Month: July 2016

I Don’t Think I Can Do It

I walk into my polling place on November 8, check in with the staff, get my number, and wait in line.  I feel connected to my community as I stand there with my fellow citizens, waiting to do my civic duty.  Finally, its my turn to go into the booth. I step in, enter my code, and then proceed to select my choice to run this country for at least the next 4 years.  I put my finger on the wheel that allows me to select my candidate and spin it to highlight “Trump, Donald J. (R)”.  All I have to do now is hit the red button to cast my vote.  If you’re like me and cannot imagine Hillary Clinton as president without nearly losing control of certain bodily functions, is that about how you visualize your election day playing out?  That’s what I keep thinking about, but friends, I just don’t think I can do it.

I know, I know, I know.  Don’t waste your vote.  A vote for anyone but Trump is a vote for Clinton.  Believe me, I’m having these debates with myself. But I keep coming back to the fact that I do not think Donald Trump needs to lead this country.  I don’t even think that he’s actually a Republican.  Friends, the man is an opportunist. If he thought that he could win easier as a Democrat, he’d be running as a Democrat.  He hasn’t shown me anything that makes me think that he believes any of the stuff that comes out of his mouth.  He has demonstrated an amazing talent for saying stuff that makes him look like a jerk.  I understand that regardless of what he says, Hillary’s media cronies are going to make him look as bad as possible.  But with that said, he makes it way too easy.

Can anyone tell me about his plans?  I know he wants to build a wall.  OK.  He says he wants to bring back the middle class.  He knows exactly nothing about the middle class.  Do you think for a second that he has any idea what most of us deal with on a daily basis?  Has he ever worried about paying his mortgage?  Has ever been stressed because he wasn’t sure that his paycheck would hit the bank before the check he wrote to cover the power bill?  Does he have any clue what a dozen eggs cost?  He knows nothing about any of that.  I don’t hold the fact that he’s wealthy, or that he was born with that wealth, against him.  I think its great that you can achieve that in this country.  But I don’t think he really cares about any of us that grind it out every day.

So, what am I to do?  Obviously, I can’t vote for Hillary. That goes without saying.  So do I just not vote this time?  That is unacceptable to me.  There’s way too much of that apathetic attitude as it is.  Do I just go ahead and vote for the “lesser of two evils”?  That is all I’ve ever done.  I have never really voted FOR a candidate so much as against their opponent.  I’m tired of that.  I want to feel good about the choice that I make, whether they win or not.  And by feel good, I mean that I think that they actually have the best interest of the country at heart and the Constitution as their guide.  Do either of the big party candidates meet that simple criteria?  Not even close.

Right now, I’m seriously thinking about Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate.  I have some problems with the Libertarian platform, but no worse than I do with the big parties.  I still need to do some more research on the guy, but I like what I’ve seen so far.  He comes from working class parents and started his own company, which has been very successful. He earned his wealth through his own efforts.  That alone puts him ahead of the other two in my book.  And just think what it would do to the Big 2!  What better way to bring about change than to not elect either of them!  Wouldn’t they have to take a long look at themselves at that point?  I mean, it should be easy to beat the Democrats this time, but Trump is the best that the Republicans can do.  That is a sad state of affairs and speaks to the larger lack of leadership from which we have been suffering.

I don’t yet know what I’m going to do when I walk into that booth on November 8.  I do know that this situation is very frustrating to this American.

Of Logic and Reason

While discussing the creation of this blog, the most common thought shared among myself, Paul, and Kyle was a concern over the near complete absence of logic and reason in society. While politics is the obvious shining example, one need not wander far from that topic to find a similar vacuum throughout our culture today.

What then, is logic? Or reason? They are not interchangeable terms. Reason is described as being subject to opinion, as opposed to logic, which is an actual science with rules and tests to guide one’s thinking process. To many, if something just seems to make sense, then it must be logical. In many cases, that would be incorrect. I contend a dumbing-down of our society has been going on for decades now, to the point your average person is totally incapable of applying basic concepts of logic and/or reason. Given my future posts here will likely include no small amount of discussion of the same, I think it may be useful to both myself and future readers to touch on some basic concepts.

