An Update on Current Affairs

Hello to my four current followers. In the past few months a myriad of different events have occured, mostly negative. The world has become a much rockier place, and I am frightened for several reasons.

To start, the complete reversal of the United States House of Representatives to the Republican Party. I am not so much scared of the political ideas they will implement, as on some I agree with them, but I am mortified by the possibilty of the repeal of many environmental standards.

I think that an explanation of my name is in order as of now, as it helps explain why I feel so strongly liberal about environmental issues. Nudibranchs are a specific family of sea slugs in the order Ophistobranchia. The name, translated from its roots, means naked gills or naked lungs. Their gills, unlike most marine gastropods, are outside of their bodies in protrusions called cerata. Because of their vulnerability, they ingest poisonous sponges, cnidarians, and other toxic marine life. They are my personal favorite creature.

However, the oceans are overtaxed and being destroyed by pollution. All animals, not just nudibranchs, are vulnerable. With thousands, if not millions, of scientific papers related to the destruction of the environment, how can the Republicans possibly deny any more that we need to change our habits?

The scientific community is raging at the views of the Republican party. While we will never prove that humans are directly causing global warming, we are certainly increasing the effect, they argue. For example: it is a well known fact that the combustion of fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide and water, along with other chemicals. Modern technology does help us remove some of the more harmful ones. However, we also know that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. So if about 200,000,000 cars are producing carbon dioxide almost every day, how is it disputable that humans are not affecting, if not directly causing, climate change?

There is further proof that because of the effects of the Industrial Revolution, the number of droughts, flash floods, hurricanes, and other natural disasters related to climate change have been increased exponentially. It is unreasonable, if not just crazy, to argue that we, as the only form of sapient life on Earth, should not try to stop this.

However, the Republicans argue that implementing environmental laws will cost the nation jobs. While most likely, and unfortunately, this is true, that is increasing the threat of  a disaster of global proportions. The longer we wait to stop climate change, the more we are going to have to do to either A. prevent life loss, or B. reverse the effects. We have to act now. Not ten years from now, not twenty years from now. Now. Otherwise, the effects will be too great to stop.

As I have said in a previous post, a trillion or two is worth preventing the end of the world.

Moving to other affairs, we have the budget defficit, which Congress is failing at as usual. The solution to this problem is going to have to involve a raise in taxes for everyone, not just the "rich."

Note that I put quotes around the word rich. That is on purpose. The definition of rich seems to be, for the average American, millionaires and billionaires. Unfortunately, the tax bracket including millionaires and billionaires also includes people who just became successful, i.e. small business owners. We need to separate the succesful from the wealthy before we start raising taxes on the "rich." It's unfair to group people that live completely different lives into the same group. Confusing millionaires with small business owners is just as
bad as equating the middle-class with the lower-class.

However, I have to agree with Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernankey that now really isn't the time to raise taxes to cover the deficit. However, we do need to stop "kicking the can down the road." So maybe it is time to deal with the monster in the closet of the deficit. But to prevent damge to the enconomy, taxes should niether be raised nor lowered. Instead, the code should be cleaned up.

I don't remember which Senator said this, but in a speech to the Detroit Economic Conference, a Republican Senator talked about how the tax code works in short. It was staggering. The number of things a person can be taxed on is appalling, and the number of loopholes in the law is surely inumerable. Before we start raising, lowering, or changing any part of the numeral parts of the tax code, we should make it effectively and fairly make revenue.

I will not talk about Don't Ask, Don't Tell in length, as I believe it's unimportant. All I think is that it should be changed to Don't Ask, Don't Care.

Thank you for listening. Tell your friends, please, and if you listen but haven't subscribed, please do. I'd like to know you care.