Wack ass Rappers

Thanks for being patient. Blogging isn't as easy as it looks (and it looks ridiculously easy).

So as most of you know, I listen to rap music almost exclusively and while I hate it when people are snobs because they know about this one Indie band that they think is awesome but is probably really crappy, I like to think I know what good rap is versus The Ying Yang Twins' "Wait til you see my dick" kind of rap.

And while some club hip-hop music can be well done, its not my style anyway.
Give me good lyrics and a smooth rhythm and I'm willing to sacrifice beats.

So my biggest biggest biggest pet peeve in rap songs is when the rapper rhymes
a word with itself. I'll provide an example (from Sister Monie who is a guest on
the Jungle Brothers' "Doing our own Dang (thing)"

"Sister Monie, the only one here who missed a plane back to London
Residing with my brothers and I learned a lot from them
About the group, how to be smooth and play funky
And sometimes rated it's kind of funky.

Ok. This is retarded. If you cant think of a word to funky, you don't
deserve to be a rapper. Any word that ends in y would work in this
situation. Pick anything, it doesn't even have to rhyme. As you can
see from the first 2 lines of her rap, she tried to rhyme "Londen" and
"them." But she slurs a bit and makes it sound alright in the song.

I haven't heard any other of Sister Monie's attempts at "rapping," but I have yet to hear a female rapper who doesn't make me want to tear my eyebrow hairs out by hand and the fact that she had to mess up one of my favorite rap group's song.

I didn't mean to make this whole post about exposing one bad rapper
because she is hardly the only one who rhymes words with the same
word in songs. Its an epidemic that needs to end. I have already called
up Snoop and told him to pass along the message.

How I'm voting on the propositions

Prop 1A: Yes
Considering all the places the government spends money,
reducing congestion on the freeways and saving fuel is
definitely worth it though it may take a generation or more
before the rail system breaks even. California needs this.

Prop 2: No
Requiring farms that could normally support 15,000
chickens to suddenly only carry 5,000 would really be
difficult to overcome. If people want "ethical eggs,"
they should buy from farms that cater to that but farms
should not be forced to.

Prop 3: No
There are numerous good causes deserve money, a bond
initiative effectively locks in where money will be spent. If
people think that hospitals should be a priority, elect politicians
that think like they do. This doesn't mean that hospitals won't
get funded, it just means that we need to prioritize where money
is spent by the politicans.

Prop 4: No
This is bad on many levels. People under 18 have rights and should get
the option on whether to tell their parents they want an abortion. It sets
a bad precedent that could be used to further cut back abortion rights.
It will cause more coat-hanger abortions. Vote No.

Prop 5: Yes
More rehabilitation and less jail time for non-violent offenders. Putting
someone in jail because he likes to smoke a little weed?

Prop 6: No
My problem with this one is essentially the same as with Prop 3. We
already have a budget and we elect politicians to allocate our tax money.
Ballot measure that force money to be spent in certain areas reduce
flexibility to allocate money where it is needed.

Prop 7: Yes
California is already heading this way, but spending money on domestic
infrastructure and more renewable energy instead of foreign oil?
It all seems good as long as there is a solid plan for where the money
is allocated.

Prop 8: No
I think we all know how I feel about this.

Prop 9: No
No, this is the other prison prop by another name

Prop 10: No
This is similar to the other renewable energy one. But I don't like the 3.5
billion in subsidies, which fuck with the economy.

Prop 11: No
Is gerrymandering really that bad? I'm fine with politicians drawing
the districts.

Prop 12: Yes
Veterans are pretty important, we need people willing to die for
George Bush's whims. This is a small price to pay to reward the
people who have to go to crappy countries and kill or be killed.

