Rants

. . .Well to respond to Jesse

Um who gives a shit. Terri Shiavo probably doesn't care whether she is alive or dead, if anything she would rather be dead because at least then she would have a chance to be in heaven and not just in a mindless vegetable state.

But in no way should the controversy over her life received the national attention that it has. The only reason that this case has reached the amount of attention that it has is because politicians like to use issues like this to get votes. Simple as that. Same as the abortion issue, politicians are never going to do anything important about the issue but they are going to use it as a rallying cry to get people sympathetic to either side of the issue to vote for them.

It is one big magic trick, look at this profoundly emotional issue that has hardly any relevance on anyones life, instead of looking at my policies that are actually effecting you in a negative way. Instead of politicians dealing with important substantive issues the debates focus on "you are evil cause you are killing this person," "you are evil cause you won't let this person die."

Why don't we have national attention on poverty, minority issues, healthcare, anything that actually affect the average American lives. Why? The answer is simple because when people actually start paying close attention to what are politicians are doing, they get angry and fed up with those politicians.

As I alluded to earlier before the abortion issue is the exact same thing as the Shiavo case. Why? Because the Republican Party is never going to outlaw abortion eventhough they constantly preach about how horrid abortion is. What they are doing is just getting catholics, women, impoverished, farmers and many others who don't tend to agree with the Republican economic policies to become republicans because of this highly emotional issue. It creates a fictional divide between people that irrationalizes politics and creates unnecessary polarity.

We should be more aware and immune to this kind of bull shit magic tricks that politicians use for their political gain. We need to focus on substantive issues that profoundly affect the majority of American lives.

-Andrew Gross

If no one else is going to touch on it, Terri Schiavo

Restricting food to anyone is murder, its one of the most basic requirements of life. If Terri Schiavo required something extra-ordinary like some drug, or was on an iron lung and they took her off it that would be a completely different story. ?She wouldn?t want to live like this,? This reminds me much of the part from Se7en where the murderer jacks up the ladies face so she kills her self. Its pure vanity and it sickens me. Suicide is a crime, and it should be such even if not committed by you. How anyone can view this as right is beyond me.

Also, in my opinion, her husband has no business speaking for her on two points. Firstly, he has had anther family for over a decade, of course he wants her dead. Secondly, if the rest of her family is pleading otherwise and here he comes trotting out saying ?Lets throw the bag in a bag? how accurate can his opinion be?


Anyone remeber the days of Atimes when...

Anyone remeber the days of Atimes when the posts had enough content and some semblance of thought that one had to actually try and rip them apart . . . but now the posts rip themselves apart without any outside help.

Lets try and get some level of intelligence back here instead of "hey I am bored . . ."

Peace

3 kinds of people who might actually piss off mother teresa

1.) People who drive for miles with their turn signal on

We've all seen them, you're minding your own freakin business and then bam!, some asshole appears to be making a turn... but wait! he's/she's not turning at all. I think these bastards are using some kind of torture to test, cause they make me wish i had a bond car with nuclear tipped missles behind the headlights. I don't know if Mother Teresa ever drove a car but chances are she rode in one and these people probably pissed the hell outa her.

2.) Psycho Political Bastards

Nothing like an election to bring every single self righteous politician wannabe with an agenda out of the woodwork. Everyone knows someone like this, everyone. I mean damn, not only do the vast majority of us not give a damn what you have to say, the rate at which we want to kick your ass skyrockets as you tell us why the republican agenda will result in Canada taking over the lower 48 and cause California to split of and go join mother Russia. Please, your fucking pissing me off, shut up, or I'll release the damn dogs.

3.) Hippies

Oh man, Hippies. You'd think we would've found a way to rout them all to canada but no, every now and them Im stuck driving someone who feels it absolutely neccessary to insult me with a bumper sticker reminding me that meat is murder and that trees feel pain. First of all, meat is tasty, and second of all, trees are plants. You hear me? They are plants, I'm pretty sure the trees woulda got off their collective ass and rebelled or something. I mean damn people. Whats worse is the people who protest big SUV's because they pollute, then get in a car. Hell people. just about everything that breathes pollutes. I mean cows emit a large amount of methane gas every year and I still havent heard anyone call for death to cows. Stick to your damn principles people or lack there of.

