Tag: Social Issues

Crying

As a nation we have allowed the problems which led to today’s inexcusable acts get out-of-control. I wish I knew how to turn it around. I do know the answer is neither denial the problem exists nor violence.

I just went to Google and searched for images that match “Baltimore.”

generic baltimore search

Now I limited the search to images from the last 24 hours.

baltimore last 24 hours

I am watching the video from Baltimore and crying. I understand the frustration unequal justice and law enforcement gone amuck delivers to black and other minority communities. Violence is a symptom, a last resort when people feel they have no other voice.

Rioting and destruction is not the way to change things. It never has been. Newark, Detroit, Los Angeles and other cities did not benefit from rioting in their cities. The primarily black neighborhoods where the riots took place suffered greatly after-the-fact.

As a nation we have allowed the problems which led to today’s inexcusable acts get out-of-control. I wish I knew how to turn it around.

I do know the answer is neither denying the problem exists nor violence.

We as a nation should be better than this. Today we are not. That’s why I’m crying.

About Charlie Hebdo, Briefly

If an American magazine made similar ‘jokes’ about Jews or Christians or black people we’d be up in arms. However, in a free society we allow people to say stupid and hurtful things. I like it that way.

charlie-hebdo-s-est-deja-attire-les-foudresWhat a godawful tragedy in Paris. Horrible.

And to justify murder by saying you’re defending God? Seriously, isn’t God capable of dealing with this on her own?

Charlie Hedbo has been called a satire magazine. Maybe so. One man’s satire is another man’s hate speech. Some of their cartoons were definitely hateful, others patently racist.

If an American magazine made similar ‘jokes’ about Jews or Christians or black people we’d be up in arms. However, in a free society we allow people to say stupid and hurtful things. I like it that way.

Free speech has limits. You can’t yell “Fire” in a crowded movie theater. Most everything else is OK.

I wish Charlie Hebdo hadn’t tweaked the Muslim community as they did. Some of their satire was mean spirited. That was their choice. It is a right afforded to all in France, as it is in the US. It doesn’t come close to justifying what happened in Paris yesterday.

To radical Islamists, non-believers are infidels. Asking them to respect the beliefs of others is a non-starter. Reasoning isn’t an effective strategy. I don’t know what is.

Free speech isn’t needed to protect popular ideas. Free speech is there for the outliers. Even if I found some of Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons offensive (and I did), I still defend their right to publish them.

This is all so senseless. What has been accomplished? When will it end?

Je suis Charlie.

The Pot Editorial

ny-times

Even 19 year old Geoff is amazed. The New York Times came out for legalizing pot. This week they’re running a series of editorials on the subject.

Spoiler alert: I lived through the sixties and everything that implies.

The gist of the Times argument is, we do a lot of things that are worse and the penalties for pot are crazy.

The social costs of the marijuana laws are vast. There were 658,000 arrests for marijuana possession in 2012, according to F.B.I. figures, compared with 256,000 for cocaine, heroin and their derivatives. Even worse, the result is racist, falling disproportionately on young black men, ruining their lives and creating new generations of career criminals.

Many, many, many years ago I worked in Florida. I was very young, a disk jockey on an ‘underground’ station. One night a co-worker and I hit the Waffle House at 2:00 AM. We were stoned.

A sheriff’s deputy followed us as we left and before long was searching the car. Mike, my co-worker, was arrested for possession. I was released.

The bag wasn’t mine, though I certainly knew it was there.

I never saw Mike again. He made an arrangement with the prosecutor and enlisted in the Air Force.

Mike avoided a criminal record, but had to short circuit his professional career. Not everyone is so fortunate.

Here in California there is (wink, wink, nod, nod) medical marijuana. It is smoked by the world’s healthiest sick people!

In Colorado, Washington and soon in Alaska you can just got to the pot store.

It’s time to stop punishing guys like Mike for something most teens and young adults have tried. It can be done without encouraging consumption.

On Buying Health Insurance

There are more choices than there are distinctions. It’s impossible to see what’s different between various policies without being a statistician and actuary. I’m pretty math savvy and my head is swimming!

In the past we depended on insurance to help beginning with dollar one. Now, I’m wondering how important ‘dollar one’ really is.

obamacareSince I left FoxCT I have been insured through COBRA, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. All that means is no employer subsidy. I’m paying 100%.

Insurance is expensive. You probably already knew that.

Eighteen months have passed. I’m forced to get coverage on my own. This is among the most confusing things I’ve ever done!

First the good news. Under the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, I can buy insurance! How that would have worked out before, considering my back surgery two summers ago and my age? All I know is, I’m insurable.

My beef with Obamacare is it doesn’t go far enough. Why do we bother with private insurance? Why must we confuse everyone? The rest of the world seems to prefer a single payer system. Seniors seem happy with Medicare.

There are too many choices.

Let me refine that. There are more choices than there are distinctions. It’s impossible to see what’s different between various policies without being a statistician or actuary. I’m pretty math savvy and my head is swimming!

In the past we depended on insurance to help beginning with dollar one. Now, I’m wondering how important ‘dollar one’ really is. Are we better off ‘self insuring’ for common medical problems and letting insurance kick in at big dollar amounts? How much out-of-pocket can I take?

Within the next day or two we will reach a decision. I wish it was a more educated decision.

Crowdsourced News

Help TPM Dig Through The Chris Christie Bridge Scandal Documents

There was a document dump this afternoon in the Ft. Lee, NJ scandal. Over 900 pages released at once. It used to be news staffers would be assigned chunks to scan. Now they are superfluous.

Contributions from readers have been a key part of TPM’s reporting in the past. And we welcome your help with these documents. – Talking Points Memo

I like TPM. It’s a political site through a liberal lens, but I’m scared crowdsourcing journalism will kill the kind of ‘concentrated’ reporting only paid journalists currently do.

TPM isn’t the only site. And TV does it too. And more journalism jobs disappear.

I can’t fight progress. I’m not a Luddite. It’s sad to see things we value disappear.

Don’t Ask Don’t Care

It’s 2010. Gay Americans are a mainstream part of our society. Haven’t the senators watched cable recently?

I am incredibly disappointed and angered the repeal of “Don’t Ask. Don’t Tell” failed in the Senate. The defeat was procedural as ‘only’ 57 senators voted to bring the bill forward. That meant a Republican filibuster was certain. The minority ruled!

It’s 2010. Gay Americans are a mainstream part of our society. Haven’t the senators watched cable recently?

Gay people aren’t a threat. They’re just people! That’s why my personal policy is “Don’t Ask. Don’t Care.”

DADT in general and today’s debacle in particular will be looked upon as an embarrassing moment in our history. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves.