Category: Politics

WikiLeaks: The American Debacle

Posted by Rich Harris – December 17, 2010

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gave us a face that we could assign to the heated and conflicted opinions of millions of Americans. It’s been eye-opening to watch our country react to this on thousands of conversation threads in blogs, on Twitter/Facebook, and news forums. I’ve witnessed heated WikiLeaks discussions in airports, coffee shops, corporate office environments and grocery stores. No matter how you feel about it, in support of or against it, neither side appears to be fully comfortable with the fact that our country’s leadership, military and other key decision makers got caught with its pants down.

I too am conflicted on this.

I have a fairly idealistic side to me that believes in the right to know and the freedom of information. I was born and raised here. I pay taxes and I vote. I’m a natural skeptic of the media. I’m skeptical about the corporate and government influence behind all the dog and pony show maneuvers by several news agencies. I’m aware of the marketing teams set up to create all the logos, graphics and breaking story creative assets we see bum rushing our computers, high-def television sets, and smartphones – all meant to sway us into an emotional tizzy hoping that we latch some emotion onto them so we buy stuff. My default nature is to always wonder, “What the hell is REALLY going on here?” I’d even say my toes are within a few feet of the cliff that leads to the endless abyss of conspiracy theorists. Common sense and my acceptance of the things I cannot control or change are what stop me from going all the way (thank goodness). I want to know what types of discussions were being had about other nations on our behalf and how those may have influenced strategic alliances for the good, bad or otherwise. My American brothers and sisters are put in harms way every day in other countries for reasons that most of us will never know about in this lifetime. Sometimes it’s warranted. Sometimes it’s fucked up and wrong.

On the same token, I am also the son of a former United States Marine. I have not only the utmost respect for our military, but a huge concern for their safety on a regular basis. The trauma they experience, the courage they muster in the face of an adversity that was thrown in their faces by our own country’s leaders, is truly phenomenal. The selflessness of American military knows no bounds. I do worry that the content of the contained in the 250,000+ cables that were released on November 28th of this year, could put our troops in more unnecessary danger as a result of stupid/childish out of context statements made by government officials.

My other issue with it is that we have security clearance levels and background checks for a reason. Sometimes there are things, conversations, plans, military campaigns (where we rescue hostages, etc.) that do less harm to the general population when they’re kept confidential. If that type of info gets out to the general online public (i.e. the entire planet), those fundamentalist neanderthals that oppose the west and it’s way of life will know how we do things. They’ll figure out how we think. If they don’t use that to jeopardize the safety of our own soil, they’ll attack any American presence abroad with extreme prejudice.

A quick note to the hacker that posted the cables

The one thing I do not support is these docs being obtained illegally. For the same reason I can’t stand a bunch of angry hippies throwing rocks at the windows of businesses in their own home towns to protest the war, to me, theft does not make those of us non-hackers with open minds respect you. You don’t get the award for “pulling it off”. You aren’t an American hero. You broke the law. You aren’t a whistle-blower. You are a thief. Just because you can find something others can’t, it doesn’t mean you should publish it.

NOTE: I know there are many hackers that use their skills for good. I’m friends with a few. I’m not talking about them. :-)

The balance between international security and the freedom of information is a complex one. I don’t know how I feel about all of it yet to be honest. What do you think? Does the government need to get it’s technological shit together better so this doesn’t happen again? Do you think the world is a better place having access to the kind of info in the latest release of those cables or not? Time will tell.

Onward.

Being a Moderate is a Pain in The Ass.

Posted by Rich Harris – November 9, 2010

Just like the Bible, Quran, et al, our own Constitution is constantly being re-interpreted and skewed by the very people that claim to care about it the most. I watched and participated in the last presidential election. I saw the people, even some conservatives alongside liberals, all stand together and vote. I also saw most of them flip to the other side in a furious backlash 2 years later for the recent election (last week). In my opinion, the problem isn’t democrats or republicans, it’s people. We’re fickle…..radical fundamentalists in particular. It doesn’t help that our political climate and social culture does not lend itself to us moderates…culturally we’re always forced to ‘pick a side’…..which is pure nonsense. We aren’t robots (last time I checked anyway). We should be focusing on the issues and how they affect everyone, not just those that believe what we believe as individuals. If you stripped the issues away from the politics and personal insecurities you’d probably find that most of us are generally on the same page, we just go about it differently.

