The Struggle Is Real (Whether You Suffer or Not)

Have you ever been afraid? Have you ever had that feeling that something bad is about to happen? If you have, imagine that on a constant basis. This is how those of us living with anxiety feel. 

For those of you unsure of what I am talking about let me enlighten you. Anxiety is defined as a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.

According to the APA, Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure. People with anxiety disorders usually have recurring intrusive thoughts or concerns. They may avoid certain situations out of worry. They may also have physical symptoms such as sweating, trembling, dizziness or a rapid heartbeat.

Anxiety Disorder Statistics. Anxiety Disorders affect 18.1 percent of adults in the United States (approximately 40 million adults between the ages of 18 to 54). - National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Now that we have gotten through the education part of this article now it is time for some experience. 

I never knew what was wrong with me. It started one day when I was in high school. I felt really odd and I was terrified. Was I having a heart attack at 16? I had heard about people dying young from these before. Was there something that was missed during a checkup? All I knew for sure is that my heart was going 90 miles an hour and I was hot and sweaty. It passed after a few minutes and I just didn't think about it again. This happened very seldom after that or maybe I just didn't pay much attention to it. Maybe because I smoking cigarettes and self medicating all the time I never noticed it. 

Fast forward about ten years. I had quit smoking, drinking, and doing any drugs. All of the sudden this monster rose its ugly head one more time. All I was doing was sitting there watching TV and I couldn't breath. Now by this time I has put on some weight so I was more convinced this could be some type of heart issue. I was once again sweating with my heart beating like it was trying to win the Daytona 500. This time I also just try to let it pass and it does. Two hours later here we go again. This happened for a full day every couple hours. 

At this point I am super scared and I call my doctor. They have me come in and they run the normal tests that they would for someone having a heart attack and everything there was good. So now I am stumped as to why I am feeling how I do. The doctor comes back in and hands me a small booklet that has anxiety, in big bold letters, on the front. I take a look at it and think "could this be me?" 

I had heard of panic attacks and anxiety before but I didn't think something like this would happen to me. I was one of those people who said "Calm down" "Stop worrying so much" "It is all in your head". I was one of the people who put a stigma on people who were slightly different. Now here I was on that side of the fence. I couldn't believe it. I was no longer normal. I was broken. I wanted to hide it. The more I tried to hide it the worse it got. 

It got so bad that I let it affect my life in many ways. It made me grumpy all of the time and hard to deal with. It made me short tempered and cost me relationships with friends and significant others. Hiding the fact that I was suffering from anxiety was really the worst thing I could do.

I am now more open to letting people know that I am living with anxiety. Some people understand, some people don't, and some people try to understand but can't wrap their head around it. For many years I felt all alone. Then once I started speaking about my issue I found that many people felt the same way.

The entire point of writing this is in hopes that someone will read this and realize they are not alone. I want people to know there are a lot of resources out there to help them cope. There is a fine line between suffering from anxiety and living with it. 

This is just a little glimpse into the experience of one asshole living with anxiety. If you are someone trying to hide it because you feel it makes you less of a person or that people will think less of you because of this, there is a whole community out there of people willing to support you.

What are you rioting for?

So the latest nonsense has hit me close to home. On Tuesday September 20, 2016 an African American male was shot during a warrant service in Charlotte, NC. Now it has been said that this man, Keith Lamont Scott, was killed and all he was doing was reading a book. People took to the streets to protest over this fact. That is fine. It is your right to peacefully protest when you think there has been some sort of injustice. It has since came out, there is video proof, that he was wielding a gun as officers were telling him to put down the gun. After he failed to do so the officer shot him.

My question in all of this is why not just comply? All you had to do was place the gun on the ground and he would probably still be alive today. Now I am still doing research on Mr. Scott at the time of this writing. I have seen that Mr. Scott has a criminal record that indicates this type of behavior to exhibited in the past. According to this Charlotte Observer article, Mr. Scott was convicted of an assault with a deadly weapon charge in April 2004. The article also stated that he was charged with a concealed weapon charge. The weapon was not a gun but a weapon nonetheless. This does not say that Mr. Scott wasn't a good man but it does show that he had a checkered past and might have been capable of harming these officers.

