Towards the end of 2014 a good friend of mine and I started to brew small batches of beer. Some were good, some were meh, some were actually pretty legit.
Again, as is always the case, what’s a good hobby without a good logo?!
We tossed around a couple ideas, and I sketched up the one below. Being that we’re from San Diego, California, I liked the idea of “Anchor West Brewing Company” but apparently there’s already an “Anchor Steam” Brewing Company. Whoda thunk. Nonetheless, I actually really liked this rough sketch, and the fusion of the anchor, compass, and sun with the word “West”, especially since it was my first draft.
Many moons ago in our early twenties a friend and I sought out to start a web design firm. We had worked loosely together a couple projects and decided to ‘go official’. As is always the case when you are a 20 year old who thinks he’ll take over the world by storm, the most important step in any business is….. coming up with a cool logo. Naturally. I was digging through some old files doing some spring cleaning. I chuckled. And before tossing them into the recycle bin, I figured I would memorialize them forever on my blog.
Long live Fly Light Web Design!
“2D bulb w/ wings” This lightbulb with wings around it is humbling to look back at.
“3D bulb w/ wings” A little bit of an improvement. Less of a hieroglyphic and more of a logo.
“Bird Bulb” My scribble next to this one read “bird bulb”… don’t ask.
“Bulb w/ parachute” A lightbulb with a parachute. This isn’t really fly light, so much as it is sloooooowly falling light.
“Wings” I was experimenting with different wings.
“FL in a box.”
“FL out of the box?”
“Fly behind light”
“Casual feel” Sounds like the name of a condom. This ended up becoming our actual logo.
I can go on for days about how and why I disagree with democrats on a number of issues, but what frustrates me the most is one specific flavor of democrats, and that’s white liberals. So please enjoy my blog, The Thing about (White) Liberals. And to be balanced, and because I’m an equal opportunity smack talker, I will follow it up shortly with another blog The Thing about (uber Religious) Conservatives.
White liberals try so hard to help people of color and those they consider minorities, poor people and other unfortunate souls, but they fail miserably because their policies (and to a large extent even their mentality) actually serve to make things worse for the very people they are trying to help. I would actually argue that many white liberals are unknowingly, yet subtly racist.
That’s not to say that I believe in some paradigm shift where all racists are white liberals, and all white liberals are racist. However while I think racism is spread pretty uniformly across all groups, it’s worth pointing out the oblivious racism in that exists in certain parts of society, because a wolf dressed as a sheep is more dangerous than a wolf dressed as a wolf.
White Liberal Policies
White liberals propose legislation like rent control, minimum wage hikes, protected domain, and mandatory unions which they think will better peoples’ lives, but which actually make the lives of their constituents even tougher. We can have a 10 hour debate about the effects such policies have, but let’s instead defer to the 40 year case studies known as the real world, in which such social experiments were expected to flourish, but instead floundered.
Look at rent control in Los Angeles and New York where lower income people either can’t afford to live in a nice place, or live in a place that hasn’t been updated in 40 years because the owner can’t afford to make the needed repairs. Protected domain in places like Santa Barbara have essentially stopped the construction of new housing. As populations swell, and housing remains fixed, rents will rise. And minimum wage jobs would be a great foot in the door for high school seniors and recent high school grads, but why the hell would a business owner pay an unskilled pimply faced teenager $15 per hour when they can spend the same money and hire someone with years of experience and who needs the money. So laws that were intended to help the poor, the disenfranchised, the needy, people of color, minorities, whatever you want to call them – have backfired.
White Saviors
Another tenet of white liberalism is that only white people – specifically white liberals – can save the poor, poor colored people. White liberals have appointed themselves as the savior to who they consider to be their feeble minded, hapless, colored brethren. That’s not my opinion. That’s their opinion.
In a world where words like racist, fascist, ignorant, xenophobe, and literally are among the most frequently misused and misunderstood words, white liberals and their policies of contradistinguishing black people and other minorities, and then assigning themselves as messiah, is literallyracist.
If I told you that black people are inherently so incompetent that white people need to make special laws to make it easier for black people to get jobs (and that, oh by the way, I’m a Republican) you would consider that racist.
However if I told you my name was Joe Liberal, and I had this grand idea called Affirmative Action that would undo the wrongs suffered upon the blacks by white people, (and did I mention my name was Joe Liberal, right?) you would hail it as a victory of racial equality.
White liberals get an orgasm watching Avatar.
When you boil it down, that is their belief. They say it, they act it, they legislate it.
White Washed Nomenclature and Politispeak
We can’t even have an honest discussion about the struggles of different people in the country because everything has become a buzz word.
Instead of black people, or predominantly black communities, politicians say ‘urban America’.
Instead of non-rich white people, politicians say ‘middle America’ or ‘the middle class’.
Instead of rich white people, politicians say ‘top income earners’.
At various points in time the correct way to refer to people who aren’t white has changed from ‘colored’, to ‘minorities’, to ‘people of color’, and I’m sure some new term like ‘post racial individual’ is in the works as we speak. Let me consult my quack, white social psychologist first. Vernacular created by white liberals is like iPhones – new ones come out every two years, and if you’re caught using an old one you’re a piece of shit and to be ostracized from society.
Vernacular created by white liberals is like iPhones – new ones come out every two years, and if you’re caught using an old one you’re a piece of shit
Each time a new word is ushered in, it’s because white liberals decided the old word was racist, derogatory, and antiquated. Except the stupidity of it all is that it was white liberals who years earlier came up with those terms in the first place.
In my college computer programming class, I read a meme that went “If debugging is the process of removing bugs from code, does that mean that programming is the process of putting bugs into code?”
Put concisely, yes, it does. So if the role of a white liberals in society is removing derogatory words from common usage they coined, does that mean that the role of white liberals is to create new, acceptable, derogatory terms in the first place?
