Talking It Out

What is Liberty, anyway? Probably something to do with being free has popped into your mind at just the thought of that question but, politically speaking, liberty and freedom are not quite the same thing. Let me give you an example: Let's say you're driving down the highway, speed limit: 65. You're a little behind schedule and, after doing some quick calculations... Wait, who am I kidding? No one does the math to figure out if speeding is actually going to save them any time. [Like the other day when some dude on a motorcycle came weaving through tight traffic at something around 80 mph only to have me pull up next to him at the exit I was taking. So yeah, he save a LOT of time by almost causing two accidents (that I saw) as he zipped between cars.] You're running late, so you step on the gas and punch your car up to 80. Are you free to do that? Well, obviously; you just did it, right? And this is where it can be confusing, I suppose, because, while you are free to do ...

Okay, so, we're talking about the  Declaration of Independence  and how it laid the foundations for what came after it. It itself is not a legal document, but we refer to it as a foundational piece of our history, our ideals, and, yes, our government. Last week, we were talking about the  pursuit  of Happiness, and how we, culturally, have messed that all up, but, really, you should just go back and read last week's post. This week, let's move on a bit and, by doing that, go back to our first principle: Life. Let's look again at the Declaration: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of those ends, it is the ...

It's been a rough few months. We've been yelling and screaming, "This is not normal," while those on the right politically have been calling us names and telling us we're sore losers.  (Considering recent events, I think we're vindicated. They just don't see that yet.)  You know what this has felt like? It feels like last November we were forced into a car with a drunk driver.  No one would willingly get into a car with a drunk driver. Right? But, it feels kind of like this. We tried to get out. We did everything we could think of to prevent it. Yet, the drunk ended up behind the wheel, and we ended up as his passenger.  So, naturally we've been yelling and screaming. And the drunk behind the wheel (and his buddy in the front passenger seat) has been telling us to pipe down. We're breaking his concentration. He's got this, he says. We know he doesn't.  He's been careening around. Driving erratically. Knocking over mai...

This post originally appeared on StrangePegs on Sept. 12, 2016. Facebook has a lot of things going on that we don't know about. It's not that facebook is actually trying to hide this stuff, it's just that it's not right out in the open, and, well, no one ever really looks. Of course, we all agree to it by being on facebook to begin with, so it's not like you have any right or grounds on which to complain. If you don't like it, don't be on facebook. But I digress as all of that is really beside the point. Or behind it. Or something. I only bring it up because what I'm about to talk about came out of one of those "hidden" facebook things. Unsurprisingly, facebook labels you in different ways based on the kinds of things on which you click through and all sorts of ways. A lot of it has to do with advertising so that their advertisers can target you so that they're sending ads to people who might actually be interested in them rather tha...

This is a shared post from StrangePegs . Let me make one thing very clear here before I get started: The Declaration of Independence  is not a legal document, not like the Constitution. There is nothing in it that establishes law or structures or anything of the sort. Nevertheless, we hold it as a foundational document, especially that part about "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." So let's look at that for a moment: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Yes, I'm skipping over the equality part this time (sort of) because I talk a lot about equality. Not that I'm skipping it, I'm just allowing it to be understood that  all  (adult) humans have the equal unalienable rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Also, there is nothing in this that is a pro-life stat...

I hated him  Hated, hated, hated him! I was glad he felt "slightly nauseated" over his role in the election.   I wanted him to feel worse.  Much worse.  Much, much worse. I wanted him to feel what I felt on November 9, 2016. Times ten. I suspect that he does feel miserable now. He's followed Sally Yates and Preet Bharara to the unemployment line, in a ghastly parody of 45's old reality show.  All fired for investigating the Trump campaign's ties to Russia.  It's no coincidence that grand jury subpoenas went out this week, that Comey asked for more money to investigate Russia this week. It's all so very...Nixonian. At what point will the GOP start putting country before party?

This blog was born in an email conversation about the creator of the A to Z Challenge. Specifically, his politics. After the election he had said some offensive things, and it was hard to justify participating in the Challenge. What's the right thing to do? Calling for a boycott wouldn't help. The creator of the Challenge wasn't talking politics at all for April. A boycott would have been petty and largely ignored. Instead, we decided to have our own little protest, adhering to the rules of the Challenge. We decided to create a blog touting liberal talking points. Screaming into the void, as it were. And, uh, we came up with the initial concept around March 21st... So, there was (quite) a bit of scrambling involved. Luckily, we got a couple helpers, and somehow the four of us managed to get 26 posts planned, written, and posted in time. (I got Z finished on April 26th.) Quite the scramble. Political discourse has gotten ugly of late. Peaceful protest is the way...