Issue

Explanation

The dinosaurs ruled the earth for over 160 million years and left it in pristine environmental condition - until an asteroid came along. 

On the other hand, Man's Industrial Revolution began a scant 200 years ago, but look at the environmental mess that the earth has become:  global warming, pollution, demise of animal species, over population of humans.  Politicians must take immediate action to turn this tide around.  Will we last as long as the dinosaurs?  Heck, without turning around our damage, I doubt modern man will last another thousand years.

April 20, 2010:  BP oil rig explosion/disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.  Need any more proof?

October 30, 2012:  Hurricane Sandy devastates the U.S. northeast coast.  This is strong evidence of rising sea levels.  I would prohibit anyone from building on coastline/barrier islands that are less than 10 feet above sea level.  Turn such area into bird sanctuaries.  The U.S. needs to understand that Global Warming is real.  However, the downside of my recommendation is that many cities (e.g. Miami) are already less than 10 feet above sea level.  The future looks bleak.

Pollution is so bad in Beijing, China that domes have been built for child playgrounds [story].

Plastic in the ocean:  video

Political solutions will be very difficult.  [details]

The shocking fact about the world population is how fast it has been growing:

• In 1804 there were only 1 billion people on the earth.
• In 1927 there were 2 billion.
• In 1960 there were 3 billion.
• In 1999 there were 6 billion ... double that of just 39 years earlier!
• In 2015 we'll pass 7.3 billion

See http://geography.about.com/od/obtainpopulationdata/a/worldpopulation.htm

Here is a graph of world population growth over the last 160,000 years.

Pictures of some devastation caused caused by human overpopulation  (the Guardian April 1, 2015)

• Men should not dictate what women do with their bodies.
• Abortion should be legal if the pregnancy came about as the result of rape, incest, or the female was underage.
• Abortion should be permitted if the female or her doctors discovers an abnormality with the fetus.  [My reasoning here is that some abnormalities could result in a child that would be enormously expensive for the parents or society to raise.]
• I abhor abortion being used as an "oops" form of birth control, but abortion is far better than bringing unwanted children into the world.
• Part of my endorsement of abortion has to do with the exploding world population that I previously mentioned.
• Prospective mates should consider genetic counseling.  Some diseases can be avoided if certain people don't have children.
• To minimize the need for abortion, sex education should be given to all high school students.  They should taught about birth control  ... particularly the success rate and side effects of each.  Students should not be excused from this education due to religious beliefs.

I would like to see the U.S. 2nd Amendment modified.  It reads:  "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."  This was passed in 1791 - a time when the U.S. military was weak and the most potent weapon was a musket that had slow muzzle velocity, limited range, and reload time was lengthy.  I can't imagine our forefathers passing the second amendment if 21st century machinegun-like weapons existed.  At a minimum no one other than the military and law enforcement officers should be able to own semi-automatic weapons.

There are people who believe that the 2nd amendment places no limits on arms.  If that were true, then private citizens should be permitted to own nuclear weapons!  Clearly limits must be placed.   Listen to this sound from the Las Vegas massacre of October 1, 2017.  The bullets were flying at 10 per second.  It was not from a 1791 musket.  The gunman killed 58 people and injured 500 others ... the largest massacre in U.S. history.  He did thus from a position which was 32 stories above his victims and 500 yards away.  You couldn't do that with a 1791 musket. [Here is a YouTube video of musket firing.]  It is insane to justify ownership of modern lethal weapons by the general public.  Regarding the shooter, he was a white 64 year old male who was wealthy and had no history of mental illness. He was a misanthrope who kept to himself and amassed a large arsensil of weapons and ammunition ... all legally ... "thanks" to the second amendment and those who support it.

Literally the 2nd Amendment requires membership in a militia in order to "keep and bear arms", so modification of the 2nd Amendment shouldn't be needed to restrict private ownership of guns.  A militia is "a part of the organized armed forces of a country liable to call only in emergency".  The modern equivalent of a militia is the National Guard.  So, if you're not a member of the National Guard, you should not be allowed to own a gun according to the 2nd Amendment.

