America No You Didn't

I know the title may be a little misleading, but this is a serious issue to me! It’s not often that I give in to watching TV’s most annoying genre “Reality TV,” which is often the farthest thing from reality. However, one show has captured my attention for the last two full seasons, and part of the first. That show, “Dancing with the Stars,” just completed its latest season, and I must report that I have an incredible disdain for all those that voted for its eventual champion. In the final episode, former Dallas Cowboys’ running back Emmitt Smith beat former Saved by the Bell star Mario Lopez.

So anybody with far less than 20/20 vision could easily see that Mario Lopez is a far better dancer than Emmitt Smith. Not only is he a better dancer, but each of his performances, week by week, was nearly flawless. Yet and still the judges, who seemed determined to turn the competition into a farce by giving Smith a better score than Lopez when both danced Samba routines to the same song—even though Lopez literally gave a performance that obliterated Smith’s. So the day after the horrible ending to the season, I watched all the news shows, read all the comments, and visited all the message boards about the show. Unfortunately I read a litany of flawed arguments supporting the ultimate outcome. So let me just clearly lay out all of my counter arguments, and then I’ll be through.

To start, I suppose I’ll have to argue my points from a variety of different show definitions since there are several floating around now. I’ll start with the simplest definition: The winner of the show should be the best dancer by the end of the competition. Of course that’s not what happened here, so that argument is done.

The next argument is that the show is about taking a star that is not a dancer by trade, and turning them into a (ballroom) dancer. To justify the horrendous show results, people keep saying that Mario “already knew how to dance” and Emmitt didn’t. Now certainly it appears that Mario spends much time at the club breakin’ it down on the dance floor. However, I critically doubt that while bouncing through all the hottest Hollywood hotspots Mario Lopez was dancing the Paso Doble, the Jive, the Samba, the Mambo, the Tango or the Waltz. I don’t know why, but that’s just a crazy thought that crossed my mind when considering this argument, and clearly that reasoning doesn’t permeate the greater portion of show viewers. But who knows, maybe you can catch Mr. Lopez at “Peanuts” in L.A. Waltzing the night away. BUT, with this argument in mind, I’d like to point out that for years I’ve heard football players (mostly wide receivers and running backs…like Smith) tout dancing (mostly ballet) as a way for them to learn better balance and control while playing football. Perhaps Smith had such training? If so, wouldn’t he, not Lopez, have an unfair advantage?

One argument that I truly disdain is this notion that Mario was as good at the last episode as he was at the beginning, but Emmitt got better throughout the show. HOLD UP…did these people watch the whole season. I did, and Emmitt absolutely did NOT get appreciably better throughout the course of the show. He progressed about as much as a tortoise running the 100-meter dash. The fact of the matter is very few of the shows final participants progressed tremendously from week 1 to the end. The one exception being Monique Coleman, who should’ve been in the final with Mario in my opinion (and I admit that despite the fact that I’m totally in love with Edyta, Joey Lawrence’s partner, and loved every episode that she graced—half-naked with those long sexy legs of hers).

I also keep hearing that Mario was “cocky,” and I read that Mario “knew he had it in the bag.” NO, NO, NO!!!! Those are characteristics that we, as human beings, assign to people (often wrongly) who are confident and good at what they do. At no point during the show did I get the impression that Lopez was a cocky S-O-B. In fact, do you recall the episode where there were behavioral analyses of the show’s contestants? The finding of the behavior analyst was that Mario had the classic look of someone that was subservient when the judges were handing down their judgments. Does that sound like someone who’s cocky? And on the flipside of the coin, how many times did Emmitt Smith refer to “not wanting to lose,” and “being a champion?” Such comments by Smith saturated the final 4 episodes. Sound like someone who’s not cocky?

Smith seemed bent on winning and being the champion, which seems cocky to me. But Mario has been assigned the cocky label. Smith’s dancing didn’t markedly improve over the course of the show. But we recall that Mario looked good in both the 1^st and last episodes, so we say he didn’t get better and Emmitt did. We say that Smith won over the crowd and that’s why he won, even though almost all of Mario’s performances elicited standing ovations.

So here’s the deal, the results of the show demonstrate human nature. When someone is confident and good at something (like Lopez), we tend to call them cocky even when they aren’t. And when someone is an underdog (like Smith), we tend to root for them, often overlooking their shortcomings in the process. For example, many of the things that people now criticize Lopez for could easily be leveled at Smith. But we only remember who the underdog was, and I suppose that’s something that the majority of the population can identify with, therefore we vote accordingly.

But it wasn’t just the viewing audience that was guilty of demonstrating human nature. Even the judges were guilty…BIG TIME!!! I still can’t see how they justify giving Emmitt a perfect 30 for his Samba during the last episode, but only giving Mario a 29 when they danced the same dance to the same music. Mario was better than Emmitt by leaps and bounds. Then again the judges are only human, and that was evident in their comments. Carrie Ann Inaba, one of the three judges, once exclaimed that because she perceived Mario to be a good dancer that she was going to be more critical about his performances. HOW IS THAT FAIR???!!!!!

I really appreciated the American public when they finally voted Jerry Springer off; even if it was an episode too late (Willa Ford should not have gotten voted off before Jerry…she had mad potential). But in the finale they got it all wrong, and for all the wrong (very flawed) reasons.

I pretty much avoid Reality TV with a passion, but being the amateur dancer that I am this one has caught my eye each time. I just wish that the American public would give up on this “root for the underdog” mentality and just let the underdog fight for itself (unless you’re referring to the University of Michigan this weekend vs. the Ohio State University).

Once again America, you have disappointed me. Mario “A.C. Slater” Lopez should’ve won hands down.

America, no you didn’t!!!

-Maelstrom

Back From Retirement?

Ok, I really shouldn’t be doing this because I have plenty to work on, but I had to take 15 minutes to return from retirement because I’m pretty livid about the news.

Yes, that’s right, JonBenet Ramsey has brought me out of retirement; at least momentarily!

Can someone explain to me how JonBenet EVER became national news? Do you know how many young little girls are (sadly and disgustingly) murdered each year? As if it wasn’t bad enough that the case made huge headlines last decade, a whole 10 years after the story was national news, this “not national news story” was exhumed and made national news because some creep (WHO OBVIOUSLY WASN’T THE KILLER!) claimed he loved JonBenet and accidentally killed her.

To be fair, I certainly think that the little girl's death was tragic, and I don’t want to diminish it at all, but I do want to call attention to the fact that this WAS NEVER NATIONAL NEWS.

So you already know what I think…this was just another instance proving that America’s worst nightmare isn’t Terrorism, Budget Deficits, The Axis of Evil, Cuts in Education Funding, Social Security, or Health Care: America’s worst nightmare is the murder or kidnapping of Blonde Hair, Blue-Eyed White Women…well at least the murder or kidnapping of a White Woman (White Girls included).

And even the most reputable, in my opinion, of News Reporters’ fell victim to reporting on this case. I was incredibly disheartened when even Anderson Cooper, whom I really respect, had this JonBenet garbage as his lead story for several nights over the course of the last couple of weeks on CNN.

So I’m calling on the media in this country to be responsible and to think. I knew this guy wasn’t the killer when his ex-wife (who actually hates him) said that he was with her and the kids every Christmas during their marriage, including the Christmas that JonBenet was killed. Furthermore, there was never any record of this man ever being in Colorado. I mean, seriously, there was not a shred of credibility to any of his claims, and yet the dumb Boulder, Colorado District Attorney tried to make a case out of this, and the media slurped it up like it was a bowl of hot chili in Antarctica.

Meanwhile, there are very serious issues going on in this country as well as around the world that actually matter and should actually be reported on. Notice how JonBenet trumped the War in Lebanon, Iran, the War in Iraq, the War in Afghanistan, an unstable stock market, and even Hurricane Katrina’s 1-year anniversary coverage.

How ironic that last year I wrote (October 25, 2005) about how I was angry that the lead story on Fox News, the Thursday after Katrina hit, was about Natallee Holloway while Tens of Thousands of people were suffering through a lack of governmental response in New Orleans and the Gulf States. Different girl, but with the same “paint-job,” eliciting the same stupid-media response. That is no coincidence, but it is a shame.

I still think there is something foul in the water in the State of Colorado (see my blog from March 8, 2005), and I still think the media is failing in their duty to report on stories of importance to the populace (see my blogs from May 1, 2006, March 30, 2005 and Jan 1, 2006).

Ok, my 15 minutes are up, have a nice day!

-Maelstrom

The Hiatus

Ok, I hope you have 10 minutes of free time because this is going to take a lil’ while to read!

I really hate to do what I’m about to do, but I think it is necessary for several reasons. I have been officially blogging for over 2 years now and I think it’s time for a break. This is difficult for me to do, mostly because writing is one of my 3 biggest passions in life. But I don’t want to write unless it’s good, and I don’t know if I have the time to write reputable posts here at The Vortex these days.

