It always amazes me the number of people who complain about elected officials when compared to the number of people who actually vote. But anyway, a friend asked me the other day what I thought of the candidates running for POTUS my answer kind of surprised them but it also got me thinking. So I figured I would post some brief comments on each of the top 4 candidates (according to polling) from each party. I will not provide you with which candidate I support, at least not yet. But I will provide at the end what I look for in a candidate. Also added with this are 3 polls to the right, I intend to try and reset them monthly and keep track of what people surfing the blogs think of the candidates.
First up the Democrats
Hillary Clinton – Yahoo Candidate page – Former first lady of President Bill Clinton, Hillary is a skilled politician, she knows what she wants and she’s been after since her husband was in the oval office. Elected to the senate after carpet bagging to New York in 2000, Senator Clinton has been a long standing critic of the Bush administration, yet voted to authorize the Iraq War. Senator Clinton was easily reelected to the senate in 2006. As far as party support, Clinton is a polarizing figure among democrats who while loved by some is absolutely hated by others, and out of all of the candidates has the highest negative name connotation in polling despite being the current Democratic frontrunner. Senator Clinton is only rated at 60% on civil right issues by the ACLU, indicating a mixed voting record. Hillary also comes off as a candidate who, like her husband, will promise anything to anyone to get elected, will the strategy pay off for her life it did Bill.
John Edwards – Yahoo Candidate page – One term Senator from South Carolina, Senator Edwards was elected to the senate in 1998. Rather than run for re-election in 2004, a race many expected him to loose, Edwards launched a bid for the presidency. After losing the 2004 Presidential Primary to Senator John Kerry Of Massachusetts Edwards was signed on as the VP running mate to Senator Kerry. Edwards has a reputation as a smooth talker, full of charisma and an easy speaking style reminiscent of Bill Clinton. Edwards so far has played the news cycles rather well and is sitting in third place, a position he know all too well can propel a person into the nomination. Question is, can Edwards convince the voter’s he’s more than just a smooth talker with a pretty smile and southern drawl.
Barrack Obama – Yahoo Candidates Page – Following 7 years in the Illinois State legislature, Barrack Obama now serves as the junior senator from Illinois. I’m going to out of character here, and Say I have met Senator Obama, and he truly is a very talented speaker, very down to earth, and very intelligent. Senator Obama carries with him a message of hope and unity, a message that has carried him from the streets of Chicago to a candidate for the presidency. Senator Obama is well spoken, with a popular message. However, the political newcomer to this level has made several gaffes that have drew the criticism of his rivals, question for me is are those gaffes the mark of someone who lacks the experience to be President, or of someone who is going to speak his mind, and not go with something just because that’s how it’s been done in the past. If the answer to that is the latter, then Senator Obama might just be the thing needed to lead this country in a new direction. He had just best hope he can live up to the expectations the media has built up around him since his speech at the 2004 DNC, by some reports you would swear he could walk on water.
Bill Richardson – Yahoo Candidates Page – A former U.N. Ambassador, and Governor of New Mexico. Governor Richardson is the only Hispanic Governor in the US right now. I can’t go into much detail because I honestly didn’t expect Governor Richards to be at this point. Although it should be pointed out, of the 4 democratic frontrunners, you have a woman, an African American, and a Hispanic. Anyone of them could mean a first in the history of the Presidency. Keep your eye on Governor Richardson, if the democrats loose in 08, he could be a standard bearer for 2012.
And now for Republican starting line up
Rudy Giuliani – Yahoo Candidates Page – The former tough on crime, many will argue excessively, Republican Mayor of New York City. In addition to winning in a city that was heavily democratic, Mayor Giuliani also led the city through the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and despite request to delay the elections to allow him to serve longer, Mayor Giuliani stepped aside allowing the elections to proceed as normal. However, the Mayor has some positions that make the conservative base rather nervous, and many in the party accuse him of being a liberal in disguise. The former Mayor also has a sorted background with extramarital affairs, and shady business dealings. Will Giuliani hold onto his lead and be able to win the GOP primary, and ultimately the presidency?
Fred Thompson – Yahoo Candidates Page – Fred D. Thompson, a former prosecutor serving during the Watergate scandal, won a special election in 1994 to fill the Tennessee senate seat vacated in 1994 by Al Gore when he became Vice President. Serving in the senate until 2003, Thompson was considered to be a reliable conservative vote. After leaving the senate in 2003 Thompson returned to acting, most notable as DA Arthur Branch in the popular Law and Order Series, and as President U.S. Grant in the historical accounts Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Thompson’s late entry into the race has raised the ire of many, and following lower than expected fundraising and staff shakeups, many have criticized his wife for being too involved and his ability to win. Thompson is also a proponent of federalism, and states’ rights meaning that the certain issues are not the responsibility of the federal government, and there should be less involvement of the federal government. Skipping the New Hampshire debate, Thompson announced his candidacy on the Tonight Show, and as a result has dominated the news cycles following the debate. This is either going to be one of the most effective strategies ever, or prove to be a disaster in real time.
Mitt Romney – Yahoo Candidates Page – Another potential president first, a Mormon by faith Romney, the son of George Romney himself a onetime presidential candidate, one term governor of Massachusetts, and head of the Salt Lake Olympic Games has been building up his run for some time now. My problem with Romney is I see him becoming the GOP version of John Kerrey, already stung by shifts in position from his time as Governor to now have been pointed out. One example of this is a letter he sent to gay and lesbian groups promising to work with them, then taking anti gay positions as a presidential candidate. He can talk a good talk, unfortunately his credibility for what he says is lacking.
