To listen to leading voices on the right, you would think the apocalypse was imminent. We have a socialist, muslim, non-American President that wants to turn the country into an alternately fascist and communist state. Apparently the notion that those 2 ideologies are rather different is lost on them. For instance, Glenn Beck, the most fervent of the Chicken Littles, has taken Jimmy Fallon to task for not being correctly outraged that his show’s house band was disrespectful to (former) presidential candidate Michele Bachmann. Apparently the Republic was at stake.

To further see the Right’s paranoia regarding the President, take a look at comments made by Republicans in the House, Senate, and on the Presidential campaign trail. Speaker of the House John Boehner called Obama’s State of the Union address “pathetic” (the speech hadn’t been given yet). Dana Rohrabacher (R – CA) claimed on Bill Maher’s Real Time on HBO that Obama was trying to “gut the military” (factually incorrect). Then Newt Gingrich arrogantly called President Obama the “food stamp president“. I’m not sure what’s more offensive: the race baiting nature of that comment, or the fact that his statement blatantly ignores the dire financial straights a lot of Americans find themselves in right now. More people need food stamps.

Of course, this just shows the real fears and anger in the Republican base. Some conservatives genuinely feel that the sky is falling, and Obama is going to drive us off a cliff. Conservative writer David Frum was on NPR’s Morning Edition the other day, and he talked about a conservative talk show he had been on shortly before. The host of that show was convinced that we were on the precipice of an apocalypse that would bring this country to it’s destruction. Obama must be defeated!

Huh?!?!

None of these dire omens are legitimate. Obama is not the antichrist. The country is not going to be destroyed by him.  The four horseman of the apocalypse are not on their way. Nevertheless, truth has never been a problem for those politicians that prey on the fears of the ignorant. They have run around for the last 3+ years creating a storyline about Obama, and the repetition of that storyline has caused a large portion of the Republican base to believe it.

I would rail on about how people need to parse through the rhetoric to find the truth, but seriously, why bother? For many, the more you give them facts, the further they retreat into their paranoia. My only hope is that free thinking individuals on both sides of the political spectrum do their homework this coming November. It would be a shame to see fear and paranoia win over truth and reality.

A friend of mine from college is a libertarian in the truest sense. All you have to do is follow his Twitter feed to see that. Nonetheless, there are actually several points where our world views overlap. He wrote a post on his blog about why he thinks his fellow libertarians need to think about things a little differently. One of his points was that his fellow libertarians needed to avoid seeing this current election cycle as a war on socialism. It is really a war on corporate money.

Citizens United, for instance, did not release the reigns on free market capitalism. It put the free market in bondage to corporate powers. Big business now has the power to not only trample over labor and the middle class, but also over the small business entrepreneurs that make up the backbone of a healthy capitalist system. A healthy capitalist economy cannot last if it is ruled by an oligarchy. Without the possibility of upward movement, the middle class disappears. Once the middle class goes away, so does the free market. Who do you think dictates supply and demand?

This is not to say that everyone should be given the same amount of wealth no matter how hard they work. Still, all people should be given the ability to achieve equally. Equality does not guarantee success. Equality merely guarantees an even starting point. After that, you are on your own to make your life what you want it to be.

Success and riches are not in and of themselves a remotely bad thing. In fact, those are things that drive many of us toward healthy and productive lives. However, if we deny those among us that are less fortunate the ability to showcase their individual talents, we are betraying all that has made us great. Think about how many of our greatest Americans were immigrants. Think about how many of them were outsiders. Those are the people we should be lifting up.

Wednesday was the day that many of the internet heavyweights weighed in with their opinion on the SOPA/PIPA legislations going through the halls of Capitol Hill. Reddit and Wikipedia went dark, while Google showed their solidarity with the protestors in a different way. The bottom line? Enough people got upset about the orneriness of this legislation. No matter what you think about so-called online “piracy”, you will not fix it by overreaching. Taking away rights will not  save “jobs”.

One question I’ve seen on Twitter is asking why Progressives are upset about government overreach. Doesn’t government know best? Well…certainly not all the time. When the rules and regulations that we are forced to live by are controlled by big monied interests, it doesn’t matter if the overreach comes from government or business. Oh yeah, and trust me, this one was government overreach with a heavy dose of big business. Who do you think really drafts these bits of legislation?

In the case of legislation involving the internet, it certainly isn’t the elected officials. Patrick Leahy, Lamar Smith, et al. know nothing about the internet, and they proved it with their attempt to push this legislation through. Their attempt to reign in “piracy” was misguided, and worse, it was fed to them by industry lobbyists. Now, I know this happens all the time, and this was not particularly egregious as lobbyist fed legislation goes. Nonetheless, it’s another stark reminder that our system is badly broken.

