A Meating of the Minds

Obamamania Part 3

2008-08-29T19:25:00.002-07:00

This is not character assassination, it's point of fact. The disingenuous nature of how Obama has positioned himself (which I feel this article points out), it's just one reason (and a very, very minor one) why I will not vote for the man.

As far as this article is concerned, I posted it to simply put forward that I think it's rather disingenuous of him to tout himself as Black, while ignoring the Arabic and White aspects of his heritage, just to garner the black vote. If this gentleman was running as a Conservative, this info would have been front page news and front-and-center on all the major networks--including Fox--long before now.

It is only because he has the media fawning over him and practically anointing him the next President already, that this issue has yet to hit the major media. If the GOP dared to put up a guy like that and bill him as "African American" his "true heritage" would have been shouted from the rooftops by now and he would be torn to shreds for being disingenuous.

I happen to agree with this particular author's point. (For the record, Dr. Wheeler's bio was part of the original email, not written by myself).

On the issues, we're talking about a guy who has extremely little experience. What makes a one term Senator who came out of nowhere qualified to run this country? McCain (far from my first choice, BTW) at least has been in Congress since 1982, and knows a thing or two about leadership.

When it comes down to it, we're at war, and I happen to have a nephew in Iraq right now. If I have to choose between these two Senators, I'm gonna pick the guy who at least has seen the realities of war and understands the situation, not a one term Senator who hasn't a clue about war or foreign policy. My nephew's life and what he's worked hard to accomplish over there, is in the hands of the next guy in the office. I don't want someone arbitrarily pulling us out without careful understanding of what will happen if he does so. Personally I think that would be a real slap in the face to more than 4000 Americans and countless Iraqis who have died fighting for Iraqi freedom. We should at least make every effort we can to give their sacrifices honor and purpose, not just leave and let it all disintegrate, only to have another Saddam rise up in the void.

Generally speaking, Senators or Congresspeople are poor choices for President in my opinion anyway. I'd much rather see a Governor (preferably more than one term) or someone with some executive experience running the show. Unfortunately, we're stuck choosing between two Senators.

Personal opinion (well let's face it, this is all personal opinion, isn't it?): Obama is eloquent, dynamic and charismatic - yet devoid of actual substance. I see a dynamic, handsome marketable guy who has been groomed by the DNC since his entry into politics for this very moment, and in my opinion has very, very, very little qualification for the job. On many issues he's even left of Clinton, Kerry and Kennedy - a feat I wasn't sure was even possible.

Frankly, this scares the crap out of me... This is a representational republic where we--the people--choose what we want, not the government. This country is rapidly becoming a nanny-state where the government takes more and more of our money and makes more and more of our decisions for us, ostensibly because we're too stupid to know what we really want and need, and certainly can't be trusted to make decisions for ourselves. Obama, Clinton, Kerry, Kennedy and their ilk only seek to push it further in that direction.

That's not freedom. It's Socialism.

If I wanted a government to hold my hand, babysit me, make my decisions for me and treat me like a six year old, I'd move to Canada or France. I prefer to stay here, and try like hell to keep it from happening to the United States of America.

Obamamania Part 2

2008-08-29T19:25:00.001-07:00

Scott, what the heck? An African American is someone who has ancestors from Africa or was born in Africa. He's not Arab and what if he was? Geez, don't vote for the guy on policy, not ethnicity. A religious cult? Give me a break. If this guy was so brilliant, he would articulate an argument against Obama based on the critical issues the country is facing right now like health care, energy, the economy and foreign policy. I could make the same "cult of personality" accusations about John McCain. I won't because I think he is a good guy, I just don't agree with some of his policies. It is a shame, because this is the first election in a long time where character assasination doesn't have to be a part of the campaign :(

Obamamania Part 1

2008-08-29T19:23:00.000-07:00

I posted the following article on Facebook today, and created a bit of a stir with a friend. Her reply and my response follow:

**************************************

Received in an email (thanks Brian!):

Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler:

The O-man, Barack Hussein Obama, is an eloquently tailored empty suit. No resume, no accomplishments, no experience, no original ideas, no understanding of how the economy works, no understanding of how the world works, no balls, nothing but abstract empty rhetoric devoid of real substance.

