Apparently a guy was “protesting” Obama’s heath-care reform by holding up a sign reading “Death to Obama” and “Death to Michelle and her two stupid kids”. First of all, okay, first of all, you just don’t do that. That’s just plain immature and stupid. Even if you bitterly hate the current administration, you don’t go around saying “death to ____”. Look at when Bush was in power. Did you see hardcore liberals waving “Death to Bush” signs? Didn’t think so. But then again, maybe that says something about Republicans in general – the stereotypical bully who can’t get what he/she wants without seriously threatening someone. And for an adult to act like that, well, that’s just downright pathetic.
Les Paul Dead
Guitarist and innovator Les Paul died in White Plains, New York today of complications of pneumonia. He was a pioneer in the recording industry, constantly innovating and exploring the untapped regions of the developing sound industry. I personally have a feeling of loss, as I was going to see him play at the Iridium club in New York City, although he got sick before I was able to go, so the shows kept getting delayed. Les, you will be missed.
Bad Times ≠ Complimentary Lemon Slice
While surfing the net yesterday, I came across a standard popup McDonald’s ad (below). I wondered, why would they need all that small fine print at the bottom? The fine print says “©2009 McDonald’s.® $1 only available ala carte. Ounces refer to average content filled. Lemon available upon request. Price and participation may vary.”
What? You don’t automatically get a lemon slice. This is the kind of stuff that I just can’t stand – a hugely wealthy company can’t bother to include something very basic, just like those car ads where if you read the fine print, the car in the ad comes with most options installed but when you order a car from the company, you need to ask the manufacturer to include cup holders. Arrgh. This stuff really grinds my gears…
Mayoral Control Gone!
For those of us who have been following the amazing work that our senators in Albany have been doing for the City Of New York, I tell you this: You saw it coming. You wrote, you disputed, and you were infuriated. Now hell has become a reality. Congratulations. The farcical “work” that these senators have been doing in Albany is a complete farce and an embarrassment to the legal system in this country. Locking themselves in chambers, counting senators as present even when they’re not there, refusing to pass legislation, leaving 10 minutes after the start of a meeting, delaying legislation by getting restraining orders on other senators, and changing their minds every day. These are just some of the things that our hard working senators and governor (you’re a part of this too, Paterson) have been doing while supposedly working to fix the extremely broken education system in this city. New York City was in danger of losing the mayoral control of the school system. It was in danger of returning to a completely insane “board-run” gig, in which the whole city’s education system was run by a few guys.
Today, effective at 12:01 AM, the schools in New York City are no longer under the control of the Mayor, Michael Bloomberg. The City is now, like the old days when I used to go to elementary and middle school, split up into either a 7 member control board or 32 local school boards called the “Board of Education” versus the “Department of Education” that was run by Bloomberg. The education system is, without this centralized guidance, basically turning itself into a once again terrible education system with a horrendous graduation rate. As much as I despise Bloomberg, education and graduation rates did actually improve under his centralized mayoral control system. A good education is paramount in today’s society. To be without one is like trying to win the Tour de France without ever riding a bicycle.
Michael Jackson is Dead
Wow. Just wow. The death of a legend. Michael Jackson died on June 25th 2009, the day before my graduation from high school. What a day. As FDR said, this is “a day that will live in infamy…”. I remember the exact moment when I found out that he died. I was in Sheepshead Bay helping my friend pick out a used bicycle when he looked at his Twitter feed. “Oh shit, Michael Jackson died”. Apparently he died of cardiac arrest and slipped into a coma while in the hospital. This is insane… I feel like this is probably how it was when Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin died. I can visualize myself telling my kids in 30 years… “Yeah, people were going insane when he died, it was crazy…”.
Even though I didn’t listen to a ton of his music (just a little Jackson 5 stuff) before his death, I have started to explore his music more and more. It’s really really good, and man can he dance. Also, on a strange side note, look at this screenshot I took of the iTunes top 10 songs list on June 27th (2 days after he died). Isn’t that strange? Almost all the top 10 songs are Michael Jackson songs. I guess a lot of people (like myself) wanted to see how great of an artist he was and purchased his music.
Rest in peace Michael. You will be missed.
Madoff’s 12 Year Sentence
Apparently, Madoff’s layer seems to think that because Madoff is going to die in 13 years that he should be put in jail for 12. What?!? Are you kidding me? This man – this thief who is currently facing over 150 years in prison for the $65 billion fraud that he committed is not even going to prison for his whole life? Ira Sorkin, Madoff’s attorney, told Judge Denny Chin:
“A prison term of 12 years — just short of an effective life sentence — will sufficiently address the goals of deterrence, protecting the public and promoting respect for the law without being greater than necessary to achieve them.”
Are you serious? Is this the kind of crap that the best lawyers come up with? The point is not for him to go to jail, the point is to show all thieves that you can’t get away with theft. You just can’t. Eventually, you’ll get caught, and the consequences will be very severe. This man stole over 2/3 of 100 billion dollars, and you’re telling me that he goes free for, let’s say, the last year of his life? If this is what happens, it sends a direct message to anyone involved in or attempting a Ponzi scheme, or any sort of thief for that matter. That message is that you can steal from innocent people and still go free, because you should live the last year of your life not in prison. This is wrong. Very wrong.
Alas, if only Madoff had stolen a mere $67 billion, maybe I would have a soft spot in my heart for him.