John McCain –Yahoo Candidates page – Senator from Arizona, and Vietnam POW, John McCain has been a commanding political figure for the last several years. 2000 presidential front-runner and heir apparent until President George Bush surged winning the nomination. McCain has long championed and broke party lines to fight for campaign finance reform, McCain-Feingold. As far as his new Presidential campaign, by most accounts, the ship is sinking, understaffed, underfunded, and searching for a message that clicks. The other issue working against Senator McCain is his age, if elected he would be older than Ronald Regan was when he took office, raising many health questions, and at the first sign of a cold will turn message into one of the Senators Health, a presidential campaign can be trying on the fittest of people, let alone some one McCain’s age. Can he pull it together before the primary, time will tell.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Caution and Warning
I suppose I could be flattered but I'm not. at 9:03 AM this morning I got my first piece of hate mail posted on the blog. It amazes me, this isn't a big blog, its not the NY times, you have to be looking for this to find it. Do some people have nothing better to do that dig up some homos blogs and post shit on them? Whats the point? and for reference yes I did remove the post, and it was left by a mostly anonymous user. But anyway I am working on putting together a new political post, my personal look at the 2008 presidential candidates. I wont give me personal choice quite yet, I think it will be more fun if I have the readers guess who I like, and I will also be posting a poll for you to vote on who you like the most, poll will be reset monthly leading up the primary and the results posted as my own little unscientific version of zogby. And to those who either posted or e-mailed me comments on my last 2 posts, especially Who are You, thank you.
BW
BW
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
A Call to Arms
A Call to Arms
Even though I have been closely associated with the Republican Party, same sex unions has always been something I have been in favor of. Before I get much further, I want to thank troystopher for providing me with the links to the right and some of the information on IL HB-01826. As I think has been shown, at least to an extent, is that I am more of a moderate, and believe that in order to get things done a certain level of compromise is not only important but required for our government to function, give and take if you will. It is this same approach that I have taken when looking at gay marriage as well. Let me begin by giving a brief overview of how I see the debate over gay marriage, first up are the three options marriage, civil unions, or nothing at all. Second is the players, you have the gay rights activist at the far left, the Christian/moral/family values activist on the far right, and in the middle are the moderates who can come to some sort of middle ground consensus. Now I know that is a gross oversimplification of the issue at hand but for the purposes of this it will provide just enough background on how I am looking at this so that my ramblings might make a shred of sense so don’t judge me yet wait till your done reading this then tell me I’m full of shit after you’ve read the whole thing.
The first question of this debate is should homosexual unions be allowed, and if so, what should they be, marriages, civil unions, or something entirely new but still guaranteeing the same rights. The response of the activists on the pro-gay marriage side want the whole ball of wax in many cases and want fully recognized marriage for homosexual couples. Now the opposite side, the anti-gay marriage activist want the whole ball of wax also, they don’t want any type of legalized, legitimized unions for same sex couples. Now again I am using oversimplifications and generalities but this is leading into my take on the issue so hang on.
Now my thoughts on this are somewhere in the middle, both sides have valid arguments when you cut out the bullshit, the rhetoric, and the just plain stupidity of some of these peoples arguments on both sides. First I am going to take on the opposition groups arguments. The primary argument of the Christian/moral/family values people is that somehow gay marriage or civil unions would damage the institution of the family, and make it less meaningful. Those opposed to gay marriage also frequently state that gay marriage would destroy the sanctity of marriage. Well my response to that is that when little pop princess can get drunk, get married in Las Vegas drive thru wedding chapel and then get an annulment less than 72 hours later, the sanctity of marriage has already been destroyed. And as far as the institution of the family is concerned, when a large percentage of people in the world live in family units without being married, I don’t think allowed homosexuals would cause any further destabilization of the family unit. Now for the part of their argument I can at least understand. For many religions Marriage is an institution of the church and is something that is deeply rooted in some religions as an institution of the church under holy doctrine. Now I am going to come back to this notion in just a minute so hang on.
Now for my summary of arguments from those in favor of gay marriage. For the most part it’s a straight forward argument that same sex couples should be afforded the same rights as heterosexual couples, including marriage and partner benefits, including spousal privilege and the right to make medical decisions for your partner. Now as I said before, many of the people in this group are just as unwilling to compromise and that is exactly what I am trying to get at.
This country was founded on a principle of freedom from persecution for one beliefs, and the freedom of religion. In the end there is going to have to be a compromise made somewhere. Many religions believe acts of homosexuality to be a sin, and that is their right to believe. My biggest issue with so many people who argue for gay marriage is that they are so willing to call the beliefs of those opposed to gay marriage wrong. I do support same sex civil unions, I do support IL HB 01826, however I don’t think churches or religious organizations should be forced to recognize such unions if it is against their faith, we may not agree with their beliefs, but in the end their beliefs right or wrong are just as important as our own. If there is ever to be “peace” between these two groups, it is going to take both sides sitting down and coming to an agreement, neither side can have 100% of what they want, its doesn’t work that way. I want to see a day where same sex couples can be married or have civil unions, And I think we are slowly getting there. The more we can work state by state, changing minds one at a time the close we will get to our goal. I know some of what I said might be considered way off base, but I think if you look at the argument objectively, you will see there is only one way to win. I like HB 01826 and encourage anyone in the state of Illinois to contact your legislator and encourage them to support it also. I also encourage you to check out the links I added for more ways to get involved. Together we can make a difference if we are all willing to work together and be as understanding as we want everyone else to be towards us.
