Stuff White People Like

Yes! I have found a new favorite blog! It's a blog explaining to the world what white people like and why they like them. The best that I can tell, "White people" actually means "white, urban, liberal, yuppies who are (or more accurately: feel) morally superior to their white brethren because of a complex system of having minority friends, hating corporations, studying abroad, and having an arts degree". Sadly there's a few that hit a little too close to home for me:

• #23, Microbreweries
• #1 Coffee
• #9 Making You Feel Bad About Not Going Outside
  

There are so many though that I just can't get enough of:

• #82 Hating Corporations
• #41 Indie Music
• #62 Knowing What's Best for Poor People (hint* it definitely isn't their choices / lack of responsibility*
• #7 Diversity

Please, take a few minutes and check this site out, it is freakin' hilarious. I know it's stupidly ironic that I feel morally superior because I believe I'm more honest or more of a man than to feel like I need to bow to other's sensibilities of political correctness. Just humor me and make fun of them (them this week, means yuppie douchebags).

Undeniable Global Warming

To the Enlightened of This Age: Our Lord and Savior...



Am I really unbiased, or do I purposefully go out of my way to find these kinds of stories? I try to keep an open mind, but I am just way too skeptical that we have to drastically change our way of living because we're all going to boil to death.

The oil-shill that is NPR has had something to say recently about Global Warming. You know what they say? We don't fucking know what's going on with the Ocean's temperature. Scientists have expected the below surface temperatures to have increased the past 4 years, but they have not (if they're interpreting data right). What this means is that there's a whole bunch of heat energy that no one knows where it went. One of the suggestions in the article was that the excess heat could have been expelled into space. Whelp, I had better go buy a Prius so the entire Universe doesn't overheat...

Obama's Speech on Race

Yes, I will admit this guy has brains. I am certainly not an Obama supporter, but this guy is able to garner a large portion of popular support while not having to defend or talk about his voting record (easily on of the most liberal in the Senate). His talk of uniting (as his is incredibly partisan in voting) is not all that terribly truthful, but the way in which he chooses his words seem uncommonly heartfelt and straightforward.

Obama took the opportunity Tuesday at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia Pennsylvania to discuss his thoughts on race, what his connections to the Reverand Jeremiah Wright mean, whether he will agree to disavow his preacher's stances, and throw in some specifics on what he wants to do with the presidency.

(*full length clip: over 9 minutes long, transcript is here*)




I almost shit my pants when I realized that not only was he expounding on the views of many blacks in America, but he also brought their counterpoint forward as well. He spoke of his connections with the outspoken (and really freakin' crazy) Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and told why he couldn't throw his preacher under the bus (politically). I believe this speech Obama gave will easily be considered historic. I believe that Obama as a man is genuine, but with regards to where he wants to take this country, genuinely wrong. Read the transcript, or watch the speech for yourself, you will certainly gain something from it. My views on race and race relations have not changed one bit, but I am heartened by the fact that someone at the national level understands some of the most difficult nuance on this subject and is willing to talk to the nation about it.

I wish more people were willing to step up to a podium and lay bare their views like this. I wish also that people would judge those thoughts on their merit and not based on some arbitrary and harmful standards which political correctness forces on this debate.

Unbelievable Robots

I absolutely love how systems and controls can be used to make sci-fi looking stuff a reality.

This "robot-dog/horse" thing is incredible.



Here's a different implementation of this technology, but towards the exo-skeleton side. This is a military implementation. It's a bit hokey, but amazing none-the-less.




This Japanese prototype looks much more refined, but with less emphasis put on sheer strength.



This is a semi-autonomous RC plane which takes off and lands vertically on a wall. This is not an Osprey type plane with propellers which transition to helicopter like orientation. It is a regular single prop RC plane, with fully autonomous transitions from vertical take-off to level flight and back to vertical landing.



This stuff is awesome.

Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action:

I personally believe that Affirmative Action must be totally abolished and exposed for what it is through public discussion.

Let's get a few things out of the way right quick. Black is a term used in Canada and Brittain with no connotation of ill-will. African-American means as little to me as German-American means to everyone else. There is no color of lazy, morally corrupt leech that is any worse than any other color (except taupe, I fucking hate taupe).

In the past, American blacks have been given the shaft. Slavery, later being held to different standards constitutionally, and most recently Jim Crow laws all were dispicable excuses for a morally flawed system of consistent degredation and morally corrupt thinking. Other minorities have also faced severe discrimination, but for ease of discussion I will be using the moniker black. Within the discussion of Affirmative Action remember that women, hispanics, indians (woo-woo-woo, not dot), and even eskimoes reap benefits from this system.

Any system which includes/excludes based on the color of one's skin is inherently wrong. If we are striving for a world in which opportunity to succeed/fail is open to anyone we cannot continue an institution which by its very definition favors one to the detriment of another based solely on color.

