We'll All Die From Swine Flu When Pigs Fly

Get it? Pigs fly...swine flu! Okay, I shouldn't be joking about this, but it's hard not to with a name like that. Actually, they've stopped using the name, swine flu, and are now using the name, influenza A/H1N1. Still, I think it's a little too late for the pork industry. From what I hear, you can't even catch it from pigs, yet that hasn't stopped countries like Russia and China from banning imports of pork and I just read that Egypt is slaughtering pigs to stop the spread of the virus.

Now I'm not saying we shouldn't take something like this serious, but like any disaster, this can be made lots worse if we panic and I think people are panicked. In 1976, the United States was faced with a swine flu scare. The government's response was to inoculate people and save us all from dying. In the end, it wasn't as bad as they feared and only 1 person died from the actual swine flu here. On the other hand, people got sick from the flu shot the government was giving them and eventually, 25 people died from the vaccination!

The flu is serious and can spread very fast, but other germs are serious too. Last year there were 13,000 cases of tuberculosis in the United States. Now in 2006, there were 644 deaths from this. (SOURCE) I don't remember any news conference for that. People die all the time from the regular flu that comes around every year. Now this is a much more deadly strain since it supposedly is killing healthy people instead of sick ones. It's a concern, but I think we're going about this way too crazy.

There's a bunch of dead people from this in Mexico, and there is one 2-year-old boy from Mexico that died here in the U.S., but pretty much all the people here are recovering rather well on their own. So to me, it seems a bit early to say this is a serious threat here. Maybe the people in Mexico didn't have the proper access to medical treatment and medicines to help them pull through. Maybe they didn't drink enough water and dehydrated.

During any disaster, the news media will usually make things sound much worse than what they are. Fear sells, and the best thing is to not buy into it. It's good to know that there is a dangerous flu virus out there and we should take caution, but unless you've traveled to Mexico lately, or people in your town are getting it, I wouldn't worry too much, yet. This could turn really bad, but if it's not that bad and we panic, we could make a human disaster worse than this natural disaster, like in 1976. That's really the only point I wanted to make.

M.A.G.

If you've haven't heard about M.A.G. (Massive Action Gaming), well, you should have. M.A.G. is a first-person-shooter, being developed for the PS3. Usually that's not that big of a deal because we've all played, or seen FPS games and they're pretty much all the same, except none have had 256 players playing online at the same time, UNTIL NOW! I cannot wait for this thing. Check out some of the new in-game video.

Uncharted 2 Multiplayer

If you haven't heard the good news, "Uncharted 2" will be coming with a multiplayer. I loved the first "Uncharted" game and think it was one of the most beautiful games I've ever played and it was really the first game that made me feel like I was playing in a movie. The voice acting was great and I cannot get enough of video games set in the jungle. Seriously, if you have a PS3 and have not played "Uncharted", then get off your butt and go rent it RIGHT NOW! The only drawback is that it didn't have a multiplayer mode. Well, now we'll be getting multiplayer.

I think it's a little early to tell if this will be good, or bad. I love Metal Gear Solid games, but Metal Gear Online just wasn't fun for me. To make a good multiplayer game, it has to be balanced right and it's sometimes hard to make a game that's made for a single player campaign and turn it into a multiplayer game. Still, I'll admit that I am exited about this. Here's some video from the Playstation Blog to wet your whistle.

Sorry For The Few Posts Lately

I'm currently working on creating some BNOTD and libertarian themed clothing/apparel on CafePress to sell on here. Hopefully, the Brad News Store will be up sometime later this week.

Konami Ain't Doin' Six Days In Fallujah

According to Game Politics, the Iraq War game, "Six Days in Fallujah" was dropped by Konami. Personally, I've kind of got mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I would have liked to see a realistic take on the current War in Iraq. On the other hand, I do think it would be hard on the veterans and their families. It sparked quite a bit of controversy, especially when it was found out they had interviewed insurgents to help the game.

