Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Ben's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, June 13th, 2006
7:53 pm	A long overdue update I haven't been updating this as I should, but I read an article today that deserved attention since nobody else is paying attention to it. Today, in the House of Representatives, a panel approved an amendment to a health and education bill to increase the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25. Terrific, right? I mean, the minimum wage is only at it's lowest point since 1956 right now. Well, it's not good news. Howard McKeon, a Republican from California, said he will strike down the amendment before it gets an up down vote on the floor of the house. A bipartisan panel approved the measure, and one guy strikes it down. He claims, like most party line Republicans, that an increase in the minimum wage is bad for the economy. They claim that it would increase inflation and unemployment, particularly among laborers. Let's think about this claim a bit. They are suggesting that unemployment and inflation would increase if the lowest paid workers got a raise. Shenanigans, I say! They are trying to say that the people who make BY FAR the least amount of money among us, who spend everything they earn, would cause inflation to increase and those business owners wouldn't be able to pay their employees the extra money. How could these people, who earn nothing in proportion to our gross domestic product, make such a profound effect on the economy? The answer is that they can't. It's total bullshit! The truth is that the rich, who run this country by proxy, would hate to lose that extra money. A worker who earns $5.15 an hour makes about $10700 a year. Wow! And that's assuming a 40 hour work week and anybody who has worked minimum wage (like myself) can tell you that very few minimum wage employees get 40 hours a week. So take away taxes, social security, and medicare, and that employee makes just enough money to wonder why they aren't selling drugs or their body. If you raise that rate to $7.25 (still not enough money for a 2 earner family to raise a child) a worker makes about $15000 a year. Shudder!!!! What would those business owners do? So I thought of a reasonable example. Think of a small, independently owned, fast food restaurant. This restaurant employs a manager, a couple of lower level managers, and 8 minimum wage employees who work 160 hours a week (I don't think this is unreasonable to assume). It would cost this business an extra $16000 a year or so. This is probably well less than the increase this business will see in annual income. I also don't think it's possible for unemployment to result from this, because these low level workers are probably necessary regardless of the increase in wages. You do need people to work to have a business. In my opinion, these weak economic arguments are not enough to make me believe that you shouldn't give people a living wage so they can....live. Of course, this entire argument pointing out that the economic points of the right are incorrect are worthless. Why? Because they really don't care about inflation or unemployment as a result of the raise in the minimum wage. Why do I say that? Because for all the harping and crowing on the adverse effects of a minimum wage increase (not really an increase, but a correction as a result of inflation, to be accurate) they certainly haven't curbed CEO wage increases. Why isn't Congress writing legislation LIMITING the income of CEOs and other wealthy executives? The fact is that these lucky individuals have experienced such income growth in the past 10 years that it would make normal people like you or I get sexually aroused if we experienced such increases in income. How about energy costs? I would imagine that gasoline going from slightly over $1 a gallon to over $3 a gallon over the course of the Bush administration would make a major change in inflation, yet the Bush administration still has expressed no energy policy other than letting the oil companies not make changes to their infrastructure so that prices rise as a result of decreased supply. George Bush, Dick Cheney, and the rest of this administration only care about lining the pockets of their rich friends and consolidating their own power. You can see this in the Kyoto protocol and the lack of environmental initiatives, the tax reductions for the filthy rich (and these people truly are filthy), the Iraq war, no bid contracts for reconstruction for Iraq and the gulf coast (which both mysteriously are going poorly), the guest worker program, "fixing" social security, and a number of other issues which make me want to vomit. I'm done for now, but I think my next entry into this blog will concern the myth of our strong economy. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 29th, 2005
2:01 pm	It's that time of year again... ...and I already want it to end. I'm sure you all know I'm referring to the christmas season. You see, Jesus is so special that his birthday actually lasts from early november to early january. For a devil worshipping Jew like myself, this is not a fun time to interact with my fellow man. Let's begin with black friday. Many people love this day. It truly shows the sad state that our society is in. If you watched the news, you saw the 5 AM rush to retailers across the nation by psychotic people who want a good deal on an off brand, piece of shit TV. It was like the running of the bulls. Of course, it probably wouldn't be like that if the biggest consumers in this country weren't such fat, greedy, pieces of trash. How can people push and shove one another over trivial material goods? I'm sure that it would be great to have some of these cheap toys, but is it really worth acting like a primitive beast over? It's ironic that during the Christmas shopping season, all I can think of is "What would Jesus do?" I stayed home on black friday. Fuck 'em. I'm not interested in contributing to our collective gluttony. It's this type of gluttony that has made gas $3 a gallon, caused the earth to be polluted, and has given public support for tax cuts to the wealthy as the poverty rate rises to record highs. Merry fucking Christmas. It's funny actually. I don't really have a problem with gift giving for the holiday season, but it's become unreasonable. I plan on going online, ordering gifts for some people, and maybe having dinner on the 25th to show feelings for others. The rest of it is really too much. While watching the news last night, I heard a report regarding personal debt. For those of you who don't know, credit card debt is at an all time high. People simply cannot separate themselves from consumer goods that they covet, so they become willing to sign up for high interest credit cards (which actually lower the total amount of goods that could be acquired in the end). If you are signing up for credit cards to buy things during