Even though I have been closely associated with the Republican Party, same sex unions has always been something I have been in favor of. Before I get much further, I want to thank troystopher for providing me with the links to the right and some of the information on IL HB-01826. As I think has been shown, at least to an extent, is that I am more of a moderate, and believe that in order to get things done a certain level of compromise is not only important but required for our government to function, give and take if you will. It is this same approach that I have taken when looking at gay marriage as well. Let me begin by giving a brief overview of how I see the debate over gay marriage, first up are the three options marriage, civil unions, or nothing at all. Second is the players, you have the gay rights activist at the far left, the Christian/moral/family values activist on the far right, and in the middle are the moderates who can come to some sort of middle ground consensus. Now I know that is a gross oversimplification of the issue at hand but for the purposes of this it will provide just enough background on how I am looking at this so that my ramblings might make a shred of sense so don’t judge me yet wait till your done reading this then tell me I’m full of shit after you’ve read the whole thing.
The first question of this debate is should homosexual unions be allowed, and if so, what should they be, marriages, civil unions, or something entirely new but still guaranteeing the same rights. The response of the activists on the pro-gay marriage side want the whole ball of wax in many cases and want fully recognized marriage for homosexual couples. Now the opposite side, the anti-gay marriage activist want the whole ball of wax also, they don’t want any type of legalized, legitimized unions for same sex couples. Now again I am using oversimplifications and generalities but this is leading into my take on the issue so hang on.
Now my thoughts on this are somewhere in the middle, both sides have valid arguments when you cut out the bullshit, the rhetoric, and the just plain stupidity of some of these peoples arguments on both sides. First I am going to take on the opposition groups arguments. The primary argument of the Christian/moral/family values people is that somehow gay marriage or civil unions would damage the institution of the family, and make it less meaningful. Those opposed to gay marriage also frequently state that gay marriage would destroy the sanctity of marriage. Well my response to that is that when little pop princess can get drunk, get married in Las Vegas drive thru wedding chapel and then get an annulment less than 72 hours later, the sanctity of marriage has already been destroyed. And as far as the institution of the family is concerned, when a large percentage of people in the world live in family units without being married, I don’t think allowed homosexuals would cause any further destabilization of the family unit. Now for the part of their argument I can at least understand. For many religions Marriage is an institution of the church and is something that is deeply rooted in some religions as an institution of the church under holy doctrine. Now I am going to come back to this notion in just a minute so hang on.
Now for my summary of arguments from those in favor of gay marriage. For the most part it’s a straight forward argument that same sex couples should be afforded the same rights as heterosexual couples, including marriage and partner benefits, including spousal privilege and the right to make medical decisions for your partner. Now as I said before, many of the people in this group are just as unwilling to compromise and that is exactly what I am trying to get at.
This country was founded on a principle of freedom from persecution for one beliefs, and the freedom of religion. In the end there is going to have to be a compromise made somewhere. Many religions believe acts of homosexuality to be a sin, and that is their right to believe. My biggest issue with so many people who argue for gay marriage is that they are so willing to call the beliefs of those opposed to gay marriage wrong. I do support same sex civil unions, I do support IL HB 01826, however I don’t think churches or religious organizations should be forced to recognize such unions if it is against their faith, we may not agree with their beliefs, but in the end their beliefs right or wrong are just as important as our own. If there is ever to be “peace” between these two groups, it is going to take both sides sitting down and coming to an agreement, neither side can have 100% of what they want, its doesn’t work that way. I want to see a day where same sex couples can be married or have civil unions, And I think we are slowly getting there. The more we can work state by state, changing minds one at a time the close we will get to our goal. I know some of what I said might be considered way off base, but I think if you look at the argument objectively, you will see there is only one way to win. I like HB 01826 and encourage anyone in the state of Illinois to contact your legislator and encourage them to support it also. I also encourage you to check out the links I added for more ways to get involved. Together we can make a difference if we are all willing to work together and be as understanding as we want everyone else to be towards us.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Who are you?
Who are you?
09/03/07
This has ended up getting rather long, so fair warning, this one’s one my longest ever, over 1,073 words and was written over the course of two days, I thought about posting part one and two, but decided I would hold off and post the whole thing at one time, each part is marked as to when it was written. Hope you enjoy and I look forward to any feedback or thoughts on the first of a few looks into myself.
