Feb 101
Kill all the f*gs that don’t agree
President Obama delivers his first State of the Union speech.
This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are. It’s the right thing to do.
With the economy in the tank, the healthcare bill on life support and his approval numbers free-falling, what Obama did here was clearly distraction politics, getting Americans focused on something where Obama was not at a low point.
But that said, the issue was brought up, and immediately was picked up by the Democratic majority looking for a win (with a major Colin Powell endorsement today), so it’ll be an issue at least for the foreseeable future.
Make no mistake: it’s an important issue. The number of public (that is, “outed”) homosexuals in the United States is estimated as high as 22% and growing, due to homosexuality’s increased (although incomplete) acceptance into the social norm.
For a long time, gay people have wanted to serve their country in the armed forces, an admirable desire to be sure. For decades, gay people had faced persecution, hatred and witch hunts when serving in the military. On July 20, 1993, Bill Clinton reached what he called a compromise, allowing gay people to serve in the military, provided they…you know, didn’t do “gay things”. Clinton said he wasn’t happy with it, but some level of change was necessary and the Joint Chiefs would not budge further than they did. The executive order allowed gay people to serve in the military legally, albeit secretly, and would end the investigations that cost millions of taxpayer dollars.
Why was the compromise necessary? Clinton justified it as “protecting the morale” of the heterosexual troops.
I’ll say that again: “Don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue” was originally ordered to “protect” the heterosexual bigots who had a problem serving with gays in the military. This is rather like opening a school that’s only open to white people, to protect them from the other races.
As I think about it, it’s amazing to me that such discrimination was (and is) considered tolerable for so long. But whereas racism had it’s “Rosa Parks moment” (with the actual Rosa Parks moment itself), homophobia has never had such a story. Seemingly no one wants to talk about homosexuality – maybe it’s harder to understand than race, maybe it’s just a more delicate subject (you can really only be openly black, for example; there is no “in the closet” for being black).
In any case, President Obama is right: it’s time to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Until it is scientifically proven that a gay person can’t shoot a gun as accurately as a straight person, until it’s proven that a gay person is less patriotic than a straight person, until it’s proven that a straight person can actually get AIDS just by being in the same foxhole as a gay person, there should be no difference in how gay people are treated vs. how straight people are treated in the United States military.
Not only is it time we stop censoring gays in the military, but it’s time we stop protecting bigots in the military. I don’t think the problem is as widespread as some would have you believe, but the fact is that some straight people (in all circles, not just the military) are homophobic and this leads to acts based in fear, discomfort or anger. These acts should be punished in the military just as they are in normal society: nothing but respect should be tolerated in the military.
And conversely, while gay people should be allowed to openly serve in the military, they should do so with professionalism. Being in the military is a job, in fact it’s the most important job there is, and it should be treated with the same professionalism that one would treat a corporate job with an HR department and performance reviews.
So there it is. For those of you who know me, this post may come as a surprise to you since I’m not siding with Republicans (or most conservatives) on this matter. But honestly, the more I thought about this issue the more I came to realize that one’s sexual preference should not take precedence over one’s desire to serve. That doesn’t mean “Don’t ask, don’t tell”; it means diversity should be embraced and celebrated (to use the Office cliché), while discrimination and homophobia (or xenophobia, or whatever) should be discouraged and punished.
Note: A couple times while writing this article I made a typo and typed “Don’t ask, don’t Dell”. I think Apple should use this as their marketing slogan and I’m willing to talk price whenever.
Another note: The title, like many of my blog posts, is a lyric from a song I enjoy, “Holiday”, by Green Day. Take nothing more from it than that.
Jul 0913
So how high of a price will you pay?
One of the hallmarks of any liberal running for office is their stance on government-subsided health care insurance. Recently, President Obama has tried to push his universal health care plan as one that will create jobs, stimulate the economy but most importantly, give every eligible American government-provided healthcare. This is a touchy issue; not one Democrat, Republican or otherwise truly want to see a single person have medical conditions untreated. Clearly, it’s a tough problem to solve, but I don’t think the answer involves the government.
