In some ways, politics is a lot like the NFL. In the NFL, you have all these die-hard fans who get behind a team for any number of reasons and blindly follow that team until the end of time. In reality, all an NFL fan is really rooting for is a color scheme and a logo. Each team consists of a lot of over-paid atheletes from all over the country who end up an any given team because of back room deals, trades, and lucrative contracts. Most fans argue that they're rooting for the "home team" -even though none of the players of that team call the fan's home their home. They're there because they're getting paid to be there. And yet fans keep on blindly following and, when referring to the team, they say things like "We need to beef up our defense" as if they're actually a part of the team. That's frickin' hilarious to me.
It's the same thing with the two major political parties and all their "fans". Staunch Democrats and Republicans who pretty much swallow anything their party bosses tell them. They jump on the bandwagon every election cycle and get behind whoever their party puts forth as the front-runner. They agree whole-heartedly that everything that's wrong with this country is the other party's fault. Many actually believe that, once their candidate takes office, things will really change.
It's like believing there's any difference between any of the NFL teams. There isn't - they are all collectively "The NFL" and their primary goal is to bilk you for as much money as humanly possible, regardless of what team you're rooting for.
Politics is the same way. You think there's a difference between Republicans and Democrats but there isn't. They're working together to ensure that they, and they alone, retain control of the United states of America. All that blame-gaming and fiery rhetoric is just smoke and mirrors to prevent you from realizing they're all just one big greedy organization dead set to stay in power and do whatever the hell they want. Year after year; election after election. And their primary goal is to bilk you for as much money as humanly possible. I wish I could say that that was hilarious to me as well. It's not. It's scary. Scary that so many of us drink this kool-aid year after year and still expect things to change and get better.
With the 2016 General Election right around the corner, I can't wait to hear how the new candidates are going to change this country and bring about new hope for the coming years. I look forward to the new and innovative ways that the Democrats and Republicans will prevent any viable third-party candidates from joining the debates and getting on the ballot. The excitement is almost more than I can bear.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Football, Rice, and Videotape
The entire way this whole Ray Rice incident was handled
really pisses me off. Let me first go on
record by saying that I loathe and detest the Baltimore Ravens and I don't have
a lot of love for any NFL player that
gets himself in trouble over stupid stuff.
Knocking out your drunk girlfriend with a left hook falls in the
category of 'stupid stuff'. Mom always told me "never hit a girl"
and, so far after 45 years of life, I've managed to follow that advice. I'm not saying there weren't some very close
calls - and I'm not claiming there can't be exceptions to the rule. But one
thing is for sure, you should never left-hook your girlfriend or wife -no
matter what- because this is the person you're supposed to love. This isn't
same random raving female lunatic who comes out of nowhere trying to kill you,
this is the person you love... your potential soulmate, your other half. Love
is war sometimes; I get that. But, for
God's sake, just walk away from her and punch the nearest wall if the argument
is getting THAT heated and she's got you THAT wound up.
So, yeah, dumbass move Ray Rice... clocking your girlfriend
like that. And, unfortunately for you,
big brother was watching and got the entire incident on video so you, your
now-wife, and the rest of the world can relive that dumbass move over and over
and over again. I don't think anyone will disagree with me when I say he was in
the wrong and what he did was a major no-no. Great. We've established that.
The other fact that most people will not argue about is that
the NFL's punishment for Ray Rice did not even come close to fitting the crime.
You cold-clock your girlfriend and knock her unconscious, end up getting
charged with assault, and the best the NFL can do is suspend you for two
games?! Yeah, I can understand why a lot of people were outraged. It became a running joke. Every time another NFL player was punished,
it was compared to Ray Rice's punishment. But to Ray's credit, he came out and
sounded genuinely contrite about the entire incident. Was he really sorry or
just sorry he got caught? I don't know.
Is he just a nice guy who lost his head?
I don't know that either. Only time will tell. But what followed among
Ravens folks was a general "forgive and forget" attitude in
Baltimore. And after taking a lot of
heat over the less-than-adequate punishment handed down to Ray Rice, the NFL
changed their policy so that if and when something like this happens again, the
punishment would be much worse - a six-game suspension for first-time
offenders, and a potential lifetime ban for repeat offenders. Everybody makes mistakes -some of them
grievous. Ray Rice got off light, the NFL had egg on its face, but at the end
of the day it looked to me like some positives had still come out of the whole
mess. Ray and his girl got married (maybe she's just a terminal victim but I'd
like to think maybe they worked things out in their relationship so no more
boxing matches take place), the NFL is now prepared to treat future domestic
violence cases as the serious crimes they are, and we witnessed that people can
be forgiven and move on with being better people in their lives despite dumbass
moves. Ah, a happy ending.
