Monthly Archives: June 2010

If the System is Broke, No One in Power Wants to Fix It

Politics, , ,

There’s an interesting political drama going on in South Carolina right now. I guess I should elaborate because there’s always some kind of political drama going on in South Carolina. But this time, it’s about a man running for office. His name is Alvin Greene, and he did what no one expected he would do. He upset a party politician of long standing in the Democrat primary for Senate this year. He was someone with no credentials, no money and no name recognition at all. Yet, he managed to get 60 percent of the vote from the Democrats and put state legislator Vic Rawls out to pasture in the election.

Well, now we’re starting to see all sorts of skeletons in his closet, including the fact that he’s up for some kind of felony for showing porn to some girl at college and trying to entice her to his room. Now, let’s be honest, what college guy HASN’T done that, but that’s really a different issue now, isn’t it? It seems there are all sorts of weird shenanigans going on in his past, including that he may or may not have been thrown out of the military. He refuses to comment, wanting to focus only on the issues. But for all I know, there may be absolutely nothing wrong there. He may just not want to talk about his past military service. I mean, that is his right, if he chooses to make it so.

But the Democrats are raging mad right now, demanding he quit the race, even though the “people” chose him. They’re aghast that this potential felony machine is on their ticket. Well, let’s put aside the fact that so many politicians seem to have felonies on their records these days and don’t seem to think it causes a problem to their political careers. What’s the real issue here? It appears that the Democrats just don’t like the fact that someone ran an end run past them, and they weren’t the ones in charge. The7’re claiming the Republicans must have been behind his campaign, claiming that he couldn’t have afforded the $10,440 filing fee to join the race, that some dark, sinister force must have fronted the money to hurt the Democratic Party.

What this issue is really pointing at is something much bigger. For too long now, the common person has felt out of the loop of politics, but has been subjected to it by people who feel they should be making all of the decisions. There’s a special club of politics that has a hefty membership approval process, and most of us don’t fit the mold. Alvin Greene certainly doesn’t. The two parties in this country have done a very good job of making sure only the well-connected get in, much like a union boss makes sure only his cronies are the ones surrounding him at any one time.

Alvin Greene refuses to leave the race and only wants to talk about the issues. The Democrats want him out of the race so they can focus their attention on people they already like and know. He’s an outsider, and they don’t like that.

But what this is really pointing at is something no politician wants to face or discuss, and that’s the possibility that the people are rejecting the party machines that are already established and deciding to go with outsiders. I mean, let’s face it. South Carolina has been a cesspool of politics and scandals lately, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the people of that state decided to just buck the system and choose anybody but the usual suspects. What is interesting is that the political machine in place doesn’t handle this sort of thing well, and we’re seeing a backlash as every political entity in the Democratic Party is moving forces into place to circumvent ANYONE from challenging their authority and power.

South Carolina could be a very interesting place to mark the beginning of something very significant, or it will serve as the place where a last stand for the people was made before it was stamped out forever.

There’s Just Not Enough BP in My Daily Diet

Politics, , , , ,

It seems you can’t go two feet these days without another BP story innundating us with its importance over our daily lives. And it just keeps getting worse.  Turns out a lot more oil may have been flowing than we first imagined.  And of course, the lawyers are starting to sniff the waters to see if they can make a gazillion dollars out of suing everyone and their brother. And then in the New York Times, there was an interesting story about how Great Britain is throwing a hissy fit because the United States is getting all angry at BP, and somehow that means we’re saying bad things about the Britains.

Okay, I’m sorry I have to do this, but some things need to be put into perspective, and who else to do this but a world famous blogger like me who has a site where everyone reads it on a constant basis. Okay, no one reads my blog, but just to make my stuffed animals happy, I have a few comments to make.

1. BP is screwd. Sorry, but you were the guys who owned the rig that caused all the problems, and is STILL causing all of the problems. You haven’t fixed it. You didn’t prepare for it. And I’m sorry, but everyone is just a bit angry at you right now because you’ve KILLED THE ENTIRE GULF WITH YOUR STUPID OIL DISASTER. Oh sorry, it’s not a disaster because a “disaster” is limited on one small geographical location, being of limited impact. You’ve caused a CATASTROPHE! Sorry that we’re now hurting your feelings, but you have done your part to bring about the destruction of all human civilization. You don’t get a free pass on that kind of shit.

2. The lawyers. Wish they weren’t going to do what they’re going to do, but like the cartoon characters say: They’re not evil; they’re just drawn that way. Or like the scorpion says to the turtle before he stings him and they both drown: “It’s in my nature.” Lawyers will jump on the nearest ambulance and sue in their best interest. Sorry, but it’s what happens.

