So...I like many others, have been witching things unfold (read:unravel)today, and reading alot about how this person or that person should stop being so damn partisan..."This is not the time for partisan politics" seems to be the cry of partisan politicians everytime they support something that they think it is somehow inconcievable that not everyone would support. We seem to have picked up in the argument as well.
This is not going to be a real popular opinion, but i think it is exactly the time for partisan politics. I am very sorry if Wall St. is panicking, but if Congress does not get this right, things are going to get a lot worse than the Dow being down 800 points. The stock market is by nature volatile and reactionary as evidenced by the 700 point drop and subsequent recovery this morning before the House ever voted.
The last time the White House asked Congress to just close their eyes and sign something without reading and arguing it, they gave the President the right to spy on Americans as well as the right to suspend habeus corpus for an American citizen for the mere suspicion that they may have had coffee with someone whose uncle is an extremist. Parts of the Patriot Act are good and necessary, but that does not excuse the "rubber stamp" mentality that Congress has allowed themselves to be reduced to so often. Just as it is inexcusable for our government to simply turn over $7000,000,000,000 without having a bit of a fight about it. If they can get it together and do something in the next week or so, it is going to be hard for investors, but if they screw this up further, it is going to get a lot harder for me, my son, my parents, my sister...etc. So Wall St. can just get to the back of the line for once.
...and not for nothing, but when i see people in these forums hurling insults back and forth based on political stance, while we all demand that Congress be less partisan, it is kinda difficult to take seriously.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
I resign
Ok, so I am officially considering possibly resigning my commission as a user of the internets...at some point.
Heres the thing. I LOVE debate. I like to talk to smart people who disagree with me. It is just a little part of me that I happen to enjoy, and while it may annoy some people, I think most can roll with it and either feed it or just ignore it.
Has anyone else noticed that it is nearly impossible to do this on the internet?
Stay with me here for a minute. When you are in your car, and someone pulls one of those moves in traffic that everyone loves so much...Like the "speed up so you can't merge maneuver" (my personal favorite)...Carefully monitor your reaction.
My point is is that if you were walking down the street, and someone walks out in front of you and slows down, it is not likely that you will speed up, and as you walk by them flip them off and yell "ASSHOLE!" Put someone in a car however, where they have a feeling of isolation and protection, and they may say something that they would not say face to face.
Now, the Internet.
You can not go to any website that has an un-regulated section for leaving comments, that is not subject to rampant and repeated "flaming" of individuals whose sole crime was expressing an opinion.
Experiment time. I am going go find a website with comments, and return with an example of this. You have my word that I will be honest about how long this takes...brb.
..........
Ok, well it turns out that that stuff is not as easy to cut and paste as I thought. also the amount of time I would need to spend on redacting garbage that I do not want on this site...whew, anyway. Just please remember it is ok to disagree with someone without dehumanizing them. Take care
Heres the thing. I LOVE debate. I like to talk to smart people who disagree with me. It is just a little part of me that I happen to enjoy, and while it may annoy some people, I think most can roll with it and either feed it or just ignore it.
Has anyone else noticed that it is nearly impossible to do this on the internet?
Stay with me here for a minute. When you are in your car, and someone pulls one of those moves in traffic that everyone loves so much...Like the "speed up so you can't merge maneuver" (my personal favorite)...Carefully monitor your reaction.
My point is is that if you were walking down the street, and someone walks out in front of you and slows down, it is not likely that you will speed up, and as you walk by them flip them off and yell "ASSHOLE!" Put someone in a car however, where they have a feeling of isolation and protection, and they may say something that they would not say face to face.
Now, the Internet.
You can not go to any website that has an un-regulated section for leaving comments, that is not subject to rampant and repeated "flaming" of individuals whose sole crime was expressing an opinion.
Experiment time. I am going go find a website with comments, and return with an example of this. You have my word that I will be honest about how long this takes...brb.
..........
Ok, well it turns out that that stuff is not as easy to cut and paste as I thought. also the amount of time I would need to spend on redacting garbage that I do not want on this site...whew, anyway. Just please remember it is ok to disagree with someone without dehumanizing them. Take care
Friday, April 11, 2008
Springtime on the Trail
Ah...It is April in America. The sun is shining (sorry Missouri), the birds are chirping, Dick Cheney has seen his shadow and has emerged from his Apocolypse Cave to feed on our darkest secrets....and everyone already hates all of the people that may at one point be President.
