Sunday, April 26, 2009

A teaching moment?

So I'm watching NFL draft coverage and they keep running a promo for an upcoming episode of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES (how those two things go together is for someone else to explain).

In this promo, Teri Hatcher finds a handgun lying on a coffee table and picks it up with two fingers by the butt of the weapon, as if she were picking up a dirty diaper.

It's my contention that most of the fear of guns people have comes from the fact that those who are afraid of them simply don't know anything about them. What makes a gun dangerous is not its existence, but rather that fact that too many of the people who come into contact with firearms either don't know how to safely handle them, or are dead set on doing something illegal with them.

And picking one up with two fingers by the butt of the weapon is NOT a safe way to handle a firearm.

Rather than show Hatcher prissily picking up a weapon practically shaking with terror at its very existence... couldn't this have been a "teaching moment" instead? What if she'd picked up the weapon like it's supposed to be held, dropped the magazine, racked the slide, cleared the chamber, confirmed it was not loaded and set it back down on the table?

That's the safest thing she could have done. Picking it up like a rotten banana peel taught no one anything, excpet to push the idea that guns are something to be terrified of, no matter the circumstances in which you happen upon one.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Escalation!?

So I'm reading this article about putting armed guards on US shipping running through the areas where pirates have been operating lately, and I see this quote:

"Joe Cox, president of the Chamber of Shipping of America, cautioned that deploying armed guards aboard cargo ships could escalate violence if pirates expect a gunfight."

Dude... during the last attempted hijacking, the pirates fired automatic weapons and RPGs at the crew. After the crew barricaded themselves in the engine room, the pirates poured it on, literally trying to blow them out of their barricaded redoubt with more explosives...

... and this was an attack on an unarmed crew who did not fight back.

RPGs, automatic weapoons, and explosives... how much more, exactly, could the violence be escalated?

They should put this Joe Cox guy in charge of security on college campuses.

Friday, April 24, 2009

The Democrats have a major branding problem

So I was driving around at lunch listening to Mason and Ireland on ESPN radio. Now, I have no idea what Mason and Ireland's politics are, but given that they are media figures in Los Angeles (even if that media is sports talk radio), I think it's safe to assume they are not Republicans.

But anyway... they were having a conversation about Twitter. Nothing political about the conversation at all. Mason was saying he enjoys Twittering to his fans. Ireland took the opposite position, saying he enjoys getting Tweets, but hates actually sending them out.

Mason said "So you're a Democrat?"

Ireland replied "what do you mean?"

"I mean, you like to take but you don't like to give."

And Ireland burst out laughing. And not condescending sarcastic laughter either, this was a big ole rib shaking belly laugh.

If I were a Democrat looking forward to the election, and I heard this exchange, I think I would have felt a little chill crawl down my spine.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

More Waterboarding Please

So according to a Justice Department memo dated May 30, 2005 the use of enhanced interrogation techniques - including waterboarding - on al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheik Mohammed aka KSM, caused him to reveal information that allowed the U.S. government to thwart a planned attack on Los Angeles.

As a resident of Los Angeles, I say "more waterboarding please."

Where Does the Buck Stop?

In another nuanced (bulls**t) statement about interrogation techniques, President Obama leaves open the possibility that the people in the Bush Administration who wrote the "torture" memos could be prosecuted.

Are you friggin kidding me??!!

What are you going to prosecute them for? Giving an opinion you disagree with?

Obama won't prosecute any of the CIA interrogators who waterboarded KSM, but he'll leave it up to the Attorney General to see if wants to prosecute the people who gave their opinion as to whether certain techniques were legal?

This is a very dangerous president that Obama will be setting if he allows Attorney General Holder to prosecute the author of those memos. How is a president supposed to ask for the unbiased and open opinions of his staff if that staff knows that what it writes in the memo could lead to prosecution? This isn't members of the Third Reich writing about the systemic plan to exterminate the Jews. These are professional lawyers in the justice department giving their opinion on whether certain interrogation techniques are legally acceptable.

I'm betting there is no "The buck stops here" sign on Obama's desk as there was during President Truman's time in the Oval office.

Why campaign statements matter

Remember the final Presidential debate? John McCain came out swinging, having decided that the place to hit Obama was on earmarks. He had a good argument, having accepted no earmarks himself, he pointed out that Obama was one of the top three pigs in the Senate pork pen.

