Lo Ling; listening to: the fan hum, and my brother letting his musical genius go on his guitar; 1:10 PM; my room; feeling: concerned but jubilant
"Oh, mercy mercy me; Oh, things ain't what they used to be no, no; Oil wasted on the oceans and upon our seas; Fish full of mercury"
So. Does it freak anybody else out that there has been a statement just released about the very realistic possibility that oil might reach $200 and gas $7 in the coming years? I don't even drive and I am wildly disconcerted.
While this does put a new perspective on my rationale as to why my "overprotective" parents never let me out (clearly they weren't being overprotective, but rather preparing me on how to survive these days soon to come when we will all be tied to our homes given that it will cost too much to GO anywhere! Ha.. -__---), it puts and even more new and unsettling perspective on the so-far-so-blessed lives we have been living as Americans.
I never thought I'd see the day, in my lifetime or anyone else's here, when the risk of "energy-related crime" would be added to the list of our concerns. According to a recent L.A. Times article, "Restaurant owners are complaining that thieves are helping themselves to used barrels of cooking oil, which can be home-brewed into biodiesel fuel." I don't know if that's the cherry on top or if its the increase in ads for locking your gas caps.
...
YOUR GAS CAPS!!
I know a lot of us already lock our gas caps, but I've always thought it to be done out of formality. You know? You lock your gas cap to keep your gas IN. Pretty soon we'll be locking our gas caps to keep somebody OUT.... of your GAS SUPPLY!? I don't know if you understand the reason for my disbelief.
Locking gas caps? Stealing cooking oil?
It disturbs me that our luxuries aren't what the "thieves" are soon to be targeting anymore. A picture has been painting in my head, reminiscent of third-world countries and prehistoric times, with humans in a race against their own neighbors to simply survive, some resorting to or being victimized by kleptoparasitism, all in a battle over basic resources,... your energy!
So that's really bothering me. In some ways, though this thought may be completely extreme, I feel as if we've reached the brink of the end of the world. And say we haven't, well in that case I still feel as if though we've reached the brink of the brink... of the brink of the fall of this country. And according to us, Americans, whom I love, throwing that in there for the feds, that really is the brink of the brink of the brink of the end of the world. And I'm scared.
Never really thought, that I'd ever think, that I might see that day.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
Lo Ling; listening to: the refrigerator hum; 11:38 AM; DB; feeling: like I want to know more
Alright.
So recently Barack Obama opted out of the federal system, turning down the $84.1 million in public financing for the last stretch of this presidential campaign. Well, with the “hundreds of millions” of dollars in private donations he is estimated to be racking up*—I guess I couldn’t blame him.
Or could I?
I guess the big deal here, besides that he is the first major-party candidate to do so in the 32-year-history of the federal system (that’s CHANGE for you), is the simple fact that he had at one time “committed to public financing” ** in a campaign questionnaire last November.
So what, right.
--So before I go any further please let me say, it is only so long before voting day, and by now most everyone I talk to (who cares) has made up their minds on who they support—but I haven’t. And as with all things, I want to know that when I finally do make that decision, it will be sound and just. So as I continue in a second to lay out my concerns and qualms and comments on this recent development, I hope that you take the time to give me your thoughts and opinions on this matter, because that is really what I am asking for with this. Like I said, I haven’t made my decision, so I can’t be writing this to persuade you in any which way. And I’m not asking to be persuaded either. I want your opinions, your information, honest and hopefully fair, so that I can make my most informed decision.
Alright. Obama switched to private funding.
So what, right.
So…
For me that’s kind of a big deal.
When it comes to me and who I am to the people around me, I like knowing that someone can trust what I say as exactly what I mean (jokes and sarcasm aside), without having to worry about whether my actions will show themselves in a completely opposite way. That’s just me. What’s making me uneasy isn’t that Barack is choosing private funds. It is that he said he would not—and now he is.