09/01/07
Sounds like a simple enough question, straightforward and simple, right. The answer can be as simple as a name, or can be much more in depth, who am I, what defines me as me? 12 months ago, I would have never hesitated with that question, I am the head of the Young Republicans, Central Committee member, and I am having the time of my life. Then about this time 12 months ago, I started slipping, and as I looked at myself in the mirror, the cracks in who I thought I was started showing. As time progressed the cracks got worse and worse, and to compensate I took on more and more, thinking keep running in overdrive and life will not be able to catch up. I started working more, full time job, part time job, campaigns, little sleep, lots of alcohol, painkillers, for two months I ran and for two months life chased after me. I should say I knew I was gay for a long time, even before I was in HS I can remember having those thoughts that just didn’t jive with what my classmates were thinking. But in my mind I thought the more I could deny it, the more I could run from it, then I wouldn’t have to face it or deal with it and everyone could just go on about their lives and live happily ever after. To this day I still don’t know what the catalyst was that finally shattered the mirror was it the stress, was it nonstop constant struggle to say the right things, to look the right way, to act the right way, always being the expected norm of a party person. Like I said I still don’t know what did it, and the odds are I might never fully understand it, I have pages upon pages of written notes asking why now and even looking back at those has provided me no insight into this. All I do know is that something changed in November 2006, and it wasn’t just the last 2 months, but the last 10 years of shit, catching up to me, 10 years of living up to expectations that were not my own, 10 years of hiding myself behind walls, defense mechanisms, never letting anyone get close enough to know who the real me was. But one cold November night in 2006 I gave myself the mother of all wake up calls, I don’t remember what happened or what my intentions where, but I know I took several pain killers and downed an entire bottle of Smirnoff Vodka. Waking up on the floor of my computer room with two rather pissed looking cats looking at me I decided I could not do it anymore, I had to stop trying to hold up an image that was slowly killing me day at a time. Perhaps it was the right person at the right time, but I was finally able to tell someone, I thought he was a friend, he was at the time, today I am not sure but that is a discussion for another time.
09/02/07
It took several weeks of us dancing around the issue, he could tell something was bothering me, I think he knew though I had not worked out in my head what to say or even how to begin. Finally one night he sat me down and told me there was nothing I could say to drive him away what was bothering me. And just as simple of that 10 years of lies came to an end, it took me a couple more weeks but my family and close friends all got the talk. So why is not now almost a year later I am still struggling with this question. Is this a question that could ever be truly answered? Part of it could be is because even though I was out, I was not really out. For the last 8 months I worked in a position that required me to maintain a certain persona if you will, to quote someone at the place, it is ok to be gay just do not be waving any flags, so in a way I was still hiding myself. I guess in retrospect, to answer the question of who are you, you must first be honest with yourself about who you are before you can tell others. Am I the same person I was 12 months ago, no I am not. I have been happier with my life for the most part, not everything is perfect yet, but with time to fix, the mistakes I have made it will be. I am also sure of a direction right now, but that is another question for another day. I am no longer involved heavily in part politics, and like to think of myself as more of a freelancer working for who I want when I want. So who am I? Well I am a 24-year-old political studies student; my two passions are youth drug and alcohol awareness and prevention, and politics. I am openly gay, I run a blog that until this little side trip is geared at an intellectually debate on current affairs in our world, our country, my state. So again, who are you? I guess my best answer for that at this point is I don’t know yet because I’m still working for it, I’m still on the road to becoming the person I want to be, living the life I want to live. However, I will leave that train of thought alone since the next question is what do you want followed by where are you going. So enough of this for now, back to the political topics and other assorted things starting next week, hopefully you have enjoyed out little introspective side trip inside the man, the mind, behind the outfrontier.
09/03/07
This has ended up getting rather long, so fair warning, this one’s one my longest ever, over 1,073 words and was written over the course of two days, I thought about posting part one and two, but decided I would hold off and post the whole thing at one time, each part is marked as to when it was written. Hope you enjoy and I look forward to any feedback or thoughts on the first of a few looks into myself.
09/01/07
Sounds like a simple enough question, straightforward and simple, right. The answer can be as simple as a name, or can be much more in depth, who am I, what defines me as me? 12 months ago, I would have never hesitated with that question, I am the head of the Young Republicans, Central Committee member, and I am having the time of my life. Then about this time 12 months ago, I started slipping, and as I looked at myself in the mirror, the cracks in who I thought I was started showing. As time progressed the cracks got worse and worse, and to compensate I took on more and more, thinking keep running in overdrive and life will not be able to catch up. I started working more, full time job, part time job, campaigns, little sleep, lots of alcohol, painkillers, for two months I ran and for two months life chased after me. I should say I knew I was gay for a long time, even before I was in HS I can remember having those thoughts that just didn’t jive with what my classmates were thinking. But in my mind I thought the more I could deny it, the more I could run from it, then I wouldn’t have to face it or deal with it and everyone could just go on about their lives and live happily ever after. To this day I still don’t know what the catalyst was that finally shattered the mirror was it the stress, was it nonstop constant struggle to say the right things, to look the right way, to act the right way, always being the expected norm of a party person. Like I said I still don’t know what did it, and the odds are I might never fully understand it, I have pages upon pages of written notes asking why now and even looking back at those has provided me no insight into this. All I do know is that something changed in November 2006, and it wasn’t just the last 2 months, but the last 10 years of shit, catching up to me, 10 years of living up to expectations that were not my own, 10 years of hiding myself behind walls, defense mechanisms, never letting anyone get close enough to know who the real me was. But one cold November night in 2006 I gave myself the mother of all wake up calls, I don’t remember what happened or what my intentions where, but I know I took several pain killers and downed an entire bottle of Smirnoff Vodka. Waking up on the floor of my computer room with two rather pissed looking cats looking at me I decided I could not do it anymore, I had to stop trying to hold up an image that was slowly killing me day at a time. Perhaps it was the right person at the right time, but I was finally able to tell someone, I thought he was a friend, he was at the time, today I am not sure but that is a discussion for another time.