The cool thing about us moderates is that we can fit in with almost any crowd, have meaningful conversations with both sides of the fence. The other side of this though is that moderates need to put up with more people giving us shit for being who we are because we choose not to exclusively surround ourselves with fundamentalists on a one way street to blind chaos. We moderates are stuck in the middle of the political and social storm that by definition won’t let it resolve itself. We are sandwiched in between the soul-less fascist nightmare and the whiny unorganized emo-hippie. What is a well-intentioned, intelligent, open-minded, non-judgmental, communicative group of people supposed to do in a country whose majority population can’t stop thinking in black and white? It’s bittersweet I tell ya….but it feels good to know that I’m not drinking anyone’s Kool-Aide just because it’s brightly colored and has a little extra sugar in it.

To Clarify

When 9/11 happened and I started to learn about the history behind the west vs. east, I had switched to the left. I was much more on the conservative (and very uninformed) side of the moderate needle for a long time before that. The left doesn’t fit me though either I’ve found because I’m still conservative on some stuff. For the last 9 years I have hung out in many social circles that lean towards every belief and ideology under the sun. Aside from a few unique individuals, I’ve found that no matter where you go, who you vote for, what type of car you drive, what your sexual preference is, the majority of the people are all the same. Defensive and insecure. The moment moderates propose a new idea about something, a new way of thinking, a different path, everyone around them immediately tries to pigeonhole it to the left or the right, airing on the side of delusional self-preservation. They can’t seem to help themselves.

For all those radicals out there, right left up or down, that think they have their shit together by hanging out ONLY with like-minded individuals, I have some information for ya…..

You Are Not a Fascist, Redneck Office-Thief If…

  • You think people deserve to earn more money, in some cases lots of money, for their hard work and experience.
  • You enjoy the (ethically acquired) fruits of capitalism.
  • You appreciate owning and/or using a firearm at a shooting range or for lawful hunting that yields food for you to eat later.
  • You have particular religious beliefs.
  • You eat meat.
  • You have a beard.

You Are Not a Bleeding Heart, Lazy Socialist Freeloader If…

  • You care about the environment and believe in alternative ways of pumping energy into our infrastructure.
  • You believe we should all try and help others in need when we can.
  • You hope for peace and love.
  • You question authority.
  • You care about animal rights.
  • You have a beard.

It behooves humanity for you to think for yourself, to question yourself, and to keep an open mind.

Onward.

Prop 19: The New California [a theoretical jaunt]

Posted by Rich Harris – October 28, 2010

I don’t have any answers, but I have lots of questions and an imagination.

I was born and raised in this state. I’m not offended by the responsible use of alcohol or marijuana. But man, let’s face it….it’s a seriously crazy and interesting time right now in California. With people publicly smoking weed in the stands in San Francisco during this year’s World Series while state authority figures look the other way. Fans are practically smoking alongside the players themselves…..With voting just around the corner and Proposition 19 on the ballot, I wasn’t just pondering how publicly stoned  the general population might soon become (which may or may not even be the case), but I’ve been more pondering the effects on our economic and social culture and how it will be affected by the legalization/decriminalization of the substance here in this state. We have spent decades building industries, advertising, brands, lifestyles, the way we cook and serve food, and everyday purchasing decisions around alcohol consumption. We did the same with cigarettes and now are spending millions trying to get people to quit smoking and stop feeding the ultimate poster child for greed and gluttony that is Phillip-Morris. The ramifications, both short and long-term, of Prop 19 passing, are interesting to conceptualize and I think ripple much wider and deeper than most are really considering.

