A Fair Compromise.

As the debate on gay marriage continues, it would seem that both sides of the spectrum are adamant in their positions and refuse to give in. Well let me try to brake the ice a little bit and find a middle ground that would not compromise my own personal beliefs and would satisfy the conservative and liberals alike.

The first option I’ve heard is the abolish marriage all together. This, to me, would be an option worth considering but for the majority of people the idea of abolishing marriage at a state level is way too radical to even consider. I may consider this, but I know that no one would go for it. Also for this to be effective every state would have to do likewise, otherwise it would be useless.

Here is a more acceptable solution to the problem. First, abolish the word marriage as a legal term and call what we now call marriage civil unions, regardless of the couple. Every straight marriage we have now would legally become a civil union but the same benefits and privileges would apply. Legally, there would be no such thing as a marriage. Second, open civil unions for anyone who wants to have one. It’s not a religious anymore, it is simply a legal institution ordained by the states. This way you can have your cake and eat it too; we can finally enjoy equality for gays and the term marriage can take on a strictly religious meaning. Thirdly, marriage, no longer being a legal term, is whatever people want it to be. The Christian church can marry anyone they wish, as well as any other religion out there. Any two people can say their married, it just wouldn’t be ordained by the state.

Lets play make believe.

2050, the US has fallen even further into debt by borrowing money from China and other nations while spending a fortune on welfare programs. China, seeing the ever decreasing value of the dollar has called our debts and demand we repay them in gold or Euros, but alas we spent all our money on Social Security. We cannot pay them back, but China doesn’t just want to ruin us because they get a lot of food from us. But they still want our money. What’s a solution?

What would you say to China, instead of demanding we pay them, opens a military base on US soil; but not only that, lets say that they not only get to open a base in the US, but on holy ground such as Arlington Cemetery. Does that get your blood boiling? What would you do if such a travesty were to occur?

The scenario leading up to this isn’t really what’s important here (although I will be discussing the national debt in some other post), the real issue is the prospect of another nation, any nation, opening a military base on US soil. How wrong would that be? How much anger would be created towards the nations to hold a military presence here? We’d be pissed off, as we should be.

But that’s just the thing of it; we get all hot and bothered thinking about a foreign military presence on our own holy soil, but we like it when we’re the ones occupying the sacred soil of another. I of course am talking about our military presence in Saudi Arabia. The problem with this particular military base that is much more pressing then any others is the fact that Saudi Arabia is the holy land for the world’s second largest religion, a place reserved for Muslims and Muslims alone. Just as many (not all, but many) Americans would react violently if China were to open a base right on top of Arlington, many in the Middle East have reacted to our presence on their own soil. Believe it or not, but Bin Laden didn’t one day decide he wanted to be a terrorists, one of his main motivations for creating Al Qaeda and carrying our attacks on the US is what he sees as our “occupation of the holy land.” The result? 9/11.

Now don’t get me wrong here, blame for the attacks needs to be put in the hands of those who committed the crimes, Bin Laden, but to think that the US can do whatever it wants around the world without creating resentment and inviting scorn and hatred is naive at best. We have to realize that opening military basis in places people the people don’t want them is going to, ultimately, do us more harm then good. Just put yourself in their shoes and think of how you’d react.

American Empire

I love my country; I love it so much that after the next semester of college I plan on joining the Air Force and serving for at least four years. But this country, as it is at this moment in time, is heading towards a ruin which could be avoided if we only took out heads out of the sand and looked around. No, I’m not one of those doomsdayers who think the world will fall because us darn kids are listening to hard rock and wearing baggy pants, I’m not going to start making predictions based on revelations on when the horsemen of the apocalypse are going to kill everyone; what I will say is that this country is digging its own grave every day.

The problem with America I’ll speak out against today is what I call the “American Empire.” In the days of Columbus and again pre WWI the European powers (and the US for a short period of time) sought to spread their influence around the world b building for themselves empires, conquering colonies in order to enrich themselves and prove their superiority over those “lesser” then they. The sun was said to never set on the British Empire because its possessions stretched all across the world.

But empires are nothing new. Ever since ancient times ruthless kings have fought for and built empires; Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome, etc, for as long as civilization has existed empires have as well. Today we have the American Empire, and it is as large and powerful as any empire to ever exist. Today this new empire stretches across the entire globe, with military basis in over 50 different countries with 730 active military basis around the world. Take a look at this map to see what I mean, http://www.ppu.org.uk/pm/usbases.html. I’m with Ron Paul on this one; we need to end this silly notion of building and trying to maintain an empire outside our shores with needless military installations which in many situations only manage to increase hatred for America overseas which results in terrorist attacks such as 9/11. Lets face reality, Osama Bin Laden wasn’t able to gain an army of supporters through ideology alone, one of his main selling points was the US presence in Saudi Arabia, the Muslim holy land, the most sacred country in all of Islam. It’s called blowback, when a nation like ours imposes itself on other countries that creates resentment which ultimately threatens our national security. Example, lets examine Iran. Why do they hate us? Well many would have you believe that they hate us for our freedom, for our way of life and such, but is that really a reason to fear and hate us? Personally I think Iran has much more pressing reasons for seeking nukes and being all around anti American. Back in the 50’s Iran was ruled by a democratically elected government, run through the consent of the governed. Unfortunately this Iranian government wasn’t too friendly to the US, so what did we do? We overthrew this democratic government and replaced it with a pro western dictatorship. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d'%C3%A9tat. And we wonder why Iran hates us.