Even before Citizens United, big money had too much influence in Washington. It’s certainly not a recent revelation, but this one was more disheartening because it was so bipartisan. I know…as much as I long for a more civil tone in D.C., this is not the issue on which we need agreement between Democrats and Republicans. A draconian law that solves no problem is not worth agreeing on. No…we need real problems solved with the precious little bipartisanship that actually exists in Washington.

This isn’t over. Not by a long shot. The MPAA and the RIAA will try again to get this garbage legislation pushed through. Hopefully we’ll be as vigilant then as we were now.

This past Wednesday, January 11, 2012, I turned 35. In some ways, I still feel like a 20 year old. In other ways…I feel a bit older than 35. It goes without saying that my priorities have changed over the years. Still, it’s the ways in which they’ve changed that have surprised me the most. Here are some of my most brutally honest confessions of growing older, whether you think 35 is old or not.

• Avoiding beer – Yeah, this is pretty honest. I love beer, but it really gives me gas. Laugh all you want, but after spending a few nights in the guest bedroom because your wife sent your stinky ass into exile, you’ll make different choices too! Wine is now my drink of choice.
• Being diabetic – I know not everyone deals with this, and it touches younger people too. Nonetheless, I was diagnosed in July of 2011, and it hit me like a tone of bricks. This is truly something that makes you come to terms with your own mortality. Bottom line…take care of yourself.
• My Father-in-law passed away – My father-in-law was a man of great intelligence. He was a book editor for most of his professional career, and he was very good at what he did. My parents are still with us, but it really hit home that those in our lives are not with us forever. Really cherish them. Don’t wait until you’re 35 to appreciate that.
• Alabama won the National Championship – This was really great. However, I must make an important point. My life hasn’t changed, at all. The same would have been the case if LSU had won the game. As much as I love college football, my life really doesn’t depend on the whims of a football game….for better or worse.

My lessons in life haven’t ended. Really, don’t we learn until the day we die? Next year will be number 36. I’ll let you know what else I’ve learned then.

In a break from this interminable political season, I want to talk about last nights beatdown of LSU by Alabama. After the slugfest on November 5 that saw the Tigers win in overtime, I had steeled myself for a repeat of that outcome. Apparently, I hadn’t needed to. Despite not scoring a touchdown until the final minutes of the game, Alabama dominated in a way that even your true believer fans couldn’t have imagined.

I think what was so remarkable about this particular display of dominance was how many people, myself included, had bought into the hype of LSU. They had beaten so many top ranked teams by such large margins. They had walked into Bryant-Denny Stadium, and escaped with a victory. While I thought Alabama could certainly win, I had no idea they would win in this way.

Amidst all the hype, I guess I forgot a couple of things. For starters, LSU made a big mistake by letting Jordan Jefferson take over full time at quarterback down the stretch of the season. He is a great athlete, to be sure, but great athletes do not necessarily make great quarterbacks. Being a great quarterback is about good decision making, and playing within your team. He’s never really been great at either. They should have stuck with Jarrett Lee, who had performed pretty well during the early part of the season, and let the cards fall where they may.

The other thing I neglected to take into account was the coaching mismatch. Les Miles has proven to be a better coach than I’ve given him credit for, but he is certainly no Nick Saban. Yes, he has built on the recruiting machine that Saban left when he went to Miami, but his game day coaching is quite simply, lacking. Saban and his staff thoroughly outcoached Miles. Even the great John Chavis’ defense could not hold up with an offense that inept.

LSU is a supremely talented team, and the Tigers and Tide will likely play another classic next year in Baton Rouge. However, when the proverbial bullets start flying, I’m glad we’ve got Nick.

Oh, Iowa! You’ve screwed up now. You have Rick Santorum thinking he has a chance at actually capturing the Republican nomination. It isn’t going to happen. There isn’t a serious GOP elite that is going to allow him to pursue his agenda of state mandated morality. Also, he has a bit of a Google problem. Besides that, allowing Santorum to win the nomination would all but guarantee the election for President Obama. If only we were that lucky.

Rick Santorum is a one issue candidate. Sure, he’ll spout some lobbyist fed nonsense about job killing regulations, and blah, blah, blah. However, rest assured, he only cares about 1 thing: what kind of sex people are having. Check out some of the gems he’s uttered over the years:

“And that’s sort of where we are in today’s world, unfortunately. The idea is that the state doesn’t have rights to limit individuals’ wants and passions.”

“In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That’s not to pick on homosexuality. It’s not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing. And when you destroy that you have a dramatic impact on the quality —”

“If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.”

The man literally wants to be able to intrude on a consenting adult’s sexual activities because he thinks it is going to somehow hurt “society.” I would argue this with him, but frankly, what’s the point? People that want to be able to control the way others find love and happiness can’t be reasoned with. Their dogma is too entrenched, and their convictions are too strong.

I just hope he actually wins the nomination. He’ll make an ass of himself on a national stage, and he’ll take the GOP down with him.

P.S. I would be remiss if I didn’t add to his aforementioned Google problem.