First, in the interest of full disclosure, I’ve been very blessed in that throughout my life, I’ve had health care insurance through my parents or through my full-time employer. I’ve also been blessed in that I haven’t been sick or needed a doctor all that much, but when I did, I know I felt worried enough without worrying about how me or my parents were going to pay for it. In essence, I’ve never had to worry about when it was worth going to a doctor – when I felt like I need to, I could go. I’ll concede that while I do my best to understand both parts of this issue, I may never truly understand.
President Obama’s plan, which recently stalled in the House, is a lot like most of his other plans because it involves taxing the well-off to help out the not well-off. It calls for a 5% tax on all private health care insurance and an additional trillion dollars over the next ten years. This doesn’t sound terrible, but again, like most of Obama’s plans, this plan hits the hardest at corporate America: regulations on insurance providers against pre-existing condition exclusion and mandating more health care coverage.
Before talking about this, I think it’s important to touch on the debate that has come up in the last few days regarding doctors and how much they’re worth. Let’s get one thing straight: doctors have every right to earn as much money as they want. Mike Huckabee puts it best in his recent blog, and they’re probably not even paid enough. No one (in Cleveland) cares that LeBron James makes as much money as he does; no one (in New York) cares that Derek Jeter makes as much as he does. And why is that? LeBron and Jeter are both products to sell: they’re world-class athletes who are entertaining to watch. LeBron has probably never thought this, but at some point he made a decision to say, “you know what, I can make a lot of money playing basketball because people will want to see me play.” It worked. Doctors do the same thing: at some point, they say, “you know what, I can provide for my family comfortably being a doctor because people want to be healthy.”
"The product that you’re selling is good health, it shouldn’t be a tough sell." -- Edward Vogler
In essence, all you an accuse doctors of are being good businessmen. You might think this is a little bit like oil companies, who are the most hated corporations in the world because of how much they control our life. However, unlike doctors, there are no good oil companies vs. bad oil companies; when it boils down to it, gas is gas. Good doctors, though, are hard to come by. Doctors are more analogous to the computer industry: sure, that $300 computer from Wal-Mart will probably do the trick, but can’t you accomplish more with a $2300 MacBook Pro (this is not the place for a platform war, but I think we can all agree Apple makes excellent laptops, even if their software isn’t everyone’s…preference)?
So the good doctors have us right where they want us. The best thing to do is to regulate salaries that the hospitals corporations can pay them, so that lesser doctors make more and better doctors make less, right? Would you work hard and go the extra mile in a system that doesn’t recognize it? I think a lot of people would be inclined to selflessly say “of course,” but most doctors have families to provide for, houses to pay for, and student loans (a lot of them) to pay for.
Sure, some of them might take the cut in pay, but perhaps they’d be more on edge at work and miss something important. You see this in Silicon Valley from companies like Google and Facebook: comfortable, luxurious work environments so that employees are able to focus on the job at hand without any distractions. That same principle can’t be directly applied to the medical industry (doctors should really wear lab coats, unless of course they have a Vicodin addiction and walk with a cane), so the perks translate out of the office, where doctors can be allowed to relax as much and as comfortably as possible so they’re ready for work.
President Obama’s plan doesn’t necessarily call for cutting salaries of doctors, at least not directly. However, by regulating that insurance companies cover higher-risk patients, his plan raises the cost of providing health care. Since the health care industry will still have to provide health care (and to more people, now that the plan is universal), the cuts will come out of doctor’s salaries. In fact, maybe hospitals will have to lay off doctors and nurses, meaning lower-quality health care. The money has to come from somewhere.
As another analogy, say the Obama administration passed a universal MP3 player program, where everyone in the country would get an iPod Nano for only $75 each. That’s $75 that Apple is losing in profits per iPod sold. That extra $75 would have to come out of R&D (if everyone’s buying iPods anyway, why bother innovating?) and Apple would be forced to raise prices in the iTunes store to keep everyone at Apple employed. Since most music buyers spend more on music than they do on music players, eventually they would lose money. Under a universal health care system, hospitals would cut funding in R&D to pay the higher costs of running the hospital, higher-income doctors would not be paid as much, meaning the quality of care could suffer (why would a high-income doctor work here for less than he could overseas?).