The Liberal Problem Solution Dilemma
Up to this point everything has in some way been tied to race, and I attribute that to white liberals being the constant race baiters of the nation. Well… them and Al Sharpton. I think the truth is the majority of people (white or not) wake up and go on about their day and don’t give race or ethnicity or religion a thought. It’s not that they are avoiding the issue, it’s that for constructive people who have a fucking job and real world obligations, worrying about shit like which word is the least offensive really doesn’t make the priority list.
It’s amazing how in the light of things that actually matter, liberal policies tend to be bleached out. That’s because liberal propositions are not solutions to problems, but rather solutions in search of problems – answers to questions no one ever asked. I’ll conclude with four things which haunt American liberals, and why people can’t stomach them.
Liberals attempt to solve problems that aren’t problems
Liberals attempt to solve problems that aren’t theirs to solve
Liberals create problems, say Republicans created them, and then fail to solve them
Liberals don’t have the backbone to solve tough problems
One – Liberals attempt to solve problems that aren’t problems
Example, California Governor Jerry Brown recently enacted legislation that would remove the word “alien” from all legislation, presumably because it was ‘too offensive’. This will probably cost a good deal of money to implement, and will have no tangible benefits to anyone, yet alone aliens.
Two – Liberals attempt to solve problems that aren’t theirs to solve
Three – Liberals create problems, blame Republicans, and fail to solve them
Rent control is probably the largest contributor to unaffordable housing and poor living conditions in predominantly democrat run communities. Another is unsustainably high minimum wage which discourages employers from hiring inexperienced workers for entry level positions – the very positions that in large cities would be filled by the democrat constituency. Affirmative action is the most notorious of the liberal policies, lowering the bar so much as to discourage competitive behavior in previously discriminated demographics. Decades since all of these social experiments have been implemented and black Americans are still staggeringly unemployed, underemployed, renting as opposed to owning their homes, and living in poverty.
Four – Liberals don’t have the backbone to solve tough problems
Liberals have cornered the market on complaining and being slacktivists. The notion that if you bitch and moan and stomp your feet long and loud enough, you can make change. Oh, and using sarcasm in the absence of an intelligent answer.
When Boko Haram was headline news a couple years ago, we had a bunch of whiney white liberals calling for ‘justice’ – whatever the hell that means – and writing letters, and silk screening t-shirts, and changing their Facebook profile pic, and all around just being annoying. They accomplished absolutely nothing. This is because liberals have no resolve. They lack the spine to do what is necessary. We’re talking about some child kidnapping war lord in war torn Africa and these pansy ass white college kids are talking about ‘delivering justice’ and having some guy stand trial. Oh yeah sure. For fucks sake, just start a kick starter, raise a couple millions dollars and hire some mercenaries to kill the fucking guy if you really want to make some change.
Summary
Whereas liberals think conservatives are trying to destroy the world, I won’t feign such stupidity by reciprocating. I do legitimately believe that liberals want to help the world, end famine, disease, war, and poverty. However despite their good intentions I think many liberals lack real world experience. Experience that when had, lends itself to pragmatism and hard knocks methods more typical of conservatism. While living a life of principle is admirable, living a life of fantasy is detrimental. It leads to inflated and unrealistic expectations, like free college, the prospect of never being offended, and a guaranteed job waiting for you after college even if you got a degree in something like ‘Ethnic Studies’ with no realistic career prospects.
The thing with white liberals isn’t so much in their ideals, as it is their ideas.
Please stay tuned as I plan on following up this post soon with The Thing about (uber Religious) Conservatives.
I had been waiting for Deadpool since Fox officially announced they would make it back in 2014. I was waiting before then, since the idea of a Deadpool movie first came about in 2009 when a horrible rendition of the character appeared in Fox’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the shittiest X-Men movie in the franchise to date. In fact, XMOW was so shitty Fox literally made a sequel where they go back in time to undo the events of the movie, effectively making it non-canon.
Look two faces right of Wolverine, and who is that?! Gasp, you should! Reynolds as Wade Wilson the first time, in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
As tangential as that may have sounded, it wasn’t. It’s the shittiness of Fox’s earlier comic book movie endeavors that produced the colossus (ha, get it?) of a movie that is Deadpool.
Deadpool is a wisecracking mercenary who has healing powers similar to Wolverine, and who uses swords, knives, guns, and chimichangas to hilariously kill his way through life. He’s also cognitive of the fact that he’s a comic book character and often “breaks the fourth wall” meaning he addresses the audience directly.
Fox’s 2016 Deadpool stars Ryan Reynolds as the titular character Deadpool / Wade Wilson. What you may not know is that is technically the second time Reynolds portrayed the character. As previously mentioned, Reynolds played a version of the character, albeit a very much under done and poorly written version, in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. So that fact that Fox doubled down and went balls out to make a solo, R-Rated comic book flick about a character known for cussing up a storm and killing people actually got me a little hard.
If you haven’t seen Deadpool, SEE IT. Based on how many records it’s broken it’s hard to imagine there’s a soul left on this earth who hasn’t seen it. Ya know what, if you’ve seen it already, go see it again, smart ass.
Lets be honest, Fox took a bigger gamble with Deadpool than Marvel/Disney did with Guardians of the Galaxy. Which do you think is easier to market to children, talking raccoons in talking trees, or burn victim, foul mouthed, sex addicted mercenaries?
The movie was everything I expected and much more. It wasn’t just the above. Despite cramming in the character’s core persona and mythos, they managed to make the character relatable in and out of the spandex. Wilson talks like us. He walks like us. He drinks like us. He loves like us. He jokes like us. He’s not a choir boy, and he does fuck up every once in a while, but despite the fuckups he’s still a good guy, not a villain. And just like all of us, sometimes bad things befall him, for no wrongdoing of his own. And this movie did a fantastic job of showing what extremes a good people will go to in order to save themselves, and more importantly to better the lives of those we love.
