Arin's Political Rants

  I sometimes read United States Federal Supreme Court opinions for fun, and today I read the ones released most recently. I think I can safely say most of them didn’t go my way. It’s frightening really, reading stories online and understanding someone’s point of view, but then realizing that it is actually happening to you. I mean, folk who disagree with one supreme Court ruling or another tend to have strong opinions on the matter, forecasting the end of the world as the result of an idea they don’t like, but mostly it is more bark then bite. Today didn’t feel like that, because it’s become painfully obvious that the court has been politically hacked. It was argued today that allowing DNA testing wouldn't make a difference, but we are going to forbid the testing anyway. Why are they causing harm when it doesn't matter? Why are they shattering any attempt at a further investigation of the turn if it doesn't matter? The idea itself is inconsistent, and as far as I can tell ...

     Speaking to a friend of mine last week, he mentioned that he was afraid to speak of politics or political views, because those around him who disagree with his ideas would not think him merely confused or troubled, but instead criticize him as evil or stupid. He’s either on the right or the left, his coworkers and family are definitely on the opposite side, so he votes but silently, having made up his mind in solitude. Between two people holding alternate views, he does not expect a discussion anymore, but a conflict, each side utterly despising the other, and shouting to silence them. Right left red blue green or colorless, my friend talked about what he missed from the old days: A less radical environment, political disagreements which did not descend into fights or silences, a cutting off of communication, or a hatred of certain parts of the nation. I think many my age would agree with my friend that they are sort of tired of each powerful side, and see in both ma...

  The Neo-confederacy rises again today, for we never swept it entirely away. The movement originates in states rights, from anti-federalists viewpoints, from groups which insisted we do not need a bill of rights, for the states can decide that with no federal interference. They argue for a weaker union, so that they may organize their own society however they wish. In practicalities, what this tends to mean is fewer rights, not more, and many shut, then welded shut again, doors. The argument for democracy was that the bigger the better, so that no special interest may control the entire country. As the community grows smaller, power becomes more entrenched. Therefore, it is in the interests of elite power to shrink the dreams, the mind, the economy, the belief, and the confidence of their population so as to better control and direct them.  Yet mankind is a naturally unruly beast, who in her youth has questions and challenges, wonders about how things are and how they must be...

        Mass deportations are foolish, for they do not fix the problem they purport to represent. Even if we accept the idea that illegal immigrants are a danger and an issue, the justification for deporting millions of them is as thin as tissue. Are they hurting the economy, stealing our jobs? Do you have any idea how much it would cost to toss them all out? We’d spend decades doing it, shouting and arguing about it the entire time, while over the southern border millions of new folk would continue to climb. If Congress and the last generation of political power would have done their job correctly, and decided yay or nay on if we wanted millions of new people entering the country or not, then we would not be in this situation today. But we are, and they’re to blame. The way I see it, either we can control the border or we cannot. Everything else is just a fanciful thought. If we may determine who comes in and out, spending our money and standing stout, then the...

          I don’t really get why we are yet again bombing the middle east. Twenty years ago, when I was in elementary school, it made sense. 9/11, terrorism, America the savior, we defend freedom, trust us, we’re the government, we’re here to help. Afghanistan, they attacked us. Iraq, they had WMD’s. But then we stayed, for twenty years, sent our people to the grave. I’m sure we helped, I’m sure we did some good, but when it drags on year after year, decade after decade, and nothing seems to change except the enemy names. First they were in the Afghani hills, then the cites, then we left, and no matter how we propped the ‘proper’ government up, spent money, sent weapons, food, engineers, help them make more equitable laws, the old world clawed itself back again, and all the people who said we should stay and work and help, somehow they couldn’t stand up by themselves. I don’t know the reality, I just heard stories, of villages fighting each other, tribal co...