Fahrenheit 9/11

Based on Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian novel whose title is based on the autoignition temperature of paper (Books are banned in this book.), Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 gives a chilling expose into the events in the Bush administration surrounding 9/11. It shows how close the Bush administration is to the Saudi Arabian royal family (16 of the 20 hijackers were Saudi), and just how poorly the Afghanistan War was managed. Did you know that we sent a mere 11,000 troops over to Afghanistan originally. In addition to giving Osama bin Laden and the Taliban a 2-month head start to hide out in the mountains, we TRAINED the Taliban back in the 80's to kill the Soviets. It also documents the Bush administration artificially raising terror alert levels to control the populace using fear. Sounds an awful lot like TERRORism, doesn't it? It also exposes the lies surrounding the (pat)Riot Act, the Iraq War, and why we flew the bin Laden family out of the country three days after 9/11 without even asking them any questions. It also investigates how the Bush administration censored 28 pages of the 9/11 report, and how they're very shady about how the administration failed to connect the dots, and how he spent 42% of his time on vacation. At the beginning of the movie, it uncovers the shady aspects of the 2000 election, such as the fact that the person at Fixed Noise (Fox News) who called the election for Bush was Bush's first cousin, the fact that Bush's family had ties to the company which made the voting machines, and many more. It uncovers the near-dictatorship we had under President Bush and his cronies, and how shady the previous administration was. It's the best horror movie I've ever seen

Why are there so many "chickenhawks" in office?

I don't get why majority of people in Congress who are pushing this war are the ones who didn't serve in the military when they were of age. However, the majority of those who oppose the war are veterans. Isn't America going to wake up and see that if their Congressperson had served, than they might be more recalcitrant about sending our kids off to be cannon fodder? While the Bush administration and the Republicans really got the gold for chickenhawk-ism, the other side of the aisle is sure doing its job. Few, if any members of Obama's cabinet and his advisers (aside from those within DOD itself) were never out on the front lines themselves. If the Obama administration had more civilian cabinet members who had served, they would realize that a country has to pick its battles. We simply cannot go waging wars unless it is absolutely vital to our self-defense. It is unfair to the soldiers who had the courage to sign up, to send them out to war without having ever put yourself in their shoes. There is even a repository of notable Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who served and didn't serve. You'll be astonished at how many "neo-conservatives" had their patriotism displayed through bumper stickers instead of enlistment contracts.

A good compromise leaves everyone happy, a bad one; everyone mad

Well, thanks a ton, Lieberman and Friends. You've done a fine job taking away health insurance for millions of Americans AND giving the insurance companies some extra customers in the process. It's bad enough that we have Americans without insurance, but to make them criminals for not making enough money and forcing them to starve themselves so that they don't get sent to prison is insane. Your state opts out of the public option and you can't afford health insurance? Congratulations! You'll get to pay an addition 2.5% of your income in taxes! Now, if we had something sensible, such as SINGLE-PAYER, this would make sense. But, under the current law, if your state opts out on the public option, and you're too poor for insurance, you just got a a tax hike. Not to mention that you would effectively have to pay for a public option which you might not be able to afford, but that would probably be more affordable than private health insurance. So, Joe Lieberman, if you won't vote for anything with government-run health insurance, why do you allow YOURSELF to get government-run health insurance? Why not put your money where your mouth is any pay for private health insurance, considering the government is as scary as you portray it to be? Or maybe, you just want money from the insurance companies, considering you get more money from them than 75% of Senators. Corporations run the government by bribing lawmakers to get laws passed. I feel so much safer knowing we are effectively run by an unelected plutocracy. Which is, thanks to our unmeritocratic system of "success" in life, effectively inherited. Almost like a monarchy. The very thing our country revolted against...

Tea Party fanatics racist, paranoid

Socialist. Fascist. Communist. These are just a few of the things President Obama has been called by Tea Party attendees (popularly referred to as "Teabaggers"). While the left certainly criticized Bush, they made a clown out of him instead of dehumanizing him. I do believe that people who just criticize Obama are being patriotic by dissenting, but people who just make up LIES are just stupid. The most popular conspiracy theory is that Obama was secretly born in Kenya. Even the wacko WorldNetDaily has pronounced his birth certificate legitimate. According to a recent study, a whopping 35% of Republicans believe in this nonsense. In that same study, it was revealed that 8% of New Jerseyans believe that Obama is the Antichrist. The Antichrist. According to a recent chain mail, the Bible states that the Antichrist would be a man in his 40's of MUSLIM descent. Let's get out of Fantasyland and return to real life, here. The BIBLE couldn't say that a person was of MUSLIM descent, as ISLAM DID NOT EXIST UNTIL WELL OVER 600 YEARS AFTER the Bible was written. While there was a fringe group saying that Clinton killed Vince Foster, there has never been this large of a following (nor as many extreme theories). As former President Jimmy Carter said, "There seems to be a large Republican following who just cannot believe that they lost to someone who happens to be African-American". However, the Tea Party attendees insist they are not racist at all. If that's the case, then why are you guys so paranoid about Obama?