And then TMZ (one of the shittiest organizations on the face
of the earth) releases the entire video of that awful night with Ray and his
girl... including the actual brutal punch that knocked her out cold in the
elevator. Suddenly, all the progress
that had been made over the past months was wiped from everyone's memory. Now
that folks could actually SEE the punch -the abuse- well, suddenly, that
changed everything. Suddenly Ray Rice
was back in the dog house, fallen from grace and forgiveness and now just a
piece-of-shit woman beater.
Why? Just take the video out of this equation for a
second. We all already knew that he
punched his girl hard enough to knock her out. We all already knew that he was
charged with assault. We saw how the NFL
handed down a less-than-adequate punishment and then saw Ray Rice publicly
apologize. We witnessed major NFL policy changes as a result of this whole
incident, and then we (or at least I) saw the Ravens organization as a whole
stand up for Ray Rice and basically say "Yeah, he made a really horrible
mistake. He committed a terrible crime.
But you know what, we're going to give him the benefit of the doubt. We're
going to forgive him because we believe he's a good person and that this was
just a dumbass move that he will learn from and never ever do again.” Ray was
warmly greeted by fans during the preseason. Players and coaches had nothing
but good things to say about him.
No one should really need to actually see the video to
realize that what Ray Rice did was brutal. We already knew that he knocked her
out cold -what, does everyone think he did that with a little slap or a tap on
the cheek?! No one was able to put two
and two together in their head and say to themself "man, he must've
clocked her good!" -c'mon, really!?!
We all know the facts of what happened.
The problem is we're a bunch of suckers when it comes to sensational
videos. Never mind the facts, just show
us some controversial, sensational video and we'll all just lose any modicum of
common sense we may have had and totally lose our minds. Way to go TMZ! If you read any of my previous posts in this
blog, you already know I HATE the media and all they do to stir the pot. TMZ is no different.
In my humble opinion, Ray Rice should've been suspended for
the entire season from the get-go. I wouldn’t have batted an eyelash if the NFL
would’ve banned him for life. But he wasn't because the NFL seriously dropped
the ball on handing down sufficient punishment. He already received his
punishment from our criminal justice system, so that's pretty much a moot point.
To their credit, the NFL changed their policy for the better. That was a good thing. And then everyone else seemed to move on (not
saying there weren't a whole lotta people still pissed off). Ray apologized; the Ravens organization and
fans seemed to say "OK Ray, we'll give you another chance" and that
right there should have been the end of this entire terrible episode.
But it wasn't. We all
took a huge step BACKWARDS when TMZ released the video. Everyone in the Ravens camp did a complete
180-degree about-face and turned on Ray like he had done ANOTHER bad thing. All
because a video showed in graphic detail what we all already knew -and had
decided to leave in the past. What does
that really say about us as human beings?
If we had had this reaction from the beginning, I'd have no problem with
it. But we all sort of flip-flopped and in the course of 10 hours, Ray went
from the poster child for redemption to the devil incarnate. Sorry folks,
that's messed up. Ray Rice remains the
same guy he always was (for better or worse) whether you see that video or not.
The only thing that changed after seeing that video is the forgiveness that a
LOT of people willingly gave to Ray Rice.
To me that's just as shitty of a move as Ray clocking his girlfriend in
the elevator.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Stop Bitching, Start DOING
Our government was shut down for 16 days while a bunch of rich, childish politicians argued with, threatened, and blamed each other for the shutdown. They played a game of chicken while holding the entire country hostage to see which side would blink first. Millions of us common citizens suffered and worried while these detached assholes in Washington played their belligerent childish games. And at the end of the game, we really don't have any clear and final resolution to the problem, do we? What do you think we have to look forward to come January?
Of course, we all expressed our outrage -while essentially doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about these morons. If you drank the Republican Kool-Aid, you blamed the President and his allies. If you drank the Democratic Kool-Aid, you blamed the Republicans and their Tea Party Conservatives. Me? I don't like Kool-Aid. I blame the entire corrupt, dysfunctional, and out-of-date government; starting with the President and including every single member of Congress. They're all inept, greedy, and ignorant when it comes to addressing and tackling the real problems in this country. They're all controlled by special interests groups, lobbyists, and multi-billion-dollar corporations and benefactors. They CLEARLY do not have the common person's best interests or well-being at the top of their agenda.
