My opinion is that there is a little-explored but very real correlation between musicians and computer programmers.

I further believe that the disciplines of mathematics, philosophy, computer science and creating and playing music are much more related that most think.

There is one extremely important thread that runs through all of these. Logic.  Mathematical statements in math, syllogisms in philosophy, if/then statements in programming and key resolution in music are all eerily similar.

(If this topic hasn’t piqued your interest, or if you’re wondering why I am writing about this and what the hell I am talking about, I suggest you stop reading this now and move on to a less mentally-taxing website.)

I originally thought of the high correlation among musicians, programmers, mathematicians and philosophers while in college. Funny thing, I majored in philosophy and studied and played jazz. While studying all the great philosophers, I noticed that an inordinate amount of them were also mathematicians. Pythagoras, Descartes, Plato and Aristotle were both to name just a few.

While looking up philosophers and mathematicians I came across this post where the author Keith Devlin says he thinks the two are very different and then goes on to admit he is a self-proclaimed mathematician who secretly likes philosophy. I also found a book called Portraits of Famous Philosophers who Were Also Mathematicians by Cassius Jackson Keyser.

More to the point, it just seemed to me that one needed a certain type of brain, or a certain type of thinking and way of processing information to enjoy and actually be a philosopher, mathematician or musician. The way one works through a problem and applies logic is very similar among these disciplines.

Then I graduated college and tried to be a full time musician. Unfortunately, trying to make a living as a musician is very hard. While in a band in NYC the guitar player was making a fortune at his day job being a programmer for Wall Street firms. He suggested I learn computers and programming. So I did. That’s when it hit me. I cannot tell you how many musicians I have jammed with or performed with who were also computer professionals in some capacity.

I am fully aware that just because I happen to have majored in Philosophy and am a programmer and musician doesn’t mean that that’s how I came across my hypothesis on the correlation among them. It was only after I became immersed in each world did I realize there were lots of others out there just like me.After just a little research online it became even more obvious.

I found an awesome post by Jeff Atwood in CodingHorror concerning just this. Check it out and all the comments if this interests you.

Jeff starts out his post like this:

I’ve read the same observation expressed (so many of the best minds I have met in computing have a love for music) in many different places. Enough so that I do wonder if there’s some kind of relationship between being a musician and being a programmer.

For informed opinions, let’s turn to programmers who are actually musicians. I thought Rob Birdwell, who left a single plaintive 2003 blog entry on his programming blog, summarized it well:

• Let’s be practical: musicians become programmers, generally not the other way around, simply because those gigs actually pay the bills.
• Creating music and software are simultaneously collaborative and individualistic undertakings.
• Musicians, regardless of era, are generally technically engaged. The instruments themselves (the hardware) often interface with other devices (amps, mixers, mutes) to achieve different sounds. Composers often deal with an array of technologies to get their music written, performed and/or produced.
• Music is an abstract medium - the printed note requires interpretation and execution. Like the written line of code, there is often much more than meets the eye.
• Music is a form of self-expression. Many programmers, often to the dismay of corporate managers, try to express themselves through code.
• One famous music educator, Dick Grove, once said that composers/musicians often like to solve puzzles. (Dick Grove was very computer saavy - although I’m not sure he wrote code, I wouldn’t doubt his ability to do so.)

A few of the more illuminating comments were:

The common factor is the management of deeply-nested hierarchal complexity. To do either music or software, you need to be able to navigate the levels of a hierarchy with automatic ease.

Godel, Escher and Bach is worth a mention here - Hofstadter talks quite a bit about some of Bach’s canons being repetitive, and varying and even recursive.

I read some of this book called Godel, Escher and Bach a while ago. Strange that it was mentioned in this context and that I’ve read it. It is a hard-to-read and obscure book with some fascinating ideas.

I have a slightly different observation. Some of the greatest programmers I have ever had the pleasure of working with were musicians. I mean seriously trained musicians, usually in jazz or classical. I also mean seriously good programmers, those mythical beasts that are 10x more productive than your average programmer.My theory is that studying music is a great precursor to a career in programming. You learn the importance of practice & repetition. You study other great artists, and try to emulate them. You learn the importance of creativity and artistry. You learn what is between the notes is often more important than the notes themselves.
I am a programmer and I also practice kung fu. The majority of the guys I practice with are programmers as well (and the other majority part works with things related to computers).
So would that mean programmers are also good at kung fu?
Maybe what lies behind this post is not what programmers actually have to do with music or other arts, but what kind of person you have to be in order to love programming.Another strange thing is that I have studied karate as an adult as well. And I agree with this person that many of the people in my dojo were also programmers.When it comes to electronic music, especially, there is a lot of technical details attached to it. You have made a good point about stepping away and looking at the greater whole — it takes a lot of detailed work, tweaking, automating, and adjusting when you are producing a mix, which is the ’science’ part of it, and yet without a clear and defined melody and ‘hooks’ which the tune is based on, and being able to see (or hear) the greater whole and tweak it to improve the overall picture it is largely technically advanced but boring music. There is a lot of music out there like that, primarily electronic, which must be written by purely technical people. If you look into drum’n'bass and a lot of modern electro and minimal house, it is usually quite sophisticated bleep-wise alas with no depth emotionally or melodically.

So here’s the reason I am writing this post. I want to review Animusic. While I was watching PBS with my toddler a very strange yet unbelievably mesmerizing clip came on in between the programs. It was called Animusic and it was one of the coolest things I have seen in a long while. I mean it was so fricken’ cool that I went over to my computer and purchased the DVD on the spot, something I never do. And now I am writing about it here which I also generally never do. (Actually, right now they offer two DVD’s and I bought them both.)

If you’re a musician and a computer professional (programmer, web developer or designer, network admin, etc.) YOU HAVE GOT TO GET ANIMUSIC. Trust me. It is way cool.

Even if you’re not a computer person or musician but just like creativity, logic, symmetry, music or art, I recommend this DVD.

From what I can tell it’s electronic music and computer animation. The music is “played” by balls hitting strings or chimes, balls hitting drums, or robot-like “beings” that are also instruments and play themselves. Actually, there’s a lot more to it than just that. One of the things that makes it so neat is that every single beat and note is represented perfectly by some kind of thing in the animation, and the synchronicity is breathtaking. It’s production is a programming feat.

When I started watching the Animusic DVD’s I purchased, I couldn’t tell if it was the musician in me or the programmer in me that had me loving, laughing and enjoying what unfolded in front of me.  My review of Animusic is that it is one of the coolest things I have seen in years. I even showed my mom (who is not a philosopher, mathematician, musician or programmer) and she loved it too. My toddler gets mesmerized by it every time I put it on. And I know his brain is working like lightning as his sponge-like mind takes in the complicated music and animation.

There is one clip from both the DVD’s that is called pipes 1 and 2 and is one of the most amazing things you can imagine experiencing. Another one is a multi-necked goliath of a guitar that has bass, chello, guitar, fiddle and other assorted necks jutting out in every direction and each one is plucked and fingered by attached robotic fingers.

Although I am not a huge fan of electronic music, the musicians who wrote this music need to be commended too. The synchopation is a drummer’s and bassist’s dream. The solos are terrific and the entire scores are a blast to sit throguh while doing nothing else.

I guess watching it made me realize how closely related music and computers are.

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If you read any of my posts here you’ll realize that I am not only opinionated (not unlike most other people however), but I’m also a liberal. My father is too, but as he’s gotten older, he’s drifted a little to the right. He’s still a liberal, but just not quite as much as he used to be. I also have a brother who is a conservative.  They both know to never send me any Republican/conservative bullshit via email, but they will sometimes send me some things that are probably meant for conservatives, but I somehow find really funny, despite my tilting.

My dad sent me the following video from ArabiaTube (no joke). It shows a U.S. soldier gives a motivational speech to a group of Iraqi police. It is fantastic. This soldier is so motivating that I almost wanted to grab a rifle and march down the dirt road myself to shoot a few militiamen. I know that doesn’t sound so liberal-minded, but just watch this regardless of your political leaning, it is something else:

http://www.arabiatube.com/video/3117/Iraqi-police-get-motivational-speech-by

. . . although I can understand American frustrations, it’s hard to think of a more counter-productive way to change the behaviour of the Iraqi police. And note the subtext, which is that the Iraqis are simply not grateful enough to American troops for what they are doing in Iraq. At one point the soldier even says, ‘I don’t see your ass in my hometown’. Yeah, that’s because Iraq didn’t invade and occupy the United States of America.

Now there are lots of comments about this clip at the site and I wanted to comment on a couple here.

seal6up said:

Any American male who watches this and doesn’t understand the value of
a verbal asskicking to get people riled up and eager to work together
to a common goal is sliding down the liberal hole to oblivion. Listen
to any high school football coach on Friday night, any college
football coach on Saturday afternoon or pro coach on Sunday morning
and you will see the very foundation of what held this country
together through wars, depression and liberal lies and agendas. Hell,
my dad did worse to me, and I thank God he never gave up on me.

OK, I absolutely agree with what this guy first said. I’ve played lots of sports and trained in karate for a few years under a former army guy and can confirm that verbal asskickings, done correctly, are very effective. I feel bad that his dad was a dick, but what can you do?

This one is from MSLee63. It drives me fucking crazy:

Go ARMY !!! Sounds like he is sick and tired of the BS/PC,and just
trying to motivate these dipstisks. And you Lib/Dems peices of
excrement who don’t support our soldiers,can kiss my arse, your time
is coming. 

Is this guy out of his mind? I assume it’s a guy because women generally aren’t this dumb. First of all, why are you bringing “Lib/Dems” into this at all? And don’t assume “Lib/Dems” are pussies. And I have never met anyone, liberal or conservative, who hasn’t or doesn’t support our troops. That is the dumbest fucking this I can think of. When liberals or democrats have been against the Iraq war, they still supported the U.S. troops. In fact, wanting the troops to come home is supporting them a hell of a lot more than making them stay to possibly lose a limb or die, don’t you think? And finally, what does this psycho mean by, “your time is coming”? What kind of thing is that to say? Is that a threat?Lame.