I’ll outline a few thoughts, guesses and speculations below. My disclaimer here is that I’m not suggesting you vote yes OR no. That’s up to you. This post isn’t so much about my opinion on the matter as much as it is just envisioning what a state I lived in my whole life would look like in a culture that has legalized pot layered into it’s everyday. I’ve been contemplating recently, all the little facets and details of American culture that might be affected by true legalization. For the sake of apropos word choice, it’s a trip.

Let’s assume that we live in a ‘Prop 19 passed’ world where the Feds don’t do anything, plead the fifth with a refusal to publicly condemn or embrace what California is trying to do, so they can sit back and observe and let us run our own experimental petrie dish, opening it up for US corporations to exploit California’s new mind-altering landscape, firing on all bong-shaped cylinders….. What might the ‘New California‘ look like? Take everything you’ve seen, done, experienced online and off, in the media, the workplace, on TV in a bar or restaurant, that had alcohol in the picture and replace every drink with a pipe or joint in hand. Replace every beer pitcher with a hookah. Now tie industries, commercialism, sex appeal, peer pressure, news feeds, social media content, discussions, stock prices of companies, retail merchandise, signs in airplanes, episodes of COPS, SNL sketches, and more….to the fact that it’s now legal and a functional integrated layer of our social lives. It might drastically change the nature of our decompression time at home or on vacation if you replace beer and cocktails with it. Think about all the industry and employment and job types this would affect, alter, destroy and create. Will beer bottle manufacturing facilities slowly be nudged aside to make room for smoke accessory manufacturing and assembly lines? How will crime and the ebb and flow of human statistics be altered month over month when it comes to prison time, car accidents, drug use, productivity at work and in school? Will teaching methods change? What kinds of things, good and bad, would happen to California and it’s residents if we could just stroll into Jim Bob’s Grog Shop to pick up a pack of marijuana cigs and 8 bags of Cool Ranch (instead of the normal 1 or 2)?

In my opinion the legalization of this could completely reshape our commercial economy as we know it and open thousands of minds while simultaneously closing thousands of others. I have a bunch of questions about what that would look like for us California residents. I hope those of you that live here are at least thinking about it too before you hit the voting booth.

What about tourism? “Welcome to California, the Golden State of the harvest….grapes, citrus and buds oh my.” Wine-tasting won’t be the only popular road trip into the Napa Valley. Will Disneyland start selling hemp-woven Mickey Mouse ears to the kiddies in an effort to be more ‘green’ while poppa picks up a sno-cone and a skunk-infused churro from cart #14 in Frontier Land? Those slightly campy state-funded commercials with The Terminator and The Shriver (Maria) about ‘coming to California to visit or live‘ might have a different zing to them.

What about family gatherings and the mix of older generations and newer generations under the same roof? Will grampa be outside drinking a beer or Scotch or glass of wine while his 22 year old grandson smokes a bowl while they catch up on life? How would that look and would it play out smoothly or would it introduce a new struggle within family structures, belief systems, and generational gaps? If it’s legal, a drinking man of an older generation that was raised on the media plague of ‘reefer madness’ SHOULD technically be able to embrace a pot-smoking man of a newer generation because no law is broken, right? But would that old man be able to change the goggles that he has used to view the world and his family & friends for so many decades to new more updated ones so that he can still feel comfortable chatting it up with his pot-smoking grandsons at the next BBQ? When there’s a function or gathering that is heavily religious but includes alcohol consumption – i.e. wedding, etc. – will people only be offended by the pot smoke break guy and not the cigarette smoke break guy?

What about the social ramifications both online and off for adults and teens? Will the nature of photos, videos, Facebook statuses and Tweets start to take a different shape and if they do, what would that look like? I wonder if, because everyone posts a picture of everything they are excited about on Facebook – food, alcohol, parties, kids, events, travel, art… – we’ll now see thousands of pictures of someone’s new purple stash they just picked up. Will this content make or break connections with people emotionally and shift the nature of Facebook’s effect on how we’ve all started connecting with each other. Will it destroy friendships or create new ones? Will they have to add the ‘pot smoker’ option to dating site profiles?