Despite how much I love Marvel and their titles like Iron Man and Captain America, Wade Wilson is 10x more relatable to the audience than Tony Stark or Steve Rogers.
I don’t need to review this movie. The movie was great, and honestly you should see it. The only, and I mean only bad thing about the movie that I say actually has nothing to do with the movie itself. It has to do with the marketing. Fox was so worried about filling seats that they over marketed it. Leading up to the movie there were so many different teasers, trailers, clips, commercials starring Deadpool and viral marketing that by the time I first plopped my ass in the theater seat, I felt as if I had already seen the movie. And to be honest, I kinda did. Spend 20 minutes on YouTube and watch all the aforementioned and you’ve basically seen the movie. But just because I got filled up on Costco free samples doesn’t make the movie any less enjoyable.
Despite having blown most of its load in it’s advertising campaign, I still thought Deadpool was an amazing movie, and it definitely did not disappoint. It was funny, no, it was gut wrenching hilarious. On several occasions I thought I needed a respirator because I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe, which is sort of ironic once you’ve seen the movie. I particularly loved the jab about KFC sporks, especially since I thought I was the last person on earth to remember the fabled tool of the ancients. Just as Deadpool riddles his enemies with bullets, the entire movie is riddled with dick and fart and sex jokes and Mexican food. Comical jabs abound. The film has plenty of in your face comedy, but it also has tons of more subtle comedic moments that you have to pay attention to in order to appreciate. Tonally, the movie felt a lot like Archer.
The movie played very fast and loose with the whole breaking the fourth wall bit. Reynold’s Deadpool not only did so, but the movie also was self-aware and made plenty of references to out of movie productions that Reynolds and his former co-stars had participated in, such as Green Lantern, the Blade series, and the overall X-Men franchise even going so far as to name particular actors like Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy, and Hugh Jackman.
It also goes without saying that the movie had plenty of action. Which is interesting now that I think about it because despite centering around a guy with swords and knives and things that go boom, the movie put comedy in the drivers seat, drama in shotgun, and action in the backseat. The X franchise was so dry and dull and comedy-less with over the top action that it was refreshing to see a change of formula. Deadpool, besides his healing, really doesn’t have “super powers”. He can’t fly or control the weather or shoot red crap out of his eyes or lift the entire Golden Gate Bridge. He can run, jump, and shoot, and he does ‘em all with style. This is definitely not an action movie the likes of Michael Bay.
Most of all, I am happy for Ryan Reynolds. He seems like a nice guy who just kept getting shafted career wise. Everyone loved him in Waiting and Van Wilder, but as iconic and memorable as those roles were they probably didn’t pay too well. Blade 3 was okay, but nothing compared to Blade 2. Then he had a series of mega flops like Green Lantern and R.I.P.D. So it’s great to see him getting a stab at a role that’s finally on par with the weight his name brings to a movie.
If you want a hilarious movie, with relatable characters, excellent dialogue, a healthy dose of action, the occasional insensitive remark, and a possibly CGI’ed super suit, then this is the movie for you. Or if you’re just tired of apocalyptic (irony again!) superhero movies.
Uber busted on to the scene a couple years ago and it has made a ton of waves and headlines since. The taxi cab replacing service has garnered tons of popularity and enthusiastic response. However what you don’t know can hurt you, and my guess is that in a few short years some of the popularity surrounding Uber will turn into notoriety.
The truth is, that as of right now, the current Uber model really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, not only might Uber simply not be as financially lucrative as many other articles have bemoaned, Uber might actually ended up royally fucking you over.
Most of the anti-Uber stuff I have read either deals with things like politics, whether Uber is profitable for drivers or not (the answer is no, it’s not), and then the occasional scare blog that you’ll get raped by your Uber driver. The authors of the pieces don’t do themselves any favors because the pieces are so narrowly focused on one minor issue that they downplay the real urgency related to Uber, it’s drivers and their passengers.
And while these might be real issues related to Uber, they aren’t central to the reason you should stop using it. Each driver will wrongly or rightly decide to what extend if at all Uber/Lyft and similar services are profitable for them, and if it’s worth doing. And the rape/murder kidnapping stories are to avoiding Uber, as shark attacks are to avoiding surfing – statistically ignorable.
Trouble with the Law
The real dangers with Uber are legal and liability related. Insurance isn’t sexy and it certainly won’t make any headlines but insurance – or the lack thereof – is the single greatest reason for not using Uber, especially as a driver.
(I am a licensed and very knowledgeable insurance agent, so trust that this isn’t just hearsay coming out of my ass. This is some real advice you can take to the bank.)
Vehicle owners are required by law to have insurance on every registered vehicle. Given that all reputable car insurance companies exclude livery service from their personal auto products, this effectively means that if you are an Uber driver, and you have a regular ol’ car insurance policy, you are driving without insurance, and you are breaking the law.
Don’t believe me? Ask your agent for a copy of your auto application. I know, I know. You flipped right to the last page, signed your name, and didn’t read a single line. But if you had, you’d have notice the part of the contract stating you decline coverage for livery, delivery, and other commercial use.
Ways this can screw you:
Having your driver’s license suspended
Having your vehicle registration suspended
Receiving a traffic ticket for a no insurance violation, in addition to the ticket you got for the original reason you were pulled over
Meeting SR-22 requirements (if you are required to have one, if for example you are required to because of a DUI)
Huge fines
Increased future insurance premiums
Insurance and Financial Liability
All the other stuff above is really just annoyances and inconveniences. Granted some of those things can cost you a couple hundred dollars, but ultimately they’ll waste dozens of hours of your time. I suppose time is money though.
