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This site is dedicated to sharing my writing, along with other random thoughts, pictures, life updates, and various funny or interesting stuff found on the Internet.

"All persons living and dead are purely coincidental, and should not be construed." - KV

Gone Fishin’

Last Friday I went with some friends down to San Pedro, where we hopped on a boat and went out into the ocean for some evening fishing. It was my first time on the ocean, which was quite a pleasant experience. It was also my first time fishing since my early teenage years, and I can assure you that there is quite a difference between fishing on the ocean and fishing in a small Midwestern pond. Once I got the hang of it, I began reeling ‘em in. I managed to catch six fish total, two sculpin and four halibut. One of the sculpin was too small so I had to throw it back. I had the other filleted on the way back to shore and ate it for dinner Sunday night. The fish was tasty and the fishing trip was a lot of fun.

In other news, I recently stumbled upon the following quote from Alec Baldwin:

“What Vick did is, obviously, senseless and reprehensible. But I believe Vick, as a wealthy and talented athletic superstar who performs his job out in the open before crowds of amped-up and highly opinionated fans, suffers an unfair disadvantage as compared to, say, the heads of a meatpacking plant or the directors of a medical research lab where animals are suffering the cruelest imaginable abuses behind walls and doors that remove them from our sight and, therefore, judgments.”
Alec Baldwin expressing his views on the Michael Vick case on the Huffington Post.

While on one hand I tend to agree with the spirit of what he’s saying here, he does seem to oversimplify a bit, lumping arguably legitimate causes (food and medical care) in with much more difficult to defend practices, namely a barbaric entertainment ritual and senseless gambling. Anyway, I just thought it was an interesting topic.

And finally, via greenlagirl I found this fascinating site that serves as irrefutable evidence that democracy is a farce: MAPLight.org. Enjoy!

Letter to the Editor

The Offending Article

My response:

In Thursday’s letter, R. Stan Marsh misrepresented socialism. He claimed that socialists are “essentially advocates of centralized control over people’s lives under the guise of democracy”. Our right-wing President throws the term democracy around when it suits his purpose. Wasn’t the spread of democracy our reason for destroying Iraq?

Mr. Marsh is right that our Constitution doesn’t mention democracy. It also doesn’t mention a republic. Our government is a constitutional republic. Our “republic” is a representative democracy. The “constitutional” part refers to the fact that we are neither governed by the people, nor by the representatives of the people. We are governed by laws that must fit into the framework of our Constitution. Our Constitution provides safeguards against “centralized control over people’s lives.” Our conservative President commented on 18 April that, “…the Constitution does not stand in the way of the people’s representatives…” Our President puts the will of our legislators ahead of our Constitution, except when our legislators do not share his views.

The real issue is that he calls our legislators “the people’s representatives”. Perhaps true at one time, corporate capitalism has usurped this founding democratic principle. Unlike our President, socialism does not seek to toss out the cornerstone of our constitutional republic, the Constitution. Socialism seeks to restore democracy to the legislative process by counteracting the imbalanced representation caused by gross disproportions in the distribution of capital. While socialism seeks to legislate fair business practices, right-wing legislation consistently protects big money and tramples individual rights.

The Way of Life Our Soldiers Fight to Protect

"According to the Economic Policy Institute, at the current federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour, it takes a full fifty-two-week year of work to earn what the average CEO earns before lunch on Monday."

from The Nation: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070430/gurwitch