I’m Not The Only One

Until recently I was convinced that America’s greatest threat was terrorism.  But now I’m beginning to believe the real threat to our freedom is not Al Qaeda but Al Abama.

I recently received the following e-mail: Read the rest of this entry »

I didn’t realize how controversial the whole Notre Dame’s issue (granting President Barack Obama an honorary degree and inviting him to give their 2009 commencement speech) was until I logged on to YouTube the other day and saw the featured video was of Notre Dame students and members of the Roman Catholic community sounding off on the issue.  I was made even more aware when I learned of notredamescandal.com.

Honestly, I think people made a much bigger deal out of it than it really was.  I think the real scandal was that President Obama was offered an “honorary” degree in the first place.  Besides the fact that it is a slap in the face to all the students who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition and spent years earning their degrees, an honorary degree, which is usually a Masters or Doctorate, is nothing more than a cheap fundraising gimmick. Read the rest of this entry »

An old colleague and friend started a web site with a bunch of other writers recently called Ms.Ann Thropic.  Basically, Ms. Ann Thropic is a very witty site with a borderline dark sense of humor in which the fictional character gives a reality check to people in the news who she feels are seriously detached from reality.

Past victims include:

• Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal
• Pope Benedict
• Starbucks

My old buddy asked me, way before the site was even up, to provide a piece for Ms. Ann Thropic.  Unfortunately, his partners said it was funny but too outdated.  In any case, here is the piece I wrote.  Enjoy!
Al Gore: Wuss Turned Idol, Waited To Lose the Election to Become the White Obama Read the rest of this entry »

Happy 4/20!

I couldn’t let my favorite holiday pass by without posting something up on this blog.   Norm Stamper of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition offered a great argument of why marijuana is far less harmless than alcohol.  Stamper, a retired police chief from Seattle offered the following:

“Alcohol contributes to acts of violence; marijuana reduces aggression. In approximately three million cases of reported violent crimes last year, the offender had been drinking. This is particularly true in cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, and date rape. Marijuana use, in and of itself, is absent from both crime reports and the scientific literature. There is simply no link to be made.”

and…

“Alcohol-related traffic accidents claim approximately 14,000 lives each year, down significantly from 20 or 30 years ago (attributed to improved education and enforcement). Figures for THC-related traffic fatalities are elusive, especially since alcohol is almost always present in the blood as well, and since the numbers of “marijuana-only” traffic fatalities are so small. But evidence from studies, including laboratory simulations, feeds the stereotype that those under the influence of canniboids tend to (1) be more aware of their impaired psychomotor skills, and (2) drive well below the speed limit. Those under the influence of alcohol are much more likely to be clueless or defiant about their condition, and to speed up and drive recklessly.”

Check out the rest of the article here, and if you get the munchies, celebrate 4/20 with some kottonmouth kookies.

I’m using another PC as I’m still waiting for my ISP to transfer my Internet connection to my new apartment.  In the meantime, I feel I must vent at all the Bernie Madoff coverage in the news, especially in the local stations here in New York City.

The rage and incarceration of Bernie Madoff is just another example of how our justice system picks and chooses what is and isn’t legal with little to no regard for consistency.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending what he did.  I’m just saying, he basically fooled thousands of idiots by convincing them that they could see a large return through a comparatively smaller investment.   If Madoff is going to jail, then how about locking up all the other organizations that suggest a person can see a gigantic return on a modest investment like the lottery commission of every state (a dollar and a dream my ass) and every casino in the U.S.  How come the people running these organizations aren’t going to prison?

Can anyone explain the difference between Madoff’s promise to his client pool of morons, all of whom are crying fraud and the promise offered by lottery tickets and casinos?  As usual the mainstream media demonstrates their ignorance of finance and economics by casting him to be worse than Hitler, or worse, George W. Bush.

Anyone with any amount of economic or financial literacy can tell that almost all investments that are high yield are also high risk and often require a high investment.  In fact, a high rate of return is usually offered to compensate for the equally high risk associated with the investment to attract a healthy mix of adventurous risk-takers who understand the risks involved and the idiots who don’t understand the risk but see the rate of return and drool.