Anyway, I just had to comment on this. I loved the video. I just wish people weren’t so ignorant about the real world.

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Since when is it OK for the last administration’s VP to come out week after week criticizing the current president? This Dick Cheney is something else.

Listen Dick, you’ve done enough damage, you’ve scared us to death enough, you’ve raped the very soul of America to further your right-wing ideology enough. Go home!  Hang it it up. Step aside. Even Condeleza Rice said ‘We owe the new administration our silence.’ or something like that recently on a talk show.

The most recent vitriol Cheney has spewed (on FOX News of course) centers around his criticism of how Obama handled Ortega and Chavez at the recent Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. Cheney, among other right-wing nut jobs, said that it ‘doesn’t look good to be shaking Chavez’s hand’.

From Reuters:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, in an interview with the Fox News Channel, said Obama’s encounters with both Chavez and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega were not helpful and “sets the wrong standard.”

He accused Obama of taking an apologetic tone about past U.S. policy on his trips to Europe and Latin America.

Doesn’t Cheney and the others realize that shaking someone’s hand is something that comes from a postion of strength? Don’t they realize that when you shun someone, when you ‘ignore’ someone, when you refuse to meet with them or even look at them, you’re actually displaying weakness?

Barrack Obama is doing the right thing. He’s quickly and systematically changing the world’s perception of America. And believe me, that perception sucked because of Bush.

Cheney, I suggest you climb into one of those man-sized safes you had in your office and dissapear.

Actually, upon further thought, Cheney prancing around touting torture, Bush policies and international aloofness and posturing is probably good, it just illuminates the silliness in stark relief.

P.S. Congratulations Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post for winning the Pulitzer Prize.

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There are some “tea parties” going on today by “conservatives” in cities across America. What are they protesting? Runaway government spending? Didn’t Bush practice horrid fiscal responsibility? Didn’t he run up a huge deficit? Where were they in the last eight years when ‘W’ turned a Democratic surplus into a massive deficit?

Are they protesting higher taxes? Isn’t Obama reducing taxes for 95% of Americans?

Are they protesting government bailouts?  Wasn’t Bush the one who was president for the very first bailout?

If you’re going to have a party about how awful our government is, you’re WAY TOO LATE. These tea parties are just dumb. Maybe these ‘partiers’ ought to come up with solutions to our fiscal problems - problems almost entirely created by Bush and his cronies.

(and did they have to use the term tea-bagging? Don’t they know what that means?!)

It was recently found that the U.S loses $100 billion a year in corporations hiding their money in offshore accounts. Texas and New York lose $8 billion a year each that the taxpayers have to cover. Why aren’t the tea-baggers protesting that? As Keith Olberman said today, “You’re all corporate slave hypocrites who defend the rich at the expense of the poor.”

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This drives me absolutely crazy. Have you noticed that the TV commercials are much louder than the TV shows? This is the case almost all the time now. I’ll be watching some show and when the commercials come on, they’re blaring! It is so obnoxious. We now always hit the mute button now. There’s no other choice. Especially when you’re watching a show that is relatively quiet, like serious dialogue for example, and you have to keep the volume up a little higher to hear it. When the commercials come on then, it is especially stark and alarming.

I thought this was not legal? Am I wrong? I don’t remember this always being the case. This seems like a fairly new practice.

So why is the volume so much louder in the commercials? Here’s my theory:

If you know who Seth Godin is you probably know his bullet-proof argument about the death that traditional, mass marketing is quickly and inexorably headed towards. In other words, advertising such as TV commercials just don’t work anymore. The TV ad executives know this, so instead of adapting, they are futilely hanging on. And to some how stop the bleeding, to some how stop the obviously decreasing efficacy of their mass-media TV commercial, they have now turned the volume up. We simply hit the mute button the second the commercials come on. And I noticed that a show we were recently watching said, “We’ll be right back after these messages, and don’t hit that mute button!”

Can we make this illegal? Please?

Edit:4/2/09
Apparently this is a topic that’s already been pointed out and discussed quite a bit. I checked my server log files today and noticed that there are other sites that are angry about this too. In fact, someone created a whole site around it. And reading through this site I found the answer to my question in this post’s title: They actually aren’t any louder, the time that they commercials are at the maximum volume (in comparison to TV shows) is much higher, as in all 30 seconds. Read entire explanation.

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(image from CNN.com and Getty Images)

As President Obama reversed the Bush administration’s limits on embryonic stem-cell research, he said scientific decisions must be “based on facts, not ideology.”

What a wonderful day it is. For eight long years, eight years in the dark ages, eight wasted years that lots of loved ones died or continue to suffer, we’ve endured. Thankfully, finally, reason has won out. Of course I realize that if Bush hadn’t been done what he did it’s not guaranteed that we’d have cures now, but if I was paralyzed I sure would have appreciated it.

Fortunately for me, I don’t have anyone in my life (right now) who could benefit from stem cell research. I mention this because I have no agenda or bias on this subject. It just makes sense.

Hmmm, let’s see. Follow a book (the Bible) that was written over 2000 years ago, and specifically the New Testament which was written many years after Christ’s birth by people who had never met Jesus, and follow the tenants of an oligarchy and sovereign “nation”, namely the Vatican, who have arbitrarily condemned abortion and anything that threatens embryos (even ones slated for destruction anyway). Or should I follow almost the entire rest of the world scientific community???!!!

This whole argument works the same for me when talking about how people could not believe in evolution.

But the simple fact is, the idealogic and idiotic dark ages under Gearge W. are over, and we’re back to sanity once again. Praise the Lord and thank Jesus!

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Are you kidding me? This one is just too much. Sometimes I think the Earth would be a much better place without humans.

Last week some woman fed two Xanex to her 14-year-old chimpanzee in Stamford, CT, then watched in horror as the Chimp went nuts and practically tore the face off her friend.I heard the crazy 911 tapes of the Chimp owner screaming at the 911 operator that they had to kill the chimp. Which of course the police did when they got to the scene.

I have a few questions for this woman:

• Why do you own and live with a wild animal? Didn’t the fact that you had to diaper the chimp raise a red flag that maybe it isn’t such a good idea to have him live with you?
• Why did you feed your wild chimp two Xanex? Did you know that Xanex can cause animals to freak out, get aggressive and so forth?
• Why did you immediately think that the chimp needed to be killed?

I love how people get so surprised when a lion or tiger goes on a rampage and kills a human. Everybody wonders what happened. Ya know what happened? You’re sharing space with an animal that instinctively kills!!! It’s only a matter of time.

Stop owning wild animals!

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I’ve worked for a lot of companies where the following mentality is omnipresent. Too many executives, business owners and CEO’s concentrate on making quick profits instead of thinking about the business’s long term success. And furthermore, too many executives, business owners and CEO’s couldn’t care less about their employees, as long as they continue to be the boss and continue to make lots of money in the short term. The Big Three Automaker CEO’s flying separately in private jets down to DC to ask for a government loan goes to show how out of touch these CEO’s really are. It didn’t even dawn on them(not one of the three) that flying in private jets would look bad.

Here’s a great “story” that illustrates how out-of-touch many CEO’s and executives are perfectly.

A MODERN PARABLE . .

A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (Ford) decided to have
a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to
reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the
reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior
management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.
Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering,
while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting
company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion.
They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while
not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another
loss to the Japanese, the rowing team’s management structure was totally
reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents, and 1
assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person
rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the ‘Rowing
Team Quality First Program,’ with meetings, dinners, and free pens for the
rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes, and other
equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.
The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance,
halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital
investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior
Executives as bonuses and the next year’s racing team was out-sourced to
India .

The End.

Here’s something else to think about:

Ford has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US ,
claiming they can’t make money paying American wages.
TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants
inside the US.

The last quarter’s results:

TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses.
Ford folks are still scratching their heads.

IF THIS WEREN’T TRUE, IT MIGHT BE FUNNY.

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A List of 2008 Ethics Scandals and Stories

This year has been a real doozy for jaw-dropping, brass-balled actions by ethically-challenged people. It is crazy to think how immoral some people can be. I mean, jeez, after you read this list below, ya gotta ask yourself if our world is doomed.

Probably one of the largest screw-you’s ever, the dickhead investor Bernie Madoff bilked billions of dollars from private citizens and charities alike.

The list of victims who have fallen prey to Bernie Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme  keeps getting bigger. Among the victims are countless nonprofit organizations, ranging from Yeshiva University and Tufts University to the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System Foundation. Read full Madoff and Charities story

Then there’s the story of the congressman who was caught with stacks of bills in his freezer! William “freezer-man” Jefferson, D-La., was indicted on bribery charges after agents found $90,000 in his freezer.  Read Full CNN Freezer Story - Now I don’t know if he is guilty and am not saying so one way or another, but if he is guilty . . . wow!

One of my favorites is the Senator from Alaska. Senator Ted Stevens, Alaska’s dominant political figure for more than four decades, was found guilty on Monday by a jury of violating federal ethics laws for failing to report tens of thousands of dollars in gifts and services he had received from friends. Read full NY Times Article.  What’s really funny is that some of the “gifts” this idiot got included a deck and grill. Who knew how cheap you could buy senators for!

Eliot Spitzer, once a shining star in the Democratic Party, was forced to resign in March after federal investigators discovered he hired an expensive escort during a trip to Washington. The former state attorney general saw his career go up in smoke, although he ended up not facing any criminal charges.

What makes this one so ridiculous is not that the guy was cheating on his wife (although totally immoral and unethical, it’s just too common), nor was it that the guy using an escort service (which is illegal and all too common as well), but because he used to investigate and prosecute escort services and threw people in jail for the same behaviour! What a hypocritical bastard.

