Global Warming

Global warming, in my opinion is a idea that has yet to be proven. I tend not to agree that it is fact, but I leave a sliver a leeway open in case I may be proven wrong. Even though I like him in movies I'm not going to listen to Leonardo DiCaprio on the subject either. I mean, he is the hard luck case from the later seasons of Growing Pains, not a scientist. Anyways, you can get a group of scientists to prove anything you want if you're signing the checks. The just look at you and say, "Yes, boss, fruit flies can cure cancer if you eat enough of them." I think there are multi-year weather patterns that are affecting the"evidence" scientists are currently pointing to as being global warming in action. Anyway, here's a story where a friend pointed out a good quote to me.

“Plimer presents the proposition that anthropogenic global warming is little more than a con trick on the public perpetrated by fundamentalist environmentalists and callously adopted by politicians and government officials who love nothing more than an issue that causes public anxiety.”
All this leads me to yet another one of the Nonpopulist's Rules for Life: Don't believe something just because someone famous says it.

A Very Cool Flickr Slideshow

I would love to find more like this slideshow.

More on What I Take Nonpopulist to Mean

One may take "nonpopulist" to mean that I dislike everything that is popular. Not true. Not everything that I like is unpopular. I don't like or dislike something just to stay in line with what I think popular opinion maybe. I live and think outside of that. Sometimes lines are blurred, but what is consistent is I base my likes, dislikes, opinions, and dispositions on individual merit with analytical assimilation of its value. I think.

Slow Them at the Roll

I received this narrative in an email forward. Translation= I'm feeling lazy today. It's still good.
"Dinner with the President"

Once upon a time, I was invited to the White House for a private
dinner with the President. I am a respected businessman, with a factory that
produces memory chips for computers and portable electronics. There was some
talk that my industry was being scrutinized by the administration, but I
paid it no mind. I live in a free country. There's nothing that the
government can do to me if I've broken no laws. My wealth was earned honestly, and
an invitation to dinner with an American President is an honor.

I checked my coat, was greeted by the Chief of Staff, and joined the
President in a yellow dining room. We sat across from each other at a table draped in white linen. The Great Seal was embossed on the china. Uniformed staff served our dinner.
The meal was served, and I was startled when my waiter suddenly
reached out, plucked a dinner roll off my plate, and began nibbling it as he
walked back to the kitchen.

"Sorry about that," said the President. "Andrew is very hungry."

"I don't appreciate..." I began, but as I looked into the calm brown
eyes across from me, I felt immediately guilty and petty.. It was just a
dinner roll.

"Of course," I concluded, and reached for my glass. Before I could,
however, another waiter reached forward, took the glass away and swallowed the
wine in a single gulp.

"And his brother Eric is very thirsty." said the President.

I didn't say anything. The President is testing my compassion, I
thought. I will play along. I don't want to seem unkind.

My plate was whisked away before I had tasted a bite.

"Eric's children are also quite hungry."

With a lurch, I crashed to the floor. My chair had been pulled out
from under me. I stood,brushing myself off angrily, and watched as it was
carried from the room.

"And their grandmother can't stand for long."

I excused myself, smiling outwardly, but inside feeling like a fool.

Obviously I had been invited to the White House to be sport for some
game. I reached for my coat, to find that it had been taken. I turned back to
the President.

"Their grandfather doesn't like the cold."

I wanted to shout - that was my coat! But again, I looked at the
placid smiling face of my host and decided I was being a poor sport. I
spread my hands helplessly and chuckled. Then I felt my hip pocket and realized
my wallet was gone. I excused myself and walked to a phone on an elegant
side table. I learned shortly that my credit cards had been maxed out, my
bank accounts emptied, my retirement and equity portfolios had vanished,
and my wife had been thrown out of our home. Apparently, the waiters and
their families were moving in. The President hadn't moved or spoken as I
learned all this, but finally I lowered the phone into its cradle and turned
to face him.

"Andrew's whole family has made bad financial decisions. They haven't
planned for retirement, and they need a house. They recently
defaulted on a subprime mortgage. I told them they could have your home. They need
it more than you do."

My hands were shaking. I felt faint. I stumbled back to the table and
knelt on the floor. The President cheerfully cut his meat, ate his steak
and drank his wine.

I lowered my eyes and stared at the small grey circles on the
tablecloth that were water drops.

"By the way," He added, "I have just signed an Executive Order
nationalizing your factories. I'm firing you as head of your business. I'll be
operating the firm now for the benefit of all mankind.