Another issue about the 2nd Amendment is that bullets are a lot more lethal in the 21st century than they were in 1791. 

Unfortunately there are slim hopes for serious gun control legislature to be passed in the United States.  The NRA (National Rifle Association) can take credit for that.  They do nonstop monitoring of legislature going on in all 50 states and actively lobby to stop gun control bills.  Their cutting edge design web site, http://nra.org/,  gives the nauseating details.

Reflections on the January 8, 2011 Tucson tragedy:  A 22 year old male used a 9 mm Glock 19 semi-automatic handgun with a high capacity magazine (31 bullets) to kill 6 people (including a federal judge and a 9 year old girl) and injured 13 others (including a congresswoman) in the span of just seconds.  These weapons and high capacity magazines need to be banned!  Also, our mental health system needs to fixed.  It's broke.  Mentally ill people used to be placed in state institutions.  Now they're given pills and released to the streets.  One question remains:  Why did the killer descend into madness?  I'm no expert, but I believe it will be found that this person's drug use altered his brain chemistry and caused his paranoid psychosis.

The NRA's response to the Tucson tragedy has been to resist gun control legislation ... insinuating that having more armed citizens might have stopped the tragedy.  This reminds me of this famous Archie Bunker excerpt:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLjNJI54GMM

Other issues that likely contribute to gun tragedies:  Widespread violence shown in movies and video games, unregulated sales at gun shows, and inflammatory political rhetoric on TV and the internet.  Regarding violent movies and video games:  We should all boycott such movies and cease buying violent video games.  If sales dropped, they might stop making such garbage.  Money talks.

It should be made illegal for a private citizen to sell, give, or loan a gun to another person without first doing a background check.  In October of 2012 a Wisconsin man shot and killed his estranged wife after buying a handgun from another individual.  A restraining order supposedly prevented him from owning a gun, but Wisconsin doesn't mandate background checks for private sales.

December 19, 2012:  Where an A is an F and an F is an A: http://gunowners.org/113srat.htm Cheers to all those congressmen who scored an F or lower! We need more of them!

November 16, 2014:  Nauseating story about the power of the NRA:  "Christensen:  the NRA and Kay Hagan"

The Ferguson factor:  As much as I'm adamantly against guns, they do serve a purpose.  Look at all the looting which followed the Michael Brown Grand Jury decision in 2014.  Many businesses [which had nothing to do with Michael Brown] were totally destroyed by the looters.  The police weren't able to stop it.  If the owners had assault rifles they could have defended their businesses.  Nothing less would have helped.   However, many lives would have been lost.

Smart guns:  I really like this idea.  They can dramatically reduce guns deaths.  Unfortunately the gun people have been fighting it.  Click here for a 2015 NY Times story.

As the above picture shows, the NRA is nothing more than an advertising arm of gun manufacturers.  In that capacity, they should have their non-profit status revoked.  They should not be allowed to meddle in politics.  Instead, they spend millions of dollars trying to defeat candidates who stand up against them. (details: $ 3M 2016 TV ad against Hillary Clinton)  The NRA is a 501(c)(4) "social welfare" organization.   Considering the number of gun murders in the U.S. (see below), I regard their contribution to social welfare as less than zero.  From the IRS website: The promotion of social welfare does not include direct or indirect participation or intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office. However, a section 501(c)(4) social welfare organization may engage in some political activities, so long as that is not its primary activity. However, any expenditure it makes for political activities may be subject to tax under section 527(f).

Gun issue fix:

Don't vote for any politician who does not support regulating guns and gun owners in the same way that cars and drivers are regulated!

I wonder how many U.S. gun proponents think other countries should adopt U.S. gun laws.  The proper solution is for the U.S. to adopt the gun laws of Japan and Iceland.

Key points about Iceland's gun laws:

1. There is no guaranteed right to own a gun in Iceland.
2. You may only own a gun with permission of the government.
3. All sales of guns are registered and kept with an official registrar.