the christmas season, you have a problem. American culture appears to be embracing excess when it comes to consumption...of corporate made products. That's right. We value gluttony. Our president told us after 9/11 to go out and buy things and travel. Spend, spend, spend. Of course, this is the only time we value this imperative. Somehow, excess is bad when it comes to drugs like marijuana. That would be immoral in our proud american culture to have people who spend lots of money on marijuana. Economists love it when consumers hit the streets on black friday and spend billions on Big Mouth Billy Bass, giant SUV's, and the complete works of Celine Dion. Some people would say that we don't want people to be gluttons when it comes to food, yet any fast food business in the world is inventing some kind of marketing ploy in order to get people to eat even more food when they visit their wonderful locations. I hope my point has been made clear. Money is the only thing that matters to people anymore. People don't define happiness through spiritual discovery or finding personal satisfaction. They find it through some kind of fickle promise of the material. Even religion does this (except for eastern religion). Ask a religious person why they should believe in the bible. What they will tell you is that through belief in Jesus Christ one will find happiness in heaven, where all of their desires will be fulfilled. All of their childhood pets will be there, and that Easy Bake Oven that you always wanted will be yours to play with all day. God will fly around and throw peppermints and give you a back massage whenever you want. It will be grand! Of course, what we should be trying to obtain is this personal satisfaction that I mentioned. I think that the only way to accomplish this is to live in harmony with other people, don't become consumed with temporary pleasures, and find some kind of meaning to your own life. For myself, I find meaning through contemplation, knowledge, and making myself happier through personal bonds with others I care about. You don't find this kind of retrospection out of most religious philosophy, and I didn't need somebody to tell me this. I think that basically shows why the Christmas season has become bastardized. It has become little more than an exercise in consumption. The next thing I want to talk about is professional athletes, and how the media gives them unfair scrutiny. The latest news story is that a crack pipe was found in Michael Irvin's car. Why did this even make news? He doesn't play football anymore, so why should anybody care if there is a crack pipe in his car? If I got caught with a crack pipe in my car you wouldn't hear about it on the news. Even if he did play football still, the only people who should care about it is the team he's playing for, since they are writing his paycheck. But in Ricky Williams case, drugs didn't really make him a poor football player. Celebrities do drugs constantly. In fact, I would guess that celebrities do more drugs than athletes, yet nobody seems to care about whatever drugs that EVERY FAMOUS MUSICIAN IN THE WORLD does. I'm not saying we should care, but at least we should be consistent. Athletes and celebrities deserve privacy just like the rest of us. Let's talk about Terrell Owens also. The Eagles are completely fucking crazy, and the mainstream sports media is right there with them. Everybody is talking about how great it is that TO won't play for the rest of the year. Yet all I can find regarding his suspension that can be substantiated is that he talked shit about his quarterback, didn't like his contract, and may have had a minor scuffle with someone within the Eagles organization. Let's clarify something. TO isn't the worst offender of these actions. Many athletes have done similar things with far less scrutiny than TO has received, so people need to back the fuck off of TO. Second of all, TO is the best at what he does, and nobody can debate that. He's the most dominant wide receiver in the NFL without a doubt. He made Champ Bailey, who might be the best cornerback in all of football look bad on a standard screen pass. There are few people in any sport who have that much skill. TO made the Eagles a far better team than they were without him. Unlike several troublesome athletes, TO is in pristime physical condition and ALWAYS hustles and makes plays on the field. He's got an ego, but so what? He helps your team win, and that's all that should matter for athletes that are not saints, despite what some sports fans may think. One more thing about the TO debacle. The Eagles are acting ridiculously stupid even if they do want to get rid of him. By suspending him, they reduce his value on the open market. Philly isn't going to the super bowl this year, so why not play him, trade him, and rebuild your football team? In fact, if they don't play him the rest of the season, he will be released by the team in the offseason, and they will get nothing for him. Couldn't they at least try to get a draft pick so that they can get some kind of running game or another receiver for McNabb. I thought the eagles were trying to win, not win a stupid fight with an arrogant athlete. I'm really not done yet, since I have a long diatribe about Iraq to write about, but that will have to wait for later. I have class in a few minutes, but I will update again shortly. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 9th, 2005
1:02 pm	Big oil and no rules Today, the big news is regarding the oil execs going to congress to discuss why they are having windfall profits. Unfortunately, this is all a ploy by the politicians to take no responsibility for the lack of control they have over energy prices. Why do I say this? Because none of the people called before congress to testify had to answer questions under oath. They were brought to congress to help solve this country's energy problems...and they don't have to tell the truth. I didn't even know it was possible to talk in front of congress without being under oath. Shit, even the goddamn baseball players were under oath when they went before congress. Lee Raymond was the major liar today. He said that the oil companies experience ups and downs in profits. That this was just one of the cycles, and in fact, that the oil companies profits were in line with other industry profits relative to revenues. This is simply absurd. To begin with, I don't remember about hearing too many problems for the oil industry in recent years. They haven't run out of oil supplies, and people are continuing to demand more and more gasoline. But what's really absurd is the basic financial misinformation given by Raymond. In finance, you learn that the only fair way to compare the profitability of a publicly traded company is to compare their ratios to that of other industry competitors, not just any business. Mr. Raymond, that's why you are in front of Congress. You are posting