He has no real identity. He is half-white, which he rejects. The rest of him is mostly Arab, which he hides but is disclosed by his non-African Arabic surname and his Arabic first and middle names as a way to triply proclaim his Arabic parentage to people in Kenya . Only a small part of him is African Black from his Luo grandmother, which he pretends he is exclusively.

What he isn't, not a genetic drop of, is 'African-American,' the descendant of enslaved Africans brought to America chained in slave ships. He hasn't a single ancestor who was a slave. Instead, his Arab ancestors were slave owners. Slave-trading was the main Arab business in East Africa for centuries until the British ended it.

Let that sink in: Obama is not the descendant of slaves, he is the descendant of slave owners. Thus he makes the perfect Liberal Messiah.

It's something Hillary doesn't understand - how some complete neophyte came out of the blue and stole the Dem nomination from her. Obamamania is beyond politics and reason. It is a true religious cult, whose adherents reject Christianity yet still believe in Original Sin, transferring it from the evil of being human to the evil of being white.

Thus Obama has become the white liberals' Christ, offering
absolution from the Sin of Being White. There is no reason or logic behind it, no faults or flaws of his can diminish it, no
arguments Hillary could make of any kind can be effective against it. The absurdity of Hypocrisy Clothed In Human Flesh being their Savior is all the more cause for liberals to worship him: Credo quia absurdum, I believe it because it is absurd.

*********************

Jack Wheeler is a brilliant man who was the author of Regan's strategy to break the back of the Soviet Union with the star wars race and expose their inner weakness. For years he wrote a weekly intelligence update that was extremely interesting and well structured and informed. He consults(ed) with several mega corporations on global trends and the future, etc. I think he is in semi-retirement now. He is a true patriot with a no-nonsense approach to everything. He is also a somewhat well known mountain climber and adventurer.

Super Bowl XLII - Part II

2008-02-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've said my piece about the game itself and given kudos to the Giants for their incredible upset. But there's one more big thing bugging me.

Thanks to the Patriots insanely historic 18-0 record coming into this game, some cogs in the media hype machine are calling this perhaps the greatest upset in the history of sport.

Well, ok... it's big, even huge; but let's not get carried away. I'll grant you that this was possibly the greatest upset in the history of the NFL, but "in all of sport"? 1980, USA vs. Russia Olympic hockey still tops my list. Followed closely by the Sox routing the Yanks in the 2004 ALCS. That's actualy a really tough call for me. Perhaps they're tied, but I still think the "Miracle on Ice" is a bigger deal. As my Yankee-fan friend Tom R. has pointed out to me on more than one occasion, the Sox should never have been down three games in that series in the first place, which gives the edge to the Miracle on Ice... but that's another blog entry altogether.

Yes, Super Bowl XLII was huge. Yes, it's incredible. Yes it is without a doubt one of the two most amazing Super Bowl victories ever (right up there with "The Guarantee") and arguably the greatest upset in NFL history, but "in all of sport"?

No. Sorry. Don't be silly. Next caller please.

What's missing? Why is Super Bowl XLII not of the caliber of the Miracle on Ice and the 2004 ALCS? How about history. Rivalry. Depth. The weight of all that struggle, years of battles, attempts, failures, victories... it's just not there.

In 1980, the USA's hockey amateurs beat what amounted to the Russian hockey pros, and plowed through an equally professional caliber Finland to get there. We tried for years and never stood a chance. We were never supposed to be able to do that. It shouldn't have been possible.

And if I need to explain the history Sox/Yankees rivalry then you probably wouldn't be reading something like this in the first place. Try as the media hype machine did, they just can't graft the weight and depth of the Sox/Yanks rivalry onto this contest simply because it's a New England/New York match-up.

Let's not forget our history folks, that's a big part of what got he Pats in trouble last night in the first place.

