tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-118417662024-03-07T18:54:58.318-08:00Traumatized by Truth - the old blogWhen I was a child I was taught to love my neighber, in fact of faith, hope and love the greatest is love. I was also taught that I should question everything. I often think I should curse my parents for instilling that second value, ignorance was in many ways bliss.DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-64377709513218187722009-02-03T17:16:00.000-08:002009-02-03T17:17:13.042-08:00THis is a <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=11841766#" name="ToggleMore">More...</a><span class="collapse">fucking test<br /><br /><br /> </span>DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1164322986338351642006-11-23T14:38:00.000-08:002006-11-26T23:11:21.623-08:00An appropriate topic to accidentaly post about. . .The post you might have originaly read here was a comment I was writing to another blog. I write them here if I want to post hyper-link, then discard them. This one, I accidentaly posted - I thought I deleted it, but apparently I did not. The comment was going to Dispatches from the Culture Wars, my brother Ed's blog - <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2006/11/swat_team_bravely_brings_poker.php">here</a>. The exchange between myself and Greg Byshenk, is where the accidental paost came from.<br /><br />Since I got onto the topic of the proliferation of SWAT raids, for non-violent, under-investigated cases, I'll go with it. Perusing <a href="http://www.theagitator.com/">Radley</a> <a href="http://www.cato.org/people/balko.html">Balko's</a> White Paper, <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6476">Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America</a> </span>is a good place to start. Check out <a href="http://www.cato.org/raidmap/">this</a>, <a href="http://stopthedrugwar.org/home">this</a> and <a href="http://www.leap.cc/">this</a> - let the conversation continue in comments.<br /><br />FYI, I am dead against the "war on drugs" and I am dead against the overutilisation of SWAT teams in law enforcement. As well as seeking to legalise and regulate currently illicit drugs, I also believe in legal gambling and prostitution.DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1153191388784915862006-07-17T19:53:00.000-07:002006-07-17T19:56:28.796-07:00Wow, this is great thus farA report for the Cato institute that I have been anticipating with great excitement - and thus far I have not been dissapointed. After I have read it I will expound further but <a href="http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6476">here is a link to Cato</a> - you can buy it or download it in PDF.DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1151705727748433982006-06-30T15:14:00.000-07:002006-06-30T15:15:27.770-07:00I can already hear the cries of activist judges destroying our way of life. . .<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/27/washington/27cnd-flag.html?_r=1&oref=slogin">From the trecherous NYT, Sen. Orin Hatch</a> - <blockquote>"restore the constitution to what it was before unelected jurists changed it five to four." He went on to say, "Five lawyers decided 48 states were wrong."</blockquote>Those five lawyers were the top jurists in this country, the equal of our president and the senator as well. Those five lawyers are justices of the Supreme Court. And for the record they did nothing to "change" the constitution.<br /><br />With what sychophantic "conservatives" are likely to call a liberal activist ruling, by the Supreme Court yesterday on Hamden - we find they are again doing their job - protecting us from the excesses of an administration run amuck with power. Providing us with soemthing lacking these last five years - checks and balance.<br /><br />What is frightening is that this was a close ruling. If Roberts hadn't needed to recuse himself it would have been a 5-4 ruling. One vote away from a true imperial presidency. Now in this specific case, of course, Roberts recused himself having already ruled on it while on a lower court - but in future cases (of which there will be at least a few) involving this tyrranical theory of the unitary executive we can be fairly confident where his vote will go.<br /><br />Being a man of faith I am praying hard, for the remaining "liberal" (3 of whom are republican appointees) justices good health and well-being.<br /><br />Also, I am looking forward to hearing the right calling for more violence against judges. . .DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1151481472708811892006-06-27T23:04:00.000-07:002006-06-28T00:57:53.066-07:00A superiority problem and thoughtful debate<a href="http://ezraklein.typepad.com/blog/2006/06/the_fraternal_o.html">In a discussion of homosexuality at Ezra Klein's</a> blog I was accused of being a lesser person by a man whom I have debated before - Fred. He explained that he is in fact better than I am because he believes he has a stronger belief in democracy than I do. Debate under such circumstances becomes impossible. When one decides that they are so very right and the other person is so very wrong that they are actually better than the other - there is no point in further discussion.