Don’s Random Thoughts

I hate what has happened to our postal system. Rising costs, reduced service and all that junk mail.

More than 98 percent of our mail is junk mail. Why can’t they be customer oriented and allow the customer to specify they don’t want to receive that junk saving the customers the aggravation and the system the cost of delivery and the environment the impact of tree usage and disposal impacts?

The cost of a letter has been rising about $.04 per year recently and probably will continue to do so. I can’t even buy a roll of stamps anymore and use it before the price rises and additional stamps are needed to supplement the rate. I guess they do now offer lifetime stamps but at what cost and impact to the system? The letter carrier now drives house to house in older areas so that they can deliver the handfuls of junk mail every day whereas they used to deliver one or two letters to each customer every few days. The major reason the cost of a first-class stamp has risen is to carry the junk mail, which is delivered at a reduced rate. Don’t tell me you can’t by politicians votes . It’s cheaper to buy votes than to pay the delivery costs.

And then there is the waste of the time of the customers having to sort through all that junk mail.

Supposedly you can “opt out” of receiving junk mail but it doesn’t work or we wouldn’t be receiving it. Why opt out? Why not opt in? Because no one would. So they pay to keep everything opt out. They say it would be unconstitutionally violating their freedom of speech. I say they’re violating my right to not have to listen.

That would be how I would define “the right to the pursuit of happiness?”

I have a pet peeve. I hate people who don’t know how to walk. I shouldn’t be surprised, they probably are the same people who don’t know how to drive but I still hate meeting them. There isn’t a law, but there should be. When approaching someone, you should pass on the right. It seems simple to me but too complex for far too many people. It seems far too many architects have the same problem because they are always placing the in door on the left when it should be on the right. There usually is absolutely no reason just ignorance.

Interestingly, the majority of the world drives on the right side of the road so these people should have no problem. But the folks from England and many of their former colonies drive on the left side so you would think that might influence their erroneous passages but I think not. Most are not from such places so can’t claim that as the cause, just ignorance and/or inconsideration. They are probably the same people that crowd in line, don’t hold the door for others and don’t open doors for ladies, the disabled and the elderly. They are also likely the people who poke along two or more abreast making it impossible to pass them from either direction and probably the same folks that block the pathway to chat.

They really annoy me!

What an interesting campaign. The Democrats have possibly the best list of potential presidents ever. Any one of the major Democratic candidates would make a great president. While my favorite is Edwards, he has little chance of winning. Of the two leading candidates, Clinton and Obama, either could easily win but Clinton has the stronger experience and she also has the most capable adviser, her husband. In addition both Clinton and Obama represent minorities. or at least political minorities. Obama is black. Hillary is a woman.

I believe the larger minority, which is actually a super majority is the best way to go. Women make up more than 50% of the voters and even 18% of Republican women say they would vote for her. That bodes well for her candidacy but, unfortunately, some men, even democrats wouldn’t vote for her. Unfortunately, I don’t think Obama is as well served by his minority status as he is by his capabilities and charisma. There are sill far too many people in this country that are racist and that bias will override their political motivations. That’s too bad!

For these reasons I support Hillary as my preferred candidate. She can win and, in my opinion, a woman is probably what it will take to restore this country to what it was, before this most recent disastrous president, and also move the country forward to what it can and should be.

And now a quick analysis of the republican candidates. Are you kidding. What candidates? Bigots, criminals, and liars.

Our two party system needs to be changed. The parties are not official but sure do foul up the governmental process. The Congress and the Senate both are pretty much in a stalemate even though there is a Democratic majority. Nothing gets done because of Republican obstructonism that seems to be part of their platform. The same thing did not happen when the reverse was true and the Democrats were the slim minority. That actually shows where the interests of the Republican party lie, not with the best interests of the country nor in democracy.

There are four reasons that the stale mate exists. The Democrats are not willing to push the Republicans when the President vetos a bill by re-submitting the same bill back to the President without change and place the entire blame for a stoppage of governmental inaction on the President. It would only need to occur once and the President wouldn’t be so cavalier with his veto, acting like a two year old when he doesn’t get his way.

Along that line, in order to restore democracy, where the majority makes policy, eliminate the need for a super majority and allow a simple majority of the houses to decide all matters.

