Roland Martin has got it right.
People need to pay attention to politics, especially the 2008 Presidential Election next year. We get too distracted with our IPODs, XBox 360s, Fantasy Football Teams, and the latest Paris Hilton exploits; things that in the long term really won't matter.
What really has always struck home with me about how important this next election is, is the fact that the next President could appoint as many as Three Supreme Court Justices. This could radically change the makeup of the Court for the next 30 years or so. Think about the issues that are important to you, and what kind of Court you would like to see making the decisions. Then think about which Candidates will nominate those types of Justices.
People sometimes ask why we spend so much money on preserving our National Park Lands. Aside from the fact that they help create oxygen for us to breath and collect water for us to drink, here are two reasons:
Also, were it not for our funding to National Parks, this Helicopter would not have been able to fly into the middle of a Canyon in Kings Canyon National Park and evacuate a Boy Scout Master who had broken his ankle:
I will also give a nob to the Boy Scouts. While I do not agree with all of their views, they did a great job with this group who was able to carry their 200 lb Scout Master down a mile of granite off trail to where the helicopter could pick him up. Unfortunately for them, they still had a two day hike back to civilization while their leader was likely in operating room withing 4 hours.
So next time you are concerned about spending on National Parks, look at these pictures and think about that man who was saved because of our National Park system's search and rescue program.
| Your Personality is Very Rare (INTP) |
 Your personality type is goofy, imaginative, relaxed, and brilliant. Only about 4% of all people have your personality, including 2% of all women and 6% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving. |
No, not the type that you hang out with your friends at, the type that comes in exam form. As I am getting ready to take the exam in just over a week, I thought I would reflect on some of my observations about law school and the legal profession.
1. The bar exam you will ever have to take where a 60% is good enough. So really that is saying, "Well really you just need to know enough to get yourself into trouble so one of the older, wiser attorneys can save your behind and call it mentoring."
2. Your score on the legal ethics exam is relative to the other people taking the exam. You do not have to be really ethical than an attorney, just more ethical than the other guy.
3. Law school makes people more conservative. For me that was ok, I was probably too fiscally liberal. Now I agree with conservatives that we need to cut spending, I just want to cut spending in different places, like oil subsidies and requiring that US AID food be bought from American farmers (which by the way is more expensive, costs more to transport to countries receiving food aid, and drives down the price that farmers in those countries receive for their produce), and you know, get out of Iraq.
4. Law School crushes a person's idealism. 3 of the 4 people who were officers of the Association for Public Interest Law (APIL) my first year of law school now work for big city firms. Personally, I was very active in environmental and electoral programs my first year and lets just say not so active in either by my third year. I was informed by an associate of mine who was a public interest attorney that most of his "liberal" friend in law school thought, "I will go work for a firm, pay off my loans, and then go non-profit." 10 years after he had graduate, all of those people were still with firms. They get used to the life style and cannot let it go.
5. 90% of people who go to law school leave law school really only concerned about making money, not about making a difference. For that reason, if you want to make a difference, get a public policy, environmental science, international relations, of education degree. People who go to law school are not the same people when they get out.
There is so much to fix in this world and this country. Our best and our brightest are being taught to value personal wealth and not to worry about others or to do what is right. This is one of the many reasons why our society is slowly regressing back to aristocracy and classes. No affective system change can be made because those who have the training to change it peacefully have too much of an interest in the status quo and any of those who reject the status quo are kept on the outside looking in.
So California has adopted some more stringent fuel standards that several states (NY, VT, RI) have also adopted. Car companies are obviously trying to block this in federal court, even thought he recent EPA v. Massachusetts case takes some of the wind out of their sails. The Court basically said that EPA CAN regulate the emissions of greenhouse gases from cars, but did not say they had it. The Court sent the case back to district court to determine whether EPA had a valid reason not to.
This brings us to a case in Vermont where the car companies are challenging the California emissions standards. They are arguing the usual: can't be done, will actually increase emissions, etc. Some of my favorite lines from the article are:
Because those companies have been in the passenger car market? They have been the most resistent to making good small vehicles. They are years behind Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, and the others. Maybe if they started focusing on making fuel efficient vehicles that people want to buy they would not be in the financial troubles that they are.
An expert hired by automakers said, according to court filings, that DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor and G.M. “will need largely to exit” from the passenger car and small truck markets.
LOL. This is classic which came with an even more classic response from the Sierra Club:
Among other points, the industry says more fuel efficient cars could be dangerous, because they will be cheaper to drive and lead people to drive more and potentially have more accidents.
