More guns, less sense

From one of the last reliable news services on the planet, the New York Times...http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/us/24guns.html?hp

The gun nuts are out in force although I don't know if they've ever really taken a day off. Currently, they are anticipating a big anti-gun push by President Obama, a push that hasn't taken place yet, but is nonetheless bringing out the idiots.

Many state governments have already begun loosening gun laws. I'll spare you all the details that are in the article since you'll have read them yourself - right? - but suffice it to say that there are real problems here. As a resident of Tennessee, I know about some of these problems. A few months ago, the state legislature passed a law allowing guns to be brought into bars and other establishments that serve alcohol. I'm sure, dear readers, that many of you have been in bars before and seen drunk people get in fights. You know what would make that situation better? Giving those guys guns! If that doesn't solve the problem, I can't possibly think of what might.

The gun control argument highlights the larger issue of how we interpret the Constitution. The law of the land, infallible though it is, was laid down well over 200 years ago. Without suggesting that we change it, it may be prudent to view it as a document that addresses the problems we face today rather than the ones the founding fathers were dealing with in the late 18th century.

Take, for example, gun control. Faced with an oppressive government the colonists of America rebelled and won their independence. It made sense at the time that the democratic experiment started by our founding fathers may have faced road bumps and that citizen-soldiers may need arms to fight an oppressive government again. Today, however, despite what the Tea Partiers may tell you, we are not dealing with an oppressive government trampling on our rights. Far from it in fact. American presidents and legislators have peacefully handed over power to their successors for over 200 years. I have trouble imagining that the founding fathers would be ok with individual citizens owning assault rifles and automatic weapons that are capable of killing dozens of people in minutes, especially given that there is no tyrant overseas to oppress us.

Don't get me wrong, the Constitution protects our right to keep and bear arms and I stand by that. I do believe that there is a need to limit what types and how many. You want a rifle or a shotgun to go hunting? Of course. Unfortunate though it may be, keep a hand gun in your house or car if it makes you feel safer. You want an assault rifle? Move to Afghanistan where you might actually need it. This is America; there will be no government take over; there is no one so dangerous that you need an automatic weapon to protect yourself. Put the rocket launcher away and think sensibly about this.

I stand by the second amendment but only when it is prudent to do so. When Americans start stock piling weapons and ammunition in preparation for the apocalypse there is a problem. Let's fix that problem by putting sensible limits on what kind of guns people can buy.

Crazy Talk

In an effort to learn more about those who would make America worse I've begun reading Fox News. This is a truly extraordinary measure because I subscribe to Turn Off Fox. Speaking of extraordinary measures, here's the link to an opinion piece about "Obamacare."

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/01/26/james-p-pinkerton-extraordinary-measures-obamacare-review/

Take a moment to read it and we'll dissect it.

Mr. James Pinkerton, the author has decided to compare President Obama's health care plan to the movie "Extraordinary Measures." There are a whole lot of problems, with this starting with the fact that the movie stars ultimate B-list personality and former "George of the Jungle" star Brendan Fraser.

Of far more concern is the fact that Pinkerton makes the comparison without ever really mentioning the health care plan. Instead he focuses on the movie as inspirational, which, in fact, it is. "Extraordinary Measures" is an inspirational story about how individuals can make a huge difference. Unfortunately, America does not have a philanthropic problem, far from it. What we do have is a broken health care system.

President Obama's health care plan actually does precisely what Mr. Pinkerton wants it to do. From the article... "Whereas the Obamans want us to have less health care, “Extraordinary Measures” wants us to have more medicine, more cures."

Dismissing the first part of that for what it is - a lie, the Obama plan would extend health care to millions of people and doesn't take health care away from anybody - I'd like to focus on what both the movie and the President want us to have: more cures.

One of the best ideas in President Obama's plan is to focus more on preventive care, thus ultimately saving money on expensive treatments in the long run. In fact, President Obama wants to make preventive care free!

From the Obama Health Care Plan found here...http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/HealthCareFullPlan.pdf

"An increasing number of Americans are suffering and dying needlessly from diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, asthma and HIV/AIDS, all of which can be delayed in onset if not prevented entirely. One in 3 Americans—133 million—have a chronic condition, and children are increasingly being affected."

Furthermore, President Obama's 2011 budget calls for an additional billion dollars for medical research for the NIH, the most in eight years...http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6103GB20100201

I think it's time to take a truly extraordinary measure and pass health care reform this country desperately needs. Many thanks to Mr. Pinkerton and Brendan Fraser for helping us realize that.

