Congressional NON-Pay Raise?

I could hardly believe my eyes when I read the news.

Congress actually turned down their annual pay raise? What is this madness?

Citing concerns over election year pressures by constituents to keep Congressional salaries from rising, last week Congress collectively, and very quietly, decided to forgo their [seemingly permanent] pay increase, thereby [hopefully] garnering political clout in the eyes of the US constituency.

While the motivation behind the vote to status quo their pay is completely politically self-serving , at least they saw some shred of reason in the matter. It was a decent gesture during a time of ongoing financial hardship for many Americans. When the bulk of your constituents are having a tough time making ends meet, giving yourself a raise above the $174,400 you currently make is not only callous, but just plain unconscionable. Voters would be left with a huge distaste for current Congressional representation. This quiet vote was the right move, selfish though the motivation is.

While the warm fuzzy Congress sent out to the rank and files working-class may not last long, I personally welcome the gesture...however hollow it may be.

Cinco de Mayo--Follow-up

After yesterdays commentary regarding Cinco de Mayo, I've received a few interesting comments.

Although my commentary was in no way inflammatory, some readers took it that way anyhow. (I guess I hit a nerve...) So, first let me assure you that the commentary was not intended to offend. I just don't get the nationwide emphasis regarding a non-US holiday.

Secondly, I guess I'm really not the only non-mexican-American who doesn't get this whole thing. The following news article from California typifies the issue:

Students Kicked Off Campus for Wearing American Flag Tees

"On any other day at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Daniel Galli and his four friends would not even be noticed for wearing T-shirts with the American flag. But Cinco de Mayo is not any typical day especially on a campus with a large Mexican American student population.

Galli says he and his friends were sitting at a table during brunch break when the vice principal asked two of the boys to remove American flag bandannas that they wearing on their heads and for the others to turn their American flag T-shirts inside out. When they refused, the boys were ordered to go to the Principal's office.
"They said we could wear it on any other day," Daniel Galli said, "but today is sensitive to Mexican-Americans because it's supposed to be their holiday so we were not allowed to wear it today."

The boys said the administrators called their T-shirts "incendiary" that would lead to fights on campus.
"They said if we tried to go back to class with our shirts not taken off, they said it was defiance and we

would get suspended," Dominic Maciel, Galli's friend, said.

The boys really had no choice, and went home to avoid suspension. They say they're angry they were not

allowed to express their American pride. Their parents are just as upset, calling what happened to their

children, "total nonsense." "I think it's absolutely ridiculous," Julie Fagerstrom, Maciel's mom, said. "All

they were doing was displaying their patriotic nature. They're expressing their individuality."

But to many Mexican-American students at Live Oak, this was a big deal. They say they were offended by

the five boys and others for wearing American colors on a Mexican holiday.

"I think they should apologize cause it is a Mexican Heritage Day," Annicia Nunez, a Live Oak High student, said. "We don't deserve to be get disrespected like that. We wouldn't do that on Fourth of July."

As for an apology, the boys and their families say, 'fat chance.' "I'm not going to apologize.

I did nothing wrong," Galli said. "I went along with my normal day. I might have worn an American flag,

but I'm an American and I'm proud to be an American."

The five boys and their families met with a Morgan Hill Unified School District official Wednesday night.

The district and the school do not see eye-to-eye on the incident and released the following statement:
'The district does not concur with the Live Oak High School administration's interpretation of either board or district policy related to these actions.' The boys will not be suspended and were allowed to return to school Thursday. We spotted one of them when he got to campus -- and, yes, he was sporting an American flag T-shirt."

Additionally, since this story broke, the Internet message boards have been buzzing, with the vast majority of respondents supporting the students who were sent home. One service I came across had around 2250 messages; mostly supportive of the boys from my glancing through a hundred or so. I wouldn't at all be surprised to see a lawsuit emerge from this little whole thing.

So, who is right? Who is wrong? Is anybody really on the correct side here? But I must ask...Why is it offensive for teenage boys to wear patriotic American displays to a school located in the US State of California? Why is it NOT OK to be a proud American on 05 May? What is so wrong with America that proudly displaying American patriotism is inconceivably deemed inappropriate?

This really does boggle the mind. Or maybe, I'm just a Grumpy Gus.

Cinco de Mayo?

Call me a Grumpy Gus if you want, but I just don't get the brouhaha over Cinco de Mayo.

As far as I'm aware, the fifth of May has no special significance in US history. There is no holiday, no sanctioned celebrations, etc. So, why is it that we have to observe the Mexican holiday known as Cinco de Mayo?

This holiday commemorates the 1862 Mexican army victory over the French in the Battle of Puebla. This so-called holiday has absolutely nothing to do with US history.