Universal health care doesn’t work for the same reason communism doesn’t work: there needs to be a merit-based incentive system, otherwise there is never innovation or improvement. Let’s keep the system private and let the mechanics of capitalism figure out how to best reform the health care industry. The American health care industry is the finest in the world, thanks in large part to it being private. Let’s keep it that way.
Sep 080
The little city that could
According to Wikipedia, the city pictured above is the 7th most dangerous city in the world. Sports teams in Cleveland haven’t won a championship in 44 years. The economy in Cleveland is bad and getting worse. Politicians in Cleveland are corrupt, power-hungry and greedy. Lake effect snow is just a weird breeze away.
On that note, I’d like to make a statement to the national media.
DON’T FEEL SORRY FOR US.
It seems like every day I’ll flip on ESPN, CNN or one of the cable news networks and something is said along these lines:
- “…Cleveland’s economy is just terrible. Poor Clevelanders.”
- “…not a single championship in 44 years. Can you imagine that?”
- “It’s amazing that there are still people left in the wasteland that is Cleveland.”
- “Cleveland is one of the most devestated economies in the U.S….and it’s all George Bush’s fault.”
Anyone else sick of hearing this?
Let’s think about it for a moment. Cleveland’s economy, while a tad slow, still has a ton of room for growth. Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport is one of the main hubs of Continental Airlines, seemingly the only airline that is not being affected by rising fuel costs. The lakefront is primed for development (now if only those stupid politicians could do something about it…). Cleveland’s cost of living is among the best in the nation.
In sports, we haven’t had a championship in 44 years, but on the other hand, none of our teams perenially bad, either. The Indians had an off year but still had some memorable moments and are poised to contend next year. Even though the Cavs struggled with injuries and rebuilt their entire team in the middle of the season, they took the best team in the league down to the final few minutes of Game 7 of the conference semi-finals. The Browns had an improbable 10-6 season last year and just missed the playoffs. If you’re not in the mood for the conventional sports, what about a Lake Erie Monsters game, or a Cleveland Gladiators AFL game?
And if you want culture, Cleveland’s got that too. Little Italy is full of mom-and-pop shops and restaurants that makes Cleveland Heights (maddeningly) like the streets of Rome. The Chicago Tribune has called Cleveland the hot new dining scene. Playhouse Square is probably the best theater district between New York and Chicago.
It’s easy to focus on Cleveland’s shortcomings. But if you focus on the good, you find that Cleveland is a pretty nice city to live in. And the media feeling bad for us works against us in two ways: 1) it scares new people and talent away from the city, and 2) it’s against most true Clevelanders’ nature.
Instead of complaining about the weather when it’s bad, Clevelanders notice when it’s good and enjoy it. Instead of being fair-weather (pun intended) fans of the Browns, Indians and Cavs, Cleveland fans support the teams when they’re bad or good (particularly the Browns). Instead of wistfully dreaming of the Pacific coast or Atlantic coast, Clevelanders drive up to the tenth largest lake in the world and enjoy a day at the beach.
Don’t let the media attack or victimize our city. Living in Cleveland is a lot better than its made out to be, because, like anywhere else in America, with some hard work and a little bit of luck, anyone can excel.
I’m proud to live in Cleveland, and like Fausto Carmona, I’ll defend it.
Jul 082
Same old, same old
Barack Obama is doing everything he possibly can to make me NOT vote for him this November.
Now I’m aware that a lot of you are ardent Barack Obama supporters, so what I say here may hurt your feelings a little bit. (I don’t really know why, but generally people seem to take it personally when I say something negative about His Barackness.) All I ask of you is that you read this post, THINK about it, and then feel free to leave your comments.
If you’ve watched a news channel in the last year and a half, you know Barack Obama is really all about change. He’s about changing our foreign policy, he’s about changing our economy, but most importantly to me, at least at this point, he’s about changing the way things are done in Washington. I interpret that as “I’m going to run a different campaign than my colleagues here in Washington would.”
Great! A politician who isn’t a politician, right?
Wrong.
In the last couple days, the battles between McCain and Obama have become more and more heated. Barack’s supporters, as usual, took it personally when the GOP launched BarackBook.
