1.2 TRILLION DOLLARS given to the rich and nothing for the poor, the working poor or the middle class.
The above is what one person commented on one of my blogs awhile ago. I was talking about the TEA parties. He thought I was talking about the stimulus bill. Whatever.
Anyways, I just wanted to mention that I am now employed thanks to the stimulus money that has been sent to my neck of the woods. The stimulus money has employed myself and 10 other people at Catholic Charities. My job will be providing job training and then finding jobs for youths aged 16-24 in households making 150% of the Federal poverty guidelines. So, this stimulus money is going to the poor, the working poor, and the middle class.
The dude ended his comment with:
How's that working out for you?
It's working out very well for me. Thank you. You should comment again some time. We miss you.
--
"You pressed 'You', referring to me. That is wrong. The correct answer is you."
I know I've talked about this before, but I needed to touch on it again.
As I was perusing newsprint to lay down under my cat's litter box, I saved one local paper in our house from such a fate. It's an issue of "Lake Chatter," our local Lake County free newspaper, from the week of April 20, 2009. Because of the timing of its release, this particular issue's front page story was about local TEA Parties.
On the front page is a picture of someone identified as Nancy Marra of Mayfield Village holding a sign that says (I shit you not) "Taxation without Representation." Apparently the democratically elected President of the United States does not represent representation. Perhaps we should develop a system on a smaller scale by which states can be individually represented in legislative decisions. Oh wait, idiot, that's what the democratically elected Senate is for. Is that not enough representation for you? Perhaps we should go to an even smaller scale, dividing the whole country up into districts from which representatives are drawn in order to decide on legislative decisions. Guess what, you clod, that's the House of REPRESENTATIVES. However, thank you for giving me the opportunity to use the word "clod."
Even better than that is when you open up the paper to read the rest of the column. There is yet another big picture of someone identified as Curtis Early of Willowick flying the Confederate flag - you know, the flag of a nation that led us into one of the bloodiest wars we've ever fought - and holding a sign that says (again, I shit you not) "The South Succeeded Over Taxes." I don't even know how to address this. First of all, anyone who flies the Confederate flag is an idiot in my book. Secondly, did he misspell seceded, or is he honestly of the impression that the Confederacy, a nation that hasn't existed since 1865 and lost a war due (in part) to its inability to continue to fund its army represents a successful nation? Either way, dude, since when is the Confederacy - a nation built on the idea that racism is awesome - a model for brilliant governance?
`Have some wine,' the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.
Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea. `I don't see any wine,' she remarked.
`There isn't any,' said the March Hare.
These TEA parties happening around the nation right now (TEA stands for Taxed Enough Already) - responses to Santelli's call for a Chicago Tea Party back in February - smell mighty fishy to me. One of the fishiest things comes from chicagoteaparty.com itself. This website was registered back in August of 2008 - before Santelli called for a Chicago Tea Party, before Obama introduced his economic stimulus plan, before Americans had decided on the administration for 2009, even before Obama had been named the Democratic Presidential Candidate. It is also registered to Zachary Christenson - a Chicago area right wing radio host. What a lucky turn of events that when "grass roots" Republicans begin a movement of tea parties in Chicago, the domain name has already been bought and paid for by someone who is a spokesperson for the American conservative movement.
On top of that, these people who are screaming because they've been "taxed enough already" seem to not be aware that 95% of America has seen a tax cut. They also don't seem to be aware that taxes are still lower than they were during the Reagan administration. So, how could so many people turn out to protest something that affects only the top 5% - the wealthiest and most well off and equipped to handle this economic crisis? Surely not because they were paid to do so. Surely not because corporate funded organizations contacted these people via Facebook and offered them money (up to $1,000) to come out and say something bad about the administration. No, that never happened.
--
"I did not bare myself deliberately, but I tell you: I wish now that I had! Because it is not me that has been exposed, but you! For I have seen the nipple on your soul!"
