This blog post is not going to talk to you about politics, you can go to my personal blog Justin Germino to hear my personal views about voting.  This post is to show you a funny Simpsons clip from last Sunday’s Treehouse of Horror XIX Episode.  So enjoy in the spirit of today being Election Day 2008.

In the words of Homer Simpson, “Its funny because its true”.

Be careful driving to the polls everybody traffic jams are bound to be an issue in almost every state.

-Dragon Blogger

I saw this video clip from Hayden Panettiere from FunnyorDie.com and I just had to share it with my audience.  The sarcasm is so genuine and I always love watching comedians and celebrities do improve stuff like this.

Kudos to Hayden for speaking her mind and not being afraid to express her opinion to the world.
(Warning some bad language in the video, hope people aren’t offended)

-Dragon Blogger

On Sunday Austria will be the first EU Nation to grant the right to vote to sixteen year old teenagers in the country. They join country’s such as Brazil, Cuba and Nicaragua among a few others with the same policy. One of Austria’s main reasons for lowering the voting age is to compensate for the country having a higher percentage of seniors and less representation from the youth community as a result of the country having a low birth rate.

Before I ask for you to comment on your own opinions about what age a person should have a write to vote I want to express my opinions on the matter. I believe that being able to vote at the age of 16 should be allowed in the United States as now more than ever teenagers are becoming wiser and more knowledgeable about the world. Teenagers need to have a much more active and vested interest in the future of this nation and by lowering the voting age they can be taught and brought in earlier to start thinking about the country and community as a whole.

Most states allow people at the age of sixteen to have driver’s licenses or driving permits, and allows them to carry rifles to go hunting. There are many adults who make less educated voting decisions, so for people who think kid’s are kids and don’t have the forethought or care to vote should keep in mind that most adults don’t vote on issues, but vote for who looks good, who sounds good, or randomly pick a name on the paper.

I know many teenagers who are active about going “Green” saving the Earth from Global Warming, many kids know the worries and stress of the economic troubles of recent and the rise of gas prices and the effect on travel and communities. There is the risk of “buying” votes with teenagers or teachers imposing their political views on students but this really isn’t much more of a risk than politicians who try to buy votes, or corporations who swing votes in politicians favor.

So those are my opinions, I believe that we need to get teenagers more involved with the community and politics as a whole so they can help shape the future of this nation. In fact my five year old listens as I have CNN rolling in the background is very cognizant about Obama and McCain and knows about gas prices, finances and the economy. We don’t want little kids to stress like adults do over important issues, but we don’t want them ignorant either.

What are my reader’s thoughts on this, I would love to hear feedback and comments either for or against. Instead of just saying you are against, let us know your reasons and opinions.

-Dragon Blogger

• Update:

Blogging Choices agrees that the voting age should be reduced if it is done cautiously, go ahead and click on the link for full opinion.

I don’t talk politics often but when I do I like to tell people how I think and rationalize why I come to the conclusions and opinions that I arrive at.  First of all I have some vested interest in the financial sector, not only do I have a loan with a bank that went bankrupt, but I also work for a Fortune 100 Bank, one that fortunately for all of our customers and employee’s did not disregard ethics and morals just for the sake of making some shady loans to customers to have # of loans added to their books.

Lets face it people are desperate creatures, we live in a society where the majority of us struggle and work day in and day out for mediocrity and by the time we save enough money to stop working we are either old and frail, or plagued by health problems and lose the youth and vigor to enjoy the things we once wanted.

So when banks were offering the opportunity for people to get homes far beyond their means, remember people, the rule of thumb is this:  You can only afford a house that is 2.5 times your annual salary PERIOD.  Anything else = STRUGGLE.

So if you make $55,000 per year, then the most you should purchase your house for is $137,500 and you have to have around $26,000 dollars down in savings to get a good interest rate and loan.  Most people were getting $300,000 houses on that same salary, which left them belly up.  Sure if you have no car payment, or low other expenses you might be able to stretch to 3x your income, but it is unwise.

So many people got loans in the hopes they would get raises, bonuses or be able to re-finance later when interest rates were better.  This trapped many people, when the interest rates went up and the Interest Only Loans started converting to Adjustable Interest + Principal, mortgage payments doubled and tripled.  This equaled massive non-payments.  I have watched people go and rent a house 2 miles away for the same square footage as their current house they had mortgage for 1/3 the price.  Seriously, their payment ballooned to $3300 per month for a 3100 square foot house, so they just abandoned the house and moved into a Rental, same exact specs for $1,100 per month.

It is poor practice, but people are desperate and people must do what they can to keep a roof over their families head and put food on the table.  So I don’t judge anyone for any practices to keep themselves afloat in this rocky economy.

The government did the right thing by bailing out the financial sector because the people who still can pay their loans would have their loans called in “payment in full” as a bank can do when desperate. This would drive forclosures up even higher and possibly put familes out on the street.  The government is shielding the economy and the people as best as they can, knowing full well that we all have to do our part to help offset these costs later (which means taxes).

We are all Americans and we all have to stick together, I think all CEO’s of all company’s especially financial companies should turn over 90% of their stock and most of their salary and bonuses to the government to help fund this endeavor.  All banks that went under still payed their CEO’s tens of millions of dollars in stock, bonuses and salaries over the past few years, which is unacceptable.

In my opinion George W. Bush made one of the rare decisions of his presidential career that was the right and good decision for the American people.  Even if our government becomes more Socialistic as a result, we were headed there anyway with Healthcare reform.  The private sector has proven that it is irresponsible and needs more government regulation, the stock market is so volatile because people shortsell and bet on stocks crumbling, and panic.  The financial market should not be driven by emotion and fear, yet it tumbles artificially up and down constantly.

