National Anthem

I understand that this country is founded on and proud of the fact that it has a very diverse cultural heritage. I for one believe that you have to draw a line somewhere and while I was browsing the Washington Post today online I think I found that line. The link to the article is here at the Washington Post.

Here is a quote from the article before I get to deep.

"A Spanish language version of the U.S national anthem, sung by Latin pop stars and dubbed Nuestro Himno ("Our Anthem"), hit the airwaves today. The song is intended to be an anthem of solidarity for the movement that has drawn hundreds of thousands of people across the nation to march for immigrant rights.

Asked at the news conference whether the U.S. national anthem should also be sung in Spanish, Bush said without hesitation: "I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English, and I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English."

THIS IS FUCKING RIDICULOUS!!!

Yeah great, your here in this country, your latino in background. You are proud of your heritage and you dont want to abandon it. Well tough fucking shit. Get over it, you are a citizen(or not) of the United States. The national anthem was written in english for the country. If the you are here and want the national anthem done in your language, then go back to the country that the language is from. Until then get with the fucking program and learn to speak english as well as to honor the national anthem for what it is and what it was written for. This is not something that should be changed for political correctness. The line needs to be drawn and I for one and hopefully others agree this is the spot.

For thoughts on other issues i.e. immigration refer to my earlier postings. I know they are different issues, but this is going to far.

Guilty until proven innocent

As anyone who has not been living under a rock for the last two months knows there is a great clamor on and around the Duke Campus. This all arises from the alleged rape of an exotic dancer by three members of the Duke Lacrosse team and has been well publicized and drawn out in pulbic and the media already so I figured I'd join the fray.

To begin with dont get me wrong, rape is a terrible crime and if it is proven that these three players(2 indicted) actually did commit the crime then they should be punished to the full extent of the the law. It is my belief that rape is only a laughing matter if you are raping a clown(hahaha innapropriate joke). There are many things to look at in this case and I for one will give the players the beneif tof the doubt, remember that our system is set up so that you are innocnet until proven guilty which isnt how this has played out.

From day one these players have been vilified in the press, in the community and on campus. It seems as if no one even stopped to consider that they may not have commited the crime they are accused of. There is substantial evidence from what the public knows to cast doubt on the story. The first evidence is the lack of DNA evidence, bear in mind this doenst mean lack of evidence at all and in may rape cases there is no DNA present. I find it hard to belive however that three college athletes presumably drunk would have the foresight to take measures to not leave DNA evidence. Secondly there are the time dated photos of the accuser(victim) which show her to be in less than a sober state before the incident occured and also to already have injuires (bruises scrapes etc.) there is a great chance that a drunk person can fall down and hurt themselves no? Not only could the injuries have occured before the alleged assault but also could have occured after she left the house in a drunken state, again drunks fall down, I've seen it, I've done it. There is also the accusers criminal history. She is not a woman with a squeeky clean rep and the industry she works in is not necessarily known for its high charecter. It has even been put forth that these allegations were leveled to avoid a drunk charge which does seem outlandish.

My last complaint and something to think about is the ideas thrown about by the Duke campus. They have called for the expulsion of the entire team which is completely rash and illogical. Again we go back until the innocent until proven guilty and it appears in this case even if someone is found guilty it wont be the whole team, thats for damn sure. Though it would be a black eye to the program you cannot tell me that the same types of parties do not go on in frat houses across the nation. Simply because they are athletes does not mean they shoudl be punished differntly. The idea of the priveliged athlete is a myth. Athletes at any school at any level are held to a higher standard and this is fair as they reperesent something larger than jsut a team. But to say that because of that the whole team should be punished more than it already has is ludicrous. This has cost reputations across the board no matter what the outcome it has cost Duke a black eye and has cost the lacrosse coach his job fair or not this is how it has shaken down.

The whole situation needs to be allowed to run its course in courts, not in the court of public opinion, the same way any high profile rape trial deserves the same(i.e. Kobe Bryant). There are much more important things occuring in this country that deserve the media attention, shit the levees in New Orleans arent fixed and hurricane season is fast approaching, Bush and Iran both appear set for confrontation which will not be good, oil prices are on the rise as is gas and we want to focus on this case. Pull yoru head out of your ass ameirca, pay attention to the real problem. I know it doenst seem as if I followed my own advice but I just wanted to be one of the few who took a stand to give another side of this case.

Islamization

Just got done reading a quick blurb in the Detrit Free Press after eating lunch and I am slightly if not more than lsightly disturbed about what I read.

