Grim News

I caught the tail end of this on XM’s Liquid Metal channel tonight and I laughed so damned hard that I just had to find this online and share it with you all.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Austrian Death Machine with one of the world’s best loved Christmas carols.

Yeah, I know I haven’t been writing in a while.  I’ll fix that as soon as I return from this weekend’s family Christmas activities.

Meanwhile, here is a little cheerful something to listen to until I return.

Plainsong by The Cure.  “Cheerful” is being deliberately obtuse, but this is one of the prettiest songs I’ve heard, and I’m not normally a fan of “pretty” music.  Trey and Matt were right when they said “Disintegration is the best album ever!“  Top to bottom, it is a record worth listening to.

Oh, and to give you an idea of what has been taking most of my time lately…

No, I’m not dead, and I haven’t developed writers block because the election is over.

With the holidays coming up, I’ve been doing less writing and a little more “autoblogging” than normal because I’m doing more reading than writing these days.  It’s not like my schedule is going to improve, but when I have the chance, I’ll share whats on my mind other than the lines at Toys R’ Us. (Sam’s first Christmas, daddy is going all out, not that she’ll know what any of it is… It really is more fun to give than to receive.)

Speaking of family, one of my wife’s endearingly bad habits is watching what I like to call “train wreck TV”.  These “reality” shows (mostly on VH1 and MTV) range from the merely ridiculous (“Rock of Love“, with Bret Michaels… Wait a second, you mean to tell me that the lead singer of a hair metal band needs a reality show to meet women?) to the completely deranged (”Next“, where contestants earn money for each minute that they “survive” in the presence of the most vapid and shallow member of the opposite (or not) sex than MTV’s producers could find.)

But the all time champion in this arena is a show called “The PIckup Artist“  Take a dozen or so “losers”, given them a makeover, Hollywood style, and then watch them take advice from a self-styled “Pick up artist” named (get this) Mystery, along with a few random and forgettable sidekicks with equally ludicrous names. (Seriously, I’d like to see this guy in action… “Hi.  My name is Mystery.” followed by the inevitable snickering and giggling from his “target”.  Of course, in Hollyweird, such a line might actually work, and such a name might actually be genuine.)

What really kills me is that these coaches actually display a keen grasp of psychology.  They really do understand what the “mating dance” is all about, and they’ve refined such a “mysterious” (pun intended) art into textbook science.  I found myself learning something in spite of the repeated snickers and snorts from me and my wife.  What did I learn?

• Take care of yourself and your appearance.  If you don’t look like you can take care of yourself, how is any woman going to expect you to take care of her?

• Be relaxed, happy, and confident.  Sounds easier than it is sometimes, but nobody wants to be with a downer.

• Pay attention to hints, both verbal and non-verbal.  If she isn’t interested, stop wasting her, and your, time.

• Don’t be “too interested”.  Nobody wants a person who appears desperate.

Of course, there are finer points to each of these, and the show goes into these subjects in nauseating detail, but I have to give credit where it is due.  In the midst of reality-tv crap land, someone is actually taking time to espouse points that are applicable to normal, healthy adults.

One might think that these points are somewhat obvious.  If you are one of those people, take a second and give your significant other a squeeze and take comfort in the fact that you have already succeeded in the mating dance.   Remind yourself that you were once that “shy guy” or “shy girl”.

Anyhoo, that’s all for me on a Monday.  I’m going to go play with my kid before I go to work.

38 posts on politics, 34 posts on everything else, combined.

I didn’t mean for this blog to go so political, but let’s face it, the Presidential election has been the biggest story out there in the last 2 months.

Since I’ve pretty much exhausted one of my nasty habits, politics, let’s talk about my other most disgusting habit.  Online Gaming.  If you’re reading this site, then you most likely have a passing familiarity with me, personally.  If you didn’t know that I am a weekly columnist at Massively.com, I’ll wait right here while you go check it out.

In the gaming world, there is a story that rivals the Presidential election in terms of importance (to the gaming community, at any rate).  Blizzard, makers of World of Warcraft are releasing their second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, this Thursday.  With just over 11 million players, WoW is, by far, the largtest Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game in the world.

You may have heard stories in the news about grown men who take a day off of work when the latest Madden game hits the shelves?  I know, personally, grown men who are taking a WEEK’S worth of vacation in order to play this game when it comes out.  The games are so popular that Dr. Phil and others of his ilk run shows asking if these games are addictive.

