2000-10-18 - 3:56pm

On the internal soundtrack: "O Holy Night". My favorite Christmas carol.

You're in for more political rantings today. Sorry. The good news is I'm neither a Democrat nor a Republican. If that interests you, check it out. There's some silly pointless non-political stuff at the bottom though.

So I watched the third debate last night.

Now, I'm a libertarian, which means I think the government shouldn't do much beyond enforcing contracts. So I'm annoyed with Gore and disappointed with Bush.

Bush is disappointing because he's not good at explaining his point of view.* I'm like that too, so I sympathize, but I'm not running for office. The Republican Party really needs people who can explain their point better. All we hear about Republicans is the mean stuff the Democrats like to say (they're racists, don't care about people, etc.), and the Republicans have nothing to say in rebuttal. This leads everyone to believe the Democrats are right, and in those particular accusations they're not.

Al Gore is just unbelievable. Somewhere under there he must be a nice family man type. But all I'm seeing is a pompous, overbearing asshole. He's stomping around the stage like he's on steroids. And don't even get me started on his "I'm going to help you" or "I'm going to fight for you" business. I don't want the government helping me. I'll help myself, or get my family, friends, or neighbors to help, thank you.

That's the difference between conservatives and liberals, you see. Liberals believe that the government can solve the world's problems, and conservatives think it's best left up to individuals. Democrat and Republican politicians, however are exactly the same: they just want to spend your money. The only thing they disagree on is where to spend it.

*An example of where Bush doesn't articulate well: Gore is always talking about the richest 1%. I'm tired of hearing about them. Bush mentioned, at least, that they pay the most taxes. That's good. But he left a lot out.

Let's think about this for a minute. The richest 1%. They have a lot of disposable income. Where does that money go? In addition to paying taxes, rich people also buy houses, cars, jewelry, expensive food, housecleaning services, chauffeur services, beauty services, plastic surgery, what have you.

Those rich bastards, right? I'm jealous too. But think about this again. These people are spending their money. And where is it going? To the people who build those houses and cars. To the developers and CEO? We hate them too, right? But it's not just them getting the money. The money also goes to all the people involved in making and creating every last little bit of those houses.

The people who chop down, process, finish, transport, and install the wood. The people who make, sell, and install the appliances, the Corian, the light fixtures, the piping, the electricals. People who EARN the money by WORKING. And that's just what the rich people are doing with their INCOME. As for profits, quite often they're sinking them back into their companies, creating more jobs, more opportunity, etc. etc. etc. That's what the free market is all about.

[This, unfortunately, Bush didn't explain that clearly in the debates. A lot of people have never thought about money this way before.]

Meanwhile, the government TAKES my money without asking, and does stuff with it that I don't agree with. When I pay someone for dry cleaning services, I'm getting something in return. It's a mutually beneficial exchange. With government, however, I'm not necessarily happy with what I'm getting.

For example, abortion. Personally, I'm horrified by it. My feeling is, once that egg and sperm meet, there's nothing I can do anymore. I took my chances and lost. The last thing I want is government money funding other people's abortions.

But wait! Don't get all pissy yet and go on at me about women's bodies and choices! I said GOVERNMENT money. I don't want them spending GOVERNMENT money (that is, MY money) on abortions. But I acknowledge that there are people out there who believe that a fetus is nothing but a bunch of cells and there's no reason why they shouldn't get rid of it. I disagree with this opinion, but I respect it.

So I think those people should be able to spend THEIR OWN money on funding abortion clinics. That's their prerogative. At any rate, abortion is none of the government's business. They should just stay out of it. Leave it to the individual to decide.

All right, enough. A few tidbits:

Poindexter made me some spaghetti sauce. He cooks ground turkey and turkey sausage and spices up some Francesco Rinaldi and adds red wine. It turned out particularly spectacular this time. I had it for lunch.

Fortunately, I managed not to get it on my white shirt. Yay me! I've been having problems with that lately, spilling stuff on all my favorite shirts. Butter on one, olive oil on another, coffee on a sweater. I'm going to have to start wearing a bib soon.

I'm obsessing over my moles. I have a few and I'm paranoid that they're skin cancer. They look normal (don't meet any of the ABCD rules), but I'm paranoid anyway. I have to make an appointment for a checkup with a dermatologist. I'm even paranoid about writing this, like it's going to make it come true or something.

I'm spending WAY too much time at amiHOTorNOT.com. I'm so evil, rating people that way. Although I do tend to rate people a lot higher than average.

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