09/02/07
It took several weeks of us dancing around the issue, he could tell something was bothering me, I think he knew though I had not worked out in my head what to say or even how to begin. Finally one night he sat me down and told me there was nothing I could say to drive him away what was bothering me. And just as simple of that 10 years of lies came to an end, it took me a couple more weeks but my family and close friends all got the talk. So why is not now almost a year later I am still struggling with this question. Is this a question that could ever be truly answered? Part of it could be is because even though I was out, I was not really out. For the last 8 months I worked in a position that required me to maintain a certain persona if you will, to quote someone at the place, it is ok to be gay just do not be waving any flags, so in a way I was still hiding myself. I guess in retrospect, to answer the question of who are you, you must first be honest with yourself about who you are before you can tell others. Am I the same person I was 12 months ago, no I am not. I have been happier with my life for the most part, not everything is perfect yet, but with time to fix, the mistakes I have made it will be. I am also sure of a direction right now, but that is another question for another day. I am no longer involved heavily in part politics, and like to think of myself as more of a freelancer working for who I want when I want. So who am I? Well I am a 24-year-old political studies student; my two passions are youth drug and alcohol awareness and prevention, and politics. I am openly gay, I run a blog that until this little side trip is geared at an intellectually debate on current affairs in our world, our country, my state. So again, who are you? I guess my best answer for that at this point is I don’t know yet because I’m still working for it, I’m still on the road to becoming the person I want to be, living the life I want to live. However, I will leave that train of thought alone since the next question is what do you want followed by where are you going. So enough of this for now, back to the political topics and other assorted things starting next week, hopefully you have enjoyed out little introspective side trip inside the man, the mind, behind the outfrontier.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Who are you? What do you want? Where are you going? Who Do you Serve? And Who do you trust?
Who are you? What do you want? Where are you going? Who Do you Serve? And Who do you trust?
So last night I’m sitting at home and I decide to bust out my DVD set of the 1 season TV show Crusade (the spin off show from Babylon 5, any who don’t know of them check out IMDB, and if you like sci-fi I highly recommend them) and as the opening sequence starts it has this voice over done by Peter Woodward asking those 5 questions as the title sequence runs. As I listened to the questions it hit me, in one form or another those are the questions I have been getting hit with the most recently, from friends, from family, and ultimately from myself. There is no way I can even come close to answering all of those questions at one time. Therefore, I’m going to go on a bit of an introspective look into myself as a change of pace from my current trend of current affairs post. As I said I don’t intend to try and answer all of these questions at once, so in between these posts looking into myself I will still be posting my regular rants on politics and the like. I hope that by the end, I will have a better understanding of myself and the readers of this blog might be able to take away something they might be struggling with in their own realities.
BW
So last night I’m sitting at home and I decide to bust out my DVD set of the 1 season TV show Crusade (the spin off show from Babylon 5, any who don’t know of them check out IMDB, and if you like sci-fi I highly recommend them) and as the opening sequence starts it has this voice over done by Peter Woodward asking those 5 questions as the title sequence runs. As I listened to the questions it hit me, in one form or another those are the questions I have been getting hit with the most recently, from friends, from family, and ultimately from myself. There is no way I can even come close to answering all of those questions at one time. Therefore, I’m going to go on a bit of an introspective look into myself as a change of pace from my current trend of current affairs post. As I said I don’t intend to try and answer all of these questions at once, so in between these posts looking into myself I will still be posting my regular rants on politics and the like. I hope that by the end, I will have a better understanding of myself and the readers of this blog might be able to take away something they might be struggling with in their own realities.
BW
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Something worth fighting for
Well since the post I made earlier today was supposed to be put up last night, I guess I can roll this gem out a little early. I will say this has not been an easy one to write out, so if I get incoherent or hard to follow at points just hang in there my mind will come back to what I am thinking about.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about friends I have had over the years, the one who have turned out to be true friends, the ones who I thought were true friends, the ones who stabbed me in the back, and the ones I will never see again, nor get to say the things too I should have done long ago.
First I should cover those friends who are gone. I am only 24 years old but have already attended the funerals of three of my friends, at times we could have killed each other, other times heaven help anyone who would oppose us. Unfortunately it took the funeral of one of those friends to make the rest of us realize just how valuable life was, and make us end the longstanding petty feuds between us. As it has turned out, those people, those friends have been the ones I have had the longest and continue to be the ones I am closest too.
Now I have made other “friends” over the last several years, but as with the game of politics most of them where not friends, but opportunist waiting till the best time to plant the knife in my back.
Now for the one that really kind of hurts the most. I met this guy when we started working together, we got rather close as friends. I helped him through some rough times and he was there for me when I hit the bottom of a bottle. In February he left for the national guard, at the time he left I would have said we were very close friends. Now that he is back I have maybe spoken 5 words to him in nearly 2 months he’s been back. However I know the problem with him is the fucking bitch he married. Which lead me to another issue, why is some people when they enter into a relationship with someone they demand that the other person give up their friends just because they don’t like them. I have seen it happen a lot with several of my friends, but I’m sorry it’s not true love if you have to give up yourself or your friends for the person.
So I guess my point is friends are too valuable to let go without a fight, to important to let the small things get between you. Arguments are normal they happen all the time, it’s the false friends who will get into an argument with you and hold a grudge, a true friend will come back, whether its that day or the next day or the day after that and you will go right on being friends, it’s the true friends who are there when your in need, it’s the true friends who will sit up with you all night crying, it’s the true friends who in the end dont care what you tell them because no matter what you can say they will still be their for you no matter what. And as I said those are the friends worth fighting for, those are the people in your life that will matter the most, even beyond a partner because they will be the ones their when you and your partner are having trouble.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about friends I have had over the years, the one who have turned out to be true friends, the ones who I thought were true friends, the ones who stabbed me in the back, and the ones I will never see again, nor get to say the things too I should have done long ago.
