Month: February 2017

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Nobody ever really talks about the first part: A well regulated militia. While there is a natural focus on the ‘right of the people to keep and bear’ not much focus is listed towards the regulation. I get it. The regulations are what people are mad about. The voice of the NRA, representing a section of the American populace, is vocal about no restrictions whatsoever to the right to keep and bear arms. Sites like the Institute for Legislative Action serve as a megaphone for NRA propoganda, promoting the idea that the second amendment is under some sort of legislative attack. Is it?

If we are to speak to the letter of the amendment, then we need to speak to the idea of a well regulated militia, which means governmental regulation. In other words, we need to regulate guns in some measurable fashion–specifically to keep an eye on how they are used and who is using them. This is important, considering that the Gun Violence Archive has cross checked and verified almost 9500 gun in 2017. It is February. Of those incidents, nearly 2500 resulted in deaths, with most of those incidents happening in the South, which is where the NRA is strongest.

This is a complicated issue riddled with fallacious thinking and motives that are often inspired by financial gain. It is no secret that Glock and other gun manufacturers regularly donate to the not-for-profit NRA organization and often cover lobbyist fees. So the gun makers are, rightfully, making sure anyone can get their product. Might we want to consider the motives behind this stuff?

It took about three minutes for me to get hooked on the original 24. That obsession lasted multiple seasons–one of which I binged over the course of two days. two days to watch 24 episodes. Yeah, it was that good. The new one is not. The new 24 is limited, with a hero who lacks the depth and violence of Jack Bauer and a B-story that is about as close as it gets to blacksploitation in the modern TV era.  The story follows a young special forces/JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) soldier as he works with the CTU to thwart a terrorist threat. Yeah, boiler plate. The way a story like this avoids being rote is to have compelling, compassionate characters who have lives beyond the story that need to be addressed through the story. Unfortunately the lives in this story are weak. The lead character doesn’t have much of a life outside of his military service. We know that he has a wife and that he has a drug dealing brother. Both are highly involved in the storyline, and the two of them also have a past relationship, which impacts the story in borderline salacious ways.

The B-story is quite literally high school level. There is, however, more intrigue in that than in the rather obvious ‘deeper plot’ of the main story. Unless they do something really fast to jumpstart the thinking part of this series, 24 might just be 12.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. The term ‘honeypot’ is compelling. I feel like I have a story living in that term.

I’m going to start making breakfast.

I spend anywhere between $15 and $50 every time I have breakfast out, which is a foolish amount of money. Yes, some of those breakfasts are dates and those shall remain as is, but the $15 chips away at me in a most useless way. I eat out so much because I lack the confidence in my own ability to make a good breakfast. Specifically, I lack confidence in my ability to make pancakes.

Well there’s a problem the internet can actually fix.

In light of my limited financial and temporal capabilities I’ve been hard pressed to figure out how to save money and live the sort of life that makes me happy. I find that during the hum drum of the school year I fail more often. Food is a part of that equation. I work at finding ‘foodie pleasures’ for myself, my partner, and my kids. Food makes my life happier and breakfast specifically gives me that boost I need to get through a tough work day. It ought to come as no surprise that such things are real. Consider that we are beings that are extremely affected by a 5 degree internal temperature shift. 10 degrees in either direction might kill us. As random and fallacious as it may sound to link that to how we receive good food, it matters.

Now, come on internet. Teach me something.

Today I lost a flag football game in order to please a handful of players. Now I preface this by saying what I did was absolutely the wrong thing. At the end of a close game when we had every chance to win, I put in a handful of players who were all clamoring to get the ball and –to a boy–had already had opportunities. I took the ball away from my talent and gave it to these kids because they were in my ear. One in particular was given two extremely costly opportunities and was not satisfied with either. In fact, he expected more. He expected to be fed the ball again and again and play the position he wanted to play until he reached a level of success in this particular matchup that satisfied him.

Frankly, it pissed me off. I was pissed that he was being ‘that kid’ and I was more pissed that I acquiesced twice. Those two plays resulted in a loss that should’ve been that teams 3rd win of the season. It moved them to 1-1 with me running the offense. This was an X’s and O’s game that I let get away from me when I was using it as a tournament tune up.

Yes, I understand that it is youth football in a podunk town and doesn’t actually matter. The record doesn’t matter but making bad choices based on the so-called squeaky wheel and or feeling like I can appease a kid and, well, shut him up. This is not the first time I’ve allowed another person’s whining and or needy behavior to determine my reaction. Learning from that is the real lesson here. If I allow myself to be manipulated by those kind of people–as I often have in the past–I am not only enabling, but putting myself into steadily worsening situations in my life.

I’m bothered by the rising wave of hate in America. It isn’t just the hate. It is also the finger pointing at the media and this suspect labeling of known ‘fair’ news outlets as fake news in exchange for outlets such as breitbart being taking far more seriously. No, I’m not linking to that website. Breitbart doesn’t deserve any traffic from this site. It isn’t that Breitbart shouldn’t be taken seriously, it’s that the site ought to be taken seriously as a site that erodes the fundamental message and goal of the United States of America. The site promotes a single message of conservatism, which is to say that it excludes all ideas and ideologies that do not match it’s own mission. The mission of any good news outlet should be simply to report the news in a way that gives voice and perspective to all flavors of American–not just one sect who wishes to (and currently does) hold power in the American political system.

