The Supreme Court v. Social Justice

The Supreme Court blows, and will continue to blow for many, many years unfortunately.

Summary: segregation is not bad enough to warrant using race to integrate schools. So tell me, just how the hell are you supposed to stop racial segragation without addressing the fact that its racial segregation?

This is one of the many decisions this year from a Court whose majority is committed to removing this country's political and social progresses of the last century.

We're getting the band back together

It looks like the greatest band of all-time maybe reforming for a show (or more?) soon. Led Zeppelin will be getting back together for a memorial show and, if all goes well, possibly a tour. Zep bassist John Paul Jones made a bunch of appearances at this year's Bonnaroo festival (which I did not get to go to this year), and it seemed like that would be the closest we could get to hearing live Zeppelin. But this reunion just may give us some hope. Though tickets will be like a million dollars each, so know way I'm gonna get to go. It's hard to say if I would really want to, though. I mean, Robert Plant's voice is not quite what it once was; in fact, in the last twenty years it has been pretty weak. Though I'm sure Jimmy Page hasn't lost any of his guitar skills, I don't think he or his bandmates probably have have the same stage-presence that they once had. I would like to her it when it happens, but I don't think that it's necessary for me to be there.

So, is Zeppelin the greatest band of all time? I've really gotten attached to the Beatles in recent years, which has given me doubt of Zeppelin's standing, but I can't seem to let them got from the number one position. I got into Zep during my teen years, so they hold a special place in my heart for sure. I think its that they are just so impressive all the way through. With most bands you can see an evolution and reshaping within their careers, but with Zeppelin, every song and ever album just seems so solid. Sure, there are few surprises, but there are also no let downs (well, maybe some, but they take place at the end of their career, and they are not so bad).

i guess when compared with the Beatles, I would say that the Beatles are more like a flower. There is a natural growing and maturing and a beauty, but also natural flaws that don't necessarily take away from the whole, but are flaws nonetheless. Zeppelin, though, is more like a machine that's built to last and to perfectly administer its task. Unlike all other machines, though, this one is not soulless, but instead know what its doing and enjoys it. For these reasons and more LZ is at the top of my list of bands.

B.O.? Oh, B.O.

When I was a kid, I remember instances when I would be around one of my uncle and I would detect a unique smell, one that I never smelt anywhere else. The odor made me think of vegetables; chives and onions in particular. The smell didn't quite smell bad, but it wasn't the best in the world either. But I guess because I never really could quite detect the smell from anywhere else, it was kinda intriguing. Mysterious even.

It wasn't until I reached adolescence that I discovered what that scent was. After an active bout of soccer one evening without having put on any deodorant prior, I smelt those vegetables again. It was my body odor! I never really knew that this is what body odor smelt like. The concept of B.O. and its actual smell (and the odor accompanying my uncle) were never connected before in my mind. Ah, but now, whenever smelling body odor, I can't help but think of that realization, and of the most disgusting salad that anyone would ever want to eat.

What is Universal Health Care?

Grey: no universal coverage
Blue: w/universal health care
Green: implementing universal health coverage

I think that our political discussions in this country have been vague about the answer to that question. Senator Obama recently introduced his health care plan. For the most part, I have been supportvie of Obama for president. But lately I have been looking elsewhere (I'm actually been increasingly impressed with Hillary believe it or not), and this new health plan is one reason why.

Like other health care plans that have been brought about, Obama's spreads the responsibility out among government, businesses, and consumers, and to pay for heath insurance while regulating health insurance companies (i.e. insurance companies won't be able to bar people from plans because of preexisting conditions). Though I like that businesses and government will be chipping in to pay for the plan, it takes the assumption that individuals would buy health insurance if only it were more affordable, like Edwards' stupid plan to make health insurance required like auto insurance. And in all this, heath insurance companies will benefit because they would have guaranteed customers and money coming into to them.

To paraphrase Dennis Kucinch, I support universal health care, but so do the insurance companies.

Michael Moore's new movie Sicko will be coming out soon, and I hope that a lot of people see it and are influenced by what Moore supports, which I do as well: government financed health care for all. A lot of our presidential candidates talk have a talking point that alludes to the fact that the U.S. is the only advanced country without universal health care. But those countries will still have something else that America won't have if we go through with health plans like those currently being purposed: guaranteed health care paid for by the government. In some countries, like England, doctors are employed by the government, but this isn't necessary for single payer plan. We can have a plan like Canada's where you are still given choice about who your doctor is (which you really don't have with the current health insurance companies), but the tab would be picked up by the government (which in turn would be be paid for by taxes on , ideally, wealthy individuals and corporations).

