Must Blog... Must Blog...
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Royce Dunbar. I'm a 46 year old Network Engineer and ex actor. I'm also an ex-flaming Liberal... in the Hubert Humphrey sense of the term. I live in Des Moines Iowa, in the heartland of the American Midwest. I live a pretty ordinary life. I've been married for over 21 years, have 2 sons ages 11 and 15. I go to work every day, help my kids with their homework after dinner... the usual stuff.
However, I have found that, other than these obvious middle-class demographic "norms", I share little in common with most of my neighbors. I do not attend a church. I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat. I am pro choice and pro death penalty. I favor goverment policies that are fiscally very conservative and socially very liberal. I'm pro gay rights... just as long as I don't have to pay for their (or anyone else's) lifestyle. I'm pro legalization of all drugs. But I consider the excuse "I was stoned... or drunk... or whatever" to be no excuse for any behavior that ends up harming another person. I believe that the abdication of personal responsibility is the cause of much unneeded suffering in our society. I believe in the the supremecy and power of the market, not because it is a human creation, but because it is a "natural" system, meaning that it is as natural an aspect of the human condition as eating or sex.
I'm anti-welfare state, anti redistribution of wealth by government force, anti-affirmative action (I'm half Puerto Rican, by the way), anti junk science, anti goverment "engineering" of society through "progressive" taxation. Okay... I'm basically anti big government.
I believe in the basic decency of most people. I also believe some people are truly evil and should not walk on the same planet with decent folk. I think that the Declaration of Independence is on of the most incredible pieces of "functional art" created by a human being.
Okay... you guessed it... yeah and the title was a dead give away. I'm a Libertarian.
I also live in one of the most LEAST libertarian leaning states in the US. Most folks here are the polar opposite of Libertarians -- socially conservative and fiscally liberal (even though they claim to be fiscally conservative). You'll meet some who are both socially liberal and fiscally liberal... WAY fiscally liberal. And a few who are fiscally conservative and socially conservative...WAY socially onservative. Iowa is a state in which most people who live the traditional Iowa lifestyle (farming) are on the dole. The state is demographically very old... these folks are, of course, also on the dole. That partially explains why even the social conservatives are fiscally liberal... they (or someone they know) are on the dole.
My first goal in starting this Blog is to simply have an outlet for my thoughts. I love to write, have had several OpEd pieces published (yes... you'll be subjected to them in later posts...) and am hoping to improve my writing. We'll see if goal number one works...
The second goal I have is to provide an alternative to the editorial stance taken by the local newspaper, The Des Moines Register.. The Register is something like a community theatre version of The New York Times. The editorials are, for the most part, poorly-written one-note liberal drones. Most of the front-page material is from the wire services. There is always some "feel good" or "feel-bad" or "feel-worried" piece about some minority, family farmer, fill-in-the-blank victim in the A section. Yep, it's a newspaper about feelings. I'm subscribed to it. I read it. It gets me feel mad. So, I've decided to do something about it.
I've decided to try my hand at "Fisking" the most outrageous pieces, news and editorial, in the Des Moines Register. That will be part, but not all of this Blog. It will be "all over the place". It is my hope that it will be entertaining, informative and worth reading. Only time will tell.
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Royce Dunbar. I'm a 46 year old Network Engineer and ex actor. I'm also an ex-flaming Liberal... in the Hubert Humphrey sense of the term. I live in Des Moines Iowa, in the heartland of the American Midwest. I live a pretty ordinary life. I've been married for over 21 years, have 2 sons ages 11 and 15. I go to work every day, help my kids with their homework after dinner... the usual stuff.
However, I have found that, other than these obvious middle-class demographic "norms", I share little in common with most of my neighbors. I do not attend a church. I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat. I am pro choice and pro death penalty. I favor goverment policies that are fiscally very conservative and socially very liberal. I'm pro gay rights... just as long as I don't have to pay for their (or anyone else's) lifestyle. I'm pro legalization of all drugs. But I consider the excuse "I was stoned... or drunk... or whatever" to be no excuse for any behavior that ends up harming another person. I believe that the abdication of personal responsibility is the cause of much unneeded suffering in our society. I believe in the the supremecy and power of the market, not because it is a human creation, but because it is a "natural" system, meaning that it is as natural an aspect of the human condition as eating or sex.
I'm anti-welfare state, anti redistribution of wealth by government force, anti-affirmative action (I'm half Puerto Rican, by the way), anti junk science, anti goverment "engineering" of society through "progressive" taxation. Okay... I'm basically anti big government.
I believe in the basic decency of most people. I also believe some people are truly evil and should not walk on the same planet with decent folk. I think that the Declaration of Independence is on of the most incredible pieces of "functional art" created by a human being.
Okay... you guessed it... yeah and the title was a dead give away. I'm a Libertarian.
I also live in one of the most LEAST libertarian leaning states in the US. Most folks here are the polar opposite of Libertarians -- socially conservative and fiscally liberal (even though they claim to be fiscally conservative). You'll meet some who are both socially liberal and fiscally liberal... WAY fiscally liberal. And a few who are fiscally conservative and socially conservative...WAY socially onservative. Iowa is a state in which most people who live the traditional Iowa lifestyle (farming) are on the dole. The state is demographically very old... these folks are, of course, also on the dole. That partially explains why even the social conservatives are fiscally liberal... they (or someone they know) are on the dole.
My first goal in starting this Blog is to simply have an outlet for my thoughts. I love to write, have had several OpEd pieces published (yes... you'll be subjected to them in later posts...) and am hoping to improve my writing. We'll see if goal number one works...
The second goal I have is to provide an alternative to the editorial stance taken by the local newspaper, The Des Moines Register.. The Register is something like a community theatre version of The New York Times. The editorials are, for the most part, poorly-written one-note liberal drones. Most of the front-page material is from the wire services. There is always some "feel good" or "feel-bad" or "feel-worried" piece about some minority, family farmer, fill-in-the-blank victim in the A section. Yep, it's a newspaper about feelings. I'm subscribed to it. I read it. It gets me feel mad. So, I've decided to do something about it.
I've decided to try my hand at "Fisking" the most outrageous pieces, news and editorial, in the Des Moines Register. That will be part, but not all of this Blog. It will be "all over the place". It is my hope that it will be entertaining, informative and worth reading. Only time will tell.
posted by Royce at 5:51 PM
1 Comments:
"The Register is something like a community theatre version of The New York Times."
That's the funniest thing i have read in a long time.
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