What we're dealing with

So what exactly are the problems facing our nation? If we're going to solve them, we need to articulate them. For the time being I want to focus on identifying problems before we get around to potential solutions. I'm ranking these problems in order of importance from my perspective. Feel free to disagree, but I'm starting with the foundation.

1) Education - An educated populace is paramount to the success of any country but especially to a democracy. Democracy rests on the premise that people are smart enough to elect the candidate that will best represent the interests of the country. Furthermore, a successful America requires trained workers and creative innovators to grow our businesses and spur our economy. While many Americans can and do attain excellent educations, far too many of our nation's students do not. I consider this to be both a moral injustice and a detriment to our country. By ignoring certain districts, schools and students we deplete our work force and deny future workers, leaders and innovators the chance to contribute to our society.

2) Global Warming and Alternate/Clean Energy - While many people refuse to believe in global warming, it is undeniable that our world is getting warmer and most credible scientists predict that this will lead to unfortunate climate change if we do not take steps to rectify the problem. I'm not a doomsday prophet but I can't understand why we shouldn't take climate change seriously. Even if the world isn't going to end in 2012, why take the chance? In the face of mounting evidence can we really afford to risk ruining the only planet we've got? Maybe if we're lucky, the current surge in global temperature will turn out to be simply the Earth's normal cycle. I'm not ready to take a chance on this. There are other problems highlighted here. America funnels money to OPEC countries because of a dependence on foreign oil. Many of the people receiving this money are not our biggest fans. Furthermore, alternate energy is the technology of the (immediate) future. For the American economy to remain the world's strongest, we will need to embrace this technology, manufacture it, apply it and export it. Failing to do so will not only continue to harm the environment but risk losing America's place as the world's leading economy.

3) Ineffective government - There are a lot of smart people running our country. Unfortunately they either cannot or will not work together and some of them are in the business or propogating lies to enhance themselves and their political party rather than making a real, concerted effort to better our society. In an age in which information technology has reached into every home in the country, people have become susceptible to latching onto false information and our political system has beomce polarized to the point of near paralysis. I blame this on both political parties and the media. If the guys currently in power can't get it together, we're in trouble. Perhaps the two party system is ineffective but since that's all we've got, it would be nice if the two parties would learn to work together rather than squabbling and spreading lies to promote their agendas. While one party is certainly more guilty of this than the other, it falls on the shoulders of both to make things happen. I fear though, that extremist groups like the Christian conservatives and the new Tea Partiers will continue to push the groups further apart with their crazy ideas.

You may be thinking that there are quite a few things I've left off this list and there are. Crime and poverty are big problems facing millions America. Our economy is currently struggling mightily. Mounting government debt scares many. I see these problems linked to the ones I've already posted. Providing Americans with educations does a lot more to pull people out of poverty and lower crime rates than government money. The economy is starting to recover albeit slowly and the one issue that our government seems to be able to find a sliver of common ground on is job creation and financial regulation. Mounting debt is bad but not terrible. Just over a decade ago we had a surplus and with proper policies we can recreate that in the future. Deficit spending worked during the Great Depression and has been advocated by economists for decades.

It is my belief that America can and will solve these problems but only if smart people combat the lies and misinformation that is being disseminated by politicians, the media and ordinary people who have fallen prey to the fear-mongering.

I will fight these lies as I come across them in the hope that, with accurate information, we can start talking about America not just as the greatest country in the world, but as the greatest country it can be.

Good Morning USA

Good Morning USA and welcome to my blog. This is my first experience blogging and I'm very excited about it. The purpose of this blog is to share with you my thoughts on our great nation, the United States of America and more importantly, how we can make it better.

I don't consider myself very different from most Americans. I love my country. I think it is the greatest place in the world and I'm proud to be an American. Recently, however, I've noticed a rather unsettling trend. Many professed patriots seem to be taking steps to ensure that America does not remain the greatest nation on the planet. In fact many of these people seem to be doing things that will make America worse rather than better.

This scares me. Even if these people are a small minority, which I believe they are, they are an increasingly vocal one and their ideas seem to pervade the lives of even the most sensible of us.

Unlike some people who love America just as much as I do, I tend to believe the best way to make sure that America stays great is to solve the problems we face rather than cover them up. I believe in making tough decisions, even when the are unpopular and I believe in the importance of supplying people with accurate information rather than misinformation or even worse outright lies.

Therefore I will blog about the things I see, hear and read and attempt to sort them out. Perhaps you don't need me to do this for you. Perhaps you will disagree with what I have to say, but I am committed to the truth and I am committed to an America that is not only the greatest country in the world, but a greater country than it is currently.