Derp

This was the first word I was given, and I had to look it up. Yup. I am in no danger of winning the pop culture section of Jeopardy. I was afraid I was going to have to look up all 28 and be forced to reassess my literacy self esteem. The next bunch reassured me.

It turns out that many of my rants could have had Derp in the title. Many. Most, perhaps. There is so much in the world that I see, in person or on video, that makes me wonder what they could possibly have been thinking. If anything. There are times I wonder if some people have lost all sense of self preservation. Maybe the title could be the subject, a paragraph explaining what happened, and derp being the sole commentary.

But that would be sound bite ranting, and I refuse to submit! One of the things I liked about Mayor Nenshi's campaign was that he didn't apologize for speaking in grown up paragraphs. He demonstrated that at least some of the population can think beyond a sound bite, and can recognize when they aren't being patronized. Mainly because that's what the elites mostly do to the rest of us.

Just like the police are (supposed) to enforce the law in an impartial manner, I'd like it if there was an impartial body devoted to enforcing the truth in politics. That when a politician in a debate lies, a big red game show sign saying LIAR goes on over their heads. More importantly, since they have no shame, their microphone gets cut off. One minute for the first instance, 2 for the second, and so on. The only problem I foresee is that it would very quickly become a very quiet debate. Perhaps that's for the best.

Part of the problem with our democracy is that the bureaucracy has been stifled, and the politicians don't say anything of import. The real stuff is behind the closed doors. What's said in public is sound bites with only the slightest relationship to the truth. That's no way to run a country. Everything that our government does, everything that goes on paper, should be open to the public sooner rather than later. Anything to do with politician expenses and pay should be open to the public in real time.

Too often governments now use the terrorist label to suppress information, and act in extra-judicial ways. It's starting now with (mostly) terrorists or plausible impostors if you don't look to closely, but it will (if it hasn't already) expand to people that embarrass the government, people that disagree with the government or the ministers in the government. Then our whole judicial system will collapse.

There is much whining about victim's rights these days. People think criminals have too many rights. What people now don't understand is that Monarchs used to disappear people they didn't like. Elected or semi-elected governments do the same. The whole structure of our judicial system is to make the police, and indirectly, the government, prove there is a case against the accused, according to established rules, before depriving him or her of their liberty or property. Victims had no rights, because they were not impartial; the state was acting for them.

Those technicalities that let the "guilty" get off scot free? That means someone didn't do their job properly, or they really were innocent, and the victim of police entrapment. As soon as we accept that what "everybody knows" is a suitable court for deciding who's guilty, what you really have is a popularity contest. The Catholic Church did this for centuries, acting as the accuser, the prosecutor, the judge, the punisher, and collector of fines and property forfeitures all in one. No wonder people that disagreed with the Church, or had something the Church wanted, ended up discredited, tortured, and burned.

I don't want to go back to that, but there sure seem to be lots of people that do. They naturally think they'll be the ones in charge. Some of them are in charge now.

I was in charge of my spin workout tonight. Home, change, on the bike. Grrrr. Warmup, feeling strong, and comfortable at higher rpms than what has been comfortable for a while. Pushed some big gears. On the bike an hour, a good solid workout that I'm pleased with.

Stretched and core after. Pushups even. Pigeon. Looking forward to the long weekend. Lots to do. With any luck, none of it will be derp.