And there was nothing on this thing for four months. If one is going to be a blogger then you have to pay attention. One can't look at there blog and see it empty day after day and not do anything about it. Know matter how often I try it, procrastination doesn't work. Neither does avoidance.
So I'm a terrorist. Am I now relieved that they won't be torturing me in the secret CIA prison I'm being carted to? Do these people really give a rats ass? And when did this put us on the moral spiral staircase? We're so far in the mud it's ridiculous. The entire world is against us and we don't seem to care. Or at least everyone right of Ariana Huffington. These are really sad and scary times to be an American. We are consistently repeating mistakes and not seeing it. What's the difference between the Roman Empire and ours? Not much.
I'm going to take a dump. Because that's how I fight terrorism.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Friday, May 19, 2006
Phones for you...
What are we going to do about our phone calls? What are we going to do about this idea that the government is making a huge list of every single phone number that we call on a given day? Are we supposed to worry about that? I don’t know about you but that makes me a little nervous to dial up my friend Ahmed and talk politics. Who knows what they think about a guy named Ahmed from Lebanon.
This is a problem on a great many levels. At the forefront is this idea that the Bush administration has done anything in the past five and half years to make us believe that they are trustworthy. If there has been a more spin intensive White House I can’t remember it. Not since Dick Nixon has a president so adamantly told us to just mind our own business and he’ll take care of everything. Don’t worry little country; now go back to bed and dream of killing terrorists and gay people.
I find it hard to believe that this group of people who are so living in such an elevated level of fear wouldn’t be listening to random phone calls. If they can track them, they can sure listen to them. And since they believe they are the moral police and since they believe that breaking a law or two in the name of “safety” is acceptable it wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
On top of all that is this idea that they think that the terrorists don’t know that the government is going to monitor phone calls. You think that any terrorist that really has a clue, not your Moussaui’s but your Mata’s, isn’t going to use a disposable telephone, send text messages or that old school coded email? It would be too easy to bounce messages from here to say a friendly nation; then place to place until it hits Iran or Syria. They might even send an overnight package, anything but a telephone.
I am waiting for the first raid of a Persian rug dealer in the Bronx because they were making too many phone calls to Pakistan. Let’s get real here. This is just another example of an administration so freaked out by their lack of respect for he terrorists in the first place and the fact that they missed so many obvious signals that they are running around like chickens with their heads blown off. They are just grasping at straws and telling us we are the safer for it. They may have a plan but like everything that the elephant does, it’s always a step behind the mouse.
So to the guys at the NSA, all those calls to 1 800-MAN-HUNK on my list were just wrong numbers. And to those of you afraid of what they are doing I think be very afraid. Not just about the lack of respect for civil liberties and the willingness to throw the baby out with the bathwater that exists on the right, but really about how lame this administration is in protecting us from another attack. I would trade the NSA program in a second for one that searches the cargo that comes into our ports every day. But that would cost money and that would mean raising taxes and … well protecting us from terrorists isn’t more important than the money stuffed in my mattress. Right?
This is a problem on a great many levels. At the forefront is this idea that the Bush administration has done anything in the past five and half years to make us believe that they are trustworthy. If there has been a more spin intensive White House I can’t remember it. Not since Dick Nixon has a president so adamantly told us to just mind our own business and he’ll take care of everything. Don’t worry little country; now go back to bed and dream of killing terrorists and gay people.
I find it hard to believe that this group of people who are so living in such an elevated level of fear wouldn’t be listening to random phone calls. If they can track them, they can sure listen to them. And since they believe they are the moral police and since they believe that breaking a law or two in the name of “safety” is acceptable it wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
On top of all that is this idea that they think that the terrorists don’t know that the government is going to monitor phone calls. You think that any terrorist that really has a clue, not your Moussaui’s but your Mata’s, isn’t going to use a disposable telephone, send text messages or that old school coded email? It would be too easy to bounce messages from here to say a friendly nation; then place to place until it hits Iran or Syria. They might even send an overnight package, anything but a telephone.
I am waiting for the first raid of a Persian rug dealer in the Bronx because they were making too many phone calls to Pakistan. Let’s get real here. This is just another example of an administration so freaked out by their lack of respect for he terrorists in the first place and the fact that they missed so many obvious signals that they are running around like chickens with their heads blown off. They are just grasping at straws and telling us we are the safer for it. They may have a plan but like everything that the elephant does, it’s always a step behind the mouse.
So to the guys at the NSA, all those calls to 1 800-MAN-HUNK on my list were just wrong numbers. And to those of you afraid of what they are doing I think be very afraid. Not just about the lack of respect for civil liberties and the willingness to throw the baby out with the bathwater that exists on the right, but really about how lame this administration is in protecting us from another attack. I would trade the NSA program in a second for one that searches the cargo that comes into our ports every day. But that would cost money and that would mean raising taxes and … well protecting us from terrorists isn’t more important than the money stuffed in my mattress. Right?
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Scared is as scared does
I’m so tired of being surrounded by fear. Being afraid of spiders is one thing, sitting in our homes and fretting over the inevitable terrorist attack that our president keeps telling us is inevitable is crazy. Obviously we were sucker punched in 2001 and that was horrible. I wish we could bring all those people back. I wish our president and his people had listened to the warnings that were all around him when he took office. But their mistake doesn’t mean that we need to sit in a dark room and rock back and forth with fear.
What happened is that they screwed up. What makes it hard for me to stomach is that they can’t admit and let us forgive them. We would, you know, because that is what we do in this country. But they feel like they need to look strong and infallible in order to wage this war on terrorism. What they don’t realize is the thing we all learn as children: real strength comes in humility. Admitting our mistakes takes more character than doggedly holding onto our wrongs and trying desperately to make them right. Everyone hates that person, don’t they? Absolutely.