<br /><br />The reason I have enjoyed debating Fred in the past is that I truly do not understand the line of reasoning some people use to promote many conservative agendas. In this case a belief that it is just fine for people to discriminate against other people due to their sexual preference. I honestly do not understand why some folks can think that is ok. So I talk to him, question, try to figure out where he is coming from. I have not always been smiling and kind in my responses to the few arguments he will actually try to answer but I apologised the one time I made a personal attack, made when I was angry, tired and stressed out. Not a valid excuse for bad behaviour - but I did apologise. And subsaquently we have had reasonable if heated arguments. <br /><br />Then he attacks me. I was neither rude nor condescending and I made no assumptions about his motives. Yet he turned around and presumed I believe something I do not - then judged me to be less than he.<br /><br />Let me be clear. I believe in a democratic process to vote for equality for all people regardless of sexual preference or any other minority - including those involved in any single religion. And while the right to religious expression is specificly written into our constitution, the right to be free from discrimination in employment, housing or public business is not. Our courts decided that we have an inherent right to be free of discrimination due to many things - including religious preference, because of our constitution. Some courts have even said that homosexuals have inherent rights to be protected from discrimination - even while our politicians played catch up writing laws prohibiting discrimination in a variety of arenas, for a variety of reasons.<br /><br />It is not a huge stretch to afford homosexuals those same protections. The problem from a certain conservative point of view is that this is inevetable. Within decades gay marriage will be looked at the same as inter-racial marriages are in most circles. We will wonder how ignorant we were as a society to actualy buy into that crap. I still hope that we will abolish the legal status afforded marriage and put the legal standard on civil unions. I honestly believe that that is the only way to truly restore sanctity to marriage. But it is clear that this is inevitable. Within decades the voting public will contain a much higher percentage of young people who grow up seeing that gays living together as life partners and even raising families has not led to the destruction of the family. Indeed they will be seeing in many places an emboldening and strengthening of the family unit as more gays grow up knowing they can have longterm relationships and don't have to run around having loose sex.<br /><br />This is why they are half heartedly trying to strike this bigotry into the constitution. To say that marriage and legal benifits thereof are only available to opposite sex couples. It would take much longer to re-amend the constitution to remove it. Even now a firm majority of Americans believe in legislating anti-discrimination laws and allowing civil unions. Many conservatives like to throw marriage into the fray because there it becomes a little more polarized. But the tide is turning and already supports much of what I advocate.DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1145638854688411892006-04-21T09:59:00.000-07:002006-04-21T10:00:54.736-07:00As his presidency burns. . .<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,192468,00.html">Record lows in the polls for mr bush </a>- more later on what he seems to be doing with it. . .DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1142316759225635642006-03-13T21:59:00.000-08:002006-03-15T22:45:43.456-08:00It is amazing to me that with every step forward the moderate voices in this country are shouted down and told they are grasping, with no hope for success. The president sits at 36% while congress and the senate have been doing abysmally for nearly a year in the polls, not helped at all by a trickle of Abromoff fare. Yet they act as though they have a manadate from the people to drive this country into the ground. They have destroyed and crumpled everything they have touched - literaly. . .And yet they have the temarity to talk down Russ Fiengold, a true blue, standing strong fighter for the American people in the senate, for attempting to censure the president, the strongest statement a senator can make about a sitting president. (Only the house can impeach the president) This is a man who has stood by his convictions and what he believes all the way. He voted against the "Patriot" act, he voted against war in Iraq - he has, in short, stuck to his guns all the way. And these poor excuses for legislaters we have, would criticize him in any way for wishing to censure bush for the crime of spying on Americans without any lipservice to oversight. Of course the "republican" solution is to change the law and pretend it was that way all along - everythings forgiven misser prezden sah! Any way we can kiss your tush some moh?<br /><br />UPDATE<br />If I hear anyone else tell me that I should support the democrats I will scream. These disgusting people are far more concerned about politics than the law. The fact that as of this afternoon 2 more senators had signed on is reprehensible. They all should have been coming strong from the get go on this. There is no question that the man some call president broke the law. Instead of trying to change the law and make it retroactively legal for him to have spied on Americans without oversight - the republicans should be impeaching him and removing him from office. Short of that the democrats should at least stop crapping their pants every time bush mentions terorrism. 