Apparently Bob Dylan put up an outhouse on his property and it is stinking up the neighborhood, forcing them to complain. No, it's not a slow news day. There's taxes on bonuses, abuse of power in Toledo area police departments, pleas to Iranian governments. But, somehow, a passive agressive neighbor feud snuck through.
At the end of the article, it speaks of how, in a previous incident, Mr. Dylan got around accessibility requirements for his guardhouse by providing a written note to county officials promising he wouldn't hire any handicapped people.
Sigh.
--
Brian: Stewie, you’re just judgmentally quoting Bible verses and you don’t even know how to read. Stewie: Welcome to America, Brian!
Some people were arrested in Georgia for assisted suicide. They were members of a group called the Final Exit Network. One of their goals is "to serve people who are suffering intolerably from an irreversible condition which has become more than they can bear." The group claims they do not assist in suicides. Instead, their service involves instructing people on how to end their lives - which involves wearing a plastic hood that fills with helium. Also, according to court documents, members of the group will hold your hands throughout the process to keep you from pulling the plastic hood off your head should you change your mind. However, if you want services, you must be a member, and that costs $50.
The person Final Exit is charged with assisting in suicide is John Celmer, a man who had cancer, but that was not the reason he received services. The irreversible condition that caused intolerable suffering for Mr. Celmer was his appearance after the numerous surgeries that cured him and left his body cancer free. That's right, he no longer had cancer at the time of his death. His issues were cosmetic, he was embarassed about his appearance, which should have been dealt with through psycological means.
That's the problem with providing assisted suicide services - people will tell you what you want to hear in order to get what they want. Although the group does "encourage" you to seek a spiritual advisor and/or psycologist before going through with anything, it's an empty gesture when the client knows the option of suicide is there. It would be like sending a drug addict to rehab and telling him that if he decides he doesn't like it, we'll be waiting with all the drugs he needs when he gets out.
Should assisted suicide ever be legalized [I'm looking at you Oregon, Washington, and Montana!], I don't even want to imagine the corruption that would take place when this service is provided by a profit hungry corporation. Pharmaceutical companies already run ads to make you think you have whatever ailment they purport to cure. I'd hate to see how assisted suicide companies would encourage an already depressed population to take advantage of their services.
Finally, for those of you who think suicide is a personal decision - you have no idea the damage it wreaks upon the living. You have no idea how contagious it is. This is not a decision that affects only the one who died. This is not something people will get over eventually. It leaves deep scars, and although the pain may get easier over time, it will never end.
I hope these people come to realize the intolerable suffering they inflict upon the survivors. I hope they come to understand that this sufferable condition is just as irreversible as the services they provide. Maybe then they can understand the hypocricy of their work.
--
Comic Book Guy: Pardon me, Santos, if that is your real name, Bart Simpson!
The Nintendo DSi is coming stateside sooner than expected. Specifically, it's coming April 5... just 5 days before my birthday. Hmmmm....
Finally, I just needed to put this where I wouldn't lose it:
--
George: Do you know anything about this pretzel guy?! Maybe he's been in the bar a really long time and he's really depressed because he has no job, and no woman, and he's parking cars for a living! All right! All right! Shut up! Shut up! I hear you! I'm coming down! These pretzels are making me thirsty!
Rick Santelli says the government is "promoting bad behavior" by "subidizing the losers' mortgages" when we should "at least buy cars and buy houses in foreclosure and give them to people that might have a chance to actually prosper down the road."
First of all, you know you're on the right side when you refer to tens of thousands of homeless families as "losers." I wonder if he also refers to victims of domestic violence as "wimps."
Second of all, let's keep in mind that the mortgage crisis was not caused by millions of people trying to live beyond their means. Let's take a quick look at a simplistic breakdown of the crisis:
During the late 90s and especially the early 00s, banks went crazy with mortgage backed securities. The simplest way to define a mortgage backed security is for you to think of it as a stock on the stock market. What the banks could do is take these mortgages and sell them to investors who would buy shares in these mortgages. The bank would then make money by selling off the loans and the investors - theoretically - would make money off of the interest on the loan.