After Mr. Scott was shot a woman claiming to be his daughter was going on a racially charge tirade against the white cops on the scene. She recorded the situation on her Facebook account on the Facebook live feature,  The video can be seen below. It has now been brought to everyone's attention that the officer that shot Mr. Scott was also African American. This shows that it is not only white cops that are involved in these shootings. It remains to be seen whether this shooting was in self defense or a criminal act. The investigation is still ongoing.

Now that there is a background on the situation I ask this one more time. What in the hell are you rioting for? There is nothing wrong with a peaceful protest in regards to police violence and whether or not you think a shooting is justified or not. There is no good reason to tear apart your own community. The last time I checked theft and vandalism are crimes. I know it may be old school thinking here but two wrongs do not make a right. How do you justify breaking the law because you disagree with the actions of the police? Everyone one that has kicked in a window or touched a piece of merchandise in the store should be prosecuted for the individual crimes they are committing. In my opinion animals belong in cages. if you want to act like an animal the you should be locked up.  I was looking through a friends Facebook comments on his status and I saw a great line. If everything is treated as an eye for an eye then the whole word goes blind.

If this is how people react before knowing the results of this investigation I fear for our country if what they think happened, happened. All of this could have been avoided if he would have used common sense and just complied with officer instructions. We have Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter how about Common Sense Matters as the next movement. Use your heads for more than a hat rack. Hell this is just the opinion of one asshole on the internet......

The Gun Violence Three-Card Monte

Allow me the opportunity to preface this by saying that politically I have no affiliation. Until America puts a president in front of me that I can support, I simply refuse to vote. Some consider that indecisive or indicative of not standing up for your beliefs, but I can argue the opposite and I'm sure I will another day, on another blog post.

With the attacks in Paris and California further feeding into the media's propaganda on gun control, I find myself like the majority of you, asking where all of this misinformation began. For me it seems that instead of facing the truth, that mass shootings are a direct consequence to deinstitutionalization and maintaining poor mental health outlets for decades, we're doubling down on the fact that guns were used in these crimes. On a side note: I'm not linking deinstitutionalization and terrorism. I only used those examples because they're in the recent news.

Recently the Daily News has been feeding into this idea that if you don't agree with gun control, you must not think there's any problem in our country. Repeatedly I hear Obama or the media speaking out against the tools used in these horrific situations, but never are they focused on the people themselves and how we can better serve those individuals in order to make sure we don't get to these scenarios. ABC News has even announced that Obama will make an announcement about what to do with gun control this Tuesday.

Meanwhile, this seems to be an obvious game of Three-Card Monte. Focus firmly on what the people are using to murder innocent civilians and not what the actual ailment is. When President Ronald Reagan signed in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act that shut down 30% of mental health spending in 1981, there were an estimated 650 facilities serving 1.9 million patients per year. 

Studies suggested in 2004 that there were 320,000 people in prison with mental illness and 100,000 psychiatric beds in America. Meaning that there were roughly three times the amount of mentally ill in prison than in hospitals.. not accounting for those that were free or on the streets. In 2010 there were 43,000 psychiatric beds in the US. Which is about 14 beds for every 100,000 people. However, while mass shootings continued to occur in the news, between 2009 and 2012 we cut funding by another $5 billion and eliminated 4,500 more beds.. or roughly 10% of what we had. 

So literally we're speaking up against mental health issues and gun control publicly, and while more horrific mass shootings are happening in the news on a semi-regular basis, we're refocusing on taking away guns all while simultaneously eliminating sanctuaries to benefit those of us with mental illness. That is the definition of a sleight of hand -- where the magician makes you look at the distraction while he's pulling the rug out from under you with his other hand.

The problem isn't in these people, it's in our treatment of these people. Formerly we looked to better them or make them one of us. We wanted to be on the cutting edge of neurosciences and do whatever we could to fix mental health issues. Now our mental health system is essentially a fast food pharmacy. Take your pill and hit the streets. See ya when you need a refill. The error in that is, when they start to feel better, they start thinking they don't need the medication anymore. Instead of realizing the medication is what makes them better, a lot of times they assume the medication completed it's job. However, if they go to the hospital, we don't have the beds to treat them.. so we give them their pill and the cycle restarts. Just patch the problem and ignore it.

