I Think, Therefore I Rant!

Bill Maher is a relatively famous television personality. Of course, he got this position by correctly realizing that he wasn’t a very good standup comedian and his real talent was getting famous people on TV and then making fun of them or using them as foils to make a political point.  He has bounced around a couple of different venues and has currently landed at HBO.  His show is called “Real Time with Bill Maher”.  He has used this notoriety and fame to also publish some of his remarks and is a frequent contributor to Huffington Post.  His latest article is the subject of this post.

Originally, I only wanted to reply to Bill Maher in his comments section.  However, Huffington Post limits comments to a small number of words so I am forced to make further comments here.  You can read my original thoughts at this link as there are currently over 2500 comments on this article and it would be difficult to find mine.  You may also want to read Bill’s original article before you read my comments.  

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Michael Vick was released from prison today to continue his sentence in house arrest.  I know that there is a lot of desire to say that he has paid his price for his mistake and therefore should be allowed to play in the NFL.

I sympathize that a man or woman should be able to move on after they have paid for their mistakes. However, sports should be held to a different level of integrity.  We should not allow Michael Vick to play professional sports until Pete Rose is allowed to play baseball again.

As I discussed several times, we need to hold athletes to a standard that at least is equivalent to everyday life and they probably should be held higher due to their incomes. Check out the following articles:

RANT! Drugs and bad conduct in professional sports

RANT! Drugs and bad conduct in professional sports (again)  

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I have spoken about Iranian justice in the past and ranted that a population that wants to be treated seriously cannot be so barbaric.  Now I read about a blogger that specialized in cultural discussions was imprisoned and died in prison. On this blog, I rant and discuss a lot of politics and some cultural things.  In Iran, I would be thrown in jail and I too would probably be dead by now.  For as much as I complain about broken things in the US, at least it is better than most of the world.

I first saw this information on Blog Herald so go over and read about what they have to say on the subject.  You can also read more in the New York Times, the LA Times, and they all seem to point to Radio Free Europe.  

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Another story in the continuing discussion regarding former prisoners at Guantanamo that returned to cause harm to Americans and our allies.  This further questions that very political decision to close Gitmo as a secure prison for terrorists.  We obviously cannot release them back to their home countries since it seems that so many were true criminals and should be put in jail for decades.

Here is a part of the story from AP but there are some other interesting thoughts at the blog Clinging to G & G  

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So says a report by the New York Times. 

A Pentagon report requested by President Obama on the conditions at the Guantánamo Bay detention center concluded that the prison complies with the humane-treatment requirements of the Geneva Conventions.

Does this mean we can cancel the silly Presidential decree to close the prison that was issued BEFORE anyone bothered to check to see if we were compliant?

It is amazing that an important decision like this was made without facts.  Sounds like it was made for political reasons.

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As I write this, George W. Bush is only a few days away from the end of his 8 year Presidency.  Earlier, I had graded Mr. Bush on a variety of major factors but I felt that I left off a huge number of things that he and his administration did or did not do.  This list is the result of trying to be more inclusive.  Many items on this list are actions by the Mr. Bush and his administration and some of them are inactions.  

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For the last three posts we have been exploring the claim that George W. Bush is the worst President of the United States ever.  Some say that he is the worst, some say he is in the middle of the pack but just about everyone agrees he is not the best ever.  This post continues the job of grading W on the various issues that he faced in his two terms of office.  See the previous posts to get the background for where we are now.

Iraq occupation – D – same as Afghanistan.  A lot of good but the job is not done so W can’t get better grade until the job is done.  He can’t get better than a C ever since he messed up so bad by putting Bremer in place – Bremer’s decisions really messed up the nation for several years.  I think that history will eventually say that the US did better in Iraq than just about any other takeover of a foreign nation (Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Georgia, Poland, etc) although that is a terrible standard to compare us to.  

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I find myself writing on this subject again. I wrote about it when the lowlife Michael Vick pled guilty to animal cruelty charges and now I write as Barry Bonds is indicted for lying while under oath.

I know that most of the commentary on the web and the mainstream media is regarding Mr. Bonds use of steroids. But that isn’t the charge! Rather, he is being charged that he obstructed justice by lying under oath. Even Martha Stewart spent time in prison for a similar violation.

Lying under oath is a serious charge and the talking heads like Charles Barkley don’t seem to get it. They think this is a witch hunt about steroid use. It isn’t. It is about lying under oath when you shouldn’t lie. At a minimum he should have cited his 5th amendment rights when asked the question.  

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Okay, I get it. Teens like to wear clothes that make old people upset. This happened in my day with bell bottoms, embroidered jeans, and long hair (yes, I am that old). But common sense dictates that if you can’t jog down the street or play a casual game of basketball (baseball, Frisbee throwing, hopscotch – take your pick) without holding up your pants, then you aren’t fully dressed. I don’t care about baggy or ripped but can you please pull your pants up?

The sad part of all of this is that this “style” is actually a throwback to being in jail where the guards will remove a prisoners belts to avoid its use as a weapon or noose for suicide. The style was originally called “jailin” or “sagging” and was made mainstream by the Rap culture. By wearing pants below the buttocks, teens are actually making the statement that they are imprisoned and that is simply not true.  

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