What happened was banks and mortgage lenders realized that the integrity of the loans didn't matter if they were just going to sell them to investors later on. This is why everyone began seeing these crazy loan options (i.e. 40-year mortgages, no income mortgages, "everyone qualifies" mortgages), because what mattered now was the number of loans you could sell to investors. Therefore, the more loans you have to sell, the more money you have to make. So, why not give everyone a mortgage?
Well, the banks did just that, engaging in extremely deceptive and oftentimes illegal lending practices in order to convince potential homeowners into believing these mortgages and home purchases were reasonable. People were not knowingly entering into agreements they could not follow through with. Mortgage lenders were telling them whatever it would take, even outright lying to them, to get them to sign these mortgages. The banks didn't care about the homeowners, their investors, nor the stability of the nation's economy. All they saw were dollar signs, and they hunted them down like a hungry Pac-Man drunk on Power Pellets.
So, bad behavior would actually be promoted by buying up foreclosed homes. Allowing banks to profit from increasing the homeless population of America I would say is far worse than helping families in need. Helping these families to stay in their homes in spite of the predatory lenders' efforts is actually addressing the problem at hand and trying to heal the damage that has been done.
SANTELLI: How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills?
Before I go on, I would like to again state that these are not people living in mansions who just aren't paying their bills. It's also not just one guy on the corner who's letting his lawn go and holds pot parties every night. In Cleveland alone, there have been over 50,000 foreclosures since 2005. This is not an isolated problem nor is it a rare occurrence. This is a major crisis that is happening to the whole country.
Despite that, the above question Santelli asks makes it clear he has never set foot in any neighborhood affected by the mortgage crisis. Take one look at Slavic Village and you will see not only that these houses do not have extra bathrooms, but also that if given the option, I think you'd be surprised how many of the homeowners in those neighborhood would've gladly helped out their neighbors with their mortgages rather than see every other house on the street get foreclosed, abandoned, boarded up, stripped, and then act as an anchor sinking everybody else's property values. Boarded up homes also have a canny ability to draw crime, which not only affects property values, but also the safety of the residents of the neighborhood. People are not living in bubbles and it is in the interest of homeowners that their neighbors' houses do not go into foreclosure.
People who are under the impression that the current mortgage crisis was caused by people living in houses with extra bathrooms not paying their bills have no comprehension of the crisis.
When it comes to crazy rants, this is more my style:
Here's what has been obsessing me the past week or so:
Super Mario Bros. 2 - or as it's known to the Yanks - the Lost Levels. This game is the original Mario 2 and was not released in America because it was deemed too difficult. See, the subtitle of the game is "Super Mario for Super Players." The game was made specifically to challenge people who thought Super Mario was too easy - or to put it another way - was made specifically to piss off people who thought Super Mario was too easy.
I have been able to get all the way to 8-4, but the road is frought with obstacles not introduced for the sake of fun but introduced so you will fail. Whereas most games feel like the creators are attempting to make something memorable and enjoyable, this feels like Shigeryu Miyamoto [the blessed genius that he is] is asserting his dominance to remind us sinners in the hands of this angry god that it is only his grace and love for all of mankind that keeps him from cursing our consoles with reverse warp zones and poisonous mushrooms.
If you play this game, I suggest you pick up the Super Mario All-Stars version as it allows you to save your progress at the start of every new level, so should you make it to 8-4 and lose all your lives, you do not have to start again from 1-1. I eventually beat that version, so in my hubris, I assumed I could take on the mammoth task of disseminating the original. I have been humbled and will offer penance.
Thank you, Fox News, for your in depth reporting. You were the only station brave enough to ask Obama to clarify a sentence fragment somebody else said.
I have a question for Obama, too: When Han Solo said, "I have a bad feeling about this," what was he referring to and can you assure the American people he wasn't talking about the stimulus bill?
--
Gabriel: It's true. I built him a cardboard house, full of cardboard furniture. And every night when he lies in that cardboard bed, he cries cardboard tears. Because the one thing - the only thing - I couldn't make out of cardboard... was love.