67% of Americans finaly understand that this idiot has no interest in making us safer - he has not made us safer - he will always put profit before security. He will put tax breaks for the top .09% of the population before spending on our security - he doesn't bloody well care about anyone but the billionaires. The dems need to come out strong and demand a real investigation and acountability - they haven't and they don't seem to be inclined to.DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1140736101376553542006-02-23T14:20:00.000-08:002006-02-23T15:08:21.396-08:00Yet another reason to abolish the legality of marriageI found <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/4FD1ED4E83EDFF7D8625711D00230E71?OpenDocument">this story</a> via Radley Balko's "<a href="http://www.theagitator.com/archives/026304.php#026304">The Agitator</a>." It is about an unmarried couple who have been together for thirteen years raising three children. They recently moved from Minniapolis to Black Jack MO and were denied an occupency permit because of an ordinance prohibiting more than three people to live together without ties of marriage, blood or adoption. They were subsequently questioned for an hour about their personal relationship by the city council who then denied their appeal - their next stop is in court.<br /><br />This is just another example of the inherent discrimination of marriage as a legal institution. I have spoken briefly before about my feelings on marriage. It is a religious institution and should have no legal bearing. People who wish to share in the legal benifits, currently afforded married couples, with their domestic partner should be able to regardless of there gender, religious preferences or desire to be "married." These civil unions should be the only such unions recognized by the state or any court of law. Those who wish to be married are free to do so in accordence with their beliefs but the state has absolutey no reason to recognize or provide any legal standing to said union. If the married couple wishes to enjoy the legal benifits of their relationship they should also have to get a civil union for said recognition.<br /><br />If one looks at this idea objectively it is not nearly as radical as it sounds. The ability to gain legal benifits for a domestic partnership from a civil union rather than marriage would signifigantly reduce the divorce rate and go a long ways toward truly protecting or I would call it renewing the sanctity of marriage. With the sharp increase in the divorce rate of the 70s and the 80s a lot of people in my generation lost all respect and confidence in marriage as an institution. It has been merely a legal ploy for many people in the last few decades, rather than a sacred and beautiful union. With so many folks crying about "saving" marriage it really seems to be for the best. Removing the legal need for marriage would go a long ways toward renewing it as a sacrement, as an expression of love and sacred trust rather than a tax advantage or legal ploy.DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1140411116763419682006-02-19T20:51:00.000-08:002006-02-19T21:00:55.716-08:00I am back onlineI am back but there are going to be a changes. I am going to be focusing on issues effecting single parents more than anything else. I am developing a ministry within my church specificly for single parents. Being one myself I noticed a big lack of anything for us in my church and in fact in most churches. There are a lot of important ways the church can and should be reaching non-traditional families and that is what I am going to be spending a lot of time working on. I am therefore going to focus my blogging here as much as possible to on single parent and other non-traditional family issues.<br /><br />I will be allowing myself once a week to post on anything else that has me irked. I am going to stick to this the best I can and see what happens. There are so many things happening that directly effect non-traditional families that I likely won't have a hard time finding things to write about. Healthcare will be a big one coming up soon. I have a lot of things to get done before I get back to posting regularly but I will be back into the swing in a couple of days.DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1138911172084146312006-02-02T12:10:00.000-08:002006-02-02T12:12:52.116-08:00I am temporarily offlineI won't hae the oppertunity to post for a little while as the internet was shut off at my house. It is a long story as to why but suffice to say that while I get along with my roomie famously, life with room mates is not always perfect. I will be back asap - probably in a week or so.DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1138695010544428942006-01-30T23:55:00.000-08:002006-01-31T00:10:10.583-08:00A Dark, Dark DayToday was of deep historical signifigance, our nation is the closest it has ever been to truly falling into the depths of fascism. I keep trying to escape with banal, mindless braincandy but it keeps coming back, as do the tears. <br /><br />We are one step closer to forgoing our constitution and descending into totalitarianism. The highest court in our land has tipped. Not to the right, not to the republicans but to something entirely different - irrelevance. The same place our congress and senate seem to want to go. We are set back by a generation at least - <strong>we may never recover</strong>. <br /><br />I hear talk of this culmimnation of a thirty year agenda. This is more like a 230+ year agenda of men who wanted our country to be founded differently than it was. These men want a government that believes the corporate is <em>the</em> absolute, they believe the president is the representative of the corporate, they believe that everything and everyone else is beholden to that. People are meaningless - money and power carry the only relevence.