I’m Not The Only One

In this day and age where news commentary often dwarfs actual news reporting, it’s hard to not see union spokespeople on television grinning ear to ear as Toyota launches a massive worldwide recall of over four million Camrys and Corollas.  United Auto Workers reps have been more than happy to appear on all major networks and news channels to suggest that Toyota’s failure to catch their defective parts before the cars left the factories because the company’s nonunion workers were “not committed to the product” because the company was “not committed to them”.

These union flunkies are capitalizing on the collective short-term memory of the American public.  Say what you want about Toyota, but they never received a bailout from Congress because for the last 30 years they have been manufacturing automobiles that Americans actually want to drive.  While car makers around the world have seen a loss in sales in the last few years, it was the Big Three that have been hemorrhaging red ink since the 70s. Read the rest of this entry »

For those who wonder why Americans are seen as ignorant and Christians are viewed as narrow-minded bigots, one only has to consider the recent remarks made by televangelist Pat Robertson about the earthquake in Haiti.

Robertson’s remarks prove that he is duly ignorant of geography, (Haiti only occupies one-third, not half of the island of Hispaniola)

Unfortunately, this aging mental midget is half right.  Haiti is cursed, but not by God or the Devil, and certainly not because the Founding Fathers of Haiti drew a pact with Satan.  Looking at history, it appears that Haiti has been cursed by first Western Europe then later by the United States. and for the unthinkable sin of being black. Read the rest of this entry »

When the Man is looking for a terrorist, not a drug dealer or robber.

In America, blacks and Latinos are often guilty until proven innocent when the police are looking for a drug suspect.  As politically incorrect as it may sound, it makes perfect sense for police to use racial profiling against blacks and Latinos when looking for suspects of drug-related crimes.  Even though statistics suggest that white Americans are the largest consumers of illicit substances it is almost always people of color involved in the production, distributions and sale of these illegal narcotics and are most often targeted in the War on Drugs.  I’ve always said that the only way to completely put an end to racial profiling against blacks and Latinos by law enforcement is to decriminalize drugs.

That said,  I don’t believe racial profiling makes any sense when protecting Americans from terrorism.  Those Americans who support racial profiling as a counter terrorist measure are probably the same idiots who think Africa is a country and Mexico is a continent.  Why doesn’t racial profiling work to sniff out would-be terrorists?  Because the terrorists in question are of the Muslim faith, and like Christianity, Islam is a religion, not a race.  Muslims come in all colors.  Since 9/11 we have encountered white American Islamic terrorists, a Hispanic Islamic terrorist, Chinese Muslims and an array of Islamic terrorists of African descent and/or origin.  In terms of numbers, Islam in the U.S. has been the fastest growing faith, but by blacks and Latinos, not by immigration from the Arabian peninsula.  The country with the largest Islamic population in the world is Indonesia, nowhere near near Arabia but in the south Pacific.  The majority of black people worldwide are Muslim, not Christian. Read the rest of this entry »

I know, pretty startling statement coming from an American, right?

I recently made a new friend, Aaron Lazansky-Oliva a.k.a. Spaze Crafte One.  This dude wears more hats than I do, which is pretty impressive.  He is a DJ, all-around entrepreneur, music producer, graffiti artist, graphic designer/visual artist, webmaster, blogger, advocate for organ donation, photographer, weekend fourth grade teacher, and retailer (not to mention his colorful background as a Mexican Jew).  He is both locally, nationally and internationally known, depending on each proverbial hat.

Aaron and I are currently working on a web design project together (I handle the editorial, he handles everything else) for a major real estate firm in Manhattan.  As I spent more time talking to him, I was amazed by his many talents and his entrepreneurial passion.  But I was also intrigued by his role as an advocate for organ donation, supporting nonprofits like Donate Life..  His passion for this issue comes from a most personal source: Read the rest of this entry »

Sorry I haven’t been blogging the last 30 days or so.  I’ve actually been swamped with freelance work and in this economy, you have to take wherever you can find it!

But in the spirit of the holiday season,  I’ve been bombarded with “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”.  I’ve received mail from my creditors, my health insurance providers and all manners of junk mail wishing me a happy holiday.  I do support the separation of church and state (as does the U.S. Constitution) so I can understand the public sector communicating in this way, but when the private sector does it (like a customer service rep or a supermarket or store employee) it just comes off as a politically correct, neutered move.  And since I have a Hispanic surname, I get bilingual correspondence wishing me the equally lame “felices fiestas”.  And yes, when I am told happy holidays, I do respond with Merry Christmas.

