Charlie Bicycle » Politics

Deep Thinking, Good People

Charlie — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:54:08 +0000

Finally!! Death Panels are Here!

Charlie — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 02:50:40 +0000

Someone very close to me was recently telling me how she’d been left with the decision to resuscitate her husband in the event of a heart attack. He had fallen into a coma and had no Advance Medical Directive. I know this is very depressing to think about. Who wants to even consider it, but the truth is, I want to be in control of my medical treatment in the case I’m left incapacitated. And who REALLY wants to leave this decision to loved ones who, if had their way, would never want to see you go. By simply filling out this form and talking with your doctor, you will effectively be visiting a “death panel”. Seems more like “personal independence and responsibility until the end” to me…

Virginia Advanced Medical Directive

Tea Parties are fun

Charlie — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:53:32 +0000

I don’t mean to assert that there aren’t many, many on the left that are ignorant to the issues that they support. It’s unfortunate that ignorance is so pervasive. The more informed a population is, the better our civilization will be. However, for Tea Party protesters to rant on and on about their liberty and rights being ripped from them, while at the same time showing little, to no actual knowledge of the issues that they are protesting makes me cringe. If you don’t understand what it is that you’re against, please inform yourself in a responsible way or shut up. That goes for both sides. Ignorance is no excuse and no way to run a country.

This clip is a bit worrisome, and reassuring at the same time. To recognize that much of the adamant opposition to healthcare reform is uninformed and rooted in something else makes this newly enacted law even more important. Maybe, just maybe, after the smoke has cleared, some who blindly followed the dishonest rhetoric of many of the people who claim to represent them will realize that they were the ones being led down a false path and will reconsider their alligiances…

Who Cares about Global Warming

Charlie — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:59:24 +0000

Unless you drive a Prius and belong to the Sierra Club, sorry, the global warming argument isn’t going to get anybody’s ass off the couch to do anything. Until warming rots the potatoes that fill our bags of chips and makes it too hot to pick up the remote control, no one cares about a steadily warming climate. It’s just one of those unfortunate, short-sighted plights of many Americans.

What should get people’s asses off the couch are all the other reasons.

Let’s pretend global warming or “climate change” is simply a motivational item—perhaps a giant American flag floating above one of our greatest cities while the camera slowly pans by. What a beautiful sight that is. It represents independence and self-reliance. It represents power and prestige. It truly represents what all Americans hope for our country and often perceive it to be.

Unfortunately, being a beacon requires constant reassessment and soul-searching and we, as Americans, have a terrible time with this bit.

Right now we consume 20,680,000 barrels of oil a day. That’s 66% of America’s oil being imported from foreign countries. As oil goes, we’re dependent, not independent. One way to fix this, is to invest in serious alternative energies. Build solar, wind, hydro and nuclear and begin to phase out coal and oil.

On another note, when we consume so much oil from foreign countries, we are effectively not only dependent on, but beholden to, foreign countries. Our addiction makes us much less safe because without foreign oil, our country would grind to a halt. No oil to run our cars, trains, or planes. No oil to run our military. Take a second to ask yourself, what do we do when the oil that we depend on is in the hands of our enemy? You could reckon back to the Iraq war and realize that we’ve already explored what we’d do. It’s an unfortunate reality to continuing to be the most powerful economy in the world.

These oil reserves are quickly being lapped up by other developing countries who have many, many more consumers than we could ever imagine. It’s only a matter a time before we are faced with a market that is unsustainable. There will simply be too much demand with a finite supply. We should start considering the consequences now, because if we don’t, we face being consumed ourselves.

I love being American. I love the freedom that I have and I recognize that I’m fortunate to have been born here. But being born in a great country does not give Americans the right to think that greatness is a God endowed right. Greatness is built and sustained by smart, forward-thinking, dare I say, progressive agendas. Simply sitting back our laurels and depending on WWII victories as a ticket to an unending splendor, is delusional. Right now we need to be making ourselves the true independent people that we see ourselves as. Right now, we need to focus on what it is that we need and how to best provide it for ourselves. Alternative energy infrastructure could easily shift us from a consumer driven society by building a new foundation for America’s working class producers. This and, of course, the fact that we would no longer be begging for our next black, slimy, grimy meal.

