Why we have political parties

I recently heard someone say that we should do away with political parties, and just focus on beliefs and values. The problem with this is that there are two prominent, very strong and mutually exclusive ways of looking at the
world, which also happen to correspond largely with the two major political parties in the United States. One values the historic principles of the foundation of the United States, as well as traditional values and morals
that have, in general, served humanity well for the last several thousand years. It believes that human life is sacred, and strives to promote individual liberties and the ideals of capitalism, starting with individual
hard work.

The other party holds almost a complete opposite view of the world. It posits that the United States is a fine establishment, but that it must be fundamentally changed in order to be what the founders intended. (isn't
this strange...the founders established the United States over 200 years ago, and just now, Liberals have discovered that the founders had it right, but that we've been on the wrong track for all these centuries...) They
also feel in general that we must change society in order to better reflect changing times. They value human life, but only insofar as it doesn't impede on a woman's right to destroy human life that she has been a party to
creating when it's inconvenient for her. They believe that individual liberty is nice, but it's more important to confer our freedoms to an ever-expanding government that MUST obviously know better than ourselves
what is best for us because, why else would an all-powerful government be all-powerful, if it didn't know better than the individual? And of course, they believe that capitalism is the root of all evil, and that to truly be a
righteous nation, we must take everything that has been earned by any person or entity of ambition, and transfer it to anyone who hasn't worked equally hard, but who feels that they want those benefits which they have not
earned.

In summary, one party furthers the notion that hard work should be rewarded, and that individuals who act like adults should be treated like adults. The other party instead feels that people who work hard, and people who do not work hard, should receive equal reward, and that, because some people are not worthy of being treated as adults, that NO ONE should be treated as an adult. Until these two worldviews can be reconciled, there will always be a need for two political parties.

Gay Couples

Am I the only one who's sick of hearing about gay couples this, and lesbian couples that? Enough already! It isn't newsworthy! I don't want to hear about the plethora of problems that people have with their wedding, or their
reception, or their honeymoon, or their divorce. Gay OR straight! Don't parade it in front of me. This is a private thing. Handle it in private, and shut the hell up. It reminds me of seventh grade. Oooh! Johnnie and Julie are a couple! Here's some advice, gay and lesbian couples: straight people handle their matrimony and their sexuality in a private, low-key way. If you want to be like us (not really, because even YOU have the right to marry, just not someone of the same sex) then BE LIKE US. If you want to be different, then stop saying that you want to be like us.

Hard-to-find Information

This is interesting. There are lots of things that can be learned or discovered easily through the process of a little research. You can find out weather for a particular day in the past, or the history of a place that you're familiar with, or names and dates and places for significant events. But if you want to find out about the existence at some point in the past for something like a car dealership, it can be nearly impossible. If it's a significant dealership, like Nickey Chevrolet or Grand Spaulding Dodge in Chicago, dealerships that were synonymous with muscle cars from the '60s and '70s, then you might have some luck. If it's not such a significant place, it is very near impossible it seems to find anything about it. I own an older Cadillac. I purchased information from GM about it's order and shipment. It is listed as being sold to and shipped to a dealership in Brookfield, IL. There is no current Cadillac dealer in Brookfield though, and so I started doing a little digging. What I found is absolutely nothing, zero. There is NO information apparently ANYWHERE about a former Cadillac dealer in Brookfield, Illinois. There are apparently no business registries from back then, no historic yellow pages, absolutely nothing.

I'm sure a dealership would have had to pay a license fee to the city and state possibly, but where would one go to retrieve these records? Do they even exist? And if they do, how willing would a state or local government
be to go digging through some old books to dig it up and give it to me? This apparent complete lack of any historical information about a dealership is made all the more bizarre, when I go cruising in my near-perfect old
Cadillac. The car actually exists, boy does it exist, it's great, it's beautiful. It came from somewhere. But while the car lives on in it's full glory, where it came from is apparently now a mystery for the ages. Had I looked into this in the '90s, or '80s, then maybe I would have found some clue. But as it stands, all I know is that my classic Cadillac came from some mysterious place in Brookfield, Illinois, the identity of which may remain unknown forever.