Don't make Robertson a Free Speech Martyr

I was thinking to myself about the notion of actually doing a blog about the whole Duck Dynasty fiasco that occurred this week. I was torn between the idea of getting my thoughts out there, and giving them more publicity.  I have to say, Duck Dynasty got more press this week alone then I think they’ve gotten throughout the entire run of their program.

And then I saw the comments defending Phil Robertson for what he said. How it was protected by the first amendment, and we have zero right to criticize him under any circumstances. And as I read these comments, I wasn’t taken aback by them as affirming that would he said about homosexuality was right, or how easily his comments supporting Jim Crow laws were glossed over. I more and more was annoyed on how his supporters tried to present him as a defender of free speech. He’s not on that level, nor will he ever be.

Anyone who thinks Phil Robertson is a martyr of denied free speech needs to seriously google the name Lenny Bruce. Until the emergence of Lenny Bruce in the 1960’s, mainstream comedy was very bland. You have one liner like Henny Youngman, or toed the line of being edgy, without ever coming close to going over it. It was very bland, and Lenny Bruce changed that. He attacked religion and the brutality tendencies of the police.  He attacked the KKK, and spoke out about the inequality between the races. He found himself being stalked by the Federal Government who arrested him several times. He found himself on trial for use of the word “Cocksucker” and was banned for life from Australia for opening with the line “What a great Fucking Audience.”  Shortly after he said that, he was dragged from the stage, and quickly arrested.  A 1964 performance was viewed by undercover police, and after uses of the words “Shit” and “Fuck”, he was arrested. He was found guilty of obscenity, and sentenced to jail. He ever really served the term however, as he died during the appeal process.

So, let that sink in for a second. He was arrested for saying in public, words like “Shit” or “Fuck”. These words weren’t protected as free speech, and it wasn’t until 40 years later that he would receive a posthumous pardon. Comics that would follow him, George Carlin, Rodney Dangerfield, Bob Saget, Bill Hicks, Lisa Lampenelli, Richard Pryor, and Chris Rock would never have been allowed to perform their material if it weren’t for Lenny Bruce.

Another example of a real champion of free speech is Larry Flynt. Larry made his fortune publishing Hustler magazine, and was often being arrested on charges of obscene materials, even though magazines such as Penthouse and Playboy were allowed to publish without impediment.  Larry Flynt was shot and paralyzed one day while leaving court. A few years later, in a case that would find its way to the Supreme Court, Larry Flynt ran a parody ad about Jerry Falwell having a sexual encounter with his own mother. Falwell, citing hurt feelings and the need to protect his image in public, sued, won a defamation case, which was later overturned, because the act of parody was protected, and that people who are in the public eye are not exempt simply because they have an image to protect.

You see, that is what a warrior of free speech. It’s not spewing a bunch of BS from the bible. And by the way, I am curious about something. Considering that the Duck Dynasty family is all about adhering to the   bible, I wonder how many of their shows have been filmed on the Sabbath. After all, that would be a violation of the Ten Commandments, considering that neither Phil Robertson, his wife, son, daughter, son in law, etc., etc., would not be allowed to do any work of any kind, that includes the filming of their show.

His comparing homosexual relations to bestiality were narrow minded and dim whitted. The same thing was said about allowing inter-racial marriage and inter-faith marriage, which were both frowned upon the way same sex marriage is today. And guess what, inter-faith and inter-racial marriages were allowed, and there was no man bringing Fido to the court demanding that their right to marriage be allowed.

And somehow, in all of this, his view point on race relations has been lost in the shadows. He said that blacks around him were happier in the Jim Crow era, and they never complained about the White man. Well, either he’s romanticized his youth, or he’s simply ignorant.  Here’s what usually happened to southern blacks who complained about their treatment: they were either beaten, or found themselves on the wrong end of a lynching. And that is the truth, undisputable fact.

 

I wonder how defenders he’d have if he didn’t use the protection of the Bible to base him views on same sex marriage to cover his ignorant views on race. Don Imus got fired for making a joke in calling the Rutgers women’s basketball team a bunch of “Nappy-headed Hoes.” No one defended his right to say that, they all clamored for him to get fired and after decades of being on the same radio network, he was fired, and his career was pretty much over.  Rick Sanchez saw his career at CNN end after he made a rant about Hispanics being lock out of top spots in the “Jew controlled Media”  Mel Gibson’s career was derailed for making comments against blacks and Jewish people alike. Everyone wanted Eagles player Riley Cooper banned for life after a video of him drunk at a Kenny Chesney concert saying “I want to kick all the niggers’ asses.” went viral.

I guarantee you as sure as I am sitting here, that if the racial comments Phil Robertson made went viral, and not his views on homosexuality, that about 99% of his current supports would be on the other side, and would be applauding A&E’s decision to remove him from the show.  It’s utterly foolish to think otherwise.

Do I support what A&E did? Yes I do. People seem to think that freedom of speech saves you from any repercussions for what you said. That’s not how it works.  I know that for my blogs, I open myself to repercussions for what I write, and I can deal with that.  And guess what, Phil Robertson is in that spot right now. And do you want to know something else, in about six weeks from now, this is all going to be forgotten. No one talks about Riley Cooper’s comments anymore. They talk about how important he’s been to the Eagles offense in the wake of Jason Avant’s season ending injury. Mel Gibson is still making movies. Phil Robertson is going nowhere, and neither is Duck Dynasty.  If they want, they simply can take the show to the internet, and produce it themselves. They’d still make money off of licensing, and they won’t have to adhere to the standards and practices of the A&E network.  So relax people, and just enjoy the freak show. And don’t ever, ever under any set of circumstances, make Phil Robertson a free speech martyr. He’s just a man with a point of view that has been out of step with regular society for the last 50 years.