Stewart’s Awesomely Smug Beck Beatdown

Charlie — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:21:21 +0000

I enjoyed this with every smug bone in my body…

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

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Eisenhower’s Military Industrial Complex

Charlie — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:36:54 +0000

This video showcasing Eisenhower’s foresight should be studied by all. We’re approaching this moment very quickly.

President Joe Exxon

Charlie — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:34:54 +0000

Today the Supreme Court overturned a law limiting corporate donations to candidates. Basically this treats corporations, entities that are run by a relatively small board of directors, as individuals. So just as you and I have a single voice and a single paycheck to sway opinion and policy in “our” Senators and Representatives, corporations now have unlimited power to sway them. I wonder who they’ll listen to. I doubt it will be the $50 a year donor. I’m curious how huge corporations, with bottomless pockets, that promote purely profit driven motives, will help to make policies that address the problems that actual citizens face. How is it that corporations, that have thousands of politically diverse employees and little to no responsibility to anything other than their bottom line, have the same rights as you or I as individuals? Ladies and gentlemen, if you thought our country was run by special interests, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Afghanistan and US in a Nutshell

Charlie — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:10:39 +0000

I mean not to tell the people that read my blog things that they already know and I definitely don’t intend to talk down to those who are nice enough to indulge me. I simply find so many things fascinating, infuriating or downright ridiculous about so many things in our world.
When we were attacked on 9/11, at first I was shocked and saddened. But, secondly I was incredibly intrigued. My naivté on the issues of Muslim fundamentalism led first to anger, but then on a quest to find out why. And why it had all festered in Afghanistan? Over most of the past decade I figured out some fascinating things pertaining to some of the history of America’s involvement in Afghanistan. My abridged understanding is ridiculously surface, but it may just help to understand why we are where we are.
When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in the 70s, America’s main concern was the spread of Communism but we understood that by directly confronting the U.S.S.R. in Afghanistan, it would quite possibly lead to WWIII and nuclear conflict. Considering our options, our government decided to actively train and fund radical jihadists to use insurgency to drive out the Soviet Union. The University of Nebraska at Omaha was even responsible for publishing a text book that taught insurgency to Afghan children and the already functional opposition. In fact, the U.S. for the entirety of the the Soviet occupation funded and armed the many of the same opposition that we fight today. Like any good empire building exercise, while the Soviets were occupying Afghanistan, they installed a “puppet” government that would be sympathetic to Soviet needs and wants in the region. When The U.S.S.R. faced bankruptcy and a dismal economy back at home, they finally had to pull the plug on their occupation and pulled out. Seeing that our interests had been fulfilled and that we no longer had responsibility in the region, the U.S. also pulled out and left a devastated and exploited Afghanistan to fend for itself. America and Russia had basically waged their war and then left the battlefield smoldering. That’s not to say that Afghans didn’t get what they wanted, but it is to say that our short-sightedness left us facing what we do today.
Pakistan, while recognizing the weakness of an unsupported puppet government, formed what would become the Taliban, and began to fund and push for the takeover of the Afghan government. When they were successful, the Taliban were basically given control over Afghanistan with the understanding that they were ultimately answerable to Pakistan. This is one reason why Pakistan has been so resistant to taking on the Taliban until it was faced with a Taliban that wanted to take over huge swaths of Pakistan this last year. Pakistan has no interest in helping America. They only hope to help themselves to survive and to continue to drain billions of dollars from America in the form of aid packages and arms. With a fundamentalist government in place, Al Queda was given the keys to the castle and allowed to run rampant throughout the country. Left to their own devices, we all know what happened next.
Now we basically face the same thing. There are no great solutions to what we’re up against, but one thing is for sure, the current Afghan government is weak, the jihadists and insurgents are chomping at the bit to get back into power and, from my thinking, that just might lead to another “situation” that we have to deal with in the future. Hopefully this time we can use our American ingenuity to figure out how to at least leave our Afghanistan in a little less of a shit storm. Oh boy.

