Some of the Facts on Issue 2

Its Election time again and everything I see is about Issue 2 in Ohio.  If you are not aware about it (and if you're from Ohio, you should at least know it exists by now), its a bill that addresses the rights and wages of public employees such as schoolteachers, firemen, and police officers.  There has been a lot of misinformation on both sides of the issue which makes it harder to find the facts.  Fortunately, you can find a copy of the bill (Senate Bill 5) that is up for debate.  Its nowhere near as bad as its being made out to be but there are some stipulations that make me wary, especially after witnessing years of incompetent and corrupt Ohio government.

Troy Davis: An Examination on Capital Punishment

Troy Davis was executed on the 21st.  There was a lot of talk around his case and a lot of people defending him.  To counter that, there were those who said he got what he deserved.  I don't think he got what he deserved because I don't believe anyone truly "deserves" the death penalty.  If I was on a jury for the case of Stalin or Hitler, I would have serious trouble morally saying that these people should be executed by the state.  That's just me and a majority of people in the U.S. favor death penalty over life in prison for very serious crimes, though it is only a slight majority.  To me, the issue of capital punishment is too messy.  Not everyone who has ever been executed is guilty and many execution we have carried out have been botched and the botching makes these executions seem very inhumane.  There are three main areas to address when it comes to the death penalty, a pragmatic approach, a moral/ethical approach, and the approach of how humane/inhumane it is.

New Rant: People are Too Sentitive and we are Desensitizing society.

Ok, so I have had the desensitization of society on my mind for a while, but it pairs nicely of how sensitive people are.  Even if a person wasn't directly involved with something if it is referenced in a joke, they are still very liable to blow their lid and take it as a personal affront.  I think it goes to the sentiment that we are coddling everyone in society and people are extremely thin skinned.  I have been taking those joke/insults for years (half insult but half joke) because that's my friends' style of humor.  Its helped so that I am thick skinned but a lot of us are coddled and can't take a joke.  I think this is why people don't like Gilbert Gottfried anymore.  He always makes politically incorrect jokes and it ruins his career even though objectively as a person who enjoys comedy, they are often hilarious.

The media Dictating the story and its coverage

This is a phenomenon I witness a lot when observing the media and how some members in the media will try to dictate what is said in a story.  Instead of showing the people what the story is, they will sometimes pick and choose facts to present a story more in line with their own or their company's (or network's) own agenda.  While the two examples of trying to control and dictate a story are from the right, it happens just as much on the left with organizations such as msnbc and Huffington Post, I just don't have good recent examples on hand,

Infatuations with Train Wrecks

Americans are infatuated with train wrecks of any kind.  Whether it be an actual wreck (not having to be of a train) or a metaphorical wreck, controversy, insanity, and failure capture the American viewer.  For many of the things I have found in the news on here, this is a crucial topic.  Whether its the insanity surrounding the Casey Anthony trial or the controversy around Anthony Wiener, the "news of the weird" is what gets us to turn on.  Sometimes when controversy isn't there, the media creates it and actively finds train wrecks to shove into the viewer's face.

Happy Meals and Sad Politicians: Its a Good Week in the News

There is finally some good news in the news. Happy Meals will be getting healthier and the Congress solved the budget problem (well, kinda...).  Happy Meals now have reduced the serving of fries and a serving of apples.  There are also more choices on healthy drinks.  This is a good thing, brought on by community and political pressure.  the Happy Meals have been banned in San Francisco and a few other cities had proposed laws.

In many situations, the customers should be free to choose thing, but the problem is here children don't understand their choices or the consequences of those choices.  Children don't understand fries are bad for their health, they only understand they are tasty.  Yes, the parents can choose to tell them they are bad or not let them get Happy Meals, but then you are putting the pressure on the parent.  They either disappoint their child (which no parent wants to do) or let them eat bad food.  The pressure should be on the provider of the food, not on the parents to put them in a lose-lose parenting situation.

Arguments in Congress/Casey Anthony (again)

Okay, this is addressing two things I am starting to find really stupid, the reaction to Casey Anthony and what is going on in Congress.  Both are symptoms of some of the things wrong with our society and our news media as it functions.  Both force me more and more to be cynical of the world I view, even though I try as hard as I can to be an optimist in a situation.