First I should cover those friends who are gone. I am only 24 years old but have already attended the funerals of three of my friends, at times we could have killed each other, other times heaven help anyone who would oppose us. Unfortunately it took the funeral of one of those friends to make the rest of us realize just how valuable life was, and make us end the longstanding petty feuds between us. As it has turned out, those people, those friends have been the ones I have had the longest and continue to be the ones I am closest too.
Now I have made other “friends” over the last several years, but as with the game of politics most of them where not friends, but opportunist waiting till the best time to plant the knife in my back.
Now for the one that really kind of hurts the most. I met this guy when we started working together, we got rather close as friends. I helped him through some rough times and he was there for me when I hit the bottom of a bottle. In February he left for the national guard, at the time he left I would have said we were very close friends. Now that he is back I have maybe spoken 5 words to him in nearly 2 months he’s been back. However I know the problem with him is the fucking bitch he married. Which lead me to another issue, why is some people when they enter into a relationship with someone they demand that the other person give up their friends just because they don’t like them. I have seen it happen a lot with several of my friends, but I’m sorry it’s not true love if you have to give up yourself or your friends for the person.
So I guess my point is friends are too valuable to let go without a fight, to important to let the small things get between you. Arguments are normal they happen all the time, it’s the false friends who will get into an argument with you and hold a grudge, a true friend will come back, whether its that day or the next day or the day after that and you will go right on being friends, it’s the true friends who are there when your in need, it’s the true friends who will sit up with you all night crying, it’s the true friends who in the end dont care what you tell them because no matter what you can say they will still be their for you no matter what. And as I said those are the friends worth fighting for, those are the people in your life that will matter the most, even beyond a partner because they will be the ones their when you and your partner are having trouble.
The God Question
Ok, so I lied, I didn’t get this posted last night, for some odd reason I felt it more rewarding to fall asleep on the couch while watching a movie. But anyway, as you’ve noticed my last several posts have been about politics, so I thought I would shake it up a bit and hit religion for a moment. What spawned this debate in my head started a couple of days ago with a friend of mine. He is 22, Christian (but not the crazy type), and openly gay. Well with the first week of classes brought the first week of clubs and all that fun stuff. Well my friend decided he wanted to be part of the Christian Student Fellowship, no problem right. WRONG. Before the meeting even began someone stood up and said we don’t welcome fags in our meetings, you’re an abomination against God. Now let me add in some additional information before I continue about the CSF, the girl that is the head of it this year has a 3 year old child outside of marriage, the vice president is on his 2nd DUI, and some of the members I have met are some of the best partiers I know. I’m getting into this because the hypocrisy of religion is truly starting to scare the hell out of me. We have already seen religious fundamentalism and extremist in action, how much longer before that kind of thinking becomes the norm. What I mean is there are moderate Christians (and I am including Catholics in that as well), that while they personally do not condone the act or approve of the lifestyle, follow the words of the bible itself in as much as they hate the sin love the sinner. Not every person of faith is ready to ostracize every gay they come across and most actually don’t care if the person sitting next to them is gay as long as they don’t try to hit on them. My problem is that through mass media and hysteria to an extent extremist and radicals are gaining more ground than the more level headed, when people like Jerry Falwell, Joel Osteen, and others who preach about the dangers of the homosexuals, and people like Fred Phelps who actively say homosexuals deserve to die. These voices are getting louder and louder and like I said it scares the hell out of me. Now I break yet another promise because after the movie I watched last night it seems a little relevant. You ad in some of the policies of the bush administration, especially when he says he is doing God’s work (god we have came a long way from Moses to GW doing Gods work) and the lines of extremism Vs. mainstream continues to grow. The movie I watched last night was V for Vendetta (great movie by the way) but in it a religious fanatic seizes power in great Britain, saying anything against the government or leaderships is called unpatriotic (sound familiar yet), anyone who is deemed disloyal to the government in arrested (getting warmer), and anyone who does not live according to the moral code (which also outlaws homosexuality) is arrested. Now I know things are not that bad, but my point here is that things are not that bad yet. Unless the religious extremist can be stopped or at least slowed down, how long is it until we get to that point, people are scared of a lot of things in this country right now, and the extremist can offer explanations and solutions, but to do it they need a scapegoat, and unfortunately I think that scapegoat is us.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
AWOL
For my like 2 readers sorry for the absence the last few days. First I got swamped with an unexpected homework assignment, my cell phone has shot craps, and I had some issues come up at work (I swear I work for a Soap Opera, I just need to find those damned cameras). But nonetheless I am back and should have a new post ready to roll by tonight. So stay tuned sports fans, more to come.
BW
Friday, August 24, 2007
Illinois - the model of FUBAR
This is going to be a little more localized that my previous posts and concern the state I live in. First the set up.