<br />J. Edgar Hoover and Joe Macarthy couldn't even dream of this day. The darkest day in our nations short history. I weep for what we have lost.DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1138321503895272242006-01-26T16:23:00.000-08:002006-01-26T16:27:59.006-08:00I hate it when this happens.I just finished a very long post about my take on the war on terror and our national security. I went to post it and it turns out blogger was down. I lost the second half of it as it hadn't been saved in a while. I will take a little tiem to re-write the whole thing but I will post the first part of it. Also spell check is not working right now, sorry.DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1138252326232498212006-01-25T20:54:00.000-08:002006-01-26T16:25:40.690-08:00All right let's talk terror. . .P. 1I can not and will not speak for the democratic party and their plans. I will say catagoricly that the republicans have not, just to be clear, not made us safer. They are not protecting us any better than they were before we were attacked by terrorists from the middle east. Nor do most Americans believe that they are. I can not honestly say that the democrats have a plan that will make us safer but it seems to me that it is far more likely they will do a better job than the current regime. They could do the country a great service by reforming campaign financing by pushing for publicly funded campaigns thus leveling the playing field so we can get real people who actualy care about America and Americans to represent us.<br /><br />We need a change now more than ever. The current regime is so corrupt that they have weakened our military, refused to outfit our soldiers on the ground, give our boys sewer water for bathing and coffee and now want to invade Iran. Our military is broken and continues to be broken by mismanagement and privatization yet we even think about stretching it even thinner? Give our boys the supplies and armour that they need to stay alive and they might actualy meet recruitment goals.<br /><br />And bush himself has talked about his feelings on the infamous Osama bin Laden; "I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."- G.W. Bush, 3/13/02<br />"I am truly not that concerned about him."- G.W. Bush, repsonding to a question about bin Laden's whereabouts, 3/13/02 (The New American, 4/8/02) This is not the attitude of people who really care about the safety of Americans from terrorists. Or we can look at his view of the constitution; “I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”<br />“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”<br />“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!” (<a href="http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7779.shtml">Capital Hill Blue December 11, 2005</a>) This is <em>not</em> the attitude of someone who has America's best interest and safety in mind.<br /><br />Now I could go on and on about how the republican'ts are <em>not</em> keeping us safe but that would not aproach the issue of how we <em>can</em> make America safer. I will leave the disclaimer that I do not speak for any democrats that I know of - they just seem to me to be a more likely group to implement the policies necessary to make us safer.DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1138168165337342892006-01-24T21:23:00.000-08:002006-01-24T21:50:45.203-08:00The disconnect of the democratic partyI was listening to Randy Rhodes yesterday when she talked to Howard Dean. It was frightening to me that she ended up educating the chairman of the democratic national committee. It was quite obvious that he could care less about issues that not only concern the base of the democratic party and independent lefties like myself but issues that concern both traditional conservatives and centrist conservatives. Issues that out-weigh other issues that would generally cause them to vote republican.<br /><br />The democrats seem to be stuck on republican light and it is going to be the death of the democratic party if they don't wake up and realize that the majority of Americans are ready to talk about taboo issues like some form of nationalized health care, clean air and water, meaningful social reform and, the biggest, campaign finance reform.<br /><br />I think that one of the fears many democrats have is that real campaign finance reform would lead to the death or at least a decrease in the relevance of the democratic party. While this is true they need to realize that there is a large place for individuals in both republicratic parties of integrity to help lead a fresh system that more accurately represents the will of the people of this great nation. I fear that greed and corruption are so rampant in the halls of capital hill that both parties would rather drive this country into the ground than abdicate this destructive system to one that could lead America back to the forefront of the global community, stepping forward to lead the world into the twenty-first century and beyond. Instead it seems that no one will heed the call of millions of Americans crying out for someone to lead us from the absolute depths this country has sunk to.DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1138083074316035402006-01-23T21:30:00.000-08:002006-01-23T22:15:16.876-08:00About getting a little emotional sometimesI have been criticized by friends and others for getting emotional in debates. I would like to explain why that's not only ok but important. Too often these debates are way too abstract and end up shying away from the reality that we are talking about real people with powerful interest in what is being discussed.