Going to "fast"

Getting tired of hearing the news with every two time politician and social activist starting a fast.

Seriously here, here, here and here...and much much more.

Half these guys are overweight and their fasting is more of a much needed break from binge eating. To top this off, they get a ton of press, a "breaking the fast" press release where everyone is feeding the faster (fastee?) a glass of orange juice, milk, sweets etc. which negate the whole fast this guy was on, which by the way does not go past one day (typically)!

Next thing we know there will be headlines like :

10 year old boy goes on fast unto iPad 3 or

Engineering graduate goes on fast unto getting a girlfriend in Chennai etc..

For crying out loud, enough with the fasting already!

We should say "patni kedakkariya.. Nalladhu! Odambu koraiyum." (Want to starve for a few days, good. Your body will get in shape).

Or I am going to go on a fast unto no fasting..

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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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Jr. speaks

Yesterday afternoon, everyone in Jr.'s class got to watch a videotape of the Obama inauguration in their auditorium.

She aced the quiz on who is who, what the inauguration is about etc. when we asked her about the video.

Daddy, was driving on Lawrence expressway after dropping off kids at daycare and just reached work when Obama started speaking! While there was a temptation to stay in the van and listen to the radio, work called and knowing that the thing was being recorded at home anyways, went in to work.

While watching the inaugural speech, Jr. looked up and asked me

"Daddy, can only a man be president?"

I said "why do you ask that? Of course not, a woman can be a president!"

Jr. : Which woman was president?

Me : No one so far. But we did not have black President's either.. now we have a black president. we will have a woman President soon!

Jr. : I want to be President!

Me : I ask you to copy three sentences from the book and you made six mistakes! You see how long he is speaking without making any mistakes? First learn to write without mistakes and then you can talk of becoming the President!

Jr. : Okayyyyy! I will write without making misakes.. (stomped on the floor and walked out!)

For starters, the new President has provided motivational material for a few hours in this house!

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The null vote

It is time to vote for the next President, a few local government positions, some propositions etc.

The ballot becons and with pen in hand the two voting adults in the house are discussing things, much to the amusement of the non voting adult and the kids!

What is there to discuss?

Yeah sure, the wife saw the last debate and converted to Obama.. She was actually swayed momentarily by the hockey mom earlier with the tongue clicking and cuteness, but somehow the whole stance on education and choice from the "old dude" turned her.

Asked her why Obama appealed to her and the answer was

This guy says "we can do it" and the old guy says "I will do it for you".. Somehow that was perceived as not associating with the voter! Good, good, one more vote is good..

Now, that said, what is there to discuss?

Proposition 8, of course. Last week there was a huge rally at the local public park with a few thousand red T-Shirts with placards saying "Marriage is one man one woman", Vote yes on 8 , Honk if you agree etc..

People drove by honking or giving their finger to the crowd which was 99% asian (mostly Chinese, vietnamese looking folk) who make up a majority in cupertino and my guess is that they are all very religious church going folks. There were even some local groups sporting church paraphranelia.

In any case, a middle aged white man approached us and said "you are registered voters , yes?" and we said "yes" and he went on to ask us about India, which part, etc. etc. and said "please vote yes on 8 or we lose our values".. they will start teaching our kids in kindergarten that it is okay for a guy to marry a guy!

"our values"?!? But we hardly met!

Now lets look at reality here and try to answer some of these questions..

a. What percent of the population is gay?

b. Do the gay population have a choice in being gay?

c. Is this really about kids being taught in kindergarten that "guys can marry guys"?

d. Would that really change a straight child from turning gay or if not not taught, change a gay child from becoming gay?

e. Are there straight and gay children?

f. At what age does a child know a preference? (if you read Desmond Morris's "the naked ape" which I think is a fantastic anthropology book for novices, you will find that most humans go through a hate-love-hate phase.. initially boys find girls yukkie, then they bond a lot with boys, then they suddenly find girls attractive)

g. What percentage of the teaching population is gay?

i. How many teachers will actually bother to mention to the students (especially in kindergarten) about sex?

j. How many will further venture to the topic of same sex?

k. What are the chances of any of the books explicitly dedicating a paragraph or a chapter to same sex marriage?

l. How much do our students listen to their teachers?

m. What has any of this got to do with marriage?

n. Is marriage "one man one woman" or does it get expanded to "one man one woman at a time"? or "one woman one man at a time"?

o. Wasn't the whole idea to give equal rights like (emergency room visitation, legal custody, will and testament stuff, family health insurance, transfer of assets on death etc.) to gay couples?

p. What if the dude who came and told me about "our values" has a teenage kid who he does not know is gay, yet?

q. Doesn't cupertino have the higest local population with at least a M.S.degree or higher in every household?

r. How come that population is not able to rationalize the reasoning behind prop 8?

s. How come the dude was able to scare my wife to believe that somehow our kids would be turned gay by their kindergarden teacher and her dreams of having grandkids were trashed momentarily?

t. If cupertino has this fate, what chance does this proposition stand elsewhere?

u. Why is this more important than my 401k?

v. What of the poor gay couple who have lost all their 401k?

w. Why is the default "yes" on this proposition a vote against civil rights?

x. Why should anyone who thinks that same sex couples should have rights be branded as gay, or less macho, or be branded as "value less"?

y. Didn't they have rallies like this a hundred years ago saying "vote yes" for women not to have voting rights?

z. Didn't they have similar rallies fifty years ago saying "vote yes" so blacks cannot vote?

aa. Is California ready for that level of tolerance?

ab. Does this have anything to with a blue vs. red state or it is a different demographic that drives this?

ac. Should I stop now?

My brain is doing 400 GHz again. Need to go stick in the refridgerator..

Last time it was a null vote in this house for Hillary vs. Obama.

This time it might be a null vote on prop 8!

I leave you with lots of questions, no good answers.

Tomorrow is another day.

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