Require these highly paid politicians to attend sessions and listen to and participate in the debate or forfeit the right to vote.

And finally, and possibly even more importantly, eliminate the division of the seating into party hemispheres. Mix them all up so they have to sit together and they may even start talking to each other.

Any one of these ideas could cause a significant change in how much gets accomplished by our government. Of course, anything is greater than nothing!

I may be an oddity but I have and still feel OJ Simpson has gotten a raw deal. The evidence indicates he didn’t commit the murder of his ex wife and her friend. The evidence does indicate the police, at the minimum, were incompetent and biased throughout the investigation and at the worst, actually planted evidence, and presented false evidence. In any case, OJ was not convicted. Now some may say that doesn’t mean he didn’t do it. However, our justice system says he was innocent, or sort-of says that. The problem is that , even though found not guilty, he was then sued and lost that case. Exactly how is that possible. If he’s inocent, how can he be responsible for the deaths? Legally, he shouldn’t be, that’s a perverted part of our justice system. He happened to be an arrogant black man. That’s the only thing he’s probably guilty of. The media, looking at the financial benefits of inciting the mob, and making a good story, relentlessly attacked him. Comedians made jokes about the jury’s decision. Something wrong here!

Now, even if OJ is guilty of a couple of murders, how is that worse than cigarette companies murdering millions, or Bush’s decision to start an unnecessary war and causing 100’s of thousands of deaths. Something perverted here! Our justice system does nothing about these much more serious crimes. But, of course, there’s money to be made, so lets not make waves.

Perverts!

Now, OJ’s back in the news, “stealing” his own stolen property. Again, the evidence doesn’t seem to be there to show his guilt. There’s actually more to show he didn’t than that he did. But, the worthless news median, rather entertainment media, is back on the job. comedians back with more jokes. The judge refused to allow bail. Now, isn’t that perverted too.

This looks like an episode of Law and Order where everyone is charged with the crime, without completing the investigation, unfounded charges made and inappropriate actions taken with the probable reason to be in the news and be the guys who get OJ.

Some of my concerns are:

• There are two supposed victims, one made the complaint, one says OJ did nothing wrong.
• This supposed event occured in a Las Legas casino, a place where security is unsurpassed. If something occurred, after the “criminals” left, there was a phone in the hotel room to call security to stop their exit. No call was made. Police were notified the next day.
• One of OJ’s “friends” was recording the incident. I wonder if they had financial or legal reasons to do so. Sell the tape, record for the police in a sting of OJ for immunity for other crimes of their own?
• I’m not surprised that the police found guns where the suspects were staying. But, finding them there doesn’t mean they were at the site of the reported “crime”. That could have been confirmed if the crime had been reported in a timely fashion to hotel security.
• Persecuters seem to have shopped for a hanging judge, the one who refused bail. They ended up having to follow procedures and a different judge held the arraignment and allowed reasonable bail.

The prime motive here seems to be a rush to injustice. Is there any surprise that the arraignment was held live on national TV? Like they would for anyone!

I really worry that there is no hope we will survive when people don’t recognize that something is wrong with all this. But what the heck, too few are protesting the shredding the bill of rights. They’ll never miss it, or so they think!

Well, the Democrats, most of them and a few of their friends finally are standing up to the idiot, I mean “president.” They aren’t giving the fool what he wants, a never ending “war.” Mr. Bush continues to threaten to veto the bill. When he does, I hope both houses just re-approve it and send it back, unchanged. Even if they rush that, Mr. Bush may still run out of money for his “war.” I wonder if that happens, if he would consider stopping and bringing them back immediately as the Constitution requires or continue to disregard the Constitution as is his habit.

It’s also interesting that both houses have authorized subpoenas as well. Unfortunately, Mr. Bush may prevent his lackeys from testifying as our Constitution requires. The Bush court would probably disregard the Constitution and support Bush. So, if they do disregard the subpoenas, in my opinion, they should avoid the court and just use the wallet. Cut off funds for Bush’s office until he complies. If he then ignores it, impeach him for continued violation of his oath of office.