What is good for the goose is no longer good for the gander?

Violence has been around since the beginning of mankind. Cain killed his brother Able in the very first murder. This is of course if you believe in the teachings of the Bible. Whether it is a random act of violence or a terrorist act; almost everyone belongs to a group, or school of thought, that can be motivation for these actions. Are we to condemn a whole group just for the actions of some?

I find it awfully funny how everyone is so quick to damn Muslims for terrorist acts perpetrated by a few. Yes I know there are many people who have committed these atrocities but the percentage of Islamic extremists who have committed these acts are small in comparison to the religion as a whole. I know that Americans have developed what I would like to call a "rotten apple spoils the bunch" mentality when it comes to issues of this nature. So is every Muslim really to blame for the attacks on 9/11, Paris(the Charlie Hebdo and the most recent attacks), London bombings, or the Boston Marathon bombing? I am just naming a few but I know there have been plenty more attacks. I know that terrorism by Islamic extremists is a real threat and a serious issue. I am not making light of this very real issue. I am, however, trying to show a little perspective on this.

Let's move to a different topic for a second. Most recently there was the tragedy is Colorado Springs. Robert Lewis Dear took what I will call and arsenal of weapons into a Planned Parenthood clinic and murdered three people and injured at least nine more. Not only did he open fire on these people but he also had propane tanks that he had assembled around a car. Now, to me, this seems like something that is supposed to strike fear in a certain population. According to Merriam-Webster the definition of terrorism is the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal. Being pro-life is a political stance, if I am not mistaken. Seems like terrorism to me. SO do we lump all pro-lifers together and say they are all prone to acts of violence because of the act of Mr. Dear? 

Let's slide over a little to the Black Lives Matter movement. Now it may be a stretch for me to call these folks terrorists. However, I certainly do. They are trying to enact some sort of political change and they are destroying their own cities and perpetrating attacks to intimidate people into making these changes. This, in my opinion is mild in comparison to the others but the fact remains the same. Should we condemn all African-Americans for the action of these folks?

Now as I was writing this there was another attack at a center for people with developmental disabilities. The people who carried out these acts ended up being Muslim. Hours before their identities were know I hear many people going ape shit about they are Muslim. Making comments like they must be Muslim, I can't wait to find out they are refugees, and other such comments. This just goes to prove my point. There is no innocent until proven guilty for the Muslim community. I am of course going to get shit for being a Muslim "sympathizer". I can assure you I am a people sympathizer. I think all life matters, not just my own. In America we don't have a Muslim problem, we have a violence problem. No matter what nationality, religion, ethnic group, or race people come from. until we take a stand on ALL violence this sort of thing will continue to happen. It is high time we work on the overall problem, This is just the opinion of one asshole....I don't expect you all to agree but you should have read this with an open mind.

Let Brian Williams Go Back To Work

Personally, if Brian Williams died tomorrow I wouldn't even shrug my shoulders. Be careful how you read that. I didn't say I want him dead. The point I'm making is this.. I know the man's name in passing and nothing more. I don't care about what he does for a living or who he is as a person. For all I know, he's already dead.

This is an opinion blog and not the news, so I don't have any moral compass to stand by. We just tell you what we think and you read it or don't. We don't serve a specific side of the ethical or political fence. I just take a topic I want to write about and say whatever I feel with no repercussions. Brian Williams doesn't live in that world and he's recently made headlines for basically embellishing on a story that happened to him during the war. If you haven't heard about it, this video will explain.

I used the word embellish because he didn't flat out lie. He was involved in an attack, but he told everybody that his helicopter was hit by a rocket when in fact the helicopter he was following got hit instead. Maybe he misremembered it, like he claims, or maybe he just wanted to be the cool guy at the party and tell the story in the way that made him seem better to his audience. A colossal fuck up nonetheless.