Sadly, it's been this way for DECADES. We keep letting the same two corrupt and morally bankrupt parties -The Democrats and Republicans- run this country into the ground. We're somehow stupid enough to believe that things will change just because we get a new name to elect. We're WRONG. And we better all come to this realization collectively or we're all headed to hell in a hand basket by way of the express lane.
NOW is the time to DEMAND change. Our system of government is antiquated and inept. In this age of Internet and technology please explain to me why in the HELL we need 535 congressmen to run things!! I understand why, back in our forefathers' day, this was a plausible idea, but things have changed DRASTICALLY since the 1800s -and yet our system/structure of Government has stayed pretty much the same. Entire industries have sprung up -while others have died away- thanks to miraculous advances in technology and education. We've changed and revolutionized the way we communicate, do business, and travel. And yet, NOTHING has changed as far as the way our Government is run. This two-party choke hold has been in place for a hundred years and we keep letting it be that way. The entire way we vote is rigged by these two parties and we end up with the same two shitty choices being shoved down our throats every four years: Democrat or Republican -sure the names change... Bush, Obama, Clinton, etc. But are you really that fucking STUPID to think that there is really ANY difference? These people are just puppets of their party. And the same two parties keep doing the same dumb shit to this country year after year after year. They fight with each other over money and power while the rest of us suffer the consequences.
So, for God's Sake, what do you say we DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS NOW?! --Before 2014 rolls around and we're stuck with the same bullshit election laws. Let's make sure the next General election ISN'T controlled by the Democrats and Republicans. Let's fight for truly OPEN and FAIR elections and let's elect some folks that are true subject matter experts who aren't afraid of revamping the Government and actually FIXING the problems we have.
Start by educating yourself - turn off the news -they're all just recycling soundbites from the two major parties. Seek out organizations that are trying to effect REAL change in this country and give them your support. Get involved. Be the change. Stop bitching and start doing. Nobody wins in this two-party choke hold. We all lose.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Land of Apathetic, Home of the Depraved
The apathy and downright idiocy of the majority of the American population really pisses me off. How much longer are we all going to sit around and watch a bunch of inept, over-paid, infantile assholes systematically run this country into the ground? How bad do things have to get before we come to the realization that this two-party pissing contest is corrupt and ineffective and that the time for change is RIGHT NOW. These so-called elected 'representatives' do not, in fact, represent the will and opinions of the common people. The entire process which got them elected is, in fact, rigged and controlled by the two parties themselves. And the two parties are puppets to the corporate Goliaths and billionaires that control the majority of the wealth in this country. This is no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave. It's the playground of the rich, inept and greedy who continually make a mockery out of the system of democracy that our forefathers had so painstakingly forged.
Millions of us regular Americans are breaking our backs every day just to try to make ends meet for ourselves and our families. Add to that the hundreds of thousands of our men and women in uniform bravely and selflessly defending our American way of life both here and abroad for a salary that any senator or congressman would consider laughable. The national debt keeps rising while the middle class steadily slides deeper and deeper into poverty while the greedy, filthy rich 1% keep getting richer and keep finding ways to make even more money and profits.
Meanwhile, we all sit by and watch - many of us duped into drinking either the Democratic or Republican Kool-Aid along with the notion that it's the OTHER party's fault we're in the mess we're in. That's all we really have on Capitol Hill; a bunch of pointing fingers and belligerent screaming children determined to get their way while preventing the opposing group of belligerent children from getting their way. These rich, stubborn assholes have absolutely NO IDEA what we, the regular folks in America, are going through. They live in a world that is totally detached from the reality that we all live and breath and suffer through on a daily basis.
The plain and simple fact -- the irrefutable fact -- is that our Government DOESN'T WORK -- the people who have been elected to do a specific job continue, year after year after year, to FAIL MISERABLY at doing that job. Things continue to get worse, and yet we all DO NOTHING besides bitch and moan and look for who to blame. We're all to blame for letting these assholes to continue to get rich while playing a pissing game where the only losers are the common citizens.
If the Government shuts down tomorrow. Every single member of Congress and the Senate along with the President of the United States need to be held directly responsible and then FIRED and replaced by people who aren't part of a political machine or puppets of the wealthy. REAL people. REAL Subject Matter Experts who can come up with a plan and move forward with it quickly.
Millions of us regular Americans are breaking our backs every day just to try to make ends meet for ourselves and our families. Add to that the hundreds of thousands of our men and women in uniform bravely and selflessly defending our American way of life both here and abroad for a salary that any senator or congressman would consider laughable. The national debt keeps rising while the middle class steadily slides deeper and deeper into poverty while the greedy, filthy rich 1% keep getting richer and keep finding ways to make even more money and profits.