When I first began blogging I wanted everything I wrote to be as if I’d written it for The New York Times’ or Washington Posts’ Editorial Page. I wanted to become “Syndicated Columnist Maelstrom” to my readers. And though I have a handful of short posts here, the majority of my 130+ posts over the last 2 years have indeed been full length, in-depth “articles” that could land in a reputable newspaper column somewhere, with a little polishing of course. I also intended to post 2 new topics each week. And though I came out the gates charging ahead with almost 4 new posts each week, I’ve since slowed to less than 1 a week, which I deem unacceptable.

Initially I was inspired by a love interest that I wanted to impress at all costs. So even though The Vortex was bound to exist because writing and sharing my opinions with others have always been on my “to do” list, it certainly helped me to think that I was impressing her. Once that particular impetus to write left me several months after I began, I then relied on a “something to prove” mentality to motivate me to write. And through it all, I have survived off the comments I’ve received on my site; the anonymous comments posted at the bottom of my posts, the verbal reinforcement, the IM convo’s that I’ve had with many of you. These things have kept me going because I didn’t want to disappoint my reading audience.

Through much of my life, writing has been there for me. It is an elixir of sorts for me. When I would argue and dispute with my siblings till I could argue no more, I’d go to my room and write down all my frustrations. When I felt inspired by nature, I’d write down what I thought was beautiful poetry. When death surrounded me, I could console my aching heart by writing down my thoughts. The remedying benefits of writing haven’t left me and never will. Indeed, writing here at The Vortex has helped me through the absolute most difficult time in my life.

Despite the desire I have to keep this site up, other current obligations will supercede it for at least the next 2 months. After those 2 months are up, I will decide if I can continue.

And though you may not be able to tell it from the last several months of posts here, I have written on almost every topic worthy of a post. I just haven’t posted the vast majority of them because I didn’t have the time to proofread, polish, or even finish what I’d written.

I want to write about Intelligent Design and how silly the debate over it is to me. But maybe not in the way you think I think. I mean, those who are truly God-believing people shouldn’t try to disguise their belief with man-made science. God needs no scientific validation. Is your faith in God so weak that you have to justify His existence through earthly, man-made devices???

I want to write about the loud political rhetoric coming from the Right wing of our government in the aftermath of al-Zarqawi’s death. Gay marriage and flag burning are just 2 of the major rabbits that they have once again pulled out of the hat (they do this every election year). Hopefully no one will be fooled by this silliness, but I know people are often tricked into voting on these issues as opposed to issues that are genuinely affecting their every day life.

I want to write about how there is NO OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OR RELIGION in this country, and that this is no mistake. Therefore, it is completely plausible that in the next 40 years this could be a predominantly Spanish speaking country with Buddhists beliefs. And that would, to me, represent the essence of what the Founding Fathers wanted given the deliberate nature of their beliefs by leaving those 2 points of contention out of the Constitution. So sing the national anthem in Spanish, Swahili or Cantonese, as long as it is out of respect for this nation. And respect all religions as long as you expect yours to be respected.

I want to write about Kobe vs. Shaq and how people who are all-of-a-sudden Miami Heat fans are really just Kobe haters in disguise. People that hate Kobe love Miami because Shaq plays for them. Likewise, people that hate Miami love Kobe, and by proxy love the Lakers. NO YOU DIDN’T LIKE MIAMI 2 YEARS AGO, AND PROBABLY COULDN’T FIND IT ON A MAP, you just hate Kobe! Keep it thorough!!!

I want to write about the Shooting Stars I’ve been seeing over the past week, and the approach of an asteroid toward Earth’s orbit, and the appearance of several planets. Why? Because I’m a stargazer…I can’t help it!

I want to write about my belief that setting a timetable to leave Iraq is the absolute right thing to do, and how at some point we will have to anyhow, if for no other reason than the fact that our Armed Services are overextended worldwide. And once again consider that nothing has happened in Iraq without a deadline. The turnover of the Iraqi government, the many elections, and the filling of their cabinet all had to happen on a time schedule. Funny thing is, when there was no “bloodbath” following these deadlines the President and his administration praised the Iraqi people, and criticized people who said that the deadline would bring insurgents out of the wood-work and give rise to a bloodbath. BUT NOW, a deadline to bring our troops home would be sending the wrong message to the Iraqi people and would allow the insurgents to just lie in wait to wreak havoc on the Iraqi people??? Which one is it Mr. President, you can’t straddle the fence, you can’t have it both ways, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

As an addendum to the last paragraph, I want to write about how pathetic I think Congress is, especially after they spent a week debating over a pull-out of our troops from Iraq. During this debate 2 Democratic bills were on the table that outlined a pull-out of our Troops from Iraq. The Republicans called these bills “cut and run,” but then the President’s own Commander in Iraq came out a few days later and outlined a plan to pull-out of Iraq that sounded eerily similar to the Democratic Reed-Levin proposal. Go figure!

As an addendum to that paragraph, I’d like to write about how the Republicans are great at giving everyone 2 options (e.g. “It’s either America or al-Qaeda” or “are we gonna cut and run or stay the course”) when there are a plethora of options on almost any topic. There are only a few things that are as black and white as the Republicans would have you believe. I mean, you’re only pregnant or you’re not, and you’re either dead or you’re alive. Some people even debate those.

I’d also like to write about how pathetic the Democrats are. They have virtually every political argument in their favor right now and they still can’t capitalize.

I want to write about the many contradictions in what is said by this administration and what is actually happening. For instance, if we want to find Bin laden, why are we pulling troops out of Afghanistan and allowing NATO to take over there when we believe that we could’ve caught him before when we first invaded over there, but made the mistake of turning over the responsibility to Afghan soldiers? Shouldn’t we be “staying the course” in Afghanistan if Bin Laden is the guy we’re after? If we are safer now than before, why is it just as easy to get illegal objects on airplanes and into our nations’ ports now as it was “before?” Why isn’t there border security to our north or to our south? WHY DON’T I FEEL SAFER?!!!

I want to write about how Iraq was an imminent threat to the United States in 2003 after doing nothing, but how now North Korea is not a threat after they shot off 7 missiles the other day, 1 of which was capable of reaching US soil. Another glaring contradiction that further amazes me because we know that they have a Nuclear Weapons program, and may already have between 6 and 8 Nuclear warheads. Iraq, as you might recall, had none!

I want to write about Women, because I like them and I want them to like me too! Especially Jessica Alba!

I want to write about Watch ads (yes, that timepiece on your wrist) and how they always have the Watch set to 10:10 in magazine ads.

I want to write about Music from Jazz to Hip Hop, Salsa to Gospel.

I want to write about how I STILL think BET is the worst channel on TV and they should just let me run it.

I really, really, really want to write about how I think that if you watch Maury Povich’s Talk Show, that you are complicit in the degradation of America. What a waste of time, life, and brain cells!!! He is not helping those people or those children, and he knows it. And if you watch, you are only contributing to the delinquency of those ignorant acting people on his show.

I want to write about how to make Grey’s Anatomy much better. I mean, I enjoy the show, but the plotlines could be more in-depth and as of now, the writing is only 1 level better than that of the incredibly in-depth Desperate Housewives.

So, as you can see, I have a lot to say, and a lot to write about. But duties lie before me that I cannot ignore, and they take much time to get through. Hopefully I’ll be able to resume posting here by the end of August, but for now I don’t know. So for now, I’ll just refer to this prose hibernation as The Hiatus!

Thank you to everyone that has read this page. Thank you to everyone that has passed this site on to friends. A special thank you to those who discuss serious issues with me which often spark trains of thought in my head which then end up on this site. A special thanks to a gentleman who has spread the word all over my current campus about this site, and has been one of only a few people in my new world that I can carry on an elevated conversation with (Lester, you know I’m talkin’ about you man).

You all don’t know how much the last 2 years of writing here at The Vortex have meant to me. Honestly, it has been a blessing of sorts for me. I truly want to say Thank You!!!

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes:

“People don’t change when they’re told they need to, people change when they realize they must” -Thomas Friedman

Gracias!
-Maelstrom

PS: Much of what I’ve written over the last 2 years is still relevant. Indeed, some of the issues I addressed exactly 1 year ago are finally being debated nationwide. Point is, The Vortex is still a viable resource for out of the box thinking…so just peruse some of my old posts. You won’t be disappointed!

Let's Talk Sports

Serious stuff today, fun stuff later!

Over last weekend, in a show of solidarity with the Men’s Lacrosse Team, Duke University’s Womens Lacrosse team wore arm bracelets with the numbers of the 3 indicted Men's Lacrosse players on them during their tournament game. My first response was “what?!!!” I actually couldn’t believe the act. And I’ll echo the sentiments of Sports Reporter John Saunders of ESPN, who was thinking the same thing I was, in explaining my surprise.

Although we don’t know if the rape allegations against the men are true at this point, we do know that the Men’s Lacrosse team paid for strippers to entertain them at an off-campus party. And at least one of the Men’s players wrote a very cryptic, violent email, threatening to commit murder in his angst over the rape allegations.

Given these realities, I’m puzzled as to how self respecting women that have even a shred of understanding of the gravitas of the situation at hand, can so brazenly cast their lots in favor of support of these men. Either ignorance abounds, or peer pressure is a beast…maybe both.

