Category Archives: politics

Thank [deity here] for the 1st Amendment.

Equilibrium of Dissent

Editor’s Note: The following text was a persuasive essay that I entered into a writing contest. The open-ended theme of the contest was “How does writing sustain democracy?” Although I very loosely incorporated writing in the beginning and end of this essay, I felt it was to powerful to keep to myself. I entered the contest, but decided not to share it until the day that winners would be notified. The Presidential Election is too important for you to not participate. My position on the election has been made very clear. Despite this, I implore both republicans and democrats to take the time to exercise your rights as a citizen. November 4, 2008 is a day to make history. Without further ado, my entry…

In the late summer months of 1776 British monarch King George III sat in his regal chair with his afternoon tea and correspondence. Among the parcels was a letter from the thirteen British colonies in America. As he perused the letter the king clenched firm his fists, pursed his lips, and shook with vitriol.

To Whom It May Concern:

We are of the opinion that King George III has not been governing British America very well. Therefore, we are going to give it a go on our own.

Enough is enough George!

Sincerely,
The United States of America

As a red, white, and blue-blooded American I like to think King George III then fell over backwards in his chair. With ratification on July 4, 1776 our patriots established a democracy by a unified act of dissent against a monolithic corrupt authority. The written letter King George III lost his stoic British composure over was the United States Declaration of Independence.

To insure that citizens of the newly formed United States were guaranteed their unalienable rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” the Founding Fathers included the right to dissent. The Declaration preamble authorizes citizens of a corrupt government “to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.” The Declaration is more explicit in its dissent affirming language proclaiming, “it is [the citizens’] right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.”

Our democracy functions on the principle that citizens will work together to come to agreement towards securing life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Fortunately, the day-to-day majority of these written agreements legitimately benefit our society. Be that as it may, there have been times when our nation’s laws have tarnished our democracy. In our nation’s infancy people with black skin were nothing more than property. The indigenous people were cattle to be driven out west. Women were expected to make decisions at home, but not in public policy.

How did patriots secure the rights of blacks, native populations, and women? Those who asserted their right to dissent with the status quo brought change. Their brave dissent provided a fundamental and corrective balance to our democracy. The collective efforts of those who struggled for their rights in turn made our democracy stronger. Today, however, we can only read about their endeavors in history books. Their tomes are ghosts of American democracy, as it existed in bygone eras. To whom can we look for models of modern dissent in America?

We look to the unpatriotic Americans who refused to follow the status quo after 9/11 for modern, living, breathing examples of democracy.

Recall the unpatriotic Americans who questioned whether Saddam Hussein was legitimately linked to 9/11. Saddam Hussein still has no credible link to the events of 9/11 as of 2008. This unfortunate truth has cost the lives of more than 4150 of America’s finest soldiers.

Think back to the unpatriotic Americans who questioned if Saddam Hussein actually had weapons of mass destruction. We now know that he had never procured yellow cake, stockpiled nuclear weapons, or hoarded other WMDs. Tens of thousands of America’s finest are coming home with life-altering injuries and untreated psychological disorders from this fruitless endeavor.

Conjure up the unpatriotic Americans who questioned whether the War on Terror really would pay for itself with oil revenues. Emergency appropriations bill after appropriations bill has funneled money into Iraq without appropriate oversight. We have currently spent over $700 billion of your tax dollars rebuilding that country.

…and we still have not caught Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan!

Ponder the unpatriotic Americans who questioned whether suspending habeas corpus and torturing people for information was legal. Our nude Abu Ghraib prisoner stacking and Guantanamo Bay water-boarding exercises have destroyed our credibility as an advocate for basic human rights on the world stage.

Reflect on the unpatriotic Americans who questioned whether The Patriot Act encroached upon civil liberties. The telephone companies and intelligence agencies have been caught red-handed spying on Americans without a warrant. The secret No-Fly List has the TSA blindly accusing American citizens of being potential terrorist threats. The world’s top intellectual minds are avoiding our country due to harassment from the Department of Homeland Security.

Mull over the unpatriotic Americans who marched out of sync with the beat of the war drum. They have been relegated to pre-designated out-of-sight out-of-mind zones where First Amendment rights have been quarantined like an infectious disease.

The nerve of these unpatriotic Americans defending our rights via dissent!

In the past eight years we ordained fear as a guiding light and have somehow been led into darkness. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt would be rolling in his grave if he knew our worst fear is fear itself. We will not survive if fear continues to be status quo. Now is the time for the status quo to change. Everyday Americans have the power to change.
If you were to scrutinize the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives in Washington D.C. you may be surprised at its physical condition. It is pathetically brittle, a jaundice shade of yellow, and has print barely detectable to the naked eye. The ink may be dried and fading on the Declaration, but the ink is still wet in the wells of each American’s democratic vote. Within the American vote lies the power to write the text of our democracy and, as a means of preservation through dissent, to make right our democracy when it is wrong.

A vote of dissent is an unalienable right granted to you. Dissent provides balance to our democracy. Dissent is an explicit act of patriotism. Dissent is an act of love for our democracy.

Enough is enough George!

Bravo Trent

Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor had an interesting post on his website today.

Hello everyone. I’ve waited a LONG time to be able to make the
following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally
free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have
been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the
business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very
different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a
direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate.
Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008.
Exciting times, indeed.

First off, bravo Trent. You get a golf clap. In a bold move Trent Reznor has taken his band away from the influence of the malicious RIAA and his stifling record label. This separation was not unnexpected. For a long time now Reznor has been vocal about his fans having access to his music. By releasing the tracks online in a mix-ready format, by leaving USB drives at concerts loaded with tracks, and by encouraging fans to download his music Reznor has undercut everything the RIAA so desperately has been fighting by taking music lovers to court. Rather than persecute his fans Reznor has adapted to the new music distribution model.