So I sit here and watch our administration dig themselves deeper and deeper into a hole that none of us are going to be able to get out of. They are hated overseas and now they are becoming hated over here. No one likes a liar; and an arrogant one at that. When Rummi was confronted last week in Atlanta he just looked like bitter old man who is desperate to look good and not admit that he lied in order to send us to a war that we didn’t need. As Madeline Albright said, “(The Arab world) learned that if they have atomic weapons they won’t be attacked” Thanks guys.
I had a conversation with a friend today and it all tied together for me. The end result is that our countries gut reaction to this attack and allowing ourselves to live in fear has given the terrorists exactly what they wanted. A certain part of our country is willing to throw away our basic civil liberties that we fought so hard to get in order to be protected from a terrorist attack. Doing that means that the terrorists win. They are getting exactly what they want.
We have to stand up and tell them we will not lower ourselves to their level. We will not give up our belief in justice, fairness, integrity and honesty. Holding people without trial is what they do in Iran and Syria and what they used to do in Iraq. Illegal wiretapping is that they do in totalitarian regimes where they need to do whatever it takes to maintain power. Hiding the truth; standing on a podium and calling people who want to look behind the curtain traitors, smells of Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, and North Korea. It’s not the way that a country that honestly believes in the supremacy of their way of life acts in the face of terror.
The more they hit at us the more we need to say that we will not give in to our basest fears. We will not allow them to pull them down to their level. This country needs to hold onto our principals even harder in order to show the world that we truly are the beacon of all this is good and right in the human condition. If we don’t then it’s just a matter of time until we are just the same as they are, only doing it in the name of Jesus Christ. And that will be the most terrifying thing of all.
What happened is that they screwed up. What makes it hard for me to stomach is that they can’t admit and let us forgive them. We would, you know, because that is what we do in this country. But they feel like they need to look strong and infallible in order to wage this war on terrorism. What they don’t realize is the thing we all learn as children: real strength comes in humility. Admitting our mistakes takes more character than doggedly holding onto our wrongs and trying desperately to make them right. Everyone hates that person, don’t they? Absolutely.
So I sit here and watch our administration dig themselves deeper and deeper into a hole that none of us are going to be able to get out of. They are hated overseas and now they are becoming hated over here. No one likes a liar; and an arrogant one at that. When Rummi was confronted last week in Atlanta he just looked like bitter old man who is desperate to look good and not admit that he lied in order to send us to a war that we didn’t need. As Madeline Albright said, “(The Arab world) learned that if they have atomic weapons they won’t be attacked” Thanks guys.
I had a conversation with a friend today and it all tied together for me. The end result is that our countries gut reaction to this attack and allowing ourselves to live in fear has given the terrorists exactly what they wanted. A certain part of our country is willing to throw away our basic civil liberties that we fought so hard to get in order to be protected from a terrorist attack. Doing that means that the terrorists win. They are getting exactly what they want.
We have to stand up and tell them we will not lower ourselves to their level. We will not give up our belief in justice, fairness, integrity and honesty. Holding people without trial is what they do in Iran and Syria and what they used to do in Iraq. Illegal wiretapping is that they do in totalitarian regimes where they need to do whatever it takes to maintain power. Hiding the truth; standing on a podium and calling people who want to look behind the curtain traitors, smells of Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, and North Korea. It’s not the way that a country that honestly believes in the supremacy of their way of life acts in the face of terror.
The more they hit at us the more we need to say that we will not give in to our basest fears. We will not allow them to pull them down to their level. This country needs to hold onto our principals even harder in order to show the world that we truly are the beacon of all this is good and right in the human condition. If we don’t then it’s just a matter of time until we are just the same as they are, only doing it in the name of Jesus Christ. And that will be the most terrifying thing of all.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
I (heart) Kobe
I can’t think of a better person to take the last shot on my team than that Kobe Bryant guy. It just might be that I am one of the few Kobe lovers on the planet. Because, unlike my friend Jack, I can forgive Kobe his indiscretions. I am able to forgive the fact that he was the biggest punk, bitch, asshole this side of Danny Ainge.
That’s not really fair to Danny Ainge. Kobe is the biggest bitch since Sammy “The Bull” spilled it on Gotti. “The Ocho” told the investigators in Colorado that Shaq just paid off the women that he raped. There, I said it. He told police men that his teammate rapes women and pays them off. Maybe I’m paraphrasing, but man if that were my homie he would be capped or some kind of street justice.
See, Kobe, isn’t from the street and that has always been his fatal flaw. Kobe learned to be black in Italy. I’m sorry but they still call blacks Carthaginians in Italy. There is no angry black street population in Italy. Everyone is happy and living La Dolce Vita. On top of that his dad was basketball royalty. So there is no “mean streets of Florence” in Kobe. There isn’t any of the “my daddy left when I was six” anger. There’s none of the indigenous distrust of the white man.
Even when he came to the states he was living in Upper Merion which is like living in, well, Upper Merion. For God’s sake, his idol as a boy was Mike D’Antoni. That in itself is just sad.
So how do you expect this kid from Italy to come here and be able to relate to the American black experience? He can’t and he never will. This is a kid who didn’t get the same cultural indoctrination like an Allen Iverson or Tracy McGrady or Shaq. The only person who can come close is Grant Hill and look what happened to him.
There are a lot of people (Jack included) who will traipse out all these stats about Kobe and how his shooting percentage is not so good, how he shot us out of games early in his career and how he ran Shaq out of town. Listen, it takes two to tango and Shaq was as big a baby, if not worse since he was older, than Kobe. For me the bottom line was, Shaq ate his way out of L.A. He couldn’t stay in shape. If you look at Kobe’s stats versus MJ’s at this point in their careers and Kobe’s stacks up just fine.
