Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Paper or Plastic?

I have been thinking a lot about governments and their short comings. Communism failed in my opinion because it was based on an unsound principal. The Marxist papers that formded the basis of Communism was an idealistic utopian view of the way man should work together for the greater good of all. Reality check. Human nature (not necessarily good or bad) will never work that way. I don't me an to say that these are not great goals to strive for, just that the likely hood of such things happenning is slim. What happens instead is you get the same incompetent, power hungry people striving for control for personal gains instead of for the whole. You then back them up with a military that gets better rations then the people so they too prefer to keep things this way. The government goes from what can we do to make life better to this is what we want you to do.

Surprisingly, I feel a pure democracy is just as doomed for the same reason. You can't let people do what ever they want with out some basic checks and balances in place. The early 19th century in America showed the problems with unchecked democracy. The rich used the money and power to cause people to live almost like slaves (e.g. the mining industry). I believe that many of the challenges the U.S. are facing today are probably the results of corporations, wealthy investors, and lobbyists manipulating domestic and foreign policy in the name of U.S. Interests. What actions have these large corporate entities taken abroad that are now coming home to roost? Look at the Oil Industry for one. How much have their dealings in foriegn countries caused the problems we see today. They have struggled to keep the U.S. dependent on oil for the sake of money even though the future portents a dire situation to come as China becomes a major competitor for resources. They weaken our country by hindering our progress to an alternate fuel source.

Pure democracy makes the same mistake as communisum by not taking into account human nature. Democracy so far has been better because the people can push for change; however, without proper checks and balances, democracy can easily fall prey to ruthless, self serving people who will sell away the rights of the many for the gain of a few. The current U.S. government is the closest I have seen democracy come to that point.My worstfear is that thedamage may be beyond the repair of her citizens.

I blame both the Republicans and the Democrats with a little more fault given to the Republicans, but the have both had their fingers in the cookie jar for too long. I can not forget myself in this mix because I know that there have been too many times I have found it easier to stay quiet instead of speaking. That is why I am writing down my thoughts. All I ask is that you think about it. Nothing more.

Paper or Plastic? Democracy or Communison? Both can become tomorrows trash heap.Responsible Democracy finds ways to clean up after itself.

Posted by Rob Garbin 2007-03-06 23:17:53

Saturday, February 24, 2007
Smoking, what's up with that?

And so it begins, as the Vorlon's would say. I just don't get it. I am not knocking smokers, I know many would quit if they could. I don't because I can't and it does make me miserable because of allergies, but that is my problem. What I don't get; however, is the U.S. governments policies on the tobacco industry. Actually, I think I do, But I think it is wrong.

Over the years it has become clear, through court cases, that the tobacco industry did some bad things to get more and more people hooked on their product so that they could become rich. Some people would say that the industry was amoral. One of the things that sticks out in my mind was that they added some pretty nasty ingredients to the natural tobacco to increase its habitual nature.

After all of the hoorah was over, the U.S. government/State governments won all kinds of law suits to get money to pay for the health costs the users of tobacco incur that also impacts the society as a whole. They put all kinds of retrictions on the industry and added taxes (supposedly to cause people to quit because of the cost) to penalize the people who continue to smoke after the fact.

However, they did not do one common sense thing. A simple action that I feel reveals a lot about howAmerican politics (lobbying and big business) works. If the industryadded ingredients or used certain processes to increase the habitual nature of the product, why did the government not force the industry to return the product back to its more natural form. I know it probably would have beenunwise to cold turkey change the product for those people already hooked on tobacco, but they could have mandated step down measures untilit was back to its natural form. Why was this never thought of?

Simple, money. The govenrment makes a lot of money off of the taxes, probably more than ever makes it back to the people. Also, people still become hopelessly hooked on the product so that the tobacco industry makes its money and can continue to pay off the right people. Also, look at the huge industry created to help people kick the habit. How much simplier would quiting the habit be if the product was closer to its natural form? In the end, all of the costs are passed on to the consumer. The richcontinue to get rich and the consumer's just continue to die. Think about it.