Our Governor, G-Rod, Rod, Blow-a-Dick, whatever you may want to call him I’m sure it won’t be original to a native of Illinois. HE was re-elected in 2006, god only knows how, he had popularity numbers that made Bush look like a rock star, corruption investigations out the ass, and ultimately got less than 50% of the vote. Well the governor’s relationship with our state legislature has never been a pleasant one since G-Rod was elected in 2002, now things have reached a point on utter chaos. For 2007 G-Rod introduced a massive plan to provide health care to all people in Illinois who needed it, good sound bites such as “Do you know 1.4 million people in Illinois don’t have health care”. Well while this looks good on paper, just like anything, it costs money, and to spend that money there has to be money there to spend. Why is spending money an issue in Illinois? Well to balance his budgets ever year he has been in office G-Rod has raided the pension fund creating an unfunded pension liability in the billions of dollars, our bond rating has been lower, we have raided ever fund imaginable including retirement systems, education, and little old ladies purses who are not paying attention. Additionly the State of Illinois is already almost 12 months behind in medical payments as it is, to which G-Rod responds to stop paying the old payments so we can pay the current ones, at this point several medical providers have stopped seeing patients who have state insurance because they are not getting paid, most notable Barnes Jewish in Missouri no longer takes Illinois insurance patients, and if they do they are put at the bottom of every waiting list. So how does our industrious perfectly hair governor plan to pay for his new health insurance plan you might ask? Well he won t expand gaming by allowing a casino in Chicago, he wont raise the income tax to cover it, he has already raised every fee related to doing business in, around, or in association with the state of Illinois, so he proposes the GRT (Gross Receipt Tax). No w like anything, the GRT went before the State General Assembly (Legislature) and was voted down almost unanimously by members of both parties, when asked by his own party members where he would be willing to compromise all he would say is “do you know there are 1.4 million people without healthcare in Illinois”. Well after loosing that fight, he proceeded to threaten to veto any budget bill that did not include his healthcare plan, and would only pass it if it was paid for with his GRT plan, a plan that failed to gain support in the legislature.
Now you have the lenthy background of this, a budget was supposed to be passed by June 1 in Illinois, it is now august 24, and after the longest legislative session in Illinois history costing Illinois taxpayers over $1,000,000 the governor signed the budget but not before vetoing $500,000,000 in “pork spending”, what he vetoed by the way was only from the house democrats, the treasures office, the comptrollers office, and the Attorney Generals office. It should be noted that those 4 groups have something in common they are all from G-Rod’s on party, and all have opposed him in this budget fiasco.
But here is my real point let me point out some of the things he vetoed, while claiming to want to help people in Illinois get the care they need;
For Healthy Kids/Healthy Minds/ Expanded Vision……… 3,000,000Community college Student Success Grants….. 3,000,000Grants to the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center…… 500,000$6,620,000… to the Department of Human Services, for all costs associated with a 3% cost of doing business adjustment for community based addiction treatment providers.For grants for School Based Health Center expansions… 3,000,000 (This was strongly supported in both chambers.)for the Rural Medical Education (RMED) program at the University of Illinois-Rockford………….700,000For expenses associated with newborn hearing programs…. 150,000For Expenses associated with Pandemic Flu Preparedness…. 1,183,000ILLINOIS VETERANS’ HOME AT LASALLE… For the addition of 80 beds…. 2,225,600FOR MEDICAL ASSISTANCE UNDER THE ILLINOIS PUBLIC AID CODE, THE CHILDREN’S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM ACT, AND THE COVERING ALL KIDS HEALTH INSURANCE ACT… For Hospital In-Patient, Disproportionate Share and Ambulatory Care….. 2,705,811,200 2,665,811,200 (That’s more than $100 mil cut for hospitals)For Grants to Oak Forest Hospital of Cook County………. 12,000,000 2,000,000For a grant to the Autism Program for an Autism Diagnosis Education Program For Young Children… 10,000,000 5,000,000For Intermediate Care Facilities for the Mentally Retarded and Alternative Community Programs including prior year costs…. 356,856,200 351,856,200 ($5 mil)For Expenses of AIDS/HIV Education, Drugs, Services, Counseling, Testing, Referral and Partner Notification (CTRPN), and Patient and Worker Notification ……… 18,001,200 17,501,200
That almost $140,000,000 in cuts to health and human services, just who the hell does this guy think he is trying to help in Illinois. All because the representatives of the people told him no.
All numbers from capitol fax blog, check it out for more.
Our Governor, G-Rod, Rod, Blow-a-Dick, whatever you may want to call him I’m sure it won’t be original to a native of Illinois. HE was re-elected in 2006, god only knows how, he had popularity numbers that made Bush look like a rock star, corruption investigations out the ass, and ultimately got less than 50% of the vote. Well the governor’s relationship with our state legislature has never been a pleasant one since G-Rod was elected in 2002, now things have reached a point on utter chaos. For 2007 G-Rod introduced a massive plan to provide health care to all people in Illinois who needed it, good sound bites such as “Do you know 1.4 million people in Illinois don’t have health care”. Well while this looks good on paper, just like anything, it costs money, and to spend that money there has to be money there to spend. Why is spending money an issue in Illinois? Well to balance his budgets ever year he has been in office G-Rod has raided the pension fund creating an unfunded pension liability in the billions of dollars, our bond rating has been lower, we have raided ever fund imaginable including retirement systems, education, and little old ladies purses who are not paying attention. Additionly the State of Illinois is already almost 12 months behind in medical payments as it is, to which G-Rod responds to stop paying the old payments so we can pay the current ones, at this point several medical providers have stopped seeing patients who have state insurance because they are not getting paid, most notable Barnes Jewish in Missouri no longer takes Illinois insurance patients, and if they do they are put at the bottom of every waiting list. So how does our industrious perfectly hair governor plan to pay for his new health insurance plan you might ask? Well he won t expand gaming by allowing a casino in Chicago, he wont raise the income tax to cover it, he has already raised every fee related to doing business in, around, or in association with the state of Illinois, so he proposes the GRT (Gross Receipt Tax). No w like anything, the GRT went before the State General Assembly (Legislature) and was voted down almost unanimously by members of both parties, when asked by his own party members where he would be willing to compromise all he would say is “do you know there are 1.4 million people without healthcare in Illinois”. Well after loosing that fight, he proceeded to threaten to veto any budget bill that did not include his healthcare plan, and would only pass it if it was paid for with his GRT plan, a plan that failed to gain support in the legislature.
