I say you, you say fucked.

REAL IDs. They're actually fucking going through with it. But apparently it's just for people born after 1964. Why? Does the government trust 50-year-olds more than 30-year-olds? Probably. That, and a whole fucking lot of people were born before 1964. They call them baby boomers. I call them old farts. Tomato, tomahto. It would be quite expensive, I imagine, to produce high-tech, invincible ID cards for that whole generation. Maybe there's some other issue behind it that I'm not thinking of. Whatever.

I'm not entirely certain how REAL IDs can be interpreted as anything but the beginning of the end of freedom. I understand security concerns, blah blah blah, but there has to be a better way for the government to deal with the issue of security than keeping all its citizens on leashes. The Patriot Act (eroding liberty bit by bit!), freakish ID cards...it seems like we're on the frightening path to having a government agent assigned to each citizen as a babysitter. They'd carry tasers, and use them liberally. I know it.

So anyway, the reason I decided to rant about this. The idea for REAL IDs (why is that capitalized?) came up after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, obviously in the giant oh-shit security frenzy. It's been said that "America won't let the terrorists win" and "This tragedy will just make our nation stronger" and all that. The current federal government has gotten so power-happy and big-headed in the wake of the attacks that it's starting to seem more and more like the terrorists would be thrilled with what they've done to this country. They've instilled a great amount of fear and paranoia into the American people and particularly the American government. We cannot be secure and we cannot be strong if we are constantly worried about who's going to attack us next. We cannot be admirable if our government is ethically deplorable.

I'm looking forward to getting somebody with an IQ greater than that of a kumquat in the White House. Unfortunately, our options are kind of shit-tacular.

I kind of feel like Obama would be the best choice for president, although he doesn't seem to have any clue what he's getting into and it's hard to know what he really believes when all his speeches and opinions are constructed to pander to the wishes of whomever he happens to be speaking to. On the plus side, he seems to be the least batshit crazy of all the viable candidates. That's worth a lot these days.

I don't know how I feel about Hillary. She strikes some kind of primal fear into my heart, but then again I've heard all sorts of good things about her. She might be batshit crazy, but to be fair, she has been married to Bill all those years. I'd be crazy too.

Giuliani is a slimebag and if he gets elected I'm moving to Canada.

I can't wait for the day when I never have to hear about Ron Paul ever again. I literally had some asshole shove me against a wall while she was screaming in my face about how awesome Ron Paul is. HE ACCEPTS MONEY FROM NEO-NAZIS. THAT IS NOT A GOOD THING. Also, he's possibly the MOST batshit crazy of all the candidates, although I can't lump him in with the viable candidates, because thankfully he hasn't a snowball's chance in hell.

Gotta go to class. More ranting later. Fuck politics.