I saw BarackBook and immediately burst out laughing. “Are you serious,” I thought. “This is how the republicans think they’re going to beat one of the most revolutionary presidential candidates ever?” BarackBook, upon further review, is basically a (very poorly done) knockoff of Facebook, and tries to woo the younger crowd into getting information about Obama that Obama does not want the younger crowd to know. I won’t go into too much depth here, suffice it to say that BarackBook is pretty much a typical Washington stunt, much like the “gas tax holiday” (oh, by the way, Congress was beginning to debate raising the gas tax before they decided to take a “well-deserved” month-long vacation).
Then the McCain campaign launched the “Celeb” ad:
As I embed the video into this blog post, it’s actually not as bad as I heard it was, and further illustrates my point about how Obama and his supporters (ahem, entire mass media) take things personally. But let’s say, for sake of argument, that the ad was as bad as Obamanation (any annoying group of fans these days gets the word “Nation” attached to it: Obamanation, Red Sox Nation, etc.) claimed. If you were Barack Obama, what would you do?
I’ll tell you what I would do: nothing. I would keep going around talking about what I’m going to do to fix this country. I would completely ignore John McCain and the GOP’s tactics as tactics (and no, Barack, talking about how his tactics are “right out of Karl Rove’s playbook” doesn’t count). I would ignore all of it, because playing into John McCain’s hand is a typical Washington politics.
Imagine my surprise then, when I came across this little gem: The Low Road Express.
TYPICAL WASHINGTON POLITICS!
First of all, if its possible, the “Low Road Express” is even lamer than “BarackBook” because the “Low Road Express” didn’t even bother to register a domain name. Secondly, does this help the voters at all? Are people seriously going to go to this site and say, “OH! McCain’s ad made me think you were going for an Obama/Spears ticket. Whew!”? No. The new site does nothing except attack McCain.
To be fair, McCain attacked as well. I won’t say he attacked first, because I don’t really know how you can say who attacked first, and honestly it doesn’t really matter. The point is, how many of those generously donated dollars, oh faithful citizens of Obamanation, went into creating this? Don’t you feel a little cheated and misled? Weren’t your dollars originally going for change, change and more change? How is this different?
Same old, same old.
I hope you read this article all the way through, because it’s not something you’re likely to hear the truth about on any news channel. The truth is that Barack Obama has turned into a typical politician, and means that if it were anybody but McCain (and maybe Romney) running on the other side, I’d be voting that way.
Mar 083
Spring break is over, back to winter
Hello, me lucky lads from the blogosphere! Today, once again, I’m blogging from high atop the Olin building in the Virtual Worlds gaming lab.
- Today is St. Patrick’s Day, which means…what? Does anyone actually know why St. Patrick’s Day exists? I’m so tired of holidays that don’t mean anything and St. Patrick’s Day is a prime example. I took a poll of some friends and found out that no one knows what the holiday is for (although each of them did suggest “beer” or “drinking” as the first reason).
- On to politics, where the news this weekend centers around Barack Obama’s minister making incendiary remarks about the United States government. Why is it okay for democrats like Nancy Pelosi to do so, but not a minister supporting a presidential candidate? And now Obama has to go around saying something to the effect of “well, sure, I attended the sermons but seriously, who pays attention in church anyway? Those sermons are so long…” This has happened with Obama before, where he’s attacked not because of his beliefs but because someone supports him. This is lunacy. That’s like a Yankees fan rooting for…other Yankees fans.
Think about this scenario: let’s say the KKK makes an endorsement. Who are they more likely to endorse from the Democratic party (to be fair, they would most likely endorse a Republican)? Now that candidate is associated with this group which has brought terror and grief to millions, and not because of anything he/she did.
I’ve always been told “be responsible for yourself and the rest will work itself out.” I think its time that message came over to politics as well as the media (you’ll notice that Clinton has not touched this minister story yet, she’s smart enough to not get involved; the media, now that’s another story).
- On that note, how stupid is racism in this country? How have we not moved past this? How is it that we’re in the 21st century and Barack Obama is the first black candidate who actually has a chance to win in the history of our country? I love the United States, and I always will, but there’s always room for improvement and we’re not even close in terms of racial equality.
- On a somewhat related note, I visited http://www.barackobama.com/ and I will say this: he has the best of the campaign websites by far (although I like Mike Huckabee’s too).
