Calling for Lil Wayne's freedom, six charged with spray-painting graffiti in the French Quarter | New Orleans Metro Real Time News - - NOLA.com

 

Calling for Lil Wayne's freedom, six charged with spray-painting graffiti in the French Quarter | New Orleans Metro Real Time News - - NOLA.com

 

WTF? That is hilarious. It is just a matter of time until these judicial vigilantes affect the change they are after. Or end up in jail themselves, it’s a toss up at this point.

BBC Talks to a Few Afghanis and What They Said Was Interesting.

 

BBC News - Mixed feelings on extra troops in Afghanistan

Interesting look at a few man in the street POV’s. This small group seems to want American troops there, at least until their country can better police itself.  The important part is in the first post, when Fawad Habib points out that our troops are popular in the cities, but less so in the rural areas. This obvious and simple statement points out the difficulty we are having over there. I would venture that we are popular in cities because we can effectively protect the cities. As our protection wanes, so does our support.

 

With all the uproar and political gamesmanship sure to come out of the planned withdrawal, it is worth considering what our best options actually are.  We can continue until we have made the country completely safe and democratic. I’m positive we would be there forever if this was our goal. We could pull out now. Or we could make a slow withdrawal as the President indicated. Pros and Cons later.

Is Obesity Really a Disability?

In my previous post, I blogged about an overweight man who missed his uncle's funeral because there were no empty extra seats for him to buy. This led to the question of whether or not obesity really is a disability or not.

It may very well be that overweight people should be considered disabled. It is more than probable that factors other than will power and discipline play a role in weight gain; and I should know. At my largest I was 440 lbs. While I weigh much less now, I only lost it after bariatric surgery. At the same time, I know that the path I took to that weight was not an instantaneous one. If I had been motivated enough to become active at any point before it got out of hand, I'm certain it never would have gotten as bad as it did. My love of food and laziness ensured I would balloon out. Of course it was only once it was out of hand that I tried to change things. At that point, it was like trying to reverse the sun's course.

Because of my experience, I hesitate to just slap the disabled tag on the obese. I'm sure that there are plenty of glandular problems, plenty of addiction problems, and plenty of emotional problems that some people have no control over. These could very well lead to obesity, and if so, these people would be disabled. At the same time, there are plenty of people who will huddle under the disability umbrella, who were like me. Lazy, unmotivated, and eating everything they shouldn't. I was lucky. I was able to get the surgery. Plenty though, cannot. And once they reach a certain point, they are, for all intents and purposes, disabled.

Which is why this issue is so problematic. When does personal responsibility kick in? How do we as a society decide whether a person's weight is unavoidable, or if the individual is to blame? Should society even make that distinction?

We might not like it, but we will be forced to, especially as more and more overweight people decide that their weight is not their fault. I suspect the end result will be that all overweight people, no matter the cause, will end up on the disabled list. Trying to figure out the root cause of a person's obesity, if it is even possible, would be too time consuming, as well as a logistical nightmare. Easier to just paint them all with the disabled brush and be done with it. The shame is that so many will opt to play the victim.

Is This Weight Discrimination?

When Okamoni Fa tried to book a flight to make his uncle's funeral, he was told he would need to book an extra seat. Unfortunately for him, the flight was full and there were no extra seats to be had. Mr. Fa never got his flight and as a result missed the funeral. (Full story here.)

The article makes no mention of Fa actually claiming discrimination, though he is understandably upset about the outcome. This is by no means an isolated incident however. Airlines have been imposing these types of regulations for awhile now. Just this past April, United Airlines instituted a new policy, that mandates the same thing. Our neighbor to the north took exception to these trends recently, ruling that obesity is a disability and therefore the airlines have to give the overweight an extra seat for free.

Is this really discrimination? Or is it a reality that people need to face? From what little I know about planes, it makes sense from a profit stand point. After all, a plane can only carry so much weight. If one person, buying one ticket, weighs as much as two, then the airline is out a ticket price. Making them buy that extra ticket ensures the airline makes the money it would otherwise. Assuming that the plane was full of course. On the other hand, if obesity really is a disability, don't the airlines have an obligation to make them accessible to everyone without added cost?

The thorn is, as always, deciding whether obesity really is a disability or not. I'll dive into this in the next post.

Hi, I'm an American

I just wanted to take some time to get a few things off of my chest.

