First and foremost, Rudy is an idiot.
I think that there are two problems that haunt the Republican Party and hurt them. The first is the tenacious, mindless devotion to the economic philosophy that has had so many different names: Supply-Side Economics, Trickle-Down Economics, even Voodoo Economics by a doubting George H. W. Bush.
I completely get the idea, I understand the principles behind it, but there is one fatal flaw in the equation: human nature. People are greedy by nature. Just look at Exxon. They broke their own record for earnings by earning 45.2 billion dollars in 2008. It's easy to make that kind of money when you're charging $4.50 a gallon for gas. I was and am still dumbfounded that I was paying that much for gas 6-7 months ago and am now paying $1.79 a gallon. There is no explanation for that. Why did that charge that much? I understand that OPEC cut back on production, they had to work within shared-production contracts with the refiners, etc. But that shouldn't triple the price.
How did prices get that high? Free markets... The notion that market's can and should be self-regulated is absolutely preposterous. Deregulation is what was at the heart of the Great Depression and is the source of our current economic woes. I understand and appreciate that over-regulation and excessive control of the markets will hinder or even stop growth of the economy; I'm not looking to live in a socialist country, but there has to be safeguards in place to ensure that consumers aren't raped by unchecked greed of large powerful corporations. Companies should not be allowed to become so big and have such a substantial influence over the economy that if they fail it means that the whole economy will collapse. Over the last eight years economic power has been consolidated in the hands of powerful, self-serving corporations who in addition to being able to exploit consumers also have been getting huge tax breaks and credits from the government.
And this is one of the cornerstones of Republican ideology...
The other ideology to which they continue to adhere, even as it harms their appeal and hampers their attempts to reach out to moderates is their affiliation with the religious right. Now, politically I am a very liberal Democrat however my personal beliefs lean very much to the right. I think that abortion is morally wrong. I think (like Mike Huckabee) that a person is born gay but can choose not to lead a gay life style and choose celibacy.
Having said that, if I was gay and knowing my personality and libido there is no way in hell I could live a celibate life. I could not enter the priesthood and just suppress my feelings and pray that I do not prey on poor altar boys. This is no longer the 19th Century. I don't expect gays and lesbians to stay out of public and be forced to hidden lives; I wouldn't want to do that. Why should they be expected to do so? Equality is equality. You cannot profess that you are for equality for minorities and women but not for equality for homosexuals. That is hypocrisy.
As far as the issue of abortion is concerned I do not believe that morality should be legislated. While I am morally opposed to abortion I do not believe that making abortion illegal is going to stop people from having abortions. It will only bring back the deadly, secret abortions in back alleys with coat hangers. People who are more affluent will simply go to Canada or {shudder} Mexico to have abortions performed.
And here is the real paradox in these two philosophies. When you put them together under the same roof, you are saying in one breath that you should not legislate morality on one hand (trust the corporations to be fair and let them govern themselves) and saying that you should legislate morality on the other hand (make abortion illegal and deny gays and lesbians the same rights and privileges that "normal" society takes for granted). That is damn near schizophrenic...
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
25 Things About Me
This is response to Halcyon's list on Lifestudent.com
1. My name is actually spelled Mathew, not the typical Matthew. At least that is what appears on my birth certificate. I am not sure exactly why that is but I like to tell people because my mom was still slightly incapacitated from just giving birth to me and being asked how to spell my name.
2. I make friends easily but have a hard time maintaining those friendships with only two ecxeptions: Liz and Diane whom I have known and stayed close to for 31 and 38 years respectively.
3. I am a good worker and have a strong work ethic that I got from my father and grandmother, but I hate working. The only two jobs I have thoroughly enjoyed have been cab driver and web designer.
4. The list of various jobs I have held usually astounds people from door-to-door encyclopedia sales to short order cook to soldier in the Army.
5. I do not sleep enough; I average about 4 hours of sleep a night.
6. If I could do anything in the world for a living, I would be an actor.
7. I once ran into the side of a moving vehicle while crossing the street and knocked myself out cold.
8. I have never been outside of the United States and no further west than Texas.
9. I had open heart surgery when I was 26 years old. I had mitral valve reflux so bad that the doctors could hear the murmur in my carotid (neck) and femoral (groin) arteries.
10. If I could live anywhere in the world I would still be in Connecticut. Manhattan is a close second.
11. I have 1 tattoo on my upper thigh that I drew myself: a chess piece, the knight.
12. I am at an age now where I have lived longer as a married man than I have as a single man.
13. One of my greatest regrets is not going to study for a semester in Florence when I had the oppurtunity.
14. I don't study, never have. I was a good student without studying and was even in plays with large parts (in one I had 80% of the dialogue) and hardly ever studied. I am pretty damn good in Trivial Pursuit!
15. I played trombone for 6 years in school and was even 1st chair in All-State Orchestra but never owned an instrument. When I graduated I just stopped playing. 25 years later I could probably pick up a horn, play decently and even sight-read.
