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posted by admin on Aug 4

Just returned from the grocery store where inadvertently I made some very poor decisions for my night. Because they were on sale (and things I wanted/needed) I bought a 12-pack of Tecate (bottles b/c I’m a classy dude), a giant bag of chips and two bottles of Gatorade.

The road I’m on features jersey walls on both sides, all the exits are closed and ends with me accomplishing nothing tomorrow until lunch time.

On a related note, Lemon-Lime Gatorade (or G as the kids call it these days) is green not yellow. If you think it’s yellow there’s a scene from Roots I’d like to reenact with you.

Speaking of race, after Comedy Central put some Birther nutjobs on the air last night I went down the internet rabbit hole of people who think Obama wasn’t born in this country, they call themselves Birthers in what must have seemed a good idea at the time. The amount of collective delusion the internet allows is simply stunning and a much smarter person then myself will some day explain what it means for society. For now it is simply frightening. But not as frightening as someone concocting an elaborate, decade long conspiracy involving hundreds of people they don’t know to be eligible for the presidency and pulling it all off, apparently. I guess what I’m saying is if someone could pull that off, well, not a bad choice to fix the country.

I’d give you some more non-sequiturs but there’s some beer that needs drinking and Wii Sports Resort three-point contests don’t shoot themselves.

posted by admin on Mar 12

Just watched tonight’s “The Word” on The Colbert Report about conservative TV pundits, bloggers and many others using Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged as a criticism of the new stimulus package and possible tax increases for the upper class and I find this infuriating beyond measure.

I generally agree with Ayn Rand’s philosophy, the virtue of selfishness, but have a few important reservations. I won’t go into those but will go into the significant problems of how people are using how work. I am also doing no research about this but using my own knowledge. I think any small discrepancies will be forgiven in exchange for my opinion being more informed then people on national television claiming to be experts on the topic. The point being don’t borrow opinions from TV pundits because they spew ideology. Anyway.

First of all, it’s extremely important to understand the context of Rand’s work and the full body of her work. Rand formed her philosophy after growing up in the early days of the U.S.S.R. Her high praise of capitalism is certainly due to the abysmal conditions she lived in under communism. In fact her first novel, Anathem, was more a warning against conformity in communism then a statement on economics. In her rejection of communism Rand pursued the extreme and much of her work is criticized for simplifying complex issues in an unrealistic manner. Her novels are powerful and moving but often at the expense of logic.

Second, if you have actually read Atlas Shrugged with any level of intelligence you would see that Rand would detest the people who have plunged the country into economic chaos. In fact, her novel is a call for people, like TV pundits, who produce nothing to get the hell out of the way and allow intelligent people to solve the problems. One can certainly view Ayn Rand’s novel as prescient but not in regard to Obama’s policies but in regard to the short sighted, ignorant greed displayed by Wall Street (etc.) in destroying the economic foundation of the country.

Finally, if you are going to use Rand’s philosophy on economics as a foundation for an argument why not use the god damn book she wrote about her philosophy, The Virtue of Selfishness? But I guess that doesn’t sound as catchy when your beating your viewers over the head with ignorance. And it probably doesn’t help when you don’t understand her philosophy.

This is why I have to make a concentrated effort to not check out of the system (ironically, Atlas Shrugged-style, well, if I actually produced something). I know little about politics, nothing about economics yet people forming the national zeitgeist are painfully ignorant to me.

The silver lining here is that when Rush Limbaugh becomes relevant things can’t get any worse.

posted by admin on Jan 30

Iceland to America: Checkmate.

posted by admin on Jan 18

Spent the last two hours flipping between the NFC Championship game and the Inauguration Celebration on HBO which was probably the best way to watch both. So let’s review what I learned:

Tiger Woods is horribly awkward. Now it’s a little unfair that almost every other person on stage was an actor or musician. I’m sure if it was a “Make a Putt for Obama” Celebration he would have carried himself with the dignity we expect and the others would have looked horribly out of place. Anyway, it was just awkward to watch.

The Cardinals hustled the fans, the media and the league the final six weeks of the season. How else do you explain the differences between the regular season Cardinals and the playoff Cardinals?

Garth Brooks’ still has it despite ‘American Pie’ being an odd choice of song and I’m insanely frightened it could be slightly prophetic. Seriously, probably the most famous song in American history about someone famous dying and you play it in celebration of the first black President? Holy shit, let’s really hope the world has changed.

Larry Fitzgerald is the best NFL receiver. It’s not even close, he is unstoppable.

