"Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants as long as it is black." ~ Henry Ford.
If only it was that easy! Now a trip to the grocery store leaves me mentally exhausted. There is whole milk, 2%, 1%, skim, organic, grass-fed, soy, almond, goat, unpasteurized. The cereal aisle alone takes twenty minutes alone sometimes just to find the three different brands and flavors that my family eats. It would be so much easier if there was only the equivalent of a black car in the cereal aisle. "Any customer can have whatever cereal he wants as long as it is corn flakes." Just think of the time that would save!
When Finola asked me what I thought of the SOPA legislation, I realized that even though I work on Capitol Hill I don't know enough about it to have formed an opinion on it one way or the other. Finola informed me that it would hurt smaller artists and some websites. Playing devil's advocate, my rebuttal was about intellectual property and copyrights. I knew enough to know that the recording industry and the motion pictures association support SOPA. It took Finola's reminder that SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act for me to know what S-O-P-A means.
It would be so easy to just accept what people told me rather than learning about both sides of the issue. It's more than just having an inquisitive spirit. It's also having the ability to reason for myself. It's the time and effort to seek out as much knowledge on issues as I can before making a decision. There would be more time available for important decisions if there weren't so many other decision distractions.
I still don't know enough about to SOPA to have a fully formed opinion. And I'm not ready to adopt one position over another just because someone says I should. Not even if that someone is Mr. Gaelic. My independence is one of the things that attracted him to me in the first place. But that's a blog for another time.
What really depresses me is that I don't see that quest for information and knowledge very often in today's society. Or at least the level that I would expect from a first-world country. Am I the only thinking girl in America?
[Title taken from this.]
Sunday
3 weeks ago
I think it is often not made easy to inform yourself on some of these bills. The Health Care Reform Bill clocks in at 1,990 pages and is about 400,000 words. Title 26 contains all the Federal IRS CODE.
ReplyDeleteTitle 26 contains 20 Volumes.
All 20 volumes contain a total of 14,872 pages of tax code.
All 20 volumes weight in at 35 Pounds
All 20 volumes cost $1,080.00
Laoch, Mr. G is a tax policy consultant. Fancy name for tax lobbyist. When I was a lobbyist, my field was medical education and medical research. Between the two of us, we can tell you about health care and taxes. Like everyone, I tend to focus on what interests me. Ask me about pass-through taxation and I'll look at you like you expect me to explain the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics.
ReplyDeleteTo the person who didn't want their comment posted, send me your email address. What you have to say is very interesting.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right. If you are having a hard time looking into this how about those of us without the political know how?
ReplyDeleteHi there Wifie, thought it was time I paid a visit. Why don't you just buy a different cereal each time you were in need and that way they ring the changes. I was going to ask what SOPA meant till you explained it, though |I must admit it's something that bothers me, as I don't copy either music or paintings etc, so I'll leave the worry of it to those it matters to. Hope the weather is being kind to you and I wish you the happiest of New Years 2012.
ReplyDelete