The Politics of Racism

I felt compelled to write something on the latest stories involving President Obama. Various news sources are throwing the President under the bus for how he is handling the BP oil spill. Yes, something needs to be done. By all accounts it looks like something is being done. BP is doing what it can at this point. Is that enough? Maybe not. That is something that will be addressed at a later time. Right now all resources need to be put to stopping the oil. I saw a report on ABC news yesterday where they were interviewing people on various issues facing the country and how they feel the President is handling them. All I really got from the story was that everything from the BP oil spill to Memorial Day beach congestion is the President's fault and that he isn't acting, or isn't acting fast enough for the citizen's liking.

Let's just be clear, these people blaming him are flat out racists. There is no other explanation to why they don't believe the President is doing all he can. There is no way you can say President Obama is doing nothing. Let's just compare him to our previous president and how he fared during times of national and environmental crisis. Now to be fair, President Bush wasn't to blame for Katrina. Just as President Obama isn't responsible for the current oil spill. There is one key difference, however. President Obama isn't responsible for the clean up, BP Oil is. He should oversee and push to get it done, but it is their mess and they are the ones who should be handling it. Katrina was different. President Bush was responsible for the clean up of Katrina because the ocean wasn't about to fix the mess it caused.

What makes the Katrina situation even worse than the BP oil spill is, according to reports President Bush and other government agencies were warned about the impending damage of Katrina. This is vastly different from an oil platform blowing up with little warning. From reading the above report it seems that everyone was aware of what was coming and was either lying about the readiness of our emergency response capabilities, or were simply incompetent.

In general, I don't like to point out another person's failing when trying to defend someone but, in this case it needs to happen. I would also like to point out that on September 11, 2001, during one of the most horrific attacks the country has ever endured, President Bush sat in a classroom for 7 MINUTES after he was told the country was under attack. 7 MINUTES. If Obama did that he would be up for impeachment and maybe execution. I just want some consistent standards for how we go about judging our leaders, and skin color is not one of them.

The Show That Wasn't

This is strictly an off the cuff, shoot from the hip reaction. I may regret it in the morning, but i don't think so. The ending of Lost was terrible. This type of terrible show ending is the worst for one very important reason, you can never go back. I can never again watch any of the episodes or seasons of this show without remembering the ending and how it changed everything. A show with so much mystery must have some kind of closure to the long standing questions. Maybe not all the questions, but some of them must be answered.

Season 6 was about the battle for the island and Jacob's and the Smoke Monster's long standing struggle. Then all of a sudden, in true deus ex machina fashion, it was all about Jack again and his God complex and overcoming his demons. Was his defeating the Smoke monster the ultimate act of saving of everyone? I'm sorry but they just tossed out so much of what needed to be addressed and turned it into something else. It was a feel good ending. "Awww they all find each other again because of their time on the island". Cute but terrible. They grafted this feel good ending onto the show to tie everything up and to allow people's hearts to overwhelm their heads. They did not answer any of the important questions. I have seen some responses on the internet to the effect of, "they didn't answer the questions and that's fine because the message was more important". Excuse me, but if I want a message I'll get a t-shirt with a slogan written on it. The message is nice and everything but had little to do with the last six seasons of the show.

It's clear that what happened on the island happened and that they only entered Sideways World/Purgatory after they died. Now I, and many others, recall that the theory of them all being dead and in a kind of Purgatory was thrown out there early on. The writers categorically denied that this was the case. And they were telling the true, until they weren't. It wasn't the case until Season 6 that they were in Purgatory waiting to move on when they introduced the Sideways world. How does this ending in any way connect to what happened on the island? It doesn't. It was as if the writes painted themselves into a corner and simply brushed everything aside in favor of the cute cuddly way out. Not to mention the fact that the writers basically lied to everyone when they denied this.

I will probably analyze this show at some point and look over it again. Many people will declare the ending the best ever and totally worthy of the show that it wraps up. I am not one of them. For a show that showed so much promise and only surrendered it in the final half hour of it's life, I feel it did not get it's just due. I am sad about this.

