I'm jumping straight into writing before I lose my train of thought, I'll discuss lack of recent writing another time. Here we go...
Anyone who has spent time with me that past few weeks knows that it's been relatively crappy. The news of Brad, a series of poor grades on tests I had taken, and concern over issues my friends were facing were serious problems I was facing. I've always had to deal with problems in my life, but I deal with them much differently than even say, a year ago. I still mope, I still bitch to anyone within earshot, but the essential difference is that I no longer dread the coming of the next day, something I have done since I can remember. The fear of what's to come and the failures that might await me if I were to confront the world absolutely terrified me to the point where I'd do anything to escape it.
Today, I welcome the coming day, because it gives me the opportunity to succeed where I might have failed the day previously. For example, I mentioned I did poorly on a series of tests. The first instance was an Earth Science test I studied pretty rigorously for, yet not 20 minutes before I left to take the test, I found out about Brad's death. It was under those unfortunate circumstances that I took the test, and I finished an hour long test in about 10 minutes. I got a 77. I had gotten a 100 on the previous test so this was a big let down for me. That weekend I bummed around while my brother was down and didn't get much done. I knew I had a math test the following week and it was written down on my calender for Thursday. Unfortunately the test was Tuesday, I had written the date wrong, and showed up unprepared. I got a 75. Those were my two worst test grades so far in college, and I was very depressed about the matter. But not once did I begin to dread class this week. I was very anxious to get back, because I had a test today in Astronomy. I got an 83.
The reason I bring this extended example up, is because I knew I would feel happy after I did well(83 isn't spectacular, but it's Astronomy so I'm pleased) on a test. And the reason why happiness is the topic of this post today is because I read something that disturbed me. It was a status on Facebook saying "Happiness is due to forgetting about the world's woes, and being forgotten by the world." Another lad said that "happiness is nothing more than an illusion created by being oblivious to the world around us."
About two years ago, I would've said that these were kids that really understood the way things are, I agree with them 100%. But I've come to learn they're wrong. Very wrong. There is happiness on this earth. You must work for it, you must earn it. It is definitely not a right, not something to be given to you if you're lucky. Happiness is something you can make for yourself. In fact, to be happy, you must embrace the world around you. I make happiness for myself by doing the best at everything I can, and enjoying the rewards. Do right by your friends and be there for them, and they will be great companions and you will have great times. Maintain a somewhat orderly lifestyle and you will be able to enjoy a life with less worry. Try hard in your studies and you will be rewarded with the options of a future of your choosing, of your liking. I failed to do this, and my options were severely limited, to work minimum wage for the rest of my life or community college. At the time of my deciding I was angry, bitter, and very depressed. Now I'm thankful for even being given the option of community college, it's something I barely worked for and hardly deserved.
I can assure any person who reads this. You will not be happy by sitting around and doing the very least you can to get by. It's a vicious cycle where nothing good happens to you, and you begin to seek nothing good in life. That's where these views come from. I've always been a pessimistic asshole, and that will never change at heart, but when people tell you that you have to work hard, you have to apply yourself, you have to blah blah blah we've all heard it, there is something to this statement. For some reason or another, some of us fail to see it. But it's true. I find myself fulfilled every time I complete a task around the house, finish a paper, get a 5:1 kill/death ratio in MW2, help a friend, learn a new thing, but most importantly, challenge an authority. That is what makes me happy. Arguing my case before someone that I am right and they are wrong, and here's irrefutable evidence and reason as to why(which seems to be an activity an optimist would enjoy, not a pessimist, so maybe I'm wrong about myself). That's what I enjoy doing, and that's why some of my best friends are idiot liberals.
So, my message and reason for writing this is to 1) talk about me and 2) help show troubled people that happiness is really right in front of them, available to them(and everyone in a free society), and achievable only through action and a desire to do well. If you don't possess a desire to do well, consider the long term consequences of never finding one, and then begin!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The Super Awesome Post
Ok so it's been going on a month or so since the last post and I sincerely apologize. I stopped writing about the time I started studying for finals(3.75 GPA first semester!), I just started adding on other projects to accomplish, so I'm compensating for my neglect with The Super Awesome Post. I'm going to make this post as super awesome as possible. Here's a bunch of stories condensed and fitted for your screen.
EVERYONE turned 18 this December(except sean, and me, turning 19) so all of us decided to go to the casino to enjoy our new found right to gamble. I have no idea where Milutin was at this point. Anyways! We go to the hardrock in Hollywood and we play the slots. I made 10 dollars right away. Jason was out a 40 spot early. Then we got kicked off the floor because you have to be 21 to play the slots. So we hit up the hardrock cafe. I got a huge steak, I dropped close to fitty on the meal with tip. We went to sit down to play poker but we couldn't all get on the same table. So instead of just admitting defeat, we go to another casino! Seminole Coconut Creek. I sat down first at a limit 1-2 table, and the guys slowly joined as people left. The buy in was 50 bucks. Kris left with about half his money, being the wisest of us, Jason left with nothing(he was out a hundo+ for the night easy), and I was down about 10-20 dollars(+a very nice steak) after I won a big hand right before I was about to leave. Matt, on the other hand, played just about every hand, and went up big on a hand after he won. My brother was sitting at the table, for reasons I'm not quite sure(he went to a panther game that night and then went up like 400 bucks playing black jack at the hardrock), and he asked what he won with. "Pair of sevens BRO!" and after that I think we made a gambler out of Matt. He continued to see every flop. We all got up and left, but Matt remained on the table. He wouldn't leave. Finally after about 5 texts and 10 minutes, he abandoned his new found gambling addiction a few bucks down and we cashed in and left. Afterwards we went to my place and drank the night away. Milutin(who made it for the drinking aspect of this night) ended up in my bed and I was unable to sleep, so I took a bath and read Atlas Shrugged, then drove to the apartment. My mom the next morning was pissed I drove after drinking, and I simply proclaimed, "I don't care how piss wasted you are, after two hours of reading that book, you're sober as hell."
