Have you heard this story recently about the filler in beef? If not go to this site real quick:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/30/usa-food-slime-idUSL2E8EU00K20120330

I first heard about it on the Daily Show which, sounds bad but believe me I do get my news from other places besides comedy shows. Nevertheless, I don’t know what to make of this whole situation, the fact that there is this pink slime that is being added as “filler” to beef, mainly ground beef. I guess this explains why ground beef always has that pinkish look to it; shit since I was a kid I wondered why the beef looks so pink.

The whole thing seems kind of gross but the FDA does approve of the pink filler to be added to the meat. But that doesn’t mean it is healthy; after all how many damn times have you heard stories of things that were approved by the FDA that eventually turned out to be harmful. Of course, the beef companies add this to cut costs and save money, which comes as no shock. But, this is a prime example of what companies can’t be trusted to do the right thing. Republicans argue that we need less regulation of businesses, but honestly, when you see something like this, it makes me believe that we need MORE regulation.

Although I love meat, I’m not a big meat eater. I generally eat healthy and meat is not all that healthy so I try to avoid it. But now this is just another reason to avoid meat.

In about 90 days, the United States Supreme Court will probably rule one way or another on the health care reform bill, also known as Obamacare. This week they have been hearing arguments as to the legality of the law, mainly the mandate that requires everybody get health insurance or be fined. While I do not want to get into specifics, I do work in health care and my job is affected strongly by this law every day (I will tell you my job if you want to message me, I’m just not about to publicize it) so needless to say I know a decent amount about this very controversial law.

I’ve said from the beginning that we should flat out have a one payer, universal coverage for everybody, but that is another debate.  The debate is this law. From a pure work stand point, I hope like hell it is not overturned. From a political stand point, being a strong liberal, I hope like hell it is not overturned because it puts Obama’s reelection in doubt. From a personal stand point, I’m mixed. At the end of the day, try as I must to come up with a justification, I just can’t agree that the government can force somebody to have coverage, in spite of the fact that everybody SHOULD have coverage and it is best for everybody. The government should not be allowed to tell you what is good or bad for you. My core belief is that anything that does not harm others should be legal. And if somebody is dumb enough not to carry health insurance, well, that is their own business.

But, what I don’t know is that I’m not convinced that it is unconstitutional to force people to get coverage. Look, even though a lot of people like to think they are constitutional experts, I am not. However, it makes sense that if it is constitutional to outlaw gay marriage and pot, than it should be legal to outlaw people going without health insurance. And when it comes to the Supreme Court and court rulings, so many decisions are based on previous precedent, so honestly, this can really go either way. 

If it is overthrown, which based on the politics of the justices, is a very good chance, it will just reconfirm my belief that Obama went about this all wrong. He settled on a law that was not as strong as he and many others would have liked. It was confusing and tough to understand from the beginning. And a mandate for coverage, even if upheld, was probably not the way to go. I did hear somebody on the radio today make a great suggestion though that if they had done this from the start, might have prevented the law from being put before any courts in the first place: tax breaks for people who choose to get coverage.

We all know how Republicans claim to loathe taxes. Well, this is a way to ensure coverage and lower taxes. After all, who doesn’t want lower taxes. And, in spite of it all, everybody wants health insurance, yes, even Republicans. Now I didn’t catch the entire way such a plan would work, but the general idea is an interesting one to say the least. One that if it was implemented from the start, might have had a total different outcome. But as it stands, the whole thing is in jeopardy because of the mandate. 

Still, there is really no way to tell how this will go in spite of what the pundits say. After all, this law has been brought before numerous judges and courts and many of them have different decisions and opinions on it. Which leads me to  believe that much of it is about politics: side with the president, than you side with the law, against the president and you are against the law. Which leads me to believe that it will be overturned since there is a 5-4 conservative majority on the bench.

I watched Clint Eastwood’s J Edgar over the weekend and it confirmed what I’ve long suspected: J Edgar Hoover was a complicated man. The movie itself was pretty good although at times kinda hard to follow and understand, probably much like Hoover. The movie moves and forth over the course of 50 years. At first, Leonardo DiCaprio seems kind of awkward as Hoover but soon you forget that it is him playing Hoover. And like many other Eastwood movies, it is kind of dark both literally and figuratively but I can see why it had to be like that.

