More on the spying thing

There are two very distinct sides in the issue of governments spying on it's citizens.   They can both be pretty silly.  On the one hand, you have those who say the government has no right to put anyone under surveillance at any time period.  On the other, people are saying that we need to let the government do what it has to do to defend our nation no matter what rights that may violate.

Regardless of whether or not you think Snowden is a revolutionary or a double agent who was on China's payroll, you have to more practical than this.

Whether you like it or not, we don't live in a friendly world.  We live in a world where a lot of people want to do bad things to us.  We live in a world where governments are fighting each other over pretty much everything.   We have terrorists among us right here in the US.  The Boston marathon bombing was proof of that.  So to be reasonable,  we need someone to look out for us.  We need people to do the dirty work that keeps us safe.  Part of that is going to involve surveillance on American soil and abroad and that means running the risk that someone completely innocent of wrong doing may end up in a surveillance video or have their phone conversation temporarily listened in on.  The question we have to ask is, is our safety worth it?  If you like the idea of foiling would be suicide bombers, you have your answer.

But another question to ask is what crosses the line?   The answer to that is simple.   Surveillance of people for no other reason than because you can crosses the line.   It's one thing to spy on someone you have credible evidence (or at least reasonable doubt that could stand up in court) of doing something that threatens national security.  It's another to spy on the random blogger because you don't like their message.   There needs to be rules that govern when it is appropriate to spy on someone and when it isn't.

I don't claim to be an expert on spycraft (or even on knowing if spycraft is a real word).  I do know that powerful people need to be monitored.  Checks and balances keep us safe from over reaching authority. So, as difficult as it is to spread light in a world as dark as spying, and recognizing that congress isn't the most trustworthy of institutions,  it's all we got right now so it will have to do.

But I want to make a social point as well regarding the level of outrage from the public.   People,  you tweet about your sex lives.   You plaster Facebook with pictures of you, your kids, every one you meet. There are those of you who put unsuspecting people on YouTube without their permission because you thought it was funny.   Why are you just now concerned that people are seeing these things?  How can a people who place so little value on privacy in their personal lives really be that outraged that somewhere a voyeur may be enjoying watching it?  Do you have any right to be outraged?

Just had to get that off my chest.  Now I'm going to post this on my Facebook page.

The de-evolving human

It's really easy to blame the dumbing down of society on the increasing number of flaws in our public education, but if we're honest, our educational institutions (particularly in the US) have never been any good.  We have  traditionally never given much effort to educating our young which is why teachers make so very little money, why most schools have limited tools like text books or computers and why some schools in the South still refuse to teach the idea of evolution.  The fact is, no one ever bothered to pay any real attention to education.

We don't hold teachers accountable for not teaching-  teachers unions protect tenure and not quality of work.  We aren't forcing parents to take an active interest in their children's education.  We don't fund schools. We focus more on sports than on math. We create useless tests and seem to think that a multiple choice test is all you need to judge academic success.  The fact that our entire curriculum involves prepping students to pass state exams is criminal.

Here is what I'd like to see change.   First of all, there is no one more important in our society than our teachers.   Teaching needs to be treated like an honorable profession.  Teachers should be well compensated (pay raises are a good start) and held to very high standards in return.  They must continually prove their worthiness to teach not only by student test scores (which are easily manipulated) but also by testing the teacher.   Why wouldn't we demand excellence from the people moulding our future generations?

We also need to make sure every school has the tools it needs to teach effectively.   No more basing school funding on tax revenue because that only short changes the working class kids.  We need a general state fund that will fund each school equally.

We need to make sports strictly extracurricular and in no way tied to school.  Schools are for learning math and science and not for learning the art of making a touchdown.

No more rote memorization.   Instead let's teach critical thinking.   We need to have strong testing but in order to gauge progress.  You shouldn't need a final exam to determine if the student passes the grade if you're doing your job.

We need to keep an open mind.   Recognize that a theory is ok to discuss even if your holy book says something different.  We need to present the facts and allow the student to make up their own mind.  There is nothing wrong with dialogue.

Last but not least, we need to hold parents and legal guardians responsible for their children's education as well.   They need to be involved in monitoring their child's progress and in making sure their child is even making progress.  Parents and teachers need to be in constant contact with one another whether it means mailing each parent a monthly progress report that goes into more detail than the report card or monthly parent teacher conferences.