I recently had a dream that the fabled Heineken Heinekeg(that I stole from Ashley Bray) was stolen, and I had to go on an adventure with Ashley to get it back. All she did was bitch the entire trip and complain about how dumb I was. Of course, I was awoken early in the morning in pain with an actual migrane from all the bitching. I crawled across the floor to ensure the Heinkeg was safe and then returned to bed to try to sleep in agony.
Another dream of note was getting attacked by ZOMBIE JUGGERNAUTS. For those of you who don't play CoD, zombies you're already familiar with but Juggernauts you may not be. Juggernauts are this big fucking guys with every inch of the body covered with lots and lots of body armor. Like Jedi, Sharingan possessors, or clones of Dick Cheney, it's very tough to kill one, and damn near impossible to kill a group. In CoD: World at War, you can fight Nazi Zombies. That's hard enough. In CoD: Modern Warfare 2, you fight Russian Juggernauts. That's a pain in the ass. In my sick twisted fucking mind, I fight ZOMBIE JUGGERNAUTS. It was terrible. I had two desert eagles, and I was in a small confined series of rooms(the Pentagon?), and they just started attacking me. I'd empty entire clips into their heads and they wouldn't go down. I just remember having the guns knocked out of my hands before I woke up. I grabbed my phone and texted Kris telling him to come hold me.
Over break I read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and it has affected me in so many ways I could, should, and want to write a book about it, but this is one instance worth noting. After reading it, what little faith remained in my being was in jeopardy. I kind of put my catholic faith to the side and decided not to think about it. I've always been at odds with belief in God and although I envy those who do believe, I cannot do it myself. I found my footing recently when I saw a status online saying "If man's life is ruled solely by reason, all life is lost" or something along those lines. Reading this I immediately thought "Here is the enemy!" and posted a retort in defense of reason, saying reason is the ONLY thing that should rule a man's life. The lad argued destiny controlled a man's life, to which I replied in short, if a man charges at me with a knife, it's reason that moves me out of the way, not destiny. Unless I choose to get stabbed, which is always my choice. It was then that I realized my comments were deleted. I reposted one and it got deleted again. I thought, did he really just delete my comments? Am I an asshole for challenging his beliefs, or an educator? And then I went on with my day not bothered by my deleted comments because I was right, and reason was defended. I made him think at least. I later texted my friend Justin Karpf that night to tell him I was wrong everytime I defended faith and argued with him for hours on end about it. It was one of the easiest and most difficult things I've ever done. I feel only slight remorse for abandoning Catholicism, because I was baptised a catholic by my grandfathers wishes, and he was a great man. Perhaps it's not totally abandoned, but simply a sham relationship to make people happy. Like a politician.
I recently started playing WoW again, but luckily, tennis is also back in season, so I'm getting more net exercise than before I started playing WoW. WoW is a bit more user friendly these days for noobs like me, and Milly and I are getting better at serving in tennis. Our ball handling skills have gotten better too.
This semester I originally registered for Descriptive Astronomy, AMH from 1865, ENC1102, and Statistics. However, the school screwed me over by giving Dr. Hill(my professor) all AMH to 1865 classes and put me in with some other guy. I loved Dr. Hill so much I decided I’d wait to take him this summer, so I had to register for a new class. I picked Intro to Fiction Writing. The ratings online for the professor were good and they all said he was a hippie. I thought it might be interesting to learn from a hippie. I was very, very, very wrong. I left after about 12 minutes in his class, and vowed to never, ever go back. It was a dreadful experience. I went home that night and dropped the class, and signed up for an Earth Science class on Wednesday nights. The professor is an older black guy(I call him Professor NoSwagger) who has no business teaching an 8th grade science class. I find him more educational than the hippie.
I got a new 46” Sanyo HDTV for Christmas this year. Just thought I’d let you know.
I saw a kid I knew who was a few years older than me and a total idiot in high school that I really didn’t like working at Subway recently. It made me really happy.
Green Bay made it to the playoffs and got knocked out by the Cardinals. But it's ok because Drew Breeees handled the Vikings and Brett lost another NFC championship for his team by throwing a stupid pick. Go Saints!
As some of you may know, I am a total Boss at CoD4: Modern Warfare. Well Modern Warfare 2 came out awhile ago, and the story is cool but its a pretty big and unrealistic leap from the first game which made me sad, because I thought the first one had a spectacular story line. Anyways, I'm not sure if it's because I was such a boss at the first game and I'm struggling to adapt to the new one or if the new game just isn't as good, but I can hardly ever bring myself to play online. I played online the whole first week and then after I set up the new tv and organized all my games, I started playing other stuff(Star Wars: Battlefront 2, still the best game ever). I have almost 25 PS3 games, and about 10 older ps2 games I've found. I also have the N64 and Super Nintendo with every game you could possibly want in stock as well. I owe a belated great thanks to my brother for letting me steal the N64 and Super Nintendo while he's in law school, I hope I get to put them to good use.
Kris and I have been doing the Spec Ops on CoD:MW2 and our goal is to beat every stage on the hardest level by the end of college, whenever that comes. We have about 4 levels left, two of which are insanely difficult. We got this!
I've withdrawn and recalled every cent I have in my bank account and investments to invest it all in Mountain Dew Voltage, because it is absolute GOLD.
Here's a funny picture I doodled on of Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic being Novak Djokervic. Don't sue me(who am I kidding?)!