3. Great Britain. Really? You think this is about YOU? No, it’s not. It’s about a stupid company that happens to be headquartered in your country. Sorry if you think that angry Americans are now being unfair to you, but you know, sometimes it really isn’t about you. Americans are angry at BP because it doesn’t serve any purpose to be angry at the oil. Someone is responsible, and guess what? That culprit IS BP. So, if you think Americans are angry at you, get over it, or go fuck yourselves. Whatever you need to do. Because honestly, Americans aren’t angry at people from Great Britain UNTIL they start making it about themselves. The article shows all attempts at trying to deflect blame away from BP with this “well, shit happens, so stop being angry”. If that’s the stance you take, then Americans are going to start pointing fingers at Britains, and THEN you’ll know America is angry. Ask a bunch of Republican Guard soldiers in Iraq what it’s like when Americans are mad and lash out at the nearest thing available, even if there’s no apparent reason for doing so (like thinking Iraqis were responsible for 911). Give Americans a good reason to be angry, and those cruise missiles you see making parking lots out of your residential districts will explain why it’s not a good idea to pick a fight when one isn’t really being offered in the first place. Just saying, so shut the fuck up and stop acting all victim like when no one was pointing fingers at you in the first place.

As for BP, however, good luck on deflecting any angry Americans. Seems your only chance right now is a bunch of stupid, overly sensitive Britains standing in between you and those angry Americans.

The whole BP catastrophe is one of those things that is going to be very interesting in how it plays out. I find it amazing that anyone would even think that BP is going to come out of this without being the recipient of legal carpet bombing before this is all over. I even read how BP is trying to hold the US government to the law (that they are only responsible for about 75 million dollars of damage). Good luck on making that stick. If BP manages to escape through a legal maneuver, I expect to see serious amounts of wrath of hegemony upon them in all sorts of manners. If they play any stupid legalistic trick, just watch what happens when the ambulance chasers catch up with them; not a single politician in all of America will come to their defense, which will lead to the biggest sinkhole short of the Gulf of Mexico.

iPhone 4…what the hype?

Uncategorized, , , , ,

It seems that time of the year again when Apple has announced its new hyped products and updates. Well, this year it was all about the new iPhone, specifically iPhone 4. Well, as an iPhone owner, I would like to make a few comments on the announcement.

First, I have to say that the blunder during the announcement made it almost all worth it. Steve Jobs was going to compare the old iPhone’s web browsing capabilities against the new iPhone 4. Well, the old iPhone came up great, showing The New York Times’s site. The new iPhone 4? Well, not so good. Didn’t show anything at all. Jobs blamed it on the network, but honestly, the old iPhone worked on the same network at the EXACT SAME TIME, so obviously the new iPhone had to be the culprit. No amount of talking around it is really going to get you out of it when BOTH WERE ON THE SCREEN AT THE SAME TIME RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER. Anyway, with that said, I’m sure they’ll fix it, and with that behind me, I still think it’s pretty cool.

The new iPhone has video HD capabilities for filming. Looks and sounds great. The demonstration during the presentation received a lot of oohs and ahs from the audience.

Now, here’s what is bugging me about the new phone.

1. Video conferencing only works between separate iPhones. Not a great thing.

2. Video conferencing only works over wifi. Not great when most people are making phone calls over the 3G/4G network.

3. Upgrading. Jobs announced that AT&T will let you upgrade (with a new two year contract) if your contract expires before December. So, does everyone else that owns an iPhone have to wait until forever until they can use the MUCH GREATER iPhone? There was no announcement of the base price, but they really should be thinking of their current subscriber base, not just a hope of future customers.

4. No announcement of a carrier other than AT&T. Okay, we’re really tired of AT&T. You’d think Apple would realize that by now. Even during the demonstration, one audience member yelled out a solution for the New York Times problem Jobs was having on stage: “Switch to Verizon!” or something similar to that.

Anyway, that’s about all I have to say. Interesting announcements, but after the hype, it was still mostly just hype. Not as wonderful as everyone is making it try to sound. I’m almost exhausted with CNN’s continuous coverage of any time someone from Apple sneezes. Enough with it already.

Revisiting the Year 1991…and the process of historical writing

Writing, , , , , , , ,

For those that don’t know, I am currently writing a novel that takes place in 1991. This is the first time I’ve ever written an historical novel, covering a specific time. It also includes important people who were living and interacting during this particular time, so unlike fictional worlds I have built before, this is a world that already exists, and because of that I have to get it right.

This has caused me to start doing extensive research about this time, and what I’m finding is how fascinating it is to go back only a few years and see what life was like during that time. When you’re writing a novel that takes place in Ancient Greece (The Ameriad), the near future (Rumors of War) or the far-off future (Destiny), you pretty much get to create your own world. Granted, those worlds have a bit of connection to specific events and experiences, but for the most part, you really do get to develop whatever you want for those time periods because no one around today really has a clue what those worlds were like, or will be like. It’s a best guess situation for everyone.