Dennis Miller said one time that (and I am paraphrasing here..unless I nail this quote, then I am quoting him directly...here it goes) "you used to vote for the guy you liked the the most, then people started voting against the guy you disliked, now people just vote for the guy that they disliked the least".
I think it is important that we know alot about the next person that is going to lead our country. But I also think that needs to be tempered with a little bit of common sense. I do not think that we should Any of these people accountable for every vote that they have ever made in the Senate, it is just too impractical. As poor run a campaign as John Kerry had four years ago, I think he got kind of shafted by the whole voting for this, or against that thing.
For example, right now there are 26 bills in Congress relating to defense appropriations. One of the things that people attacked Kerry on was the fact that in his 20 years in the senate he had voted against 150 different defense appropriations bills. Well if we had only 26 defense bills every year, and keep in mind it is only April, then Senator Kerry would have had the opportunity to vote on 520 defense related bills, which means a "yes" vote on 370 of them.
MY point is, these people need to be scrutinized, but maybe if we focused a bit more on what kind of leader they will be, instead of a "perfect" voting record, we would not need to have a year and a half long election, and our government could govern instead of run for office.
I propose a lengthy questionnaire for presidential candidates, with questions like "who would win in a fight, Pacino or DeNiro?" or "What is the first thing you think of when you here the word 'Putin'?" we would find out alot more about these people...
I am accepting questions now.
Dennis Miller said one time that (and I am paraphrasing here..unless I nail this quote, then I am quoting him directly...here it goes) "you used to vote for the guy you liked the the most, then people started voting against the guy you disliked, now people just vote for the guy that they disliked the least".
I think it is important that we know alot about the next person that is going to lead our country. But I also think that needs to be tempered with a little bit of common sense. I do not think that we should Any of these people accountable for every vote that they have ever made in the Senate, it is just too impractical. As poor run a campaign as John Kerry had four years ago, I think he got kind of shafted by the whole voting for this, or against that thing.
For example, right now there are 26 bills in Congress relating to defense appropriations. One of the things that people attacked Kerry on was the fact that in his 20 years in the senate he had voted against 150 different defense appropriations bills. Well if we had only 26 defense bills every year, and keep in mind it is only April, then Senator Kerry would have had the opportunity to vote on 520 defense related bills, which means a "yes" vote on 370 of them.
MY point is, these people need to be scrutinized, but maybe if we focused a bit more on what kind of leader they will be, instead of a "perfect" voting record, we would not need to have a year and a half long election, and our government could govern instead of run for office.
I propose a lengthy questionnaire for presidential candidates, with questions like "who would win in a fight, Pacino or DeNiro?" or "What is the first thing you think of when you here the word 'Putin'?" we would find out alot more about these people...
I am accepting questions now.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Too Much
So I figured out why the Arch-Groovus report ground to a halt before...It was the tremendous weight of me trying to be clever. What I would like to do this go around is allow anyone to post on it and me simply moderate...So if i can figure out how to do that....jump on board, More soon!
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Monday, May 22, 2006
Hard Hitting Coverage of News That Matters.
Iraq has a government now...
..And now the real news:
Apparently the Egyptians have enough sand to keep their heads comfortably covered for some time.
Despite living in a pretty rough neighborhood (when the term Egypt + bomb is Googled, you get 9,010,000 hits), Egypt has decided that the best way to keep tourism on track is to raise an ancient Roman city out of the ocean.
Part of the reason, my suspicion is, is that Lionel Ritchie is so big in the Middle East. Lionel Ritchie, a known "Roma-Phile", when asked why the Egyptians were doing this responded: "The answer is, I'm huge, huge in the Arab world. The answer as to why is, I don't have the slightest idea."
Obviously Lionel Ritchie is of the mind that the Egyptians are just trying to impress him.
Iranian spokeman Gholam-Hossein Elham, responded to the Egyptian plan by saying "Iran believes that access to peaceful nuclear technology is an indisputable and irreversible right of the nation.". Although no one is really sure what that meant, it would seem that the recent AP report about menstruation becoming optional really has the Iranians worried. Iran, whose official position has always been that a mentrual period should be a requirement for women as well as a dress code that makes Angela Lansbury look like Britney Spears at the VMA's,
is one of dismay. The chief of police of Tehran has indicated that he would add "An unwillingness to do their womanly duty" to a list of offenses he would arrest women for. A list that already includes wearing "flimsy headscarves, shortened trousers and coats that revealed the shape of the body".