I know that social conservatives who use God as an excuse to rob us of our civil liberties see the prevalence of “happy holidays” as a sure sign that the atheists, pagans, Jews and other hell-bound liberals have declared a war on Christmas.  I just don’t see it.  I’ve even received political propaganda from local Republicans accusing incumbent Democrats of “hating Christmas” simply because these elected officials wish the constituents happy holidays in their correspondence.

But let’s get back to the separation of church and state.  After all, freedom of religion also means freedom from religion.  Just making Christmas a legal holiday is a violation of the Constitution.  No one is proposing we make Hanukkah or Ramadan a national holiday.  And Christmas’ legal status is not even an American tradition as it was not only not a Federal holiday until 1870, but in colonial times, was outlawed.

So if I could make a proposition to the rest of America…

How about the private sector not censor itself and say Merry Christmas and in exchange, Christmas will no longer be a legal holiday?  No doubt Lou Dobbs will consider this the final blow in the war against Christmas.

I know consumer confidence is down and the retail sector is eager for the holiday shopping season to start, but do they have to run holiday commercials a week before Thanksgiving?

I was elated to discover this morning that notorious Hispanophobe and major league douche bag Lou Dobbs has left CNN.  Dobbs has used CNN to spread the rumor regarding President Obama’s birth certificate, and has spread many rumors regarding illegal aliens, particularly a malicious one blaming illegal aliens bringing into America leprosy from Mexico.

Dobbs is such a racist he even got into a shouting match with Fox’s Bill O’Reilly and actually made the Fox anchor seem like a board member on the National Council of La Raza in comparison. Read the rest of this entry »

It was definitely an interesting election this year.  Nationwide, Obama’s dropping approval rating has hurt Democrats in local elections.   That is certainly the case in New York and especially in nearby New Jersey, where proverbial fat cat Dem John Corzine (who deserved to lose for poking fun at his Republican opponent’s weight problem in his campaign literature) lost to the literally fat Republican Chris Christie, who oddly resembles a Sopranos cast member. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently learned that the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) is in serious financial trouble, to the point that the 25-year old trade association isn’t sure whether or not they will exist next year.  No, this is not a plea to whip out your credit card and make a donation; this is simply my slightly apathetic reaction to the organization’s $300,000 budget deficit.  A desperate plea from NAHJ’s President to raise $300,000 by December 15, 2009.

A little background: Upon graduating from college in winter 2007, I joined NAHJ in hopes the membership would help me find a journalism job.  Needless to say, I was more than disappointed.  Now NAHJ is asking for increased donations, even going as far as sending unwanted emails to former members such as myself to join their “Count Me In” initiative, asking me to either donate myself and/or raise funds from my friends, family, colleagues and employer.

This is what happens when you don’t change with the times. Just as the newspaper industry has been dying a slow fiscal death for the last few decades, shouldn’t the same thing happen to a trade association for journalists? This is why I did not renew my NAHJ membership. I graduated college with a large amount of debt, couldn’t afford to become a member in the first place but did so in the hopes it would give me an edge in getting into the newspaper business. To my dismay I never really got any work due to my NAHJ membership. Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, this gringo said it.

Brazil totally deserves to host the Olympics.  In fact, I’m shocked they’ve never hosted it before.  Most Americans have no idea why I’m saying this, mostly because many non-Hispanic whites and blacks can’t even find Brazil on a world map. much less know enough about Brazil to understand why they should host this international event. Read the rest of this entry »

All I hear about in the news these days are health care, health care, and more health care.  As a result I really haven’t been keeping up on the news or blogging.

But I saw a reasonable health care proposal which while featuring a few major flaws, was far better than what’s being proposed in Congress right now.  The debate of comments following the post was so civil and the points were so rational (as opposed to the bullshit you hear from syndicated pundits and members of Congress) it inspired me to present my own proposal for healthcare reform.  It’s simple and can reduce administrative overhead in both the public and private sectors while encouraging free market competition. Read the rest of this entry »

Just in case you didn’t see the sidebar, I’m Not The Only One has a Facebook page.  I’d appreciate it if my readers could make themselves a fan of the page.

I also have a Twitter page, both of which will notify you whenever this blog is updated.  Adding yourself to both would be greatly appreciated.

I like to say “social notworking” instead of social networking because my friends usually update their Facebook pages during the daytime, when I know they’re at work.  Then I see the updates like, “So and so just reached level 82 on Cube Crash” (also during the workday) or some other Facebook application, so I know they’re not working!

Lastly, here are some cool libertarian Facebook pages you might want to become a fan of:

Cato Institute

Libertarian Bloggers

 You Know You’re Libertarian When…

 Lou Dobbs is a Racist

Okay, the last one’s not libertarian, but it’s one I definitely like.

