Tag: debates

Politicians, Debates and Schrödinger’s Cat

I just thought of something, if politicians were prohibited from alluding to a scenario involving Schrödinger’s Cat -metaphorically or otherwise- it might actually save the world economy a ton of money and time spent in syndication, thus disallowing them to pander fears and ideas that exist only by those same politicians’ own descriptions.
Schrödinger's CatIf you didn’t understand what I said:

    1.Please go find out about Schrödinger’s Cat.
    2.Understand the application of this theory to modern political asshattery in the media.
    3.Watch the debates again.

or as an alternative you can:

Drink more Kool-Aid.

Anyhow, it occurred to me tonight, that buried within most of the rhetoric and banter between candidates in the GOP debates, these guys directly allude to Schrödinger’s Cat in one form or another.

…My example is as follows:

…Pandering to the idea that the cat is dead and might still bite and scratch you…or maybe…the cat’s alive and out to steal your freedom as soon as it’s released. Worse still, the idea that someone actually KNEW there was a cat in the box AND gave it poison. Is that person criminal? How do we charge them?

…you have to remember…no one knows if the poison even affected the cat. Yet…we’re going to allow ourselves to be guided on a crazy journey of how beautiful this poor little cat was and how we wish it were still alive…

…then we’ll be guided into how we’ll hold responsible the horrible man that put that poor cat through such a horrible ordeal.

…then the media will make it worse by sensationalizing the state of the box that poor poor cat was imprisoned in.

…then we find out that some country that we have a some strategic or financial interest in supplied the poison.

…by the time the politicians are finished inspiring us and protecting our national interest in the cat…billions of dollars are allocated and we’re going to stop that country from ever poisoning cats again. Because that’s what they are. Cat killers.

…it gets worse. we are informed that an small extremist group of fanatics (who it so happens don’t even know what a cat is but believe the U.S. to be responsible for all the problems that arose from poison boxes) intend to place cats in boxes across the U.S. and poison them. With a fervor that shakes the world economy and eventually accounts for a truly scary portion of the national deficit, we eliminate and destabilize those horrible cat killers.

In the last ten years since things have become REALLY crazy and scary, the loss of innocent life in the last decade makes me saddens me to the bone, the effect of profiteering at the expense of our economy has sliced my income in half and even then, there are a lot of people here far worse off than I am, and yet the politicians got their salary increase and kept their benefits while the people they likely misrepresent to satisfy special interests and lobbies start to become a little more aware of the practice.

…and now comes the time where we have the opportunity to decide on which leader will be most capable in making sure the box is never opened again, the poison is never produced again, and the cats never die.

After repeatedly making laws that serve the big business and the financial block, we begin to realize that we have far more to fear and distrust in those who represent us in the government. All the candidates are either viewed as proven failures, proven liars, proven crooks, proven loons, even worse…proven inexperience.

…debates rage between potential leaders regarding the dead cat, the unclean box, and looming threat of yet another poison.

…we are told we have to remember what’s happened historically with cats, boxes, and poisons, and that the party that wants to make antidotes for the poison just in case isn’t a priority because the cats all of a sudden are jumping into boxes. Worse still, we’ve found out that a nation that hasn’t attacked another nation in hundreds of years suddenly hates Geiger counters.

And so the debates are still going now. They are getting more and more poignant and the candidates are fighting already, the tasteless commercials depicting candidates as faithless lunatic crooks are in full swing. Again, we begin to loose faith as we realize that the current electoral, media coverage, and campaign system will not allow the US to rally behind a single leader ever again…even if they deserve it.

The worst thing of all. For the last umpteen years, we’ve had to listen to politicians earning a living and invariably stressing information about a cat that never existed, a box that we never owned, a poison that actually was never created, and lastly a Geiger counter that was never really necessary.

Maybe you’ll get it. This isn’t about which GOP candidate can beat Obama in an election (if that’s even possible coming election time). This isn’t about all the dirt you see in commercials and advertizements. It’s not about who’s got some truly radical ideas (in every sense of the word).

I think it’s more about your own priorities after you’ve managed to filter out all the crap they’ve been feeding you about the idea of Schrödinger’s Cat.

Thus ends my rant for the evening.

For everyone returning to my site after everyone on the internet got a 12-24 hour taste of what kind of effect SOPA/PIPA will have on the US-based netizens, you can find a VERY clear and descriptive article on what SOPA and PIPA are on Wikipedia. So far the very best (and maybe the most objective) description of what the bill is about.

Take care and good night.