profits that are atypical of your industry. Of course, he really hasn't said anything of substance in front of congress. Here's my brief summary of his testimony. Congressperson A: Mr. Raymond, can you please explain to me why you are profiting in such a great way in the wake of Hurricane Katrina? Raymond: I assure you we are doing nothing wrong. Our profits are similar to other businesses. Congressperson A: It's good to hear that we can rely on you for an honest explanation. Congressperson B: Shouldn't we be putting him under oath if we want him to answer our questions? Congressperson A: There will be no oath. Raymond: I would look into the Jews for the price increase. They are a shifty bunch who love to make a profit off of good God fearing christians. Congressperson A: You know, I was just thinking about that myself. He didn't actually say the jew stuff, but who knows what's lurking in that mind of his. I'm disappointed in the democrats (and some republicans) for their solution to the problem. It's been proposed by some that their should be a windfall profits tax to help eliminate the problem. I'm definitely against the windfall profits, but the government shouldn't get the money that has come from ripping off consumers. The money should go back to the people somehow. If there is a supply problem, as some believe, the money should build more refineries. If that isn't the case, their should be a class action case against the major oil companies. I just don't think that the problem should be solves by the government getting money to pay for this administrations bullshit. Perhaps my solutions aren't viable though. I really don't know the details of a windfall profits tax. Feel free to leave comments. (Comment on this)
Monday, November 7th, 2005
4:47 pm	Long update Yes, it's been awhile. Let's get started. Torture is not an acceptable way for us to obtain intelligence. Let's list the problems associated with torture: 1) Terrorists could legitimately torture Americans for reciprocation. 2) The information is mostly untrue. Take the New York and Baltimore terror scares. 3) We're better than that 4) It creates more angry terrorists when the tortured guy returns home 5) Wasn't one of the reasons that we removed Saddam because of the torture rooms? Feel free to add more reasons in my comments. There are plenty more. The next group I would like to criticize is a catholic high school. A group called American Girls or something like that was running a fashion show fundraiser for the school to raise $35000 for a new wing. The high school cancelled the show when it was discovered that the group was pro choice. So basically, because this group didn't agree with the pro life philosophy with this school, they are no longer acceptable when it comes to charity. Is this the type of thing we should be teaching children? Should we only interact with those who believe the exact same things we do? This is just another example of religious stupidity blinding people. Kudos to Denver. During a referendum, Denver voters approved a measure to make it legal for citizens to possess up to an ounce of marijuana. Marijuana lobbyists pointed out that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol (and if you don't belive that, try it and tell me what you think). Sometimes I wonder if any logic remains in this country, and then Denver comes through with a really intelligent move that will not only let people enjoy themselves, but will also help to make a criminal justice system less bogged down with minor criminals who possess small amounts of marijuana. Back to the shitty things. Bill Frist, who I have so little respect for, got upset when Harry Reid forced the Senate into closed session so that they could discuss prewar intelligence since the intelligence committee has not sumbitted their report on the Iraq intelligence in well over 2 years. In fact, Pat Roberts, a senator from Kansas (I think) was on meet the press twice within the last year saying the report was about to be finished and submitted, yet nothing was made available. Finally, the democrats showed some balls and forced the republican controlled government to show SOME accountability for all of the fucked up shit surrounding this war. The government has been kept far too quiet regarding this war. Everybody knows that mistakes have been made. Republicans often say that in business people are held accountable for their actions, and that's why it's more efficient than the federal government. Well, they have proven that they know nothing about business, because they don't bother holding their own people accountable. I'm sick and tired of the cries of judicial activism by the republicans in this country. What activism? Bush constantly says how he doesn't want jurists making the law, just enforcing it. This argument shows a total lack of understanding of the judicial system in this country. The problem that exists now is that legislators and government officials are doing things that they have no right to do. Religious symbols are NOT supposed to be outside of government buildings. A judge who says that these symbols have to be removed is not an activist, he is following the constitution. Pulling the plug on Schiavo is not activism, it's following the law. On a related note, Tom Coburn, a fascist senator from Oklahoma, was on meet the press on sunday. He complained that judges don't follow stare decisis anymore. Meanwhile, the religious right, a group he stands with, wants supreme court justices nominated who will reverse Roe v. Wade. Mr. Coburn obviously forgets what he says 5 minutes ago. He also doesn't understand the importance of judicial review. If it weren't for judicial review, Brown v. Board of Education would not have struck down segregation in public schools. That was a case of judicial review knocking down a precedent in the supreme court. To be fair to Coburn, I'm not sure that he really wanted segregation to ever leave anyway. Let's shit on Coburn some more, shall we? He's definitely a modern racist. He doesn't support gay rights, despite what he might say. During his appearance on meet the press, Tim Russert showed him a quote that he said saying that gays are the biggest threat to our liberty today. Is this guy fucking crazy? Does he believe that gays are going to throw our system into chaos? Are the homos going to start ass raping every straight man in sight? Are the homos going to align with Al Qaeda and leak the names of CIA agents to the press? Are the homos going to fabricate intelligence to force a war on the public? Are the homos going to subvert environmental regulation, the new deal, and accepted science? It's men like Coburn, Strom Thurmond, Trent Lott, Rick Santorum, and Pat Robertson that make me vote democrat, even though I am feeling less willing to be aligned with the party despite my strong liberal opinions. Fundamental beliefs like the role of religion in government, racism, the