My brain wormholes so deep into the different segments of our society in an effort to try and understand and speculate on the ramifications of a pot-legal state. What do you think about or envision to be a new reality if Prop 19 were to pass? Are you only focusing on the negative or the positive and why?

Onward.

If Hunter S. Thompson Wrote for The Tech Industry

Posted by Rich Harris – May 13, 2010

Sooooo…..I work for Seagate. They make hard drives. I’m subscribed to any and all Google alerts where Seagate’s products/services are mentioned to keep my thumb on the pulse of what people are saying about the company so that I can do my job. The latest Google alert I had received had a link titled ‘hard drive seagate‘. It linked to this URL: http://hooydgzznq.co.cc/2010/05/13/hard-drive-seagate/

If you look at the page that I just gave you the link to, it’s pretty harmless/innocuous. When you visit it nothing bad will happen to your computer, (or at least it didn’t to my Mac) but you’ll notice that you can’t *see* the copy I’ve pasted in below but what you can see is ads. I couldn’t figure out from the link I saw how the hell the link ranked so high in the alert until I viewed the source and to my lack of surprise, the copy below had been hidden in the HTML code to trick search engines and suck you in to click on their PPC ad to make you think you were going somewhere. This is a very common thing for hackers to do to cash in on PPC (Pay-Per-Click) ads….but alas, that is not why I’m writing about this.

The reason I’m posting this is that I have to give whatever acid trip’d existential mofo hacker a strong and well-deserved “Hunter S. Thompson of Technology Blogger of The Year” Award. While he/she/it put this little ditty together in an attempt to lure in search engine users looking for products in the high tech industry, I say he did it because he’s trying to connect the dots in the universe for us all to understand better…..well not really…but I got a good laugh out of it….so here it is. Enjoy this literary journey.

“Sony was also naive, but its business name was the most odd, dell inspiron 4000 audio driver. Josef mengele, the due angel of death of auschwitz, who has given versions for more than 30 classes. The 1540 place of layolle s voice is own, but no vote or rainbow boys attend. Commercial barebone computers and laptops, the state s bedroom this battery was sound s of santana. Denna proceeds in temperature with richard, commercial to his sandstone on receiving her dam despite the system she came him. Yellow security in nashville gives 83 floor in the lyrics and 60 simpletech in the appliances, which is sold primal for the southeastern united states. The writing got viable duck for a game of needs. Peoplefictionalplaceswaffle is a company milk referred by tom dell which made under power and later unix, vtech kinder laptop 3 jaar. Thoroughly through a mountain of a series of a class i address a traditional area at disk who architecturally does me a percent of the way which i usually update. An oriented design was that performance speakers would be stupid, since small parts would be coming not. Happy has been rectified of jobs verbose and available name. Sager notebook support drivers, traditional components of the supply have not disguised but skillz is laid to undergo a much link in which he faces the shareholders. Davidson county happily quite. Microsoft did to stop number carnival with windows, installing on configuring paragraph to genoese city political changes while apple was pointing a briefly disrupted, but main, public. In the different today to the laptop is st, laptop driver m6 video. i ranked together of the channels to the reputation in talk and he of mix challenged instead into his substance, laptop driver m6 video. Bivotar and juranda are on a landscape to hunt the three palantirs of zork and to learn the odd fleet krill. Another plant is that the keyboard was a culper ring film devoted as agent 355, now this memory is generally extended to major motherboard, seagate hard drive 300gb. Divorce time and functional imaging cameras. You think a magic flanked with uninstaller very form, leapster ac adapter. This mother is according to be transferred to deliver approve standard.”

Consider yourself enlightened. :-P

DNA: Science, Subversion & The Future

Posted by Rich Harris – February 5, 2010

Opinions & Conversation

Recently I was privy to an interesting conversation on my Facebook page where I had posted an article on CNN: “The government has your baby’s DNA“, written by Elizabeth Cohen. The overall premise of this article is the debate on whether or not it’s safe and ethical to store information about a person’s DNA, or not.

At first glance after reading the article, I wondered to myself what really is the issue “problem” with this concept? So at the risk of sounding clueless, I posted the status/comment, “…not sure what the big deal is here” and I was genuine when I posted it. I’m glad I did as it brought in some really great comments.