It is hard to know what to make of Hoover; was he good or bad or both? One thing we know is that he definitely had an effect on the country. I do think that he was really good for the country at first, but eventually grew too powerful and soon started to do, well, downright evil things with his power. Of course, we don’t know for sure just how much of the movie is true. Honestly, Hoover himself is shrouded in mystery and it is hard to know just what is true and what isn’t true. I think we do know this, based on the fact that he went so damn far to hide things then you know that some of what he did was probably unethical and not good.

There is also a widespread belief that Hoover was gay. His number two in the FBI was a man by the name of Clyde Tolson who was closer with Hoover than any other person in the world. They ate just about every meal together, vacationed together and pretty much did every thing else together. Neither ever married or as far as anybody knows, dated any females. They either had a legendary 50 year male friendship on a level that nobody has seen before or were gay lovers. In addition, as many people know, the rumor is that Hoover was a cross dresser. While this does not mean that he was gay, with you look at the crossdressing with the relationship with Tolson and the lack of female companionship, it certainly is a legitimate conclusion to draw that he was gay.

Gay or not though, he was nothing if not a fascinating and interesting study. Such a complex man who seemed to make far more enemies than friends, he seemed to be obsessed with power. I’m just not sure what to make of him; surely he must have been at least somewhat good for the country but honestly, is it good to have one person with that much power?

I’ve become damn near obsessed with this Trayvon Martin case. At this point it is all over the news and many of you already know about it. And if you didn’t see it on the news, you probably saw it in my previous post. But, I’m dedicating at least one more post to it and maybe even more. Normally I do not write consecutive posts about one topic, but this is how outraged and passionate I am about this case. In fact, as far as I can remember, I’ve never done back to back posts about the same topic. And it is not only here that I have been talking about it; I’ve had conversations at work and just got off the phone with a friend and we must have talked only about that case for a good 45 minutes.

But, what a difference a couple of days makes. When I wrote my last post, I think many people still had some doubt as to if George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin because of his race. After what has come out the past few days, I think it leaves little doubt that Zimmerman is racist and he killed him solely because he is black. Here is what we have learned to take away the doubt:

• Zimmerman called the cops 47 times since January 2011 to report young black people walking in the neighborhood.
• During one of the 911 calls he made the night of the Trayvon shooting, he could be heard saying under his breath “fucking coons.”
• Right after the gunshot, witnesses saw Trayvon laying on the ground on his stomach with Zimmerman standing over him with a leg on each side of his body, you know, defending himself, most likely from the deadly barrage of Skittles and ice tea that the teenager half his size had on him.
•  Zimmerman has a habit of ignoring police officers, resisting arrest in a bar back in 2005.

As for the law, Florida and 25 other states have something called a “Stand Your Ground” law which allows people to kill in the name of self defense if they feel threatened. I saw a story on CNN of another case in Florida in which a black man shot and killed a white man because he felt threatened. The difference between him and Zimmerman? He is currently on trial for murder.

As of right now, Zimmerman has not been charged. It is expected that the grand jury will convene on April 10. With all the pressure, media exposure and celebrities weighing in on this case, a lot of people, including myself, believe it is only a matter of time before he is charged with murder. If he is never charged, well then look out, this will set the progress of race relations back 20 years. And George Zimmerman will probably have to leave the country for his own safety.

In addition to signing the petition, I think the most potent we as people can do is to boycott the state of Florida until murder charges are brought up against Zimmerman. Florida is a hot tourist destination, especially this time of year. Sure, a boycott of Florida is a pipe dream, but could you imagine the money they would stand to lose and the effect it would have on their economy if we had a massive boycott of their state?

Go sign the petition so we don’t have to boycott Florida. And then hope like hell this fucker gets charged with and convicted of murder.

EDIT: As if his death wasn’t bad enough, I go and do a whole post on the story and spell the poor kid’s name wrong. I went back and corrected it though.

Have any of you been following the sad case of Trayvon Martin? I heard about it briefly a month ago when it first happened but didn’t pay much attention to it. Then last night, I heard the 911 calls on Anderson Cooper and instantly felt anger and sadness towards this whole tragic situation. Don’t know much about the case? Well, let me give you all of the background details. 