To them, I would respond with one of the following:

• Are weekend golfers who spend 8 hours (or more) out of the house every weekend playing golf, addicted?
• Are couch potatoes, who spend 4-6 hours/day in front of a TV, addicted?
• Are women (or men), who spend 8-10/hours shopping on any given weekend, addicted?

It’s a hobby, folks.  Just like any other.  Like any good hobby, there are those who become compulsive or obsessive about it, and such people will always have something upon which to focus their attention.  While I spend more than a little time playing this game, I manage to have a good job, a good home, a good family, and good friends. In fact, I even manage to make a little extra money writing about my hobby.

This hobby has allowed me to meet people I never would have met otherwise.  Thanks to online gaming, I have been given the chance to meet movie stars, have dinner and drinks with TV stars from my favorite shows, and even sign autographs of my own. (Yes, he knew exactly who I was, and didn’t confuse me for someone else.)

There are those out there, most likely people who were just a little too popular in high school, who say that people like me “have no life”.  In fact, it is one of the most common insults in the gaming world to say that someone “has no life” when they are particularly successful in a game.  I have a wonderful wife, a beautiful baby girl, a job paying enough that I have to pay attention to the upper tax brackets, a chance to meet and mingle with celebrities from time to time, and get paid to write about my hobby.  Oh, and every piece of computer equipment and every copy of a game that I buy is now a tax deduction.

I wouldn’t trade my life for yours if you tossed a supermodel into the bargain. (Unless you’re Manny Ramirez, in which case we’ll talk, just as soon as I learn to hit a curveball.)

Tired of politics yet?

Too bad.

The good news, for you, is that in two days will will get a break from the incessant political ads which are about as truthful as a 16-year old who promises to pull out in time.  The bad news is that the sniping will continue until the next election cycle begins in two years.

I’ve received plenty of responses to my last little diatribe, and rather than respond to each of them one by one, I’d like to offer a blanket response.  First, I’d like to respond to one post in particular.  How can you shoot down the concept of government subsidized health care while simultaneously advocating an arrangement shared among extended family (I believe you called it “clan”)?  You’re making the same arrangement from a smaller base.  Instead of looking at all of the United States as “your clan”,you break it down into smaller social units of people that you happen to be related to by blood.  There’s a difference?  You have no problem “chipping in” to help others, as long as they’re family.

There are two fundamental arguments at work here.  Obligation is not something that can be forced upon someone else indefinitely.  At some point an individual must accept responsibility or he will either be negligent of, or actively resistant to, that obligation.  On the other hand, living in a society is a social contract.  In accepting society’s benefits and protections (police, roads, armed forces, etc.) you implicitly agree to obey that society’s laws.  The law is not an “ala carte” menu.  You don’t get to pick and choose which laws you obey and which do not apply to you.  Law applies to all equally. (at least, in theory)

The question that must be answered is “Can government perform this societal function better than the individual, and would the benefit of such activity be beneficial to all?”  In a comment from Data Vortex, he includes a link to a story about a Congressman who votes to give money from the treasury to a family who is burned out by fire.  Indeed, in the story cited, it would be inappropriate for Congress to vote to give money to an individual or single family.  The story fails to pass the test of the above question.  It does not benefit everyone equally.

However, what if Congress had voted to create a trust fund that could get all families who are burned out by fire back on their feet?  What if such a fund were available to any families who needed it?  Such a concept would pass the test of “beneficial to all”, and if such a plan were possible, the government could employ the economy of scale required to make it happen.  It does not answer the practical details of such a plan, and I believe that is our greatest weakness as a government.  Too often, we pass bad ideas as law in the interest of “doing something”.  “Something”, in this case, has to be the RIGHT thing.

I would not support “Universal Health Care” if the plan is “a blank check for every medical procedure”.  Such a plan would invite waste and fraud.  I do not believe that means that there is no solution that would provide benefit to all, but I believe it is a problem that should be addressed, and soon.  I believe that promoting competition in the medical and insurance marketplaces is beneficial.  I believe that transparency in the insurance industry is a good idea.  I believe that if an individual can do better on their own that they should be encouraged to do so.

But I also believe that “Tough Shit” is not a good enough answer to those who can’t.  At some point, it is in our interests to look out for our fellow Americans.  Not on every issue, and not all the time, but at some point it makes things better for us as individuals if we make sure our neighbors are in good shape.  There is a continuum between “every man for himself” capitalism and “nanny state” socialism.  The question is where we lie on that continuum.