Maybe I should listen to Lost and believe in an afterlife that is created for me as a better place; one where the ending of Lost didn't suck. See ya in another life brotha.

An Ode to Lebron

"Just look at him. So sleek. So powerful. So... beautiful, like some great golden god made flesh" - Lex Luthor

These words are from the movie Superman: Doomsday. They are the words of Lex Luthor, Superman's arch enemy as he is watching clips of the Man of Steel do the amazing things he does. In a twisted way he admires the object of his hatred, the man he wants nothing more than to destroy. In a way I feel this way about Lebron. He is without question one of the most freakish athletes the world of sport has ever seen. I have never questioned this about him. In a way I need him, just as Luthor needs Superman. One can't exist without the other. Making the case for the greatness of Kobe would never be as intriguing if Lebron was not around.

Now I find Kobe's nemesis hurt and weakened. Not just physically but mentally and, more importantly, openly. He is being blasted in the media for his recent play against the Celtics. The very media machine that has made him what he is - a strutting, posturing prima donna. He has been, since his first day in the league, anointed the greatest player ever to touch as basketball. People have been seduced by his "Godliness". My feelings on this are well documented in other posts. Suffice it to say, he has never won and we have no idea if he will. As we have seen so many times, talent is not an indicator of how much winning a player is capable of. Tim Duncan has the vertical leap of a carrot. Lebron James might as well be able to fly. Which one is a proven winner? Duncan. Why? He possesses something that cannot be quantified with numbers or with measures of athletic ability, the heart of a champion.

The media is now openly questioning this very characteristic and whether their God has it. My only response to this is, "how dare you?" How dare you, you who have spun him and babied him and praised him ad nauseam. Those that have given him free reign. Those that wouldn't dare criticize anything he has done. Not his playoff losses. Not his refusal to shake hands last year when Orlando bounced the Cavaliers out of the playoffs. None of it. We dare not criticize the one we worship lest he shun us from his glory.

"He's worried! You cut him! You hurt him! You see? You see? He's not a machine, he's a man!" -Duke from Rocky IV

I almost feel bad for him. His base, all the Lebron lovers, are pulling the rug out from under him when he needs them to rally around him. Much the same as the Tiger Woods' scandal earlier this year, this is a watershed moment in the history of one of the most high profile athletes of the generation. This moment may very well define what we will remember about Lebron for years to come. So far, Tiger has yet to regain either the form he demonstrated during his best years or the status of media darling he enjoyed for so long. There is one key difference between Tiger and Lebron. Even if Tiger never gets back to what he was, his body of work is without question at this point. He has won more than most could ever dream of. Lebron hasn't. Now he is down, if not yet out. Like the Russian in Rocky IV, he has been stunned. He has been cut and is bleeding for all the world to see. This story can go two ways. Like the Russian, he can keep punching and show fight. Or as another, now famous, Russian said,

"If you could make GOD bleed, people will cease to believe in HIM!" -Ivan Vanko from Iron Man 2

The media's Golden God is bleeding. His armor has been torn into like the above pictured Vanko does to Iron Man. The people supported Iron Man and he fought back with heart. Will Lebron? Who knows? I feel almost sad that this is happening and the flock is deserting its sheppard. Almost.

When I Became a Socialist

The word Socialist seems to be tossed about these days like no other. Quite honestly it's ridiculous for a couple of reasons. One, I don't think half the people that speak about it have any clue about what Socialism is. Two, the other half are saying it because they just hate the President.

To address the first point let us first define Socialism. I will use the definition from the following site: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/socialism.


"Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy."

Now unless I fell into The Land of the Lost or something, we don't have that in this country. What we do have is a bunch of business criminals who are totally unregulated in what they do. We also have the 37th ranked health care system in the world. This in a country that routinely likes to tout it's own superiority.