Here's a thought for the Duke's Women's Lacrosse team: If they want to support someone so bad, maybe they could look around their locker room. Here are some quick, startling stats and a statement that I am borrowing from John Saunders because he’s totally correct: Between 14 and 20 percent of all women will be sexually assaulted their lives. Over half of all women in college will be sexually assaulted in some form during their time there. And this is just disgusting, but a recent study pointed out that 15% of men in college ADMIT to sexually assaulting a woman. Now, given that many women don’t report rape (and I’m sure that many men never own up to their sick criminal act), imagine that those percentages are certainly underestimates.

And with those stats, I’ll simply echo Saunders sentiments in saying that if the Women’s Lacrosse team wants to stick their necks out and support someone then they should look around their locker room, because it is highly likely that one of their teammates, as a result of sexual assault, could use their support.

Keeping with the women in sports theme, also over last weekend Indy Car fanatics crowded into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to watch the famed Indianapolis 500 race. In the field of drivers was 2nd year driver Danica Patrick; the only female in the pack. Since Danica has hit the IndyCar circuit, the profile of the institution has risen to levels that it hasn’t been at in decades. Unfortunately for Danica, she can’t buy a break simply because she’s a woman.

Last Sunday’s Indy 500 was only her 20th start, and sports writers and critics from all over were calling for Danica to win or else they will don her “the next Anna Kournikova.” “If she doesn’t win, the hype is unwarranted,” they'll say. Well look, here’s a lil fact for ya, the average number of starts before winning a single race was 34 for this years Indy 500 field. She actually led for a few laps at last years Indy 500 (en route to a 4th place finish) and she finished in the top 10 again this year. She is actually pretty phenomenal.

In any case, I have to wonder, why so much scrutiny for this one person who is doing more than holding her own. Would we even be talking about how she needs to win to validate herself if she weren’t a woman? On the other hand, would we be paying attention to her if she weren’t attractive and didn’t appear in a handful of magazines in sexy poses?

What a dilemma!!!

Women in sports are in a precarious position. In order to get any acclaim they have to be portrayed as sexy, but at the same time if they aren’t “good” (as defined by the male-dominated media’s criteria) then they get criticized because “she’s only famous because she’s sexy.”

Having said that, I’d like to point out that even Anna Kournikova was a pretty darn good Tennis player. She was ranked number 1 in the world in Doubles Tennis, and was ranked as high as 7th in the WTA Singles standings. And I know she’s criticized for having never won a tournament, but there are literally hundreds of male and female Tennis players out there that have never won and never reached the top 25. In fact, only a few dozen have more than 1 Singles title, and significantly fewer have ever won a Grand Slam.

So, true Kournikova was famous because her looks (though it didn’t start out that way), but that’s because women seemingly have to play the sexy role in order to gain the kind of acclaim that notable male losers get easily. I can reel off a huge list of NBA players, for example, that have never won despite their fame, but are considered great (Malone, Ewing, Baylor, Stockton, A.I., Payton, etc…and the same is true in a wide array of sports, including individual sports like Tennis).

And to get back to Danica, I think the men in the IndyCar field know that she’s good and that they’re gonna get beat by a girl one of these days real soon. So they come out of the woodwork with all these pre-emptive excuses (like Robby Gordon’s comment that she only weighs 100 pounds so she has an advantage over the 160+ pound guys). Even the old racing men have come out of nowhere to take swipes at her (Racing great Richard Petty said just prior to the Indy 500 that women shouldn’t be on the race track).

Let ‘em talk Danica…then you show ‘em how ladies do it!

-Maelstrom

Straight Talk on Illegal Immigration

With further recent revelations surrounding our governments Domestic Spying program through the NSA, I must begin by reminding you of some very important facts. Number 1, neither the NSA spying program nor the Patriot Act would have been necessary to prevent the attacks of 9/11 (as reported by the bipartisan 9/11 Commission Report). Furthermore Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and all the reasons that we went to War with Iraq have proven to be false and unfounded (including the falsely suspected link between Iraq and al-Qaeda). Finally, we (American citizens) don’t have to choose between security and freedom (that’s the foolish choice that the political Right keeps trying to make us decide on as a reason for Spying on its citizens). No person/country in the history of the planet has ever had either, there was only the illusion.

Now, to the topic at hand…

If you haven’t heard the grand noise surrounding illegal immigration over the last several weeks, then you must’ve been in a coma. I’ll admit that it is a topic that is hard to tackle for several reasons, but is one that must be dealt with. To begin, I’ll just point out a few key terms that deserve to be distinguished:

• Illegal Immigration
• (Border) Security
• Rights
• Laws

To be sure, nothing significant has changed this year or last year with respect to illegal immigrants. Millions enter this country every year from a wide array of demographic, racial and social backgrounds (this is not a Mexican problem as some might think), and this has been going on for decades. So why is illegal immigration a major news issue these days, one might ask?

Well, the answer is simple: illegal immigrants want rights largely on par with US citizens. Many people have pointed out that illegal immigrants do jobs that US citizens don’t do. Some, including Mexican President Vicente Fox, claim that illegal immigrants do jobs that Americans won’t do. And indeed it is true that you often find illegal immigrants working in incredibly dangerous situations where many would not want to. So if and when those illegal immigrants harm themselves at one of these jobs, they want the right to have health care coverage, for example, just like a legal co-worker would. Some go much further and want driver’s licenses and photo ID, etc. Essentially, they want many, if not all, of the rights and privileges of being an American Citizen while maintaining their loyalty to their country of origin.

The United States’ border is also a major issue in this post-9/11 world. And in case you don’t know, when we talk “border security,” we really mean Mexican border security, because apparently no one ever crosses the Canadian border, serial killers included. On the Mexican border, thousands upon thousands of people cross into the United States illegally each year. In fact, at one point I heard that 3,000 people are caught trying to cross the border each day. Largely as a result of crossing the Mexican border, it is estimated that between 12 and 20 million illegal immigrants live in the USA today. Recent proposals to prevent border crossing have included putting up a wall along the border, as well as sending National Guardsmen to enforce the border.

Lastly, there is the issue of Rights vs. Laws. Semantically speaking, Laws give you Rights; therefore you don’t have Rights if those Rights aren’t within the parameters of the Law. For example, you have the Right to health care/leave of absence/financial compensation if you are injured while performing your job (provided you were abiding by company regulations). But you only have that Right if you are lawfully employed by the company you are working for, and such coverage was part of your contract with the company. So the question becomes, if an Illegal Immigrant is injured on a job, do they have such Rights? Sounds like an easy question to answer, but consider that they were working for the company (which benefits the company), and consider that there are Human Rights obligations in existence.

Now I suppose that Laws can also take away some Rights in a myriad of ways, but that’s a different subject for another time.

Here’s what I think…

Unlike the Civil Rights’ marchers of the 50’s and 60’s, I think many of the people marching in the “immigration” parades recently have 1 thing all wrong. If you want the same rights as US Citizens, it’s not a wise idea to “rep your city” (i.e. don’t flaunt your flag from another country). Nothing is more likely to infuriate people on Capitol Hill (as well as the general US population) than “lawbreakers that want our rights while being loyal to their foreign country.” It’s just not wise.

Plus, if your country is so great then why are you trying to work/live here? With respect to Mexico, why is your President Vicente Fox bantering to force the USA to give citizen’s rights to the illegal Mexican immigrants in this country? And how can he do such things when Mexico’s penalties for crossing into Mexico and working/living illegally there are at least as strict as the United States’ policies. Could it be a mixture of money, politics and economics? I think so.

On the issue of Border security, I think EVERY one of the proposals I’ve heard is completely mindless. You can’t put up a fence that runs the length of the Mexico-USA border (I think it’s roughly 2,000 miles long), and there’s no better way to further fuel animosity between neighbors than by doing so (just ask Israel and Palestine or East and West Berlin, Germany). Another proposal I heard consisted of putting up a fence along portions of the border, which is silly for the aforementioned reasons and because people will just find places where there is no fence and try to cross there. Then there’s the big issue of money, time and manpower that it would take to put up a fence of that magnitude. Now if the government is willing to contract out a company for Billions of dollars to get the job done like they did Halliburton in Iraq, then maybe they should go for it; but only if the same care is taken at the much longer Canadian Border too. I mean, this is about security, right??? And if not, then please shut that noise up.

So, I don’t think that illegal immigration would be much of a problem if the Laws, which are already on the books, were being enforced. Employers who surreptitiously hire Illegal Immigrants should be jailed, then there would be no place for the Illegal Immigrants to work, then Illegal Immigrants would have much less of a reason for crossing the border. The problem is that companies, as well as the government, benefit from Illegal Immigration financially. I have never believed that Illegal Immigrants do jobs that American’s aren’t willing to do; Illegal Immigrants can just be paid slavery wages to do jobs that would require an employer to pay a citizen much more. And in a capitalistic, selfish society like the United States of America, of course many of these Billion-dollar-a-year companies will employ cheaper labor, even if it’s illegal.

Also, there may be those instances where Americans wouldn’t perform a job because the wage for that job is unrighteously low considering the work load. Imagine working in the hot Arizona sun all day, risking serious injury but working for an hourly rate near minimum wage (which is $5.75 an hour and hasn’t been raised in 10 years) while the heads of the company spend their “hard day at work” making thousands of dollars an hour for breathing while swinging their golf club at the city’s local clubhouse. In the richest country in the world, Americans shouldn’t have to do any job of that ilk at a wage that they can’t survive on.