I think we, as Americans, should hold our news anchors to the highest moral standards. If they lie, they should be fired without severance. If they tell inaccurate details, whether honest or accidental, they should have heavy consequences for those actions. They are being paid a lot of money to give us factual news that is held to a certain ethical platform and I believe we deserve it in return. However, that isn't the world we live in.

The one we live in has Fox News correspondents apologizing regularly or fumbling through news stories in whatever way fits their political agenda. While that video was politically one-sided, it was also very factual. I get it, Fox is the joke of the news world. They do whatever they want and we just shake our heads at it and move on with our day. Just like anything that comes out of Florida.

If Brian Williams is going to be the first reporter held to the highest standards of the internet when it comes to his honest news reporting, I'm absolutely fine with NBC pulling out its bull whip, the internet getting its pitch forks, and us all setting a very clear example of Brian Williams. If this is what we're gonna do from here on in, I'm all for it. This isn't that though.. you and I know it. This is just the hype train the internet is hot on for the week, and while Brian Williams is suspended for the next six months in his home, watching other reporters on Fox make up shit every week at their leisure, the internet will be moving on to whatever new activities are going on in the Kardashian household. We'll forget that we all cared about Brian Williams and we'll hold no other news reporters to the same standard we set for him in this case.

Remember Joseph Kony? Surely you remember the social media star born of being a Ugandan rebel leader who had a surge of popularity on the internet due to how he treated children? Did we save those children? Nah. Did we catch Joseph Kony? Absolutely not. So he just got his fifteen minutes of fame and we moved on just like we'll do here. Put Brian Williams back to work and be realistic. Americas standards aren't changing, because we only care about what social media tells us to care about for the moment it's relevant on our feed. 

When does it all end?

I find it interesting that people are always calling things demonic or Illuminati symbolism. I get it. You have nothing else to bitch about. You have to tarnish everything people do because you have nothing better to do. Personally I don't care what the symbolism is in music videos or in performances. If you are afraid that something like that will influence the youth of today, then maybe you should start at home and not worry about what other people are doing.

Now I don't want to lump ALL Christians in the same group because not every Christian is close-minded and allergic to acceptance, however, most of the people I hear bitching about this claim to be Christians. I see it everywhere, though. Jay Z had Illuminati symbolism in his performance says one guy. Such and such is going to hell for the demonic lyrics in his song. My favorite is "play this song backwards, they have demonic phrases". Does everything have to have a hidden meaning?

Now what got me started on this was the fact that I saw a video on Facebook today from Good Fight Ministries. Now I know this will give them some press and I am OK with that. What I am not OK with is people trying to tell you what to see and that only their perception of something is true. Now is it possible they are correct? Well sure it is. Is it possible that these situations are totally benign and they are just reading into things? That is also true. I am not foolish enough to say that there are no Satanic messages in music nor are there any Satanic people trying to get their message across in music. I AM saying that not everyone is trying to add people to their cult or religion through music and videos.

Well these folks at Good Fight Ministries made a video stating that Katy Perry was, and I am paraphrasing, a vehicle for Satan trying to recruit the unsuspecting youth into Satanism. At the time of writing this article I haven't been able to find all of the interviews the clips were taken from. SO I can't say it was taken out of context. However, I have heard some musicians and artists say "I sold my soul to the devil" and mean that they are now a part of the machine that is about money not music anymore. I wouldn't take it literally meaning they sold their soul to Satan so they could have the fame and fortune.

With all that said I am not blind. I do see the symbols in performances. I do see the likenesses to these things people are complaining about. To me it is just entertainment. If I am doing my job at home to show my children what is right and wrong then I don't have to worry about society "corrupting" my children with their so-called perversions. This brings me back to the statement I made a million times. How does it hurt you if someone else wants to lead a life of sin, if that is what you call it by them being gay or using satanic imagery? I think just let people live their lives and not be so judgmental. Whatever happened to the sayings, "Only God can judge" and "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone".  The aforementioned video is posted below if you would like to take a look. This is just one assholes opinion. Feel free to make your own. It is not my job to tell you how to live or what to believe.

Is a McDonald's Ad Really That Serious?

