Big Oil...Huge Profits...Reduced Responsibility...No Taxes

I live in Florida, so I may be a little prejudiced, but while I will admit the damage done to the environment resulting from the oil spill by BP is probably somewhere between the worst some said it was going to be and the best that BP says is the case, it did cause damage.  Let us not forget that it took 11 lives in the process, and that no one can ever fix, but, neither can anyone question whether it did harm to businesses and the tourist and other industries in Florida and the Gulf Coast.  This is one of the reasons a $20 billion fund was set up at the insistence of the Federal government by BP.  Now, there are a few things that just do not make sense to me.

BP is going to pay little or no taxes, partly as a result of the fact that they are going to take a write off, write down, or whatever they want to call it, for the establishment of this fund, as well as any money they spend to fix the damage, to both the environment, Gulf Coast industries and the families of the people they killed, as well as all of the costs of litigation and attorney fees.  So, they harm the environment, damage the tourist and other industries in The Sunshine State and on the Gulf Coast, kill 11 people and they get to take it off their taxes?  Excuse me?

Just so I understand this, if I engage in an act of gross negligence, that causes my house to burn down , which kills some construction people working on my house, causing a brush fire that burns a nearby park and burns down the homes of my neighbors, I get to take a tax deduction?  Okay, can I also deduct the legal fees if I murder someone?  How about the fines I get for my traffic ticket?  When I was in school, I was told the reason I cannot take a deduction for a traffic ticket is that it is bad public policy to reduce the impact of a fine that is designed to prevent bad behavior.  If you don't speed, you don't get fined.  It's kinda like allowing a kid to put on 15 pair of underwear before he gets a spanking for misbehavior, not a lot of incentive to change behavior there, reduces the impact a bit (pardon the pun).

Okay, so "Big Oil" like BP gets to write off the expenses associated with the single largest oil spill the world has ever known, that probably occurred because they screwed up.  And the lesson we learn from this is...?  No accountability for you if you are so big and make so much money and donate a small percentage of that money to politicians (remember a small percentage of a lot of money is still a lot of money), you can do anything.

Now let us consider the profit thing.  Big Oil has made HUGE, ASTRONOMICAL and otherwise record-setting profits, by their own admission, albeit to their stockholders (Did they think no one would notice?).  Gas is now at $4.00/gallon and on the rise at our local pump, but the profits are not enough to give them the incentive to keep producing oil...nooooooo, the Federal government is giving them incentives!!  Yes, that's right; they get huge additional tax breaks and subsidies to do what is making them, by anyone's account, HUGE amounts of money.  Isn't the HUGE amount of money, referred to as profit, enough to make them want to drill-baby-drill?  Do we have to give them tax subsidies as well?  Where are the Capitalists when you need them?

Okay, all of you Right-wingers.  Explain to me exactly why we give them subsidies and tax breaks?  Is this part of the free-enterprise, Capitalist system?  No, it is government involvement, something every true Capitalist despises.  It just depends on whose ox is being gored, I guess.  Let's examine this for exactly what it is, a kickback.  "Hey Senator/Representative Whatsurname, if you vote to give me subsidies and tax breaks, I will make donations to your campaign fund and send you on junkets and such."...~Wink-Wink~”Those idiot voters will never notice, those dumb sheep-like creatures."

I know the response, "It is not that simple."  YES, IT IS THAT SIMPLE! Some things are just that simple, no matter how many lawyers and CPA's and politicians get involved, and I, for one, am sick of being patted on the head like a six-year old and dismissed.  Unfortunately, I am just one lone voice, crying out against a howling wind that cannot be heard, much less get listened to.

True Believers....Part 1

There is nothing in the world more dangerous than the “True Believer”.  I don’t really care what one is a true believer of, they are still dangerous.  We, as Americans, having been attacked on 9/11, understand and accept the concept of the true believer as a threat.  There is a certain discomfort with Muslims in our society.  I would argue that we are confusing the tolerant, peaceful practitioners of a worshipful people with the acts of a group of practitioners of a radical version of Islam that has no real place in civilized society.  Let us call it what it is, bigotry.  I call the radical practitioners true believers.  Most would agree that these radical true believers pose a threat to America, and the world, for that matter.

The radical practitioner, you know, the terrorist we all fear, believes he has “the one true way”.  It is an interesting, if rather pathetic, kind of logic. Rule 1, I/my belief is always right.  Rule 2, when I/my belief is wrong, refer to rule 1.  The second part of this belief system is that if you are not for me, you are against me.

The rule 1/rule 2 problem is a passive kind of belief system.  You can believe you are always right and still have a tolerance for others of different beliefs, but when combined with the second part, it can become exceedingly dangerous.  Since you are always right and someone not part of your belief system is against you, then they are your enemy.  It really gets haywire when you decide that anyone that is against you can be destroyed, or worse yet, must be destroyed.  This is the stuff of which terrorist attacks, suicide bombers and political assassinations are made.

Many of you may be nodding your heads at the logical progression, but the context in which it is presented is comfortable for us as Americans.  We associate terrorists with radical foreign extremists that attack innocent Americans in mass attacks.  It is hard to argue that this not a bad thing, unless of course you are one of the true believers that planned and/or executed the attack or a supporter of such a group.  However, let us change the situation just a little and see how our comfort level changes.

