Get Off Our Ass

Okay boys and girls… today’s piece was inspired by an article in the Boston Globe (boston.com). The article How facts backfire: Researchers discover a surprising threat to democracy: our brains, was entertaining… in much the same way as certain French appetizers are entertaining. They’re not toxic so they’re not completely wrong, but no matter how you wrap it in elitist language and/or with a French accent… it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a slug with a shell and as such… should only be eaten if stranded in remote lands for extended periods of time with nothing else to eat. While the article leads with the conclusion that our brains are actually a threat to democracy… because facts don’t change people’s minds or opinions, it then follows with a string of sketchy so called facts to bolster its position.

The fact is that in a really distorted way, the article it correct that facts don’t generally change anyone’s mind, and then it exemplifies why facts don’t change anyone’s mind… by throwing out several non-facts and inferring in the end that normal people just can’t handle the responsibility of democracy… because of the non-facts that the author throws out as facts.

             So, I’ll start with the few ‘facts’ that this article throws out as facts that so called conservatives take issue with;

1. “In 2005, amid the strident calls for better media fact-checking in the wake of the Iraq war, Michigan’s Nyhan and a colleague devised an experiment in which participants were given mock news stories, each of which contained a provably false, though nonetheless widespread, claim made by a political figure: that there were WMDs found in Iraq (there weren’t), “
   1. Well… the (there weren’t), part isn’t exactly true. There were MWD’s found in Iraq, there were MWD manufacturing and research facilities found in Iraq, and there was evidence that large quantities of WMD’s were transported out of Iraq, however… there were NOT the large quantities of WMD’s found that the entire world’s intelligence agencies thought were there. But to say flatly that “there weren’t” any WMD’s in Iraq… is wrong.
2. “that the Bush tax cuts increased government revenues (revenues actually fell)”
   1. That statement is patently false… Government revenues did rise. President Bush took office in 2001, in a year in which government revenues were steeply falling.

Year     GDP-US          Total Revenue-fed       

1999    9353.5             1827.64           a

2000    9951.5             2025.46           a

2001    10286.2           1991.43           a

2002    10642.3           1853.40           a

2003    11142.1           1782.53           a

2004    11867.8           1880.28           a

2005    12638.4           2153.86           a

2006    13398.9           2407.25           a

2007    14077.6           2568.00           a

2008    14441.4           2524.00           a

2009    14258.2           2105.00           a

2010    14623.9           2165.12           b

Legend:

 a – actual reported

 b – budgeted estimate in US fy11 budget

Now, as the actual numbers show… revenues peaked in 2000, a year before Bush took office, then dropped precipitously until… by God… until 2004, the fiscal year following the full implementation of Bush’s tax cuts. (Please do not take this as a defense of Bush at all… because while his tax cuts did raise revenues… his spending outpaced his revenue increases dramatically)

            So, two ‘facts’… that according to this article claims that so called ‘conservatives’ were so defensive about… weren’t even facts at all, but misrepresentations of facts.

            Is it any wonder why so many people disbelieve these so called ‘facts’??

            Then the article continues with this, ‘It’s unclear what is driving the behavior — it could range from simple defensiveness, to people working harder to defend their initial beliefs — but as Nyhan dryly put it, “It’s hard to be optimistic about the effectiveness of fact-checking.”’

            Well, to the trained eye it is simple what the driving behavior is. I divide it up into two areas, agenda and simple values.

1. Agenda… people have agendas to push. Everyone has agendas to push… from Katie Couric interviewing Sarah Palin to Sean Hannity interviewing Sarah Palin. The media, whether it’s CNN, Fox News, MSNBC to your evening news… they all have an agenda.

I have an agenda… only I freely admit that I have an agenda, and I’ll state my agenda openly an honestly. That is one of the few things that I think sets me apart from many others…

… other people cloak their agendas in the language of intellectual elitism and behavioral studies, etc.

Politicians wrap their agendas in GAO studies, CBO projections, economist speak, and greater good… and need and… my personal favorite, it’s for the children…

And of course, these ‘Fact Checkers’… themselves have agenda’s. Factcheck.org, MediaMatters.org and even to a slight degree… snopes.com all have agendas. Though snopes.com seems to have the least political agenda, factcheck.or mediamatters.org both have a steep political tilt and thus… their facts are about as reliable as the ones in this article.

                     2. Values… simple values. I’ll tell you what I value. I value individual liberty, namely my individual liberty and that of my children. I value your individual liberty, but not necessarily as much as my own, meaning… I’m not willing to let you swing your fist into my face for the sake of your liberty. Nor would I expect you to be willing to let me swing my fist in your face… or would I expect to party all the time and expect for you to pay for my house, run my business into the ground and expect you to bail me out.

That is what I value. I won’t make any bones about it. I don’t value your health-care. I don’t value your house. I don’t value your job… at least not as much as I value our liberty.

So, when faced with what may very well be absolute facts (for the sake of argument)… like that a new sweeping health-care bill might lower overall health-care costs and it might provide for a new Utopian society… at the cost of letting some bureaucrat to decide what kind of health-care I have…

… I’m going to completely ignore and disregard it. I don’t care.