There's a whole bunch of Erics and Andrews out there and they can't
come to you for jobs groveling like beggars."

I looked up. The President dropped his spoon into the empty ramekin
which had been his creme brulee. He drained the last drops of his wine.

As the table was cleared, he lit a cigarette and leaned back in his
chair. He stared at me. I clung to the edge of the table as if were a ledge
and I were a man hanging over an abyss. I thought of the years behind me,
of the life I had lived. The life I had earned with a lifetime of work, risk
and struggle. Why was I punished? How had I allowed it to be taken? What
game had I played and lost? I looked across the table and noticed with
some surprise that there was no game board between us.

What had I done wrong?

As if answering the unspoken thought, the President suddenly cocked
his head, locked his empty eyes to mine, and bared a million teeth,
chuckling wryly as he folded his hands.

"You should have stopped me at the dinner roll," he said.
Wake up, America!

The Nonpopulist's Rules for Life

Another one of The Nonpopulist's Rules for Life: Learn from and appreciate other cultures. Being an American, I have a disadvantage or two when it comes to this rule. #1. Americans are taught to hate or dislike people who are different from them from an early age, even other Americans of a different ethnicity. Yeh, I said it because it still happens a lot. #2. The respect we do give other cultures and ethnicities is 95% lip service. You may say, it's Black History Month, let's learn something or I like Mexican food, but it's really about realizing that your way of life is no better than their way of life and valuing individuals. I was lucky enough to get to hang around some Koreans this weekend. We played badminton, swam, and cooked out. They were cool guys even though I could tell they felt uncomfortable at times, we all got along, well and it wasn't forced. Now they have invited me and the friend that introduced to me them for a Korean style dinner in a week or two. It's going to be cool. I tried kimchi this weekend, how much worse can it get?

Book Burning???

And it's not the south or Nazi Germany this time. This book burning story comes out of Wisconsin and is a real dilly of a pickle. I can solve this problem with this problem. This is cool, watch how I do this. Not many people read anymore, especially kids unless it's Harry Pooter (no typo.) The style of young adult books where homosexuality, rape, and drug use are central topics has been around for a few years, but so few kids read and fewer share what they've read that it is just now coming to light. Not many people read so you don't have to censor books anyway. Now, to be fair, the angry town mob doesn't want to actually burn the books, they just want to censor them, mainly by having them moved to the adult section and marked explicit. Grow the hell up, people. Would you rather your kids get exposed to adult themes via the internet? Them internets is where most kids are obtaining knowledge of sex, the most perverted sex imaginable at that. 2 girls, 1 cup anyone? I would much rather my kid get exposed to that in a book that is published for the young adult category where a publisher and editor have tailored it toward even a liberal moral bias than have them type sex in a search engine. The books don't say "Go be gay. You're gay. Why don't you rape a classmate?" They are books. Written by authors. That are published. It's a classic shelter vs educate parenting choice. Any reasonable parent educates more than shelters, and that goes for guns, sex, drugs, life choices, even money. Really, this story makes me want to shake these parents that want censorship to an unreasonable degree. Just pick them up and shake them. As an aside, since most people don't read, it is considered nonpopulist and should be done. Get them book smarts.

Good Quote from a Nonpopulist

I had no idea that history was being made. I was just tired of giving in.
-Rosa Parks

The Nonpopulist's Rules for Life

I'll be listing rules for the Nonpopulist way of living from time to time as the fancy strikes me. Here's an important one: Be eclectic. Enjoy bohemian interests from diverse sources. I discovered this song when I was in high school in the late 1990's while listening to am radio because that was all I could get in my 1987 Toyota Van/Wagon which the next year became the Toyota Previa. Rabbit trail Rabbit trail rabbit trail. It's called "The Straight Life" by Bobby Goldsboro. And it's bad ass! **grabs a woman's ass and puffs a cig**



Or if you prefer a live performance...

