If you missed it earlier today,Fox News actually did something that it had never blatantly done before. They actually produced and aired a straight up attack ad against president Obama. Normally the somewhat right leaning network would have on a bunch of talking heads,Karl Rove and random white guys to point out how much Obama sucks and that he wasn't born in America. Today,they dropped the veil of being a news channel and turned themselves into a youtube channel run by some random hick who hates(insert group here) despite never meeting (insert group here). Click on the video below and be amazed.
It's still midnight somewhere and you still need to be distracted. With this said,there were some pretty big storms over Oklahoma on Tuesday. Check out the sexy,sexy weather pattern.
Many of you may know Thad McCotter as a congressman that represents the suburbs of Detroit in a solidly republican district. A lot of you may know him as a failed presidential candidate. Some of you may know him as an excellent guitar player. A few of you may even know him for being the guy to point out that banks lose money on a good chunk of the foreclosures that they do. What you may not know however is that he's running for reelection this year but will be doing it as a write in candidate. Why do it as a write in candidate when you're the republican representative of a congressional district that has elected the same republican representative since 2002? He's doing this because in his attempt to gather up the minimum 1000 signatures needed to run,there may have been small hints of fraud to the tune of over 1000 signatures. Honestly he should have had enough signatures to not even have this problem considering the sheer size of Livonia. Now what should have been a cakewalk for McCotter will now turn into a battle between an obscure tea party republican,an even more obscure democrat and an even more obscure guy who follows Lyndon Larouche. Or as this article points out,a slightly more well known local democrat could enter the race and actually make it interesting. To read more about McCotter and his possible fraud,click the picture below.
Baseball season is in full swing and despite my Tigers currently underachieving by a lot,the game is still fun. Did you know that a lot of college baseball teams are currently in the playoffs? Indeed they are and the action is great. Check out this amazing game-saving/game winning catch by Derrick Salberg of Lower Columbia College. Watch as he robs a guy of a 2 run homer that would have tied the game.
One thing that has always bugged me is the fact that so many people believe in conspiracy theories. These theories run the gamut from things like the teletubbies secretly being gay to Obama faking his birth in Hawaii to Jay Z and Elton John being members of the Illuminati who are here to brainwash us with hypnotic pop and hip hop melodies. Basically what I'm saying is that most of these theories are dumb. They're dumb because the people who believe them spend all day looking at things that aren't there and totally miss the ridiculousness that is out there for everyone to see on a daily basis. Luckily Jay Smooth has decided to do a video that touches on the new,hot conspiracy and in the process articulated my thoughts on conspiracy slightly better and funnier than I could do in this blog posting. Enjoy the video.
It's been about a month since the world has heard from or cared about Newt Gingrich and cable news stations are probably happy about that. Newt gave up his bid to become president in April and has kept a relatively low profile since. Of course now we know that the low profile may be because Newt owes a few people a lot of money. Among the people that he owes are former republican rival and pizza maven Herman Cain and quite possibly my favorite website,Twitter. Want to know who else he owes money to? Click this entire sentence to find out.
It's almost summer time which means that yes,it's getting very warm outside. I for one can't wait for summer to get here because it means that I get to wear basketball shorts everyday and not look even a little bit out of place. Also,I tend to shed away weight like crazy during the summer which means that I'll be looking like a male model by the time my grandma's birthday gets here in July. One of the best things about summer however,isn't my slightly improved body,it's those lazy days where you just lay around and do nothing. In the video below you get to see one of those lazy summer days as a few dudes sit around the pool and do nothing. As you've come to expect from this site,things will go wrong quickly. Click and enjoy the insanity.
I think I'm almost at my breaking point when it comes to idiots in this country. It took about 25 years but I'm there now. I was never one of those people that believed that as soon as we got a black president that racism would magically end. In fact I always figured it would get worse and I've reached the conclusion that I was unfortunately right. The election and then presidential reign of Barack Obama has given a lot of people the courage to be more open about their racism and bigotry. What shocks me however is the creative and insane ways that people are showing their true colors. We're getting everything from an increase in racial and religious profiling in New York City to people coming up with more and more ways to try to justify why it's perfectly fine to shoot an unarmed black teenager in his own neighborhood. Of course occasionally black kids will get shot by the cops and it barely makes the local news.When we live in a country where people will find ways to justify why unarmed children should be shot down in the streets,we have serious problems.