Todays run down of the top 10 things that piss me off...

10.) Sex in the City (the show... sex is still good to go)
9.) Toyotas (it's like they're mocking me)
8.) Bond Chicks (they're hot and out of my league... dammit)
7.) Stupid People (they piss me off)
6.) The speed limit (should only be a suggestion)
5.) People who drive exactly the speed limit (i mean wtf)
4.) People who drive slower than the speed limit in good driving conditions (seriously... it's time to get off the road folks)
3.) Dance Dance Revolution (beating level 572 doesn't make you sexier)
2.) MTV's show Laguna Beach (because the whole place freaks me out and the world revolves around the upper midwest anyway and you know it)
1.) the Metric system (metric system=instrument of communism)

Why the re-recording of songs must Die.

Recently, when ever they've decided to take a break from randomly sueing the consumer for refusing to buy what is generally a piece of crap. I mean no sane person would logically agree to pay 10 to 20 dollars for a CD that's likely to contain on average 3 or 4 songs they're interested in. Break it down that's roughly 5-6 bucks a song.

I'm told that we should use a legal download service to solve this predicament. However legal downloads are almost always heavily ladden with copyright protection making it difficult or impossible to enjoy the music as you would normally, either by downloading a copy-right free illegal version or by ripping it off of a legally bought CD.

I'd also invite the RIAA to accurately report its figures regarding CD sales. Its simple supply and demand. The demand is low because the product often is not worth the steadily increasing asking price, and often the consumer can't afford the luxury of paying for an entire album for the ability to listen to a few songs. Once upon a time every artist took pride in putting together an Album that was great in its entireity, those days are gone and in the world of big music business, putting out singles is the new priority. I ask someone to prove me wrong that this single handidly explains the initial success of file sharing, to which the RIAA's suing of Napster exposed to the general public as a logical alternative to getting ripped off.

The latest casuality of big business music, is the trashing of great music by some kind of compulsion to remake great music. I mean anyone should have the sense to know that no one really wants to hear Mary J. Bliege sing "Walk this Way" or be subjected to Christina Agulara recant "Car Wash." To those with this "George Lucas" type need to re-do great works all I can offer is some advice from what seems to be "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away..."

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

-Paul "Vanillacoke" Johnson


The Problem with the Economy as I See It

The economy has recessed. People like to poke blame at the president, government, etc. My view may not be popular, but I see it as the truth. The simple fact of the matter is Americans are over paid.

Before the internet, we lived a secluded existence. Outsourcing was not nearly as feasible; we knew the world outside America existed, but other then that little else... Then the internet "super highway" came into existence. Files can be transferred from one side of the world to the other nearly instantly. Accounting, among other things, became much cheaper for companies that want to employ in more then one country, with the exchange rates and taxes all being automatically calculated. Money transfer more reliable then ever. That explains the how, now the why.

Unions sprung up in the early 1900's to screw employers out of money. True, there were issues they helped correct, child labor and overworking employees for example, but the fact of the matter is they misused their powers. Employers of course had to stay in America, therefore they had to employ these extortionists because of laws making it illegal to fire them when they don't show up for work (went on strike.) The employer consequently had to give in to their demands, raise their wages, and lower the profit margin for the company, allowing them to employ fewer people, and hurting the unemployment rate. Over the years, they raised the Americans wages so much that we were making staggering amounts more then the rest of the non-unionized world when compared on the gold standard. The problem though is that the cost of everything went up in America as well because, simply, they could get it. Let us take for example the price of gnomes compared to gold. If we sell a gnome here for $15, the price of such gnome in India, if compared to the controlled price of gold, would be much less. Therefore if a company pays someone in India the same value gold wise (product wise) as it would cost to pay an American, it will cost them less cash. Therefore, in summarization, unions, raising Americans wages to undeserved levels pushes up prices, causing Americans money to be worth less then elsewhere in a global economy.