If you push conspiracy theories aside, and fundamentalist religious practices that may be opposed to it as well, what is the real harm in retaining that data? Here are a couple posts with varying and opposing views from that conversation on Facebook:

“…so from a law sort of standpoint you could be falsely accused of a crime, your DNA coming close to matching that of the assailant. In this day and age of CSI, Bones, NCIS, etc. people think they know what they need to know about DNA. You’d pretty much be hosed. Even if you were eventually found innocent your life would pretty much be a shadow of it’s former self.”

“Big concerns are the potential for abuse by insurance companies or future employers, as well as general privacy issues with this being easy to obtain. Do you really want someone with a little cash (e.g. aforementioned employers, government, tabloid reporters, political opponents, etc) to be able to find out you have Klinefelter’s syndrome, or a predisposition to schizophrenia?”

“So I fall on the side of making genetic testing manditory for every newborn. There are so many genetic issues (David mentioned Klinefelters as an example) that if treated early can help improve the quality of life of the individual who has it. Too many people find out about this stuff later in life and say “that explains it!”. Anyway, I think once the intial screen and notification is done, the DNA should be “separated” from its owners name and used for whatever (except cloning)”

Is The Extreme Polarization of Approach The Only Option?

I think all the points I quoted above from others are completely valid. I think the bigger question here, in my opinion of course, isn’t should we retain the data or not. The bigger question really is: Can we do it in a way that is ethical so that the benefits of this data analysis are yielded by humanity while the DNA data itself is owned, protected and secured by some sort of diverse council or committee of people to keep things objective when it comes to the release of information. Membership of this council or board can have a set of strict prequisites the aid in the protection of this data and it’s proper use. For example those nominated are not allowed to have a strong affiliation with any religious sect, political ties to special interest groups or parties, etc.

I know to some extent I’m oversimplifying it here and that with every well-intentioned person, there are 10 people with bad intentions unfortunately. The dilemma that I have morally is this I guess….why completely avoid something that can have great benefits for those with a predisposition to diseases, syndromes, conditions and other various health problems, out of fear that it will get into the ‘wrong’ hands? Why not try and figure out a way to have an objective process that is well thought out and governed by a globally represented scientific/healthcare community to manage and protect it for good use? Of course bad people do bad shit but if we shut down every innovative and positive idea intended for the better out of fear (like doing business online), then we might not get anywhere.

Onward.

A Quick Post for Veteran’s Day

Posted by Rich Harris – November 11, 2009

Richard Brent Harris Senior

Sgt Richard Harris, Dai Loc Pass, Vietnam, May 1970

Sgt Richard Harris, 1st Marine Division, Da Nang, Vietnam, April 1,1970

Sgt Richard Harris, 1st Marine Division, Da Nang, Vietnam, April 1,1970

I just wanted to give a quick shout out to all of our veterans and brave service men and women out there today who continue to lay their lives on the line every single day so that we can all have the lives and opportunties that we have here in America. We may not always agree with what wars we are involved in and why but the more important fact here is that our military personel do their jobs with not many complaints. They are the pinnacle of selflessness and sacrifice for America and we should continue to show unconditional support for them and their families.

I’ve have a couple photos to post here of my father, Richard Brent Harris Sr. from his days back in Vietnam. He’s still alive today and I’m proud. Happy Veteran’s Day pops. Everyone that knows you is very proud of your service to our country as well as the the sacrifices your brothers in the Marines made during that time.

The Obama Factor: Ridiculousness at a new level.

Posted by Rich Harris – October 9, 2009

obamaThe Nobel Peace Prize.

The Nobel Peace Prize is for those that earned it. The announcement today that Obama was awarded this prize is a joke. It’s not a joke because Obama did anything wrong, nor do I believe he is involved in any shananigans to win it. The problem is bigger than him. The problem is with the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Check out these quotes from recent articles on CNN:

Article: Obama’s win unique among presidents

Quote: “The committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons…”

Quote: “Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future.”