And this one just makes me sick. A John McCain Volunteer Admits Hoax, and says she was not attacked at an ATM in Pittsburgh. The GOP volunteer admitted she made the story of her being held down and a B carved in her face was a hoax, after several inconsistencies in her story and a lie-detector test. She is now facing charges from police. How awful is this? Thank goodness the woman was found out. This could have sparked serious race issues in America right at a time when we needed that the least. And what kind of ethics or morals did this woman have to do this?! Read rest of hoax story

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Here are a couple of funny George W Bush pictures:

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Terrorist Attack on Mumbai

Mumbai, formerly Bombay, India was just attacked by terrorists in multiple places. There were timed attacks at a number of places in the city of 19 million, including the train and two plush hotels. This is a major Indian city and is the center of their financial industry. The whole city is closed and there are reports that the terrorists are targeting “westerners”. CNN has a banner at the top of the TV screen that says “Mumbai Taken Over By Terrorists” and it’s got blood splatter on it, the sensationalism is sickening.

It was also reported that an eye witness said that the terrorists they saw looked like they were between the ages of 20 and 25. You know someone older, and not so ready to give their life for the cause, organized, funded and implemented this attack by these dumb-ass, totally-open-to-propaganda, easily-manipulated 20-somethings.

Now we’ve seen major recent attacks in New York, Washington D.C, Bali, Madrid, New Delhi and Mumbai, just to name a few.  The ridiculouness continues. But we must all keep in mind, the chances of being killed by a terrorists anywhere in the world are next to nothing, so the fear they try to provoke is not merritted. Worry more about driving, smoking, eating, drinking etc. I truly hope the world and especially the U.S. doesn’t go into another terror-ridden tissy for another year and begin to worry about “them terrorists” as many Republicans desire instead of dealing without major domestic issues. And these domestic issues, specifically our economy, wouldn’t be nearly as bad if we hadn’t been dicking around with the bullshit Iraq war.

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Here are some great headlines from The Onion:

1. Video: Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are
2. Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job
3. Nation Finally Shitty Enough To Make Social Progress
4. Bush: ‘Can I Stop Being President Now?’
5. Video: Voting Machines Elect One Of Their Own As President
6. Hillary Clinton Resumes Attacking Obama
7. Video: Cindy McCain Claims She’s ‘Just Like Any Other Female Human’
8. McCain Gets Hammered At Local VFW
9. Kobe Bryant Scores 25 In Holy Shit We Elected A Black President
10. Struggling Lower-Class Still Unsure How Best To Fuck Selves With Vote

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All over the world people are rejoicing over the Obama win, and of course America is mostly celebrating too. It’s the dawn of a new day for the U.S. and for the world. However, I wonder just how much he’ll actually be able to change with a deeply-entrenched ’system’ that will be difficult to alter, especially with Republicans gunnin’ for him out the gate. But it’s a great moment for America and shows that all the right-wing bullshit that’s been spouted at us for years is not necessarily reality after all. On Ed Schultz today a German called and said he saw two newspaper headlines in Germany that read “The Rebirth of America” and “Welcome Back to the World America”. Need I say more about how awful Bush was, the whole world couldn’t be wrong, could they?

Here’s a fun Obama picture I found that sums up his awe-inspiring primary and general election campaigns and hopefully his presidency as well:

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Good luck

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Here’s a great tidbit from David Sedaris from the New Yorker:

I look at these people [undecided voters] and can’t quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention?

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

I mean, really, what’s to be confused about?

And I recently read a great article in Rolling Stone by Tim Dickinson. Admittedly, it is definitely written with a lefty slant, but it sure paints a horrendous picture of John McCain. I defy any McCain supporter to read this article and still defend the guy as a great person for the presidency:

Make-Believe Maverick
A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

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This kind of stuff drives me crazy. I imagine the world will have a significant amount of nature gone by the time our children grow up because of us. And now the third-world countries are starting to really wreck the environment, but how can the West tell them to stop since the West did the same thing last century? Man is causing species extinction on a massive species extinction scale. The following is a report from CNN on the sad truth about animals:

“Our results paint a bleak picture of the global status of mammals worldwide,” the team led by Jan Schipper of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in Gland, Switzerland, concluded.

“We estimate that one in four species is threatened with extinction and that the population of one in two is declining,” the researchers said in a report to be published Friday in the journal Science. The findings were being released Monday at the IUCN meeting in Barcelona, Spain.

“I think the bottom line is, what kind of a world do you want to leave for your children,” Andrew Smith, a professor in the Arizona State University School of Life Sciences, said in a telephone interview.

“How impoverished we would be if we lost 25 percent of the world’s mammals,” said Smith, one of more than 100 co-authors of the report.

“Within our lifetime hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions, a frightening sign of what is happening to the ecosystems where they live,” added Julia Marton-Lefevre, IUCN director general. “We must now set clear targets for the future to reverse this trend to ensure that our enduring legacy is not to wipe out many of our closest relatives.”

 Read the rest of the article

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That’s bullshit. I am sick of the West Coast and their time differences. I am tired of debates at 9:00pm, and pro sports games starting at 9 or 10 at night. Gimme a break. The country started in the East and the country’s major events should start at times convenient to East Coasters. I mean, even the sun stars in the East, so that should tell ya something, right? NO game should ever start after 8:30pm EST. The NFL on Monday night has it right, they moved it from 9 to 8:30. But 10pm? Are you crazy? Some of us work ya know! I wanna watch the AL teams like the Red Sox, but staying up till 1:00am to see the end of the game is asking a little too much.

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Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

I like watching This Week with George Stephanopolis and John McCain was interviewed one opening segment of the show I watched a few months ago, and I forced myself to watch him and listen to him with an open mind. After all, I thought, nobody can be worse than GW, right? But as the interview progressed, I saw that McCain was as bad.

If the way McCain is running his campaign is any indication, then it’s seems that they’re using the same play book that Carl Rove wrote. Actually, it seems like they’re using an even uglier and more deceptive book. In fact, Rove recently even publicly said he thought the campaign was telling more lies and was sleazier than ever before.

I can’t believe that he picked Sarah Palin as his running mate and then has the gall to deny that it was a purely political move, motivated by the need to win, not the need to help America. If his judgment is so good (and Obama’s isn’t), then why did he pick such an irresponsible VP? If McCain dies, America is stuck with this woman as president? I ask why? The answer is that the veep pick was a politically-motivated choice only. Stop lying right-wing talk machine! Stop lying McCain!

And why is it so bad to discuss McCain possibly dying? Let’s look at the facts. He has had cancer before - more than once. He is 72 years old. Is it soooooo crazy to think about what would happen if he kicked the bucket? Gimme a break.

If McCain looks down on inexperience, like he has said so many times relative to Barack Obama, then why did he pick a veep with even less experience? The answer again is that is was a politically-motivated choice, period.

Let’s look at the McCain camp’s ubiquitous lie-machine, lies that are gobbled up by the right-wing talk machine and repeatedly regurgitated out like the bile that it is. I am amazed at how brazen they are. How ballsy they are. How obvious they are. How blatantly they lie, lie, lie. And there seems to be no end.

Here are a few McCain & Palin doozies so far:

• The bridge to nowhere.
  Sarah Palin said in speech after speech, “Thanks, but no thanks” regarding the “bridge to nowhere”. She rejected the bridge to nowhere, she says. But in fact Palin supported it during her run for governor. Plus, she kept the money for the state anyway. And to make it even more ridiculous, she’s still looking for ways to build a bridge in another spot using federally-earmarked dollars. So Sarah, stop bragging about something you flip flopped on!
• Foreign policy experience.
  In her interview with Charlie Gibson she was asked about her lack of foreign policy experience. She replied that she didn’t have much but “If you had asked that question about foreign policy to many others in my spot over the years, they’d answer the same way”. In fact, no one has had such a huge lack of experience since WWII. It’s ridiculous for her to compare herself with any other potential presidents or vice-presidents who have run in the past.
• Visiting Iraq.
  Palin said she visited Iraq, then backtracked when she was called out on this. She then said she was in Kuwait but crossed over to Iraq briefly. But even that wasn’t true. All lies.
• Visited Ireland.
  They actually said she visited Ireland to help bolster her so-called foreign policy experience. Wrong again. In fact, her jet simply stopped in Ireland to re-fuel. She never got off the plane! Can you believe the balls these people have to lie to us like that?!
• Obama will raise middle-class taxes.
  The McCain camp and the right-wingers keep repeating this lie over and over again. In fact, Obama has never said he would raise taxes on the middle class. He has ONLY said he would raise taxes for those who make over $250k. Geez, the lies flow out of their mouths like the saliva of a dog pondering steak.
• Obama called Sarah Palin a pig.
  This one is a slight of hand. Get people talking about silliness and they won’t see all the bullshit around them. In other words, distract people from seeing how bad McCain and the country really is by fabricating phony outrage.
• Obama want to teach sex ed to Kindergartners.
  This one is the sleaziest of them all. It takes the cake. McCain actually ran an TV ad that claimed Obama wants to teach kindergartners about sex. Again, an outright lie. Obama wants to offer a comprehensive sex ed plan for all school children, but age-appropriate. So kindergartners under this plan would only be taught to ward off child predators. Is that a bad thing McCain? Stop lying!

The Democrats and the Obama campaign need to get their act together a little more. They need to all agree on a handful of dumbed-down talking points that hit people in the emotions. This is what the Republicans have been doing for many years and that’s why they win. I swear the Republicans must have an awe-inspiring information dissemination system, because they ALL seem to say the same things that are handed down to them. From Rush Limbah to Hannity to Oriely to McCain spokesmen to Republican analysts right down to the Republican janitors - they all say things that are the same, like they’re reading from the exact same play book.

The Dems need to do this too. Obama needs to use words with few syllables, convey ideas that are very simple to understand, and that everyone on his side should be repeating till we’re all sick of it.