Calling the desire to regulate illegal activities and provide for citizens, Socialist, shows both ignorance and greed as well as something people rumble about but that no one is willing to say aloud, racism. Those that generally bash President Obama are of the Republican party. This, if you recall the 1980's, was the party that brought us Trickle Down economics. For those of you that aren't familiar with this system, in a vastly simplified world it means that the ultra rich stay ultra rich and if you support their systems like Capitalism you will eventually see some of that wealth trickle down to you, the common man.

A system like Trickle Down economics only works if you believe that you one day will acquire some of that money that is up at the top. Many that attack the President are doing so because they feel that their money and false dream of climbing up the elite ladder are being attacked by his current policies. They feel he has anointed himself a 21st century Robin Hood and is taking their hard swindled...er....earned money and giving it to poor people (read minorities).

People that fall into this category immediately yell, "Socialism!!!" and say that the President must be stopped. So I ask those in the "the President is the Devil" Camp, "you are ok with business men that engage in illegal practices to further their own bank accounts and a country that leaves working citizens without any form of health care?"

We had George W. Bush for 8 years. In that time he managed to do tremendous damage to practically every aspect of the country. People will defend him to the end, but to me just looking at where we are as a country is a testament to his failings. Many will counter that Obama is the problem and in the past Clinton made mistakes as well, totally disregarding the time in between and the events that transpired.

Obama has not even had a full term to implement his policies. Many news outlets show that, despite popular opinion, he seems to be making progress. Yet, groups like the Tea Party continue to rally against the President and his "Socialist" practices.

I am an avid Bill Maher fan and make it point to watch his show each week. Mr. Maher made an excellent point last week on his show. He basically said that if the Tea Party was black they would be locked up as terrorists. I can't really disagree. The group's basic message is if we, as citizens, don't like the way things are going we have to take matters into our own hands. That sounds to me like borderline insurrection. If this group was not made up of rich angry white people they would be thrown in jail in a second.

This brings me back to my second point that people flat out hate Obama. This hate stems directly from race. People will deny it, but Obama has been in office for such a short time that I find it impossible for people to hate him as they do. We don't even know what the end game is to all of his policies as yet.

So considering all that I have just written I think I'll throw my hat in the Socialist ring because

1) I think illegal business practices need to be stopped
2) Citizens should be able to go to the doctor if they have health issues
3) I am not a racist and judge people on their actions

To steal the old cliche, if these things are wrong, I don't want to be right.

We Are All Excuses....er...Witnesses

It's that time of year again. The NBA playoffs are going on. The Cavs have the #1 record and have been procalimed unbeatable. And the excuses for why they just got destroyed by the Celtics and why Lebron played terribly are flying around like his shot's clanging off the backboard.

Here is a recap of the Cav's series so far as the press sees it.

Game 1: the resilient Cavs came back and won a tough game behind Lebron's tremendous play.

Game 2: the Cav's took a tough loss because clearly Lebron's elbow was bothering him and he was too hurt to get it done.

Here is a recap of the Cav's series so far as I see it.

Game 1: the Cav's were down most of the game and it took a Mo Williams sighting (the rest of the time he is stinking it up) to swing the game in the third. All in all a home game the Cav's should have won and almost lost.

Game 2: the Cav's were totally dominated and there were no Mo William's heroics to be had. Lebron might have been off because of the elbow, at least that's what the announcers started saying when they came to the Queen's defense for his, and his team's terrible play. The Celtics walked away with a split and their newly stolen homecourt advantage.

I really can't stand this anymore. Kobe Bryant is playing with a bad knee and ankle, in addition to a broken finger on HIS SHOOTING HAND. All the media wants to talk about is how old he has gotten. Yes, he is a bit older now and maybe age played some factor in his getting injured. Nevertheless, he has played through them. When his team lost the media was not to be found for any such excuses on Kobe's behalf. They threw him under the bus; questioning everything from his leadership to his motives for not shooting enough in a Game 4 loss to the Thunder.

This is why I hate Lebron. He is incapable of truly failing. The media won't allow it. The built in excuses are everywhere. He was hurt. The team didn't get it done for Lebron as usual.