But 1991 was only a few decades ago. I lived through it, and a lot of other people lived through it as well. So, this is a period of time that has critics who can honestly sit back and say, “um, no, that’s not what it was like.” This means I’m having to do extensive research that I don’t think I’ve ever had to do before.

And its enriching. Because it’s not just about the place that existed 20 years ago. It’s also about a set of experiences and nuances that seem almost like an alternative reality, because I’m creating a world that already exists, and not only do I have to get it right, but I have to also give a perspective that makes the reader want to explore it with me and my characters.

But I’m finding fascinating little things that I’d completely forgotten about. Sure, I knew about the first Gulf War. Believe me. I know about it. But at the same time, I kind of forgot that this is when a bunch of cops beat up Rodney King. It was also the time that the greatest boxer of his time Mike Tyson was accused of raping a woman before being tried for the crime. It was also, and this one just shocks the crap out of me, when an obscure announcement was made by Tim Berners-Lee about this little thing called a “World Wide Web”. The realization of that alone just hit me out of nowhere because during this time, there was no real Internet yet. It was coming along really fast, but we weren’t there yet, and this guy made this announcement, and people blew him off because it had no specific substance in their lives to make them think it was ever going to be of interest to them. Now, there are people who are living their lives never having NOT known about the Internet and the World Wide Web. To them, it’s always been around. But in 1991, it was just a casual mention of something that might be coming soon.

That’s what makes this kind of research really fascinating because once I’m finally done with all of this, I have to then create a series of characters who live in that world and don’t have the knowledge of what we know now. To do this, I have to constantly avoid being the all-knowing narrator or the bad writer who puts little quips into his characters’ mouths where they start projecting their beliefs of a future that has already come along in today’s world because most people don’t have the ability to predict things on a global level to realize that their entire paradigms are about to be shifted right under their noses.

Such realizations are making the writing of this novel, 72 Hours in August, so much fun to plan. In the very near future, I will be writing it, and let’s just say that I’m looking forward to it.

The Hurt Locker…an interesting peek into the abyss and shopping for cereal

Movies, Television, , , ,

I finally got a chance to watch Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker over the weekend. It was interesting to see a movie that covers the military in a way that doesn’t seem like it’s a miltary advertisement (I’m looking at you Transformers 2) or a condemnation (I’m looking at pretty much every Iraqi movie that’s been made so far).

The story is pretty simple. It’s about an EOD specialist whose main job is to defuse bombs. His team works as back-up to him, and the movie follows the events he and his team experience during a rotation in Iraq.

What really stuck out to me was the “team” emphasis the movie explores. This is one of those nuances that happen within the Army involving specialized groups, specifically those with a set mission that rarely can be handled by a regular unit. The main character is a former Ranger, and his team consists of a former mission intelligence sergeant and a specialist-ranked noobie who is pretty much learning his place in the greater scheme of things. I think it covered the specialized nature of the team very well, and it was interesting to see it carried out on film where there was little attempt to glorify it or diminish it with some stupidity (like Platoon, which while it was a decent film ended up focusing on dysfunction rather than function).

One thing that really hit me hard with this movie is a very soft scene after a return to the U.S. when the character is asked by his wife Kate (or whatever her name was…she was played by Evangeline Lilly, the woman who plays Kate in LOST, and she was honestly the only actor in the entire movie I recognized) to find a box of cereal in a supermarket where they’re shopping. This man who is so perfect in a world where it may end at a moment’s notice with people all around him who might be trying to kill him, stands in front of the entire aisle of boxes of cereal and can’t move because he’s overwhelmed by the choices in front of him. This is the sort of person who spends his every moment deciding between green and blue wires (the Hollywood equivalent of a bomb defusion choice, which THANK YOU was not an issue ONCE in this very well done movie), and he was unable to choose a simple box of cereal. That one moment brought the reality of this fictionalized world home for me, and I’ve never seen it done so well.

In the end, I think the movie is deserving of the awards is received. Granted, I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that it was up against a lot of dismal films that year, which is becoming more of a norm than an exception. Even though that was the year of Avatar, a very visual film, at least the Academy recognized that that was ALL it had going for it.

The acting was done well, and the writing was what should be expected from a Hollywood film of this magnitude. Strangely enough, I had trouble finding any acknowledgement of the writing from the closing credits, although it might have flown by me and I didn’t realize it. I was looking for it, however, and was somewhat annoyed that everyone else and his brother was acknowledged, but the writing didn’t seem to be all that important to the makers of the credits.