Thursday, June 25, 2009

RIP Michael Jackson 1958-2009

Regardless of your opinions on Michael Jackson, it is irrefutable that today the music world lost a legend. The King of Pop is dead. I was never a huge Michael Jackson fan growing up, I mean, I knew the songs and I liked a lot of them, but I wouldn't consider myself a fan. The respect was there, though, and still is today for the great MJ. Say what you will about his eccentricities or his affections for children, but Michael Jackson the performer is still easily better than 95% of the pop acts currently out today. And for that, I say Rest in Peace. There will never be another King of Pop. And with that, I leave you with this...

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Uh Oh, Three More Things...

Once again, welcome to another edition of "Three Things That Irritate Me." Tonight I will be covering politics, sports and a certain movie about giant robots that came out today. So without further ado, let us get right into it.

1. Obama and His Television Specials
Earlier this morning, my comrade in writing covered his views on this subject here. Now, while I am all for the use of technology as a means to get information to the public, there comes a point in which it is necessary to look a little deeper. President Obama is a politician, plain and simple, and by doing all of these specials he is working to present what he is trying to achieve in a way that is more appealing to the masses. Instead of presenting his plan and why he wants to do this in a speech or radio address, he is choosing to invade the airwaves of ABC to give us the necessary information through a town hall meeting format. So what is wrong with that, you ask? Well, simply put, everything. ABC has refused to allow airing of opposing viewpoit advertising during the special, leading already to a strong indication of one-sidedness in the preceedings. To go along with it, the special will be Obama fielding questions from "average Americans" who were selected by ABC News. As such you can expect to see little to no pressure on the plan and all the questions will be planned to allow answers that highlight the points they want to sell to the public. It's basic public relations, and it will be how they run this whole operation. The issue isn't his use of various forms of media to get out the information, the issue lies in the method in which he is doing so. Instead of a blatantly one-sided production, why not allow for opposing viewpoints to be addressed and responded to? What is it that you are afraid of, Mr. Obama? Maybe instead of working on health care reforms that are not currently a pressing issue, the President should focus on the economy and the wars overseas that we are still involved in. Would it be that difficult for you to make progress on this, Mr. Obama, or are you content to wait out the economy a little longer and pump in more money we already don't have that will only come back to haunt further generations?

2. LSU Wins National Championship, This Just In: SEC Dominates
Tonight LSU won the College World Series 11-4 over the Texas Longhorns in Omaha, Nebraska. Once again this year, the SEC triumphed over a Big 12 opponent in a national championship game and now the SEC has won two of the major three college sports in America. How can anyone deny the greatness that currently is the SEC? Oh wait, people still will, but forget the haters. For the rest of 2009, the SEC is the most dominant conference in college sports, and the forecast looks sunny for a great future, too.

3. Transformers
This is not my full review, that will be coming in a few days, probably Friday. I saw the film last night at the midnight IMAX showing in town and can honestly say I was blown away. After seeing the film, I lifted the review embargo and began to look at what was being said about the epic robot masterpiece. What did I find? The film being struck down by bad review after bad review. Well guess what, everyone, it is Transformers. There is no question as to what you will see when you go in, it will be nothing but robots blowing things up. The only movie that needed a story was the first, to tell the origin. After that, all that is required is a means to get from one giant CG robot fight to the next. As many of my friends know, I didn't enjoy X-Men Origins: Wolverine, mainly due to the horrible handling of the characters involved as well as the lame wrap up to try and bring the film together with the X-Men trilogy. So what is the difference with Transformers? The difference is that with Wolverine there is a major story involved and mythos that need to be followed to make a film that works and represents the property in the closest possible way. With Transformers, the only mythos you need to follow is that there are two races of robots who are fighting. Simple as that. Transformers is a solid action film full of plenty of amazing robot fighting scenes and a solid amount of Megan Fox (also look for Isabel Lucas who is definitely in league with Fox when it comes to hotness). Look for my full review Friday.

To combat some of the seriousness of this post, I leave you all with this...


Hello America...