Even now we have troops on both boarders of Iran, battleships off their coast, and a candidate for president who seems to be leaning pro war. Given the fact that we aren’t even considering attacking North Korea for the weapons they already have and are considering war with Iran for weapons they might sometime get, wouldn’t the Iranian governments best interest be to build a nuclear weapon as soon as possible? Its not a hatred of the west and a desire to destroy us that motivates Iran, it’s a desire to self preserve in the face of possible, maybe even likely, US military force.

The problems we face today in terms of everyone hating us, even our allies, are the result of this empire building policy. As you saw in the map we have troops all over the Middle East, encircling it in a wall of firepower. Some may see this as a good thing, as we can hit enemies any time we want; I on the other hand see it as a bad thing as we wouldn’t have nearly as many enemies if we’d left the Middle East alone to begin with. Do we not realize that every time we support one group of people over another that group we’re giving weapons to will eventually turn on us? During the soviet invasion of Afghanistan we supplied the Taliban and Osama with weapons to fight to soviets with. During the Iran Iraq war we supplied Iraq with weapons to fight Iran. When we interfere in the affairs of other nations we’re the ones who ultimately lose.

So I say lets end it. Close the military basis around the world and bring home our troops. Why do we have troops in Europe anymore anyway? What possible purpose do those troops serve? They were once used to deter a possible soviet invasion, but now their simply a drain on our economy. Close them, along with the basis in Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Korea. In fact, let’s close them all. And let’s not interfere with the affairs of other nations anymore. No more secretly planning to overthrow a government, no more sending troops to police the world, no more playing one nation against the other. Its time we take care of our own nation without having to worry about the rest of the world all the time.

Conservatives are not for limited government.

For the last 7 years, nearly 8, this country has been lead by a Republican conservative, a man who won his office on the back of good old conservative ideals, which at one time, believe it or not, stood for limited government and civil liberties. Now look where we are, 7 years after a “conservative” took the white house, with a Republican Congress for most that time. What has the “great” GOP gotten us? An unconstitutional war, illegal and warrantles wire tapping, the biggest defect since, well, Reagan, subsidies to large corporations (unconstitutional BTW), and a failing economy. We are far less free today then we were on January 20, 2001, when Bush took the White House away from that supposed evil that was Bill Clinton, whose greatest blunder was having an affair. Man how I wish the current administration would have such problems instead of the ones plaguing it today.

Despite what we’ve been led to believe by the likes of Fox News, Sean Hannity, and Rushy, conservatives most definitely DO NOT stand for the ideals of limited government and human rights, if the Bush administration and the crony congress he once enjoyed are any indication. Looking at the GOP I no longer see a party that stands for Libertarian principles, but one that has allowed the power of DC to go to its head. Moral conservatives run the party, those who base their political principles on religious practices and then try to force their way of thinking onto the country, often fabricating political reasons to back their view.

The “conservatives” are no better then the liberals. Where liberals take away the wealth of the American tax payers to give to the poor, conservatives like to take away our wealth to subsidize industry. Once again, as I stated before, to take away the wealth of one person to benefit another person who didn’t work for that wealth is morally wrong. To steal away my income to give to the poor in a sort of forced charity is wrong, but it is even more wrong to give my hard earned cash to large corporations, which is what many of the “conservative” mindset approve of. Corporate welfare must end.

Republican/Democrat; Conservative/Liberal, they’re really just the flip sides of the same coin. Both support expanding the role of the federal government and decreasing that of the states, both support building and sustaining the American Empire we have around the world, both spend beyond their means which builds up the national debt, and both support welfare only disagree on who should get it. There is no fundamental difference between the two, only silly disputes over certain policies. Few on either side question the right of the government to impose the drug war on the states; few advocate withdrawing our troops from all foreign soil, including Japan, Germany, England, etc, and bringing them home; few wish to cut spending, few advocate shrinking the federal government by eliminating unnecessary and unconstitutional departments and programs, and the few that do (such as the great Ron Paul) are barred from the discussion because they don’t fit neatly into convenient labels and stereotypes.

Wake up people and realize that the so called “conservatives” we elect every few years into public office do not have your interests in mind. Each election we are subjected to the same inane choices, support the expansion of the federal government through the social welfare state or through the corporate welfare state.

I suspect many of you already know, or at least suspect, this, but the only people really advocating real fundamental change are the Libertarians, not Obama or MaCain. That is why this November I’ll vote for Bob Bar, for although his chances of winning are slim, he and his party stand for my principles, which counts for more then anything else.