So as a white guy I think it’s my duty to like Kobe. I mean, the white guys are the only ones he has left. Lord knows there isn’t a black man in the Western Hemisphere that will admit to liking Kobe.
I like his tenacity. I like his fearlessness. I like that he tried to buy his wife’s trust back with a diamond ring. He’s my kind of cheater. And he’s going to bring my Lakers back. Right? I’ll give him two more years and then I’m going to have to pull the plug. I mean, did I tell you what he said about Shaq?
That’s not really fair to Danny Ainge. Kobe is the biggest bitch since Sammy “The Bull” spilled it on Gotti. “The Ocho” told the investigators in Colorado that Shaq just paid off the women that he raped. There, I said it. He told police men that his teammate rapes women and pays them off. Maybe I’m paraphrasing, but man if that were my homie he would be capped or some kind of street justice.
See, Kobe, isn’t from the street and that has always been his fatal flaw. Kobe learned to be black in Italy. I’m sorry but they still call blacks Carthaginians in Italy. There is no angry black street population in Italy. Everyone is happy and living La Dolce Vita. On top of that his dad was basketball royalty. So there is no “mean streets of Florence” in Kobe. There isn’t any of the “my daddy left when I was six” anger. There’s none of the indigenous distrust of the white man.
Even when he came to the states he was living in Upper Merion which is like living in, well, Upper Merion. For God’s sake, his idol as a boy was Mike D’Antoni. That in itself is just sad.
So how do you expect this kid from Italy to come here and be able to relate to the American black experience? He can’t and he never will. This is a kid who didn’t get the same cultural indoctrination like an Allen Iverson or Tracy McGrady or Shaq. The only person who can come close is Grant Hill and look what happened to him.
There are a lot of people (Jack included) who will traipse out all these stats about Kobe and how his shooting percentage is not so good, how he shot us out of games early in his career and how he ran Shaq out of town. Listen, it takes two to tango and Shaq was as big a baby, if not worse since he was older, than Kobe. For me the bottom line was, Shaq ate his way out of L.A. He couldn’t stay in shape. If you look at Kobe’s stats versus MJ’s at this point in their careers and Kobe’s stacks up just fine.
So as a white guy I think it’s my duty to like Kobe. I mean, the white guys are the only ones he has left. Lord knows there isn’t a black man in the Western Hemisphere that will admit to liking Kobe.
I like his tenacity. I like his fearlessness. I like that he tried to buy his wife’s trust back with a diamond ring. He’s my kind of cheater. And he’s going to bring my Lakers back. Right? I’ll give him two more years and then I’m going to have to pull the plug. I mean, did I tell you what he said about Shaq?
Friday, April 28, 2006
Draft Day Delight
Oh boy it’s the NFL draft tomorrow. Do I watch? Do I sit on the couch and watch all the young, entitled kids get millions of dollars to play football while my wife works with spoiled brats for a pittance? I probably will. I’m a sucker like that.Who are my beloved Cowboys going to draft? Well, I am hoping that they get either Santonio Holmes or Jim Williams. Those two guys would really fill a serious need that we have and are the only guys who really feel like first round talent to me. And I watched all four hours of the college combine on the NFL Network.
That was a great afternoon, watching guys run and jump and do the shuttle run. That is the best part, actually. Big guys, three hundred pounders, doing the shuttle run around cones set ten yards apart, is amazing. It’s amazing that guys that big are that fast and that agile. It’s scary. I remember when my friend Jim, who is 6’4” and about three hundred pounds himself, got a try out with the Eagles and told me about the guys he was going against. He said these guys were freaks, fast and strong and mean. And I thought how scary that would be to get run down by someone like that.
I think my favorite draft was in 1976 when the Cowboys somehow made the trade that got them the first pick and they took Tony Dorsett. That was the steal of the century. The only one better was the year that the Lakers won the coin toss for Magic Johnson. Tony Dorsett came in and ran like the great back he was in college. He was tough, fast and consistent. That was great.
So here we go again. Hope springs eternal, right. There will be some great picks and some of the guys from Alcorn State and W. Kentucky Tech will be the big surprise. My favorite will be the guys like Ryan Leaf and Tony Mandarich, guys with huge reps and big egos who fall flat and never make it. You know, how we hate when our friends become successful? I just like it when the guys like Mel Kiper get it wrong; except when they play for the Cowboys. Those guys all better be amazing or I’m going to be pissed.
That was a great afternoon, watching guys run and jump and do the shuttle run. That is the best part, actually. Big guys, three hundred pounders, doing the shuttle run around cones set ten yards apart, is amazing. It’s amazing that guys that big are that fast and that agile. It’s scary. I remember when my friend Jim, who is 6’4” and about three hundred pounds himself, got a try out with the Eagles and told me about the guys he was going against. He said these guys were freaks, fast and strong and mean. And I thought how scary that would be to get run down by someone like that.
I think my favorite draft was in 1976 when the Cowboys somehow made the trade that got them the first pick and they took Tony Dorsett. That was the steal of the century. The only one better was the year that the Lakers won the coin toss for Magic Johnson. Tony Dorsett came in and ran like the great back he was in college. He was tough, fast and consistent. That was great.
So here we go again. Hope springs eternal, right. There will be some great picks and some of the guys from Alcorn State and W. Kentucky Tech will be the big surprise. My favorite will be the guys like Ryan Leaf and Tony Mandarich, guys with huge reps and big egos who fall flat and never make it. You know, how we hate when our friends become successful? I just like it when the guys like Mel Kiper get it wrong; except when they play for the Cowboys. Those guys all better be amazing or I’m going to be pissed.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Going, going, gone...
My therapist tells me that I moved twenty-five hundred miles from home to get away from my parents. That may be but unintentionally I also moved a continent away from beloved Pittsburgh Pirates and I think that may be the reason why they have sucked for over a decade.