Beyonce can sing the lights out. For the most part the performances were all good but she had the tough job of closing the party and knocked it out of the park.

The Eagles are the poor man’s Buffalo Bills.

Obama’s olderst daughter must have the coolest Facebook photo albums. Every time I see her at these huge events her face is hidden behind her camera. How awesome must her photo albums be?

If four years ago someone told you the Arizona Cardinals would make the Super Bowl in 2009 and America would swear in a black president which would you call bullshit on?

Let’s put it another way, in 2020 America will elect a gay President or the Detroit Lions will win the Super Bowl. Which one is more likely to happen?

In 2016 America elects an atheist President or the Cubs win the World Series?

It’s okay to say none of the above but the country is pretty crazy right now. I guess what I’m saying is if the Cardinals can make the Super Bowl change must be possible.

posted by Mike on Nov 4

Just got back from voting which was a surreal experience on many levels. 

The local elementary school served as my polling place except there was nobody there. A few cars, a few people walking around giving me weird looks which would be understandable if I was at the wrong place. A 25-year old dude wandering unsupervised around an elementary school should raise some red flags. But it turned out I needed to find the gym which was located through a maze of buildings and seemed of no consequence.

Early voting lines have been insane around here so I was expecting a short wait at the very least. Aside from the volunteers there was not a single other person there. This was very weird but also made my vote seem disproportionately important. Like eight people took time out of their busy lives to help me cast my vote! In my mind as soon as I walked out the door the precinct shut down and CNN started breaking the news of who I voted for. Anyway, if you live in Martinez, GA go vote now, it won’t get any easier.

I hadn’t realized how weird it would be to see the name Barack Obama on the ballot under President. I mean that’s the guy who’s been e-mailing me every few days for the past couple months! Oh, yeah, I guess he’s black or something. That coupled with Sarah Palin’s name made me pause for a second and think how badly George Bush fucked up. White men had a good run, but we got greedy. We thought we could send anyone out there to be President, run any candidate and keep the most powerful office in the world. At the next meeting we really need to talk about this. 

But my favorite part was voting for all the tax hikes. I’ll be moving in a couple months so raising sales tax 1% for the next six years? Sure! $18 million for a swimming and tennis center? Why the hell not! I made sure to savor each of those votes for an especially long time.

Also, I got a sticker with a peach on it. So now I have that going for me.

posted by admin on Jun 4

By all reports Sen. Obama will receive the democratic nomination for president. I still don’t believe it because since the 2006 election I couldn’t be more politically jaded.

The Democrats took Congress running on a campaign to end the war, stop earmarks and fix the budget. Since they’ve done none of these things after taking office I certainly don’t trust them to follow through on anything until the convention.

The only reason the Democrats haven’t backed up their ‘06 promises is to recycle those same issues in ‘08 to take the White House and Congress. That’s a particularly nasty form of insider politics that exemplifies the past forty years of US policy.

Obama seems like a well-meaning politician, and I prefer him one hundred-fold to Hillary, but how can you trust anyone these days? We have a one-party system that preserves itself at all costs.

Sorry, I know I don’t post on politics much but I’m feeling particularly cynical after the media bullshit I’ve been reading today.

posted by admin on Mar 11

That pretty much sums up everything wrong with this country. No culpability, the rich protect the rich, etc. Ayn Rand’s worse nightmare. Seriously, is an Atlas Shrugged scenario that far away? I know it hurts in the short term but the government needs to stop bailing out these god damn people. What the hell has happened to the Republican party? Didn’t they believe in free market economics once upon a time?

Both parties have simply become unelectable for me. Honestly, I don’t give a shit about Iraq, the environment or gay marriage. They’re all progress issues that will be solved eventually. But these patchwork economic fixes are clearly going to lead to an unfixable problem but that’s all anyone has to offer. We have a one-party system that uses religion and race to create the illusion of two parties.

I remember five years ago my Dad explaining to me how all these sub-prime mortgages would end badly. I understood this, the concepts were so basic in a ten-minute conversation I could understand how stupid it was. But here we are throwing money at another failing industry.

I fervently believe in Capitalism. Some day the world will unite under a single government and free market capitalism is the logical stepping stone to this ideal. Everyone, the world over, equal with the best and brightest coming out on top. I believed America could lead the way there. It’s damn sad to watch a dream die.

posted by admin on Feb 5

“If anybody wants to believe they’re the descendants of a primate, they’re welcome to do it.” –Mike Huckabee

If you say that you should be automatically disqualified from any public office. But Huckabee just won West Virginia.

What the fuck is wrong with you WVa?