I’ve noticed that the idea that if somebody besides the VTech gunman had a gun, there wouldn’t have been 32 people dead.  Even in a productivity blog (Matt’s Idea Blog, and look at the last comment @ 6:16 AM.)

More guns aren’t the solution.  I don’t know the solution, but I know that more guns isn’t it.

I agree with Matt: Being aggressive militarily is hurting our children, by taking money away from schools and other needed programs.

Also?  Culture of life shouldn’t be confined to outlawing abortions.

Link to A wish list for the new Congress | TPMCafe

I would add to the list: a sane mass-transit plan that would work in rural areas as well as helping people obtain affordable housing.

1. Restore habeas corpus, emphatically endorse the Geneva Conventions, ban secret detention and extraordinary rendition, and shut down Guantanamo and all secret torture sites.

2. Launch immediate hearings on every aspect of the Iraq war, and come up with an intelligent withdrawal plan.

3. Repeal tax cuts for the superwealthy, and close loopholes that allow businesses and wealthy individuals to pretend they are based in the Seychelles, et al.

4. Tie regular increases in the minimum wage to Congress’s salary increases.

5. Investigate, expose, and correct the under-funding and under-enforcement of laws in key agencies responsible for Americans’ safety when eating, at work, in the air, when using prescription meds, when banking, and so on.

6. Launch hearings for mandatory national public preschools, beginning at age three, and for intelligent school schedules. Our post-industrial economy is insanely hobbled by the fact that children are still sent home in time to milk the cows—forcing hundreds of thousands of workers to make rickety arrangements for their care.

7. Start hearings on a national energy independence initiative—a Manhattan or Apollo project for our time—that would look into alternative energy sources and into cleaning up our environment.

Of course, far more is needed, but maybe someone else can ask Santa for an end to the deficit, replenishment of the Social Security fund, ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (and other international human rights treaties and instruments, like CEDAW), an end to the military’s ban on lesbians and gay men serving openly, the beginning of a national slavery museum, passage of the Nadler/Leahy Uniting American Families Act that would let lesbians and gay men sponsor foreign-born partners for immigration, an end to the global gag rule, mandatory “greening” of all federal buildings, improved policing of executive pay, an overhaul of the current tangle of equal employment opportunity law (both statutory and case law), and other important stocking stuffers.

Rape victim denied morning-after pill

A Good Samaritan Hospital emergency room doctor refused to give a rape victim a morning-after pill because he said it was against his Mennonite religion.

Really? Funny. The Hippocratic Oath does NOT give a doctor the right to force his belief system on to someone who is need of help. The woman had been traumatized enough and to be forced to go to another city just to get the drug so she wouldn’t have the additonal worry about pregnancy is not right.
Of course the oh so enlightened ones in Congress wish to do anything to further their aims of outlawing abortion from preventing a woman from easily obtaining a legal prescription drug (Plan B) to making it difficult for a minor to have an abortion.

Then of course they cut out funding for services that could help those women, like insurance coverage, food stamps, even subsidized day-care and job training.

If they were so concerned about children, how about this?

Help women raise better families-Healthcare, job training so they can work at something other than low paying jobs, a living wage so they can support their families, subsidized day-care that is trustworthy so they can work without worrying about their children.

Dear Elected Officials in Washington DC.

Kindly remember on this, America’s birthday, that there was a piece of paper signed (technically, but y’all are all about the technical), that declared the United States free from monarchy. Please do not try to make us a monarchy again. We’ve already had experience with a tyrant, determining taxes and abrogating rights, we do not need another.
Remember, you are elected. That means you are chosen by the American people to follow THEIR will, not make the public follow yours. The state of your employment, for yes you are employed by the people as representatives of the government, is at will, renewable in cycles determined by yet another piece of paper.
I believe, as an American citizen, that you seem to treat the public as sheep to be led about by the nose. I humbly and respectfully call bullshit.
There is a illegal war going on, wasting precious dollars that could be used to improve the public’s standard of living. Unemployment/difficulty in finding employment that pays enough to live on is a problem. Occupying a country without any evidence of terrorist activities/weapons is a problem. Having citizens go without insurance or medical attention because their job doesn’t pay enough to cover that plus housing plus transportation plus food and clothing is a problem. Not raising the minimum wage $2 per hour but giving yourselves a $3000/year raise (for what may I ask? You have excellent insurance and a guaranteed pension.) Cost of living? Bah. A $100 check to everybody in America does NOT constitute a cost of living increase in wages. or even covers the cost of increased gas prices.

Worrying about illegal immigration, WMDs, gay marriage and flag burning does not help the country. Improving the lot of the working class-you know the ones who build your houses, clean your houses, build your cars, take care of your children, etc.-would do wonders.

