I read an article about how some people want to investigate President Obama's birthplace. Wow.

I wish for the smallest government possible and the most distributed possible system of regulations. Therefore, I'm against Obama and most other politicians currently in office (Democrats and Republicans). I would like Obama and everyone else out of office and a successful small-business-type, serial-enterpreneur person leading government. Someone concerned with efficiency. I would like most of what politicians do today to be completely automated.

I don't like federal health care. I don't like the IRS and the ridiculous amount of work it expects us to do in order to give it money. I don't like the government and the broken health care system we have (a system that's broken mostly due to the horrible government regulation that's in place); I don't like the fact that unions and the AMA and other such entities can influence the federal government; I don't like the federal government having so much power; I don't like having to work 30 hours every two weeks just for the money for taxes and healthcare, and I don't like our foreign policy. Furthermore, I don't even know if Obama is a do-gooder that is simply ignorant about the ills of big government or if he's just looking for more power or glory for himself. In any case, I just don't want him in office.

However, I think it's pretty obvious that Obama is about as American as they come. He certainly doesn't sound British or African or Middle-Eastern to me. Even if he wasn't born in Hawaii, Obama is still American. This could not be more any more apparent. If you don't get that, consider taking a closer look at your basic beliefs, your rationality, and your understanding of the world. For example, have you lived overseas? Are you subconsciously racist or classist? (Many people are, and don't know it.) Do you know what makes an American different from others? Do you speak any languages other than English? Do you think that people who don't speak English cannot be Americans? Do you think that people who were not born in the United States cannot be Americans? These are questions that you might want to revisit carefully, with an open mind.

Also, no matter how much you dislike Obama, there are many really positive things that can be rescued from his rising to the office of the presidency. For example, we elected a black person with African and Middle-Eastern names to be our President. I don't think I need to expound on the profoundly positive significance of that to Americans. You won't see France do anything similar in the foreseeable future. We've been headed in the right direction for a long time and this last presidential election proves that beyond any doubt. Our position as world leaders is truly deserved, and even though our government has serious flaws, it's still among the best, possibly even the very best overall, in the world.

We've made a lot of progress in recent years. The fastest progress, by far, has come in the field of information technology. The progress in that field has been so extraordinary (and so far beyond what any other field has seen), that other fields such as medicine, engineering, law, and education have benefitted enormously and have started to see real progress themselves. Even science itself, and the scientific process are benefitting from the advances in information technology, which are occuring largely outside of the academic environment! There are basic concepts such as revision control, distributive processing, competition, openness, sharing, and complete lack of centralized control that have helped to propel the recent information technology advances. But the single greatest help to the field has been that the government has been unable to understand the progress enough to burden it with regulation. For example, a researcher need not have a formal degree or 8 years of practice in order to design and deliver a process that vastly improves the quality of life of millions on the planet. You don't need a government license in order to get a high-paying job as a software engineer. What you need is a great deal of experience and skill that you might have attained through working and learning tirelessly for 10 or 20 years, formally or on your own. The most complex systems ever developed by human kind are being developed by distributed teams that include people with advanced formal degress from the best universities, professionals from the largest and best known information technology companies in the world, and teenagers working from their parent's basements. Everyone gets to contribute and the contributions are accepted exclusively on the basis of their merit.

In that light, arguing about whether Obama's birth certificate is fake or not seems kind of ridiculous to me, particularly given that the man has been the President for a long time now. I suggest we start getting a little more scientific and pragmatic about improving our government.