environment, civil liberties, and science totally make the almost all republicans unacceptable for me politically. Despite what they may say, they are not the party of inclusion. Lastly, I would like to remind George W. Bush of why he doesn't care about black people. Poor Kanye West. He got a lot of flak for saying that Bush doesn't care about black people. Many people were wondering how he could say that. Here's how. If it wasn't enough that Bush is the first president to not even meet with the NAACP, he has now ignored the blacks again. With the sad death of Rosa Parks, Bush didn't make it out to her funeral in Detroit. He was too busy having lunch with Prince Charles and Camilla. Charles isn't even a real political figure. Rosa Parks is one of the most important Americans of the 20th century, and Bush practically ignored her accomplishments that were recognized surrounding her death. To be fair to Bush, not many republicans made it to her funeral. The most notable ones who made it are Bill Frist and Sam Alito. It's obvious though that they were there for the photo op, especially Alito. As usual, comments are welcome. You can even IM me at IMTheWalrus610. There's plenty of other shit that I am pissed off about, so I will hopefully update again soon. (Comment on this)
Monday, September 26th, 2005
12:40 pm	A few things I'm totally pissed at Towson University may be the poorest run school I have ever seen. As I was reading the paper this morning, there was a lot of attention devoted to parking and the infamous plus/minus grading system (which is horrible, by the way). It made me wonder what the administration at this school has done since I have come here, because the same problems still exist today that existed when I first came to this school in Fall 2001. Parking is terrible, the grading system is messed up, there is a poor registration system, we don't have enough money, and things are just generally run ass backwards. Many conservatives often complain about how the government is inefficient. They say that there is bureaucratic waste and that money spent on the government holds back the economy. After coming to my revelation about Towson University, I realized that bureaucracy is omnipresent. Towson University, the federal government, MARS Music, Lexmark, ActionLink (the company I work for now), Hollywood Video, and just about every other business I have ever seen is full of bureaucratic waste. Not to mention the ultimate waste that occurs in business in the form of massive executive bonuses. "Hey, your profits were slightly under Wall Street expectations. You get a $10M bonus." This shit happens, and unfortunately, I have no control over the matter. In other news, I'm being driven nuts by dealing with women in general. If you were to compare my luck with women right now with baseball, I would most definitely be like Rafael Palmeiro. It seems that I have been asking out a couple of women who are seeing somebody, and that many of these women I simply can't deal with. Towson is full of arrogant bitches. Not all women are bitches, of course. But popular culture right now encourages materialism for females and this is seen en masse at Towson. I was watching MTV, and there is some sweet 16 tv show that is abhorrent. These girls were having a birthday party, and they were making fun of another girl because they were excluding her for the party for some stupid reason. It wasn't that they felt this girl was mean or anything, but rather that she wasn't cool enough. And by cool, I mean she wasn't rich enough or trendy enough or something else totally shallow. I have news for these types of women who are absorbed in pop culture. You are failures. You are going to end up being undereducated and without a viable career. If you keep your looks, you will be lucky if you can manage to marry a rich guy who uses you for a legal form of prostitution. Perhaps the worst thing about the "cool" women is that they don't even have any of the nicer qualities of feminists, careerist women, or sexually independent women. While I think some feminists take the whole thing too far, I appriciate the idea that they should receive the same rights of men and that their job isn't to work for a man. Sexually independent women are seen by other women as skanky sometimes, but these two qualities are certainly not intertwined. Just because you like sex doesn't make you a whore, etc. I'm not sure if all of you get my point since it is quite abstract, so I'll simplify it. There is a growing divide between women who are smart and women who are automotons. The cookie cutter MTV women stand for nothing. They have no independent thoughts. They are judgmental. They believe a person's worth is defined by material possessions. It's pretty sad, and I hope that this doesn't perpetuate much longer. A common criticism that people have regarding my personality is that I am too picky regarding women. I really don't think that's it, at least from a sexual perspective. The people I am surrounded by are, for the most part, unappealing regarding their personalities. Well whatever, patience is a virtue. I definitely consider myself to be a unique person, and I suppose that this is all a part of that. Hey, why the hell would I be writing these long bullshit livejournal entires if it weren't for a unique personality. Oh, and not to mention the massive amount of time on my hands while sitting in the union. When I think of some more stuff to write about, I'll be back. (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 24th, 2005
12:23 am	No surprises here You are a Social Liberal (81% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (15% permissive) You are best described as a: Socialist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid I've been told this before, though this test is highly simplified and hardly describes my politics completely (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 21st, 2005
1:03 pm	Some shit I'm sick of This is pretty much free floating. So I'm going to start with music topics. The first thing that really pisses me off is when people call Coldplay the new U2. I have news for you people. U2 sucks. They have always sucked. For some reason people think they are legendary, but they have only really wrote forgettable singles that have no complication and are just not good. Coldplay, on the other hand, makes GREAT albums. The albums are complete from the beginning to the end. They aren't just a singles band. They also incorporate a lot more into their music than U2 ever did. The next thing I want to decry is that people seem to be shitting on Kurt Cobain at a much higher frequency than before. For some reason, people don't recognize that he pretty much is responsible for alternative rock in general. The band was the best grunge band that ever existed. Not to mention the fact that the Unplugged show really showed how versatile the band was. Cobain is great, and unfortunately, he was a very sad person. I'm tired. Enough. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, September 19th, 2005