Our constitution provides for separation of power, Legislative, Administrative, and Judicial. Currently, only one seems to be effective, usurping the power of the other two. It’s about time congress started to do its job and legislate.

First, I think they should start impeachment proceedings. I believe there are enough disheartened Republicans to bring about a successful conclusion but, even if unsuccessful, it would wash the laundry and expose the administration for what it is.

That not being likely, how about a few other ideas. Take action and withdraw funding for the war in Iraq. The Democratic congress, if they approve funding for the “war”, will then have to then accept blame along with the president and former Republican congress. If they specify what the money is to be spent for, and not spent for, if Mr Bush continues his folly, then there is all the more reason for impeachment and then, and only then, can those legislators really say they did their job rather than the current words only and no action.

Congress needs to clarify to the president, through legislation, that they never gave him permission to go to Iraq and he better get out ASAP. Now that a woman is the house leader, possibly she will show that she has balls. The former congress sure didn’t have any.

One piece of legislation that would bring an immediate end to our occupation in Iraq would be to require the president to reside in Iraq as long as we have troops there. Bush never served before and though possibly an over assumption, may be smart enough to realize he would not make it through the week there alive, somewhat like all the military people he sent there feel.

While Mr Bush would likely ignore such legislation, if he did, an active congress would be able to impeach him before the sun went down.

I do not believe that impeachment of this president would be disruptive to this country, rather it could restore confidence in this country.

A final unrelated thought. Mr Bush, after his presidency has expired, if he actually leaves office, will find it very difficult to ever leave this country because he will very likely be arrested and brought to trial for war crimes by any of the more civilized countries of this world.

I used to like to go to the movies years ago. I must have liked it, I became a projectionist and worked in theaters in my youth. I like the big screen. I like the way they made the movies. My thrill is disappearing. I don’t like most of the new movies, and much of that dislike is for technical reasons.

First, and possibly the worst is movie sound. It has not improved with technology, it has become nonfunctional. The primary failure is volume. It varies far too much. Explosions are quite loud, voices are generally unintelligible because they are too soft or uneven. Current sound engineers don’t seem to have learned their craft.

Special effects. Far too overused. Far too many movies are made only to use them.

The plot. Has there been a new one developed in the past thirty years? Far too many remakes and sequeles.

How can you make a movie without having a script before you start. there is a lot of talk of collaboration in the movie making responding to actor input during filming. That isn’t a benefit it’s a failure. When a movie starts shooting, everything should have been worked out in advance, if not then why start?

Awards. I look at awards as recommendations against viewing a film. How can a film be nominated for an award before it’s released to the public. It’s all just marketing.

Current “actors” don’t seem to know their craft. If they did, there would be fewer out-takes.

I believe in a working Hollywood. Movie factories that produced lots of product were better that the current limited production of “block busters.”

I also hate the sticky floor.

What I like. The big screen. Simple sound, no more than stereo is needed. Being able to hear what people say. Not to much camera movement. A plot. Good character development. A focused picture. Synchronized curtain movement on film beginning and end.

So, I guess I’m banished to foreign and small independent films.

What’s all this talk, now, by Republicans about bipartisanism? They not only never mentioned it during their majority period, they specifically said they had a mandate not to be bipartisan. OK, now the Democrats have the mandate, so use it. Get ready for the ride.

The people want out of Iraq, not to expand our depth in the quagmire. If the Democrats  are to be true leaders and use their mandate they won’t follow Mr Bush further into Iraq. If Bush does his “surge” into Iraq, against the recommendations of his own generals and the Iraq Commission their funds should be cut off and if Mr Bush ignores the legislature, then there are even more grounds for his impeachment.

How much is enough?

The Original pledge:

“I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Note the missing “under god” and “of the United States of America” The “under god” was added to the pledge in 1954. In 1955, “In God We Trust” was added to our paper money. And in 1956 the country’s motto was changed from “E Pluribus Unum” (”Out of many, One”) to “In God We Trust.” All this is part of the red scare period which also brought us McCarthy-ism.

Our founding fathers were wise enough to specifically not include similar wording. Loss of freedom was brought about by scare tactics and manipulation. Doesn’t this sound similar to the way over response to the 9/11 incident? It really scares me.

Thanks to Maria Langar’s blog for pointing out this article.