Madonna, whose well known penchant for changing her ethnicity and culture, was obviously so distraught over Chief Abu-Wiggam's declaration as well as the Arab world so loving Lionel, that she immediately had herself crucified.
Crucifixion, of course was a popular form of execution in the Roman world, thus bringing us full circle.
The Romans man, the Romans.
The Arch-Groovus Report: We think for you...You're welcome.
..And now the real news:
Apparently the Egyptians have enough sand to keep their heads comfortably covered for some time.
Despite living in a pretty rough neighborhood (when the term Egypt + bomb is Googled, you get 9,010,000 hits), Egypt has decided that the best way to keep tourism on track is to raise an ancient Roman city out of the ocean.
Part of the reason, my suspicion is, is that Lionel Ritchie is so big in the Middle East. Lionel Ritchie, a known "Roma-Phile", when asked why the Egyptians were doing this responded: "The answer is, I'm huge, huge in the Arab world. The answer as to why is, I don't have the slightest idea."
Obviously Lionel Ritchie is of the mind that the Egyptians are just trying to impress him.
Iranian spokeman Gholam-Hossein Elham, responded to the Egyptian plan by saying "Iran believes that access to peaceful nuclear technology is an indisputable and irreversible right of the nation.". Although no one is really sure what that meant, it would seem that the recent AP report about menstruation becoming optional really has the Iranians worried. Iran, whose official position has always been that a mentrual period should be a requirement for women as well as a dress code that makes Angela Lansbury look like Britney Spears at the VMA's,
is one of dismay. The chief of police of Tehran has indicated that he would add "An unwillingness to do their womanly duty" to a list of offenses he would arrest women for. A list that already includes wearing "flimsy headscarves, shortened trousers and coats that revealed the shape of the body".
Madonna, whose well known penchant for changing her ethnicity and culture, was obviously so distraught over Chief Abu-Wiggam's declaration as well as the Arab world so loving Lionel, that she immediately had herself crucified.
Crucifixion, of course was a popular form of execution in the Roman world, thus bringing us full circle.
The Romans man, the Romans.
The Arch-Groovus Report: We think for you...You're welcome.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
The Oranization PT. III: The Transitional Cycle
The Organization PT. III: The Transitional Cycle
Now, its not that I did not like my Kenpo classes. After a year and a half I had attained an orange belt ( the first level of progression at the time) and was well on my way to purple. After having a new instructor nearly every other week for months 6-12, I now had a pretty cool instructor in a guy called Mr. Priest. Mr. Priest, I am guessing was probably in his mid-twenties, although at 16 everyone over 19 is pretty much just an adult, and there is really not much difference. But anyway, I had had about 5 months worth of lessons with Mr. Priest, and I saw him pound a couple people in sparring class over that span, so I was happy.
Like I said, it was not like I did not like Karate, I simply had other things I would rather do, like ditch school , skip karate and go see girls. Me and a couple friends had concocted a scam one morning to drive across town and spend some quality time hanging with these girls that we had met a couple of weeks ago cruising Speedway (yes cruising Speedway, you did it too so don’t laugh). We had a couple minor obstacles. First off we had school, and parents for that matter, and I had Karate later that evening. School was easy, in those days it was not hard to get over on the attendance process at a public school in Tucson, Arizona. The parents were not that hard either. All we had to tell them was that we were going to go do other stuff after school and we were set. The Karate thing, now this was a little harder needle to thread. If I wanted to stretch out my fun day as far as possible, I would have to find a way out of Karate. For anyone who has never been involved with Martial Arts instructors, let me fill you in on a couple things. First off, like most people, they do not like to get lied to. The difference between them and most normal people was the ever present threat of physical violence, or some other manner of pain like excessive push-ups or bag work. One way or another if you bruised these people's strangely fragile egos by lying to them, they would make you pay.
So there I am, standing in Austin’s living room staring at the phone, and waiting for the clock to turn to 10:30. Karate school opening time in those days. I took a deep breath, brushed up my story and made the call.
“American Kenpo Karate, how may I help you?”
Unfamiliar voice.
“ Uh, yeah this is Vincent Salvatore, I have a lesson tonight….”
I laid it all out for this mystery stranger. The illness, the staying home from school, and the regret at missing class. Oh, the regret!
