, but where does it stop?  Someone I think a lot of once said, "If an angry person backhands you up side the head, take a moment to think about why they did that."  It is hard to swallow one's pride and admit that the anger was deserved, but that is the only path to peace.   The world expects nothing less of a strong man, or a strong nation.  We must acknowledge our wrongs, even if we did not personally commit the crimes against others.  America has brought much death to the Middle East over the last few decades; this cannot be denied.


It is time to leave the Middle East.   It does not matter if our armies occupy their lands because of oil or because of our good intentions.  Their people believe that we are there for our own benefit, not theirs.  We can never avoid the conflict of interest or the appearance of evil as long as our troops occupy their soil.  If they bring war to us, we have the right and the duty to defend ourselves.   We do not have the right to bomb a people just because they won't succumb to our will.


P.S.



You don't ever have to hang up your phone once you start making calls.  It took me a bit to figure that out.   If no one answers, the system will automatically disconnect you and call the next person.  If you get an answering machine, there is a button to click for that.  Then you click 'leave a voice message' when you hear the 'beep'.  The computer gets confused if you hang up, so always let it disconnect you and then it will call the next person.   When you need to take a break, there is a little check box you can click when you confirm the results of the call.

Protect IP Act

It appears that my one letter failed to change any minds and "OUR" representatives are still planning to vote to support corporate interests at the expense of free communication of the people.   Perhaps if a few thousand more people write in?


Please go to www.congress.org and set up your profile there. Once you do, it makes it easy to write your reps. on any issues that you care about .... and you can hit them all with one fell swoop.

If you care about preventing censorship on the internet, here's a quick letter you can cut-n-paste and send to your reps. (lol, i promise not to sue if you copy my letter exactly): 

[www.congress.org puts the appropriate header for you]

As a citizen who you represent, I respectfully ask you to oppose the "Protect Intellectual Property Act" in all forms.

Free communication on the internet is an incredibly valuable addition to the human experience for nearly everyone. We should be very careful to protect that freedom from any form of censorship.

It is understandable that content providers have a right to protect their content, but that protection should not come at the expense of free communication for all people. When companies experience pirating losses, they should have every right to sue and attempt to recover losses. They should not, however, have the right to create censorship on the internet without due process.


**************************************************************
Here's the eloquent response I got to explain why the interests of the people should be ignored:
**************************************************************





Dear Friend:


     Thank you for contacting me regarding S. 968, the PROTECT IP Act.  I welcome your thoughts and comments.


     Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced the PROTECT IP Act on May 12, 2011.  The legislation is in response to concerns about online copyright infringement and sale of counterfeit goods.  The bill would allow the Justice Department to seek federal court injunctions to halt online promotion of illegal activities.


     I believe copyright protection is a foundation for innovation.  Intellectual property is the creative core of the information age.  Patent and intellectual property ownership laws offer needed protection for the economic and other interests of inventors, entrepreneurs, performers, and other creative thinkers.  These protections are also important to future growth and employment in important U.S. industries.


     Protecting intellectual property is more challenging than ever before.  Among other things, high speed broadband enables access to the entire catalog of movies, music, books, television, and technology.


     Online promotion of counterfeit goods by foreign entities is also a growing concern.  How to protect copyright, patent, and intellectual property rights — and do so without infringing on consumers’ legitimate interests — requires dealing with a complex series of problems.


     The PROTECT IP Act has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Although I am not a member of that committee, please be assured that I will keep your views in mind should this bill or related legislation be reported for action by the full Senate.


     I appreciate hearing from you, and I hope that you will not hesitate to contact me on any issue that is important to you.




Sincerely,
Kay Bailey Hutchison
United States Senator

Occupy Wall Street -- OWS

     Sometimes you just know you're getting screwed.   You don't necessarily understand who did it or why, but one thing you are sure of, you got the short straw.  Is that why this OWS thing has gotten so popular?  A lot of people have been getting screwed for a long time.   Are they talking back and forth, "Oh really?  You got screwed too?  D@mn, I thought it was just me.  Well, we got to do something about this BS."  


     Normally, I would not agree with the OWS way of thinking.  Normally, I would say that rich people got that way because they worked hard and they deserve the fruit of their labor.  Their wealth is "honest" wealth.  The only reason that I'm siding with the OWS folks is because too many people get rich today by taking advantage of others.  Worse, they use monetary influence in the political process as one of their tools for always making sure that they get the long straw.  I hope the OWS crowd will make the distinction between "corrupt" wealth and "honest" wealth.


     Honest wealth is what we should all be striving for.  It is a natural result of the efficient production of goods and services that others want and need.  This type of productive behavior should always be freely encouraged and supported.  Unfortunately, many of the most successful people have an unfettered lust for even more wealth and power.   They see competition as a threat to their status, and so they create laws (via lobbyists and a compliant congress) to stifle competition.  They always have a more "noble" reason for the laws, but the true purpose is to secure wealth and power for the 1%.   Of course, there is a lot of outright fraud these days as well.  If it's sophisticated enough, no one can figure out "how" it was fraud, and so you just get away with it.  There certainly is plenty of "corrupt" wealth going around these days.


