MayDay, May Day

May Day or May 1st, is internationally known as the remembrance of labor parties or Labour parties that have and still do progress the movement of better work environments and wages for employees. In the US its a federal holiday celebrated at the end of May.

For quite some time May 1st was seen as a reference to the socialist party and their desire for government to control and distribute wealth within the country. Think May Day and you would think of Russia or USSR or communism. Generally the day would be celebrated by some small rally's and radical speeches but otherwise tame.

In the last decade of the 20th century, May Day became the day that anarchists would pronounce destruction of the New World Order and denounce the world bank and capitalism and commercialism. Anarchist do not rally or protest as much as gang together in a city center and become a disgruntled mob that seeks damage and destruction and then when the police are forced to use non-lethal forms of civil obedience to quell the riot, the media shows the anarchists being attached by tear gas and batons and their only defense is bandannas around their faces as if the police are the ones who are breaking up a legal protest.

In the South West, the Pro-Illegal Immigration groups have occupied May 1st as their day to rally and protest and proclaim that all of America would fail if illegal aliens failed to show up for work the next day. These are for the most part non-violent protests and in the recent past have brought tens of thousand if not hundreds of thousands of people together for their activities. These groups have well meaning intentions for their cause but generally speaking are terribly ineffective at getting their point across or creating a memorable event.

One rally in Phoenix had over 100,000 people attend. However even the media could not get behind the rally cry of 'No Borders' and 'Ce se puede' (Yes we can!) when the majority of flags at the event where Mexican and not American. Instead of looking sympathetic they came across as arrogant and demanding. Each year these leaders get more savy, but less energized. This year less than 10,000 people are expected at the rallys in Phoenix.

May 1st, May Day, Labor Day, Labour Day, has been known as a day of rest and introspection at the advancement of employee rights. In the future it may well be turned into a focal point of immigration status and rights of illegal aliens. I look forward to a day when we can say that on May 1st, a national crackdown on businesses that employee illegals takes place, much like the DUI task forces on holidays. I look forward to the news reports on May Day that don't show mass rally's of forced rights but mass introduction of people becoming American citizens akin to the news we see on July 4th.

However you spend the day, at the beginning of the month or the end and every day in between, be thankful for what you have.

Optimisticaly Pesimistic

I was told the other day there is no difference between conservatives and liberals, republicans and democrats. Were all the same piece of filth.

People who don't have the ability to make a decision outside of a committee love to expose that there is no difference between a liberal democrat and a conservative republican. These are people whose hardest personal decision of the day is the size and type of beverage they want at Starbucks and still haven't decided after staring at the menu for five minutes.

Liberals look at the world in terms of pessimism, fueled by their desire to take every freedom you have and doling it back as if you have earned something special. Wrap it up in a shiny box with a big red bow and high taxes still equate to wealth redistribution. A liberal can't enjoy life when there is social inequity and the cure is increasing your taxes and decreasing the bar to get a piece of it.

Conservatives look at the world a bit more optimistically. A conservative mentality is not that they need a piece of some else's pie but there is a lot of pies out there, they just need to find theirs. Generally speaking conservatives are not concerned about the past but how to make their future better. It one thing to realize that life is not fair, its another to accept it and make the best way you can in life so it's better. Conservatives are not as much concerned with personal victimization as liberating the oppressed.

I am told that the media is more republican than democrat, ya know Fox News and all. But it astounds me at the deluge of negativity portrayed by local news. Bad news is not the currency of the right. For the first six months of my sons life, my wife cried every time the news was on wondering how we could have brought such a blessing into such bad times. Good luck finding anything positive about the Global War On Terror in any 'legitimate' news source. It used to be that the last refuge of anything positive in the newspaper was Sports or Lifestyles and now even those editions are riddled with bad news.

Liberals want to constantly remind you of where you are at in life and how someone took something from you. They generally are not concerned in your personal well being inasmuch as they want large groups to be dependent on them for support. Conservatives want to show you a path to reaching your dreams and tell you it will be a hard road with sacrifice and disappointment but with faith in yourself and personal growth anything is possible.