EVERYONE turned 18 this December(except sean, and me, turning 19) so all of us decided to go to the casino to enjoy our new found right to gamble. I have no idea where Milutin was at this point. Anyways! We go to the hardrock in Hollywood and we play the slots. I made 10 dollars right away. Jason was out a 40 spot early. Then we got kicked off the floor because you have to be 21 to play the slots. So we hit up the hardrock cafe. I got a huge steak, I dropped close to fitty on the meal with tip. We went to sit down to play poker but we couldn't all get on the same table. So instead of just admitting defeat, we go to another casino! Seminole Coconut Creek. I sat down first at a limit 1-2 table, and the guys slowly joined as people left. The buy in was 50 bucks. Kris left with about half his money, being the wisest of us, Jason left with nothing(he was out a hundo+ for the night easy), and I was down about 10-20 dollars(+a very nice steak) after I won a big hand right before I was about to leave. Matt, on the other hand, played just about every hand, and went up big on a hand after he won. My brother was sitting at the table, for reasons I'm not quite sure(he went to a panther game that night and then went up like 400 bucks playing black jack at the hardrock), and he asked what he won with. "Pair of sevens BRO!" and after that I think we made a gambler out of Matt. He continued to see every flop. We all got up and left, but Matt remained on the table. He wouldn't leave. Finally after about 5 texts and 10 minutes, he abandoned his new found gambling addiction a few bucks down and we cashed in and left. Afterwards we went to my place and drank the night away. Milutin(who made it for the drinking aspect of this night) ended up in my bed and I was unable to sleep, so I took a bath and read Atlas Shrugged, then drove to the apartment. My mom the next morning was pissed I drove after drinking, and I simply proclaimed, "I don't care how piss wasted you are, after two hours of reading that book, you're sober as hell."
I recently had a dream that the fabled Heineken Heinekeg(that I stole from Ashley Bray) was stolen, and I had to go on an adventure with Ashley to get it back. All she did was bitch the entire trip and complain about how dumb I was. Of course, I was awoken early in the morning in pain with an actual migrane from all the bitching. I crawled across the floor to ensure the Heinkeg was safe and then returned to bed to try to sleep in agony.
Another dream of note was getting attacked by ZOMBIE JUGGERNAUTS. For those of you who don't play CoD, zombies you're already familiar with but Juggernauts you may not be. Juggernauts are this big fucking guys with every inch of the body covered with lots and lots of body armor. Like Jedi, Sharingan possessors, or clones of Dick Cheney, it's very tough to kill one, and damn near impossible to kill a group. In CoD: World at War, you can fight Nazi Zombies. That's hard enough. In CoD: Modern Warfare 2, you fight Russian Juggernauts. That's a pain in the ass. In my sick twisted fucking mind, I fight ZOMBIE JUGGERNAUTS. It was terrible. I had two desert eagles, and I was in a small confined series of rooms(the Pentagon?), and they just started attacking me. I'd empty entire clips into their heads and they wouldn't go down. I just remember having the guns knocked out of my hands before I woke up. I grabbed my phone and texted Kris telling him to come hold me.
Over break I read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and it has affected me in so many ways I could, should, and want to write a book about it, but this is one instance worth noting. After reading it, what little faith remained in my being was in jeopardy. I kind of put my catholic faith to the side and decided not to think about it. I've always been at odds with belief in God and although I envy those who do believe, I cannot do it myself. I found my footing recently when I saw a status online saying "If man's life is ruled solely by reason, all life is lost" or something along those lines. Reading this I immediately thought "Here is the enemy!" and posted a retort in defense of reason, saying reason is the ONLY thing that should rule a man's life. The lad argued destiny controlled a man's life, to which I replied in short, if a man charges at me with a knife, it's reason that moves me out of the way, not destiny. Unless I choose to get stabbed, which is always my choice. It was then that I realized my comments were deleted. I reposted one and it got deleted again. I thought, did he really just delete my comments? Am I an asshole for challenging his beliefs, or an educator? And then I went on with my day not bothered by my deleted comments because I was right, and reason was defended. I made him think at least. I later texted my friend Justin Karpf that night to tell him I was wrong everytime I defended faith and argued with him for hours on end about it. It was one of the easiest and most difficult things I've ever done. I feel only slight remorse for abandoning Catholicism, because I was baptised a catholic by my grandfathers wishes, and he was a great man. Perhaps it's not totally abandoned, but simply a sham relationship to make people happy. Like a politician.
I recently started playing WoW again, but luckily, tennis is also back in season, so I'm getting more net exercise than before I started playing WoW. WoW is a bit more user friendly these days for noobs like me, and Milly and I are getting better at serving in tennis. Our ball handling skills have gotten better too.
This semester I originally registered for Descriptive Astronomy, AMH from 1865, ENC1102, and Statistics. However, the school screwed me over by giving Dr. Hill(my professor) all AMH to 1865 classes and put me in with some other guy. I loved Dr. Hill so much I decided I’d wait to take him this summer, so I had to register for a new class. I picked Intro to Fiction Writing. The ratings online for the professor were good and they all said he was a hippie. I thought it might be interesting to learn from a hippie. I was very, very, very wrong. I left after about 12 minutes in his class, and vowed to never, ever go back. It was a dreadful experience. I went home that night and dropped the class, and signed up for an Earth Science class on Wednesday nights. The professor is an older black guy(I call him Professor NoSwagger) who has no business teaching an 8th grade science class. I find him more educational than the hippie.
I got a new 46” Sanyo HDTV for Christmas this year. Just thought I’d let you know.
I saw a kid I knew who was a few years older than me and a total idiot in high school that I really didn’t like working at Subway recently. It made me really happy.
Green Bay made it to the playoffs and got knocked out by the Cardinals. But it's ok because Drew Breeees handled the Vikings and Brett lost another NFC championship for his team by throwing a stupid pick. Go Saints!