- Quote of the day:
I always get the feeling that when lesbians are looking at me, they’re thinking, “That’s the reason I’m not heterosexual.”
George Costanza, SeinfeldIt occurred to me that this May 14 will be the ten-year anniversary of the final episode of Seinfeld so it got me to thinking about what episode was airing about ten years ago today. From the great Wikipedia, I found that 10 years ago Wednesday, the epsiode called “The Burning” aired, which is one of my favorites. (And where Wikipedia succeeded, Youtube has failed: couldn’t find a video of my favorite clip, although there are videos of other clips of that episode.)
- Speaking of milestones, two weeks from today the Indians will take the field against the Chicago White Sox to being the 2008 regular season. It was announced over the weekend that Mark Buehrle would be starting for the White Sox, as assumed here. You kind of forget how much you miss baseball until its away for an offseason; it’ll be nice to have it back.
- Also, How I Met Your Mother is back tonight! This is the first of my shows to actually come back from the strike, so I’m pretty excited. I haven’t really watched TV since November except sports, news and movies…I kind of don’t remember what it’s like to watch TV regularly. Maybe I should play my “Get Psyched” mix to prepare…
- Finally, I’ve determined that apart from Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, Cadbury Creme Eggs are the single greatest thing about Easter.
Brewed some Dunkin Donuts Original Blend today. Coffee doesn’t get more American than that – you can almost taste the donuts. Until next time, stay warm, stay in school, and quit lookin’ at my lemonade!
Mar 080
Musings from KSL
A couple little tidbits from high atop Kelvin Smith Library (which, if you’ve seen Air Force One, is adjacent to the Presidential Palace of Kazakhstan):
- Picked up a half pound of Schuil Coffee’s “Michigan Maple”. Wow. What an unbelievable smell! I fully recommend this product to anyone who likes the smell of maple syrup and the taste of Einstein Bros. Vanilla Hazelnut coffee.
- Finished my paper on Kim Philby, who I had never heard of before last week and now am convinced is the coolest spy ever.
- Anyone hear Hank Steinbrenner (owner of the New York Yankees) yesterday? I think he simply said what a lot of us have been thinking for years (including me – see this entry from last fall).
- I think its interesting that politicians (in general) talk about what they have done and compare their record to someone else’s. Does that really matter? What do I care if Obama smoked marijuana in college (which I think he admitted to) if Hillary’s plan for peace in the Middle East involves killing all men? I don’t want to hear about what you have done, I want to hear about what you plan to do.
- That goes for blaming others too (ahem, Obama): regardless of whether or not you feel Bush was right to go into Iraq, to support NAFTA or whatever, it’s done. You can’t do anything about it, why make excuses? I’m pretty sure no one has forgotten who invaded Iraq.
- Before you decide to not vote on March 4, take a moment and think of all the people who have died so that you have that right. I abstained from voting once, a couple years ago, and then talked with a veteran who reminded me of that – no matter how frustrated you are with the political system, it is by the grace of God and the blood of our forefathers that we have the right to choose a new political system instead of simply having to deal with it.
You may have noticed the “Morning Coffee” add-on on the right hand side of the page. I plan simply putting whatever coffee I have in my cupboard in that box – I think I’m turning into a coffee junkie, maybe.
Feb 080
Standardized testing
I’ve found that when I do poorly on a test I tend to criticize testing in general, so here goes.
Anyone else notice a huge discrepancy between what we are tested on on the SAT, MCAT, ACT, or whatever [A-Z]*T test that we take versus what is expected of us when we enter college and the workforce? On those tests, you’re given a calculator, a pencil and your brain and expected to compete with the rest of your classmates. However, when you enter college you’re encouraged to collaborate with other students, be resourceful and persistent in your research, and there’s usually no multiple choice.
One of the things that was nice about having a programming background when taking those tests was that if a question came up that was a) tedious or b) somewhat hard, I was generally able to write a quick program on my trusty TI-83 to solve the problem. I don’t think it’s cheating – it was using my resources available to solve the problem. But there’s no question that I was at an advantage over the other students because I was able to better utilize my existing tools. A comparable example would be if you were expected to take the test with a pencil that could only write X amount of words or numbers, and I was allowed to take the same test with a pencil that was able to write 100 times more.