     I hope the the OWS folks figure out that freedom does the best job at equalizing opportunity. It's counter-intuitive, but it works.  I fear that they want to have more rules to "make" the rich people play fair.   Unfortunately, this will never work because the 1% will always buy off a congressman to slip in some clever loophole.  We have been trying to use the law to make people play fair for ages.   Complex laws don't work.  Complex laws only serve to restrict competition, and consequently the opportunity of the 99%.


     There are some even more obvious solutions to making the world more fair:  for one, stop giving money away to people who are already in the 1% club.  Corporate welfare should be the first target of the OWS crowd.  Corporate welfare permeates American society now from local cities trying to get a Walmart or Home Depot to the FED bailing out Bank of America, to the CIA and US military subsidizing British Petroleum by controlling the rulers of oil producing countries. All of this must stop! 


     Large corporations already have huge advantages, yet small businesses still thrive.  If we cut the unfair flow of money, we will create more space for small businesses, green energy, and individual opportunity to grow like flowers after a spring rain. Mega corporations' profits will fall, and their CEO pay will follow.  There will still be ultra rich folks, but that's OK, if they've earned it.


     Lastly, sound money is key to individual prosperity. Average citizens need to be able to save a little money and have it hold its value. That's how people can save and start their own businesses.  That's how people can save to buy a house in cash, rather than pay a bank interest for all their life.  Sound money won't happen with the FED freely printing money and giving it away to the "already" rich and powerful 1%. 


     Please OWS, if you want a real change to empower the 99% to succeed, become a Blue Republican.  Hold your nose and register to vote in the GOP primary.  Ron Paul is the only candidate truly dedicated to help the 99% rise up.

"...and I had the best answer..."

That was the last audible phrase from the Vegas GOP debate.  I'll have to give credit to Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich; they both tried to stand up for Dr. Paul when he wasn't given time to answer the last question of the debate.  Of course, both of them had to fight for a chance to answer as well.   The debate was definitely dominated by Cain, Romney, and Perry.


Unfortunately, the way the debate was structured, candidates who have lied or flip-flopped in the past got the most time to talk.  When one candidate tried to call another candidate out on a lie or hypocrisy, the candidate of questionable honesty got 30 seconds to refute and explain how they didn't actually mean that fallacy.  Consequently, Cain, Perry, and Romney got to talk the most.


It was disheartening to watch how refined Romney was ... given that I think he is a 'Yes-Man-Corporatist' and the last thing this country needs for a President.  The crowd was eating him up though.  He was perfect at saying what people want to hear, laughing off criticism of his past decisions, and in general coming off like the good guy who wants to follow the rules.  It was too much to bear for the other candidates; they couldn't help interrupting him as he convincingly recreated the truth.  It's so annoying that the mark of a good politician is that they actually believe their lies as the lies leave their mouth.  More annoying still, that such masterful lying passes the built in lie-detectors that most humans have.  One would have to have done research to know the difference between fact and fiction in such instances.


Now, here is another odd fact about human behavior; we hate it when someone is "right" all the time.  Maybe it's the way people who are right rub it in; but for some reason, we will often go with the best sounding person who says what we want to hear.  Unfortunately, this sets us up to be taken advantage of.  My only hope is that people have been lied to so much lately that they are willing to do a little extra effort to figure out what is in their best interest.


OK, I have to break here ... too funny ... Mark McGuire, hitting coach for St. Louis Cardinals, World Series ... he looks like a parrot the way he eats sun flower seeds.


Now, back to politics ... try to keep up!  What does the federal government do for you?  Seriously, what is the value of "federal" government activity to you personally?  Was it worth $11,500 to you last year?  That's what they have cost every man, woman, and child in 2010.  What do they really do for you?  I guess they spend a little on the roads, but most of that goes towards pulling us over to let us know that our front license plate is not correctly attached.  Besides that, the feds have cost anyone who has a job more than that in taxes.


Who is getting all the money that they are spending? Not me, that's for sure.  Is it you?  Well, if so, you should probably vote for either Obama or Romney.  Either of them will do for you.  But, if you are taking the time to account for the depreciation of your savings account due to inflation, perhaps you would want to give Ron Paul a second thought.   He's the only one offering to shake things up.  He's the only only one calling the shots like he sees them, and needless to say, he didn't have to spend much time explaining why he changed his mind.  Ron Paul is a grumpy old man, but like grandpa when there's big trouble, he's on your side.  Please, take the time to figure it out.

Happy Halloween

I wrote a little Halloween song, and the lyrics came out a little dark.   So, I set the story to cute pictures of kittens and that made it a little less creepy I think.