Obama's defense was, let's face it, lame. He said, "well come on now guys... in the grand scheme of things, $8 billion dollars is nothing!!!"

Uh-huh... so now, why am I supposed to be impressed that he's going to cut 100 million from the budget in the next 90 days? Isn't that 1/80th of the number Obama already told us was "no big deal"... I mean I suck at math, but I know a turd when I see it.

Again, I'm not an Obama supporter, so perhaps my opinion doesn't matter. But you have to assume that some of the more middle-of-the-road marginal supporters out there are eventually going to notice that his presidential statements have absolutely no relationship to what he was telling us as a candidate.

A lot of people used the word "mandate" and "landslide" to describe Obama's victory last Novemeber, but the truth is that the result was a lot closer than Obama would like to consider, and I wonder how many moderate defections he can realistically withstand before his chances for re-election start to look murky?

UPDATE: Paul Krugman agrees with me.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

You might be an asshole if...

You are commpelled to look for the negative in something that's making millions of people happy.

Check out this guy...

While most of the world is falling in love with a dowdy, but plucky, British singer who sang her heart out and won over a thoroughly hostile crowd... this guy can't help pointing out that she's not the greatest singer the world has ever seen.

Gee... thanks dude. If you are THAT dsperate to be a negative nancy... why don't you crawl off under a rock someplace where you won't harsh the buzz of the rest of us who are just trying to enjoy oursleves.

What a douchebag.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Awesome rant!!!!

I attended a Tax Party protest, and will hopefully have a chance to write a few thoughts about the experience for this space, but in the meantime, check out this fantastic Obama rant.

This one is pretty good too!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

A big "well done" to the SEALS

That's some good shootin' lads... I'd buy you a beer if I was allowed to. Hopefully your actions will make the next batch of pirates think twice.

U-S-A! U-S-A!

Friday, April 10, 2009

The Americanization of Emily

I was alerted to the existence of this film by a short interview Robert Osborne did with Clint Eastwood on the subject of James Garner... who stars in the film alongside Julie Andrews. Clint mentioned that in the film Garner delivers one of the great monologues about America and its relationship with Europe.

The movie totally delivers... but as you watch it, try to imagine modern Hollywood producing a movie where a character says something like this...

"You American haters bore me to tears, Ms. Barham. I've dealt with Europeans all my life. I know all about us parvenus from the States who come over here and race around your old Cathedral towns with our cameras and Coca-cola bottles... Brawl in your pubs, paw at your women, and act like we own the world. We over-tip, we talk too loud, we think we can buy anything with a Hershey bar. I've had Germans and Italians tell me how politically ingenuous we are, and perhaps so. But we haven't managed a Hitler or a Mussolini yet. I've had Frenchmen call me a savage because I only took half an hour for lunch. Hell, Ms. Barham, the only reason the French take two hours for lunch is because the service in their restaurants is lousy. The most tedious lot are you British. We crass Americans didn't introduce war into your little island. This war, Ms. Barham to which we Americans are so insensitive, is the result of 2,000 years of European greed, barbarism, superstition, and stupidity. Don't blame it on our Coca-cola bottles. Europe was a going brothel long before we came to town."

Amazing... and even better when Garner delivers it.

Interesting to note that the movie was written by Paddy Chayefsky and you can see a lot of the fantastic satirical writing that would be the hallmark, 12 years later, of his most brilliant screenplay, NETWORK.

UPDATE: Also, the film features one of the best end credits I've ever seen. Three actresses are credited with playing "THREE NAMELESS BROADS."

I guess I'm the only one not surprised...

I see that much of the Conservative Punditry is up-in-arms about a survey that shows that only 53% of Americans surveyed say Capitalism is the best economic system...

Now tell me please why everyone is so shocked by this number. "It's way too LOW!" they say. No it isn't. It's exactly the ratio we ourselves have created. Think about it for a second.

There are about a million different ways to get rich in this country, and not one of them is easy. They all take hard work and dedication. And frankly, most of the country, let's say 47% of them, simply are not up to it or aren't interested for one reason or another.

I work in one of the most competitive parts of one of the most competitive businesses in this country. I work 14 hour days, take work home on the weekends, and I haven't been to Happy Hour in 15 years. I do these things because I want to be successful and I'd also like to be rich. I'm letting an industry kick my ass every single day because I see a tremendous upside in it if I keep at it long enough.