4. You must demonstrate a valid purpose for owning a firearm. 

5. "Self Defense" is specifically not a valid purpose for owning a firearm. 

6. You may only own a firearm if you have done the required training, and you are 18 years old.

7. A unique identifying mark is required by law on all guns.  [This would be the serial number stamped by the manufacturer.  In the U.S. serial numbers began being required by the Gun Control Act of 1968.]

(December 4, 2015) "How a Conservative-Led Australia Ended Mass Killings"

(July 8, 2016) A disgruntled citizen wearing a bulletproof vest kills 5 police officers in Dallas.  Their firepower couldn't penetrate his armour.  This renders guns useless if crooks wear such armour ... convincing me even further that guns are not the answer. 

(July 14, 2016) One of my neighbors gave me a compelling reason to own a gun and why "concealed carry" should be permitted:  The object of permitting gun ownership is a theory of equilibrium.  Most criminals … snatch and grab guys … are cowards.  If they think you are as equally armed as them, they are not going to do anything, because they may not live.  That’s why I like the concealed carry law.  The criminal doesn’t know who has a gun in their pocket and who doesn’t.  Once you make it against the law to have concealed weapons, the criminals gain a huge advantage, because they don’t obey the law.  They obtained their gun illegally anyway.  The point of the law is not to require everyone to have a gun.  It’s to put the criminal in a position where they don’t know who has a gun and who doesn’t.  The second amendment is all about making the criminal think.

The NRA asserts that guns are needed to keep people safe.  Well, I assert that cameras do a far better job, and they're not lethal.

(June 20, 2017) "The NRA is pushing to eliminate concealed carry permits in NC and across the country" - N&O

July 17, 2018:  If we're not going to get rid of the 2nd Amendment, then the next best thing is to impose a huge tax on the sale of guns.  Too many innocent people ... many whom are police officers ... have been killed because of guns. 

March 8, 2019:  Arkansas Senator Stephanie Flowers lambasts "stand your ground laws"  (Cheers to Senator Flowers!)

March 26, 2019:  How to sell a massacre, NRA playbook revealed

The U.S. national debt is out of control.  See the following "National Debt Clock":  http://www.usdebtclock.org/  It's very distressing. 

We need to spend more money on ourselves rather than on foreign countries.  

I'm against raising the current debt ceiling.  Rather than pay off our national debt, politicians keep raising the national debt ceiling.  That's like raising a person's credit card limit every time they overspend.  Cut the spending!  If we fail to cut spending and keep raising the debt ceiling, then we run the risk of hyperinflation - which is what happened to Germany in 1923 and to Yugoslavia/Serbia in 1993.   Here is a picture of Serbian currency in 1993.

What programs need to be cut?  Well, per the "National Debt Clock", the biggest contributors to the U.S. budget are Medicare, Social Security, and defense spending.   All need to be slashed.  With people living longer, social security ages need to be raised.  Raising the minimum age from 65 to 68 seems obvious to me. 

Will politicians make these necessary changes?  Probably not.  If they do, they likely won't get reelected.  That's one sad negative about a democracy.  The ones who promise tax cuts and higher spending get (re)elected; the ones who exhibit political courage get tossed.  It's sad.  Sometime in the future our children and grandchildren will pay for our neglect.

8

Stay out of foreign conflicts

Let's not have any more Vietnams, Iraqs, and Afghanistans.  We need to end our "global policeman" role. 

The real tragedy of Iraq and Afghanistan is that we went into those wars with noble goals, we got rid of Sadam Hussein, but then everything plummeted into a huge political vacuum, and ISIS emerged from the rubble.  Almost 8000 US troops died in Iraq and Afghanistan, around 1 million were wounded, the U.S. cost has reached close to $ 6 trillion, and lastly the terrorist group ISIS stole a lot of our military hardware to emerge as the dominant force.  What a tragic outcome!  Republicans adamantly believe that we left Iraq too early.  I regard that as horribly naive.  We can't invade countries, run their wars, and then run their countries for them.  That would be enormously expensive, and the natives don't want us in their countries in the first place.  We need to focus on the U.S.  We have enough infrastucture and immigation problems to keep us busy for decades. 

