So Many Obituaries...

With the death of Billy Mays, who was quite possibly the only person in the world who could out talk the Sham-Wow guy, I was reminded of just how many people have died recently. I mean, just off the top of my head, I can already remember seven quite famous people dying so far this year (except for the dates, which I had to Google):

• Billy Mays - TV Infomercial Guy (June 28, 2009)
• Michael Jackson - The King of Pop (June 25, 2009)
• Farrah Fawcett - Actress (June 25, 2009)
• Ed McMahon - TV Announcer (June 23, 2009)
• David Carradine - Actor (June 3, 2009)
• Irving Levine - Newscaster (March 26, 2009)
• Helen Suzman - Apartheid Activist (January 1, 2009)

It really is quite sad...But it has led me to another realization, that was sort of compounded by a quote I saw outside of a gas station the other day:

No one cares who is pulling the cart until the horse dies

So bring in your car for a checkup now, for the low, low price of...etc. But the latter bit isn't really important. My point is this: people care more about others once they are dead. To illustrate my point: Michael Jackson was ostracized for much of his later life, all because he was said to have been a child molester. And though he was declared not guilty, that trial haunted him for the rest of his life. Though the quote above does not apply directly to Jackson, the integral point remains. People no longer cared about him until he died. Now that he has died, Michael Jackson jokes aren't "OK" anymore, people are listening to his music again, and people feel sorry for him, including many people who were involved in ostracizing him previously.

This is not to say that I don't think people should feel sorry for what happened to him. I just think that should have come out a little earlier. Michael Jackson might be an extreme example of this, but it seems to be an integral part of the human condition that we don't miss anything until it is gone.

~Setsanto

Your Daily WTF Moments

I swear I'm basically going to become a link-to-news-watchdog's blog, but anyway, here are your daily WTF moments. And yes, that is the most scientific way I can think of describing them, thanks for asking.

1. Fox News is accusing ABC of having unprecedented access to the White House and Obama in its report on Health Care reform, even though they got to do exactly the same thing with Bush when he was in power but a few years ago.
2. North Korea are planning on firing a missile at Hawaii to celebrate July 4th. "Oh, that's the day independence day is on? We just thought it was the 15th anniversary of Glorious Leader Kim-Il-Sung's death..." There really isn't much more I can say on this one.
3. Lastly, PETA is annoyed at Obama since he swatted a fly. And if you want to see some real newscasters on it, Stephen Colbert covered it here (it starts at around 3:15).

~Setsanto

To continue on a previous vein...

(aka WTF America. Seriously, WTF)

Some of you may know that the Iranian national elections occurred on Friday, June 12th. Ahmadinejad, the complete nut job that has been in charge since 2005, was "reelected" for another 4-year term. His victory was so obviously fake that his own Electoral Commission has declared the result to be a sham. So what happened? The head of the Electoral Commission "resigned" today.

Now I don't know about you, but this all seems slightly newsworthy to me. Just slightly. I mean, a guy that has denied the Holocaust, has called for the dissolution of Israel and the murder of all people in it, and has vowed to develop a nuclear bomb has just been reelected. In addition, it seems he did this through very very very shady means. The protests on the street of Iran have been huge, which is rare from a country that usually just likes to accept decisions, which is what they did the last time Ahmadinejad was elected.

So what has CNN, along with the rest of the American news stations, had to say about this? Well, up until today (Sunday, June 14th), nothing. Apparently CNN has done a 5 minute spot on it today, but other than that, zilch from everybody. I mean, come on. That's just ridiculous. I understand the whole "We only air stories that people will want to watch" argument (well, actually I don't, but I understand that it is necessary), but is there really anyone who doesn't want to know that he has been reelected?

Lastly, the Republicans have done it again. I kid you not, they are blaming Obama for this. How? Well, according to Mitt Romney, if Obama hadn't gone around apologizing to the Middle Eastern nations that America had screwed over, this would never have happened. Yes, threatening Ahmadinejad would have made everything so much better...

So anyway, get BBC if you're at all interested in actually hearing some news.

~Setsanto

I Love Right-Wing Extremists!

This might be quite shocking, but I realized today, while watching an amazing piece of the Daily Show, that I honestly love right-wing extremism. For the simple reason that it is just about the funniest thing ever.

Honestly, Barack Obama made a brilliant speech in a country which, by and large, really doesn't like America. So what does Fox News do? They attack him for it. I mean, how dare he say things like the fact that Muslim nations have given us basically our entire foundation in Mathematics and Science? I invite anyone to watch his speech and tell me that it anything but an eloquent, thought-provoking and ultimately extremely respectful plea for dialogue between the Muslim nations of the world and their Western counterparts.

Sadly, this isn't even the worst of the Fox News attacks. For example, we have this. Barack Obama was in Turkey, in the first step in his Middle Eastern peace tour. In case you've been burned out of videos after the previous 55 minute marathon, here are some excerpts:

President Obama:

If you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we'd be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.

Sean Hannity:

He honors the national day of prayer behind closed doors. Now, on his Middle East apology tour, the President calls the U.S. a "Muslim nation."

President Obama:

We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation, or a Jewish nation, or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens, who are bound by ideals.

Sean Hannity:

The same president who insists the U.S. is not a Christian nation is now calling us a Muslim nation.

Isn't Sean Hannity so sweetly naïve and just simply wrong? I mean, he would be if it wasn't so scary that Fox News actually gives face time to such a hack.

The saddest thing of all though is the fact that Fox News is only slightly worse than the rest of the big American (and Canadian) news stations. While Fox News's extremist stance makes it worse than all the others, its reporting is only as bad as everybody else. It takes someone like Jon Stewart (and Keith Olbermann of MSNBC to some extent) to really force the issue of the misreporting of facts and clouding of issues that is occurring worldwide. And as much as I like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, it really is sad when comedians bring higher quality news to the table than the reporters themselves.

~Setsanto

UPDATE: Let's not forget Newt Gingrich

The Death of an Ego

I play house league level soccer. I'm nothing special, but I consider myself to be in the better half of goalies at this age/level. Last week, which happened to be my first game back since last season, we won 5-3 after being down 3-1 at one point, which was a great result. This week, not so much.

To be fair, the team we were playing against was quite good; however, the score was unacceptable. 10-2 (to them obviously). I do realize that I deserve at least partial blame for this, but we would have lost big even if Iker Casillas was in goal. (He's the goalie for Spain, sheesh). Luckily, I did learn a number of key things about my team in the process:

a) My defense thinks a striker winding up to take a shot is their cue to part like the sea to Moses.
b) My midfielders do not understand the concept of defending
c) My strikers cannot finish any chance they get. ever.
d) I'm really really rusty.

To sum up a very painful game in a few short words, I played awfully, which made me one of the better people on my team today.

~Setsanto