Meanwhile, we all sit by and watch - many of us duped into drinking either the Democratic or Republican Kool-Aid along with the notion that it's the OTHER party's fault we're in the mess we're in. That's all we really have on Capitol Hill; a bunch of pointing fingers and belligerent screaming children determined to get their way while preventing the opposing group of belligerent children from getting their way. These rich, stubborn assholes have absolutely NO IDEA what we, the regular folks in America, are going through. They live in a world that is totally detached from the reality that we all live and breath and suffer through on a daily basis.
The plain and simple fact -- the irrefutable fact -- is that our Government DOESN'T WORK -- the people who have been elected to do a specific job continue, year after year after year, to FAIL MISERABLY at doing that job. Things continue to get worse, and yet we all DO NOTHING besides bitch and moan and look for who to blame. We're all to blame for letting these assholes to continue to get rich while playing a pissing game where the only losers are the common citizens.
If the Government shuts down tomorrow. Every single member of Congress and the Senate along with the President of the United States need to be held directly responsible and then FIRED and replaced by people who aren't part of a political machine or puppets of the wealthy. REAL people. REAL Subject Matter Experts who can come up with a plan and move forward with it quickly.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Top of the Food Chain, Bottom of the Class
Top-of-the-Food-Chain-Asshole-Humans really piss me off. Especially when it comes to all of us assuming all the world’s lesser evolved inhabitants are ours to do with as we please. For centuries now we’ve been trudging all over this earth like a bull in a china shop, killing things, polluting the land and air, and taking whatever the hell we wanted –whether it was a rare species of animal or a precious natural resource. You would think, as time moves forward and our technology and knowledge advances, that we would be able to see the harm we’ve done –and continue to do- and, as an entire race, come together in an effort to halt or even reverse some of the barbaric practices that we consider normal in this day and age. Sadly, that’s not the case though.
For instance, why do we STILL keep hundreds of thousands of animals in captivity in zoos, amusement parks, and –worst of all- circus shows? Don’t give me that argument about educating people about all the animals and how to ensure all species survive the next hundred years. That’s all bullshit. I’d buy that argument if we were talking a hundred years ago, but in today’s society zoos, animal parks, and circuses serve one main purpose: Entertainment for the Masses. That’s it, plain and simple. I think we know enough about lions and tigers and bears and zebras and every other widely exploited animal species to educate everyone without having to keep these animals in man-made enclosures and living conditions that are, many times, woefully inadequate. You want to work to preserve all species, then start by letting them be FREE. You want to learn about a specific animal, get on the Internet! No need to keep all these living samples just so folks can come and gawk at them. What kind of life is that?! It’s equivalent to me getting put in a jail cell under the guise of saving my life and being able to study me close up. C’mon, folks… we’re WAY past that.
Every day around the world, people pay big bucks to sit and watch exotic and majestic animals perform stupid tricks in shows simply for our amusement. Dolphins, whales, sea lions, seals, elephants, horses, monkeys, apes… all imprisoned and exploited by humans posing as “animal experts” and “animal lovers” all for the sake of profit. Hey, why not, we’re all at the top of the food chain –we can do whatever the hell we want! It’s horrible the way we treat animals.
Maybe some animals are content to be pets of humans. I have dogs and a cat and they both seem pretty content. But I really consider these animals members of our family. Can you say the same about a killer whale that you keep in a tiny tank of water at a water park? You think he’s happy about his living conditions? Ordered to do tricks and obey commands like some sort of slave. But yet everyone is shocked and appalled when a trainer or handler gets killed by one of these animals. Well, DUH!
I’ve seen first-hand how the majority of race horses are treated. It’s sad. They’re just vehicles. Once they’ve served their purpose, a lot of them are discarded like an old sweater. You want to race? Get off your fat ass and RUN then… don’t make animals do the work for you. Do I even have to mention greyhounds? Same thing there. Profit and our own entertainment always seem to come before the freedom and rights of all livings things. Maybe one day we will become wiser... or just become the victims of our own stupidity.
For instance, why do we STILL keep hundreds of thousands of animals in captivity in zoos, amusement parks, and –worst of all- circus shows? Don’t give me that argument about educating people about all the animals and how to ensure all species survive the next hundred years. That’s all bullshit. I’d buy that argument if we were talking a hundred years ago, but in today’s society zoos, animal parks, and circuses serve one main purpose: Entertainment for the Masses. That’s it, plain and simple. I think we know enough about lions and tigers and bears and zebras and every other widely exploited animal species to educate everyone without having to keep these animals in man-made enclosures and living conditions that are, many times, woefully inadequate. You want to work to preserve all species, then start by letting them be FREE. You want to learn about a specific animal, get on the Internet! No need to keep all these living samples just so folks can come and gawk at them. What kind of life is that?! It’s equivalent to me getting put in a jail cell under the guise of saving my life and being able to study me close up. C’mon, folks… we’re WAY past that.