And you know we won't fight it 'cuz we can't turn away
We'll work your McDonald's and your midnight shift
We give pleasure and joy to your spoiled kids
You look at our jobs and you scoff and you laugh
But you still eat our Big Macs for a buck and a half
You make us come begging to your office door
When if we were not there you'd shut down your store
Your family would starve and your house would go for sale
'Cuz if you ain't got no workers, your business will fail
We ain't got no union 'cuz we ain't got no job
Our schooling you mock and our futures you rob
We come in the thousands and you pick only one
We got nowhere to stay and nowhere to run
Well, we'll always fight and we'll never back down
From Washington to Maine to Texas on down
With no one to back us, you push us again
But, union or no, we'll fight 'til we win
This week, there were so many unemployment claims in Ohio that both the computer system and the phone system crashed. I was one of the over 80,000 people this past Monday trying to get through to secure some sort of safety net as I look for a new job. Happy New Year, Ohio! Your children are starving.
I was one of the lucky many that got to be told all lines are busy and got to see that Internal Server Error on our computer screens while filing for unemployment. I almost wish there was no way to file online or over the phone just so America could get the visual picture of 80,000 people spending all of Monday standing in line for unemployment. Perhaps if we had an actual picture or video of all these people huddled together and shivering in the cold and snow people would finally begin to call this what it is: a depression.
Although I think people are starting to understand, I still hear and see things that tell me people just don't get it yet. Specifically, I saw this story from Nightline last night that made me wonder if this Dave Ramsey guy really believed what he was saying or if he was just the poor guy that drew the con straw when the two analysts were picked. If there are enough people out there that think like this Dave Ramsey guy, we may never get out of this depression.
What scares me the most is when he says, "I'm a capitalist pig. I'm for just letting this whole thing work itself out." I've heard similar people say similar things in different words, and it shocks me everytime that someone is actually trying to sell the idea: "If everybody just sits back and does nothing, I'm sure everything will just fix itself." There are people out there who need help right now and their situations are not gonna get better by ignoring them. Something needs to be done and nothing is not a solution.
Socialism often gets brought up in these conversations, but we're not talking about socialism. We're not talking about the government coming in and taking over industry. We're not about to see government produced D&D books, Jonas Brothers CD's, and NFL teams. If too many people lose theirs jobs and their money, there will be no one to buy what is produced, resulting in even more layoffs and unemployment. It's become a huge domino effect. The system is collapsing, and if you really believe in capitalism, something must be done to stop it.
--
Maude: We're not talking about "love." We're talking about S-E-X in front of the C-H-I-L-D-R-E-N.
Krusty: Sex Cauldron? I thought they closed that place down!
You may have heard rumminations of my love of this series before, and this is a title to note. Not only is it the creator's favorite of the series, it also has never been released outside of Japan until now.
The website is now open, and if this is your sort of thing, check it out.
Although I just went on a long diatribe about how I never play music anymore, I did take a brief break from my break and took 14th place in a music contest. The contest is called Dwelling of the Duels, and every month they hold a different competition with a different theme, but the overall theme of all the contests is video game music. I decided to try my hand at a little penguin music from the recently released Wii Fit. Take a listen.
An LG Chocolate 3 has netted me my first mp3 player. The CD Player in my car has been broken for probably a year now. As a result, I've spent this past year very far away from music, which is strange for someone who is a musician, I guess. I've filled my time with other hobbies and time commitments, but I always look at my dusty guitar and borrowed banjo in the corner of my room wondering if today's the day I pick it up again. Twenty four hours a day don't seem like enough anymore. I've got nearly thirty years worth of hours, but I don't seem to have traded them in as wisely as I should've.
One of the first CD's I transferred over to my Chocolate was Bob Dylan's Modern Times. It took only a few moments to realize how much I really missed music. But, I guess it hit me hard when it came to his song "Nettie Moore". This was a song that I had completely forgotten existed, but as soon as the chorus hit, I was singing along remembering the tragic life of poor Nettie.
