He Writes! Now with work at much more of a manageable clip, I intend to produce a little more writing. So stay tuned.

It’s not surprising to read more stories on the current Administration’s lack of regard toward health and climate standards and expected protections while throwing thee ole comfort blanket around big business. What is surprising is the ‘little people’ who have supported Republican agendas year after year while they are clearly the ones at the losing end of the policy. Like this push to change workplace toxin limits.  I’m mind boggled to how you can treat a human being with such ill contempt while allowing people (mainly large shareholders and executives) to increase their profit margins and pay packages. Does not a human spirit live inside you? And this politically inspired decision to reject California’s voluntarily desired cut in car emissions. The decision by the Federal Government to override the wishes of California to actually take a physical movement away from (such a foreign thought for this administration) global warming should be treated as a slap in the face to the people of America and the World. The audacity of this presidential leadership (vice included and shouldering most of the blame) to put the brakes on legislation, which does the job in which they cannot, that deals with a dire subject, such as global warming, is atrocious. Why is it that people fear change so much? Problems don’t up and fade away. By confronting this now we can save our temporarily sustainable planet from an ever looming gloomy forecast of survival and on which our (people of the world) survival could depend. Not only did the administration’s ruling affect California but the other 17 states planning to follow the Golden State’s lead. Business interests over human interests, again. Just another day in the world of the Bush Administration.

Summer Jam:  Santogold – Your Voice

Remember that opening to Team America with the spoof on Rent when the little puppets just keep singing “Everyone has AIDS …. AIDS, AIDS, AIDSSSSS.” As funny the statement made in context may seem, the closest place to this actually being of truth is sadly, of course, Africa; specifically Sub-Saharan Africa. A continent that holds an estimated 24.5 million of the roughly 33 million people living with HIV (that is close to 75%). A startling figure really. So it was when I began reading this Washington Post article ‘Best Kept Secret For HIV-Free Africa’ that I became somewhat ashamed and dumbstruck. Its turns out the current best option for reducing the spread and infection of HIV is a fairly simple and cheap solution: birth control. The pill that so many western women pop on a daily basis could be a potentially life-saving device for others who are born with HIV. Infection by birth now appears to be the majority cause of new infections. Family planning plays a huge role in preventing the spread of the disease in Africa and according to the article the “U.S. support for family planning began to drop in 1996, the first budget year after Republicans took control of Congress. European donors also shifted their money away from contraception and toward other programs.” Now I find it extremely ironic that a Republican (so-called party of family values) Congress would drop the ball on such an important issue that they claim to be central to core views. In fairness, Clinton should also shoulder some of the blame being he was the President and all. But that was ‘96, so where are we now?

“In 2003, when Bush created the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, some administration scientists lobbied for reinvigorating international family planning efforts. Four of them posted a study that year showing that even a modest expansion of contraceptive programs could prevent nearly three times the number of child AIDS deaths as antiretroviral programs for pregnant women.

But top officials with the Bush initiative refused to allow the AIDS money to be used to buy birth control, said Daniel Halperin, one of the study’s authors and now a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health.

“The first few years were a nightmare. You couldn’t even say the words ‘family planning,’ ” he said. “This is probably the clearest example of when PEPFAR politics trumped evidence.”"

Thats where we stand ladies and gentlemen. And millions more dying by the year.

Also:

Um, what. This is kind of a huge deal. Sitting on the Khan nuclear network for 3 some years?

Music:  Broken Social Scene – Cranley’s Gonna Make It 

Hits the nail on the head

Music: Really enjoy some songs from the new Wu-Tang album. This one is especially tight but damn dude I hate R&B. This song is definitely taken down a notch with the whining that R&B is. Whatever happened to tight ganster choruses? I miss thee.
:Wu-Tang Clan – Gun Will Go:

Whoaaaa, that picture is intense. Maybe a bit over the top but it does make you think so it stays.

Doing my lounged-out Sunday afternoon internet surfing, I came across these two gems. An excellent article about campaign finance reform written by the non-suspecting and totally awesome Dave Eggers and The New York Times Magazine’s “Annual Year in Ideas.” My list of favorite/funniest “ideas” below. But first things first, my little take and admonishment of campaign financing, since tis the season of collecting….

