America's Healthy Diet of Fear

 As I hear of small towns in Texas and Oklahoma that have turned away children who have visited Africa due to a fear of Ebola, which is likely as fake as the story about the 17 schoolchildren who have contracted the disease, I am reminded that Americans especially live on an exceptional high amount of fear and hysteria. Before it was Ebola, it was Obama taking our guns, ISIS, creepy clowns who are taking photographs, the immigrants crossing our borders, or almost every other article any given news media outlet puts out in a given day.

The part of this I don't get is the people who act as if this hasn't always been the way we live. I see articles like this one, who say openly that Americans haven't always lived in fear. I disagree completely. I think if you look at our past, you'll find that there was never a time since America was established that white men didn't thrive off a heavy dosage of fear-mongering and scare tactics.

Our first and most brutal enemy wasn't Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden. From approximately 1622-1924 we were at war with the American Indian. While we systematically exterminated many of their forces and drove them from their lands, propaganda spread throughout America that the real terrorist was, in many cases, the victim. We ran them out of their villages, murdered them, made treaties and broke them. Meanwhile, we spread a message that the Indians were savages who would burn down your ranch, rape your wife, kill your cattle, scalp your head, and enslave your children. We were the ones who brought the smallpox epidemic and had more guns. We were the ones to be afraid of.

I guess they couldn't find the picture where he was cuddling babies?

We created a fear of the Indians, because even then we understood that if our people were afraid of our enemies, they'd allow us to go above and beyond the law to justify our actions. The same reason The Patriot Act went through and was allowed to exist in 2001 also entitled early settlers to drive out our original arch-nemesis in 1901: those pesky redskins.

After we decimated them, we needed a new nightmare to keep our people in check. Along came the Japanese on Sunday, December 7, 1941. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered into World War II. By this time we were delivering our media in new and exciting ways. We had invented the radio. So much false reporting and misinformation was coming out of radio reports that CBS Radio came out with a counterpropaganda program called Our Secret Weapon, where Rex Stout would separate fact from fiction and also use the most exaggerated lies of the week to entertain the public.

Hollywood looked to draw money off the current agenda, so they replaced the normal villains in their films with Japanese and Nazis. Depicted as monsters without compassion, the films caused Hollywood to lose its foreign market. However, without the trouble of worrying about boycotts now, since those other countries weren't paying attention, they could paint other nationalities any way they liked without consequence.

As World War II came to close, America found a new fear of the Russian persuasion. The Cold War was upon us. Our country had just got out of World War II and needed a new reason to fear the Soviet Union, so word spread of the threat of nuclear attack. In elementary schools, students regularly did drills where they "prepared" for an atomic bomb. Communist rule threatened the very fabric of the American way of life in our country.

The point I'm making is that fear-mongering in America is nothing new. We've been afraid since the days when we were settlers out on the prairie. After the Cold War, segregation was the order of the day. While the Civil Rights Movement was taking place, the Vietcong were savage animals who wanted to eat our young during Vietnam.

The only thing that has changed over the years is how we ingest our media. Now it's all on Facebook. With the advent of social media, stupid people are allowed to spew nonsense at us constantly and repeatedly. This steady stream of bullshit gets regurgitated back at the public, because people are gullible idiots and the Share button is their best friend. Thus, fear-mongering is building because it isn't just the mass media trying to scare us, it's also your childhood friend who doesn't realize the satirical news site he's quoting is false. As long as none of us are doing research on what we're supporting, we have no one to blame but ourselves.


"Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live." - Dorothy Thompson

The Battle Will Rage On Forever.

I was sitting in Psychology class today and we were discussing bullying. This is a very sensitive topics these days with all the children committing suicide or running up in schools with weapons. We were all just talking about what makes a bully tick. Is it a broken home, abusive parents, were they bullied at a younger age, is there a mental issue, or do they just take pleasure in hurting someone else, physically and/or emotionally? This is a topic I think should be covered but that isn’t going to be in this article.

One of my classmates brought up the fact that things have gotten worse in school since they took the bibles out of schools. Now let me be perfectly clear on this, I don’t care what type of religion you practice. I don’t care if you have a lack of religion. You can practice and worship whatever you want. That is part of the freedom America affords you. That is why men and women die on the front lines every day. They die so that you can have the freedom to do whatever the hell you want at any time.

Now on to what I do care about. I care about the freedom to not have to be subjected to your religion if I don’t want to. I care about not turning the morning announcements into a situation that is going to make even one person feel uncomfortable. If you want to pray in school then I say fine. If you want to read a bible verse in school, fine. However, if you are going to read from one religious book then you should read from a book from every religion that has a member of that religion in your school.