Every day around the world, people pay big bucks to sit and watch exotic and majestic animals perform stupid tricks in shows simply for our amusement. Dolphins, whales, sea lions, seals, elephants, horses, monkeys, apes… all imprisoned and exploited by humans posing as “animal experts” and “animal lovers” all for the sake of profit. Hey, why not, we’re all at the top of the food chain –we can do whatever the hell we want! It’s horrible the way we treat animals.
Maybe some animals are content to be pets of humans. I have dogs and a cat and they both seem pretty content. But I really consider these animals members of our family. Can you say the same about a killer whale that you keep in a tiny tank of water at a water park? You think he’s happy about his living conditions? Ordered to do tricks and obey commands like some sort of slave. But yet everyone is shocked and appalled when a trainer or handler gets killed by one of these animals. Well, DUH!
I’ve seen first-hand how the majority of race horses are treated. It’s sad. They’re just vehicles. Once they’ve served their purpose, a lot of them are discarded like an old sweater. You want to race? Get off your fat ass and RUN then… don’t make animals do the work for you. Do I even have to mention greyhounds? Same thing there. Profit and our own entertainment always seem to come before the freedom and rights of all livings things. Maybe one day we will become wiser... or just become the victims of our own stupidity.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
On the Cover of the Rolling Stone
Seeing the new cover of Rolling Stone magazine featuring Boston bomber Dzhokar Tsarnaev reminded me of the outrage I felt that day. But it was directed at folks other than the two moron terrorists so I guess the title of this blog is a little bit misleading. But I got your attention, right?
The Boston bombing was yet another needless tragedy caused by individuals who undoubtedly have a very flawed and misguided way of thinking and an absence of love in their heart. It continually saddens me every time something like this happens. I'm sad for all the innocent wounded and dead that get caught up in these senseless acts of hatred, violence, and terrorism. And then I get even more sad when I realize this isn't the last time any of us will see something like this happen.
My famous fall-back phrase is: "We are surrounded by idiots." -it's true. Terrorists, psychopaths, and just plain stupid people are among our population every day and there's no 100%-effective way to stop one of these weirdos from detonating a bomb or going on a shooting or stabbing spree or driving their truck down the sidewalk of a busy city street, plowing down pedestrians. This is the world we live in today. And the best we can do is protect ourselves as best we can and learn to live in the shadow of this impending danger.
Every time one of these senseless acts of violence occurs, everyone from common citizens to politicians to terrorism and security experts are quick to offer their best ideas and opinions on how to stop this from happening again. I think it's our way of coping -fooling ourselves into a false sense of security. Granted, we're probably a whole lot safer from radical Islamic terrorist today than we were 10 years ago, but there's no guarantee something on the scale of 9/11 won't ever happen again. This world is too big and there's just too many people out there who are capable of and predisposed to doing evil. But rather than viewing this as a hopeless situation, I'm going to try to view as just the way things are. I can't waste a whole lot of time rearranging major aspects of my life worrying about whether I or my family will the the next victim of a senseless act of violence. If it's one thing to take away from all this it's that life is fleeting and precious. Don't spend too much time looking ahead... live in the now and cherish and enjoy every moment. Because, if we learned anything from the past few tragedies it's that we're not 100% safe anywhere... not the grocery store, not at school, not at church, and not running a marathon in Boston. That's why these things are almost always referred to as senseless acts. They don't make any sense.
I purposely AVOIDED the majority of media coverage surrounding this tragedy while everyone was busy speculating over who was responsible for such a barbaric act. Then, when police did have suspects identified, there was another news media frenzy. Because, let's face it, we like -need- to have someone or something to blame when things like this happen so we, as Americans, can take action and get revenge or put measures in place to guarantee it never happens again. We end up with a lot of knee-jerk accusations and reactions from a whole lot of people. And we all end up paying for these barbaric acts of others. We indirectly get punished by having more restrictions placed upon our daily lives while giving the police and government more authority and leeway when it comes to searches and investigations.
I guess what really pisses me off is there are some obvious people to blame for the increase in the number of senseless terrorist-type attacks occurring on American soil perpetrated by both foreign and domestic evil-doers. But no one seems to really direct much outrage towards these folks. Who are they?