Again, I’m putting this out there because I’m asking for different perspectives. Should I really be concerned? After all, his decision to go with private funding does show that this guy is go-gettin’, willing to do what it takes to win this thing. And at this point that’s what it’s about right, winning. So I gather that I can trust that this man sees his ambitions out to the end, including all his campaign proposals. That’s promising…
Except it gets less promising for me when I’m reminded of his statements made in 2004, when he claimed that “he and Bush didn’t have "much of a difference" on Iraq,” only to later focus much of his presidential campaign on his “pre-war opposition to the conflict.”***
Is it unreasonable for me to ask for consistency in political campaigns? Is he just the better candidate because he knows what to say when? Do I place too much value on sticking to one’s commitments? Was this that big of a commitment? But should that matter? (Okay the fact that Word didn’t catch the error when I had written “too one's" instead of “to one's” is making me nervous…)
I just feel that I am being led to believe that Obama is showing himself to be of a capricious nature. Though I respect this in the antics of my friends and close compadres, whose only capricious decisions vacillate between rushing off to some kickback or showing up at my house with a variety of props for a haphazard photoshoot, —when it comes to running things of a more serious nature I’ve always looked for constancy and reliability. But again—if you realize you are being constant with a bad decision maybe there is no use for that constancy at all. I am so good at refuting myself. -_- I guess that’s what makes me fair. I’m okay with that. Okay enough tangent talk.
On the one hand I feel that sure, quick as he is to change his mind, or “go back on his word” (the more loaded, hyperbolic way to state this haha,) again, this shows his dedication to achieving that which he has set out to accomplish.
I’m still not sure how honorable this is, given the context. Like McCain said, (hahah) "He has completely reversed himself and gone back, not on his word to me, but the commitment he made to the American people."
I guess my biggest unsettlement (I just invented that word and by process of roots you still know what I mean =) ) lies in whether this is a question of honor at all. Hello, this is politics…
All in all the more I talk about it the more it seems to me that this isn’t that big of a deal. (Or is it!? AH!) Given Barack's position I’m sure many of us would do the same thing. If I did, though I’m not how sure I would, but if I did, I’d at least send out an apology. Hahah. I realize that like I stated before, this capriciousness is not on the scale of a makeshift photoshoot but rather concerns the future of a nation. My conflict is if by not seeing this as a big deal I am compromising the value I hold to the weight of one’s words. Barack had claimed a commitment, meaning that he wouldn’t go back on his word. Again. Loaded. Who’s to say McCain wouldn’t do the same given he had billions of funding. Or would he. Which brings up another point. Would I respect, or trust Obama more knowing that he had the opportunity to spend millions more changing the electoral map (most of his money will be going to campaigning in red states), fighting for a win, but instead chose to stick to his commitment to the federal system?
On a more certain note,
IN THE END I’m pretty sure that if John McCain sticks with HIS proposal to end the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling…
That is one example of where I don’t give a rat's ass (yeah I said it!) that you’re sticking to your word. Because “end the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling” are some damn ugly words that in my opinion deserve NO SUPPORT WHATSOEVER. But that is for another blog.
(Here’s some professional opinion on that.)
Oh.
And it is very interesting to me to see how when it comes to something this big, like presidential elections, how so many small things like how your campaign is being financed becomes such a big deal.
But I’m asking you, is it?
*http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-campaign20-2008jun20,0,7252813.story
**http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-campaign20-2008jun20,0,7252813.story
***http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-holmes21-2008jun21,0,6482475.story
Alright.
So recently Barack Obama opted out of the federal system, turning down the $84.1 million in public financing for the last stretch of this presidential campaign. Well, with the “hundreds of millions” of dollars in private donations he is estimated to be racking up*—I guess I couldn’t blame him.
Or could I?
I guess the big deal here, besides that he is the first major-party candidate to do so in the 32-year-history of the federal system (that’s CHANGE for you), is the simple fact that he had at one time “committed to public financing” ** in a campaign questionnaire last November.
So what, right.
--So before I go any further please let me say, it is only so long before voting day, and by now most everyone I talk to (who cares) has made up their minds on who they support—but I haven’t. And as with all things, I want to know that when I finally do make that decision, it will be sound and just. So as I continue in a second to lay out my concerns and qualms and comments on this recent development, I hope that you take the time to give me your thoughts and opinions on this matter, because that is really what I am asking for with this. Like I said, I haven’t made my decision, so I can’t be writing this to persuade you in any which way. And I’m not asking to be persuaded either. I want your opinions, your information, honest and hopefully fair, so that I can make my most informed decision.
Alright. Obama switched to private funding.
So what, right.
So…
For me that’s kind of a big deal.