Learning doesn't stop when school lets out and we shouldn't treat it like it does.  If we don't instill a love of learning in our kids at an early age, you might as well hang it up.  A good education leads to good decisions which in turn leads to a better life.  Unless we want our future generations to be stupid and de-evolved worthless scum, we have to do better than this.

The lost art of the written word

So JK Rowling wrote a book under a male pen name.   The book received ok reviews.  Some said it was a good book for a newbie.  Some said it was mediocre.   It had its ten minutes of fame and was heading into obscurity the way most books do until the truth came out, the celebrity of Harry Potter was attached to it and it became an instant best seller.   Regardless of whether or not you think Rowling planned it this way, you have to admit this speaks volumes about us.

It says that we will buy anything that has a famous name attached to it regardless of how crappy it is.  It says that we don't care about quality especially in the publishing world.  When I think of all the brilliant writers out there who are being ignored because they aren't famous enough,  I cringe.   When I think of celebrities like Glen Beck with nothing relevant to say whose books are flying off the shelves, I cringe again.

I just can't help but feel like the written word is a lost art.  The beauty of the page has been replaced by something dumbed down for stupid people and we aren't stupid are we?

Is Snowden really a whistle blower?

So I have to ask the question.  Is Edward Snowden really a whistle blower?  Is it really that big a revelation that the US has spies?  Was it really a secret that they spied on other countries and sometimes on their own?  It seems silly to think so.  We are a generation that grew up on spy movies.  You can tour the Pentagon.

Echelon is not a secret and what did people think it did? It monitors our phone calls.  The Bush administration publically signed new laws expanding the government's authority for surveillance on American citizens so are we angry that they didn't keep that surveillance just on Muslims or are we really stupid?  And why is it ok for a Republican president to spy on us but not for a Democratic one?  I question whether Snowden is a whistle blower at all because nothing he has said so far is a revelation to me.  I expect my government to do certain not so nice things to protect our nation because, and here's the kicker, EVERY NATION DOES IT.

I also take issue that Snowden, who claims he's all about freedom, blew his whistle and then ran off to China,  notorious for its oppression.  Maybe he isn't a whistle blower at all?  Maybe he's a double agent working with Chinese cyber attackers.  We have had a problem with that lately.  But why start any rumors?

And then he runs from communist China to communist Russia.   He tried to flee to communist Cuba but couldn't get there so he's considering going to Latin America, known for it's dictators.  Odd choices to me.  If he's worried about any extradition treaties,  I don't think the lack of one will save him in the long run.  Even a dictator like Putin with an axe to grind against the US doesn't want him around.  I think he will settle on whatever nation is the highest bidder for his information.

If he really values freedom though , he most certainly will not be happy in a communist regime.

So is he really a whistle blower?  A Chinese agent? A confused guy who who's pretending he's in a spy movie?  Will he get a book deal?  Who knows, but he is definitely not a whistle blower.

It's called freedom.

It is human nature to be selfish.  That doesn't make it ok.  It just means that it happens to the best of us.  Hard truth: the only freedom we truly value is our own.

We want freedom of speech but only if it's speech we agree with.  For example, the US Supreme Court (socialist bastards) just passed a law prohibiting people from protesting their rulings on court grounds. This denies people the opportunity to make their opinions heard.  The Texas legislature (more socialist bastards) recently banned protestors of the abortion ban from speaking in the capital in order to silence their critics.  The bill will pass but only because it is no longer able to be contested.

Which brings me to my next item.  We want people to have the freedom to choose their own healthcare (which is why we hate Obamacare) but only if the healthcare decisions being made are ones we approve of (which is why we want to ban abortion, why we require children be vaccinated by law or why we forbid assisted suicide).  It offends us to be told what we can and can't do with our bodies, but we feel well within our rights to tell someone else what to do with theirs.

There's more.  We want the freedom to marry who we love but only if that person is of the opposite sex.  We want the right to practice whatever religion we choose but only if everyone else practices the same one we do.  We want the right to vote but we actively seek ways to remove the voting power of people who don't vote for the same party we do.  The list goes on an on.

We like to say we're all for freedom but we are all big fat liars.  We are selfish.  It's sad, but it is true.  You can't have freedom unless everyone is included.  Otherwise you have oppression, hate and chaos.  You have to be willing to give freedom to everyone if you truly want to be free.

If you value freedom, let gay people get married.  Let women choose for themselves whether or not they become mothers.  No more religious wars.  Chillax, Sweeties.  It's called freedom.