Super Bowl XLII - Part I

2008-02-03T22:10:00.000-08:00

Is it true what the Giants are saying on the news tonight? The Patriots went in there with no respect for the Giants... Cocky, over confident... No respect... Sound familiar? If you're from New England, it certainly should.

No respect. No respect. No Respect... I must have heard that in 4 or 5 different interviews with Giants players tonight. And I think they're probably right. Is our memory really that short here in The House That Kraft Built?

Flashback: Super Bowl XXXVI, February 3, 2002. Patriots 20, Rams 17 (a wee bit of irony there, no? Three point win by the underdogs, also February 3.) After the 2001 Patriots Cinderella season on the backs of our young and virtually unknown QB, along with an incredibly charged-up team, what was our rallying cry throughout the playoffs--and particularly going into the Super Bowl? They thought we were a fluke. We thought the Rams and the media gave us "no respect!"

Think. Remember.

The Pats went in fired-up, energized, challenged and fueled by those who felt they had no reason to be there. Those who felt we couldn't possibly come up against the mighty Rams truly gave us no respect. "The haters" literally laughed at the possibility of the Patriots--long the doormat of the league--ever mounting a serious challenge. It was supposed to be a rout. A cake-walk. And we trounced them in an immensely unexpected upset. We won... by three points.

After the game, multiple interviews with multiple Patriots had many of our players, thrilled and exclaiming over and over; "They gave us no respect" "they said we'd never make it" "They'll respect us now!" They called it one of the greatest upsets in NFL history.

Remember that?

Now it's February 3rd 2008, and we have the Giants; a team who struggled for the first half of the season, came on strong in the second half and in the playoffs, and made it to the Super Bowl. What was their rallying cry coming in against a heavily favored team? "No Respect."

While I sit here nursing my wounds and torturing myself further by watching the news reports and interviews, I'm hearing some familiar phrases and remembering our own triumph under similar circumstances just a few short years ago. I'm hearing NY Giants players thrilled and exclaiming over and over; "They gave us no respect" "they said we'd never make it" "They'll respect us now!"

Look, this game will be dissected for days, weeks, probably even years to come. And it should be. On paper this should not have happened. But this game wasn't played on paper.

For my part, let me say that I honestly don't mean to take anything away from the Giants. They earned this tonight. It's not like we just made a bunch of stupid mistakes and can play that tired old "we beat ourselves" card. No way. We definitely made our share of stupid mistakes, but The New York Football Giants played hard. Their defense was intense and amazing. "The Catch" will go down in history. Over all they did the one thing no one else could do to us all year: they simply outplayed us. Bravo to the Giants. Well done. Congratulations! You managed to beat the best team in NFL history. That's definitely somehting to be proud of.

I just can't seem to shake this sense that it's all just a little bit of history repeating. A history we should have known and remembered all too well to prevent it from coming back and bite us. After all, we wrote it.

Free Online Courses

2008-02-02T20:04:00.000-08:00

I love to learn new stuff, and I tend to learn much more when I can roll through it at my own pace, which is why I love reasearching and reading stuff online.

I recently did some searching for free online business classes and found some pretty useful stuff. So before you spend a small fortune at some online university, consider educating yourself. Unless you actually need to get a degree out of it in the end, this will be a whole lot cheaper! Sure these aren't going to be as in-depth as you'd find in a classroom or a paid online school, but for those on a budget or who just love to learn new things, it's a great option.

General:

Free-ed.net appears to have a pretty broad selection of classes, from GED & College Prep, on up to calculus & trigonometry.

MIT Open Courseware Yep, the venerable Massachusetts Institute of Technology has posted "lecture notes, exams and other resources from more than 1800 courses spanning MIT's entire curriculum" - all available for free! They also stress that "OCW is not an MIT education."

Let's face it, if you're more than about 1890 Smoots from Charlie's Kitchen, you're most likely not getting an MIT education. If you have no clue what a Smoot is or have never heard of Charlie's Kitchen, then you've most likely never even been to The Peoples Republic of Cambridge.

