Thursday, October 30, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Bush wastes more of our tax-money...hooray!
This was announced yesterday...a new entity of the government...more people to pay, more time to waste. It's basically a new organization with a leader called an "Intellectual Property Czar"
It gives the Federal Government more power to take property and assets from people caught pirating...this is the new war on drugs people...and we all know how well THAT worked....
Honestly, this issue completely undermines the Justice Department, a complaint they themselves are making, it also wastes taxpayer dollars, and protects companies and an industry that have failed to serve their publics in a quality and effective manner for years...think RIAA lawsuit and MPAA rating system failures. Plain and simple, this issue should totally be a States Rights issue.
It gives the Federal Government more power to take property and assets from people caught pirating...this is the new war on drugs people...and we all know how well THAT worked....
Honestly, this issue completely undermines the Justice Department, a complaint they themselves are making, it also wastes taxpayer dollars, and protects companies and an industry that have failed to serve their publics in a quality and effective manner for years...think RIAA lawsuit and MPAA rating system failures. Plain and simple, this issue should totally be a States Rights issue.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Album Review: Heavy Heavy Low Low: Turtle Nipple vs. The Toxic Shock
That's right, I said it: Turtle Nipple vs. The Toxic Shock...weird title, however this is the first new hardcore album that I have paid any attention to in over a year....I'm not saying I stopped listening to hardcore, and it is quite possible that I did actually miss out on some good cd's but this is the first new hardcore album in a long long time that I deem good enough for me to obsess over.
This album did something that I have been waiting for a long time for a band to get right. They perfectly blended the old with the new. This album is still brutal and hard, great metalcore riffs and some killer breakdowns, but at the heart of this album, you have a flashback to real, '80s hardcore....think Black Flag meets Converge...it's pretty much awesome!
Go check it out!
This album did something that I have been waiting for a long time for a band to get right. They perfectly blended the old with the new. This album is still brutal and hard, great metalcore riffs and some killer breakdowns, but at the heart of this album, you have a flashback to real, '80s hardcore....think Black Flag meets Converge...it's pretty much awesome!
Go check it out!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Back in the summer of...'59?
I definitely recommend you check out The Gaslight Anthem and their new album "The '59 Sound". Basically, think Bruce Springsteen if he had listened to the Clash and the Ramones. It may sound odd at first, but this album is a big leap for this band. A solid sophmore release in which they really came into their own, finding a sound that fits their skill and style, and a solid representation of their influences growing up in Jersey.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Turncoat, Killer, Liar, Thief!
This is HILARIOUS! You gotta love it when an entire political party makes asses and hypocrites of themselves...
Thursday, September 18, 2008
In response to the current situation:An essay
This is a great set of questions posed to me by one of my dear friends...I thought that my blog would be a great place to rebutt these arguments and share my views on the current situations.
"So, how does a champion of the libertarian philosophy of deregulation and a free market feel these days?
With deregulation and gloves-off, risk-taking capitalism being the primary cause of the crisis in the financial markets, do you still support more deregulation? I mean there has to be something fundamentally wrong with a system that gives freedom for CEOs to take risks (the bigger the better) but are not punished when these risks fail (and don't tell me they should be allowed to fail because the big losers there would be the people). The people didn't see any of the pay-offs from the risk takers when they were raking it in big, but now that they failed, the government and the taxes payers will have to bail them out. The Republicans are the socialists!"
First off, you're right: the Republicans ARE the socialists...however I am NOT a Republican, I agree whole heartedly that this is in a large part their fault...however at that point you seem to concede the same idea that I will further flush out...it seems like you are admitting that this is actually a government caused problem...not a capitalist problem.