As millions of students return to college to prepare to fill jobs that probably won’t exist by the time they graduate, I am reminded of a dubious concept from my own college years: academic integrity.

You can’t take one college course, read one syllabus or even read university literature without coming across that word. It is a concept used to enforce rules on students that prohibit among other things, plagiarism, cheating, using Cliff Notes, Wikipedia or any other act perceived as academic dishonesty.

Unfortunately I’d learned over the years in college that academic integrity only applies to students.  Faculty, text book companies and even entire universities do not have to adhere to any standards of academic integrity. Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you who have never really liked all those visually obstructive ads on this blog, today is your day.

As you can now see, the MSNBC Politics and Amazon.com ads are gone.  My fellow bloggers should pay close attention to what I’m about to say.

I originally put up the MSNBC Politics /huge display ad widget on my blog in May of 2008.  Placing the widget near the top was mandatory in order to participate in their advertising program.  I thought that was a little much, but I tolerated it.

I recently logged in to the website of Syndigo, the third party company that manages these display ad widgets for MSNBC, the Today Show and a host of local CBS affiliates, to see how much money I had accumulated in the 16 months since I’d joined their network and was appalled to see I had only accumulated $3.89.  I was even further dismayed to learn that they had actually lowered their rates of payment per click and per thousand impressions (impressions is when the ad is seen on the browser of someone visiting my blog). Syndigo can keep their lousy $3.89.  The worst aspect of Syndigo is that they don’t pay out until I accumulated $50 on my account, which at the current rate of accumulation would not have happened for me for another 17 years, at which time Syndigo will undoubtedly be defunct.

Amazon was even worse, with no revenue whatsoever.  As much as I like to show my visitors what books I like to read, it was a non-monetizing eyesore that, like MSNBC, had to go.

In contrast, Google Adsense, which is near the bottom and the least visually obstructive, pays out something like $100 a year, which while is a small amount, is far more substantial than anything I’ve gotten from the other two affiliate programs.

To be fair, Syndigo’s rates of payment are based on how many unique visitors come to your site per month.  The lowest bracket, which my blog was in, was for websites that received fewer than 10,000 unique visits per month. So I guess joining Syndigo is not a worthwhile investment unless you have more than 10,000 unique visits per month.  And if you have fewer than that number, be prepared to provide MSNBC or CBS with free advertising.

I never expected to get rich with Syndigo; I only expected to see comparable to or better results than Google Adsense given that the advertising was significantly larger and harder to ignore since it was near the top of the web page.  If I were a liberal, I’d call my Congressmember to tell them to ban such slick advertising schemes and protect us vulnerable bloggers and webmasters.  But I’m a free-market libertarian, so I’m just going to take the assholes off my site.

Last week or so a murderer was put to death.  Not by the criminal justice system but by brain cancer.  All the endearing coverage of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy’s death by the liberal (and strangely enough, right-leaning as well) media cannot cover up the fact that he is directly responsible for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.

For those unfamiliar with the subject, Mary Jo was a secretary for Robert Kennedy in the 1960s who became close with Ted, a married man.  She worked on RFK’s Presidential campaign in 1968.  A year later, July 18, 1969, she attended a party thrown for RFK’s campaign workers on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha’s Vineyard, where she ran into Robert’s brother, then-freshman U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy.  Mary Jo left the party around 11 pm, according to Ted, because he offered her a ride back to the ferry to go back to her hotel.  Oddly, Mary Jo didn’t tell anyone else that she was leaving and left her hotel keys and purse at the party.

Ted did not ask his chauffeur to drive and inexplicably left him at the party.  Ted drove his Oldsmobile off Dyke bridge a narrow, unlit crossing that was not on the way to the ferry dock and they landed into the water below.  Ted escaped the sinking car and swam to safety but Mary Jo remained in the car and died.  He claimed he dove into the water seven times in attempts to rescue Mary Jo, but ultimately gave up and walked back to the party, passing several houses along the way and inexplicably failing to ask the residents to use their phone to call the police.  Instead of enlisting the help of the police, Ted got two of his friends to drive back to the bridge and they all reportedly tried to rescue Mary Jo.  Teddy didn’t report the accident and Mary Jo’s demise to the police until the submerged car and Mary Jo’s body was discovered the following morning.  The local Fire Rescue squad pulled out the car to find Mary Jo in the back seat.  Strangely enough, no autopsy was ordered and cause of death was stated as “drowning”. But later that month the District Attorney ordered her body exhumed and an autopsy performed based on police records reporting blood found on Mary Jo’s skirt and in her mouth and nose “which may or may not be consistent with death by drowning”.  But the DA’s request was turned down. Read the rest of this entry »