America is a television culture. It is full of people whose only goal is to think up something interesting enough to say, so that other people, who aren't on television but wish they were, will watch them. Lately, this has gotten harder. The result is that the people whose job it is to think up interesting things have been saying things that are more crazy than interesting. We believe them of course, because it is what we do. Nothing is too far fetched that someone, somewhere, won't hear it and say, "Damn, I was thinking that this morning!"  Balloon Boy? 12 people thought of putting their kid in a balloon before lunch that day. New World Order? half the voting populace daydreams about it on a regular basis. Rectal polyps? Don't ask. If these common folk could learn to scream, not just louder, but at the right people, they too could be on tv.

America is also a culture of egos. We are right. Even when we are wrong we are right. Apologies are for Europeans, not us. Think we may be wrong about something? Wrong! Have we changed our minds about something? We always thought like that. You must have misunderstood. We like to throw our weight around, and so far, the world has let us. Hell, we know they secretly love us telling them what to do. We told them they did.

We are smart. Super, scary smart. Basically, we are all a nation of geniuses. Any one of us is more than qualified to handle any problem, to figure out any dilemma. We're so smart, we thought up Intelligent Design, and now we want to spread it. Once its in all our class rooms, we'll export it, don't worry. We're so smart, we don't even need to emphasize education anymore. We have such a huge storehouse of brains, that we can coast on what our predecessors stored away. We're so smart, we discovered how to look into alternate dimensions. I know OUR Iraq didn't have WMD's, but the one in the 12th dimension did. We just took care  of it in ours. I guess we're not just the world's police force anymore. We're also the multiverse's.

So that's it. I'm an American. I am the bull in the world's china shop. I am right no matter what you say. I have God, and I have guns, and what should scare you right now is that some Americans will get hard reading this sentence. They're my neighbors, and we try not to make eye contact.  Anyway, for all the accomplishments, all the wars, all the interventions, I just want to say to the world, you're welcome! No, you don't have to thank us. We know how much we are appreciated by everyone. The TV tells us so.

Mediocrity Continued

In America, a vocal minority has declared that rule by clowns and half-wits is infinitely preferable to rule by those with an education. For some reason, and with no sense of embarrassment, these people have decided that only the stupid know what people want. It has spread so far that I have people that ARE intelligent, people that I know for a fact blow standardized tests out the water and send the Test Companies back to their desks crying like little girls, spout the exact same platitudes. How is this possible? You would think that these champions of common sense would use some. So it goes, huh?

Most people don't give their doctors an I.Q. test before making an appointment. Regardless, I am perfectly comfortable, with no polling to back me up, that most people would rather have a doctor who was the smartest they could get. These champions of the middle ground would flee if given a choice from a doctor known as mediocre, much less plain dumb. The same can be applied to anything we have a vested interest in. Give me the absolute best person, as often as possible. Except for our government, and any area that politicians have managed to make an impression on. Need someone to figure out how to fix the economy? Why enlist someone who has spent all their lives studying and working in the top of their field when you can get someone with common sense? Never mind that a national economy runs on different principals than your checking account, you want a common man in charge! Got a question about global warming? Why ask a scientist who has studied this one subject all his life? Nah, he lives in an Ivory Tower.Ask Beck, he'll know, he's a common man/multi-millionaire.  They always know what's best for us!

Again, I want to stress what an absolute shame this is. A country built on greatness and potential has been hijacked by a group of people who think OK is just fine. Who have a deep distrust of intelligence, for no apparent reason. This country better get it together soon. Our money and influence can only protect us for so long. Eventually, we will have to deal with a world that is smarter and better prepared than us in every way. God help us.

America's Love Affair with the Mediocre is Killing Us

Quick, how do you feel about the stimulus package? Does what the administration did make sense to you? Do you wish the government would use more common sense and less expert opinion to make decisions? If the answer is no to the first two and yes to the last, then you're probably part of a group in America that desperately wants to be considered a majority; you believe that "experts" with a big emphasis on the air quotes, are really out to get us.


America has always had a love-hate relationship with our intelligentsia. We are more than happy to use their smarts to acquire new technology, learn new ways to get things done, and overall, use them to make our lives better. When asked though, many Americans will insist that the smartest people are out of touch, that they don't know what the people want, and, most famously, that they lack common sense. A large part of America will admit to not wanting the smartest people in charge.

How does this make any sense at all? When did we as a people get so paranoid that we would rather the "C" student make policy as opposed to the "A"? Any business on earth is going to promote their best and brightest as quickly as possible, and they make money doing it. Lots of money.  One of the American myths was that you could work hard, get an education, and make it to the top. Now? Now you can't have gone to any University other than a state one, without being called an elitist. Its disgusting. 

Americans have no one to blame but ourselves. Our stubborn pride in our ignorance has doomed us to play catch up with countries like China who actually value and use all their resources.Our utter disdain for anyone who has the slightest bit of intelligence will be our downfall. There is no way a society can consistently try for mediocrity before we become just plain dumb.