The Christmas list

It’s the holiday season, and I figured that if I could give a gift to any celebrity, I’d give them the following:

1. The Duck Dynasty creator Phil Robertson: A calendar so he knows what year it is.

2. For Tony Romo, well, for his teammates anyways posters of how to perform the Heimlich maneuver. For when he chokes at crunch time

3. Pope Francis: For your wisdom and shunning the excess of your papal office to be pass down for generation.

4. Alec Baldwin. Better Judgment

5. Sarah Palin: Do we give her a brain or a soul….I’m open to suggestions

6. Tea Party supporters: A basic knowledge of the US Constitution and history.

7. CNN:  A set of balls, which they currently lack.

8. Glenn Beck: Give him what he wants, his own little island so he can spread his insane rhetoric to the animal life

9. Jacoby Ellsbury: To be at bat, in a clutch moment, and to deliver a knockout blow that keeps the Boston Red Sox out of the play offs.

And finally, perhaps the most important gift of all:

10. To Michael J. Fox. Quite simply, a cure.

Kennedy: 50 years later

Fifty years ago, during a trip to Dallas, Texas, John K. Kennedy, the 35^th president of the United States, was felled by an assassin’s bullet. Just a few years prior, Kennedy had defeated Richard M. Nixon in a bid for the White House.

There are very few points in history that you can point to, and remember exactly where you were. I being born 13 years after Kennedy was assassinated actually two of these moments. The first was the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986. I was in music class, sitting in row one, fifth seat back. Many of our music classes prior weren’t really focused on the subject, they were focused on the upcoming NASA space launch, and the fact that Christina McAuliffe, a school teacher, was going to be the first citizen in space. When the announcement of the explosion came over the loud speaker, I just buried my hands in my face, in total shock. My other moment that I remember where I was is the events of 9/11.

I have always been fascinated with the Kennedy assassination. Even as a child, I had doubts that a lone gunman shooting form the sixth floor of a building could have pulled it off. Up until then, the previous assassination had always been at close range. Garfield, McKinley, Lincoln, all felled by disillusioned sorts all seeking to right what they felt was a wrong. Charles Guiteau (Garfield), Leon Czolgosz (McKinley), James Wilkes Booth (Lincoln) all gained their place in history by murdering the commander in chief.  Guiteau had sought a place in Garfield’s cabinet, and had been turned down for the position of consul general to Paris. Guiteau used a .442 Webley revolver. Guiteau had been waiting, getting his shoes polished, looking forward to Garfield’s arrival. Garfield’s assassination led to the Pendleton Act which would forever base appointments on talent and seniority. McKinley was felled by a 32 caliber Iver John Revolver by Czolgosz, which Czolgosz had just purchase 72 hours prior. Czolgosz got close enough to McKinley to shake his hand. So far, we’ve had two assassins, none of whom really had a plan of escape. They simply may have been looking to make some sort of statement by the assassin.

And that brings us the first assassination of the US President, Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Wilkes shot Lincoln with a Derringern as part of a three tier assassination plot that was to have destroyed the Union government if it had been fruitful. It failed, and Lincoln was the only one felled.

And therein lies why Kennedy’s assassination was so different. Booth, Czolgosz, and Guiteau were all public about their assassinations. Wilkes jumped onto the stage and declared “Sic Semprer Tryannis”, meaning “Thus always to the Tyrants.” And as you’ve read above, neither Czogosz nor Guiteau really made any attempt to hide who they were. Why all of a sudden, would someone shoot Kennedy in the most public manner possible, and try to hide who he was? That’s what makes Kennedy’s assassination so intriguing.

If Lee Harvey Oswald was really what he was painted to be, a man angry about what happened in Cuba, the Pay of Pigs fiasco, why would run? And ever wonder why he would assassinate the president from the 6^th floor of the building he worked at?

However, enough about the question regarding Kennedy’s assassination, time for a different topic. . John F. Kennedy was bringing new fresh ideas to the White House, because up until 1960, the previous presidents had been recycled products from the same machine. Outside of when Harry S. Truman desegregated the US troops, no one had done anything to change the same ol’ same of race relations. He even addressed this issue in January of 1961, citing that Americans should not be denied constitution rights based on their race.

Kennedy was doing a lot to change the American Landscape, and for some it may have been too fast, too soon. Kennedy was looking to eliminate the CIA. He managed to starve off nuclear destruction at the hands of the Soviet Union. Who knows what Kennedy might have done during a second term in office? And it is a given that he would have had a second term because of his high approval ratings, and the fact the Republicans really didn’t have a strong candidate to run against him.

At least with the three prior executions, we have some knowledge as to the why. Since Oswald was felled by Jack Ruby before anything really came to light, much of the truth died with him. Who knows if there was a CIA or Mafia connection to the assassination? Why kill the assassin? As of 2011, 67% of Americans feel that there was a conspiracy into the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I count myself among them.

However, here we sit, 50 years later, and the questions still remain. And we are still fascinated by the man himself, and what he represented. Would the race riots in Detroit have ever happened if Kennedy had never been assassinated? What about such events as the Vietnam war, Watergate? They never happen if not for those bullets on that fateful day 50 years ago. And I say bullet because even as a kid, I thought the idea of the magic bullet was utterly insane. To expect full grown adults to accept that notion of the assassination to me seems pretty insulting.

I plan to re-read the Warren Commission report. When I saw that the book was available through the History Book club several years ago, I pounced on the purchase. I put the book half way down because much of it was written to the point of confusion, and the plot holes glaring. Maybe a second reading (and not expecting much in the way of logic) will be better. And for those who don’t know what the Warren Commission was, they were appointed to find out the how’s and why’s of the assassination. It is rightfully maligned as a product of wishful thinking.

In 2017, all of the records regarding the assassination of Kennedy would have been released by the National Archives. Thus, this ensures that if there was an in house assassination of the commander and chief, the main principals would have been long dead by the time their involvement comes to light. Now, if the sealing of records and hiding aspects of the assassination of the president doesn’t make you question if or if not there was an conspiracy into the assassination of John F. Kennedy, then what will?

Healthcare.gov and Education vs Military Spending

Welcome everyone to the newest installment of Randall’s rant. This week is going to be two main topics that I want to touch on. In this week’s edition, we are going to look at the issues with www.healthcare.gov website, and how the US would benefit from less spending on defense, and more spending on education.

