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I don't like to identify myself as a Democrat anymore. I'm an Economics major and consider myself a moderate when it comes to economic issues because they are so much more complicated. Sometimes it IS a good idea to give tax cuts to the über-rich because it stimulates the economy, and raising the minimum wage can actually be quite detrimental to small businesses and unemployment figures. Rent control leaves more people homeless and many welfare programs hurt more than they help. On the other hand I believe people should stop whining so much. Be glad you don't live in Denmark where about 68% of your money would be going towards taxes. Yeah it sucks that you don't get to keep it all but it's necessary. Move on.

What I found hilarious is when tried and true conservatives talk at me until they are blue in the face about how liberal economic policies are detrimental to the economy. And no matter how many times I try to intercede during this lecture to explain that, in fact, I agree with what they are saying, they are convinced that simply because I will be registering for the Democratic Party this means I subscribe to every single platform. Get off my back. I'm a Democrat because I value liberal social policies over any others, but I don't agree with everything so stop assuming. And stop rattling off all of the greatest Republican presidents in the history of this country. A few smart cookies does not a bakery make. 

This brings me to my second point. Republicans are always quick to remind us liberals that during the Civil War it was a Republican president who signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves while it was the traitorous Democratic states that tried to secede from the union. This is where labels go wrong, so let me just clear something up: it was a LIBERAL president who freed the slaves and CONSERVATIVE states that seceded. Abraham Lincoln valued human rights (or he had other motives depending on your level of cynicism) above keeping the status quo, which is a liberal ideology. And this rubbed the southern states the wrong way because they didn't much care to give up their source of free labor. And who has traditionally valued labor over human rights, tradition over change? If you said conservatives, get yourself a cookie. 

Sometime around FDR's New Deal the ideologies completely shifted around, so when we are talking about Republicans and Democrats of the 19th century we need to be careful to understand that they are not the Republicans and Democrats of the 20th and 21st centuries. Spread the word, tell your friends, and don't even TRY to convince me that if Lincoln were alive today he wouldn't be the most active member of the Democratic Party. 

Boo-ya!

Capital Punishment

If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. 

    -Exodus 23:23-25

Not to disrespect the Old Testament, but what a load of crap. It's a nice idea, of course. If you do bad things, bad things should befall you. And yet if we follow the Bible, we'll have a lot of dead, blind, burned, amputees walking around. Doesn't make much sense. Same with capital punishment. Just because someone deserves something doesn't mean they should get it. 

The US Supreme Court declared today that the death penalty is not an appropriate punishment for child rape in a 5-4 decision. Well no shit. That's not even going by they whole "eye for an eye" rule. And while obviously a child rapist deserves so much MORE than a needle in the arm, allowing that draws us ever closer to having the same policies as terrorist nations.

If you allow capital punishment, arbitrary lines that don't really mean anything must be drawn. Why is the rape of a 12-year old more deserving of the death penalty than that of a 13-year old? Why does an IQ of 70 mean that someone is mentally retarded and 71 means they can get a needle in the arm? And why is it that there are so many minorities on death row? And before anyone starts, no it is not proportional to the amount of crimes that minorities commit compared to white people. Everyone's a little bit racist (it's true) and yet ignoring this problem in favor of keeping a form of punishment that groups us with the likes of Saudi Arabia, Iran, and China is just adding fuel to the fire that is race relations in this country. 

Point of all this: I wholeheartedly agree with the Supreme Court in this decision even if our beloved Democratic nominee for president doesn't. He can stuff it. Also, killing people is immoral no matter the reason. I don't trust twelve people who don't have the intellectual capacity God gave a donut to objectively review a case and decide without any prejudices whether or not someone is despicable enough for death. 

God sells cocaine near church

What can I say. People love a good headline.

Read the story here or here or here. Or heck, anywhere. This isn't an everyday occurrence.

Subscriptions

http://www.rssfwd.com/

Just go there, enter the url of any site and your email address, and it emails you as soon as there are updates. A friend turned me onto this years ago but I'd lost the url. It's incredibly convenient.

42 Countries

Frustrations

1. People who don't care to learn about their own culture and heritage.

2. People who think that what others do in private somehow affects them.

3. Parents who don't care about the passions of their children.

4. Parents who don't take the time. 

5. Friends who never make you a priority. 

6. Never knowing the people you're supposed to. 

What's up with the Jews?

You know what I don't get? When Ronald Reagan became president he sent more aid to Israel than Carter ever had. This is an unverified statistic, but I believe it went from 77 million to 1.5 billion, an increase of nearly 2,000%. If you want to over-generalize it, Republican leaders are traditionally pro-Israel and Democrat leaders are pro-Palestine. And yet Jews are overwhelmingly Democrat. So they keep voting for the side which is shifting its sympathies more and more towards Palestine? If anyone can explain this to me please do so. Is it because American Jews are less concerned with Israel and more concerned with things like religious freedom? For many Jews that I've talked to, support of Palestine is a deal breaker, and yet in recent history the Democrats are the ones seeking and getting the Jewish vote. What's up with that?

David was discussing the situation with me last night and scared me so much that I actually contemplated voting for McCain for a whole ten minutes. Thank goodness that's over. Still, I got a bunch of books about the conflict and plan to figure it out as much as I can during my upcoming camping trip. So I'm not promising that the feeling won't come back. 

BTW, did we know that Yasser Arafat was once awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? What did they give it to him for? Peace? 

Also, I got some questions about how to leave comments. Just click on the underlined "# comments" link and it'll lead you to a comment box. 

Until next time,

Katya

First time

I was going to start a blog once I left for Santiago to chronicle my experiences abroad. But why do something 6 months later when you can do it today? My inspiration was Olga, who for the past two years has been writing her own blog about life in New York, among other things. It's fantastic, everyone needs to check it out here. She's a writer, you can tell. 

Honestly, I don't have much to say, except that the first official day of gay weddings in California started today, Tuesday, June 17. And I am SO HAPPY that our awesome state has finally gotten its butt in gear and done what's right. Hopefully next we'll stop killing people and teaching teenagers that the path towards happiness is paved with absolutely no sex whatsoever. 

Over and out, my homies.