Because of ISIS, about one million Islamic people from that area have fled to Europe.  This is causing turmoil in European countries because of cultural and language barriers.  They're not assimilating well.  This is all the fault of the U.S.  We should not meddle in foreign affairs.

10

The most effective way to curtail the violence in the Mideast is for the United States to slash the amount of military and economic aid that it gives Israel ... which is currently $ 4 billon/year (up from $ 3B ten years ago).  Prior to mid-2006 I would never have harbored such a thought, but since then:

·         I have viewed the 79 minute video "Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised Land" (2004).

·         I have viewed the 59 minute video "Life in Occupied Palestine" (2009).  Most notable is the four minutes beginning at 30:58.  Israel has been stealing land from the Palestinians for decades and that is the principal cause for the conflict.

·         I have learned that one third of the U.S. foreign budget goes to Israel.  See:  http://www.washington-report.org/html/us_aid_to_israel.htm

·         I have read former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's book "Palestine - Peace Not Apartheid" (2006)

·         (2014-July-28) "Gaza and the loss of Civilization" - excellent editorial.

The net message from all of the above is that Israel stands in violation of U.N. Resolution 242 (1967) by not vacating settlements that it established in territories acquired during the 1967 war.  The settlements are connected by Israeli built roads and patrolled by Israeli troops.  Palestinians living in these territories are made to suffer extreme poverty and indignity.  The U.S. through its generous annual support of Israel effectively makes itself a partner in these crimes ... which is why both the U.S. and Israel are vilified in the Arab world and also why the U.S. has lost credibility as a peace broker.

I don't see any difference between what Israel is doing to Palestinians in the West Bank and the U.S.'s Indian Removal Act of 1830.  Both are/were rapacious attempts to gain land for Israel/U.S. by kicking out natives.   Here in the U.S. we're removing Andrew Jackson from the $ 20 bill over our belated guilt over what he did.  He was President in 1830 and was a principal driver of the Indian Removal Act.

AIPAC is a powerful pro-Israel NRA-like lobbying organization which does handstands to ensure that money keeps flowing from the U.S. government to Israel.  They have a solid grip on U.S. media to maintain Israel in a positive light.  Their lackies constantly monitor U.S. news and post pro-Israel comments on pieces about Israel.  They write scurrilous comments against any piece or comments which portray Israel negatively.  This became abundantly clear to me in May 2016 when I posted comments on these two pieces: "Ellie Kinnaird:  Suffering of Palestinian People must not be silenced" and "Stanley Robboy: Where the real blame for the Mideast discord lies".  If U.S. citizens want an unvarnished look at Israel, they should really look to the BBC.

On the other side of the coin, my advice to Palestinians and other members of the Arab world is that they recognize Israel's right to exist and cease the suicide bombings and other attacks.  All they do is give Israel an excuse to launch counter attacks, build walls and otherwise continue to abuse the Palestinian people. 

2014-July-29:  I saw video of tunnels Hamas built to move troops and weapons from Gaza into Israel.  Hamas used Israel supplied concrete to build the tunnels.  Israel provided the concrete to build schools and hospitals.  Hamas also launches rockets from schools and hospitals ... using the Palestinians as human shields.  This despictable behavior only justifies Israel's attacks on Gaza.  Hamas and Palestine only have rubble and deaths to look forward to.  It is very sad.

Israel's population has been growing ... both Jews and non-Jews.  See this web page.  Eventually this will impose significant demand on natural resources.  See my previous comments on population control.

(2014-August-12) "The Israel Test" - compelling arguments in support of Israel and what they have done positively in that area of the world.

In retrospect, a severe blunder was made right after World War I.  Jewish people were given the land that eventually became Israel.  Jews are entitled to have their own nation, but they should have been given an island.  Ditto for many of the Islamic nations.  They each make for horrible neighbors.  Here in the U.S. we are extremely blessed to have docile neighbors to our north and south ... and fish for neighbors off our east and west coasts.  On a lighter note, here is a segment from The Big Bang Theory on relocating Jerusalem to a desert in Mexico.

