Let's Get Something Straight

Global warming is starting to upset me just a little bit. I guess I shouldn't blame global warming, just the people who created it. Carbon emissions and smog and a dirty environment are completely valid problems that we as human beings need to address and find a way to reduce. I've been to some really dirty places on this planet; really gross places that make me happy to live in the U.S.A. So I understand that we have caused a great deal of environmental strain. But the extent to which our governmental leaders are exploiting "global warming" is causing me a little strain as well. I just read an article about the new secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon of South Korea, in which he claims that the killings in Darfur are a result of global warming and climate change. He says that the drought, brought on by climate change, began the conflict and therefore is partially responsible for the mass killings that the country has endured. I'll go with him on the "partially responsible" insofar as to say that a drought was a main factor in giving certain people power over other people, therefore allowing them to control food rations and the water supply. But no drought could ever cause murder on a genocidal scale. It's sad that Ban Ki-moon has been so irresponsible as to reduce the horrible deaths of over 200,000 people to political statement and a completely ambiguous phrase- "climate change." What is climate change? Is it when the earth goes around the sun and makes it snow in Utah while it's sunny in New Zealand? Is it climate change when a parking lot in the San Fernando Valley is 105 degrees at 4:00 p.m. and 64 degrees at 10:00 p.m? Ban Ki-moon called the droughts in Darfur a result of climate change. Well, one thing's for certain: the climate did change enough to cause a drought in Darfur, but I can almost guarantee you that this isn't the first drought that the African continent has experienced. The Farmer's Almanac might have a few things to say about droughts, but that's an American invention. And besides, what do we know about droughts? Nothing. Except for all those people growing corn and beans and beets and wheat throughout Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas, just to name a few.

Let's not reduce a horrendous tragedy to a popular post-modern talking point. If Sheryl Crow had said the same as Ban Ki-moon, then I would have written it off as some out of touch music person flapping her gums. But instead it is the secretary general of the United Nations. Instead of marching in there and stopping these genocidal events and protecting the millions of innocent people who are being threatened on a daily basis, the U.N. and it's secretary have decided to talk environmental morality and blame a tyrant that can't talk back, once again proving to the world that the U.N. is a purposeless and obsolete organization.

It's All Still Bothering Me

Lately I've been plagued by thoughts about the need for reform within our government. Ever since my last blog I have trouble watching the news or reading the paper without thinking about all the things that are wrong with our so-called representative democracy.

First of all, why does the President get all the nice stuff? Our tax dollars pay for everything so that he can live in the lap of luxury. Sure, he shouldn't have to worry about cooking his own dinner or about cleaning his bathroom, but a little self-respect wouldn't hurt. He should probably do the dishes on occassion just to hands dirty and see what it's like on the other side of the White House lawn. Now, I'm not one who buys in to the idea that poverty ennobles, but having a little more in common with the most common American might help.

Which leads me to what I see as the sum of the problem. The President isn't really a representative at all. Neither are our Representatives or Congressmen or Governors or Mayors. Okay, the Governors and Mayors are there to govern and mayo, but they're also there to do the will of the people, or more specifically, the will of the majority. We live in a split society over most issues, and that's a good thing. It's a bad thing, however, that the people who run for and are elected to office seem to forget that it's the people who put them there.

Many of our government officials take a pay cut of about $5 million to enter office. They're successful lawyers or heads of billion-dollar companies. They're out of touch with the rest of the world. Buying a Bentley and hiring someone to clean your house will do that to you. Just ask Brett Ratner. And then go see X-Men 3. You'll see what I mean. These people aren't like you and me. They may have been at one time, but it takes millions of dollars to run for public office at any level higher than Mayor, and in larger cities like Los Angeles it takes millions as well. That's ridiculous. No federal, state or local official that I know is doing what I think is best. That's probably because I don't know any federal, state or local officials. They work for Enron and Exxon. Not for me. That's a problem.

"Government is not a solution to our problem. Government is the problem."
-Ronald Reagan

The Leader of the Free World- Me?

Here's what I've been thinking about. I love the United States. I consider myself one of the most fortunate of human beings to have been born here. I love this country and that it stands for freedom. But many things have gone awry. Specifically the idea of representative government.

We are no longer a representative government in the sense that the founding fathers intended. It is not the concern of the politician to do what is right for the country, and it is even further from his mind to do what the people of this country desire. After all, we are a country for the people and by the people. A man in a government position is supposed to speak for the people. That's the idea. The Governor and the Mayor and the President don't speak for the people anymore. They speak at the people. Citizens of this country then have a choice to agree with the government's policy, or they can use their freedom of speech to protest. Either way, their opinions don't matter anymore.

Most Americans like myself only really exercise our rights at election time, and more specifically, during the presidential election. That's bad. The President shouldn't matter that much. Really. We should be more concerned about who our mayor is. And we should be even more concerned about who our governor is. I finally learned how to say the name of the Mayor of LA. That's bad. These are the people who should be looked to for change, not the Federal Government, and especially not the President. He matters too much nowadays. The United States is far too big to be "ruled" by a president and a number of congressmen.

It's time to take the country and it's policies back as citizens of the United States. I'm tired of working tirelessly to improve my station in life while the supposed "civil servants" are dining on caviar and taking trips on private jets. Men and women serve the U.S. and die with less to their name than John Kerry's monthly water bill. Our taxes should be serving us, the citizens of the U.S., not paying to serve them. There really should not be a "them." It's an "us." And it's up to us whether we go to war, whether we ban smoking, or whether we should close our borders. It's our blessed country, and maybe it's time "they" remember it.

Welcome to the Muddy Pig

Welcome to all four of my readers. You'll read this, judge me, and perhaps even judge me to my face. I'm prepared for that.