It's what I've chosen to to... it's a trade off. And most Americans are simply not interested. A significant portion of the American public have chosen a different path, a different bargain. They work hard and they are industrious, for sure, but they go home at 5 and they don't think about work at all from Friday night to Sunday morning. They have time for family, Church maybe... Maybe they've chosen a career that doesn't pay well but that has a high degree of social value like a teacher or prosecuting attorney. These people DO go to Happy Hour, they enjoy the hell out of their weekends, and they save up enough for a beach house to retire to, and two weeks on the shore every July.

And yet the media tells them every day that they're missing out on something. Everyone on TV and in the movies is rich. In the movies, every cop drives a vintage, cherry muscle car. All the women are New York advertising execs or newspaper columnists living in gigantic mid-town apartments. On TV every single day our President and Vice President foment the worst kind of class warfare... even going so far as to suggest that the rich are "unpatriotic" because they don't willingly give up more than the 50% of their incomes they already pay in taxes.

But even as they watch these things on TV, an awful lot of our fellow countrymen know that they have made as much money as they will ever make. They are as rich as they will ever get. And the disparity between what they have, and what the media and our government has convinced them that they deserve, is wide and deep.

Beacause the Government and the media have told our fellow Americans that whatever their failings are, they are not their own fault. The world is not fair. Our Economy is not fair. They were cheated somehow. And after years and years of hearing this, they have begun to believe it. they have begun to believe that they SHOULD have everything they see on TV, and that if they don't it is because someone is to blame.

And so they are angry. They want to punish someone rich. And you know what would do that? Socialism. It may not make THEM rich... scratch that, it will absolutely NOT make them rich... but what it might do, is pull all those undeserving rich folks who probably cheated or inherited or stole their way to prosperity back down to Earth.

Socialism might doom us all to mediocrity, but it might also cure that nagging jealousy that too many Americans are, apparently, carrying around like so much luggage.

Not much of a trade-off in my opinion... but then I'm one of the 53% who voted for Capitalism, so I'm probably not the guy to ask.

UPDATE: I woke up this morning to find this article at the top of the Yahoo home page... "HOW TO FIND A LOW STRESS JOB".

Check out a few quotes from the piece.

"Hate time pressure?"

"Prefer a shot work-week?"

"Want freedom from the bottom line?"


If those are your chief concerns when considering a new career, then you need to know that you will never get rich. People get rich by putting themselves on the line, and being on the line is incredibly stressfull. But if that's not your thing, that's fine, I respect the choice, believe me, there are a lot of stressful things about my job that I hate. But remember that it is a choice YOU made, so if you wake up fifteen years down the road and think to yourself, "I wish I'd made more money". Remember that our Constitution guarantees only equality of opportunity, not of outcome... the rest is up to you. So don't suddenly start voting for people who want to "spread the wealth around" by taking away what I've made for myself because you feel some sense of regret about where your choices have brought you.

Or if you do, at least have the courage not to claim that you're voting that way out of a sense of "fairness." There is no fairness in this world, there are only choices and consequences.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Team America World Police Foreign Policy In Effect

North Korea, after telling the world that they would indeed test a long range missile, and having the world leaders warn them that it would be a violation of UN policy, launched the missile anyway. I guess the good news is that according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command officials, the first stage of the rocket fell into the waters between Korea and Japan, while the two other stages, and its payload, landed in the Pacific Ocean.

So North Korea's missile technology is not exactly 21st Century.

But here's the bad part. This is President Obama's statement from his speech in Prague about the launch.

"North Korea broke the rules once more by testing a rocket that could be used for a long-range missile," Obama said. "This provocation underscores the need for action — not just this afternoon at the U.N. Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons."

So what does President Obama suggest? From his White House statement:

We will immediately consult with our allies in the region, including Japan and the Republic of Korea, and members of the U.N. Security Council to bring this matter before the Council. I urge North Korea to abide fully by the resolutions of the U.N. Security Council and to refrain from further provocative actions.

It reminds me of this scene from TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE.



I guess the Obama Administration is determined to practice the policy of "We will become very, very angry with you and we will write you a letter telling you how angry we are."

This would be laughable if it weren't actually serious you know.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Obama's poker tell

I've decided that whenever you hear Obama say "Let me be absolutely clear..." you can be sure that the very next sentence will be 100% false.