The recent action by the press secretary in which major news outlets NY Times, LA Times, and CNN among others were excluded from a closed door press briefing points to a level of collusion and message tampering that, had it been in the Obama era, would have led to immediate cries for impeachment.

Here’s the truth, folks: The squeaky wheel does indeed get the grease. Those who can shout and complain and play victim the loudest tend to be noticed. Republicans played that role over the last 8 years (as dems played the role for the previous 8 yrs). As a result they were appeased with power. Now we get to see how far off the deep end they are willing to go with that power, knowing full well that should the opposing party try the same thing in 4-8 years, they will cry foul without remorse.

This is how things are. It’s an awfully quick descent into hell.

Quite the week. One of the best flag football weeks in a long time and also a moment of pure weird. I had the opportunity to coach two of my sons this week. I coached one on defense of his team and ran the offense for the other. Both games were very exciting and fun. The Defense game came down to a last second goal line stop for the win. The Offense was more of a blowout, with all the players getting significant touches and having a lot of fun in the win. I had a lot of fun. The beauty of not being the head coach and coming to the party late is that you get to enjoy the newness after it has worn off or everyone else and without the responsibility and worry. We are gearing up for next week’ s tourney. More on that as the week progresses.

The weirdness started when the ex-wife came over. She was dropping off some paperwork and left through the garage. I walked her out in order to say hello to her sister, and when I walked back into the house there was a very fat Chihuahua walking around my living room. The dog was too fat to have used the Yorkie’s doggie door, so I don’t really know how it got in. I assume it slipped in through the garage. It is a strange feeling to walk into your home and walk in on a foreign animal.

It turned out to be the neighbor’s dog, but the mystery of how it wound up in my home still lingers.

 

There are 17 windows open on my web explorer as I type this blog. Call it research. I haven’t had a lot of opportunity to dive into the world of professional sports lately. My mind has been cast back into the mess of the youth leagues where every parent thinks their kid has a shot to be the next big thing. Maybe your kid is that big thing–where you are. I experience that on a daily basis and find it less flattering and more disappointing each day. It is the same metric I use to discuss a child’s success in school. Of course you have straight A’s in 1-8th grade.

It hasn’t gotten real.

There is the rub: It hasn’t gotten real. I feel like the kids who recognize that are the ones who have the greatest chance of success–in all things–down the road. Last night I watched a trash talking argument go down between my mid kid and several members of the football team he used to play for. He let them know that he thought he was a better athlete and his team was a better team than theirs. Not a necessary or even sensible comparison. They play in the unweighted Alliance league at the 12U level. We play weighted Mitey-Mite (7-9). Not the same thing. Still he made a brief yet poignant comment that proved he is my kid. He said, ‘You guys were champions in a chump league, but when you went against kids your own size you got smacked.’

True story. Now if only he would apply such logic to himself. If only the kids in the argument did not exercise selective memory. In other words, they acted as though that horrible, terrible, not good, very bad season didn’t even happen. Maybe that’s how the universe works now. If you were displeased by a happening then it did not happen (see: Sandy Hook)

 

We are a really undersexed society.

This isn’t news, of course, but I feel like it bears repeating and analysis. The way I see it, the internet is largely about sex. I’m not talking about porn sites, but even video game sites like twitch have been all but coopted by cleavage. A scan of any set of top 10 moments caught on twitch will inevitably contain 5 or more that are sex related. I’m talking basic stuff here–see a girls butt or hoo-ha, mom caught in a bikini, heck one dude even had a hooker delivered to his door. Where is the gaming here?

There is none, because the point is arousal. We crave any hint of sexual exposure and I believe it is really damaging male/female relations. Sex is an exciting part of any lifestyle, but it ought to be left as an intimate part of any lifestyle. Intimate means it isn’t about cleavage on TV.

Yeah, I get the inherent hypocrisy.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. Looking forward to the end of season tourney for copa flag football. It is the first one they’ve done and the only one I’ll be doing. I’m out on the city and, as a result, the sports. It would be nice to go out with a win for the kids and a coaching win for the self.
2. When Obama golfed while president it was a big deal. People across the country acted like he was wasting tax payer money. When Trump does it, the act is applauded as part of his wonderful business acumen. Confirmation bias, folks.

A few days ago I started writing the blog in a notebook, thinking I’d just publish later that night. Predictably, lazy would find me at some point in the early evening and steal my will to publish (as it does each Monday that I come home with a bely full of BBQ and bourbon). So here we are a few days since I published anything and I feel remarkably lazy. Not just lazy but I feel like the importance of the whole affair has diminished. This is largely due to the fact that I have 1 reader.  This is not an official tally, of course. I used to be able to examine traffic, but the system has fallen off a bit. No, without the facebook connection I’m pretty sure next to no one is paying attention to this blog. I’m in ‘Tree falls in the woods’ territory here, but I continue to try and make a sound.

The blog isn’t the most important thing. What matters is that I’ve begun to allow success to dictate action and reaction. That cannot happen. This is what led me to start assessing my behaviors, habits, and goals. I’m going to be more diligent about the blog. It is important to give 100% of your focus and energy to the things you claim hold value. Without that focus nothing of value truly matters. This entire house of cards we’ve built up around ourselves and the personal concept of worth only stays up when we allow the things that supposedly matter to matter with consequence for them not mattering.

There is of course a simpler way to say that, but it isn’t the sort of phrasing that finds you in the average ten minute draft.