Peg in the Machine

Day in and out you can see multiple failures in governments. Now I won’t say it’s always the government’s fault as there could very well be good people in the lower branches or just people that try to do their best — they just get out shouted and out voted until they finally give up or keep on voting and feel a small piece of them die inside.

But there’s a dark side to the high gas prices, one that while could be fixed by simple changes in towns that are in place or available now in other places. What is it? It’s the inability for the fixed income people (won’t say “elderly” as not all fixed income are elderly) to actually get the food they need for life. There’s a number of people all over that rely on food service trucks to stop by every day and provide them with meals. In some areas, it’s done out of the “goodness” of the people (some get paid, but I’ve known some that don’t). As prices increase for gas, so do their costs.

I’ve seen in my own town these food delivery trucks becoming more and more scarce. I don’t know what happened to them! I know they still provide food, yet…. they’re almost never seen. Just a few months even I’d see them driving around and dropping off foil-covered dishes to homes. Now, scarcely a one. They can’t afford it. Even a few people I know in town have to have their own relatives make extra trips just to bring them food —- and while I understand that’s what one would expect, the point is they have to now because the other services are no longer available to them.

And where is the government during these times? Running all the way to the bank with the oil checks in hand? If not, you’d sure think they were. All they’d need to do is send money to their own people in the county to make sure they’re fed. After all, they’re quick to charge these people for taxes on their property and checks they get. Quick to take, but slow to give. And this is what people are voted in to do?

It’s said that a country (person, society, etc) can be judged by the treatment of the animals. Well I believe that’s one indication for sure — but how they treat any innocent or unable to take care of themselves as they once could (children/elderly) is even better. To think that there’s people not able to eat — people that need to eat more than others — can’t get food because people can’t afford to get it to them…. It’s a sad situation. I just wonder how many people will have to be hospitalized or die before the government would step in. But then, the government is more than willing to spend trillions in devices to kill; so I guess it shouldn’t be unexpected.

While this isn’t exactly going to give us a definite idea for specific areas (well, to be honest until we have a LOT of people visiting it’s overkill to add the “where are you at?” as well), but we’re really curious to just how many people out there are really employed! So please, just answer this simple little poll. Don’t worry, we won’t be contacting you or anything. But stay tuned and bookmark us — we have an idea to try and get a large number of people employed, but it’ll take time and response.

Answer the Employment Poll

And thanks for your time in voting!

And if you do wish to leave a comment, please do so — especially if you’d like to tell us if you’re happy in your job, why you’re unemployed — or just the real nature of the job market in your area.

Thanks!

This is perhaps one of the most debated and argued points in the world.  You’ve got oil companies not really saying too much (or painting a happy picture about oil), and other organizations saying we’re close to hitting the peak or saying we’ve already peaked.  People say that we should drill everywhere for oil, put up oil rigs everyplace in the word and pump the earth dry before we say how much time is left — and they yell and complain about the environmentalists that don’t want it done.  But what it comes right down to is no one really knows.  There is no chart to see just how much oil there is left.  No asking the earth “so how much you got left?”  We have to rely on tests and known reserves.  Known reserves… that’s always the “slimy” way to avoid the question.

Oh they always seem to toss that little gem into the estimates, it’s like the phrase “the bible says so!” — once it’s uttered, nothing else matters and the conversation must stop.  Known reserves?  We could deplete the entire planet of oil, but they’ll still say “known reserves”.  You can’t go basing when to stop using something based on the unknown — especially when it’s not a renewable resource.  One day, there won’t be any left.

And here’s the worst thing about the oil:  they always use fuel as the reason.  It’s like people have it burned into their brains (perhaps the gas prices have caused this) that oil is used only for fuel.

But fuel is only one of probably thousands of things that oil is used for or in in one form or another.  Just for a few quick examples, imagine life without these things:

• Styrofoam
• Motors (for lubrication — so every motor, power generators, washing machines, etc)
• Plastic (including wiring covering)
• Asphalt
• Paint
• Vinyl
• Polyester
• Basically, almost everything we have today is either made with an oil product, relies on oil for the lubrication of machines to make the product, or relies on oil to transport the product

We’re so dependent on oil that if oil were to disappear — humans would follow shortly thereafter.  Now I don’t mean this as a “everyone will die!” but a huge percentage of humans would die as we’d be unable to transport food and lose all of our machines and power.  Anyone relying on medication would die, anyone on machines would as well.  Anyone living far away (say as far as a horse and buggy could go in a day) from the food source would die from lack of food.   While cities are frequently close to bodies of water — there wouldn’t be enough food to support the populations.

