Archive for October, 2009
Are Sports the New Crack?
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 | Sports | 2 Comments
We have all seen movies where a woman strung out on crack will offer her body to get her fix. The fact that it has become a cliche, to me indicates that crack can become so addictive that people will do anything including giving up your self respect to get the drug.
In the news today, was a story about a woman named Susan Finkelstein who offered to perform a sexual act to get tickets to the World Series. I’m not a big fan of sports but I have been a Yankees fan since I was in grade school. This was partially because I like to win and when I was growing up it was a pretty safe bet to choose the Yankees to win. So I may not be called a fanatic but I am a fan. This being said, I can honestly say that I can’t think of an instance where I would go to extremes to get tickets.
I realize that because of my relative sports inexperience I am not on the cutting edge of sports traditions. I used to think, even in my youth when we are more likely to do foolish things, that those people who would camp out to get tickets were crazy. Now I am reassessing their motives because apparently after you have spent a week camping out without shaving or bathing you can still get laid.
Again, because of my inexperience, I can only assume that there is a list of services for the type of tickets you got. If your seats were behind a pole would you just get a tease, for a nose bleed seat, a hand job? Does this mean that box seats are appropriately named? Was this the etymology of the phrase “Getting to first base”? Is there an S/M meaning for a “walk on balls?”
I am going to continue this next week cause I have more to say
Warren
If Aliens Attack?
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 | Politics | 3 Comments
I was listening to a program on television and they were talking about Oath Keepers. They are, from what I can gather, a group that believes they should have the right to carry concealed weapons. They seem to be recruiting police and former Armed Forces people and from what I heard they seem to be getting an Army.
If you don’t believe me look at their web site
This isn’t the only group that seems to be forgetting that our country is named the United States of America. I think that they should realize that it is exactly this unity that gives us our strength. Of late, the Birthers, the Oath Keepers, and a lot of our elected Republicans among others, seem to be suggesting that the Bible was wrong and a House divided against itself can stand.
Now don’t get me wrong, I think that one of America’s strengths is the fact that we encourage dissent but it is the after-effect that I am worried about. When I was growing up if you didn’t get the laws that you wanted you redoubled your efforts especially at election time.
The latest action seems to be that of the petulant child ” If I don’t get my way I’ll take my state and secede.” Which finally brings me to the point.
America is often called a melting pot and I think that we should revise that idea to being a stew pot . The gravy being the rich and they affect the majority and the minority. The other parts of the stew still retain their own ideas and customs but they are still part of the stew.
Even though we are separate we should be like a big family. I may talk about my brothers but don’t assume that you can. We should be working towards that idea.
I remember a television series called V that was about aliens that took over Earth. While there were a few humans that sided with the aliens; the majority fought side by side with their fellow humans despite religion, creed, skin color to defeat these invaders. Maybe the SyFy channel should run the series again.
Noblesse Oblige or Rank Has It’s Privileges?
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 | Hollywood, US Judicial System | 3 Comments
When the term Noblesse Oblige was first explained to me, the person explaining it gave me the impression that it meant rank has it’s privileges. It bothered me that this didn’t seem to be an accurate translation. While I am no fan of the French language I sought to tranlate it even if I had to deal with the language.
I realized that there is a world of difference between the two. Noblesse oblige implies that nobility demands that you do certain things: like help the poor or feed the hungry; the other implies that the rich get special favors cause they are rich.
This last month the newspapers have been talking about the arrest of Roman Polanski. He was convicted of a crime with an underage girl. Rather than face the punishment, he chose to leave the country. Since that time, he became a fuguitve and recently was captured.
Some of the Hollywood community have been saying that the fact that he has spent 30 years in exile is punishment enough for what he did. I believe that this is wrong. Polanski is considered a very good director and Hollywood seems to be making allowances for him because of that. I have to ask, if he were a cameraman or a key grip, would the Hollywood community still be coming to his defense?
A lot of people in Hollywood feel that because they are artistic, they deserve some special treatment because they are more emotionally involved or because they produce artisitic works. This is creating a class of people that feel superior to the common man. And, in truth, we all are “the common man.” I have a garbage man who collects my garbage every week and the fact that he does it every week and that I haven’t had any problems with him means that hs is doing a good job. If I found out that he was also a child molester, would that give him any special privileges?
I might feel differently if Roman Polanski had sex with a girl who he thought was 18 and later found her to be under age. This was not the case. Roman Polanski drugged the girl, plied her with alcohol, and sodomized her. I think the majority of people would agree that this constitutes rape. He purposely did these things and he should pay the penalty. Art shouldn’t be a “get out of jail free card.”
What About Mono-tasking?
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 | Healthcare, Politics | 1 Comment
I know that the new way of doing things is to multi-task but there are things that might better be done with a laser focus. One of those things that should have been mono-tasked is President Obama’s healthcare inititiative.
Instead of going to try to get the Olympics, or going across the country trying to get the birther vote, he should be concentrating on the votes that count. President Obama is a Constitutional lawyer he should know that the votes that count are the ones that will give him the sixty votes.
The Democrats seem to have forgotten that they won the election. They also seem to have forgotten that the people elected them to get things done. If they don’t get things done, they may not get re-elected.
If President Obama got the healthcare with a public option that he and the majority of Americans want, then he could be in a better position to help those Congressmen and women that need to be re-elected. He should be concentrating on those people to get their vote.
He should forget about pleasing the Republicans and remember what he said after his Presidential win: that he is the President of all the United States. While the public option may not please everyone, it will please the majority and that’s what our laws require.
Speaking of what our law requires. why don’t we do away with the filabuster option in the Senate? The House has done away with it and I think that the Senate should too. The filabuster makes it almost necessary to get a two thirds vote which should be reserved for Amendments.
P.S. Today is my daughter’s birthday. Every day, but particularly at her birthday, I am reminded I may never create a breathtaking sunset or a Mona Lisa but having a part in creating this Awesome human being makes me thankful to God, and Da Vinci jealous.
P.P.S. Happy Birthday!!! Anjanette Love Dad