Warning: The opinions expressed in this post are the opinions of the writer (Andrew) only and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of others, and the mere
existence of this post probably
embarrasses the editorial staff (Jill...)
I've been pretty good so far about not dragging politics into the blog, but with such a big election coming up, I figure I'll put one post out there. I tend to be pretty opinionated about these sorts of things, as you might notice, so I've been trying not to dirty up the more happy stuff I generally put on here too much.
So, I keep having an idea in my head of what I think is the perfect theme song for this election; Mike Watt's
Against the 70's. The main refrain being "The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70s". Eddie
Vedder of Pearl Jam is the singer on it. It just seems to me like those of us of my generation will be voting to defend ourselves against a conservative ideology brought about to solve the problems of 1979. And conservatives have basically been in power since that point, during which time they've knocked marginal tax rates and capital gains tax rates way down and deregulated just about everything. And at the time it was probably necessary, and I think led to the great economic growth in the 90s. But in the last 8 years the tax cutting and deregulating has been taken too far. The rich get richer, while everybody else stagnates, and without regulation the markets went off the deep end. My view of the American version of capitalism is that it has been a balancing act between empowering those who make money from having wealth and capital, and those who make money by their labor. Things get out of whack when you go off balance too far in either direction, and I think we're off balance too much in favor of wealth and capital. The republicans still want to push the pendulum more towards the benefit of those with capital with tax cuts for capital gains and higher income brackets. It strikes me as trying to fight the battles of the late 70s, and it's not really relevant today and would actually be pretty harmful.
And this whole "Joe the Plumber" jackass really gets me fired up. He whines that basically if he's lucky enough to be able to make 250k/yr owning a small plumbing business, no way does he want to give a little more back to the country that allows him to succeed. Maybe he was raised in a hand hewed log cabin and schooled by his mama, but as for me, I was educated in public school and attended public, land grant colleges where I got a world class education for relative peanuts. In grad school, the government even picked up the tab for it, including some living expenses, and just asked for a little bit of my time in research in return. Now I drive down an Interstate highway to work, work at a job partially supported by federal research money, come home and eat food from the safest food source and water system around, and can rest at night knowing the
finest military the world has ever seen is watching over me. And if I'm so lucky as to make a living most only dream about with a salary of 250k per year, I don't think it's too much to ask that I give a little extra back so that when my brother is in Afghanistan, he'll have some decent body armor. I don't think it's unreasonable for me to give a little more back than those who don't have as much do, so that other people can get the same benefits I've enjoyed and continue to enjoy.
So, I don't need a damn tax cut. Use the money to keep the bridge I'm driving across on the way to work from falling down. Let the policemen, firefighters, teachers and soldiers I'm depending on make a decent living. The "Spreading the Wealth Around" that Joe calls "Socialism", I call giving my fair share for all our benefit: teamwork.
So, you're probably figuring by now I'll be voting for Obama, and you would be right. I actually think McCain is a decent guy, but I just think he formed his views in the late 70s and they've never changed, and that's not what we need. Here's hoping that Obama wins and can get us all moving in the right direction together again.
Ok, done ranting now. And I'll spare you from any more this election season.
Jill pulled him around to a few houses in his red wagon.
And at the end, he enjoyed some of his loot. Nothing wrong with a little M&M mini action...
It was definitely more fun that last year, now that he can interact with people more, and eat some of the candy. We have a ton of kids in our neighborhood, so it's also a good time to be able to see everyone. And it was in the 60s, so can't complain about that. Definitely beats freezing.
We've been pretty slack about taking pictures and videos lately, so we need to step it up. Jill's sister is due to have a baby pretty soon here, so we'll have a good excuse. 
