Glenn, I couldn’t agree more…

Personal responsibility for one’s actions is simply going away.  So I totally agree with Glenn Beck’s comments here…

But, I can’t help but look around at people my age, friends, family, etc… and maybe it’s just the people I hang around with - but none of us seem to have that problem.  Is it because I’m just lucky in who I hang around with, or is it because in my generation, Gen X , there’s an understanding that entitlement is not a foregone conclusion?

I hope it’s the latter.  The only proof point I can think of is that most people I know who are my age, have no illusions that a pension or retirement fund or even social security will exist when we’re ready to retire.

It could also be because the Baby Boomers are simply the loudest voice right now, and they’re the one’s behaving so badly…  Or are they?

Educate me please… since when is ____ offensive?

I consider myself to be fairly well educated.  I’m a minority myself (asian).  I am not a racist.  I am very open minded.  I am also pragmatic. I am for diversity, but not at the expense of success. I believe racism is not a myth, but is overblown and perpetuated by many of the organizations who would do away with it.  I would like to think I am sensitive enough to know when something is offensive and when it is not.  I believe - “to each, his own.”  I also believe that political correctness has gone WAY TOO FAR in most cases.

So, educate me please… since when is the word “monkey” offensive?

I first heard about it in a local news report — some high school kids got in trouble for using the word in a chant at a sports game.  I’ve NEVER heard that the word “monkey” is somehow offensive, but apparently it’s long been considered an offensive word.  I checked with some friends and my wife, but none of them heard of it either.  Just because someone at some point in history called an african american a “monkey” does not automatically make the word an offensive one.  I was once called “skinny” (long ago)… yet that word has not become offensive.

While I’m on the subject… Since when is “plantation” an offensive word??

Sully Plantation - a historical site near my home - has recently changed it’s name to Sully Historical Site.  Sorry, that’s just lame.  Eventually, we’ll be calling it something like… “Historical location #43234″  just so we don’t offend anyone who’s great, great, great grandparents were slaves or may have lived on a plantation — and we’ll strike the word “site” because it might offend the blind.  Sheesh!

I guess if it makes people happy, we’ll go along with it all - but you know what… I’m still going to teach my kids what a monkey says —that’s  “oooh, oooh, ahhh, ahhh” for those who were wondering.  I don’t care what the news reporters say!

Soccer fans in Iraq get car-bombed by terrorists

According to this CNN article, over 50 people were killed and many more were injured as two car bombers detonated their bombs amongst soccer fans who were celebrating the Iraqi national soccer team’s victory in the Asian Cup semi-finals. This is just rediculous!

Why would these jack-ass terrorists hurt these innocent people??  They’re retarded!!  They were celebrating a soccer victory, not holding a pro-US demonstration.  If the Iraqi government has any sense at all, they would use this event as a propaganda proof point that clearly these terrorists are out to just hurt innocent Iraqi citizens.  I wonder if any American’s were hurt or if any Iraqi government officials were hurt?  Clearly this one missed the mark and I can only hope it causes some people in Iraq to wake up to the realities of the situation… that these terrorists really don’t have their best interests at heart.

It’s strange though… I haven’t heard any political pundits here in the US commenting one little bit on it.  I wonder why?

28th Time’s the Charm!

Apparently you’re more dangerous after your 28th DWI (drunk driving) arrest…  The first 27 times were apparently warnings.  Clearly this is someone who has complete lack of CONSIDERATION (yes, consideration) for his fellow human beings. He clearly doesn’t care about the consequences of what might happen if he injures or kills someone with his car… and apparently the law doesn’t either.

Is the country ready for my vision of “single sanction” punishment yet?  I seriously doubt it, but this guy certainly is helping get us one step closer 

News Article 

Ok, this restitution for slavery thing is getting a little crazy…

Today, Queen Elizabeth II of the UK visited the US - on the start of a tour of the US, she stopped in Virginia to celebrate the 400th birthday of Jamestown settlement.  I think that’s pretty cool.

