Politics

Joe Biden on guns—horrifying for many Americans, but common sense for the rest of the civilised world

I see we had yet another gun massacre in the US on Friday, with 14 people killed in an immigration office in New York. This comes after the shooting rampage in Alabama last month, leaving 10 dead. And of course, there have been many, many more before that. Vice President Joe Biden says “we’ve got to figure a way to deal with this senseless, senseless violence”. Well I’m afraid there’s only one way, and I think Joe already knows what that is: gun control. What will it take for the US to have real gun control laws like the rest of the civilised world?

Americans don’t seem to realise that not having gun control is actually extremely unusual (perhaps even unique) for a modern civilised country. The people who support the right to bear arms in the US constitution always say that if guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. On the face of it, that seems to make a lot of sense, except for the fact that in countries with stronger gun laws, there is actually far less gun related violence of all kinds. It seems that, in practice, outlawing guns makes them harder to obtain for everyone, including outlaws. Read the rest of this entry »

Although I am disappointed, I can’t say I’m surprised. Obama has sent a new peace envoy to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within a few days of entering office, which is nice I guess. But there still isn’t any sign that he will be taking any definitive action to curb Israel’s continued illegal and immoral actions in the Palestinian territories. It remains utterly astonishing to me that Israel can flagrantly kill thousands of innocent civilians in a so-called attempt to weed out terrorists, seriously injure goodness knows how many more, destroy Palestinian buildings and infrastructure (including their totally and utterly outrageous policy of bulldozing Palestinian homes), erect barriers in Palestinian territory which prevent them from traveling freely and getting to work (so destroying their economy), and of course, illegally occupy Palestinian land, leaving thousands of Palestinians as refugees in their own homeland. What is even more outrageous however is the US government not only doesn’t condemn this, it effectively condones it, by not only supplying far more financial aid to Israel than any other country, but by supplying them with far and away the most military aid as well!

I have been very happy with many of the actions Obama has taken since entering office, particularly by so swiftly ordering the closure of Guantanamo Bay and a pull out of Iraq. Yet while it is true that he made no specific promises regarding Israel, I was desperately hoping to see a dramatic change of US government policy on this issue. Once again though, this was only a hope, not an expectation—the power the Jewish lobby wield in Washington remains as strong as ever, and Obama still has to deal with congress. It is amazing how powerful they are actually, given what a small percentage of the US population they are. I guess it shows that dollars mean a lot more than votes in America. Read the rest of this entry »

The day so many of us have been waiting for has finally arrived! And here’s how I celebrated the end of the Bush administration—we originally tried to follow Loverboy’s idea of using balloons, but they kept exploding whenever we tried to do anything with them! So we decided to shoot me tearing up images of Rice, Cheney and Bush instead, which fortunately worked pretty well I think. As promised, we’ve also posted an extended, extra naughty version for my web site members, and I blow a kiss to everyone who entered my win a kiss from me for Christmas competition. I received emails from a few people who said they were trying to think of a winning entry, but didn’t end up posting any! So I guess a lot of people were so intent on winning that they didn’t enter at all if they didn’t think they could. But as I ended up blowing a kiss to every entrant, I would have given you a kiss anyway. (As with all of our videos, it is in MPEG4 format, so you’ll need either QuickTime or 3ivx to view it.)

On a more serious note, I would sincerely like to wish President Obama all the best for his term in the White House—let’s hope he is able to achieve at least some of the things he has set out to do.

It is with mixed feelings that I wish all my readers and fans a happy new year. On the one hand, we have much to look forward to in 2009, not the least of which being the end of what really has been one of the worst disasters to hit the US (and indeed the entire world), the Bush administration. Still, I just can’t help feeling outraged right now at the unrestrained carnage being undertaken by Israel in Gaza. I just cannot comprehend how the US government has been able to continuously use its veto power to prevent the UN from taking action to stop Israel’s aggression in Palestine. I can only hope the Obama administration will join the rest of the world in condemning Israel’s actions, and making them comply with international law—it is critical not only for the Palestinians, but for the peace and security of the entire world. Indeed, I suspect Israel may be doing this now because they believe they won’t be able to get away with it after January 20—we can only hope that is indeed the case.

Well I must say I really enjoyed all the entries in my win a kiss from me for Christmas competition—my readers certainly are a very witty bunch! So much so in fact that I haven’t been able to pick a clear winner. So I’ve decided to blow a kiss to everyone who entered! I must say though, I do think Loverboy’s entry will make for a nice, simple, yet entertaining video, so I’ve decided to act out his suggestion in the clip—I have the perfect, cute and sexy little party dress for the occasion! And for my web site members, I will post an extended, R-rated version as well!

I was originally intending to post this video on New Year’s Day, but given the subject matter, I think it will actually be more appropriate to post it on Inauguration Day. So look out for it on January 20!

Oh, and merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it, and happy holidays to everyone who is lucky enough to be having them now.

