Author: smackyjackjack

Change Pending (Except at the ATMs): Obama in LA

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Last Sunday I went and saw Barack Obama speak at the Nokia Theater in LA.  There weren’t really many other people preforming or speaking other than Los Angeles’ Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, San Antonio’s Mayor Julian Castro, George Clooney, Earth Wind and Fire, Jennifer Hudson, Katy Perry, Jon Bon Jovi and Stevie Wonder.

My big shirt and I at the rally

So, let’s try to do this succinctly.

Musically, Bon Jovi…was Bon Jovi (not a good thing), and Stevie Wonder…was Stevie Wonder (good thing).

Okay, now on to why I’m actually writing. Let’s go down the list of the three keynote speakers.

Antonio Villaraigosa came out looking like a promoter for San Manuel Indian Casino. His tie-less suit and unbuttoned top three buttons on his shirt made him fit right in with the LA crowd that was at the Nokia theater that night. But Villaraigosa swallowed his obvious bitterness about speaking before Julian Castro and gave a short speech to introduce the next acts and discuss his allegiance to president Obama. He threw his support behind Obama and welcomed everyone to the fund bolstering night that I was looking forward to.

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Democalypse!

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I’m calling it.

332-206.

That’s what the electoral college will read at the end of the presidential election, with Obama taking the win.

To me, this is the better of two outcomes. The term “lesser of two evils” comes to mind, but hey, that’s just the consequences of a two party system and an indirect democracy.

The two party system that America has into place is a way to funnel your choices down to two people you almost certainly disagree with. It is almost impossible for someone to agree entirely with Obama, or entirely with Romney. Even if you did agree with them 100%, it is then their work ethic that comes into play.

For example, I agree with Obama that Guantanamo Bay needs to be closed ASAP. In fact, I agree with him that it should have been done 4 years ago…Anyways, to me, the US needs to stop its weird romance with torture prisons and secret “interrogation techniques”, but that’s for another blog. My point is that while you may agree with a candidate, you may not agree with the way they get things done (or don’t get things done).

Another thing that I don’t like about the election system is how much it all depends on character. Many voters decide who to vote for just based of who they relate to more. Well hell, I don’t know about any of you, but I don’t want a president like me. If he was anything like me, we’d be taken over by Canada in a matter of days. I’d want someone smarter, stronger, and just all out better than me.

Now that I’ve gotten way off topic, I’d like to ask you who you believe is going to win, and by how much? What’s your count for the college?

Kurt Vonnegut

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I have very defined opinions.

If you asked me my favorite anything, I could tell you.

My favorite author, for example, is Kurt Vonnegut.

Vonnegut has written some of the best books of all time. Sirens of Titan, God Bless you Dr. Kevorkian and, of course, Welcome to the Monkey House.

Welcome to the Monkey House has, of course, my favorite short story of all time in it. Harrison Bergeron is the story of a dystopian future due to poor government (see my last blog) and a suppressed population. The story is so good because it portrays something that could happen. Of course, governments would never become so terrible as to handicap the population, but an era of Orwellian style big brother government very well could.

Okay, now that I’ve made myself out to be a conspiracy theorist and pessimist, I’ll move on to my other favorite Vonnegut book, God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian.

Believe it or not, this is the story of how Vonnegut died. Many times. He was brought back to life by Kevorkian, and the stories in the book are of his near death experiences. Real or not, the 100 or so pages a definitely worth your time. Pondering death, and life after so, is always a fascinating topic full of superstition and most of the time, downright fear.

God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian is also worth reading just so you can hear Vonnegut’s ideas on religion (blog soon to come). This book very well may change how you look on life and death. It has the Jack Beverly seal of approval. What else do you need?

The Right to Truth

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Its no secret that the United States government has concealed many things from the American public. One of the first activists to properly expose the United States to the world was Australian hacktivist Julian Assange.

Julian Assange is the founder of the secret sharing website Wikileaks. Not only is Julian Assange one of the most important people in the world right now, but Wikileaks is one of the most important websites.

Wikileaks first made its appearance on the world’s radar by publishing a video named “Collateral Murder”, which showed the murder of a group of unarmed Iraqi citizens in Baghdad by a US Army helicopter. The video was allegedly sent to Wikileaks by Private Bradley Manning. Manning decided that he would be the one to speak out against the murders.

Private Bradley Manning has been in prison without charge for well over 700 days.