Here are a few phrases I suggest. These phrases should be said over and over again. They should be in commercials, on signs at rallies, on bumper stickers and said by all Dems who are interviewed:

• McCain is More of the Same (I know they do say this already, but not nearly enough. The very idea that McCain has been able to successfully start saying he is for change shows that Obama hasn’t done enough to curtail this idea. The Republicans just repeat stuff over and over till the lie becomes believed.)
• McCain and George Bush are the Same
• McCain voted for Bush stuff 90% of the Time
• McCain Lies, Palin Lies
• McCain Admitted He Doesn’t Know a Lot About the Economy
• McCain is a Warmonger

Why is this race so close? I think it is because people are still having a tough time being comfortable with the idea of a black president. Enough Americans are still racist. If Obama was a white guy, this race would already be over. Could you imagine if one of Barack’s daughters was pregnant out of wedlock like Palin’s is? The conservatives think Sarah Palin and her pregnant daughter are just fine, that it’s okay because the daughter is going to have a shotgun wedding (probably not her choice). But if it was Obama’s daughter in that situation, the conservatives would have a field day.

I want to leave you with an excerpt from a BBC article that came out today:

Their research, published in the journal Science, indicates that people who are sensitive to fear or threat are likely to support a right wing agenda.

Those who perceived less danger in a series of images and sounds were more inclined to support liberal policies.

They found that subjects who were more easily startled tended to have political views that would be classified as more right wing, being more in favour of capital punishment and higher defence spending, but opposed to abortion rights.

Read full BBC article here

Don’t forget, we’ve had 6 years of a Republican congress and 8 years of a Republican White House. If you think America is great right now, if you think our economy is wonderful, if you think the wars are going good, that it’s worth it for us to be in Iraq and lose American lives, if you think our health care is up to par, if you think the housing market is great and that the stock market is doing peachy, then vote McCain. The Republicans can’t hide from 8 years of failure with more lies.

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Bush at the 2008 Olympics

I watched the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China and noticed one interpretation of George W. Bush’s presence. There were many heads-of-state in attendance in The Bird’s Nest last night to witness what many expected to be quite a spectacle. And it didn’t dissappoint. I heard some commentators refer to this as China’s ‘Coming Out’ party (kind of a lame analogy, but oh well).

The interesting thing was that every time the cameras cut to presidents, world leaders or heads-of-state, they were almost always just sitting there smiling and watching the show below. However, when the cameras landed on George W., he had a big-ass pair of binoculars that he had up to his eyes. And this was the case many of the times he was on camera. It made me think about the possible symbolism this may have had. And apparently the Chinese are big on symbolism, the opening ceremony sure had a lot of it. But it seemed as though W. was “spying” on those below, keeping a close watch, overlooking it all like a prison guard in a tower. I’m not sure that doesn’t just augment and play into his already-bad, imperialism reputation he has around the world.

And then I thought, “Hey, isn’t he like the leader of the free world, the head of the only remaining world superpower? What’s with the shitty seats that requires him to need a pair of binoculars to see the action?”

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Warning: This is not for children and contains vulgar language.

This is one of the funniest YouTube videos I’ve seen in a while. It’s the desert scene in Casino, as performed by Bert and Ernie using Robert Dinero and Joe Pesci voices. Pure genius. The end is especially funny.

Watch Now

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The other day I was watching Hardball with Chris Matthews and was shocked at his “Big Number” segment. The Big Number was 200, that represents the number of days since the U.S. Congress has requested that the CIA interviews of Bush and Cheney regarding the Valerie Plame leak be turned in. And what has the White House response been? Deafening silence. They have neither turned anything over nor even acknowledged the request. Matthews sarcastically asked, “Think the White House is going to try and wait it out till the end of their term?” I found this both sad and alarming.

So I was wondering, how can this be the case? How can Bush and Cheney refuse this, let alone ignore the request altogether? Is the Democtratic-lead Senate and House that lame? I thought G.W. was the lame duck?

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Here’s a bit of info that alarms the heck out of me. Apparently, the major Internet services providers around the globe are planning on charging consumers extra for visiting websites outside their ’subscription Internet area’. In other words, we’ll all have to pay a set fee like we do now but we’ll only be able to access big-name websites. If we want to go to any other website (like the millions upon millions of smaller, and often more useful website) we’ll have to pay more.

This will most likely have a devastating effect on the Internet as whole since it is mainly made up of the smaller, less commercialized websites. Now people will have a disincentive to visit these smaller sites in the form of higher prices. These sites’ visitors will substantially decrease, which will take away the motivation for people to even bother creating and maintaining websites, causing the whole Internet to come tumbling down.

Supposedly, insider information confirms this and it is predicted to happen by 2012. In fact, Time Magazine will be publishing a story on this very soon.

Please see http://ipower.ning.com/netneutrality2 to learn more and consider joining in on attempting to stop this.

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My United Airlines Trip Was Torture

I just traveled from a small airport in Montana called Bozeman to Hartford, CT ending a great trip out west. Unfortunately, my travels using United Airlines was a grueling 12-hour fiasco. I can only imagine how many other people have had equal or even worse airline experiences. Why do the airlines suck so bad now?

First, there were two flights scheduled out of the same gate when I was leaving Montana, mine and another one. Of course mine boarded second, so that caused us to have to wait an extra half hour. Then, right when we were supposed to board, they announced there was a malfunction on one of the doors (it wouldn’t close properly), so they delayed it another half hour. Finally, we got to board and then waited on the plane fro another half hour. This last torture was because they wanted to get “the papers” for the door fix before they took off, whatever that means.

So we left an hour and a half late and I had to make a connection in Chicago’s O’Hare. Now I was worried I wouldn’t make the connection because I originally had two hours, now I was going to be left with a half hour only.

Why Can’t The Airlines Get It Together?

Ya know that United Airlines charges for meals now? Five bucks for a “snack pack”! Also, they no longer give you peanuts with your drinks. I know other airlines are doing this too, but it is just so lame. They also charge for checking a second bag now too. Again, others are doing this too, but gimme a break. I read somewhere that they have finally realized that they can’t raise their rates any more. So they are looking for new ways to bilk customers. I looked at the extra charges on my bill, and one of them was an fuel charge. A fuel charge?! I thought that was what the actual ticket costs were for? That’s like adding a new charge to theater tickets called the “electricity charge” for the powering the theater lights!

We landed and I had about 20 minutes to spare. They said that we should go to Customer Service if we miss our connections. So me and another guy sprinted across the terminal B like two Amazing Race contestants trying to make it. We both got there right after the door had closed and the mobile stairs unit was backing up. Mind you, the plane was still sitting right there. We could both see the plane, in fact I think I saw the pilot give me the finger. I asked the woman if we could get on, and she said “nope, once the doors are closed there nothin’ we can do”, and then she went on snapping her gum and picking her multi-colored fake nails.

I kept complaining because the plane wasn’t moving. But she just iginored me and then called her supervisor who was even more annoying. I ended up leaving and my plane still hadn’t left.

Then I went to the Customer Service desk, which of course was 5 miles and 12 auto people-walkers away. The line was as large as opening day for a Star Wars movie. It was at least a block long, no kidding. By now I am sweating profusely from all the running.

After forever, I got another flight which left 3 hours later (or 9pm). So I went to the bar to kill time. By now, I had been traveling since 11am and it was 7pm (in another time zone of course).

When I finally boarded my second flight, we again had to sit on the tarmac for another 45 minutes! This time it was because the air conditioning was broken. Later, when I went to the bathroom, I noticed there was an ashtray. So I assume this plane was at least 15 years old. No wonder it was broken.

This plane was about one tenth full. Most of the seats were empty. I am a big guy and can barley fit in the tiny seats so I usually try to grab a bulkhead seat, or one that’s in the emergency exit row, which are almost always larger. So I tried to grab one of those my my assigned seat was one of the tiny ones. The flight attendant would not allow me to however. They said people pay more for those seats now. I explained that they were all empty. She refused so I was sent back to the little-people seats.

I ended up getting to Hartford at 1am the next day. What a horrible experience. United Airlines is lame. But so are most of the other airlines too. I can’t believe that the airlines can’t get it together. They provide a service that can almost be considered a necessity at this point, but they are all floundering or going bankrupt. Why are they struggling so much? Can it just be the rising cost of fuel? How come the phone companies can be profitable? How can companies like UPS or Federal Express be profitable? How can the gas and electric companies do it? If all these other needed and privatized industries do it, why can’t the airlines?!

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This kind of stuff drives me crazy as much as it makes me sad. I read an article on CNN about how humans are causing major species extinction. Wow, what a newsflash, I never would have thought! I wrote about this in an earlier post called Mass Global Species Extinction - Why We’re Causing it Today.

Anyway, the CNN article opens up saying:

The world’s wildlife has declined by 27 percent since 1970 because of the human impact on the environment, the World Wildlife Fund said Friday.

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So I asked a friend who is into watching the WWE, why the WWE is so popular? I don’t get it. Here’s his response:

The WWE is everywhere in modern American culture. The WWE is so popular that the candidates for the 2008 Presidential Nomination even acted out a few lines as if they were a professional wrestler. Yet, despite its massive popularity, the billions of dollars of tickets, pay-per-views and merchandise – oh so much merchandise – the WWE is continually denigrated by millions of others as childish and absurd. To discover why the WWE is so popular, let’s start by looking at just a few of the claims against it and by doing so actually examine the reason for its looming presence in American pop culture.

Negative Claim: The WWE is Fake

People who hate the WWE always chime in on about it being fake. The facts that it is scripted and the events are predetermined are used as a reason as to why nobody should care about it. However, all of the movies we go to see in the theater are fake, the plays that have for centuries been passed down and acted out are fake, and for that matter, most of the “reality” television we watch today is fake. So why is it such a big deal that the WWE is also fake?

The WWE is a scripted drama and soap opera. It provides an escape where other parts of life and reality never do. It pits good against evil, the ultimate dramatic battle. Friends are betrayed, relationships are destroyed, cliques and alliances are formed; really, life is played out on a small scale in a rowdy environment. By understanding the fact that the WWE is “fake”, one can put that claim aside. It no longer matters, for the same reason you pay $10 for a ticket to the new blockbuster knowing it was scripted a long time ago.