———————-

Article: Obama: Nobel Peace Prize is ‘call to action’

Quote: “Some analysts have speculated that the prize could give Obama additional clout as he forms a strategy for the war in Afghanistan and attempts to engage Iran and North Korea. Another senior administration official told CNN he hopes the White House can ‘use it for the positive.’”

———————-

My Gripe.

I dig Obama. I voted for Obama. I still like him. I love what he has done for our diplomacy internationally. I believe he would be an amazing candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize depending on what he does over his first term (and possibly a second term?). All the cards are there for him to be the next person to have earned the prize.

However, if you look at the quotes I posted from CNN above, it’s clear to me that this prize was given to him based on what we hope he’ll do, what we hope he can pull off, what we hope our future will be like. His prize is based on hope and hope is not tangible, it’s an idea. In the past, this prize was always awarded to people because of their selfless vision that they executed into tangible accomplishments; visible and on record. If this is the new allowable premise to award something so prestigious then we should start handing these things out like candy to all the every day people that make huge waves in their communities, in other countries, etc. These are the ones that should be considered. Obama doesn’t have that track record (yet).

Even though Obama did not choose this outcome or most likely didn’t even plan for it, the Nobel committee has taken huge risk in setting back Obama’s progress in diplomacy by ‘handing’ it to him, and spurring more controversy, the same kind of controversy that sparked all of our protests against Bush’s krony-riddled administration. It’s carelessness and recklessness by the Nobel committee in my opinion and does Obama’s vision and effort a disservice at this point in time. Other countries that have historically hated us and are now open to at least reconsidering talking to us, could possibly now be thinking, “See! I knew something was up with Obama. Too good to be true!”. Lame.

My Hope.

It’s no surprise that Obama was humble about this and immediately reminded us that it’s not about him almost to the point of questioning it himself. That attitude is a major reason why I voted for him. I hope his vision for global peace and diplomacy is accomplished some day. I hope he makes waves when it comes to nuclear disarmament, bringing tensions and disagreements to a conversational level amongst world leaders to resolve peacefully. I believe that’s what he wants, I believe he can accomplish great things and I believe he should be recognized for it when it happens. My hopes though are just thoughts, untangible. Hopefully one day they are actual memories of things he has actually done and accomplished backed by real data and stories to support it.

I support Obama in his continued efforts but damn I hate the bullshit.

Onward.

The First 100 Days of Swine Flu

Posted by Rich Harris – April 29, 2009

Did I use that title for SEO reasons? Why the hell not. :-)

It seems like I can’t get away from the two topics this blog post title refers to but I have to admit, there is nothing wrong with fodder for more SNL sketches, more South Park episodes, and most importantly, something for me to sarcasticly make light of because it consumes the information/controversial/drama-thirsty American social/pop culture. Anytime news like that rolls like a big boulder over cnn.com, I can’t help but attribute a bunch of over the top humor to it, which most of the time reminds everyone that I’m permanently a 13 year old trapped inside this carb-happy 34 year old body of mine.

0205pigs_narrowweb__300x3650The Swine. The Flu.

On Facebook I recommended…errrr…asked if people thought it was too early to run a t-shirt print simply stating, “I have the Swine Flu AND I love bacon.” 80% of the people liked and/or commented on the post that read it. The other 20% gave me some shit about me making a joke out of something that was killing people. Funny thing is that for every 1 person that dies from Swine Flu, 100+ people die from the ‘regular’ household flu. So WTF? To those gettin’ extra emo about it, I’m on board 100% with your empathy but please remember that when people joke nowadays, in this case about the Swine Flu, no one is laughing at someone else’s misery, we aren’t making light of their mortality and worse, their fate in the fact that they happen to catch it and die from it.

It’s just jokes…at no one’s expense really more at the expense of the news and media for over-inflating it. We are all battling things like this in the world together. I firmly believe that the key to the survival of humanity is their ability to find humor in the catastrophes that surround us. ‘Tis the only way.

Obama’s First 100

Oh let the sweet media frenzy latch onto some other goofball idea to attach the consumer’s hungry emotions to.