Yes, his numbers are great. A lot of guys have been on good teams with awesome numbers and not won anything though. Besides his great physical advantages, he gets every call and apparently can travel at will as long as we all call it a "crab dribble". The link below will highlight what I am talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm0k2rqEeJQ

The excuses need to stop. When this guy wins MULTPILE titles then we can talk about him as one of the greats. Dirk Nowitzki has amazing numbers and always loses in the playoffs. Everyone questions his ability to lead and win the big one. Why doesn't Lebron get the same treatment? Because he is more athletic? Because we assume he is better than Dirk? Maybe both are true but they both have zero rings and a Finals loss. How are they really that different? You could certainly make a case for Dirk winning the MVP year in and year out.

The Cav's might very well go on to win this series but it seems likes it's going to be a far cry from the cakewalk most analyists predicted.

The Kobe Puzzle

Much has been made of Kobe Bryant's performance, or lack thereof, in game 4 of the series against the Thunder. Kobe says he was managing the game and sticking to strategy. Why do people doubt him when he says this? Yes, he seemed to be passive to a fault. Some have suggested his motivation was to rest himself physically for the stretch run of the series. After all, even if the Lakers lost the game it would only be 2-2.

I have an alternate hypothesis. It is obviously important that Kobe get the rest of his teammates involved and by sticking to the game plan he did that. But, what if by playing such a passive role he was shifting the focus off of the team's questionable play and disappearing bench and squarely onto his shoulders?

He is the one that is paid the huge amount of money to win these types of series. He is one of the few players that is as dominant mentally as he is physically. Perhaps, by playing so hands off he was letting his team build themselves up and band together. This wasn't one of those nights where the headline reads, "Kobe Gives All But Gets Little Help From His Team". It was quite the opposite. Now the rest of those guys in that locker room don't face the criticism that they have been facing. Everyone is wondering what was wrong with Kobe.

I'm not saying that Kobe planned any of this. I'm just saying that it isn't out of the question given the unusual behavior we have seen from Kobe before. He has many times played games withing games and no one really knows what goes on in his head. Maybe this is just another case of the master working. Maybe, we should just let him work.

Avatar

The Great Blue Hype?

Don't get me wrong, I really like Avatar. I am a sci fi fan first and foremost. Avatar has everything I like in a movie. There is a ton of action, your brain is required and the movie has some deeper meanings. Having said all that, how many other people are sci fi fans? I would venture to say not as many as there are people raving about Avatar.

CGI effects are impossible to avoid these days. Every big blockbuster employs them to varying degree. The holy grail of effects is photo realism. Many have claimed that Avatar has reaching this sacred plateau. Sorry to ruin the fun, but it's simply not the case. They are wondrous effects to be sure, but they are not radically better than any other CGI world we have seen in recent history. This is not to say that they shouldn't be talked about, they should. But they have not redefined the movie world as we know it.

Avatar has done one thing to help the ever advancing realm of movie tech. It has significantly upped the bar for motion capture technology. The facial animations for the characters is nothing short of spectacular. As is the audio design. The world lives in the room with you when you turn up the volume on this movie.

With all this though, Avatar is still just a really good movie with really great effects. It is not the cultural and movie going phenomenon many people are making it out to be. And, honestly, many of the people that are all about this movie are not sci fi fans in the first place. They have clearly jumped on the bandwagon of the massive hit. There is nothing wrong with that necessarily. People want to be part of what's in at the moment and that is fine. But let's call it what it is.

James Cameron is a wizard of a director. His movies are of consistently high quality and Avatar is no different. For my money, though, Aliens, The Abyss, and maybe even True Lies are better movies. Aliens certainly shares many similarities with Avatar such as the giant walking robots, the heavy military presence, the detestable corporate weasel and of course Sigourney Weaver. These elements are all good in Avatar. They just happen to be better in Aliens.

In the end, this is purely opinion. I just don't like being told that I am crazy because I think these massively hyped movies are rarely as good as advertised. I have nothing against Avatar but you'll forgive me if I don't call it the best thing ever. Though it has made the most money ever, like so many things, it may have the numbers but that doesn't make it the best.