Progress

After watching the Obama question and answer session with the Republican Caucus (thanks to Laks), and the way the press headlines come out, I am fairly convinced that no improvement is possible even if everyone (Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike) is in favor of improving things.

If A and B have to agree on something..

A: Let's do X
B: No. Lets do Y instead
A: Ok, we will do Y
B: No, anything you do cannot be good, even if it is something that came out of my mouth..

This is classic Dilbert material and can be condensed to few bullet points..

. Good ideas do not come from other people!

. If it was that easy, someone else would have done it already!

. It is my job to not agree with you and I cannot even agree with you on that!

The President actually admits that it is not possible for the democrats to say nice things about Republicans either (and the Republican dude who asked the last question just proved the point Obama was making) and that just proves that the real issue behind not moving anywhere on anything that matters is the political pre-requisite that both parties have imposed on themselves to not agree with the other party.

The sick thing is that the Press and the People are being blamed for it.

Based on the headlines, have given up hopes on the Press getting its act together.

But the people, they are another story. For my part going to make a conscious effort to stop seeing Republicans as war mongering, anti-gay, male chauvinist, anti-immigrant, non-scientific, religious zealots..

Ooops.. did I just do what that Republican did before asking his question?

Seriously, I will try to be more open minded...

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Government

A word that taking on an increasingly negative connotation by the day, across the world. A word for which we will consult the Dictionary, nay Wiki..

Obviously Wiki tells you the meaning as understood by the lay internet person, ergo the LCM of this blogs readers..

"A government is the organization,
that is the governing authority of a political unit,
the ruling power in a political society,
and the apparatus through which a governing body functions and exercises authority.

Government,

with the authority to make laws,
to adjudicate disputes,
and to issue administrative decisions,
and with a monopoly of authorized force where it fails to persuade,
is an indispensable means, proximately, to the peace of communal life.

A compulsory territorial monopolist of protection and jurisdiction equipped with the power to tax without unanimous consent.
Statist theorists maintain that the necessity of government derives from the fact that the people need to live in communities, yet personal autonomy must be constrained in these communities.

Thank you Wiki for the definition !!

If you look at the ground reality

We work hard
We pay taxes (no choice there!)
The taxes go to the government
That tax money gets redistributed to things that the majority of the governed would not approve of
The folks who do the redistibuting get compensated for doing this and

the redistribution of tax money has the following effect

a. we work more
b. we get paid less for working more
c. we pay more taxes on the smaller amount we make while working more

Sometimes I wonder if the last eight years in the USA were under "government" or some kind of dictatorship.

These days it is hard to find a few people with a clean tax record to run the country!

Bah!

As a dude who has always worked his butt off and paid his taxes, maybe I should go for a government position?

Then again, will the government corrupt me? If yes, then it is better to stick to my day job, no?

San asked me innocently "I don't like how our tax money is being given to people who make lousy cars, fraudulent banks etc. How can I make sure my tax is used properly?!"

Gave the longest Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh I could remember. My innocent lovely wife, if only we could control how our tax money was spent!!!

Maybe just like they ask us in the IRS 1040 EZ in the

Presidential Election Campaign section:

"Check here if you, or your spouse if a joint return, want $3 to go to this fund" You (check box) | Spouse (check box)

they would also ask

"Check here if you, or your spouse if a joint return, want 15% to go to the Lenders bailout" You (check box) | Spouse (check box)

"Check here if you, or your spouse if a joint return, want 10% to go to the Insurance Bailout" You (check box) | Spouse (check box)

"Check here if you, or your spouse if a joint return, want 10% to go to the Bank Bailout" You (check box) | Spouse (check box)

"Check here if you, or your spouse if a joint return, want %5 to go to the Big3 auto Industry Bailout" You (check box) | Spouse (check box)

"Check here if you, or your spouse if a joint return, want 1% to go to the Porn Industry Bailout" You (check box) | Spouse (check box)

etc.

etc.

That would be some day!

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A few fail the many

Watched the movie "Who killed the electric car?" recently. It was a documentary and the fact that it was put on top of the blockbuster online queue drew a lot of criticism from the wife and my queueing prvileges have been revoked for even putting this movie on the list!

Being the pro-green dude that I have become, it was an extremely difficult documentary to watch. Even more difficult that the Al Gore documentary. If Al Gore's "An inconvenient truth" showed us where the world is headed and beseeched us to find solutions, this movie was a reality check.