But, back on track, Uber driving is a great way to screw yourself financially. Kids, it’s time to review insurance 101. In the United States owners of vehicles are financially responsible and liable for any damage or bodily injury resulting from the use of said vehicles.
What this means is that if you get into an accident and damage another party’s car or property, you are responsible for all costs of repairing / replacing whatever it is you messed up.
Now comes the real juicy stuff. What if in addition to damaging property you ended up injuring someone, or actually hospitalizing someone? Or dare I say it, you paralyze or kill someone?
Either way, if you don’t have insurance, you are screwed. And if you are driving Uber at the time the accident happens, I repeat again, you are screwed.
Uber has gained some negative attention in the past couple years for not covering accidents their drivers get into. The rationale was always that you were a private contractor, not an employee, and while Uber has applied that thinking to their stance on employee benefits, they’ve also applied it to their stance on auto insurance. You are responsible for your own insurance, not Uber. So while many rumors abound that Uber does over you, if that was the case you’d have to ask yourself why they mandate you have coverage of your own.
Extra Notes
Commercial Insurance
The only guaranteed way to have proper liability coverage would be to take out a commercial auto policy that explicitly includes coverage for livery services. Such policies are more expensive and might be with “surplus” carriers.
Financed Cars
If your car is being leased or financed for personal use (pleasure, commute, etc) and you use it for Uber or Lyft, you may actually be in violation of your lease/loan agreement since commercial usage is strictly prohibited. If you do your due diligence and get a commercial auto policy and submit it to your finance company, they’ll surely spot it, and take action against you. So while you might spare your left foot, you may inadvertently end up shooting your right foot.
By The Books
Proper licensing and decals are also important. Certain areas mandate that taxi cabs be registered and have all the proper decals. Uber is a taxi by any other name, like it or not. And if you are performing taxi services without getting all the necessary permits/licenses/registration in place, again, you may be breaking the law and subject to fines.
Passenger Risk
Lastly, you shouldn’t even use Uber as a passenger. Would you knowingly use a roller coaster if you knew the amusement park carried no liability insurance? If not, why would you get in someones car if you knew they did not have auto insurance? Considering 32,000 people in the U.S. die in car crashes each year, and only 3 die on roller coasters in the same amount of time, if you could justify not getting on an uninsured roller coaster, not getting in an uninsured car is should be a no-brainer.
In Summary
Uber drivers not getting paid enough or the prospect that your next passenger might be an axe murderer are certainly issues worth discussing in a different post. However the main reasons for not participating as an Uber driver is because you can get royally screwed in the event of an accident. Life won’t be very fun for you once the injured party lawyers up, and you’re staring down the barrel of a lawsuit with no insurance company standing behind you. Add to this that when the DMV finds out, they’ll also take away your license and your car, you’ll be traveling up shits creek, and it won’t be in an Uber.
I was reading this opinion piece on Politico this morning, and it just jumped out at me. The title is “Donald Trump is Shocking, Vulgar, and Right” and as I read, I found that the piece itself was shocking, vulgar, and correct.
I encourage you to read it, because it was enlightening. The gist of it was that while Trump has offended the Republican elite, – the unnamed, shot calling ‘ephors’ that exist in both major political parties – Trump has had unexpected success with the actual masses.
As is customary, I scrolled through the comments section to find the usual bantering vitriol one would expect at the end of any political op-ed, especially one about a controversial figure such as Donald Trump.
As is typical, you have your fair share of white-guilt liberals who think anyone who doesn’t vote Blue is a racist, old, white, evangelical, gun owning male.
Liberals have severely underestimated Trump’s appeal. I live in California where it’s pretty Democratic and I can’t believe how many ‘typical Democratic voters’ are coming out of the woodwork in support of Trump.
“I had to support Obama ‘cuz you know, I’m black and he’s my boy. But dude, Trump is killin’ it.”
Of course it’s always in private confidence to me as a Libertarian, or as an insurance agent. My black friends fear being raced out of town by their other black friends, if they admitted to supporting Trump. One such friend told me “I had to support Obama ‘cuz you know, I’m black and he’s my boy. But dude, Trump is killin’ it.” And he proceeded to tell me how what Trump said really resonated with him, even in areas I was sure they wouldn’t like Trumps stance on terrorism, immigration, and the refugee debate. And though he would never dare say that to a group of suspected democrats, he’d say it to me.
So what’s the appeal here? Why do people like Trump, or to auto-correct myself, why do so many people like Trump enough to vote for him? Trump’s got balls. He’s got chutzpah. I may not always agree with him but then again what politician do you ever fully agree with? But he says it like it is. Candor is something the black community and other minority groups can appreciate, however candor is something white liberals avoid at all costs in their embrace of self-censorship and PR verbalise.
Even I can admit Trump has made a couple gaffes, but when you break it down and scrutinize what he’s said even some of his more noticeable stumbles are really an overreaction to some benign, and common sense stuff. To quote the author;
“Apart from his line about Mexican rapists early in the campaign, Trump hasn’t said anything especially shocking about immigration. Control the border, deport lawbreakers, try not to admit violent criminals — these are the ravings of a Nazi?”
Trump has a greater appeal than most people give him credit for and it’s not something you can easily sum up in a cross-sectional analysis of poll results.
When Trump does something, he does it once, he does it big, he does it right. He pulls out all the stops. If you like keepin’ it real, then Trump’s your man since he’s the king of keeping it real. Trump says fuck the system and he’s not afraid to point fingers and call people out on their bullshit. You don’t give a fuck? Trump patented not giving a fuck.
