Friday, July 30, 2004

Political Survey
 
Survey floating around OD.  I saw it on Zombywoof and Popeyechicken first.
Abortion: Though I have reservations concerning the concept of men's rights, and although I personally have a bit of a distaste for it (but, truth be told, if we were confronted with a pregnancy right now we would consider abortion.  We truly don't want more kids and are taking precautions to stop that, but if it happened anyway...) this issue is between a woman and her doctor.
Age of Consent: Uh, I think a parent is responsible for, well, parenting.  And each individual is different.  However, for legal stuff I think 16 is reasonable.
Animal Testing: If we are talking medical research to cure disease, test away.  If it is to test the latest hairspray, well that is pretty sad.  However, I don't think animals have rights like humans do so I am not exactly for banning it.  But it wouldn't bother me if it was banned for frivilous testing.
Death Penalty: It's murder.  It's no deterrent.  The State shouldn't be murdering people.
Downloading Music/Movies: Read Zombywoof's opinion on intellectual property.  I agree with him.
Drug Decriminalization: Should be legal.  And taxed.
Factory Farming: Fine by me.  Regulate their waste disposal so as not to destroy the environment, but factory farming is fine.
Free Trade: The free-er the better.
Funding of the Arts: Sticky one.  The arts are a worthy cause, it does improve our culture.  I think the arts function better on their own however.  But really, I don't care very much.
Gay Marriage: Fine.  I think marriage should be a religious ceremony and civil unions for everyone.
Gun Control:There has to be some, or your neighbor can get his own ICBM.  This really depends on where you are talking.  We have gun control here in Norway, and since nobody has handguns, there isn't a lot of crime involving guns.  However, I think the US is way beyond the point where gun control will have any effect on crime.
Immigration: Free and open borders.
Hardcore Pornography: I'm for it! 
Human Cloning: Lots of ethical questions here, but that shouldn't stop science from pursuing it.  Leave the science to scientists and ethics to politicians (that was a joke).
Military Draft: No.  It's slavery.  If there is a situation where the country is in grave, mortal danger, then it would seem logical that there would be plenty of volunteers and no need for a draft. 
Minimum Wage Laws: As much as I would like to say that corporations should be allowed, in a free, capitalist society, to set the price of their labor I quite frankly don't trust corporations to act ethically. 
Prostitution: Legal, regulated and taxed.
School Vouchers: No. 
Taxes: Necessary to provide the things that people want from their governent.  As much as a libertarian paradise of everyone paying for services as they use them sounds nice on paper, I believe that there are things that only the government can provide.  We can debate what those things are of course, but we need taxes to pay for them.
United Nations: Has been a wonderful organization for helping the third world.  Not so great as a political body (indecisive and idle threats with no follow through in some cases (and yeah, I know they are at the mercy of the member states so much of the blame for inactivity is the member states fault)).  Good idea in theory, needs some work.
Universal Health Care: Cheaper and more efficient than the American system (You can talk all day long about waiting lists and such, but what it comes down to is that the US spends more than twice as much per person on healthcare and tons of people have non at all.  And US health care is rationed as well: it is rationed on the ability to pay).  I do think, however, that the scale that it would need to be implemented in the US is too large.  Perhaps if it was done by state or region. 
War on Terror: Let's just say it's a nice slogan, but what George Bush is doing is not eliminating terror.



1 comment:

Michelle said...

I saw one of your comments about you voting in the swing state of Iowa, good for you! Where in Iowa do you live? I frequent Burlington Quite often, if you go to my photo gallery, i have some pictures from there!