Private schools give a name, not an education

Why on Earth would a parent in their right minds send their kid to secondary private school in Northern Delaware without even TRYING to get into a selective school unless it was for religious reasons? Why would you plop down $20,000 when you could just get a free education here at a school such as Cab or Newark Charter? Is is really that you get a better education there, or is it just for the prestigous name of "Tower Hill" or "Wilmington Friends"? The first disadvantage is that the child has many, many more rights at a public school (in fact they are protected by the constitution), and it is much harder to kicked out at a private school. Also, public schools are much more diverse (and I speak as an attendee at both), not only racially, but (obviously) socioeconomically. As one of the few middle-class kids at a private school, I felt quite out-of-place in a private elementary school when I was part of a financial aid program to allow low and middle-income families to attend the school. I was often picked on (especially in 4th and 5th grade) because I didn't have the fancy stuff that they had. I had always wondered (not in a racist way) why there were so few minority students at my school when there were more minorities than white people at my preschool and in my neighborhood (which was about 50-50) and why no one in my neighborhood was a snob. In fact, I once asked my mom to send me to my neighborhood school, which my mom explained to me was extremely bad and dangerous. This is understandable if the ELEMENTARY school is dangerous, but once there's secondary school, you should try to get your kid into a good public school before plopping down exorbitant amounts of money to send your kid to private school.

75% of Americans unfit for military service...uh huh. Right.

Why is the military, of all organizations, so strict about its standards. I mean, in the Army, which is the most lenient of all the services, won't allow the bottom 31th percentile (in terms of intelligence) aren't allowed to join. Anyone who is overweight isn't allowed either. Another caveat is that you have to have a high school diploma (in almost all cases, not even a GED) to join. What is up with that? Do they not teach you how to pull a freaking trigger until 12th grade? In addition, anyone who has a criminal record beyond one misdemeanor or 6 major traffic tickets or virtually any drug use is disqualified. Also, the standards have ridiculously high medical standards. Anyone who has or has had ADD, asthma (past the 13th birthday), depression, a severe food allergy, sleepwalking, eating disorders, just to name a few of the most ridiculous disqualifications from enlistment. This is not only turning down tons of brave men and women willing to serve our country, but it turns away opportunities for many urban youth who have often have little opportunity. Studies have shown that urban youth, particularly those in poor or working-class neighborhoods, are disproportionally affected by obesity, in addition to conditions which affect the respiratory system, such as asthma and hayfever (which is disqualifying if not controlled by medication) due to pollutants in the air, which do not allow the immune system to develop. Also, people of lower socioeconomic status are more likely to be disqualified in all areas (with the possible exception of poor rural folk who are less susceptible to certain diseases and obesity). This puts the military at a crossroads. Upper-middle-class kids, who have little reason to join (due to their many opportunities), tend to be the kids who meet the military's medical standards, whereas poor and working-class kids, who often want to join due to a lack of opportunity, are often disqualified. This only leaves the middle-class kids, the number of whom are shrinking fast, who often have just enough opportunities to be unwilling to join, although this is often not the case. If the military's only recruitable and willing kids are the middle class, there will likely be less "suggestions" from those who are "well-educated" (due to their privileged background, and there will be less diversity, socioeconomic and racial, due to a lack of poor and working-class kids (except for those who come from rural areas). Note to military: if you ever want to meet recruiting goals after we're out of this recession, loosen your standards.

South Korean taxi drivers...allowed to watch TV while driving?

Apparently, South Korean drivers are allowed to watch TV in their cabs while driving. The traffic in Seoul is so torturous, that cabbies have installed TVs in their cabs to beat the boredom. TV use was implicated in over 200 accidents last year. Three people were killed and 351 injured in said accidents. Despite this, a STUPID judge overturned a $507 fine. Why on earth should a cabbie be allowed to put OTHER PEOPLES' LIVES on the line because he's bored from traffic? If any cabbie is so impulsive and impatient, even in the worst traffic known to man, then he deserves to be unemployed. I wish for all people to have a good-paying job, but I would rather have an unemployed person than a dead person.