Month: January 2009

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We Live In A “Police” State (Video)

We all hear the term but here is yet another senseless act by a police officer assigned to “serve and protect” the public which ends up taking the life of an innocent man. Washington Post probably summed it up best when they said, “In the still evolving YouTube era, videos don’t just spread, they rally a community.” Just a warning for those watching the clip, you do see and hear the gun go off which ends up killing the helpless victim who is lying face down because he has been handcuffed and surrounded by multiple cops.

From what I had last heard, the cop had resigned but it didn’t seem like the police department were pursuing additional steps against the man for recklessly shooting a man. I am pretty sure most of you have heard about the violent riots out in Oakland, California and in times like these, more and more people need to resort to protests (violent or not) to let their voice be heard and not let these actions go by the wayside. 

Yea most cops, fireman and other public servants are good people but these types of actions happen far to often to ignore as an isolated case. Maybe its the power grab that rushes to their head or maybe its a racial thing at times, but its definitely something that needs addressed otherwise you can expect people to start taking the law into their hands even more.

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A Swede Embarassment

My first hockey post of the year which I am certain is sure to please Rusty (I probably didn’t have a first hockey post last year until probably March – who knows).

Just a great line from Yahoo! Sports Greg Wyshynski who wrote the following after Sweden’s loss to Canada in the World Junior Championship.

The last Swede to win Olympic gold in men’s platform diving was Erik Adlerz back in 1912. Based on his performance in the world junior championship loss last night against Canada, Swedish goalie Jacob Markstrom may be his nation’s next great diving hope.

If you wanna see the clips from the game with regular commentary here it is:

Also, make sure to check out a hilarious remix of Markstrom’s dives from last night’s game by including clips from the Mighty Ducks:

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Jon Stewart Asks The Questions No One Else Will

 

A great return for The Daily Show last night by talking about the chaos in the Middle East and having the moderator of Meet The Press, David Gregory, as his guest. What is great about Jon Stewart is that even when he is talking about serious, informative points, he’ll make you laugh. And you know that  when he is passionate about a certain issue he doesn’t let it go. He’ll keep trying to get his questions answered or his points understood. 

I think he drives home a good point saying that everyone keeps using the analogy that is Hamas kept attacking America with these rockets, how would we retaliate?” but rarely do you hear the other side of that conversation by someone asking what would America do if another country came in and occupied their land and made the American people go through checkpoints while traveling within their own cities. 

I inserted a couple of quotes but the two clips below the break are (1) his intro after coming back from break and (2) David Gregory interview and he asks the Israel question around 4:50 in the second clip.

Jon Stewart: Why can’t anyone – this always surprises me – why can’t any American politician criticize Israel in any way for their behavior. I’m watching these shows and there’s not one person going jesus it’s kind of complex. Yeah Hamas is a bad actor – they shouldn’t be throwing missiles, but gosh you know the treatment of the Palestinian people maybe for the past 50 years is not so nice either. But you never hear that side.
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You know you never hear anyone say hey man you know the settlements or that kind of stuff. Is that really the third rail of American politics now?
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David Gregory: You know settlement activity under the Bush administration – you know from 2000 and 20007 settlement activity increased the population 45% in Israel. That doesn’t say anything about illegal outposts. So there is no question this is not an area where the Bush administration was pressuring the Israelis.  

Continue reading “Jon Stewart Asks The Questions No One Else Will”

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Change Doesn’t Happen Over Night

Just background information for those who don’t know me that I went to a relatively small high school (graduating class of about 35 kids) and I met some of the people I graduated with back in 2005 today over lunch. Some I had kept in touch with more over others, then there have been some who I saw maybe once since graduation.

It was quite a small community, our principal would even love to call it “a family” all the time but it was quite something. I used to have informative, often heated debates with some people on questions varying from social to fiscal issues. There were just some that I thought I would never see eye to eye with, or some that would never switch their party lines to vote for another candidate – even on a more local ballot, never mind on a national scale.

One of the friends I met today was one of those people who I always argued against but continuously ending up respecting because they stood for their beliefs and stood firm on it. As an opponent in those arguments, you always felt they gave you a fair shake in listening to your points and rebutting things they disagreed with in a rather calm and respectful way – at least most of the times. To be quite frank, on the political scale we were as polar opposites as one could be without falling off the scale.

That same friend, who was always an avid learner certainly pulled a fast one by me today when they said they had voted for Barack Obama in this past year’s national election. In all my years of personally knowing someone who fundamentally stood on issues that were slightly more conservative than they were liberal, I did not see this one coming. They had been reading up on several social issues for some part of their studies and that in turn led them to vote the way they did. (By the way, the person did end up voting conservative down the ballot for every other candidate. haha)

I’m not saying voting conservative is a bad thing, actually a couple of my better friends would probably lean more right than left but I am certainly glad to see more and more people shedding the party label and voting for what they believe in and what they think is right. I certainly would think that even my friends who are liberal hippies would be able to vote for a Republican if it was clear that, that candidate would certainly put the country in a better situation than their opponent.

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Israel Continues Doing What They Do

Israel continues their massacre and bombing campaign which including a one-ton bomb in a residential area, all which I should remind you is done in the name of peace. 

Gaza officials say that nearly 400 people have died and over 1,500 have been injured since Israel began its aerial assault on Saturday. The U.N. figures say at least 60 Palestinian civilians have been killed.

gaza-girl

(A Palestinian medic carries a wounded girl to a treatment room following a missile strike)

gaza-boy

(Palestinians carry the body of an 11 year old during his funeral. He was killed Wednesday after he was injured on Tuesday in an Israeli airstrike. His two sisters, 12 and 4, died in Tuesday’s airstrike.)