Archive for Politics

It’s all about reform.

{ March 22, 2010 @ 7:59 pm } · { Health, News, Politics, Thoughts }
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Happy Monday, or as my dad sardonically refers to it, “The Countdown to Communism.” It’s been less than 24-hours since health care reform was passed and there’s already an upheaval stirring on the right. Not surprisingly, the most fervent objections are coming from the wing-nut state of Florida. And you know what? I hope to god that Florida rejects health care reform. I want the legislature to bitch and moan about socialism, death panels and debt. I pray the tea parties congregate in Tallahassee with signs that read “Kill the Bill” and “Stay Out of my Life.” I await a televised press conference in which the Republican candidates for Senate spontaneously combust and are devoured by rabid wolves (I know that’s a bit off topic, but what’s one more wish?).

Little known fact: These men will be overseeing the death panels.

Then, in 5 years, when reform is blossoming across the country, I’ll be watching as Floridians collectively kick themselves in the balls for repudiating it. I’ll snicker when they weep on each other’s shoulders as their low-income friends around the nation gush about Medicare. I can’t wait for the public to call their legislators and demand that Florida adopt a plan that prevents insurance providers from denying claims based on pre-existing conditions. I’ll crack open a cold one as those who most fervidly challenged the bill plead for reform.

As a liberal, I think this is the best thing that can happen to our country. Sure, tens of thousands of Floridians will be denied healthcare – but heck, they’re making their beds and soon it’ll be time to nap. Nothing will impact the political climate like seeing liberal policy vs. conservative policy in action. We’ll finally have a tangible case study that determines which health care ideology is more efficient – and I’m so confident in liberal reform that I welcome the challenge.

Fortunately for Florida, you won’t find an honest conservative who feels the same.

Throwing stones in a glass house.

{ June 24, 2009 @ 4:05 am } · { News, Politics }
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There’s a lot of debate about the current turmoil in Iran. Some think we need to step up our involvement, others believe we need to let the country determine it’s own fate. Despite the various opinions, everyone agrees that what’s happening to the people of Iran is unjust. Here’s what House Minority Whip Eric Cantor had to say:

“We stand with the people of Iran in their struggle to participate in a democratic election and who deserve the right to freely assemble and voice their opposition to its questionable outcome…We have a moral responsibility to lead the world in opposition to Iran’s extreme response to peaceful protests.”

But before we all jump on our soap boxes, I think we should take a look in the mirror.

  • Absolute Power: Last week, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared their election valid and the outcome final. After the 2000 presidential election, the U.S. Supreme Court stopped Florida recounts and declared the initial results binding. (Sadly, Iran now says it is investigating claims of voter fraud – whatever that means – while the U.S. never even did that.)
  • Silence the Masses: In Iran, the government has attempted to control public dissent by outlawing protests unless groups obtain permits before demonstrating. In the United States, the government has attempted to control public dissent by outlawing protests unless they take place in ‘designated free speech zones.’
  • Control Communication: At the moment, Iranian authorities have blocked web sites, cell phone transmissions and text messaging. Since 2001, the United States Government has monitored phone calls, e-mails, Internet activity, and text messaging – all without warrants.
  • Blame the Media: Since the election, Khamenei has criticized the media and western governments for attempting to manipulate public opinions. In response to the negative public opinion of the war in Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney argued that “the press is, with all due respect there are exceptions, often times lazy, often simply reports what someone else in the press says without doing their homework.”
  • Propaganda in the News: This week, Iranian state television showed suspicious interviews with “protesters” who “confessed” to being under the influence of the BBC and the Voice of America. The New York Times reported in March 2005 that in the United States “at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government’s role in their production.”

I’m not saying the United States government is the same as Iran’s; we could spend all day contrasting the two. But it frustrates me to no end that we’re supposed to be a model for the rest of the world and yet we engage in the same behavior we condemn (no wonder Iran is in such disarray.) Maybe if we returned to being a country other nations strived to emulate, we’d have less foreign crises to debate at home. After all, actions speak louder than words – so let’s hope people like Congressman Cantor will be this passionate in the future about democracy no matter which political party is in power.

Economics for dummies.

{ June 10, 2009 @ 10:45 am } · { News, Politics, Random }
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Here’s an interesting email my friend Ig sent out this morning. Enjoy.

It is the month of August, on the shores of the Black Sea. It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town.

He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 Euro note on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one.

The hotel proprietor takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.

The Butcher takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the pig grower.