“Okay, well thanks for the call Vincent.”
It had worked, I was set.
Now the strange thing about this plot, is that to this day, I cant even remember what this girls name was, the one that I was going to go see. I mention this because of the lengths I went to see a girl that I do not even hold in enough of a nostalgic regard to even recall her name. What I do remember is that she lived far.
If you have never been to Tucson, Arizona, it is likely as big area wise, as some major eastern cities with 4 or 5 times the population, and it has virtually no useful system of freeways. In New Jersey, where I was originally from, you could probably drive from Jersey to Delaware, by way of Philadelphia in the time it took me to drive to this girls house, never leaving the Tucson metropolitan area.
The details of the days events are really in no way pertinent to this tale so we will skip them, the long and short of it is that I timed my return home for about 8:30, the time I would normally get home from my lesson if I had stayed for sparring class. To make the illusion complete I changed into my Gi (karate suit to the lay person), sprizted my face with water to appear as though I had been sweating, and concocted a story about how tough class had been and that I wouldn’t be surprised if I had a black eye in the morning. It all went pretty well, until I got home from school the next day.
Now, normally I got home before my parents did, and I can’t remember why this day I did not. But I got home to find my mother waiting for me with the “You F’ed up” look that all women but especially mothers can pull up on command, on her face.
“I got an interesting phone call when I got home today.”
“Oh?”, I answered, knowing that “interesting” probably meant “condemning” or “fatal”.
“Mr. DeMarco from the karate school called, “
“Mr. DeMarco?” I thought…”I don’t even know who that is.”
“He wanted to know when you wanted to reschedule the lesson you missed yesterday when you were sick. I think we need to talk.”
Mr. DeMarco: The stranger on the phone.
Mental note: Add subversive social sabotage to the list of things karate teachers do to you when you lie to them.
I had to find out who this "Mr. DeMarco" was, and why he needed to ruin my life. I would soon find out that it did not matter.
Now, its not that I did not like my Kenpo classes. After a year and a half I had attained an orange belt ( the first level of progression at the time) and was well on my way to purple. After having a new instructor nearly every other week for months 6-12, I now had a pretty cool instructor in a guy called Mr. Priest. Mr. Priest, I am guessing was probably in his mid-twenties, although at 16 everyone over 19 is pretty much just an adult, and there is really not much difference. But anyway, I had had about 5 months worth of lessons with Mr. Priest, and I saw him pound a couple people in sparring class over that span, so I was happy.
Like I said, it was not like I did not like Karate, I simply had other things I would rather do, like ditch school , skip karate and go see girls. Me and a couple friends had concocted a scam one morning to drive across town and spend some quality time hanging with these girls that we had met a couple of weeks ago cruising Speedway (yes cruising Speedway, you did it too so don’t laugh). We had a couple minor obstacles. First off we had school, and parents for that matter, and I had Karate later that evening. School was easy, in those days it was not hard to get over on the attendance process at a public school in Tucson, Arizona. The parents were not that hard either. All we had to tell them was that we were going to go do other stuff after school and we were set. The Karate thing, now this was a little harder needle to thread. If I wanted to stretch out my fun day as far as possible, I would have to find a way out of Karate. For anyone who has never been involved with Martial Arts instructors, let me fill you in on a couple things. First off, like most people, they do not like to get lied to. The difference between them and most normal people was the ever present threat of physical violence, or some other manner of pain like excessive push-ups or bag work. One way or another if you bruised these people's strangely fragile egos by lying to them, they would make you pay.
So there I am, standing in Austin’s living room staring at the phone, and waiting for the clock to turn to 10:30. Karate school opening time in those days. I took a deep breath, brushed up my story and made the call.
“American Kenpo Karate, how may I help you?”
Unfamiliar voice.
“ Uh, yeah this is Vincent Salvatore, I have a lesson tonight….”
I laid it all out for this mystery stranger. The illness, the staying home from school, and the regret at missing class. Oh, the regret!
“Okay, well thanks for the call Vincent.”
It had worked, I was set.
Now the strange thing about this plot, is that to this day, I cant even remember what this girls name was, the one that I was going to go see. I mention this because of the lengths I went to see a girl that I do not even hold in enough of a nostalgic regard to even recall her name. What I do remember is that she lived far.