Trayvon Martin was a 17 year old black guy who was killed by the white Hispanic George Zimmerman. This is not being disputed at all. In fact, he admits to killing him. And sadly as of tonight, Zimmerman has not been charged with any crime. Of course, I’m biasing the story against him, I guess I should be fair and let you determine if Zimmerman should be charged with murder.

Zimmerman is the neighborhood watchman in a gated community who saw Martin walking down the street one night wearing a hoodie, jeans, and sneakers. Martin had just run down to the local 7-Eleven to buy a bag of Skittles and an ice tea. Zimmerman saw him walking and thought he “looked suspicious.” So he called 911. He described the situation to the 911 operator and they said they would send some officers out. He told them that he was going to pursue Martin to which the 911 operator clearly told him not to pursue. But, he did anyway and this is where the story takes a tragic turn. What happened next is not entirely clear except for the end result: Zimmerman shot and killed Martin who was armed with nothing more than the Skittles and ice tea.

Now Florida has some unique laws that I don’t fully understand but he has not been charged with a crime because he supposedly acted in self defense. This of course, opens up a whole can of worms in which people can essentially kill based on “suspicion”, like in this case. And while I’m usually not one to play the race card, it is damn near impossible to look at this situation and not think that race has not come into play somewhere in this case. But, let’s give Zimmerman a little bit of benefit of doubt. Perhaps Zimmerman was influenced by previous encounters with blacks and acted out of fear. We all know fear can make a person do some irrational things at times. Sure, there is no excuse of it, but not everybody can remain calm and rational when scared.

But I don’t think fear was the case. After all, most people who act out of fear don’t pursue. He did. Which leads me to believe that he had quite a bit of prejudice already planted in his head when he saw a young black man walking down the street and his prejudice influenced him into thinking that Martin was a criminal. And his testosterone driven ego influenced him into pursuing. And soon a child was dead.

You can argue and debate the reasoning behind the situation, if race played a role, and if Zimmerman acted in self defense. But you can not argue that Zimmerman killed Martin. That is a fact.

I on the other hand, believe he is a racist motherfucker who saw a black kid walking in his neighborhood, didn’t much like it and decided to do something about it. Well, fortunately we live in a country that allows us to attempt to legally do something about it. Which leads me to this wonderful site that you can sign petitions for all sorts of things, from this case, to protecting the Chinese workers making iPhones, to fighting a bill in Uganda which would make it legal to kill gays. So go to the site below, pick your causes and sign away.

http://www.change.org/

In spite of the mid eighty degree temps that have hit the Chicagoland area in the past week, technically it is still winter, at least for a couple of more hours. And while it seems like we have skipped right the fuck past spring and went straight to summer, I know that the 80 degree temps will not hold up forever and we probably will have more normal temps at some point within the next couple of weeks. But, it got me to thinking about the changing of the seasons, in particular winter to spring and summer to autumn.

See spring is kind of like nature’s version of puberty and autumn is kind of like menopause. In the spring, things start to bloom; flowers are popping up, leaves are growing on trees, you know, kind of like how puberty brings about all sorts of new hair onto different parts of your body. And of course, kids going through puberty are emotional and erratic, kind of like thunderstorms and the temperature. You know how a kid in puberty can go from being in a great mood to snapping at the drop of a hat, well that is kind of how the temperature can go from being warm to chilly in a matter of minutes during the spring. And the violent thunderstorms with the heavy rain? Well that is kinda like the emotional roller coaster of a teen; sobbing uncontrollably at the most trivial things. Teens hormones are RAGING must like how during the spring animals fuck a lot. And like a teen, spring even wants to be older; shit why else do you think we “spring ahead”.

Conversely autumn is the opposite; kinda like somebody going through menopause or getting older. The leaves fall off the trees like a person losing their hair. The flowers start to wilt just like an older guy becoming impotent. That doesn’t matter though, because this is the time when your sex life becomes lifeless, much like the deadness of a forest during late fall. Oh, sure, fall has it’s pretty moments when the colors are beautiful but that is just like referring to the elderly as being “in their golden years.” And by the end of fall, people spend all their time trying to avoid the cold at every cost, just how like people try to avoid the elderly every chance possible. And of course, fall wants to be younger, even falling back an hour, just like how old people yearn to be young again.