<br /><br />Take health care, something I still owe a post about. This is one that effects me directly as I am one of the more than thirty million Americans without real access to health care. As a result of the bill pushed through congress at the end of last year it is likely that my son will get cut off Medicaid. Now I will find a way to keep him covered but it will be hard. I eat once a day as it is so that I can provide my son with good, healthy food to eat. If he does get cut off I will either have to eat less than that or I will have to feed him lower quality food. On top of this if he gets cut off it will probably mean his mom and he will also lose food stamp benefits as well, which may mean that I will have to find a way to work more hours which means I will spend less time with him.<br /><br />I don't piss and moan about my own problems, they are my fault. I am a high school drop-out who could do literally anything I chose with an education - I am that smart. I am fighting to change my situation and it may work out but that is besides the point. Nothing I have done is my son's fault. He didn't ask to be brought into the world with parents who cannot provide for him the way he deserves to be. So this health care "debate" gets me very emotional and makes me very angry. It is absolutely sick that in <em>this</em> country we have so many without health care - including millions of children - it is sick that <em>this</em> country is so far behind so many other nations in this regard.<br /><br />Then we get to gay "rights." I am not in favor of <em>any</em> special rights for homosexuals but I am adamant that they have <em>equal</em> rights to the rest of us. I get a little emotional when I think about the ten million kids being raised by same sex parents. I get a little emotional when I realize that many of those kids assume that, other than the fact that their parents are the same sex, don't realize that their parents aren't the same as other parents, i.e. they aren't married, at least until the mainstream media shoves this "debate" into their faces. I get a little emotional when I think about the idea that their are people out there who think that these families should be illegal. We are taking so many giant steps backward in this country today that many same sex families in this country are at risk - today.<br /><br />I get a little emotional when people like Rush Limbaugh accuse me of having a fascination with death. They seem to think that we should just look the other way while the regime in charge of this country causes the deaths thousands of people a year. I get a little emotional when a woman who is awake and aware is cut off her ventilator in Plano Texas because her family doesn't have the money to keep her alive. I get a little emotional trying to imagine the hell she went through in those last moments, betrayed and suffocated by her own body without even the comfort of her mother at her side because she couldn't be brought over here in the time Texas law allotted her. Because I get angry about this - I somehow have a fascination with death - <strong>no</strong>, I just abhor the bush regime's "culture of death."<br /><br />And finally, I get a little emotional when the president of this country say that <strong><em>my</em></strong> constitution, the constitution that hundreds of thousands gave their lives that we might have, is just a "damned piece of paper." I get a little emotional when a cabal takes <strong><em>my</em></strong> government and perverts<strong><em> my</em></strong> country into some fascist police state. When the senate, the house, the courts even the media are bent and twisted by the hands of one man <strong>I get a little emotional, angry even. This is <em>not </em>some abstract debate, this is our nation being destroyed. And that makes me a little emotional.</strong>DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1137050262908443752006-01-11T22:52:00.000-08:002006-01-11T23:17:42.930-08:00ARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!If I was a democrat - I wold never vote democrat again. These pansies seem to be afraid to spend the political capitol the Repubs gave them by default. They should be hammering Alito into a corner like you wouldn't believe and they aren't even trying to get him to talk. I'm sorry but if the man can't recall that many important aspects of his personal life then they should be asking him if his lack of memory may just be a problem to kep him from performing as a justice on the supreme court.<br /><br />He can't remember what he put on his job application to the Reagan administration? Or is it that he was either lying then or now? He is inconsistent, he believes in quietly chipping away at our personal freedoms, he believes in expansive executive powers. He does not believe in the America that I grew up learning about in school, he believes in fascism, he believes in a federal imperial state.<br /><br />This man is insidious in his demolition of the American way of life. He tells people what he thinks they want to hear so he can get a job. Where Roberts became expert at evading questions in hearing, Alito has perfected it. And the idiot democrats allow it. They should make ot clear to him that if he wants a chance to be confirmed he will bring clarity to these proceedings. They have the ability to stop him, some repubs would probably support them - but only if they demand he give them a reason. He is a liar or he is incompetent for the post.