Monday, May 22, 2006

Not to Be Outdone: Jimmy Doane

What a great day for podcasts. If you don't listen to another podcast/radio show/Comedy Central special for the rest of your life, make it this Jimmy Doane Show! I puked in my mouth a little I laughed so hard.

~ 0:10 Jimmy: "Slow day for the Border Patrol."
~ 0:15 EJ?: "Emotional support plant"
~ 0:28 Jimmy again (I guess that's why they call it the Jimmy Doane Show): immigration solution
Lite notes are hilarious (at the end).

Jimmy, Curtis, Erik and EJ are on the ball for this one!

Hangar Dogs Do it Again

New website design, new studio (can we get some new pics?), and new double podcast. All of it's good stuff - Stitch seems to actually know his stuff! K-man on the phone, Gene ringing the bell, and the Corporate Sponsor as the ghost in the background.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Voting in Orange County, NC

This article in the Herald-Sun started a firestorm of outrage on the Squeeze the Pulp forums. Here's my take:

Folks:

Think long and hard about this one before rejecting it out of hand. This is the opportunity to create true equality among all residents. If you do not side with Mr. Herrera on this, you can never again in good conscience claim that everyone's voice is important, that you value the opinions of others, that you do not judge others by the color of their skin or the place of their birth.

The arguments against this idea will be many and varied - they will mirror the arguments heard in every blog, news program, and newspaper now, calling for tougher immigration laws and fences. And, as today, logic, fact, and basic human compassion will be irrelevent to those making the arguments. When the fallacies of their arguments are pointed out, just as now they will fly into raging rants fueled by one thing - xenophobia.

Please allow me to quickly dispatch with the obvious: citizenship. Under the current NC system, I can move from Las Vegas to Carborro, certify that I won't vote in Las Vegas, and go straight to the polls. By contrast, someone who has lived, worked, and raised children in Carrboro for 5, 10, 20 years who is not a citizen cannot. 90 days later, I can re-register in Las Vegas, leaving the family in Carborro to live with the decisions I helped shape. Can anyone really argue with a straight face that my birth in Iowa gives me some right to shape the future of a NC family while they have no say?

Having said that, my first reaction to this story was the same as John's; I believe there is good reason to fear the outcome of adding this voting bloc. The reason to fear it, though, has nothing to do with the new bloc. It is purely of our own making.

In little more than 200 years, we've corrupted our representative republic into a popularity contest. We've found government to be an expedient method to impose our will and wants on our neighbor, and to get him to pay for it. Executives, legislatures, and jurists treat our federal and state consititutions as mere pieces of paper; in tandem, they've ignored constitutional restrictions in an endless pursuit of campaign contributions and votes. We've enacted a bloated system of entitlements in an attempt to create equality of outcome instead of equality of opportunity.

We eschew personal responsibility for our actions (or inactions). By lobbying for restrictions on my neighbor's actions and what he does with his property, I also relieve myself of the responsibility to act and use my property in an ethical, environmentally sound manner. Only when he feels the actual pain of restriction does my neighbor petition government to correct what he views as injustices. It's a slippery slope that tips further and further toward vertical with each iteration; we stood by idly while the constitutional brakes were discarded.

Until, that is, another vocal minority is able to marshall the resources to use the system we've prostituted to do something we don't agree with. THEN, suddenly there's a problem. In a classic example of transferrence, we don't blame the system (that would require taking personal responsibility for our part in creating it), we blame the vocal minority. In this case, it's even easier to blame the minority because they were born to the north or south of some political line on a map. We fear what they will do with the system we've created (the very definition of xenophobia).

Going back up the slope will require radical change and sacrifice. (No more radical than bussing 11 million people out of their homes back to a place they decided they don't want to be.) It won't be pretty or easy. But, the prize, where the life, liberty, and property of everyone is equally valued, is well worth it! Will this be the issue that jars you to take the responsibility to reclaim your life, liberty, and property? Or, will you bury your head in the red clay until they come to take you away?

UPDATE:Alderman Herrera clarified his position to include only Permanent Resident Aliens (essentially the level of wading through the paperwork just before citizenship). It doesn't change my position - legal status is irrelevent. Since Alderman Herrera responded on STP, I tried to pin him down on some life, liberty, and property issues; he didn't respond.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Jimmy Doane Safety Tips

The previous post notwithstanding, Jimmy provides great motor vehicle safety tips on the latest Jimmy Doane Show. As always, funny stuff!

Intelligent Debate

I have one opinion, you have another. If you want me to be open-minded enough to consider your point of view for even a few moments, ad-hominem attacks should probably be kept to a minimum.

Oh, one other small detail: if you hinge your entire immigration argument on assimilation and use of the English language, a modest adherence to its rules for grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling may prove slightly more persuasive.

Monday, May 01, 2006

I Confess: I Rioted

In yet another example of what harm can come from not supervising me 24/7 with guns trained on my head (I'd suggest using shackles), I confess that I've rioted at least 9 times (8 times for a week at a time). Thing was, I didn't know that it was a riot. I thought it was venting the frustration of days of non-stop studying for finals. Thank God my AOC was only a facist dictator and not a vigilante!