Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Mystery Topic Challenge #4

What's that behind you? Did you see something? I think it was black...could it be the BlogNinjas? They are the crazy internet group behind the MTC. The members rock the blogosphere in varying degrees, and can sneak up behind you in a moments notice.You can join the clandestine group after undergoing a severe and heavily scrutinized Blog Ninja review that verifies your actual existence and BN worthiness (basically, we read your blog). Post an entry, vote, maybe win, and you may be selecting the next topic. It's like a blog party.

Click here to join.

Challenge #4: If you were President/Prime Minister for a day, with the power to do absolutely anything (Supreme Court? What Supreme Court?) , what would you do and why?

Wow, this is a tough one for me. I'm not really what one might call a political person, so this topic requires a lot of thought. I don't know that I would do anything "global" as it's not my area of expertize. I know just enough about what's happening in the world right now to cringe, but not enough to do anything about it if I were given such a power. So what would I do?

I guess probably my first order of business would be to declare pets to have rights similar to that of children, rather than being simply property. Clearly this would not apply to animals designated as agricultural, though I would certainly bring about stricter laws on how they should be treated as well (goodbye feed lots, hello free roaming). I feel that Americans as a whole (though clearly not all Americans) believe their pets to be part of the family, rather than just things that they own. Hence the reason that pet boutiques, hotels and day spas are slowly replacing shops, kennels and groomers. I think they should be treated by the law in the same manner. Right now in many states, if someone were to throw a poisoned steak into your backyard, killing your dog, they would only be liable for the cost of replacing the animal. Same as if they ran over your kid's bike. Now, we pet lovers all know that you can't replace a life, but that's the way the law reads in most states. My new laws would also include stricter animal abuse penalties and standards applicable to breeders, kennels, pet stores and any other business that handles pets on a regular basis.

Once that was done, I would also implement a strict regulatory board to evaluate and inspect the safety of all imported goods. It has become overwhelmingly clear of late that we simply can't trust the standards of foreign agencies when it comes to our health. This would in turn be paid for by adding a small tariff on all goods it applies to. Perhaps it would also act as a reason for more folks to "buy locally" if it weren't so much cheaper to buy items brought in from sweat shops in less fortunate parts of the world, bringing some much-needed jobs back to home soil.

To go along with this, I'd overhaul our government subsidies for farmers so that it would not be based on the type of crop produced (ahem... corn), and the farms that get the money would be the ones that actually need it. Right now, a large amount of the budget for subsidies is going to farms that clear $200k per year. I would maintain subsidies only for those farms whose owners remain near or below the poverty line, as was the original intent for the subsidies anyway. Sorry Mr. Turner, you don't qualify. I find it sad that so much of our tax money is currently going to supplement the incomes of folks who are making more money in their own right than the average tax payer.

So, a busy day all in all, but a productive one. Amazing what you can get done when you don't have to worry about red tape!

13 comments:

Jayne d'Arcy said...

I heartily endorse all your changes, Ms. President!

Anonymous said...

Agreed, I have a house full of kids. Only one of them walks upright, and that's debatable on some days.

Mr President said...

I very much like the proposal about pets. Although I'd go further and make it illegal to dress pets in clothes. It's cruel!

BunGirl said...

Umm... actually Mr President... it's not cruel to dress them in clothes. I know plenty of dogs who LOVE the attention that wearing cute clothes give them. And others need clothes to keep them warm in the colder months. My dogs don't actually wear clothes (though I may need to see about getting the little one a sweater before it gets much colder) but I wouldn't ever call it cruelty.

Thanks to all for the kind comments though!

Susan "SB2" said...

My cat, Scooter is voting for you. I now see why your blog is called "Bun Girl". Thanks for speaking for the animals. SB

PS: Thanks also for your help with changing blob dates. I'll know what to do next time.

http://honestsb.blogspot.com/2007/11/mystery-topic-challenge-4.html

BunGirl said...

LOL -- that's what we need -- give pets the right to vote! ;)

Seriously though, I am quite impressed with scooter's tech abilities. My pets all just kinda look at the computer as if it might be fun to chew on. Which is why they're not allowed to use it. No matter how much they sit up and beg.

Anonymous said...

Good post and I must say that I quite agree with it - now, if only all of us MTCers got a day each on the job, we'd get quite a bit done.

Anonymous said...

Naturally I am all for anyone who considers pets more than property. And two of my dogs love clothes.

Great ideas.

Mr President said...

I think we're going to have to agree to disagree here. Personally I don't see why an animal with fur needs anything else to keep them warm. Unless they're shaved.

How do they survive in the wild? Why did cavemen use animal hides for clothes? Clearly fur/hides are very warm and need no human assistance. I don't buy that, sorry.

As for dogs loving the attention I think that's the attention, not the clothes. I've seen a lot of dogs look very uncomfortable in clothes and one even gave me the saddest look. I could imagine him saying "Help me, please!"

I think it's owners indulging themselves, rather than looking after the animal. It's all part of this idea of making pets into fashion accessories instead of treating them a living thing with their own personality.

Don't worry, I don't distinguish between animals and humans here. I have the same issue with parents who dress their children up too much. There is something wrong when children start dressing like adults.

TooBIG said...

what did the guy from price is right always say? I believe pets should have rights as well. Like the right to not eat my food on the table when i walk away for just one sec...lol

BunGirl said...

Mr P, many dogs wouldn't survive in the wild. Sure, my husky and my german shepherd have no trouble with the cold, but my other two shiver when it gets chilly out. They're not cold-weather dogs. They have extremely short fur and no undercoat at all.

As for the frilly dresses and such, I'm not saying it's for all dogs. Lots of them don't like it. But for the ones who do (or at least who don't mind) I say, why not?

TooBig, clearly you've never worked in animal rescue. Volunteer at your local pound for a day. The first time someone brings you a perfectly healthy animal and asks you to put it down because it's no longer convenient for them to care for it, you'll see where I'm coming from. The crying shame is that since pets are just property, if they owner wants it put down, that's perfectly legal.

Anonymous said...

Price is Right, hahaha, you guys are crazy.

Anonymous said...

Hi Bun-Girl,

Why not return the farm subsidies back to what they originally were? Which instead of giving farmers direct cash, they set minimum levels of payments for crops at which the government would buy that crop, so that in years of extreme abundance, the government bought the crop (say corn) and stored it until there was an extreme shortage and then sold the stored corn to level the supply and therefor the prices out.

The system worked well until corrupted by big Ag.

MJ

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