Friday Rant

The decidedly non-political nature of recent posts reflects the simple fact that current events at the state and national level are so profoundly distateful and disheartening that I can't even post about them:

1. National Security Administration data-mining collecting phone records of American citizens. Of course, I'm sure Dubya's administration will go back to that old fascist saw, "those who haven't done anything wrong have nothing to fear."
2. King George apparently thinks that he is not required to obey the law, and apparently missed the civics lesson on the separation of powers and why it is a good thing for democracy, which we are supposedly protecting and fostering all over the world.
   
3. The Sudan. Dubya isn't too concerned about genocide or democracy there. Hell, if we applied the same supposed standards that Dubya supposedly employed as justification for our imperialist misadventure in Iraq, our butts would be doing some protecting of people in Africa. Oh, wait, that's right, we're not into protecting people in Africa. We had to rush into Iraq, but hey, let's take our time on this whole genocide thing.
   
4. It sounds like the Republicans are going to dust off the 'let's scare the fundies with gay people' campaign ploy again, aka 'Federal Marriage Amendment.'

Hey guys! You know what I want from government? Not much, really.

I want decent public education. And not just in places with healthy tax bases - I mean in rural Alaska and in Detroit, L.A. and the like. Invest up front, sheeple!

I want a workable public transit system. Not some crap, bare-bones system that is not particularly useful and only runs until 7 p.m.

I want the people running stuff, like say FEMA*, to know what the hell they are doing and not be more concerned with their freaking hair than the welfare of people in the midst of a catastrophe.

I want to see meaningful energy policy, not some joke crafted behind doors with Big Oil and King Coal, and we're not going to achieve it by drilling the hell out of the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge. We can't drill our way to energy independence or cheaper gas prices, no matter how many times the pro-drilling folks repeat that lie.

Health care would be nice, as would too. Y'all who are so concerned about the threat that gay people supposedly pose to your heterosexual marriages? You know what is the #1 cause of bankruptcy? Medical expenses. Try keeping a young family financially afloat when one of the couple gets sick or injured. And my elderly parents drive to Canada every few months so they can afford the prescription medication that keeps my dad alive.

I don't want our public lands sold off to big corporations under the guise of 'development.'

And I want clear air, clean water and plenty of wild salmon returning to our rivers.

Look, I can deal with the fact that my taxes are going to some things I don't like, like the stupid missile defense boondoggle. One can't win them all. And I can accept the fact of paying taxes.**

* In the White House, too, while we're at it. But we might have to wait a little while longer for that.

** There is something unseemly about Alaskans bitching about paying taxes. It is, shall we say, a bit hypocritical. We don't pay a state income tax (though we used to, all you recently-arrived-don't-want-to-pay-for-services newbies, even back BEFORE Big Oil turned on the taps) and we get more money back in the federal tax dollars than we actually send.