11:26 am	Some thoughts I tried to watch Resident Evil: Apocalypse on HBO on saturday night. It cannot be done. The movie is unwatchable. After 5 minutes I thought my brain was going to explode. I could not handle the stupidity. The only thing I really care about mentioning for now is the bold faced lies Bush has made regarding the crisis in New Orleans. Not only did he commend Michael Brown for a shitty job, but he said that there weren't many warning signs. The National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center weren't surprised by the results. In fact, the National Hurricane Center a few days before knew exactly what was going to happen to New Orleans, yet the federal government didn't act on it. These people have been caught with their pants down. It's clear that Bush is not good in a crisis, which to me is enough to make him unworthy of the presidency. I'm really sleepy, so that's all I'm going to write. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 7th, 2005
2:39 pm	The conservatives are out of their goddamn minds Here's the latest talking point that can be heard on Rush Limbaugh, Ron Smith (Baltimore guy), or Sean Hannity. They basically say that the welfare state is responsible for the lack of movement from the city of New Orleans by the poor. Total fucking bullshit. First of all, these people know nothing about welfare. Welfare has been changed drastically due to the reforms of Clinton. You get less money and you stay on it for a much shorter period of time. Then when Bush entered office social programs were cut even more in favor of pork spending and the war in Iraq. So that part of the argument doesn't stand up to any scrutiny. The other bullshit part is that these people had the means to leave. For those of you who have never been to New Orleans or know little about the city, the poor people down there are REALLY poor. I have heard figures like $8K a year for the very poor New Orleans families. That leaves very little discretionary money for things like, you know, cars. Many of these people just didn't have a means of transportation. Even those people who had cars were in the unfortunate situation of not having enough money to pay for gas to leave the state and then of course find a place to stay while your town was destroyed. Add on the fact that the bus lines in New Orleans stopped the day before the hurricane, and you can conclude that if you were poor, you were screwed. I guess Limbaugh thinks that these people can get into their Range Rovers and just pull out of town. Here's the bottom line. These conservatives simply cannot criticize their leader. They never have and never will. According to them, Bush has never done wrong. Watch the daily show on a regular basis and you will see how they have documented the many fuck ups of this administration. Anyway, this is all the time I have for this post. I would just like to remind people that dissent is American. When your leaders make a mistake or some sort of crisis occurs, it is not acceptable to say that this is not the right time for criticism or investigation. That is wrong. In America, it's always time for criticism. It does not undermine the troops or victims or whatever when you criticize the way our government is running things. And that is what is completely ironic about Bush. He's the CEO president. He's supposed to run a tight ship. If he was an actual CEO, the shareholders would have him on his ass by now with all of the fuck ups. The government was supposed to be run like a business. In the business experience I have had, if a bunch of problems happen on your watch, then it is considered to be your fault, and you lose your job. And on that note, I am finished for now. (Comment on this)
Monday, September 5th, 2005
5:16 pm	Maureen Dowd editorial Here's a link that summarizes the frustration I have had for the past week. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/03/opinion/03dowd.html?ex=1126584000&en=97ac91cfca05c967&ei=5070&emc=eta1 Give it a read. (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 3rd, 2005
1:00 am	One little extra piece Watch this http://media.putfile.com/Kanye79 (Comment on this)
12:06 am	It took a national tragedy for this to happen In the last few days, everything I believed about this administration and it's policies have been totally validated. Things that I thought were opinion I now consider to be fact. Believe me, I don't feel happy about it. But at least the people of this country will perhaps open it's eyes to all the fucked up shit this government is doing. Hurricane Katrina was unprecedented in several ways. Not only was it an extremely strong storm, much like Camille was when it hit in the 1960's, but it was totally unprepared for and reacted to in exactly the wrong ways. Let's start with how the hurricane came to be. We all know that it's hurricane season now, but how does a storm get this powerful and this destructive within a matter of days. It went from a Category 1 hurricane to a Category 5. That's pretty fucked up. Well, for those of you who don't know, the Gulf of Mexico is hot right now, much hotter than it normally would be in fact. How could this be? Scientists, who Bush constantly doubts, say that global warming is allowing the water to get warmer than it normally would be, which fuel these storms and let them become more powerful than they would be in a normal situation. Strike one, Mr. President. Global warming exists. It's here, and it's going to cost us lives, money, and our standard of living. The biggest problem for this natural disaster has been the flooding that has occurred in New Orleans. According to all sources, the waters literally rose and flooded the city in MINUTES. How could this happen? New Orleans is below sea level, and because of that they have a levee system that is designed to prevent these types of things from occurring, or at least to help slow down the flooding process so it can be managed. Well, the Bush administration cut federal funding to maintain these levees. In fact, they only gave them 1/3 of the money that they were looking for. Not to mention the fact that the natural defense of floods, marshlands, have had cut back protection from the Bush administration, thus taking away any sort of help mother nature would have given New Orleans. Way to set your priorities straight, asshole. Well, let's give Bush the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps the flooding and massive storm could not have been stopped. Maybe it's a once in a lifetime thing. So why did it take 5 days for soldiers to get down there and start delivering food and water to the people? Well, a few reasons. The biggest reason is that the people in charge of FEMA are not qualified for the job. They are presidential appointees who just happen to be buddies with