1. The American News Media. Rather than just reporting the news and the facts, the TV news stations have morphed into a form of variety talk show and whenever anything like this happens, you get around-the-clock coverage which goes well above and beyond reporting the news and the facts. Instead, you get to hear every conceivable back-story and theory about who, why, how, and when. You get to hear from a parade of subject matter experts giving their opinions and thoeries. And you get to hear, over and over again in agonizing detail, the same basic facts of the incident. So, basically, every time something like this happens, it becomes a nationally televised events for days and weeks. Once the culprits were identified, every aspect of their life was discected and splashed across the news, making them a sort of media star. And now we have one of them gracing the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Wow. All this does is inspire others to commit similar senseless acts because they know if they succeed, it will become a nationally televised event -and they, or their cause, will be in the national spot light for a while. Thanks American News Media! The blood of thousands of Americans is on your collective hands. Just shut the fuck up and report the news, the facts, and any important updates as they become available. Stop with the around-the-clock coverage... you're not after the truth, you're after the RATINGS!
2. The United States Government. If you go around whacking enough bee hives with your big stick -no matter how big and bad and protected you think you are- eventually you're gonna get stung. That, my friends, is what is happening now. We barged into Afghanistan and Iraq, waving the flag and claiming we were protecting our way of life by erradicating terrorism from the globe. Yeah... sure. First of all, you can't irradicate terrorism. There's always going to be one or two BILLION people in the world that don't agree with you. Hell, a lot of them may actually hate you. You can't beat or bomb these people into your way of thinking and if you try to do so, all you're going to do is piss off more people in the process. This is fucking common sense and it's been going on for decades. We've lost hundreds of thousands of our soldiers fighting wars in Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan, and Iraq -wars that we really had NO BUSINESS sticking our nose in. And yet we never seem to learn the lesson.
Why don't we just get the hell out of the Middle East?! Stop sending all our money to our so-called friends and allies in that part of the world who will turn on a dime and rally against us. You don't like us? Fine! We don't like you either. You stay on your side of the world and we'll stay on ours. We've got enough shit to fix right here in our own country without worrying how Pakistan or Egypt are doing or whether the whole Middle East will be taken over by radical Muslims. Fine! It's about time we stopped making a few hundred oil executives filthy rich and seriously switch to cleaner, more sustainable energy sources anyway. Screw the entire Middle East and all their oil. They need us just as much as we need their oil. There's obviously a very large chasm between our way of thinking and theirs. Let's just accept that for what it is and stop trying to fix the entire world while our own country is spiralling downward into a massive shitball of poverty, debt, and human crisis.
The Boston bombing was yet another needless tragedy caused by individuals who undoubtedly have a very flawed and misguided way of thinking and an absence of love in their heart. It continually saddens me every time something like this happens. I'm sad for all the innocent wounded and dead that get caught up in these senseless acts of hatred, violence, and terrorism. And then I get even more sad when I realize this isn't the last time any of us will see something like this happen.
My famous fall-back phrase is: "We are surrounded by idiots." -it's true. Terrorists, psychopaths, and just plain stupid people are among our population every day and there's no 100%-effective way to stop one of these weirdos from detonating a bomb or going on a shooting or stabbing spree or driving their truck down the sidewalk of a busy city street, plowing down pedestrians. This is the world we live in today. And the best we can do is protect ourselves as best we can and learn to live in the shadow of this impending danger.
Every time one of these senseless acts of violence occurs, everyone from common citizens to politicians to terrorism and security experts are quick to offer their best ideas and opinions on how to stop this from happening again. I think it's our way of coping -fooling ourselves into a false sense of security. Granted, we're probably a whole lot safer from radical Islamic terrorist today than we were 10 years ago, but there's no guarantee something on the scale of 9/11 won't ever happen again. This world is too big and there's just too many people out there who are capable of and predisposed to doing evil. But rather than viewing this as a hopeless situation, I'm going to try to view as just the way things are. I can't waste a whole lot of time rearranging major aspects of my life worrying about whether I or my family will the the next victim of a senseless act of violence. If it's one thing to take away from all this it's that life is fleeting and precious. Don't spend too much time looking ahead... live in the now and cherish and enjoy every moment. Because, if we learned anything from the past few tragedies it's that we're not 100% safe anywhere... not the grocery store, not at school, not at church, and not running a marathon in Boston. That's why these things are almost always referred to as senseless acts. They don't make any sense.
I purposely AVOIDED the majority of media coverage surrounding this tragedy while everyone was busy speculating over who was responsible for such a barbaric act. Then, when police did have suspects identified, there was another news media frenzy. Because, let's face it, we like -need- to have someone or something to blame when things like this happen so we, as Americans, can take action and get revenge or put measures in place to guarantee it never happens again. We end up with a lot of knee-jerk accusations and reactions from a whole lot of people. And we all end up paying for these barbaric acts of others. We indirectly get punished by having more restrictions placed upon our daily lives while giving the police and government more authority and leeway when it comes to searches and investigations.
