"I'm John McCain, and I'm a complete douche nozzle!"

I'm officially breaking my nonpartisan stance on this election (at least in writing), and voicing my opinion on the political candidates. Generally, I know for a fact that most politicians (Democrat, Republican, Green Party, Libertarian, etc.) are corrupt and give a lot of lip service to Americans in order to receive votes and approval ratings and permission to lead the country according to THEIR standards. There are a few I don't mind. But there are many I wish would disappear.

My views on politics are moderately liberal. I am pro-gay marriage, pro-choice in most cases, against the war in Iraq, and I'm no economics major, but things are seriously fucked up as far as the economy go. I don't pride myself as an expert on political issues because I'm not. I keep my political awareness to a minimum because anymore awareness that I already give to me would make me not want to leave the house. Though, whenever I pass by election coverage on CNN, MSNBC, and the wretched FOX News whenever I channel surf, I'm like a rubbernecker looking on a 3-car pile-up on a busy street, with politicians, pundits, journalists and moderators evaluating the damage. So much for the minimal amount of political awareness.

Now my very least favorite part of the campaign is happening; the mud-flinging. The person doing the crucial amount of mud-flinging, especially now in television ads attacking his opponent, is the ever-so-desperate-to-be-president, John McCain. One of his ads compares Barack Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears (which pissed the Hiltons off, considering Paris Hilton's parents were financial backers of McCain's campaign). John McCain is doing exactly what Bush did in 2004. Most of his campaign trail stops consist of him just criticizing Obama and giving people very little about what HE would do as president. Nevermind the fact that McCain is a fucking idiot who couldn't even beat George W. Bush in the 2000 primaries (which, to me, says an awful lot about him. Why no one else that I know of has brought that up, I'll never know).

I might be getting ahead of myself, given the election is 3 months away, but I think McCain sees Obama as a threat to him winning without a good fight. I think many Americans are starting to realize that the last thing this nation needs is an old wrinkly, white warmongerer who is older than Ronald Reagan when he became president, as president. Barack Obama isn't perfect I'm sure, but he's young, intelligent, charismatic, and chock full of decent ideas (I say decent because anyone who becomes president after the 8 year disaster trail that was the Bush administration has a lot of shit to clean up, and it would take a miracle if someone came in who had feasiblem, long-term solutions as opposed to temporary fixes). He may only be a first-term senator, but who cares? He has done a lot in local politics before becoming senator, and last time I checked there were no minimum requirements or curriculums in public service before you qualify as president. John McCain may have been a war hero, but so was Ulysses S. Grant and he is consistently ranked as one of the 5 worst presidents ever. Woodrow Wilson and FDR had no military experience, and they both managed to win two world wars (and they were Democrats, go figure). Abe Lincoln was in the military, but never saw a day of combat, and look what he did. John McCain can blather on all he wants about how Obama has no military experience, but there's not an ounce of substance to that saying, considering that some of our best presidents (and some of them active during a time of war) never fought in a war.

As for mocking Obama for suggesting that Americans inflate their tires to save on gas, proves that mcCain lacks any common sense. He might as well laugh at Obama for remembering to tuck his shirt in. And of course, that ad comparing him to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton? Some politicians do attain celebrity status. Clinton, JFK, even George W. Bush is his own way (mainly for political satire purposes). I think McCain is envious that he doesn't have that degree of star power (probably because he's scary), and sees Obama's "celebrity status" as another threat to his campaign. John McCain does not look appealing to a lot of people (and that's important, call me shallow). Barack Obama looks like Tim Meadows' older brother. It's time for another young guy to shake things up in the White House. It worked when Bill Clinton was president. He was roughly the same age as Obama when he became president, defeating a scary white guy (Bush I), and getting our economy out of a recession. Controversies aside, I remember Clinton's presidency to be a stable eight years. I don't go by books pundits write, or "facts." I go by memories and my own instinct. John McCain also said that he wouldn't resort to negative ads if he ran for president. So much for that.

And as much as I hate, hate, hate, HATE Paris Hilton, I hate her just slightly less because of her response to McCain's ad.