44140130_10389138001_0206dv-pol-100-days-sj-plusFirst off, I’d like to say that I’m EXTREMELY pleased with Obama’s efforts, philosophies, cool-headedness and follow through. Given the shit he is expected to ‘fix’, I’d say he’s been pretty productive so far. So I guess this quick point I’m gonna blarf about (barfing/blogging), is more aimed at the ‘marketing’ of the First 100 Days.

I’m just waiting for the commemorative plate (thanks Don), the key chains, the logos, the flamethrower (thanks Fong), the doll, the skateboard, the commemorative First 100 Days jockstrap and tube top set…..you laugh and have a smirk on your face right now but there’s probably some backwoods jackass producing it somewhere.

Please, everyone in the media, I love how America is so celebratory about everything to the point of thinking we need to have an annual national holiday ‘celebrating’ stuff as trivial as the peanut butter sandwich, BUT, stop pushing it like he’s the second coming of Christ, the Alpha and Omega, Allah, Buddha himself. You know why? Because he’s just a dude…….You know what Obama did on his 100th day in office? He worked. Then on 101st day, he skipped the First 100 Days Sears photo shoot and he worked some more…and that’s what he’s going to do every day until he’s not president anymore….head down..working.

Done.

Give Obama a Break Already

Posted by Rich Harris – April 4, 2009

obamaThis is has been bothering me for awhile now. Everytime I turn around I hear or see news clips and feedback from the general public (yes even democrats) bitching and whining that they are frustrated with the fact that Obama is not working fast enough. I have a couple things to say about this…

First of all, must I remind those that I speak of, the incredible dinosaur-size pile of shit that he was handed when he was sworn into office?

The Economy: The U.S. economy not only has not been this bad in decades, but worse, is that most of it is the final burst and fallout of decades of corporate corruption that has made itself the backbone of how this country manages it’s own financial culture. I can’t blame the republicans for this either….it transcends political parties whether you want to admit it or not….Obama’s administration not only now has to be bear the burden of his own country’s economy, but that of the world. So give the guy a fucking break. I know hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost, I know families are poor and struggling, lifestyles are changed forever for ‘innocent’ people that never deserved to be shit on by insurance companies and banks. As a single father of 3 sons, I feel it too, not as bad as some, and not as little as others. We are all in that boat together. Remember (I try and remind myself of this as well) that people raise their kids in places in the world where dead bodies are lying around while their children play ball and have fun anyway, where a loaf of bread needs to last a family of 10 an entire week….The rippling effects of what are going on right now are so much bigger than Obama. Consider ourselves lucky that this shit didn’t all fall down after McCain was sworn into office, or more scary – while Bush had another two years as president.

Terrorism: While I do believe that Bush was a complete moron and not fit to run even a doughnut shop, the issues that exist from terrorism also are a reflection of greed and decades of corruption and cultural extremism and dysfunction, not just with the U.S. but with the world and each country’s own radical fundamentalist bullshit artists. We get mad at Obama for stepping up some troops in Pakistan and Afghanistan but at least he’s focusing our soldiers on this issue in a geographical location that matters and is a real source on this issue instead of the mind fuck distraction that even Colin Powell helped to skew with the Iraq war.

Conclusion: The world is a fucked up place that can only be fixed with unity from every person in every country across the globe and an exorbitant amount of patience for the man who has been voted in to help make a positive contribution for humanity. His attitude is on point. He can’t fix the world and surely can’t fix the U.S. over night after decades of unethical infrastructure establishment, but he can get it started and he needs a positive attitude from Democrats and Republicans alike…. Democrats – Quit your bitching and pull up your boot straps and get ready to work harder than you ever have before. Republicans – Stop disagreeing with new ideas because of your religious ideologies and just for the sake of it because you are in a different party. God created humanity so if you believe in God, started thinking in terms of One People and all that He created. Cherish it and do what you can to be a team player so we can all get through this together.

And to the media….if you don’t have something positive to say right now, STFU.

Sorry about all my expletives….my passion ensues.

Thanks.