Business/Entrepreneurship:

The Small Business Administration has a rather impressive list of basic training courses - all free! 25 courses in all as of this post, covering issues in a wide range of categories which should appeal to any entrepreneur.

HP (Yes, that' s "Hewlit Packard" friends, not that "other" HP) offers some interesting free and get this--instructor led--courses online. Some are more intriguing in others but if you want to learn the very basics of say, wireless networking or intro to programming, or even "Servers 101" there is some interesting stuff here!

Ubi Ignis Est?

I've always wished I'd taken Latin in school... Perhaps I'll try it here. Or being an audio learner, I might also consider this learn Latin Podcast.

I just came across a great article summing up many excellent sources for free online learning. So I'll shut up now and let Wendy Boswell round out your free online education education.

Specter (or is it SPECTRE?) Is no Patriot!

2008-02-01T15:36:00.001-08:00

Here's a Mind Grinder:

Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA and top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee) wants to waste your tax dollars to get himself a few headlines.

Specter calls the NFL's destruction of the Patriots "Spygate" tapes from earlier this year "inexplicable". Aparently he thinks Commissioner Goodell is dancing around some secret and nefarious reason for their destruction and made veiled threats (very thinly veiled at that) about the NFL's anti-trust exemption being on the line if he didn't get a satisfactory answer.

Commissioner Goodell told the Senator the tapes were destroyed to be sure the Pats couldn't possibly benefit from their "misconduct". Makes perfect sense to me. Specter wonders why simply locking them up would not be sufficient. Goodell stated that they tried that, but the tapes were later leaked, so they were destroyed. Evidently Specter stated that this explanation "absolutely makes no sense at all". Huh? Like the government has a high success rating in securing doccuments, hard drives and the like? Please. Destroying these tapes was the smartest and most secure thing they could have done.

Senator, you're starting to sound as maniacally obsessive as yet another SPECTRE.

"He stopped short of charging a cover-up, but warned that the judiciary panel may want to probe the matter." (AP)

The Senate Judiciary Committee? Really Senator. Give it a rest. The economy's slumping, fuel prices are climbing, we owe the world about... oh, I dunno.... eleven or twelve trillion dollars, and you want to spend my hard earned tax dollars to investigate what?

Why in the world do you want to waste taxpayer money on such a pointless pursuit when there are so many other hugely important issues demanding your time? It seems to me that the Gentleman from Pennsylvania is still stinging a bit from the Eagles 21-24 loss to the Pats in SuperBowl XXXIX.

You're fourth and long on this one Senator. It's time to give up on this drive and punt. The comish ruled and had the tapes destroyed so the Patriots couldn't use them. Case closed. Put what's left of your brain to work on solving a real problem, and stop wasting my money and the country's time, will ya?

In the interest of "full disclosure"... Yes, I'm a Patriots fan. I am also a Conservative and tend to vote Republican more often than not. But this is a bonehead move by Specter and certainly does little to improve the GOP image.

I'm not only a Patriots fan but as you might have guessed, a die-hard Red Sox fan. So let me make myself perfectly clear. Even if this had happened in baseball, and the ~~Evil Empire~~ Yankees had been the ones caught doing something similar against my beloved Sox, I'd still think Specter was crackers, and I'd still tell him to drop it.

It's not about my team. It's about my money.

Email Senator Specter and tell him to stop wasting the taxpayer's money and his fellow Senator's time.

Welcome to Meating of the Minds...

2008-01-29T08:21:00.000-08:00

Well, here we go. I'll be using this blog - as most folks do - to vent my spleen and put my opinion out there on politics, religion, sports, entrepreneurship and small business, or whatever.

A bit about me. I'm an entrepreneurial spirit. I love to brainstorm, tinker and try to come up with fun and unique ways to solve problems, create products or businesses, and hopefully make some money! If you're like-minded I can't wait to chat with you.

Feel free to suggest topic ideas, share links, or just make contact if you like business and brainstorming.

Blessings,

- Scott