As some of you may know, I am a total Boss at CoD4: Modern Warfare. Well Modern Warfare 2 came out awhile ago, and the story is cool but its a pretty big and unrealistic leap from the first game which made me sad, because I thought the first one had a spectacular story line. Anyways, I'm not sure if it's because I was such a boss at the first game and I'm struggling to adapt to the new one or if the new game just isn't as good, but I can hardly ever bring myself to play online. I played online the whole first week and then after I set up the new tv and organized all my games, I started playing other stuff(Star Wars: Battlefront 2, still the best game ever). I have almost 25 PS3 games, and about 10 older ps2 games I've found. I also have the N64 and Super Nintendo with every game you could possibly want in stock as well. I owe a belated great thanks to my brother for letting me steal the N64 and Super Nintendo while he's in law school, I hope I get to put them to good use.
Kris and I have been doing the Spec Ops on CoD:MW2 and our goal is to beat every stage on the hardest level by the end of college, whenever that comes. We have about 4 levels left, two of which are insanely difficult. We got this!
I've withdrawn and recalled every cent I have in my bank account and investments to invest it all in Mountain Dew Voltage, because it is absolute GOLD.
Here's a funny picture I doodled on of Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic being Novak Djokervic. Don't sue me(who am I kidding?)!
My Paint skills are absurd.
For those of you who haven't seen The Book of Eli yet, I suggest you do so as soon as possible, because it's friggin amazing. In all honesty, I will probably place it at the top of my favorite movies of all time list. I won't ruin anything with spoilers yet, I'll make an individual post after the bluray(no longer the day of dvds) release. Just let it be known that Book of Eli is to Mayo as Metropolis was to Hitler.
Jay Mariotti is the biggest DOUCHE in the entire universe.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
What do Afghanistan, Obama, and the GOP have in common? I wish they'd go away...
A few things to discuss tonight, mostly political, so, sorry to those of you who don't care. The Snooze Fest begins....now.
First off, is Afghanistan. Obama is reportedly going to announce sending an additional 34,000 troops to Afghanistan on Friday. Personally, I don't think it'd matter if we sent every lower class 18-35 year old citizen in America, we'd still have trouble accomplishing anything. They're a divided, xenophobic people who view us as occupiers(Thanks to Imperial Hubris by Michael Scheuer for drilling this into my head). The Karzai government is laughable(ranked 2nd most corrupt country in the world, Somalia is 1st, Iraq is 5th[isn't it funny how U.S. troops have all been to these places in the two decades?]), the Taliban is growing, and casualties are practically soaring. What really pisses me off about this is the notion that congress is actually concerned about how to pay for all this. Democrats are throwing around the idea of instead of adding this to the 12,000,000,000,000 dollar debt, we start taxing rich people(that 250k mark is being thrown around again) to curb the cost and lessen some of the cost to our children! Wow, that's brilliant guys, you're really earning that six figure salary we pay for every year. I have a solution just as simple, and I believe, just as worthy of a congressional seat. Stop fighting! Realize that we failed to do the job properly, realize that Osama is going to die of natural causes(maybe he'll go out with a real bang though), and realize that we've REALLY fucked things over at home in our effort to further the empire.
Onwards, to slightly more comical matters. After switching off CNN in disgust today, mostly over shitty reporting, but at least a bit because I <3 Lou Dobbs, I turned on FOX. Now, I haven't watched FOX regularly in about 3 years, but I'm pondering a come back, but that's a story for another post. I saw a story about the Grand Ol' Party potentially making GOP candidates take a test which determines whether or not they are true conservatives, and if they don't fall in with 8 of the 10 party lines, the GOP will shut off party funding. Besides being struck with the initial feeling that this stunt is something I might expect in Soviet Russia, I was very curious what the 10 things were. Luckily, I found them:
You must support 8 of the following 10 things to be a Conservative in the Republican party,
1. Smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama's “stimulus” bill.
2. Market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run health care.
3. Market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation.
4. Workers' right to secret ballot by opposing card check.
5. Legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants.
6. Victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges.
7. Containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat.
8. Retention of the Defense of Marriage Act.
9. Protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion.
10. The right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership.
1) Yes, making government smaller, or at least preventing it from growing takes precedence over anything.
2) Yes, government has no role in dishing out healthcare, the free market will take care of that.
3) Yes, cap and trade is a ridiculous amount of government regulation and it will increase living costs across the board.
4) Yes, workers shouldn't be forced to unionize, and likewise, I think corporations should be able to decide if they will allow unions.
5) Yes, illegal immigration is a plague upon our country, and should be a priority(one of few) of the government to take reasonable measures to shore up our nations borders.
6) No, these wars are lost, and were not meant to be fought in the first place. It is not the responsibility of the United States to spread democracy.
7) No, While rogue states are a problem, they are not a particular threat, and the only thing that's going to help spread and create nations like Iran and North Korea is if the U.S. keeps threatening them. These nations will naturally collapse over time. Iran was close to revolution this summer, and although North Korea doesn't show signs of loosening up any time soon, I think they will not do anything that will threaten the United States.
8) No, gay people should be allowed to marry, who is the government to say they can't? The Defence of Marriage Act is a restriction of freedom and should be struck down. Let the states choose.
9) Yes, government shouldn't have the power a persons healthcare, and thus, while I'm pro-choice, money for abortions is really a non-issue here.
10) Yes, the second amendment guarantee for gun ownership is essential to our freedom and restriction of gun ownership(beyond some bits regulation) is unconstitutional.
