These things scare me....

Okay folks, settle in for a rant.

First, read a little of the column by Bob Lonsberry on Sarah Palin's resignation.. Then read through a few of the comments left for him to get the proper context for this rant.

Now Mr. Lonsberry is a die hard conservative, and he and I don't have much in common politically. However I do enjoy reading his columns from time to time because he often offers a bit of a different slant on things. This piece on Palin was no different. You might have expected this to come from the pen of Keith Olbermann or the airwaves of Air America Radio.

As much as I think Mr. Lonsberry was spot on with his criticisms of Palin, I was appalled by many of the comments left by his readers. Some of it is truly scary. There are a number of posts refering to Palin's breasts, calling President Obama by his middle name only (yeah, you are all still stuck on that, we get it), several posts refering to Obama as the Anti-Christ, and even this little gem, which I'll quote word for word.....

"You are a damn idiot, first, anyone who still watches SNL, Keith Oberman, Alan Colmes, David the heart attack Letterman, Hardball, (yea hardball, I wish I could show this bleached haired girlie man what hardball really is) Wolfe Blitzer, (with a name like Wolfe, his physical stature he is a legend in his own mind, he is a pussy).

# 65 you have no life or future, it is people like you that condemn this Country to obscurity.

Godless people like will soon learn a harsh lesson!"

Emphasis Mine.

This is the crap that really scares me. This guy sounds like he wants to be uber-Christian, that's he's on the offensive for the Kingdom of Christ. I wonder if Jesus finds calling people "damn idiots," "girlie man," and "pussy" to be acceptable, I have a hunch that he doesn't. Let's forget about that though.

Read this:

5. The so-called morality of the liberal is no morality at all, rather an encouragement to betrayal. Therefore, they have no claim to protection from the state.
6. The liberal is not smarter than we are, rather only cleverer and craftier. His system cannot be defeated economically — he follows entirely different moral principles than we do. It can only be broken through political means.

Think you could see that or something like it on a right wing blog site, or maybe hear it on Rush Limbaugh? Well it's actually an excerpt from "Der Jude," Der Angriff. Aufsätze aus der Kampfzeit. It was written in 1929 by the Nazi propagandist Goebbels. I just substituted the word "liberal" for the word "Jew."

I do this to make a point. Throughout human history we have made a practice of scapegoating other people. We fear people who don't agree with us, or have a different religion, who don't look like us, or who are of a different political party. We tend to do this the most when we feel like we have God on our side or that or cause is just despite any reasoning to the contrary. 6 million Jews died for this kind of reasoning. The reasoning and the power of fear and blind political pursuit of power. It can happen here too, in the good old USA. During World War II the US Government detained thousands of Japanese-Americans in camps because of the FEAR that they might be spying for the Japanese military. In the 1950's hundreds if not thousands of Americans were openly persecuted by Senator McCarthy and his RED SCARE. We had to round up the communists. We were afraid of them. We went to war in Korea and Vietnam because we FEARED the spread of the ideology of Communism.

Now of course we also fear Muslims, right? I mean, hey, we all lived through 9-11.

Go back to the portion of the comment from the Lonsberry site that I emphasized...
"Godless people like (you) [sic] will soon learn a lesson." Now imagine had that post been made by a Muslim on a national news website or forum. There would be people calling the FBI saying it was a terrorist threat. I guarantee that. Of course, it is a threat, but here in America we don't see it that way if it's coming from a good Christian, right?

Point is, a religious fanatic is a religious fantatic, no matter what religion you are. We seem to have a growing club of Christian right wing fanatics in this country. You know, the kind of people who shoot people at the holocaust museum. The kind of people who call Obama the Anti-Christ. The kind of people who walk into a church on Sunday and shoot a doctor in cold blood in the name of God. The kind of people who will refuse to refer to our President by anything except for his middle name.

You see what I did there?

Damn straight I lumped you all together.

The Palinesque faction of the Republican party has tapped into the fear and hate of everyday Americans. It's tapped into the worst sentiments of people who openly say they FEAR for their culture and their country. Fear is a powerful motivator. So is believing you have God on your side.

The guys who flew those planes on 9-11...they thought they had God on their side too.

We are just left to wonder if these will continue to be idle threats. Let's hope so. We're all in this together and it's time we started acting like it.

A great man once said "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." That was FDR, a democrat. You've seen him on our money. You'll never hear Palin or Glenn Beck say that.

It's pretty powerful though. Maybe it's time we cut the fear and started working together before more people get hurt...huh?

July 4 Festivities & Other goings on

Well, it wasn't a pool party, but we tried.

A few weeks back Mariel and I got a kiddie pool on sale at work. It's not a huge pool, but not a dinky one either. Anyway, it's finally getting warm enough to use. We have to fill it with hose water from the house, which is pretty cold, so it has to be about 90 out for it to be comfy.



That's me in the pool the other day, wearing one of my dad's old Taco Maker shirts. Makes me look like a fat cow.