We are going to start off with the healthcare website fiasco. Got to give the GOP credit for this one, they actually have a section of voters convinced that websites never have tech issues. Granted, many of these people are most likely over the age of 75, and maybe another portion of them live off the grid. You know, they kind of people you see on those reality shows about people who are survivalist, The ones that live where the power lines don’t exactly reach. Now, most of us are aware that websites have glitches. Look at Facebook for example, which seems to have weekly, if not daily glitches. However, the GOP has managed to convince through fear that the new Affordable Healthcare Act website doesn’t work, don’t bother logging on, you’re just going to get booted, and so on. And that is what they’ve rolled out each and every night, well, not when they are digging up Benghazi every five minutes.

Now, I could join the whole conspiracy crowd, and mention on how Verizon, which host the site, is a major contributor to GOP campaigns, but I won’t. Fact is that websites are like roads. A road can only handle so much traffic before other vehicles aren’t going to be able to get on. And so many people wanted to sign up that it caused issues with the website that caused it to crash. The other notion that has been ignored by media on both signs of the coin is the one of systems. It could be that some people have an outdated browser program, or lack the proper Java updates to be able to log on to the website.  This was an issue we had at the Attorney General’s office until we were able to get newer computers that were compatible with the newer browsers.  Updated browsers, and all of those issues with crashes and whatnot went away. To expect millions of people to log on to a website without the site having issues is foolhardy.

 

Congrats to the federal appeals court that stepped in and informed the state of Texas that the abortion law they were trying to ramrod through was highly unconstitutional. It still find it amusing that the people who want government out of their lives, don’t mind if that said  same government sets up shop in a woman’s uterus. The way the GOP is trying to take over a woman’s reproductive rights reminds me a rather fitting quote from former President Woodrow Wilson. Wilson was staunchly giving women the right to vote, once saying “I doubt highly the intelligence of a woman to decide on such matters of government. Giving them the ability to vote will only burden them to make decisions they are not properly informed on.” I cannot figure out why conservatives are so worried about a fetus. It’s not like they care about it once it becomes a born child. Food stamps, money spent on education, funds for the free breakfast in the poorest of districts, are always the first thing that they want to cut funding from. They call these  programs entitlements, and they use fear to get the funding cut. But hey, go after some of the waste that goes to defense spending, and all of a sudden, they are like Amanda Bynes after you empty her liquor closet. The go insane, they pout, say that we’re leaving this country to be over taken. Which is far from the truth, because we spent in one month more on defense than some nations gross in an entire calendar year.  Technology cannot be changing that quickly that the billions we spent the year before all of a sudden went to outdated weapons. However, defense spending has become a business more than anything else.  Companies like Lockheed-Martin bid to build fighter Jets, and they in turn, contribute large sums of PAC money to whatever elected leader helped insure that more money went to defense spending. So of course they are going to flip out when someone suggest cutting defense spending. Ronald Reagan in his 8 years never once cut defense spending. He cut education spending, he cut funding for health care agencies like the CDC, but never once did he ever cut defense spending.  In the 1980’s, it was becoming quite clear that the USSR was about to collapse because they were being outspent on defense. But what the American people were fed was the line that Russia was stocking all of these arms and could attack us at any moment, which 30 years later we’ve learned wasn’t really true. Who are we trying to outspend now, North Korea?  Who is are next opponent?

We don’t need to spend all of this money on fighter jets. Let’s spend a little more on education, let’s catch up to the other nations in intelligence first. The reason that all of these other nations are able to “develop” nuclear warheads is because they stress education, with an emphasis on math. In the states, you’re lucky if you can find someone who can figure the answer to 5 x 5.  That’s how some of these nations to use the words of Republicans “Have passed us in military power.” They didn’t create newer fighter jets, they just used the resources of the heavy funding of education to get to achieving the weapons they have now.

I’ll make it clear that I view any cuts to education as a damaging blow to the nation, and anyone who even suggest cutting education does not have the best interest of the nation at heart. Besides, imagine the amount of money who could save if we could just force some of these elected leaders to take a pay cut.

Okay, that is going to do it for this weeks’ edition of Randall’s  Rants.

The GOP Rerun

Years ago, well before Hulu, DVRs, and the Internet, people used to sleepwalk through their summer television viewing. Summertime used to be filled with re-runs and the only new shows were second tier fillers summoned to replace failed TV shows. And people used to complain and complain that outside of these shows. Even today, people get annoyed when they want to watch their favorite show, and it turns out to be a re-run.

And a re-run was what went the American people just went through. For those reading this that may be too young to remember the late 1990’s when Newt Gingrich was behind the government shutdown, what we went through this past week was just that, a re-run.

Only this time, the Republicans seemed to ratchet up a notch. This time, they opted to take the Affordable Healthcare Act and use that as leverage to hold the American people hostage. And despite how conservative news outlets like Fox News and CNN may have tried to play it off, it were the republicans that tried to hold the US hostage.

Let’s now take a look at what the GOP temper tantrum cost us. $24 billion dollars. Yes, 24 billion, billion with a B. So the party, who claims their hallmark is smaller government and less spending, just cost this country 24 Billion dollars. Federal parks lost revenue because of the shutdown. Retail stores like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Kmart lost money because people were afraid to spend money, especially those folks on SNAP. Consumer confidence waned, and with the debt ceiling default looming, the US credit was downgraded to a AAA with negative rating, meaning, in a sense, the money was still good, however, tread lightly.

Now thankfully, the furloughed workers are getting back pay, despite Ted Cruz, Lindsay Graham, and David Vitter, all republicans, fighting the measure, saying that since the workers were not actually working, they did not deserve pay for those two weeks. And yes, you did read that right, they actually fought to keep them from getting money for lost work hours they had no control over losing.

However, considering that we may face this all over again to start 2014, it is no wonder that consumer confidence is going to slowly in its rebound. Our government is becoming so unstable that people are now afraid to spent money.  Especially those people who are on food stamps.