News Stories of the Week

The biggest news this week (at least the way has been covered) has been the death of Amy Winehouse.  Its sad that she is gone, but is not all that surprising.  Her lifestyle was always that, that would make one expect her to die young.  Its sad that she died, but I am not surprised, especially if it is found out that she overdosed or died from complications from the medical conditions she has had caused by her drug use.  I have seen a lot of people react by saying things like "its sad she died, but I thought she was already dead".

Beta Testing Plus

So I got an invite to Google+, or Google Plus, depending on how its stylized.  So far, it seems interesting, though its definitely in a very beta format.  While it shares a lot of similarities with Facebook, there are some very distinct differences which makes Google Plus more of a conglomerate of internet social media sites.  

Small Casey Anthony Update

So...Casey Anthony is not done.  Now, she has to face the nanny she accused of taking Caylee.  The nanny is suing her in a defamation lawsuit.  However, in most defamation lawsuits, doesn't your character have to be publicly defamed?  Who remembers that she accused the nanny?  This to me reads like another case of someont trying to get in on the action.

Casey Anthony + Nancy Grace = National Ridiculousness

Its been a while since I last wrote, but that is mostly due to the subject.  If there aren't any interesting current issues going on, there isn't anything to write about.  The best that could have been done would be more on the Osama aftermath (and I already touched on that), US involvement in Libya, or Gas Prices.  That being said, the story of the Casey Anthony trial caught my eye.

The Anthony Weiner Situation: Priorities are crooked.

So by now, most people probably know that Weiner came out and said that the pictures were of him.  Now, he is facing opposition by the public, his opponents, and even his own party.  One tweet could ruin the career of a very hardworking and committed politician.  Is it fair?  Which matters more, what someone does with their personal life, or their overall competence in their job?

Weiner Pic/Whats happening with Journalism?

What is the big deal about what Anthony Weiner may have done?  Seriously, its a picture of a guy's lower half and he is in underwear.  How is this any different than a female sending a picture of herself in a low cut top thats pretty revealing?  People do that all the time on twitter but don't get criticism.  Is it a double standard that women do this all the time (thats what modeling is in a very basic sense) but one guys supposedly does it and gets criticized?  And you can't even see his face.  Its just the ridiculousness of our 24 hour news cycle that this is the huge news this week.

Should clear "conflict of interest" be illegal?

A conflict of interest is not always bad, however in the last decade there have been too many examples of conflicts of interest that have led to illegal and/or highly unethical behavior.

Newt Gingrich

I don't like the guy.  I generally don't have much distaste for specific politicians but he is on my short list.  

Newt Gingrich was the leader of the conservative revolution in the House during the 90s.  Why does that make me dislike him?  The revolution brought about legislative tactics that (according to Walter Oleszek) "increasingly have sought to structure floor action to publicize partisan messages" and Newt was one of the most vociferous voices of partisanship.

Old movies are fun

Why are they fun?  First of all, in many genres, they don't make them like they used to.  There will never be as good of a romance film as Casablanca, nor will there ever be as good of a Western as The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, and there will never be a comedic genius to rival that of Chaplin or the marx Brothers.

But the most interesting thing about older movies (I am thinking 70s and later here), to see how different and older people look

Another Osama Post: was it legal?

I don't like Osama.  Part of me is glad he is dead.  It is my id and recently, everyone's id's have taken over.  The id is basically the our libido, our base emotions, and our bloodlust.   Everyone has these, though some are more repressed than others.  An event like this brings even the most repressed beings some sense of cathartic vengeance.

Osama Died...and??

Although I almost didn't want to feed into the media frenzy surrounding this "momentous" event, I can't help it.  I have never seen the death of one person gotten so many people riled up and bloodthirsty.

Blogging, what is the point: a meta-post

Is the goal of the "blogspot" to be successful or to say what you want?  Technically, it is whatever you want it to be, but why can't it be both?

Robert Sean Leonard vs. Keanu Reeves: A Story of two actors

I was watching the movie Much Ado About Nothing from '93 and thought it was kinda cool to see Robert Sean Leonard and Keanu Reeves in it.  Then I realized, they had very different career trajectories after this point and are an interesting study in what makes hollywood tick.