(New York Times July 5, 2010) "Tax-Exempt Funds Aid Settlements in West Bank"

On balance, if I had to give control of Israel, West Bank, and the Gaza Strip to either Jews or Muslims and banish the other, I would definitely give it to Jews.  There are already 39 Islamic states and only one Jewish state ... which Islamic people won't recognize.  However, the optimal solution is for all residents of that area to get along and keep a lid on their population growth, but neither is making any effort on those two fronts.  The future is war, regrettably.

(Aljazeera November 21, 2017) 'Israel's Settlements - 50 years of land theft explained'

(Aljazeera April 9, 2018) 'Western Media' and Mass deception

(Aljazeera May 2018) 'Divided Jerusalem'

(Aljazeera April 17, 2019) "Why aren't Europeans calling Israel an apartheid state?" -opinion piece by John Dugard

11

The U.S. should not provide a single penny of aid to any government which supports such an outlandish law.

1. Foreign labor is much cheaper than labor in the U.S. 
2. Foreign countries don't have to comply with all the environmental and other business-restrictive laws we have in the U.S.
3. The currency exchange rates are distorted to favor foreign countries.

It's not a level playing field.

To fix these problems:

1. The U.S. needs to return to the tariff system we had years ago.  Free trade is killing us. 
2. The currency exchange rates need to be adjusted.  If the U.S. dollar were significantly devalued ... as it should be due to our overwhelming national debt ... then the jobs would come back to the U.S.

The best way to drive down health care costs is tort reform (see above). 

I saw Michael Moore's "Sicko" movie on July 6, 2007.  It does a marvelous job of throwing a light on the deficiencies of health care in the U.S. and holds up the health care systems of Canada, England, France, and Cuba as ones we should emulate.  Based on the evidence presented in the movie, Michael Moore is 100% correct.  All U.S. politicians, aspiring politicians, and concerned citizens should see "Sicko".  It's an eye opener!

(July 27, 2016) My insurance agent is very negative on Obamacare  ... says it will drive up health insurance for all of middle income people.  That's bad news.  The U.S. needs universal health insurance for all Americans ... not just the rich.  Obamacare may be a bad solution, but something has to be done to fix this problem.

18

Stem cell research

Countless numbers of disabled people worldwide could benefit from medical advances that could be made if the religious right would cease their objections over stem cell research.  Such medieval thinking is one of numerous reasons why I don't go to church.

19

Separation of church and state

Nothing irks me more than a politician who says "We will prevail in this war/conflict, because 'God is on our side'".

The founding fathers of the U.S. were correct when they introduced the concept of  "Separation of church and state."

I'd like to see the motto "In God We Trust" removed from our U.S. coins and paper currency. 

20

Exclude Creationism from school science texts

Creationism is religion, not science.  Religious views do not belong in a science text.

Creationists believe in creationism because "It's in the Bible."  Well, the Bible was written by man several thousand years ago and reflects what those ancestors of us thought about the real world.  This was well before the arrival of telescopes, microscopes, and other technological marvels.  The Bible should be revered as a diary/insight into the life of ancient man, but the accuracy of its understanding of the real physical world is minimal.

21

24

• I'm for the death penalty. 
• I don't like the endless appeals that people on death row can invoke.
• I don't find value in the debate over the methods of execution ... the guillotine should be restored.
• I don't believe that the insanity defense should be permitted.  Whether a person is sane or not should not be a factor in determining their guilt or innocence.

25

Some communities make better efforts to provide food and shelter for the homeless than others.  One negative side effect of this is that the homeless migrate to communities which provide the best service ... making residents less inclined to support homeless shelters.   Landfills and homeless shelters are things people don't want in their backyard (NIMBY), but each community needs to have them.  Property taxes need to be adjusted to support such equity.  If you're a NIMBY, your taxes should be significantly higher than communities which are more accommodating.

Click here for a year 2010 Chapel Hill homeless shelter issue.

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