US National Debt

According to http://www.usdebtclock.org/, the US National debt is over 15 trillion dollars. The Gross debt to GDP is at 100% and counting.

The Federal Debt has increased 360% since 1990, and over 1500% since 1980. Adjusted for inflation, the debt is still 500% higher than it was in 1980.

Most people who discuss the debt often rationalize it in a number of ways. However, when it comes down to it, running with a budget deficit nearly every year is asinine.

Additional Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_public_debt#Federal_spending.2C_federal_debt.2C_and_GDP

The effect of a politician's age on their policies

Anytime a politician takes a stance that opposes progress, they show how disconnected they are with the younger generation, the next generation of leaders.

Examples:
Restricting the internet
Resisting technological advances, i.e., stem cell research, genetically modified crops
Moderating sex, even in private affairs.

The bottom line, the people chosen to run this country are generally from the older generations. And it shows.

A wonderful infographic on incarceration vs. education in this country

Found here: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665387/infographic-of-the-day-what-s-more-expensive-prison-or-princeton

"This provocative infographic from PublicAdministration.net, an online resource for students and professionals in public administration, shows that it costs the state of New Jersey more to lock away a prisoner in Trenton ($44,000) than it does to send someone to Princeton for a year ($37,000)."

This is just the first of 3 infographics. I highly recommend visiting the link to see the full commentary. Very informative.

White Privilege

I've only had the time to watch the first 8 minutes of this, but so far I like what I see.

H/t: http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula

Ruth Madoff on 60 Minutes

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-20126767/ruth-madoff-describes-hearing-bernard-confess/

Tonight on 60 minutes: "(CBS News)  In her first public description of the day she learned from her husband Bernard that he was running the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, Ruth Madoff says she was "paralyzed" with shock."

To think they thought that anyone actually wants to hear a Madoff describe their suffering, or that anyone might sympathize with them, makes me lose all respect I've ever had for mainstream media.

Why I chose the pseudonym Quixote

Quixotic: foolishly impractical especially in the pursuit of ideals; especially : marked by rash lofty romantic ideas or extravagantly chivalrous action - http://www.merriam-webster.com

Don Quixote represents what I stand for in writing this blog.

For those of you who have not read the book, Don Quixote was an elderly villager, average, but living comfortably. He had an obsessive fascination with books on knights and chivalry, to the point that he eventually imagined himself to be a knight as well, and as a result, he sets off on a fantastic quest, though very much unlike the chivalrous stories that he actually read about.

The book Don Quixote is one of my all-time favorites, and like Don Quixote, the books I read represent my persona. Besides Don Quixote, my favorite books include Catch-22, the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and books by Kurt Vonnegut. They all feature protagonists with similar features: strong sense of personal morality, willing to back up their beliefs with action, worldly and intelligent, but seen as insane to those around them.

This is especially true of Don Quixote. While his insanity manifests in distorting reality with the fantasies of knights and chivalry, in all other instances he is able to display immense intellect. Indeed, what makes him so intriguing a character is that you are never quite able to determine where the intelligence ends and the insanity begins.

"No single analysis of Don Quixote’s character can adequately explain the split between his madness and his sanity. He remains a puzzle throughout the novel, a character with whom we may have difficulty identifying and sympathizing." http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/donquixote/canalysis.html

And so this blog embraces what I see as Don Quixote's lasting influence on me. This blog is not about impacting the world or even the country at a noticeable level, it is not about fame and notoriety, perhaps it is not even about affecting the other people besides me who might stumble upon these writings and graphs. Ultimately, it is about a very personal struggle to reconcile my ideas of how justice and the world should truly work, and how justice actually manifests in this world. After all, there is nothing more quixotic than to think the solutions to the world's problems are as easy to implement as they are to define.

Immigration Injustice in Alabama

Ala. loses workers as immigration law takes effect

"The law allows police to detain people indefinitely if they are suspected of being in the country illegally and requires schools to check the status of new students when they enroll. Those elements make it perhaps the toughest law in nation."

 A couple points jump out to me upon reading this article.

1. You can't have it both ways.
The lawmakers who pass these laws want to expel the immigrants here illegally, but keep the ones that are here legally. That kind of policy completely ignores the realities of immigrant society; that you can't target the one without affecting the other.

"We have the best law in the country and I stand by what we've done," Beason said.

2. Even immigrants who are in Alabama legally should also leave. The reasons for this are namely:

• The economic impact of these tougher immigration laws will be more strongly felt, and more drastically wound the shortsighted politicians who pushed these laws.
• It will symbolize the solidarity between legal and nonlegal immigrants alike. The United States is a country built by the backbreaking labor of immigrants. To turn our backs on this part of our history is truly reprehensible.
• No matter what the officials say, legal immigrants will never truly be safe in a state that passes such laws. They will never be 100% absolved of suspicion. To live and raise a family under such a government is a complete contradiction to the American ideals of liberty and freedom. 

3. Whether Alabama needs or doesn't need tougher immigration laws is debatable. Whether tougher laws will benefit or harm legal residents more is also debatable. What is not debatable is when Alabama lawmakers pass discriminatory laws, they and their supporters deserve the full credit for whatever consequences befall them.

Why we should abolish the prison system

I have been studying here in Philadelphia for a few years now. One of my favorite landmarks to visit here is the Eastern State Penitentiary. Built in 1929, it eventually became a model for over 300 prisons worldwide.

When construction on the prison first began, it was supposed to only house 250 prisoners. The original intent of the penitentiary was to completely isolate the prisoners, not just as punishment, but to encourage introspection and "penitence," hence the name. By the time the prison closed in 1971, it could hold 900 prisoners, by forcing multiple occupants into cells originally intended to only hold one.

This highlights what I consider to be one of the gravest injustices in this country today:

• There are currently approximately 2.3 million prisoners in the United States today.

Scientific Injustice

 

War on Drugs Injustice

According to this article, 

Still, D.C. isn’t exactly Amsterdam: More per capita marijuana arrests are made in the District than in any other jurisdiction in the country, according to a recent analysis of MPD and FBI data by Shenandoah University criminal justice professor Jon Gettman, the former director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Pot arrests have been rising steadily every year since at least 2003, mirroring a national trend that began in the 1990s. And they didn’t really work. “We doubled marijuana arrests and it had no effect on the number of users,” Gettman says.
But even with a high arrest rate, some people in D.C. can probably safely get high without worrying that the cops are coming. Those people are white people. In 2007, 91 percent of those arrested for marijuana were black. In a city whose population demographics are steadily evening out, that’s odd. In fact, adjusting for population, African Americans are eight times as likely to be arrested for weed as white smokers are.

 Is there another side to the story? Most likely. However, it doesn't change the fact that African Americans have been negatively impacted by these policies far more than any other racial group.

H/t http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2011/08/29/the-racial-injustice-of-the-war-on-drugs/