“Everybody’s getting a good laugh out of the safety claim,” said David Bookbinder, a lawyer for the Sierra Club, which is a party to the case. “Detroit is saying it’s a bad idea for everybody to drive more.”Just suck it up and make more fuel efficient cars and trucks. It will be better for your companies financial health and that of the country. If we do not break our oil addiction in the next couple of decades (if not soon) our economy is going to be in big trouble because the price of gas will be 10+ dollars a gallon and your companies will be bankrupt.
I found this method of administering the nomination of Electors to the Electoral College very intriguing: The state of Maryland Senate has passed a bill that would compel the Electors chosen to cast their vote for the candidate who wins the majority vote in the country. If passed by the house and signed by the governor (who said he would) this would take effect once states representing at least 270 electoral votes. It will be interesting to see if many people pick up on this and other states try to pass similar statutes. This would effectively eliminate the Electoral College without a Constitutional Amendment. Roll that one around in your head for a bit.
Presidential Elections have always been one of those things I have had a problem with. I do not like that the popular vote of the country could significantly vary from the controlling electoral vote. I have gone through a several versions of ways states can improve it, such as dividing votes by who wins congressional districts (done by Maine and Nebraska) or dividing up electoral votes based on a percentage of the popular vote won (my most recent favorite). I will be watching the
While I know that throwing money as something will not always fix it, how about a little extra money for improving our VA Hospitals, get more staff, and retain better staff.
Two Ideas to pay for it:
1. 25% tax on all non-medically necessary plastic surgery.
-These people were injuried (at least in theory) to protect your right to get a nose job. We should make sure they are getting proper treatment before you get your nose job.
2. 100% tax on a doctor's income over $250,000.
-This tax is would be waived if a doctor participates in a program where they rotate into a VA hospital for 2 months out of each year, 3 months out of each year when we are engaged in military conflict.
There is no reason that those injured in combat should get substandard treatment with the amount of money we spend on medical treatment each year.
A very nice article from the Washington Post about how Al Gore has done the impossible by rehabilitating his image after the 2000 Election and helped awaken a large portion of the population to the thPublishreats of Global Warming.
Whether his raising awarness has been enough and will really have an effect on global climate change I do not know. Only time will tell, but I still think we will be faced with some very harsh times economically and environmentally in the near future due to climate change already occuring or soon to occur.
His being at the Oscars tonight as raised speculation that he may announce his candidacy for President. While most insiders and politicos find this highly unlikely (as do I); I do think it would be one of most fantastic political moves of my life-time. Regardless, one can still hope he would run for President. Check out this site if you agree.
Update 2/26/07: Damn!
It is absolutely horrible what Delta Zeta did to one of their chapters. They basically kicked over half the sisters in the chapter because they were not "committed" enough. It just so happens that the sisters who were asked to stay were traditionally attractive and the ones who were asked to leave were not. How DZ thought they could get away with something like this in todays society, I have no idea.
It is stories like these that really make everyone think: "Oh, greek life is so horrible." For the most part it is not. I was in a fraternity. We were the not so cool fraternity on campus. We did not have the football or baseball players, we had the engineers, scientists, and video gamers. But we did do some good; raising money for Habitat for Humanity and working with kids at the Boys and Girls Club. We did educational events in our house and I made life long friends who have been there for me when things got really bad. We fell low on membership at one point but we did not need our national chapter to come in and kick out the "uncool" or "unattractive" guys in the fraternity. Had they done that, I and several of my brothers would have left as well.
Thank you Delta Zeta for continuing to sully the view of Greek Life.
Virginia has banned teens from using cell phones while driving. I think that this is a good idea. I know when I was a teenager I was an idiot when it came to driving and I was really one of the better ones in my area. Too many kids around my age died or were seriously injured in car accidents.
It is probably going to be difficult to actually enforce since the police need a primary reason to pull someone over, not just because they are using a cell phone. It is a good thing I am not a cop in Virginia. I would see a teen on his or her cell phone and pull them over for going 56 in a 55 zone.
Now states just need to start enforcing the usage of hands free devices.
It appears that Congress is finally seriously considering a paper trail for electronic voting.
This is something many voting rights groups have strongly felt has been needed since to proliferation of electronic voting machines. I had to vote provisionally in the last election so I have not had the opportunity to use our new electonic machines. I was somewhat glad for that because the lack of a paper trail concerns me.
I miss the times I was voting in the Boston area (not just because my polling location was literally 200ft from my front door). My town used the optical scanning machines. I would fill out my ballot with a pen, check it over to make sure it was correct and then slide it into an optical scanning machine that would count the votes and drop the paper ballot into a lock box. It was relatively simple, but I felt confident my vote was being counted.
Hopefully there is enough support to get some sort of paper trail requirement for Federal Elections.
