What is to blame is that as the human race, we have a knack for clutching to the ‘old ways’. Regardless of how inane our practices are, the argument stands as “This is how we’ve always done it! Why should we change?!”  This argument aggravates me to no end. It is fallacious and illogical, and hacks me off because my personality is one that embraces simplicity, clarity and common sense. I see no point in continuing policies that at their core make no practical sense other than “that’s what we do.”

Today I’ve decided to collect five of these senseless policies together in hopes of persuading the end of these stupid practices that we still embrace. With your help we can dig these policies their grave. So, without much further ado I present to you the Top 5 silly ideas that are long, long overdue:

#1: The Imperial System

There is nothing more dumb than our continued use of the US imperial measurement system. Feet, miles, gallons, ounces, fluid ounces, pounds, barrels, pints and Fahrenheit all make the Baby Jesus cry. How many inches are in two and a half miles? What percentage of a pint is three fl ounces? I couldn’t honestly tell you because the imperial system is that screwed up.

We are constantly told that the American education system is in shambles as compared to the rest of the world in math and science. Well duh. The very foundation of our maths and sciences is an incoherent mix of senseless babble and we expect our students to make sense of that? We ought to be ashamed. The US is only one of two countries in the world that has not adopted the International System of Units as the official system of measurement and that’s an embarrassment.

The first attempt at metrication in the US failed in the 70s and 80s because Americans were just too stubborn to listen to their HS math and science teachers. However, we’ve still made progress. In the grocery store our food labels say both 17 FL OZ [1 PT 1 FL OZ] (illogical) and the metric equivalent of 500 ML (easy) and our American cars list our speed in both mph and in km/hr. The dual usage is great, but we need to take the next step. Our state governments need to start putting up metric speed signs, our companies need to drop imperial units on packaging and our Federal government needs to adopt the SI units as our official system of measurement.

We deserve to have a language of science and math that is both coherent and understood by the other 96% of the world.

#2 Using the Penny

There is nothing more worthless than what a single penny is worth today. If a single penny appeared in your pocket every minute of every day for an entire year, you’d make $5,256 a year. That’s only about a third of what minimum wage pays or ~ $2,000 less than what the funeral would cost if you had 1,314kg of pennies dumped on your head. Simply put, if your job was to pick pennies of the ground, you’d be living in poverty. Pennies are THAT worthless. When it becomes common practice to leave money behind at a cash register in a penny jar, that money ceases to become a form of money at all. It no longer has any value as a medium of exchange and needs to be eliminated.

In addition, the cost of minting pennies to US taxpayers is not a small amount. In 2012 it will cost us $60,200,000 to produce all the pennies we mint this year, plus another a several billion dollars in time and wasted efficiency as we stand in queues waiting for the cashier to count out worthless pieces of metal. Arguments against the elimination of the penny — it will cause inflation, it will hurt charities, “I don’t know how to round numbers” — are baseless and have been proved wrong time and time again as tens of countries have successfully eliminated their worthless currency denominations without looking back (* Australia, Brazil, UK, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, New Zealand, Sweden and most recently Canada, which stopped production of its penny in April).

#3 Printing One Dollar Bills

It is estimated that eliminating the dollar bill and replacing it with a coin will save the US taxpayer $146,000,000 per year. Low value currency denominations like the $1 bill, quarter and dime are made as coins for the sole reason that coins provide the durability and cost savings that paper bills cannot provide. Switching to a dollar coin will recognize this in addition to the hundreds of millions of dollars that will be saved in the increased ease of use of vending machines, parking meters, laundromats and disgruntled cashiers who have to deal with crappy, filthy dollar bills. Small business groups like the vending machine industry and food service industries have practically begged for us to switch as it would lessen the cost of business for them, but we continue to defy them with old fogey defense tactics.

These include but are not limited to: “I’m too cheap to give strippers a $5 bill,” “I’m too lazy to carry a coin in my pocket,” and “Even though the blind and visually-impaired elderly cannot differentiate between $1 and $5 bills, but I’m going to whine about coins even though I still have the capacity to see and feel.”