Why it Doesn't Matter if Global Warming is Happening or Not

Think man is making the earth hotter, and that we'll destroy ourselves if we keep going? Or do you think that nothing we do can actually effect the environment? While I tend to side with the former (just because, you know, science) let's explore the possibility that this is just a cycle and we're in no danger. Whew! Guess we can keep shitting in our own back yard huh?

Here's why we should curb emissions and explore alternative energy anyway.

It will be worth it. Its that simple. Even if we see no dip in temperature at all, never worrying about the air you breathe or the water you drink will make up for it. Yes it will be expensive. Yes it will take sacrifice.But someone will have to pay it eventually, even if just to ensure we aren't suffocated under our own smog. Why can't it be us? Why can't we quit being selfish assholes for long enough to start? We have the opportunity to be known as the generation that started it all. That took the plunge for the future of our species. I hear a lot these days about how unfair it is to burden our children with our debt. Fair enough. Why then is it acceptable to burden them with our waste? Its not, of course its not. Still, burying your head in the sand is much easier than taking responsibility, isnt it?

As for the alternative energy, the main argument I hear about all of it is that it either does not work as well or is too expensive. Great. Who cares? Investing in alternative fuel is just like curbing emissions. We know our oil and natural gas will disappear eventually. We know this beyond a shadow of a doubt. So how stupid is it not to test, and try, and roll out every alternative you can think of? The answer is, its self-evidently stupid.

This may not be your problem. You will probably be dead before it becomes an issue. Your descendants will not be. It is up to you whether they remember you with pride for having acted, or as the selfish jerks we all try so hard to be.

Why We Have to Try the 9/11 Terrorists

Earlier tonight I posted a reply to a friend of mine on Facebook, in which he stated that giving the 9/11 terrorists a trial was naive, as they wanted to destroy our system anyway. I think the idea was that they don't respect it anyway, plus they aren't human, so why bother. He also made the comment that if Holder was so sure they would get the death penalty, why not push them out the plane taking them to New York. As an interesting aside, this same friend often criticizes the Obama Administration's health care plan (and pretty much all his other policies), as destroying our Constitution and running contrary to the will of the founders. 

The argument I made to him is pretty much the same one I will make here. Not giving the terrorists their day in court would be a betrayal of everything this country has ever stood for. One of the pillars of our society rests on the fact that everyone, no matter how horrible the crime they are accused of, will get their day in court. We know that no matter what, no one in the United States will be summarily executed on a whim. Instead, twelve men and women will sit down, look at the evidence, and decide guilt or innocence. This, more than anything else, differentiates America from those that hate us. If we execute them with no trial, or hold their trial in a secret military tribunal, we will never have the right to demand anything from anyone when it comes to human rights. We will have lost.

Why is it that some people will cling to the Constitution for all its worth, and then discard it as soon as it is inconvenient? And why are these people the first ones to accuse someone of being communist, or socialist, or just plain un-American? At least the majority just differ in their interpretation of the Constitution. This group though, my friend included, have decided that there is some sort of collective consciousness that gets to decide who gets the protection of our founding document, and who does not. Think about that for a second. They have taken it upon themselves to decide the fate of another person, disregarding due process and 233 years of American history, for two seconds of revenge that will not change anything anyway.

I personally think the men in question did it. I'm certain they will be found guilty, and I am just as certain they will be executed. I'm fine with that. What I'm not fine with is for our country to throw away what makes us special, what makes us unique. We can be better than that. We are better than that. These men will have their day in court. And we, as a nation, will be able to look ourselves in the mirror,  knowing that we proved our way works.

Louisiana's New Embarrassment is Named Keith Bardwell

He only did it for the kids.

The Story.

I'm not going to go into the story's details. The facts are self-evident and either your appalled at the ignorance this fine example of a Louisiana public official possesses, or you don't see what the big deal is. Psst! If you fall into the latter category, your a piece of shit. Do us a favor and don't breed.


No, the reason I'm writing  is because I saw the paper, then went to the above link to see what the comments were saying. It was just as bad as I thought it would be. The comments ranged from out of state people laughing at the backwardness our state seems to love to present to the outside world, to condemnation from decent people, all the way to the complete insanity from the lunatic fringe that think he's right. Problem is that the fringe isn't quite as fringe around here as it should be.

I realized that in the past few years, the only other national coverage we've gotten has been the Hosanna child rape cult.  The feelings of pride one experiences from this realization are unexplainable. Mainly because there aren't any.

It does reminds us of two things though.