Bloomberg: On Phasing Out The Local Diploma
Today I was reading the Daily News and I found this article to be very interesting. The article talks about how Mayor Bloomberg is using the increased graduation rates to support his campaign of continued mayoral control of the school system in New York City. Now, I don’t want to debate that topic, because it’s a whole different topic. What I wanted to talk about the phasing out of the “Local Diploma”. The reason I posted the link to that article is because it mentioned something I had no prior knowledge of. Mayor Bloomberg is trying to phase out the Local Diploma. If all goes as planned, it will be gone in 3 years. Now you might say “hold on, why are you talking about this, why do you care? That’s the lowest diploma you can get in a NYC public school!”
First of all, let’s address the basic question here. Why would someone want to go for the lowest diploma possible? Usually, it’s because they keep failing the necessary Regents Exams that they need to graduate with a Regents or Advanced Regents diploma. Now, onto why I care. I care because for many people, the Regents Exams are the hardest exams that you will take in high school. The Regents Exams are really not that hard, so why is this the case? Maybe it’s the fact that this education system is managed extremely terribly. Maybe it’s the fact that over 15,000 teachers may be laid off this year, resulting in even worse education for our students. Even in the fist article they mention dropping graduation rates as a direct result of the phasing out of a non-Regents level diploma. So by the time I get into teaching (and out of college) will NYC have not only will we have even worse graduation rates (it’s 60.7% now – remember this is the first year ever that the graduation rate has surpassed 60%). Things are not looking good for whoever the next mayor will be.
All in all, this is just splendid news. Especially because I want to be a teacher, but oh wait, I’m double screwed, because not only do I want to be a teacher in this shitty system, but I also want to be a music teacher. Great. Just great. Music gets almost no funding in New York City. The arts in public schools is basically dead. So now I have a failing school system and no funding to look forward to. I can’t wait to start teaching!
New Smoking Legislation Passed!
While reading the Daily News today, I noticed a small article tucked away in the middle of the newspaper that you can view here. Basically, President Obama just signed a new bill called the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. This act prevents cigarette companies from advertising at any public events and distributing merchandise to people. What kid wants to smoke a nasty cigarette? Put a little orange flavor in it and it’ll mask the terrible taste! Thankfully, this law also prevents cigarette companies from selling flavored and scented cigarettes which are more youth friendly. Also, this law will allow the government to put pictures and more information on cigarette cartons in addition to the Surgeon Generals’ warning in microscopic font on the back. This is an amazing piece of legislation and it is a milestone in the battle against tobacco.
Generation Y
Following “Generation X” comes “Generation Y”, the generation I was born in. Born from the mid eighties to the very early nineties, this generation is about to either enter or leave college. To me, this generation seems like it is obsessed with social interactivity. I mean you have so many social networking web sites attracting teens of all ages: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. the internet has become a second home for many teens. As a teenager who uses the internet at least once a day, many might find it strange that I can see how people have become almost obsessed with the Internet, or rather they’re obsessed with being connected. I know many of my peers who can’t put down their blackberries for an hour without having to constantly see what’s going on Twitter or seeing who commented on their photos on Facebook. This is the era of two extremes in social interactivity – the completely obsessed and the completely unconcerned. Even though I used to be very active on Facebook, I have actually ceased my presence on Facebook. My account still exists, and I log in once in a while to see if it’s still there, but I haven’t been active on my profile since December 2008, and I’d like to keep it that way. I really don’t understand what the hype is nowadays. People have text messaging, and Instant Messaging on their phone (isn’t that a bit redundant?). Internet access and email are two very popular features that many teens do not have on their phones, but with the advent of the iPhone and the new Blackberries, I have seen more and more people getting these features on their phones. Now the question to ask is do we really need all of this? And if you say yes, then I ask do we need all of this at this age? I mean, I understand that in college it’s great to have email and internet access on your phone, I mean, that would be really useful, say you need to look up an article in a popular newspaper or look up some obscure fact. But as teenagers, we don’t need this. We have computers at home or laptops for that. I guess the question I’m asking is what is happening to our generation? With people constantly connected to the world of technology, a giant gap in culture has been created in the past twenty or so years. You ask most any teen today what the movie “The Count of Monte Christo” was about, or who Jefferson Airplane was, or who Django Reinhardt was, they’ll give you a blank stare. Who? What? Huh? This is a huge problem that many are blind to. Every decade has had its culture – this is the decade of “no culture”. Much of today’s culture is just a re-hash of previous generations’ culture. It’s like America’s “silent epidemic”. And the only solution is education. Education in the arts, music, and culture. Oh yeah, I forgot, those programs are being cut as we speak. I wonder why people are so uneducated.
CVS/Walgreens Rant
Since today is fathers’ day, my good friend and I went to buy his father a present. Knowing our sense of humor, we decided to find a pack of flavored condoms. Anyway so we go to the closest drug store, Walgreens. We enter Walgreens looking for the condoms, and guess where they are. Behind the pharmacy with a locked glass gate in front of the pharmacy counter. What the fuck. The whole point of having condoms in a store is to sell them – not to keep them in a completely unaccessible area of the store. Anyway, so we leave Walgreens and head over to CVS. Now I walk in the CVS and my friend asks the lady at the counter where the condoms are (we searched the whole store before asking the lady). What does the lady say? We don’t sell condoms here. WTF? They don’t sell condoms at that CVS? Huh? I’ve bought condoms at a CVS before so how does this one not sell them… What kind of a pharmacy doesn’t sell condoms?
Straight From the Roost 