Recently President Obama has taken to the air waves to help campaign for his health plan. There are mixed feelings about this (a little background here). ABC has dedicated itself to show pretty much everything that Obama is doing today but has said that they will have fair and "tough" questions for Obama during his town hall meeting tonight. People are weary of this because it kind of seems that the media is willing to help Obama to push his agenda but I don't feel that way. I would say that it does seem that it is a little much to be on t.v. so often but I don't think that it is inherently bad. In the time that we are living in I think it is great for a President to go on television and speak to the American people. I think that people are sceptical of the situtiaon for a few reasons. In the world of ratings we question the "fairness" of t.v. networks when the show anything about politics (although there is only one news network that I have heard to claim to be "fair and balanced"). Therefore if one channel shows too much coverage from either side then one side yells foul and says they are bias. We also wonder about the questions in general assuming that since they are on a "bias" channel then the questions must also be "bias." I don't think that ABC is crossing the line by showing Obama this evening. Maybe they are over doing the coverage a bit much but every channel does that with big programming. I think it is great that Obama is going on television to answer questions that people have about his policies and I hope that he continues to do things similar to it and I hope that in the future different channels do it as to keep things on an even keel. If these only appear on ABC consistently then yes I would say that it is too much but until then let's focus on the policies and politics and not the bull shit of the networks.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

And Now For Something Completely Different...Giant Robots Blowing Stuff Up!

As many of you know, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen comes out tonight at midnight. As such, I will be seeing it on IMAX and will post a review sometime tomorrow afternoon. Let it be known now that I am a harsh critic when it comes to things from my childhood and comics. As such, I will be harsh with this film and pull no punches.

I am also going to use today as the first of the YouTube video of the week, as expected it is from Transformers: The Movie. This movie came out in 1986, before I was born, but it is still awesome and a part of my childhood. And it gave us this great song...



Being that I didn't do one last week, here is another little gem as well, play this post off keyboard cat!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Alright, North Korea, You Wanna Play Rough?

So I was flipping around my preferred news source, the BBC, and I came across this article. Despite many of the common misconceptions placed upon the Republican party thanks to the wonderful Bush Administration, I am not pro-war. I feel that we should only engage in military conflict when it is absolutely necessary, and that we, as a country, should always pursue a peaceful means to solve any conflict. Though, there are some exceptions to this that I may go into with another post. But when it comes to North Korea, enough is enough.

For years now, North Korea has done everything it can to stand defiant of the UN, defiant of the United States, and defiant of the rest of the world when it comes to nuclear proliferation. It has been a long known fact that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is not supposed to have nuclear weapons, as outlined by their acceptance of the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty. Their disobedience with the policies outlined in the agreement and their withdrawing from said agreement in 2003 leaves them in a precarious place in the world. Now I read that they are potentially threatening to launch missiles toward Hawaii? My views on the state aside, I am left with one response to this, "Really North Korea?!? Really?!?"

They have been defiant with the rest of the world for half a decade now, trying to play with the big boys of the world when they are little more than a wannabe. If they want to play, and go through with this launching of a missile in the direction of Hawaii, then let us play with them. No, I'm not saying go to war with North Korea or even use nuclear weapons against North Korea, what I would be calling for is a limited strike against them. Talks have been attempted time and time again, the moment for action is now. To launch a missile at Hawaii is an act of war and should not be tolerated by our current administration, especially given the history of the situation.

Only time will tell what the leaders in North Korea will do as far as testing and using their nuclear weapons. The aftermath of such an event will hopefully be well planned and implemented so as to not leave the Earth or our military in shambles. Though I am against opening a third military conflict, I do remember the way the last attack on Hawaii was received and responded. I would expect no less than a military response to another attack. Hopefully, for all of our futures, this is nothing more than a bluff on the part of North Korea.

Intro to the most important topic of the day......ME!!

As I sit here and drink a Bud Light Lime (a solid drink if kept at a fairly frosty temp.) I think about how to introduce myself to the great reading public then I realize that not many will really our first post so I decided to skip the intro for the most part and make it very brief. Old school a/s/l. Age: 22, Sex: male, and Location: Kansas City area. Now that you know me we can dive right in. The reason for this blog is that my colleague and I have noticed that things in America are a little bit too extreme. We will be looking at situations (mostly political from my end of things) and looking at the problems that America is facing because of partisan views. While I am on the more liberal side my co-author is on the more conservative side, we both agree on one ideological plane that the the world of politics needs to pull to the middle and relearn how to compromise. At some point in our history the word compromise became a bad word in politics. While I understand that some views are immovable objects and some attitudes are unstoppable forces and compromise is just not there as an option. But this world of extreme views and partisan politics is just not in the best interest of the country and its people. Now a blurb from my other blog to expand on this and to share a bit more about my views....