            It’s not some flaw in my brain. It’s not a threat to democracy… it’s a simply difference in VALUES.

            So, take into account a difference in values, with the FACT that I recognize that like opinions and… well opinions… everyone has agendas, it’s no wonder why so called facts don’t seem to change people’s minds.

            There has never been a pundit or politician yet that has let facts get in the way of their opinions… and it would seem that very few of these studies or articles let facts get in the way of their ‘facts’ or conclusions.

No, not just any old person, but a really old a really old person. Well, not just any really old person, but a really old person that voted for (or by proxy elected someone to vote for) the original Social Security program. That person would have to be somewhere in their 90’s or older so don’t slap them too hard, I would probably settle for yelling at the old farts for loading, not their children, not even their grandchildren, but their great-grandchildren down with debt.  

We didn’t always have Social Security. It was originally a ‘New Deal’, Depression era program that was passed in August of 1935 and didn’t go in effect until several years later. It was originally set up as a welfare program for old, disabled and unemployed. I really doubt that even those that voted for it intended to be a burden to their great-grandchildren. At the time, it was a program to help the old and needed… and who could argue against helping the old and the needy?

Originally, the Social Security (aka OASDI & HI) tax was only 2% (1% from you and 1% from your boss for you). Now, 74 years later it’s only up to 15.3% (7.65% from you and 7.65% from your boss for you). Now, what kind of selfish person would argue with chipping in 2% of their income to help the poor and elderly? That argument goes a long way until that 2% grows to more than 15%.

Even the argument at 15% might go a little way, until you find out that 15% isn’t even going to be enough to cover what the government is owes in a very few years. That means that our kids aren’t going to be looking at 15%. They’re going to pay progressively more and more every year as more old people retire (and sit on their ass for 20 years drawing welfare), and the ratio between those who are paying into Social Security and those who are collecting Social Security gets smaller and smaller.

So, that really old person that voted for Social Security, and all of their good intentions, have really left a major screwed up mess for their great-grandchildren great-great-grandchildren.

Now, this as much as I’d love to talk about the royal screw-up called Social Security, this isn’t about Social Security. It’s more about the fact that my great-grandparents passed a program off onto me, that I don’t want, and I didn’t get a say about it. I didn’t get a vote on Social Security.

Did you?

Now, I really don’t care about your specific view on Social Security. I’d just like to hear from anyone who’s paying for it, that didn’t get a vote on it… and happy about it (‘IT’ being the fact that you did NOT get a vote for it).

Now, here is the real rub, and the point that I’ve been working towards… we’re ready to do the same thing to our children and grandchildren (and great-grandchildren) this healthcare system is going to be nearly ‘free’, not unlike the great-grandparents who only voted for a mere 2% tax that’s now grown to more than 15% (and will soon grow to more than 15%).

Even IF (and that’s a mighty big IF) these programs, like healthcare, cap-n-trade or whatever the program of the week is, didn’t grow out of control (like most government programs do) what kind of people impose these programs on their descendants who don’t have a say in it, but will be saddled with it.

Is that no better than the taxation without representation that we rebelled from England for?

How about… having a little foresight. Once these programs are in place, and once people get the idea that they’re ‘entitled’ to these programs, they’re impossible to rescind. Instead of imposing upon our children, a program that they’ll never be able to free themselves from, and our children will never get a say-so on, find a way to take care of ourselves without enslaving our kids.

How about… giving our children the respect that our great-grandparents didn’t have for us.

I don’t want to be sitting here in 50 years and have my grandkids mad at me because we made a decision for them, that they didn’t get a say in.

I don’t really want to get slapped by my grandkids because I loaded them up with bills that I ran up in their name. (and if my kids are any indication what my grandkids will be like, I’d be in trouble)

I was recently in a discussion with a friend, a man I served with in the Army, and a man that, though I disagree with, I respect if for no other reason than the fact that we wore the same uniform, the same patches on our shoulder and both of us raised our right hand and swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.

Now, as said, I do disagree with this man, but in the course of our discussion, I did get a glimpse into the thought processes and perhaps the roots of their ‘issues’.(“Their being shall we say, the more liberal leaning individuals) What I mean is that so often we get caught up in arguing over the varied issues; healthcare, bailouts, social security, et cetera, that we fail to look at why two, very large, groups of very disparate people disagree on such a large array of issues… right down the line.

I’ve always been amazed that, no matter the issue, it seems like there is usually one line drawn and people naturally trend to one side of that line or the other, and that’s even before the politicians come in and stir the pot to really get people pissed off at one another. So, for the most part (there are always exceptions) the same people that are pro-gun control are pro-government run healthcare and are pro-abortion and pro-big government anything, pro-low flow toilets, pro-CFLs (the piece of crap light bulbs). Then on the other side you have; pro-Second Amendment, pro-individual run healthcare, pro-life, pro-small government anything, and pro-deciding for yourself what kind of toilets and light bulbs you have in your house.