In the article titled "Fitness USA agrees to buffer between genders" there is a push by members of the Islamic religion to put up a barrier in a coed section of the gym to prevent a mingling of the genders. I understand that there is also a push from some of the female members of the gym to install the same wall/frosted glass. However this is an idea that would not even get thought in my opinion if it were not for the Islamic backing of the idea. No gym wants to get into an argument over religious values etc and Islam as we know can be strict on the whole mingling of the genders. For a gym to take this step is ridiculous. HAve we as a country A. Become so scared of offending people that we cowtow to demands and B. are people that go to gyms really so insecure as to want to not see members of the opposite gender while working out. The gender seperation issue was originally brought about by 200 islamic woman who dont want to violate Islam, for allah's sake, get over it this is America not Turkmenistan or somewhere like that.

My suggestion on this is that if you are Islamic and you dont want to see people of the opposite gender when your working out, invest in a home gym or maybe start your own Islamic gym with two seperate areas. For those of the complaints that were not Islamic but merely members, grow up. Your not going to get cooties, stop being so fucking insecure go to the damn gym and workout. Thats what its for.

Gay Marriage

This excerpt is stolen from my brother blog at defcon:blog trust me its gonna set me up a little. I actually argued against his point on gay marriage being allowed to be legal and he turned me around pretty good.

1) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

4) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Brittany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

7) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

9) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract


At first I argued many of these points as valid. Gays are promiscuous their life styles expose them to more disease, so on and so forth. If you were to deny marriage benefits based on lifestyle factors, health conditions and all that jive there would be alot of marriages that were illegal. If we are to dissalow them marriage because of increased risk of disease and not wanting higher health insurance costs do we deny that right to people with family history of cancer and heart disease and diabetes(and no im not calling being gay a disease). All of the arguments above I used to accept as valid until arguing with my brother about it and getting my ass kicked in that argument. Many of our arguments are good and two sided he brings his econ/buisness argument and I counter with history arguments etc. this was not one of those arguments he mopped the floor with me.

The only basis people have for outlawing gay marriage would be through the church if the church does not accept gay marriage or being gay as a lifestyle(which is ignorant). Legally there is and never will be an argument for dissallowing gay marriage and lets be honest at this point marriage has lost much of its reilgious meaning and is now simply a legal contract. Thus the divorce process and the shenaniganry which ensues in that process. For shit sake, I mean you can get married by judges and mayors now completely taking religion out of it, your married by the power of the state. If people would open their eyes and pull their nose out of the bible they are thumping they would realize that there is no way to prevent it and nor should there be. If someone is gay and they want to get married I say let them. I will stick by my policy of as long as they dont bother me and go overboard showing they are gay I could care less what someone does behind closed doors, its just people being who they are get over it...shave get a hair cut its the 90's, the times are changing.

Iraq vs NY Knicks

Stange little bit of similarity here.

Based on what we can see happening with U.S. Policy in armed conflicts in the last 15 or so years we can see a nice trend that makes Iraq and the Knicks very similar. It has been the U.S. position that our overwhelming man power and huge budget towards conflicts will result in a victory. This is a policy that comes at substantial expense to the tax payer and the American Soldier. We have millions of dollars worth of armor, infantry, weapons and technology but all of that can be defeated by an IED that probably cost less than 100.00 to build and deploy. Power and money are not everything.

You are probably asking how this relates to the NY Knicks and I will tell you. It would appear Isaiah Thomas who used to be a beloved Piston to me but now is simply a ruiner of franchises(i.e. the CBA, Toronto Raptors and now Knicks) seems to believe that money and the powe rof big names will bring about a winning record. As can plainly be seen in the NBA standings this belief has not come to pass as the Knicks rank first in pay roll (125 million) and last in wins. Big names and big contracts have thrown this team and franchise into a hole it may never recover from as long as Thomas is in charge.

In much the same way the situation in Iraq was carried out with the belief that massive fire power and monetary backing would overcome the situation. But as it stands now we essentially rank last in wins and first in payroll. The fullscale take over may have worked well at the beginning however, after that there needed to be smaller scale realtion building operations and more sophisticated strikes that eliminated targets with little collateral damage. Smaller scale, more sophisticated and better informed options could have been employed. We went into the country with little understanding of the problems we would face after toppling the government.
The war can still be won, just as the Knicks can still be saved. Will it be a quick fix? No. Will it be easy? No. But the fact remains that there are parts being used by the Knicks and the U.S. that once they decide what is important and what will work have the makings of a winning combination. In the words of the late great Henry Ford "We learn more from our failures than our successes." While basketball is just a game, war is not and while the athletes ont he court are rewarded handsomley for their "efforts" our soldiers are hardly rewarded at all. Heres hoping that both theses organizations realize their mistakes and learn from them to salvage a victory.

Westboro Baptist Church

In reading the Free Press today as I do every mornng I came upon an article about legislation to prevent protesters from being closer than 500 feet to funerals. This is in direct response to the ignorant members of the Westboro Baptist Church who protest and soldiers funerals and preach their gospel of hate that these soldiers deserved to die because they fight for a country that supports homosexuals.

