When I become President

The post of at Astro's got me to thinking some of what I would do if I were President. Now of course, the Prez doesn't really have as much power as some think, altho certainly a lot more than the Constitution has granted the position, so I am going to try to limit this post and perhaps leave the other stuff for a post about when I become dictator.

Now the biggest, and rather undervalued, power of the President is the bully pulpit. The office lends great weight to what he says and his words are broadcast to every state, giving him the opportunity to be heard over the various members of the House and Senate. This would be my tool to push my agenda.

Monetary Policy:
My biggest legacy I would want to be that I had driven the bank out of this country. By bank I mean the Federal Reserve. Andrew Jackson is a huge inspiration in this, for he said to a group of international bankers "You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the grace of the Eternal God, I will rout you out." He was successful. So successful and proud of this accomplishment that he had "I killed the bank" written on his tombstone.

I would push for this goal in several ways, but largely thru two fronts. The first would be to legalize alternate currencies (such as Norfed's Liberty Dollar) the second would be to bully Congress in to auditing the Federal Reserve. Once those were accomplished I would push for abolition of the Bank. The legalization of alternate currencies would immediately place both citizens and business on a level playing field with just weights, something lacking today in our fiat dollar.

Foreign Policy:
As Commander in Chief this is one area that can immediately be affected by the President. I would put the Military to work on a plan to sharply reduce overseas deployments. Currently we have 700 bases in 130 different countries. I would reduce this number to 10-15 bases. Those bases would be kept in countries that have been long term allies/friendlies, are strategically placed around the globe for ease of rapid deployment and support, tactically defendable, and preferably combined with Naval bases (if we actually have any overseas? IDK) The staffing and equipment at these bases would be increased by a significant amount, 200+%, in order to provide the essentials necessary should the base ever need to be used.

We would return to the policy of Walk softly and carry a big stick. We would also start talking with our enemies again. It keeps channels open as well as other options other than "stick." And dialog between countries can lead to the two countries actually becoming allies (GASP, SHOCK! HORROR!) If we don't talk to them we cannot expect to resolve anything except by brute force. This doesn't work in personal or business life nor does such a policy work when used by nations. And besides, if talks fail to produce a result there is still always the stick. Our current administration is oblivious to that fact.

Military:
Going along with the above, there are some changes that would happen. The troops that are no longer needed overseas would be returned Stateside. The money saved, as well as money made from the sale of overseas property would be used for two things. First off, is full training. That means everything needed for training would be available to the troops. This includes bullets. There should never be reports of a lack of bullets for our troops to train with. The second thing that money would be put towards is funding the promises made to the military. This means PROPER medical and dental care. No longer would vets have to deal with substandard care in less than adequate facilities. That situation rather appalls me, altho it unfortunately doesn't really surprise me. The gov has been an "indian giver" on far too many of its promises. (More on that in a moment)

The drop in military consumption of oil from the above two changes would be at minimum 40 million barrels of oil. At current prices that is another $5+ billion/yr saved. No small chunk of change and would help fund the above.

Law:
Appoint judges that believe in the Constitution and will uphold it. Appoint an Attorney General that will ruthlessly prosecute corruption inside all branches of the FedGov. The FedGov must get its house in order before it can effectively go after corporations etc.

Borders:
Enforce them, period. All of them. While what to do with illegals once here really isn't the purview of the President, the security of the borders is. The extra military could be used for this purpose. Walls in some places i.e. cities, monitoring devices in other areas, and greatly stepped up patrols. This would also likely necessitate an increase in staffing levels of the Coast Guard, which also falls under the President IIRC.

Energy:
A little of everything. Work with OPEC, strongly encourage conservation, push for drilling stateside and also push/encourage local/individual production via small solar or wind generation even if it is only at the individual level.

Domestic Policy:
I would sign an Executive Order declaring personhood from conception and then watch the baby-killerspro-choice groups scramble to try and deal with the ramifications from that.

Strongly encourage people to read the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. In fact, I might even sign another Executive Order that the Bill of Rights be included with EVERY piece of mail the FedGov sends out, and every piece that any agency purporting to act on behalf of the FedGov sends out. Hold music would be replaced with recitations of key portions of these documents, particularly the Preambles.

Bully the Congress into repealing the unlawful, illegally enforced income tax. Stop the IRS from even operating (where it pertains to unlawful individual taxation) as they are under the executive branch. Sign an Executive Order repealing the vast majority of other Executive Orders, while signing another that requires Congress to include the portion of the Constitution that authorizes each and every bill they place before me.

And here is something almost never mentioned. The Indians. We took a philips head to these people and the treaties we made need to be respected. Treaties should perhaps even be remade with them, enabling them to govern themselves and support themselves while encouraging their people to not be dependent upon the US Gov.

Hmm, this was rather longer than I thought, and didn't cover enough subject. However, I think it covers perhaps the biggest of them. I don't think that such an administration would give Liberty/Constitution loving people much to complain about. So that just leaves the other 95% of the voting populace to bitch and moan.

