The spotlight on Tom Daschle, Nancy Killefer, Charles Rangel, and Timothy Geithner has finally answered the question, “Why aren’t Democrats doing more to lower taxes?” Because they don’t pay them!
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Well, now that I have your attention let me soften up a little here. Any Presidential Inaugural in the United States should be an occassion of joy. In what other part of the world would you see the reins of government for such a powerful nation change hands so smoothly?? Bush is out and Obama is in, and not a single person has been incarcerated or worse.
Well, maybe I’m premature. Given the low temperatures at the Inaugural and the fact that you have limited bathroom access and seating, you may yet see a few casualties of the new government. A word of advice to our older readers: don’t go. This standing around for 6 hours in freezing cold is for the young.
And it is the young that should be celebrating; they are the ones that put Obama over the top and elected him President. In their excited fugue state, they are going to go and throw a fantastic party next Tuesday to celebrate the first African-American President of the United States. But I’m here to throw a little cold water on your party, a little dose of reality on the Change Band-Wagon that rolled so smoothly over the remains of the GOP ticket last November. You voted for change but what you’ve been getting is pragmatism: your new President has limited options in the face of a melting economy. You voted to punish the rich, but it seems that we still need the rich to kick-start the economic engine from its current stupor. You voted yourselves a ticket to the opening of a cornucopia of endless green energy and bio-fuels, but instead you are standing in the soup line with the rest of us. Better get out of the line and get behind the serving table: we are going to need all the help we can get.
The euphoria I expect to see next Tuesday reminds me of a fantastic wedding day put together for a couple that never gave much thought to what is needed to form a long-lasting marriage. The couple was so focused on having a great time at the wedding that they did not plan out the rudiments of a real marriage: a firm financial and emotional foundation for the life-long effort that lay ahead.
I have heard so much about the menus for the different Inaugural celebrations being held but not much about how folks are going to pay for the meal and the entertainment. Is this money disposable income or is it coming from your unemployment benefits? Is it worth spending a piece of your future to get a short-lived high?
This is akin to the feeling you get when your team wins a game. For a few moments life seems wonderful, but it is a feeling that is built on a meaningless event. Roger Ebert has a great article on the feeling of elevation and how you get it at the movies: it is a great sensation but it is built on something less than reality. When the movie is over, so is the feeling of elation. It take a little extra effort to turn the memory of that moment into action that lasts a lifetime. I can only hope that that is what will happen on Inauguration Tuesday. Go get your jollies that day, but don’t lay the weight of the future on Mr. Obama; only you and the hard work of a few million others can make it as bright as you are expecting it to be.
Paul Bogan writes angrily yet eloquently about California passing Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriages. One of his points is that Californians could not possibly have misunderstood the clear wording of the bill.
This is East Coast Thinking, which I understand because I spent more time there than here. On the east coast, when someone cuts you off on the parkway, you think, “What an asshole!” But when you get to California, everyone seems so nice. In short order, your perception of your fellow residents changes. Then, when someone cuts you off on the freeway, you think, “What an idiot!” I’ve spoken with a lot of California transplants on this exact issue and it’s pretty unanimous.
This election, I voted no on darn near every prop1, and I did this because I actually took the better part of a day to research them all. However, I think most people do research at the voting booth. They skim and make a gut reaction.
That’s why we voted for a $10B down payment on a train to San Francisco. Yes, people, it’s a down payment! It will cost way more – maybe 2-3 times that! Can’t we start with decent local public transportation first? JetBlue is already doing a fine job flying us to SF. I want a train that takes me from Huntington Beach to the Santa Monica Promenade, Hollywood and Highland, and Old Town Pasadena.2 If you insist on building a bullet train to somewhere cool, make it Las Vegas. San Fran is perhaps the coolest city in America, but it’s crazy expensive. Even with gambling and strip clubs, Vegas is downright cheap in comparison.3
Ignorance and misguided compassion is also why we voted for $980M for children’s hospitals when we just allotted $750M in 2004. Newsflash: we still have $350M of that yet to grant, under the same rules as this prop. This is akin to taking a huge cash advance on our credit card when we’re already knee deep in debt and we don’t even need the money!
I understand how Paul – who is obviously so wise in the way of (political) science – might think Californians could not possibly be dumb enough to vote incorrectly on Prop 8. However, the commercials that called for no on 8 were vague on what you were voting against. They made it clear you were voting against discrimination, but never said of what. I think a lot of people heard prop 8 was the gay marriage bill and thought, “Why, I think Gay Bill’s a swell guy. He should totally have the right to get married. Yes on 8!” OK, maybe not that bad, but just yesterday I heard a guy call into Headline news4 to say that he was not gay, and that he “really, really loves the ladies”, but he thought gays should have the right to get married. Unfortunately, the drafters of said proposition used “confusing language” and he accidentally voted yes when he meant no. Is he the exception that proves the rule? Maaaaaaybe. But I’m often reminded of a quote from the late, great George Carlin:
“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
Of course, he also said:
“In America, anyone can become president. That’s the problem.”