1. The Post-Racial America Obama was supposed to usher in? Not happening.  What is and has been happening is that racism has just enough of a social stigma that the racist will deny being one, while still of course being one. No one, least of all Ballard, believes he's doing it for the kids. He's doing it because it's how he would have done it in his alternate reality where George Wallace became President. The only difference is that he hides his intentions and is stupid enough to think no one will know what he's doing. I suppose it is a step up from lynching. I can't believe I can write that and actually mean it.

2. There's hope. Each generation is a little more integrated, a little more aware of the problem, and a little less willing to stay quiet about race in general and racism in particular. At the same time, the generation that grew up seeing and rooting against the Civil Rights movement is dying off. While it will not supply the ultimate solution, time may do more to advance race relations than anything else.

One mistake we cannot afford to make is to say that this is just one more black eye for a state that has loads, shrugging it off in the process. I hope we don't. We can be better than this, we are better than this. All we need is the courage to tell Bardwell and his ilk that their way is not acceptable anymore. We can take advantage of this stupidity to prove, to ourselves more than anyone else, that we are willing and able to no longer allow an environment where people like Bardwell feel comfortable and, more importantly, justified in spewing their bile.  I know it can be done. I just hope enough of us are willing to try.

Oh and FYI, there's a very good chance that the picture leading this essay is not Bardwell. A good chance as in it's definitely not him. Still, I think as a representation of Bardwell's ignorance as well as a look what the rest of the world thinks we all look like thanks to assholes like him, it does it's job.

The Older I Get, the Weirder Things Are

So I went to the circus the other night, and all I can say is, it sucked. It was complete and utter crap. My kids liked it. I suppose it doesn't take much to seem magical to an eight year old. To me though? It was like all the shine was gone, and in its place was a dark, decrepit, sleaze pit, just waiting to take your money. And yes, before I thought to say money, there was a part of me that wanted to say soul. I can't help it, it was a little back alley creepy. Psycho Circus creepy for any KISS and/or comic geeks out there.

As for the title of this post, I noticed something about myself the other night. Now I'm an asshole, just to be clear. It's not something I'm proud of, and most of the time I can either keep my assholeish (word?) thoughts to myself or at the very least, get by with a socially acceptable, "Oh Shawn, your horrible! <giggle>"  I'm a nice asshole, but an asshole nonetheless. Anyway, as I get older, these cynical assholeish <again ,word?> thoughts seem to be merging with, dare I say it, a hippie like view of the world. And I was always pro-Cartman, anti-hippie. But I don't know what else to call it.

This latest crisis of confidence in my ability to be a thoroughly depressing and bastardly individual happened, you guessed it, at the circus the other night. First things first. I hate PETA. I love animals, but I hate PETA. Back on track, I'm sitting there at the circus, wondering exactly how many kinds of VD the trapeze artists has, when they march out the elephants. I like elephants, I always have; they seem like they just know weird,  interesting, important, things. Things that, when they told you, you'd be all like, "No way! How could I have missed that? Jumbo, you've changed my life forever!" Or something, anyway point is, I like elephants, but aside from the, possibly alcohol induced thought above, I've rarely thought about them. I did Saturday night.

Know what I thought? I thought that the life of a circus elephant sucks balls. Then I felt guilty for paying money to an organization that puts them on display like that. They were going through this act and they just looked pathetic. This circus was in a parking lot in Kenner. The elephants had to kneel on that concrete. Ever kneeled on concrete? It hurts. Imagine weighing a few thousand pounds and kneeling on it. Yeah. So now I want to free the elephants. Along with health care, Palestine, and this country from the Patriot Act. I suppose that really does make me a liberal, which to my family and friends makes me a hippie.  Oh well, I promise to bathe often and not wear patchouli. That'll help some, right?

Today's the Day

Today is this one’s first birthday. While the party will be tomorrow, today he gets to hang out with daddy, eating and sleeping. So as far as he’s concerned, today is a regular day. We know its special though. Love ya Loges. Back tomorrow with pictures of him eating his cake.

Writing Discipline

Check this out!   http://micro-fiction.blogspot.com/ is a great and creative example of the writer’s art. I can’t imagine the effort and the discipline one would need to tell a story in just 50 words. I may try it, though I seriously doubt I would be brave enough to publish the results.

Mass Effect or Why Do I Need to Find Everything in a Game Part 2?