Don't hate the player. Hate the game.

"Don't hate the player. Hate the game." - Alan Greenspan

The pig grower takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel.

The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the town’s prostitute that in these hard times, gave her “services” on credit.

The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 Euro note to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there.

The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 Euro note back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.

At that moment, the rich tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and takes his 100 Euro note, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is doing business.

Reader responses.

{ May 12, 2009 @ 4:33 am } · { Entertainment, News, Politics, Random, Responses, Sports, Technology, Thoughts }
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I’m well overdo for replies, so here it goes:

“There is no such thing as “real hip hop” in my opinion. What is real hip hop??? That’s like saying I only eat real pussy… it’s all the same thing, some might smell worse than others.” -Jeff

Wow, that’s probably the best analogy I’ve ever heard. I think I speak for everyone when I say we could use another guest post from you.

And while we’re here, everyone should go to this site to vote for Jeff’s son Brayden in a cutest baby contest.

“Music isn’t dead now….As a whole though, the music scene in itself does suck heavy hairy balls. You’ve gotta dig deep and into other places to find truly great music these days. Hip Hop though, will never be able to be saved. The vocoder killed it. T-pain…ugh.” – Alex

What’s interesting about this post is that almost everybody interpreted it differently. Alex thought I was saying music is dead, half the dumbasses from undergroundhiphop.com thought I was saying Aesop Rock sucks and the other half thought I was implying that Jay-Z is the definition of ‘real hip-hop.’

In reality, I was just pointing out that people who claim mainstream rap isn’t real are arrogant assholes. Nothing more, nothing less. And I could’ve picked any one of 100 artists to use in place of Aesop – I just chose him because I am most familiar with his music.

By the way Alex, have you reviewed the new Jada yet?

“Thankfully photo shop was invented as well.” – golublog

Very true. And even if you don’t use photoshop, all you need is that one lucky shot from just the right angle to hide your 6 other chins. Facebook can be very deceiving – it’s like the beer-goggles of the internet.

“(Facebook) has hit my age group like a ton of bricks: I would’ve NEVER been in contact with 99.99999999% of my “friends”. Granted, “contact” is a loose term.” – Nobu

I couldn’t agree more. At least once a day I see one of my ‘friends’ online and think “who the fuck is that?” But it does make it easier to find out if that girl in your InDesign class has a boyfriend.

Speaking of which, has anyone noticed how social networking has completely changed the dynamics of dating – and perhaps more importantly – breaking up? When I get some time I’m going to write a full post about this.

“The simple answer to that would be….When is the last time you’ve seen 80 thousand show up to see a guy paint a picture? Sports generate dollars, and the stars in those sports generate more dollars to the sports. Fair? Maybe not. At the end of the day like most things it’s all about a dollar.” – Payneinsider.com

If there was any post I could take a mulligan on, it would be this one. Not only was it poorly thought out and executed, but Living the Dream has to be the stupidest title ever – so thanks for the feedback Payne. We should do a podcast soon so you can straighten everyone out about everything sports related. 

Damn that woman is hurting us more than the f’ing “don’t tase me bro” guy. – Julio

I shouldn’t even justify this. UF has won 4 National Championships in the last 4 years – so the least you can do is take a little heat for having a brain-dead Congresswoman.

{ March 23, 2009 @ 8:58 pm } · { Entertainment, Politics, Random, Sports, Thoughts }
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Sorry I haven’t been able to write in a while. I’ve had insomnia for a few weeks now (as in I’m writing this as 5:20 am because I can’t sleep) and as a result have been crazy sick – not to mention my brain has been on a hiatus since school ended. But it’s March Madness so I have to give my 2 cents.

When did “chalk brackets” become the trendy new sports term? I’ve been entering NCAA pools since I was a Westchester Wildcat and had never heard the phrase until last week. Now I can’t go online without reading about “chalk filling the brackets.” I think we can blame this on Barack Obama. Ever since he filled out that lame ass bracket last week where he picked no upsets, we’ve been forced to hear about ‘chalk brackets.’ The worst part is that’s exactly how this tournament is shaping out, so we can expect to hear a lot more of this nonsense.

I’m not sure what to make of Obama’s picks. On the one hand he was right about majority of the games, so you can’t fault him. On the other hand, who doesn’t pick upsets? I don’t think I’m comfortable with a president who fills his bracket with ‘chalk.’ I just hope he’s as accurate with his economic plan.