What's Next? Apparently De-Baptism

I'm a hard person to shock, so let me say that I was taken aback by this story. I'm already back to my previous forward position, though. I get it, you're atheists. I'm going to take a very nonpopulist position on this story especially considering I have a somewhat religious background. I'm actually glad it's getting press. I think anyone who had an infant baptism or discovered later in life their cognizant baptism doesn't mean anything to them should have the right to have a ceremony, however satirical. Do it publicly, Christians do.
Now you may say, I'm a Christian, and I am offended by that story. First let me get my composure after laughing at you for being offended. Being offended is the weakest posture/attitude/emotion around. Now think about this. Christians get a lot of press in this country so it's alright for atheists to get some. We still have a semblance of free speech in this country as well. I'm also unoffendable (made up word.) Nothing you can say or do can offend me. Because I'm not a weak little bitch. My blogging sucks? Yeh, I'm trying to get better. My mom's a whore? I'm pretty sure my mom doesn't have sex even in her over 20 year marriage, but if you know more than me, ok. My religious beliefs are false and silly? Well, I've been working on them for a while, and I think they're honed and refined enough to stand up to whatever you got if you're feeling froggy.
So go get de-baptized if you want to, but let people have their baptisms too. They both mean something to the individual party regardless of what you or I think. And your mother wears combat boots.

Cops Are Taser-Happy? No Freaking Way!

Get out of the town! Cops overuse/abuse tasers? Well give me a pop and call me soda! This story out of Ft. Worth, Texas shows another instance of possible too quick to taser-ness by law enforcement. This guy refused to sign a ticket twice so he was definitely in violation and should have been confronted even with being detained/processed. I don't know about sticking a taser in the guy's face and going to town, though. I can state this much as fact. I'm concerned that if I even look at a cop the wrong way I'm going to get tased. Why should we be living in fear of the police who enforce our laws? We shouldn't. At the end of the video at the link the reporter informs us that the rule the Ft. Worth department uses is police are allowed to use tasers for agressive behavior, but not for passive non-compliance. I'm not sure all departments use that rule, but that seems fair. Just follow it.

Windows Vista

Has there ever been more of a pariah in the computer operating system world than Windows Vista? Let me answer that for you- no. Everyone hates on Windows Vista, but as a technical support representative I have to say Windows Vista is not as bad as what you hear. It got a bad rap out of the gate for one main reason: not enough RAM to run the operating system. That is not Windows fault. That is the end-user's fault for not informed enough to upgrade their RAM to be able to handle Vista and the fault of the computer hardware manufacturers who instead of upgrading their hardware to have the full 1 gigabyte of RAM that Windows Vista needs to run, they left their half-ass 512 MB of RAM and said whatever. Vista is not that bad in actuality if you have a good enough computer to run it. Maybe the only thing Microsoft could be at fault for is not communicating strongly enough that 1 gig was required to run Vista. Damn, this is a nerdy ass post.

Soccer

Soccer. What to say about soccer? Most of us played it when we were younger. I played 7 years old through 9th grade. After that I was a FIFA certified official and refereed youth league games. I say that to say I am more connected to the sport than the average American. I still can't stand to watch soccer on TV, though. I was listening to Colin Cowherd this morning, and he has apparently jumped on the soccer bandwagon. I like Herd, but I don't accept that. No amount of hype can get me to watch soccer on TV. That's one of the Nonpopulist's rules for life: Don't believe the hype. If you show me a 5 minute video of straight goals on YouTube I'll be captivated, but I'm not going to watch a whole game. This is America. We like football. That's not uninformed resistance to change. Them's the facts, ma'am. So soccer, continue to suck a fart out of our asses. signed, America. Now, here's a YouTube clip of awesome goals.

Gangster Government

Gangster government is a term that has started to be thrown around. But it's not the cool kind of gangster like Tupac or Al Capone. It's just asshole level gangsterism (not a word-no shit.) I first heard the congresswoman in this video mention the term, but it fits like a freaking bow, so I say run with it. Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains. And no, I'm not Communist, I tend more toward anarchism.

The Most Nonpopulist Thing That Can Be Done Right Now

is speak out against Obama. I was never a believer in Obama for the simple fact that he is a politician. Politicians aren't people to believe in, they are all dirty sellouts. That's actually a prerequisite to being in politics. Someone owns you. With that being said, here's something I came across from a website I just came across, www.notmilk.com. Yeh, I wrote that phrase twice- wanna fight about it?

OBAMA: Just Another Crooked Washington Insider

On Tuesday, July 7, 2009, Barack Obama sold
his soul to Monsanto while America's media were
busy covering one of history's major news events:
the funeral of the century.

Monsanto has succeeded in getting their ex-attorney
Michael Taylor into the highest echelon of the Obama
Administration. Barack Obama made this decision days
after his election victory, but needed a major story
such as Michael Jackson's shocking death to pull the
veil over America's eyes. He waited nearly eight
months to do the dirty deed, hoping that it would
not spark controversy. Hoping that nobody would
notice. Let today's Notmilk column strike the match.