Score one for Paris Hilton, I must say. I give creidt where credit is due. I'm not implying that she's creative enough to think of something like this herself (she must hyave some smart people working for her), but McCain definitely got served by Paris! Take away one point off McCain's score sheet.

So... please... vote Obama. No more scary old, warmongering white guys in the White House.

Why This War Makes My Blood Curdle: Reason #457782

Hey, where are the other 457781 reasons?

OK, maybe there aren't that many reasons on why I think this supposed War On Terror is complete utter bullshit and a disgrace to America, but I have added a new reason to what seems to be a never-ceasing list. I just finished reading Five Years of My Life: An Innocent Man in Guantanamo by Murat Kurnaz. Kurnaz is a 26 year old Muslim from Germany who made an unfortunate mistake to travel to Pakistan a mere two months after the September 11th attacks. Without saying much, he is apprehended by police, taken into custody, and after a series of interrogations, those who have apprehended him concluded that he was somehow connected to al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, and he is shipped to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. There he endures years after years of relentless beatings, torture, starvation, sleep deprivation, and false hopes of being released or understood by his captors.

It was a compelling read at the same time it was hard and gut-wrenching. A typical interrogation (by American soldiers, nonetheless) consisted of them asking him if he knew Osama or where he was and then beating the shit out of him if he dare say that he had no connection to the 9/11 attacks. I couldn't believe that American soldiers would do such a thing to a person. Is our justice system that fucked up nowadays? Is this country really that hateful towards Muslims? We condemned the Germans (and executed many Nazis) for their treatment of the Jews during the Holocaust, but here we are, 60-65 years later, starving our "POWs," performing unnecessary medical procedures on them on a slightly less sadistic level than Joseph Mengele's medical "experiments" (I'm not kidding; in this book, a guy could have a broken finger and wind up with an amputated hand). Are we any better than the Nazis? Are we any better than the Vietnamese who tortured American soldiers in the 60s and 70s? We pose ourselves as this great nation built on justice and equality, but we throw people into detention without even proper charges or trials.

Am I the only one who thinks that we are contradicting ourselves tenfold? Am I the only one who sees that this nation has not progressed much as people since the colonists came here? Every time we are wrapped up in our fears or in a war, we go on a witch hunt for people to blame for our problems, and a lot of innocent people end up getting screwed over by it. Think of those who were burned at the stake during the Salem witch trials in the late 17th century. Perhaps you may want to recollect learning about the Germans who were persecuted during World War I by simply being German. Read about the internment camps reserved for Japanese-Americans in World War II. It's sad to say that the witch hunt mentality in America lives on centuries later, and will continue to live on as long as shit like this keeps happening. Whatever happened to 'innocent until proven guilty?'

As for Kurnaz, I have nothing but admiration and respect for him. He has a sense of perseverance that is matched by very few people, he stayed true to his faith, and is not letting his experience ruin his future. He deserves that. He spent a good chunk of his early 20s in captivity surrounded by nothing but cruelty and being treated like an animal.

And another thing: a couple of weeks ago, I was reading the New York Times and came across an article that made me furious. Apparently, the torture methods used at Guantanamo Bay were inspired by none other than the tactics the Communist Chinese used on imprisoned American soldiers during the Korean War. Recruits at Guantanamo Bay based their methods on a chart on the effects of "coercive management techniques" for use on captives. Such actions include exposure, waterboarding, sleep deprivation and "prolonged constraint." Such things were used to get false confessions out of Americans in the 1950s, and the same is being done now to those innocent Muslims at Guantanamo Bay (Not all of them are innocent, but I suspect a good number of them are). Well that's just fucking DANDY! We're getting our torture tactics from Commies! Communism was only our enemy during the Cold War, and right-wingers still get red-faced over the mere mention of Communism and still attack those on the left and accusing them of being Communists. Now, over the last five years, America is looking to them for ways to interrogate suspected terrorists.