There are types of reasoning, two of which are inductive and deductive. Deductive reasoning is from the general to the specific. “All Drebs are left-handed. Harold is a Dreb, therefore Harold is left-handed”, for example. Inductive reasoning is the inverse; from the specific to the general, e.g., “Kathy is from the Pacific Northwest. Kathy’s I.Q. is only 10 points higher than the minimum required to be self aware. Therefore, all people from the Pacific Northwest are blisteringly unintelligent.” As you can see, conclusions aren’t always valid. A third type of reasoning is called abductive, which can be described as “take your best shot”. Multiple pieces of evidence are considered, some possibly conflicting or irrelevant, and a conclusion is drawn. This is the type of reasoning you might use when answering questions like “Is she guilty or innocent of this crime”, “…from what illness is this patient suffering?”, or “…which one of these jackasses is going to get my vote?”

One definition of logic: “The science which studies the formal processes used in thinking and reasoning.” Since it is a science, there are specific rules which determine whether or not your reasoning is sound. There are simply too many to list – my intention is not to write a textbook! In the course of my lengthy and varied formal education, I never once took a dedicated course in logic. As a student of the subject, I simultaneously enjoy being able to discern faulty reasoning as it is encountered as well as feel overwhelmed at the frequency with which it is found. In my future posts I hope to illustrate some of these rules as well as learn more about them myself. Hopefully, I’ll find a way to do so which will be thought-provoking rather than a possible cure for insomnia. Since we are now in the midst of a Presidential election, there will plenty to discuss, no doubt. This could be a wild ride, folks!

What are you protesting, exactly?

As I watched video footage of Black Lives Matter protestors blocking public streets and demonstrating in various cities across the country in the hours immediately after the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, I asked myself “what are they protesting, exactly?”.  At that point in time, all anyone in the general public knew about either case was: 1. both men were black, 2. neither officer was black, and 3. there was a video of either the incident or the immediate aftermath.  Of course, the usual suspects in the media were running both segments of video non-stop, complete with headlines blaring that “another black man has been killed by white cops”!

Which leads me back to the question, what are they protesting, exactly?  One of the things that you hear at nearly all of these protests is “No Justice, No Peace!”.  So, they’re protesting for justice and against a perceived injustice.  But, how is it just to assume the officers were wrong when all you know about the situation is what you’ve seen on a few seconds of video? Wouldn’t justice actually involve determining what happened before condemning either party?  In my mind, it is decidedly UNjust to assume that either party was at fault based on 30 seconds of video.  Everyone knows there will be an investigation, since all officer involved shootings are investigated.  If you’re really interested in justice, you wait and see what the investigation reveals and what facts come out about each case.  If you rationally consider the facts and don’t agree with the outcome of the investigation, then protest if that’s what you think will fix it.

I’ve also heard them say the protests are about the “disproportionate” number of African-Americans killed by police versus other groups. I tried to figure out how many people are killed by police, and the racial distribution of those people. The end result is that I have no idea.  Every number from every source was different and I don’t trust any of the sources that I could find (The Guardian and the Washington Post, for example).  Surprisingly, the FBI does not keep track of that statistic. I don’t know if one group is killed out of proportion to their percentage of the population or not.  But if you watch the mainstream news media, you would sure think that white officers are killing black suspects in huge numbers.  Again, what are they protesting when no one really know what’s going on?

Are they protesting the violent deaths of young black people men in general?  If so, why don’t they take to the streets every week in Chicago, where they are dying by the dozens? To date in 2016, there have been 366 murders in Chicago (http://crime.chicagotribune.com/chicago/homicides). Of these, just over 78% were black and 67.5% were between the ages of 13 and 34.  Over 3/4 of these have not been solved and there is no suspect, but they tend to occur in predominately black neighborhoods, so it seems likely that the perpetrator was black as well in many cases (http://heyjackass.com/). These disturbing statistics do not make the news and do not illicit any protests of any sort that I’ve seen.  This makes me wonder if black lives actually do matter to Black Lives Matter.

So, what are they protesting, exactly?  I’m sure I don’t know and I suspect that they don’t either.