Negative Claim: The People are So Unrealistic

Of course the people are unrealistic, that’s what people want to see. These huge, overly muscled men and these outlandishly curvy women represent the thoughts, dreams, stereotypes, stigmas – and so on – of our society. These people become super heroes and super villains. If we wanted to watch two skinny guys getting into a fight, we’d go to a middle school recess. To stick with the movie example, look how outrageously attractive people make up the majority of the most popular actors and actresses. We don’t watch sports to see wheezing, overweight, middle age professionals struggle through the athletic motions. No, we watch them to see the astounding physical disciplines and accomplishments of athletes on a scale that we will never possibly achieve. On the same subject, that brings us to the next negative claim…

Negative Claim: The WWE is Not a Real Sport

While many fans of the WWE may jump up and proclaim that yes, indeed, the WWE is a real sport, I won’t. As I’ve said, the sport is scripted out and the results are predetermined. That doesn’t take away from the amazing athletic feats these athletes put themselves through and make themselves endure. You can be an athlete without participating in a sanctioned sport, and some of the best athletes in the world are performing in the WWE.

Performing, not playing, being the operative difference. No matter how scripted it is, a flip off a ten foot ring post is a fear inducing, dangerous maneuver. No matter how fake some of the blood spurts are, it doesn’t mean that getting hit in the head with a chair doesn’t hurt.

The bottom line is that the WWE is entertainment. When you peel away the negative stereotypes about it, its popularity becomes much easier to comprehend. When you’re not trying to make it real, when you’re not trying to say it’s a sport or the people involved in it look like the rest of us, it becomes exactly what it is: exciting, week after week, entertainment. It may seem as a weird obsession or a strange hobby, but it just isn’t all that much different from anything else we occupy our time with. It’s an escape, it’s an alternate reality, it’s a drama, it’s an immersion, it’s a passion and it’s a hobby; for some, it’s even a lifestyle.

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Is Drinking Beer and Smoking Cigarettes Really So Bad?

I saw a news segment this morning on a Englishman named Buster Martin who is getting ready to run a marathon, and he’s 101 years old. And oh yeah, he drinks a pint of beer in the morning and another 7 throughout the day as well as smoking 14 cigarettes a day too! Maybe binge drinking and smoking isn’t so bad for you after all? I mean, my grandmother died at 92 and she smoked all her life. My guess is that this is not the norm and indeed, smoking and drinking a lot is bad for you.

I heard this comedian once saying that in heaven you can smoke with no ill affects. He said everyone up there is smoking and the minute he got there he’d ask St. Peter for a light.

I also read that more and more young people are drinking. Something like more than 6 times a month and 4 or more drinks at a time. And they said this is considered binge drinking! Wow, I didn’t realize the threshold was so low.

I just thought the story of Buster Martin was great because it shows that everyone is different and that aging doesn’t have to be such a bad thing or even slow you down. This marathon he’s running is his first and he still works. This guy is awesome. Some people may very well think that if they could smoke and drink beer at 100 years old,they’d already reached heaven!

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From BBC News:

An Italian woman artist who was hitch-hiking to the Middle East dressed as a bride to promote world peace has been found murdered in Turkey.
The naked body of Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, 33, known as Pippa Bacca, was found in bushes near the northern city of Gebze on Friday. She had said she wanted to show that she could put her trust in the kindness of local people.

Can you believe that? Definitely the ultimate in horrendous irony. Was this woman wrong for being so trustful? Or was it just a case of really bad luck meeting a scumbag murderer? I wonder if she was a lone woman hitch hiking dressed as a bride may have increased her chances of being found by a kook. Regardless, it certainly wasn’t her fault and I think they need to make a big effort convicting the guilty person. It makes me sick to think that something like this could happen.

Read full story 

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Which came first, the stereotype or the behavior and attitudes? Does one perpetuate the other? I know that in many cases, people attempt to group themselves and others into neat, little buckets, often at the expense of all.

I often wonder what kinds of people go to different kinds of events like concerts or sports games or whatever. Are stereotypes real or are they made up? Here’s an example. People who go to NASCAR have a higher likelihood of liking Kenny Chesney than Jack Johnson. Or people who like boxing or the UFC will probably prefer Iron Maiden to Celine Dion. Are these stereotypes? Is country music and car racing are enjoyed by the same “type” of person? Do people who like watching fights also like heavy metal? Or how about people who are highly educated and make a really good living and are Democrat, do they tend to like Jimmy Buffett and The Police, for example?

I always get a kick out of watching the news or political shows where they break people down into simple, little psychographic or demographic groups. This is even more apparent with the presidential race looming so close. Obama seems to get the support of the upper-middle class, highly educated white man, whereas Hillary Clinton get the blue collar, lower-middle class white man. Can you really break things up like this? Maybe you can. After all, Barack Obama has indeed gotten huge percentages of the black vote in many of the primaries.

So political campaigns and marketing and advertising companies are faced with trying to corral people into neat, little packages. But it really doesn’t necessarily work that way. There’s the NASCAR-watching, church-going, country music-listening, abortion-hating, God-fearing Republican on one side. And then there’s the jazz and classical-listening, intellectual, impractical, wimpy liberal Democrat on the other. Or there’s the heavy metal-listening, pot-smoking dude who wears jeans and jean jackets, still has longer hair than the norm, has an earring and love the Pittsburgh Penguins or the Detroit Red Wings or the New Jersey Nets. Then there’s the alternative, thoughtful, sensitive and young type who loves American Idol and Ryan Seacrest, text messages constantly, plays Xbox 2 and is awesome at Halo 3, and loves artists like Raven Symone or the Jonas Brothers and maybe mildly likes an NFL team (maybe the Patriots or Dolphins?) because it’s the “cool” thing to like.

It’s sort of like how groups or ‘clicks’ get together in high school and all wear the same clothes and like the same sports and listen to the same music. You got the jocks who wear sweatshirts, jeans and baseball caps, and only like sports and probably play baseball and football and love teams like the Colts or the Red Sox. They usually listen to music that is very mainstream only. Then you have the alternative and/or goth-type kids who act angry at the world, wear black clothes, and listen to music that is marketed as being out of the mainstream, but really is still mainstream, like Marylin Manson or Green Day. (Sort of like how getting a tattoo is supposed to show your rebelliousness, uniqueness and how you don’t follow the mainstream, yet EVERYONE gets tattoos, so it actually does the opposite!) Of course there are the geeks in high school who often end up forming a group of their own since the other ‘clicks’ didn’t let them in.

Another infamous group in high school is the classic “mean girls” click. (You know, like the movie Lindsey Lohan starred in). These are the girls who think they’re beautiful, sometimes cheer lead, but often just date the jocks. They’re stuck up, wicked, often blond, very insecure, and rush around the school and dances like they have extremely important things to get done. What about the musicians? Well, depending on the music they like can often determine what group you get inserted into. If you like classical or jazz, and you play some brass instrument and play in the school band, you’re likely to end up in the geek squad. However, if you like Ozzy, Maiden or the Foo Fighters, you play guitar, and maybe lke to work on cars and act like a grease monkey, you may be in the “burner” group. But all of these “clicks” are self-perpetuated. They all run of the fear and insecurity of its members. each person in each group just wants to be liked, so they don’t dare stray from what they think they are supposed to be like.

Adults are just big children. People are all just big kids. We hide our true thoughts & feelings better as adults, but the feelings are still there all the time. We still want to belong or be accepted by our peers, we all want to be loved, belong to a click, and we still find ourselves giving in to immediate gratification when we know better. And some of us still lie and cheat in our everyday lives. Deep down inside we are a little more mature and wise, but basically still very often have child-like thoughts and feelings.

Yes, all of this stereotype stuff is silly of course. After we graduate high school, we’re supposed to drift away from thinking so black and white. High school is an oversimplification of life that needs to be transcended, and this can be achieved through becoming friends with people from other backgrounds and interests. Also, as you get older, you can’t help but start to like different things. No one can be put into perfect little buckets. Political strategists can’t, school can’t and marketing executives can’t either.

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Eliot Spitzer is Another Hypocrite Politician

Allegedly, Eltiot Spitzer, governor of the state of New York, was “linked” to a prostitution ring. What’s hypocritical is that Spitzer used to be a prosecutor and prosecuted at least two prostitution rings! I am just so sick of politicians who publicly condemn things that they privately participate in. And Spitzer’s a super delegate too, and he was going to vote for Hillary Clinton.

Another painful example is good ‘ol Larry Craig. He allegedly played footsie in a public men’s bathroom trying to make contact for a homosexual liaison. But publicly, he denounced the gay lifestyle. It seems like U.S. politics is full of this (and I think it’s even more prevalent in the overly-repressed Republicans).

In my opinion, live and let live. Stop denouncing stuff and then you won’t be hypocritical.

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It is the night before the next “Super” Tuesday, with Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont all voting in the Primary. I think Hillary Clinton needs to win both Texas and Ohio by 15%+ or she won’t have the necessary delegates to get the Dem nomination. The polls says that she is close to tied in Texas and up by 5-10% in Ohio. So if the polls are close, she doesn’t seem to have a chance. Although I find the term “movement” silly for describing Obama’s campaign and rise from obscurity, I do agree that Barack Obama seems to be close to unstoppable.

“If Obama wins Texas and Ohio, it’s game over,” said CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider. “If Clinton wins Texas and Ohio, it’s game on until someone can figure out how to reach a majority of delegates. That may not happen until the Democratic National Convention in late summer. If Clinton and Obama split Texas and Ohio, it’s a new game.”

I’m not so sure I believe she has that much of a chance. I don’t think that even if they do split these two states, Clinton is going to be the one to back down for the sake of the party in the end.

I really don’t think Hillary has much of a chance at this point. It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow night and to see what the Clinton machine does for their next step.