I'm not going to say any more than this. But this shit needs to stop before we become a dictatorship. We're not progressing as people here. Ever since 9/11 many Americans have become jingoistic, xenophobic, ignorant idiots. I see "Proud to Be American" stickers on the backs of SUVs and Hummers. I see waistlines increasing and intelligence decreasing. Gas is at $4.35 a gallon where I live, and after 8 years of Dubya, our economy is in the shitter, our education system is a joke, and our job market sucks. I have also never seen religion and politics co-existing together so exclusively, and certain details of it are downright Puritanical. If there is any hope for this nation in the foreseeable future, we need to elect a guy in the White House who will help us all out, and not just himself. We need a change in attitude and a change in direction. Who knows? We just might be running out of time.

RIP: George Carlin (1937-2008)

I'm almost at a loss for words right now. This is terrible. George Carlin was one of my idols, and now he's gone.

I went online to check my email, and the top headline was 'Comedian George Carlin dead at age 71.' I usually don't blog on impulse like this; in fact I had planned to write a blog on how I saw Get Smart over the weekend and how it was fucking great, but then I read that Carlin had died. Sadly, I was dreading this day for a while. I knew he was getting up there in age, and his most recent HBO special shown him looking more worn and less energetic (but nonetheless brilliant). He also reflected on death a lot, which is now just plain old weird.

Whenever I'm driving, I shuffle my iPod, which includes several of his later day acts (I haven't gotten around to putting a good bulk of his stuff on it yet), and whenever he came on, I usually wouldn't skip it all that much. His humor was so dead-on, and he was just RIGHT on most of the topics he ranted about. His analysis of the Ten Commandments and why we don't need them ranks among one of the most brilliant pieces of stand-up comedy ever. He never relented, regardless of his age. He never obeyed boundaries; rather, he trampled all over them like a herd of pissed off elephants. He tore up the metaphorical "envelope" like a high school boy tearing up a note from his girlfriend saying that she wanted to break up. He analyzed the flaws of politics, religion and American culture to the point where he served as a commentator of the times, especially post-September 11th.

I always thought that when Comedy Central did their list of the 100 Greatest Stand Up Comics of All Time, Carlin should have taken the #1 spot (Richard Pryor ranked at #1, with Carlin right behind him at #2). That's probably because I'm generally not too familiar with Richard Pryor's material (although I probably should be, the stand-up comedy enthusiast I am). It also could be because I prefer comics that are more acerbic and more critical of society (Bill Hicks, Doug Stanhope, Lewis Black).

I don't know what else to say about this. Some writer I am.

George Carlin was an atheist. He didn't believe in God or religion. He was even famous for saying "If there is a God, may he strike me dead!" Maybe God didn't strike him dead. Perhaps George was just tired of this world. He had a history of substance abuse issues throughout his life, and even went to rehab a few years ago. Maybe as some sort of spiritual vice, he unloaded his thoughts and ideals on audiences for a good five decades, wrote a few books, and even starred in Kevin Smith's "Dogma" as a cardinal. If you ever watched any of his performances, they were high energy, high octane and of high caliber. Perhaps as a way to deal with a society that is so focused on morals and values and other bullshit, he lambasted it, and you could easily infer that he took his contempt for society out on his own body. During what turned out to be his last HBO Special, "It's Bad For Ya," I said to my girlfriend that something seemed different about him. I knew that it would be his last comedy special. His grand finale. He did a couple of shows up in Northampton, MA, about 90 minutes away from my home back in April. I should have just gotten tickets and seen the man himself, but regrettably I didn't. I didn't go partially because I knew that he was on his way out. His tone of voice was that of an old wise man (and unlike the fiery, crotchety old man he was more like just a few years ago). He went on both The View and Keith Olbermann's MSNBC show and ranted about apocalyptic topics. He flat out said on Olbermann's show that America was finished because "no one questions things anymore" and that the population has been distracted by toys & gizmos. He also saw the occurrence of natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina and the California wildfires as nature's retaliation about people overbuilding, overpopulating and over consuming. "The planet is fine," he said. "The people are fucked."

Indeed we are fucked. The Socrates of stand-up comedy is now gone. Dane Cook is alive and well. The election is coming up. We have Bush's mess to clean up, and I drive by too many Hummers every day.