So in this way, those tests are unfair. But I also think it’s a tad counterproductive. Students who study for those tests stay up for nights memorizing facts that, once they go to college or enter the workforce, they’ll be able to do a quick Google search to find the answer. Why not test students on problems that are more relevant?
What I would propose is the following: a 2-hour test that is a similar format to the ones currently in place, followed by a 1-hour group exam (or perhaps move the group exam to the front, to avoid anyone looking at the door). The idea here would be to group the entire testing room into groups of four or five, and those students would move into seperate areas of the room to take the group test together. Each student is responsible for writing down their own answer, but the tests would be graded as a group so work could be divided evenly without repeititon.
What does this accomplish? First, a sense of what a real job will be like – having access to other group members will be like having co-workers and colleagues in the real world. Second, real problems can be assigned – problems that are actually challenging and provide a sense of accomplishment when completed. And finally, colleges wil be able to see how students perform in groups. This would be incredibly useful knowledge to colleges that are trying to make decisions on students.
And there’s my little rant on standardized testing and education in general. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: education is the single most important issue to our country today – most of the problems with today’s United States can be traced to education, or lack thereof, and its effects on adult decision-making.
Jan 080
Curveball
Recently read the book Curveball, by Bob Drogin, for my political science class. If you have any interest in U.S. intelligence or foreign policy at all, I highly recommend this book. It tells the story of Curveball, the codename of a single Iraqi who defected to Germany in the late 90s and gave the Germans the intelligence that eventually sent the United States to war in Iraq. If you don’t want me to spoil the ending for you (haha), don’t keep reading.
Spoilers
The defector turns out to be an outstanding con man. Everything he said made logical sense, but was just completely false. That alone would not be an issue, a lot of people are good con men. Here are the major problems that the book brings up.
- Second-hand intelligence. The CIA never saw the guy before it was too late. The Germans passed intelligence regarding their conversations with Curveball through low-security reports to the DIA. The DIA, after watering down the intelligence even further, passed them to the CIA. The CIA was getting information that was filtered…twice.
- Egos. The CIA was never able to admit its mistake, even before the war started. There’s a great scene in the book where George Tenet, the director of the CIA at the time, is assisting Colin Powell in his preparations for that famous address to the UN back in 2003. In the scene, Powell asks Tenet if he will back everything, and Tenet confirms that he will, even though he knows that some of that information is bad.
- The bureaucracy. Once CIA personnel were on the ground in Iraq, the search for the WMDs was chaotic at best, mostly due to the lack of an organized plan. At one point, someone notices that its mid-July of 2003 and no one has kept track of where troops have already searched for WMDs. Additionally, DIA and CIA personnel were fighting so much that almost nothing got done.
Does this tell us we shouldn’t be in Iraq? It’s tough to say. In retrospect, it’s easy to look back and say that we should never have gone because the weapons were never there. On the other hand, what if they were there? President Bush, based on the information he had available, felt that these weapons were too dangerous to have even a few. My belief is that we should be there, for a couple of reasons.
- Strategic location. Iraq borders Iran, and Iran is bordered on the other side by Afghanistan. Having two US-friendly (or even better, US-occupied) countries surrounding Iran has probably kept them from developing nuclear weapons.
- Humanity. For all that everyone says, “We should be helping in Darfur,” just a few short years ago Iraq was a very similar society. It’s trendy to bash Bush and claim that he doesn’t care about the citizens of Iraq and just cares about the oil, but apart from overthrowing a totalitarian government, the operations in Iraq have included building hospitals, roads, and running water.
On that note, Bush’s final State of the Union address is on tonight. I always like the State of the Union, because I think its the one night that everyone on Capitol Hill takes a break from automatically hating Bush and shares some optimism for once. It’s an important night; I think everyone should watch it, or read it or at least read the Cliffs Notes when they get here tomorrow morning. We are heading into a pivotal year for our nation and this administration.
About Jimmy
Jimmy is a 2009 graduate of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, and currently works in a Columbia, SC startup. He mostly writes about baseball (particularly the Cleveland Indians), politics, movies and programming. He also enjoys a cup of great coffee and a good book or movie.
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