The relationship with my folks has flourished these past fifteen years. We talk all the time now, get along great and I am actually helping them find a place close to me for next winter. Alas, my relationship with the Buccos has not faired so well.
Things got better with my folks with open conversation and trust. We developed faith by saying what we meant and meaning what we say. Our relationship is built on love, understanding and faith. For the Bucs and me? Well that is an entirely different story. There is faith on my end, but no longer trust. And I have no idea where they’re coming form these days.
In the 1970’s you could always count on the Pirates to field a team that challenged right down to the wire and often times came out champions. They even had two players, Roberto and Willie, who were good enough to be mentioned by only their first names. The rest of the cast: Bob Robertson, Bob Veale, Steve Blass, Manny Sanguillen, Ed Ott, Frank Taveras, John Candelaria, Phil Garner, and Jim Rooker: you could go on and on with the supporting cast of guys that helped the black and gold to two World Series titles in the decade.
Even when Dale Berra was turning Three Rivers Stadium into a stop on the Columbian coke train you believed that this organization was committed to winning and sure enough they brought us Barry Bonds, Andy Van Slyke, Bobby Bonilla and three years in the early nineties.
But then it just fell apart. And I just can’t help but blame myself. This was no Jason Thompson, Joe Orsulak, Johnny Ray transition. This has been a complete and utter failure on all levels. The management, the coaches and the players have all conspired to lose 1135 games since 1994. That’s an average record of 76 – 86 for the past thirteen years. That is pathetic. That is expansion numbers.
And I just have to blame myself. I went away and took my trust and faith across the country. I really thought that this would be the year. They signed Jeremy Burnitz, stealing him from Baltimore, the got Joe Randa, they had some young players that could hit, like Jack Wilson and Jason Bay, and Zach Duke was the hottest pitcher in the league the end of last year.
But alas, the faith and trust, they do not work. They do not keep this team from finding itself and 5 and 17, the worst record at this point since 1957. They are batting .225 with runners on base and giving up runs in the first inning in 14 of 22 games. 24 first inning runs to the other guy. But it’s the bonehead plays: the missed cut-offs and bad base-running that hurt the most.
Last night Jeremy Burnitz, with two outs and a man on first, went against one hundred years of baseball wisdom and instead of keeping the ball in front of him on a single, dove for the catch and it squirted away and went for a triple that drove in a run. Instead of two outs and two on and a force at every bag, it’s another run and a man on third. That’s what I’m talking about.
So the faith of the man who wanted to believe is slowly dying. I think of the games I’ve gone to in my life and remember the thought that my team would win like I remember when it felt like the world like Americans. My beloved Bucs are striking out and I am too far away to make a difference. I guess it’s only a matter of time until football.
The relationship with my folks has flourished these past fifteen years. We talk all the time now, get along great and I am actually helping them find a place close to me for next winter. Alas, my relationship with the Buccos has not faired so well.
Things got better with my folks with open conversation and trust. We developed faith by saying what we meant and meaning what we say. Our relationship is built on love, understanding and faith. For the Bucs and me? Well that is an entirely different story. There is faith on my end, but no longer trust. And I have no idea where they’re coming form these days.
In the 1970’s you could always count on the Pirates to field a team that challenged right down to the wire and often times came out champions. They even had two players, Roberto and Willie, who were good enough to be mentioned by only their first names. The rest of the cast: Bob Robertson, Bob Veale, Steve Blass, Manny Sanguillen, Ed Ott, Frank Taveras, John Candelaria, Phil Garner, and Jim Rooker: you could go on and on with the supporting cast of guys that helped the black and gold to two World Series titles in the decade.
Even when Dale Berra was turning Three Rivers Stadium into a stop on the Columbian coke train you believed that this organization was committed to winning and sure enough they brought us Barry Bonds, Andy Van Slyke, Bobby Bonilla and three years in the early nineties.
But then it just fell apart. And I just can’t help but blame myself. This was no Jason Thompson, Joe Orsulak, Johnny Ray transition. This has been a complete and utter failure on all levels. The management, the coaches and the players have all conspired to lose 1135 games since 1994. That’s an average record of 76 – 86 for the past thirteen years. That is pathetic. That is expansion numbers.
And I just have to blame myself. I went away and took my trust and faith across the country. I really thought that this would be the year. They signed Jeremy Burnitz, stealing him from Baltimore, the got Joe Randa, they had some young players that could hit, like Jack Wilson and Jason Bay, and Zach Duke was the hottest pitcher in the league the end of last year.
But alas, the faith and trust, they do not work. They do not keep this team from finding itself and 5 and 17, the worst record at this point since 1957. They are batting .225 with runners on base and giving up runs in the first inning in 14 of 22 games. 24 first inning runs to the other guy. But it’s the bonehead plays: the missed cut-offs and bad base-running that hurt the most.
Last night Jeremy Burnitz, with two outs and a man on first, went against one hundred years of baseball wisdom and instead of keeping the ball in front of him on a single, dove for the catch and it squirted away and went for a triple that drove in a run. Instead of two outs and two on and a force at every bag, it’s another run and a man on third. That’s what I’m talking about.
So the faith of the man who wanted to believe is slowly dying. I think of the games I’ve gone to in my life and remember the thought that my team would win like I remember when it felt like the world like Americans. My beloved Bucs are striking out and I am too far away to make a difference. I guess it’s only a matter of time until football.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Down in the Dumps
Just down in the dumps today. Feeling really crappy about me and my posibilites. Don't know what to do and where to go. All of this shit around me. And then oil is 70 dollars a barrel and my gas cost me three bucks and what the fuck is going on? How are we supposed to live in this country? The rich keep getting more and more breaks. The Middle Class is moving to India and China and those that are left think they're rich and want to give rich people a break like they are somehow worthy. And the poor just get angrier and angrier. Who's the first to the guillotine? I guess that we have to just sit here and let the corporations run away with our money and our future and out lives. See, that's why I am feeling so crappy today...