Lets use the example of The Underdog. Everyone loves the Underdog. Liberals because its an opportunity to entrap him in welfare and food stamps, forcing business to pay him a 'living wage' even though the Underdog is 24, has a family of three and no education. All the time telling him that life is dire and he's a victim of whatever can be checked off the list. Conservatives love the Underdog because its a chance to overcome the odds and persevere in the face of adversity. Becoming the best the Underdog can be and become a value to society and a contributor of the community. The Underdog story for the conservative is not a trailer park to mansion story but a Horatio Alger tale.

The bottom line is that only the non-thinking believe people that the right and left are the same. Believe in one side or the other, makes no difference to me. Its how our country works. But for the love of God or your higher power don't be so dense as to think we are all the same.

Now make your Starbuck order already, I'm just getting the black coffee straight up.

Stem Cells

I think there is great benefit to stem cell research. If inside each of us is tissue that when properly presented can become identical to a different organism in our body, well thats divine genius. Tissue taken from my brain or my neck or somewhere else inside my body or from stored umbilical cord blood that can become a new liver or a new cartilage for my knee or repair a damaged spinal cord is a testament to applied science.

The ethical debate on whether this course of study should be applied to fertilized eggs from inside a woman has completely complicated this fascinating program. I am whatever you want to call me, anti-abortion as bitrh control mostly. Stem cell research to me is not so much about my thoughts on abortion as it is my thoughts on courses of actions and real movement in the area.

The pro-fertilized egg crowd has done absolutely nothing to progress real results in the stem cell scientific community. They end up being portrayed as feminists and activists wanting more rights over reproduction. If a woman wants to abstain from sex, go through the two month fertility treatments and painful shots to harvest and sell her dozen or two fertilized eggs for a couple grand, that will be nurtured until life in created in those eggs and then those eggs will be destroyed and dissected. That is a choice those people are willing to live with.

President George W. Bush's ability to withhold federal funding for scientific study in this specific stem cell foray has only whipped that rabid mob into a frenzy. But he said he used his religious beliefs and unquestioned legal authority to maintain his personal moral's and convictions while in office. Thats his right, much as a liberal president would want to increase my taxes.

People against him can call him hypocritical but the claims goes both ways. People in the middle get lost in the muck, is it an activist issue or religious conviction.

I heard all the plea's at the democrat presidential convention. I listened to Ron Reagan Jr. rally the crowd about how embryonic stem cell research could have saved his father the late President Ronald Reagan from Alzheimer's disease. I saw the commercials after Christopher "Superman" Reeves died from complication of being a quadriplegic saying his condition could have been treatable only if this research was allowed to continue. Michael J. Fox did PSA's on this as well for Parkinson's disease. These where pandering idealistic platitudes based on the near future models of the embryonic program.

Look at me. I have had several sever brain injury's; subdural hematomas, fractured skull, swelling of the brain, amnesia, about a dozen concussions with more than half of those involving unconsciousness. Its understood that one more knock to my head and I could be a vegetable. I am really interested in any science that can help me out just in case I could become a carrot.

The problem with all this debate is that its not open. Liberals demand they have higher ground in that embryonic stem cell research is the future of stem cell discovery but they refuse to acknowledge that its not one hill that this fight is fought on, its a ridge with multiple peaks and honestly what their refusing to admit is that their little hill is in the shadow of some much bigger and older mountains in this venue. What they refuse to listen to is that the most promising forms of stem cell research is from adult stem cells which have been funded continuously by the federal government for thirty years. Yet even now with all the things they have succeed in doing with it, they haven't come close to curing Parkinson's or Alzheimer's and it's questionable but optimistic about spinal injuries. The Bush position was not to make embroynic stem cell research illegal, in fact public donations care well excepted at major universities around the country. The state of California passed a $6 billion tax plan for this research.