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Why Brad Callen and His SEO Elite’s Support Didn’t Care About Me, and Probably Won’t Care About You Either

A bunch of years ago, I purchased software called SEO Elite from a guy named Brad Callen. SEO Elite is search engine optimization software that analyzes back links of competitors, among a few other things. For a while it worked great. I initially liked it and used it regularly. Then I had to change computers, and the software never worked right again on my new computer. I contacted their Support and explained my situation.

Whoever was on the other end of Brad Callen’s SEO Elite software Support had a horrendous attitude and not only didn’t help me, but was regularly antagonistic in the emails he/she would send me. They couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working properly on my new PC, and at times suggested I didn’t know what I was doing, or that my computer must have software/hardware problems. I explained that it was a brand new computer, and that SEO Elite didn’t work properly on other computers of mine either. I also explained that ALL the other software on my new PC worked fine, and I had a lot of software on their.

Bottom line: If SEO Elite works properly, it’s decent. But the SEO Elite Support was not only utterly useless, but also rude and condescending. And Brad Callen doesn’t seem to care about his customers, he only cares about getting new customers, in my opinion.

After many painful support tickets and emails later, I had gotten absolutely no where. Finally, Support suggested I contact Brad Callen, the owner/creator of the software (I think). I emailed him and explained the situation. He said he’d look into it, but I never heard back from. So I emailed him again saying I was following up. He never emailed me back. I emailed again and explained that I was probably one of his first customers, that I had purchased SEO Elite when it first came out and had been through many version upgrades, basically that I was an old and loyal customer.

Apparently, Brad couldn’t have cared less about me or my problem. I must have emailed him another ten times, but he never replied again. In one email, I even asked for a refund since the software was basically useless to me. But I never heard from him again. So I guess they don’t give refunds if the software doesn’t work. Finally, I gave up emailing and resigned myself to have crappy, useless software. Ya win some, ya lose some.

I never would have made a post like this. Like I said, I had given up and plus, I had more important things to work on. But what finally got me to write this is Brad Callen’s incessant email blasts to me touting his great SEO Elite software. I got another one today and it reminded me of the whole bad experience. It is very frustrating being regularly reminded of it.

So, my review of the software is this: If you buy it, pray it works fine on your system, because if it doesn’t, you may have a very tough time getting real support or help. And if your experience is anything like mine, you won’t get a refund either. If Brad, the head of it all is this apathetic about his existing customers, I imagine the whole company is like this. I certainly got that from their “Support” as well.

There’s other software out there that is comparable to SEO Elite. In my opinion, try that instead.

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I am reading an interesting book called Crisis, Pursued by Disaster, Followed Closely by Catastrophe which is “a memoir that reveals the layers of bizarre circumstances that set a family on the run, hiding for decades” according to the book. In it, there is a dysfunctional family that travels back and forth from Mexico to the U.S. trying to evade the FBI. It is the age of McCarthyism. It has caused me to start to see similarities between McCarthyism and today’s Patriot Act.

The climate in America during the Hoover days was one of distrust. Communism was the big bad wolf and anyone who sympathized could be suspect. Today just substitute Communism with Terrorism. There is at least one industry that has directly benefited from 9/11, Bush and Iraq; the surveillance industry. This industry has exploded in the last half-decade. Distrust is in the air again today and it’s scary. There is definitely a similarity between between McCarthyism and George Bush’s Patriot Act, in fact, here’s an article about this that was written in 2005.

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Check this out. My uncle is and accountant he needs to get his certifications or something updated every year. But I guess in his industry they offer continuing professional education (CPE) courses in cool destinations so they can brush up on their education and take a vacation they can write off at the same time. So my uncle is going to Hawaii this upcoming year with his family. It’s called a CPE conference. Anyway, it sounded kinda cool so I figured I would mention here.

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Does Watching TV Really Make You Dumb?

TV makes you dumb. But it’s oh-so-good nonetheless. And therein lies the problem. The “boob-tube” is aptly named.

I heard this guy being interviewed the other day who said that his really good friend was a writer for a major TV crime drama on a network station. He said his friend was reprimanded by his superiors for writing plots and dialog that were too complicated and required too much of the viewer’s full attention. He was summarily told to dumb-down his writing to allow for dish-washing watching. In other words, make the plots and dialogs easy enough to follow for a person to be capable of following it while washing the dishes.

Okay, so I think that says it all. A lot of mainstream TV is seriously dumbed down. It is purposefully made for multi-tasking. In fact, I’m watching TV right now as I write this, seriously.

But does it make you dumber? I sometimes envisage the television set silently and invisibly sucking brain cells and synapses out of my brain the minute I switch it on. I imagine that the longer I watch, the more of my brain matter is methodically extracted. I guess this is just a fantasy, but I really do believe it does indeed make you stupid.

Ways TV Makes You Dumber

• TV puts you in a mild trance-like state where your brain shuts down and is left unchallanged (I’m pretty sure there have been studies that have shown that TV does have a hypnotic affect on the brain)
• It rewards you for doing nothing, sort of like a drug, and that can’t be good for you
• It’s a passive activity, non-interactive, so watching TV is something that is being done to you, not with you, again leaving you completely unchallenged.
• TV usually panders to the lowest common intellectually denominator
• It efficiently and all-too-often takes the place of activities that could potentially expand our intelligence, such as conversing, reading, or project undertakings
• Television is intimately tied to advertising and consumerism, so the goal of most programs is to promote capitalism (through commercials and actual program content), and not to represent reality. TV often distorts reality and manipulates meanings in a way that benefits advertisers. Since we have a tendency to believe what we see on TV, our minds are susceptible to being influenced in a way that benefits advertisers and promotes the goals of consumerism, which is often at odds with intelligence.
• TV pushes upon us the erroneous mindset that if we only buy a certain product or service, we’ll be happy. Furthermore, and even more damaging is that this implies that if we are not currently satisfied or happy, then there must be something wrong with us. This is a horrible state of affairs, because as the Buddha so elegantly put it, life is suffering. There is no escape from suffering, and the sooner we accept this, the better off we’ll be. I remember this one commercial I saw for an over-the-counter pain reliever that claimed to be “one more step to a pain-free life”, implying that life is supposed to be pain-free!
• In George Leonard’s book Mastery, Leonard explains that TV shapes our thinking in a way that makes us believe that the outcome is more important than the process, that everything can be achieved, resolved or wrapped up within a specified and short period or time. Again, this is a bastardization of reality. Life simply does not work this way. Most things aren’t black and white. And most things that are worthwhile do not take a half hour or hour to achieve. He explains that both TV shows and commercials present viewers with an unrealistic rhythm of life where problems are encountered and then resolved by the end of the commercial or show, and that it is one climax after another. So watching TV distorts our perception of reality, which makes you less intelligently equipped to deal with the real world.
• Our minds are further warped by constantly watching beautiful people enjoy wonderful lives, called the Beautiful People Syndrome by Ron Kaufman (http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/commentary/syndrome.html) Thus we tend to erroneously believe that our lives ought te be filled with goodness, perfect looks and perfect lives, and that if we don’t have this, then there is something wrong with us.
• Here’s an interesting tidbit of info from http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=805412: Scientists did a calorimetric test to determine energy consumption while watching TV. What they found surprised them. They found that on average people watching TV consumed ten per cent less energy than normal resting energy consumption. That’s right, you actually consume more energy sitting there doing nothing than when you are watching TV. There is a simple explanation. It seems that this is due to the concentration people exert while watching TV reducing the amount of fidgeting and random movement people do. While fidgeting may be a major part of one’s resting energy use, thinking uses up energy, too. The neurons in the brain aren’t very good at holding their own energy for long, so glial cells in the brain constantly transfer energy to the brain cells, energy taken from the blood. So if you keep your body steady but try solving a differential equation, you’ll probably find yourself losing more energy than while sitting and doing nothing at all. Of-course, TV excites neurons in the primary visual areas, but perhaps that’s, on average, as far as it goes ;). We may lose less calories watching TV because we’re not using our brains to think, only to watch.

The problem is that TV often feels so good. It’s the ultimate in laziness. You don’t have to do a thing, it’s done for you and to you without having to put in any effort. You don’t have to participate in life at all when watching TV. It allows you to escape life, avoid your problems and numb your brain. In all these ways, TV is truly like a drug. And those who put people down for abusing alcohol or drugs but then go on to watch too much TV are simply being hypocritical.

I remember when I was a child, I was hooked on TV much to the chagrin of my dad, who is the intellectual type and has always known the dangers of TV. So he handed down a new law that I had to live by. I think it was that I was allowed 2 hours of TV a day and no more. Every time I went over my allotted 2 hours, he took .50 cents out of my allowance. I remember that we never had cable because my dad didn’t want us to have even more temptation. I clearly recall how Stripes starring Bill Murray came out on HBO and everyone at school talked about it endlessly. I felt so left out and deprived. Unfortunately, all that did has made me appreciate TV even more as an adult, and sometimes I catch myself watching way too much on a daily basis.

Child Development and TV

And I have a child on the way now. How am I going to manage and regulate his TV viewing? How should I? I recently read that Baby Einstein, a TV video series that is purported to be good for children’s development is actually bad for them. In the latest study on the effects of popular videos such as the “Baby Einstein” and “Brainy Baby” series, researchers found that these videos may be doing more harm than good. And they may actually delay language development in toddlers. Led by Frederick Zimmerman and Dr. Dimitri Christakis, both at the University of Washington, the research team found that with every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants learned six to eight fewer new vocabulary words than babies who never watched the videos. These products had the strongest detrimental effect on babies 8 to 16 months old, the age at which language skills are starting to form. “The more videos they watched, the fewer words they knew,” says Christakis. “These babies scored about 10% lower on language skills than infants who had not watched these videos.” (from http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1650352,00.html). Interactivity is paramount for the development of babies. Face time with people trumps passive TV watching every time.