The solutions are already there. We just won't let them out! The best part of the film was I got to see the Ovshinsky's (Stan and Iris) who between them hold 200 patents, came up with so many things that cross my world today be it solar cells, Nickel metal hydride batteries, fuel cells, Chalcogenide based Phase Change Memories (PCM's) etc. etc. It was my dream to meet them in person some day! The couple had actually come up with a cheap long lasting battery technology, that made the electric car, cost competitive against gasoline based cars.

Apparently, Chevron bought a major stake in their company and shelved the technology because it threatens the existance of the gasoline based car as we know it!

Why would I buy a Prius if there was an EV1 option? I do not know!!

This post is not about the electric EV1 or Prius or environmentalism or technology.

It is about how a few people who decide the fate of many invariably make decisions which do not comprehend the responsibility of that decision making. It is almost a disease with politicians today, that when it comes to making right decisions, they invariably do what is right (economically for them, in their minds, at that time, or for their interests) as opposed to doing the morally right thing (which would be the greatest good for the greater many, right by the planet, looking forward to the future).

I would also be the worlds greatest bigot if I expected politicians and leaders to do that when an average citizen of the world cannot do the same thing, more particularly, if I cannot do that!

Given a choice between spending extra to solar power our home and continuing with the power grid, we chose the power grid. Given a choice to sell the old car and buy a Prius, we chose to keep the old car as long as it runs and save money. The same thing happened with a lawn in the backyard vs. synthetic turf! So many similar choices where we could have made a difference to the world or aorund us where the economics of the situation trumps the dogooder options.

In a world where it is each man for himself, where states protect their vested interests by erecting dams to control river water flows, where humans murder fellow humans by the hundreds of thousands every year in the name of religion, resources, security, and many other such things which really have no boundaries if you look deep enough, there is no hope for the many to expect the chosen few to do right by them. There is not even much hope for the many to expect the other people described by "the many" do the right thing!

Why have I suddenly become so self absorbed, self deprecating, guilty, etc. etc. Well in a way, my internal justification for doing a lot of things in this life was that technology would make this world a better place. After watching this movie, it has become apparent that the only technology that will make it into the world and its people are those that do not threaten today's rich in anyway.

Now that is a depressing thought, isn't it?

ps. This does not mean I will curl up into a ball and go sleep in the dark. Far from it. Life goes on. One can always hope that Ratan Tata will make a solar powered vehicle that gives the "Nano" a run for its money, or the Chinese will realize that they could get out of oil dependence and pollution by going to small Electric Vehicles. Yes! We can keep dreaming. It could happen....

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Friendship

Got a chance to go to the movies with Balaji this weekend. Watched "Bourne Ultimatum". Enjoyed the movie. This post is not about the movie, but the trailer for another movie, "Kingdom"!

The trailer pretty much shows Saudi Arabia as an enemy of the United States, a HOSTILE nation for Americans, etc. etc.

I chuckled out loud during portions of the trailer. The people around me actually turned to look and see the "chuckling dude"!

The reason for my amusement? Here is my train of thought..

1. Hollywood is 95% pro US government (whichever party is in power, the movie industry shamelessly totes their policy).

2. Depending on who the US is about to target and go to war with in the immediate future, or depending on who stops supporting, or speaks against US foreign policy, countries and people from those countries will be made the villains for the biggest summer blockbuster. eg. any dude with middle eastern background was the villain in the mid nineties after the first gulf war as in "True Lies" and the rest of the movies those years.

3. Even countries which are portrayed as friends of the USA in the previous seasons blockbuster can see a role reversal the next summer, if they don't agree with the US!
Classic case in point, Saudi Arabia! These dudes were friends during the first gulf war. Now they are the bad guys. Have to go find out if they have said something bad about the US war in Iraq or if they have pulled out some support!

4. It is also possible that the US government uses this villanous depiction in blockbusters as a warning sign to other countries. "Hi, you better support me and my policy, or you will be the next villain in our 4th of July blockbuster! The entire country will stand united in that blockbuster to fight a common enemy, YOU!". Note that if there are no countries in that year's list, Aliens will be cast as the villains.

I do sound like some kind of conspiracy theorist. This whole train of thought was only amplified because Jr. came home and said "she is not going to be my friend anymore. She is not listening to me at all". I was going to ask her "who do you think you are? Hollywood?".

Friendship should go beyond agreement and like mindedness, should it not ?

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