Of course there are other instances of ridiculousness that have made me a little upset. Let's not forget the whole questioning of the president's religion in a country that's purposely secular. Why should anyone care about what religion the president practices when this country has made a big deal about the fact that we're free to believe whatever we want to believe spiritually? The answer to that is because this president happens to be different from the other ones. How else could you end up with conspiracies of him being a radical Muslim that pals around with terrorists and a follower of black liberation theology which happens to only be found inside of Christianity? Also,the fact that he could possibly be a Muslim(he isn't) is being used as some sort of a bad thing is an explosion of bigotry and racism. Why is equating the president being Muslim to him being a horrible person and possibly a terrorist an explosion of racist bigotry? Well,I'd ask anyone who happens to read this to close their eyes and see what image pops up first when they think of a Muslim. I bet that image wont be a guy that looks like Dirk Nowitzki. The image you're seeing is probably Osama Bin Laden or if you have a less Steve King-like view the image you're seeing is probably a random middle easterner or Dawud Walid. And then there's the never ending issue of where the president was born. People refuse to believe that this president was born in America despite his birth certificate being publicly available for years and even a newspaper article that tells of his birth in Hawaii the same week that he was born. Even today we still have people who believe that he was born in Kenya despite this overwhelming,50 year old evidence that makes them look like complete idiots. Even more shocking is that I know that most people don't know where John McCain,the man that Obama beat to become president was even born at. I don't even think they care. Oh and if you did want to know,John McCain was born in Panama. Between this bullshit,the new plan to make the president look like a black militant,the Trayvon Martin case and my own life,I've kinda had it with the dumber class of people in this country. I pray that one day we as a country can stop being so stupid and focus on the things that really matter such as making sure everyone in this country is healthy and educated. It probably wont happen for a long time but until then we can still pretend that all men are created equal while continuing to treat everyone unequally. Of course this whole thing was a waste of time because I'm sure someone is gonna tell me that it isn't really racist until the word nigger gets thrown around a few times.
I completely forgot to post this earlier but this is actually big news. If you were online earlier you may have read about Jay Z putting together a large music festival scheduled to take place later this year in Philadelphia. So far they haven't announced the entire lineup of acts that will be joining Jay at the festival but it is sure to be a huge deal by the time it gets here. What we do know is that Jay has invited the president to show up at the "Made in America" festival. Also,we know that Jay Z stands behind the president on his decision to endorse gay marriage. In fact he had a lot to say about the issue as you'll see in the video below.
“I’ve always thought it as something that was still holding the country back. What people do in their own homes is their business and you can choose to love whoever you love. That’s their business. It's no different than discriminating against blacks. It’s discrimination plain and simple...I think it's the right thing to do, so whether it costs him votes or not - again, it's not about votes. It's about people. It's the right thing to do as a human being.” - Jay Z
If you've been online,in front of a TV,near a radio or just near people today you may have heard the big news.....Joe Biden is gonna be on Jeopardy. The other huge news you may have heard about is the fact that President Obama came out in favor of same sex marriage. The move has been met with mixed reaction with many people celebrating the fact that he wants all Americans to be equal and many others saying that he's straying away from what God wants for us as a country. One person that has been quick to criticize the president is his opponent Mitt Romney. Mitt has said that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. Of course Mitt wasn't always so against gay marriage. Check out this old newspaper from back when he was Senate candidate Romney.
There is pretty much nothing this week that'll top whats going on in these videos. If you somehow missed it today,the president came out in support of gay marriage. This is a huge stand to take for a man who's a devout Christian,the current president and currently running to be reelected as president. This may cost him a few votes with people more religious than I am but this will probably win him a lot of votes with people who believe that everyone should have the same inalienable rights as Americans regardless of their sexuality. I commend the president on letting his view on this evolve to the point that he's now on the right side of history. Click on the videos to see him come out in support of gay marriage. Click on the pic to see that there are already tumblr pages celebrating the president's announcement.
If you've been watching "Jeopardy" this week,you already know that the teen tournament is going on. During this tournament we get to see America's best and brightest nerds battle it out for money that'll amount to a free ride all the way through college plus enough to buy a new car. If you're watching "Jeopardy" today,or tonight if you're somewhere like Detroit where they show it at 7:30pm,you'll see someone rather special on there. That's right,you'll see gay marriage supporter,foul language user and United States Vice President Joe Biden on the show presenting a category. Click on the picture of a very young Alex Trebek to find out a little more about what's going on.
It's been a while since I've featured my favorite congresswoman/reason for the site's name on this site but today is as good a day as any to do it. Today the world got to learn that the Minnesota master of monetary matters,tax lawyer and congresswoman Michele Bachmann is now a Swiss Miss. That's right she's officially claiming dual citizenship here in the United States and in Switzerland. She was able to become a Swiss citizen thanks to her husband being the son of 2 Swiss immigrants. With this new citizenship she now has the legal ability to run for office in Switzerland. This news officially takes Michele Bachmann from being an American embarrassment to being an international incident waiting to happen. Check out the video of her talking about her Swiss citizenship below.
It's election season and as expected we're being bombarded with ads. Up until now most of the ads have been coming from the republican presidential candidates and outside superPACs but this one comes from the guy that everyone is going after,Barack H Obama himself. In his latest ad,which happens to be the biggest ad buy for anyone during this election season,the president tries to convince us as to why we should give him one more chance. The ad takes the time to mention that the wheels fell off of the economy in the summer/fall of 08 and that while he's been in office we've seen 2 years of steady job growth. While the ad does make it look like the president has grown us into a Utopian society,it does mention that times are still tough for way too many people and that scores him a few points with me for at least being honest about how things are in America. Click and enjoy the ad.