the president. They have no disaster management experience. Therefore, they had no idea how to handle a tragedy such as this. While a plan was being written up, people were dying. Let's face it, it's not like we didn't know the storm was coming. It was all over the news that the storm was going to be there and it was going to be big. So somebody explain to me why those in power didn't have food, water, and soldiers in place. Let's also talk about the fact that FEMA, which used to be it's own cabinet level entity, was cut back for the department of homeland security and blanketed under that. It's funding was cut back, and it's entire reason for existence was to prepare for recovering for terrorist attacks. The only plans they had for relief after hurricanes were in case a terrorist decided to attack after the disaster had occurred. So basically, we didn't even have a part of government in place for this kind of event. I'll continue for those of you who are still not pissed off yet. That tiny skirmish in Iraq has a cost. Money, manpower, and most importantly, transportation equipment like helicopters and cargo planes are being used over there instead of over here. The national guard is depleted for Bush's pet project and now we have less resources than we should have down there. Oh, and by the way, those budget cuts to the levees were directly caused by the massive amount of money spent in Iraq on a daily basis. Do you still like this war? Which is more important, helping thousands of homeless starving people survive a natural disaster, or fighting for democracy in a nation that has no civil order? What else would I like to talk about you might wonder? Let's talk about our president's arrogance and stupidity. First of all, when he knew the hurricane was going to hit and cause a lot of damage, he was still on vacation in Crawford. He left his vacation after the damage was done. How sensitive, fucktard. He didn't make a plan to deal with it because he was hunting prarie dogs and drinking disgusting non alcoholic beer. To top off his insensitivity, he didn't even bother to get off of his plane when it went to New Orleans the first time. The plane lowered it's altitude, and he looked out the window. He showed wonderful leadership, didn't he? Finally, today, he managed to actually get on the ground and hug a few people. What does this say about this man? I would argue that it shows that he truly doesn't have a culture of life and that he doesn't care about the poor. The people who stayed in New Orleans and Mississippi were truly poor. Many of them didn't have enough money to pay for gas so they could leave. So evacuation wasn't in order. If the disaster had been planned for, you could have evacuated the weak, elderly, and poor before the storm even hit. Culture of life, my ass. By talking about how he is pushing for federal money to the relief effort like he's a fucking saint, he shows that he truly doesn't understand the problem. He thinks that writing a check will solve this problem. People have lost their homes, loved ones, and their entire life. Many people are now jobless. Businesses are gone. These people don't have schools to go to. Their churches are destroyed so they have no place for sanctuary. Thanks for the check, dickhead. By the way, if he truly wanted to make a sacrifice for these people, maybe he should donate some of his own massive fortune to the relief effort. That rich family of his certainly could afford it. In another showing of how he doesn't care about the people of this country and that he has no plan for the future, gas prices are astronomical and gas stations are running out of supply. We have been on a tight rope when it comes to gasoline supplies, and this man has done nothing in 5 years. Refineries are only at 30% of capacity because their equipment doesn't comply to EPA standards. So we have a massive shortage. Today Bush decided that he would release 30 million barrels of oil from the federal stockpile. Well that doesn't do us a whole lot of good if you can't refine it you moron. Put it in perspective. Gas prices have more than doubled since June. What the fuck is going on here? Where is the leadership? These republicans are always talking about personal responsibility and running a tight ship, and they have shown that they are incompetent and total scumbags. I dare you conservatives to try and argue these points with me. Every major news source, except Fox (surprise, surprise), are reporting these facts. There is no bias involved here, it's just sleeping at the switch. You guys have all of the power in the land right now. You control every branch of government so you can decide to put into action anything you want to do, and yet nothing is getting done right. If you assholes want to take true responsibility, apologize for your fuck ups, or just resign and leave running the country to people who are at least competent and might even care. To raise money for hurricane relief, rather than doing it himself, Bush is getting Clinton to do it. He is basically saying that he can't take a leadership role in restoring order to New Orleans. He has to leave it to a man who is intelligent and charismatic. Being president must be really easy. You don't have to come up with any real plans, nobody holds you responsible when something bad happens, and when something does need to be done you can just get somebody else to do it for you...and then take all of the credit. Get these assholes out of power now. Don't vote for them in the 2006 elections. Protest whenever possible. I personally would like to attend the rally on the 24th in Washington against the war, and I think I owe my country a responsibility to make it out there and have my voice heard. Do something America. Take your civil responsibilities seriously, or else this country will be in for far greater tragedies in the future. Comments are welcome, you can even dissent if you like. But I'll be honest here. If you disagree with me you are just defending an incompetent man for some sort of vague political dream...or rather some sort of business agenda. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, August 28th, 2005