Some Fundamentalist Christian religions in this country believe that I am going to Hell.  They believe this because I do not believe what they believe, whether it is Baptist versus Catholic, Catholic versus Jew, Muslim versus Christian, or what have you.  Each of these religions believes they have the one true way to Heaven (or its equivalent) and, if you practice any other religion, it just doesn’t count, so you are condemned to the infernal regions for eternity.  This is not a problem in a tolerant society where people accept that it is my choice to worship, or not worship, as I see fit.  They will try to convert me in good faith (pardon the pun) for the sake of saving my soul, but if I make the decision to remain of my belief system, then I have made an informed decision.  They feel bad for me and will miss me when they go to their great reward when I don’t get to make the trip.  This is religious tolerance 101.  Let us use a true believer’s perspective, however, and things can get ugly quick.

Some true believers of radical Fundamentalist Christianity believe that life begins at conception, as do many non-radical believers, but there is a significant difference.  Instead of allowing me to have a different opinion, they define abortion as the murder of a child, again, as many mainstream Christians do, but, they take the position that if I promote abortion, perform abortions, or even believe in abortion enough to vote for pro-choice candidates, I am a murderer.  Some of the more radical true believers think that they have the absolute right, even the responsibility, to kill me in defense of the unborn child.  They believe they have the right to do anything to vanquish the evil enemy, including kill them.  Thus, we have radicals Fundamentalist Christians that kill abortion doctors and somehow manage to remain at large for what, years?  Tell me they did not have help from Christians that may not be willing to kill, but will support those that do.  A common phrase I hear is, "While I do not agree with what he did, I understand why he did it."

We have seen true believers in all forms, whether it be Communists, radical anti-war protestors that blew up buildings, like the Weatherman faction of the Students for a Democratic Society in the late ’60’s, or Ted Kaczynski (well, he may have been more of a nut than a terrorist).  One thing is consistent, they are dangerous. 

In another blog post, I will point out some even more dangerous true believers that live amonst us and are not only openly tolerated, but actively supported; the fact that they threaten life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, nothwithstanding.

The "Birthers"...Will They Ever Quit?...I Doubt It!!

In the grand scheme of things some issues of little import, and even less substance, seem to be immortal.  This morning, President Obama released his "Long Form" birth certificate.  This certificate lists his place of birth as Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961 and is signed by his mother and the doctor that delivered him.  It is certified as a true and correct copy of the record on file by the Hawaiian State Registrar of the Department of Health, dated April 25, 2011.

Now, do you think that the right-wing, neo-conservative, Tea Baggers accept this?  Of course not!  Let us go through some of the responses from a review of select conservative "news media" outlets.

"It is obviously a forgery. Why else would it take so long to come up with it?"  At the risk of seeming impolite and answering a question with a question, why would it take so long to produce a forged document? It would not.  A forged document would be easily produced in maybe a week or ten days, assuming that some expert forgers were used.  The CIA does it all the time, passports, identification, you name it.  Foreign governments have been caught conterfeiting U.S. currency with the goal of destabilizing our economy.  They made near perfect copies of cash and some of it is floating around in circulation, but no one knows.

Would a President, with the kind of viscious, right-wing enemies that President Obama has, take a risk of producing a forgery?  It would take a conspiracy to back it up that would be impossible to maintain!  Let's see, who would be required to participate: The State Registrar of the Department of Health for the State of Hawaii, The Governor of Hawaii, all the administrative personnel that might have had access to the document and could testify, the doctor that signed it (assuming he is still alive), nurses at the hospital in attendence, anyone that participated in the forging of the document...and the list just keeps getting longer.  Do you really think that ALL of these people would remain silent?  Donald Trump's current allegations regarding the President's caliber as a student notwithstanding, does anyone think he would think he could pull it off?  Yes, I know, sometimes the bigger the lie, the easier it is to slip it by, but come-on.

I know that in spite of the fact that there are incredibly logical arguments against it, this is not the last we will hear of this argument.  The "birthers" will be like the the gunman on the grassy knoll, always alleged, but never proven.  If we are lucky, we will get a chance to hear new and different conspiracy theories regarding how Barack Obama is some sort of pretender to the throne.  New and different will be at least more palatable than the droning of the same old stuff, "He wasn't born here.  He's not legally qualified to be President."  We can now move on to the, "His middle name is 'Hussein'.  He must be a Muslim [...and therefore a terrorist]".  I so look forward to hearing this one repeated like an old vynyl record with a scratch on it [please note the sarcasm dripping from the words here].

Even his education is a real non-issue.  It certainly was for George W. Bush.  What was it he said about being a "C" student at Yale?  The hypocrisy is too incredible to bear and the irony that the Right would now have the guts to complain about the grades of a student at Columbia and Harvard Law School, is just too thick. It is often asked, "What do you call the guy that graduated last in his class at medical school?  Doctor!"  I don't care if he did get "C"'s (and I don't know that he did) at Columbia and Harvard Law, we still call him, "Mr. President".  He can still practice law after he leaves office and he still has degrees from two of the most prestigious universities this country has to offer to hang on his wall, one written in Latin, by the way.  You Right-Wing Bubbas that are just ticked off that Barack Obama is President will have to find another issue to gain any credibility.  The "Birther" argument isn't going to work, and the "he isn't smart enough" argument isn't going to work either, certainly after George W. Bush was elected by the Right.

We have far too many things to worry about in our society, like the economy, national debt, crime and so much more to even begin to start to deal with the kind of minutia that this issue and others represent.  Can we move on and start to discuss those things that have meaning and importance? 

I fear that our democracy is in jeopardy, for as Thomas Jefferson said, "If we're going to have a successful democratic society, we have to have a well educated and healthy citizenry".   Our society is becoming a bunch of morons.