7/10. To be honest I'm a bit shocked, I was thinking more around the range of 5-6, but these aren't all the issues. I find that abortion not being it's own little issue on here is an encouraging step for the GOP. It's an interesting survey, and I'm curious as to where congressional republicans would fall. The good news in all of this is that, while I'm a registered Libertarian, a career in politics is only a signature and one measly issue away from me.
First off, is Afghanistan. Obama is reportedly going to announce sending an additional 34,000 troops to Afghanistan on Friday. Personally, I don't think it'd matter if we sent every lower class 18-35 year old citizen in America, we'd still have trouble accomplishing anything. They're a divided, xenophobic people who view us as occupiers(Thanks to Imperial Hubris by Michael Scheuer for drilling this into my head). The Karzai government is laughable(ranked 2nd most corrupt country in the world, Somalia is 1st, Iraq is 5th[isn't it funny how U.S. troops have all been to these places in the two decades?]), the Taliban is growing, and casualties are practically soaring. What really pisses me off about this is the notion that congress is actually concerned about how to pay for all this. Democrats are throwing around the idea of instead of adding this to the 12,000,000,000,000 dollar debt, we start taxing rich people(that 250k mark is being thrown around again) to curb the cost and lessen some of the cost to our children! Wow, that's brilliant guys, you're really earning that six figure salary we pay for every year. I have a solution just as simple, and I believe, just as worthy of a congressional seat. Stop fighting! Realize that we failed to do the job properly, realize that Osama is going to die of natural causes(maybe he'll go out with a real bang though), and realize that we've REALLY fucked things over at home in our effort to further the empire.
Onwards, to slightly more comical matters. After switching off CNN in disgust today, mostly over shitty reporting, but at least a bit because I <3 Lou Dobbs, I turned on FOX. Now, I haven't watched FOX regularly in about 3 years, but I'm pondering a come back, but that's a story for another post. I saw a story about the Grand Ol' Party potentially making GOP candidates take a test which determines whether or not they are true conservatives, and if they don't fall in with 8 of the 10 party lines, the GOP will shut off party funding. Besides being struck with the initial feeling that this stunt is something I might expect in Soviet Russia, I was very curious what the 10 things were. Luckily, I found them:
You must support 8 of the following 10 things to be a Conservative in the Republican party,
1. Smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama's “stimulus” bill.
2. Market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run health care.
3. Market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation.
4. Workers' right to secret ballot by opposing card check.
5. Legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants.
6. Victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges.
7. Containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat.
8. Retention of the Defense of Marriage Act.
9. Protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion.
10. The right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership.
1) Yes, making government smaller, or at least preventing it from growing takes precedence over anything.
2) Yes, government has no role in dishing out healthcare, the free market will take care of that.
3) Yes, cap and trade is a ridiculous amount of government regulation and it will increase living costs across the board.
4) Yes, workers shouldn't be forced to unionize, and likewise, I think corporations should be able to decide if they will allow unions.
5) Yes, illegal immigration is a plague upon our country, and should be a priority(one of few) of the government to take reasonable measures to shore up our nations borders.
6) No, these wars are lost, and were not meant to be fought in the first place. It is not the responsibility of the United States to spread democracy.
7) No, While rogue states are a problem, they are not a particular threat, and the only thing that's going to help spread and create nations like Iran and North Korea is if the U.S. keeps threatening them. These nations will naturally collapse over time. Iran was close to revolution this summer, and although North Korea doesn't show signs of loosening up any time soon, I think they will not do anything that will threaten the United States.
8) No, gay people should be allowed to marry, who is the government to say they can't? The Defence of Marriage Act is a restriction of freedom and should be struck down. Let the states choose.
9) Yes, government shouldn't have the power a persons healthcare, and thus, while I'm pro-choice, money for abortions is really a non-issue here.
10) Yes, the second amendment guarantee for gun ownership is essential to our freedom and restriction of gun ownership(beyond some bits regulation) is unconstitutional.
7/10. To be honest I'm a bit shocked, I was thinking more around the range of 5-6, but these aren't all the issues. I find that abortion not being it's own little issue on here is an encouraging step for the GOP. It's an interesting survey, and I'm curious as to where congressional republicans would fall. The good news in all of this is that, while I'm a registered Libertarian, a career in politics is only a signature and one measly issue away from me.
Monday, November 23, 2009
If Facebook were around in years past...
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Thursday, November 19, 2009
Watch the %&#$ out Obama, a wild Belgian appears!
As some of you may have heard...kidding kidding, BREAKING NEWS! EUROPE ELECTS PRESIDENT OF ALL EUROPE. PRESIDENT OF BELGIUM SELECTED. RESPONSE FROM OBAMA UNSURE. SELECTIVE SERVICE EXPECTED TO BE ANNOUNCED. "I TOLD YA'LL THIS WOULD HAPPEN!!!" SAYS W. BUSH. CHENEY DIES UPON HEARING THE NEWS. JOE BIDEN RELATIVELY CONFUSED. ISRAEL READIES NUCLEAR WEAPONS FOR USE. THE POPE FINALLY ADMITS HE DOESN'T REALLY HAVE ANY POWER ANYMORE, KILLS HIMSELF. ISLAM UNITES UNDER ONE GLOBAL FLAG! SERBIAN ASSASSINS POSITION THROUGHOUT EUROPE, READY TO STRIKE. WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO???
-pause-
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's true. European bureaucrats created a new mega bureaucratic position. The president of all Europe. If the position held any real meaning, I'd be hard pressed to say there isn't a new most powerful man in the world. However, the new president is this guy, from Belgium
As one Indian official said before the announcement: "If the EU chooses as its worldwide representative the prime minister of Belgium or Luxembourg I am not sure our leaders will have the time to meet him."