I watched HBO’s much talked about Game Change last night. For those of you that don’t know, it was based on the book the chronicled the 2008 presidential election. While the book covers in detail both the Republican and Democratic races, the movie focuses solely on the John McCain campaign and in particular his choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate. It is hard to say how much of the movie is true. But, if it is, holy shit, we really dodged a bullet with that one. 

Whenever a movie like this comes out, it is hard to say what is true and what isn’t. So much of it is political. I mean, you never know how much the writer or director’s personal opinion or political leanings had an influence on the movie. That being said, there were people from inside the McCain camp that said the movie was realistic. For example, one of the people who worked closely with Palin said that the movie was “so true it made me squirm.” Of course, this came from a lady who did not get along at all with Palin. But, there had to be a reason why she did not get along with her and if the story in the movie is true, than it certainly explains why they did not get along. Also, the guy whom I think was McCain’s campaign manager gave interviews in the years after the election that certainly confirmed much of what was in the movie.

As for the movie itself, I did find it interesting and compelling to say the least. The movie does come down to a character study of Palin as a person and a candidate. While John McCain comes off much better and more likable than he did during the campaign, Palin looks like a total dumbass and diva who’s selection went straight to her head. At times though, you could not help but feel at least a little bit sorry for her as she quickly becomes overwhelmed with the daunting task at hand of being a running mate. Clearly she was not prepared or even close to being ready to be not only a president or vice president, but also even a candidate.

One of the closing scenes in the movie, somebody said that nobody would know who she was two days later. Well, as much as I would like that to be true, it could not be further from the truth. Unfortunately, by choosing her McCain has unleashed this walking disaster on the country and the world which in the end, very well might be his legacy. While we certainly do not hear as much from her these days she is still out there saying and doing stupid shit. Some people believe that if the nominee is not decided by the time of the election, than she will throw her hat into the ring and run. A part of me wants her to do that as she was long ago exposed as the complete and utter moron that she is. But, the bigger part of me does not want her anywhere near this election as she could very well accidentally win.

But by all means, check out the movie yourself. You might like it.

So let me ask you, do you approve of the job Congress is doing? I didn’t think so and neither do I. How do I know you don’t? Well, Congress has an approval rating of 10% which means that 90% of Americans agree with me that they fucking suck and I’m quite certain that many, if not all of you, fall into that 90%. I don’t know if any of you ever watch the always hilarious Colbert Report, but I saw this guy on there who is starting a campaign………..well, here, go to the site yourself, but don’t forget to click back and finish reading my post and maybe even comment:

http://nolabels.org/

So as you can see, if you took the time to go to the site and even sign up like me, this guy and millions of others are flat out sick of the bullshit of politics, namely of Congress. There are few things Republicans and Democrats agree on but they all agree there is a whole shitload of bullshit that goes on in politics and Congress that prevents things from getting done. Of course, that is where the agreement ends; each side blames the other side for the problems and in the end, we wind up with an ineffective and impotent government that is beholden to the special interests and others they have made deals with to stay in office. Well enough is enough.

The optimist in me wants to believe that this movement can make a difference. The pessimist in me knows better though, but hey, we should give it our best effort. Look, politics is very important, but so many people are apathetic to it for many of the same reasons listed on this site; they are sick of nothing getting done and hate the bickering that goes along with it. Let’s face it, about the only think politics is good at is dividing people and causing hate. Yes, I’m guilty of it too but so is just about every other person who is passionate, has strong beliefs, and is rarely shy at expressing those beliefs. But, instead of creating division and hate, we should be finding ways to bridge the gap and come together to accomplish things that are good for everybody. And in the end, we should be doing things to engage people and get otherwise apathetic people to pay attention to the very important issues that hold us back as a society and a country. And that is what it’s all about, right, self improvement as a country and as people?