16. I am the oldest of four kids and I was horrible to my younger siblings.
17. I was sexually active for almost two years before I actually lost my virginity, a la coitus.
18. I am afraid of drowning in open water and don't even really feel comfortable in a swimming pool.
19. Coffee is something I simply could not live without. ...and it has to be good coffee. I'd rather lick an ashtray then drink Folgers or Maxwell house.
20. My favorite alcoholic drink is a White Russian.
21. When I was younger I had the entire script of Time Bandits memorized and could recite it word for word.
22. I really could care less about sports unless the NY Giants are playing, then I am a full-on lunatic.
23. I have never pierced anything other than my ear.
24. I do not get lonely and I am never bored.
25. I could listen to DJ Shadow's Endtroducing every day for the rest of my life and never be sick of it.
1. My name is actually spelled Mathew, not the typical Matthew. At least that is what appears on my birth certificate. I am not sure exactly why that is but I like to tell people because my mom was still slightly incapacitated from just giving birth to me and being asked how to spell my name.
2. I make friends easily but have a hard time maintaining those friendships with only two ecxeptions: Liz and Diane whom I have known and stayed close to for 31 and 38 years respectively.
3. I am a good worker and have a strong work ethic that I got from my father and grandmother, but I hate working. The only two jobs I have thoroughly enjoyed have been cab driver and web designer.
4. The list of various jobs I have held usually astounds people from door-to-door encyclopedia sales to short order cook to soldier in the Army.
5. I do not sleep enough; I average about 4 hours of sleep a night.
6. If I could do anything in the world for a living, I would be an actor.
7. I once ran into the side of a moving vehicle while crossing the street and knocked myself out cold.
8. I have never been outside of the United States and no further west than Texas.
9. I had open heart surgery when I was 26 years old. I had mitral valve reflux so bad that the doctors could hear the murmur in my carotid (neck) and femoral (groin) arteries.
10. If I could live anywhere in the world I would still be in Connecticut. Manhattan is a close second.
11. I have 1 tattoo on my upper thigh that I drew myself: a chess piece, the knight.
12. I am at an age now where I have lived longer as a married man than I have as a single man.
13. One of my greatest regrets is not going to study for a semester in Florence when I had the oppurtunity.
14. I don't study, never have. I was a good student without studying and was even in plays with large parts (in one I had 80% of the dialogue) and hardly ever studied. I am pretty damn good in Trivial Pursuit!
15. I played trombone for 6 years in school and was even 1st chair in All-State Orchestra but never owned an instrument. When I graduated I just stopped playing. 25 years later I could probably pick up a horn, play decently and even sight-read.
16. I am the oldest of four kids and I was horrible to my younger siblings.
17. I was sexually active for almost two years before I actually lost my virginity, a la coitus.
18. I am afraid of drowning in open water and don't even really feel comfortable in a swimming pool.
19. Coffee is something I simply could not live without. ...and it has to be good coffee. I'd rather lick an ashtray then drink Folgers or Maxwell house.
20. My favorite alcoholic drink is a White Russian.
21. When I was younger I had the entire script of Time Bandits memorized and could recite it word for word.
22. I really could care less about sports unless the NY Giants are playing, then I am a full-on lunatic.
23. I have never pierced anything other than my ear.
24. I do not get lonely and I am never bored.
25. I could listen to DJ Shadow's Endtroducing every day for the rest of my life and never be sick of it.
HDR
I don't truly and completely understand how HDR images are created, but I really want to try it out. Sadly, I only have Photoshop 6.something and I do not think that it is going to be easy. Photoshop CS2 and CS3 have built in tools for creating these awesome looking images.
I am no longer working in the design field and really cannot afford to keep up with the latest versions of all the design software, as much as I must desire to have the latest and greatest tools at my disposal to enhance, correct and do all kinds of funky stuff to my photos.
Hell, I'm not even sure my camera is even suitable to capture the images that would be combined to create an HDR photograph...
I am no longer working in the design field and really cannot afford to keep up with the latest versions of all the design software, as much as I must desire to have the latest and greatest tools at my disposal to enhance, correct and do all kinds of funky stuff to my photos.
Hell, I'm not even sure my camera is even suitable to capture the images that would be combined to create an HDR photograph...
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Photography
Bowen and I went for a ride in the car today, taking pictures here in Norwich, Yantic and up in Franklin. It reminded me of when I was younger and my Uncle Jim would take me out early in the morning down by the Thames River in New London and take pictures of the morning fog, birds and his personal, photographic obsession: fire hydrants.
I'm not sure about where you live but in New London the fire hydrants were not at all homogeneous. One hydrant down the street from the next could be a completely and utterly different design, color, height, etc. My experiences with him taught me to look at the details, pay attention to details when I was drawing or painting and later when I was working as a designer.
I'm not sure about where you live but in New London the fire hydrants were not at all homogeneous. One hydrant down the street from the next could be a completely and utterly different design, color, height, etc. My experiences with him taught me to look at the details, pay attention to details when I was drawing or painting and later when I was working as a designer.