It can’t be overlooked that there are legal ways of obtaining citizenship in this country (albeit sometimes unfairly distributed in my opinion). You can migrate here, work and pay taxes for a specific number of years, then pass your naturalization tests. You can come over on a work-Visa or College Fellowship, “fall in love,” and marry an American citizen. Heck, you can even come over here for a space of time, get pregnant and have a child (which would then be an American citizen), and that process would open certain doors that may make it easier for you to become a citizen. Whatever the method, there are legal ways to do it (including a random citizenship lottery), and it is unfair that many people have attempted those legal routes and been denied, but those who are clearly illegal want to “step in front of the line.”

• Yes, illegal immigration is a problem.
• No, I don’t think it will be fixed anytime soon.
• Yes, it is being used as a political tool by both the Left and Right in this election year.
• No, there is not an easy solution to the problem.
• Yes, the USA should enforce the already existing Laws.
• No, those Laws can’t be truly enforced without first enforcing the Borders.
• Yes, Physicians should treat illegal immigrants that have been injured (as a part of the Hippocratic Oath).
• No, I don’t think Illegal Immigrants should be given Health Benefits…but maybe.
• Yes, employers of Illegal Immigrants should be prosecuted.
• No, amnesty is not the answer to the problem.
• Yes, President Bush’s proposal IS amnesty.
• No, sending 6,000 unarmed (internationally strained) National Guards to help enforce the border is not a benefit AT ALL!!!
• Yes, sending 6,000 unarmed (internationally strained) National Guards to help enforce the border is about the dumbest thing I’ve heard come out of this debate.
• No, deportation of millions of Illegal Immigrants is not plausible.
• Yes, I’m confused about the notion of giving Illegal Immigrants photo ID’s and Driver’s Licenses…isn’t that backwards on both sides of the argument?

And NO, Illegal Immigrants should not be given the same rights and privileges as American citizens, no matter if they’re working in this country. Otherwise, what would be the value of being an American citizen, and what about the millions upon millions of poor, disadvantaged and disenfranchised citizens and immigrants that already live in this country? Isn’t it the duty of the United States’ government to take care of them first?

I know that there are many angles that I haven’t addressed or touched on. This topic is too big to be contained in just one posting. That being said, here are the things that I think would help the problem:
1. Enforce the borders and secure the ports (which seems to be a no-brainer to me after 9/11, especially since the President keeps claiming we’re safer now than we were then).
2. Enforce the existing laws and prosecute employers that employ illegal immigrants.
3. Raise the minimum wage to a living wage for people 18 and older.

And I’ll leave you with this thought:

Laws are what make countries manageable, and Borders are what define a country. If Laws and Borders aren’t enforced, then what do you have? Seriously, consider that.

-Maelstrom

I think...

I think that there should be a word for that sensation you feel when you think you’re going to sneeze but nothing comes out. So, I’ve come up with one. I think it should be called an Imsnozter, as in a sneeze that’s an imposter or an imposter sneeze that occurs at your snoz.

I think that if you buy a Veinte cup of White Mocha at Starbucks more than once a week, you don’t have the right to complain about the cost of a gallon of gas.

I think that some of the writers of Disney movies might be a lil bit racist. How come every time there’s a movie with an African theme the characters are depicted by animals, like The Lion King and Madagascar?!!!

I think groups on thefacebook.com are hilarious because the group isn’t a real group until one particular swear word is amended to the end of the group name (e.g. It’s Pop B*tch, Not Soda or I Went to Detroit Public Schools and Still got into College B*tch! or I’ve been Starting and Maintaining Groups since Before you were Born B*tch or D*mn right I Drive a Hoopty, my Mama wasn’t Rich B*tch!)

I think if your boyfriend doesn’t buy you flowers because (he says) “they (the flowers) are gonna die in a few days” or “its cliché to buy flowers” or he “doesn’t need to do such things to express his love for you”…I think he’s cheap and I think that you should dump him!

I think that if you have bought into the idea that your boyfriend doesn’t have to get you flowers every now and then, you should re-evaluate your own view of your self-worth.

I think that if you bought your 2007 model luxury vehicle in March of 2006 you got gypped.

I think R. Kelly should be behind bars.

I think R. Kelly should continue recording.

I think R. Kelly should continue recording behind bars.

I think that TiVo was the evolutionary precursor to homo sapien

I think that you should go to jail if you walk across the street while talking on your Cellphone, Bluetooth, or Blackberry.

I think Pat Sajak has a big head

I think Don Cheadle is the world’s greatest actor, followed by Tom Hanks!

I think that Long Hair is a sign of genius. However, in those rare cases where genius and long hair don’t amalgamate, I think that Long Hair wins championships. And sometimes Long Hair does bof (yup…bof)!

I think that the three biggest causes of today’s problems on earth were the birth of Jesus, the birth of Mohammed, and the invention of the car. And in that regard, I don’t think the three are unrelated.

I think you should continue reading all of the “I thinks” written in this particular post because, well, I think you should!

I think, as it pertains to relationships, that it’s the presence and not the presents!

I think it’s funny how 12 years ago if you met someone over the internet you were considered weird and risky, but now it’s an extremely common and acceptable practice.

I think that in sports, stats don’t lie, but they don’t always tell the truth.

I think that it is incredibly sad when a major news story 4 days after Hurricane Katrina hit is Natalee Holloway (thank you Fox News).

I think it is sadder still that Natalee Holloway is a major news story at all almost a year after she went missing.

I think Natalee Holloway is a major news story because she is a missing (blonde) white woman. In fact, stuff (I want to use another “s” word, but I’ll be nice) like this MAKES ME SO MAD that if you’re reading this blog I want you to visit this website (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-06-15-missing-minorities_x.htm). That might help you to understand my outrage!

I think that this whole Iran Nuclear weapons thing is a farce and a sham. There is no way the US is going to risk nuclear war with Iran, and seriously, who is really paying attention to the Iranian President’s rhetoric.

I think my mother is hilarious. No seriously, the lady is a riot!

I think I wanna marry a lady newscaster…they’re so hot; especially the ones that appear during primetime news hours. I’ve even got a top 10 for CNN!

I think that the term “passive-aggressive” is an oxymoron and doesn’t prove or say anything at all.

I think there’s something seriously backwards about someone making a whole television series based around their criminal activity just prior to their incarceration (meaningful stare in the direction of Lil Kim). There’s also something wrong with a channel that would support such silliness by producing the show (angry glance at BET).

I think that if you STILL believe that going into war with Iraq was the right decision then you need to read the 9/11 Commission Report while recalling the reasons given for going to war with Iraq (Imminent Threat, WMD’s, ties to al Qaeda). I also think you need to go to jail, not be allowed to vote in the next two elections, and should talk to my first cousin who was stationed in Baghdad.

I think it's worth noting that the three most recognizable figures in the terrorist organization al Qaeda (OBL, Zawahiri, Zarqawi) made tapes and recordings public within one week last week. I also think it is a little bit too coincidental.

I think that the world is going to oblivion on June 6th of this year (ie 06/06/06, as in 666)…just kidding!

I think I think a lot.

I think sometimes I think too much.

I think I’ll stop now!

-Maelstrom

United 93

This coming Friday a new movie will be released that focuses on the events of 9/11. More specifically, the movie focuses on United Airlines Flight 93, which was brought down by passengers that heroically fought to regain control of the hijacked plane. Since the movie’s trailer was released a few weeks back, there has been controversy over whether the movie has been made too soon after the tragic events of that day.

Believe it or not, each family that lost a loved one in that plane signed off on its making and they stand behind the directors, producers and studio for making the film. Also, 10% of the grosses made from the films first 3 day box office campaign will go to The Flight 93 National Memorial.

As I’m sure you are aware, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001. All evidence uncovered indicates that the hijacked plane was to be flown into the Capitol building in Washington DC on the same morning that 3 other flights brought down the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center and crashed into the Pentagon. The 9/11 Commission Report concluded that the plane was crashed by the hijackers after the 40 passengers onboard revolted.

The National Memorial for the Flight will be erected, and is slated to cover hundreds of acres of land; however, one Congressman is adamantly against the size of it. He is afraid that the total cost of the memorial will be shouldered by the government (the families of the victims pledged to raise 50% of the money necessary to erect it, but are far from that goal to date). So red tape and bureaucracy still seem to rule, even when the situation is of this magnitude and importance.

Back to the issue at hand…

…why make a movie about this tragedy now?

In my opinion, the writers/producers/directors of this movie are exploiting the tragedy for monetary gain. I could be totally wrong, and they could be making this movie for pristine purposes, but I highly doubt it, and here’s why:

If the makers of the film meant to only portray the events of the day, and to only cause us to “never forget” the lives lost, then why not give ALL of the profits of the movie to The Flight 93 National Memorial? Though the 10% is a kind gesture, it is but a pittance if your intentions are truly magnanimous. And at that, the studio (Universal) is only giving 10% of its first 3 day weekend grosses to the Memorial.

How cheap?!!!