Something is Better than Nothing

I am high on something...No, I am not on drugs, I am high on the feeling you get after doing something.

Deep music: the Beatles and Shakespeare

I like music because it is deep and can have multiple meanings.  The lyrics of music can often be similar to poetry or poetry itself.

I had to read a Shakepearean Sonnet in a Poetry class and the first thing I thought of was the Beatles...specifically, "Something".

Blogger has serious Font Deficiencies.

Blogger is easy...Too easy.  

I tried to start a blog on wordpress, but I had to create some sort of thing on my computer from a zip file, do something in commands.  I could probably do it, I was just lazy (and I think I had to pay for something and I am cheap as hell).  

I have been fiddling around with blogger for a while and decided to finally look at fonts.

 I hate to be unoriginal, but I love helvetica like everyone else. However, Blogger sees to be too cheap to purchase Helvetica like microsoft used to be. 

Semicolons: Keeping the English Language From Being Idiot-Proof since 1591

I like semicolons.  

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I can actually use them correctly; many people can't. Unfortunately, those who cannot use it correctly ruin it for everyone.  If you scour the blogs, you can probably find that many have at least one incorrect or unnecessary semicolon.  Nothing against bloggers, they’re a good example of the average American and their literary knowledge.  

Semicolons are also overused; they are used a lot & are rarely needed.  A lot of the times people use semicolons, it is purely in instances to show "hey, I can use a semicolon".  Because it is so often misused and overused, it is almost never used in a necessary fashion.  

Unfortunately, its one usage where it is absolutely necessary is a very uncommon format.  This is when they are between items in a series, acting like serial commas (the commas you write when you are listing things, places, & ideas).  It would be something like:

"There were three travelers alongside of me: Thor, the god of Thunder; Elrond, Lord of Rivendell; and Cthulhu, high priest to the Great Old Ones."

I know what you must be thinking: Where the hell is this party of travelers going?  I know; it was a crazy day.  But the point is this is the only usage of semicolons where it is necessary.  According to Wikipedia (and this is sourced), it’s the most common usage of the.  This may be true for academia, but this is certainly not the case for the general population.  Heck, when most of us write, we rarely come across this situation. 

Going by reading blogs, and even news articles, the most common usage is the least useful one; it’s where the semicolon connects two independent clauses that are related (i.e. my usage at the beginning).   While technically correct, it’s usually pointless; it’s the most common because people use to show they can use it.  In layman's terms, an independent clause is a complete sentence that is "independent" from any other, and those generally end in a period.  Semicolon usage here can help the flow with poetry or literary essays.  Outside of that usage, it’s just a way of making it look fancy & at that point, why don't you just resort to Papyrus font.   

The last usage is similar; it connects 2 independent clauses by using a transitional word/phrase.  Example:

"I wrote this blog post about semicolon usage; however most people will still overuse them even after reading this"

This usage is almost strictly used by academic papers & personally, I think it’s just as useless as the middle one.  It’s also seems like trying and show you can use the semicolon.

The semicolon is wonderful; unfortunately it has become a mainstay in pseudo-intellectualism.  People use it to seem like they are being smart.   I am not saying you shouldn't use it if you want to be fancy, but why corrupt the semicolon with overuse?  If you want to seem fancy, why not use a "fancy" font like Brush Script of Papyrus, both of which are already fonts who have sold themselves out & are overused by people wanting to seem smart.  Better yet, use Comic Sans!

(Disclaimer: some may want to comment that there seem to be a few unnecessary semicolons.  It’s called Ironic humor people!)

Professing my love for some gold ol' honest Debate.

Well, I randomly flipped through the channels today to find the Cleveland Indians game.  Stupid Time Warner Cable keeps changing the channels without notice.  Does your internet change the IP address of your WiFi network without telling you?  I think this is stupid, but not really my point.

I found the channel HLN.  Joy Behar was hosting Andrew Breitbart and Stephanie miller.  I have read Andrew Breitbart's stuff on occasion & listened to him and he is okay.  Not really opinionated about him one way or another.  Then, I saw him in a "Crossfire" kind of show or situation & he was pretty impressive