Anyway, in our discussion my friend made a statement that really struck me, (I paraphrase) “a Democracy means that we have to accept the will of the majority, and we have to accept what they desire, and by proxy the elected officials that represent them.”

Now, that really did strike me. First of all, we’re not a democracy. As a matter of fact, if anyone took a little time and looked back towards our founding fathers; you’d find that at our nation’s founding, the term ‘democrat’ was almost a pejorative. You’d have to look back at the time frame and understand what was happening. Right after our Revolution, the French went through their revolution; with a much different result. It should be noted that one of the early divisions in this country was over the French Revolution. Thomas Jefferson was an early supporter of the French Revolution, but later changed his mind because of the bloody direction it took, while John Adams opposed getting involved with the French Revolution, even though the French had supported the United States.

Now, the difference? The United States was based on a republican form of government; while the French was pure democracy… mob rule. America wound up with a small representative government, where the government had a few defined responsibilities and the individuals had the rights, and responsibilities, for the rest. The French wound up with guillotines, blood in the streets, fear and eventually Napoleon Bonaparte.

THAT is the difference between a democracy and a republic.

Another difference between a democracy and a republic; you can do a lot more under a democracy than you can a republic. One of our founding principles, if anyone would go back and read our founders, and the genesis of the phrase, “All Men Are Created Equal”, is the idea that my elected officials have no more rights than I do as an individual. I elect neither my ruler nor my slave master. The people that I elect work for me.

That means that if I can’t walk into your house and force you to change your light bulbs, then neither can my elected officials. If I, as an individual, cannot come into your home and force you to either pay for someone else’s healthcare or take a healthcare system of my design; then my elected officials cannot do it, and it doesn’t matter how many of them band together into a majority.

But under a Democracy, there are no prohibitions on the power of the masses. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t even take a majority of the masses today; it only takes a majority of the elected officials. (So, to all of those people who don’t pay attention to politics and then bitch and complain that the government is taking away your rights… F’ You)

So, how have we managed to survive for over 200 years without a universal healthcare system? Because, our founding fundamental principles prohibited our government from imposing itself on its people. The government, in short, respected the people.

This, I believe, is where the battle line has been drawn; between a democracy and a republic. (Now, please don’t misunderstand my support for a republican government with any support for the piece of crap Republican Party we see today). On one side, you have people that see this nation as a democracy, as my friend does and the other as a republic. The democracy folks think that just because so many people want to do something, then it’s alright and the rest should just suck it up… and the rest of us basically want to be left alone (thus the genesis of GOOA).

Now, I do not hate my friend. I think he’s wrong. I do not think he understands what was meant when he stood, raised his right hand and swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. I do not think he understands the phrase, “All Men Are Created Equal”.

I will stand up, and until the day I die protect my friend’s right to be wrong. I will protect my friend’s right to live as he chooses, no matter how much I disagree with him. I will help him fight anyone who wants to impose their will on my friend, by the vote or by the gun…

… my only hope is that one day my friend will wake up and return the favor.

Thank you God… for the death of, no not Teddy Kennedy… but of Cash4Clunkers.

I know, I know… $4500 for your piece of crap car. It’s like free money from all of those Washington DC politicians. I know… it sounds like a great deal…

… if you’re a thief.

Ohhh… Did I just call all of you bums that took $4500 from the government for your piece of crap cars thieves???

Yes I did. Not only are you a thief, but you’re stealing from kids for the most part. It’s not like your stealing candy from the kids… you’re stealing $4500, and that’s before interest.

You see… you filthy stinking rotting thieves… those great government politicians that you think just gave you that $4500 didn’t earn that money, as a matter of fact that money hasn’t even been earned by anyone yet. We’re putting all of that cash on Uncle Sam’s credit card… aka China. Tax Cheat Timothy Geithner is selling United States Treasury Bonds… mainly to countries like China… and he’s selling billions of dollars worth at a time , and that’s where the money is coming from for that piece of crap hybrid you just bought.

Now, in 10-20-30 years when those bonds mature and China asks for the cash… you know who is going to have to pay for it??? Not you… not the thieves that drove off the lot all happy with their new hybrids… Our Children are going to have to pay for it.

Now, they didn’t get a vote. They don’t get a vote for Cah4Clunkers, Cap’n’Trade, National Healthcare, TARP, Bailouts Government Motors… or anything else that we’re charging up on the ol’ credit card that they’ll have to pay off.

Now… just as an amusing side note… the $4500 that you just took from our kids without their permission… well, that’s about how much that piece of crap hybrid depreciated as soon as you drove it off the lot.

And by the time our kids are driving… that piece of crap plastic car you just bought won’t be worth $4500. Technology will advance enough over the next few years to make that piece of crap you bought worthless by the time our kids earn enough to pay $4500 in taxes.

So… next time you’re walking down the street, and you pass a school or a play ground, the least you could do is go up to one of those kids that didn’t get a say in it and tell them thank you.

Just don’t try it with any of my kids, they’ll probably kick you in the nuts… you stinking thief.