When it comes to me and who I am to the people around me, I like knowing that someone can trust what I say as exactly what I mean (jokes and sarcasm aside), without having to worry about whether my actions will show themselves in a completely opposite way. That’s just me. What’s making me uneasy isn’t that Barack is choosing private funds. It is that he said he would not—and now he is.
Again, I’m putting this out there because I’m asking for different perspectives. Should I really be concerned? After all, his decision to go with private funding does show that this guy is go-gettin’, willing to do what it takes to win this thing. And at this point that’s what it’s about right, winning. So I gather that I can trust that this man sees his ambitions out to the end, including all his campaign proposals. That’s promising…
Except it gets less promising for me when I’m reminded of his statements made in 2004, when he claimed that “he and Bush didn’t have "much of a difference" on Iraq,” only to later focus much of his presidential campaign on his “pre-war opposition to the conflict.”***
Is it unreasonable for me to ask for consistency in political campaigns? Is he just the better candidate because he knows what to say when? Do I place too much value on sticking to one’s commitments? Was this that big of a commitment? But should that matter? (Okay the fact that Word didn’t catch the error when I had written “too one's" instead of “to one's” is making me nervous…)
I just feel that I am being led to believe that Obama is showing himself to be of a capricious nature. Though I respect this in the antics of my friends and close compadres, whose only capricious decisions vacillate between rushing off to some kickback or showing up at my house with a variety of props for a haphazard photoshoot, —when it comes to running things of a more serious nature I’ve always looked for constancy and reliability. But again—if you realize you are being constant with a bad decision maybe there is no use for that constancy at all. I am so good at refuting myself. -_- I guess that’s what makes me fair. I’m okay with that. Okay enough tangent talk.
On the one hand I feel that sure, quick as he is to change his mind, or “go back on his word” (the more loaded, hyperbolic way to state this haha,) again, this shows his dedication to achieving that which he has set out to accomplish.
I’m still not sure how honorable this is, given the context. Like McCain said, (hahah) "He has completely reversed himself and gone back, not on his word to me, but the commitment he made to the American people."
I guess my biggest unsettlement (I just invented that word and by process of roots you still know what I mean =) ) lies in whether this is a question of honor at all. Hello, this is politics…
All in all the more I talk about it the more it seems to me that this isn’t that big of a deal. (Or is it!? AH!) Given Barack's position I’m sure many of us would do the same thing. If I did, though I’m not how sure I would, but if I did, I’d at least send out an apology. Hahah. I realize that like I stated before, this capriciousness is not on the scale of a makeshift photoshoot but rather concerns the future of a nation. My conflict is if by not seeing this as a big deal I am compromising the value I hold to the weight of one’s words. Barack had claimed a commitment, meaning that he wouldn’t go back on his word. Again. Loaded. Who’s to say McCain wouldn’t do the same given he had billions of funding. Or would he. Which brings up another point. Would I respect, or trust Obama more knowing that he had the opportunity to spend millions more changing the electoral map (most of his money will be going to campaigning in red states), fighting for a win, but instead chose to stick to his commitment to the federal system?
On a more certain note,
IN THE END I’m pretty sure that if John McCain sticks with HIS proposal to end the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling…
That is one example of where I don’t give a rat's ass (yeah I said it!) that you’re sticking to your word. Because “end the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling” are some damn ugly words that in my opinion deserve NO SUPPORT WHATSOEVER. But that is for another blog.
(Here’s some professional opinion on that.)
Oh.
And it is very interesting to me to see how when it comes to something this big, like presidential elections, how so many small things like how your campaign is being financed becomes such a big deal.
But I’m asking you, is it?
*http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-campaign20-2008jun20,0,7252813.story
**http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-campaign20-2008jun20,0,7252813.story
***http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-holmes21-2008jun21,0,6482475.story
Saturday, June 21, 2008
"The best way to make your dreams come true-
(taken from B.M.'s blog)
props
props to the boston celtics for wanting it more than the lakers, i am a laker fan but boston's effort has actually kinda inspired me to have a different attitude to the things i do. i mean cmon, you gotta respect how much more obvious it was that the celtics wanted the title and it showed blatantly in game 6.
also props to george sampson.
this kid also inspires me to work harder and become better in everything i do. what a G. true comeback story right there.
also props to george sampson.
this kid also inspires me to work harder and become better in everything i do. what a G. true comeback story right there.
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