 

Never Let A Good Tragedy Go to Waste

In reaction to the senseless murder of three Baton Rouge police officers and the wounding of 3 more, President Obama said the following:

And that is why it is so important that everyone–regardless of race or political party or profession, regardless of what organizations you are part of–everyone right now focus on words and actions that can unite this country rather than divide it further.  We don’t need inflammatory rhetoric.  We don’t need careless accusations thrown around to score political points or to advance an agenda.  We need to temper our words and open our hearts–all of us. [Read it at https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2016/07/17/transcript-obama-baton-rouge-remarks/Mf7xwERq0pLmJNZEVRNqZJ/story.html]

While I certainly agree with his sentiment, I find it beyond ironic that he actually said any of this. This president has done nothing to unite this nation and nothing to lessen tensions when they were at a boiling point. He has done nothing but fan the flames with comments that offer sympathy only to the criminal that was killed and not the officer who has to live with being forced to take a human life.

No we certainly don’t need anymore inflammatory rhetoric or careless accusations for political reasons. He has given us plenty of both.  Consider these excerpts from his speech from only a week before at the memorial service for the 5 Dallas police officers that were murdered (protecting protestors who had no idea if what they were protesting had actually happened):

…I see people who have protested on behalf of criminal justice reform grieving alongside police officers.  I see people who mourn for the five officers we lost, but also weep for the families of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. [Read it at http://thewaynecountynews.com/syndicated_post/full-transcript-of-president-obamas-dallas-remarks/]

So, without knowing anything about what actually happened in either case or anything about Sterling or Castile, their deaths are equivalent to that of the police officers.  Maybe, maybe not, but this was not the place to even mention either name.

But America, we know that bias remains.  We know it, whether you are black, or white, or Hispanic, or Asian, or native American, or of Middle Eastern descent, we have all seen this bigotry in our own lives at some point. We’ve heard it at times in our own homes.  If we’re honest, perhaps we’ve heard prejudice in our own heads and felt it in our own hearts. We know that. And while some suffer far more under racism’s burden, some feel to a far greater extent discrimination’s stain.  Although most of us do our best to guard against it and teach our children better, none of us is entirely innocent.  No institution is entirely immune, and that includes our police departments.  We know this.

So, at a memorial service for police officers who were murdered during a Black Lives Matter protest, Obama thought it was appropriate to discuss racial issues in this country. He has unlimited opportunities to say whatever he wants and have it spread all over the world, but he couldn’t stop at just honoring the officers. There are another couple of paragraphs on racism.  You can read those, if you like.

We flood communities with so many guns that it is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book.

I’m not even going to comment further on this one. There’s no need.

And here is where I had to fight to keep my lunch down. If you have a weak stomach, please don’t read the rest of this.

We should — when we hear a friend describe him (Alton Sterling) by saying that, whatever he cooked, he cooked enough for everybody, that should sound familiar to us, that maybe he wasn’t so different than us. So that we can, yes, insist that his life matters.

Just as we should hear the students and co-workers describe their affection for Philando Castile as a gentle soul.  Mr. Rogers with dreadlocks, they called him.  And know that his life mattered to a whole lot of people of all races, of all ages, and that we have to do what we can without putting officer’s lives at risk, but do better to prevent another life like his from being lost.

Wow. Can you think of anything less appropriate to say at a memorial service for murdered police officers? Murdered because they were in uniform and white.  Murdered while protecting protestors who were angry over some perceived wrong, when in fact, nothing was known about what had actually happened in either case. He didn’t know anything about Sterling or Castile or what actually happened that caused their deaths.  But that didn’t stop him for basically eulogizing them along with the officers.  I personally find that disgusting.

Yes, we should be focusing on words and actions that unite. But while that happens every day at the local level, it does not happen in the White House, and that’s frustrating to this American!

Another Welcome!

Like my friend Paul, I am somewhat new to the world of blogging and I expect to have quite the learning curve. I share his feelings in many areas, especially that of frustration with Facebook as a place for meaningful discussion on anything of substance, especially when it comes to politics.

I will follow Paul’s example with a bit of an introduction. I grew up in Boaz, Alabama. I graduated from Jacksonville State University in 1990 with a degree in Music Education, followed almost immediately by spending the next year and a half  or so doing various things for the United States Army, nine months of which were spent in various exotic locations in the Middle East (the careful reader should take note – if you are not fond of sarcasm, my blog may not be your favorite). After returning home from that service, I continued my education at JSU, stopping just a few classes short of my Master’s in Music Education to take a job as a band director. Over the next decade, I finished my Master’s, decided teaching was not for me, moved more times than I care to remember, taught again, stopped teaching again, tried other things, taught again in another state, walked out of it for good with one ridiculous statement from a principal, and became proficient in the art of the run-on sentence. I currently work for one of the largest insurance companies in the U.S. As A (see what I did there?) claims adjuster. I’m the guy you call when bad things have happened. I’m a guy with a lot of interests, and I hope a lot of interesting stories.