Now, before anyone goes off thinking that people on food stamps don’t contribute to the economy, let’s clear up that thinking. Food stamps work like credit cards. Each month, an individual on food stamps gets an established credit or food stamp limit. They then go to the store, spend money on food, and use that food to feed themselves and their families. If you take these food stamps away, these people aren’t going to the store, and instead will have to lean on food kitchens instead. What that means that the food they would have purchased in stores, stays on store shelves. That means those stores, and the makers of the products they would have purchased, lose money in loss of sale. It’s that simple. So forget the Ayn Rand bullshit that these people are takers. They are, in fact, functioning members of society who contribute to the local economy. By the way, I could insert a joke on during the waning years of her life, that Ayn Rand collected those social security checks that she’d spent a lifetime bashing, but that’s just too easy of a target.

Now, let’s shift out focus back to the political landscape. This morning, I was re-reading (maybe for the zillionth time) a book called Secret Lives of the US Presidents by Cormac O’Brein. I was reading the chapter on Benjamin Harrison. Harrison was a rather mundane president, not really a memorable guy. Some of his exploits include marrying his late wife’s niece, and when his children objected to the union, he not only cut them out of his will, but he also cut them out of his life, refusing to ever speak to them again. Known as the human iceberg for his cold personality, Harrison’s administration also saw wild spending. Known as the Billion Dollar Congress, the Republican dominated congress spent money like it was going out of print. It would lead to his downfall and ouster as president.

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and that is where we are right now. The GOP, who claim to be the penny pinchers and calorie counters, now have a 7% approval rating the lowest ever since polls were first recorded. They cost this nation dearly, in stature, economic status, worldview, and it may have led to the downfall of their own party. They got into bed with the Tea Party radicles, and now they may pay for it. As we circle this back to the afore mentioned President Benjamin Harrison, we look at how the GOP ignored the wishes of the American people, got drunk with power, and it led to their ouster during the following round of elections. And ignoring the will of the American people has been what the party, along with its Tea Party radicals, has been doing for the last few weeks. The American people do want to take the new health care law for a test drive. And if it fails to catch on, guess what happens, it ceases to be. And for all of those talking about website glitches, citing that as a reason why the new health care is “failing”, that is a red herring talking point. Web sites crash all of the time. How many times have you attempted to log onto Facebook or Twitter only to have an error message appear? Every website can only take so much traffic before it causes a crash, hell, I’m sure any hacker could tell you that.  So don’t let them use “website crashes” as a reason not to visit the page.

And that has been the GOP calling card for much of 2013, fear and terror. And then finally, despite the fact that the highest court in the land up held the law, and the fact that they ran on their own health care law platform, and lost badly, the GOP ignored the wishes of the American people, took them hostage, took the US economy hostage, and nearly utterly derailed this nation. Keep that in mind, when you go to the polls come election time.

 

Government Shutdown, Health Care reform, and puppet strings

And here we sit, the Government still in a shutdown, the Republican Party still acting like a bunch of spoiled brats. It is amusing to hear them say that no one in America wants the Affordable Healthcare Act (though Americans are signing up by the thousands). Now we are staring at the debt ceiling issue, and will the Republican party actually risk destroying the value of the American dollar simply over Americans being allowed to have health care.

Now, before anyone goes on a rant saying it’s not fair to blame the GOP for the shutdown, well, you’re wrong. Here’s the deal. The Republican’s ran on a platform that included a different health care plan, one that would allow Americans to have vouchers. That plan, along with many Republicans, was defeated, most notably, in the bid for the White House, in which the voters overwhelming rejected the Paul Ryan/Mitt Rommney plan.

So, now that the voters rejected them, the GOP decided they were going to go the route of the Supreme Court. The court, upheld the law. Now the GOP was left with very little choice. They get either go along with the law for now, hope it fizzled, and use that to regain the White House, or they could take more drastic measures. Now, twenty years ago, they would have gone for option A. That was then, this is now. Now the GOP has been corrupted by the Tea Party Extremist. The Tea Party folk want to roll back women’s rights, such as control over their own reproductive organs. They want to roll back civil rights, as they have done everything but get the amendment that bans poll taxes (Amendment XXIV for those playing at home) repealed.  The Tea Party extremist have also said that the want to get rid of certain parts of the Federal Government, such as FEMA, the FDA, EPA, BOE, FBI, and the CIA. All very vital, if sometimes flawed parts of the Federal Government.  And these are the same ones that are actually looking forward to America to be unable able to pay her bills for the first time in history, thus throwing the world market into a spiral, and perhaps, devaluing the US currency to a point with it would carry little value worldwide.

Now, for those watching Fox News, you’d think that raising the debt ceiling allows the federal government to spend more money. That is 100 % incorrect. It’s a flat out falsehood, and it used to be that if a news agency with intent ran a false story like Fox is doing with the Debt Ceiling, there would be serious repercussions.

“From the Treasury dept. official website:
The debt limit is the total amount of money that the United States government is authorized to borrow to meet its existing legal obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits, military salaries, interest on the national debt, tax refunds, and other payments. The debt limit does not authorize new spending commitments. It simply allows the government to finance existing legal obligations that Congresses and presidents of both parties have made in the past.   

Failing to increase the debt limit would have catastrophic economic consequences. It would cause the government to default on its legal obligations – an unprecedented event in American history. That would precipitate another financial crisis and threaten the jobs and savings of everyday Americans – putting the United States right back in a deep economic hole, just as the country is recovering from the recent recession.   

Congress has always acted when called upon to raise the debt limit. Since 1960, Congress has acted 78 separate times to permanently raise, temporarily extend, or revise the definition of the debt limit – 49 times under Republican presidents and 29 times under Democratic presidents.  In the coming weeks, Congress must act to increase the debt limit. Congressional leaders in both parties have recognized that this is necessary. Recently, however, a number of myths about this issue have begun to surface”

Need more proof:

http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/Documents/Debt%20Limit%20Myth%20v%20Fact%20FINAL.pdf

As you can clearly see, the raising of the debt limit does not give the federal government the power to spend more money and raise more debt.

I still remain fully confident that an agreement will be reached, and that all of the furloughed workers will be back to work. However, with approval ratings at an all-time low, the Republican Party may never recover from this. They could very well join such political parties such as the Whigs and the Know-Nothings in the history dust bin. Just another political party that after years of glory, faded away because it refused and was inflexible when it came to changing with the times. We are seeing perhaps, the splitting in two of the party, and from the ashes, out comes the Tea Party. Then again, considering that it is mainly tea party supported government shutdown, which has led to the mess we are in, maybe they will fade away as a fringe group, not unlike the Bull-Moose party from over a hundred years ago. I’m not sure, but we could see a major shift in the balance of power in the political landscape of America.