I liken Trump to guard dog. What do you look for in a guard dog? Do you want your guard dog to be polite? To be kind? To care if the other dogs in the neighborhood like him? No. You picked that dog to keep you safe and devour any one that messes with you or your family. For the past 8 years we’ve had an apologist cupcake in the white house who only ever had the balls to pick a fight with fellow Americans across the political aisle, but who could never be bothered to stick it to Iran, ISIS, North Korea, Russia, or China. Say what you will about Trump but even democrats can concede the man loves his country, bleeds red, white and blue, and is one hell of a pro-U.S. cheerleader.
And perhaps counter intuitively, Trump might be doing so well because he’s the anti-Hillary. Yeah they’re both old and white. But the polarization is in their approach, and in their appeal.
Hillary has never known a job outside of politics. She’s been in politics since she was 21 years old. She’s been making a living off tax payers for over 40 years, with no intention of ever leaving. Donald Trump is fresh off the streets in terms of politics.
Clinton is a certifiable liar. After all, she comes from a family of liars. Her husband lied about an affair to her and the entire country. From private email servers being wiped clean to Benghazi. She lies. Her husband lies. And the entire world knows it. Trump is a crude, rude, dude, and might misspeak from time to time, but there is no one more honest than him right now in headline politics.
Trump is so bad-ass he let him self get roasted on Comedy Central.
Hillary has an army of political scientists whispering into her ear, telling her what to say, how to say it, and how to deflect criticism. Every sentence, every word, every syllable she utters is a carefully chosen, orchestrated regurgitation of politi-speak. She is a master politician, I’ll give her that. Trump is not. Trump couldn’t give two shits if what he says offends you or your kitten. He’s a master ass kicker.
Hillary Clinton could literally be caught on camera eating a baby and liberals wouldn’t care.
And I think the biggest difference between the two politicians is not just their appeal, but their audience. Hillary Clinton could literally be caught on camera eating a baby and liberals wouldn’t care. Anyone that suggested she is unscrupulous, or that she be indicted would be met with a fury of insults from her cult like followers that they are sexist, misogynist, blasphemists. In the world of Clintonites, Hillary can do no wrong.
Juxtapose that to Trump supporters. I’m a Trump Supporter, and I’ll be the first person to tell you Trump is a dick. He is! It’s no mystery, and if you ask your Trump friends they’ll tell you the same. We don’t try to masquerade our candidate as some saint, some divine messiah like what was done with Obama and what is being done with Hillary now. Trump is what he is. A flesh and blood man with a plan. He’s a bad ass mother fucker who takes no shit, gives no fucks, and takes care of business, and – yes, I will remind you – he’s a dick. But he’s an honest dick. And he’s our dick.
He’s a dick. But he’s an honest dick. And he’s our dick.
As I’ve stated before, when I started this blog I originally intended it to be a place where I could vent about things that are controversial issues being discussed in society, but which I thought were too long to post on Facebook, and I certainly didn’t want to argue with strangers on the internet.
Like most people I am a bit reluctant to talk about controversial stuff. Many people who know me would probably disagree with that statement. But it’s true, I am reluctant. Very reluctant. But I push past it.
There’s a lot of controversial things out there which have flared up in recent years, even this past year (2015). Especially with it being all about the 2016 elections, we have every buried issue getting unearthed all at once.
What’s more is that in addition to people thinking I’m some loud mouth, I feel like a lot of people, even my close friends, think I’m an asshole for saying it. I’m an asshole for thinking it. For believing it. For wanting to share my thoughts about it. And that’s the hush hush world we live in now where though police shame people who disagree with them into not expressing themselves.
But I don’t think I’m an asshole and I want to let everyone know what I think about the issues of our time, because I have a voice, and I think it matters.
Generally Speaking
I’m a libertarian. I’m all for live and let live. Legalize and regulate. Keep things simple and practical. Individuals must be responsible for themselves. And individuals must be responsible for only themselves. That’s the gist of my approach and I try to be as consistent as possible in how I apply it.
Now for the juicy stuff.
Weed
I don’t see what the big deal is. I don’t smoke weed. I have smoked weed, but I don’t smoke weed. Does that make sense? I’ve done it but I’m not a habitual user and I can probably count the number of times I have used wee on my fingers. It’s not for me, but then again neither is pistachio ice cream. Weed doesn’t hurt anyone, but if it does, it’s only the person using it. I think it should be legal.
Whose bright idea was it to take something horrible and turn it into a dessert?
Apparently there are even medicinal purposes for it. But I don’t think someone should be required to have a special medical card or prescription to get weed. I think it should be fully legalized for recreational use for anyone 18 or over.
That being said, I think it should be treated like a mixture of alcohol and cigarettes. You can drink, but you can’t drink and drive. You can drink, but your ass might get fired for showing up to work drunk. (Not me, because I’m awesome and drink at my desk regularly). As much as I think you have the right to use weed, I think that employers ought to maintain the right to hire or fire based on whether or not you use it, with the exception being legit medicinal purposes, and not just “glaucoma”.
Abortion
First off, let’s walk briskly past the whole life of the mother thing. Yes, I got it, if the mom faces health problems, or the baby is missing half a heart or something then no argument there. Do what needs to be done.
This is a tough issue though, it really is. Of course we’ve got the whole “women’s rights” and that whole spiel. (Oh, on a side note I do have a tinsy winsy thing I’d like to inject here, for the sake of keeping this semi-short, please refer to my future blogs)
But then let’s be real, there is the very real baby thingamajig inside the womb. Here’s a thought… if a woman who had every intention of coming to term fell down a flight of stairs and lost her child, no one would dare say “oh well it technically wasn’t even alive yet.” because they’d be the biggest most heartless douchebag in the world and run out of town. But when a doctor does it surgically, it’s considered by some to be less horrible. So it is at least disingenuous to play the whole “it’s not a life” card. A fetus might not meet the textbook definition of a life, but it’s definitely not nothing either.
