Life – Page 9 – Doug's Views

November 5, 2012April 18, 2020

Now All That Is Left Is The Voting

Whew! It’s the day before election day and I didn’t think it would come soon enough. It has been going on in some form or another for more than a year. There will be some last minute campaigning and a final deluge of TV ads then those who haven’t voted early will vote tomorrow. Even though I think our version of democracy is the best in the world, I still had issues with the whole process. As good as our system is, it isn’t perfect and it makes me nervous. Here are the major issues I had this cycle.

October 29, 2012April 18, 2020

Hidden Scout Files Show More Interest In Preventing Bad Publicity

A few weeks ago, as the result of a lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), files with names of people excluded from the Boy Scouts from 1965-1985 was released to the public. These “perversion files” list names and details of adults who were kicked out either because they abused the boys they were in charge of or were accused of abusing boys. The BSA attempted to keep these files hidden. One file for a man in my area illustrates why BSA and similar groups are on the wrong side of the child abuse reporting issue. Identifying abusers and protecting children is FAR more important than any bad public relations for doing so.

When the files were released I was interested in checking them out. I was a Boy Scout from the mid 70’s to 1985. Although I never experienced any abuse, I wanted to see if any leaders I might have known back then was on the list. Luckily there was no one from my area in the files.

October 26, 2012April 18, 2020

Simple Logical Reason The GOP Is Wrong For This Country

I posted an essay on Daily Kos that gives my simple logical reason Republicans and their inhuman policy ideas are wrong for this country. Please check it out. It is a really good essay.

October 19, 2012April 18, 2020

Failure Of Green Energy Companies Doesn’t Mean We Don’t Need Green Energy

President Obama visits a wind turbine factory

A couple of my conservative friends post on Facebook with glee every time a green energy company that received government loans fails or if the Chevy Volt has problems. They are against spending any tax payer money on research or production of technology that will free us from a dying petroleum based energy system. They are missing the point. The failure of specific companies doesn’t mean the technology is faulty. Government support for innovation of technology is actually a common practice and is one reason we enjoy some of the things we have in our lives like computers. It would also strengthen our country against the evildoers.

One of my conservative friends posted me a link to this article:

October 13, 2012April 18, 2020

I’m White And Have A Penis – So What!

Self-portrait – Really!

Not since college have had been immersed in gender politics like I have recently. It’s weird that in the twenty plus years since I experienced diversity debates in college, the arguments haven’t changed. I think it’s because the young people who come up in the freethought movement discover biases based on gender and feel that this is one injustice they can overcome. I have to admit that I’m white and I have a penis – so what! I think we all need to work on those issue we can solve together and acknowledge that we can’t be perfect. I’m not going to pick a side and I’m not going to apologize for being white and male.

What sparked this blog post is the STILL burning Atheism+/gender identity storm in the freethought community. Each side of the debate are doing purity checks and using extreme gender politics in an effort to make a utopia in their own image. Instead of using our tools to make a better world all freethinkers, both sides want to burn down our own house and rebuild it how they assume it should look – opposing view points be damned.