Matt’s Blog

So here’s a thought, why do we think term limitations are a good idea?  I know this is a weird question, term limitations are hardly argued by anybody.  The usual argument I get when discussing this with my friends and enemies is: “Well, you know, it’s good to let someone else have a chance.”  Not that I really want to lambaste my friends (or my enemies), but it seems like we’re treating the presidency like a toy to be shared among fifth graders.  I suggest that term limitations have two negative consequences for America:

First, when there is a good president in office, it removes that president from office.  Second, when there is a bad president in office, it dulls motivations to remove that president from office, since his term will be up soon anyway.

America’s system of government, with it’s checks and balances, generally keeps the president from wielding too much power, so I argue that a good president should be able to stay in office, as long as he/she is willing to continue to do the job.  The president should understand that he may be there for a while, and therefore can implement long-term policy.  After all, just what do we think we’re accomplishing in short 4 or 8 year bursts?  Term limitations are at least partly responsible for the roller-coaster of political whims that we go on, and the flip flopping of the parties as they attempt to gain control every four years.

An how much time do elected officials really spend in their re-election campaigns anyway?  I’d really like to know.  All of the candidates for the presidency are mostly senators or governors for some body of constituents somewhere, and what exactly is happening to their work there?  Instead of having defined election cycles, an elected official should know that they may be removed from office any time, not merely at the end of their designated cycle.  That way, they are motivated to do their job well all the time, after all, isn’t that how the rest of us live?

The Brady Bill was passed in 1994 requiring background checks and waiting periods for gun purchases. States were responsible for the implementation, and some simply skipped the background checks and required only the waiting period, while others approved the purchase if the background check was not completed by the end of the 5-day waiting period. Nevertheless, homicides by firearm saw a steep decline immediately:

I retrieved this data from the CDC’s website: http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate.html

You will notice, suspiciously, that my chart stops at 1998.  This is because the government changed some recording policies in 1999 that affect the numbers recorded, thus making comparisons between data less meaningful.  You can look here for more information about that: http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars/fatal/help/datasources.htm#6.3

And, as usual, there are dissenting opinions about whether the Brady Bill is actually primarily responsible, you can go here for a good example of that:
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_brady_bill.html

That page contains many well thought out ideas on other factors that could be responsible.  But it just seems too much coincidence for me to accept that the Brady bill had nothing to do with the numbers above (the decline starts right around 1994).  I haven’t manipulated this data in any way, you can use the cdc link above to see it for yourself.  Gun control works, close the ‘private sale loophole’ and we’ll see more significant reductions.

Since today is Blog Action Day: www.blogactionday.org I’ll take a moment to post about something we can all do to help the environment.  Recycling is without a doubt the easiest way to conserve energy while still maintaining lifestyle in America.  It’s the one thing we should all do, and if it were up to me, it would be signed into law immediately.  Many countries around the world recycle as a matter of course, and even children know what finished products are made from what types of recycled items.

If you live in an area that supports curbside recycling, then your life is made that much easier.  Cough up the few dollars it costs for the enrollment fee, and away you go.  Simply put the bin by your back door and drop in your recyclables instead of throwing them away.  It’s so easy it’s addictive.

If you don’t have curbside pickup however, you’ll need to sort your own items and take them by hand to donation centers.  If you live in a major city, you shouldn’t have trouble finding one.  Otherwise, contact your landfill for the closest location.

Sorting your own recycling is easy, you can spring for some bins like the ones I use:

Or just use anything you can find (milk crates might work well and are easily attainable).  Sort your recyclables into paper, plastic, glass, and steel (tin cans are steel and can be recycled) and take them to the closest center when they fill up.  It’s free (though they should be buying it from you)

Many other countries in the world do not have the vast land resources that we have in this country, but that doesn’t mean we should throw our garbage all over it.  Recycling saves land and energy and is incredibly easy.

If you’re from where I’m from, you’ll know what I’m talking about, and you’ll also probably know where I’m from. Otherwise, for those of you not from Salt Lake City, there is a raging debate going on here about providing the option to give vouchers to parents of school age children who want their kids to attend private schools and could would like to use some of the tax dollars that goes to education in this state to pay the tuition.

Before I state unequivocally that I’m against vouchers completely, let me say that my mother is a teacher in the public education system, and that certainly makes my opinion biased, nevertheless I still have that opinion, and I have many reasons for it which I will get to momentarily. One of the major points of those choosing to oppose the vouchers is that the subsidy provided will not be enough to pay for the average private school tuition, even proponents admit that the average private school tuition is somewhat higher than the voucher benefit will provide. Recently this argument has fallen under criticism by parents hoping to use the benefit. Their argument is that they feel they are being told they will fail, and the benefit will not be enough to help them. They feel they are willing to make the sacrifices necessary if the voucher can just get part of the way there they can successfully get their child into a private school. Sadly there are probably many other children whose parents might not be able to achieve the same for their child, and it strikes me as a little too close to a class based system.