A simple, cost-friendly and logical step towards a healthier economy would to be immediately eliminate the dollar bill in favor of the dollar coin.

#4 Teaching Cursive

I’m not sure if I’ve even actually met someone who still advocates the usage of cursive writing, but given that our kids are still being taught to write in cursive instead of typing shows that they’re still out there in force. Fact is while legible printing is still a valid and useful skill for young ‘uns (ease of communication, motor skills) to learn, we’ve progressed to the point where the value of typing and computer literacy skills has overwhelmed that of cursive’s. That holds true for both the employer and in our daily lives. Parents, school boards and state education boards need to end this waste of limited classroom time.

#5 The Electoral College (h/t cgpgrey)

Probably the most controversial item in my list, the electoral college serves absolutely no purpose in governance other than to confuse the electorate and disenfranchise millions of voters by making some voter’s vote worth more than other voter’s votes. If conservatives stand in opposition to vote fraud because it disenfranchises those of us who follow the rules, we need to support sending the archaic Electoral College to this history books because in both situations the value of our vote is being robbed.

As it stands, the Electoral College doles out three electoral college votes to every state first before the remaining EC votes are allotted proportionally. This results in 19 states having an increased share of the vote, and the remaining states being robbed of their fair share. For example, a Washington D.C. vote is mathematically equivalent to the votes of 3 Texan voters. So not only do Texans have little say in the Presidential primaries, but they actually have little say in the national election as well. This is indefensible.

One might argue that the EC protects smaller states from the tyranny of the larger states, but in practice the EC has the opposite effect. In the past 2008 elections, McCain and Obama made campaign stops in only 18 states, of which only 5 of those states were in the bottom 25 smallest states. The winner-take-all structure of the EC focuses the presidential campaign onto only a handful of swing states and their issues (FL, PA, OH, VA receiving 57% of the visits and 55% of all election money in ’08) at the expense of every other single American. The vast majority of the country is ignored because it’s strategic to do so.

The other fear concerning abolishing the EC is that candidates will only focus on big population centers, which ignores the same mathematical argument we conservatives use to argue why public transit will never work in the US. The top 100 largest cities in the US only makes up only about 20% of our population. A President who only ever focused on large population centers would lose by 80% of the vote.

The EC system is an archaic and unfair practice that allows candidates to ignore almost all voting Americans. It further produced winning presidential candidates in 1876, 1888 and 2000 for which the majority of the country did not support. If the same held true for the Superbowl (EG the Pats won 17 to the Giant’s 21), there’d be a revolt. Or is the control of the governance of our country not that important?

The Last Republican Media

Is it possible that George W. Bush could be the last Republican president ever, or at least for the foreseeable future? Am I crazy to even formulate that question? Maybe not and here are 10 reasons why.

1. Rapidly changing demographic trends that favor the Democrat Party.
2. An education system controlled by liberals that churns out young liberals.
3. A population with an ever increasing dependence on government in the form of entitlements and subsidies.
4. A mainstream media that is overwhelmingly comprised of journalists who subtly and not so subtly spin the news in support of Democrats and liberal causes.
5. The influence of Hollywood, which makes it cool to be a liberal Democrat.
6. The growing power concentrated in local, state, and federal government worker unions, whose members actively campaign against Republicans on the taxpayer dime. (See WI Governor Walker’s upcoming recall election for an active example of this.)
7. A culture where non-traditional social and sexual behavior has become mainstream.
8. A hatred for Republicans in general and a tendency to blame the party for “the mess we’ve inherited.”
9. A Republican Party that is growing increasingly white, old, southern, and male, while alienating majorities of younger voters, Hispanics, African Americans, gays, teachers, young professionals, atheists, unmarried women, and even suburban married women.
10. The internet and the growing social media phenomenon that strongly tilts in favor of Democrats.

Further analysis here.

1) Coalesce (The most important)

The Democrats have rallied. We have not. It is as simple as that. If we do not back our candidate, Obama’s coalition will eviscerate us.

Romney’s Task: Rally the national leaders and extend the olive branch.
Our Task: Rally the base and grassroots. Help bring our friends and neighbors as well as the conservative Romney critics onto the Romney bandwagon. The less aching and groaning about it, the better for all of us.