Is it too much to ask that people respect others enough not to shove their religion or beliefs down someone else throat? A prime example of what pisses me off about this stuff is this right here. A local school wanted to have a prayer session before every sporting event. Alright cool, if no one complains about it then feel free. Well this is where the issue comes in folks. Someone felt uncomfortable that they were being subjected to something that they didn’t believe in and they complained. Was it a valid complaint? Hell I don’t know. That information never got released. I don’t know if they were being an asshole or if they really were offended because they didn’t believe in prayer or they had a different religion than what was being thrown around at this present time.

Well as all the smoke cleared around this complaint the school decided not to have prayer over the PA system and have a silent prayer on the track around the field. You would think that was a compromise right? Oh hell no it wasn’t. Someone at the event thought it would be a good idea to call the news and bring attention to the fact they were having prayer before the game and it was threatened by ONE person who didn’t want it to happen. Now I went to this school when I was in high school. This is an area driven on the idea of community. This is an area where people used to love each other no matter what they did. This is an area that used to lift people up when they felt down or were facing a difficult situation. This is an area I used to be proud to call home. Now I am disappointed to see this once great community reduced to making such a spectacle of this situation.

I said all of that to say this. Has it really gotten that bad in today’s society that we have to make people feel like an outcast because they don’t believe the same thing we do? Do we have to make people feel less than just because they don’t live by the same moral code? People say this nation was based on Christianity and call America a Christian nation. Is this how the good book says people should act? I don’t do a lot of reading through the bible these days but I do know this, God never turned anyone away. Hell when Jesus was hanging on the cross he was forgiving two criminals that hung beside him. People say they have Christian principles and some actually do. I find that most are just judgmental people who find happiness in making others feel like shit. If you are going to claim to be something then abide by the principles it is based on. Otherwise you are just a hypocrite. I know this one jumped a little all over the place but I had to get this one off my chest.

Celebrity Privacy

Over the last couple of months, there were two episodes of photos hacked from the ICloud servers and uploaded to sites like 4Chan and Reddit. To assholes like us, this event was known as “The Fappening”. People who always wanted to know what the 8 square inches still covered by Kate Upton’s bikini looked like had prayers answered. Other celebrities had private, mostly nude photos go public as well. Jennifer Lawrence. Kim Kardashian. Mary E. Winstead, Kirsten Dunst and many others had the curtain pulled back, revealing their most personal moments to the world. The victim’s reactions were varied. Some tried to laugh it off, while others have taken quick legal action and have called the viewing of the pictures a sex crime.

The main issue in question has been, is “because I can!” an acceptable reason to literally strip famous people naked in front of you? Because you see them on the big screen, does that make it cool to see as much of them as you want? That’s only the surface problem though. In reality, this situation is just a litmus test for how the Western world views it’s celebrities. If you look back from the early days of Hollywood through the eighties, you find a very different relationship between “us” and “them”. While the fascination with famous people has always been there, the public at large kept a civil distance. Celebs were respected for the work they did, but what they did behind closed doors was usually not public information. As time passed, the public has demanded more. First tabloids, and now the mainstream media, happily report every scrap of personal detail for consumption by the masses. For a celebrity, privacy has become almost impossible.

A good example of how things have changed is Rock Hudson. In the silver age of movies, he was one of the world’s biggest stars. The main “leading man” in romantic movies. He was also gay. Hollywood insiders knew that, and to a degree the public would hear rumors about it as well. Rock kept that part of his life private. He didn’t want to reveal it to the world, and was allowed to keep his secret. People would gossip about him a bit, but you’d never see someone on TV or in newspaper publicly discussing it. Now imagine if Rock was trying to do the same today. Sure, perceptions about homosexuality have changed, but if he didn’t want to come out of the closet, we’d probably drag him out. On road trips, athletes have often abused drugs and alcohol, and cheated on spouses. The reporters who were there in every hotel and on every plane ride knew all about it, but maintained that trust. They knew that what they players did on the field was public, but the rest didn’t have to be. Not so much these days.

As a society we have to examine how we view our stars. Do we feel that to give them fortune and our devotion, they have to give us everything? Is that the deal now?

As an asshole, I can admit that I like naked women. Porn is awesome too. But the difference is intent. If you see a Playboy photo or a naughty video that was SUPPOSED to be there, that means everyone involved is OK with that. The women I talked about above are gorgeous and I get the temptation to see it all.  But they never wanted you to. Should celebs in modern times maybe not trust cloud storage and make better choices about where to keep private images? Probably. Does that mistake give us the reason to look? If those pictures were of your sister, girlfriend or daughter you’d probably say no right? If they were yours, and suddenly they were everyone’s, you’d probably have some feelings about that. Keep that in mind the next time this happens, because it will. Keep that in mind the next time some article about someone you’ve heard of doing something that isn’t your business pops up on your facebook or twitter. Let people be people. Even the famous ones deserve that.