A few ideas to ponder:

• A Living wage for the minimum wage. Where people could afford housing, a decent car/transportation, food and health insurance and still have money left over each paycheck.
• Fix the bloody mess in Iraq. We have Saddam Hussein in custody and there are NO WMDs anywhere in Iraq, yet we seem to be making Iraq into a client state.
• Instead of revoking Roe vs Wade, why not teach the children that birth control is good in any form, be it condoms or the pill or even the morning after pill.
• Medicine in and of itself does not have morals. It is those who use it that attach moral weight to drugs. Thus, pharmacists do not have the right to deny somebody a LEGALLY prescribed drug merely because of ethical/moral beliefs. If they do have a problem, well, help the patient find another pharmacist who WILL fill their prescription.
• Find a way to wean ourselves off of foreign oil. That does not mean drill in ANWR or more oil rigs in the Gulf. It means funding research to find new sources of energy like finding a practical, cost effective method of refining hydrogen, or a cheaper way of manufacturing solar panels that can power entire houses. Wind power is a good idea in many areas as well.
• Bowing to big corpoartions like the telecoms and media companies regarding the Internet and copyrights versus fair use and network neutrality and the American public does NOT work. The Internet is supposed to be an easy way to communicate with others over long distances, not a goldmine for companies who want to control what people see, do or hear.

In conclusion, I and many other citizens and residents of America request that y’all get your heads out your asses and do your job that we elected you to do and not whatever you seem to want to do.

Signed,

A Loyal American Citizen

Discardian: Decide to do something about what’s wrong

A second voice giving ideas on how to change the world.  It takes a few vocal people, I think to get the idea that something needs to change.  Hopefully if something is said enough and to enough people, that something will change.  Frankly, we need to do something to improve the world, for it’s not doing too hot on its own.

technorati tags:social, issues

Blogged with Flock

Recommendations to Improve Preconception Health and Health Care — United States </P><P>A Report of the CDC/ATSDR Preconception Care Work Group and the Select Panel on Preconception Care

Question.

Why should the guidelines be solely for optimal health during pregnancy when those very guidelines should be used to promote general health and well-being?    Not every woman wants or is going to be pregnant, but it would be better to be healthier in general.

Respectful of Otters

Precisely.  I've thought that if certain jobs actually paid enough, Americans would work at those jobs.  It is expensive nowadays to rais e a family and y'know actually keep one's head above water.  $5.15/hr (the oh so generous minimum wage) does NOT pay the bills and neither does $10.42/hr (40 hour check=$337 after taxes and insurance).

I was listening to Coast To Coast with George Noory after picking up the DH from work and he had a guest on the show that brought up the idea that there are parallels between 21st century America and the Roman Empire.

I recall reading that when America was founded that the Founders wanted to emulate the idealized version of the Roman Republic combined with aspects of Athenian democracy.

I decided to Google the idea this morning so I can read up on it, plus read Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Lots of ideas and links, so I’ll do a tab-dump.

From The Globalist:Is America the New Roman Empire? The article discusses how President Bush discussedwanting to make the U.S. into the world’s ONLY military power. Rather disturbing I think.

From The Guardian:Rome, AD … Rome, DC? More in-depth article about the possibility that the States is wanting an Empire like Rome.

From the Guardian again:Waiting for the Barbarians where the author discusses how the increasing gap between the rich and the poor, the increasing inadequacy of social programs, like Social Security and Medicare, and other factors.

From Samizdata.net: Terence Kealey on the fall of the Roman Empire Excerpt of a book by Terence Kealy called The Economic Laws of Scientific Research which brings up some valid points about suppression of technology (brings in copyright, DRM, HDCP, etc.), how the powers-that-be reward the rich and ignore the poor and the loss of religious and intellectual freedom.

I thought about what was said on Coast to Coast and what I’ve read so far and I think that there is a parallel between the Roman Empire and America, but the situation isn’t as dire as some people think. But I do believe that some massive reforms are needed or there will be revolution.

This Is Your Brain Online, How Video Games, Multitasking And Blogging Are Shaping The GenTech Brain - CBS News via digg

Interesting points yet oddly enough its not just teenagers who seem to do too much.  For instance, as I was writing this blog, I read a few comments on digg, ran a web search for something that wasn’t even related to the article, downloaded a new copy of Trillian, added a new extension to Firefox, and started Party Shuffle on iTunes, not to mention talk with my 5 year old.  

I think that the increasing availability of computers and the Internet, not to mention the increase in TV, movie and music choices is causing a corresponding rise in ADD-like behaviors/multitasking.  Then again I have ADD myself, so perhaps I’m merely filtering my observations through the ADD filter.  

Paul Craig Roberts: "Partnering" the Destruction of the American Economy

Interesting essay on outsourcing and the economy.

A quote:

Many Americans and almost every economist and policymaker do not see the peril. They confuse outsourcing with free trade, and they have been taught that free trade is always beneficial.