
In college, it was becoming a liberal.
It is terribly unfortunate how many people at Cal are grossly unaware of the dynamics of our economy, the inefficiencies of large government, and how misguided some of their ideas on foreign policy are. So monolithic. Since the "rebellious" have all drowned in a gross cesspool of oddness and Anti-Americanism, they've become the boring conformists. Anyway, I just like to talk about our society's culture and politics, and have an enjoyable time doing it.
Apr 1 2007
When you look at Berkeley skeletally as a city, it's really not too bad...kind of pretty actually. Unfortunately, the people who live in it, uh, live in it.
I'd have a nice walk down Shattuck if I wasn't bombarded every five seconds with, "Can you spare any change?" or walk by all those crazy rastafarian guttersnipes. I can't even use the word "spare" anymore in normal conversation now thanks to those fetid homeless people.
People - please stop giving to the homeless, especially you, you damn old white haired ultra liberal ladies. You just foster their behavior and cause more homeless to pollute the city. And to you Berkeley city government - you are the biggest problem! Giving the homeless lockers, money, centers, programs, a $8M/year budget, and food will not incentivize them to quit their homeless lifestyle (which a lot actually choose) when they can live it up as "homeless", much to the misfortunate of businesses and citizens who have to endure your European tax rates.
Anyway, here are the staples of the Berkeley Homeless Community I always encounter:
Angry "Dollar for the Bus" Woman
Looks pretty normal. Always standing at the Shattuck & Durant stop. She'll calculatingly approach you and ask for "a dollar for the bus" even though she does not nor will ever have any intention of going on the bus. Once you refuse her, she'll mutter some obscenities under her breath and angrily move onto the next person to whom she'll immediately cheer up for. She'll never realize that she's asked you multiple times over the years, and should realize that no one's going to give her change after she performed her mumble-cuss the first time.
Stupid Rastafarian White Middle Class Hippy
Oh God - they're the worst. These losers are strung out (pun intended) somewhere along Shattuck near Center Street. They're just white middle class potheads who thanks to Berkeley decided capitalism is evil, their parents are totalitarian regressives, and drugs are the way to enlightenment - the essence of Berkeley's inane socialist S-P agenda. As if that wasn't bad enough, they have the effrontery to admit that they want money for drugs...well, some just flat out ask for drugs. Absolutely awful.
Most of the more normal homeless people are generally cheap looking rastas who share the aforementioned philosophies and are more than capable of working with a little cleanup.
I've decided I'm going to take a cup around with me and actually preempt these bastards with an obnoxious "Can you spare any change?" before they are able to get to me.
Super Oversmoked Lady
This old lady has ostensibly had her brain and body just fried by drugs - she looks like a vulture. Her face is wrinkled and has a snarl permanently installed. To add insult to injury, she's usually puffing away at a cigarette whenever she has the balls to ask for change.
Mr. Outside Baja Fresh Breathing Machine
This is the fat black guy with the breathing machine who usually peddles outside Baja Fresh. He always seems very aware and pretty articulate, and knows how to work those puppy eyes to his benefit.
I didn't mind him as much as the other homeless until I found him lounging on the two front disabled seats on the 51 bus talking on a cellphone. What the hell is that? You have the audacity to peddle me for change while you ride the luxurious 51 and use a cellphone? The next time I find him outside Baja Fresh I'm going to ask if my money will be going towards his cellphone payments, since I thought he said he "needed money for a meal today".
Miss Crispy Schizophrenic
This is the crazy fit black lady who is found all around Berkeley either cussing wildly or having a conversation with some entity that does not exist. Fortunately, she does not participate in either of those activities with entities that do exist. Unlike the other homeless, she has a quite fit physique.
Angry Psychopath
Often times, there are just angry psychopaths that go madly yelling through the streets. They're sometimes dangerous, and should have priority in being locked up.
Some of these people are just really high on drugs, and look really freaky and scary.
Creepy Psychopath
This is the kind of guy who for some odd reason has not made it to the looney bin. He sits down next to you at your table at McDonalds, stares at you with tongue out & bloodshot eyes, takes a bite of your hamburger, licks your arm, and proceeds to bark (like a dog) and coo (like an out of tune bird).
Mar 21 2007
While I generally identify as "conservative"...
I sometimes like to call myself "Libertarian" to signify to others my departure from the strongly "Southern Conservative" wing of the Republican Party (even though I personally like Southern Conservatives). While I note that I'm strongly economically conservative and emphasize small government, I very much hesitate to call myself a "social liberal". When I think of people who are socially liberal, I think of people who aggressively pursue left-leaning social policy and want to use government as a tool to bring such left-leaning social policy to fruition.
