So annoyed!

I just spent the last hour working on my write up discussing the Democratic Party & it froze up on me & when I reopened the document, everything was gone. I could have sworn I had saved everything several times because this happens a lot but I guess I didn't. Very frustrating. So don't expect the Democratic Party write up for a while. I'll try to work on it more this week. :P

Politics: "Obama adviser Van Jones resigns amid controverysy"

Awesome news:

clipped from news.yahoo.com

Obama adviser Van Jones resigns amid controversy

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's adviser Van Jones has resigned amid controversy over past inflammatory statements, the White House said early Sunday.

Van Jones, an administration official specializing in environmentally friendly "green jobs," has been linked to efforts suggesting a government role in the Sept. 11 terror attacks and to derogatory comments about Republicans.

The matter surfaced after news reports of a derogatory comment Jones made in the past about Republicans, and separately, of Jones's name appearing on a petition connected to the events surrounding 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.

Health Care: "HR 3200 'encroaches' on parental rights"

clipped from www.onenewsnow.com

HR 3200 'encroaches' on parental rights

A spokesperson with the Independent Women's Forum is concerned that healthcare reform will limit parental rights.

Senior policy analyst Nicole Kurokawa is concerned that decisions concerning healthcare for children will be left up to a proposed Health Benefits Advisory Committee instead of parents. According to H.R. 3200, that committee will be responsible for setting recommendations for government-approved healthcare plans, which citizens will be forced to buy into, whether they be public or private.

Kurokawa is worried that under that approach, government officials could require that children receive all available vaccines -- even the controversial ones such as the HPV vaccine.

Great Video: Uncle Jay -- 9/6

Economic & Social Ideologies: Capitalism

Capitalism usually refers to an economic & social ideology “in which investment in & ownership of the means of production, distribution, & exchange of wealth is made & maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations.” In other words, you earned it, you keep it. “Labor, goods, & capital are traded in a market; profits are distributed to owners or invested in new technologies & industries; & wages are paid to labor.”

“Economists usually put emphasis on the market mechanism, degree of government control over markets (laissez faire), & property rights, while most political economists emphasize private property, power relations, wage labor, & class.”

Support:

• Economic growth: increase in GDP (Gross Domestic Product), improved standards of living (better availability of food, housing, clothing, & health care), decreased number of elderly & children in the work force & a decreased number of hours worked per week, increased opportunities for people to rise above their current conditions
• Political freedom: “transactions in a market economy are voluntary, & the wide diversity that voluntary activity permits is a fundamental threat to repressive political leaders & greatly diminish power to coerce.”
• Self-organization: Friedrich Hayek described self-organization thusly, “From transactions between buyers & sellers price systems emerge, & serve as a signal as to the urgent & unfilled wants of people. The promise of profits gives entrepreneurs incentive to use their knowledge & resources to satisfy those wants. Thus the activities of millions of people, each seeking his own interest, are coordinated.”
• Moral imperative: Ayn Rand said that a laissez-faire capitalism “allows people to be free to act in their rational self-interest.”

Criticisms:

• Religious criticism & opposition: Jews, Christians, & Muslims have been critical as to this form of economy leading to greed & selfishness
• Tendency toward oligopoly & monopoly: many critics have associated capitalism with an unfair distribution of wealthy, cultural exploitation, & repression of workers
• Environmental destruction: “Environmentalists have argued that capitalism requires continual economic growth, & will inevitably deplete the finite natural resources of the earth, & other broadly utilized resources.”

Politics: "White House Adviser Apologizes for Calling Republicans A--holes"

This man can say whatever he wants, the problem comes when the President of the United States would choose such a despicable, classless person to "advise" him. How can we not be surprised at the appalling stuff that comes out of the White House when he surrounds himself with such people?

clipped from action.afa.net

White House Adviser Apologizes for Calling Republicans A--holes

Van Jones, the White House "green jobs" adviser, apologized yesterday for calling Republicans "a**holes," saying the comments were "clearly inappropriate" and were made before he joined the Obama administration. See FOX News.

Jones had told a group of listeners earlier in the year that the reason Republicans are stonewalling the president is because they're "a**holes," remarks that were recorded in a video and posted to YouTube.

"I apologize for the offensive words I chose to use during that speech," Jones said in a written statement to Politico. "They do not reflect the views of this administration, which has made every effort to work in a bipartisan fashion, and they do not reflect the experience I have had since I joined the administration."

Warning: This video contains profanity.

New ways to subscribe

I just added Feedburner to my blog. If you have subscribed to me in the past through a reader, please resubscribe using the RSS link on the left. Sorry for the inconvenience but I want to see how many people read this blog & I want to count you too. :)

Ok, for those of you who think I may have gone completely nuts or have started speaking or writing in tongues, aka, those of you who I usually email, don't worry about that above, but here are your directions. If you want to continue to be updated when I post something new here, there is a box on the left that asks for you to put your email in it. If you do that, it will automatically email you when I've updated. You will receive an email with a link. Click that link & that will confirm that you did subscribe to my blog & that's it. The next time I post something, you will get an email & I will no longer have to send out those annoying emails to you. If you still can't figure it out, email me & I'll try to explain it better.

Thanks everyone. :)