<br /><br />The American people are looking for guidance out of the nightmarish hell this country is in. The democrats repeatedly refuse to provide it. Enough is enough - it is time to end this fiasco we try to call democracy in this country if we still can - it may well be too late. It is time to remove the corruption and those (both dems and repubs) who slowly chip away at our national heritage of freedom and bravery.DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1136779796097678492006-01-08T19:48:00.000-08:002006-01-08T20:09:56.120-08:00Thank God for Oscillococcinum and Emergen-CI got the nastiest little bug and it has ben miserable. It is nice to discover that by taking Oscillococcinum and a lot of Emergen-C I have reduced the time it has been horrid from the week or more most people I know have had it to getting over it on day 3. I still feel achey and a little stuffy but I expect to be back to work tomorrow. Oscillo <em>is</em> an extract of either lamb or goose kidney so if your a hardcore vegan you might not want to take it but if not it is just the thing to nip things in the bud. The sooner after the onset of symptoms you take it the faster and more effective it is. I took it more than 24 hours after the onset - the effect was that I woke up this morning feeling worse than ever but by this evening I am feeling about 80% better. I also have been dosing up on Emergen-C which I figure has been a help. I highly reccomend that you take Emergen-C regularly and keep Oscillo on hand during flu season. I wish that I had kept it on hand but even so it has done me great.DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1136013036733596362005-12-30T23:07:00.000-08:002005-12-30T23:10:36.750-08:00I am having an interesting dicussionI am involved in a debate over at <a href="http://ezraklein.typepad.com/blog/2005/12/health_spending.html#comment-12448528">Ezra Klein</a> about healthcare. I am not up to posting right now but I will be soon. Thanks to <a href="http://bluegirlredstate.typepad.com/blue_girl/">Blue Girl</a> for kind of sort of sending me to Ezra's place. . .DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1135837720891560232005-12-28T21:40:00.000-08:002005-12-28T22:28:40.916-08:00Revisiting Democracy - Real DemocracyI have received a few comments and not a few e-mails (I mailed my prayer for our country to a lot of non-blogging friends who don't realize that I would prefer their words in the comments) about <a href="http://trltrauma.blogspot.com/2005/12/my-prayer-for-our-country.html">this post</a>.Most of the comments I have gotten tend towards "Well, that's a great idea but it will never happen." Or "You have your priorities wrong, we need to get the two parties to work together more."<br /><br />I truly fear it will never happen. It won't happen because we the people won't make it happen. We won't demand it as we should. Understand that if it doesn't happen it is our faults. The republicrats won't make it happen, don't want it to happen. That would make them accountable to <strong><em>us.</em></strong> They <em>do not want to be accountable to us.</em> They want to make the money, live the life given them by the lobbyists who court them. If they were to actually clean up Washington and kick out the lobbyists they would lose out. The only way we will get change is to demand it. It may be possible to make our representatives represent us regardless of their party affiliation but in the end that will break down the party system. The party ceases to be relevant - eventually ceases to exist if the members don't follow the party line most of the time. The lobbyist cease to be relevant if we demand our politicians be accountable to us. That means that all the corporate donations to political races dry up - leveling the playing field.<br /><br />We will not get the parties we have now to talk. The closest we get, the best we get is when we have a congress in opposition to the president. A lot of lefties I know talk about how much better the economy was, how we gained a surplus in budget under the democrats. This is because it was close - in congress the parties had to work together - if they didn't legislation didn't get to the oval office. But things weren't as good as they could be - if they were the neo-cons would never have gained power. Sure there are a lot of reasons aside from that that got them there but it never would have happened if the nation wasn't so polarized. Now I do not honestly believe that people in this country are truly that far apart - I know a lot of people who agree with me more than they disagree on various issues yet they still voted republican. I also know a few who just refused to vote for president because they didn't like any of the candidates. I voted for Kerry - I regret that, and not because he took the state I lived in at the time with a comfortable margin. I regret it because he had no stance, no policy, no bloody plan. He is a democrat and that is where his loyalty lies. I was voting against bush and that is <strong><em>not</em></strong> democracy.<br /><br />Democracy is voting for someone who in most things believes what you believe, supports policies that you support. Voting for someone who's policies aren't as bad as the other guy will never get you the country you want to live in. Voting for the party that generally isn't quite as bad as the "other" choice still gets you a country that's hard to put yourself behind.<br /><br />I love <strong>America, land of the free, home of the brave - the greatest nation in the world.