In the end, I think Konami did the right thing, at least for them. It's a very sensitive topic and there was a lot of room for them to really make themselves look bad. Controversy does sell, but you don't want a bunch of people boycotting your other games and I'm afraid that might have actually happened. Usually, I think most people that get mad at games wouldn't buy video games in the first place, but I think this time there were some that played video games that were offended. I'm glad that it was their decision and not some government's decision to not release this game. If you don't like what a company is doing, voice your opinions and if there is enough of people that feel the same as you do, they will cave in. The customer is always right and money talks. It sucks for people that wanted to play this game, but I think a system where companies cancel their own projects and censor themselves is MUCH better than government run censors. It would be better if we lived in a world where nobody could get offended, but I think we're far from that.

I'm not sure of the entire details about this game being dropped and maybe someone else will pick it up. I doubt it, but if they do, I'll let you know. You can read more about my earlier take on the game here.

Land Of The Free, Home Of The Brave...Really?

I don't want to point the finger of blame at all Americans because there are always brave people out there doing great things, but I think we need to take time and reflect on what we're doing. Now lots of people don't give a second thought to the phrase, "America: Land of the Free and Home of the Brave." Maybe it's about time we did and ask ourselves if this is true, or if this is just some lie that we want to believe.

Now I'm not saying I'm the bravest person in the world. I have a fear of spiders and of heights and usually I avoid those things if I can. They're typical fears I guess. Being afraid doesn't make you a coward, because everyone has fears and it's not being fearless that makes someone brave. Being brave is when you face your fears and overcome them on your own. However, we're living in a culture of fear as of lately and I don't think we're really facing them, or overcoming them, at least not on our own.

Every time you turn on the news, it's a new epidemic. You got your terrorism, your global warming, bird flu, childhood obesity, school shootings, out of control crime, a broken health care system, nuclear armament, drug addictions, teenage pregnancy, the bees are dying, child predators, your food is poisoned, your water is polluted, your teens are sexting, the economy is shit, 2012 is right around the corner...oh yeah, and now WE HAVE PIRATES! Holy shit, we're all doomed! Well it seems pretty bad, but I think the majority of the people in America are taking it rather well. Maybe they're staying calm, or maybe they just don't really care. I think they're just overwhelmed and really don't know what to do. Anyway, it's mainly the media and our politicians that are going crazy over this stuff, probably since they have the most to gain from scary epidemics.

Let's start off with one fear we can easily get rid of; drug addictions. Actually, we can get rid of a lot of violent crime with this solution too. Our government's current "solution" for fighting drug addictions in this country has been prohibition a.k.a. The War on Drugs. We ban drugs and anyone caught selling them, or in possession of drugs, gets sent to jail and fined. This action has made the problem much worse by costing tax payers around $60,000,000,000 each year (yes, that's $60 billion). Not only that, but it has incarcerated non-violent criminals that have done nothing to harm others. Also, it has created a black market for illegal drugs that real violent criminals exploit to get rich quick. As a result of drug prohibition, violence has spilled over into the streets because criminals outside of the law are in the big business of selling drugs. There are no legit business practices for these guys. If they have competition, they don't lower prices, or release a better product to get ahead, they just kill their rivals.

So what's the real solution to the problem of drug addiction and violence on the streets of America? Well, you have to admit that there's no way to 100% cure society of drug addicts and violent criminals, but we can reduce the problem. Just think about being free and brave. If you legalized all drugs, and I'm talking about ALL drugs; not just pot, but coke, heroin, meth, etc., then you could fix a lot of problems.

Now part of your brain is saying that you couldn't just let someone do this to themselves, but what good thing are you doing to help them out? Why is throwing a person in jail with violent criminals a kinder act than just letting them be free to destroy their own body? Chances are, they won't stop doing drugs because they're in jail and might pick up some new bad habits from their jail buddies. I'll admit, it's a strange and scary thought that someone could just go down to the store and buy heroin if they wanted to, but hear me out. As of right now, anyone could go down to a street corner and get these drugs, just off of some criminal instead of a drug store shelf. Anyone, including your own kids, can go buy illegal drugs. If you legalize it all, that means you can regulate it. You can set age limits. You can keep sanitary standards. You can allow people to be free to sell drugs and destroy their own bodies without harming others in the process. It's not the perfect solution, but it's a lot better than the current one. Best of all, you cut down on crime.

