Yeah, Right, Whatever

A friend e-mailed this to me, and it looked ok, but... I thought I'd tweak it a bit.

Top 10 Reasons YOU Should Support the Platform

1. English should be the official language of government. (I'm on board with this one.)
   
2. We want our elected leaders in Washington to focus on increasing the energy supplies of the United States and lowering the costs of gasoline and electricity. (Kind of... I want our elected leaders to get their noses out of business, period. That includes petroleum production.)
   
3. The option of a single rate system should give taxpayers the convenience of filing their taxes with just a single sheet of paper. (Either a flat tax or a consumption tax. I'm still not sure which one I like better. Definitely not this progressive stupidity we  have now.)
   
4. Every worker should continue to have the right to a federally supervised secret ballot election when deciding whether to organize a union.(Many of you don't realize why this is important. Here's one explanation that might help.)
   
5. Keeping the reference to “One Nation Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance is very important. (In spite of what detractors say, our nation was founded by Christians who felt that this form of government was impossible without the moral compass of Christianity. Sorry, folks. That's just the way it is.)
   
6. Congress should make it a crime to advocate acts of terrorism, violent conduct, or the killing of innocent people in the United States. (So, you're saying that the First Amendment doesn't say what it says? People have the right to say stupid things. As long as it doesn't rise to the level of yelling fire in a movie theater, they can advocate whatever they want. The conspiracy to act on that advocacy is a different matter, however.)
   
7. We should dramatically increase our investment in math and science education.(The federal government should GET OUT of the education business. Unfortunately, education in this country is operating as designed- to create barely literate workers. The states should have minor influence over the local school districts, who should have control over their school system. Then again, I homeschool my kids, so I don't have to worry about their idiotic influence, period.)
   
8. We believe that if research indicates we could build clean coal plants in the United States with no carbon emissions, it would be important to build such plants as rapidly as possible. (Well, yeah... but what does that have to do with government... except for the removing of any bans that the legislatures have places on building them.)
   
9. Illegal immigrants who commit felonies should be deported. (Close, but... all illegal immigrants should be deported.)
   
10. We support giving a large financial prize to the first company or individual who invents a new, safer way to dispose of nuclear waste products. (Great idea. You going to pony up the cash? The government shouldn't.)
    

So, you see, I don't think it's a bad platform. It's a whole lot better than many of the platforms different groups are putting forward. Do I see either of the major party candidates advocating this platform? Not a chance.