No Info

" 1. The information we have is not what we want.
2. The information we want is not what we need.
3. The information we need is not available. "-FINAGLE'S NEW LAWS OF INFORMATION, by John Peers, 1979

As I flip through the channels on my TV, I am flabbergasted by the amount of information spin that goes on. Cop dramas have underlying political themes. Comedies point out the humor in political situations. The news is either to the left or to the right.

You see, we all (including me) depend on the media for information. We form opinions and approaches to problems based on that information. As we get new information, our opinions change. Sometimes, when we look back, we see that we strongly disagree with our former opinions. I remember sending out an e-mail strongly supporting the invasion of Iraq. A few months back, I stated that we should pull out of Iraq. More recently, I have advocated a stronger presence in Iraq. I pose very convincing arguments for each opinion. So what do I really believe?

I believe that at some point I made a mistake. This mistake may or may not have been based on information that I got from the media. So here is my stance on Iraq:

I believe that we should win in Iraq, based on the situation in the Middle East today, because the way that we are viewed in the Middle East has a direcdt effect on our future and the future of terrorism. I believe that if the government of our country does not support an all-out effort, then we should pull out of Iraq. We shouldn't keep fighting now just to quit later.

That's a simply as I can put it.

I have made other contradictory statements in the past. In the now missing post on gay marriage, I seemed to have one opinion, yet in a later post, I seemed to take a more conservative view. Here is my actual stance on gay marriage:

I don't care.

Your government has contradicted itself, also. Congress (most of them) voted to support the invasion in Iraq. Now many congressmen are against continuation of efforts in Iraq. It happens.
Many congressmen supported gay marriage until it came time to vote for it. This happens, too.

There is one question that bothers me. I don't hear a lot of support for actually securing our Southern border. I hear "immigration reform" talked about. I see gestures being made to appease the people, like sending the National Guard down to the border. But still, no realistic efforts are being made to secure the border between the US and Mexico. Why not?

I was reading the Patriot Act earlier (link to your right), and I noticed something that I found bizarre: In the section entitled "Securing the Border", there is a section on securing the Northern border, then several sections on preserving the rights of immigrants. Never once does the Patriot Act mention our Southern border. For all the gesturing and posturing by Congress, no true effort has been made on their part to secure our boundary with Mexico. For all the media's criticism of our government, there have been no investigative reports on the lack of real security on the Mexican border. It took me three days to find a reliable story on the January 3rd incident in Arizona. Why are we ignoring this problem?