Here is a word of advice, do not tie up all your assets in stocks and mutual funds.  Make sure you have much of your wealth scattered in FDIC Insured Accounts.  ING gives you 5% APR and is FDIC insured to $100,000 which is fantastic, you can get $5,000 per year interest and move that out and keep your entire account insured in case of disaster.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

-Dragon Blogger

I have some view’s which would fall under liberal democratic, and some opinions that would fall under right wing republican.  I don’t think any single free thinking person in America can be so exactly 100% republican on every issue or democratic on every issue.  One thing I do want to point out and this has been pointed out by many people before me is that this is one of the most amazing political races of the last century.  This presidential race has proven that the times are changed and what once was thought unachievable (a woman or black president) is now quite achievable and possibly a reality.  No matter who wins this race, John McCain who is a Senator from my state of residence, or Barack Obama, there will either be a Female Vice President or a Black President.  Regardless of issues, either side wins and it is a huge win for equality in America at least from a Gender/Race perspective.  Speaking of Sarah Palin, did you know she is not only the first female governor of Alaska, but she was also the youngest elected Governor of Alaska.

In my personal opinion I think the two party system should be abolished and instead of being categorized as one system or another, each person is a free standing candidate, with no specific party driving the issues and decisions.  Too much “Vote your Party” mentality causes legislation to be pushed or vetoed based on what the party would do than the individual candidates way of thinking.  Without the parties in place we would see a much more level playing field for individuals who really want to shake things up.  Barack is in many ways a fresh and new face to the political way of thinking and has the best chance of breathing new life into Washington, but his lack of experience and particularly foreign policy make him likely to be deadlocked when he is in office.  A president who is unable to push his agenda’s for they will be blocked at every opportunity.  I am not sure about the choice Obama made in choosing Joe Biden to run as his Vice President.  They have a lot of conflicting policies and Biden wasn’t exactly a strong supporter. This leads me to believe that Joe Biden was chosen just for his experience in Washington, and once elected he will be relatively ineffective as anything but a diplomatic emissary and public figure for foreign policy when he is Vice President.

My issues are simple and need resolution for my primary issues I think Barack is the better candidate of the two, though I liked Ralph Nader’s position and during the previous election I was in Howard Dean’s camp and was disappointed to see John Kerry get the ticket.

• Health care

Health care in this country is too expensive but worse than that it is impossible to get if you have pre-existing conditions.  I don’t know if government paid for health care is the answer like a socialistic economy, but something that regulates the private sector and forces set standards/rates and removes company’s abilities to deny coverage.  Also, the system needs to be better for promoting preventative medicine.  If more money was spent on preventative medicine, then less money would be required for treatment.  Preventing illness and disease (ones that can be prevented) is far cheaper than fixing them.  Think about your car, servicing your car every 6 months to a year and finding fixing cracked hoses, leaking parts is much cheaper than replacing an engine that fails or components that break as a result of those failures.  People should be able to have basic exams, inspections annually without charge.  More money should be spent on research and development for treatments, and above all else Stem Cell research and Cloning therapies need to be allowed to continue.  America was once a science and medical leader around the world and this is becoming far less common now that such research is banned or severely restricted.  The key to everyone’s medical future lies in Stem Cell and Cloning Therapy.  Eventually people will be able to have new organs grown specifically for them from their own collected cell’s.  They can turn adult stem cells (albeit less effectively) but they don’t need to destroy embryo’s in all cases, stem cell’s can be harvested from a variety of sources.

• Energy Efficiency

Ironic how Oil still runs everyone’s lives and it is so pervasive and everywhere.  This is an area where I actually side with Republican’s for the most part.  Nuclear power is the most efficient means of generating power for the nation.  I read many articles in Discover magazine, and on Science Daily websites, Nuclear reactors the new types of technology are far safer and more efficient than the old “nuclear rod” types of reactors.  Let’s face it, even Wind Power comes at a cost.  Did you know that all of those wind mill’s that generate power in California, actually are a hazard and are killing so many species of bats that environmentalists are concerned?  Something about the frequencies of the wind farm equipment or the way they impact the air, is causing bats to become disoriented and die by the hundreds around them.  So even “green” power comes at a price.  Remember that, Ethanol for cars which is made from Corn is driving the cost of Corn so high that nations in Africa can no longer get the exports of corn, since there is less to export for food since it is starting to be used for fuel, and company’s can buy and donate less because the price is going up.  This is a global economy, if we switch from Oil to Ethanol we will just drive up world hunger and impact prices of food services around the world.  Coal, Natural Gas, don’t even bother, more resources which are finite and will run out.  Now, Solar is a really great alternative, but just isn’t efficient enough.  When they can develop Solar cell’s that are 12-20% efficient in collecting the Sun’s power, then they will be effective, right now at 3-4% they just aren’t cost effective.  Though I read somewhere that if put enough Solar Cell’s in Arizona, you can power the entire country indefinately.  There is that much solar energy to be harvested here, and they are building new solar farms here in the next few years.

Obviously a big issue is the Iraq war, Terrorism, Foreign Policy…etc…  I will save my opinions on all of these issues for future posts.

Think about the future of the world people, ironically I have said this to people I know.  We live in a world where scientists, teachers and researchers get paid so little, and entertainers get paid so much.  People reward escapism and entertainment at the expense of the people who can actually find a way to make a difference in this world.

-Dragon Blogger