I used to be the biggest fan of listening to people talk as a kid, and talking myself, even going as far as inventing my own “radio show” which essentially involved me speaking into a microphone about whatever, playing some music, and playing it back for myself. In 2003-2004 I did a short stint as a Shoutcast DJ for Aniverse-Radio playing Japanese anime and music with copious amounts of jackassery, but after the link-high from Megatokyo wore off and the site admin let the server die, that came to an end. I did do it again for a short period for a friend’s club but I wound up having no time for it. It is something I’d like to try doing again maybe some day.

I do enjoy however listening to talk radio on occasion, and besides my grandparents being devoted listeners of Rush, whom I grew up listening to a lot of his show during the Clinton years, he is the type of guy I can only stand in short bursts. The man actually makes sense on a very basic level, he tends to say what you were thinking of, but too afraid to say because we’ve been trained to be the generation of “tolerance” by our parents in order to conform with the ideals of society. Some time ago though, I started infrequently listening to Jim Vicevich on my way to classes last year since I had a bit of a morning commute and would listen to WTIC on the way in. Since then he has moved on to his own online radio show which I try to tune in on during work, but find it rather hard to listen and take support calls at the same time. The thing I like about his show and his approach to political issues is he tends to come at an issue from slightly off center instead of from the far right or left like many other radio and TV hosts, and since I tend to look at most political views from that standpoint, it makes sense to me.

When it comes to the Tea Party Movement, I personally think it is wonderful that a large group of people are getting out there and making their voice heard about the issues that affect us all. Government has gotten out of control, and I think a lot of people know that, but people continue to quietly accept their taxes and pay their dues because it’s always “for the good of the people”.

What is “good for the people” anyway? Take rich people for example, some inherit their money, some earn it through shady means, others earn it through legitimate means, but no matter how you came about with a lot of money, society dictates that you do not deserve that money, that poor people without the means to fend for themselves deserve your money. While that may be the case, just how many of those people are really so “down and out” on their luck? How many of those people can’t lift a hand to make ends meet for themselves and their family? After all, why bother when trusty Robin “Government” Hood will rob from the rich and give to you whenever you need help? With that kind of help, why bother trying to improve your life at all? Why, all you need is a big TV, an Xbox 360, a freezer full of Hot Pockets, and you’ve got life made off the backs of everyone else, right?

Now I realize that not everyone is like this, there are some truly needy people out there, but there are a lot of churches, charities, and even regular folks who take time out of their day and money out of their pockets to help these folks out, and there are state and local programs that get out there and help these folks get their lives back together, get jobs, and help families. Assuming that all rich folks are Scrooges is just silly. I realize that I myself do not do much charity work, though I have in the past, but if I were in the position of the rich, spending a little to reinvest in my community isn’t a bad idea so long as these folks truly benefit from it.

Sadly, our government has turned a lot of people into dependents for life on aid programs, benefits, and social services that were never intended to be long-term solutions. Rather than fix the problem or reform systems, they continue to just raise taxes on things and throw more money into an endless black hole of debt that we as a country will never get out of. Imagine if every US citizen was asked to pay their share of the national debt tomorrow, do you know how much that is? Last I heard, somewhere around 50k per person, that includes every man, woman, and child. No one could afford that, and what would Obama and Democrats do? They’d demand the rich pay for nearly all of that and everyone else get money back somehow in the process. Oh, and that is patriotic according to Vice President Biden. Our society has come a long way in the past 200 years, even more so in the past 100 or even 50 years, society is much different from what it, and for it to continue and prosper, we need to take a step back and really take a long look at how we operate and do things.

Everyone wants something for nothing and everything for little, I see it every day in my own job, people want our software because it will help them make money faster and more efficiently, but many don’t believe that they owe us even a little bit of that money to support us, the people who write and support the software. Perhaps this is ironic coming from a lifelong internet pirate, but we like to think that our customers aren’t paying so much for the software itself but for the system that exchanges the data, the bandwidth, and the hours of support we put in making sure everything runs. We offer a service and it’s reasonable to assume that people pay for a service and receive the appropriate level of courtesy and response back. That is exactly what our federal government should be doing with our tax dollars, putting them to efficient and responsible use with 100% of our input, we entrust them with our hard-earned money so that they can provide us all with basic government and limited social services that benefit all of us, not just some of us. We are all Americans, no matter what race, gender, religion, or orientation. We need to break down the walls of race and social status and come back to the senses of what is truly important to us. When you consider life comes and goes in what seems to be a very short time-span, people need to take responsibility for themselves and their families during the best of times and the worst of times.

As for the Tea Party, you can point out that they’re mostly Conservative, you can point out that their mostly white, and you can point out whatever you like, but what I see are real Americans, and maybe when blacks, hispanics, asians, and other minorities join and rally together, maybe more people will start to understand that this isn’t some paid-for lobby group trying to detract followers from “The Messiah”, but American citizens who actually give a damn about the direction our government is going into the future. I for one would like to probably attend a rally if I can barring I have the time, I do work for a living. =)

tl;dr: It is not the size of the government that should be feared, but the government of the size in Pelosi’s pants.