What I want in an elected official...

Ok. I think I've come up with a list. No particular order, and I reserve the right to wander...

1. HUMANITY!

2. An open heart, and a closed wallet.

3. Another career. for some reason, I like electing teachers or steel workers or doctors, not councilmen or school board members or community organizers.

4. The desire to make the number of poor people smaller, without decreasing the amount of rich people. I don't have any money, and I don't want theirs.

5. This is a toughie. I think that a good elected official needs to think socially in some way like this: Here's poor person group A: They need jobs to get housing and a better life. what is keeping them from that? Day Care? Education? Medicine? Debt? Culture? Figure the biggest one out, and focus on that. You'll have the best chance to make the world a better place, without trying everything all at once.

6. For God's sake, fire someone in the government! The single biggest taxpayer expense is salary. Federal employees make more and have better benefits than their private counterparts. I KNOW that some of these jobs are higher level ones that require specialized knowledge, but a bunch of them are moronic (cough, TSA, cough). Get rid of them, and either replace them with temp positions that last one year under contract, or get rid of them altogether.  you shouldn't count government jobs as jobs gained. That’s like having kids and counting them as friends. "Hey, I got another friend today!", Dude, you just had a kid. Doesn't count.

Here's an idea, which I know sucks but it solves LOTS of problems. More kids are going to college than ever, right? They exit college earlier, and with less life experience than ever. Most students have no idea what they want to do, and these are smart kids! Why not try this:

Compulsory service. You can choose one of the following:
1. Two years in the military (more pay)
2. One year in public works (TSA or some other menial government job no longer requires a raise)
3. One year in domestic service (delivering food to the hungry, building shelter in poor areas of the country, planting trees in deforested areas)

We would save in salary, keep the jobs in the government that need keeping, kick out people who are doing a crappy job, AND have an opportunity to teach all young people the basics: Personal Accounting and Finance, Sacrifice, and Reality. We've lost what it is to be American: to work hard for something you believe in, and care for. People are looking everywhere for something to do, and the easy ways out are usually self destructive.

Ok.. Moving off base.

I've finally figured out that I want a politician who is socially progressive and financially conservative. Someone who is a true pragmatist. I'd rather we go back to the old way of getting senators, and focus more on our representatives and state legislatures.

I honestly could not care less about parties, and I totally hate the place we are in today. I wish we could pass a law giving the supreme court the power to overturn congress' votes on salary and benefits for itself, and limit the number of non binding resolutions they do in place of a budget. Seriously, pass laws, balance the budget. Do something, don't just talk about crap and pass your personal freaking opinions about something.

Seriously, do you want elected officials interviewing baseball players or passing a budget that both reduces our deficit AND gives the poor some sort of healthcare?

The Aesthetic Experience

I think it's a must for everyone.

Take your regular existence.
9-5, check.
spouse and 2.5 kids, check
pet, check
mortgage, check
colossal amounts of debt you're working to resolve, check

And so on and so forth. Where is that feeling you need to propel you past the mundane experience of working to afford the "simple bear necessities of life"? (Balloo would be so proud of me!)

Some people cheat. Often. Some people work out waaaay too much. Some people take on needless adventures, pushing their lives to the extreme. Some people turn to religion. Some people take on a cause. Others break the law, have deviant lives made up of some crazy thing or another (insert leather based thing here). You name it, people do it.

Why? what is it within us that compels the seeking of these acts? Why go to such lengths to surpass the concrete? transcend to the infinite? Smoke pot? Whatever?

The aesthetic. That which is of pure emotion, pure sensation. Of all senses and none. after the basics of life, it is the aesthetic which propels us.

Take your average hollywood star (My spell checker REALLY wants me to capitalize that word. I'm rebelling). Basic needs are met. Attractive partners are easy. Money is no problem. can't mess us your face. Can't walk in a crowd. Can't go to a concert.  Always hang out with the same people as trapped as you, and pretending that it's better that way. If it was any one of us, I'm sure that deviant behavior would be looming over the horizon. that's why the stable ones have something else to think about. Many are into making their own music, or learn another skill that isn't people based, like piloting. Others turn to drugs to escape, or marry constantly and adopt crazy causes (or kids). They say it's to give back, but I know better.

What about suburbia? Same dance, different partner. People enact their own versions of American Beauty in a feeble effort to hang on to something. That crazy guy that yells way to much for his 6 year old's soccer game. (I hate that guy, if you can't tell. I mean seriously...She's 6! for God's sake! Take a damn chill pill! what do you think she's gonna do, play in the Olympics next year?? I KNOW it's illegal, but tasering that dude would be so...satisfactory.) What about the compulsive shopper? Gym Rat? President of the United St...wait.. not going there...

All for the holy thing, this Aesthetic. Think for a minute. What makes you get that feeling that you can't ascribe to any one sense? What one thing would you endure crazy amounts of work just to earn? Money? Sex? Drugs? Barbershop Quartets? Music?