If abortion was illegal, there arises the dilemma of coming up with a suitable punishment, and that’s a can of worms in itself. A mom with two kids gets an abortion because she can’t afford to feed a third mouth? Whatcha gonna do? Throw her in prison and deprive the other two of a mother?
My thought is that no legal punishment will have as much of a lasting effect as someone’s own sense of guilt. The picketers, the rioters, possible jail time. All of that pales in comparison to the weight of such a decision.
The truth is every pregnancy is different. Ever set of parents and their life situation is different. But what all of them have in common is that getting an abortion is probably not (hopefully not) an easy decision, and shouldn’t be taken lightly. And for those who feel no guilt, the ‘repeat offenders’ who have no qualms whatsoever about abortions…. Just maybe the world is better off without them as parents.
I’m not pro abortion. I’m not anti abortion. I’m thankful I’ve never been in a position where I had to make that choice. And heaven forbid I was, I sure as hell wouldn’t want an already complicated situation compounded and exacerbated by politicians.
Also, this song.
Guns
My more left oriented friends probably think I’m a gun nut. To them I say, you’ve never met a real gun nut.
Again, my stance is legalize and regulate. I think guns should be legal but just like with the law, the rule ought to be innocent until proven guilty…or in this case, incompetent.
By default everyone can have guns, but then we set up some parameters like you have to be of age, you have to be mentally sound, you can’t have committed a violent crime, and you can’t have a restraining order against you. Stuff like that.
I’m also for digging a little deeper. I think people with a history of reckless driving behavior should probably undergo some extra scrutiny. Do we want a guy with 5 accidents, 8 tickets and a DUI handling a gun? Guns are deadly, no argument there. And just as doing stupid shit can cost you your license, I am surprisingly not opposed to it costing you your right to bear arms.
Honestly, I can name a few people who shouldn’t be anywhere near a firearm, and for good reason. As a gun owner, I’ll be the first person in line to admit that yeah, guns are dangerous in the wrong hands.
And now for what I consider the ‘peripheral attacks’ on firearms. The big distractor, the go to red herring used by ‘gun control’ advocates is the fallacious argument that “no one is trying to take away all your guns”. I call bullshit.
There are literally laws in the U.S. that restrict:
how long or short a gun can be
how long or short the barrel can be
what type of bullets can be fired
what materials a bullet can be made of
how many bullets a magazine can accommodate
the physical mechanism for releasing a magazine
the shape of a rifle stock
whether or not a rifle stock can extend
how many guns you can buy at once
how long you have to wait to pick up a gun you purchased
how you can store guns
how you can transport guns
features that are purely aesthetic or ergonomic in nature have been outright banned, such as a barrel shroud, a muzzle brake, or a flash suppressor.
The truth is most guns in this country sit in a safe 360+ days per year collecting dust. In 2011 there were about 8,583 gun deaths in the U.S. There were about 270-310 million privately owned guns, both legally and illegally. The population coincidentally was about 311 million. Using that figure there is/was a .00275% chance that a gun/gun owner would shoot you dead.
That same year, 32,479 people died in car accidents. Almost four times as many. When four times as many people are dying accidentally, as are being murdered intentionally, I think that shines a light on the larger problem.
Why are you arguing with me? Willy Wonka said it, goosh…
I don’t think gun laws are the problem, therefore I don’t think more gun laws are needed. I think this country has a cultural problem, and gun violence, rape, texting and driving are all symptoms of that one illness.
Immigration
I don’t think it’s outlandish to claim that a country can’t just let in anyone and everyone. I don’t know that we need a fence along the entire border, but I also don’t think that enforcing your borders is xenophobic. It’s just prudent.
Pretty much every country in the world enforces its border, or at least those with the resources to effectively do so. But in the U.S., such a practice is considered racist.
I think of a country as a giant house, and the citizens as a giant family. If someone broke into your house (crossed your border) and squatted in your garage, do you think you should be obligated to leave them be? Now imagine that person broke in and had a bunch of kids? Are you now required to let them all stay? Are you required to feed them? Pay their medical bills? Pay for their kids school supplies?
But I’m not heartless. Think about how dire your situation has to be that you would risk life and limb, and even the safety of your family, to abandon your home for a land where you have nothing, know nothing, and don’t speak the language. Most of the people coming here are looking to provide for their families and I give them a hell of a lot of credit for that. They’ve crossed a desert, crossed a border, to work. I know some American born people who at times couldn’t be bothered to cross the living room to apply for a job.
That being said, the law is the law. If you got caught sneaking into Mexico, fat chance you’d be treated as a victim. And no one calls the Federalis xenophobic. I think we should allow more people to work here without necessarily being citizens. Give them a higher income tax rates to encourage US businesses to hire domestic first, but at least make the process legit.
Here we are, almost half way through December and speeding towards Christmas. As I get older, it seems as though the holiday season gets faster and faster, and glides by so quickly that I hardly have a chance to notice it, much less enjoy it. It feels like Christmas 2014 was just a few weeks ago. And yet here I am perched at my kitchen table on December 13th at 10:25PM, writing a blog post I thought about writing back in November, and that I started and never completed writing on December 9th. Time really does fly by.
When I was a kid I used to love Christmas. That’s not to say I don’t any longer. I absolutely do. Christmas is the only holiday I like more than Halloween, especially now that I’m creeping away from my college years. But when you are a kid, you really really love Christmas. Everything about it is so magical. Everyone decorates their home and the neighborhood is lit up with Christmas lights and decorations. We bring beautiful, fresh cut, woods scented trees into our homes. An come that magical morning everyone meanders their way to the tree, surrounds by amazingly adorned boxes and ribbons. We sit around a lit fire place , drinking coffee and cocoa and spiced cider and eggnog. We sing carols. We listen to the same old Christmas songs. My favorite was always the Little Drummer Boy. In fact, listen to this beautiful rendition of it while you read this blog post, because I was listening to it while I wrote it.