Like Paul, I’m a bit of a round peg/square hole guy politically speaking. I am very Liberty-minded, which by definition means I simply cannot support the Democratic party. It also means I simply cannot abide by the Republican party’s lip service to smaller government while doing less than nothing to actually implement it. The Libertarian party is appealing, but has yet to gather enough traction to attract either meaningful voter support or strong candidates with enough name recognition.

 

This blog was conceptualized and created in a short amount of time. I have a private social media page which I created some time ago as a place where I could post the ocassional rant, or items which may be a bit on the salty side without offending some of my more genteel friends or suffering the onslaught of the oh so tolerant left. Paul is an active participant on that page. He posted one day with an expression of dissatisfaction with that form of media, stating he was thinking of blogging, and asked to know our thoughts. That resulted in a message to both myself and Paul from a common friend, a brilliant computer/IT/internet professional, offering to set us up a blog. We chatted a bit about our thoughts of what we wanted to do, and discovered a remarkably common vision. Paul had the idea. I came up with the name. Our common friend (I’ll leave it to him to introduce himself), the real brain of the operation, corralled enough spare electrons from his world to make this website a reality.

I hope this to be a place where we can discuss things we feel to be important with an aim toward logic and reason. I feel those qualities to be almost absent from most public discussion. I ask you to join us in the same spirit. I expect limited feeding of trolls here, but I certainly do not want this to be an echo chamber. I appreciate substance far more than symbolism, and I certainly hope to learn.

Thank you for reading, and please share your thoughts!

Welcome!

Welcome friends!

This is my first effort at blogging, and I hope you’ll humor me as I figure this out. I thought that I’d start with an introduction of myself and the blog. This started as a way for me to express my political opinions without burdening my Facebook friends.  Frankly, Facebook has become overladen with poorly expressed opinions put out there with very little thought.  Many people have lost the ability to discuss and disagree without resorting to personal attacks, so it had gotten to be less and less fun.  Also, I know that many folks prefer to stick to more upbeat topics, like kitten videos and pictures of their dinner, so I was thinking that it was time to do something different.  I had intended to just write a blog.  I had no idea what that meant, but that was the plan.  I mentioned this plan to a couple of friends (who you will see posting here), one of which is a skilled computer professional.  He suggested that we create our own website to host the blog, and that is how The Frustrated Americans was born.

My intent here is express my opinions and to discuss things that are on my mind.  I want this to be a place where you can comment if you like and we can talk about things like adults. Let logic and thought be your guide and check any overly emotional reactions at the door.  I don’t care if you agree me or not, but make a logical argument. We’re going to discuss politics, guns, family, music, and who knows what else, so hopefully there will be something that you find interesting.

As for me, I grew up in Calhoun, Georgia. I graduated from Jacksonville State University in Alabama in 1991, then from the University of Tennessee in 1998 and 2001. I have Bachelor’s degrees in Forensic Investigations and Anthropology, and a Master’s degree in Anthropology.  I have been a professional archaeologist since 2000.  More importantly, I have been married to an amazing lady since 1992 and I have a beautiful daughter who is 13.  We live in a small town in Tennessee.

I don’t fit neatly into a political niche.  This is something that I think will become obvious if you follow along for very long. I tend to vote Republican, more because I do not support most Democratic policies than I do Republican policies. I’m probably more Libertarian than anything, but don’t fully support them either!  Anyway, we’ll talk about where you think I fit at some point.

One of the big things that we’ll discuss is the 2nd Amendment. I am an avid shooter.  I shoot competitively with a handgun and carry concealed more often than not. I like shooting rifles and shotguns too.  Basically, if it goes BANG! I like it! I truly believe that every citizen of this country has an inalienable right to protect themselves, their family, and their property with a firearm if that is their decision. This issue in particular is one that generates so much hatred and nastiness from my left leaning friends that it has become very difficult to have a meaningful conversation about it.

At this point, I’ll end this first blog. I hope you’ll continue reading as we add content. Please let me know how I can improve these posts. I’m not a writer by trade, so I know that I’ll need to improve.  I hope you enjoy it, that you’ll contribute, and that we’ll all learn something.

Thanks for reading!

Paul