The next things to get Wikileaks in trouble were the cables they received documenting the atrocities committed by the American army in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Wikileaks has also created a database documenting the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. This prison has been notoriously known as one of the worst tourture prsons in recent history, other than Abu Ghraib. Or at least, that’s what everyone thought.

Wikileaks also uncovered the hundreds of other torture prisons that America has secretly kept in other countries such as Yemen.

Wikileaks and Yemen have also had their past. Recently, Wikileaks published a report on the “Secret War” that America has been waging in Yemen against “terror”. The US has been using drones to try and weed out terrorists in the region.

Casualities of the strikes in Yemen remain unclear, however several strikes have been reported to kill almost no one but civilians in the area. One victim of the attacks is Abdulrahman Al-Awlaki, a teenage boy who was killed along with his family in a drone strike gone wrong in Yemen. He remains a symbol of the US’s poor judgment in the region.

Julian Assange is reportedly barricaded in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, England. IF he were to leave he would be arrested by the UK police and most likely be extradited to the US where he would face treason charges.

What this all comes down to is how far you are willing to defend free speech. Does free speech stop when it exposes wrongdoing in your OWN government? Or should the people of the world be allowed to speak the truth?

Do you have a right to know the truth?

Endeavor

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Last night, the Space Shuttle Endeavor sat perched atop a Boeing 747 at Los Angeles International Airport.  It spent the whole night atop its winged friend waiting for a crane to pluck it off the back of the 747 so it could being its final mobile journey to the Science Center in downtown L.A.

For the Shuttle, the coming years (and even decades) will be ones of quiet solitude as a tourist attraction and symbol of the once mighty manned American space vehicles.

Americans now have to buy seats off of other countries if they want to get into space. The lagging budget for NASA has fallen in part due to the recession, and also because of greed and misunderstanding.

Of the hundreds of members of congress, none are scientists. Therefore, it is extremely hard for federal branches of the government such as NASA and the EPA to get funding.

Space exploration, and even space tourism in some cases, has been left in the cash filled hands of private businessmen and entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Richard Branson.

This exciting new turn of events could actually mean stronger and more determined space programs.

New designs for space shuttles are already in design by these companies, most notably the Hawthorne based SpaceX..

Until these designs become a safe reality, however, the world will have to be satisfied with the decommissioned Endeavor: a small black and white speck on the tiny blue dot.
Wooo, photo, yahhh

Tales from Dr. Horatio Goldberg, Doctor at large: Phillips gets a check-up

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I always figured I’d be a lousy Doctor. I’d be pretty bad with hanging around sick people, and even worse with giving them the bad news in a comforting way. With that said, I like to think I’d be better than Dr. Goldberg here. So, here’s my newest story: Tales from Dr. Horatio Goldberg, Doctor at large: Phillips gets a check up.

Classin' it up.“Hey hey! Phillips! How ya doin’ buddy?” Dr. Goldberg said as he came tumbling into the room where his patient was waiting.

“I’m great doc! I’ve never felt better!” Phillips said with a gleam in his eye.

“Haha, that’s odd.” Dr. Goldberg laughed, as he took off a pair of latex gloves.

“Really? Haha, how come?” Phillips said, losing his gleam.

“Because you won’t make it through the week.” The Doctor said as he checked his clipboard. “So…Phillips, is that a Persian name?”

“Wait, I what??”

“No no, I was asking you.” Dr. Goldberg said, putting his stethoscope into his ears. “Persian name?”

“Dutch-Irish.” Phillips said. “What did you say about me not making it through the week?”

“Well its no big deal. Your test results came back; you’re probably not going to make it to next Tuesday. Its all good, plenty of my patients have died.”

Phillips didn’t know what to say.

“So, you’re scheduled for a prostate exam, right?” Dr. Goldberg said..

“I hardly think that matters right now!!”

“Look, Philly–you mind if I call you Philly?”

“Uh, no, go ahead.”

“Philly, dying is not a big deal. It happens to everyone. I personally believe that after death, we will all be sent to a spirit world, where we will be resurrected and then judged by our superior spirit overlords and then granted life on a far off planet with varying degrees of servitude.” Dr. Goldberg said. “I believe that I’ll be a king of my planet.”

“So you’re a Mormon?”

“We prefer the term Latter Day Saints.” Dr. Goldberg said.

“Well…sir…how am I going to die?” Phillips asked.

“How should I know?” The Doctor asked.

“Well I would think because you’re a-”

“I gotta run, I’m playing golf with Gonzalez from cardiology.” Dr. Goldberg said, running out the door. “We’ll make a rain check on that prostate exam.”