Anyhoodles....

We were hoping to be able to set up the pool for July 4th, but alas, we had some Thunderstorms role through Friday night and cooled things off a little too much. So we had to go to plan B.

We decided to go out to Iggy's, a local Sports Bar type place where I had a huge beer. Unfortunately, I wasn't carded for said beer, which made me feel real damn old. *fumes* Also, we had to sit and watch the coverage of Steve McNair's death, which was a bit of a bummer for a holiday. Whatever though, the food was good and the beer was even better. It had been awhile since I had a beer.

We also stopped by work. We had some polo shirts on sale for ten bucks and I wanted to pick up another one. While we were there, we also picked up some fireworks.

After coming home and taking a nap, oh and playing a little Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, We lit the fireworks. It was pretty fun, we didn't buy a ton, but we got our ten bucks worth of Sparklers and fountains. Good times. You can see some pictures either on my facebook or on our photobucket.

After we blew crap up, we came in and some chocolate cake to finish the day.

In other news, yes, I decided to do the facebook thing, we'll see how it goes. If you want to find me, search by my email brandonlbc@gmail.com.

So that's about it. Mariel and I both have a couple of days off and we're looking forward to sleeping in a bit.



Some of our fireworks..

My favorite albums of the 2nd Quarter, 2009.

5. Street Sweeper Social Club--"Self Titled"

Yes, it's Morello again, but this is DAMN catchy. Great beats!



4. Dinosaur Jr.--"Farm"

My first Dinosaur Jr Album and won't be my last. Great guitar rock!




3. Bob Dylan--"Together Through Life"

Very pleasantly surprised. Dylan still has it, for me anyway. Don't pass this one by. "My Wife's Hometown" is one of my favorite songs this year.




2. Silversun Pickups--"Swoon"

Another great album from one of my favorite acts. "Panic Switch" is the highlight here.



1. Dave Matthews Band--"Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King"

I thought I was gonna hate this, but it could end up being album of the year for me. Check out Alligator Pie and Time Bomb if nothing else! Love it.

See my list at my RYM site here

Thoughts on Michael Jackson

Ok, I'm sure everyone on the Earth, from the cold of Alaska to the heat of the Sahara knows MJ died. Opinions on MJ have as varied a range as the all the spices in Martha Stewart's spice rack.

Here's mine, if anybody cares....


Music wise, it's hard to deny MJ his place in the spotlight. The guy had an unbelievable career from like age 5. Many of his songs are in fact near perfect, if not totally perfect pop songs. They don't make them like that anymore. I dare anyone to come up with a pop hook better than those in Beat It or Smooth Criminal (My personal favorite MJ song). I mean come on, the guy did Thriller, which is by far and away the best selling album ever. With the state of the music industry today, it's likely it will never be touched. Love MJ or hate him, you can't take that away from him.

It's funny. If you know me, you know that when I was a kid my parents were on a bit of a fundy kick and didn't let me listen to secular music in the house, largely thanks to a dumb lecture they attended put on my this douche-nozzle. Anyways, what my parents didn't know, and why this type of parenting doesn't work, is that I often went over to my friends' houses and still got my fix of all things MJ...Thriller, Bad, you name it. I loved Beat It, damn it! So even the child of religious fundies in the 80's wasn't immune from Jackson mania. In that way, MJ and his music will always be part of the fabric of my childhood. It's great stuff, at least up until Bad, and will always carry a heavily nostalgic effect on me.

What about his weirdo personal life? Well this is difficult for me. As far as the child molestation stuff goes, it's hard not think that where's there's smoke there's fire, but the guy was never convicted or found liable in any court of law. Innocent until proven guilty I guess. Personally I like to give him the benefit of the doubt. I watched a lot of the trial, and though I wasn't convinced he was guilty, I was surprised when he was acquitted.

I guess I think the guy had a pretty mixed up childhood. Even Lisa Marie Presley said being married to him was like being married to a ten year old. I sometimes wonder if having to lead so much of a public life kind of stuck MJ as a child mentally. Now I'm not excusing anything he did wrong. Dangling your kid out of a window is kind of a dick move, and a non celeb parent probably wouldn't get away with it. However, to criticize MJ for bad parenting...well it's not exactly the first time in the world someone's been a bad parent.

Bottom line for me is this. He is a music and pop culture icon, and rightly so. A lot of bizzare crap went on in his personal life, we'll probably never know the truth about a lot of it, but for me, his music will be what I remember about him. I'm also sure that's what most of the world will remember as well. I'll let God judge him and his soul.

RIP MJ.

Book Thoughts: "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara

Honestly, this is one of the best works of historical fiction I've ever read. Shaara writes a pretty good over-arching account of the battle, highlighting a good chunk of the pertinent action. The story is primarily told through the POV of Longstreet and Lee for the CSA and Chamberlain for the USA. However, the passages from the first day are primarily told through Buford for the USA, and the climactic chapter about Pickett's charge is told through the POV of Armistead, who dies on the field.