I guess what really pisses me off is there are some obvious people to blame for the increase in the number of senseless terrorist-type attacks occurring on American soil perpetrated by both foreign and domestic evil-doers. But no one seems to really direct much outrage towards these folks. Who are they?
1. The American News Media. Rather than just reporting the news and the facts, the TV news stations have morphed into a form of variety talk show and whenever anything like this happens, you get around-the-clock coverage which goes well above and beyond reporting the news and the facts. Instead, you get to hear every conceivable back-story and theory about who, why, how, and when. You get to hear from a parade of subject matter experts giving their opinions and thoeries. And you get to hear, over and over again in agonizing detail, the same basic facts of the incident. So, basically, every time something like this happens, it becomes a nationally televised events for days and weeks. Once the culprits were identified, every aspect of their life was discected and splashed across the news, making them a sort of media star. And now we have one of them gracing the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Wow. All this does is inspire others to commit similar senseless acts because they know if they succeed, it will become a nationally televised event -and they, or their cause, will be in the national spot light for a while. Thanks American News Media! The blood of thousands of Americans is on your collective hands. Just shut the fuck up and report the news, the facts, and any important updates as they become available. Stop with the around-the-clock coverage... you're not after the truth, you're after the RATINGS!
2. The United States Government. If you go around whacking enough bee hives with your big stick -no matter how big and bad and protected you think you are- eventually you're gonna get stung. That, my friends, is what is happening now. We barged into Afghanistan and Iraq, waving the flag and claiming we were protecting our way of life by erradicating terrorism from the globe. Yeah... sure. First of all, you can't irradicate terrorism. There's always going to be one or two BILLION people in the world that don't agree with you. Hell, a lot of them may actually hate you. You can't beat or bomb these people into your way of thinking and if you try to do so, all you're going to do is piss off more people in the process. This is fucking common sense and it's been going on for decades. We've lost hundreds of thousands of our soldiers fighting wars in Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan, and Iraq -wars that we really had NO BUSINESS sticking our nose in. And yet we never seem to learn the lesson.
Why don't we just get the hell out of the Middle East?! Stop sending all our money to our so-called friends and allies in that part of the world who will turn on a dime and rally against us. You don't like us? Fine! We don't like you either. You stay on your side of the world and we'll stay on ours. We've got enough shit to fix right here in our own country without worrying how Pakistan or Egypt are doing or whether the whole Middle East will be taken over by radical Muslims. Fine! It's about time we stopped making a few hundred oil executives filthy rich and seriously switch to cleaner, more sustainable energy sources anyway. Screw the entire Middle East and all their oil. They need us just as much as we need their oil. There's obviously a very large chasm between our way of thinking and theirs. Let's just accept that for what it is and stop trying to fix the entire world while our own country is spiralling downward into a massive shitball of poverty, debt, and human crisis.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Please put your race card back in your pocket.
The tendancy for Americans to immediately throw down the race card really pisses me off! And, again, I place a large portion of the blame squarely on the US news media for continually stirring the pot and fueling the fire.
We're a constantly evolving, progressive society of mixed races and ethnicities so how about we stop playing the race card every time a black person gets injured or killed by someone who has a different skin color. Better yet, how about we do away with the "black" and the "white" labels that we Americans like to try to squeeze everyone into. Slavery was abolished here in 1865. Between 1955 and 1970, there were great strides forward in the advancement of equality for all in this country and, even though racism and bigotry can still be encountered in a percentage of the less-evolved, refined, and educated members of our society, a majority of us get the whole concept of equal rights, tolerance, and understanding. Most of us, anyway.
We need to remain vigilant against those members of our society that subscribe to the notion that any skin color, race, religion, or ethnicity is superior or inferior to any other. To this day we have measures in place (affirmative action) to guard against such notions. And we teach our children about tolerance and equality based on the hard and sometimes horrible lessons that history has taught us. We've come a long way as a nation -and even as a civilization. But here in this country, for as much as everyone is supposedly against racism, it is ALWAYS the first thing that comes up whenever a crime occurs involving different skin colors - especially if it involves a "black" person and a "white" person. Black and white... where the hell did we ever come up with two such incredibly insufficient and misleading terms?! I am neither color -and I can't say that I've ever met a truly white or black person in all my years on this earth. I guess we humans like to label everything so we can place it in a nice neat category... Black, white, yellow, Republican, Democrat, straight, gay, blue collar, white collar, liberal, conservative, progressive. As far as I'm concerned, I don't want any labels attached to me -and I think we'd all be a whole lot better off as a society if we did away with all these labels or at least stopped analyzing everything based on them. "Black people are 35% more likely to..." or "50% of white voters..." - Until we stop using colors and labels to group everyone in our society, we're doomed to keep falling back on the race card that is so easily played whenever something goes wrong in this country.