During the Superbowl last night, millions of Americans got to see McDonald's latest attempt to recover from a very rocky PR atmosphere lately. Over the past few years, in light of Americans becoming more health-conscious and seeking more information behind the foods they eat, McDonald's has been under fire for serving what would be considered a deep fried, more acceptable form of dog food to the masses. Partner that with the protests last year for raising the minimum wage at fast food restaurants and it's safe to say that none of us idolize the advertisers that have to sit and come up with a way to paint their products in a positive light.

In the ad, McDonald's requested customers at random to commit public acts of affection. The result being that their meal is free in return. The prices were deeds such as "One big family hug" or as they requested one patron, "Dial up your mom, tell her that you love her."

The next day I get on my Facebook feed and I see this beaming blog from Gawker, where author Hamilton Nolan saw fit to tear apart McDonald's recent PR campaign. Hamilton said that "normal, presumably middle or lower class Americans seeking cheap food are made to grovel and put their most tender family dynamics on public display." From this phrase alone I can tell that Hamilton is both not lower to middle class and also must hate his family. After all, if you're going to attack a company for simply asking you to tell your mother that you love her as payment, there are much deeper issues in your family tree than what is for dinner. If you feel the need to go one step further and completely disparage that company for daring to ever ask someone to hug another person for money, I assume you must have been molested by Ronald McDonald.

I get it. In this political world where everyone needs to take a side, your blog has clearly chosen the liberal path that exists to try and make waves out of nonsensical issues. At least I'll have the decency to admit that I do it because I'm an asshole who writes about whatever he wants. I have no boss or higher authority who tells me to feel a certain way about social topics. For that reason, I've decided to unlike Gawker so I don't have to listen to their one-sided ramblings any longer.

I am not defending McDonald's because I believe they are a moral or innocent company by any means. They probably should raise their minimum wage some and it wouldn't hurt if they looked into changing their food. You see, this isn't conservative vs. liberal, I'm just a think-for-myself kinda guy. I wish the internet were full of more of the same.

Shots fired.

You Mad Bro?

What an incredible game that was. It had awesome defensive plays, touchdowns everywhere, impossible catches, and brawl that made WWE start calling agents. Now everyone knows there has to be a loser in every game but how you handle losing shows the character have.

Seattle showed they have no character. Not only from this loss but with how they handle themselves in general. I can’t take the overrated Richard Sherman talking his shit all day. Yeah you make a couple plays here and there but I hear more about you running your trap than making plays on the field. Shut up and play ball.

Moving on to Marshawn Lynch. Dude, get a damn grip. No one is trying to fuck you over by asking questions. Every other player in the NFL sucks it up and answers questions because that is what the job calls for. Oh, don’t let me forget the shoe fiasco. There was no need for that distraction. Just play the game.

Now to the loss of the Super Bowl. Bruce Irvin, if you are going to be mad at someone and throw a punch, make sure you hit the right person. That would be your retarded quarterback.  Who throws the ball on 1^st and goal from the one yard line? What a way to ruin a great game by acting like some spoiled 5 year olds in Pop Warner. How about acting like you make millions to play a kids game for a job. There is no need to start throwing blows because you are pitching a fit from losing a game.

In the end, I have to give the Patriots a well-deserved congrats. They never stopped playing and did what they had to do to become four time Super Bowl champions. I do have one thing left to say. This is a little advice from a former middle school wrestler. Gronk, learn to sprawl bro.

Chris Kyle Should Not Have His Own Holiday

In case you haven't heard, Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent out a tweet that said, "I have declared February 2 to be Chris Kyle Day in Texas." If you've been living under a rock, Chris Kyle is the American soldier who the American Sniper film is based on. Kyle accumulated 160 confirmed kills out of 255 probable kills during his illustrious career with the Navy SEALs. Get your hate speech and rhetoric ready internet, because I'm gonna tell you why this was an ill-conceived idea.

I will preface this by saying that I am not anti-war or anti-military. I think war has its place when it is absolutely unavoidable. I respect the men and women who fight for our country. They're both American heroes and simultaneously just doing their job. I don't mean that to undermine their duty or bravery, but that will be further explained later in this post. I am also from Texas. So while the rest of the internet will surely have people on a particular side of the political fence that will say Texas is foolish and immoral for creating such a holiday, very few will be like me and residing inside of it.