If you understand how movies work, the 1st weekend buzz will often generate more and more people to come out and see the movie in the coming weeks. Therefore the theatre is only giving a small portion of cash to the Memorial in comparison to what they could be giving if the 10% were given throughout the movie’s theatre run.

As for the families of the victims, the sentiment that I keep hearing them echo is that everyone needs to remember. My response to such a sentiment is “has anyone forgotten?” Seriously, anyone in their mid-teens, I’m sure, vividly remembers the events of that day. In order for people to remember they would’ve had to have forgotten, and trust me September 11th doesn’t only live with the victims’ families everyday, it lives with all of us everyday.

Speaking as someone that has lost many loved ones, I know that the concept of “remembering” is very important. But the simple fact is that no one has forgotten the sacrifices made on that day (although I must admit that the Trade Centers get much more attention than the plane that crashed into the Pentagon and Flight 93).

That brings me to my major point, which is simply that there is no reason for this movie to be made right now. If, as the families say, we need to remember, then certainly the movie could’ve been postponed for another 10 or 15 years. No one I know has forgotten the events of 9/11. And if the goal of the Studio isn’t money driven, then give ALL of the profits to the Memorial.

In 10 or 15 years this movie would actually make much more sense, given the reasoning of the family. It could serve as an educational tool as well as a moment to recall the sacrifices made on that day. It could act in the same way that Malcolm X and Titanic did in the mid-nineties; give people a chance to see and understand a part of history that they didn’t have the chance to witness for themselves; spur interests in the events of that day.

Doing it now, in my opinion, only amplifies and conjures up not-so-old wounds that haven’t healed for many of the other families who directly lost people on that day, not to mention the American public. 2,300 other families lost loved ones on the morning of September 11th, and millions of American citizens were terribly (emotionally, socially, some physically) wounded by 9/11, not just the 40 families directly affected by Flight 93’s crash.

Will the movie do well at the box office? I think so. Will I go see the movie? Probably. Do the passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 need and deserve to be remembered? Absolutely! Is this film too much too soon? Without a doubt!

-Maelstrom

Debra Lafave

So my anger has been smoldering for a couple of weeks now, and I can’t let it go. Please allow me the opportunity to diffuse my utter frustration with the criminal justice system in this country with respect to a particular topic.

A couple weeks back a confessed child rapist got off the hook. This time, in my opinion, it isn’t because of their race (the perpetrator is white), or status (they worked as a school teacher), or because of their looks (although some say the criminal is extremely pretty). The reason the assailant got off the hook is because the rapist is a woman.

Before I get going with this post I’d like to make it absolutely clear that I understand women are societal targets and men are the agents. I am keenly aware of the fact that men are the recipients of privilege in society and not nearly enough men have been punished for the evil sexual abuse that they have perpetrated against women worldwide.

That being said, women sometimes get away with committing the same wicked acts as their male counterparts, and enjoy much kinder judicial treatment, and that’s not right!

Back to the case at hand.

A married, 24-year-old female school teacher from Florida plead guilty to having sex with her 14-year-old male student. The teacher, Debra Lafave, began a relationship with the boy in 2004, and had several sexual encounters with boy soon after they met. One instance included her having sex with the boy while his 15-year-old cousin drove them around in her vehicle. The case actually never went to trial, and Lafave got 3 years house arrest and seven years of probation as part of a plea deal.

Can you believe that? Have you EVER heard of a man in a similar situation getting the same kind of treatment?

So as I listened to every argument about this case, and heard about several other similar cases, many things heavily troubled me. So let me just lay it out for you real plain: If you are an adult and you’re having sex with a minor without parental permission through marriage (as is legal in many States), then you are a Sex Offender and you need to go to jail. Furthermore, if you are a 24-year-old, married, schoolteacher (as was Debra Lafave), and you’re having sex with your 14-year-old student (like Lafave did), then you are a Sexual Predator.

I cannot believe that this lady got off the hook at all. What she has done violates the law, morality, her marriage, common sense. I am outraged.

BUT, I heard people making sympathetic statements that would seem to justify such behavior, largely because it was a boy who was being violated by an older woman and not a girl being violated by an older man.

The following several sentiments expressed in cases where these female teachers sexually assault their male students seriously bother me:
• These women are not sexual predators like men who do the same thing
• The female (ADULT!!!) teacher is seduced by these boys
• 14-17 year old boys look like men, and so it’s not like they (the women) are having sex with a little boy
• Young boys want to have sex with their older, often “hot,” teacher
• Boys are touted as heroes by their male peers when they have sex with an adult female
• It wasn’t rape, there was a real love and passion between the two of them

There is a problem with all of these assertions, and they simply derive from the societal notion that a boy CANNOT be raped or sexually violated by a woman once he reaches adolescence. A concept that is totally false and wrong if for no other reason than the fact that EVERY INDIVIDUAL IS UNIQUE and feels differently about any number of things; including sex.

What frustrates me (almost more than the fact that these women often get off the hook) is that people in the media and apparently in the Courthouse allow arguments like the ones I listed above to fly without challenging their inherent flaws. Everytime I hear these arguments being made on the news, without opposition, I just wanna jump through the TV screen and yell at the top of my lungs YOU ARE ALL A BUNCH OF IDIOTS.

But since that never works (I’ve tried), I’ll use this site to annihilate all such arguments and leave no doubt in the minds of the reading audience that when a female teacher has sex with one of her male students under the age of 18, they should lose their job and also serve jail time just like any man engaged in the same sickening activity.

A predator, according to Webster.com, is one that preys, destroys or devours. Societally, we call anyone a sexual predator as long as they prey on children; whether that’s a first time offense, or the seventh. BUT, that only seems to apply if the perpetrator is a male. When it’s a woman, we shy away from calling the destroyer a predator. I even hear people say about women like Lafave “I don’t think she’s a predator.” But if a predator is truly one that destroys, as the definition points out, then I think she certainly falls in that category. Do you think the boy that she sexually violated can live out a normal childhood or even adulthood? I doubt it; childhood destroyed.

The female teacher is the Adult, and the student is the Child. There’s NO WAY THE BOY CHILD SEDUCED THE TEACHER. Any crushes that the boys in her class have on her can easily be squelched by the ADULT teacher not indulging the boys in their fantasies. For a sexual relationship to occur means that the female teacher was seeking a relationship with the boy, further validating my point that the female teacher is a sexual predator. Predators have to seek out and hunt for something, just like Lafave did with her male student.

Of all the things I’ve heard on this topic, the concept that “these boys look or carry themselves like men” is the silliest. Is that supposed to be a legitimate defense? If that argument works for women (which it absolutely SHOULD NOT), then shouldn’t it also work for men. Let me remind you that women develop years earlier than most boys their age. I personally know 12-year-old girls who are far more physically voluptuous than some of my 25 and 30-year-old friends. To let you know just how developed some of them are, a 12-year-old classmate of mine (who was quite shapely and physically developed) got pregnant and had a baby when we were only in 7th grade. Point being, if the physical allure of these boys is so adult that it can be confusing to the female teacher (who has a class list and sees the children in her class everyday and knows that the boys are in fact boys), then male teachers who have sex with their 14-17 year old female students should be allowed the same excuse. Of course I think that the teachers are at fault here, be they male or female.

Boys often have just as many insecurities about their sexuality as girls do. So the concept that young boys want to have sex with their attractive adult teacher is also silly. Some of them might, but I’d bet my next 37 paychecks that many of them also do not.

That being said, the idea that boys who have sex with their teacher are celebrated by their peers as heroes isn’t necessarily true either. As easy as it would be for one’s peers to celebrate their sexual involvement with a teacher, the likelihood of one’s peers teasing them about it also exists. I could see that reputation and stigma following a boy all the way through the remainder of his grade school education.

AND WHO CARES IF HIS PEERS CHEER HIM! That doesn’t change the fact that the teacher had no business, as an adult, engaging her student in a sexual relationship.

Finally, the concept of “Love” between the teacher and student is never an argument made when a 25-year-old man has sex with his adolescent female student; even though it is equally as likely to be the case. No matter though, because an adult knows that they are an adult, and they know that it is illegal and criminal to have sex with an underage child.

Now, I must be clear and point out that I think that the sexual brutality is different when a man forcibly rapes a girl. However, there are many instances where the male adult uses his influence to exploit a young student, and has sex with his female student (at which time he may argue that it was consensual). It is instances like the latter that I believe are identical to Lafave’s case. And no matter if it’s sexually brutal, or influentially consensual, a man RARELY gets a break (and I don’t think he should, I’m just making the point). Women, however OFTEN do get a break and also should not.

Let me clarify. Men almost always get a minimum of 3 years jail time for cases like these. Women almost never get more than 2 years of jail time and often only receive probation. That’s not right. These women ARE sexual traitors and exploiters of their young male victims. These women need to serve legitimate jail sentences like their sick male-counterparts. These women do (although I haven’t made the case for this point here) cause their boy victims emotional damage and societal ridicule that follows them for years if not forever.

Call a spade a spade, and treat an animal like an animal. Women teachers that engage in sexual relationships with their boy students are sexual predators and need to be put behind bars.