Monday, March 27, 2006
Ecoterrists In Our Nations Capital
I just finished reading the Time Magazine article on Global Warming and it chilled me to the bone. What’s happening to our planet is really scary. And it made me think of the glory days of the environmental movement and the ecoterrorists. Remember ecoterrorism? I do. Folks blowing up logging sites, putting nails in trees to screw with the saws, blowing up congressman’s offices and all kind of fun stuff.
There seems to be a new form of ecoterrorist in our midst and they are the very people who have put terror right in the front of our consciousness. Of that I am speaking of George Bush, Dick Cheney and our beloved Senate. Isn’t it amazing how these people so concerned with saving our freedom are also more than happy to kill our planet? What’s freedom going to look like in a world with no drinking water, no energy, flooded cities and rampant famine? Maybe Halliburton can get a contract to take care of us all.
It’s been pretty obvious that Mr. Bush isn’t interested in dealing with the world’s climate issues. It’s his contention that profit is more important that melting ice caps. And it’s his contention that the data that has been compiled has been taken out of context. He believes that there are conflicting ways of looking at the results of the research and that in his mind the conclusions are muddled. Sounds like his response was written for him by one of his old employees in the oil business. What a tool.
The reality is that we are killing our planet and our president and our senate and our hard-core conservative base doesn’t want to do anything about it. I’ll tell you what’s happening here: somehow it became the will of the right to not give a crap about anything or anyone that veers away from their ideas. Anything that stops us from being the richest most powerful nation on earth is seen as worthless and lacking in “The God Factor”.
Maybe that can change. Maybe GWB will finally listen to his most powerful of constituencies that there is something that needs to be done about this global warming thing. The Evangelicals are finally starting to realize that you can’t have your Jesus and an Escalade too. If a hard-nosed conservative like Richard Lugar can get it then maybe there is hope for Bushman, especially if money is involved.
How did the religious right ever reconcile their greed with the works of Jesus? How did getting’ rich become a bible teaching. How did the destruction of our planet fall into the teachings of the Christian Right? it's like they just don't want to admit anyone is right about anything.
I love it here, on Earth. I love the way the sky looks and the way the grass smells. It’s probably a good idea to not destroy it. Learning to accept that we have screwed things will help us. Trying to blame the problem on everything but the truth is going to turn this into a tragedy. There are a number of conservatives who see the global warming issue as so much left-wing mambo. They go so far as to call it "junk science". How do you like that?
The dealdy sin of greed is the one that is going to do us in. Making money is priority number one in this country for seculars and theocrats alike. And it is that greed that makes us look at the melthing ice caps and dying polar bears and say, "it's not me". How the Christian Right was able to work the ideas of get rich, take the west, clear the countyside into Jesus' teachings is beyond me. Maybe that can change. I hope so, for the sake of their immortal souls and our children having a place to live would be nice also.
There seems to be a new form of ecoterrorist in our midst and they are the very people who have put terror right in the front of our consciousness. Of that I am speaking of George Bush, Dick Cheney and our beloved Senate. Isn’t it amazing how these people so concerned with saving our freedom are also more than happy to kill our planet? What’s freedom going to look like in a world with no drinking water, no energy, flooded cities and rampant famine? Maybe Halliburton can get a contract to take care of us all.
It’s been pretty obvious that Mr. Bush isn’t interested in dealing with the world’s climate issues. It’s his contention that profit is more important that melting ice caps. And it’s his contention that the data that has been compiled has been taken out of context. He believes that there are conflicting ways of looking at the results of the research and that in his mind the conclusions are muddled. Sounds like his response was written for him by one of his old employees in the oil business. What a tool.
The reality is that we are killing our planet and our president and our senate and our hard-core conservative base doesn’t want to do anything about it. I’ll tell you what’s happening here: somehow it became the will of the right to not give a crap about anything or anyone that veers away from their ideas. Anything that stops us from being the richest most powerful nation on earth is seen as worthless and lacking in “The God Factor”.
Maybe that can change. Maybe GWB will finally listen to his most powerful of constituencies that there is something that needs to be done about this global warming thing. The Evangelicals are finally starting to realize that you can’t have your Jesus and an Escalade too. If a hard-nosed conservative like Richard Lugar can get it then maybe there is hope for Bushman, especially if money is involved.
How did the religious right ever reconcile their greed with the works of Jesus? How did getting’ rich become a bible teaching. How did the destruction of our planet fall into the teachings of the Christian Right? it's like they just don't want to admit anyone is right about anything.
I love it here, on Earth. I love the way the sky looks and the way the grass smells. It’s probably a good idea to not destroy it. Learning to accept that we have screwed things will help us. Trying to blame the problem on everything but the truth is going to turn this into a tragedy. There are a number of conservatives who see the global warming issue as so much left-wing mambo. They go so far as to call it "junk science". How do you like that?
The dealdy sin of greed is the one that is going to do us in. Making money is priority number one in this country for seculars and theocrats alike. And it is that greed that makes us look at the melthing ice caps and dying polar bears and say, "it's not me". How the Christian Right was able to work the ideas of get rich, take the west, clear the countyside into Jesus' teachings is beyond me. Maybe that can change. I hope so, for the sake of their immortal souls and our children having a place to live would be nice also.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Barry Bonds
Sucks. There, I said it a mere thirteen years after he left my beloved Pirates for his beloved San Francisco Giants. That was one of the lowest days I had back then, and there were some real heartbreak days. But now I think I can forgive him.
There's been some talk about the guy amongst my friends and it's been pretty nasty. The talk about Bonds and steroids is a sports maniacs dream. It's got moral and ethical questions, involves the history of the game and a man's legacy measured against Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and scores of other legendary figures. And man does it bring up a lot for me.