We have a brand new HD LCD flat screen that is huge. I absolutely love it and it has inevitably increased my television consumption. It’s like one side of our living room has been transformed into a massive wall of entertainment. It calls to me at all hours of the day and night and I can’t get enough of it. How on Earth am I going to be able to limit my child’s TV watching when I love it and have a huge new HDTV?! I knew it was stupid to have purchased it.

But I really think TV makes you dumb, so I guess I am going to have to be strong and seriously limit my child’s viewing.

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After watching the latest Republican presidential debate made me realize that more and more people, (these potential presidents) but especially this current administration, and frighteningly some average Americans have really lost regard for the U.S. Constitution. When asked if the president should go to Congress first before going to war, all except Ron Paul and unbelievably Rudi Gulliani, said that they’d like to go to Congress if they had time, but would most likely just do what they had to do to protect America.

Do they not realize that Congress has to approve war? After Pearl Harbor and 9/11, Congress was assembled the very next day, it would almost take longer for the military to get assembled for crying out loud!

Here are a few excerpts from a bone-chilling article from Naomi Wolf:

But legal rights activists at the Center for Constitutional Rights say that the Bush administration is trying increasingly aggressively to find ways to get around giving even US citizens fair trials. “Enemy combatant” is a status offence - it is not even something you have to have done. “We have absolutely moved over into a preventive detention model - you look like you could do something bad, you might do something bad, so we’re going to hold you,” says a spokeswoman of the CCR. . .

. . . Even as Americans were focused on Britney Spears’s meltdown and the question of who fathered Anna Nicole’s baby, the New York Times editorialised about this shift: “A disturbing recent phenomenon in Washington is that laws that strike to the heart of American democracy have been passed in the dead of night … Beyond actual insurrection, the president may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack or any ‘other condition’.”

Critics see this as a clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act - which was meant to restrain the federal government from using the military for domestic law enforcement.

Of course the entire wire-tapping issue is another example of the Constitution getting fucked. Here’s another excerpt from the same article:

In 2005 and 2006, when James Risen and Eric Lichtblau wrote in the New York Times about a secret state programme to wiretap citizens’ phones, read their emails and follow international financial transactions, it became clear to ordinary Americans that they, too, could be under state scrutiny.

Also, did you know that the federal government was able to make Google hand over user information while “looking for terrorists”? Do you have any idea how much data Google has on almost every one of us? Feel like the Constitution is getting screwed? How about we’re all getting screwed, little by little, piece by piece, and we ought to be at least a little frightened.

For a more in-depth look at all this, see Naomi Wolf’s book on the same subject as the article I cited above called The End of America

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Top Three Public Etiquette Annoyances

1. If I’m walking out of a store and passing through the front door and you’re headed into the store, and I hold the door for you, say “Thanks”.
2. If I’m waiting in line and you need to get past me and you walk directly in front of me, say “Excuse me”.
3. If you’re waiting on a side street trying to get into the main flow of traffic and I stop and let you go, give me a little hand wave to say “thanks”.

Every morning, I drive a couple of blocks from my house to go to a Dunkin Donuts to grab a cup of coffee and all three of these things will usually happen. It’s on a main street in my downtown, and so there’s always slow-moving traffic in front of the coffee shop and there’s usually a line of cars trying to get back onto the main street I’m on. Since the traffic is moving slowly, I usually pause and let a car in. Invariably, they’ll just pull onto the main street without any acknowledgment. They won’t say ‘thanks’ or give me a perfunctory wave or anything, as if it was their god-given right to get in.

I’ll then park and begin to walk into the coffee shop and there will be a person also walking in a few yards behind me. I’ll pause after I open the door and hold it open for the person behind me. Invariably, they won’t acknowledge the fact that I waited and held the door open for them. Again, they act as if they expect the door to be hed for them.

Then I’ll be waiting in the long line and someone will need to get across the shop to get to another line or leave and instead of going behind the line to get to where they’re going, they’ll walk right in front of me, causing me to have to back up a bit, and they won’t say “excuse me”.

Rude and Inconsiderate People Suck

The people who do these things are assholes. They are ignorant and rude and mean people suck.

Were people never taught politeness? Was my mom the only mother on Earth who taught etiquette?

If you’re waiting to get into the main flow of traffic, and someone is nice enough to let you in, for god’s sake, give them a little wave of thanks, will you? Is it that hard? Are you that much of a douche bag that you can’t even acknowledge the person’s niceness? They didn’t need to let you in, so since they did, return the favor by acknowledging their consideration.

If someone is nice enough to hold the door open for you, be a human being and say “thanks”. It doesn’t take any effort at all and it’s the right thing to do. Don’t take people’s kindness for granted.

And if you cross directly in front of a person who is standing in place somewhere, say “excuse me”. Again, it takes no effort and it’s the right thing to do. The world doesn’t revolve around you. No one needs to hold the door open for you, or leave you space to pass in front of them , or let you in the line of traffic. So if they do, don’t be an asshole - acknowledge their kindness. When I don’t get a ‘thanks’, it makes me less motivated to do it again for someone else the next time. I start to think that all people suck.

I predict that if more and more people fail to be polite, we’ll eventually get to the point where no one will ever hold doors open for people or let people in their line of traffic. Let’s not let it get to that point. Don’t be a mean and inconsiderate person who sucks. Don’t be an asshole.

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General David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker testified in front of Congress the last few days and the whole thing has made me delve deeper into a depression at the current political landscape than I ever thought possible. There are a few take-a ways that I just have to mention here, as they disgust me to no end.

At the hearings on Tuesday Sept. 11th, Senator Warner (a Republican) asked General Petraeus if the Iraq War has made (or is making) it safer overall for the U.S. Don’t forget, General David Petraeus is the head of the entire Iraq War campaign, so if anyone should have a handle on this, he should. Astonishingly and sadly, Petraeus’s answered that he “didn’t know”. First, he should know. I mean, he’s got around 150,000 troops risking their life and limb every days under him, and for what? This may be the first time a top military leader has said this regarding a foreign American war.

What’s even sadder is that I suspect his “I don’t know” answer really means “no”! At this point, only the blind still believes that the Iraq War has not actually given more reasons to hate America and helped recruit new terrorists. Petraeus knows that the Iraq war has been nothing short of a catalyst for American hate. Bin Laden got his wish, to get a semi-permanent American military presence in the Middle East to act as a lighting rod for all unemployed, uneducated young Muslim men.

The second thing that drives me crazy Petraeus’s testimony before the U.S. Congress is what The Daily Show with Jon Stewart showed last night. It showed clips, one after the other, of various George W. Bush statements about the “surge” and the current state of the American occupation of Iraq interspersed with Petraeus’s testimony. The two of them obviously are reading from the exact same script. Once in a while Petraeus would use a synonym to alter the message slightly from his Commander in Chief’s, but he’s basically parroting the ‘official’ White House spin.  MoveOn.org printed a headline that said:

“Gernal Petraeus or General Betray Us?”

Lastly, and this is really pathetic, when Petraeus or Bush or any of the other Neo-con’s talk about what is going to happen with the war, what exactly the “surge” will do, or how things are going to turn out, they always say that no one can predict the future. They say it’s impossible to know what is going to happen, only that we can hope and plan on “success”. Of course they have not defined “success”, nor can they. It’s a moving target for Bush that has slowly descended from giving Iraq a free and Democratic government to now simply reducing car bombings.

So Bush, Petraeus and company cannot predict the future if we stay in Iraq, they admit it. But these same people can perfectly predict the future IF we pull out! They know that chaos will be imminent. They know it will be disastrous. They know it will be horrible for the region and for the U.S. I just love how they pick and choose when they can predict the future and when they can’t based on what serves them best.

What’s the saddest of all is that American’s are coming home with missing limbs or in body bags, all for nothing. I am duly impressed with the courage and loyalty of our American soldiers for carrying out their duties overseas, but I wish they were home safe and sound instead, and protecting America.

The Iraq War has been the greatest recruiting tool for Al Queda EVER! What are we doing there?! Why didn’t we spend the money that we wasted in Iraq on protecting our borders here in the U.S.? Petraeus has all but said the Iraq war has not made the U.S. safer.

By the way, if you’re interested, read an article in latest issue of Rolling Stones called The Great Iraq Swindle

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Bad Drivers Suck

Why are some many people really bad at driving? I find myself hating pretty much all drivers. I hate young men (or old boys) who drive like crazy fools, weaving in and out like a cocaine-laden woman in labor trying to make it to the ER. I hate that they’re putting my life in danger because they think they’re invincible. I hate old people who drive 25 miles under the speed limit and who can barely see over the steering wheel. (I know I’m going to get old some day (if I’m lucky, that is) and so I try to have patience with the elderly, but . . . get outta the way!

Gotta Get One Car-Length Ahead!

But here are a few of the things that really drive me nuts. Let’s say I am minding my own business, driving along in the fast lane on the highway, passing cars on my right, and staying a considerate distance away from the car ahead me, who’s doing the same for the car ahead of him. What I hate is the guy behind me veering into the right lane quickly, then passing me on the right hand side, and then cutting me off just to get one car-length ahead. What the hell?! Why do people have to do this? Does it really make them feel better to get 30 yards farther along in the fast lane than they were before?

Sunday Driving in the Fast Lane

Am I the only one in the fricken’ world who know that the fast lane is for driving fast and passing other cars? I absolutely hate when someone is taking a slow, Sunday drive down the fast lane, getting passed by cars on his right, but refuses to move over himself. Why do you torture people?! If you’re gonna drive 50 mile per hour, don’t do it in the fast lane. And if I come up behind you, move the fuck over! The fast lane is for passing, not dawdling!

Fast Lane Tailgating

On the flip side of the stubborn fast lane slowpoke is the antsy guy who comes roaring up behind you in the fast lane when there are a million more cars ahead of you. This guy rides your bumper trying to tell you to get out of the way. But I’m doing 80 mph and there’s a guy in front of me doing the same, and one in front of him, and so on. I wonder if my tailgater is trying to push the line of 50 cars out of the way by tailgating everyone. Chill out, there’s no where for anyone to go!