As I type this blog, the powers in Washington continue to have meetings, and the give and take game continues to be played. Some people get upset when the GOP is blamed for the inaction in Washington. Well, simply put, it is the truth. Maybe it’s because I watch a lot of C-Span and I get to see it live, that I don’t fall under the spell of what CNN and Fox News “Report”. The GOP was told countless times to table the issue of the Affordable Health Care Act, and put forth a budget. They refused to listen, and that’s how we ended up here. The GOP has spoken of website crashes as a ploy to keep people from signing up or thinking they won’t be able to at all. Here’s a little news flash: All websites crash.  A website is like a highway. Once the highway is jammed up with traffic, no one else can use it. The system simply can’t take any more users until someone gets off. How many times has Twitter or Facebook been unavailable because of high usage? Plenty and that is all that happened to the Affordable Healthcare Act URL. So next time you hear Louie Gormert, or John Boehner talk about website crashes, see through the BS and know they are grasping at straws.

By the way, there is a very simple cure for what is going on in Washington. Do not vote for anyone with ties to the Koch Brothers or the Tea Party.  They are the true cause for what is going on, they are the ones pulling the strings of the GOP, causing the party to have a fall from grace. It’s that simple.

Government shut down and Health Care

Well, it is time to set and get a few things straight. Now I know that everyone was worried about the Government shut down.  It does not look like there is going to be a government shutdown. Now, to make things clear, the government never really “shuts down”. Social Security checks still go out, and hospitals still get their Medicare and Medicaid payments, don’t let any talking heads fool you.

And the shutdown has nothing to do with the budget, not in a real sense. It is because the GOP upset that their voucher idea was turned down by the voters, are fighting the voters now to defund Obama’s new health care law. And during this mix, they have to raise the debt ceiling so we can make our payments, and not default on the bonds that we have sold to make money. By the way, the TSA employees aren’t going anywhere, because Federal Law will not let them, because they perform a job that is essential to national security.

Getting back to the point of the new health care laws, here’s a little food for thought. Have you ever wondered why every other single industrialized nation has a form of “Obama Care”? It’s simple. In America, we have an entire market system called health care insurance. Companies that sell these policies have shareholders and CEO’s to answer to if they don’t turn a profit. In the simplest of terms, there is an entire market out there dedicated to making sure people stay stick so that their they keep paying those premiums, and keep buying those pills, which funds big Pharma, which happens to be the second biggest lobbyist group next to Gun Rights activist (IE the NRA). Many of these companies fund campaign donations of conservative groups, which fight to make laws like having $5,000 vouchers for a person to spend in one year on health care. By the way, anything past that and the money comes out of the pocket of the policy holder.  Now, let’s take a quick look at pills. There are medicines that cost $5,000 alone before insurance kicks in, and pay a portion of the price. Ever wonder why a tiny little bottle cost more than some new cars? Because there is a profit to be made by these companies. Insurance, big Pharma are all for profit businesses. Relating back to what I said before: There is an entire market that needs to keep people sick in order to make a profit. Let’s repeat that, it seems very important: There is an entire industry that needs its customers to remain sick, and only get health care in nibbles and bites to be assured that it will continue to turn a profit.  There seems to be something wrong with that line of thinking.

And before you try and pull that “Well, if the government gets involved, they will tell you what doctor you can go to.” Well, that’s a crock. And not only is it a crock, the system we have now tells you what doctor you can see. There are coverage plans that a doctor may or not be a member of that particular network. Meaning that well, you’d like to see that doctor, but your insurance company will only allow you to see Doctor X. Oh, and if you need a better example of government types that want to control what medical assistance one gets, just take a look at the GOP and their drive to end abortions. They don’t care if a woman has been raped, cannot deliver due to health issues, they don’t care. They want that baby born. After the child is born, well, they lose all interest in him or her. They don’t care if their school is well funded, they really don’t care if the child gets educated enough to get a job, they just want the child educated enough to go to college, get a loan, pay high interest on the loan, which helps feed the Wall Street monster. And since there are no jobs out there (because the GOP refuses regulation that will keep companies from exporting jobs at their slightest whim), those new college graduates, many of them, take two jobs to pay off the loan they get out from under, and forget getting a job in the field they went to school for, because those jobs have already been taken.

There is nothing wrong with having a single payer system. I’m sure there are advantages to having a government funded health care system. However, what we have now, sucks, it’s shameful. Why the hell can’t we have a sound health care system that assures that everyone who is sick gets health care? Any system that allows several millions of people live without health care.  Don’t you think that if those people didn’t have to pay for health care and the crazy over the top prices they are charged, that they will have more money to grow the economy? I worked retail, which taught me a lot about the spending habits of people. Give them more free money, and they are going to spend it.

Want a nice stable economy? It’s simple, and can be done over-night! The more money the consumers have, the more they are going to spend.  This will lead to plenty of income for the counties and states in the form of sales taxes. The companies whose products are being purchased are going to make profits, which will allow them to hire more people, which will bring in a whole new slew of people who will become tax payers. You can tax these companies on their profits, which the government can spend on education, fix roads, pay of the national debt, etc.  Rich people have a smaller effect on the economy, than the right will have you think. It’s the middle class that always has, and always will drive the economy.

But that will never happen, because the system is broken, and people profit from it being broken, so it will stay that way.  That’s reality, people.

 

Syrian Food for Thought

There are people who want to bomb Syria because over 1,000 people, men, women, and children were gassed to death. And there are some who feel that it is not our business to get involved, and that it is simply a civil issue. I don’t get why we should even get involved, because hell, if we went after every nation that either gassed, or executed its citizens, well, then we’d be invading or bombing perhaps a dozen more countries that commit these acts. 