What I've come to realize after reading the SI article taken from the book, is the that Barry Bonds is an asshole. Watching him on telelvision he has always come across as aloof and arrogant, but he also was being poked and prodded more than most. Listen, I don't think that as a public figure you owe me a certain number of smiles per day and an insight into your deepest darkest mortal soul. Just win the games I need you to win by the points I've designated and all is good.
But Barry Bonds has crossed a line with me. He is not just arrogant, he's a mean-spirited misongynist who cares about one person and that is BB. He manipulates everyone around him, he lies and cheats and he threatens the life of women. He really gives being a man a bad name.
Did he use steroids and increase his muscle mass? Probably. To me, that's not the worst thing in the world. His sport didn't seem to care until last year. A lot of guys were doing it, and, to me, the ability to hit a big league breaking ball or off-speed pitch is something you get from God. And with or without steroids that boy can hit.
I just think he's a scum bag in the way that Ty Cobb was a scumbag. And to me he is the worst kind of athlete, one who thinks that eveyrone else owes him something because he can hit a baseball. As far as I'm concerned he should be banned from the sport because he's a jackass not because he's a dumbass.
There's been some talk about the guy amongst my friends and it's been pretty nasty. The talk about Bonds and steroids is a sports maniacs dream. It's got moral and ethical questions, involves the history of the game and a man's legacy measured against Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and scores of other legendary figures. And man does it bring up a lot for me.
What I've come to realize after reading the SI article taken from the book, is the that Barry Bonds is an asshole. Watching him on telelvision he has always come across as aloof and arrogant, but he also was being poked and prodded more than most. Listen, I don't think that as a public figure you owe me a certain number of smiles per day and an insight into your deepest darkest mortal soul. Just win the games I need you to win by the points I've designated and all is good.
But Barry Bonds has crossed a line with me. He is not just arrogant, he's a mean-spirited misongynist who cares about one person and that is BB. He manipulates everyone around him, he lies and cheats and he threatens the life of women. He really gives being a man a bad name.
Did he use steroids and increase his muscle mass? Probably. To me, that's not the worst thing in the world. His sport didn't seem to care until last year. A lot of guys were doing it, and, to me, the ability to hit a big league breaking ball or off-speed pitch is something you get from God. And with or without steroids that boy can hit.
I just think he's a scum bag in the way that Ty Cobb was a scumbag. And to me he is the worst kind of athlete, one who thinks that eveyrone else owes him something because he can hit a baseball. As far as I'm concerned he should be banned from the sport because he's a jackass not because he's a dumbass.
Monday, March 13, 2006
I Will Follow...
This whole censoring the president thing has me all in a tizzy. Senator Feingold you are one wacky cat. It’s really amazing that we are so willing to get away from the truth. What ever happened to the truth? When did we get so scared of the truth that we feel better getting everything as spin from a special interest group?
I remember when we would turn to the press to tell us exactly what was going on and why. Even the smallest newspaper in my very rural hometown had the responsibility to tell the truth. Here’s what’s going on out in those cornfields and cow pastures and now go and do something about it.
Now I feel like I’m being sold a bill of goods by everyone. No one can just tell me the truth, just the facts. They have to spin it for me, explain it to me, show me why believing it the way they do will save me from a horrible fate of having to make up my own mind. I think what bums me out the most is that I’m being treated like I just don’t get the world at all. Jesus, guy, don’t you see how dangerous it is to question the President in any way?!
Oh well. I guess the reality is that I need more time to download music, watch American Idol, and figure out just how in the hell am I going to make enough money to donate to the politician that everyone says is the best for me. At least that’s what they told me on Fox News.
I remember when we would turn to the press to tell us exactly what was going on and why. Even the smallest newspaper in my very rural hometown had the responsibility to tell the truth. Here’s what’s going on out in those cornfields and cow pastures and now go and do something about it.
Now I feel like I’m being sold a bill of goods by everyone. No one can just tell me the truth, just the facts. They have to spin it for me, explain it to me, show me why believing it the way they do will save me from a horrible fate of having to make up my own mind. I think what bums me out the most is that I’m being treated like I just don’t get the world at all. Jesus, guy, don’t you see how dangerous it is to question the President in any way?!
Oh well. I guess the reality is that I need more time to download music, watch American Idol, and figure out just how in the hell am I going to make enough money to donate to the politician that everyone says is the best for me. At least that’s what they told me on Fox News.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Bush Unplugged
Now so many years removed from his most defining moment our president stands stripped bare of his trappings of power. He stands before as he probably always was, a self-serving, uninspired, diletant that we can now say that we really don’t like very much. He’s an arrogant little crap with an unyielding sense that we all just don’t get it like he does.
September 11, 2001 has been his Teflon shield for five years now. The defining moment of a presidency that was on the shakiest of moral ground to begin with. Not since FDR had the Gods of War stepped in to help a presidency ascend to greater heights. Overshadowing his weak ideas on the economy, health-care, deficit reduction and all things international was his perceived strength in the face of the evil doers.
That one tragic act allowed him to redefine a presidency that in it’s beginning was floundering. He and his people were able to grab the right elements of the event and start building a shield between themselves and reality. Mr. Bush took the flag and wrapped himself in it. Forget all the rest of the stuff he told us, I will keep you safe. I will keep these turbaned wild men out of your shopping malls, office buildings, schools and bedrooms. And while I’m at it I’ll get rid of these liberals and gays and anyone else that can upset your apple cart.
But what we weren’t looking at was that smug face that sat there lecturing us. Don’t you get it, he would say? We would watch these self-satisfied dogmatists like Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, Wolfowitz, and Pearl telling us that we just needed to shut and listen, they would do the heavy lifting and put “freedom” first and “safety” would be the natural progression.