- Yes on 11 and 12, if you must know. [↩]
- Yes, I realize that in 5 years, through the wonders of “gentrification”, they’ll all be the same place. Like when I discovered that San Diego’s Gaslamp District was a carbon copy of Old Town Pasadena (or vice-versa). Now, the Promenade is slowly remaking itself into the image of The Grove. SoCal is becoming one big homogenized crap factory. [↩]
- Probably because because SF has better, more expensive strip clubs. [↩]
- Why they accept phone calls now I cannot fathom. It’s not news; hell, it’s barely opinions. HLN: If you need more filler, just show your sexy female news anchors shooting coy looks at the camera, maybe biting their lip a little. On slow days, licking a lollipop or sensuously eating a banana. Ratings will skyrocket. [↩]
Tags: california, prop 8
Now that Obama is on his way to America’s throne, (note throne/toilet double-meaning) I wish him the best of luck with the turd Bush left for him. I personally did not vote this year because I did not like either choice. Playing eenie-meenie-mynee-moe at the booth is nonsense.
I have nothing against Obama, it’s just that I’ve never heard of the guy until the “bandwagon” effect started rolling, and yes I do follow politics. On the other hand I’m not voting for a Bush-clone either.
The fact is, Obama’s intelligent, well spoken, educated…. and black. Don’t try to correct me about his race. The community defines your race, not your blood-line. So as long as the black community emraces him as one of their own… he’s black.
Now here’s my request: Please for the love of humanity, stupid, racist, KKK, Nazi, skinhead, rednecks, leave this one alone. You don’t have to love him, but please just leave him be. My biggest fear is what would happen to America if he was assassinated by one of these kooks.
It will push race relations back 50 years. Riots will break out in every major city. We finally live in a time where whites don’t feel the need to feel sorry for errors of past generations, but this will all be erased if anything happens to Obama. It doesn’t help much that the (to be) Vice President is about as gringo as they come. People will start conspiracy theories about how this was the plan all along.
The fact that 60% percent of Obama’s voters were white will not help our cause. Another black hero dies, and it would probably be a long time before another gets to the same position.
So please gripe all you want if his performance gives you a reason to, but either way lets leave violent racism in the 20th century.
note to FBI/CIA: You’ve probably received some automated alarms related to some key wording I’ve used in this rant, so just to be clear: Neither I, nor anyone I know, is connected in any way to plots, designs, meetings or individuals with intent to bring harm upon any public figure.
But I have been sharing privileged information concerning Roswell.
Suck on that.
Yes, Presidential Election Year 2008 seems to be over. Or is it?? Read on.
With most polls placing Democratic candidate Obama 10+ points over Republican candidate McCain, it would seem to be a routine slide to November 4th this year. However, I like to keep things interesting, so here are my top predictions for an Obama presidency:
Item 1: Obama wins. Duh.
But he does not win by the 10+ margin that the polls predict. I believe that the contest will be a lot closer on Nov. 4th. There will be a lot of Republicans kicking themselves in the butt for not voting. Shame on you; all Americans should vote on this Election Day. The unexpected vote numbers will possibly be blamed on the Bradley Effect witnessed in the California Gubernatorial election of 1982 :folks did not admit to the pollsters that they would not vote for a black candidate. When the election took place, the true numbers came out. But this disparity in reporting vs. reality will result in……
Item 2: Media backlash.
All of us are aware that the media was in bed with candidate Obama, eg: Saturday Night Live lampooned this phenomenum when they showed reporters asking candidate Obama if he needed a pillow or if it should be fluffed some more. Candidate Hillary Clinton alluded to this “Obama Effect” during her own candidacy. I believe the American people will not tolerate 4 more years of this whore-pimp situation and will strike back against the media by NOT WATCHING. Expect higher viewing numbers for reality-television shows and Entertainment-Tonight-type programs as news viewership declines. Same for newspapers, unless they print sale-coupons or cents-off coupons for food. Which brings us to…..
Item 3: Economy in the toilet.