You don't have criminals out here in the street right now shooting each other because one guy is selling corndogs in another man's turf, because corndogs are legal and usually legit people sell legal stuff while criminals sell illegal stuff. If you legalize drugs and don't lock up drug users that aren't harming others, you don't have your jails overloaded with non-violent criminals, so you can have all the space you want to lock away the thieves, rapists, and murders for as long as you want. It frees up cops and courts to work on more important cases. America needs to start thinking about being brave enough to let people be free.

Now making drugs legal wouldn't end drug addiction. I think it would help stop a lot of it, but more would probably need to be done. To do that, we must change our view and treat it as a medical problem instead of a criminal problem. We have to get serious about treating people with addictions instead of just locking them away in some jail. We have to be brave enough to look at these people on drugs, not as crazy people that might harm us, but as sick people that need our help. Instead of spending our time and money to lock these people out of sight and out of mind, maybe we should try to get them the help they need.

As of right now, I would not say we are the land of the free. We might not be the most oppressive country on earth. We might not lock you up and torture you...umm, well, according to some recent documents, we might do that, but generally we're just a country with a bunch of stupid laws. According to this study, there are more prisoners locked up in the United States of America than in any other country in the world, including China. That's too much in my opinion for a country to be considered "The Land of the Free." Why so many? It's because of the War on Drugs and our determination over the years to keep fighting it. Other countries might have similar drug laws, but they don't have the resources and use $60 billion dollars a year that we do to lock up all of our criminals.

It's not just the reaction to drugs that has caused us to give up our freedom in exchange for security. We become afraid of any small, 3rd World Country that flexes its military, or political muscles. Everyone is worried about North Korea and Iran. It's one thing to oppose a huge empire like Nazi Germany, or Soviet Russia, but talking about invading a country that poses no real threat to us is just insane. We've also given up lots of freedoms for the security of our children. We ban guns, we censor entertainment, we've put the government in charge of their education, we've banned lawn darts, etc. It's time parents get brave with their kids and tell them what the world is really like and start being parents again. If you want your kid to survive in this world, you can't hide him, or her from it. You have to make them tough and let them know the real dangers they face. Eventually, they'll get old enough that they'll start learning things on their own and begin making their own choices. You just have to accept that it's out of your hands and hope you made them smart and tough enough to survive. Leaving your kid's future up to some teacher, or politician does not make you a good parent.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that every new fear that is brought to our attention, the reaction seems to be to panic and assume it's a problem that only politicians can solve. If the government can't solve it, then we figure we just need to give them more money and power until eventually they succeed. Basically, we chicken out and turn over total control to a few people in power. It's time the American people show how brave they are by saying they want freedom. It's time we look more towards freedom as a solution to our problems and less of government as a solution to our problems.

Freedom is a great thing, but you can't be a wimp and want freedom. You have to fight and face hardships for it. You have to be willing to face problems that pop up because you are free. You have to be willing to find new solutions to those new problems without giving up your freedoms to do so. You can't just have freedoms you want, you have to have freedoms for everybody to do things you don't even like. If you resort to the government to control others for your safety then you aren't brave and you aren't free. I'm not saying that America is filled with a bunch of cowards, but when you look around at our policies, it sure does look that way. Nobody said freedom is easy, because it's not. When faced with problems, we should not ignore them, throw up our hands, and try to pass the problems on for the American government to solve. We should look to the meaning of America itself for the answers we need. When we start doing that, then we can truly consider ourselves the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.

We Shall Remain

If you haven't heard, there's a great new mini-series documentary about Native Americans on PBS called "We Shall Remain". It comes on at 8:00 CST every Monday night. So far, they've shown 2 parts of the 5 part series.

• Episode 1: "After The Mayflower" is about the 1621 treaty between the Wampanoag and the Pilgrim settlers and the problems it caused.
  