-Maelstrom

PS: If you think the Lafave case is rare, just look into several other cases that have come to the attention of the media (e.g. Pamela Rogers-Turner, Mary Kay Letourneau…go ahead, “google” their names and note how the criminal justice system has let them off the hook and how they re-offended the law). It is a more prolific problem than you think.

Duke's Lacrosse Team

At the behest of a former roommate, I will address the growing story surrounding alleged rape allegations against Duke University’s Lacrosse team. I’ll start by saying that it is way too early to really speculate about what happened; whether the allegations are false and frivolous, or whether the University could’ve done something different to prevent the incident if it turns out to be true. Be that as it may, I’ve been watching extensive coverage of the case over the last few days, and I (of course) have some opinions based on all I’ve seen and heard.

So here’s the skinny: A college student that works part-time as an exotic dancer (i.e. stripper) was performing at a house party that several Duke University Lacrosse players attended. Sometime during the night she claims to have been taken to a bathroom by a handful of the players and sexually assaulted there.

Tragic as this situation is, whether the allegations are true or false, what has really caught the attention of the media with this case is our good old friend, Race. After the incident came to light, the police obtained DNA from all but one player on the team. The one player that wasn’t tested was not tested because he is the only Black player on the team, and the victim said that her assailants were White. So, I won’t get into the allegations, but I will discuss some of the racial things I’ve heard since the story first broke.

If you’ve never been to the South of the USA, you might not know that there is yet much racial tension that exists in many areas. Durham, North Carolina is certainly one of those places. So much so that Duke University is sometimes referred to as “the Plantation.” Many affluent and opulent (largely White) college students feed their money into the private institution, which serves to bolster Duke’s image. Yet the city that houses Duke is home to many who cannot afford to attend Duke, but needs Duke in order to function. And of course, many of the Durham residents that cannot take advantage of the education that Duke has to offer are Black.

That causes problems…racial problems!

As an avid news junkie, I caught an argument made by MSNBC’s Dan Abrams (a lawyer that I have a great deal of respect for, and often agree with). Abrams was calling the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to task because there hasn’t been an outcry by the organization over the blanket DNA testing of the White Lacrosse Players.

The ACLU often raises a big stink about police departments and Courthouses that screen accused groups of people because such screenings are often only based on race, and the race of people screened is determined by the person who (sometimes falsely) made the accusation. Essentially, many innocent people are hassled by law enforcement officials because of their race and a false accusation.

Why does the ACLU care? Because the racial targets of such screenings have historically been minorities; primarily Black people.

Abrams point is that if the ACLU has a problem with blanket DNA testing based on race, then why don’t they cause a fuss over the Duke players being tested, minus the one Black player. Idealistically, I agree with him. Unfortunately we don’t live in an idealistic world, and the idealistic view ignores hundreds of years of history.

Anyone that watched Michael Moore’s (the leftist film director) movie Bowling for Columbine may remember that he did a section on America’s guilty group of people; Black men. He cited several examples in 1990’s America. I myself can immediately think of 2 examples where White women falsely made claims that Black men committed crimes against them.

One instance, from 1920’s Rosewood, Florida, led to the lynchings of dozens (some reports hundreds) of Black people in less than a week’s time because a White lady claimed she’d been raped by a Black man (to explain away bruises on her body) when she had really been cheating on her husband with another White man. The other instance that comes to mind was in the mid-1990’s when a white lady named Susan Smith drowned her children by strapping them into their seats in her car, and then driving the car into a lake. She falsely claimed that a Black man made her do it in a carjacking attempt. (A notion that I just laugh at because clearly she planned to kill her kids, and that’s the best alibi she could come up with. Unfortunately America believed her in the initial moments after she made the claim, until she confessed to killing them.)

These days I often don’t agree with the cases that the ACLU takes on. And in this instance I think Abrams has a good point. However, I don’t think he’s fully considered the breadth and depth of history that might afford the ACLU a pass because the tables have been turned (accused White assailants, Black victim).

To finish, I’d just like to point out that the Lacrosse team played 2 games after the allegations were made. The school President finally banned the team from playing anymore games while the investigation was ongoing, yet the team still held regular practices for weeks until yesterday. Yesterday the Lacrosse coach resigned and the team was suspended for the rest of the year; weeks after the sexual assault claims were made. And the DNA results haven’t been made public yet.

We’ll see how things pan out.

-Maelstrom

PS: here’s a website with an article about Susan Smith:
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/07/06/smith.yates/

Bush is Right

Ok, so did a snowball survive in Hell or something? I mean, seriously, I think I actually agree with President Bush.

In the last few weeks it was announced that a foreign company would take over management of several major United States ports. The company, Dubai Ports, got the gig from a British owned company. Unfortunately, for Dubai Ports, a major political firestorm ensued. Why? Because the foreign company is based in an Arab country, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Both Democrats and Republicans, as well as many of the major media outlets, condemned the deal and said that it was a threat to our national security. They often spoke in code by saying that “foreign companies shouldn’t be allowed to run ports into the United States.” What they really meant was that Muslim nations shouldn’t run our ports.

But watch out, Mr. “we’re gonna fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here” Bush stood firm against both political parties and brazenly stated that he would veto any Congress backed legislation that would block the Dubai company from taking over the port management (it would be his first veto since being President). The whole concept of Bush pushing for the deal to go through is kinda ironic since the “them” he wanted to fight over “there” are terrorists, and the 9/11 terrorists attacks that Bush built his strong image on was largely intertwined with the UAE. Two of the hijackers from 9/11 were from the UAE, and large quantities of money that helped fund the attacks was wired through the UAE.

And just like that, when Congress was going to pass legislation to block the deal (basically forcing Bush to put his money where his mouth is), Dubai Ports pulled out of the deal and promised to turn the ports over to a United States’ run company. And can I tell you, I was greatly disappointed, ‘cause I wanted to see this whole thing play out in the government.

So let me just dispel a lot of the stupidity I’ve been hearing coming out of the mouths of much of Congress and reading in the paper and watching on the news.

•Although the vast majority of Arabs are Muslim, they are not the same thing. Arab does not mean Muslim, Muslim does not mean Arab. In fact, the nation with the largest Muslim population isn’t even Arab, the southeast asian country Indonesia is home to the most Muslims.
•All Muslims are not terrorists, and not all terrorists are Muslims. (see “The Vortex” Sept. 9th and 18th of 2004 posts)
•Statements like “foreign countries/companies shouldn’t run our ports” are ludicrous because over 80% of USA ports are currently run by foreign companies. Furthermore, there simply aren’t enough USA companies to run all of the ports
•Yes the UAE is one of three countries to support the Taliban, but how easily have we forgotten that the USA largely created the Taliban and trained them in the 80’s when we were still engaged in the Cold War with Russia. So the monster that the UAE supported was a USA production.
•Islam is a religion, not a country. So even if we espoused the silly logic that all Muslims are terrorists, then no matter who is running the ports (USA included) we are increasing the risk of a terrorist attack simply by having the ports to begin with.

On top of the obvious misconceptions, prejudices and downright sillinesses of those who were against an Arab nation running the ports, Bush is right about this one for several other reasons. One of my biggest complaints about the Bush Administration is that we have alienated ourselves from the rest of the world, and we certainly haven’t been the best at making friends in the Arab world. It is true that a hand-full of countries are our allies in the War on Terror (eg Saudi Arabia and Jordan), however that is largely only at the upper levels of those governments. But by treating Arab nations like the UAE in the same way that we treat other foreign nations (like the British who ran the ports before Dubai), it would help foster better relationships between the USA and Arab nations.

And let’s just be real here, we need oil, and the UAE has a lot of it. And I’m sure Bush is well aware of that.

So now I wonder what’s going to happen with these ports that Dubai is turning over since they specifically stated that they were going turn them over to an American company. As I pointed out before, there aren’t enough American companies to even cover 20% of these ports, so who is going to take over the ports now?

Maybe, just maybe they (Dubai Ports) are pointing out the fact that we don’t have the capacity to do so, and are essentially calling our bluff (i.e. “if you want American companies to run these ports, then go find the companies to do it”).

Bottom line is that this prejudice against Muslims has to stop. It’s silly and it’s only creating a deeper rift between us and people of a religion that we should be trying to better understand instead of blindly condemn. And as with all things, we have to remember that people are people, no matter the race, religion, gender, etc. So, we should respect all people the same.

-Maelstrom

Crash and the Academy Awards

Thanks for the comments about my last post (which was like a month and a half ago). Anyhow, the most recent comment posted questions the validity of Crash as an insightful movie. So I will go along with the comment, which was posed in devil’s advocate form, and address it.

For starters, if you don’t think that OVERT racism exist today, then you need to walk in my shoes and experience what I frequently experience; as well as listen to the racist things I hear people say all the time. And trust me, I can’t believe that in the year 2006 people still say and do some of the things they say and do, purely based on race.

Secondarily, if the only points about race, that you recognized in Crash, were the overt points, then you need to go watch the movie ‘bout 2, 3, 7 more times. I haven’t seen the film in months, but I can instantly think of 3 occurrences in the movie where the racial issue addressed wasn’t clearly apparent (or OVERT) , and took the inference of the viewing audience to decipher (thus exposing that we all hold on to some racial notions in our head…which is the point of the movie).