But it was a house of cards seen through a rose-colored window. We weren’t being made safer, we were being lied to about what was going on. This administration was actually taking us back to a time when Richard Nixon used his presidential power like a ball-peen hammer to smack away at the rights and liberties of anyone who seemed out of line.
Ego, turned to disdain, gave the President the willingness to lie to us. And that is the greatest crime anyone of his stature can commit. The worst part is that his lies have cost so many lives. The dead men and women in Afghanistan, Iraq and even in the streets of New Orleans came from his ability to lie right to our faces. His contempt for our government allows him appoint incompetence into every office of his administration. And his lack of true compassion, I feel his greatest lie of all, have led to an atmosphere in this country totally counter to what we should be about: understanding and co-operation.
Arrogance is the one character flaw that Americans have never, ever tolerated in politics. It’s what dogged Bill Clinton, it killed Al Gore, and it is now destroying George Bush. His lack of leadership during Katrina; his secret deal with Dubai, knowing that America would never go for it; his stewardship of these false wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, his willingness to gamble our futures both financially and environmentally, show that this is a man who really doesn’t care about anything more than making he and his friends rich.
September 11, 2001 has been his Teflon shield for five years now. The defining moment of a presidency that was on the shakiest of moral ground to begin with. Not since FDR had the Gods of War stepped in to help a presidency ascend to greater heights. Overshadowing his weak ideas on the economy, health-care, deficit reduction and all things international was his perceived strength in the face of the evil doers.
That one tragic act allowed him to redefine a presidency that in it’s beginning was floundering. He and his people were able to grab the right elements of the event and start building a shield between themselves and reality. Mr. Bush took the flag and wrapped himself in it. Forget all the rest of the stuff he told us, I will keep you safe. I will keep these turbaned wild men out of your shopping malls, office buildings, schools and bedrooms. And while I’m at it I’ll get rid of these liberals and gays and anyone else that can upset your apple cart.
But what we weren’t looking at was that smug face that sat there lecturing us. Don’t you get it, he would say? We would watch these self-satisfied dogmatists like Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, Wolfowitz, and Pearl telling us that we just needed to shut and listen, they would do the heavy lifting and put “freedom” first and “safety” would be the natural progression.
But it was a house of cards seen through a rose-colored window. We weren’t being made safer, we were being lied to about what was going on. This administration was actually taking us back to a time when Richard Nixon used his presidential power like a ball-peen hammer to smack away at the rights and liberties of anyone who seemed out of line.
Ego, turned to disdain, gave the President the willingness to lie to us. And that is the greatest crime anyone of his stature can commit. The worst part is that his lies have cost so many lives. The dead men and women in Afghanistan, Iraq and even in the streets of New Orleans came from his ability to lie right to our faces. His contempt for our government allows him appoint incompetence into every office of his administration. And his lack of true compassion, I feel his greatest lie of all, have led to an atmosphere in this country totally counter to what we should be about: understanding and co-operation.
Arrogance is the one character flaw that Americans have never, ever tolerated in politics. It’s what dogged Bill Clinton, it killed Al Gore, and it is now destroying George Bush. His lack of leadership during Katrina; his secret deal with Dubai, knowing that America would never go for it; his stewardship of these false wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, his willingness to gamble our futures both financially and environmentally, show that this is a man who really doesn’t care about anything more than making he and his friends rich.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
I'm embarrassed
I'm embarrassed by the society we've created. The top stories on CBS Action News in Los Angeles tonight were:
1. Brittany Spears driving with her child in the seat with her
2. A Channel 2 exclusive: the girl who had her gold chain ripped off of her neck yesterday in front of the grocery store.
And that's when I turned it off. I can't take it anymore. We sit here in our million dollar two bedroom homes in Beverly Hills adjacent with our heads in the sand. We fiddle while Rome burns. We float placidly down de-nile. Whatever you want to call it we are missing the issues that are right under out noses.
It's amazing to me that we are so afraid of the big bad world that we are really more interested in how shaving our legs can kill us than the fact that people are dying in Iraq. We are willing to sell out all the things we've created here to make everyone's life better to ensure that we don't have gay marriage. Who someone fucks is more important to the majority of us than stealing, robbing, and international arrogance.
Remember the depression? Remember what happened to the world? Probably not, cause most Americans don't give a rat's ass about history; but it wasn't fun for about 90 percent of the population. That was the last time we had an ownership society. Is that what we want today?
I pray that we tune in to what's really going on in Washington before it's too late and all the aspirin in the world won't save us.
1. Brittany Spears driving with her child in the seat with her
2. A Channel 2 exclusive: the girl who had her gold chain ripped off of her neck yesterday in front of the grocery store.
And that's when I turned it off. I can't take it anymore. We sit here in our million dollar two bedroom homes in Beverly Hills adjacent with our heads in the sand. We fiddle while Rome burns. We float placidly down de-nile. Whatever you want to call it we are missing the issues that are right under out noses.
It's amazing to me that we are so afraid of the big bad world that we are really more interested in how shaving our legs can kill us than the fact that people are dying in Iraq. We are willing to sell out all the things we've created here to make everyone's life better to ensure that we don't have gay marriage. Who someone fucks is more important to the majority of us than stealing, robbing, and international arrogance.
Remember the depression? Remember what happened to the world? Probably not, cause most Americans don't give a rat's ass about history; but it wasn't fun for about 90 percent of the population. That was the last time we had an ownership society. Is that what we want today?
I pray that we tune in to what's really going on in Washington before it's too late and all the aspirin in the world won't save us.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Another One Gone
Since it looks like I’ve got some time off, I guess there’s no excuse for me to not be writing. And since I’m not working there’s no reason why I can’t be reading the news and finding interesting things to write about.