</strong> I do not love bush's vision of America, I did not love Clinton's vision of America. This country needs to change with the times, I won't argue it doesn't - but what should those changes be? Should we leave those changes to a select few who decide what agenda the party will push? Should we continue to let corporations guide the helm of government? Or should <strong>we the people</strong> decide our own fates, as the founders intended?<br /><br />Upcoming midterm congressional elections put us at a cross roads. Those elections are anyone's game - a lot of seats are going to shift. Who are we going to put into this power vacuum and are we going to demand their accountability? We have to tell the people we are voting for why we are. We need to tell the candidates what we want from them and make sure they give it to us - if they don't we need to tell them to leave and get someone who will. We need to stop voting for a party and vote for <em>people</em>. <strong>We need to take our nation back - and keep it.</strong><br /><p><span style="font-size:85%;">If you would like to make a comment please click on "comments" and leave it there - I love e-mail but I prefer others see the comments and have an oppertunity to reply if they wish.</span></p>DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1135669503045601142005-12-26T23:37:00.000-08:002005-12-26T23:47:09.270-08:00Oh my, the boy is too funny. . .Last Christmas post. My son received a car hauler, a tonka truck w/horse trailer and a dirt devil cleaning set among other things. I have had the fun of him today and just found it too amusing that he has yet to put the horse back in it's trailer or any cars in the hauler. He has loaded and unloaded his legos and his new lincoln logs from both trailers repeatedly today, focused mostly on the horse trailer. I was just putting his toys away - a very rare treat for him - as he's now in bed and I just found the handles of his dust mop and broom shoved in a wrapping paper tube. He did help me clean earlier, managing to oversweep his piles over his dust-pan and onto his hand most of the time but other than that the only thing he's done with the cleaning set is put them into the tube and pull them out again - apparently he thinks they should live in the tube when not in use. . .DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1135574653291464942005-12-25T20:44:00.000-08:002005-12-25T21:25:40.066-08:00My prayer for our country. . .I normally will write about my prayers at my other blog, but tonight I would like to share this one right here. I am at a loss. While the neo-con GOP has done so much to destroy the very foundation of this country it is just indicative of the larger problem. A true democracy cannot rest upon the back of a two party system. It's easy to say, "oh, the democrats can save us." Or "we just need to get those evil republicans out and everything will be better." It won't.<br /><br />This country will remain sharply polarized as long as we depend on one of two groups to represent us. They can't possibly represent us. Changing campaign finance laws is only a band-aid - ultimately the only thing that will get the corporations out of government for good is to break free of the republicratic system of government. Voting against the "other" guy does not put our interests into the political mind. It is not going to "save" America. This country has survived this long in spite of the system not because of it. To go on this way is to invite the kind of crap that Bush and his puppet-masters have rammed down our throats to arise again and again. We will never get past it until we decide we've had enough.<br /><br />We must support, not only support but push into the light independents. We need to come out and run for office. We must demand campaign finance reform and demand that the courts enforce it. This is <em>our</em> country - we need to act like it. Instead of voting for a candidate because he espouses a belief in one or two issues we believe in we need to find people who believe in more of what we do and demand they fight for laws accordingly.<br /><br />The corporations do not vote these candidates in - <em>we</em> do. We must demand accountability. I agree with a lot of different people on a lot of issues but I know very few whom I agree with everything. When <em>our</em> politicians feel that way we need to tell them how to vote. When we become distracted, allow smoke to be blown in our faces we need to take the time to sift through it and find out what's really happening. When <em>our</em> politicians are going to make decisions we need to tell them what <em>we</em> want those decisions to be.<br /><br />We are on the brink of losing our nation altogether - there are people in power right now who want to keep us stupid. They don't want us to think, they don't want our opinions. They want us to trust them, allow them to decide everything for us. They are using fear to take away our freedoms, they are using wedge issues to divide and weaken us. <strong>And they are winning.</strong><br /><br />My prayer for this country, tonight, is simple. "Dear Lord, please give me the words, give my friends the words, allow their Gods or lack thereof to loosen their tongues that together we can make this a great nation. Lord we are divided, on some things we always will be, but open us up, bring us together that we might fight for our country. The man who calls himself president told us that we must fight them over there so we won't have t fight them here - show us that the fight is <strong><em>here</em></strong> and has been all along. Lord help us fight for the right to all be represented here, allow all our voices to be heard. Let us all make clear that we will not go silently into the night, to be ruled by an elite few, to be cattle. <strong>We are human, we have dignity, we are equal in your eyes, let us be equal in every eye.