The quickest (to explain) example I can give occurs towards the end of the movie with Larenz Tate’s and Ryan Phillipe’s characters in the car. There was nothing OVERT about Phillipe’s actions. The viewing audience had to assume what he was thinking about during the exchange with Tate’s character after he had already pulled the trigger.

Totally Covert.

Point being, the movie was excellent because it addressed both the overt as well as the covert. The things that I’m shocked people do 35+ years after the Civil Rights movement (the overt), as well as the things that keep the prisons full of black men who make up less than a 5th of the population or keep minorities from being President/VP/Congressmen/etc (the covert).

Excellent movie…go see it ‘bout 2, 3, 7 more times!

Here’s what I wrote the day after the Academy Awards (see, I’ve been writing, just haven’t posted the many things I’ve written).

I’m glad that the Academy got it right this year. Yup, in case you missed it, Crash won the Oscar for Best Picture Sunday night during the 78th Academy Awards. Of course I was delighted since I think that the movie certainly warranted the award. It was quite a shock as evidenced by the reactions of the Academy when Jack Nicholson announced the winner. But yeah, I’m glad.

Unlike most years, I actually found the courage within myself to sit through the entire show; and boy am I glad that I did…I needed to see 3-6 Mafia win that Oscar for the Best Original Song in a Movie, It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp. There’s absolutely nothing like them performing the very, uh, moving song, and then winning the Oscar. Their acceptance speech had to be the greatest acceptance speech in the 78 year history of the event. Neither the Academy nor the American public was ready for that.

I must say that I enjoyed Jon Stewart as host. He was funny, charming, and had several creative ideas as host. I also enjoyed George Clooney’s acceptance speech. It was well stated and the essence of his speech was put into good context. But dude, what was up with that silly acceptance speech music that the orchestra played in the background of everyone’s speeches. How annoying?!!!

Finally, I can’t write a silly post about the Oscar’s without mentioning the showstoppers. There were 2 really hot Latinas that really sizzled on the red carpet. Jessica Alba looked like a goddess, and Salma Hayek was absolutely stunning. Seriously, just one word to describe them both: WOW!

-Maelstrom

The Oscars

So now that the movie awards season is upon us, I’d like to weigh in with my opinion on the best movie of 2005.

Crash was by far the best movie of 2005. The social issues addressed in that film, the way it was put together, the use of each actor/actress (whether A-list or not) was phenomenal. And the point(s) made were incredible. Honestly, if you have saw it and left the theatre without having your eyes opened to many social realities or you left without feeling that several social disparities were highlighted and well represented, then you suck as a human being. And I mean that. You should have your living soul card revoked.

And once again, these Awards shows have overlooked the best of the pack in favor of several movies that most people hadn’t seen until after Hollywood hyped them up for some Hollywood contrived reason. For example, Brokeback Mountain and Capote. Now I’ll admit it, I haven’t seen either, but I also know that most people hadn’t seen either until after the Golden Globes last week (based on the ticket sales numbers). So my question is, how are these movies even nominated for these awards without the public seeing them, much less winning these awards?

Finally, I must say that I really disdain the Academy Awards (which largely mirror the aforementioned Golden Globes). Most of the movies that I’ve seen because they won an Oscar, have been “alright” at best. I saw Lost in Translation, American Beauty, Sideways, and I even saw Traffic on opening night. Although none of these movies was bad, I am at a loss when it comes to explaining how they received the acclaim that they did. And it is unthinkable that these movies can even get double digit nominations for Oscars (as Traffic and American Beauty did, if I'm not mistaken).

I sat through “Translation,” Sideways and Traffic waiting for something to happen, and nothing materialized. And I don’t think the subject matter covered in American Beauty had a major bearing on the large cross-section of American lives. All I saw was a movie about screwed up suburbia that ended with Kevin Spacey dreaming about trees, while his head lay in a pool of blood, sporting a bittersweet smile.

Unlike American Beauty, the issues raised in Crash affect us all. And they even addressed them from a plethora of angles; law enforcement, public servant, language, immigrant, rich and privileged, poor and disenfranchised, political, and all sorts of race/ethnicity angles.

And I’m not just touting this movie because my absolute favorite actor (Don Cheadle) is in it. Honestly, each roll fit well with every other roll. Cheadle doesn’t deserve an Oscar any more than Jennifer Esposito; Sandra Bullock doesn’t deserve an Oscar any more than Ludacris. It was that well done. I’m not asking for individual accolades this time, as far as the actors are concerned. I am asking for Best Screenplay or Script. I am asking for Best Cast or Ensemble in a movie. I am asking for Best Director. And certainly I’m asking for Best Film of 2005…from all the various Awards Committees.

Point in case, I think these Awards shows are getting it all wrong again (except the Screen Actors Guild which awarded Crash with its Best Cast award) if they overlook Crash. The best movie of 2005 was indeed Crash, and if you haven’t seen it by now, you oughtta be ashamed of yourself.

So go to Blockbuster tonight, and get Crash. Don’t just rent it, buy it. Watch it once, and then watch it 3 more times. I guarantee that you’ll learn something new from it each time you see it!

Cop the album!

-Maelstrom

NSA Spying

In recent weeks President Bush has made several speeches proudly touting his NSA Domestic Spying Program as if he’s within the parameters of the Law. He speaks as if he is truly protecting US Citizens by spying on them. So once again I will clearly walk all who are willing to go with me through the rhetoric.

To reiterate, the National Security Agency (NSA) was given the ok by President Bush to spy on US Citizens that have been in contact with known al-Qaeda operatives. The only phone calls that can be tapped are ones that are to or from overseas. Only 8 members in Congress were ever notified about these wiretaps and they were sworn to secrecy concerning them. The Courts were completely disregarded. And the wiretaps are ongoing. That’s all we know about the wiretaps at this point.

If these wiretaps are legitimate because they are only occurring on lines of people who have KNOWN connections to al-Qaeda, then the administration needs to answer these questions:

• How do they know these people are connected to al-Qaeda without having previously tapped their lines (ie “fishing” through citizens phone calls in an attempt to connect citizens to terrorists or vice versa)?
• Why not get the warrant from the courts to legally wiretap these people (such provisions do exist and have been used in the past)?
• Why not arrest these people and/or interrogate them for information since there is a certainty of their al-Qaeda connection?
• Where is the proof that these wiretaps (or the Patriot Act for that matter) have been effective (and I mean specifics, not inference)?
• Where is the proof that innocent people have not been unknowingly spied on (because I know they got records)?

If they Bush Administration is going to bold-facedly defend this policy, then they have the obligation to answer these questions and they have the burden of proof to show that the wiretapping is worth keeping. And hiding behind the shadow of potential 9/11-type terrorists attacks is not legitimate at all.

See make no mistake about it, these wiretaps do not help us in the War on Terror (and if they do, the administration has provided no evidence or instances of how it helps. I say that emphatically because I do not want anyone to forget the 9/11 Commission Report. The Report clearly indicated that there was ample information to halt the 9/11 attacks prior to them occurring. That means that neither ILLEGAL wiretaps nor the Patriot Act were necessary to stop the attacks. All that needed to happen was coordination between the nation’s intelligence agencies.

On that point, I submit this clear stream of logic:

How do you find a needle in a haystack?

You get rid of the hay!

It is my opinion that all this extra information that the government is compiling from both the ILLEGAL wiretaps and the Patriot Act are only adding more hay to the stack, thus making it harder to detect potential terrorist.

Finally, how can we know if the government is not spying on us all? How can we know? For these people who get in front of the microphone and say that “if you’re in California and calling your daughter in college in Kentucky, this program is not tapping that call,” I just want to know this one simple thing: How do you know???

There was no public knowledge of these wiretaps until someone that knew about them had the balls to actually leak the info to the public. There has been no indication that the ILLEGAL wiretaps have ceased since the news was first reported. And if Bush can bypass the Court, then what ever happened to the Constitutionally ordained notion of checks and balances. Where is the Rule of Law?

Do you realize that Bill Clinton was impeached because of a personal matter that had nothing to do with national security or mismanagement of the government. And the girl that he participated in his immoral act with was a willing adult. But he was impeached and made an embarrassment over it. And do you know what the hypocritical (cause after Clinton was caught, they all confessed to the same thing he did) Republican reasoning was: The Rule of Law.

So where is the Rule of Law now?

And what amazes me is that this President (Bush) has no qualms about admitting that he has ordered wiretaps without Court ordered warrants (which are easily attainable, and have been given thousands of times with respect to terror).

AND PEOPLE HAVE THE NERVE TO DEFEND HIM.

This isn’t about terrorism anymore, this is about freedom and civil rights. To borrow a cliché, this is indeed the height of hypocrisy. We say that we are fighting for Iraqi freedom, but “we the people” don’t even have the freedom to know who’s being spied on or why (Patriot Act included). We say that we rid Iraq of Saddam because he was a tyrant, but isn’t one man (and his cronies) violating the privacy of 300 million people for some unknown reason at least mildly tyrannical to some degree.

Are we not Americans? Are we not still citizens? Where are our rights? How can we trust this government?