We’d be thrust back into ancient times where stone buildings were built, and steam power was used to drive things.  We couldn’t recycle existing products, nor could we really dig for new as the machines used for digging wouldn’t be able to run.  We have the technology right now to drastically offset our oil use, but we don’t use it.  Green buildings and such don’t get funding because it’s “too risky” as the expense is currently high, and no guarantee for a return (as a lower-power consuming building doesn’t make money in itself).  Just little things, even building air and electric powered cars, could drastically cut back how much oil we use.

And I know what some of you are saying “but electric cars can only go like 200 miles on a charge!!!”  If you really have over a 100 mile one-way commute to work, you should consider moving closer to your job.  That would mean you’re spending close to $32/day for gas right now (25mpg @ 200 miles = 8 gallons @ $4/gal for gas).  It also means you’d be on the road for over 3 hours a day driving at 60mph.  Most people would have a commute under 50 miles — that means you could go almost 2 days without a recharge (some could go a week or two).  And what’s the hassle of plugging in the car at night?

And using the excuse of “we have plenty [oil] left for 20-100 years!” is the worst thing to say as once it’s gone, we have nothing else.  Failure to plan now for something that isn’t an infinite resource will be humanity’s downfall.  And you know what?  If we started to develop and fund renewable resource items — we’d create more jobs.  Just think, we could save humanity, save the world — and even potentially eliminate unemployment as a side effect.

But it probably won’t happen.  People are getting too much money from oil.  And as the oil runs dry, and they keep on searching for more and more — they’ll keep on bringing in more and more money.  They’ll get rich, humans will die.  All the money in the world can’t help you if civilization dies.  But the rich oil tycoons will be remembered — they’ll be the first ones to “accidentally” die when the oil runs out.

One thing I find completely shocking is just how many people are surprised when a politician running for office doesn’t vote the way they promise.  Or in some cases vote the complete opposite despite it going against what everyone believes the politician stands (such as Obama and the FISA amendments).  One month he’s for repealing the bill, the next he’s granting pardons and amendments to it.  The internet goes into a fury over this “shocking” thing since he was supposed to be the candidate for “change” not “Bush version 2.0″ (“another Bush” as some are calling it).

But what I find more shocking than anything isn’t that he voted against how everyone expected — but that people actually are shocked that he did.  As time goes on you hear the same basic things all the time, politicians doing the opposite of what they say they’ll do and what policies they were voted into office on.  Some shock.  Didn’t people realize that this who “change” Obama was referring to was an advertising ploy more than a political stance?  If you’re really the candidate for “change” you shouldn’t have to say anything.  People should be able to see it in your actions.  They should be able to see it in your life prior (I won’t say “political” life as a people stay true to themselves, and it’s not always the same — not to mention people aren’t born politicians).

People keep on talking about how the lines between democrat and republican are clear and set.  Yeah…right.  If that were the case they’d have completely different ideas on everything, and it’d be the same throughout the party.  But, it’s not.  It’s down to the individual’s personal beliefs.  And even in the parties, these same people saying they’re so “different” also use terms like “liberal” and “conservative”.  So you’ve got liberal democrats and conservative republicans, but also conservative democrats and liberal republicans (which some would say they’re in the wrong party).  They’re so tangled up and trying to say how different they are, that when you boil a lot away — they all accept corporation donations, they don’t all vote the way you’d expect them to (go against their party), and in the end even if you have a few good ones that do what’s right – they get shoved aside and outvoted by the others.

So this year, just like all others, you get to choose between two candidates.  The Demoblicans (or Repubocrats) — however you want to combine the two into one.  In the end, doesn’t really matter.  They might have different goals to get to a point, they might have slightly different ways to get there, but in the mish-mash of political parties running the US government, you’ll end up with the same thing we always have — something in the middle that people hate, politicians love, and more political fodder to fuel the next mud slinging campaign.