1:29 am	An update that has been needed for quite some time Our society is crumbling before my eyes. It saddens me. But within the last few days, small glimmers of hope have been appearing just on the horizon. My first problem was the lack of competency in our public leaders. These men have little vision and simply focus on keeping their jobs. I thought to myself, "Who will ever inspire the people to take charge?". The news certainly won't do it. The New York Times and NPR are attacked on a daily basis by right wing fascists and the rest of the domestic media sources don't actually report news. The answer to my question lies in our modern philosophers. They seem to become more ordinary. I take a lot of my personal beliefs from stand up comics. That may sound silly, but I prefer logical conclusions based on facts to rhetoric made up by talking heads who are "experts". Lewis Black, George Carlin, Jon Stewart, and a number of other people really do see things as they are. These people use intuition to decide on something rather than some kind of vague following of doctrine. Two other people who have really rekindled my faith in true American spirit are Cindy Sheehan and Kinky Friedman. Sheehan, despite what the right may tell you, is exercising her constitutional right to protest an illegal and immoral war. That's really the end of the argument. The fact that she is a citizen of this country allows her to do this, and no other facts need to be presented. The truth is that this country needs a little bit of negativity and cynicism. The people don't want to swallow the unpleasant pills of our reality. Pro-war people who say she is dishonoring the troops are completely backwards. Presumably, our soldiers fight so that people like Cindy Sheehan have the right to free and peaceful protest. At this point, most of you are wondering who Kinky Friedman is. I suppose you could say he is an entertainer. The important part is that he is running as an independent candidate for governor of Texas and is getting some support. Fortunately, a person is actually going out, saying his opinion that isn't filtered by an advisor or a corporate sponsor, and people are listening and at least supporting him a little bit. Who would have thought that some of the deepest roots of democracy could bloom in Texas, a state which has brought us the worst president in the history of this great nation. Yeah, that's right. Bush is the worst. Can you think of anything positive he has done? Awhile ago, I would have said the Afghanistan war was positive, but now the country is controlled by warlords because we pulled all of the troops out for Halliburton's investment in Iraq. Even assholes like Reagan did some things that made sense. I'd probably vote for Hitler above Bush. You might be thinking, "How could he say that? He's a jew!" Well, in our two party system, I'll take a strong racist against a weak one when it comes to running our country. Ok Ok. That was a joke. Except for the part that Bush is a racist. The next thing I would like to discuss is actually a topic that isn't exactly in the news. A lot of people have apathy in voting right now. Mostly due to the fact that they feel powerless, which I believe is derived from an inherent corruption between business, lobbyists, and politicians. But the corporations plan worked like a charm. They decided that they were going to invest in our country by giving massive campaign contributions to political candidates in elections all around the country. This money was spent on such bullshit, that the american people have decided not to vote, which is exactly what these donors want. The less people vote, the easier their agenda pushes through. The only solution to this problem is a total void of significant political contributions from people. It can be done, but only with strong support by public mandate through voting for guys like Kinky Friedman. When the money stops flowing, this country will grow in ways that are unimaginable. All of those things that need to be done will go right past the normal blocks of riders on bills and political wars and get done because they need to be done. Finally, I must talk about the Kansas school system, which is allowing the teaching of intelligent design in public school. These people are completely bat shit insane. I guess I have to break it down in the simplest terms. Science is defined by proving facts and theories about the physical world surrounding us by using evidence and testing. Intelligent design does none of this. There is no process. It's a fucking story. Stories do not equal science. Even if you don't believe in evolution, the logic used to derive the theory of evolution was scientific. What's next? Are you going to start talking about magical pixies working in computers during a computer science class? That wouldn't be science. The electrical current running through integrated circuits explains how computer programs run. Granted, I can't exactly see it working since it's so small, but I think I believe what they say. Should we be teaching ancient greek fables in science class? Should we teach students that when you die you go to a big boat on the river Styx where you are taken to an afterlife? No, because they are all religious beliefs, and not science. The truly amazing thing about people who don't believe in evolution or even in the teaching of evolution in science classes is that they are surrounded by evolution on a daily basis. Genetics are often used for medical treatments such as insulin for diabetics or to explain why a child can be an XX female or an XY male. People accept this, yet they don't accept the fact that our DNA is 99.9% identical to a chimpanzee? How about that crazy thing that people have where they sometimes have different colored pigments on their skin. I have seen a few black people in my day. Why in God's name (har har) would people from Africa have black skin and people from Europe have white skin? I guess God just took out his Boggle game and that's where the blacks ended up. Or perhaps these people could explain to me why the bone structure in most mammals is practically identical. Those giraffes really are crazy with those long necks that God gave them because it looks funny. Here's the rule. If you don't want to believe in generally accepted science, then stop taking medicine, turn off your television and computer, take your shits in a hole in the backyard, and give your car away to a poor person. You can't pick and choose when to accept science that professional people agree upon. You take it all, or you don't believe in any of it. The bible doesn't have computers and cars, so I hope you feel comfortable living in biblical times when science didn't plague our society. I'm done for now. Perhaps I will update tomorrow. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 27th, 2005
3:03 pm	A lawsuit that makes no sense http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8728577/ Here's the really fucked up part about this lawsuit. The game is rated Mature, for gamers 17 and up. The lady suing bought the game for her 14 year old grandson. How can you say that Rockstar was deceptive when the game is said to be unsuitable for a 14 year old by the company! (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 23rd, 2005