Besides the laughable fact that he happens to be from Belgium, I suspect the presidential position will have little to no power, at least at first. There's no way of knowing this because they haven't actually decided what the new president of Europe will actually do. They elected him, but have not decided his powers. This sounds terrible, this new guy won't even have to steal, plunder, and abuse power over centuries like our presidents, he might just be given it right now. Given Europe's history of love affairs with kings and dictators, I'd say there's a good chance this might actually be a relevant position once a non-belgian takes office. A good englishmen will have this position relevant and hated within his first few years in office.
Now I'm a small government guy, so the idea of a bunch of leaders from democratic countries electing a leader to represent the whole continent(without a single citizen getting to vote on the matter, mind you), scares the living Jesus out of me. I don't understand how this is a good thing for anyone. The interests of Cyprus are just not the same as Ireland, and vice versa. But then again you could say that for Alabama and New York. Regardless, this brings everyone one step closer to a world government. The United States has been doing it's best to police the world, and I guess Europe finally decided to man up. Give it 50 years and our President and Their president will be voting(publicly) on shit that goes down in Siam, I can hardly wait.
But I'm being negative, let's look at the positives of this.
-We're one step closer to Gundam 00 coming true.
-Wars on the continent of Europe will now be civil wars, not world wars, so 1) they won't be able to make fun of us anymore, and 2) the phrase Civil War in America scares people, so maybe we'll stay out of the next series of European Shenanigans.
-This is just one more target for radicals to assassinate.
-While playing CoD:MW2 online, you can shout to your European Faggot Enemies "All your presidents combined into one president still can't handle our president. Bitch."
-Belgium has a slightly better chance of not getting invaded for a few years.
-New conspiracy theories!(I'm telling you, wait 50 years and see how much power this position has!)
-Australia is no longer the only continent with a single ruling president or prime minister.
-pause-
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's true. European bureaucrats created a new mega bureaucratic position. The president of all Europe. If the position held any real meaning, I'd be hard pressed to say there isn't a new most powerful man in the world. However, the new president is this guy, from Belgium
As one Indian official said before the announcement: "If the EU chooses as its worldwide representative the prime minister of Belgium or Luxembourg I am not sure our leaders will have the time to meet him."
Besides the laughable fact that he happens to be from Belgium, I suspect the presidential position will have little to no power, at least at first. There's no way of knowing this because they haven't actually decided what the new president of Europe will actually do. They elected him, but have not decided his powers. This sounds terrible, this new guy won't even have to steal, plunder, and abuse power over centuries like our presidents, he might just be given it right now. Given Europe's history of love affairs with kings and dictators, I'd say there's a good chance this might actually be a relevant position once a non-belgian takes office. A good englishmen will have this position relevant and hated within his first few years in office.
Now I'm a small government guy, so the idea of a bunch of leaders from democratic countries electing a leader to represent the whole continent(without a single citizen getting to vote on the matter, mind you), scares the living Jesus out of me. I don't understand how this is a good thing for anyone. The interests of Cyprus are just not the same as Ireland, and vice versa. But then again you could say that for Alabama and New York. Regardless, this brings everyone one step closer to a world government. The United States has been doing it's best to police the world, and I guess Europe finally decided to man up. Give it 50 years and our President and Their president will be voting(publicly) on shit that goes down in Siam, I can hardly wait.
But I'm being negative, let's look at the positives of this.
-We're one step closer to Gundam 00 coming true.
-Wars on the continent of Europe will now be civil wars, not world wars, so 1) they won't be able to make fun of us anymore, and 2) the phrase Civil War in America scares people, so maybe we'll stay out of the next series of European Shenanigans.
-This is just one more target for radicals to assassinate.
-While playing CoD:MW2 online, you can shout to your European Faggot Enemies "All your presidents combined into one president still can't handle our president. Bitch."
-Belgium has a slightly better chance of not getting invaded for a few years.
-New conspiracy theories!(I'm telling you, wait 50 years and see how much power this position has!)
-Australia is no longer the only continent with a single ruling president or prime minister.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
My time in an English Pub...in Boca Raton, Florida.
It's been awhile since I've posted anything, but I was definitely inspired by my time at the local English pub. The Lion and Eagle! I'd never been in there before and today Ireland played France. I got out of POS1001 and knew that I must see the game. I'm going to be spending some time in ireland this summer and I knew it was time to man up. I was sporting my Celtic jersey, and my Irish hat, and walked up to the pub hoping the IRA hadn't killed any cops recently. After briefly entering the wrong establishment in confusion, a nice Ukrainian gentlemen pointed me to the right door. Great start. I entered.
First of all, it was crowded as fuck. Slovenia was playing Russia, Portugal was playing Boznia, and Ukraine had just lost to Greece. Needless to say, there were lots of foreigners. I walked up to the barman and my first question was answered, "do english people really run the bar?", they do, his accent was awesome. I ordered a coke and landed myself in the middle of the bar, standing between a bunch of dark skinned frenchmen. I only wish someone had a camera to capture how utterly uncomfortable I was, standing there with both hands on my drink, sipping my coke from a straw, sandwiched between these french people. I texted my brother about my visit and he informed me that I should have just ordered a beer. I rationalized, I drove here, and it's 3:30, probly best I stuck with the coke.
That argument lasted about 5 minutes, when the french guys left and I got a spot with my irish comrades. There was probably about 15 irish fans and I started to make friendly with two guys in their thirties. Both of them were from south florida and we started chatting about the experience. Then we scored! The crowd erupts! The english feller at the bar exclaims, "last I checked this was an english bar", in jest. Everyone is happy. My new irish buddy offers to buy a round for the two of us. The barman asks what we're drinkin. "Miller!" says one guy. "Bud" says the buyer. "Uhh...Coke..." I murmer.
