Maybe the founders of this country got it wrong. Maybe people really don’t want freedom. Perhaps it’s just too damn much work to have to think for oneself instead of having someone else tell you what to do. They tried pretty damn hard, even put it down on paper, but we can’t seem to take these ideas at face value. They’re pretty simple too, designed to be applied regardless of the variable nature of time and government. But we just can’t help but search for ways to give up these rights, or take these rights away from people with whom we disagree. (more…)

I’m not a manager. I’m doing just fine working in the trenches (although I work way too many weird hours) and don’t have any desire to work the political world of management. I have no doubt that I could do it and successful, but I don’t want to don the required “suit” mentality Therefore this post comes by way of a “those who don’t know, teach” angle as I really don’t have the experience. Some may say that I shouldn’t judge what I don’t know, but I believe there’s a certain amount of common sense involved in managing others and there are some situations that beg to be excoriated. By way of a “for example”: recently, the Senior Vice President of my organization within the company for which I work invited my team to lunch. This lunch turned out to be, from the email sent to us by his assistant, pizza and salad served in a conference room. The lunch, in fact, turned out to be pizza only, the salad either forgotten or diverted by hungry vegetarians. Further, no input was requested from our team regarding what kind of pizza we would enjoy eating, which seems like a reasonable thing to ask given that we were giving up our lunch hour for this pow-wow with senior management. Finally, no information was given to us regarding what this meeting was for, what the agenda might be or what we might do to prepare. We went in blind to a lunch bereft of salad and featuring 2 out of 3 pizzas that no one wanted to eat. (more…)

The events at Virginia Tech were certainly a tragedy. Yet more people die every day in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of them our own sons and daughters. None of these people are any less important or valuable than those who died at VT. Yet our flag is at half-staff for the victims of a suicidal gunman, but not for our own soldiers returning home in their flag-draped coffins (surely no less worthy?). Sadly there is just as little logic behind the deaths of those in Iraq, at least from an American-intervention perspective, as there is in the twisted logic that led to the rampage at VT. I don’t mean to belittle the loss of the loved ones in the VT tragedy or the sacrifices made by those sent to Iraq, but mean to bring focus to the fact that thousands have died in a war that has nothing at all to do with a war on terror (remember the real roots of our misguided actions against Iraq people: it wasn’t terror or 9/11, despite what the media and our administration would revise history to say, but a failed UN resolution). Yes, what happened at VT was terrible, and my heart and thoughts go to the families and victims. But please, remember that our sons and daughters are in harm’s way and dying every day because of an administration that cares only for its own agenda and not for the people it purports to represent. Please put the tragedy at VT in perspective and remember that many young men and women of the same age as those who died at VT are in danger as well.

Please remember (before commenting in dumb-ass ways) that I’m not a Republican or a Democrat, a liberal or a conservative…I am Independent. This is not a call for withdrawal from Iraq (we’re beyond that point and must see it through or risk greater instability and loss of life for those we leave behind) but rather a plea for focus.

I’ve had a powerful urge to blog about the Virginia Tech shootings, but every time I thought about it I found myself drifting into politics, gun-control and big-media-bashing. None of that matters right now, though. All that matters is that we all take time to say goodbye to all the victims and to take a moment to think about those wounded, physically or emotionally, and to hope (or pray, if you’re so inclined) that they recover as fully as is possible. The world we have built for ourselves won’t let us stay out of the mud for long, so take the time now to honor the memories of the dead as well as the lives of the survivors, their friends and their families.

There’s been yet another shooting in Boston, Dorchester to be specific. A young woman visiting from Kentucky was shot and killed as she left a party early in the morning, around 4:00am. Judging by the woman’s history, as reported in the Boston Globe, she was probably an innocent bystander or she pissed off the wrong people sometime during the party, neither of which justify or excuse what happened. So what was the reaction of Mayor Mumbles?

Mayor Thomas M. Menino vowed yesterday to end after-hours house parties. “It’s crazy. It’s nuts,” he said. “We know all those parties bring bad events in our city. They always end up in some kind of violence.”