To keep things shorter I’ll jump over the whole PS2 Xbox generation, though I’m already eyeing Bioware with a mixture of admiration and utter contempt at this point. In the modern era we have two games that represent the destruction of my body and soul, or at least usher in a massive influx of OCD gaming habits. Bioware put together Mass Effect which for those of you not aware, is the gaming equivalent of crack to people like me. Modern games have been slowly moving away from the idea that collecting a hundred items, and then doing it again works as a valid plot point. Mass Effect slaps down that idea and sends you right back to a hell that Super Mario Brothers could only dream of. This is the mother lode of things that make me obsessive. To begin, we have a protagonist that has multiple conversation choices, that can lead to different outcomes. This means that right out of the box there is no way for me to get everything my first go around. I need to play it multiple times to see everything. just thinking about it is  raising my blood pressure. But I’ll do it.

The next part just compounds the first problem. You now have the choice to be good or evil. The choice of one can block out the choices available to the other. In Mass Effect it isn’t too bad, as there are ways around it or you can play multiple times. But Fable II! That is a whole other ball of wax. I play it and I hate it at the same time. Don’t get me wrong, it is a great game and I love to play it, but there is a part of me that cringes when I make a choice. I know I’ll need to make a whole new character if I want to make that choice again, as there are no multiple saves per character. At least with Mass Effect, I can save right before a new choice. With Fable I’m effectively screwed.  But I still love it.

Sean Hannity Claims Dems Wish Death on Limbaugh. Wanda Sykes IS the Democratic Party Dammit!

Quick Disclaimer: Apologies for seeming to be picking on the republicans. In real life I can’t stand either of the parties, but I listen to a lot of talk radio so yeah, I hear Rush and Hannity say the stupidest things most frequently.

So Wanda Sykes gets on stage and claims to be hoping for Rush Limbaugh’s kidneys to fail and suddenly all democrats are supposed to be wishing death on El Rushbo. Besides the fact that Rush has the money by now to preserve his head Futurama style, meaning he will outlive us all, why does one person now speak for the entire Democratic party? I never have understood this. During the election when the crazies were yelling things at McCain rallies, why was McCain supposed to rein them in. Why did dems insist that not speaking up meant support?

The answer for both sides is obvious and its why I hate them all. These stupid talking points and non-event political news are what drive our political system. Neither side can or will tackle anything of substance, but they sure as hell can grab the first one liner they hear and run it into the ground for all it is worth. I swear to the sweet baby jeebus if I hear Rush do that Barney Frank imitation of his or Hannity just repeat the same thing, (Rham “Dead Fish” Emmanuel) over and over I will start to stab random peoples eyes out. Or just sigh and shake my head like I normally do.What ever mood I’m in I guess.

So that’s how our great nation is run. We appeal to the least common denominator and hope everyone’s ADHD attention span lasts just long enough to remember the last truly horrible thing they heard. Go ahead and say whatever you want, no one will ever do any research on it. I guarantee you right now there are emails circulating right now saying that Obama, Biden, and Pelosi were screaming for Limbaugh’s death as opposed to one comedian who made a joke. And they are being forwarded, dear God are they being forwarded. If not they probably soon will be, as soon as some rabies infested mouth breather reads just this bottom paragraph and only sees the fourth sentence.

Wanda Sykes is a pretty funny comedian, not the entire Democratic party. Her shot at Rush may be considered bad taste to some, but it is hardly the opening howl of a Rush lynch mob. I’m 100 hundred percent certain that all democrats do not want Rush to die. Now if she had made a joke about his tongue falling out, the dems may have had a problem.

Mass Effect or Why Do I Need to Find Everything in a Game?

With the recent information regarding Mass Effect 2 (Video),  my interest was peaked. Coming off a Killzone 2 jag I realized I had only played through the original Mass Effect once, and had yet to touch the DLC for it. So I went ahead and popped it into my 360 for the first time in a long time.

For a while it was good to be managing inventories and stats again. I finished off Eden Prime and was off to the Citadel. It was here that I realized why I wait so long to play these games. It seems that there is something in my personality that forces me to complete as much of the game as possible. It began harmlessly enough with the original Super Mario Bros. Collecting all the coins in a level was part of the game. Never mind that I HAD to get them all. Every game at this point seemed like it was some sort of collection quest. That was ok though, because the games were small and Nintendo Power was in all my friends grubby little hands. With the advent of the Final Fantasy games on the Playstation, things got a little worse. While collection was still a part of the game in the form of items, the dreaded sub-quest was added. Now there were parts of the game or characters in it I may never see unless I did something specific. Failure to go to the right place or talk to the right character could close off parts of a game for that entire play through. I became an avid believer in saving often. I would also always buy the strategy guide along with the game so I could make sure I would not miss anything. And those of you laughing right now can shut up . I knew about Gamefaqs, but I needed answers then and there. I couldn’t wait for someone with my same obsession to get around to posting. Ok, I know it was stupid but I was driven.

Getting long I’ll continue in my next post….