“HEY! Wait a second!”

“See you next time.” The doctor stopped himself at the door. “Actually, haha, no I won’t.”

With that, Horatio Goldberg ran out the door, and Phillips was left alone in the cold, grey doctor’s office.Read More »

The Incredibly Riveting Life of Horace Spareberg: A Comedy.

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Interesting image isn't it? Or is it?!

Horace’s day began like any other.

The alarm clock awoke him at 7:15 like the scream of 1000 banshees. He quickly turned it off.

Horace put his two atypically large feet onto the gelid and icy floor. He took his first two steps of the day down the moderately sized suburban houses hallway towards the bathroom.

Once there, Horace turned the freezing shower water on. Braving the cold, he lathered, rinsed and repeated rather dully for the appropriate number of cycles. After that fiasco, he dried off and went back down the dark hallway towards his breakfast of monoton-o’s and peaches.

While slurping down his cereal, Horace pondered death.  Specifically, Horace wondered what the chances were of him choking on any one of the small, tasteless, bran circles.

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Mike Brown

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Mike Brown. Why would the Lakers pick Mike Brown to be the new head coach?

Mike Brown, LeBron James

Well, it’s either one of several things. Firstly, Mike Brown could be the best coach of all time, but no one has realized it yet. Coaching the Cavilers has not helped his reputation as a great coach, but now that he is at the Lakers, that might change. Maybe he could make the team better again, better than they were with Phil Jackson. This is pretty unlikely.

It could also have been a decision that fit with a much larger plan. Jerry West has just been signed to become an executive board member to the Golden State Warriors. This could mean that West is using the Warriors as a farm team, and that he is planning something to help the Lakers. The decision to enlist Mike Brown as a coach could have something to do with this as well.

I still think that the Lakers should have picked Brian Shaw to be the head coach. He has worked with Jackson, and is still young. He even played with some of the older players. But who knows, the Lakers could be planning something big.

Finding Joe

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Today, I saw the documentary “Finding Joe” at the Ojai Playhouse. The film was all about the teachings of the mythologist and philosopher Joseph Campbell.

Basically, Campbell’s ideas about life come from his ideas about mythology. He says that there is only really one story in all stories of all time. That story is that there is a character that faces a problem, and then changes as a result of that problem. He put this idea into his philosophy.

He said that people will face problems, but eventually overcome them if they are strong enough, or try hard enough. Success, in his words, is obtainable by all.

In my opinion, success is not obtainable by all. Sadly, some people, no matter how hard they try, will never become what they really want to be. Some people are either luckier or just happen to do things at the right time.

Anyway, I got a free ticket to the screening of the movie and to the reception afterwards with the director since I’m part of the Ojai youth film society board.    The director was actually pretty cool, and I got a high five from him after I brought up that I was not allowed to show my most recent movie at my school.

“That’s how you know how you know that you are making better films.” He said, “If more people dislike it, then they are probably better. Until a certain point.”

I get the feeling that I’m going to remember those words for a while. I want to become a director and screenwriter when I’m older. Let’s hope I’m as lucky as Mr. Campbell.

Jackson, Wy

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I’ve been thinking. I have lived in and visited a lot of really different, strange places. I was born in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  Jackson is quite a different place than Ojai, California. Jackson is the predominantly white, right wing small town in the heart of the Rockies.

While living in Jackson, our neighbor was a one armed, gun wielding man named Lefty. Lefty had a bit of a temper.  One time, when our dogs were barking a bit too loud, he threatened to shoot them.  Okay, let me just pause for a moment to let you picture the image of a one armed guy with a shotgun. In my opinion that’s quite a feat to be able to wield a shot gun with one arm.

Anyway, once our other neighbor heard the threat, he threatened to shoot Lefty if he shot our dogs.  And that was how problems were solved in that particular part of Jackson. Out here in Ojai, it’s almost strange for someone to own a gun, especially if they were to flaunt them as the Jacksonites did.

I could go on about stories in which guns are involved, but I won’t.

 Jackson is a great place to be with nature. It is one of the few places left almost  untouched by man. The Tetons look over the town, with their tall and foreboding peaks. Jackson is a place where Elk come into your backyard, and where seeing bears is not uncommon. 

Going back to Jackson is something I want to do again really soon.  I would recommend going to Jackson for anyone who likes nature. It is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Barring Alaska, it is the prettiest state in the US.