So, yes, I support universal health care, but my support can be narrowed down to single payer health insurance, where there is no middle-man insurance companies that serve no purpose but to make money. And this can be achieved through Medicare For All.

Medicare already does all of the things above for senior citizens; so the main goal of Medicare For All would be to gradually bring more people into the system, starting with the youngest and working its way up the age brackets.

Face it, if a Democrat is elected president, they are probably gonna try some crappy combination plan like the one Obama is supporting, and it may last for some time, but eventually we are going to have to switch to a system that works for people and satisfies them. So instead of lagging behind the rest of the world in another arena, instead let's do this right the first time.

So, don't just support universal health care. Support Single-Payer Health Care/Medicare For All.

Fair and Balanced, or something like that

Here's a video showing what we can expect from Fox News during this upcoming election cycle. They had claimed that Barack Obama had attended a madrassa as a child. Well, it turns out it wasn't a madrassa, it was a regular public school. But even if it was a madrassa, he was a child at the time who obliviously didn't have control over the school he was sent to, just as the Pope can't help the fact that he was a member of the Hitler Youth.

In another ridiculous item, Fox News presents the that Obama's middle name is Hussein. What is this non-news item supposed to mean? I dunno, but apparently we are not supposed to like it and are not supposed to want him as president because of it.

Newt Gingrich at Liberty University

On the flipside of Bill Clinton at Michigan is Newt Gingrich at Liberty University. One school is progressive and well-respected, the other is conservative and non-accredited. One commencement speaker is a still-popular former president, the other is a forgettable and vindicative former Speaker of the House. One speech is realistic and inspiring, the other speech scares the hell outta me that there are people who think like this and are in positions of power and responsibility.

Clinton's speech addresses the unfortunate real problems in our world while giving us hints as to how we can best deal with them. Newt, on the other hand, plays to the crowd what they want to hear, that in a country where over ninety percent of its citizens believe in God, that religion is being successfully attacked from what appears to be a radical secularist agenda.

“We are told that our public schools can no longer invoke the creator, nor proclaim the natural law nor profess the God-given quality of human rights."

A public school can "invoke" (whatever that means) the creator because there is no proof of a creator nor is there proof that such a creator is the one that Grigrich wants public school to invoke. And the natural law? Is this the same natural law that claims there was no such thing as dinosaurs? Is this the natural law that refuses to recognize, through observations of nature, that species have not and do not evolve? As for the origin of human rights, if you want to believe God gave us human rights, then that's fine to believe that, but that is not a fact that should be taught in schools. (For one thing, no where in the Bible are human rights established, in fact, the God seems to violate human rights all the time).

"This anti-religious bias must end"

The anti-religious bias that Gingrich presents is a boogeyman. Secularism is not anti-religion, but it does not favor one religion over others. This is the problem that Gingrich and the Liberty University grads have. They want their religion favored over other beliefs, and they want the government to take a larger part in doing that. I am not anti-religion (though I do have biases), but I am fervently anti-religious fundamentalism, because that is the belief the only your religion and belief system matters, and that the religion that coming underattack by all leveheaded people. When Gingrich attacks anti-religious bias, he sure as hell isn't trying to defend Judaism or Islam.

Like anyone who speaks at Liberty University's commencements (re:McCain), Gingrich is a hack who is pandering to an interest group that has too much power in this country. He's not challenging the minds of the graduates with anything he said, he's only telling them what they want to hear, which I would imagine is what an "education" at Liberty University must be like.

Bill Clinton at Michigan

Here is a link to the commencement address that President Bill Clinton gave to the University of Michigan this year. It's a very casual but inspiring speech, one that makes you see the idealist in Clinton that I think is usually (and probably rightfully) overshadowed by his reputation as a centrist. I particlularly like his refrain that our word is unequal, unstable, and unsustainable and the three characteristics that all successful communities have: shared opportunities to participate, a shared sense of responsibility for the success of the outcome, and a genuine sense of belonging. Great and meaningful speechwriting.