politics and mindset

Wow, is this the longest I've gone without posting to my blog?
I think it is. My apologies.

So, first this little story...
The other day I was driving into work. I was leaving the ramp from one highway and merging onto a new highway. As I did, this little green car that was behind me on the ramp got impatient with me, and quickly accelerated past me in the "fast lane". In what like to call a "karmic moment" (or would that be "Carmic" - Sry - couldn't resist), no sooner did he pass me, that the light up ahead turned yellow then red. So needless to say, as he was sitting at the light, I pulled up along side of him. As I did though, I noticed his bumper stickers... There were three...
The first one said: Put Locks on Criminals - Not GUNS.
The second one said: Fight Crime - SHOOT BACK.
The third one... it was one of those "Jesus Fish" with a cross inside of it.
I just had to shake my head and smile.
It's funny how a "christian" can read and interpret whatever they want out of the bible... or is it selective picking and chosing of what to believe. I digress... I wanted so much to get in a debate with that person and ask him, "What about Jesus' quote about if a person takes your jacket, offer him your shirt?" - or perhaps "Turn the other cheek" - or even more general "how does forgiveness factor into your bumper sticker philosphy?" I decided not to cause he'd probably shoot me :)

This is sort of related, but perhaps it deserves another post... nah...
Later that same day, I was surfing the web, and I stumbled upon a website that sold these other bumper stickers... they were designed like typical "election" bumperstickers (ie: red white blue, bold letters, etc...) It said "Republicans for Voldemort" - ha! I found it here.
I smiled... but then it hit me...
I know a few Repblicans and conservatives. I have gotten into debates with them over certain topics, and usually I end up kinda scratching my head, and wondering "how can they think that?" as I'm sure they do the same to my thoughts and opinions. There are certain topics that we see things in complete opposites! Then that's when it hit me... perhaps there are other things that we see as complete opposites... Do republicans root for Voldermort to win against Harry Potter? Do they root for Darth Vader to win against his battle with Luke Skywalker? Did they laugh when Old Yeller... I can't even say that one. I wonder how many movies out there where their morals and judgements are so opposite to mine that they root for "the bad guy"?

(and yes... I'm trying to be funny here. I don't really think Rep's root for Vader or Voldemort, though I'm sure some of them do ;)

Star Trek

Just a short movie review here: Go see it! Perhaps, I'll go more into it at a later time, as I have a few observations that perhaps I am the only one who noticed such things (well, on one item anyway).

Swine flu h1n1

Just a small observation I thought of this morning.
I'm still not too worried about this "swine flu" which apparently is now being called the H1N1 virus. At the same time, I am watching this story, and I am "concerned".
I have started to follow @cdcemergency on twitter and occasionally I'll check ouot their official webpage of info here to check on the latest numbers.
But this morning I realized...
Some of those number represent people who have had the virus, and by now are also probably on the mend as they say. It's been about a week and I suspect some of the first patients are now on the road to recovery and doing better now. But to look at the chart of numbers coming out, the numbers will never go down (unless they change the practice), which will make the numbers appear more worrisome than need be.

I replied to the CDC on twitter suggesting they incorporate my idea, but did not recieve a reply. I suppose they know what they are doing better than I. I just think it's a valid point though.

Stay healthy everyone, and take those extra precautions now to avoid getting sick.

Tech Tags: swineflu h1n1 cdc cdcemergency

[edit: 5/4/09 fixed typo in title not swin flue swine flu]

conspiracy kook

A quick post...
I have C-span on in the background this morning as I am surfing the web. They are accepting call-ins about the news today of justice retiring from the Supreme Court (which means Obama will get to pick one.) It is the usual stream of public calls, where every now and then you get someone who has an "alternative" idea... this guy just called in, and was saying something about how Bush stole the election in 2000 via the supreme court, or rather with their help. Then he mentioned a name of a person who was killed (I didn't catch the name)... the host of C-span (I think it's Peter Slen), had a smirk on his face like "here we go" - The host then asked a question something like "well, why haven't we ever heard of this guy before, wouldn't that be on the front page?" To which the man said that the media is controlled by the Gov. So the host said, "Sir, where do you get your information?"
The man said "The internet."
The host let loose a larger smirk, you could easily read his mind as saying 'here we go, an internet kook'.
Then the man clarified and said he listens to "Democracy Now" (Which USED to be on my cable TV, but has recently been canceled). Democracy Now is still available online.
Now here's the kicker that prompted this post...
The host then says "Democracy Now? We just interviewed Amy Goodman a little while ago, and you can watch that interview on our website."
Ha! So, this "kooky conspiracy" guy gets laughed at (well, smirked at) for gathering his news info online, to which your response is "you can get more of OUR news on the internet."

Tech Tags: cspan internet conspiracy news media