Poet's Corner

[Tatari Gami]

Poet's Quiz.

Are you for or against capital punishment? -

-----Against Government sponsored execution. Everyone who votes for capital punishment should be required to do a turn as executioner and/or witness.

Are you for or against legalized abortion? -

------For.

What are your views on gun control? -

------Registration and mandatory competency testing for handguns.

Is your impression of the NRA generally good or generally bad? -

------Bad. Taken to extremes so as to appear cartoonish.


Is your impression of the ACLU generally good or generally bad? -

------Good. I have sought and received their support in court cases, have testified on behalf of it before a legislative body, and my wife is doing so tomorrow. The cases people shake their heads at are so important, because if the extremes are allowed to act then the normal activity is safe. Clamping down on extreme expression creates precedent for trampling on the less extreme.


Do you favor condom distribution in schools? -


------Not without parental consent.

Do you think public school teachers are qualified to teach grammar school children about sex? -

-----Grammar school children? Certainly not. That is what parents are for.

Do you think doctors are overpaid? -

------No. If anything, underpaid.

Do businesses create oppression? -

------No. Businesses create tax revenue, allowing governments to function.

What are your views on global warming? -

------Seems like a lot less snow than when I was a kid.

Do you support Kyoto? -

------In what? All I know about Kyoto is that is the center of Japanese Buddism, and I think there might have been an Olympics there once.

Is being gay nature or nurture? -

------Truly being gay is nature. If a human can be born with both male and female sex organs, why is it so difficult to believe that one can have only male sex organs yet have the brain of a woman.

How do you feel about gay marriage? -

------To the extent that civil marriages are allowed to heterosexuals (which perhaps is a mistake in the first place), and that such marriages confer certain benefits from the state (which is perhaps a mistake in the second place), they should be allowed.

Should the welfare budget be cut? -

------Yes, by reducing the bureaucracy, not the benefits.

Should the military budget be cut? -

------Yes, by reducing the bureaucracy.

How do you feel about missile defense?

------Does it work? Can it work? Will it work? Maybe against one or two missles. Will it work against 200? I doubt it.

Should the budgets of the NEA, public radio and public television be cut? -

------No. It should be increased tenfold.

Should the AIDS research budget be increased? -

------I don't know what the present budget is. How can anyone possibly answer this without looking at the present budget first?

Are standardized tests racist? -

------I guess that depends upon the standardized test. Generally, most are probably racially biased, but calling them racist seems to indicate an animus that I doubt is present.

Is there such a thing as reverse racial discrimination? -

------Of course.

Are perjury and obstruction of justice by a president impeachable offenses? -

------Certainly.

Should the word "God" be taken off our money and out of patriotic songs? -

------No, but "under God" should be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance, since it was added after the fact.