Maslow's Political Blog

Sorry I haven't posted much recently - with Alaska and whatnot I've been busy.  But in any event, there's a new trend (fad?) against Facebook.  To be fair, this trend is actually against pretty much all social networking sites, but Facebook is both the biggest and the most used, and so it is getting the most heat.  It is the McDonald's of the social networking site.  I'm betting someone will make a movie called "Friend Request Me" on the evils of FB.  But unlike Morgan Spurlock's excellent film, that film will be utter crap.  What we are seeing is, basically, a revolt not against what FB is doing, but what the internet actually is.  The past 15 years have seen an excellent technology go from being an odd sounding idea to an essential tool for, well, anything.  From porn to research papers, there is literally nothing the internet hasn't improved. The main grevience people have with FB is that it distributes your "private" information.  I...

Apparently it is a felony to disparrage the meat industry of Colorado. Therefore, Colorado meat sucks and I am going to boycott it. You heard me: Colorado meat is awful. James Thomas must be disbarred, or made to eat Colorado's disgusting meat, which I'm sure is infected with E. coli and made with a heaping serving of cow manure.

I am against illegal immigration and in favor of deportation.  Wait, wait, don't write me off yet!  I'm not racist and I'm not against immigrants.  I'm certainly against amnesty.  Let me explain: There are many legal immigrants.  The process of coming legally is very cumbersome and could be reformed, but the fact is they went through the process.  It would be a great disrespect to say "But if you had snuck into the country, you'd also be a citizen."  In fact, many legal immigrants aren't even citizens yet!!  Amnesty is terrible disrespectful to the many immigrants who followed the rules. More importantly, however, illegal immigration allows those here illegally to be abused.  Many illegal immigrants come here for jobs.  That's good.  Many illegal immigrants are willing to work for less money than the average American.*  That's capitalism, and that's fine.  The problem is they get paid less than minimum wage, but t...

The Good Old Days, plainly, never existed.  If ever anyone says that things were better, think about the time they're talking about.  You'll probably find out something that wasn't so good. For example: at a study group I was in, someone referred to the 1930s as the Good Old Days.  I immediately exclaimed, "But black people couldn't go into some restaurants!"  He said he went to an desegregated school.  There are two problems with that comeback: That it was called "desegregated" means it had been segregated at some point, and some point recently. The second problem, and in fact the general problem with the "Good Old Days."  It's based on personal experience, and colored by nostalgia.  Integrated grade schools were not widespread, and there was much violence against attempts at desegregation.  So his own experience is a little irrelevant to the point. (And besides all that, the 30s were the Great Depression - clearly not a time to be...

Boston Globe article on the indictment of the hutaree militia.  http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/04/03/8_militia_suspects_to_remain_locked_up/ "[Defense Attorney James] Thomas said the charges are serious, but 'the indictment is nothing more than a piece of paper.'" This.  Is.  Ridiculous.  This statement utterly stuns me.  Let's review what is a piece of paper: The Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, nutrional facts, magazines, newspapers, movie scripts, a price tag, peace treaties, marriage licenses, prepared statements, picket signs, checks, a "pink slip," ANY BOOK, maps, fire safety manuals, workers' rights posters, mortgages, the U.S. Census, voting ballots, birth certificates, Colonial Charters, the Magna Carta, The Rights of Man, and, of course, pretty much everything the U.S. court system does (from local courts to the U.S. Supreme Court).  Our entire Civilization is based, really, on the ...

The census is derived from the following clause in the constitution:  “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Number… The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.” Basically, the purpose is to make sure the number of representatives in the House is still sufficient, and that taxes are distributed to areas that need them.  If an area has, say, 100 more kids than it did 10 years ago, then more money needs to be sent to the public schools to pay for more teachers.  Without the census, there'd be no official way of knowing. The census has only those two purposes and can't be used for anything else.  Only the U.S. Census Bureau has access to the forms (though the statistical results are publis...

I'd like to draw your attention to the sign at the top of this picture, in between the two arrows.  I'd like to suggest the answer is, must be, no.  No, no no no and no.  No, you can't, and no, there's no rational argument that you can.  The only time you can get away with not paying taxes is by leaving the country.  Because simply by living in a community protected by a police department means you benefit from tax dollars.  What would Tea Party-ers say to Americans who would refuse to pay taxes in protest of the Iraq/Afghanistan wars?  This just cannot be done.  See Stranger than Fiction: You get audited, and you will lose. Taxes pay for: Police, Fire Fighters, Military, Medicare/Medicaid, Public Schools, Street Signs, Coast Guard, Road Maintenence, Welfare, Social Security, Public Campaign, Finance, NOAA (which tracks the weather), Customs, FBI, CIA, Courtrooms, Prisons, Garbage Collection, Nuclear Weapon Upkeep/Security, Foreign Ai...