Once in awhile, particularly in the Chamberlain passages, the book bogs down a little bit, but all in all the action moves steadily forward. I really appreciated the unique life given to all of the characters. It was interesting to read about Lee as such a vunerable character, as Shaara writes of the heart disease that would eventually kill him taking hold even here, on the eve of one of the great battles in American History.

A stunning and unique novel which leaves the reader impressed with the caliber of men who fought under both flags during those bloody days in July, 1863. Check it out.

Book Thoughts: "Riptide" by Preston & Child

I liked this one better than "The Ice Limit" for the most part but not nearly as well as "Thunderhead" or most of the Pendergast books.

Not that it was a bad story by any stretch, but the first half to 2/3 of the book were pretty slow moving. The action picks up swiftly towards the end as the body count rises.

However, the characters seemed a bit thin here for me. The red hot Archaelogist lady, the salty and greedy sea captain, the shady sidekick. It's all here. Even Dr. Hatch's character doesn't quite come off as real as the constant exposition of his guilt over his brother's death grows tiresome.

The end of the book is very abrupt. The reader is left to assume (and it's easy to assume) what happened to the minister and his wife (a former lover of the main character), but it could have been at least mentioned in passing, plus the conflict of Hatch's desire for Claire is something else that could have been explored further, maybe taking the place of some of the salty sea captain/treasure hunter's scenes.

In the end, it's a decent, though not quite tight, thriller. Fans of Preston & Child, as well as fans of adventure books should enjoy it well enough.

Game Thoughts: The Sims 3

So one thing both Mariel and I enjoy is playing "The Sims 2." We have all the expansion packs for it and often drive those around us crazy by talking about the Sims we've created and their adventures in life.

Call us losers if you will, but it's fun to play God sometimes, you know?

Well, we've been looking forward to "The Sims 3," for awhile, thinking it was going to be an upgrade in the series. Well, I think we both agree that it's just a waste of space on the computer.

Seriously, we heard all about the "Seamless neighborhood" and new aging systems. We also heard about the wonderful new look of the Sims themselves, and about how you can customize them even more than the Sims 2.

Right.

This is EA games here.

So First off, what do I HATE about the game? I'll start with the whole seamless town thing. In Sims 2, when your Sim wants to go to another lot, say the store, a restaurant, or the Gym, the game had to stop and load the new lot, and the time that your Sim had been out would be reset once you came home. Still, you could actually go into these lots, browse items, interact with other sims, play games, light fires, etc.

Well, throw that out the window for Sims 3. Sure, the load times are gone, but in it's place is a crappy looking view of your sim driving their car. It honestly looks like something out of the first Sim City game or a Nintendo game from the early 90s. When my chick got to the store, instead of going in and interacting with the world on the lot, a menu list came up and you just picked what you wanted to buy. Lame. Oh and when you come out, you have to call your car, which has disappeared on you. To me, this is a downgrade from a lot of the fun interaction to be had in the Sims 2 Expansions. Maybe some other lots offer more interaction, we'll see.

Next up, the new aging. It used to be, on Sims 2, that if you had multiple Sims in the same town, they didn't age unless you played them. Well, that's gone. Everybody ages all the time now, all at once. Now that does certainly seem more realistic, but a lot of the fun Mariel and I have had with the game is raising different families in the same town, and working at aging them together and having them interact. We got to experience each of our Sim's lives. It also increased the replayability.

Now however, Mariel played her sim for awhile on Sims 3, and I come back and the Sim I had created was an old Lady and I had barely even played her. Now she can't have kids or anything, so what's the point. It's a one family at a time deal I guess, and I don't like it.

Of course the Sims look better right? I don't think so. I never could my chick to look the way I wanted her to. The customization really isn't all that different. Sure I can make her a total lard-ass or Crack-Whore skinny, I can also change her skin tone on a gradual scale. Well, those are things that EA and other game companies have had in their PS2 games for years. I was using the same color system that's innovative in the Sims 3 on my NASCAR THUNDER race cars on my PS2 in 2003. Lame. The rest of the customization really isn't that different than the Sims 2. Then in the end, they end up looking like two-bit cartoon characters.

Oh, and finally, there's next to no content in the game. Instead of packing in more outfits and furniture for your Sims, there's very little of it there and you get the privelege of going to the EA Sims 3 Store, where you can spend your hard earned real world cash on a couch for your Sims. Lame. Of course, there will be infinite expansion packs as well.

What's good about it? Well very little. Yeah it's nice that the load screens between lots are gone, but if you have a halfway decent computer that was never too big of an issue. The personality system is actually quite a bit more customizable, and the need bars aren't near as rigid this time around, so that's a nice touch. That's about it though.

Rating--2 out of 10. Don't waste your money, just upgrade your Sims 2 game while you still can.