-Tony

PS – Ignoring the lines starting with … will serve as a shining example of what I was trying to point out.




Fear vs. Face

So….

I’m watching the 2nd Presidential Debate (DVR is a wonderful thing). I’ve come to a conclusion about McCain and Obama.

One of the most prominent things that has come to mind is the need to hold a debate that fields questions held important by a younger demographic. The “town hall” debate room looked distinctly like a room full of retirees. This leads me to believe that those surveyed were not in a demographic that included ages 18-30.

Also, both Obama and McCain are far better examples of leaders suited to the White House than anyone in the past…at least up until I was born.
Here are some thoughts…

There has been decidedly less sucker-punching in the debates and the campaign by the candidates this term. That is not to say that their supporters are being so gracious, but the candidates are definitely being far more tactful with each other.

  • I am absolutely overjoyed that both candidates would love nothing more than to jail lobbyists that deliberately drown out the voice of the voters.
  • For the first time in the last decade, but candidates have conceded that Bush’s Reign of Ineptitude will not be continued by the next administration.
  • Both candidates recognize the need for financial restructuring of our economy and government spending. Their reason and methodology are fundamentally completely different (and diametrically opposed from the lobby and corporate perspectives), but the need for change is evident, both want to do something about it.
  • I abhor any leader that uses fear for gain, much less to maintain their office. McCain’s campaign is using it more than Obama, but I cant stand hearing them reiterate how afraid we should be if we dont vote for them over and over.
  • I call into question any leader that advocates continued military action in Iraq. We should have stopped once we got Hussein, and moved our focus back into Afghanistan. Now we’re stuck in a country defending a people that are going to be hard-pressed to defend themselves against their neighbors once we are gone. This in mind, the killing should be stopped now…
  • I really don’t like “Face-man” approaches to serious topics. In this, Obama has disappointed me greatly, I think his writers and logicians needs some help. He’s got the right ideas, but the topics needs to be spot-on. When you say you’re going to do something, say HOW you’re going to do it. Obama isn’t really good at this. Now a key point here, there are actually detailed plans, however Obama is tactful in that he doesn’t give away a lot to the media for fear of influencing the votes he already has in the bag and/or ruining the chances of getting more.

Here are some serious considerations I don’t think are getting enough attention, mainly because there is no good answer, but they NEED to be addressed:
HEALTHCARE
The evolution of health care in almost every world demographic and a pseudo-nationalized health care system. This terminology is being avoided at all costs, but a health care system that is going to benefit the most citizens in the United States is non-commercial and standardized/regulated heavily…price-fixed if anything. This will in turn impact the 2nd largest lobby demographic in the US….Healthcare & Drugs.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY. Deliberately downplayed by emphasizing priorities in energy independence. What the hell are we going to do to support the environment AND maintain energy independence? According to our candidates…it’s one big non-solution, and it needs to be out in the open regarding our direction as a nation.

Real outside-the-box solutions…nothing is being talked about and there are some seriously ingenious ideas out there.

FAIR TAX
So far outside the box it could work. The problem? The banking institution that runs the money for the government disappears. Politicians no likey 😉

GREEN CITIES
Chattanooga…of all the ideas…this is by far the most extraordinary….

BETTER EDUCATION and ENDING HEROIFICATION
Aside from third-world countries without education systems, our education system is one of the lowest…we need to look at more successful systems that are feasible for us as a nation. In addition we need to stop a very bad strain of censorship called heroification1

There are MORE ideas out there that deserve a level of consideration from our candidates.

Regarding the smaller political parties…
Let me be clear. I DONT LIKE ANY POLITICAL PARTIES. In rendering yourself exclusive to one party, you maintain an obligation that you might not have the balls to break away from later. There is no one group of individuals in the country that has all the right answers, and in supporting party politics I feel the wisdom we exemplify as individuals is lost en masse. The smaller political parties are smaller for a reason, they don’t appeal to enough people, either financially, ethically or individually. Most of the time this is because politicians want to win and consistently use their party to win votes rather than vice versa. Creating a different party isnt an answer…it’s just a natural reaction with so many opinions on our nations direction are flying around.

Remember, if you don’t like these opinions, I humbly refer you to the disclaimer regarding my posts at the bottom of the page. However…feel free to read and comment, I invite debate….seriously. Just don’t get all personal about it and I will refrain from reconsidering your usefulness in the gene pool 😉

Show 1 footnote

  1. Heroification is a term used by James Loewen in Lies My Teacher Told Me i.e. – “Heroification, a degenerative process that makes people over into heroes.”