Chris Kyle is an American hero. He did an excellent job as a Navy SEAL during our war with Iraq and he should be commended for that. Which he has been, by the military themselves, The New York Times for American Sniper's 37-week run on their Best Sellers List, and by Hollywood through the film that was made about his life. Not only has he been remembered, he's been glorified more than any member of the military ever was. I'm not here to argue for or against if he's earned any of his previous accolades. However, I do not believe he should have a holiday, in Texas or otherwise.

First and foremost, he's a killer. I do not say that to take away credit for the accomplishments he's made. I've stated my thoughts about the job he did in Iraq, but you cannot take only the good side of what he did and ignore the ugly parts. If you give a man a holiday for being an exceptional sniper, you're also giving a holiday to a man for being an extraordinary murderer. For all the lives he saved, he also took some away. The reason he murdered people is still relevant. That's not me painting the picture the way I want it to be seen, as some would say. It's seeing the entire canvas for what it truly is.

We have a Memorial Day for our fallen soldiers. That's not to say that some members of the military don't deserve a certain amount of unique praise, which they do receive from the military themselves and by those close to them. Hell, if they're good enough they may even get awarded by the President of the United States. There is no shortage of praise given for those men and women who put their lives on the line, but we don't have enough days in the year to handpick out every soldier who did a great job and give them all holidays. Is Chris Kyle more special to us than the 3,493 Medal of Honor recipients we've awarded for their dire moments of courage and bravery during battle? No, he's not better than them. We shouldn't put him singly on his own pedestal simply because he has a movie about his life. He was a great man, like many who came before him, and he should be honored on Memorial Day with them.

With that in mind, if Chris Kyle deserves to have his own holiday, why was Johann “Hans” Breyer arrested in Philadelphia and held without bail until he died in a hospital bed awaiting his extradition hearing for Germany? Both of these men were merely soldiers during a war performing orders handed down to them. Both men were mass murderers and national heroes to their own countries during the time. The one difference is that Johann Breyer would have been killed by Hitler for disobeying his orders if he didn't act them out. So we live in a country that simultaneously sends the message that if you're a fantastic soldier who kills a lot of people for another country during a war, we'll seek out war crimes against you and ship you off to whatever country wants your head. However, if you do the same job for us, you deserve a movie deal, a New York Times best selling book, and your own holiday? Talk about mixed signals.

Eat What You Kill

I am not a hunter. I have never been hunting. That is important for me to preface this post with that statement, because I don't want you to be under the impression that I have a dog in the fight. I believe in big game hunting, under the right conditions. 

The liberal media and it's activist zealots will have you believe that every animal is sacred. I disagree. Unless you are a vegan, you eat or have eaten beef. Do you know where your beef comes from? Do you worry about the lives of those animals, or only the majestic animals that society deems are inappropriate for us to kill?

The hamburger you ate for dinner started out on a ranch. If he was in Texas or Arizona, some of his herd probably died from the heat. If he was in the more northern states, some of them froze to death instead. If they survived the temperatures, they were afforded the luxury of getting branded with a fire iron, getting their testicles ripped away, and their horns were cut or burned off. 

Once their beautiful life on the ranch has come to an end, they get sent to a feedlot. Feedlots are these wonderlands of pure enjoyment, where the cows frolic in the feces-filled holding pens and get chronic digestive problems from the foods they're given to fatten up. The air is always fresh with ammonia and methane due to the amount of manure. We give them drugs though, to keep them breathing.

These are the animals society has deemed it okay for us to eat. Not only that, these animals have to be raised in these conditions and fed to us in this manner if we don't all intend to hunt and we wish to sustain ourselves on meat. There are simply too many people with too high demand of beef for us to raise the amount of cows we need in a hospitable environment. However, there isn't a public outcry for the thousands of these cows every year that live an existence of torture and abuse. We instead focus on big game hunters who kill one lion in Africa and take a picture with it. 

First and foremost, the African lion is not endangered. That is a common misconception. The Obama administration has recently proposed listing the animal as threatened. If it is listed as threatened, it will still be legal to kill those lions even in America with the proper permits, but I'm not here to argue semantics. If it were to be listed as endangered or threatened and outlawed, of course I'm all for preservation of the species, but we aren't there yet. 