Outside of specific issues there is one reason that I am a moderate. Because moderation in politics is what amounts to real change. And I do not mean the twang of a rod as it snaps to the left after being held to the right for 8 years. That is not real change. I am not against Obama by any means but the change we need is not necessarily change that is just change that goes against all that the Republicans have done in the past 8 years. Granted there are definitely policies and actions that need to be changed. Things like universal health care are things that divide the country but we do not see the middle ground. Is universal health care likely in America, probably not, in the next 4 years, no way. Can most of us agree that health care needs heavy reform quickly so that they right people are taken care the right way, I would imagine many would agree yes. Is any of this going to get resolved through the left and right yelling. No. Both sides need to slide towards the middle, it does not have to be drastic but a shift that will help to get things through. This is not one of those read between the lines for Republicans to stop delaying Democrat policies, and this is not to tell the Democrats to push as hard as they can with their control. This is a statement hoping that both sides can turn off partisan politics and a call to people not to change their views but to look at those views and see if having an extreme outlook is really the most practical.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Don't Call It A Comeback...


This is me. You can find previous things I have done here. In a few short hours, I will have a partner in this endeavor. Not to steal his thunder, but you can find his stuff here. As it will more than likely be conveyed here in later posts, I enjoy movies, video games, reading, sports, and all other types of ill shit. Though, while multiple posts would be the drawn out way to introduce myself, I plan to give you a bit of an introduction here...through two aspects of my life, sports and politics. I now give you, "Three Things That Irritate Me."

1. Donté Stallworth.
I'm not going to get into his legal troubles much more than this, the guy was driving drunk and killed someone. He got lucky off of a flawed Florida law and is now facing little to nothing as consequence of his misdeeds. Now why does this bother me? I've noticed a recurring theme among professional athletes today, and that is their choices when it comes to drinking and driving. If I am a professional athlete and am making a living off of a big money contract, I am not going to be driving myself anywhere if I will be drinking. Smart money would be realizing that not only would I be susceptible to any jerk-off who thinks they're big time now that they're a cop (see Moats, Ryan), but I would also be consuming enough alcohol to put me over any .08 limit. You have an entourage, pay one of your boys some money to stay sober and drive you home. Simple solution to a simple problem.

2. The Iranian National Team/Iranian Election.
You can read the full story on this here, but even though it was short lived, hats off to you gentleman. While I don't like either candidate involved in the Iran election situation, oddly enough something that I agree with our President about, I think it is awesome that the soccer team did this in their match today. More power to you. Now to what irritates me about this whole situation. While I will admit that at first I was guilty of this as well, it is something that I have noticed since this story broke. Many Americans are assuming that just because the Iranians are protesting and fighting the election, it makes the currently losing candidate the right person for the job and our Middle-Eastern interests. Sadly, they are mistaken and maybe some research would do all of us well. As our President has even said, "The difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi in terms of their actual policies may not be as great as has been advertised."

3. Twitter And It's Impact On Our Society.
Little known fact, I have a Twitter. Slightly lesser known fact, I have a degree in Communication from this Fine Institution. I focus much of my school work on computer mediated communication, and I think Twitter is a great tool to find information on news, politics, and Shaq's thoughts. Through this, I have also learned that it is completely and utterly ridiculous at times. As shown by Conan O'Brien and many morning radio shows, some users on Twitter update with some of the dumbest information ever. Now look at Iran, where Twitter is being used as a means to potentially help bring down a whole political regime. While we live in a society where speech is free, and I am in no way condemning the Twitter users who offer nothing of substance, it confounds me that only a small portion of our country has tapped into this potentially wonderful resource. Don't worry, one look at my profile will show that I am completely guilty of this as well, just some food for though.

So this is my first "Three Things That Irritate Me" and it surely will not be the last. Look for it every Wednesday afternoon or night, no sooner and maybe a little bit later. Other things to look for from me:
  • More gimmicks
  • Sports
  • Movies
  • Video Games
  • Politics
  • YouTube video Fridays
  • Guest Posts!
  • Inane chatter
  • Crappy MS paint!
So tune in next time, same Middle time, same Middle channel!