2) Fundraise

Obama has raised around $300 million dollars for him and the DNC, while Romney has barely scrapped together (and entirely spent) $75 million. Going just by cash on hand, Romney has $5 million to Obama’s $85 million and a small donor percent of 45% Obama to 10% Romney.

Romney’s Task: Fundraise like there is no tomorrow.
Our Task: Give $25 to the campaign not tomorrow, but today. In 2008, we failed miserably. McCain’s campaign was so cash strapped; it was forced to take federal money. This meant that while Obama was allowed to continue to fundraise and spend limitless amounts of money, McCain was not.

3) Build a national campaign

Obama has already begun opening his campaign offices and is assembling his teams in just about every state. Kentucky opened its first campaign office on Monday and that’s not even a competitive state for Obama. Virginia has 13 offices up and running. Campaign people? You bet. A friend of mine yesterday was just offered (and declined) a position as a graphic designer for Obama’s Wisconsin campaign.

How many offices has Romney opened? Has anyone even thought about who the graphic designer for his Wisconsin campaign will be? Romney’s has primary campaign offices, but they don’t even come close to the organizational structure and team that Obama already has established.

Romney’s Task: Begin laying the frame work for a national campaign, opening offices in key battle ground states and finding the needed people to staff them.
Our Task: Fill those offices. Get in touch with the Romney campaign. Volunteer.

4) Strategize

Romney has been the frontrunner since this primary began. That means Obama’s team has had months to examine and test the Romney campaign’s weakness from every vantage point. For us, Santorum dropped out on Tuesday. It’s true that Romney swung to Obama a few weeks ago, but that’s nothing compared to the opportunity that the Democrats have already had.

Romney’s Task: Focus on Obama and 270. Create and execute a plan to bring to the attention of every voter in November as to why Obama in no longer fit to be Commander and Chief.
Our Task: Brainstorm. Pick apart Obama’s presidency. Post diaries. Remind everyone — on our side and the other — why Obama is unfit to be President.

5) Find our Vice President

Unless it’s bye-bye Biden, Obama’s got us beat again.

Romney’s Task: Create the team that will be able to vet and narrow down the selection to just a few stellar candidates that will bring Team Romney to the White house. Pick that candidate.
Our Task: Brainstorm what our ideal VEEP would be, bring it to attention and start popping our Tampa, Florida popcorn.

But during the next couple of weeks, it’s likely that some of you will be reaching for a beer that really should not be considered beer at all. What is it? It’s the American-style lager, a watery ‘LITE’ type liquid that not only tastes terrible, but directly demonstrates how dreadful the American beer industry has become.

In 2011, the American beer industry was dominated by two non-American owned companies that owned ~90% of the market share: AB InBev and MillerCoors. Over the years, these companies have turned away from selling higher quality beer by automating the manufacturing of beer, cutting costs and switching to rice and corn supplements. Nowadays, both ABI and MillerCoors spend around $1.5 billion/year on commercials and gimmicks to convince Americans to drink their crappy beer instead of that other crappy beer and it works! The reason that ABI and Millers Coors have been so successful at this strategy revolves around the beer industry’s competitive market structure. Actually, the answer is probably not so surprising to an astute limited government thinker. It’s government regulations.

Wind back the clock to 1933 when the 21st Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified and ended the decade and a half Prohibition on alcoholic beverages. In order to enable fair regulation of alcohol, states established a “three-tiered” distribution system. This system made it illegal for brewers to sell directly to retailers (grocery stores, bars and restaurants) and instead required brewers only distribute through gov’t certified wholesalers. This was an accountable, competitive and fair system that brought integrity to an otherwise social evil.

Fast forward several decades. Brewers became larger and more profitable. As they grew in market share, they gained leverage and began forming exclusive relationships with distributors. Distributors in return were able to lord their gov’t backed power over brewers to maintain comfortable profit margins. By 2008, the vast majority of US markets only had two or three distributors: one for each of Anheuser Busch, Miller and Coors, or a shared Miller/Coors distributor. Any brewery that did not suck up to AB, Miller or Coors was shown the door to bankruptcy. Thus, America formed the oligarchic trio that squished, sued, bullied, outmaneuvered, bought out and barred distribution access to America’s taste buds for independent brewers for half a century.

