Social philosophy in chatrooms

Gary C Gibson. - 11:28am Feb 11, 2005 EDT (#189 of 190)
Maybe the academic discussion of social issues in public contexts inevitably would be followed by political assaults from partisan opponents of whatever the issue happened to be. Political partisanship such as is common in the U.S. national scene precludes a rational consideration of social issues in many instances.

Terry McCaulif, DNC head, has made a few parting shots before he is replaced by a winner (potentially) in the job. Mr. McCauliff said that the Kerry campaign died before crossing the finish line (my inaccurate paraphrasing) of election victory because the Boston Convention did not attack G.W.B. sufficiently. Notably Mr. McCauliff did not list his leadership failure to bring attractive issues on economy and border security to the front of the DN platform as causes for the defeat in the 2004 election.

In Nagadoches Texas recently a law enforcement officer inspecting a truck loaded with frozen chickens discovered a secret cache with 2.3 million dollars. Perhaps the Mexican named driver was returning to Mexico with the proceeds from a sale of contraband merchandise to the U.S. consumers. In California there are approximately 2 million illegal aliens with Driver’s licenses, and it may thus be a good way for illegal aliens with truck driving skills to get a commercial truck endorsement to work in the U.S.A.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to prevent illegal aliens from gaining a driver’s license from U.S. States; maybe the Senate will pass it, maybe not. It depends on what influence various special interests will have in obstructing it’s passage.

Timing is important in legislation. After the President’s inaugural speech his polled approval rating were high. It was with careful timing that the budget would be released with the vast cost omissions of Iraq and SS Reform and a residual quarter trillion dollar deficit and news organizations would report that the President had a 57% approval rating. Many days later a poll that followed the budget’s release would report the president had only a 45% approval rating, yet the time delay had served the purpose, and the publics correlation of the response to the President’s budget would be obscured.

Jeremy Rifkin, to borrow from a ‘Dallas Morning News’ quote of Mr. Rifkin, said, “The tug between Europe and America goes even deeper than questions of personal opportunity and quality of life. What really distinguishes the comings and goings in Europe is that Europe is busy preparing for a new era while America is desperately trying to hold on to the old one.”-From ‘The European Dream’

http://books.bankhacker.com/The+European+Dream/ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1585423459/102-9381065-8040925

The Dallas Morning News lead editorial opinion noted that patriotic conservatives and liberals such as former CIA director Jim Woolsey are putting themselves into the driver’s seat of Honda Prius’ to save on national consumption of oil. Oil it is postulated, is a neanderthalic, counterproductive, regressive fuel used by apathetic, slow to change individuals apathetic to national self-reliance and progress and unconcerned about really silly administration policy that just enriches their special interests (not a quote, but my summary of points of the gist) approach to national economic self-interest that will be the cause for a succession of waves of war to control Middle Eastern and OPEC oilfields. Additionally, the editorial pointed out the well-known point that oil purchases indirectly fund inimical foreign governments and terrorists seeking to harm the U.S. National security. All I would add to the solid social-economic planks of national balanced budget and security issue analysis is that the Federal administration also is too reliant on China for transnational corporate profits and stock investment growth, and potential for privatization of social security.