Every now and then I get an itch to take a road trip. I really should go back and check this, but it usually seems to happen every year about this time when the weather starts to get nice as this is good road trip weather. And what makes my itch even stronger this year is that I’ve got a car that gets over 40 miles to the gallon on the highway and is by all accounts a great road trip car even though I haven’t had the chance to take it on one yet. I don’t have any trips planned until Jamaica for a wedding in May. That won’t be much of a road trip though, what with the little minor detail called the Gulf of Mexico standing in the way. And while I’m fairly certain I won’t take a major road trip between now and then I’m still itchin to go. So like I do sometimes, I started thinking of places to go either by myself or with somebody:

• New York City- I just went to NYC last year but I love New York and can go every year. The reason I really want to go now is that I’ve decided I really want to see David Letterman before he dies, retires, or is told that he can not do his show anymore. I don’t know how many years he has left and I don’t want to regret never seeing him. Because I’m going to request tickets, I think NYC is the most likely trip, but I would really want to find somebody to go with which is the tough part.
• Massachusetts/Connecticut- Now Massachusetts might be cool because of Boston, but I know, who the hell wants to go to Connecticut? Well it has the world’s largest casino and you know I’m fond of casinos. Also, I want to go to Red Sox game. And while I’m in Mass, I would definitely go to the basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield.
• Washington, D.C.- I went to D.C. three years ago and vowed I would go back within two years. And I really want to go to the White House before Obama leaves. And since he very well might be getting expelled in January, why not go now?
• The Twin Cities in Minnesota- I’ve been here before and I LOVE Minnesota. They also have a brand new ballpark I want to go to. 
• Utah- Kelly leaves the state and I go to the state. Wait. Something tells me that Utah isn’t exactly the gay mecca that I’ve heard sooooooo much about.
• Independence, Missouri- Why the fuck Independence, a town of 116,000 people? Well I’ve always been a presidential geek of sorts, and Independence is the home of the Harry Truman Presidential Library and Museum. 

So those are just some options. I’m open to others.

With all the talk and debates about whether corporations are people, it got me to thinking about how the t.v. networks are all kind of like people, especially the news networks. And in particular, the cable news networks. Shit, each of the networks have their own personalities that are almost like people. Allow me to break it down a little bit for you so you can see what it would be like if each of these networks were people:

• MSNBC- They are kind of like your friend who is a flaming liberal. But, it’s not even that they are liberal, they THINK they are these free thinkers and nobody thinks like them. In reality, half of the country thinks like them and even though they claim to be “independent thinkers” they spend most of their time defending anything and everything any Democrat does.
• FOX News- You know that extremely pissed off relative of yours who is angry all the time because of everything that every liberal or Democrat does? Well this is FOX news. They expend tons of energy and waste lots of time blaming the elite media for everything and spend countless hours sifting through Obama’s trash to try to find that one thing that is going to sink him. They are filled with rage and demand that they get their country back, but their dirty little secret is that they need Obama and other Democrats to be in power because they make more money when they have something to rage against.
• CNN- You know that co worker you have who is always bragging about how great they are and showing off their skills and referring to themselves in the third person? Well this is CNN, the most narcissistic, self centered, self serving network in the history of television. People on the right are always saying the that CNN is part of the liberal media, but the reality is that they are too obsessed with themselves and their “best political team on t.v.” and their expensive graphics and their crazy thingamajigs that show a hologram of Potsi and Ralph Mouth live from Times Square.
• Current T.V.- Remember that quiet kid in school that everybody was curious about but nobody ever took the time to talk to him? Well this is Current T.V. Nobody you know has ever watched it yet some how it remains a network.
• ESPN- Everybody knows a dumb jock right? Well, ESPN is like a dumb jock, blathering on about how great sports is while misspelling simple words like thunderstorm.
• E! T.V.- This is the person who is OBSESSED with being famous and relevant, doing anything to try to be popular, kinda like Mitt Romney. In the end though, nobody cares much for E! until the next celebrity dies and we are forced to pay attention, kinda like Mitt Romney after the latest candidate drops out of the race.
• The Cartoon Network- Everybody has a kid inside of them who doesn’t want to grow up. This is the Cartoon Network every day until about nine or ten at night when, like every kid, it tries to grow up by being vulgar.

Now I know there are plenty of other networks out there, but honestly, how long do you want to read a half ass, lame post anyway?