When you’re a kid, Christmas truly feels like it lasts forever. And that’s because, relatively speaking, it sorta does. When you’re 5 years old, one more year is literally an extra 20% of your total life. When you’re 29? 40? 50? One year, relative to the time you’ve lived, feels like a commercial break.
As a child I remember seeing Christmas decorations in stores earlier than normal, and thinking nothing of it. When I got older, I started really noticing. I used to think it was weird to see it before Thanksgiving, and just this year I recall seeing it as early as pre-Halloween.
I’ve always heard people gripe about how Christmas stuff comes out on shelves earlier and earlier each year. This year my first thought was to do the same thing, and gripe. But wait. Just wait…. Maybe, just maybe, this is a good thing. As a kid the holidays seem to last forever and that’s partially because we have no responsibilities. We don’t have bills or jobs, or obligations. We’re out of school for a month with nothing to do but play and have fun and soak in the holiday spirit.
We’re usually so busy making Christmas, we often forget to slow down and take the time to enjoy Christmas.
But as an adult, I do have responsibilities. A ton of them. And a demanding job, and taxes, my fair share of bills, and dozens of obligations. On top of that, we’re (adults) the ones planning events, driving, decorating, buying gifts, and coordinating these massive family events that youngins can enjoy. As adults, we’re tasked with bringing the magic, so that kids can enjoy it. There is no winter break for adults. We’re usually so busy making Christmas, we often forget to slow down and take the time to enjoy Christmas.
I am now making a deliberate effort to hit the breaks and enjoy the season. And I slowly start to realize that maybe Christmas in November, Christmas in October is a good thing because it gives us all more of an opportunity to let the holiday spirit truly sink in. In this day and age of political correctness and faith shaming, I am happy to still see Christmas large and alive this time of the year, even if in it’s corporatized, secularized manifestation. A little bit of Christmas, a plastic Christmas, is still better than no Christmas at all. Maybe what this world needs is a little more Christmas. As I get older, and time flies faster, I welcome Christmas in July.
Maybe what this world needs is a little more Christmas. As I get older, and time flies faster, I welcome Christmas in July.
I want to thank everyone for reading this far. I want to thank all those friends and family members and absolute strangers who read my blog posts regularly, follow me, share my posts, and encourage me to keep writing.
Thank you God, for the opportunity you have given all of us, myself included.
As with most of my posts I meant to do this a couple days ago, and it seems a little ill-timed that I would write a Thankgiving-esque posted 4 days after Thanksgiving. But it’s still November, so back off!
I am glad though, that I delayed, because I got to do and experience a few more things to be grateful for that otherwise might not have made its way into this.
First off all, 2015 has been my busiest year ever. Not just the typical sensation that this year flew by faster than the others. In fact 2015 to me was so busy that this year has actually felt slower, which is a blessing in itself.
Friends
My friends take the cake this year. As we all grow older, it tends to become more difficult to spend quality time with our friends. This was certainly the case for me, and I would have loved to have spent more time with my friends. But again as with getting older, perhaps the biggest lesson I have to learn is that friendship (and most things in life) is about quality, not quantity. The number of regular faces has declined, as people grow up, move away, get occupied, and grow apart. The relationships that remain intact become even more impressive, and important, and I am very grateful to have the friends that I do.
One friend and I spent over two months just trying to find an hour or two to grab a quick beer and shoot the shit, but an ever demanding schedule made it nearly impossible for either of us to land squarely on a date and time. We finally did, and the experience was that much more rewarding. What’s impressive though is that in this day of impersonal communication, this friend actually called me, called me, at least once a week to chit chat on the phone, catch up, and just rant like we used to in the old days. As precipitous as these phone calls were, both unexpected, short, and without forum, they were awesome and heartwarming.
I am very grateful for my friends, all of them. And to/in honor of those friends, here’s a quick list of inside jokes and anonymous shout outs.
You know I’ll show up with the shovel. Whose car we taking?
Yarggg! Ye scurvy scum! Give us all yer rubbing alcohol and lemonade! Yarrr
Water plant with cry!
Annndddrrrreeeeeeeeeewwwww
Those who can’t, teach. Those who can’t teach, teach gym. Those who can’t teach gym work for the government.
AAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
Accomplishments
2015 was a hodgepodge of accomplishments that I am quite proud of and thankful for.
Professionally, 2015 was incredibly rewarding. Business has been booming and as stressful as it is, I am eternally grateful. I always figured that it I have to choose between be stressed over having too little work, and being stressed over having too much work, I choose the latter. So many people are struggling to find work, to find clients, and I would take my 60 hour weeks over that any day. Yes I’m busy, but I’m also thriving and I wouldn’t give it up, and I won’t even hint at bad mouthing it. Never stop being thankful for your blessings, because when you do, life has a knack for taking them away.
I’ve hit 1,000 clients, which is a huge milestone for me, especially considering I’ve only been doing this for about 5 years. Just 2 years ago I remember trying to make it to 300, which know seems like a humbling experience, and makes me all the more thankful.
I’m thankful that my job allows me a degree of autonomy and freedom. And as childish as this sounds, I am thankful I am able to come to work in my PJs, and keep beers in my office mini-fridge next to my Avengers poster and bobble-head Groot figurine.
That job I’m thankful for allowed me to accomplish something else, homeownership. I didn’t blast it on social media but as of November 13 I am a happy homeowner!
I could go on for days about the things I am thankful, but I’m hungry so I’m gonna cut this short. I’ve thankful for my health, for my friends, for my family, for my eternally shedding and drooling dog, for my job and professional success, for my accomplishments, for living in San Diego, for Oreos, and for comic book movies. I’m thankful for a lot of things, I am thankful if you read this post.