Or…. you could vote for a completely different party.  One that’s ideals and goals are so apart from both of those that they conflict on almost everything.  Your choice.  You could vote for the lesser of two evils, or cast a vote for a third party — telling the two that not only did you take the time out to vote, but you didn’t vote for them.  So then when the lesser of two evils gets elected, they’ll be sent a signal that they weren’t even really wanted in.  And anyone worth anything would take notice.

No matter where you are, as long as you have a choice (or pseudo-choice) of candidates in an election there’s a few simple rules to follow when deciding who to vote for:

1. What they believe in.

That’s it.

Here’s the list of things not to base your vote:

1. Religion – come now… do you really agree 100% with everything everyone in your religion  says?  Then why would you vote for them because they’re the same one as you?
2. Gender – there’s men and women that are serial killers, arsonists, embezzlers, religious figureheads, and philanthropists.  So why vote based on gender?
3. Race – same as gender.  There’s so much diversity within any group, you can’t safely vote for someone because they belong to the same one.
4. Political party — yep, again, not a real indication.  Granted if you belong to a third party you’ll be more likely to agree on many more points (since, well, you found them, not just belonged because your parents did or whatnot).  But even then, the chances of you agreeing completely with everything they say?  Not so much.  Even the third parties have multiple people running for primaries – so vote for the person.
5. *any other reason* — come on, you’re still reading?  There’s only one thing similar  between people running for offices: their human.  And being so they’re fairly unique and have their own set of values, morals and beliefs.  You want to make a decision – pay attention to the people!  And whatever you do…. don’t just pay attention to the media!  The media can make or break a candidate just by what they do or don’t show.  They’re not any more fair than politicians — only people think they can trust them.  Question everything.

The point is quite simply that no matter what someone is, they’re still an individual that may or may not go along with the rest of the people in his/her “group”.  So why would you even think of voting for a person based on the group?

Think someone in your group might understand your suffering more than others?  Great!  But, there’s more than two of almost every group (such as race, religion, sexuality, gender [in a sense]).  So even if they might understand your group from one point of view, what about all the others?  You want a person who will treat everyone fairly and right based on the current standards of society for the best-treated group.  You could vote in an African American, or an American Indian —- but the way a rich person would view things could be quite different than a poor one.  A person who was born into money, and had everything handed to them might think the world is fair — but a person who had their parents working 2-3 jobs a piece to just get food on the table, then the kids worked their butts off just to go to a small college just to get a factory job would have a quite different view of the world.

You should vote for who’d be the best person for the job, and who will have the country/state/county/town’s best interest in mind.  If they do, they’ll treat whatever group you’re in well as well.  It doesn’t matter what group the person is in as long as they believe in the people and doing what’s right for all.

So during this election year in the USA (2008 at the time of this writing, but applies for all years and countries), vote for the person.  Don’t vote for the race, gender, political affiliation or anything else — vote for the person.  Anything else and you’re wasting your vote.  And whatever you do VOTE.  I don’t care who you vote for as long as you vote for the person you know will do the best job.  If it’s not a democrat or republican — vote for a third party.  But don’t stay at home.  Use your vote to tell them exactly what you think of them.

Here’s the thing.  Even though I and many others would love for a third party to get into the presidency, this year, won’t happen.  But they’re getting bigger.  They believe in people and the environment — and they wanted Bush impeached and the war to end.  Don’t like the other candidates? Vote green.

I know, you’re yelling “that’s wasting a vote!!!”  But it’s not.  The only vote wasted is one for a candidate you don’t really want in, or one for the lesser of two evils.  If you don’t vote, the candidates/parties will view it as voter apathy — not as “you all suck”.  If you go and vote, but vote for a third party (or mark “none of the above” if an option) you’ll sending a powerful message: we took the time out to vote — but not for you.

So please, do the country a favor:  Stop complaining about the corrupt politicians and vote this election.  Your fellow countrymen* are counting on you.

* countrywomen, countryperple, whichever — countrymen just used since, well, it’s more common.

There wasn’t anything wrong with Joomla… it worked… in fact I spent probably 3 days getting things working right and such.  However, I thought I’d try this one instead as it seems more widely used.  That and I really wasn’t going to keep the old posts on the old site, everything was going to be redesigned – and the old template someone managed to hide the login form.

So I switched over to this one instead.  I’m not planning on doing any major things to this site — so you should be safe to add comments, link to posts, etc.  If you happen to want something from the old site — I still have the info, I just wasn’t going to keep it here.