Meeting Celebrities

Normally I have no aspirations to meet a celebrity. I tend to get pretty shy and it just ends up being awkward. I can't even manage to ask for a picture with them. And I can never come up with anything to ask them about.

This morning I'm watching youtube videos with Andrew and we're watching a lot of Alex Boye music videos. And I realized, I really would like to meet him. He reminds me of some of my college friends. The thing is, I'd probably still be shy and awkward. So, I think I'm going to need an icebreaker friend there with me.

Like Warky. Steve "Warky" Nunez is one of my good friends from college and he's put out a couple CDs of mormon parodies and a lot of anime stuff. He goes to the anime convention every year... unless he's double booked, which he was this year. Somehow I met a lot of cool people through him, and he was the icebreaker for everybody. A 'cool' group that I would never be noticed by, would think I'm cool too. I didn't realize he did that for me, until I was thinking about it today.

Most Important Political Issues

Just filled out a survey for The White House website/ webform/ newsletter I get in my email each week. Here are some of the questions they asked and answers I gave them.

What’s the most important policy area to you?

The federal deficit

What do I think about the Federal Deficit? That's a can of worms. I'm surprised you asked in this survey. This issue worries me the most because debt is a form of slavery. The borrower is slave to the lender and this country's government doesn't seem to understand this concept (nor many of its citizens). I think this country is heading for a historic fall similar the Roman Empire, due to a combination of debt, conflict and worldwide violence. I don't truly believe America will fall, but I think that we will suffer a great deal due to a dramatic increase in violence in the world and our own financial and social mistakes. 

Second most important policy area?

Tax policy

I think that the Tax policy is too complicated. It's also making it very difficult for citizens to anticipate their taxes owed and causing stress on families. At the same time, all these complicated ways of determining if a person owes taxes that year and how much, is making it very difficult for state and federal departments to anticipate their revenue each year. 

A flat tax would allow citizens to budget for taxes owed while giving the government a very simple math problem to determine what their revenue will be. (% of income earned of Americans minus deductions such as children and donations up to a certain %.) A clear picture of revenue would make it much easier for government to create and maintain a balanced budget. 

But what if revenue was much lower one year because of natural disaster and economy downturn? Just as each family should have an emergency fund for things like their car breaking down, so should the federal government. Put Savings as a national priority, and suddenly you'll find yourself being Proactive to potential problems rather than Reactive. 

What I've seen of the tax system is that some people are getting paid to live in America year after year, while others are constantly feeling like they're paying for 10 families. Some people get major penalties for accidentally filling the forms out wrong, including small businesses. Some of these people and businesses go broke because of little tax mistakes. No one should have the undue weight and stress of a complicated tax system. Hey, maybe Americans health will improve upon a simpler system being implemented!

What about all those people who will be unemployed at the IRS after the flat tax is introduced? Put them into the immigration department. Immigration is more than 7 years behind in paperwork. Get them some helpers. 

What would you like to see less of on the White House website?

Fluff. stuff that's suppose to make everyone think things are getting better, hoping that that rumor will somehow actually make it better. 

Also, hearing that a young adult is paying $24 a month for health insurance just infuriates me, because I know that means I'm subsidizing him and 10 lazy butts like him so he can afford buy booze and eat out every day. Luckily I have no interest in wasting money on alcohol, but it is frustrating that I can only afford to eat out about once every other month. I am living on $30 a week for groceries. I dare you do that. Bet you can't. And no, I don't qualify for Food Stamps. (I have both pride and anger concerning this topic. Pride that we are making it without help, and anger that the situation and government policies make it so difficult to get anywhere.)