It only took the better part of 4 months...

At long last I posted my Top 5's of the year.

And here's what I'm currently listening to:





































In other news, I've had a headache for the better part of a week, and it's generally in the same spot. Plus I've been having some pretty weird and bad dreams lately. Dunno what it all means.

KKKramer and "How to Get Away With Murder"

No doubt everyone has heard about the unbelievable breakdown Michael Richards recently had onstage at a comedy club. When I first saw the clip I: A) didn't believe it was him, because the video quality was shit B) couldn't believe the words he was saying, and C) thought instantly that he was either wasted or on some sort of drug.

But it's pretty damn clear now that it actually was him. And apparently he wasn't on anything, he just snapped.

Now everyone's up in arms, people are disgusted, yadda yadda... (no pun intended)

You see black social leaders standing on soapboxes holding forks, in reference to one of the insults Kramer yelled that night; everyone's asking Jerry what he thinks; Richards is on Letterman apologizing with the audience laughing; jokes are being made at his expense, etc etc.
It's the talk of the day and everyone's pitching in their two cents.

Personally I don't even care anymore. Cuz let's face it - everyone's at least a little bit racist. Yes, even black people, including the guy at the club that night that called Richards a "cracker-assed motherfucker". Nothing quite like fighting fire with fire.

It's sure as hell not going to stop me from watching Seinfeld or buying the DVDs.
He made a mistake, he's sorry, let's move on.


Another story of late has been the upcoming release of OJ Simpson's book "If I Did It". And if you haven't heard of this yet, you will soon.
He is actually publishing a book that details how he would have killed his wife back when it all happened.

If this isn't an indication of just how sickening the money-hungry West has become, I don't know what is. The moral character of the United States in particular is going to be held up to the barometer when the book hits the shelves - and no doubt it'll sell like crazy. First of all to the celeb-idolizing idiots; secondly to the sickos who actively seek circumstances in life that are gory or morose; and thirdly to the flat-out curious.

Not only is this a sad attempt to profit from a tragedy (much like that movie about Paul Bernardo), it puts all of his ex-wife's family through torment again - as if OJ getting away with murder wasn't enough in the first place.

Oddly enough he's probably just trying to make enough money to pay off the civil suit that actually found the fucker guilty of the murders! And we call this justice eh? Apparently she's not only blind, but deaf and dumb too.

Contrary to my comments about buying Seinfeld DVDs, I'm not even going to give a second thought to this bullshit.

Today we take the Whitehouse and paint it a poor man's grey

"I never vote for anyone. I always vote against." - W.C. Fields

I've been wearing a shit-eating grin for the past week. At least on the inside anyway. After all, who actually eats shit, then smiles about it? No one, that's who.

Of course I'm referring to the recent changes that have taken place in the US government.
Not only did the Conservatives lose power in the House of Representatives, they also lost the Senate (a rather impressive feat considering the relative stability of the Senate compared to the House).

Democrats took hold of ridings that were considered GOP strongholds for years and years; for the first time in American history the speaker of the House will be a female; Rummy is finally out of office; Bolton will likely be prevented from any further advancement towards the UN.
And there are no recounts to save the Neo-Con's this time around.

After all of the bullshit and lies the Bush administration has fed the American people and the world beyond, the people have finally awoken from their slumbers to say "enough of this shite" in their best Irish accents.

A blow that the Republicans could've done without was the recent admission of Reverend Ted Haggard that he bought meth from a male prostitute, and had sex with him. He was once quoted as saying, "We don't have to debate what we should think about homosexuals, it's written in the Bible."
A man of God eh? Leader of millions of evangelicals you say? Friend of the President huh? Asset to the Right for securing the church-going God-fearing voters?

I guess not.

So now Bush is at the mercy of his opposition. At long last the reigns have fallen from his hands, and his dictator-ship like control of the country and military have evaporated overnight. After turning the country's largest surplus into the largest deficit they've ever seen, and letting the real perpetrators of the WTC attacks go free, he's left to scratch his head and wonder why everyone turned on him. (Well not everyone, I'm sure he still has alot of followers who believe that bombing someone into loving you is an effective tactic.)




And though all of this makes your average socialist weak in the knees, there's still a massive amount of problems to be addressed -- the debacle in Iraq, the ever-mounting anti-American sentiment around the globe, the disastrous Katrina response, the scandals and fake documents, the opaque wall of red tape that Bush has been hiding behind, the potential for another war with North Korea or Iran, the lies surrounding 9/11, the condoned abuses in Abu Ghraib and Gitmo, the recently passed "Torture Act", the horrific state of the media in North America, and the economy that's circling the drain -- just to name a few.

Impeaching the President and his constituents for the illegal war that lead to the murder of thousands upon thousands of innocent Iraqis, and indirect killings of thousands of American soldiers, must be addressed as well. German lawyers have already jumped at the opportunity to hold Rumsfeld accountable for multiple abuse cases - hopefully this is only the beginning.


After all, Bush is man who was ushered into his position by far more intelligent, evil, and greedy people than he -- all on the purchased say-so of Fox News. So don't believe for a second that these people had anything but self-interest at heart. No rich kids go to war, and no amount of money in the pocket is enough to satisfy.

And the Democrats are no exception in this joke of a political system we must endure. Now that the people are awake, let's hope they don't swallow another placebo and let the same old shit happen again. The Dem's allowed for the Patriot Act to be passed, and did little to stand in the way of the Rep's after 9/11. Just because the powers that be say we ought to be very afraid and trust every last word of the government says, that doesn't mean we ought to.