Now, if Bush was still in office, we’d already be in war. He and his cronies would have manufactured some excuse for the need to bomb Syria. Maybe Bush would have said that Syria was a new Al Qaeda stronghold. Maybe he would have said that Syria was behind 9-11 all along, and has WMDs. Who knows, but as sure as I’m sitting here, typing these words, if this had happened under Bush, we’d already have troops on the ground.

Let’s be blunt, any nation that would capriciously kill its own citizens  in that matter is run by heartless people. In some nations, they simply don’t put much value on human life. And before anyone says that America puts a high value on human life, you might want to check your facts at the door. If we really valued human life, we would not cut the legs off from the funding that goes to programs like food stamps, head start and free lunches in schools. We would not cut off funding to assist veterans returning home from war, nor would we cut off funding to help homeless people seek the help they need. Yeah, we don’t gas people, but many people sure as hell fall into the trap of class warfare in which they are forced fed the Ayn Rand philosophy of the poor being nothing more than leaches who don’t belong in society.

It feels that we’ve been down this road before. We entered Vietnam because we were told that the communist movement would spread and that we’d have another enemy.  It always seems that when something goes wrong in another country, the other nations all look at us and say “Do you job!” as if we are supposed to take the leader, do all of the dirty work, and let them come along for the ride and share the credit. We do we always have to do the dirty work? Can someone please explain why Great Britain or Russia can’t get involved and do something? But then again, the last time that Russia was involved with what was going on with a Middle East nation, President Reagan oversaw the funding and military training of a group of rebels, which included a man by the name of Osama Bin Laden. Because tensions with the Soviet Union were so high that we had to get ourselves involved in a boarder war.

I’ve heard how folks like Rush Limbaugh have been critical that Obama has surrendered the standing of the US as the number one nation to Russia, which makes no freaking sense. Listen, there is no BCS type poll that ranks every nation in the world. Every country’s citizens think their nation is better than everyone else. It’s called National pride. Anyone who says that the “US is surrendering its position as number one,” is a talking head looking to raise the ire of the people who don’t like that Obama is president.

So what, who cares if Putin talked the Syrian leaders into surrendering the chemical weapons that only 72 hours prior they claimed not to have? Shouldn’t it just matter that the task is getting done? Yeah, we have to hold our nose because the task is getting done by a man who invaded Georgia (the country, not the state) without UN approval, enacted hate laws, and imprisoned anyone who spoke against him and the country in general. We’re talking global politics, and very few of these cowboys wear white hats.  

Do I think we should get involved with what is going on in Syria, I have to say no. Right now, we have so many issues that have crippled us, that maybe it’s time we called time out, let someone else pitch hit, and use that time to get ourselves stronger. Of course, that is all going to be delayed because we have a political which has openly stated that their mission isn’t to govern, it is to stop the president from governing. And that could delay our recovery just a slight bit.

So, in closing, It’s time that we swallow a little bit of national pride, and let someone else take the credit for fixing one of the world’s ills, even if it ironically is a country led by a repressive leader looking to take the weapons out of the hands of another nation led by a repressive leader.

A Culture of Thoughts

Yeah, it’s been a while since I last blogged. It always seems that I struggle to find time as of late.  That and I always hem and haw about which topic I want to talk about.

I’ve come to the realization that I see the world a hell of a lot differently than others. I don’t allow myths and cultural prejudice dictate what I think of someone, nor do I allow some invisible super being do to the same. And now, I don’t pay much attention to a somewhat rambling book written thousands of years ago, a book that has more plot holes than a Tom Cruise action movie.

However, when I look at our media, I see that there is this little game they like to play. I use the TV show Cops as my prime example.  I used to watch this show in my teens, until something suddenly dawned on me. Why, unless they are living in a trailer park, are there hardly any white people being arrested on that show. And before someone tries to say “there were a few.” Let me point out that the overwhelming majority were either hot heads who hit their wives, drunks behind the wheel, or someone who looked like they just walked out of a Tim McGraw concert. Not to mention the occasional prostitute. However, any time there was a robbery, a B & E; it was usually a black man or a Latino man committing the crime. So after a while, I began to watch the show on more or less of an anthropological basis. It then occurred to me that a few weeks had gone by, and there wasn’t a single non-white shown committing a crime like Grand Theft, Breaking and Enter, or plain simple Robbery. I began to think about what type of cultural image this was projecting to those in the suburbs who may or may not, interact with Latinos or Blacks on a daily basis. And I came to the conclusion, stating the obvious, that it would create a negative one.

As I got older, I began to pay more and more attention to the nightly news, and the stories they covered.   Once again, the only whites they seemed to focus on would be those who decided to drive drunk, crash their car, and possibly kill someone. However, it seemed to me that there was a purposed focus on reporting inner city crimes, and once again, shifting then those in the suburbs to have a negative view point about other cultures.

Why do we do this? Do we do it because we have some stunted emotional and intellectual growth that we don’t seem to be able to grasp? Could it be in out DNA to consistently focus on what makes us different from others?  Maybe, perhaps, despite all of the technological advances our intellect has help to create, we still can’t simply before the mental task of understanding that we are, quite simply, all the same. Unless we were created in some test tub in a lab, we all arrived here in the same fashion. We all bleed the same color, need oxygen to live, and we all enter this world the same way.

Could it be that the answers that we seek are for a more complex question that we haven’t evolved to rationally ask yet? Or is the complexity of our species going to prevent us from asking those needed questions until we remove some security blank we cling to, like Linus from Peanuts?

What inspired this was my reading of an article on how gays now finally have the same marriage rights as far as taxes are concerned.  Here is an entire culture of people, who are show prejudice in a different way. It’s not because of the color of their skin, no, it’s because of some text written in some book. I can’t fathom the logic of not liking someone simply because of what a book that many hold sacred says.

I’m glad that over the last few years, gays have rapidly obtained the rights that we all take for granted way too much. And before those of you who learn towards the right complain that our rights are being taken away, ponder this. As you sit there, either reading this blog in the comfort of your home, sitting in some café using their Wi-Fi for your internet connection, there are people who don’t have it so good. There are cultures in which women are not allowed to be educated, and little girls who attend school are murdered. There are cultures in which simply writing a song to protest your government gets you thrown in jail. Not stalked, like the FBI did to John Lennon, I’m talking actual jail. Ponder that next time you complain that “Obama is taking away my freedom.”

