How are you more likely to make an important decision — by reasoning through it, or by going with your gut?

I create pro and con lists, look for advice from friends, family, and the internet and then once I have it all set, if the original decision hasn’t already been made by someone else or by the consequences of earlier decisions then I try to get a feel for what I should do based on everything and make a snap judgement from my emotions. That’s just my way. Facts are very useful, but generally the feeling of doing a thing is far more compelling. Answering the What and How is certainly important, the answer to Why is the topmost consideration. The decisions for Why usually come from instincts and gut-feelings.

Just like everything else, it’s good to do the leg-work and be deliberate but in doing all of that, in the end it’s all in the gut. I have to have faith that doing all the leg-work has set the stage for the drama to play out in my mind and whatever my decision is is the right one for me.

There are few aspects of our lives that government doesn’t touch in some way, from macroeconomics to home economics. But should it? This week, we’re getting philosophical — we want to hear about what you think the role and scope of government should be. It’s time to mind the gap.

The role of government. Whoa. That’s a huge subject that deserves a short pithy glib reply to do it proper justice. 🙂

The constitution would have it that governments purpose is to provide for the general welfare and secure our common defense. I can’t deny that a common defense is important, but for the past two hundred years we’ve been less interested about defending ourselves as we have been about being just generally offensive to everyone else on the planet. We bring hot death to pretty much everyone, at least once, sometimes we bring it a bunch of times, just because it’s something we’re used to doing. Yes, we’re that disgusting and jaded. Yay America.

As a “Filthy Liberal Scum” I’m fond of the other end of the spectrum, the general welfare part. What should government do? It should manage the socialized aspects of life that we can’t really do well individually. Things like insurance, protection from natural disasters, and welfare for the people who through no fault of their own can’t make ends meet. There shouldn’t be any homeless people, to say anything about homeless children. If you are a child in America you should not want for food, healthcare, or housing. It’s governments role to redistribute wealth through the application of taxes to address these common social needs.

If you are a conservative then pretty much everything in this post should make you burst into flames, and in the spirit of being a conscientious host, please go outside to immolate in private, we can’t have your second-hand smoke making anyone inside sick.

There are many other things the government can do, and probably should, but the general take away I think is that we’re war’s bitch and we should be paying attention to the more important things like our children and education than breaking our teeth in some very far-away sand-pit.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a member of the opposite sex for a day? What do you think life would be like?

Think of another gender? To be a woman. The world is a mess for a woman. Coming from a tradition of being property, losing your name in the “tradition of marriage” and having to put up with male shit? I wouldn’t. To be the clear majority gender and yet treated somehow less worthy than their male counterparts? The world is stacked against women. Biology doesn’t really have anything pleasant in store for women either, years of readying oneself for reproduction only to have the entire structure torn down and purged monthly? It’s almost like some sort of rude practical joke to me. Male bullshit, rude biological jokes, and a society that at worst wants to hide you under a tarp and at best suffers your presence and underpays you just because of your gender.

It’s bullshit. It’s men’s fault, and as a man, I’m sorry ladies. What a mess. If it’s any consolation the trashy Y chromosome is dying out and with it, all the males – so it’s not like you won’t come out on top, at least at the end.

Do you have animals in your life? If yes, what do they mean to you? If no, why have you opted not to?

I have two felines as part of my family that I consider to be on-par with having a child, which I will never have. There are two of them, two boys. The oldest is a nearly purebred Abyssinian and the other is a purebreed Ocicat. They are both furry bundles of love and there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for them. Thankfully mostly I serve as a handy lap and a petting machine, but I enjoy it as much as they do so it works out for the best.

I couldn’t imagine life without some sort of animal companion. Animals provide complete unconditional love and there is no cleverness, no crafting, no hidden agendas with animals. They love you completely and unreservedly. In a lot of ways I actually prefer the companionship of animals to that of people, not in every case of course, but in general animals are better people than people are people.