Now I am no political scientist with the historical knowledge to speak to the creation and abuse of campaign financing, but I do have a bit of an understanding of the current system. And with the state of affairs being what they are in campaign finance, it is quite possible to hold it responsible for what has lead us to this lackluster pool of presidential contenders. Not to echo too much of Mr. Egger’s words, but as the saying goes, “Money is the root of all evil” ( I would argue that power is more the true culprit and money being a close second but that phrase does the job of serving my point) . With 2008 campaigning raising attaining record highs, its obvious how essential money raising has become to deciding who is and who is not electable. But in that situation many problems arise. First and foremost, a smaller and worse list of candidates is made. Anyone not raising the large amounts of money is essentially slowly escorting themselves from the contest (see CNN for hard numbers). Dems: Richardson, Edwards, Biden, etc. GOP: Thompson, Paul (not the best example, I know), and McCain. Worst part being is McCain is the one person who takes campaign finance reform to heart and was behind the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in 2002. Even McCain, the most decent republican candidate and someone I could actually see myself voting for has bent to power and fund raising by altering his public stances and views. Essentially private campaign financing gives us less options and less quality options. One of the best parts of democracy is the freedom of choice and entertaining many options is part of that. No one with the power (read: big business) and/or money has any real incentive or desire to drastically change the way things currently work. There aren’t many people who work hard to put themselves at a disadvantage. Money pays and molds the candidate into money’s interests and beliefs. This is the second issue with private campaign financing, the way candidates change their views and mindful ideas for change based on who helps get them into the presidential office. The successful candidate enters office with a shoulder full of debt and favors to be repaid. This sorry excuse for an election system leaves us with shoddy candidates who lack proper honesty and a genuine desire to help others. Every candidate has their debt to donors. Its an almost undeniable truth.

Like I said I’m no expert on the whole matter and therefore don’t have an expert opinion to provide our best solution but let me at very least make a recommendation. Limitless private campaign raising obviously has a lot of holes leaving room for corruption. Why not a capped private campaign raising formula of sorts? Say no candidate can accept and use more than say $30 million over the course of their election campaign. Seems to level the playing field. Any problems with that? More people will be inclined to give money to the smaller names who might otherwise have been deemed not electable due to being tremendously out-raised. Options people, isn’t that what life is about?

My favorite/funniest “ideas”:

Craigslist Vengence

Vegansexuality

Lap-Dance Science

Lightening Farms

Weapon-Proof School Gear

By this point in life, people know I tend to look at the situations and random happenings of life with a view of suspect.   To me picking out the oddities seems easy and apparent. This past week I was taking a bathroom break at work when I found myself a little baffled by the way people act in my building. When this guy exited the bathroom, he decided to use handicap button that opens the door for him. We’ve all seen it before. And this wasn’t the first time. The thing is, I think I’m yet to actually see anybody who uses this particular bathroom, physically use their own hand to pull open the door for entry or exit. It’s quite the mystery. This lack of motivation to physically exert your force to do something for yourself when there is a machine option to assign the task to instead is strange to me. Has laziness really crept into our society to this extent? Now I know what you might be thinking, “You work for the Federal Government, are you that surprised?” True, this would provide for a skewed sample, but I see it elsewhere, just more consistently in some places. And it doesn’t end with door opening. What about those people who take the elevator up one floor instead of the stairs? Mind-boggling. In this age with reports thrown in our faces speaking to the drastic effects of obesity and this increasing trend of obesity in our country, there is no need to wonder why these issues exist. Just look around and things become evident. So on this Thanksgiving I offer my thanks to those people that “use what god gave you.” To those people who walk the mile to the bar instead of taking a taxi. To the people that open their own doors (and hold it for others) and walk to the 2 flights of stairs because they know its good exercise and fairly effortless. Thank you to the people that actually take time out of their busy lives to not remain lazy and brain-drained.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Does anyone get significantly annoyed and perturbed by these new set of Apple iphone commercials that have been on lately? Douche Bag New Yorker who now has this magical device that encompasses all possible uses you could ever want in your pocket combined to one! Then there is the pilot whose storm induced layover has him tasking his iphone for the weather.com doppler view. Looks like the storm is almost through so he relays it to the airport tower who promptly gives his permission for take off. Um yeah, somehow this pilot on his iphone has access to better weather reports then the FAA. These new range of adverts leave me less and less interested in ever owning the iphone. Apple, shame on your pandering to general public with these weak ads.