Wow! After eight long years, the reign of the neo-cons is finally ending! And with a college vote of over 2:1, a popular margin of 6 points, and more total votes than any other Presidential candidate in US history(!), it may even be emphatic enough for the Republicans to re-think their position, and get rid of the religious right and neo-conservative cancers upon their party. Sadly however, I doubt it—early signs are that they may go even further to the right. If they do, I can only imagine they will lose by an even bigger margin the next time around, and maybe that will do it. We can only hope.

Although Obama’s victory speech was quite impressive, I was if anything even more impressed with John McCain’s very gracious concession speech. It’s almost as if he secretly wanted Obama to win—perhaps after butting heads with the religious right throughout his campaign, he really did think it would be for the best! I now understand why he didn’t try to use Pastor Wright in his Obama smear campaign (which surprised me): it seems he really is sincerely anti-racist, unlike much of his party.

Anyway, I’ve been trying to come up with an appropriate way to celebrate the win, and I’ve also been wondering what I can bitch about now that the neo-cons are gone. Actually, not really—I still have plenty of things I want to write about! But I thought some funny and creative answers to these two questions would make for a good, fun competition for my readers and fans, so I’ve decided to do the following: whoever can come up with best answer to one or both of these questions wins a kiss from me! That’s right—I will do a video where I blow a kiss to you with your name on it, which I will publish here. And if you’re a member of my main web site, I will do an adult version for you as well! Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve just had this email forwarded to me from Doug Ross:

Dear Red States:

If you manage to steal this election too we’ve decided we’re leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we’re taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren’t aware, that includes California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.

We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole’ Miss.

We get 85% of America’s venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama.

We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share. Read the rest of this entry »

In my last two posts, I dealt with the myth that Democrats are bigger spenders than Republicans (in fact the Republicans have been all-time record spenders since Reagan), as well as the improbability that Libertarians represent a viable political alternative in the real world. I have also written about the folly of basing your vote on your religious beliefs, and the hypocrisy of the Republicans’ claims to the “moral high ground”—by lying in order to fabricate smears against their opponent—while they knowingly engage in infinitely greater corruption themselves. It is unbelievable that Republicans are still trying to smear Obama for his perfectly innocent associations with William Ayers and ACORN, while at the same time Sarah Palin is actually convicted of violating the public trust, and worst of all, George W. Bush sent thousands of Americans to their deaths and stole trillions of dollars from future generations of Americans, on a lie about supposed weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Yet in spite of the astounding magnitude of all this corruption, dishonesty and irresponsibility, many Americans still see fit to tar the Democrats with the same brush, even though they have never been known to have engaged in anything like this (and don’t try to tell me Clinton’s blow job was “corrupt”!). Many of these people are actually quite liberal leaning in terms of their politics, yet they have become so disillusioned with the whole political process, that they don’t even want to vote Democrat any more. Read the rest of this entry »

A graph of US government revenue and spending vs. President since 1964—click for a larger view.

In my previous Why Does Anyone Vote Republican Any More? post, I exploded the commonly held myth that the Republicans are more fiscally responsible than the Democrats: indeed, with the rise of neo-conservatism since Reagan, they have been by far the most fiscally irresponsible governments in US history. Perhaps even more remarkable though is the fact that the Clinton administration was actually very fiscally responsible: by the end of his term, he had brought increases in debt down to almost zero (0.32%), and if the Democrats were elected for another term, we very likely would have seen the first decrease in national debt since 1961. But instead of course we got George W. Bush, who has brought debt up to such an astronomical level, that 10% of the US budget is now devoted to servicing it—one can only imagine what will happen if and when interest rates go up significantly.

In spite of these facts however, there is still a hard core of Republicans who will continue to vote for them, no matter what. I doubt there is anything anyone could do or say to turn these people around, but fortunately, they will not decide the outcome of the November 4 election. Nor for that matter will hard core Democrats. The people who will decide it are those in the middle: the swinging voters, and those who might vote independent or for a minor party. Amongst these, perhaps the most significant group are Libertarians. It seems they are basically made up of two types of people: disenchanted Republicans who are not happy with the extreme fiscal irresponsibility the neo-conservatives, and idealists looking for an alternative to the major parties, as they are disenchanted with both of them. Read the rest of this entry »

A graph of US national debt vs. President since World War II—click for a larger view.

In the final few days before the US Presidential election, I thought it might be prudent to ask the question: why does anyone vote Republican? After all, from an outsider’s point of view, the crimes against humanity, the US constitution and the economy by the Bush administration are just so outrageous, it is hard for any sane person to imagine why Americans would even consider voting Republican! So I thought I should take a look at the common answers to this important question.

One thing people keep saying is that Obama’s tax changes will bankrupt the US economy. It’s as if he has some kind of radical tax plan, the likes of which America has never seen before. But really, all he’s actually proposing is to restore the same kind of tax distribution we had under the previous Democrat (Clinton) administration. But hang on! We all know that Republicans are far more fiscally responsible than Democrats, right? So we can’t go back to the tax system we had under Clinton, right? In that case, I suggest you take a very good, long hard look at the image above—a graph of US national debt vs. President. And what better way to judge a government’s fiscal responsibility? Read the rest of this entry »