If you have never been to Tucson, Arizona, it is likely as big area wise, as some major eastern cities with 4 or 5 times the population, and it has virtually no useful system of freeways. In New Jersey, where I was originally from, you could probably drive from Jersey to Delaware, by way of Philadelphia in the time it took me to drive to this girls house, never leaving the Tucson metropolitan area.
The details of the days events are really in no way pertinent to this tale so we will skip them, the long and short of it is that I timed my return home for about 8:30, the time I would normally get home from my lesson if I had stayed for sparring class. To make the illusion complete I changed into my Gi (karate suit to the lay person), sprizted my face with water to appear as though I had been sweating, and concocted a story about how tough class had been and that I wouldn’t be surprised if I had a black eye in the morning. It all went pretty well, until I got home from school the next day.
Now, normally I got home before my parents did, and I can’t remember why this day I did not. But I got home to find my mother waiting for me with the “You F’ed up” look that all women but especially mothers can pull up on command, on her face.
“I got an interesting phone call when I got home today.”
“Oh?”, I answered, knowing that “interesting” probably meant “condemning” or “fatal”.
“Mr. DeMarco from the karate school called, “
“Mr. DeMarco?” I thought…”I don’t even know who that is.”
“He wanted to know when you wanted to reschedule the lesson you missed yesterday when you were sick. I think we need to talk.”
Mr. DeMarco: The stranger on the phone.
Mental note: Add subversive social sabotage to the list of things karate teachers do to you when you lie to them.
I had to find out who this "Mr. DeMarco" was, and why he needed to ruin my life. I would soon find out that it did not matter.
One Whole Month!
Well gentle reader, The Arch Groovus Report is now one month old! I know, I know, it hardly seems possible. What a crazy and wild ride it has been. When I think back to the early days of this publication I cant help but feel a certain nostalgia for the simpler times. Let's look back at where we were when the Arch-Groovus Report began....all those days ago:
Thank you for your support over these trying and taxing 4 weeks, if we stick together we will make it through.
The Arch-Groovus Report...if my pants were news, I'd write 'em.
- Think about it, when we jumped on this crazy ride together gas was only $2.73 a gallon,
- Our National Anthem was sung in English ( except when it was sung in Spanish, but not like now when it is apparently sung in Spanish to rip at the fiber of our national identity, back then it was far more harmless)
- Dutch sloth bears and Barbary macaques lived in peace and harmony
- The leader of Al Quaida in Iraq, had not yet been revealed as a "hypocrytical, bumbling, POSER, that walks around in New Balance sneakers and seemingly can't figure out the operating function of the most simple assault rifle in the entire world".
- The Koreans did not have sexy-robot-love-women ( and I have to tell you, I am a little bit surprised at the lack of response to this story, I for one was incredulous)
- ..and the decision had not yet been made to reveal the inner workings of a shadowy and nefarious organization (No USA Today, my story not yours)
Thank you for your support over these trying and taxing 4 weeks, if we stick together we will make it through.
The Arch-Groovus Report...if my pants were news, I'd write 'em.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Fuzzy, Cute and Carnivorous
I know what you are thinking..."Another Dick Cheney post Vincent? Christ."
Oh if wishing would make it so.
No this is about an actual fuzzy and cute animal story. A dialogue with nature if you will. A story of bears and monkeys doing...well...doing what bears and monkeys do. Click here, animal lover.
You know this reminds me of a story that happened to me. I was at the zoo in Tucson, being a warm summer day the zoo was pretty empty except for the several busloads of summer camp kids that were wandering around bothering docents and wasting oxygen.
A few of them were sharing a rail with me, leaning over the otter enclosure, watchng the two otters frolicking and playing with a bird...some manner of water foul, if memory serves. Or at least we thought they were playing.
As one of the otters got in front of the bird and started playing a happy game of "Hey look at me, i am a cute otter" with it, the other otter skulked away, went into the water, and swam around behind the clueless bird. What happened next was quite possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen at the zoo. Otter #2 slowly rose out of the water like the face-painted Martin Sheen in Apocolypse Now, came up behind the large bird while his buddy distracted it, grabbed the bird by the neck and dragged it underwater. Now the kids thought the whole thing was still playful right up until the other otter took to the water let his buddy come up for air, and took over drowning the bird, which was promptly tore to ribbons by the two otter hit-squad. I swear the whole thing looked like a mob hit.
Reid Park Zoo....good times my man...good times.
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