Free Form Vent

1. I have no patience for a political party that supports a broken system that prioritizes corporations and billionaires over regular voters. Their basis for doing so is the tacit acceptance that a regimen of lawsuits - feeding legions of lawyers ... is acceptable to be employed by intermediaries in our government as a way of forcing change in legislation. This , in turn, is based again, on the incorrect and false premise that the intermediaries - are in fact necessary to amass large amounts of money during electoral cycles and are necessary.

2. I am disabused of the illusion that Washington is now a place where men go to represent their respective people. I see all too clearly that Washington DC has now (thanks to the money provided by lobbyism) become a sort of twisted university system in which party affiliation means little (most lobbyists hedge their bets as to which party will be in power and so constantly reach across the aisle to recruit the opposite party faction) ... and for which any time in congress is not seen as time spent to complete their mission but rather a sort of training grounds for which congressmen can stay permanently in a lobbyism network centered around Washington, by which they can amass large sums of money through its corrupting financial power.

3. I'm tired of all the accountants rising to the top. Whenever systems are corrupt or start to break down, the bean counters are always given power - mostly because the situation calls for people who can't see the big picture and those who wish to manipulate everything tend to try to push men into power beneath them that they can in turn control by financial ledgerdemain.

4. Same as (3) I'm tired of seeing great talent in America wasted on creating financial vehicles by which people can effectively steal money. Case in point - derivatives. There are armies of people who spend their lives designing complicated financial and numerical instruments whose sole purpose in life is to wrap up worthless assets and re-introduce them as something of value. These people are highly paid, and attain status in society while they perform a subtle form of toxic effect that they themselves see but choose to ignore.

5. On social media, I have lost all patience for people who cannot or will not express themselves because their company, or their school system, or their family or whatever other controlling interest they think exists in their lives - may disagree with their honest idea. I have not been here long (I actually prefer other platforms) but from what I've seen it's clear that there are people here who regularly cull the comments base from their postings so that they present a sanitized version of debate - and they are wary of doing anything other than either re-posting or not posting at all - their own comments or topics for fear of control having some disagreement.

6. On social media, I am not interested in people who are trying to work out their feelings for their father, mother, or family - by use of political statements that either attack heads of state, parties, or authority. You have feelings about your father. Figure them out. It's ok to hate your parents, too. Just honor them if you can and try not to let your personal feelings take expression through political memes. By that same token, realize that your need to have a constant political crisis is likely your own mind attempting to block some idea or thought that you wish to have permanently subducted beneath a layer of false controversy. The A in America stands for Apolitical. We are , myself included, largely apolitical and more interested in the pragmatic aspect of government and the preservation and defense (in 2014 the re-establishment) of representational governance than we are in some personal aspect or generalized personal attack on one or more people, or parties - that may or may not represent something you agree with. I'm southern - I know for a fact the mudslingers are the ones you're going to find in a pig pen . Don't bring them here.

7. I disabuse the concept that 'friendship' can be delivered, as a concept , in the whole cloth - as a means of companies farming your data. My children are distressed by flame wars, finding themselves to be "ghosts" aka people with no followers or friends and other means by which companies who exploit so called "social" media are attempting to increase their enrollment and farm yet more data out of you. If you like someone or something , like it. But it is patently unfair to have a platform in which people can only like things and not dislike them because being human is about applying choices, having thoughts and ideas that are your own and sifting through real and false ideas, friendships, and ideologies to find the one that best suits you and being only able to communicate the "likes" and having "friends" that are seen as part of, effectively - a game - is destructive to children and to empathy. Especially young men, who struggle harder with empathy than females. This is a dangerous social condition for a country such as ours and needs to be changed .

8. Finally, modern prohibition should be repealed. Marijuana is not a class one substance. It does not belong in a category that includes heroine, cocaine and methamphetamine. Our current and modern tobacco industry builds hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of revenue into our economy each year and I am of the firm idea that we should allow the conversion of this economy from carcinogen to psychogen, and not only shut down a major sector of an underground market run almost entirely by cartel and dark lord - but also create a viable competitor to the alchohol market from which only .01% BAC concentration can increase the risk of traffic accident by over 48%. The lessons of history are clear - the so called 'temperance' applied to alcohol in the 20's resulted in two things - one, people drinking primarily to get drunk instead of as a mild social device, and two, the mafia. Today, a competitor to alcohol would allow safer roads, and perhaps a more contemplative society, at the minimun - and the concept of marijuana as a gateway drug laid in the same resting place as bathtub gin. Our country spends massive amounts of time, money and energy prosecuting the production of a product whose environmental by products are oxygen and very, very happy butterflies. Better spent towards R+D, our schools, and healthcare reform as both a strategic and social end. When marijuana is legalized its use will become more normative and we, as a people, will change materially in both our culture and our outlook. The question "are you stoned" will become less rhetorical and in my view, the world needs more people driving fuzzy bikes around town wearing tickle me elmo backpacks.


9. Finally, I really hate long posts on the blogosphere. Who the heck does these kind of things? Isn't this the soundbyte place where we go to look at cute pictures of kids?? What kind of a conversation starter is this? Who can comment on something like this - it's like eating an elephant!! I say, onward townspeople, with pitchfork, torch and deadly weapon - towards the door of he who would do such a thing!