I don't believe in hunting these animals purely as a trophy. However, I do believe that as long as you eat the meat and it isn't illegal to hunt, I don't care what animal you kill. Why do we treat these predators as a majestic animal who deserve a more dignified death than the deer, cows, or pigs we kill regularly? I think the public has a delusion that the majority of the animals in the wild live a full life to begin with. While a bullet in the head is not the most humane way to go, the savage lifestyle of living as a free-range animal predominantly lends itself to dying either by starvation, weather conditions, or being eaten alive. They don't usually grow old and die like we assume. Darwinism is the most evident in these species. 

What is wrong with your balls?

The NFL has been in the news a lot this season. I already wrote about the Ray Rice issue. There are a ton of pressing issues in the league right now. A lot of players have addiction issue, there are PED’s being used, and more and more domestic violence claims unsettled. With all of this going on the powers that be are attacking the Patriots for deflating footballs during the game.

During the AFC championship game on Sunday January 18, 2015, between New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts, the New England Patriots used balls that were under-inflated. They were not inflated to the league minimum. When a ball is under inflated it gives the players a better grip on the ball. The quarterback can get a better grip for passing the ball and the receivers can catch the ball better. From where I sit this did not cost the Indianapolis Colts the game.

The referee’s inspected the balls at half time. They noticed the balls were under-inflated and replaced them with balls that met the requirement. After this happened the New England Patriots still outscored the Indianapolis Colts 28-0 in the second half. If you are looking at throwing a game out because of an issue that could have impacted the game, then look at how the game went after the issue was noticed.

The other issue I have with this is people calling for a ban from the Super Bowl for the Patriots. You have got to be fucking kidding me. What happens when you do this? Do you just award the Seattle Seahawks the game? Do you make them champions on the count of forfeit? Do you put in the Colts who, after the balls were discovered as being altered, didn’t play well enough to win the game? If you want to fine the Patriots, suspend some people, take away draft pick, or all three then that is fine. Just think about things before you start handing out ridiculous punishments. Although it wouldn’t be the first time the NFL dropped the ball if they get this one wrong too. However, this is just the opinion of one asshole. It won’t amount to much in the long haul. It makes me feel better to get it off my chest though.

Remembrance Day

In Canada, Rememberance Day is today. It is the day that our nation honours the veterans who have served and sometimes even gave their lives for us. Last week I was at my childrens' school, watching the Rememberance Day assembly. My daughter's grade two class was doing the presentation. They read from some scripts and sang a couple of songs. I was very proud of my little girl. My youngest though, struggled to appreciate the solemnity of the situation. Forty-five minutes is a long time to be quiet and still when you're four. He wriggled, rambled, played loudly with his toys, and generally did the things a kid his age does.

Rememberance Day hits pretty close to home for me. My grandfather and his father-in-law before him both served during wartime. (My great-grandpa had a bullet scar on his butt cheek to prove it. Not that I would have asked him to...) My friend spent almost a year in Afganistan during the most violent part of that conflict. It took him months to adjust to regular life, or as much adjustment as he'll ever be able to have. I deeply respect what they and so many others have given to the rest of us. With that in mind, you'd think I'd be freaking out on my twitchy little man. I did my best to keep him quiet and calm, but I didn't take his outbursts as show of disrespect. I actually felt the opposite. 


The fact that, at that moment, my son's biggest problem in life was that he just dropped his toy was a wonderful thing. He didn't understand why we were all quietly gathered in that school gym. He doesn't know what war is, or it's terrible costs. He's never seen anyone get shot, unless he walks in while we watch a grown up show. Everyone he can ever remember meeting lives in peace. I can't describe how I felt when I realized what a gift that truly is. 


I know the world's far from completely peaceful. And yeah, lately, even Canada hasn't escaped the threat of terror. (RIP to our two home soil casualties.) But we live in an era that knows greater peace than any time before, thanks to the sacrifices of thousands of men and women. I know it's not nearly enough, but thank you. I'll never forget.

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.