Now you have the lenthy background of this, a budget was supposed to be passed by June 1 in Illinois, it is now august 24, and after the longest legislative session in Illinois history costing Illinois taxpayers over $1,000,000 the governor signed the budget but not before vetoing $500,000,000 in “pork spending”, what he vetoed by the way was only from the house democrats, the treasures office, the comptrollers office, and the Attorney Generals office. It should be noted that those 4 groups have something in common they are all from G-Rod’s on party, and all have opposed him in this budget fiasco.
But here is my real point let me point out some of the things he vetoed, while claiming to want to help people in Illinois get the care they need;
For Healthy Kids/Healthy Minds/ Expanded Vision……… 3,000,000Community college Student Success Grants….. 3,000,000Grants to the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center…… 500,000$6,620,000… to the Department of Human Services, for all costs associated with a 3% cost of doing business adjustment for community based addiction treatment providers.For grants for School Based Health Center expansions… 3,000,000 (This was strongly supported in both chambers.)for the Rural Medical Education (RMED) program at the University of Illinois-Rockford………….700,000For expenses associated with newborn hearing programs…. 150,000For Expenses associated with Pandemic Flu Preparedness…. 1,183,000ILLINOIS VETERANS’ HOME AT LASALLE… For the addition of 80 beds…. 2,225,600FOR MEDICAL ASSISTANCE UNDER THE ILLINOIS PUBLIC AID CODE, THE CHILDREN’S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM ACT, AND THE COVERING ALL KIDS HEALTH INSURANCE ACT… For Hospital In-Patient, Disproportionate Share and Ambulatory Care….. 2,705,811,200 2,665,811,200 (That’s more than $100 mil cut for hospitals)For Grants to Oak Forest Hospital of Cook County………. 12,000,000 2,000,000For a grant to the Autism Program for an Autism Diagnosis Education Program For Young Children… 10,000,000 5,000,000For Intermediate Care Facilities for the Mentally Retarded and Alternative Community Programs including prior year costs…. 356,856,200 351,856,200 ($5 mil)For Expenses of AIDS/HIV Education, Drugs, Services, Counseling, Testing, Referral and Partner Notification (CTRPN), and Patient and Worker Notification ……… 18,001,200 17,501,200
That almost $140,000,000 in cuts to health and human services, just who the hell does this guy think he is trying to help in Illinois. All because the representatives of the people told him no.
All numbers from capitol fax blog, check it out for more.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Thinking Outside the Box
Ok, so this going to be one of my philosophical posts, so be warned, there is no right or wrong here, so feel free to comment it will be interesting to see where this one goes. First to set this up, one of my classes is Introduction to Political Philosophy, in class discussion today the notion that societies have a natural bias towards thinking (and I mean true intellectual thinking) and that this creates a paradox. The paradox comes in that in order to society to advance it takes new ideas and new thoughts, but at the same time those who in a society bring new ideas or new thoughts into an argument are often shunned for not going along with status quo, example being the execution of Socrates for his revolutionary thoughts on government. So where in the hell am I going with this you ask, well where I am headed with this is that after class it really had me thinking about the current state of affairs not only in the country but in my home state as well.
First nationally, what does it say of a society when voicing ones opinion against the war or the presidency they are attacked as unpatriotic, or anti-American. Moreover, it goes beyond that, the American people are spoon fed news in small doses of what corporate media wants you to see and hear. Anytime a media source pops up offering differing views it is immediately attacked as not being credible or making things up. Second example is my home state, we have a governor so damned delusional that when anyone opposes one of his plans (which the majority of the state, and his own party do not agree with) all he can do is run to the nearest tv camera and a blame his detractors for putting the people of Illinois in harm’s way.
So your still asking, ok already, what the hell is the damned point? Well I’m not going to tell you. What I will say is my observations that by and large the American people have gotten lazy, thinking is hard, thinking is risky, so why do it? American people want to turn on the TV and be shown some entertainment that doesn’t require thinking, and what news they feel they need on an issue they want to have spoon fed to them in small bites that require absolutely no intellectual thought.
First nationally, what does it say of a society when voicing ones opinion against the war or the presidency they are attacked as unpatriotic, or anti-American. Moreover, it goes beyond that, the American people are spoon fed news in small doses of what corporate media wants you to see and hear. Anytime a media source pops up offering differing views it is immediately attacked as not being credible or making things up. Second example is my home state, we have a governor so damned delusional that when anyone opposes one of his plans (which the majority of the state, and his own party do not agree with) all he can do is run to the nearest tv camera and a blame his detractors for putting the people of Illinois in harm’s way.
So your still asking, ok already, what the hell is the damned point? Well I’m not going to tell you. What I will say is my observations that by and large the American people have gotten lazy, thinking is hard, thinking is risky, so why do it? American people want to turn on the TV and be shown some entertainment that doesn’t require thinking, and what news they feel they need on an issue they want to have spoon fed to them in small bites that require absolutely no intellectual thought.
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