If people want to put their money into something safe, they can put it into a savings account that pays out 2-3% interest.  If they want a higher return they can put their money into a bank’s certificate of deposit for a nice 5-7% interest rate.  Those are two safe investments.  You want a higher rate or return on your investment?  You’re going to be placing your money at risk.  Unfortunately, buyers of lottery tickets, compulsive gamblers and Bernie Madoff clients do not seem to understand this fundamental fact of investment.

I’m currently in the process of moving so I really haven’t had the time to blog regularly, especially with the inevitable Internet service interruption (scheduled for this Tuesday) associated with moving.  Then there’s the packing, the cleaning, the physical transportation of personal possessions, the unpacking and the eventual restoration of Internet service.  The next time I blog it will be from my new neighborhood.

This post may be a bit late, but so what?

I think by now the whole nation is aware-and amused-by the recent protest by a fringe group of students at New York University who occupied a portion of the campus demanding the university make tuition affordable.

For those unfamiliar with NYU, it is the largest private university in the U.S., ridiculously selective and has an endowment of $2.5 billion.  Among its 350,000 alumni are 31 Nobel Prize winners, nine winnders of the National Medal in Science, 16 Pulitzer Prize winners, 19 Academy Award winners, and the current Presidents of Taiwan and Panama.  NYU has its own student daily newspaper, consists of 16 colleges/institutes and study abroad facilities in eight countries and the tuition for a full-time undergraduate costs around $37,000.  Despite the fact that the University’s headquarters is located in New York City, only 10 percent of the student body are from New York City.

People attend NYU because of its prestigious legacy and its reputation for offering a world-class education.  It looks great on a resume, and some graduates go on to hold positions of great power in the public and private sectors.  Even if you don’t learn a damn thing there, graduates will benefit for the rest of their lives from the extensive network of well-connected and powerful alumni.

Given all these facts, the public was not impressed one bit when a group of radical students called Take Back NYU staged a sit-in protest and refused to leave a portion of the campus until their demands were met.  Among their ridiculous demands for NYU were: Read the rest of this entry »

By now everyone must be aware of the recent editorial cartoon which ran in the New York Post.  In the cartoon a chimpanzee has been shot dead by police officers who say to each other, “Now they will have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill.”

Is the cartoon inherently racist?  Not really, if you consider the New York Post is a publication with a conservative slant and highly critical of any Democrat, especially our new Democrat President.  The cartoon was drawn as a reference to the recent shooting by police of a chimpanzee who mauled a woman in Connecticut.  But the cartoon’s message (my interpretation of it) was that the stimulus bill was so stupid, a primate could have written it.

In all fairness, liberals have repeatedly and viciously compared former President George W. Bush to a monkey for the last eight years when they weren’t comparing him to Adolf Hitler.  Obviously there are some people who think Obama is as big an idiot as some people regard his predecessor, as demonstrated in the recent HBO documentary “Right America Feeling Wronged.” Perhaps liberals have set a dangerous precedent in comparing a President to a monkey over and over.  But President Obama’s partial black ancestry makes the comparison extremely taboo as black people have historically been compared to monkeys, ape and other primates, especially in the U.S. Read the rest of this entry »

I was recently made aware of Right.org, a website opposed to the bailout addiction currently going on in our country.

I never thought bailing out any corporation was a good idea for the federal government to do.  Someone who truly believes in the free market would never support such an initiative.  Unfortunately, the heads of these corporations which are “too big to fail” (a real joke because in capitalism, no business is too big to fail) see all those years of giving bribes to Congressmembers as unofficials premium payments for some sort of funky “bailout insurance” in the case that their fiscal irresponsibility may actually cause the company to fall flat on its face.  Now, our six-figure collecting representatives in Capitol Hill are coming to the rescue, determined to save every one of their campaign donors even if it takes every one of our tax dollars and dollar of Chinese credit to accomplish their twisted goal.