That’s good thinking, Mumbles…it’s the parties that are causing all the violence in the city. By that logic, we should ban ice hockey because the sport must be the root cause of parents beating up kids. Or maybe we should ban fast food because people are fat and lazy, or perhaps we should outlaw liquor because people die of cirrhosis of the liver (because prohibition worked so well the first time around), or perhaps we should outlaw career politicians because of government corruption? I actually like the last idea, but its about as feasible and logical as the others. The root cause of gun crime is not late night parties, nor is it the guns themselves (they’re inanimate objects, people), but rather the root of gun crime is the root of all crime. (more…)

I just read an article tonight where a man wounded in a gang shooting is urging the state of Massachusetts to impose a $25 surcharge on the purchase of firearms in this state. The money would fund research into spinal cord injury. Let me get this out of the way first: the man who was injured has a tragic story. He’s a family man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time when a criminal gang member started spraying bullets. The man was hit by a round and is now paralyzed. He has a wife and four kids that he’s trying to support and wants to walk again. More power to him and I hope he achieves his goal. There’s only one problem: his political aim is as off as that of the gangbanger who shot him. (more…)

Let me make it clear once again: I support immigration. This country was built upon the labor of immigrants and those very same immigrants who once dealt with incredible racism have since become some of the staunchest lovers of America. I think we, as a country, need to work out a way to make legal immigration into our country feasible for those who want to come while, at the same time, weeding out the worst of the criminals and potential terrorists. It’s a tall order, but one I believe we need to all get involved in (all communities) in order to better build our country for the future. However, while I truly believe all I’ve just written, I also believe that illegal immigration is a drain on our country. My prime concerns regarding illegals are lost taxes (if I’ve got to pay them, then so do you) and the abuse of our health care system (which itself needs a makeover). So when it comes to a contest that a private company holds where the rules plainly state that the winner must be a legal citizen, I don’t understand why there’s even the slightest controversy that a person gets disqualified because of the fact that they are illegal immigrants and, therefore, non-citizens. (more…)

I’m impressed by this administration. I really am. I do not think that I’ve ever read news items about our government and exclaimed “wow” or “you’ve got to be kidding me” or “and he calls himself a [insert party name here, in this case Republican]?” aloud as often as with this administration. 10 out of 10 for inventiveness, negative-several-million for representing the people and the country responsibly. The latest mind-boggling item (and I’m sure I’m only catching 1 out of 100 mind-boggling items these days) is the news that the White House is attempting use a memo drafted and signed in secret by the White House and the Secret Service wherein in the Secret Service declares that records identifying visitors to the White House are no longer under their control, but the White Houses’ as “Presidential records” and, therefore, no longer available to the public (even under Freedom of Information requests). This memo was apparently created and signed during the hype surrounding the lobbying scandals involving Jack Abramoff as a way to fend off requests for visitor information to the White House that may show that White House aides and senior staff (including Karl Rove) were getting visits from those involved in illegal lobbying. Apparently, our President thinks its fine for these records to be used against others, but as soon as anyone tries to use the same records to come after him or his cronies, the new Iron Curtain comes slamming down. (more…)

Why? I don’t understand. The institution that is Hollywood sits around wondering why fewer and fewer people are going to movies today when they give us fewer and fewer reasons to bother. Beyond the expense of going to the movies and the fact that home viewing is rapidly gaining in presentation quality (without the hassle of disgusting seats, sticky floors, and hordes of morons who can’t shut up/turn of their phones/stay home when sick) is the simple fact that the big studios are turning out fewer and fewer quality pictures. A further indictment of the industry is this continued practice of remaking movies. This practice it outshined in its laziness and generally poor results only by the practice of turning video games into movies (especially if done by Uwe Boll). (more…)

So now that the Massachusetts gubernatorial race is over and Deval Patrick has been deemed the Governor Elect, I have a few things I need to yap about. I’m not happy Deval Patrick won. This man is the consummate politician in that he’s too-smooth, a great orator and willing to agree (or at least seem to agree) with anyone and everyone in order to get a vote. Sure, he may have come from common roots, but he’s been living an anything-but-common lifestyle (which he worked hard to earn, no argument there) for many years so the whole, “I’m a man of the people” schtick is just that. He’s the definition of tax-and-spend Democrat and I think that the MA economy is in trouble. Plus the fact that his election returns us to single-party rule bodes ill for true representative government (just witness the Federal government over the last 6 years). But you know what never bothered me about Deval Patrick? The fact that he’s black. (more…)