Expanding Earth Theory

The other day I asked a colleague what he was listening to and it turned out to be video by some guy named Neal Adams talking about his theory of an expanding earth. Naturally I thought, hmmm theres a kook for ya. But hey, I am willing to listen to such things, even if only for entertainment value. So I opened up the youtube video and watched it for myself.

Well, any new idea that I come across that is interesting to me becomes a sort of compulsion to learn more. This can really suck sometimes like when a coworker makes some crazy statement like "I love lamp" (Thats from a movie, and no lamp is not an acronym. I know this now...) So I look more into this theory and find that it really does explain some of the things that we see quite well. In fact, it explains some of what we see FAR better than the current accepted theory of plate subduction, a theory which I have always had issues with so maybe in a way I was already primed for a different theory.

The things that the EE theory explains well are Subduction (which it states simply doesn't happen except in minor areas) Continental Drift, the creation of mountains, and rather discredits the Pangaea theory.

Subduction: Mr Adams explains that the crust on the ocean floor is 2-5 miles thick on average and in order for subduction to truly occur the entire several miles would have to go essentially straight down into rock that is heavier than it is. Straight down because the continental plates are much deeper then the ocean plates. Adams also points to the map of the ocean floor (rather extensively) which uses core samples and dates NO part of the ocean floor as greater than 180 million years old. That is an odd thing if the earth is truly billions of years old.

Continental Drift: EE posits that the continents have drifted, not because of floating plates, but rather they are caused by rifts in what is now the ocean floor. These rifts are where magma is forced up and out of the core and literally pushes the older plate aside. EE states that this caused the breakup of the continents and has moved them to their current locations. This seems, to me, a better explanation of why we find fossils of tropical flora and fauna in Antarctica than current accepted theory.

Mountaining: Current theory teaches that mountains are created when plates collide and the crust buckles upwards, while at the same time one crust rides over the other. EE gives an alternate explanation. The growth of the earth has led to a "flatter" earth. By this I mean the the curve is no so great as it once was. This can be demonstrated by simply looking at two balls of differing size. A piece of tape placed on the smaller one will have to curve more than it would on the larger. So EE explains that this re-curving causes the continental plates to wrinkle or buckle, which results in the creation of mountains.

Pangaea: This of course is the theory that all the continents were one in the past. It is so easy to see that anyone can match them up and see that they link up almost like a puzzle. However, a rather large problem with this theory is that the entire worlds landmass being on the one side would give one side of the earth a much higher mass, meaning the center of gravity would shift. Water, always seeking the lowest place, would then shift to essentially cover Pangaea, actually leaving a part of the far side of the world high and dry. That certainly puts a bit of a damper in the whole evolution thing. After all, land animals don't evolve very well underwater. But what is really interesting is that the continents don't just line up on one side. They line up across the Pacific too! How does the Pangaea theory explain that? It doesn't. It doesnt even attempt to.

The problems with th Expanding Earth theory? Really only one. Where does this extra landmass come from? I haven't gotten to a satisfactory answer yet. And maybe there isn't a real satisfactory answer altho I intend to look for it. Now, some expansion is perhaps a very logical explanation. After all it doesn't take much imagination to see the core as being more dense and under great pressure and pushing some of that material upwards, thereby expanding the planet. But at some point it should come to a sort of equilibrium. My guess off the top of my head would be to say no more than 10% expansion by such a mechanism before it isn't possible. But that isn't what this theory posits. EE teaches that the expansion can be 100% or more from the original planetary size. A standard nickel-iron core simply wouldn't be able to create such vast expansion.

At the moment I am in my research on this, it seems they may believe in a plasma core (I am not certain on this) as well as energy thrown off from the sun. The idea of a plasma core is interesting and I haven't thought enough upon the idea or its implications to state on way or another. Just how energy dense is plasma? How dense is the plasma at the Earth's core? Since plasma is simply another state of matter, how much matter can that plasma create? What other ways might a planet have of gaining size?

Many questions at the moment, and I am not ready to believe it, but I must say that some of the evidence for it is compelling. Check out some of the animations that Neil Adams has produced. This animation of a moon is quite neat and it shows the rifts being closed and the land matching perfectly. The previous clip can be seen here along with other videos (requires Quicktime) The vids on Mars and the moon are worth watching also.

Let me know what you guys think.

Resumption of Posts

Seems I haven't posted in a while. Well, it doesn't just seem that way, it IS that way. Too much self censorship has rather thwarted my desire to post. But the blog isn't truly dead. Just on life support once more.

I saw a bumper sticker the other day that left me wondering "Well, what are they for then? The sticker said "Animals are not for us to eat, for us to wear, for us to experiment on or to use for our entertainment." I guess I will never be a friend of this PETA but that I would fit in quite well with this one!

The rafting trip is on for this year! W00T! Res has the info up on his blog. For a recap of last year's trip see here. Looks like we will have quite a bit more people this year, as well as two days of whitewater instead of just one.