Friday, January 23, 2009
I am a horrible blogger
It's not that I don't want to put the effort into maintaining a blog; I do. It's just that I don't, can't think of my life as blogger-fodder. My day-to-day is a pretty dull routine: up at 5:30 to get Bowen up and moving for school; sleep for another hour and then get up and go to work; work is usually a dull yet often uncomfortable, potentially embarrassing series of phone calls, mostly apologizing for and trying to rectify the laboratory's mistakes; I come home, eat, play Madden `09, stay up too late playing on the computer and go to sleep.
Rinse. Lather. Repeat.
So, why blog at all? Well, I am not an automaton. I do have my own views and opinions and let them rip here from time to time (or used to when I had my old site with my old blog: the now defunct bigmisterc.com). But I still hold back. Do I think that my unfiltered life would make interesting "blogger-fodder?" You bet your ass... But I am too chickenshit to recant my myriad infidelities and indiscretions (marital and otherwise), petty thefts and betrayals... the unvarnished truth. I'm just too afraid to list all that shit and still attach my name to it all. But I want to be honest; I really do. Uncomfortably, unflinchingly honest...
I just cannot do it.
...yet.
Rinse. Lather. Repeat.
So, why blog at all? Well, I am not an automaton. I do have my own views and opinions and let them rip here from time to time (or used to when I had my old site with my old blog: the now defunct bigmisterc.com). But I still hold back. Do I think that my unfiltered life would make interesting "blogger-fodder?" You bet your ass... But I am too chickenshit to recant my myriad infidelities and indiscretions (marital and otherwise), petty thefts and betrayals... the unvarnished truth. I'm just too afraid to list all that shit and still attach my name to it all. But I want to be honest; I really do. Uncomfortably, unflinchingly honest...
I just cannot do it.
...yet.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Resolutions update
Well I made some New Year's resolutions this year, which I usually do not do. Here is a bit of an update as to how I am doing:
1. Lose Weight:
Well, I haven't stepped on the scale but my pants are fitting a bit better. I am assuming that I am losing weight. I have tried to cut back on my portion sizes and tried to avoid snacking. When I do snack, I try to keep it sugar-free and semi-healthy. I have absolutely no idea if I am actually losing weight or how I might be doing it, but I think I may actually be losing some weight.
2. Go to the Gym
Complete and utter failure. I haven't been once in the 18 days that thus passed in 2009. Maybe tomorrow LOL
3. Sweet Tooth
Not so bad so far. I am still having an occasional chocolate bar and the random cinnimon bun once in a while but I am doing very good, in my opinion.
4. Making the Time I Spend Online Worthwhile
Well, it took me a while but I am updating my blog, am I not? But aside from that I am keeping in touch more with one of my oldest and dearest friend, Liz, via twitter. Other than that it's still pretty frivolous. But hey, you know what? I don't feel so bad about that. The internet is no longer my job. Now that I am no longer a web designer and the internet is something I want to enjoy. So I am still going to look at my LOLcats and you cannot stop me. So, there...
5. Be Nicer to Bowen
I recently sent a tweet saying something along the lines of 'who knew fifteen year old boys could be so annoying' to which Liz replied "teenage girls." But honestly I think back as to how I behaved and how I was the bane of my siblings' existence. We are annoying at that age. I know I was. All I can do is love him as much as I can and make sure that he knows that.
...so that's where I am with my resolutions. I have added another one that will be easy (hell, probably automatic if I stick with numbers 1 and 2) and that is to take a bit more pride in my appearance. In keeping with that I shaved my beard; downgraded back to a goatee and shaved the dome.
Voila:
1. Lose Weight:
Well, I haven't stepped on the scale but my pants are fitting a bit better. I am assuming that I am losing weight. I have tried to cut back on my portion sizes and tried to avoid snacking. When I do snack, I try to keep it sugar-free and semi-healthy. I have absolutely no idea if I am actually losing weight or how I might be doing it, but I think I may actually be losing some weight.
2. Go to the Gym
Complete and utter failure. I haven't been once in the 18 days that thus passed in 2009. Maybe tomorrow LOL
3. Sweet Tooth
Not so bad so far. I am still having an occasional chocolate bar and the random cinnimon bun once in a while but I am doing very good, in my opinion.
4. Making the Time I Spend Online Worthwhile
Well, it took me a while but I am updating my blog, am I not? But aside from that I am keeping in touch more with one of my oldest and dearest friend, Liz, via twitter. Other than that it's still pretty frivolous. But hey, you know what? I don't feel so bad about that. The internet is no longer my job. Now that I am no longer a web designer and the internet is something I want to enjoy. So I am still going to look at my LOLcats and you cannot stop me. So, there...
5. Be Nicer to Bowen
I recently sent a tweet saying something along the lines of 'who knew fifteen year old boys could be so annoying' to which Liz replied "teenage girls." But honestly I think back as to how I behaved and how I was the bane of my siblings' existence. We are annoying at that age. I know I was. All I can do is love him as much as I can and make sure that he knows that.
...so that's where I am with my resolutions. I have added another one that will be easy (hell, probably automatic if I stick with numbers 1 and 2) and that is to take a bit more pride in my appearance. In keeping with that I shaved my beard; downgraded back to a goatee and shaved the dome.
Voila:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)