I plan on manufacturing a new bumper sticker
which will read:

"Blame me. I voted for him."

I first suspected something was wrong when Barack Obama
claimed that he visited 57 of the 59 States during his
presidential campaign. See:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws

But still, I voted for him.

I voted for him and it was too late to have second thoughts.

On his first day in office, President Barack Obama set
new ethic rules for his administration. Obama signed
an executive order prohibiting that "revolving door"
policy we've so often witnessed in the past. A policy
which allowed Monsanto (developer of the genetically
engineered bovine growth hormone) to send their
scientists and attorneys to high level jobs in
the FDA and USDA where regulations favorable to
Monsanto were enacted. That revolving door swung
both ways, and more than one ex-FDA commissioner
went to work for Monsanto after his tenure.

In issuing new Presidential Directives, Obama said,

"We should never forget that we are here as public
servants and public service is a privilege...Public
service is, simply and absolutely, about advancing
the interests of Americans."

Don't believe it.

Mr. Obama: Your honeymoon is over. I wanted
to believe that things would be different with you
at the helm. In fact, today you demonstrated that it's
just gonna be more of the same. The concept of CHANGE
you spoke about during your campaign is clearly how
many ways a lobbyist will be able to make change for
a dollar while working with your appointees.

Two attorneys from MONSANTO'S law firm (King & Spalding)
played interesting roles in American history. One was
Clarence Thomas, now on the Supreme Court (talk about
swing votes!) The second was Michael Taylor who left the
"firm" to work at FDA where he wrote the biotechnology
laws that do not require a warning label on a carton of
milk to identify the "new genetically engineered milk."

I have said for the past year that if Michael Taylor
becomes an important part of the Obama administration,
that is a warning signal to me that we've blown it.

Folks? We've blown it.

Although Michael Taylor was the man most responsible
for writing the policies which shaped Monsanto's lies
regarding genetically engineered milk, FDA Commissioner
Hamburg said this about Taylor's appointment:

" "His expertise and leadership on food safety issues
will help the agency to develop and implement the
prevention-based strategy we need to ensure the
safety of the food we eat."

Yesterday, while using the Michael Jackson story as
his hidden ball trick, the Obama administration quietly
announced that Michael Taylor is returning to the
Food and Drug Administration as the senior advisor to
FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.

www.notmilk.com

Fundamental Assumption Review: Who Really Wants to Help Us?

I'm back posting after a short hiatus due to moving. I know no one missed me because no one reads this blog, but I'm pretending here.
We live our lives based on some beliefs that are fundamental assumptions. Assumptions, however, turn out to be wrong sometimes so we need to be open to reviewing our assumptions from time to time. One assumption that I've been thinking about lately is that our elected officials always have our best interest at heart. Certainly our representatives consider the people's best interest from time to time, but there may be other things that outweigh what would be the best decision for the majority of Americans. There's many theories as to what those other things would be, and I'm not trying to speculate on all the other motives that may be in play. What I really want to question is the fact that they are altruistic or that the average person believes politicians always have the utmost integrity. Think about this: The government's recent handling of the various bailouts and rescue packages has received harsh criticism from a variety of sources. Some have gone so far as to call the government officials making the decisions stupid or ignorant. All of us who pay attention to the government have all seen things we question from time to time, or even want to call stupid, but the recent billions thrown around in Washington have drawn extra ire. But what if these people are not as stupid as they are made out to be. What if they are making the poorer decision on purpose for another reason. Another problem is I am not sure which alternative makes me feel better. I think neither.

Things No One Talks About

Another semi-regular (read- whenever the hell I want to) installment I'd like to include in this blog is called "Things No One Else Is Talking About."
It begins with this story from the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/06/members_of_us_house_financial.html
If that's not the dirtiest bunch of politics since the Teapot Dome scandal I don't know what is. I mean, conflict of interest much?

Baseball and Steroids

This is not a sports blog, but I will have sports takes since I like sports. One sport I don't like nearly as much as I used to is baseball. I was once able to sit down and watch a whole 9-inning game and be into the game; not anymore. Part of what continues to keep me away from baseball is the writers. I hear these guys on sports talk radio all of the time being high and fucking mighty. Baseball writers are per capita some of the most uppity bitches in the known universe. Make sure everyone knows who you are not voting into the hall of fame and for what reason. Like I give a shit. Why don't you analyze the decreasing pitch counts for starting pitchers? Oh, another player has been linked to steroids? You don't say? Good, something else you can run into the ground. Fuck your idea of integrity of the game and your piling-on journalistic instincts. Talk about how base running is a very overlooked part of the game nowadays, you bunch of bitchy little girls.
(I realize broad generalizations were made above. Want to fight about it? I don't.)

