Unacceptable to Cut

So public opinion polls show it is "unacceptable" to cut social security, medicare, and medicaid. Fine. How about we introduce transitional programs to let people who want to opt out do so. We wouldn't fully cut the programs right away by any means. No one wants the poor and elderly just put out on the streets as proponents of these programs say would happen if they didn't exist. As a young professional I'm looking at my paycheck and cringing at having to pay taxes into programs that will probably not be round for me to even use in the future. I would rather be in charge of myself. Or at the very least, I want to pay into a privatized, personal account (look to Chile's example for good guidance).

Atlas Shrugged Part 1, post 2

A new thought dawned on me while I was considering how this endeavor could have been done better: an HBO  series on the book instead of a movie. Sure, releasing only on premium cable channels to start does have a couple drawbacks, but I think I've been pleased with 90% of the programming I've seen on HBO. HBO doesn't seem to mind doing niche productions and has the time/budget to do something like this well.

Atlas Shrugged Part 1

Just saw Atlas Shrugged Part 1 (right after work so I could take advantage of matinée pricing) and I'd probably give it 3 "Netflix stars." As a die-hard Rand fan I was hoping for more, but given the really low budget I thought it on par with what I could reasonably expect. Some of the acting seemed too stiff or "unheartfelt" and there were weird freeze frame bits to announce when someone else disappeared, or went on strike as people familiar with the story would call it. Aside from that I thought it was OK.

The primary problem now, as well as for the last 50 years, is still the scope and complexity of the project. There were a lot of things I understood that were happening in Part 1 that people unfamiliar with the story would not understand. I think it would also be extremely difficult to get this book, which is basically a school of philosophy wrapped in a little bit of story, to translate well to a film for the masses.

I refrained from reading more than just a couple of critics' blurbs before going to see the movie for myself, and now that I have seen the film and have been reading more about it most of the reviews against the movie really didn't seem to understand what they were commenting on. They almost always portrayed a simplistic view of a "movie about trains" or "a couple rich, white people." A couple reviewers did latch on to a lot of technical stuff that could have been done better with either more time or a larger budget. This project will probably be more appreciated once the other two parts are completed and the entire story can be seen.

Happy Birthday (even though you're dead) Thomas Jefferson!

"With all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens -- a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities."

- Thomas Jefferson
   First Inaugural Address
   March 4, 1801

WI Supreme Court Election

To be completely honest I didn't follow this one that much. Too much other stuff going on in my life. I know Kloppenburg was the "not Prosser" candidate. Other than that I didn't know too much about her. A lot of people I read headlines from or heard on the radio were making this out to be a referendum on Scott Walker. If that's the case it was an interesting referendum. Aside from a few counties the state was evenly split (actually DESPITE the work of a few counties the state is evenly split) and a recount is surely to be the next step. I guess when both sides frame their arguments as poorly as has been done over the issues here you can't really expect to get a clear majority.

Addendum: Hmmm...Guess Waukesha county didn't get all their votes in, now maybe Prosser won.