• Episode 2: "Tecumseh's Vision" follows the life of Tecumseh and is attempt to create an Indian homeland in what is now mostly Ohio and Indiana. The amazing thing is how close he came to making this a reality.
  
• Episode 3: "Trail of Tears" follows the tragic story of the Cherokee as they adopt European culture, but are later betrayed and sent on a forced march from their homes in the Eastern United States to Oklahoma, resulting in the deaths of nearly 4,000.
• Episode 4: "Geronimo" tells the story of the last Native American leader to lead a fighting force against the United States government.
  
• Episode 5: "Wounded Knee" brings us to modern times and details the protests that took place in 1973 by the American Indian Movement that helped bring about rights to Native Americans.

As someone whose own ancestors were on the Trail of Tears, I have been waiting for something like this for a long time. I do not think that there has been an accurate depiction of Native Americans in American history. I would think that in about the past few years we have only begun to scratch the surface of what really happened and there is a lot that people need to learn.

From what I gathered from my days in school, they were depicted as stupid savages that got drunk and gave their land away for nothing and all died off from disease. Those that resisted were never well organized and had no chance of winning. As far as the Trail of Tears goes, even though it went through Arkansas, I was never told the details of it. All I knew is that they were made to march out to Oklahoma. That was about it. What I'm getting from this series is telling a much different story from what I was told in school. I hope this show and others will spark new interest in the history of Native Americans and make people show them in a more accurate light and talk about them more often when discussing history.

Is Ghetto Golf Racist?

So there's a new game coming out called "Ghetto Golf". What's it about? Well, playing golf in the ghetto, DUH! The thing that I'm wondering about is how did they come up with this game? Were there just a bunch of people sitting around a meeting table trying to come up with a good idea for a golf game? They realized that they wanted to make a really exciting golf game, but it's not easy making a boring game like golf exciting. So what do they do? They add some violent minorities to the game and call it Ghetto Golf. I'm not one usually calling people racist, but to me, this seems kind of along those lines. What do you think?

Let's Go Waterboarding

It almost sounds like a fun thing to do on one of those hot, summer days, until you realize what it is. So Obama recently released some CIA torture memos. GOOD FOR HIM! I can't stress that enough. Now what I want to stress is that America should do everything in its power to bring to justice, the people who were responsible for authorizing this. I'm not talking about the low ranking guys who were taking orders. No, I want the high up guys to go to jail for a long time. There is no excuse for what they did. It's an abomination that we allowed this to happen and it will be an even bigger abomination if we let the people responsible for it get away with it.

It was revealed that the CIA use the waterboarding technique on Khalid Sheik Mohammed up to 183 times. He was the planner of the 9/11 attacks. Seriously, this guy had it done to him 183 times! After about 5 times, don't you think if he was going to give in, he would have by then? I bet any normal person after 10 times would be telling horrible stuff about themselves, and even making up stuff they never did. Another prisoner, Abu Zubaydah, had it done to him 83 times.

Now I don't give a flying fuck about the feelings of terrorists as long as they're found guilty in a court of law, but that's another topic. For all I care these guys can rot in prison the rest of their lives. However, if we resort to torture then we're not much better than them. America was created so people wouldn't have to go through this stuff when they were accused on a crime, or even after they were convicted of a crime. Just because these people are our enemies and aren't necessarily from America, doesn't mean they shouldn't be treated the same. I would hope that any American accused of a crime in another country would get a fair trial and not be tortured.

It's unfortunate that there are people in this country that justify doing evil acts by saying they are protecting us. If the only way you can protect me is by harming an unarmed human being, then I don't want your protection. If you can't come up with any better way of doing things, then you're not smart enough to do your job. Did the people who authorized this ever think that's what the enemy wanted them to do? Maybe by killing thousands of people on 9/11, their real goal was to make us mad to the point we change our laws, make us more barbaric like them, and make mistakes. Boy, did we make some mistakes.