If you've been online or listening to pretty much any radio station today you may have heard of the passing of legendary Beastie Boys member,musician,director and human rights activist Adam Yauch,who was better known by his stage name of MCA. The news has been sending shockwaves through the music industry and there has been an outpouring of emotional support from fans everywhere. Artists from every genre have taken to social media to express their condolences today. Everyone from Big Boi of Outkast to Perry Farrell from the legendary alt-rock band Jane's Addiction have expressed their sorrow at Adam Yauch's passing. He was 47 and he leaves behind a wife and daughter. Below is a statement released by the remaining members of the Beastie Boys about the passing of MCA.
Adam Yauch | 1964-2012
It is with great sadness that we confirm that musician, rapper, activist and director Adam “MCA” Yauch, founding member of Beastie Boys and also of the Milarepa Foundation that produced the Tibetan Freedom Concert benefits, and film production and distribution company Oscilloscope Laboratories, passed away in his native New York City this morning after a near-three-year battle with cancer. He was 47 years old.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Yauch taught himself to play bass in high school, forming a band for his 17th birthday party that would later become known the world over as Beastie Boys.
With fellow members Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Adrock” Horovitz, Beastie Boys would go on to sell over 40 million records, release four #1 albums–including the first hip hop album ever to top the Billboard 200, the band’s 1986 debut full length, Licensed To Ill–win three Grammys, and the MTV Video Vanguard Lifetime Achievement award. Last month Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with Diamond and Horovitz reading an acceptance speech on behalf of Yauch, who was unable to attend.
In addition to his hand in creating such historic Beastie Boys albums as Paul’s Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication, Hello Nasty and more, Yauch was a founder of the Milarepa Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting awareness and activism regarding the injustices perpetrated on native Tibetans by Chinese occupational government and military forces. In 1996, Milarepa produced the first Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, which was attended by 100,000 people, making it the biggest benefit concert on U.S. soil since 1985′s Live Aid. The Tibetan Freedom Concert series would continue to stage some of the most significant benefit shows in the world for nearly a decade following in New York City, Washington DC, Tokyo, Sydney, Amsterdam, Taipei and other cities.
In the wake of September 11, 2001, Milarepa organized New Yorkers Against Violence, a benefit headlined by Beastie Boys at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom, with net proceeds disbursed to the New York Women’s Foundation Disaster Relief Fund and the New York Association for New Americans (NYANA) September 11th Fund for New Americans–each chosen for their efforts on behalf of 9/11 victims least likely to receive help from other sources.
Yauch’s passion and talent for filmmaking led to his founding of Oscilloscope Laboratories, which in 2008 released his directorial film debut, the basketball documentary Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot and has since become a major force in independent video distribution, amassing a catalogue of such acclaimed titles as Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy, Oren Moverman’s The Messenger, Banksy’s Exit Through The Gift Shop, Lance Bangs and Spike Jonze’s Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait Of Maurice Sendak, and many more.
Yauch is survived by his wife Dechen and his daughter Tenzin Losel, as well as his parents Frances and Noel Yauch.
I couldn't pick just one song so here's some of my favorites from the Beastie Boys.
It's election season and we're already being bombarded with ads,television coverage,articles,internet memes and conspiracy theories despite the election being six months away. What we're missing however are the facts on the candidates,their positions and how it would effect us. On top of that there's another issue that often gets overlooked during elections. This issue is the fact that in a lot of places it's perfectly legal for people with felonies on their records to go out and vote. Of course in this country we have a habit of not letting anyone know that because if someone has a felony or any sort of record they're probably an awful person. Fortunately there are organizations out there dedicated to making sure that everyone that can vote,knows about it and actually goes out and votes.
One such organization happens to be the Hip Hop Caucus. The Hip Hop Caucus is a non partisan organization dedicated to helping people between the ages of 18-40 get active in elections and in the community at large. Some of those people that they do help become active in elections and communities at large are felons. Through their "Respect My Vote" program they've been extremely active in trying to get proper information out and get everyone that can vote,registered to vote. In an attempt to help get the word out they've decided to use Atlanta rapper 2chainz as a spokesman. Their reason for using him comes down to the fact that he's basically the type of person that they're aiming at. As a man who has made a few bad decisions in his life that resulted in a felony,he has found a way to turn his life around and do something that could potentially help people. To learn more about The Hip Hop Caucus,click this sentence.
Off topic but I hope that they have their national conference in Detroit.
During the last couple of weeks I have actually been able to lose a few pounds. This is partly due to me drinking a lot more water and cutting back on sugar. Partly due to me making it a priority to not be as lazy as normal and partly due to me being broke. With that said I can't resist the carbs of a good piece of bread. Give me two slices of bread and some cheese and I'm a very happy man. Looking at this bread below is making me hungry. Enjoy.