Why is it whenever someone in Israel makes a bold move and tries to create a middle of the road government that is willing to reach out for compromise they die? First it was Yitzak Rabin being gunned down for trying to make peace; and now Sharon has a brain hemorrhage right before he’s about to campaign for his new centrist party. Is Dick Cheney behind this? Is Syriana really true?
I am a firm believer that if we want peace in the world, we need to start in the Middle East. If those guys can find a way to lay down the guns, then everyone should be willing to lay ‘em down.
But what is the reality of the Middle East, or mankind for that matter? We need war, it’s one of the ways we die and keep the cycles of life going. There’s disease, there’s murder, there’s accidents, there’s natural causes, and there’s war. It’s a natural part of our lives and it’s something I’m afraid is here to stay.
But you have to admit that there’s something so symbolic about the Middle East, right? The birthplace of three of our major religions. The home to Abraham, Jesus, and Allah. I believe that the concept of I am my brother’s keeper and swords into plowshares was born in this neck of the woods.
And for three thousand years it’s been the site of most of man’s most vicious wars. Gotta love those crazy Semites, they love to war it up. And now the land of love has taught us all about terrorism.
So what’s the point? I think that the movie Syriana has it right. I think the U.S. and its oil baron clients like turmoil in the Middle East. It’s why GWB refuses to really try and make a dent in what’s going on over there. And it’s why no American president has ever truly finished what they started. Did you hear me Jimmy Carter?
Another on bites the dust. Ariel Sharon you will be missed. It was nice to see a real hawk find a way to move to the middle and want to make a difference in the world, not just to help a certain group of people get rich. Are listening Mr. Bush?
Why is it whenever someone in Israel makes a bold move and tries to create a middle of the road government that is willing to reach out for compromise they die? First it was Yitzak Rabin being gunned down for trying to make peace; and now Sharon has a brain hemorrhage right before he’s about to campaign for his new centrist party. Is Dick Cheney behind this? Is Syriana really true?
I am a firm believer that if we want peace in the world, we need to start in the Middle East. If those guys can find a way to lay down the guns, then everyone should be willing to lay ‘em down.
But what is the reality of the Middle East, or mankind for that matter? We need war, it’s one of the ways we die and keep the cycles of life going. There’s disease, there’s murder, there’s accidents, there’s natural causes, and there’s war. It’s a natural part of our lives and it’s something I’m afraid is here to stay.
But you have to admit that there’s something so symbolic about the Middle East, right? The birthplace of three of our major religions. The home to Abraham, Jesus, and Allah. I believe that the concept of I am my brother’s keeper and swords into plowshares was born in this neck of the woods.
And for three thousand years it’s been the site of most of man’s most vicious wars. Gotta love those crazy Semites, they love to war it up. And now the land of love has taught us all about terrorism.
So what’s the point? I think that the movie Syriana has it right. I think the U.S. and its oil baron clients like turmoil in the Middle East. It’s why GWB refuses to really try and make a dent in what’s going on over there. And it’s why no American president has ever truly finished what they started. Did you hear me Jimmy Carter?
Another on bites the dust. Ariel Sharon you will be missed. It was nice to see a real hawk find a way to move to the middle and want to make a difference in the world, not just to help a certain group of people get rich. Are listening Mr. Bush?
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
I Feel So Cheap
Wow, this blog thing has really been hard. How do people do it, every day, day in and day out? It’s amazing to me. And they find time to read the internet and other people’s blogs and link articles and fun facts to their writing. It’s really amazing.
So I thought I would take the time and write something with a bit of research behind it. I mean, why not, if I’m going to be a professional blogger, or at least a good amateur. In my reading this evening I found something that really disturbed me. There is a new tax cut coming down the pipe this year and I don’t get to have any. And it looks like most of you won’t get to have it either.
Now I know that people who make more than a million dollars are more important than we are and they work hard for all they get. How do I know this, it must be true because our president loves them so and they seem to really love him back. But to give them all those tax breaks and to make the rest of us foot the bill. Well that is just downright un-neighborly.
I’m not going to go on and on about this. What’s done is done. We will cut the programs to help the poor. We can make it tougher for public schools to get funding and easier for private religious schools. Heck, we can make it a crime to be homeless. But can’t we please just get this idiot out of the White House and give the congress back to people who really care?
There's one more thing that I read today that really bummed me out. I got my latest Time magazine and they have a quote from John McCain from an interview from an appearance on MTV where he actually came out in defense of intelligent design! Basically he said that the students should decide what they learn. If that’s not the biggest piece of hypocrisy ever then I’m not a slow white guy. I used to really like John McCain; I thought he was one of the real down to earth level headed guys. I guess I am wrong.
So I thought I would take the time and write something with a bit of research behind it. I mean, why not, if I’m going to be a professional blogger, or at least a good amateur. In my reading this evening I found something that really disturbed me. There is a new tax cut coming down the pipe this year and I don’t get to have any. And it looks like most of you won’t get to have it either.
Now I know that people who make more than a million dollars are more important than we are and they work hard for all they get. How do I know this, it must be true because our president loves them so and they seem to really love him back. But to give them all those tax breaks and to make the rest of us foot the bill. Well that is just downright un-neighborly.
I’m not going to go on and on about this. What’s done is done. We will cut the programs to help the poor. We can make it tougher for public schools to get funding and easier for private religious schools. Heck, we can make it a crime to be homeless. But can’t we please just get this idiot out of the White House and give the congress back to people who really care?
There's one more thing that I read today that really bummed me out. I got my latest Time magazine and they have a quote from John McCain from an interview from an appearance on MTV where he actually came out in defense of intelligent design! Basically he said that the students should decide what they learn. If that’s not the biggest piece of hypocrisy ever then I’m not a slow white guy. I used to really like John McCain; I thought he was one of the real down to earth level headed guys. I guess I am wrong.
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