The problem really goes all the way back to the fact that our government, since FDR and probably before, has provided capitalism with risk free or loss free capitalism. We have a government that is using it's own private entity (the FED) to transition money and cover mistakes. I definitely believe that people (both corporations and individuals) should not only be allowed to, but sometimes NEED to make mistakes, and more importantly they need to feel the effects of these mistakes. You told me not to, but i'm gonna say it anyways, THEY SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO FAIL. For many years now they have not been allowed to fail...it may take a second to realize this, but the FED is basically a private entity, now we have power and responsibility simply shifting from one private entity (the corporate sector) to another (the FED).
My main point is that we still really have not seen deregulation and free market to know if it would work....the Government has not let that happen....
Now let's get to the real world details, for it is here that my argument really heats up.
Let's take a look at Fannie/Freddie. Contrary to what the media is spinning on this topic, Fan/Fred are actually both Government Sponsored Enterprises or GSP's...what this means is that they are faux-private corporations sponsored by the government. In this case, congress created and watched over both corp's. The reason there are two would be because congress thought that they would want two in case one went under...hahaha.
Basically the two orgs acted as government middle men...they were the brokers between the public and the government for a majority (50-70%) of mortgages. This gave them a huge advantage and would ultimately be the deciding factor as to why they went under. Being backed by the Gov. gave the false appearance that they were solid and could not fail...obviously not true, but people definitely felt safe regardless. Being backed by the government gave these two a huge advantage in the market as well. They were being percieved as lower risk companies which allowed them to lower their interest rates. This created what economists call and "Iron Triangle" basically Regulators (the congressional members on a committe in charge of overseeing Freddie and Fannie), the Regulated (Freddie and Fannie) and the Federal Government are the three components that make up the Iron Triangle. What occured was that you had Freddie and Fannie making campaign contributions to the Regulators who had sway with the Government, they then allowed to Freddie and Fannie to continue to run out of control with limited oversight by those who were supposed to be doing just that...overseeing them. To add insult to injury, you had the Managers and CEO's of Freddie and Fannie making HUGE gains and basically stealing money in the aftermath. In my opinion they should pay every dime back to the taxpayers.
In a Free Market we would have not had this problem. In fact, the current situation is so far from a Capitalist market that it hardly even comes in to play. In a capitalist market we would have had an increased number of smaller competitors vying for individuals investments/business. The risks of actually being in a true free market would have forced these companies and their investors to make wiser decisions about their business and investment practices.
In short, I'm sitting back right now, saying I told you so...basically this is not at all a failure of capitalism or the free market because those ideas were never even given an opportunity to prove themselves. What we have right now is in fact a HUGE failure of Big Government controlling economics and capitalism. This is closer to a failure of socialism and government than it is of Libertarian/Free market views.
"So, how does a champion of the libertarian philosophy of deregulation and a free market feel these days?
With deregulation and gloves-off, risk-taking capitalism being the primary cause of the crisis in the financial markets, do you still support more deregulation? I mean there has to be something fundamentally wrong with a system that gives freedom for CEOs to take risks (the bigger the better) but are not punished when these risks fail (and don't tell me they should be allowed to fail because the big losers there would be the people). The people didn't see any of the pay-offs from the risk takers when they were raking it in big, but now that they failed, the government and the taxes payers will have to bail them out. The Republicans are the socialists!"
First off, you're right: the Republicans ARE the socialists...however I am NOT a Republican, I agree whole heartedly that this is in a large part their fault...however at that point you seem to concede the same idea that I will further flush out...it seems like you are admitting that this is actually a government caused problem...not a capitalist problem.
The problem really goes all the way back to the fact that our government, since FDR and probably before, has provided capitalism with risk free or loss free capitalism. We have a government that is using it's own private entity (the FED) to transition money and cover mistakes. I definitely believe that people (both corporations and individuals) should not only be allowed to, but sometimes NEED to make mistakes, and more importantly they need to feel the effects of these mistakes. You told me not to, but i'm gonna say it anyways, THEY SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO FAIL. For many years now they have not been allowed to fail...it may take a second to realize this, but the FED is basically a private entity, now we have power and responsibility simply shifting from one private entity (the corporate sector) to another (the FED).
