Why I am a Green

I am a registered Green and have been since 1990. In national elections I vote Democratic 99 percent of the time. I vote Green in local elections and support both parties. The main reason for this is simply the fact that, with few exceptions, third party candidates do not win national office or gain Electoral College votes1. That being the case, today’s Democratic Party reflects my values and the Green Party platform than the Republicans. Unfortunately, from my observation, the Republican Party has devolved from the party of Abraham Lincoln to the party of Jefferson Davis. The GOP became an intellectually dishonest and morally bankrupt party who favors bigots and what FDR called the “economic royalists” even to the detriment to America as a whole while trying to control one’s personal life. That does not mean that I agree or disagree with every item on any party’s platform.

The Democrats on the other hand, wants big government in the boardroom and not in a family’s living room and bedroom. They also tend to lean more to a higher minimum wage, more health and safety regulations, and more concern for the environment while keeping the government out of everyone's personal life.

So what does that have to do with the Greens? The essence of the party’s philosophy is environmental protection, the individual over the corporation. More than simply driving smaller cars and recycling, it is largely based on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount as described in Matthew chapters 5-7 and Gandhi. This is outlined in the Four Pillars of the Green Party, the founding statement basis if the party is ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots democracy, and nonviolence. We prefer an egalitarian outlook and a decentralized localized economy. The Green’s vision of democracy is more of a direct democracy using today’s information technology to cut bureaucracy.

Let me explain how I define nonviolence. It is not the same as pacifism. Pacifism teaches that resistance or violent action such as war even in self defense or defense of another is wrong. There are rare instances where war is the only answer. The Roman Empire, the Nazis, Imperial Japan, and the Genocide in Rwanda come to mind. My philosophical problem is that I believe that knowing that an evil act is being done but doing nothing makes you nearly as responsible, like being an accessory to a crime.

Go figure

A friend of mine sent me this, I thought it was so good  that I thought I would post it here.

If you are born in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents in Kansas, you're "exotic, different."

 Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American
 story.

 If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

 Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

 Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well
 grounded.

 If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the
 first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter
 registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as
 a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator
 representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the
 state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the
 United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

 If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city
 council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people,
 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then
 you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking
 executive.

 If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising
 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real
 Christian.

If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your
 disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a
 Christian.


If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the
 proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

 If, while mayor, you bill crime victims for forensics tests while raking in  earmarks, then while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no
 other option in sex education in your state's school system while your
 unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.


 If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a
 prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city
 community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values
 don't represent America's.

 If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI
 conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until
 age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of
 Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.


OK, much clearer now.

I'm back

It seems forever, it was forever. Sorry I've had computer problems and then it took me this long to figure out how to recover my blog using the Google account from the old username

Did Hugh Thompson receive the same treatment

Articles like this make me wonder if all of the Professional Military Education instructors fed us a hypocritical pant load of while teaching us the "Law of Armed Conflict" classes. Question is, would they do the right thing like this guy and CWO Thompson, or be good Germans like the good people of Cumberland and his fellow GIs.
Before we go on, let me point out a few historical facts:
The war crimes tribunals held through out the Pacific after WW2, Japanese camp guards were executed for treating their prisoners in the exact same fashion
Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11
Iraq was no threat to us or anyone else
Cheney lied when he connected Iraq to Al Qada
He lied when he denied it
Bush lied (or more likely, blindly parroted what others told him) about everything


Excite News - GI Who Exposed Abu Ghraib Feared Revenge

Torch My Ride

Found this article while looking for my next set of wheels. The part I do not get is, wouldn't it be easier to trade the Hummer in for a Prius? Sure what you owe on the Walter Mitty ride would be tacked on to the treehugger's delight, but that would be covered by what you save in gas.

Torch My Ride: Arson for Hire -- Edmunds.com

Where I'm coming from

I'm back once again. I wish I had introduced myself and explain where I'm coming from and what formed my world view in one of my first posts. Instead, I jumped on the soapbox immediately.

First, I am a fifth generation Wyomingite, now a "naturalized Floridian". I am not a Southerner nor am I a “Yankee”. I am expatriated Westerner deep down. At the same time, to quote James Mitchner's autobiography, The World is my Home.

. Growing up in a railroad and mining town named Rock Springs, I grew up hearing Cantonese, German, Japanese, Greek, and Spanish not from recent immigrants, but life long citizens who spoke the languages at home. My favorite uncle spoke German in the home as a child. The house I grew up in is in what was once China Town. If you go to the Rock Springs, WY, city cemetery you will find grave stones written in Chinese dating from the town's founding (1870s) until the late 1930s.

After graduating from the town's high school in 1978, I spent six years as an aspiring writer, professional student. In the meantime, I enlisted in the Army National Guard. Three months at Fort Sill and back home to my unit. Eighteen months later, I was ready to see the world and live overseas. I asked my commander for a release so that I may go active duty. Had I picked the Army, I would not have to repeat boot camp. I chose the Air Force and went to their boot camp. That decision paved the way for me to live and visit eleven countries and twice that number of states.

When I start ranting about one subject or another, I'll add some of my own observations and experiences that brought me to that conclusion.

Still alive and well

Yes I know I have not posted anything for quite awhile. Sorry. No readers, I have not given up or lost interest in the project. Nothing like that. I simply took some time to ponder what direction I wanted to take Ripescribe. It started off as a political rant, which is not what I wanted to do. Not that I think politics is trivial or boring. Hardly, politics affects all of us. Like law, politics is applied philosophy. But I digress.
There are many political blogs from right, left, and center. Most of them do a much better job than I ever could and besides, I'm not one for trying to break in to saturated markets. I decided to write on whatever subjects that come to mind and let a focus, if any, develop on its own.