But there’s another side to this story. It’s the craft beer movement. With its beginnings in the 1980s, these are the independent and locally owned microbreweries that are fighting giants ABI and MillerCoors tooth and nail for equal distribution, for shelf space, for the weakening of the gov’t regulated “three-tiered” system and for the recognition and appreciation of the American beer drinker. These are the small guys. These are the brewers that – quite frankly – are able to brew less beer than the beer Anheuser Busch spills daily on its filling lines.

So where does the American conservative stand on this? One might argue that there’s no need to even take a stance on this. What about alcohol politics and the three-tiered distribution system? Last June for example, Wisconsin legislators successfully included a provision in the State Budget that strengthened the three-tiered system, restricting the smallest local Wisconsin microbreweries from self-distribution.

Does the American conservative cheer this action or shake his head? Scott Walker sided with MillerCoors who was lobbying for the restriction, while champion conservative Sen. Glenn Grothman did not. Do you grab the corporate beer – a (not-really) American success story of profitable companies sustaining jobs, rewarding investors and watering America? Or does he stand with the independent and small brewers who you can find just down the street? It’s a good question, but this beer drinker certainly has an opinion.

I’ll state my biases up front: I may be right leaning, but I am also gay. I disagree with the average RedStater on the issue of  gay marriage so this post will remain entirely ‘my bias’ free, except to bash liberals. It solely is going to be a wrap up of the state of the States with respect to marriage. Use this information as you will to support or oppose same sex marriage.

Maine: Voters reversed an effort by the legislature to legalize gay marriage several years ago.  Gay marriage groups have however gathered enough signatures to place another referendum on the November ballot. Equality Maine claims their polling shows 54% support.

Maryland: Democratic Gov. O’Malley announced his support for gay marriage during the state of the State. He has gone onto introduce a bill into the legislature which is soon scheduled for a committee vote. I believe a similar measure passed the Senate last year, but failed in the House. The recent WaPo poll shows Maryland voters are 50/50 split on the issue.

Minnesota: A referendum has been placed on the November ballot to amend the state constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman. PPP has pinned support for the amendment at 48%, opposition at 44% and 8% of the electorate as clueless.

New Jersey: Both chambers of New Jersey’s legislature are expected to be able to easily pass a bill legalizing gay marriage despite Gov. Chris Christie’s pledge to veto any gay marriage bill that crosses his desk. However, Gov. Christie has also voiced his support of placing a referendum on this November’s ballot; a move that Christie has predicted NJ voters would easily pass. Marriage conscious voters should know that the only major obstacle to a voter’s referendum is the Democratic leadership (i.e. further evidence of liberals believing they  ‘own’ groups) and that there is a chance the Democrats may scrap up a veto-proof vote. Voting in the legislature should happen within the next few weeks.

North Carolina: Voters will vote on a constitutional referendum to define marriage as between one man and one woman in May, which is the same day as the Republican primary. There will be a Democratic primary on the ballot as well, because Gov. Purdue has recently announced that she is declining to run for reelection. However, this only brings support down to a 22% or 56/34 margin for traditional marriage.

Washington: Do-nothing Democratic Gov. Gregoire announced her intent to legalize gay marriage this year, probably to detract from her terrible governing record. While Washington already has civil unions, the bill is expected to pass after the state Senate voted in favor of the bill 28-25 with 4 Republicans crossing party lines. The House vote is rumored to occur tomorrow at around 1pm PST at which time Washington will be set to become the 7th state to legalize same sex marriage. A voter’s referendum challenge is expected by same sex marriage opponents.

Republican Cadidates: Romney was the latest to be glittered bombed by gay activists a few day ago for his support of a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. Demonstrating how absolutely childish and stupid my fellow progressive gay friends are.

