Brain of Bryan

Sep 18 2012 - Polls have consistently shown that Americans are hungry for the option of additional political parties in which to entrust their vote. In fact, according to a 2011 Reason-Rupe poll, up to 80% claim they would be willing to consider a third-party candidate. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that when the fanfare of campaigning subsides, and the solitude of a voting booth is everpresent, most people will vote for either a Democrat or a Republican, depending on their particular slant. Many espou...

Aug 20 2012 - Ed Markey, a Democratic representative from Massachusetts, has taken somewhat to championing individual privacy, and has introduced two prospective bills into discussion. The first, identified only as the Drones leglislation, intends to regulate the use of drone technology on American soil. It intends to amend the FAA Modernization and Reform Act o...

Aug 22 2012 - Say what you will about the vitality of polypartisan politics in modern America, but the option to choose a candidate of the voters liking should be of paramount importance to the legal landscape. If the people of a constituency petition for a candidate to appear on the state ballot come November, as well over 50,000 people in Pennsylvania had done...

Aug 17 2012 - I am saddened to learn that Garry Kasparov, a chess grandmaster and democracy advocate, has been beaten and arrested in Russia today for simply attending the Pussy Riot protest (for those of you who don't know, members of the band Pussy Riot were today sentenced to two years in jail for "hooliganism" but there is a popular belief that corruption played a role in the case). At the time of his arrest, many sources have said that he was not actively protesting or behaving inappropriately, but rather was calmly speaking with journalists. He is still being detained...

Oct 02 2012 - Every four years, the American nation goes into a frenzy as it chooses the next person to occupy the executive mansion. We subject ourselves to months and months of heavy politick, slanderous television advertisements, endless debates and television news soundbites, polls, and everything else imagined in the arena of the Presidential election seaso...

Aug 17 2012 - Election finance has been growing slowly but substantially in the last few decades, but the last two cycles have been something otherworldly. According to the FEC, all Presidential candidates have combined to accrue 602 million dollars in financing in 2012, including 300.1 million for the Democratic party and 300 million for the Republican party, and there is still just shy of three months until election day. This includes almost 500 million in individual contributions. There is a very real chance that this cycle could eclipse the nearly 1.7 billion accrued in 2008, including 1 billion for the Democratic party. It is astonishing how expensive involvement in high-level politics is in America...

Sep 24 2012 - Freedom is wonderful, painful, necessary... As I found myself caught up in the events surrounding the Chick-fil-A debacle several weeks ago, and it's subsequent public relations dream (or nightmare), I had noticed a proliferation of complaints levied against a perceived infringement of speech, expression and religion. This argument had been flung from both sides of the debate, and reality dictates that neither side had much of an argument. Both the company and it's supporters, and oppo...

Aug 08 2012 - In the interest of personal transparency, I have decided to undertake an effort to collate and organize a summary of my political ideology. As these beliefs inevitably permeate my writing, and will impact my future direction, it is surely ideal that anyone who bothers to read my drivel be aware of what particular bias my work bends toward. And thus, you may learn of my perspective here: http://www.bryanhealey.com/politics/

Aug 27 2012 - It makes me deeply uncomfortable to watch the political storm of accusations and counter-accusations, name calling and general mockery, that has been the base of American politics for as long as I've been paying attention. I do not feel this discomfort because of a particular displeasure regarding one candidate or another (and the subsequent a...

Nov 04 2012 - There is little I worry over more than an ill-formed opinion believed with fervor and resolve. I do not mind those opinions which differ from my own, even if I may defend myself against them, so long as that opinion is derived from some measure of research and reflection. I ask nothing of anyone else other than a careful consideration of reality and circumstance. Read, investigate, and come to conclusion. And then, if circumstance demands it, be willing and able to change your mind. If you have not done or prepared to do all this, then your position is of great fear to me. Ill-conceived ideals are the crucible in which the greatest terrors of humanity are birthed.