...As I was saying... I was high atop my throne, thinking about the dark and dodgy road our nation is currently screaming down.
We are the gas-guzzling 18-wheeler on the down slope of a mountain pass, break lines cut.
Maybe Keano Reeves will save us... He always does.
As we are now in the midst of the Congressional Confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice nominee Samuel Alito, we are reminded that there are those in the White House, the Congress, and potentially the Supreme Court, who would love to reverse Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision which recognizes a woman's constitutional right to privacy, thereby legalizing abortion. This decision has, for 33 years now, been considered a major legal precedence regarding not only what is right and wrong, but also a woman's inherent right to protect her own life as the case may be.
Whether or not abortion is legal, there will always be the pro-choice / pro-life argument. It is an argument based not only on individual morals, values, and faiths, but also individual philosophies on when "life" really begins... As in, when does a "human being" become a "person"?
But maybe it's not so bad... As my favorite comedian, David Cross, recently said (tongue in cheek), "What's the big deal? Last time I checked, all the wire hangers now have rubber tips..."
Criminalizing abortion will not stop abortion. Let's try to keep that in mind.
Women will have these procedures whether they're legal or not. Making them illegal will only make them more dangerous.
Question: What kind of free nation would allow a bunch of middle-aged, predominately white men to decide what is appropriate for a woman and her body?
It seems to me that this is one of those issues better left up to the individual. It is the individual after all, that has to live with the decisions he or she makes.
Energy…
This administration is hurting not only the United States but also the rest of the world because if its policies affecting this issue. Right-wing Republican leaders want so badly to begin drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, and they claim that doing so will help the United States to wean itself off of its foreign oil dependency.
Truth is, if this happens… If we begin drilling operations in Alaska, the only thing it will improve is the lining of rich white pockets. It’s the senators and oil companies that will profit the most if we open ANWR to drilling. Common citizens like you and I would realistically save only a few cents per gallon at the pump as a result of ANWR drilling, and that would be at least 10 years down the road.
Apart from the financial aspect of the whole thing… what are we really accomplishing? Do we really have to develop every corner of the world and suck whatever we can out of it?
In 2000, the world had 6.1 billion human inhabitants. This number could rise to more than 9 billion in the next 50 years. http://www.prb.org
As the population of the world grows exponentially during the next century, we will be faced with some difficult questions about our level of world resource consumption.
All we really accomplish by opening ANWR for drilling is the extension of an outdated system.
We as a nation need to start looking for new modes of energy which will not only sustain us today, but carry us into centuries to come.
Additionally, we need to stem this republican philosophy of instant gratification when it comes to U.S. energy and economic policies. If our government spent as much money on the research and development of renewable energy sources (hydrogen, solar, geothermal, biodiesals, etc) as it does on wars to protect current oil interests abroad, we'd have a better foothold on our country's future.
...I'm sure there are many out there who would disagree with me (and have disagreed with me) regarding that last statement, but that's a wholly seperate debate, centered on pure emotion and so-called "patriotism" versus unbridled fact.
I'll wrap this up with this (some content copied from an earlier reply to someone's comment from Part I)...
Any time anyone questions our governments policies, actions, motives, or calls them out on something that is fundamentally wrong, you get accused of being unpatriotic. Truth is, I f**king love the United States, which is precisely why I pay attention to what's going on, and speak up when I don't think something jives with the principles this country was supposed to have been founded on. The biggest and best reason that this is such a great country, is that people like me are permitted and even encouraged to speak freely and dissent when necessary.
People say, "How can you say these things at a time like this, when our troops are dying for our freedom?"
Our freedom?
The Iraq war is tied to our freedom?
I would love for someone to educate me as to how this war is in any way protecting "our freedom."
Iraq did not attack us. Iraq did not have the means to attack us. There is a laundry list of facts confirming this.
Yes, yes, yes, yes... we are doing some great things in Iraq. I'm not questioning that. We're creating a democracy where there was once a violent dictatorship. Saddam was a bad dude and deserves everything he has coming his way.
-That does not make it right to ignore crucial evidence, and to LIE to the American public as a means to rush into a war that would sacrifice over 2,000 American soldiers and (as a new and highly accurate study shows) approximately 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilians.
In closing, those of you who claim that it is wrong for me to write these things "when our friends and relatives are dying"... could stand to learn a thing or two about patriotism.
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