An Assholes Take on the Ray Rice Debacle

Do you take away a man’s livelihood for one mistake? How do you judge when something is bad enough to keep a man from earning money to support a family? I am not sure that the correct due process was taken when it comes to Ray Rice. Yes, domestic violence is a horrible thing but does it warrant the punishment he was given?

I want to start out by saying that in no way do I condone domestic violence. With that being said is it enough to take away a man’s livelihood? To me I don’t think so. People are allowed to make mistakes. No one is perfect. I think there should have been a suspension but I am not sure that he should have been suspended, fired, and shunned from the league. That was overkill. Worse things have happened and men have been allowed to continue to play. Yes, that’s right, I said worse. To me being investigated for murder is worse than this situation. Look, I see it like this, if his wife can forgive him for it then why can’t we? Would we like to have everyone jump on use and take everything away just because we made a mistake?

Everything was funky in this entire situation. First Rice was suspended for two games. I didn’t think it was enough and I still don’t. I would have been ok with 8 to 16 games for the suspension. Maybe even a ban from being able to play if Baltimore made it to the playoffs. I think the Ravens jumped the gun in releasing Rice too. Let due process play out. Once again, if his wife isn’t holding it against him why should he be stopped from making money?

If players are going to be dumped from the league for breaking the law then at least make it uniform across the league. Greg Hardy was convicted and is appealing his domestic violence charge and he is has a job.  He may be inactive right now but he is still able to put food on the table for his family.

I think the NFL dropped the ball here big time. Not only did they punish Ray Rice multiple times for the same offense, but they couldn’t get their own story straight after America showed outrage over it all. Roger Goodell said that Sean Payton should have known what was going on with his team during the bounty scandal, so what makes this any different than that. The NFL is Goodell’s “team” so, to use his own words, if he didn’t know what exactly was going on then he should have. Suspending Ray Rice pending an investigation into the matter would have been enough initially. Then after all the details came out you could have handed down whatever punishment you wanted. This is just the opinion of one man but I have a feeling more folks are out there that believe the same thing. The difference is, I have the balls to say it.

Can we still have a popular president?

On Sunday, President Obama made a public appearance to assist the Democratic candidate in getting the seat as the governor of Maryland. Unfortunately his low popularity was on display as members of the crowd dispersed before the president had finished. 

As Obama's popularity hits an all-time low, it reminds me of past presidents at this stage of their terms. During my lifetime, I've seen three presidents enter and exit office, from start to finish. I was relatively small during George Bush Sr.'s run, and not paying attention to politics in the slightest, so I don't consider myself knowledgeable on his administration or the atmosphere of the people while he was in office.

Bill Clinton arguably had the most successful run in terms of simply getting positive accomplishments through. Although people will always debate over what can actually be attributed to his direct involvement or what he inherited, the general perception is that Clinton and his team are responsible for having the strongest economy of recent memory and eradicating the federal deficit. Neither of which are the legacy left behind that most people will remember him for. 

What people like me, regular folks who go to work and write bullshit on the internet, will remember Clinton for is being disgraced by impeachment and the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Although his approval rating was relatively high when he left office, the controversy surrounding his presidency will always remain.

George W. Bush's approval rating completely tanked toward the end of his second term. After what many interpreted as failures in managing the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, his popularity was never able to recover.

That being said, I am not much of a political person. I watch what goes on and have my own thoughts, but I choose not to vote and I don't tend to side completely with either party. I lean republican when it comes to gun control and democrat for equal rights. However, what I'm beginning to wonder is if a president in the overly sensitive world we're entering can leave office with the popular vote.

Think about it. In this environment where the majority of people jump on every news article they can with the backlash they do, destroying celebrities careers over one wrong statement, or because the situation doesn't agree with their own politics, can a president still remain popular until the end of his term? Unlike Clinton or Bush, who had the mishandled war or Monica Lewinsky, I don't believe Obama really has that one large fumble that we'll point to ten years from now and say that one moment left a shadow over his entire presidency. Sure, Republicans can probably find 50,000 issues with him or his policies that they dislike for their own reasons, as Democrats could Bush, but I don't think he has one singular situation where the whole world took notice. Still, he's as unpopular as ever. 