Nettie Moore is a reference to a very old folk tune of the same name. During the time of slavery, poor Nettie was a slave and had fallen in love with another slave. This slave she loved is the author of the tune, and he also had fallen hard for her. By a little white cottage, he "often sat and listened... to the voice of pretty Nettie Moore." However:
one sunny morn in Autumn... came a trader up from Louisiana Bay... who gave to master money... and then he took her off to work her life away.
Now, he sings of how much he misses her, telling everyone, "The busy days are long... for you're gone from our little cottage home."
Dylan throws two lines into the chorus:
I loved you then and ever shall But there's no one here that's left to tell
Everytime "I miss you!" is screamed, with every expression of loneliness, and with every set of new ears willing to listen, the frail memories bloom again and the trail between now and then seems not so long. Unfortunately, one can phrase how much another is missed in only so many ways. When there's nothing new to say and no one new to listen, the memories fade and the world moves on.
Dragon Warrior II was a long time ago; 1990 to be exact. I don't want all of it back, but I need some of it. No one told me what was being left behind and what we could keep. I am in no way unhappy with where I stand now, but there's a lot I would trade in for just a little, if I could.
--- Did he just say, "Blessed are the cheesemakers?"
Anonymous McCain aides have started to verbally attack Sarah Palin now that the race is over and lost for the Republicans. Among the allegations being thrown around:
Palin didn't know Africa was a continent.
Palin didn't know NAFTA's three member countries were America, Canada, and Mexico.
Palin's $150,000 wardrobe expenditures were more upsetting and more of a scandal than RNC originally led on:
when [Palin] was urged by McCain adviser Nicole Wallace to buy three suits for the Republican convention and three suits for the campaign trail, she went on the now-infamous shopping spree at swank stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus... the budget for the clothing was expected to be between $20,000 and $25,000. Instead, the amount reported by the Republican National Committee was $150,000.
Palin's $150,000 wardrobe expenses is not the entirety of the bill she racked up:
Palin leaned on some low-level staffers to put thousands of dollars of additional purchases on their credit cards. The national committee and McCain became aware of the extra expenditures, including clothes for husband Todd Palin, when the staffers sought reimbursement
Now, I have to point out that these are anonymous charges being made hours after the end of quite a nasty presidential race, therefore their reliability is not strong. Also, I am extremely biased since I really don't like Sarah Palin.
However, it's kind of scary to think that, if the above is true, despite everything that occurred the RNC was still more than willing to put her that close to the White House.
A memo entitled "Preparation for Election Day" has been sent out to Toledo, OH police officers instructing them to "be prepared in case of aCIVIL UNREST that may result from the upcoming elections." [emphasis added by me for terror's sake]
The main directives from the memo are:
Advise your personnel that they are to have their riot equipment with them on Tuesday and Wednesday... shields, gas deployment equipment including pepper ball gun... riot sticks, flex cuffs... Civil Disturbance Kit... Mass Arrest Kit
Toledo Police Chief Mike Navarre confirmed this memo and confirmed that THE OFFICERS WOULD ALSO BE CARRYINGGAS MASKS. Navarre's assurances that officers would not be stationed at specific polling station is contrary to what the memo states:
On Tuesday units shall be directed to patrol the polling locations.
It then goes on to add that specific areas that need to be patrolled are Family Court, Board of Elections facility at Canton and Southard, Keiser Elementary School and Start High School.
Maybe I'll give it a few days before I see how the old folks are at home.
As exciting as it is, sometimes people need a break from politics.
I know half my friends are rolling their eyes as I begin this post, but please bear with me. It's the most impersonal things that seem to find a way to become the most personal.
I am a child of video games. I always have been, and at least into the foreseeable future, I always will be. I have recalled the very first video game I ever bought with my own money to many people who have known me. It was a simple Nintendo game called Dragon Warrior. If you know me, this introduction is nothing new.