Populist Vs. Nonpopulist

I hope to make this a regular installment. I call it Populist vs. Nonpopulist, a kind of point-counterpoint. See if you get the idea.
Justin Timberlake:
Populist- OMG, he's so cute and I love his music, even the N'Sync hits.
Nonpopulist- Sure he made gay music, but he's funny on SNL and you can see how talented he is on that show.
President Obama:
Populist- Awesome. He's the first black president which means he's different from every other politician since the beginning of time, and we have a reason to be hopeful.
Nonpopulist- Hope from a politician? Not bloody likely.
Ben Affleck-
Populist- I hate Ben Affleck because other people do because I'm a mindless tool.
Nonpopulist- Arbitrary Affleck haters make me laugh because they don't have the ability or judge works individually. Armageddon is supposed to be a throwaway movie. His cameo in Boiler Room can never be touched and he directed Gone Baby Gone which is a good movie. He also had a part in Good Will Hunting which is great.
Terrell Owens-
Populist- T.O is a team cancer, primadonna who tears teams apart.
Nonpopulist- One guy can tear a team apart? He works harder and is in better shape than 95% of people in sports. I doubt he's that bad, and he's still just one guy.
Having your own opinion is important.

Good Quote from a Nonpopulist

There have been many nonpopulists throughout history. Martin Luther, Ghandi, and Martin Luther King Jr. are just a few of the names that come to mind. I'm not comparing myself to them since you know they actually did things instead of typing into a blog that has 2 readers. But I do look up to these people and others like them. I'm also a huge quote nerd so I will be sharing quotes that tickle my fancy from time to time. Here's one form MLK.
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter." -Martin Luther King Jr.

Unfortunate Products of Their Environments

This story is a little old, but I was on vacation and not aware of current events when it first got reported. This came out around the time all of the turmoil in Iran got hot, but this blatant example of police abuse of power overshadows Ahmadinejadahusytanpoonturd fixing an election. See what I did with his name? I added more syllables and dirty words to his name- hyperbolic! I expect that shit to go on abroad, though. We have democratic elections in this country where the media is influenced into telling us who to vote for. Anyway, the video. Cops are on constant power trips. It's kind of their jobs. They are oppressive and the average police officer is pretty dickish. I have my own anecdotal reasons to dislike cops, but I'm not too near-sighted to blame them. Think about it. They are conditioned to be that way. They are always on edge. They have to constantly be on their guard. Anyone in that position day in and day out would be the same way, including me. All of those factors considered, I still think this cop went over the line. There was a sick person in the ambulance. And the law the officer was trying to enforce (because that's what they do, that's their job description, they enforce laws, they don't serve and protect-even though that is still printed on the cars sometimes), failure to yield, that's weak. He was really just pissed off because the driver flipped him off. Ha, if I did what he did in response to being flipped off it would be called road rage. Shit, if you look at a cop the wrong way nowadays you are likely to get tasered. The bottom line: I try to understand where cops are coming from. They are people too, and they are one of the few groups who I think are products of their environments. That doesn't mean that I want to be oppressed by them, though. Sticky situation, huh?

Secrets of the Founding Regular People

The History Channel aired their new documentary, Secrets of the Founding Fathers. I DVR'ed and watched it. I don't like when people say they watch the History Channel all of the time. Don't get it twisted, I enjoy history, but only history tools say they watch it every damn day. Don't be that guy. The documentary was serviceable. The content focused primarily on the role secret societies such as the Freemasons played in the founding fathers lives with a brief stopover around weed. When they weren't calling the founding fathers a bunch of drunk potheads, they featured different interviewees who were on the extremes of saying the founding of America was in every way, shape, or form a Masonic plot for world domination or someone who downplayed every aspect of Masonic influence on the founding of America. I swear they had one guy come on and just give one liner poo-poos to every thing the other guys were saying. There was one guy with a PhD who was middle of the road enough to actually give good information. I would still recommend watching it because I watch the History Channel often and they have high quality programming.
***Spoiler Alert***
That's where that goes, right?