The best way for an individual to protect themselves is for parents to store their child's umbilical cord which holds more viable stem cells than anything available currently and are a perfect match for DNA. But individual responsibility is not really a buzz word in liberal circles. Liberals and bleeding hearts would rather make you feel a certain way rather than have you see a certain way.

The liberal flagpole of irrefutable scientific research in egg cell research has been destroyed not by lack of federal funds but by sabotage by the very scientists leading the studies. The first case and the most important in the egg stem cell debate was by a South Korean, Hwang Woo Suk, who completely falsified his own results with doctored charts and photos. Now another significant study done at the University of Minnesota by Catherine Verfaillie has been completely misleading with photoshopped pictures and false claims of study.

But it seems that people who push the embryonic stem cell debate are so indoctrinated in their own cause that they can't seem to have an intellectual conversion when confronted with overwhelming contrary evidence to their theory or at least admit a divergent avenue of success is even more possible. Adult stem cells have the most research and the most promise for radical changes in patient treatment in the 21st century and beyond. While the debate on federally funding embryonic research is on hold at least until the next presidency in 2008, millions are spent federally on adult stem cell research and private money and state money can cover the gap. Lets not also forget that as other countries devote their resources in this research we can simply outbid those scientists salaries in other countries and bring them to America with citizenship in hand once another president decided a change in the Bush policy is needed.

The term grows

I did not create the term green conservative. I just am one. I first heard the term from radio talk show host Michael Medved discussing his own environmentalism. Former presidential candidate John F. Kerry and possible candidate Newt Gringrich met for a debate on global warming and during one exchange Newt says this,

Gingrich didn't hesitate. "My message," he said, "is that the evidence is sufficient that we should move towards the most effective possible steps to reduce carbon loading of the atmosphere." The pro-Kerry crowd applauded.

"And do it urgently?" the senator pressed.

"And do it urgently, yeah," the former speaker replied. "I think there has to be, if you will, a green conservatism," he added

I did not see this debate, I wish I had. It would be interesting to watch super liberal Kerry squirm at losing his moral high ground and partisan bashing to super conservative Gingrich giving a personal testimony to environmentalism and not support President Bush's failures in this area. . But the one thing Newt is, is a visionary thinker who is more concerned with how to fix a problem rather than support a false one.. He To read the entire article click HERE

Offset Off Your Ass

This term Carbon Offset is such a dodge from real and personal work towards a 'greener' world. Only rich people who have money but no inclination to make personal sacrifices for conservation use this term.

Carbon offseting is the process of paying a company to not do something that damages the environment. So if you feel like your car is a gas guzzler, go ahead and pay a company to upgrade its greenhouse gas emission technology and feel good about yourself. While in the past it was novel to plant your own tree, you can now pay someone to do it for you.

But how do you know that that tree you paid for wasn't also paid for by one or ten or one hundred other people? You don't. Its a racket. And those that are filthy rich like former and current presidential hopefuls, well they feel very comfortable using twenty times the national average of home electricity and then buying offsets from companies that they own. So really carbon offsetting becomes a lucrative deal for them. They don't turn off one more light in their house but pay themselves to have someone turn off theirs. Perfect.

It used to be that people made voluntary reductions in their own power usage. Ed Begley Jr. decades ago made his own legitimate sacrifices for the sake of the the environment and his home is completely solar powered and all his local transportation is done with hybrid vehicles recently but normally with public transportation and cycling.

Carbon offsetting and now the de jour of Carbon neutral are such baloney. Haven't public schools shown that you can't throw money at a problem and then alibi personal responsibility in teaching children? Well you also can't live your life by preaching everyone else has to cut back and make sacrifices in energy consumption while you don't.

Green Feelings

One of the issues that Green Conservatives have to deal with people in their own party looking down on them. As if they are not 100% on board with the GOP or they are really a RhINO (Republican In Name Only). This is quite incorrect.