Basketball predictions

Basketball is back! As much as it sucks to see baseball go, basketball softens the blow. Here are my predictions

Western conference:
LA Lakers
Utah Jazz
Houston Rockets
New Orleans
Phoenix Suns
Dallas Mavericks
San Antonio Spurs
Portland Trailblazers
Denver Nuggets
Golden State Warriors
LA Clippers
Minnesota Timerwolves
Memphis Grizzles
Sacramento Kings
Oklahoma City Thunder


Eastern Conference
Detroit Pistons
Boston Celtics
Cleveland Cavs
Philadelphia 76ers
Toronto Raptors
Orlando Magic
Indiana Pacers
Washington Wizards
Chicago Bulls
Atlanta Hawks
Miami Heat
Milwaukee Bucks
New York Knicks
New Jersey Nets
Charlotte Bobcats

Sarah Palin links

Some funny links. Palin is an easy target.

http://beat.bodoglife.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/spdebateflowchart.jpg

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/22/chris-matthews-battles-na_n_137030.html

Jason Mraz: 0 - me: 1

So everyone has heard of the Jason Mraz song, "i'm yours"

Its a pretty good, I like it. But there is one lyric that incites my ire, "and its our god-forsaken right to be loved loved loved."

God forsaken? That makes no sense. Why on earth is the right to be loved god forsaken? Put in some effort Mraz
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apparently Jason Mraz got the message. On his album, there is a live version where he changes the words!

It goes, "and its our god-intended right to be loved loved loved"








I win

Discussion: Is healthcare a right?

So I wanted to start a discussion about whether universal health care was a "right." But I decided that the line was too blurry between "Yes, health care for everyone is a good thing so the government should give it to everyone," and "The right to health care is implied in the the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness and therefore is a constitutional right.

What do people think? Should access to basic health care be a constitutional right for all people?

I was planning to argue the side of no, while I wouldn't be opposed to health care for all, i don't think that the right of "pursuit of life" includes health care but its hard to say why. II'm worried about a health care that doesn't penalize people for abusing the system. I'm worried that people would go see a doctor for a common cold. And even the poorest of people have access to clinics. So while it would be nice to make health care avaliable to more people, I will be skeptical of any plan for universal health care until I see it work.

What do you thiink?

I'm Back

Google stopped being bitches so I'm back posting.

SCHEDULE for the rest of the week

Wednesday: Review of baseball games and the first part of a series in which I tell you an interesting story that shows I'm not all white bread

Thursday: Palin Biden debate live thoughts and analysis

Financial Stuff

Have you seen the commercials for the companys that say, "Do you owe the IRS more than 10,000?you can settle your debt for a fraction of the cost!"?

Stop and think about that for a second. There is a hypothetical person who owes the IRS 50,000 dollars and this company says he can settle it for 10,000. This is a huge problem for the government and something that needs to be addressed if America is going to solve it's budget crisis.

Lawyers, are going to screw the IRS and ultimately you and me out of 40,000 by finding a tiny loophole in tax law or encouraging their client to threaten bankruptcy. In this system, the government doesn't get the money that rightfully goes to them and lawyers get rich exploiting a flawed system. The IRS needs to rethink its tactics and skip the middlemen to work out payment schedules with people and business who owe large sums of money. Yes, some will declare bankruptcy and won't pay the IRS, but its no wonder the US is so broke (besides the fact that we'll spend a trillion to kill Saddam) if they can't collect the money thats owed to them.

Microblogging: Today I met the CEO of my company

And the only thing I could think of while I was talking to him was, "Why the hell did I wear my lime/light green shirt today? Which got me thinking about how the roughest part of my day was freaking out that I was wearing a lime green shirt.

Why I want to be black: Part 1 in a 127 part series

White people can't name their kids Desean, or Lamarcus, or Jaquizz, or any other cool name like that. All the stuffy white women I had to meet at Cotillion would have had seizures if I'd introduced myself as LaDainian. I've always really like the name's Antawn and Niko for boys. Thats even too out of the ordinary for a white person. It's not fair. I don't have a rant except to complain its not fair. Maybe I'll get a dog and name it Niko while my kid gets an ordinary name.

Baseball !!!

