DisSuggs4u

My friend Charles asked a very good question in response to my previous post:

So how/where/with whom do we discuss and/or do something about this?

I did not respond to him right away because I was struggling with trying to squeeze my response into the comments area.  Eventually, I decided that it should live in its own post.  So, here goes… (Continued)

This morning, I wrapped up** a very good book — The Assault on Reason by Al Gore. In it, President Elect Mr. Gore discusses his opinions and viewpoints on various topics from the media, to the climate, to technology, all of which are woven together throughout the book into the common thread of democracy and how the lack of reason within our government in recent history — as well as a shift in the way Americans receive and process information — has become a threat to the overall democratic process.

(Continued)

Uh, wow. I have never seen the data laid out like this before, but from the looks of this graphic, the US uses more gasoline per capita than a bunch of other nations… combined. One can only imagine how much worse it has gotten today, four years after the data in the graphic was gathered.

I am sure that graphics like this make Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Nigeria — the top five importers of oil into the US — very happy because it means more money for them.

Of course, I bet they all wish we were paying them in a currency other than US Dollars, which just hit a new all time low on currency exchanges.

Tons o’ fun.

So, after months of working its way through the judicial system, the case “U.S. vs. I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby” (pdf) has come to a dramatic close after 43 stepped in and commuted Mr. Libby’s 30-month prison sentence because he, the President, thought it was “excessive.” As you can imagine, this made major headlines.

Hooray! Justice prevails!

(Continued)

I am a big fan of keeping it simple whenever possible.  This is not because I am lazy.  Instead it is based on my experience that the more complicated you make things, the more opportunities there are for things to go wrong.  Very wrong.

In that spirit, rather than my going on and on about some of my current feelings, I will simply point you to this post by Dilbert creator Scott Adams.  For those of you not familiar with Adams’ writing, there is usually a very thin line between truth and satire.

I will leave it up to you to figure out where the line is drawn.

I love it when graphics are used in a way which instantly and quickly conveys the message behind them. Of course, some of the time, the message they convey is not entirely positive. However, other times they can be used as a tool to quickly analyze and absorb data. (Continued)

I know you cannot change the past, hind sight is always 20/20, and all the other similar clichés that say the same thing. And I know that the past is history, the future is a mystery, and the present is just that: a gift. However, all that being said, I cannot help but be bothered when I see things like the following:

The full story behind the graphic is worth a read, even though it is a little irritating (for me at least).

There are so many better places we can (and probably should) be spending our taxpayer dollars. I find it very sad and irritating that so much of those dollars are devoted to this warrant-less war when there is still so much work to be done here at home.

Oh, well. For now, I guess we will just have have to live with being stuck between Iraq and a hard place. After all, we made this bed. Now, we will have to sleep in it.

Buzz: This is an intergalactic emergency. I need to commandeer your vessel to Sector 12. Who’s in charge here?
All: [pointing up] The Claw!
Alien #1: The Claw is our master.
Ailen #2: It decides who will go and who will stay.

So true. So true.

Perhaps there is hope yet for our little republic. Much has changed over the past week, some of which was unexpected but very welcome. There is a lot of hope and promise in the air, and I like some of the ideas that are being floated (especially increasing the minimum wage).

The proof is in the results.

“The people have spoken.”

Congress, your move. We will be watching.

…and dropping down a hole.

So, last Friday I took advantage of early voting in my area.

For those of you who have not tried it, early voting is supposed to be a convenience for people who want to get the pain of voting over with earlier than normal. In all truth, it is much faster and more convenient than actually voting on election day. However, only marginally so.

For instance, I waited in line for over 40-minutes before even stepping foot in the room where actual voting was taking place. My time in line was not without its entertainment, though. (Continued)