One very pertinent argument is that having a level playing field is all well and good if everyone starts at the same place. Meaning, if there are 10 runners and each's lane is free from hurdles, yet one gets a 50 yard headstart, the race is still inherently unfair. Historical racism favored whites and held back blacks. If the world were perfectly equal (which I will argue is still not perfectly true) many argue that there will still be inherent inequality due to the head start that families of whites give their now quite well off children. I would be willing to partake in this line of thinking if every white family was successful and every black family were not. Seeing whereas this is not the case, I think I am quite justified in calling Affirmative Action "Bullshit".

For the sake of argument should the child of Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Oprah, Colin Powell, or George Foreman deserve any extra advantage over white children who may have been born to dirt poor white trash? There are still instances of racial prejudice which persist in this world. I will not admit however that the color of one's skin truly holds any individual back in this day and age. Opportunities are absolutely boundless. If, America as a people, prefers to help those who were born to disadvantaged families, we must say that. Don't insult my intelligence by saying that every single black person (woman, hispanic, or Baldwin) automatically has the cards stacked against them, and there is no opportunity for success.

Statistically blacks are the most likely group to be born out of wedlock, in a single parent home, in poverty, or any combination thereof. This family situation is infinitely more detrimental to the child's future than the color of their skin is. In a similar environment a white child has no greater chance of making it in life.

Kids, parents, and society as a whole must be shown again and again how personal decisions can affect their (and their children's) lot in life. Statistically there is no socio-economic level in which hard work is not rewarded with an improving quality of life. Leading a mindless life, disregarding long term consequences, and persuing empty stimulation every second of one's life is equally destructive to those with or without large amount of melanin in one's skin.

If, as a country, we still believe it necessary to help those less well off, we can do so, but leave race the fuck out of it! There are few things I believe as ardently as this: work ethic and self improvement will trump a million times over nearly any stumbling blocks put in one's way.

Brittain is wrestling with this issue as we speak.

"Over The Top" Finally Gets It's Due

If there is one weakness that I have acquired in my years on this earth it's ridiculous action/macho movies. An arm-wrestling trucker teaching his estranged son the ways of the world most definitely fits into this category.

The cinematic wonder is best explained by I-Mockery.com I've seen this movie probably 6+ times and it just gets better and better.

My meager collectoin includes: Rocky I-VI, Robocop I-III, Rambo I-III, Predator, and Terminator I & II, as well as some others I'm not thinking of right now. Soon I'm going to branch off into buying Steven Seagal movies. He's a giant douchebag, but I'll be damned if I don't laugh at his serious face every freakin' time.

Cringe-worthy politics.

Gah! I just can't watch this without feeling embarassed for humanity!



In the past two days, I have seen quite a few surgical procedures, some from less than a foot away. I observed a double knee replacement, a hip replacement, ACL reconstruction, rotator cuff repair, numerous knee scopes, and a carpel tunnel repair. The past two days were pretty easy on me. I thought this was because I had a rock solid stomache, but that is most definitely not the case because of the video above. I don't think I've cringed this hard since Tom Cruise went full blown crazy on Oprah.

The Poor Poor Middle Class

Reason does a terrific job telling you just how bad the middle class has it!

*edit* Sorry the size sucks...

Housing Crisis

Like always, I'm sure that I'm oversimplifying this difficult issue, but here is how I see this currently situation.

We have a certain portion of the population that has, until recently, never been able to buy a house. Lenders have historically shied away from people with bankruptcies, terrible credit, or just entering the workforce (no monetary history and no money behind them). Well magically, these institutions started modifying their risk assessment practices and started lending to this higher risk population. Lenders were able to justify their risk and entice people to borrow from them via sub-prime loans (loans at interest rates higher than prime rates), adjustable rate loans, or multiple mortgages to cover very low (or no) down-payments. If the borrow is already strapped in making payments, what happens when they get laid off, get sick, their beloved Dodge Neon up and dies, or magically they now have crotch-spawn to take care of? Should we claim that these borrowers have no way of understanding numbers and that predatory lenders were skulking around just looking for someone's life to shit on?

There's another portion of the population that is just living beyond their means. Let's call these people "older douchebags" (OD-Bags), but we should be calling them "should-fucking-know-better-bags". OD-Bags ostensibly do understand numbers, but they are either overly optimistic or willing to assume some risk to live better than they should. When other people in the real estate market are making money, OD-Bags just have to jump in. Some use higher home prices to refinances; using the money to send their little snowflakes to some $50k/yr college day-care or maybe they just use it to buy themselves a Truck-boat-truck.



Things get especially hairy if that extra money is put towards buying other houses/property with little or nothing down with a sub-prime, interest only, or adjustable rate loan. Some OD-Bags justify buying at an increased prices because someone in the future is bound to pay even more. I'll give you one guess as to what happens when housing prices for a certain market begin to tank.

What is especially distressing though, is that a lot of the above is avoidable by making reasonable monetary decisions. I get pretty worked up though, when dumb decisions are talked about as if it isn't their own fault. Articles are written making a call for action that "something must be done" about this unjust situation. Bullshit. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks this way. These are definitely worth reading.

Linda Keenan, on who's really at fault. She also talks about "victims" of predatory lending (1, 2, 3). She does a good job pointing out and skewering the bad decision makers that we trotted out by the New York Times as sob stories. Definitely worth taking a look at.