</strong> Dear Lord, I am afraid. Help me rise above my fear, to be a man, to demand my rights, and the rights of everyone. It is my prayer Lord, that you would light a fire in the hearts of this nation, <strong><em>our</em></strong> hearts, that we might take this nation <strong><em>back.</em></strong> In your son's holy name I pray this, Amen. . ."DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1135572238170827312005-12-25T20:39:00.000-08:002005-12-25T20:43:58.190-08:00What a great ChristmasWe had wonderful fun today. I got to open presents with 3 three year olds including my son. They had such a wonderous morning it was truly awsome. And contrary to what those at FNC have been reporting, the joy happened even as I was the only Christian there. And most of the people there not only believe in great organizations like the ACLU, they're also vegetarians and environmentalists. . .I hope all of you had as wonderful a day as I did.DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1135459231117736102005-12-24T13:09:00.000-08:002005-12-24T23:57:47.520-08:00I now embark on my Christmas horror. . .Have a blessed holidayThe time has come when I must - wrap presents. It's not that I don't like it, it's that I really suck at it and hate to do it. And thanks to my lovely friend Beth and her gift of cash that came with her wonderful cookies I have a couple more to wrap. When my son is at his mothers he lives with two other kids about his age. Their mom's don't usually get them a lot. Cay's mom bought them both a couple of things and as I now have a little extra I decided they should both get a copy of Caleb's favorite new book, "Good Night Opus" by Berkley Breathed. A great book propagandizing the wonders of infinite imagination.<br /><br />I am going to spend Christmas morning at Cay's mom's house and then if all goes well he and I will go sledding after. We may, however wait until we can go with a couple who are my good friends and there daughter who is Cay's good friend. In any case we will have a wonderful time and his roommates will each have wonderful new book.<br /><br />I am now going to procrastinate just a short while longer before I pop in a movie and get to wrapping. Have a lovely and relaxing holiday and peace be yours. . .<br /><br />update; several hours have gone by now, I had to get tape and tarried at Amy's (Cay's mom) to give the boy one of his presents. Now I go to wrap the rest of the presents. . .And watch a movie. . .<br /><br />Update; I have finaly finished with the wrapping about ten hours after I intended to start. Thanks again to Beth and also thanks to <em>my</em> roomie for leaving a little bourbon when he left town which helped the process once I finaly started. . .DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1135231652664433012005-12-21T21:50:00.000-08:002005-12-21T22:58:44.093-08:00The consequences of Not Impeaching bushmr bush Has set a dangerous precedent. He has said clearly that he has absolute power in this country. He can do whatever he wants with impunity. Sure, he's out in a couple of years anyways - or is he? If he decides he can break the law and undermine the constitution as he sees fit, why should he leave? Why relinquish his power or at least the power of his presidency? Even if he were to go peaceably what is to keep his predecessor from taking even worse totalitarian stances. We just bottomed the slippery slope and went off the cliff. If this maniac is not removed from office the damage he has done to our already tenuous democracy will be irreparable.<br /><br />A false sense or even a real sense of security is just not worth it. Even if we really were more secure because of these draconian, fascist measures <em>it would not be worth it.</em> Hundreds of thousands have given their lives so that <em>we </em>might have these freedoms that this son of a bitch is pissing away. And the truth is we are not a modicum more secure because of it. When will people wake up and understand that with every illicit act, with every divisive stance this regime takes, <em>the fucking terrorists are winning.</em> They want us afraid, they want us to change - that's the point. Every freedom we let this regime take from us is another point for <em>them.</em> bush Is their kind of people. He's a fundamentalist that absolutely thinks he is right and that frees him to do anything he sees fit - so does Osama, so did Saddam, so did Hitler - need I continue? There is no difference between them - they think they have the authority, God given in the case of all but Saddam.<br /><br />And that is the crux. bush Thinks his authority comes from God not his constituents so he doesn't need to heed the will of the people. If he isn't stopped he will destroy America and much of this planet with it. . .DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11841766.post-1135060706011095642005-12-19T22:29:00.000-08:002005-12-19T22:38:26.033-08:00Arlen SpectreSeems to think that spying on Americans without a court order is unconstitutional. He thinks rather than jumping to conclusions we should wait for the hearings. This implies there will be some - this from a republican't. . .DuWayne Braytonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04074683871047219790noreply@blogger.com0