Despite Obama’s “efficiencies” and his research into extracting sunlight from cucumbers1 the economy will continue its slide into crumminess or at best, into stagnation. There will be an initial bump upwards, due to the change-is-coming effect, but this will quickly be replaced by the cold truth of reality. Useless investment in ocean wind farms and solar panel cities will not trickle down to other sectors of the economy. They will not produce enough energy to fuel an economic resurgence, but they will make for an exciting IMAX film coming to your neighborhood soon !!! 2 Which easily leads to…..
Item 4: Blame it on Bush.
Blaming anything and everything on Bush has become such a popular pastime that I don’t think it will stop. Obama got elected by blaming the Bush Presidency and I don’t think he will stop. Blaming the continuing crisis on 8 Bush years will get pretty old, though, and soon. The Economic Crisis got him elected, but it will also bring Obama down in popularity and job acceptance poll-numbers. There will be books written on this period of economic distress, which is why I find it so curious that none will be written about……
Item 5: Big Conspiracy.
I always connect a big event with the people that most benefit from that big event. This crisis got Obama elected, ergo, the Democratic Party is behind it. Now wait. Before you consign this thought to the rubbish bin section of your brain, consider this: the crisis was bound to happen, the bad home loans were in place, the banks were running on vapor; but what made it happen just NOW?? Why did it not happen months ago, or on November 5th? Why was it so fortuitously timed for a particular person to benefit?? Just the timing of it makes my conspiracy-theory-minded Spidey sense tingle. And trust me, I am not the only person making this kind of fantastical leap: most reporters got their reputations by developing that investigative-hunch-bone that makes them uneasy when things “just happen.” But the lack of investigative reporting makes me wonder about how far this conspiracy reaches. Could it be that not only the Democrats but also the Republicans have something to hide in this mess, and they have both managed to keep the press at bay?? Newshounds know that you can’t piss both sides of the political process, or you end up with 4 years of reporting on Libertarian and Green Party issues. But they can still redeem themselves and avoid Item 2. It just may not be possible to do so. Just look at the finger that pushed the first domino in the chain of bank failures, that’s were the fault lies.
And bonus Item 6:
Obama’s ethanol initiative will pollute the environment in a big way and turn environmentalists against him. Again. But nobody cares about this, so please ignore.
Afterthought Item 7: Sarah Palin runs for Presidency 2012. This year shows that inexperience is not a detractor to the Presidency if you are popular enough. After discarding the McCain deadweight (sorry John!!), Palin will reject public funding for campaigns and go on to raise prodigious amounts of cash that will take her to the Presidency. But watch out: her run will encourage Hillary Clinton to also run in 2012, capitalizing on her opposition to Obama since the very start; she will find an understanding American public. That’s the campaign *I* want to see made into a movie!!3
- “Gulliver’s Travels”, Jonathan Swift [↩]
- As an engineer, I am actually intrigued by these new power systems; they
will look pretty cool but will not produce the scale of energy needed by a country the size of the USA [↩] - NOTE to Spike Lee: we don’t want an inspirational Obama film starring Denzel Washington, unless Obama is running a secret war against extraterrestrials on the Dark Side of the moon, with lots of special effects explosions and USA space troopers launching out of the Capitol building [↩]
Quite a title for this article, but it really makes sense. Trust me.
I was listening to the soundtrack for the Broadway show “Wicked.” It is based on the premise that the Wicked Witch of the West was really not evil, just a misunderstood soul. Wow. They are taking one of the iconic evil figures from literature and giving her a second look, an alternate-universe history that makes her, well, nice1. And that’s not right.
Taking this alarming trend to its pinnacle, could it be far behind for Hitler to make a comeback??
(NOTE: the following are satirical comments. Do not mistake them for reality; they are just an artifice to make a point. That is how satire works.)
After all, Hitler was really nice to his dogs. And he did put all of the German people back to work on that really cool roadway, the Autobahn. Did I mention that he created the Volkswagen?? That picture of Hitler and his gang of killers parading around on a convertible Wolkswagen has got to be the coolest, most disturbing image of the war. 2 So except for the 6 million people he killed, Hitler was a really nice guy. Really.
(NOTE: the satire has now ended. Back to reality.)
But we all know that the winners of a war write the history books, so they can adjust the facts to suit themselves. There are many instances of Allied atrocities in WW2 that should have been tried as war crimes. I am thinking of the conventional bombing of the German city of Dresden, or the firebombing of Japanese cities. The latter killed a whole lot more people than the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki (better left for some other article). But a lot of terrible things happen during a war; it’s just distasteful to try to justify them as being necessary for a greater good. It’s so much more honest to say what is really inside: the enemy is inhuman and we’re scared sh*tless; we need to kill as many of them as possible before the war ends. Afterwards, we have to go back to being human beings and play nice again. Or whatever passes for “nice” between bellicose nations.