I lived in Brazil for a while and saw very closely how difficult this can be. In Brazil, there is no public school system. Everyone sends their children to private schools, and they all choose the best one they can afford. Sometimes kids go uneducated. It is extremely difficult to arise out of poverty if you aren’t given a chance to be educated. I was educated in public schools, and I had a fantastic experience. Our public school system is a strength of this country, if it’s broken, we must fix it, not abandon it. Putting government money into unregulated private schools is a bad idea, strengthen the public school system, give every child a chance to succeed, not merely those with wealthy parents.

I’m headed back to school at the University of Utah.  It’s been great just working, but I need something new in my liffe, a new challenge.  This is definitely going to be it and I am very excited.  Classes start on Monday, though I only have one this semester.  I’ll be spending some time writing up a proposal for my thesis topic.  I think I will take a look at the old horse, the minibus, and see if I can work on that as a thesis.  I think it could work, at least, some aspects of it.  There are definitely a lot of technical challenges related to it, and some theoretical ones as well.

Ben and I also just got back from Kings Peak.  Here are some pictures:  http://alchemistessays.org/kings.html

I heard on NPR that Ralph Nader is considering throwing his hat in for the 2008 Presidential Election.  After seeing his movie, An Unreasonable Man, I thought for sure that he wouldn’t run again.  But I must say I’m quite pleased with the news.  Barring any other winner of my recycling contest, which I doubt there will be, Ralph will get my vote for sure.

So I was living in a house in Salt Lake City, where curb side mixed recycling was available.  It was the first time in my life when I’d really recycled quite a bit of stuff on a regular basis.  So when I moved back into an apartment, and it wasn’t available anymore, I really missed it.  So to do it here, I’ll be driving to collection locations and sorting my recyclables manually.  To do that I needed some bins, which I bought from Recy-cal They arrived today and I’m very excited to get back to recycling regularly. Of course it will be more difficult, since I’ll have to drive them to the collection locations myself, but you get the added bonus of recycling glass, which the curbside bins don’t take.

It really is, the time still works, and the alarm still works, but the button to change the hour doesn’t.  Luckily, it froze on 8.  That gives me a two hour window on the time by changing the minutes of either the alarm, or the current time.  Right now it reads 3:02 AM even though it’s not yet 1.  I’m getting up at six to go play tennis, so I had to use a new trick.  I changed the minutes to 1:59.  Then I let it roll over to 2, and then changed the minutes again to 2:59, thus giving me a depressing 5 hours of sleep.  The guys I play tennis with are all married, so they’ve been in bed for hours already.

A friend of mine at work today also brought up an interesting comment, one that I’d heard before.  He said, “99% of the people in the world are just trying to do their jobs.”  The last form I’d heard it in was “the majority of people are generally good“.  At first glance, it seems like a naive supposition.  But I’ve come to believe it.  It can be a harsh reality to accept however, because when something goes wrong, you are less likely to find a culprit who is 100% responsible.  Instead you have to blame the system, or the community, of which you are a part.  And then you realize that you have to help fix it, not just silently request that those involved stop making the mistakes that apparently caused it.

I’m struggling to deal with the blow of finding out that the producers of Battlestar Galactica are calling it quits after the fourth season.  They cite wanting to end the series on their own terms as being a major reason.  It’s been one of my favorite shows for the past year or so.  Granted it does have something of a limited story, but I think there’s so much more that could be done with the show.  I think they ought to at least offer to let someone else continue with it.

On another note, I decided how I will pick my candidate for the presidency in 2008.  The first one to promote recycling gets my vote.  I hear precious little about it, and I think that it’s one of the greatest issues facing our country.  I think it should even be getting more promotion than global warming, since recycling is something every citizen can do without even spending any more money.

So there’s a guy named Gabe Dominguez out there, a native of Orem (my hometown), who just finished a bicycle tour of Utah.  Along the way, he performed his music on a pedal powered music stage.  I went to go hear him perform at the SLC Live Green Sustainability festival today, but unfortunately, his show was bumped up to 3:00 and the time wasn’t reflected on the website so I missed it.  I was pretty sad, but I did buy his cd, and I just recently spent an hour or so browsing his website.  It’s really a great thing that he’s doing, so here’s a link I hope you’ll check out: Shake Your Peace