Dragon Warrior spawned a sequel and quickly became a series of games. The games were great and considered by many to be some of the best, but, at least here in the States, the games were not popular. I almost preferred it this way. The less popular a game is, the more it is mine.
In 1995, Enix America Corporation, the company that localized the Dragon Warrior games for North America, went under. Oh, the games continued to be made and released, but only in Japan. Without a company that could localize them (and long before the introduction of emulators, hacks, and fan translations), us of the English tongue went without.
Years went by (nearly a decade). I grew up, graduated high school, attended college, and even found my feet walking the muddy trails of Ireland. It was 2001 when I traded in my quid for Washingtons and Lincolns, and America welcomed me with more than just mother's hugs and kisses: Enix America had returned and was bringing Dragon Warrior VII - the first Dragon Warrior game in 6 years - to the Yankees. Needless to say, I preordered it as soon as I was able.
Unfortunately, 2001 was not a happy year for many, and the tragedy that befell the nation was, for me, a foreshadowing of something far more personal to come before year's end.
I remember my mom waking me up early in the middle of October. I had taken the semester off from school and was busy lazying around home. With an impressive amount of composure, my mom told me that my older brother was in the hospital. He had tried to kill himself and his friends were luckily able to stop him. Now he was in a psych ward for an indeterminate amount of time.
Well, indeterminate turned into just under a week. Then, November 2, 2001, just a few short days after his release, he was gone, never to come back.
Because my grandmother decided to start a road trip with her friends, and because my grandmother is a grandmother and didn't understand, use, or want a cell phone, it took several more days to get her the news. We weren't going to hold a funeral for her grandchild without her, so another week passed before the funeral.
During that week, everyone I had ever known in my entire life was suddenly within arm's length. It was as if the world had stopped spinning just to give me time to grieve. There was no work. There was no school. I never had to be anywhere where I had to keep myself composed and hide my sorrow. If I couldn't have my brother back, I would take the comfort that all this support and friendship brought as a distant second. But I knew this week could not last forever.
I feared the moment after the funeral, the moment when the world would begin spinning again. Everyone would go home and back to their lives. However, my mother, sister, and I could only go home. The lives we led weren't there to go back to.
I remember clearly thinking as I walked back inside that home with my suit still reeking of incense: "How the hell am I supposed to handle this? What do I do?" I looked down at my feet, and there was a small brown box marked "Amazon.com." My pre-ordered Dragon Warrior VII had arrived while we were out burying my brother. I knew it was just a game, and nothing seemed more trivial after how I had spent my morning, but I needed that game. I needed something new that didn't have painful memories and longing sadness attached to it. Everything in that house was touched by my brother except this game and I needed to look at something that didn't remind me of him.
The plot of the game is you are the son of a fisherman in a world that is made up of only one island in a gigantic ocean. You find out that there used to be continents and other islands, but they were destroyed a long time ago. After finding a way to go back in time, you and your friends rewrite history by stopping the various cataclysms that destroyed all the lands. Early in the game, during your travels in the past, a character named Kiefer, who is your best friend in the game, doesn't return with you back to the present, remains in the past, and you never see him again.
Dragon Warrior VII is a very long game, and I didn't want it to end. The game had carried me through everything from day one, but I had also invested too much to leave it unfinished.
After beating the game, as with most any game, you get to sit through the game's ending. After the ending, after the credits, even after the finale music has stopped, the game returns to you on a fishing trip with your fisherman father. You toss the net overboard and pull up an ancient stone tablet. On it is inscribed a letter from Kiefer to you, and it reads: "I'm still traveling... I don't even know how long it's been since you and I went our separate ways... If you find this, I want you to let my father know that his son has finally found his way in this world. And, I want you to know that we are friends no matter how far we are from each other."
I don't think I could've faced the world if the game hadn't ended with that.
--- Dr. Venture: You know I feel so dirty when they start talking cute. Monarch: Get used to it. Dr. Venture: I should tell her that I love her, but that point is probably moot. Monarch: Are you reciting Jesse's Girl?