So back to the Wicked Witch of the West. The play does a good job turning the Oz universe on its head. As with many revisionist works, there are problems with it, since it changes a couple of really key points that clash with the world that Frank L. Baum created. Similar to those Star Wars prequels that cannot exist in the same universe as the original Star Wars movies. But these are nits, and you can still enjoy the Wicked concept if you ignore them. Just don’t expect me to change my worldview: The witch is still evil. (Don’t forget, she did try to kill Dorothy. And her little dog, too.)
Time to set the record straight: whatever, whichever politician said that gas prices are not coming down was right. Offshore drilling is a good idea, but it will not bring gas prices down.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all for drilling for oil in our own backyards. When I first moved out to California, I was enchanted by all of those oil derricks pumping, pumping away in the beautiful hills of Huntington Beach, down along the beach paths and even on the beach dunes themselves. It made California look like the golden El Dorado that I had always imagined: golden roads lined with cool-looking cars and all of the oil we needed right under our feet. And yes, I was also expecting bikini-clad girls to pump my gas and sell me my milk from those roadside milk stands (I saw pictures of this put out by the Orange County Chamber of Commerce). I’m sure the girls and the pumping action of the derricks was some sort of Freudian juxtaposition that made me drive out to California all the faster.
So why don’t I support the drilling now?? Because once the oil is out of the ground, it is immediately put out on the international market where China can bid on it, along with every other gas-thirsty country that is finally making its way out of the Third World. We would be competing with them for our own gas. And make no mistake about it: it’s our gas. It is coming out on nationally-owned areas (offshore or the ANWR in Alaska) and the oil companies are getting a low-risk, fantastic return on investment. If that is the case, they can afford to lose a little bit of profit by selling that gas DOMESTICALLY, ONLY. Does that sound socialistic, the first hints of nationalized gas production?? You bet your sweet light-crude that it does!! But if you’re going to drill in my backyard, and I own the land and mineral rights, you have better pay me off by at least selling me the oil at a domestically-competitive price.
But I’m also realistic. Using oil to power our cars is a technological dead-end. With all of the Chinese, Indian, Polish, Russian, etc. etc. economies finally coming out of the Dark Ages and increasing the number of privately owned cars, we are going to be running out of oil soon (peak oil production). So where’s my nuclear-powered car?? If all of those Disney documentaries in the 1950′s promised plenty of energy in the future, how come I have to use my bicycle to go to the library and to the store??
The anwer of course is that we can’t trust the average person to drive a quarter of critical mass around in their engines, waiting for some terrorist to figure out that (4) times (1/4) equals (1). Boom. And I can hardly imagine the bad traffic created when the radioactive cleanup team cleans up the pieces from your average 4 accidents per freeway per day.
We need to use nuclear power to generate the electricity to provide the hydrogen to run the cars. Simple enough, please give me my new-model 2010 hydrogen-fueled SUV. In Earth-Friendly Green, of course. And feel free to stick as many oil-sucking straws in the California Offshore until then.
It would be fair for you to assume that I am going to be supporting the desire of these camel huggers to become martyrs, but no, I am instead sending you to the good book to see what Jebus has to say.
We finally have 2 dorks to choose between. How do you choose which one represents you best? Simple really, just follow these steps and you will hardly even have to think or pay attention for the next 5 months. Start by making a list of the candidates you are considering voting for. It should have 2 names, Barack and John. If you have more and are considering a write in vote or third party candidate, good for you, that will show them (as well as waste your vote on a loser, which I am trying to help you avoid). If you are a brainless drone voting the way your family or friends tells you, you are not really voting, but rather demonstrating your similarities with a sheep or lemming, so please just go read something else. Oh, and if you are voting based on skin color, please find some moderately slow way to kill yourself, that balances pain and agony with adequate expedience to get yourself out of the gene pool before election day.
So, how to vote? My suggested method is as follows, after the break: Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Barack vs McCain
Variety reports that some democratic politicians (including Hilary Clinton and Joe Biden) are again attacking the game rating entity ESRB over Manhunt 2. The game was originally Adults Only due to violence, but it made some changes and is now Mature. They cite an FTC study that shows 42% of kids under 17 can still buy Rated M games. They’re also saying that you must consider whether the game will be released on the Wii! If it is, they believe it’s actually instructing kids how to kill. Probably doesn’t affect any readers here, but an interesting viewpoint. Like the MPAA, the ESRB was created to avoid gov’t regulation. If they don’t improve enforcement, they’ll fail. Of course, considering how awful the MPAA is, maybe gov’t regulation would be an improvement. And I don’t like big government!
Tags: video games