In my quest to make everyone as excited about baseball as I am. I thought I'd give status reports on the teams readers of this blog cheer for (plus it gives me a chance to brag about how awesome the Red Sox are)

A's - Great farm system but doesn't really have any potential stars. They have two really good pitchers that people will see in the majors in 2010 but I worry about the future of their offense. Some names to remember are Trevor Cahill, Chris Carter

Giants - Another good farm system but for the opposite reason as the A's. The Giants have several potential stars but lack the depth the A's have. Some names to remember are Angel Villalona, Buster Posey (who looks younger than I do in my ID picture)
Tim Alderson, and Madison Bumgarner

Angels- The Angels are going to be hard pressed to keep up with the A's and especially the Rangers in a few years. The Rays surprised a lot of casual baseball fans because a lot of their prospects are finally coming into their own as major leaguers. The Rangers will be that team soon. I'm guessing they make the playoffs in 2011 and are really strong for the next 5 years. What this means for the Angels is that their reign will end and unless their prepared to spend like the yankees, will have to accept some 3rd place finishes to retool the farm system. They don't have many upper echelon type players in their system. Some names to remember: Jordan Walden, Hank Conger

Yankees- The Yanks used to buy the best players at every position. Realizing that this only got them over the hill players at inflated prices, they turned to the draft to try to catch some elite talent on the upswing. For a team with all their financial strength and their unwillingness to accept anything less than elite talent at each position, they have an interesting strategy in the draft of being conservative and not taking high risk, high reward players. I'm really curious about where the yanks end up in the next couple years because they could be stuck behind the Rays and Red Sox for a couple years or could quickly jump right back in the mix for a title as soon as 2009.

Red Sox- The Red Sox are really good at using their financial advantage. The Sox's draft strategy is to shoot for the moon, and if the player doesn't work, its only a small loss. The A's pride themselves on making sure every dollar invested provides some return, this is not a concern for the Red Sox as many of their high risk players flame out. However, the Sox have a number of future stars waiting to join the team in the next few years and will smoothly transition to a youthful team while keeping up with the yanks and Rays who have established major league talent already. Names to keep in mind: Lars Anderson, Josh Reddick, Michael Almanzar


Watch the playoffs and talk with me about baseball!!

Sarah Palin is a cold-hearted bitch

Http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/21/palin.rape.exams/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

I've sent this to a couple people and have not received shocked responses, which has in turn, shocked me.

Palin, mayor of a town in a state where rape occurs at two and half times the national average was so concerned about keeping a budget (something most of the current republicans don't give a fuck about), that she was willing to ask a girl who had just been raped for $1000 or else the police wouldn't do their job and try to find the rapist. I really want to meet the police chief that would have the nerve to ask a terrified girl for $1000. In addition to humiliating the victim and discouraging future victims from coming forward, it shows an utter lack of her ability to prioritize. Ask any person who pays taxes, I know I would personally be fine with budget deficits if they were used to solve rapes as opposed to bridges to nowhere and bribing people in the middle east's criminal underworld (the real reason why the surge is working). I definitely do not trust her to be anywhere near an important decision regarding the country.

Posts

So, when my readership expands beyond the 5 of you. I'm going to need to show that my brilliance stretches back this far. Bear with me if you've heard some of these before.

And people don't get to pick their own alias, Brer!!

Gay marriage

So I started writing my post on religion last night and we had a mouse incident and I got about a page in and realized I wanted to write a lot more so I'm saving religion and starting off with a topic that I still care a lot about. Gay Marriage.

America is a great country because the constitution gives citizens the right to do whatever they please as long as it doesn't interfere with someone else's freedom. In practice, this is far from what actually happens, there are many instances where people are not given a freedom they deserve.

Two people who want to marry, whatever their sex, can be married and not interfere with anyone else's rights. And by the Constitution, they should be able to do so.

The arguments against gay marriage do not stand up.

1. Homosexuality will diminish the sanctity of marriage.
Answer: Most of the time, people answer this by citing divorce rates among straight couples but that is really just icing on the cake. The real answer is that it doesn't matter, the right to decide who marries is not the job of the government or even the majority of citizens. The freedom to to anything which does not interfere with another's rights is how the law was mean to be interpreted.

2. Homosexuality is an abomination against god( it says so in the Bible)
This will be a similar argument. Just because many people are uncomfortable because of their religious beliefs, they can't deny them the right to marry in the eyes of the law.

But there are two sides to being free to recognize homosexuality. Individuals and institutions have the right to not recognize gay marriages. Non-governmental institutions have the right to condemn gay marriages until their blue in the face.

The idea of freedom is a pretty cool thing to think about. Two people can disagree about the exact same thing and both be right.

Blog beginning

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