Is this just the nature of his job, being the most powerful man in the free world and having everything he does scrutinized by the public on a regular basis? Is it the environment we now live in, where everyone is watching every word you say and prepared to burn you at the stake if you make a wrong move? Is it because he's black? I don't know. At the end of the day, I'm just an asshole in an armchair.


"People used to complain that selling a president was like selling a bar of soap. But when you buy soap, at least you get the soap. In this campaign you just get two guys telling you they really value cleanliness." - David Brooks

Should Americans be worried about Ebola?

It seems like an ignorant question with an obvious answer, as if I asked if you want extra cheese on your Whopper. However, a lot of Americans seem to be shrugging off Ebola like it is completely insignificant. 

Thank God the internet allows us all to speak.

Shep Smith of Fox News came out earlier this week and announced to the world that Americans should have no fear of catching Ebola. He said there is no outbreak in America and that any and all worries over if we'll catch the disease are unfounded paranoia. If you didn't watch the video, it's on YouTube. 

Part of that statement is true. Ebola is not a direct danger to Americans... at this moment. If you aren't or haven't been direct contact with those with Ebola, you won't get it. Be that as it may, saying you are not at all in danger from Ebola is a very short-sighted thought. 

This month alone we have doubled the amount of confirmed cases of Ebola according to the CDC website. Ebola went from having 112 confirmed cases and 70 deaths world-wide from March 2014 to April 2014. As of October, we were standing at 4,600 confirmed cases and 2,300 deaths. Right now it is October 18th and as it was updated on October 15th, we stood at 8,997 cases accompanied by 4,493 deaths. I've heard projections that put us at 10,000 cases per week in January of 2015. Yes, as of this moment we only have 3 confirmed cases in America. As of this moment you should not be concerned about your family getting sick from those 3 cases.

However, as the situation in West Africa worsens, our chances of getting an outbreak increases. Those remaining 4,500 cases of Ebola aren't all sitting together in some village waiting to die. They are travelling. Our government and others are not grounding planes. They aren't anchoring boats. Just as Thomas Eric Duncan left Liberia knowing he had the disease, others are able to do the same. 

Sure, we're doing temperature checks to board airplanes, but it's been established that something as simple as Tylenol can hide the Ebola fever long enough for you to board the plane. Ebola also lies dormant in your system for up to 21 days prior to you showing symptoms. Not only could I transmit the disease and be on the other side of the world before I'm showing symptoms, I could also have a new job and make new friends to spread it to.

Watch how I word this next part, because I want to be clear. The CDC believes Ebola is airborne. Notice that I did not say that Ebola is airborne. I do not work with the CDC and I have no medical knowledge. I said the CDC believes it is airborne. I only came to this conclusion by their actions.

Lets break that down. I know you're anxious to call bullshit, but just pay attention. According to what the CDC has told us, Ebola is transmitted in pretty much the same exact way as AIDs is. Both are transmitted by bodily fluids, which means if you don't sleep with a person who has the disease or get their blood/sweat/spit on you, you should be fine. Simple enough. If that's the case, why have I never heard of them contacting everyone on an airplane because an AIDs patient was on the plane? That's what we're doing for the plane Amber Vinson was on. Not only that, the two male strippers who were sitting near her have now been asked to be in a temporary quarantine state where they don't take any public transportation. Why's that? They didn't get her blood on them. They didn't sleep with her. Why should we treat this different than AIDs, if it's transmitted the same way? Unless you think it's airborne.

I'm not saying there is anything you can do, nor am I attempting to cause panic. I'm simply a regular guy who uses rational common sense to think things through. Take them as gospel or as a grain of salt. They're just my thoughts.

Who the hell am I, anyway?

I imagine a lot of people find their way to this blog because of the name, and I'm okay with cheesy self promotion. Regardless, we should become acquainted if you are going to listen to my ramblings. 

I am nobody special. That is to say, in this world of people pretending to be experts on everything, filling up your Facebook feeds with a stream of either useless or absurd information they deem important, I am not an authority on anything. I am not here to pretend to be factual or give you data that will change your life in one way or another. I'm simply a good ole southern boy who is college educated and has his own opinions on the world he'd like to share.

Read it or don't, I'm good with either. Prove me wrong on some of my thoughts. Unlike most people, I enjoy a heated debate and I'm perfectly fine if at the end of it I am forced to eat crow and admit defeat. However, I don't go down easy and I try to do some research on everything I talk about.

In the future, I may try to expand this blog into more things, but for right now it's just you and I. Perhaps it'll grow or maybe it'll die a miserable death. For right now, we'll just have some conversations about the world and see where it gets us.

"I have nothing to declare except my genius." - Oscar Wilde