Now, I understand about heritage, tradition and cultural celebration; but celebrating a Mexican holiday? Why? Does the country of Mexico celebrate the US Independence day? Do Australians recognize Thanksgiving? Of course they don't! These countries (and every other one out there) celebrate their own holidays in their own unique ways. So, what makes the Hispanic community of the United States so special that a foreign holiday is celebrated on US soil?

I just don't get it.

Don't get me wrong if you believe I am being forced to celebrate this holiday. I know that is certainly not the case. Besides, I can't stand mexican food (eewwww!), I don't drink beer or tequila, and have no close mexican friends. So, I have no reason to celebrate, or even recognize, Cinco de Mayo.

However, I have always wondered why the big deal. From what I've read, few places in Mexico even acknowledge the "holiday." Yet here we are--every year the grocery stores push mexican fare in their ads, merchandisers mount sales campaigns, some communities hold parades, etc...all for a Mexican holiday that has nothing whatsoever to do with United States history.

I just don't get it.

Internet Advertising Going Overboard

A personal pet peeve of mine here.

I don't know about any of you, but I am getting fed up with the increasing advertising we are seeing all over the internet.

It used to be we'd see a few side boxes with ads on a page. That was fine; they weren't intrusive, and they allowed you to decide if you wanted to see more about the product or service being hawked by clicking on the ad-- or not. Then about twelve years ago, advertisers discovered the power and influence the internet had over millions of households, and they decided to horn in on the action, buying ad space on just about every web page they could find. Seemingly overnight internet advertising exploded from a few unobtrusive ads to an unwelcomed permeation of advertising in every nook and cranny of the world wide web.

Over the last year or so, video commercials are increasingly present on many pages. When they first appeared, most commercials were 7-12 seconds long, and usually not tied in to the viewing of content. Lately, it seems like any game you want to play, or any video you want to watch is being preceded by a commercial of 30-60 seconds that is directly tied to the video.

Usually, when playing an online game (at least on MSN games), as levels are advanced, the player is subjected to a commercial between each level. Videos of any length aren't any better. I watched one news clip [that ended up being just 20 seconds] that had a 45 second commercial in front of it! It feels like I'm watching tv.

So what have I started doing? Well, just like tv, I mute the commercials and pay zero attention to the ads. This is the only way I feel I have any control. Before long, I don't doubt that there will be commercials in front of every click we make. That will be a sad day for a medium that had no ads anywhere when it first began. Kind of like FM radio...you know, all music, no ads. Now, listening to FM is a miserable tromp through the jungle to discover the music between the commercials.

Thank Goodness for Satellite Radio...until it too falls into the hands of advertisers.

Apologies

I want to extend an apology to my readers.


Over the past five months or so, I have been very infrequent in my blogs. It certainly is not because I have run out of things to discuss. No, it is because of my health.


You may or may not know that I have a second blog entitled "In My Own Words: Fighting PCKD." This blog arose out of my diagnosis in September last of advanced stage 4 Polycystic Kidney Disease. This form of kidney disease accounts for just 4% of all Renal diseases, yet is the most degenerative. Now, until I was presented with this diagnosis, I was unaware of the disease that was destroying my kidneys. I was asymptomatic; in other words, I had no obvious symptomology that might indicate I had already gone well beyond stages 1, 2 and 3.

Within two months of diagnosis, I was seeing S/S's (Signs & Symptoms) showing up on a regular basis as my body was no longer able to compensate for the advancement of the disease. It was during this time I decided to start my other blog. (Please...take some time and read it!) Due to the meds I was placed on, as well as the advancement of the disease, I was only writing in that blog on a regular basis. Meanwhile, this blog was neglected, aside from the occasional entry.

The other day I was thinking about this, as well as all the things going on in the world, and decided I to make a better effort to write on this blog regularly. So, starting with this entry, I will be writing as often as I feel up to it; hopefully one to two days per week.

Please start looking in on this blog once again. With everything that has been happening, my brain is ready to illuminate the idiocracies that are swirling around us all!

Thank You.

ScottW

Follow-Up to Seahawks HC Firing

The gripers and groaners amongst the pro football fans in Seattle is going once again. They just cannot let go of the past season and continue to vilify now former Head Coach Jim Mora. I wrote the following response to all the bandwagon jumpers who lie in wait to spew their hate-filled rhetoric upon the sports public whenever they are given the chance.

"-Front Office
-Head Coach
-Coordinators & Position Coaches
-Players

Let's see...Out of all the griping going on in this post we continue to see a failure to blame the PLAYERS for their collective roll in the tragedy of last season. There are at least these four sets of individuals responsible for the success or failure of any pro team. Setting aside emotion for the game, I still maintain that it is the players who should step up and accept part of the blame for the dismal season.