I get that some folks' ancestors were slaves -and others slave owners- in this country but I had nothing to do with that. I learned all about it in school and determined right away that that was very wrong. Every day I run into people of every size and color that are WAY different than me but I try to at least tolerate them all -even if I don't understand why they are the way they are. It's a challenge sometimes, sure. But I know there's people looking at me with the same puzzled look and I'd hope they'd give me the same equal opportunity to coexist with them.
It all boils down to tolerance and understanding. We have way too little of those two things in our society. Instead, we fall back on fear and accusations. Instead of trying to understand our differences, we fear them and, instead of tolerating each other and our differences, we accuse. We're all so quick to judge and so quick to accuse. It seems we're relying less on common sense, logic, compassion, and understanding as we quickly jump from conclusion to conclusion.
I don't expect us all to share the same opinions or views, but rather than vehemently fight against each other, can we find a way to Compromise? It seems everything has to be black or white, yes or no, this way or that way ... there's never any movement toward a common ground. Instead, we seem to be heading away in the wrong direction. For all our technological advances and claims of highly advanced human intelligence we're still pretty dumb when it comes to being duped by the media and being sucked into this very unproductive "herd mentality".
We're a constantly evolving, progressive society of mixed races and ethnicities so how about we stop playing the race card every time a black person gets injured or killed by someone who has a different skin color. Better yet, how about we do away with the "black" and the "white" labels that we Americans like to try to squeeze everyone into. Slavery was abolished here in 1865. Between 1955 and 1970, there were great strides forward in the advancement of equality for all in this country and, even though racism and bigotry can still be encountered in a percentage of the less-evolved, refined, and educated members of our society, a majority of us get the whole concept of equal rights, tolerance, and understanding. Most of us, anyway.
We need to remain vigilant against those members of our society that subscribe to the notion that any skin color, race, religion, or ethnicity is superior or inferior to any other. To this day we have measures in place (affirmative action) to guard against such notions. And we teach our children about tolerance and equality based on the hard and sometimes horrible lessons that history has taught us. We've come a long way as a nation -and even as a civilization. But here in this country, for as much as everyone is supposedly against racism, it is ALWAYS the first thing that comes up whenever a crime occurs involving different skin colors - especially if it involves a "black" person and a "white" person. Black and white... where the hell did we ever come up with two such incredibly insufficient and misleading terms?! I am neither color -and I can't say that I've ever met a truly white or black person in all my years on this earth. I guess we humans like to label everything so we can place it in a nice neat category... Black, white, yellow, Republican, Democrat, straight, gay, blue collar, white collar, liberal, conservative, progressive. As far as I'm concerned, I don't want any labels attached to me -and I think we'd all be a whole lot better off as a society if we did away with all these labels or at least stopped analyzing everything based on them. "Black people are 35% more likely to..." or "50% of white voters..." - Until we stop using colors and labels to group everyone in our society, we're doomed to keep falling back on the race card that is so easily played whenever something goes wrong in this country.
I get that some folks' ancestors were slaves -and others slave owners- in this country but I had nothing to do with that. I learned all about it in school and determined right away that that was very wrong. Every day I run into people of every size and color that are WAY different than me but I try to at least tolerate them all -even if I don't understand why they are the way they are. It's a challenge sometimes, sure. But I know there's people looking at me with the same puzzled look and I'd hope they'd give me the same equal opportunity to coexist with them.
It all boils down to tolerance and understanding. We have way too little of those two things in our society. Instead, we fall back on fear and accusations. Instead of trying to understand our differences, we fear them and, instead of tolerating each other and our differences, we accuse. We're all so quick to judge and so quick to accuse. It seems we're relying less on common sense, logic, compassion, and understanding as we quickly jump from conclusion to conclusion.
I don't expect us all to share the same opinions or views, but rather than vehemently fight against each other, can we find a way to Compromise? It seems everything has to be black or white, yes or no, this way or that way ... there's never any movement toward a common ground. Instead, we seem to be heading away in the wrong direction. For all our technological advances and claims of highly advanced human intelligence we're still pretty dumb when it comes to being duped by the media and being sucked into this very unproductive "herd mentality".
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