Proposition 8: The 9th Circuit of Appeals ruled today that California’s attempt to amend the state Constitution was unconstitutional. However, the ruling was quite narrow in the sense that the justices did not rule on gay marriage, but instead on the unique circumstance of California  striking down same sex marriage after it had allowed gay men and women the right to marry for 5 months.  (i.e. the court struck down Judge Walker’s incredible claim that gay marriage is unconstitutional, and instead limited it to California’s actions of first allowing and then disallowing gay marriage “without cause”).

That’s a wrap.

The current Presidential $1 coins have been minted since 2007. The dollar coin has recently been thrown back into the spotlight by NPR after it’s reporting of the waste created by unused coins.  But, contrary to NPR’s opinion, by eliminating the $1 paper dollar and switching our currency to use to the $1 coin, the US gov’t would save $184 million annually and $5.5 over 30 years. How does this work?

The $1 bill costs approx 5.5¢ to print with the average note lasting only 1.5 to 3.5 years before it’s shredded and thrown in a landfill.
The $1 coin costs approx 8¢ to mint, but could last to 30 years in circulation and is recyclable at the end of its life.

The total elimination of the paper $1 bill would save the Federal government billions in the long run. Of course in the first couple of years it would not make much of an impact, but that’s not exactly the $14 trillion dollar question we are worried about. Besides does it not make more sense to create savings in simple currency rather than $200 million out of social security, national defense or having to raise taxes? Why not switch?

The GAO’s report can be found here: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11281.pdf

I’ve also had some counterarguments thrown out for me. Here are some of the more common ones:

Vending machines don’t accept $1 coins. Actually, most machines accept them as do the self-service machines in supermarkets. The vending machine companies would much rather have $1 coins in circulation than paper dollars, e.g. it’s expensive to install those bill scanners and then having to fix them after a ratty $1 bill got jammed in it by some frustrated customer.

Dollar coins are heavy. Yes, they are compared to the dollar bill. Compared to 4 quarters: not so much. Does that make them more cumbersome? Not necessarily. The Canadians, Australians, Europeans and British all have one and two coin denominations and society hasn’t come to a screeching halt for them.

The changeover will be expensive. Sure, there’s going to be initial start-up costs for the sudden and massive demand for $1 coins. However, the mint has two weapons in it’s arsenal against this. First is that $1 coins are already produced and there’s a $1 billion coin stockpile in Federal Reserve vaults as NPR reported. Second is the $2 bill, which are still printed in quite large quantities. Seriously, if you hate coins that much, as for the Twos at your bank. They have them.

You can’t get dollar coins! Banks have them. Next time you’re in your bank, ask for them. Not to mention there’s approx. $1 billion in dollar coins sitting in Federal Reserve banks.

What about counterfeiting? The coins are worth a dollar a piece. Creating a profitable counterfeiting operation that could match the bulk purchases and economies of scale that the US Mint has would be difficult. You can also look at the €/£/AU$/C$ currencies all of which have 2 unit coin denominations and do not suffer from numerous counterfeiting problems.

… and the obligatory ‘What to do?’

> Contact your lawmakers.
> http://dollarcoinalliance.org/get-involved/
> Go to your bank, withdraw dollar coins and start spending them. (I do.)

First we learn he’s going to tax health care benefits to pay for part of it. Now the Wall Street Journal reports John McCain would pay for the rest of his health care plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid: $882 billion from Medicare alone, requiring cuts in benefits and eligibility or both. John McCain — taxing health benefits — cutting Medicare. We can’t afford John McCain.

I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.”

Fast forward 18 months, and Obama has signed into law the Exact. Same. Thing. this attack ad falsely claimed John McCain’s health care plan would do. The ObamaCare law has not only cut a half trillion dollars from Medicaid, but has instituted a tax on high cost health care plans (see Cadillac tax).

This attack ad is pure hypocritical gold for Republicans, and must be resurrected immediately.

So where does this tie into RedState? Believe it or not, most conservative advocacy groups have nonprofit affiliates that have signed up to work with GoodSearch.

Among them are; Americans for Prosperity Foundation, American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), Cato Institute, Right to Life National Committee and chapters, Club for Growth State Action, Judicial Watch, National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Conservative Caucus, the Federalist Society and many more.

I’m sure these organizations, as well as the ones I have not included, would love for you to make a habit of using GoodSearch.