Cutting Me Off After a Red Light

Ok, so there’s a road near my house that has two lanes leading up to a stop light around a slight bend. The right lane is for traffic going straight through the light, and the left lane is for left turn only. Since most people are going straight, the right lane builds cars up faster at a red light than the left lane. Every single goddamn day there’s invariably someone who zooms past me on the right as I wait in the big line of cars for the light to turn green. When it turns green, I have to wait while that guy puts his right blinker on and cuts off someone ahead of me to get back in the lane going straight. WTF?! Are you kidding me? Can’t you follow the rules? I know you know the left lane is for left turns only, you just gotta get ahead by a few cars. You’re lame. Wait in line like the rest of us!

Highway Far Right Lane Campers 

Here’s another one. Don’t drive in the far right lane on the highway and not get over when people are trying to merge onto the highway. Unless you’re getting off at the next exit, and the exit is real close. Otherwise let me get on the highway. Why are you in that lane? I especially hate when they act surprised when they seem me trying to merge. Don’t you realize people are trying to get on the highway and you’re supposed to let them in. If you hate letting people in, get oughtta that lane dummy.

I know that I have done all the things I’ve mentioned above at one time or another, sometimes because I’m in a serious rush. And I imagine there’s some other annoying blogger like me out there bitching about my driving. But I don’t do it often. I get the feeling that many people who do these things do them every single time they get behind the wheel. The road is a place where everyone is just trying to get where they’re going in a decent amount of time all in one piece. I wish people could chill the hell out and stop making a habit of getting one car-length ahead.

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Like the cries for help from a victim getting ignored, most of us share in the collective disregard for the current all-out assault on Earth’s species.

Here are the opening paragraphs of the Catherine Genovese murder story that was published in the New York Times in March of 1964:

“For more than half an hour thirty-eight respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens.

Twice the sound of their voices and the sudden glow of their bedroom lights interrupted him and frightened him off. Each time he returned, sought her out, and stabbed her again. Not one person telephoned the police during the assault; one witness called after the woman was dead.”

How could thirty-eight respectable citizens stand by and do nothing to help this poor woman? Many explained that it had to do with big-city apathy and our modern society’s slide into selfishness and indifference.

Two New York-based psychology professors Bibb Latane and John Darley posited that the thirty-eight people all failed to call the police because of social proof reasons. They argued that each person probably thought someone else must have surely made the call already.

They also suggested pluralistic ignorance may have been part of the cause too. This simply means that in distressful times, we often look around at how others are acting and key off their behavior. So if we’re unsure if something really is an emergency, we look for clues in the people around us, and if they’re not panicking or doing anything, we conclude that it must not be an emergency. They looked out the window and saw others ignoring the pleas, so they may have surmised there was nothing to worry about.

The way most of the world’s population today is overlooking the ongoing and unprecedented destruction of our world’s species and habitats seems eerily similar to the way those thirty-eight bystanders ignored Catherine Genovese’s screams back in 1964.

The Earth’s entire ecosystem is under attack and the vast majority of people are doing nothing. Why? Maybe it’s apathy, greed, selfishness or pluralistic ignorance. Maybe everyone thinks someone else will take care of the problem. Maybe people think they’ll be dead long before it affects them. Maybe it’s a combination of all of these reasons.

Thankfully there are some scientists, ecologists, professors and environmentalists who are fighting to save our world, but they represent a tiny and sad fraction of us all.

I am writing this to try and enlist many more people to first realize the emergency we’re presently facing and next to be moved to take some kind of action. This means you.

The World Conservation Union and its Red List

A study recently released by the World Conservation Union, a coalition of leading conservation groups, says that more than 11,000 plants and animals could be extinct within the first few decades of the 21st century. It says one of every four mammals and one of every eight birds could face extinction. Although the extinction of various species is an ongoing natural phenomenon and has happened at accelerated rates in Earth’s past, the rate of extinction occurring in today’s world is exceptional — as many as 100 to1,000 times greater than natural rates found in the fossil record, Dr. Donald A. Levin said in the January-February issue of American Scientist magazine.

In 2004 the World Conservation Union issued its “Red List”, an annual report on the conservation status of species. They called the 2004 report “the most comprehensive evaluation ever undertaken of the status of the world’s biodiversity.”

The following is taken from the 2004 Red List’s Executive Summary:

• 15,589 species (7,266 animal species and 8,323 plant and lichen species) are now considered at risk of extinction — an increase of 3,330 species since the 2003 Red List. The increase is largely due to the fact that scientists have finally been able to assess all of the world’s amphibians.
• Among major species groups, the percentage of threatened species ranges between 12% and 52%.
• 12% of birds are threatened, 23% of mammals, and 32% of amphibians.
• The numbers of threatened species are increasing across almost all major taxonomic groups.
• Most threatened species occur in the tropics, especially on mountains and on islands.
• Countries that have the most threatened species tend to be those that are least able to invest significant resources into conservation.

Scientists believe that the Earth has experienced five other mass extinctions in its history, often called the “Big Five”. They all agree that we are now in the Sixth Extinction called the Holocene extinction event. The previous extinction periods were triggered by physical causes, such as impact events like meteors, large movements by tectonic plates or high volcanic activity. These natural events all led to climate change which then caused mass extinction.

The observed rate of extinction has accelerated dramatically in the last 50 years however, to a pace far greater than the rate seen during each of the Big Five.

Humanity is Causing this Mass Extinction

This current extinction period is being caused by humans. By entering new ecosystems which had never before experienced the human presence, people have disrupted the ecological balance by hunting, transmitting diseases and most significantly, habitat destruction.

We now routinely breech the “carrying-capacity” of many ecosystems and environments today. Because of mass human population growth we’re putting more and more stress on natural environments with various devastating activities. The top activities humans engage in that are responsible for the destruction of the world’s environments are:

• Habitat destruction
• Tropical deforestation
• Coral destruction
• Excessive fishing
• Overexploitation of species
• The introduction of alien species
• Soil contamination
• Air, water and land pollution
• The release of greenhouse gases causing global warming

The debate about global warming is silly. When I hear people say they don’t believe in global warming or say not to worry because the Earth has gone through it before, I am reminded of 13^th Century people arrogantly still bellowing that the world is flat. Usually, a person disregards global warming because they are either blindly repeating American conservative Republican talking points or have a hidden agenda that gives them some kind of financial benefit by conveniently ignoring human-caused climate change.

When someone says that the Earth has experienced this in the past so we should not be alarmed, I get frustrated because they seem to be ignorant of this fact:

Though natural amounts of CO2 have varied from 180 to 300 parts per million (ppm), today’s CO2 levels are around 380 ppm. That’s 25% more than the highest natural levels over the past 650,000 years. Today’s abnormally high temperatures and CO2 concentrations come from the burning of fossil fuels.

Even if we leave global warming out of the equation, the exponential population growth the world is experiencing is destroying ecosystems as well. More and more people are being born and living longer. Agriculture, resource exploitation and the increased need for living space all contribute to the systematic destruction of the world’s habitats and species.

Species Extinction Follows Habitat Destruction

When habitats go, species annihilation and extinction follow. Like termites slowly gnawing away at one’s home, humanity’s blind and unchecked advance on the environment will eventually bring the whole house down.

But population growth in itself does not need to be so damaging to habitats and therefore species. Population growth in conjunction with total lack of planning and disregard for its effects on various environments is the real problem. This disregard is sadly the result of short-sightedness, lack of oversight and the greedy desire for short-term financial gains.

Does it matter? I believe it does. There are most likely solutions to many of humanity’s problems in the very natural resources that we’re destroying. For example, we may find new energy solutions and medicines in environments we’re conquering. The biodiversity in the Amazon is considered a potentially excellent source for future medicines and pharmaceutical knowledge.

Humanity is like an ape with a club swinging wildly in a modern day living room. We have no idea what we’re destroying, and we never will unless we stop swinging. Our cleverness in developing technology and creating ways to live longer and better may be our downfall.

And there are most likely consequences that we simply don’t know now. Never mind being a tree-hugging liberal, never mind “going green”, never mind Democrats vs. Republicans, regardless of who you are, causing a global mass extinction, and not trying to stop it, is just wrong.

But there is hope. Many people work every day to educate others and to improve conservation and spread the word. There are technologies that are being developed or on the verge of being invented that could solve many conservation and habitat destruction issues. Long term planning often creates more financial abundance than short-term gains. Globally threatened species require a combination of conservation acts and collective action from large groups of people and nations who are willing to work together for a better future.

Consider this article like a man leaning out the window on that fateful night in 1964 to warn you that Catherine Genovese’s murder could be stopped if you just took some kind of action now.

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I have not seen Michael Moore’s new documentary called Sicko yet but I plan to. In the meantime, I have been witnessing the ridiculous uproar the mindless, parroting and UNcompassionate-conservative right have been making regarding Moore and this new movie.

First, how can anyone say Michael Moore is unpatriotic? Because he deosn’t like to see Detroit auto-workers’ jobs move overseas? Because he doesn’t want guns in schools? Because he dared question why the entire Bin Laden family was flown out of the U.S during the 9/11 aftermath even though all commercial planes across America were grounded and even though we immediately thought Osama was behind the attacks? Because he finds the current U.S. health care system sick?

When I hear a righty say Michael Moore is not a patriot, I am confident they are only repeating something they heard, that they didn’t really think it through. I recently read Simpleology and in it I was educated about how people use various verbal gymnastics to spread their opinions. One way is to call anyone who opposes you or your agenda ‘unpatriotic’. What a joke.

What makes Moore so very patriotic is that he has the balls and intelligence to suggest that his beloved country is making some mistakes and that we ought to look at all sides of a story to make America and every one of our lives as best as can be. The minute you stop questioning things is the minute you begin the slide into tyranny.

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