The technology savvy Reznor has proven that he no longer needs the support of the label or the RIAA to be successful. Any user of a new computer has access to the same multimedia suites Reznor does. It is entirely possible for Johnny Noname to produce a studio quality album without the need for expensive equipment. Reznor also recognizes the implications of the more pervasive iPod and the views that current generation hold in regards to media. The costs of downloading untethered media for free are infinitely more attractive than paying for tracks that limit you to a certain device, number of times you can burn, etcetera. The key is to provide quality content that people will ultimately decide, “Hey, this song really rocks. I’m going to buy the album/DVD. Then I’m going to go buy tickets to the concert.”

I look forward to doing just that the next time you roll into Milwaukee or Madison Trent. The last time I saw you in concert led to an album and DVD sale. It is dichotomously infuriating and funny to encounter the effects the RIAA has had on the industry. They sue their fans and yet complain that physical CD sales are on a perpetual slump. They implement invasive DRM that makes media incompatible with players and then get lose the following lawsuit. Reznor has jumped ship and I can’t wait until the iPod generation is at the helm to deal a deathblow the RIAA’s dying business model.

Michael Moore’s Sicko

More than two weeks ago I downloaded and watched Michael Moore’s new documentary Sicko. Yes, I download movies and fortunately Moore has given people his blessing to do so with this documentary given the urgency of the topic it address. Even if you are not a big fan of his previous repertoire of liberally slanted films, take a deep breath and take the plunge. You will be glad you did. This documentary does go beyond party lines. Healthcare is not a partisan issue. Sickness does not care if you are liberal, conservative, black, white, in shape or morbidly lazy.

The documentary boils down to one question. Why do we allow companies motivated by profit to make decisions about our health? This simple question has deeper social implications. We pay taxes to operate social services not for profit, but because they serve community for a benefit on the whole. The fire department, police department, and education system are socialized constructs that currently exist in our society to operate on this principal. Would including health care not also serve society at large? Canada, England, France, and a number of other countries have been able to grasp this concept with great success. Yet the private and public sectors of health care in these countries coexist with each other.

Moore takes his cameras across the borders in search of a better way of doing things. In England patients furled their brows when asked how they were going to pay for their medical expenses. The concept was absolutely foreign to them. Moore repeats the process in France and Canada with the same results. By far the most touching section of the film is Moore’s trip to Cuba. This move has landed Moore in hot water with the US government given the long standing (and impotent) trade embargo still in effect.

The surprising thing to remember is that this movie is not about those who do not have insurance, but those who do. The unfortunate Americans in the movie all came from middle-class backgrounds and believed themselves to be covered for the worse. It was chilling to hear some of their stories. Should the first question we ask en route to care not be “How do I get better?” It would be a welcome change to the standard “How do I pay for this?” Go see the film out in theaters now… or download it. It is worth your time.

Scariest Church Building Ever

A while back I was wandering down to the Museumsufer (museum district) of Frankfurt when I came across a most peculiar church. As John Q. Potentialnewbeliever walking down the street, how inviting does this look to you?

Scientology

This is the heart of Scientology in Frankfurt. I’m really not suprised that their main street-level door would be sheet metal with an ominous camera hole. The Bundesregierung (government) does not officially recognize Scientology as a religion for good reason. They have all the markings of a highly organized totalitarian cult. Scientology is a religion founded by L. Ron Hubbard in which members have to pay to advance to the highest level. Tom Cruise and John Travolta are the to two most famous celebrities involved in the religion. Obviously for everyone else without the clout the financial hurdle makes it a bit difficult to obtain the highest level.

Not only does Scientology sqeeze money out of its followers, but it also harasses anyone who attempts to investigate the cult. The BBC recently ran a controversial piece on the program Panorama. The Church also has been waging an ongoing crusade against internet websites such as Operation Clambake. This site regularly gets DMCA take-down notices sent to major search engines, which temporarily block access to anyone looking to brush up on Scientology facts. If you are looking for an entertaining way to find out just what Scientologists believe, I highly recommend the South Park episode entitled “Trapped in the Closet.” If you live the L.A. area you can wander on over to the Scientology Museum installation called Psychiatry: An Industry of Death, where they claim that Psychiatry is nothing but Nazi science. I would need a steel door on my church too if I made such ridiculous claims.

Network Neutrality and You

SaveTheInternet.com

Let’s pretend that you pay for internet service just to view this website. Yes, I’m that interesting. You check up on my site daily, so much so that your internet provider (AT&T, Comcast, AOL Time Warner, et al) notice. So they call me up and say, “Hey Ken of kenfager.com. We connect a lot of people to your free website. How about you pay us money. If you don’t we’ll slow your site down so that it takes a long time to load or we may even just block it. We’ll also charge your visitors more for their internet just for the privilege of seeing your content.” Large ISPs and Telcos are lobbying Congress to make this sort of extortion legal. It is happening to personal blogs, major businesses such as Google, small businesses too, and even political movement websites. STOP THEM.

Please take the time to call, email, anything to prevent a serious violation of our most valuable freedom, the Freedom of Speech. Information should remain free. It only takes two minutes of your time. There has been a huge grass roots movement behind this legislation. Please inform yourself by visiting one of the following sites. AskaNinja.com on Network Neutrality, Rocketboom on Network Neutrality, ItsOurNet.com, and even the C.E.O of Google asks for your help.

I called Senator Feingold (D-WI) and Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) with the help of? SaveTheInternet.com. Even if you do not know what to say, they have a short script to help. Every bit helps.