Well, Right.org illustrates my frustration perfectly.  They have a debt calculator for you to use to figure out how your family’s share of the cost of bailout funding so far.  There’s even a great news  section to help visitors get more familiar with the issue and why a government bailout truly is corporate welfare at its absolute worst. There’s a video section full of informative commentary and hilarious spoofs for those who aren’t that into reading.  And speaking of videos, Right.org is holding a contest for the best 30-second video opposing government bailouts with the winner receiving $28,130, the cost of the bailout for the average taxpayer.

In short, Right.org is furiously waging a multimedia campaign to keep the American public aware of the disastrous nature of government bailouts, and I hope it fulfills its goal. Check out the site, and send a link to everyone you know-especially anyone who says the bailouts are a good thing (like your Congressmember).

I’m actually quite amused to hear the latest about Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and New York Yankees player Alex Rodriguez.  I’m amused because I’m sick of hearing about these people and how popular they are and how wonderful they are from the media and from friends and associate who are obsessed with these two athletes.

First, Phelps was caught in a photograph smoking marijuana, and now A-Rod, or as I always called him, A-Tard, has been caught with steroids in his body in a drug screening from several years ago.

Personally, I think marijuana is is no more a drug than caffeine, aspirin, sugar or tobacco.  I would go as far as to suggest that more people have probably developed health problems and/or have died from using caffeine, aspirin, sugar or tobacco than from using marijuana.  I don’t think it was right for Kelloggs to cancel the endorsement deal they had with Phelps, and NORML (National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws) wants potheads worldwide to boycott the company.  That will be a mighty financial blow to Kelloggs, considering how many stoners probably dig their hands into a box of Rice Krispies or Frosted Flakes and shove handfuls of dry cereal into their mouths after getting the munchies.

Some commentators are even going so far in their vilification of Phelps as to suggest that his Olympic medals be taken back because he cheated.  This is a ridiculous argument, because unlike steroids, marijuana is not a performance-enhancing drug unless you’re in the entertainment or music business.  In fact, I think if Michael Phelps was smoking marijuana when he was competing last year in Beijing, he should receive twice as many gold medals.

I’m glad he got caught, because he really deserved to be taken down a notch or two.  His skyrocketing stardom seemed endless for a while there, and I’m so sick of seeing him in commercials and in print advertising.

I’m even happier to see A-Tard come crashing down. I’m a New Yorker, and the local media practically worships the Yankees and of course their golden child A-Tard. New York City is also home to the New York Mets but if you only knew New York by what you read and hear in the media, you’d only think there was one team.  What’s more, I have to share the same town with thousands of grown (supposedly) heterosexual men who worship the Yankees and have an unsettling adoration for A-Tard that borders on a same-sex crush. Then there are the women in this town who get all hot and bothered for A-Tard; for them, he’s like the Dominican JFK, Jr. In New York, you see A-Tard in all kinds of TV commercials and print advertising, and his fans are semi-cultish with a very low tolerance for anyone who speaks ill of their messiah.

So yeah, he totally deserves all this negative publicity and public scorning, but because he’s a douche, not because he took steroids.

Like marijuana, I also think steroids should be legal.  The only one A-Tard hurt by taking them was himself.  He’s shortening his own life by doing so, probably duct tapes his perky man-breasts flat and the ladies won’t be too happy to find out his penis has most likely shrunk to the size of a cashew.  There should be a separate baseball hall of fame for athletes on steroids, maybe even a steroids league within Major League Baseball.  After all, fans mostly want to see a great performance on the field more than they want to see a drug-free athlete with mediocre stats.  But punishing athletes for doing whatever they could to improve their game (aside from sabotaging their competition) sounds dumb, and it translates into a huge waste of our tax dollars to put these players through a trial.

Legalize steroids, create a steroid baseball hall of fame, and the inductees can have their genitals photographed to show all those young kids out there why they should be natural athletes instead of pumped-up hermaphrodites.