This leads me back to my opening paragraph of this blog. In my 37 years on this planet, I have never seen a president attack like President Obama has been. Yeah, there was muckraking with Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush JR, but it all now just seems to have grown. Could it be that we have a black president, could his heritage be what is causing all of this? Think back to before, the images that we have been force fed through TV shows like cops, and what is usually reported on the nightly newscast. Could this spoon fed cultural damning be causing all of these attacks? When Bush JR was happily wiping away peoples freedoms in the name of keeping them safe, no one trembled. However, President Obama tries curbing violence by enforcing tougher guns laws, and people lose their collective minds.

I’ve tried not to draw any conclusions, I simply try to observe. However, it keeps gnawing at me, the one conclusion I’m not ready to face. Maybe, many of us just don’t want to live harmoniously with other cultures. Maybe it is a genetic flaw in our make-up, who knows.  It might take generations if this question is ever answered, if ever at all. Maybe we’ve relied on prejudice to create our entertainment for too long, just type casted once too often.

We need to figure something out, because until we do, there’s going to be more bloodshed, tears shed, and lives lost. Maybe we can do that by not living up to some predisposed image of what some of us are supposed to be.  That just might be the first step, in the right direction.

A return to the blogging world

Well, I guess I really should get back into trying to blog a little more. As you can see, it’s been a long while since I last blogged.

 

And today is pretty much going to be a free formed rant. Because there is a lot that has happened since my last blog, and well, a free flow is the form that best suits a catch up.

Enough of the royal family. I don’t care about them at all, and never will. There really is no reason for us to actually waste valuable time in the press with the coverage of the birth of their child. Murders, rapes, corporate greed, crooked politicians, all of that is better coverage than the birth of the Royal Spawn. Even the soft story of a child beating cancer would be better.  We’ve had an entire state prove they are inept when it comes to prosecuting anyone (more on that later),  an entire city go bankrupt, a whistle-blower get railroaded into leaving the country, and another one who’s stay in jail has been something from the dark ages. But no, let’s waste time reporting on the child of a royal couple from a country we rebelled against nearly 340 years ago.  I’m sure right now that john Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, and every one of the drafters of the Constitution must be doing the preverbal rolling in the grave.  And if people in this country wanted to know why the rest of the free world considers our media a joke, well, you know why now.

 

Let’s take a quick examination of Edward Snowden. I’m really tired of everyone calling for him to be deported back to the states, and stand trial, and so forth. Personally, I hope he’s never brought back to the states, and he lives the rest of his days a free man. Neither he nor Bradley Manning did anything wrong, other than serve as an unofficial watch of the watchers.  After all, isn’t that what you people want in the first place, someone overseeing the government?  And by the way, why isn’t anyone calling for Dick Cheney, the former Vice President, to be arrested and tried for leaking government secrets.  This is the man, who while in the White House, leaked the name of a CIA operative in the field, all over a feud he was having with her husband. Didn’t he put the life of the CIA agent in danger, thus possibly putting the lives of Americans stateside in danger? Don’t see the press hounding him. I don’t see any of the mindless drones on CNN or GOP asskissers on Fox News calling for his arrest. Aren’t these the same folks who’ve said that anyone who leaks top secret information should be prosecuted?  And makes Dick Cheney so special that he gets a free pass? As far as I’m concerned, nothing makes him special. If you’re going to hound Snowden, and toss Manning into a rat hole prison cell, you really should make Dick Cheney his neighbor. We need a little consistency here, folks.

 

As for Florida, Stand your Ground, George Zimmerman, and Trayvon Martin.  First off, Zimmerman had zero business getting out and following the kid around, when he could have easily remained in his car and watched him that way. Besides, wouldn’t a normal person have simply asked for the cops to show up and informed them of his concerns. After all, it’s not like Trayvon came up running to Zimmerman’s car screaming “I’m going to kill you!”.  I don’t get how Zimmerman could have felt threatened in a situation he put himself in. How can you follow someone, have said person turn around, and use “Stand your ground.” Have you not impeded on someone else’s ground? Why wasn’t this mentioned in the trial.  Now, let’s take a look at the state of Florida, which has the most inept team of prosecutors in the entire country. They screwed the pooch on the Casey Anthony case by putting their faith into a DNA abstracting process that has not, and may never be, embraced by the scientific community. Not to mention that her father also had some issues with serious emotional detachment that may have had an effect on Casey’s overall reactions after the death of her child.

They lawyer in the Casey Anthony case seemed less interested in trying to prove her guilt, and more interested in auditioning for MSNBC, CNN, or Fox as a legal analyst. As for Trayvon Martin, the prosecution’s witnesses were poorly prepped, seemed utterly clueless, and ended up being saviors for the defense. I really have to wonder how these attorneys in Florida could be so inept at their jobs, yet hold positions of high importance.  Maybe it’s time we had an examination of those in Florida charged with handling these high profile trials. Maybe Florida seriously the entire office, and replace them with better quality attorneys.

And let me close with the following. While I will admit that I enjoy Ted Nugent’s music, and he’s a great guitar player, top 20 caliber, but as a human, he’s pretty terrible. He’s tried to deflect the blame to Trayvon, and has been running his mouth to anyone willing to give this glory seeking washed up rock star a vehicle to spout out his nonsense.  Ted, who crapped his pants and faked insanity when he was called to serve his country in war, and openly admitted that he adopted a 15 year old girl to use as his sexual tool while touring in 1977, tries to come off as a badass hunter. He’s a running joke, a utter jackass, and pretty much, a jerk off. And while I admit that he’ll never see this blog (though I really, really hope he does), and I’m not saying anything in print that I wouldn’t in a face to face meeting. I don’t shield my beliefs in order to appease anyone, that’s not my style.

And that should be clear in my upcoming blogs, which I hope to do at least once a week.

Baseball Writers strike out.

Well, I’ve taken a few days, to sit back, and relax. I’ve digested the reason the baseball writers opted not to elect anyone to the major league baseball hall of fame. And as I read their reasons, I have come to the following realization:

One, every current voting members for the major league baseball hall of fame needs to be let go. That’s right, they all need to have their privilege of voting for the hall of fame revoked.