Side note:
Jimmy Carter, or the ignorant fool as I like to call him, took us off the gold standard. This caused inflation shoot like a rocket, causing all the money put away (in banks) to become worth less (not worthless,) hurting mainly companies and the upper class while helping those in debt (ex: the country and irresponsible people) because a debt of $100 is worth what $150 used to be. The idea sounds good (to a communist) but it is not because:

  • They owe that money to companies, which therefore take a hit.

  • The wealthy whose money is now worth less own such companies and get hit again.

  • The companies profit margins drop when they bring in the same amount of money, causing them to have to increase the price of products.

  • These companies and wealthy who have been hurt employ middle and lower class people (many of whom are in debt) and are forced to lay off people making them unable to pay these debts.


Thusly, if taking us off the gold standard let inflation go rampant, this increases prices

Let us briefly talk about inflation, filling something with air. If the price of everything becomes inflated, i.e.: made larger then it really is; it consequently becomes necessary to raise people's wages so they can afford to live. You raise these wages falsely the true value still exists, just not here. This true value, or at least much closer to it exists in other countries where there has not been such inflation. When we we're cut off from places where the real value existed, the economy flourished, but now with the internet, and more open trade, etc, companies can buy things for their real value, and hire people for their real value, instead of paying the *inflated* price of buying and hiring from and of Americans.

Americans regularly earn and pay more then they are worth, which is why it is not economically feasible to hire Americans. Banning outsourcing as many liberals suggest is a horrible idea because it is no longer difficult for a company just to completely up and leave America, we are not as important as we used to be. So how then you ask do we fix the economy. I suggest the following:

  • Abolishing unions, as their true purpose no longer exists and they just increase inflation

  • Ease our way onto the global economy by taking wage hits

  • Working our way back onto the gold standard

  • Discouraging use of credit cards (it is the freaking late 1920's all over again)

  • Imposing trade ratios, i.e.: countries can only export to us equal or more as they import from us all but eliminating increase in trade deficit, and pushing us out somewhat of the global economy until which time we do even out with them and can eliminate such ratio's


Of course none of these are an over night answer, but you can expect 100 years of bad economics to take time to fix.

Right Wing Wrong

Alright first Jesse . . . you always astound me with never ever looking anything up or researching jack shit, Yeltsin was not elected, he assumed power. After the coup that failed he took over simple as that. Also if you actually look at the Soviet Union they were damned long before Reagan took office. If you want to give credit where it is due, you should credit either Ike or the Pope because both of them did much more than Reagan. Also democracy has never flourished in Russia especially if you look at the Oligarchs that are now running the country in Russia and the incredible corruption in Russian politics. If you look at the recent election where Putin was elected by huge margins and where was the contender, "Um yeah I took a vacation for awhile and didn't let anyone know" in other words he defintely had an encounter with Putin's officials. Also with the propoganda thing . . . wow! As I said before Yeltsin initially took over(and Yeltsin looks a lot better in a tank than does Duhkakis), and then won the election by a land slide, why? Because the corruption in the system and not something from the USA. I don't know where you got your facts, but I would advise kicking your sources ass, cause they are just plain liars. And besides driving this country into horrible debt, ignoring aids, and his wonderful activities down south I guess you could say that Reagan wasn't the wourst president of all times.

Paul - I have had this discussion with you before. Here is the arguement that I am going to make, and I already have an image of your reaction to it (it is quite funny actually), but Michael Moore is a breath of fresh air. He is asking questions that that horridly "liberal" media does not ask and that no one else does in a public manner. Sure there are inaccessible pieces of literature and so forth that say the same thing as Michael Moore but the reason that he is so liked is because people can view his ideas at widely accessible venues. Also you are going to have to give reasoning behind Micheal Moore not being a man of the people. And him being rich doesn't cut it. The reason that I am saying this is because he is defintely considered to be a man of the people so in order for you to discredit that popularly held belief we need some shred of evidence, because your word over the masses . . . well lets just say neither are very credible.

Left Win . . . Always!