Posted by Rob Garbin 2007-02-24 22:46:28

Saturday, February 24, 2007
Let's start a fight

The reason i say "Let's start a fight" is because I know that i will probably be taking a lot of flax for my future blog entries. I have decided to start putting down my views and philosophy (spelling withstanding of course) and I know my views aren't always popular. Truth, I don't care. I use to let people cowl me because it was easier to surrender then to stand up for my views. I lost myself that way.

Also, I think someone has to say these things. I have no desire to force my views down anyones throat unlike the others who feel that they must detroy a person who has a dissenting viewpoint. I just feel that I have the right to say how I feel. You don't have to like it; I don't really care. If you don't agree then just ignore me. Now, if your belief is such that you feel that you must destroy me for saying what I do, then I'll tell you right now that I believe your view has no merit. if your view cannot stand up to a dissenting opinion then it is flawed to begin with. No view is worth destroying someones life. Defending someones life yes, but not attacking to destroy.

One of the first cases in point is the very title of this entry. I had originally thought about titling it "Let's start World War III" which is an old expression used for causing a ruckus. However, in the current U.S. political climate, I thought it would not be wise to use that expression since some people are more apt to shoot before they read. I could wind up in jail without rights before someone even actually read what the blog is about. That is a sad state of affairs.

Posted by Rob Garbin 2007-02-24 22:12:37

Wednesday, August 9, 2006
Allergies Suck

You'll have to forgive some of my harsher blog entries. I have been battleing what I thought was a bad case of Bronchitis for nearly 6 months now and have gotten, at times, severely run down.I recently found out that it may be really strong reactions to allergens like mold and pets. I get regular allergy shots but apprently they weren't enough. Now I have to go through a major cleaning frenzy and consider giving up my cat who plays a major role in my Dragon Dream stories.

It seems that as I get older, my allergies are getting worse. I can no longer have anything with tomatoes in it, which totally sucks because I am Italian. What I wouldn't do for a lasagna? Well any way, this ends my rant for now. We'll see how I feel once I make some changes.

Posted by Rob Garbin 2006-08-09 20:59:16

Monday, August 7, 2006
Sadness of Broken Dreams

I just finished watching Memoirs of a Geshia and was struck to the core by the harsh sadness of the Geshia's life. I ached for the fact that I could not heal such a pain; the same kind of pain that beats within my heart. Of course not for the same reasons, but the same shattering of dreams. The same desire for healing and hope. Unlike the Geshia's, my pain has not been transformed into joy.

In my writing, I try to capture some of the same strong emotions. Sadly, I only know sadness very well although a glimmmer of hope shows through. My Dragon Dream stories only hint at the depths of my passions while Wine and Whirlwinds is nothing but a pale reflection of the wit I feel I posses. Wine is more a test of what I can do in a 1000 words. I am working on another short story hopefully for the next Flashspec anthology, but I now look at it as pale. The idea is good, but executing the powerful emotions I want in only 750 words is challenging. I intend to revisit the story with knew goals this time. Maybe even let it go over 750.

For me, the stories, which have had the profoundest effect on me were the sad stories. Not the ones with countless amounts of gore thrown in to prove how bad a persons life is, but the ones that could cause you to so emphasize with the character that your heart aches when they ache and when joy floods their life, your heart bursts. This is what I wish to impart. That to me is a story. You can be clever, vulgar, gory, phornographic, but if you do not stir my heart then you have failed.

Joy is the hardest to capture in me because I emphasize to strongly with the sorrows brought about by the numerous injustices in the world I witness every day. We as humans are carelessly cruel over the simplist of things. Things that are so insignificant and we pass the disease along by association. Even my suggestion that some things to me are insignificant is a small cruelety, because maybe to someone else it is significant. However, I feel that if we all would learn not to let our sense of what is important cloud our world, we might find it easier to get along. That is my philosophy anyway and it is damn hard to follow.

As for my other stories, Stubborn and Above These, Love come closer to the mark of emotional content, although Stubborn could still use a tweak. Some other movies that I fell have stong emotional content are The Sand Pebbles, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, The Last Emperor, The Empire Strikes Back, A River Runs Through It, and Final Fantasy: the Spirit Within. Babylon 5 was steeped in deep love and deep sadness. My heart ached at the end. I will dearly miss Adreas Katsula who played G'Kar.

Posted by Rob Garbin 2006-08-07 22:49:31