People all too often forget that as these people file bankruptcy, those unconscionable lenders are hurt also. Many no longer exist because of their bad business decisions. Things aren't all black and white though, because this is also disrupting the stock market. As financial institutions have all of this lent money making them money, they also use their holdings as something people can invest in. A lot of investment funds have certain portions of their portfolios dedicated directly or indirectly to betting that these mortgages will continue to gain them money. When these seemingly solid loans are actually junk, a lot more people get hurt by causing stock values to plummet.

Maybe I'm callous, but people should think long and hard about their financial situation before jumping headlong into hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. On top of this though, I think that fund managers and heads of lending institutions should take this lesson to heart and quit gambling with their shareholder's money; looking for easy money to pad their earnings is and always will bite you a business in the ass. Only good business practices and reasonable financial decisions will pull people's attitudes out of the gutter and put the market back on solid footing again.

Oh, and don't shit your pants that international markets will pull the rug out of under the U.S. anytime soon. Remember, this is a global economy and if the U.S.'s market tanks, many others will fall as well. It is in everyone's interest to get this figured out and going forward in a direction that benefits everyone.

Wahoo drugs!

Reason's Radley Balko has an article that got me worked up about drugs again. His article brings up the point that there are many people out there who are against drugs, to be against drugs. They're not rallying against drugs because fighting them will make life as a whole easier from people no all sides, but rather they're fighting drugs, because they are inherently wrong. I get worked up over this stuff because I can be single with no family, sitting home alone, put something in my mouth, and I become a criminal. I can be locked in a cement box for wanting to put things that I grow / buy in my mouth.

Now, let's get this out of the way, I personally do not take recreational drugs. That is, unless you count drowning your brain in alcohol as ingesting a conciousness altering substance. Well, er, I guess by definition alcohol is just that isn't it? Well, at least it's not like you can kill yourself or others while under the effects of drugs right? Ooh, right. You can. Shit. Well, I maintain my high horse position because, well, "Drugs are bad, mmkay!" (thank you Mr. Mackey).

The drug war today has many parallels to the prohibition attempted from 1920-1933 via the 18th Amendment. Proponents of prohibition made the point that alcohol was a detriment to society. The non-desirable effects resonated through all races, classes, and social structures. We are better off banning it to minimize these ill-effects. Once instituted, to the great surprise of everyone, a black market arose. Institutional corruption became a large problem as many authorities were soon bribed by or were complicit in the tacit approval of bootleggers. The black market thrived because a demand will be satiated by someone willing to make a (now quite large) profit. Alcohol related deaths were not uncommon and violence associated with bootleggers was widespread. We repealed the 18th amendment, not because we suddenly found out alcohol was a magical substance that did no harm. Prohibition was dropped because the cure was worse than the disease. Good people just wanted a drink now and then, and were willing to break the law to deal with people willing to indulge them.

If you replace alcohol with drugs and bootlegger with drug-dealer I see only one glaring difference between then and today. In the past the authorities in the U.S. swept across the nation trying to stamp out alcohol use. Today drug-warriors span the globe attempting to push back the tide of drug production and smuggling.

Well why don't you just legalize murder then? Because all people are going to do is run around raping, stealing, and murdering! The law is still the law. Murder is till murder. Theft is still theft. This is not an argument. I'm not afraid of some craze pot smoker running me down. I will grant you that the ill-effects of drugs like crack and meth are devestating not only to the people using, but to their families as well. That argument is bullet-proof because I can honestly think of no other situations in which the way someone lives is detrimental to anyone outside of themselves.

We need to be treating the ill-effects of drug use because that is the true problem. People desire to alter their conciousness. Alcohol and nicotine are exceptions but not because they're intrinsically safe. They're exceptions because we accept them as a society. We all need to get off our high horse and make rational decisions as to what we will and will not accept. With these decisions we must be intelectually consistent across the board, and we must face the reality of the consequences we bring to society.

I think it's a travesty that we have so many non-violent drug offenders behind bars. Supposedly 1 in 100 people are incarcerated in the US. We need to incarcerate the people who we are punishing for doing wrong, and let go those we're just pissed at doing something voluntarily (gambling, drug use, I would argue prostitution as well, but that's another post). Once these people have "paid their debt to society", good luck finding a job, any kind of federally subsidized student loan, or any number of other social benefits to help them turn their life back around.

Let's say you got this far, and you're all like, "But, but, but, the children! We need to protect them!" I can accept that, but what kind of reasoning is there for relatively safe adult drug use? This doctor isn't shitting himself when a father brings in his 19 year old on acid, so why should we as a society, collectively shit our pants when someone wants to do acid? Let's just say it's morally acceptable to strip search a child for ibuprofen randomly drug-test kids just for the sake of drug-testing kids. I will accept that line of thinking as soon as we randomly test anyone holding any public office in the United States. If you don't know why this is not currently the case, you are ridiculously naive.

Thank you for tuning into another episode of, "The wonders of the internet tubes!!1"