"Coke? Jeez man, way to carpe diem there mate, you're practically in international waters here, they don't care." says the round buyer.
"Uhh...well..."
"You're a cheap ass date at least"
and the merrymaking continues...
at one point the friendly buyer had to piss and asked me to protect his spot. Well I got distracted by another game and the tallest fucker in the bar(seriously, he was like 6'7 at least) jumped in his spot. I knew I was fucked. The round buyer returned to ask if I had simply asked the tallest person I could find to steal his spot. I offered him mine and he tells I haven't learned my lesson at all, never give up your spot and to be assertive, you're a big guy.
The game goes on, and then into over time, and then disaster strikes in the form of a black french player by the name of Theirry Henry.He practically caught the ball and knocked it to his teammate to score the series winning goal. The game ended shortly after and the entire pub was crushed to see the Irish be denied by such whorish french ungodly slut jewish nazi rapist islamofascist stalinesque tactics. I say goodbye to my new mates and make for the exit. As I'm leaving I hear a toast "to the memories we've made!" by the elder irishmen at the bar. It made me smile a bit but the american anger in me was just too damn overwhelming. Injustice had conquered on this day, and americans hate injustice.
So I came out of today with a few new experiences and a few lessons learned, so I shall list them.
1) Carpe Diem. If you're in a foreign bar, you can always order beer.
2) French People are dirty and smelly.
3) English people are not to be fucked with(a man bumped into the barman and said "I didn't just bump you" to which the englishmen replied "I know when a man bumps me, for it's the last thing he'll ever do.").
4) English people don't call it sexting, they call it 'sleaze texting'.
5) Never give up your spot.
6) Sporadic racist jokes aren't looked down upon.
7) I think the jury's still out on this one but I say if he's an ass when he's sober, it doesn't necessarily make him an ass when he's drunk.
8) However tempted you are to buy the pub tshirt, you're only going to look like a douche.(I wanted one SO badly...)
9) Be ready to tell your family history on a moments notice.
And most important...
10) Always make yourself out to be a working man(CC student worked wonderfully). Lower or
lower-middle class only.
First of all, it was crowded as fuck. Slovenia was playing Russia, Portugal was playing Boznia, and Ukraine had just lost to Greece. Needless to say, there were lots of foreigners. I walked up to the barman and my first question was answered, "do english people really run the bar?", they do, his accent was awesome. I ordered a coke and landed myself in the middle of the bar, standing between a bunch of dark skinned frenchmen. I only wish someone had a camera to capture how utterly uncomfortable I was, standing there with both hands on my drink, sipping my coke from a straw, sandwiched between these french people. I texted my brother about my visit and he informed me that I should have just ordered a beer. I rationalized, I drove here, and it's 3:30, probly best I stuck with the coke.
That argument lasted about 5 minutes, when the french guys left and I got a spot with my irish comrades. There was probably about 15 irish fans and I started to make friendly with two guys in their thirties. Both of them were from south florida and we started chatting about the experience. Then we scored! The crowd erupts! The english feller at the bar exclaims, "last I checked this was an english bar", in jest. Everyone is happy. My new irish buddy offers to buy a round for the two of us. The barman asks what we're drinkin. "Miller!" says one guy. "Bud" says the buyer. "Uhh...Coke..." I murmer.
"Coke? Jeez man, way to carpe diem there mate, you're practically in international waters here, they don't care." says the round buyer.
"Uhh...well..."
"You're a cheap ass date at least"
and the merrymaking continues...
at one point the friendly buyer had to piss and asked me to protect his spot. Well I got distracted by another game and the tallest fucker in the bar(seriously, he was like 6'7 at least) jumped in his spot. I knew I was fucked. The round buyer returned to ask if I had simply asked the tallest person I could find to steal his spot. I offered him mine and he tells I haven't learned my lesson at all, never give up your spot and to be assertive, you're a big guy.
The game goes on, and then into over time, and then disaster strikes in the form of a black french player by the name of Theirry Henry.He practically caught the ball and knocked it to his teammate to score the series winning goal. The game ended shortly after and the entire pub was crushed to see the Irish be denied by such whorish french ungodly slut jewish nazi rapist islamofascist stalinesque tactics. I say goodbye to my new mates and make for the exit. As I'm leaving I hear a toast "to the memories we've made!" by the elder irishmen at the bar. It made me smile a bit but the american anger in me was just too damn overwhelming. Injustice had conquered on this day, and americans hate injustice.
So I came out of today with a few new experiences and a few lessons learned, so I shall list them.
1) Carpe Diem. If you're in a foreign bar, you can always order beer.
2) French People are dirty and smelly.
3) English people are not to be fucked with(a man bumped into the barman and said "I didn't just bump you" to which the englishmen replied "I know when a man bumps me, for it's the last thing he'll ever do.").
4) English people don't call it sexting, they call it 'sleaze texting'.
5) Never give up your spot.
6) Sporadic racist jokes aren't looked down upon.
7) I think the jury's still out on this one but I say if he's an ass when he's sober, it doesn't necessarily make him an ass when he's drunk.
8) However tempted you are to buy the pub tshirt, you're only going to look like a douche.(I wanted one SO badly...)
9) Be ready to tell your family history on a moments notice.
And most important...
10) Always make yourself out to be a working man(CC student worked wonderfully). Lower or
lower-middle class only.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Ok, I admit it, I supported the invasion of Afghanistan.