But with things like the new Leopard, I suppose you can be excused for such things.

Chicago is the down to earth and humble version of NYC. And thats a good thing

Music: The Octopus Project – The Saw the Bright Shinies

With financial markets dipping (or not as much as they should be), interest rates have become this crucial “tool” that can dictate our possible (and probably rightly deserved) recession or bounce our ever growing, boastful economy back. The belly up of the sub-prime mortgage market and this ever growing list of housing foreclosures truly has to be only a ripple of what is to come. In the metaphorical sense, consider this situation a tsunami, starting small but gaining height and devastation as it sets its sight on land, or a crashing economy. Of course I’m talking in the dire sense and not the most likely reality, but consider some numbers for a minute. According to the National Association of Realtors, new homes sales are down 23 % from June 2007 to June 2006*. As if that isn’t bad enough, $370 billion in adjustable-rate mortgages will reset this year, according to First American CoreLogic*. The upward adjustment of interest payments on these loans will increase foreclosures much worse than we are yet to see. Thinking this financial crisis contains itself to the housing market can be a big mistake. Consider not only the products purchased to build the house but also the products that inhabit a house (big screen TV, refrigerator, beds, etc). Luxuries become an after thought.  Automobile sales are already falling as well are boat sales. With this lapse in overconfidence of a bullish housing market, the lending of other industries, such as autos, are being rethought. Penn State’s Smeal College of Business just conducted a study on auto loans which recommends lenders take a risk based approach to auto lending. The study concluded that “loans for European and Japanese cars had a lower default rate (2.9 percent) than loans for American cars (4.7 percent).” In essence, loans for American made cars should be higher than their Japanese and European counterparts. Imagine (but don’t worry due to lawmakers never letting this happen), the increased competition for American auto companies when their cars become more expensive due to higher interest payments for their customers. That is on top of their continued decline in marketshare to foreign competition and declining profits.

The results of this housing bubble bust have just begun to trickle in but business will be impacted globally and across all industrial markets. I would also like to note, while these investment banks and hedge funds make money hand over fist by offering these subjective and somewhat predatory loans (extra points for use of buzz word), the Fed is now forced to bail them out from their own demise. As  Ben Bernake, our current chairman of Federal Reserve, put it, “It is not the responsibility of the Federal Reserve–nor would it be appropriate–to protect lenders and investors from the consequences of their financial decisions.” So please stop your crying bankers, that’s the risk you take with dealing in markets people, its called risk for a reason.

I’m off for a vacation to the Mediterranean. See you in a few weeks.

Mix I made: Sum ‘07: get your indie fix

* figures taken from this newsweek article “The New Money Pit”

I can now safely let out my sigh of relief after having fulfilled an almost 3 year dream to see this band of bands, The Wolf Parade. A fan favorite from all walks of indie rock music, these French Canadians rope in admirers by the dozens. Listening to “Apologies To The Queen Mary,” their debut full-length, reminds me of the long walks across the Penn State campus to and from class during my fall senior semester. Always gettiing pumped to go and learn. Getting me pumped to do anything. That’s the thing about The Wolf Parade, these guys absolutely rock. They make you wanna get crazy and sometimes in the mind. There is only certain specific music that holds that mood changing power and The Wolf Parade definitely has that mastering ability. Having played their first show by opening for The Arcade Fire in 2003 (obviously speaks largely) and with Issac Brock (think Modest Mouse) producing the aforementioned album in 2005, these Montreal natives had been destined for big things. Last night’s show was great. They played a ton of their new stuff (studio album completed with an intended release circa 4 months from now. That is according to accessory salesman/band friend who sold me my sweet band shirt) and mixed in some crowd pleasing tunes that were more reminiscent for the audience’s ears. Playing their encore with nothing but their older gems, Spencer Krug, keyboardist and lyricist, said something along the lines of if we were a kid, this was our reward of a special toy after sitting through hours of straight boredom. Now I laughed and appreciated the remark at the time, but he couldn’t have been further from the truth. Their new cd is gonna be another one for the books. Can’t wait.