My main point is that we still really have not seen deregulation and free market to know if it would work....the Government has not let that happen....
Now let's get to the real world details, for it is here that my argument really heats up.
Let's take a look at Fannie/Freddie. Contrary to what the media is spinning on this topic, Fan/Fred are actually both Government Sponsored Enterprises or GSP's...what this means is that they are faux-private corporations sponsored by the government. In this case, congress created and watched over both corp's. The reason there are two would be because congress thought that they would want two in case one went under...hahaha.
Basically the two orgs acted as government middle men...they were the brokers between the public and the government for a majority (50-70%) of mortgages. This gave them a huge advantage and would ultimately be the deciding factor as to why they went under. Being backed by the Gov. gave the false appearance that they were solid and could not fail...obviously not true, but people definitely felt safe regardless. Being backed by the government gave these two a huge advantage in the market as well. They were being percieved as lower risk companies which allowed them to lower their interest rates. This created what economists call and "Iron Triangle" basically Regulators (the congressional members on a committe in charge of overseeing Freddie and Fannie), the Regulated (Freddie and Fannie) and the Federal Government are the three components that make up the Iron Triangle. What occured was that you had Freddie and Fannie making campaign contributions to the Regulators who had sway with the Government, they then allowed to Freddie and Fannie to continue to run out of control with limited oversight by those who were supposed to be doing just that...overseeing them. To add insult to injury, you had the Managers and CEO's of Freddie and Fannie making HUGE gains and basically stealing money in the aftermath. In my opinion they should pay every dime back to the taxpayers.
In a Free Market we would have not had this problem. In fact, the current situation is so far from a Capitalist market that it hardly even comes in to play. In a capitalist market we would have had an increased number of smaller competitors vying for individuals investments/business. The risks of actually being in a true free market would have forced these companies and their investors to make wiser decisions about their business and investment practices.
In short, I'm sitting back right now, saying I told you so...basically this is not at all a failure of capitalism or the free market because those ideas were never even given an opportunity to prove themselves. What we have right now is in fact a HUGE failure of Big Government controlling economics and capitalism. This is closer to a failure of socialism and government than it is of Libertarian/Free market views.
Monday, September 15, 2008
There's No Stoppin' the Cretins from Hoppin'
Found this article while surfin' the web...makes me sad...kinda seems like Obama is more of a "Politician" than we had once hoped. It really bugs me that we have politicians arguing over this. The simple truth is that this war is unconstitutional, and not acceptable for us to be in. We need out, and it should not matter who it is that does it...whether it's our new pres, or the same old politics, we need out plain and simple.
The simple fact is that we are acting as a police state in the middle of a civil war, the surge worked...but only for a brief time, that's why it was called a surge....short bursts of energy (soldiers), but now we are back to the same situation, holding hands in a middle east civil war. Our ideals and cultures obviously clash and it should no longer be our focus to baby sit people that want to continue a conflict and self destruct.
On a lighter note, I definitely recommend you check out The Gaslight Anthem and their new album "The '59 Sound". Basically, think Bruce Springsteen if he had listened to the Clash and the Ramones. It may sound odd at first, but this album is a big leap for this band. A solid sophmore release in which they really came into their own, finding a sound that fits their skill and style, and a solid representation of their influences growing up in Jersey.
The simple fact is that we are acting as a police state in the middle of a civil war, the surge worked...but only for a brief time, that's why it was called a surge....short bursts of energy (soldiers), but now we are back to the same situation, holding hands in a middle east civil war. Our ideals and cultures obviously clash and it should no longer be our focus to baby sit people that want to continue a conflict and self destruct.
On a lighter note, I definitely recommend you check out The Gaslight Anthem and their new album "The '59 Sound". Basically, think Bruce Springsteen if he had listened to the Clash and the Ramones. It may sound odd at first, but this album is a big leap for this band. A solid sophmore release in which they really came into their own, finding a sound that fits their skill and style, and a solid representation of their influences growing up in Jersey.
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