At It Again » Politics

Fear the 9-to-5!

Bebbet — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 10:30:52 +0000

During my morning shower, my mind tends to wander. Usually this involves coming up with plots, tweaking plots, figuring my way around difficult plots or quietly talking to myself as I work out a dialogue string.

However, every now and then my mind wanders to more obscure places. Two days ago, for example, I concluded that people do not go to war. Countries do not go to war. Governments go to war. And they do so for one reason and one reason only: Power. Whether it be to secure it or steal it, all wars boil down to a government’s desire for power (can you think of one that doesn’t?).

This morning, I was thinking about work; specifically, 9-to-5 office work. My maths may be a little rusty (not to mention rushed; I was in the shower), but I worked out that, based on a someone leaving university at 21 and getting a job in an office that lasts till their retirement at 65, the average person will have about 11 years to themselves. 11 years in which to do whatever they want. That’s taking into account evenings, weekends, holidays and bank holidays (yes, people, I was working it out in hours).

That means, the average person working in an office, from the time they leave university to the day they retire, will spend around 33 years sleeping, getting ready for work, travelling to work, working and travelling from work. There are murders who don’t get that kind of sentence!

Okay, so that doesn’t take into account lunch-breaks, but nor does it factor in time spent on the toilet or time spent in traffic jams when not commuting, or time you give up for other people, and so on…

Not only is that three quarters of that period of life gone, but it’s more than half of your entire life to that point (and that’s not counting school)!

So, the next time you’re looking at that contract for that comfortable, secure job with that big, reputable company, just think about how much of your life you’re signing away.

And Suddenly the World Feels Lighter

Bebbet — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:03:00 +0000

It’s official: Americans aren’t quite as dumb as we all thought.

Good for you.

The Fine Art of Debating

Bebbet — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 12:32:00 +0000

In reference to Obama apparently threatening Pakistan, McCain says a president has to be more careful about what he says. Obama responds by repeating exactly what he’d said about Pakistan, which completely flattens McCain’s lazy interpretation, then points out two examples of McCain letting his mouth go – saying North Korea should be wiped off the map and singing Bomb-bomb-bomb, Bomb-bomb Iran. McCain’s response? To once again reiterate his record in the senate (stopping short of certain decisions made regarding Iraq) and telling some irrelevant story about a woman giving him a bracelet at a town-hall meeting commemorating her son who died in Iraq.

Less than two minutes after Obama has said the situation in Afghanistan can’t be solved by more troop deployment alone and needs some careful strategy, McCain accuses him of not understanding that it’ll take more than just increased troop-deployment to improve the situation and some careful strategy is needed.

That was pretty much the theme of the whole debate. McCain accuses Obama of something, which Obama casually discredits or puts in context before bringing up two or three examples of McCain doing exactly what he’s accusing Obama of, to which McCain has no reply, or Obama says something that McCain immediately forgets and accuses Obama of having the opposite view.

The only reasoning I can think of for why people can’t decide who won, or even think McCain won, is that McCain appeared to be on the offensive more, while Obama was willing to admit when he was in agreement with McCain, but the fact is McCain was stuck with rehashing his campaign ads, while Obama was responding intelligently and articulately to the questions being posed and the responses from the other side.

Judge for yourselves:

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Bebbet — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 22:45:00 +0000

Usually I would leave the politics to The Big E, but earlier I read a couple of overviews on last night’s presidential debate, which essentially came to the conclusion that both parties handled themselves well enough and it’s difficult to say who came out on top. I’m now halfway through watching said debate and, so far, McCain is having his ass handed to him.

Both sides are spewing a lot of rhetoric, avoiding direct questions and criticisms from the other and generally reiterating the agenda’s they’ve been pushing for the last couple of decades (or how ever long this campaign has been running), but the one thing that has become clear is that, while Republicans have commented a few times that a lot of Obama’s proposals are little more than broad-sweeping statements along the lines of ‘This is bad and should better,’ it is, in fact, McCain who’s been spouting words to that effect in the debate.

While McCain talks about keeping up spending in certain broad areas and completely freezing it in others as a result of the recent economic crisis, Obama talks about going through everything with a fine-toothed comb and holding off on the nonessential aspects of some things, while recognising the immediate importance of all of them.

For example, McCain proposes keeping up defence spending, while freezing spending on education, while Obama wants to look at what can be held back on both so he doesn’t have to sacrifice either.

The problem with spending freeze is you’re using a hatchet where you need a scalpel.

Obama

I’ve also noticed that, despite prompting from the moderator to do so, McCain is yet to directly challenge Obama on any point, while Obama (after a slow start) has done so a few times to McCain.

I’ll watch the second half tomorrow, but at half-time, McCain’s heading to the locker-room battered and bruised…