Rest In Peace, George.

Ennui

I seem to be going through this period of complete and absolute boredom with virtually everything. Every day seems like a shitty routine of monotony and tedium. I guess it all coincided with a short-lived yet excruciating heat wave that swept through Connecticut earlier this week. I'm a shift supervisor at Starbucks in Newtown, CT, and work has been hell lately due to the warm weather, so people order Frappucinos left and right. As much as I hate work sometimes, I haven't had too much fun anywhere else lately.

Why do I go through these doldrums? I guess they are a part of life. For whatever reason, I get them around the same time every year, but this is a little different. This is a boredom that calls for some sort of change in my life, whether it be location wise, clearing up issues that are still up in the air or stopping the patterns of a relationship that is not working (in this case, the complicated whirlwind of a relationship with my mother). I should call my former school's financial aid office about some bill they send to me, and I'm trying to save my pennies to move out of here and to somewhere else (Boston, maybe). A good short lists of goals... put off by me playing Grand Theft Auto III (here's to me trying to save up for a Playstation III, and the highly coveted Grand Theft Auto IV!).

I guess I'm just sick & tired of feeling like my life has gone nowhere and that it's doomed to this stagnant status. I'm tired of thinking and not doing what I think. I'm tired of not writing and not having the energy or motivation to (this pastime has lead to the conception and loss of great ideas) . I'm tired of not having this easy (physically) lifestyle work for me anymore. I'm tired of whining about this stupid shit. I'm tired of having an imaginary David Byrne say to me "same as it ever was!" whenever I get lazy. It's time to take action!

I just rented 3 books from the library. When I was 16, I used to rent like 5 or 6 (or more) at a time, but this was back when I had at least six classes I could read through (in a lot of cases). This was also back when I had no steady girlfriend or many friends I could rely on to hang out. A part of me misses that, but when I look back wishing I had friends and true love was complete torture I wouldn't subject myself to if you paid me a billion dollars.

Your average first entry

I had a livejournal since 2001 when I was 16. In 24 days, I'm gonna be 23. My livejournal served me well. It chronicled most of my hellish odyssey that was high school, as well as the tough transition into adulthood, and all of the trials & tribulations that came with it. Now I think it's time to start something new up, perhaps something more creative. My older sister, Kari, has a blog on here (www.myinflammatorywrit.blogspot.com) and she writes everything from daily life to social commentary. Hopefully I can create something here like that, where I could do everything from personal blogs, to rants about politics, pop culture, etc., reviews of music, movies and the like, and all that type of shit.

What are my credentials? None, really. Editor-in-chief of my high school paper senior year, and almost endless praise from my creative writing teachers. But I graduated from high school 4 years ago. I'm in a band called The Nepotists (we really need a fucking bass player), but we've only played a few small shows, the last one in June 2007. I'm an amateur editor. I recently helped one of my friends edit a book which is apparently well on its way to being published. I would have edited the whole thing but I had a lot going on, and I think a professional editor would have done a better job, considering professional editors are getting paid for it. I write, but lately my writing's been pretty sporadic. I tried writing for the college paper when I was going, but ultimately failed to keep up with a lot of deadlines. Besides, writing contrived articles about events in an uneventful school wasn't exactly getting me anywhere.

Now I'm writing again. The friend I have who's writing his book (a man by the name of Chris Ross) was talking to me recently and asked me why I stopped. Him getting to the next step in writing a book (publishing, agents) was kind of an epiphany for me. I've seen this guy so drunk that he can't stand up. He only went to college for a year or two. And he's publishing a book. So why can't I do something with my supposed "gift?"

My current project is kind of like my own version of Kerouac's "Vanity of Duluoz," where I write fictionalized accounts of events that happened in my life, especially during the last 4 years. Only I don't think I'll inspire an entire generation of writers (if there even is a next generation), and I've only written a couple of pieces (but I felt exhilarated when I wrote them). I also hope to get my band going soon.

I'll write more about myself later; perhaps an extended 'about me' blog so you'll get more of a sense of who I am. And Nick Hogan is whining about his prison sentence and I smell a rant coming.