With that said, my Final 4 is intact with Michigan State, Memphis, Villanova and UNC; (UNC over Memphis in the finals.) And I can’t understand why Pitt is such a popular pick to win it all – in my pool they are by far the most heavily selected team. Why would you put your money on a school that had never in its history been ranked no. 1 until January of this season?

I’ll leave you with a few random thoughts:

-In movies, why don’t people scream when they get shot or stabbed? I would think a fatal wound would be more painful.

-Apparently a British accent is universally understood to mean ‘foreign,’ regardless of the country or time period that the film takes place. (See the movie Gladiator, the miniseries Rome, etc.)

-Our economy is in a free fall because we have elected people like this to congress:

-The word is pronounced ‘ig-no-rant,’ not ‘ig-nant.’ Calling somebody else ‘ignant’ just makes you look ‘ignorant.’ (Please see the above video for further explanation.)

-Jimmy Fallon should throw himself out a window. (I know I already wrote a post covering this, but it’s a subject I feel very strongly about)

{ March 17, 2009 @ 11:50 am } · { News, Politics, Random, Thoughts }
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I will be focusing all of my energy this St. Patricks day on drinking, so no post for me. Instead, you get a guest blog from Ig. Enjoy:

St. Patricks Day vs. Cinco de Mayo

Guinness vs. Corona, Tequila vs. Car bombs. For the majority of Americans these are synonyms for a comparison of the two “holidays”. There are many parallels between these two dates, but the most glaring one being the use of these days as an excuse for alcohol abuse in our country.

Just as those stupid game shows or the surveys that sometimes appear in newspapers, I can almost guarantee that adults in the US can’t explain why each binge session is actually a holiday. Now I am as guilty as the next person of suddenly craving a Margarita on May 5th but St. Patrick’s Day hits a nerve with me.

To put it out there, my mother was born in Cabra, north Dublin, the kind of neighborhood depicted in the movie The Commitments and exposed in the book Angela’s Ashes. Because of that, I have an Irish passport. My childhood revolved around going to Irish jig dancing concerts and being surrounded by people who I could barely understand due to their thick accents. St. Patrick’s Day was a wonderful day in my family, full of stories, love, singing, dancing and yes drinking.

When I became old enough to celebrate it with my own friends I instantly felt a little dismayed that not only were all these people using the holiday to get trashed but also the justification was that it was what Irish people did. I guess the part that infuriated me was that everyone claimed to be Irish thus making it ok. Whether it be an uncle’s third wife had an irish setter or an older sister studied abroad in Cork or that the last name be something as generic as Sullivan, everyone claimed to be Irish. Although I am quite proud of my parentage I never wanted to have one of the dumbest conversations in the world with these fellows. (Who is more Irish?)

I do find it funny though on a social level that being Irish is so cool nowadays. I was baptized in a Catholic church on the Irish Channel in New Orleans. It is called the Irish Channel because thousands of Irishmen worked on that canal at slave like wages with hundreds dying. Because of their stance in society, the work they did and the low wages they brought in, together with their large family structure, I guess the Irish could be considered the Mexicans of a hundred years ago.

Funny I don’t see anyone claiming they are Mexican on Cinco de Mayo…..

{ January 21, 2009 @ 12:54 am } · { Politics }
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With all the hoopla surrounding Obama’s inauguration, I’ve heard a lot of talk about our country moving forward and how far we’ve come over the past century. Now don’t get me wrong, we have come a long way and I’m proud of that – but what does it say about our country that on the very same day we elected our first black president, three states voted to amend their constitutions to ban gay marriage? (and that includes my very own Florida – we really know how to make headlines) 

And don’t give me this Bible, Church, Jesus crap. Too many of the people who use religious law as an excuse for opposing gay marriage also steal, drink, commit adultery and do a million other things their god wouldn’t approve of – not to mention all the passages from the bible that are completely ignored because they’re ridiculous. Check out this gem from Deuteronomy 21:18-21 (King James.)

 18 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:

19 Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place;

 20 And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.

 21 And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

Really? We should start stoning uncooperative children to death? Where are these crusaders? When will this get on the ballot? And I love the line about calling the child a glutton and drunkard, as if being ‘stoned with stones’ isn’t enough.

My point isn’t to bad mouth religion or Christianity, but merely to show how individuals pick and choose the things they claim to believe in based on beliefs they already hold. With that said, I believe we’ll move past this prejudice sooner than later – I just hope we don’t redirect our bigotry towards people who don’t cut their hair or shave their beards. (Leviticus 19:27) 

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