The reason is very simple. Instead of giving votes to players like Craig Biggio, who was on for the first time, or legendary pitcher Jack Morris, who is running out of chances to be elected, some voters actually submitted blank ballots. That’s right, they opted to not vote for anyone.

It’s because they have judge all players from the 1980-2000’s guilty. Doesn’t matter if they have ever taken a PED, been accused, or anything. They have judged them guilty, hence they won’t vote for anyone. And if that is going to be their stance, its simple, revoke their right to vote.  Why should former players like Tim Raines and Morris suffer, and watch their chances to get in the hall be toyed with because of a vendetta by a bunch of baseball writers? It’s not fair to them. But hey, why should the writers care? They are seeking press by making fans think they are taking a stance, when they are nothing more than cowards. Any writer who submitted a blank ballot is a coward. Anyone who won’t vote to elect a player like Barry Bonds or Roger Clemmons just doesn’t understand the hall of fame.

Now, this misguided notion that a player elected to the hall of fame has to be a moral, nearly perfect citizen. Not sure where this idea even came from, but it somehow has seeped into the thought process. Now before you clamor with the thought that “These steroid players cheated, electing them would ruin the purity of the baseball hall of fame.” Well, let’s look at some current members, and ask yourself, despite what they’ve done on the field, should we really honor these folks with immortality?

Charles Comiskey. Here is the man that helped fuel his players to take a dive in the 1919 World Series. Comiskey was an owner who liked players, and liked money, but hated to see the two mixed. A noted tightwad, Comiskey would do anything, for ordering manager Kid Gleason to sit players, or order them to be taken out of games so they would not reach certain plateaus, which in return, would assure they would not get a promised bonus for reaching that benchmark. A complete inability  to relate to his players, or pry open his wallet, lead to a revolt, and his players, some of them top stars, deciding that they needed money more than World Series rings, so they took a dive.

Tom Yawkey. Famous owner of the Boston Red Sox, even has a street named after him. He was also a bigot. Tom Yawkey fought against intergrating the Boston Red Sox. Despite having talented black ball players in the minor league system, these players never played for the Red Sox. In fact, after one player hit .325 and 37 home runs in the minors for Boston, Yawkey ordered his release from his contract, instead of calling him up to the big league roster. The Red Sox had Ben Oglivie, a talented Outfield who became a star for the Milwaulkee Brewers. Yawkey ordered Oglivie traded for a fading starter, instead of making him a starter for the Red Sox. It wasn’t until years after his death, the Red Sox began to change their ways, and groom talented players like Jim Rice, who’d had never been given a chance uner Yawkey.

Kenesaw Landis. Let’s not kid ourselves here. There was only one reason that the baseball owners elected him as czar, and that’s because the owners owed him one. In 1915, the AL and NL were challenged by a third league seeking to be a major, the Federal league. The league was filled with talented players, and could have been a contender.  The league filed suit because of the reserve clauses that AL and NL players had, which meant that a players’ career was 100% under the control of the teams’ owner. Release, trade, the player had no say on where he went. The owners of the Federal League, eyeing several ML talents, thought this was, in effect, a monopoly. Landis was the judge that was slated to rule on this case. Instead, he did nothing, and this action forced the hand of the Federal League, and thus earned him a favor by the AL and NL owners, and that was paid back after the Black Sox Scandal.

But Landis was also a raging bigot. One of the criticism that he was given during his time as a judge was the notion that white men who stood before him, and black men who stood before him in court were treated different, with black men being sentenced harsher than white men. Landis also steadfast refused to allow baseball to be integrated. He famously told a reporter “They have their league, we have ours, that’s the way it should always be.”  After a group of ML all stars were defeated three games in a roll by Negro League standout team the Kansas City Monarchs, Landis ordered the series canceled, as many felt that Landis was angered that a team of all white ball players could lose to a team of black ball players.

Which is going to bring us to Cap Anson. Perhaps there is no more vile person in the hall of fame. That’s partly because Marty Bergen was never elected, and despite having worthy number, Bergen murdered his wife and two small children because he was depressed over his performance the previous season.

Cap Anson was a proud member of the KKK, thought that lynchings were the public’s way of controlling those the federal government could not, and is the man behind major league baseball being a white’s only game for 50 years. In 1884, Anson’s team was slated to play the American Association’s Toledo Blue Stockings. The AA was the second major league,  and the first to allow women to attend games, serve beer at the game, and allow blacks and whites to play on the same squad. Seeing that Moses Fleetwood Walker was the starting catcher, Anson was enraged. He called Walker the N-word several times, and pulled his entire team off the field, refusing to play unless Walker rode the bench. Toledo’s manager refused, and told Anson to “Go to hell”. This was followed by telling Anson that he would not be paid, nor would any of his players. Only after the notion of losing money, did Anson allow the game to go on. Anson would, ten years later, stage the infamous “White Players Revolt” in which Anson conned other top stars into thinking they would all lose their jobs if black ball players were allowed to compete with them for a job. Anson stated they would start their own league, which frightened the owners. Thus was born the rule that black men could not play in the major leagues.

There you have it. A tightwad who nearly ruined the game, and three racist, one with direct ties to the KKK, are immortalized in the hall. Is this the message that we want to send? That it’s okay to nearly ruin the game, or be a racist. To deny the chance to play major leagues to men simply because of the color of their skin, is that the message, really?

So, before you say that Barry Bonds, Roger Clemmons, etc ruined the game by taking steroids, and thus shouldn’t be in the hall. Before you say that “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and Pete Rose don’t belong because they gambled, think about this. Can you sleep well at night, keeping these men out, yet keeping in racist? There is the question. That is the question that needs to be answered.

If the PED tainted players are going to be kept out, then some that are already in, including those mentioned in this blog, Must be removed from the baseball hall of fame. If that doesn’t happen, then the message if that if you took drugs to enhance your performance, that was wrong.  But the same message also gives a free pass to those who’s crime was much more vile. Dismissing another human being, simply based on the color of their skin.