In contrast, I don't see libertarians as pursuing a leftist or conservative view of social policy but rather seeking a "social free market policy". In other words, we really don't want the government screwing with social policy, which includes the implimentation of aggressively socially liberal and socially conservative policies; or at the very least, government should work towards socially free markets, where policy is dictated by what works best for the majority (and what they desire). We opine that neither Jerry Falwell's opinions nor BAMN's/CodePink's opinions belong anywhere near government. For the most part, we feel society is pretty much fine and not in need of dramatic social overhauls. I personally have a strong distaste for people who try to radically legislate cultural change against the will of the people.
So some "social free market" examples:
1. Gun control (side with conservatives).
It's a socially liberal policy to advocate high levels of gun control, or on the far left, complete abolition of firearms. Whether such policy works is highly debatable.
However the libertarian position is far different. We don't believe it's the government's right to tell you what objects you can and cannot own; you're not guilty until you do anything with a dangerous object. That being said, we believe in very strict punishment for people who abuse those freedoms, and none of that rehabilitation instead of punishment nonsense.
2. Gays (side with moderates)
It's preposterous of the far-right to think that gays just don't exist. If you do a sociological calculation, there's no way in hell (no pun intended) 10% of the population would choose a path that mainstream society views as socially aberrant. I'm totally cool with gay people; I'm not cool with flamboyancy from either gay or straight people.
Religion and religious ethos is totally fine as long as it's not used to guide governmental policy. It's not appropriate to say that gays can't have civil unions because Jerry Falwell thinks that gay is a choice (and a bad one at that). If someone is placed in a situation beyond their control, like being gay, it is appropriate to make civil union legislation to ensure non-discrimination and equality under the law.
That being said, marriage is a religious institution that just happens to be issued by the government to propagate family and stability. If the majority of US citizens don't find gay marriage acceptable, and gays have equal marriage rights in the US with civil unions, then libertarians should not be proponents of legislating against the majority. If gay activists need a piece of paper telling them how much they love each other and want to break with the traditional framework on which our society was built, I don't take much stock in their cause. (In the near future, I do want to blog on my discomfiture with radical gay politics, and how they hurt any gay causes).
3. Affirmative Action (side with conservatives)
BAMN (a violent far-left fringe group entitled "By Any Means Necessary") needs to look up the definition of "racism". Racism, as defined, means making decisions or judgments based on race. If BAMN chooses to use the technical definition, then they are one of the most racist groups in the world, second only to Hitler and the KKK. They just do it backwards by taking radical legislative and physical action to enact discriminatory policies to benefit groups that they stereotype everyone in them to be disadvantaged (while no white people are ever disadvantaged). Libertarians and Republicans are not "racist" at all because they want a society with racially blind and non-discriminatory government and private sector decisions. It's not the place of a government institution to correct what they see as social ills if it discriminates against anybody. The governments shouldn't have opinions; they are required to regard every citizen as unequivocally equal (apart from financial issues, of course).
Anyway, my point is that previous discrimination cannot be righted with reverse discrimination. Libertarians also believe that disadvantaged groups suffer with handouts because it does not incentivize them to overcome shortcomings by outdoing peers. In other words, if you reward mediocrity, the disadvantaged group will have no incentive to overcome mediocrity and will remain mediocre. When I was six and learning how to swim, I swam beautifully in the shallow end but refused to ever enter the deep end. The swimming teacher's method to correct this was to have herself and my parents collectively restrain me and throw me into the deep end. I believe we have to throw disadvantaged groups in the deep end and force them to swim, cause they can, and it will change their lives.
I'm living proof that Affirmative Action is flawed. I'm 50% lumped in some kind of Latin American group just because my mom was born way down there (even though we have Arabesque, Basque, Galacian, Italian, Spanish, Indian, Sephardic etc roots), which entitles me to check the "Hispanic" category on anything if I want, and benefit from any affirmative action policies. At the same time, I look reasonably white (most guess Greek or Italian...okay), I talk totally white, I was raised societally very white, I was raised upper middle class, I went to a private rich high school that costs 2.5 times my Berkeley tuition, I never had a roadblock or a disadvantage, and besides my corruption and wildness (and my Aunt Pay's heavy accent), I have no vestiges of any kind of "Hispanic/Latin" cultural or racial structures; and yet, wow, I can benefit. When I told my college counselor this, he basically said, "Sweet. Whore it up for all it's worth." Is that right?
When it comes right down to it, there are not many issues that libertarians can really say they're actually liberal on. If libertarians say they side more with liberals on the issues or vote more with liberals, then they're not libertarians. They're, uh, liberals!
Western Conservatism all the way baby!
Republicans in Congress and The White House are making some horrible anti-conservative policy decisions, but that doesn't mean that it's smart to vote for the other party if they're doubly worse. Unfortunately, the Democrats have marked their return to Congress with useless and wasteful bickering over foreign policy decisions over which they have no juristiction. If they continue wasting time and being even more divisive than the Republicans just for the sake of being posturatively divisive, they're going to sink themselves again.
USA love.