I thought I would write about something that just burns me every couple of years due to election time.
I try to keep up with all elections with national implications, the current "hot" topics, and topics important to me. And, because I'm an argumentative type of guy, I like to discuss politics with other people. The problem I have is that a MAJORITY of the people I talk to don't even vote. I think everyone should wear a shock collar. If you don't vote, and try to talk about politics, it sends electric signals to your brain that makes you drop your pants and write "I'm an ass" on your ass. The most disturbing thing to me personally is that of the people that don't vote, most of them agree with me (at least a little). They just accept that things will turn out fine as usual. Wow, what a misguided view.
Now, spinning from the conversations I have with other eligible voters comes my other great loath: blindly believing something. I talk to a great number of people that say they believe something, and when I ask "why" the answer is "because I do." Are you kidding me? That's what my 6 year old says. I have a great idea. Why don't you actually research what the hell you're talking about. Now, I believe that must include statistical or literature investigation. You would be amazed what kinds of "logic" can be developed in the mind of an uninformed person. You know what I'm talking about. When a person tries to explain why they think something, and you just look at them thinking "did you come up with that yourself? Or did Big Bird help you out?"
I, very quickly, want to hit a couple of these topics for two reasons. First, because I like to cause controversy. And two, because there are so many misguided people out there that need my help (sarcasm doesn't show well in writing, but that was a joke). Now keep in mind the following discussions are in no way meant to be all-inclusive or complete. I just want to hit a few of the topics I get asked about the most.
Let's start with one very near to my heart, gun control. Let's try, if a Liberal can stand it, to look at this reasonably. You say we need to ban gun shows. You say we need to ban hand guns. You say we need to ban "high power" rifles. And even some of you have the endstate in mind of banning guns all together. And why? Because kids are dying on the streets of America due to gun violence. Gangs are killing people. Kids are killing people at schools across the Land. I understand this. What I don't understand is how taking guns away from me will fix that. How many gang members own legally obtained firearms? I can't find a statistic on that, but I feel a safe assumption is not many. And what about the kids taking guns to school? Well, they steal them. I don't think many parents say, "Here son, take this gun to school and shoot people." The only people you take guns away from with the "reform" that Liberals are attempting is the law abiding citizen. The mom that goes to the range with a legally owned hand gun and practices, just in case she may have to use it to save her life. The man in the field on a hunting trip. The individual that just plain likes to go to the range a shoot. These are the people that will get hurt. If all Americans actually knew what guns would be banned, I think there would be more of an up-roar across the country. Most people think that politicians are just trying to ban 50 caliber military rifles. They don't understand the handgun they have a home could become illegal, not because of the magazine capacity, but just because it's a handgun. I love the argument that we need to ban guns because people are using them illegally. Well, I guess we have to ban rope, duct tape, and knives. The manufacturers of those products certainly don't intend people to be killed with them. But it happens. So let's be just and even with our absurd "banning" laws. We need to ban everything that is used illegally as a weapon. People run over other people with cars. People get drunk and kill people with cars. Why don't I hear a cry for a ban on cars? Now, many of you will read this and say that I'm just a crazy gun nut and that this is just ridiculous. I can take that. But that doesn't make what I wrote any less prudent. If I choose to own firearms, then that's my choice, not yours. If we want to stop kids from killing kids, let's put the emphasis where it belongs: at home. Last time I checked my children are my responsibility and I'm the one raising them. I can't get started on that topic. I'll have to save the parental responsibility wasteland for later.
Let's move on to another "choice" topic, abortion. Oh, look at the snarls! Grrrr. You know, for as emotional a topic as this is, we don't talk about it that much. That, in of itself, is a bit odd. I know what your thinking, "Oh, he's a pro-gun guy, so he is definitely a pro-life guy." Wow, you people don't know me at all, do you? I'm a pro-CHOICE guy, and I mean that in a much broader sense than the current topic. I tried to come up with a different phrase for myself, but haven't accomplished that yet. Now, the reason I am pro-choice (lower case, meaning about abortion) is not because of religion, political affiliation (obviously) or because I think the fetus is a human at conception. I am pro-choice because there isn't realistically another option looking at it with some common sense (I know that phrase scares a lot of you). If you don't believe in abortions, for whatever reason, that's fine. I don't have any issues with that. Then you make the decision not to get an abortion (the whole "CHOICE" thing again). The problem lies in there is no middle ground on the issue. You can't say that abortions are illegal unless it involved rape. If you do that, every boy when he enters 9th grade should turn a mug shot and fingerprints over to the local police department. Oh, how awful of me to say that! Come on! Are you going to sit there and say that there aren't some women out there that would claim rape to get the abortion? Are you going to use the argument that the legal system will sort out the truth in those cases? Um, let's look at the present case at Duke University. It seems very obvious, if you actually look at all accounts available, that the males didn't rape the stripper. But, those men will never have a normal life from here on out. Their reputation are ruined no matter what happens, even if the courts say they are not guilty. We all know this. This is just one example of why rape cannot be used at a reason to legally obtain an abortion. Just off this one discussion, I don't believe there is a reasonable method of making abortions illegal, that won't create more problems. It is because of that I believe abortions need to remain the choice of the individual (with parental consent up to a certain age, which we can discuss later).
Let's move on to the military, another lovely topic. No, I'm not going to talk about Iraq or Afghanistan. That is entirely to involved to blast Liberals out of the water in one paragraph. What I do want to discuss is how pathetically unjust the pay scale is for our military members. I can hear the screams now. People that watch CNN, NBC, CBS or ABC say we spend more money than any other country on our military. They saw we need to be spending that money at home. OK, I have some homework for you. I know the answer so I can do this. Go ahead and rank all the countries in the world by how much money goes to defense. Now that you feel good about yourself, look up and rank all the countries of the world by the
percentage of their GDP that is spent on defense. Wow, that sucks. Another chart for you while you cry is
here. And, with out fail, you people that post things like
this that say how bad the US is on military spending. After looking at that, did you notice nothing was said about what the percentage of GDP those numbers are? Come on, common sense now. If you have more money to start with, you can spend more than the next guy and it sill be a smaller percentage of what you have.
Now that you've done your homework and have seen the truth, how do you feel about the fact that there are military members that qualify for food stamps and WIC? Men and women that voluntarily put there lives on the line for you, even those of you that hate them, can't support themselves. But some of you out there think we spend too much on defense. I have an idea, put things in perspective with the info you have and make an honest assessment of what is fair here. Do members of your nations defense honestly deserve to be paid so little? It is an easy question to answer. This example is just the lowest paid Soldiers. If we actually took the responsibility of mid-grade NCO's and Officers into account, you would find that civilians with the same level of responsibility make much more than the military counter-part. I will leave the "level of responsibility" thing for another day, as it is 100% impossible for a civilian to have as much responsibility as a military commander.
I think that's enough for one day. The bottom line is this, let's be realistic about what we're doing here. I understand people have deep emotional connections to certain topics. Hell, you've felt that way all your life. All I ask is that we step back and take a common sense approach to things. Separate the emotion from the facts, discuss it rationally, and find real answers.