2:11 pm	Wow, I actually agree with Republicans on the Supreme Court on this one http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8331097/ This is an article talking about the Supreme Court making a ruling on eminent domain when it concerns private development. The majority ruling was that private contractors can use state influence to bulldose property which they wish to develop on. I don't think that's fair. The constitution allows development for public projects such as roads, schools, etc. Just because some asshole wants to bulldose a house for a shopping mall doesn't mean he should automatically be able to. It's plausible that a similar scenario could happen where I live. Somebody could use eminent domain on my house and land to develop a series of townhomes just because the government said they could. What about the inconvenience and loss of stability for the homeowner? Anyway, I'm posting this because this is one of the few times I agree with the Republicans on the Supreme Court. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 15th, 2005
5:53 pm	For more on my results I found this webpage to show you what an ESTP is. I was fucking shocked. Pretty accurate if you ask me. http://www.geocities.com/lifexplore/estp.htm (Comment on this)
5:46 pm	Interesting test I took ESTP - "Promotor". Action! When present, things begin to happen. Fiercely competitive. Entrepreneur. Often uses shock effect to get attention. Negotiator par excellence. 4.3% of total population. Take Free Jung Personality Test personality tests by similarminds.com Main type Variant Take Free Enneagram Personality Test personality tests by similarminds.com Enneagram Test Results Type 1 Perfectionism |||||||||||||| 60% Type 2 Helpfulness |||||||||||||| 56% Type 3 Image Awareness |||||||||||||||| 70% Type 4 Sensitivity |||||||||| 36% Type 5 Detachment |||||| 23% Type 6 Anxiety |||||||||||| 50% Type 7 Adventurousness |||||||||| 40% Type 8 Aggressiveness |||||||||||||||||| 76% Type 9 Calmness |||||||||||||||| 66% Your main type is 8 Your variant is sexual Take Free Enneagram Personality Test personality tests by similarminds.com (Comment on this)
Monday, June 6th, 2005
12:08 am	An article I found http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=28676&archive=true This article made me thing of all of the bullshit people say when they knock homeless people for being lazy. Granted, I would never give a bum money off the street because it's simply a dangerous thing to do. But the point of this article shows the social climate of military service. Basically, we have 250,000 homeless vets. That's sad. These people fought for the country and we don't even give them the courtesy to keep them off the street. Some of these assholes with the "Support our troops" bumperstickers could actually push for their congressmen to provide more benefits for soldiers in addition to slapping that tacky sticker on their car. This also bitch slaps the conservative principle that homeless people are there because they deserve it. These people didn't deserve it. Something got fucked up when they went fighting, and now they are mentally infirm. Anyway, I am tired. Read the article. (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 5th, 2005
11:13 pm	Last part of the update Fucking racism. I don't like it. Today I had a customer complain to one of the Best Buy people on the phone that some black person was curt to them on the phone. Now, other than using typical stereotypes, they decried someone. This says two things to me. First of all, the customer had race on their mind. They may or may not have gotten the proper service, yet the clearly identified that it was a black person. It very well may have been a situation in which somebody just didn't like the timbre of the guys voice and took it as a disrespect because it wasn't in a lovely southern white drawl. Second of all, this customer is very ignorant. In Baltimore, of all places, we have many people who have the "black" sounding voice. More often than not, if you pay attention, these people are in fact white. They just do that voice to sound cool. Of course, I personally think the whole yo boy voice is stupid, but hey, it doesn't disqualify somebody from being a person. I suppose there is a chance that this customer had a distinctly black voice however. He could have gotten on the phone and sounded like Barry White. I guess that wouldn't be racist. I mean, Barry White is certainly black, and I haven't heard any white people with a voice quite like that. Perhaps the phone call went like this Best buy person: Hello baby, how can I help your sexy ass today? (keep in mind this is in the Barry White voice) Customer: Yeah, I reckon I'm lookin' for an ink cartlidge BB: OOH, maybe we have it, and maybe not Customer: It's from one of them Lenmark printers BB: We don't carry Lenmark printers Customer: Oh wait, it's Leemark BB: Sexy lady, we don't carry those either Customer: I don't appriciate your tone, black sounding person BB: Fuck you, cracker In which case, it would have been somewhat of a rude phone call I guess. Wait, that doesn't work, nobody sounds like that in that store. I'm done for now, I'm very tired and I have reading to do. Leave comments (Comment on this)
11:01 pm	Update part 2 In fact, let's just cut Florida off and let it drift off to South America. Perhaps some of those third world countries can appriciate their advanced cultural ways like embracing faulty elections. I'm sure we can get oranges from elsewhere. Ron Jon can pull up the anchor and move to the Jersey shore and the elderly jewish people can move back to Long Island. We can get everybody important out of there before we bust out the giant chainsaw to cut it off. Wow, I've got an even better idea. Before we let them go, we use the whole state as a trash disposal service. My mother is going down there, so that's step one. Step two is attracting all of the toothless rednecks to the state with a series of big NASCAR races. Then we will get rid of both rednecks and NASCAR. Then we can put all of our nuclear waste on trucks and bring it into Florida and give it to the rednecks and tell them that it's Hi-C (you know, the kind with slimer on the front of the box). We can also tell Rush Limbaugh that he will be the king of his little Floridian paradise. He already lives down there, and I'm sure that the Florida can invent some way to artificially give him power (they have ample experience with that). Our country will immediately be improved with his loud mouth off of the airwaves. Hey, since he's king down there, he can supply himself with all of the prescription uppers that he wants from all of his indentured servants. Man, this is a strong platform to run for public office. Don't get me wrong, I like Florida for the sun and the beach and such. But let's be honest here, it's easily one of the dumbest states in the union. After visiting Cancun, I realized that Mexico had a much stronger grip on reality than many of the citizens of Florida. Before I get the hate comments, let me remind you all that there are many nice people in Florida, and not all of them deserve to have this be their fate, so we will make sure that everybody nice gets to stay in the new continental United States. This is all just a big solution to the growing redneck problem this country has. (Comment on this)