How many reports have we heard out of the Seahawk locker room about player discord, disrespect, big ego's, personnel clashes, apathetic attitudes, etc? If the players themselves don't give a hoot about working together, then everything will fall apart.

Many of these guys are paid more money in one season than I'll see in my lifetime. They are paid to be the BEST in the land; yet their efforts on the field are pathetic, at best. You could see the defeatist attitudes and ill will on their faces.

They just didn't care!

Mora made some huge coaching mistakes, to be sure. So did the front office management, the coordinators and various coaches, and especially the players. It is NEVER one man's fault that an entire pro sports franchise performs that poorly. Blame Mora all you want...but be sure you are also acknowledging everyone else's role as well."

A Victory!

FINALLY!

Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a lawsuit aimed at stripping the wishes of the vast majority of Americans by ruling that the phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance "Under God," and the phrase on US currencies "In God We Trust" are NOT unconstitutional.

The following AP story states

"A federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld the use of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance and "In God We Trust" on U.S. currency, rejecting arguments on Thursday that the phrases violate the separation of church and state.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel rejected two legal challenges by Sacramento atheist Michael Newdow, who claimed the references to God disrespect his religious beliefs.
"The Pledge is constitutional," Judge Carlos Bea wrote for the majority in the 2-1 ruling. "The Pledge of Allegiance serves to unite our vast nation through the proud recitation of some of the ideals upon which our Republic was founded."
The same court ruled in Newdow's favor in 2002 after he sued his daughter's school district for forcing students to recite the pledge.
That lawsuit reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2004, but the high court ruled that Newdow lacked the legal standing to file the suit because he didn't have custody of his daughter, on whose behalf he brought the case.
So Newdow, who is a doctor and lawyer, filed the challenge on behalf of other parents who objected to their children being required to recite the pledge. In 2005, a federal judge in Sacramento decided in Newdow's favor, ruling that the pledge was unconstitutional.
"I want to be treated equally," Newdow said when he argued the case before the 9th Circuit in December 2007. He added that supporters of the phrase "want to have their religious views espoused by the government."
In a separate 3-0 ruling Thursday, the appeals court upheld the inscription of the national motto "In God We Trust" on coins and currency."

This is the second attempt by Mr. Newdow to force his atheistic views on hundreds of millions of people. This is Mr. Newdow's second failure. Isn't it time he gives up his ludicrous attempts to enforce his personal preferences upon the whole population of the United States?

After all, NO ONE FORCES him to read the phrase on coin or paper bills.
NO ONE FORCES him to utter "Under God" when reciting the pledge.

So why should Michael Newdow be allowed to FORCE everyone else to feel the same way he does? What makes him so special?

If Newdow really studied the founding of this country, he would know, without doubt, that the Fathers were strongly, religiously convicted to form a government and country that would follow Christian/Protestant mores and values. They knew that if we followed these simple, logical values espoused by their christian heritage that this nation would prosper. And so it has.

I applaud the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Their decision was not only right and just; it was also a true reflection of the wishes and beliefs of the overwhelmingly vast majority of Americans.

Another Super Bore is Done

Ooohh. Wow. Whoopty doooo.

Another Super Bore has gone by the wayside. (Thank Goodness!)

I know that New Orleans won the game, but that's about it. As has become my yearly rebellion, I did not watch the Super Bore. Instead, I played Tiger Woods PGA Tour on my computer. It was far better than the football game, I'm sure.

Let's see. There was (aside from endless hype and sports prognostications on a multitude of channels, approximately four hours of pre-game. That's right. The pre-game show lasted longer than the stinkin game. Pathetic. I mean, how many times can you say the same BS about teams and players before redundancy bores your entire audience? Apparently it takes at least four hours!

Then, the game itself. Recently a study was released that examined how much time an NFL game actually takes to play. I'm not talking about air time; I mean, how many minutes of action occurs in an average game? Well, this study concluded that in a sixty minute game (the game clock), there was an average of eleven minutes of game play. You read that right...ELEVEN minutes of actual plays being run. The rest of the usual three hour allotment of time is spent between plays, time outs, half-time, commercials, and unceasing, irritating commentating by the broadcast personalities.

Anyway, following the big game, there is one hour of post-game wrap up slated. So that totals five hours of extra coverage...for eleven minutes of action. Ooooooooooooo........

I just don't get why this one game is so hyped. It just doesn't make sense.

...but then, I'm not a beer swigging, mindless meat head who derives their one true pleasure in life from a game so overwrought in self indulgence that I blindly follow what the advertisers and the NFL are saying about how awesome an experience the Super Bore is (or pretends to be); when in reality, it's eleven minutes wrapped up in an eight hour package of redundant dialogue and ridiculously pricey commercials.