In fact I think one of the problems with the republican party, (and the democrat party also) is that they become educated only by visceral reaction. "Well if a liberal is against Big Oil, I must be for it." "If environmentalists are tree huggers, and tree huggers are liberal and I am a conservative, then I am not a tree hugger, I am anti environment." This societal Venn Diagram way of thinking is harmful to the personal pursuit of your political foundation.

It's okay to be conservative and want to protect the environment. It's okay to want cleaner water and healthier air and higher gas mileage in cars and still support business in general and the economy as a whole.

I don't care that a CEO got a big bonus or lucrative pay deal, he or she negotiated a great pay plan. Good for them. The fallout from that plan lays on the share holders to fix, its none of your business or mine, if we have no stake in the company. However that doesn't change my belief that that business should be trying to work towards lowering its emissions that are harmful to the environment and pay huge fines when found non-compliant.

As a green conservative you are not expected to chain yourself to trees or sabotage logging equipment. Try picking up trash in places you go to around your house or neighborhood. I go to Tonto State park once or twice a week for working out usually pull out trash with me, cans and paper and such. Plant a tree. Support local grower's by shopping farmers markets. Its amazing how much cheaper and fresher the produce usually is.

Once again the defining difference between a liberal and conservative is that conservatives believe in you taking care of yourself and those around you through work and charity. Liberals will not recognize any charity unless its government funded and would rather cloak environmentalism in pagan mysticism and global corporate greed rather than open dialog regarding the preservation of our wilderness lands and habitats.

The myth of the 40 mpg car

I have owned my share of muscle cars. I have owned three Ford mustangs, though that 1988 model with the 4-cylinder automatic may not qualify as such. As of this writing, I drive a Dodge Charger, but its not the hemi. I wanted the hemi. I talked myself into paying the extra $100 a month car payment and $100 a month increase in my auto insurance, over the base model. Yeah, I was really into buying the hemi version until I realized it got 9 mile per gallon on a 15 gallon tank. They don't really put that in the literature. I got the base model but feel okay about that. My truck only got 13 miles a gallon and my new charger gets about 18.5 mpg overall.

Even at 18.5 mpg I look at that and wince. I mean really, why can't an American car that has halfway decent power and styling, carry four adults and some personal items, get more than 20 miles per gallon. A quick glance at these statistics and finding any American brand vehicle over 20 mpg is difficult. It is absolutely boggling to me that American cars today have the same gas mileage they did 20 years ago.

The fact of the matter is that European and Asian car manufacturers are kicking our collective American asses when it comes to gas mileage and they do it with style. I don't find flaw in the niche American cars that gets 300 horsepower or weighs 2+ tons, but why can't even the mid-size sedans at 200 horsepower and a half ton lighter have substantial parity with our competition.

As a green conservative I don't much like 'Big Oil', and their attempts to stifle creation of their demise (alternative fuels), but for the most part they can claim that cheap and widely useable alternatives are still in the development and proliferation stages. I mean no one has a viable hydrogen fuel cell or brought hybrid fuel to am/pm gas stations. But the car manufacturers have the technology, have the ability, have the infrastructure to turn out engines that get 40+ miles per gallon on fossil fuels in vehicles that appeal to a broad audience. I am willing to bet that 80% of American model cars regardless of size or horsepower can be configured immediately to a engine with 40+ mpg profiles.

Please don't give me the Prius option. For every owner with a Prius in the garage, I will show you the minivan, SUV, or sports car in their driveway for a second vehicle. Most hybrid options are so antithetical to everyday use anyway, forgoing grocery space in the trunk for batteries or not allowing for the fact that a commuter may need to travel with a child seat(s), gym bag, work bag, might need to buy something at Home Depot, they may actually carpool or ride with friends. Its insulting to look at the options available to people who might actually want to use a hybrid for something more than a glorified self contained motorcycle, or single passenger car.

The time is here to demand a balance between increased fuel economy of American made engines and to demand that those cars are actually practical for daily use.