-Maelstrom

Move the Holiday

The year 2000 was the first year that all 50 states honored the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a Holiday by name (yes, only a few years ago). And for the first time since its inception, this year every county in the country now honors the Holiday (yup, 1 county in a southern state had been holding out all this time). And though I’m glad that the holiday is largely celebrated nationwide (despite the fact that many of the currently serving lawmakers on Capitol Hill voted against the MLK Holiday in Congress in the 80’s), I think that way too many people take the Holiday for granted. Way too many people just see the day as an extension to their weekend, a day off from school, or just an opportunity to laze around. If that’s you, then you’re totally missing the point.

Ok, I’ll admit it; I was once like that too. I recall (and now regret) missing 4 major Keynote speakers (Actor Edward James Olmos, Professor Cornell West, Dr. Grace Lee Boggs, Dr. Ben Carson) during the MLK symposium at my undergraduate institution. In each case I was either at my dorm sleepin’ in or away from campus taking advantage of my 3 day weekend. I did, in all those years, participate in other MLK day events, but it was pure apathy that led me to miss out on those speakers.

And that’s the problem; apathy.

I don’t fault people for missing events when they must work, or when they can’t make it out for illness or other such reasons. But when you sit on your “duff,” or sleep in just because you can, or when you plan a short vacation over the MLK day weekend, that troubles me. Considering the magnitude of what Martin Luther King Jr. did for not only Black people in America, but for all citizens of this nation, no one should apathetically disregard this holiday.

When I first began to write this post, I was going to say that maybe there shouldn’t be a “King” holiday. My reasoning was that people put so much impetus on just this one day (with respect to racial injustice and inequality) while spending much of the year not living the standards of racial justice that MLK stood for. In fact, it sometimes seems as though King is only in our consciousness on his holiday or during Black History Month.

That’s just not good enough.

“The Dream” should live with us all the time and at any moment leap to the forefront of our conscious thinking any day of the year.

However, in present day (yet-racist and prejudiced) America, I know that if there were no holiday at all, King and all he stood for would be largely lost or forgotten in the era that was the Civil Rights movement. So I’ve got a better idea.

After much ruminating and weighing the effects, I’ve decided that the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday should be moved from Monday to Wednesday. That way people couldn’t abuse the holiday by taking a weekend vacation. Travel would be difficult to execute because the Holiday would be sandwiched in the middle of the work week. Then people would have to be reminded about why they have the day off. Attendance at symposium events, like the ones I ignored in my youthful apathy, would be up. Ultimately the purpose of the Holiday would be better fulfilled because people would be forced, by default, to pay attention to it.

Apathy bugs me in general. But apathy surrounding a holiday that affects us all; apathy around a man who literally gave his life doing what many today could never even imagine; apathy around a holiday that is the purest representation of Justice (in a time when injustice is ever-rampant) the Federal Government recognizes. Disregarding the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday is simply unacceptable (and I mean you actually need to get up and do something to honor it).

I certainly do hope that you, the reader, participated in a forum, service, or community event surrounding Martin Luther King Jr. Day. If not, I do hope that as you go through this year, what he worked for lives on in the forefront of your mind. I also hope that you would give yourself over to the concept of community, servitude, and equality. And in the King Holidays to come, please make the effort to participate in events in Dr. King’s honor. We all owe it to him to do so.

-Maelstrom

…15 years…and not a day goes by…the pain diminishes, but it never goes away…you are truly missed…

New Year's Resolutions

The New Year has come and I’ve decided that this nation needs to implement some resolutions for its own good. And for 2006's Resolutions I’ll steal a page from political pundit/comedian Bill Maher and list a few new rules.

So prepare your mind for these adjustments and enjoy!

New Rule: There shall be no natural disasters for the duration of the year. I’ve decided that they’re too costly both in money and in lives. For real, the natural disasters of ’05 were just shy of apocalyptic; the likes of which the living populous has never seen before. And we’re no where near recovering from the devastation these monster events have caused us. Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Wildfires, and a host of other odd meteorological occurrences. As a result, Mother Nature must be kind this year.

New Rule: Latin Pop Singer Marc Anthony will release Jennifer Lopez (his current wife) from the prison of their home. When the year 2005 began, I had grand designs on Jennifer Lopez (my future wife) putting her past behind her (including her rolodex of ex’s; David Cruz, Ojani Noa, P. Diddy…my bad…Diddy, Cris Judd, and Ben Affleck) so that we could move on with our (mine and Jennifer’s) lives together. I was also heavily anticipating all the great music videos that she was going to make to accompany her latest album and callipygous body. Well clearly Marc Anthony has gotten between she and I, as well as all my dreams. JLo only dropped 3 videos off that album, and all before March. In fact, has anyone even seen her since she and that guy (Anthony) sang that filthy duet at the Grammy’s last February?

New Rule: In the year 2006, Christmas will be moved from December 25^th to April 32^nd. That way I won’t have to suffer through another “Christmas” season hearing the fruitless debate about the phrase “Merry Christmas” vs. “Happy Holidays” or “Holiday Tree” vs. “Christmas Tree.” I guess the issue is that this is a Democracy full of a plethora of Holidays, often tied to various non-Christian religions, that some Christians apparently see as a threat. But for those of us who celebrate the religious essence of Christmas, the chronological presence of other holidays doesn’t take away from its meaning. Be that as it may, my proposal will allow Christmas to have its own season to itself, and all the mindless nuts that want an exclusive Christmas Holiday can just have it and leave the rest of us alone.

New Rule: The Bird Flu is required to kill us all. I know it sounds a bit morbid, but I just hate it when something doesn’t live up to the hype. And the last few years in medicine have been at the heart of my disappointment. First SARS was gonna take us all out, and then it was the West Nile Virus. Since both of those cataclysmic illnesses never took flight I am counting on this Bird Flu to do the trick. I mean the Bird Flu has a duty and obligation to decimate at least half the planet by the end of the year considering all the fear it has propagated and all the press coverage it has received.

New Rule: George W. Bush will fire himself. Yes, that’s right, after miraculously attaining a shred of common sense, Bush realizes that statements like “if I knew then what I know today, I would’ve still gone into War with Iraq,” and “the USA didn’t decide to go to war…Saddam did,” are completely stupid, he takes the opportunity to repent of his stupidity and resigns.

New Rule: People who voted for George W. Bush will go to jail. Yup, if you voted for him you should have to suffer the same fate (or even a more crucial fate) as a felonious thief. Your stupidity, coupled with Bush’s stupid statements, has stolen American lives, money, etc., and made America 90% dumber. Your penalty is 4 years in the slammer, that way you can’t screw up another Presidential election. And while you’re there, you get to listen to recordings of all Bush’s stupid statements throughout his Presidency as further punishment.

New Rule: All people that watch movies and walk out of them and recite these words: “the book was so much better than the movie,” will be banished to a land of movielessness. Uh huh, I’m totally tired of people who read a novel, and then rush to the theater to denounce the representative movie. Of course the movie is going to leave things out. Of course there are many, many details that can’t comfortably fit on the big screen within the time limits of the human attention span. What would you prefer? A ten hour Jurassic Park? An 18-hour Lord of the Rings experience? A three day Harry Potter marathon??? Books will always be more detailed…therefore I suppose they will always be better than the movies…Get Over It!!!

New Rule: Beginning in the 2006-2007 NBA season, all players will be required to not only enter the arena in Business Attire, but they must play in it too. Since David Stern wants the players to dress in attire that is representative of his $3 Billion dollar business, why not go all the way? I’m talkin’ Seattle Supersonics players wearing Lime Green Stacey Adams’ shoes with Lime Green and Canary Yellow Suits to match. I’m talkin’ Detroit Pistons’ wearing Blue Suede shoes for Home games and Red Alligator Penny Loafers for Away games. I’m talkin’ the Spurs sporting silver cufflinks, neckties and buttons to go along with their Black and White w/Silver Lapel Sports Jackets. And as an addendum, all teams are allowed to wear hats…as long as the color of the feather in it matches the belt.

New Rule: This year, R. Kelly will go to jail. And c’mon “ara,” make it easy on us…just turn yourself in. We all know it was you in those scandalous videos. And hiding behind that mask in a variety of subsequent videos (e.g. Step in the Name of Love) was certainly better camouflage than in the infamous (grimey) tapes, but we knew that was you too. Yes, we do all enjoy your music; it is nothing less than genius. Which is why we encourage you to continue recording…just do it behind bars.

And Finally, New Rule: In the year 2006, all white women will go missing. Yes sir. All white women will go missing in the year 2006. Now hopefully they won’t go missing because of brutal abuse or abductions, but whatever the means, this occurrence will give every news station in the country the story that they want to cover the most…the unbelievable disappearance of more white women. Every other news story will take a backseat to “missing white women” coverage. Even if the Earth fell off its axis, no longer orbited the Sun, and average temperatures on Earth decreased to three below zero; the reporting surrounding the search for all the missing white women will supercede any such occurrence. I know this isn’t really a New Rule, in fact it seems to be quite the norm, but I guess we’ll just amplify it for the New Year! How ‘bout that?!!!

Happy New Year…

…May God Bless you all in 2006

Sincerely,
Maelstrom