It’s 9:53pm, I just got home from a sneak preview of the upcoming hit, Creed, the latest movie in the decades long running Rocky series. Yes, I said the upcoming hit, because this movie truly delivers.
Late as it, and as tired as I am, I’m not going to bed tonight until I get this review wrapped up. Most of the time when I go to the movies, I sit down, kick back, sneak in a beer to relax a little, then ride home and don’t think a whole lot about the last two hours.
Not this movie.
This time I sat down, kicked back, snuck in a beer, and never got around to drinking it. I didn’t want to relax. I didn’t want to lose my edge. Creed was so damn enjoyable the only way I wanted to watch it was stone cold sober. You know how EDM sucks so bad you need to be drugged out of your mind to tolerate your own existence while listening to it? This movie was the exact opposite.
The story centers around Adonis Creed, son of famed belated champion boxer Apollo Creed. Yes, the same Apollo Creed that squared off against Rocky Balboa. Given that Rocky IV is now 30 years old it should come as no spoiler to anyone that he died in the ring during an exhibition match against Drago, a Russian cyborg.
Young Adonis grows up knowing who his father is, but never tells anyone and prefers to go by his mother’s maiden name to prevent unwanted attention, and fades away into the noise of life. With his mother and father both deceased, he is raised by the state and develops some aggression. Some years later an older Adonis works a desk job in Los Angeles, moonlighting as a backdoor boxer. Adonis doesn’t wait for fate, he pursues it, and moves to Philadelphia with the sole purpose of befriending an exhausted Rocky Balboa. Through a series of (very well written) events, one thing leads to another and Adonis ends up biting off more than he can chew, coming face to face with the legacy of his family name.
This scene will get your blood pumping.
If that seems cliché, it’s only because I can only give away so much information without spoiling the movie. Adonis did not want to piggy back off of the fame of his father’s name. Similarly, the movie could have easily polished up a recycled B-list script, piggy backed off the success of the Rocky franchise and titled this movie Rocky 6, or Rocky: New Beginning, made a couple million and called it a day. Again, not this movie. I was thoroughly impressed with the amount of detail that went into this movie, from the story, to the script, the acting, the casting, the setting, and most importantly how this new story artfully wove itself into the existing canon. Creed very easily fits into the legacy, but would also be entirely enjoyable having never seen a Rocky film in your life.
Something I have been waiting to blurt out is that Michael B. Jordan knocked this role out of the park, or I should say the ring. Apparently his comic book action adventure Fantastic Four totally flopped in theaters both critically and commercially this year. After having watched Creed, I in no way attribute whatever failure Fantastic Four was to Jordan’s performance.
Something about Jordan’s portrayal of Adonis just feels right. From the moment the audience is introduced to the character, he latches on to and grows on you. I’ve seen a bunch of the recent fighting movies like Warrior, The Fighter, Southpaw, and although those are good movies, the characters are all kinda meh. You root for the guy, but only because you sort have to root for the main character, right? In Creed you genuinely want to root for the guy. Michael B. Jordan plays the role so well you forget you’re watching a fictional movie and start to feel like you’re a fly on the wall of a real person’s life, and his character is so damn likable you just want to reach into the screen and give the guy a hug. He was orphaned, is prone to fighting, and portrays that well without the stick-up-his-ass stench that makes it hard to warm up to characters like Tom Hardy’s in Warrior. I appreciated that Adonis wasn’t a walking stereotype. He wasn’t the brooding, he wasn’t angry, he wasn’t depressed, he wasn’t down on his luck, he wasn’t a rebel. He was a true to life character with a real, believable balance of emotions and personality traits that is damn hard to find in a modern cinematic character. I hope to see more of Jordan in future films.
Sylvester Stallone featured more heavily than I thought he would. From the advertising it seemed as though Stallone would cameo in the movie for a few minutes, have a second or two in trailer to create some buzz, put his name on the billboards to draw crowds, and then be all but absent in the film. Instead he had a very fair amount of screen time, and performed a very important supporting role to our central protagonist. Stallone is also more known for his iconic roles than for his acting prowess, but this may have very well been his best performance ever. The famed actor brought real heart and passion into his 6th and possibly last portrayal of the Italian Stallion, Rocky Balboa.
Rounding out the cast was Tessa Thompson as the beautiful Bianca, who despite playing the again “cliché” love interest to Adonis Creed, is a very strong, modern, female role. The movie would have suffered a huge void without her, and she made a great addition to our family of characters. I loved that she wasn’t the typical nagging female character I’ve grown to loath. Lori Grimes from Walking Dead, Madeleine Swann from Spectre, Margaret Schroeder from Boardwalk Empire. Haven’t we had enough of these nagging anchors that call themselves women? Thompson as Bianca was a breath of fresh air, and reaffirmed that you can be a strong woman, and still be beautiful, kind, and loving, without being annoying, or a lesbian.
As do most of the movies that I love, Creed has real heart. I almost cried. I laughed more than I expected to. I commiserated with all the characters. The fight and training sequences were so intense and heart pounding my hands were sweating, my heart was pounding, my legs were shaking, and my hairs literally stood on end. Never since the original Rocky has a fight movie pumped you up so much. The movie was fresh, but it had plenty of nostalgia. True to form, what Rocky movie would be complete without a montage? And this movie managed to pull it off without the cheesy 80’s garb.
Creed was more than a sequel, it was a heart felt and worthy addition to the Rocky franchise.
Now, shall I be so bold… It is my opinion that this was the best movie of 2015. This was the best movie since Winter Soldier. And get this… Creed was the best movie in the Rocky franchise. I will probably see this movie once more in theaters, I will buy this on DVD, and I will anxiously await a sequel.
I give this movie a 10/10. Go see Creed in theaters, you will not be disappointed.
Can You Believe That Guy?! 