Yes, yes, it's true. I was young and naive, and needed the money. Ok so I didn't get paid to support the war. But I was, at the ripe age of...one..two...10 years old, very afraid because I was living in a peninsula, which meant I would be totally screwed if they(the evil they!) attacked northern florida and I had nowhere to go but Cuba. Dub 43(that is, George W., the 43rd president) convinced me they we needed to employ some god damn offensive defense to save the country and kill the bastards that attacked the twin towers(which I had never heard of before 9/11). I was living in a conservative household at the time, I think my dad had already moved out by then, and I wasn't exposed to anything but FOX and Rush Limbaugh on the radio, so naturally, I was able to mock my classmates with glee "aren't you glad that Gore isn't in office right now?" I showed them.
Now you may be wondering why, eight years after 9/11 and the subsequent invasion of Opiumland, I'm bringing this up. One it's because I feel so god damn stupid, knowing that if just not for Afghanistan(I was learning during Iraq, so I wised up really, really quick, so I'm not counting it nah nah!), I would have never supported a war in my lifetime. I also read this brilliant article by John Mueller (http://www.the-american-interest.com/article.cfm?piece=418) and I whole heartedly agree with the man. It also helped me come up with this terrible joke.
9/11 terrorist attacks: About $500,000
Money spent on War on Terror: $922965833976*
Destroying America from the inside out: Priceless
I would break down the cost in american vs iraqi/afghan blood, but that's just tasteless and I suck at math.
*Costofwar.com and I don't care if it's wrong by 50%, the number is still staggering.
If you have the time, please read that article, by the way.
Back to the matter at hand, I supported the war. I didn't know the Ruskies had tried this before and I couldn't have pointed it out on a map, but by Captain's Falcon Punch, I wanted to replace the fucking milk in my cereal with Al-Qaeda/Taliban/Muslim/DC Sniper/Anthrax-Maker blood. In other words, I had War Fever. I was soon satiated. We bombed the motherfucking shit(the first time I've used vulgarities and actually felt it was necessary to express what I was trying to say) out of Afghan caves. New fancy words like Daisy Cutters and Bunker Busters were becoming household names. This is America and you can suck my 10 year old dick I would tell an Afghan if I saw him, right before I shot him.
Nowadays, things are a little bit different. If I met an Afghan man I would apologize to him. I would explain that I'm steadfastly against American imperial policies. I would listen to his plight. How we bombed the hospital where his wife was giving birth. Blew up his opium field. Killed his brother. Or maybe he wasn't even directly affected. I would still apologize.
But as the wise and honorable Mr. Jacques(he beat the Obama drum a bit too much for a man who liked to label himself a libertarian on occasion, in my opinion, but such is a public school teacher, plus he'd be crazy not to with crazy liberals like Adam Steinberg in his class)...
what was I talking about?
"Hindsight is 20/20" Jacques would always say, and this is a very true statement. Even if I knew then what I know now, would I have the courage NOT to support the effort to go overseas and destroy every decent aspect of life a person even remotely affiliated to 9/11 had? Sadly, the answer is easily yes, my life, and yours, has been wildly impacted by our foreign policy since 9/11. As history has shown, imperial policy abroad only leads to civil strife domestically, and although I can't quite answer what we should've done(I could try), going to war is never an option in my playbook.
Of course, if people just adhered to the constitution, we wouldn't even be in a situation where something like 9/11 would happen, but you can't change history, only make it.
Now you may be wondering why, eight years after 9/11 and the subsequent invasion of Opiumland, I'm bringing this up. One it's because I feel so god damn stupid, knowing that if just not for Afghanistan(I was learning during Iraq, so I wised up really, really quick, so I'm not counting it nah nah!), I would have never supported a war in my lifetime. I also read this brilliant article by John Mueller (http://www.the-american-interest.com/article.cfm?piece=418) and I whole heartedly agree with the man. It also helped me come up with this terrible joke.
9/11 terrorist attacks: About $500,000
Money spent on War on Terror: $922965833976*
Destroying America from the inside out: Priceless
I would break down the cost in american vs iraqi/afghan blood, but that's just tasteless and I suck at math.
*Costofwar.com and I don't care if it's wrong by 50%, the number is still staggering.
If you have the time, please read that article, by the way.
Back to the matter at hand, I supported the war. I didn't know the Ruskies had tried this before and I couldn't have pointed it out on a map, but by Captain's Falcon Punch, I wanted to replace the fucking milk in my cereal with Al-Qaeda/Taliban/Muslim/DC Sniper/Anthrax-Maker blood. In other words, I had War Fever. I was soon satiated. We bombed the motherfucking shit(the first time I've used vulgarities and actually felt it was necessary to express what I was trying to say) out of Afghan caves. New fancy words like Daisy Cutters and Bunker Busters were becoming household names. This is America and you can suck my 10 year old dick I would tell an Afghan if I saw him, right before I shot him.
Nowadays, things are a little bit different. If I met an Afghan man I would apologize to him. I would explain that I'm steadfastly against American imperial policies. I would listen to his plight. How we bombed the hospital where his wife was giving birth. Blew up his opium field. Killed his brother. Or maybe he wasn't even directly affected. I would still apologize.
But as the wise and honorable Mr. Jacques(he beat the Obama drum a bit too much for a man who liked to label himself a libertarian on occasion, in my opinion, but such is a public school teacher, plus he'd be crazy not to with crazy liberals like Adam Steinberg in his class)...
what was I talking about?
"Hindsight is 20/20" Jacques would always say, and this is a very true statement. Even if I knew then what I know now, would I have the courage NOT to support the effort to go overseas and destroy every decent aspect of life a person even remotely affiliated to 9/11 had? Sadly, the answer is easily yes, my life, and yours, has been wildly impacted by our foreign policy since 9/11. As history has shown, imperial policy abroad only leads to civil strife domestically, and although I can't quite answer what we should've done(I could try), going to war is never an option in my playbook.
Of course, if people just adhered to the constitution, we wouldn't even be in a situation where something like 9/11 would happen, but you can't change history, only make it.
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