Why healthcare at hyperspeed?

Charlie — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:08:34 +0000

If you don’t have concerns over this healthcare bill, check your pulse. While discussing it the other day, I finally conceded that I just didn’t know what was happening. This bill is so complex, and so involved, if you know exactly what’s in it, you’re lying. I’ve been asked by several people recently why this has to rushed through? Why does it have to happen right now? As many misgivings as I have about how this bill was formulated and picked to death, I’d still have to put my support behind it. It’s a bit of a leap of faith. But the alternatives have been laid out in front of liberals in very dramatic fashion. Historically speaking, healthcare has been dead in the water before it’s even grown legs. It’s indicative of how powerful healthcare insurers have become. This has been going on for a century. Democrats attempt to provide real change to a broken system, and the powers that be use their money and influence to make sure that it never happens. This is why we now face a watered down bill that offers some important regulations, but little true reform. Conservatives have legitimate points of disagreement. Unfortunately, those points have been overshadowed by the dog whistle that was blown by congressmen like Jim DeMint. What progressives face is an opposition that wants nothing more than to see this bill killed. Some on the right would actually be very open to working for a true healthcare reform bill, but the people on the right that see this as a black and white issue have destroyed any opportunity for moderates to be heard and forced Democrats to take action on a bill that’s far from perfect. The truth be told, if the far right and the insurance lobby are allowed to continue to misrepresent, vilify and lie about this bill, they’ll succeed AGAIN. And then the American public is left exactly where we left off with no opportunity in sight to reintroduce change to healthcare. I’ve watched commercial after commercial after commercial recently scaring viewers of a looming government takeover of their healthcare. This after the public option and anything vaguely resembling one, have been stripped. Most people in this country feel the same way about this bill. It would be great to debate it’s merits for an extended period of time, but I’m beginning to think that’s not even important to many conservatives. It has been stalled over an over again. And yet, many conservative lawmakers still have nothing more to add to the bill than “kill it”. If nothing else, this bill has put a chink in the armor of the healthcare monopoly and given an opportunity in the future to amend and improve what’s about to be passed. Unfortunately if this is they way business must be done, then so be it. It will anger many, but I ask everyone to look at your role in this process and recognize that both sides have acted like spoiled children.

Yummy hormones and profits

Charlie — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 23:00:25 +0000

I’m sick. Well, my son is sick literally. He’s got a fever and is generally not in good spirits. But I’m more figuratively sick. This morning, while visiting the doctor, she requested that we only give him the organic, hormone free whole milk. “But”, I protested,“a lot of the milk on the shelves these days say “our farmers pledge to use no artificial hormones.”” I guess the key word was “artificial”. She told me that recently she had attended a seminar at Harvard where the use of hormones in milk production was discussed. The industry has successfully lobbied to make it against the law to place a label stating that bovine hormones were not used in production. I guess that if the public was educated to the use of natural bovine hormones they might have a problem with it and it might just cut into the poor factory farmers bottom line. Turns out that the injection of “natural hormones” can jack up the production by 60x. Maybe telling people that artificial processes, that plump up the company’s profits, while in turn making us sicker, is just bad for business. This is just another example of how unbridled capitalism is protecting profits over the health and the welfare of it’s citizens. But actually, now that I think about it, it seems that a citizenry in poor health might just plump up another industry’s bottom line. Wow, what a great model for perpetual profits!! And just look at the banks now. “Thanks for setting us up with billions, but you’re really not profitable for us anymore, so we’re just going to turn our backs on you and let you suffer in our wake.”

The American government when run using the model that was intended isn’t really the great satan that it’s made out to be. However, government that’s effectively run by the rich and for the rich is. Unfortunately, that’s what we’re now facing. We can elect Presidents and legislators that claim to represent us until we’re blue in the face, but if even 10% of these politicians are the lap dogs of the corporatocracy, the people of this country will continue to be led under false pretenses. That’s almost the perfect definition of fascism.