Answer to Obama

On Yahoo, there is an Answers section where people can post questions and receive answers from the community of users.
Most of the time, questions posed and answers given are pure drivel.

Recently, I spotted a question from Barack Obama:

How can we engage more people in the democratic process?
I will be asking questions to help create dialogue around this and many other important topics so please add me to your Answers Network so that we can begin exchanging ideas and hopefully make changes that will benefit the future.
Additional Details
Yahoo! Answers Staff note: Yahoo! Answers is a forum for people from all over the world to engage with one another and to find information on topics that interest them. This is not an endorsement. We are not siding with any candidate or party -- in general or for the 2008 US elections. We're hopeful that people from all perspectives will realize the great insights that the Answers community can have, and will turn to us for future discussions.

First of all, if anyone thinks that Obama is really asking an honest question here, they need to go back to 2nd grade. What he is doing is what Coke and Pepsi do. Competing for product placement shelf space. His face is now sitting on Yahoo Answers and has received over 12000 replies so far. Whether you like Coke or Pepsi, it doesnt matter. Their brands are now ubiquitous due to advertising. Can you say the same for RC?

Even though his question is self-serving, I felt compelled to answer:

The whole point of electing people to office is so that we don't involve ourselves in every ticky-tacky decision that has to be made. Ideally, we elect people we trust to make the right decisions.

When generation after generation of lawyers and professional politicians betray the public trust by wasting time and money, by lying and committing fraud, by making the political world so distasteful as to sicken ones stomach, then the results are a public either so apathetic, so ignorant, or so sycophantic that voting might as well be done by monkeys throwing darts.

Most politicians, I am sure, start out as idealistic go-getters wishing to make things better. The trouble is, they are either completely wrong going about it, or they become corrupt or coerced after only a few years.

How can we engage more people in this process of mud-dragging, waste, corruption, lies, scandal, good intentions and flagstones to hell?

Here are some ideas:

• Remove lawyers and professional politicians from public office
• Outlaw political parties
• Reduce the size of the federal government. Hamilton was wrong
• Back our money with gold again
• Stop using federal monies for charitable purposes. That way votes cannot be bought with promises
• Get the federal government out of the state's business
• Impeach federal judges who have broken their oath to defend the Constitution

Cartoons

Most cartoons today are:

Category I: Battling/Comic Book (or, as they are sadly called today: Graphic Novels)
*Reincarnation of superheroes in a "teen" form
*Nintendo-like Martial arts
*Animal/machine/digital/fantasy/gaming battling where kids play cards, use digital devices, or send their monster 'pets' into an arena that looks suspiciously like it could be used to fight dogs or roosters
*Secret agent/spy show – a kid version of MI
*action! action! action! Frenetic activity designed to dazzle and keep the slack jaws from riding bikes, and a serialized storyline designed to keep them coming back

Category II: Insipid
*children/Horses/Cats/Dogs/Aardvarks singing, dancing, and worst of all pontificating and rehashing Brady Bunch themes
*sickeningly sweet message shows designed to make kids feel good about themselves
*at least one main character of the main generic ethnic groups: white, black, brown and yellow
*at the beginning of the episode, the characters are supremely stupid, but seem smart to the viewer by the end
*usually colorful and bright, sunny and cheery designed to dazzle and keep the little droolers from playing outside in the drearier looking real world

Almost all of cartoons today feature:
*plenty of gender role swapping so that girls will feel they are just as smart and athletic as boys, and boys will feel that they can be a cook, or nurse, or wear a pink tutu
*adults that do not understand children or treat them unfairly or do not listen to them
*some sort of life-lesson to be learned
*environmentalist or socialist propaganda

Gone are the days of cartoons just for fun. There are a few left, but not many, and fewer still that just don't plain suck.

Gone are Leon Schlesinger, Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones.

Gone are references to Wendell Willkie, Edward G Robinson and Peter Lorre.

Gone are the literary references to Rip Van Winkle, Charles Dickens and Tolstoy.

Gone are musical adaptations of Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Wagner.

Yes, the cartoon medium has suffered the fate of having to play to an ignorant and apathetic audience.

Can Dexter's Lab carry the torch alone?

EDIT: Since I wrote this, my children have shown me that at least one cartoon has picked up the torch and ran with it: "Phineas and Ferb". In fact, the original air date was about 5 months after my original post. I am glad to see that there are still clever people out there willing to put together a clean cartoon that is fun to watch.

Liberty Bell "Forever" Stamp

The new USPS Stamp will cost 41 cents.

The stamp, which will carry the word "Forever" instead of a price, will remain valid for sending a letter, no matter how much rates go up in the future.

Does the USPS think that raising the price of stamps will net them more money? That's how it works, right? You have a set number of customers buying your product, and when you raise the price, you will get that much more from each of them. But consider what happens when you raise your price. Some of your customers will stop buying your product altogether, and many will curtail their purchases. Potential new customers may balk more easily. Alternative providers may win those new customers and some switching from your product.

Unfortunately, politicians think in terms of closed systems. Raise taxes, they think, and revenues will go up. They have no inkling that the higher 'price' on production will change the behavior of those doing the producing.

In the case of the Post Office there are already many alternatives in place. We have FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc. which have already carved out a large chunk of the parcel market. How is it that a federally subsidized service could not compete and win against private sector providers?

Between fax machines, email, cell phones, IMing and the like, the age of posting a letter is quickly becoming obsolete. By raising its prices, the USPS is making its services even more unattractive, and will nudge itself even closer to the brink of extinction.

Does anyone remember the cartoon where the mouse from the country visits the city mouse? The cat chases them throughout, while the city mouse educates the country mouse. One lesson that is taught involves pricing and profit margins. One mouse explains to the other that when you raise prices you increase your profit margin per sale but you get fewer purchases, lowering your profits. When you lower prices, your profit per item is lower, but you get more purchases thereby raising your total profits.

Wal-Mart knows this and practices it. Why is Wal-Mart simultaneously popular and hated? Because people who instinctively understand low prices enjoy a bargain. While on the other hand those who are for government enforced socialism see Wal-Mart as an example of capitalism in action and therefore an enemy.

Brad

Many of the classic songs now take on another meaning.

We wont forget about you, Brad.

Time doesn't wait for any of us. Our own time is coming soon enough. It's what we leave behind that matters.

Last night

I went to an Asian place last night (March 9th) and this is the fortune I got:

"Faith is the answer to peace of mind"

This was a coincidence worthy of note.

Brad Delp dies

It is a sad day for Classic Rock fans.
Brad Delp has died at 55.