To end with another quote... "Mother should I trust the government?"

I emphatically reply "FUCK NO!!!"

It sure will be interesting to see what changes do happen though.

A Mediocre Rant

I've noticed a few things lately that have got me thinkin'.
And considering I'm inherently a thinker anyway, these things stood out so much that I decided to do a mini social-commentary on here.

A few weeks back I was watching TV in the midafternoon with my roommate, and while flicking through the channels he decided to stop on the Ultimate Fighting Championship reality show that basically leads to a student in the class being inducted into the UFC as an official fighter.
We watched the fight, which was incredibly boring, and one fighter came out the victor, while the other was left to pout about his loss. Let's call him "Cement Head".
In an interview, Cement Head was devastaed. He was crying. He was raving that he would rather have left the ring in a bodybag, than lose the meaningless fight. He was quoted saying "There were two ways I was coming out of there - the winner, or dead."

Guess what friend, you came out the loser. That's right, the LOSER. And you're still alive to bitch about it and claim that you'd rather be wiped off the earth than accept the fact that your opponent was a better fighter.
Ignoring the fact that being a UFC fighter is hardly something to aspire to in life, it's even more baffling that Cement Head would prefer death over life. I guess his life must be pretty horrible if the only thing keeping him going is a reality TV show, and a shot at a picosecond of fame.
I find it very difficult to believe that this toolbox actually meant what he said. But come to think of it, maybe society would be better off if such idiots were actually forced to fight to the death. Then again, that might be a little harsh.

I was in one of my 700-student classes a few weeks ago, and above all other voices and even the music from my headphones, I could hear a girl proclaiming idiocy at the top of her self-involved lungs. I overheard her talking to two of her friends (both of whom seemed utterly disinterested with her) about how great she was.
"I am SUCH a nice person!" she said, referring to the fact that she had wished her friend a happy birthday on facebook the previous night. She followed this up with a rundown of exactly where she had purchased all of the clothes that made up her outfit for the day. "I got this at the Store For Idiots, and these pants came from Slut's R' Us. Oh, and you'll NEVER believe where I got this bag from! That cute little store called Daddy's Money at White Oaks!!"

Well done you selfish bitch. Well done indeed. You have solidified the thought in my mind that the world is worse off now than it was 5 seconds ago. Now, I realise this girl is about 3 years younger than I am (considerig it's a 2nd year class and I'm the older of the double cohort), but is that really any excuse? When did it become alright to become so disconnected from reality that you can't even wish someone a happy birthday without asking for recognition of your kindness? That's not to say that youth is the excuse for this mindset - I see it everywhere at this school - but it's amazing that at an instutution of higher learning you can find some of the stupidest and most self involved people anywhere. I thought we were supposed to be intelligent people aimed at the betterment of society here?
I almsot felt like throwing my coffee at her (ruining her Daddy's Money leather bag), but I realised I'm even more frustrated with her parents. I'd like to slap them silly until they reevaluate their parenting practices and straighen their bitch out.

Last week I had stop-in at the pisser in our North Campus Building. I saw two guys already at the urinals, each at the farthest end of the 5 that were there. Naturally I went to the middle one (as to allow for elbow room), but I noticed the douchebag to the left of me was having a conversation. Confused, I looked around to see who he was talkign to. A few other guys were washing their hands behind me, and another was at the hand dryer, but they weren't even lookin in this guy's direction.
That's when he finished up, and it all became clear - he was on a fucking cell phone.

"Don't worry about that sound in the background John, I'm not standing in a public fountain. That's just me having a piss while I talk to you. I'm just too damn busy to wait two minutes. Fuck am I ever cool."
I don't even know what to say about this scene that I witnessed. I guess respect for other people (not to mention self respect) have gone out the window. I hope he drops his phone in the toilet next time he's taking a shit.

I have a pin on my backpack that says "If you're not pissed off, you're not paying attention." My roommate said if he had a pin on his bag it would read "Don't worry, be happy!"
He thinks I'm too pesscimistic and I should look on the brighter side of life.

I think he just proved the point that the pin is supposed to be making.

Lastly, there has been a fair bit of controversy on campus lately about the privatization of education, in the sense that corporations are trying to influence universities by offering donations and other incentives in order to have their needs satisfied. Such an example is the involvement of UWO Engineering in the research and development of the Stryker armored vehicle that is currently being employed in Iraq and Afghanistan. A company by the name of General Dynamics is producing this "light armored vehicle" under contract with the US Army, and utilizes students to help with the design of the machine.
Interestingly, I have a friend who worked on the project this past summer. I had a talk with her about it (in which I criticized her for working for warmongers), and her response was just what I expected - a shirking of responsibility.

Besides the obvious dangers that corporate influence can have in the education system, the issue here is the morality and accountability that every person must own-up to if they choose to work within a program that ends in something immoral. My friend is not a bad person by any stretch of the imagination, but when a thousand pieces of the puzzle assemble into a killing machine, each part should be evaluated. It's all-too-easy to say "Well, it's not ME that's shooting the bullets at those people", and much harder to say "I'm not going to take this job because it might involve innocent people being murdered."
At the root of this is self-interested people who fundamentally don't care what happens after their job is done. It's kinda like eating the burger, all the while knowing that the cow had to be grown and killed for us to eat it.
And it's best not to consider how the cow feels. Otherwise we might choose tofu instead...