World Wide Poitical Insanity and Sanity

Lets take a break from all of the eve of destruction talk from earlier this week and look at some more lighthearted political class acts. These acts are both good and bad, and many of them will just make you shake your head in disbelief.

First, some good news. As stated numerous times in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" and in this blog, in the ideal America, where we believe and live the basic concept of freedom, every citizen should have the exact same rights. This basic right should be independent of race, sexual orientation, education, income level, ethnic background, or current job. To come short on any of these characteristics would fall short of the basic idea of liberty. According to an article in the November issue of The Week magazine, Argentina, a heavily Catholic country, has sanctioned/legalized gay marriage, a right that has not been extended to the gay community in America. The mayor of Buenos Aires, Maurico Macri, is quoted as saying: "We have to live with and accept this reality. The world is moving in this direction." Kudos to Argentina for providing the equal right of marriage to all of its citizens.

However, all is not lost relative to the denial of this right in America, as witnessed by an article in the St. Petersburg Times from January 31, 2010. The title of the article, "Gay Marriage Advocates," lists out those prominent Americans who favor gay marriage in America. The names might surprise you:

• Ted Olsen, who was George W. Bush's lawyer during the 2000 vote recount fiasco, has teamed up with David Bois, who was Al Gore's recount attorney, to challenge the California law that bans gay marriage. One would never have thought that a Bush cohort would ever be on the correct side of gay marriage.
• Even better, consider the quote from former Vice President Dick Cheney: "I think that freedom means freedom for everyone. I think people ought to be able to enter into any kind of union they wish. Any kind of arrangement they wish."
• The wife and daughter of Republican Senator John McCain both posed for a pro-gay marriage campaign.
• Steve Smith, McCain's chief political strategist during the campaign is quoted as saying: "It seems to me that denying two consenting adults of the same sex the right to form a lawful union that is protected and respected by the state denies them two of the most basic natural rights affirmed by the preamble of our Declaration of Independence: liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
• Conservative New York Times writer David Brooks wrote an essay where he said, " We shouldn't just allow gay marriage, we should insist on it."

Thus, it appears that both here and abroad the right and freedom of gay marriage is gaining traction and may very soon become a reality. By the way, Democrat President Obama still opposes gay marriage and has done nothing to make it legal since he came to office.

Figure out this little piece of legal and political insanity from England, as reported in the February 5, 2010 issue of The Week magazine. A British government job center rejected an ad from a company who needed to hire workers (one would think that in this down worldwide economy that a hiring company would be welcomed by the government) because the help wanted ad the company posted specified that applicants "must be reliable and hardworking." The government ruled that the company could get sued "for discriminating against unreliable people." Huh?

A good idea from Canada. In an article in Maclean's by Andrew Coyne, that was summarized in the January 29, 2010 issue of The Week magazine, Mr. Coyne suggested that Canada does not need its Parliament anymore. He wondered if the upcoming two month recess could be extended to six months and if the country would be worse off for giving the political class an extended vacation, under the following argument: "It's not as if we would miss it. Parliament has become a kind of vestigial ornament, like the monarchy, beloved by nostalgists but quite without any practical purpose." He goes on to explain that votes in Parliament are always by party lines anyway so what value added do those sitting Canadian politicians provide? Mr. Coyne suggests that we just for the party of our choice, let them run things until the next election and save a lot of time and money by not having to deal with a do-nothing Parliament. Given how bad our Senate and House of Representatives have served us over the past forty years (failing public schools, War On Drugs failure, deficit spending, Social Security and Medicare heading for insolvency, lead paint on imported toys, political corruption, no national energy strategy, rising health care costs, etc.), I wonder if his somewhat tongue-in-cheek suggestion might work in the U.S?

Consider the political class ignorance reported in the February 1, 2010 issue of Sports Illustrated:

• Recently defeated Democrat Martha Coakley may have lost the race for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat when she mistakenly called Boston Red Sox hero Curt Schillling a "Yankee fan."
• Ronald Reagan welcomed the champion Boston Celtics to the White House and then proceeded to mispronounce the names of the stars on the team.
• In 1998, Ted Kennedy called Bill Clinton and Al Gore "home run kings for working families," comparing them to Mike McGwire and Sammy Sooser. Unfortunately, their real names are Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa
• in 2004, Senator John Kerry incorrectly refers to Green Bay's Lambert field (correct name = Lambeau Field), calls to his favorite Red Sox player Manny Ortiz (no such player existed), and his all time favorite Red Sox player as Eddie Yost, who never played a single game for the Red Sox.

Reminds me of an old saying that went something like: "Better to remain quiet and thought ignorant than to speak up and remove all doubt."

Another overseas head scratcher. Reason magazine reported in its March, 2010 edition that an English bicycle shopkeeper recycles all of his cardboard that is used to ship him his bikes for his shop. He uses the cardboard to reship packages and also uses it as bedding for the chickens he raises. As a result of his earth friendly recycling habit the local town council fined him for not producing any garbage. Huh?

As I have said many times before, the material for blogs such as this will never end as long as the political class continue to speak and continue to focus on really, really unimportant stuff in people's lives.

Visit our website at www.loathemygovernment.com to order an autographed copy of the book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government -Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom and Destroying The American Political Class" and to sign up for the cause. The book is also available online at Amazon and Barnes And Noble.