United State of Dumberica

This country has been ruined by television. I think it started with Crossfire, probably before that though. TV has made it all right for opinionated people to be more divisive and the fickle people into sheep following the likes of Limbaugh, Hannity, Olberman, Matthews, et al. These sheep all follow the loudest, rudest and most pompous shepherd. These are smart gentlemen who happen to mask it by stirring up anger and fear and they end up being caricatures of the people they “represent” and also themselves. Fox, CNN, MSNBC and now even Comedy Central make their mint on these people and hammerhead politicians acting like complete idiots.

I used to enjoy Stewart and Colbert. I do still like both actually, but seeing the same people they show everyday doing the same exact thing for what seems like years now is just getting ridiculous. Has America reached a point where we cannot listen to one another civilly? If someone does not agree with you, it is his or her right as an American. You have a right to argue. Each of us has the right to ignore those we don’t agree with. It may be in one’s interest to actually consider what and why something is being said.

The worst part is that it seems as though politicians are steering themselves down a dark and seriously dangerous road. They are taking that same road in opposite yet equally risky directions. The attitude from both sides is that I am right and you are wrong. I don’t like what you are saying therefore you are a Nazi. Or your ideas are that of a socialist. It is no longer possible to disagree and just be an American with a differing opinion.

Each time a politician, talk show host or “news program” piles on it’s opponent it is snuffing out Democracy. As flawed as it is, this is the type of government we choose to live by. Being a jerk may be a god given right, but out-jerking one another kicks the legs out of democracy by not giving those we disagree a proper platform for his or her opinion.

Politics is not a game. Americans and others lives depend on the government. Whether or not you want a big government or a small one. What is decided affects everyone in this country. The government is HUGE no matter which side you come down on. Disparaging opponents and yelling and screaming and being vindictive does not help any civilian to understand even the tiniest fraction of what is decided on Capitol Hill. Lying and misleading are unsafe and irresponsible. We need everything to be as cut and dry as possible.

In the over 200 years we have been a country politicians have found every loophole there is. It would be great (and easy) if we could hit he reset button. Even if that were an option would you trust out leaders to look back in history, and acknowledge mistakes and successes? Make the easy and obvious decisions. Or would pride takeover and they all just take the same old hammerhead approach?

The reality is they have that option everyday. Not the reset button option, but the opportunity to look back into our history and beyond. Generally what happens in the past will likely come up again in the future. Being a complete A-hole occasionally works, but in the long run it tends lose the attention of peaceful, normal people: especially if their ideas do not correspond all ready. Working together, cutting out the nonsense, sticking to facts, learning from one another would all seem to be better ways for a democracy to work. Too bad, because that is as likely to happen as The Jackson Family agreeing on Michael’s last wishes.

Something different is always nice, I hope

Life is good my friends….

When you get knocked remember who has helped you up. When you help yourself up, don’t forget what knocked you down. Try and avoid the things that put you on the floor. Keep close the ones that maintain your steady footing.

Remember the bumpy roads, hard knocks and difficult life lessons. They are a part what got you here. Foolish as you can be, if you don’t keep your chin up new and old friends alike can not look you in the eyes.

Getting hung up can keep you low down. From day to day we come across a series of mistakes. The challenge is what we do to mend them and how we learn from them. There will always be a constant struggle to keep moving forward and to know when to look back. The sun shines brighter when you have persevered in the storm.

Know there will be times when you can’t sleep because all you can feel is the warmth of the person you love most in the world and it sends waves of ecstasy through your every nerve. The best part is you won’t mind waking up tired, you know how lucky you are.

There are sure to be days when you are embarrassed or you have a heavy heart. You are sure to fail or miss an opportunity. And you just have to realize: Some mornings you will wake up and forget all the jagged memories of days gone by. You will look in the mirror and you’ll smile. You will take an inventory of all the blessings in your life you never really think about. There will be an electric feeling in your hands and toes and it will tell you that this day, today, is going to be one fine day. Life is good my friends.

The (errrr)King of Pop

Michael Jackson is dead. His music which is his greatest contributions to the Earth will live for as long as music is played I'd imagine. "The Wiz" his second greatest contribution will last for five more years and then will disappear forever, which is sad. Sure to his family, his children and their strange names are important but that is for them, maybe they will be allowed to go back to their real mother now, hopefully things work out for them.

  I truly enjoy MJ's music (up until Dangerous, probably.) Although the Free Willy song gets me psyched up for when I am letting whales and other large animals escape.  But just because someone makes kick ass dance music and cuts the meanest of rugs DOES NOT mean you just look the other way post-mortem. The guy became a living creep show. He may or may not have destroyed some poor kid's child hood. At the very least look what happened to Cory Feldman. 

 If he were Michael Jackson the construction worker, people would not being saying forget about the mega screwed up things he did. Sleeping in the bed with strange  (and sick) young boys is not okay. Giving them "Jesus juice" is not okay. 

  Enjoy his music, and his videos and if at all possible his movies. Wishing the best to his family, friends and his children is fine.  Try telling those poor kid's he messed with to forget about what Michael the freak did. What if it were your children? Did OJ run like an antelope in the open field with a football? Hell yes. When he dies are people going to say forget his knife work, that man  was a heck of a running back? No, they will say he is a murdering s.o.b. Which may or may not be worse than molesting children, depends on which Bible you read. 