There is a fear that this legislation will not hold up when taken to supreme court etc. as it may be perceived as a violation of free speech. However a funeral is in my definition a private matter not something to be attended by anyone with a word to say and a score to settle. My best friend was killed in Iraq and I can state for a fact that if these people would have shown up to protest at his funeral they wouldnt have walked out. There is a decency issue here that more than anything shouldnt require us to legislate common sense and decency. This is an event for closure and to put a life lost to defend our peoples rights(whether in Iraq or not is not the argument) of free speech themselves and all other freedoms provided by the bill of rights and constitution. That is what these soldiers do and it is not simply because as the Westboro Baptist Church states that soldiers and lazy and cannot get real jobs, the majority believe in what they do and that is a noble cause.

Lastly, despite the ignorance and misinterpratation of the bible by this radical church. Make no mistake this is a radical chrisitan fringe just like terrorists are a radical muslim fringe. This is not the norm. The fact is if these soldiers are going to hell for fighting for as they call it "a fag run government" than so are the members fo this church. If they pay their taxes and use the highways and sewage systems in this country than they to are supporting homosexuals. By paying into the fag run government they are jsut as guily as teh soldier who dies in Iraq. It is not a question of whether they support this "fag run government" but rather how. Unless this whole church has figured out how to not pay taxes at all, at which point I wuld consider them a cult...wait I already do. By using services of this country, by using their right to free speech to spout hate than they support the government and in turn support the troops. The only reason they even protset at soldiers funerals is for publicity. No one will care what these whackos have to say unless they can find a way to offend the masses much like the KKK and other groups. It is not about the soldier, it isnt about the war it is about their ignorant message of hate.

To quote from a more eloquet blogger: "An aside: the majority of these protesters are or were taxpaying United States Citizens - whose taxes built the bombs and trained the soldiers who protect our domestic gays. They are at the very least, complicit in the "plague of homosexuality," the threatens (LOL!!!!) the nation. But of course, dogmatic ideologues will not tolerate any degree of rationality." courtsey of defcon:blog

Hell is gonna be awful full when everyones down there. But as I see it the only people who are going to find their way to Hell are the hate spewing memebers of the Westboro baptist Church.

Technology is sweet

Number one favorite thing about technology other than the fact that it keeps us alive alot longer is the wireless internet. Its a god damn miracle, Im sitting on a toilet right now while im typing this blog, who wouldve thought this possible 20 years ago, not me cause i was 4. Anyways technology is a great thing for one main reason to me. That reason is that rarely if ever do I have to interact with people face to face or voice to voice anymore. Trust me, I hate dealing with people and with email, instant messaging and all the other fun stuff I never have to deal with them. This is great because as I said people are dumb, if I have a problem with my bank, I dont have to talk to them on the phone now, I can instant message them. This takes alot of the frustration out because now i dont hear the idiot that works for the bank asking every question under the sun about problems that im not even having. IT also works great at grocery stores. The great thing about Meijer now is that I dont have to talk to anyone when I go there. I walk in ignore the greeter at the door, avoid eye contact with anyone in the place get my things and self scan my way out. My only contact with a person is my prefunctary "have a good one" to the guy at the observation counter who only says the same thing back. See, me and him were on the same page, we dont like idiots. I bet it pisses him off to no end when he has to talk someone through using the self scan and trust me there is no shortage of idiots in Lenawee county. All in all I just wanted to give a shout out to all the technology that allows me to be a reclusive shut in and avoid stupid people. Weve come along way together technology from bulletin boards in the begininng to writing a blog while on the can...it doesnt get much better!!!

REJECTED

I categorically reject what I watched today on Fox News. An argument put forth by a proponent of immigration is that America is an aging country which needs more workers to support that aging group. The immigration we are expereincing from Mexico is not the answer, how many of these immigrants are ven paying social security or any taxes at all. This country is losing billions of dollars in taxes every year due to this problem. There are trade unions in this country willing to do the jobs that the immigrants are doing, however they are not willing to do this job for the dirt cheap price that illegal foreign labor is. These immigrants could well be developing their own countries rather than fleeing a country that is undeveloped therein lies the problem. These immigrants do not even assimilate to the country when they arrive. The overwhelming majority dont even speak english, they speak one language and that is spanish that is not conducive to a model workforce. If this country does not want to recognize the current problem which lies in the immigration issue that is one thing. The best option is to legalize the current immigrants that are in the country and force them to register and become U.S. citizens and start carrying their respective weight rather than living off the fat of the land and not paying into any social programs they use(i.e. hospitals, sewage, highways). If the current population was willing to follow these steps I wouldnt have a problem at all, it is the fact that they refuse to follow the proper channels that chaps my ass. YOu cant say that you want the oppurtunity this country provides and not be willing to pay into what makes it so great, if you do that you have no right to be part of any country let alone ours.