Wednesday, November 09, 2005

10 more things America should do to save itself

this is an addition to andTim's previous entry, with the exception of a disagreement listed in my item #7. dont read ahead, it is all good material. be patient and wait for #7...

1. stop outsourcing jobs - this is so disfunctional. first of all, giving jobs up overseas is very counterintuitive. the only thing it does is put more money in the ginormous pockets of big business gurus and provides some opportunity and income potential for people in the foreign land. of course i am a proponent of benefitting other countries' populace, but in this case, it is counterproductive. by giving these tens of thousands (or more, who really knows) of jobs to the common citizen of India or China, we are not making them available to our own poverty stricken people of America. thus increasing the unemployment rate, forcing more people into welfare/medicare, increasing crime, draining social security, etc etc. lets keep our jobs at home.

2. make it much more difficult to obtain a driver's license - driving should be restored to a privilege, not a right. the reason? driving is dangerous. people who have a record of accidents/DUI/DWI should not be allowed to drive. if your car cannot reach the speed limit on the highway, you should not drive there. tests for drivers should be much harder. sure, we all make mistakes driving, but i am talking about the people who cut across 5 lanes of traffic at 65 mph to make their exit. YOU MISSED IT. ok? go to the next exit, turn around, and take the extra 90 seconds to backtrack instead of putting everyone else on the road in danger. going out drinking every night and driving home? arrested with license revocation. right turn from the left lane? nope. reverse down the highway to go back to an exit you passed? nope. you missed it. tons of drivers dont even have car insurance. these people should have their car towed to the police station and not returned until they get insurance. i bet any of us could write a book on the crazies and their habits on the road...

3. crack down on unethical business behavior - this is out of hand. i am not sure nor do i have time to figure this one out. however, you do Mr. Congressman, and you should come up with something sooner rather than later. i think this is a lot bigger issue than people recognize. however, i have no hard proof, just my take on it.

4. mass transit - following andTim's lead here...one for the tree huggin hippies. there are too many cars on the road. pollution is a bad thing. several other countries have more developed bus/train/rail/subway systems than we do, and we should follow suit. our trains suck here and developing that system could take some heat off the beating of fuel prices. i vote for a similar system as the Shinkansen of Japan.

5. have an identity - the U.S. is way too concerned about pleasing everyone, especially the super-minority. we should stop trying to accommodate everyone and have our law that should not be amended for convenience or preferential inclusion. 99% of other countries have a set of rules/laws and if you break them there is consequence. here, if you break/dont agree with a law, there is this beating of a caucus where the offender argues the position that they should be able to exercise freedom and do/say/steal from/cheat/wrong anyone they want. this item also falls in line with andTim's close the border point. it is ok not to be ok with everything. let's establish who we are and make necessary adjustments when needed. anyone who doesn't like it, can LEAVE. it isnt insensitive, we are the only country that does not do this. move somewhere you can do what you want instead of staying here and bitching.

6. realize the importance of education/family values - a very cliche political platform, however this never loses its importance. the government needs to stop wasting money by overpaying for things and bad decision making. get your crap together and put more money into schools, low income family assistance (having a system/plan to get on a track, not a handout), pay teachers more, give schools more resources, and start caring about the future of the country. in addition to the governmental responsibility, the general population needs to wake up and realize the importance of this as well.

7. stop spending money on NASA - conducting a 7th grade science fair while in orbit is not a good way to spend billions of dollars. no more monkeys in space, no growing potatoes, no more going in space just to spend the entire time fixing the contraption you used to get to space to begin with, no more space station. what the heck do we need a space station for? so we have an arena to compete against the russians and chinese for who can make a volcano erupt in space with baking soda and vinegar? enough.

8. do not rebuild New Orleans - i should add "any more than absolutely necessary." pouring billions of dollars into a sinking city that was trashy to begin with is not a good idea. put the money in to save things that are salvagable. wrecking things and rebuilding brand new better facilities is a horrible idea. i know i am going democratic with pointing out a bad idea with no solution, but again, i dont spend all day thinking of solutions to large issues like this. i can just tell you that this is not a good way to spend money.

9. clean up the district - politicians are shady arent they? why is that? what is it about our system that corrupts our representatives? hmmm. the standard stuff probably. money and power. oh, and the more than occasional pissing contest of releasing confidential CIA operative information because the other party released information you didnt want them to release. ethics classes are now going to be required for politicians by the W's recommendation. a possible knee-jerk reaction to all of his cabinet tom foolery? so frustrating. it is difficult to ask these people to clean up something that doesnt want to be cleaned up, so i propose some form of additoinal check/balance. whatever is going on up there in DC needs to be reformed before it gets totally out of control, which may not be long.

10. reform the BCS - dont act like this isnt important. you love college football too. this is so annoying. every other sport declares a clear cut winner. i dont want to hear anything about how one or two extra games could keep these kids out of class and hurt them academically. HELLO. they dont go to class to begin with. many athletes have "tutors" that go to class for them, take notes, and then give them a cliffs notes version at best. some probably have said "tutors" take exams, do projects, write papers, etc. dont kid yourself, this happens. i had classes with several college football players and a few even attempted to cheat off my exam. which, may have only given them a "D" but at least thats passing. either way i blocked off the cheat. here is what i propose: first of all, either all conferences need to have a conference tourney or none should. NCAA should standardize this. the top 4 teams go to a playoff. 1 plays 4, 2 plays 3. if you are not in the top 4, you havent taken care of business and cannot whine about not making it. if all conferences have a championship game, the odds of having more than 4 undefeated teams are very slim. plus, a little controversy of who is #4 and #5 to get into the playoff is interesting, controversy of a subjective #1 is just wrong. the winner of the 4 team BCS tourney is the #1 team. this adds 1 game to the current system. why are we not doing this?

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