WTF, does this have to do with slavery?

Well, they were talking about the Queen’s visit on the CBS news (with Katie Couric), but they were focusing on the address that she gave to the audience that was there. She acknowledged that 3 cultures came together to help make Jamestown a success and ultimately start this great country…  Western European, Native American, and Africans.  [so far, no big deal]

But then the news article took a turn for the worst.  They started talking about how this was hardly an apology for slavery and that some people were hoping for more.

Let me just say at this point, that I am ANTI-SLAVERY.  It was a horrible thing that was done to the slaves, that they were kidnapped and brought here under in-human conditions and then treated like animals.  But that was 200-400 years ago!  No body still living is directly responsible.  No body still living is a directly affected victim.

I wonder, if the Queen had apologized for things her ancestors did - would this be the last we hear of it???  No.  It makes me wonder what it would take to finally stop complaining about this water that is not only “under the bridge” but has been for hundreds of years.  Come on, people (complainers of the topic, specifically) - give it a rest already!

Besides, you are aware that the Africans were not the ONLY slave throughout history, right??  England was NOT the only country to have slaves.  Why is it that we never hear of other people from other cultures who were enslaved and how they deserve apologies too???  Hmmm…. CRAZY!

Immigration - History repeats itself…

One of the hot topics of debate today is the topic of immigration reform.  I think we may have seen this problem before in history:

Gotta love Carlos Mencia…

He’s hillarious! - and spot on as far as I’m concerned…

Watch this…

An awful secret

During WWII, apparently thousands of women were enlisted into “sex slavery”.  Just the mere thought is absolutely horrible.  What’s even worse is that while these attrocities occurred in the 1940’s, many were not reported until the 1990’s.  CNN article about a related protest.

Va Tech Shooting

I’ve held off until now about writing anything about this event… but I’m compelled at this point to at least make mention of it. Basically, a “crazy” student decided to go on a shooting rampage at VA Tech where he was a student. He killed about 32 others (students, faculty, and staff), and then killed himself. There’s no other way to express my feelings other than to say, it makes me very sad and shocked.  This kind of thing should never happen to anyone.

Event websites for the major news agencies I listen to are here, here, here, and here. Here’s the wikipedia entry.

The blog is titled “My Crazy World” and this definitely fits in to the “crazy” category.

Fortunately no one I know was directly affected… but my thoughts go out to those who were. At this stage in the game, the press has been reporting relentlessly for the past week — every newscast, every day, every hour. As new tiny details appear, they splash them up as if they were super headlines.

I’ve heard that apparently the parents of the shooter (who live in nearby Centreville, VA) have been getting death threats. I can only imagine what those people threatening are saying and thinking…

“I think what your son did was horrible. I think you need to be killed as a result.” ???

(for the record, that’s equally as psychotic folks…)

I guess I’m just surprised that people would take it out on the parents so directly. At the same time… I’ve long been a believer that alot of the world’s problems would disappear if parents (in general) would do a better job of parenting. It seems silly, but if you don’t directly teach your kids not to do such things how will they learn what to do. As a relatively new parent myself, I can see how it could easily happen that you might “assume” the kids know things. But the fact is, they only know what YOU teach them. While I don’t have stats to back it up, I do believe that FAR too many parents are relying on others (schools, religion, friends, TV, etc.) to teach their kids the important lessons in life — things as simple as being “nice” to others even. If you’re not going to take the time to bring your kids up “right” (whatever your definition might be), you shouldn’t even bother having kids in the first place.

I would like to point out (as a sign of the times) that while this news item is indeed shocking, and 33 people did die.  During the same week, hundreds lost their lives in a single event elsewhere in the world.  It’s sad that it got barely a mention in the US press…

WorldMapper

WorldMapper creates maps of the world based on various statistics.  The stats enlarge or shrink territories of the map based on whether something is large or small.  There are hundreds of interesting maps to check out…

Isn’t technology cool!?!?

Carbon Emissions Map