Wolf Parade – I’ll Believe in Anything

Wolf Parade – It’s A Curse

Also, how great has the music selection been on some of the big time shows lately? Entourage having The Knife and Kings of Leon both in one episode. Then on Monday, Weeds ended with a great one by The Thermals. I was quite pleased by all three selections. Keep up the good work TV score creators. *Side Note: If anyone has highly music sensitive type of job available, I’m totally the man for the position. Or writing for that matter. Get in touch!

From Entourage:

The Knife – Heartbeats

Kings of Leon – Ragoo

From Weeds:

The Thermals – Heres Your Future

If you haven’t started watching Californication on showtime, start today.

Good and very cool article from The Times on mind, science, philosophy, and magic. Give a read

out for now.

Sorry its been ages since I’ve managed to put thee old fingers to the keyboard, but vacation has a tendency to do that to you. I’ve had this post readied for about 2 + weeks now so I’m just adding this bit now. This post is so old I even deleted a whole part I had written on the US arms sales to the Middle East. Ancient news.

Anyway, just a little recap and lessons learned. Spent the past week plus in cape cod and nyc. While on the cape, I went bluefin tuna fishing (it was no where near the size of that beast) and came back successful. Upon our return, the uncle filleted the unlucky one up on the dock, and I tasted the freshest and most amazingly delicious sushi in my entire life. The thought of fishing some 35 – 40 miles off land with nothing but whales and other fishing boats in sight is definitely a pretty strange feeling. But pretty awesome too. Also, got to see Bourne Ultimatum which was sweet. Finally got some museum visiting done while in NYC. Went to the MOMA and Whintey, which was showing this amazing “Summer of Love” exhibit that I highly recommend seeing. Tragically I did miss the Daftpunk/Rapture show due to exhaustion but I heard it was one for the books (the anger!). Brooklyn has the bomb Italian food. Central Park is awesome. Earwax record shop sucks and its “impressive indie cd collection” was fairly unimpressive.

Arsenal saved an embarrassing defeat by the hands of give-away goal by Lehman by netting two goals in the final 8 minutes of regulation. I wouldn’t expect it any different from my team of teams to start off the English Premiership.

Phillies played an impressive game to outduel the Braves with a huge 3-run knock by the big man Ryan Howard. Damn I wish I was there for that game. Phils come to DC this week for 3 games, and I will be going to at wednesday and thursday if anyone wants to join.

People don’t agree with the now conservatively tilted Supreme Court

An interesting upbeat Op-Ed on the military condition in Iraq

…. and the clarification to follow

The Darjeeling Limited (thanks Pat). The new and soon to be great from Wes Anderson. Also sure to be packing a great soundtrack, as per usual.

New 9 year old recruited by Man Utd dubbed a prodigy and looks that way (thanks J Roz)

My buddy sent me this video back a few weeks that I’m sure you’ve all now seen and were probably as astonished as I. Random dudes entering the camera picture, dancing in slow-mo to some horribly ridiculous R&B fuck song while “air humping,” before actually humping real things. Sofa, wall, whatever. All doing this in a synchronized motion but first introducing themselves with what has to be their porn names. “Relentless” ….. “Pressure” honestly who are these people? And why would you EVER film this video? I just have so many questions for these kids…..

Since the absurdity that was that youtube video, many remixes have following. Among those is this one from the Daily Show, which the same friend emailed me. Enjoy.

And just for the record this video below should make people scared of New Jersey. But only of Trenton and above.

She disgusts me. (Via YBNBY)

Music:

If you haven’t already seen from La Blogotheque, here is The Shins, live from the streets of Paris