jakit

Cheap Gas

This is the kind of stuff that drives me absolutely bonkers. A gas station in San Francisco last week offered fuel at $2.99 a gallon. People drove from far and wide and waited for up to three hours to buy this discounted gas.

Hello? Are there people really this stupid? Wide support for the Iraq War definitely made me think so, but now this proves it.

Earlier, customers like Avon Curtis said it was well worth it for her to wait for 90 minutes to save $4 to fill up her Ford Focus. Many of the people waiting in line said they had heard about the deal in The Chronicle or on the morning news; some drove all the way from the East Bay and Peninsula.

Good God woman, what's your freakin' problem? You waited 90 minutes to save four dollars? Four stinking bucks?

Look Avon, never mind what that says about the value you place on your own time, it's just completely inefficient. When you break it down, you're saving $2.67 per hour- that's less than minimum wage. If you had just stayed at your job at McDonald's for a few more minutes you probably would've made the same amount of money. But I bet your retarded ass begged to get off early so you could race your chunky self to the petrol stop, huh?

And what about the gas you wasted driving out to the station in the first place, Ms. Curtis? Since we've already established that you're a moron, it's also safe to assume that you let the car idle while you were waiting in line; so that's even more wasted gas. Guess what? At the end of the day you were probably saving something like two bucks an hour.

Two dollars. Think about. How else can you save two dollars without sacrificing an hour of your life? Oh, I know, how about not buying a frappuccino today? I'm not even saying give up your caffeine, I'm just saying how about for one damn day you get a regular coffee instead of that fru-fru crap and you save two bucks right there? In addition you'll probably help take some of that lard off your fat rear.

But you know what? This would involve thinking rationally and I know how most people hate to do that. Instead folks get all excited about the idea of cheap gas, even though it'll be more expensive in the end if one just steps back and examines the situation for a second. This is the type of idiocy that leads people to think that America is vulnerable to being conquered by poor Muslims on the other side of the world that hate us for our freedom and we better go kill them all before they get a chance. This is why I'm not such a big fan of Democracy. Thanks Avon.

Tasting Carrot

  Tasting Carrot 
  Originally uploaded by Erikabaldwin

The little feller sits at the table with us and eats like one of the gang. We even used this chair at the Cerrito Theater on Baby Brigade night so that he could watch an interesting German movie with his folks. He really seemed to be into it.

This is his first carrot, by the way.

Ron Paul

Finally, a politician I can get excited about.

Universal Health Care

I've been receiving a lot of flak over the last few days about my post on the people who were protesting on Piedmont Avenue for free health care. Someday I'll put some time into articulating my larger philosophical views. But for now, let me just address my opinions on health care a little more clearly.

I believe that as a society it is in our own best interest that everyone is as educated and as healthy as possible. Therefore, I support using government to help assure that all our people have access to good schools and medical and nutritional care.

However, there are two points I want to make here:

First, I believe that the government should help provide access to the services, but I do not believe that the government should actually provide those services. I feel strongly that people will surely benefit from free market competition between companies involved in these two industries.

I do not intend to send Julian to public schools. It is not because I don't believe in the quality of public schools, it's because I don't support the very idea of public schools. What our children learn in government run institutions is not determined by what is truthful. Likewise, how they learn is not decided by positive results. Instead, everything is susceptible to politics and I sure as hell don't like the idea of the general populace having any influence over my child's education. After all, the majority of this country is deeply religious and I don't want that mind-numbing crap anywhere near my precious boy's mind.

If I send Julian to a private school then I can determine exactly which school I think provides the most truthful education. If some Christian in Alabama wants to send his kid to Jesus High, so be it, that's his decision. I would also seek out the school that teaches in the most successful and inventive manner. Schools would compete to get my dollar and educational strategies would improve as a result.

To assure that everyone gets an education, the government should pay for the private educations of the poor. It would be expensive, of course, but far less expensive than the current strategy of maintaining enormous and useless bureaucracies in order to do what is essentially socializing our kids, which is morally wrong, and not educating them, which should be the purpose.

I also would like to see the same strategy implemented in the medical industry. People will benefit from private health care because there will be some sort of personal investment in the cost of one's own physical well-being. If the government simply pays for everything, people will be less likely to do what they see as difficult (exercising, eating right) but necessary for good health. If one has to pay the bill for that new lung, maybe they'll consider quitting smoking a little more seriously.

No matter what, though, the healthy and wealthy will be paying for the poor and the sick. This brings me to my second point and this is what upsets me so much about the protesters. It is also what really riles me about our culture today. If we decide as a society to financially contribute to those who need their health care and education paid for, then the receiving of such services should he interpreted, and appreciated, by those who receive it as a favor, not as a right. No one has a right to health care.

Yet the messages on the protester's signs suggested otherwise, as if others are morally required to pay their medical bills. No. That's just not the case. Sadly, most people believe otherwise and we all suffer for that attitude. We become weaker, not stronger, and isn't becoming stronger the purpose of health care in the first place?

Happy Bagel

  Happy Bagel 
  Originally uploaded by Erikabaldwin

That's my boy.