Holy Shit I have a blog, that obviously means...

means...Raul Ibanez and Ken Rosenthal are douche bags.   http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4248759. Guess what assholes? It's not ten or fifteen years ago. This is how the game is played, so to speak. You (Ibanez) are putting up "Bondsian" numbers in a PED possible era. You had your chance to speak up 5, 10 or 15 years ago and you did nothing. And now unfortunately for you and the casual baseball fan; you can't go from being an above average player to spectacular without THE question being asked. Is he on something? Well whatever the answer is Manny, Sammy, Raffy, McGwire, Rog, Bonds et al have tainted "the game you love" . Raul Ibanez is guilty by association. Sorry, you hit twenty home runs in two and half months at the wrong time bro. I bet his recent success ( at age 37) is legitimate, I hope it is.  But the questions will be out there, it is not personal Raul. It is just the path we were led down by Major League Baseball. MLB/PA is going to have to continue to endure this "horrid blogging query" for a long time. Bloggers have never had the opportunity to tell MLB players to lay off the juice. However, teammates who have never used "the juice", also never did anything to prevent fellow teammates and union members from enhancing artificially. The time for action was in 1994-2003 not now. Reap what you so MLB.

   And now for Ken "fucking douche bag" Rosenthal or however you spell it. You write for a real newspaper or website or whatever. It is not a blogger's fault when an official representative of the  news links to a goofy ass blog and uses the nonsense written in that blog as a news item. Why don't you go and interrupt the World Series clincher again with "Ken Rosenthal reports: A-Rod is douche too and will opt out of his retarded contract."  You pompous reporters are so arrogant and petulant. Because an idiot like me or the guy who asked a perfectly reasonable question about a 37 year old having a superior year than we are used to seeing from him; you get all snotty and act like the king of morality. Your just pissed off because some dope gets attention from ESPN and Fox sports and all the other mediums sports is on now. You are so angry because you worked so hard and held yourself such a high standard and "Johnny in his mom's basement" is on ESPN with you as an equal. Except you Ken are a douche bag and he is just a baseball fan/dork.  You cock sucking, Red Sox hating, phony, douche. I so want to punch your head. Stop  acting you and the rest of BBWofA are the only just members of baseball society. You are a bunch self serving assholes who did nothing to stop baseball's downward spiral. In fact you helped it get to where it is, all while promoting yourselves. And now just like Ibanez and Ortiz and others have to deal with constant questions about their success. Baseball writers have to look over their shoulders, bloggers are hot on your trail and are asking questions  you all should have ten years ago. A bloggers few are more popular than some of you "writers" al ready. Most are certainly not nearly as finely trained and baseball savvy. But blogs can be just as powerful because they can come from a place of honesty without any dumb self promotion. Most bloggers will never talk to a player. They call it as they see it, right or wrong that is what most people are looking for. An honest assessment, and maybe someone who isn't taking a glorified kid's game so god damn seriously. And I refuse to use spell or grammar check on this entry because fuck ken rosenthal!

Religiulous and other things deity

So we watched Bill Maher's documentary on foolishness and glorified imaginary friends. It confirmed what I all ready knew; people are nuts about God. It was really interesting especially if you agree with pompous Bill, which I do.

Religion is absolutely fascinating. It has almost always existed in one form or another. Most have fallen by the way side, there are probably still hundreds or even thousands of different religions or variations of the same religion. The gist basically is that man or life in general isn't capable of existing without God's magical touch. Any of these gods can't seem to at any point get more than 33% of the Earth's population to believe in him. Most god's first rule is that he is A#1. He, according to the Bible (Old Testament) laid out his vengeance with reckless abandon to all who opposed him. His wrath knew no bounds. Now, he doesn't seem to ever show up unless it is in a grilled cheese or the fog on my car window. His followers don't seem as psyched about him the way the mussies do about Allah or Mohammad or whatever guy they are into.

Maybe it is because I don't speak arabic, but Muslims seem way more into their thing. It could be that knowing English and seeing the goofy, speaking in tongues, lunatics at churches like the one in Fletch Lives make a mockery of Christianity. There are only 15 million or so Jews left so it seems like their thing, while completely valid, is more like an Independent Minor League baseball league at this point. Eastern philosophies seem to make sense but their main guys don't seem "godlike" to me.

Any ways, they all seem at their core to have similar basic values. The commonalities are: A peaceful, pleasant message that is completely misunderstood or manipulated. Followers of each religion must at times have a complete disregard for common sense, especially in regards to other's views. Even though the world is changing more and more, faster and faster we must follow the same beliefs that the rich and influential put in the Bible thousands of years ago, when they were the only literate people capable of retelling stories of God, his message and your punishments. Of course they may have profited from this, but is was definitely God's word.

There are some antiquated rules they still follow. Catholic God doesn't want you to have sex unless you are procreating. If you have to break this rule, definitely do not use a condom. VD or an unwanted baby is your punishment. Some Muslims find it necessary to cut off a woman's clitoris, because allah (or one who speaks for him) says womanaren't worthy of pleasure. There is definitely no way god, allah, moses or buddha would want you to do some things different just because it is two or three thousand years after an edict was announced. God's word is final and certainly never outdated.

There are other differences obviously. The mascots, the junior mascots, what you yell when you kill someone in your god's name. Stuff like that.

It's all dumb. One of these religions may be "the one", but they are so messed up at this point they have lost all credibility. Stripped down to the basics I would be a religious person, but I don't want to be affiliated with whatever it is anyone else thinks, it's too tainted for my liking. I believe in the words of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (and my wedding vows) "BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER", at least as best you can.