This really isn't a war about taking land and racking up body counts. This isn't about beating tyrants and going home after some country surrenders. This is a war about morality. Which culture will win; ours, or the terrorists'? We might be doing a good job killing the enemy and we might have won some military battles, but that's not how we're going to win. We lost one of the most important battle in the war when we decided to torture prisoners. We are becoming more like them instead of them becoming more like us. Our goal is to make these people not want to kill us anymore. There are few things we can do to make them love us, but there are lots of ways we can make them hate us worse than they already do and torturing their people is one sure way to make sure they'll never love us.

Some might be wondering why it's such a big deal to torture some evil person that's responsible for the deaths of thousands. Well, in the culture of the Taliban and Al Quaeda, they believe in torture, executions, and that their culture and political beliefs are superior to ours. If they can get us to resort to their level, that would give them proof that our current system is inferior and that we had to adopt their methods. Not only that, but don't you think it's easier for them to recruit more terrorists when they get angry because we tortured their people? You might get some information that saves a few dozen people by torturing, but you end up creating a hundred angry suicide bombers in the process that will kill hundreds more people. That's not helping. Torture information, while sometimes helpful, can also end up being total BS. If you're in pain, or are really scared, you'll say anything if you think they'll let you go.

Besides waterboarding, there were other tortures outlined that included the use of scary insects, depriving prisoners of sleep, stripping them naked in front of members of the opposite sex, locking people in confined spaces, slapping prisoners on the face and stomach, and making them stand in odd positions for long times. To the average person, it doesn't seem as bad as something the Nazis, or Japanese would use in W.W.II, or perhaps something used in the U.S.S.R, but these techniques we were using were actually used in those evil regimes. We might not be using the worst tortures they came up with, but we're still using THEIR ideas. What kind of country are we when we are taking ideas from the worst cultures in human history? Are we still America: land of the free and home of the brave? Are we still free and are we still a brave country when we do things like this? I think those are all good questions we should often ask ourselves.

Selling Mature Games to Kids...OH THE HUMANITY!

An undercover operation in Dundee, Scotland used a 14-year-old boy to go into 16 shops to see if he could buy M rated games. Well, 12 of the shops sold him the games. The sad news is these people could face fines and even jail time for selling these games to kids.

SOURCE

Come on, give me a break. Why do people leave this stuff up to the government? Is it really that hard to keep stuff like this away from your kid? What ever happened to good ol' parents that like to complain? If you don't want stores selling stuff to your kid, don't give them money and turn them loose in a store. If you do give them money and they come back with something you don't like, complain to the store about changing their policy. If a store feels it's going to lose a valuable customer, they'll change their policy. I bet someone working there didn't even know the law existed and will now get in trouble because of this. I just hope that fine they'll have to pay doesn't take food from their own kids.

CNN Cover-Up

Remember that post before last called "I Was Libertarian Before It Was Cool"? If you do, you'll probably remember that video I posted about CNN making the tea party protesters out to be a bunch of angry Republicans and then it shows a protester made video that tells a whole other story and makes CNN look bad. It was pretty funny and I hope you got to see it.

The bad news is YouTube took it down and now when you try to view it, it says "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Cable News Network, Inc.." Now I guess they should not have included this copyrighted video from CNN in the YouTube video they made. However, there are videos up on YouTube that just show the CNN footage by itself, without the other video exposing the truth and making CNN look bad, THAT ARE STILL UP! In fact, there are probably CNN videos all over the place that haven't got taken down. Now, maybe they haven't got around to taking those other Copyright violations down. Then again, maybe CNN really doesn't care about people spreading their news stories around, just that they don't like it when people expose the truth about their shitty news reporting. Think I'm bullshittin' ya? Here's the proof.

Here's the CNN video...



Here's the video of the CNN video with the footage from the protesters that exposes their lie. As you can see, it's been taken down.



I'm not one to call out conspiracy theories, but I think CNN is trying to hide something here. What do you think?

Moon

When's the last time a decent sci-fi movie has been done about the moon, not like a little bit about the moon, not some stupid cartoon, but a whole 2 hour, serious, live-action movie devoted to it? 2001...not the year, but the movie? Even then it just had a short amount devoted to it. Okay, so anyway, there's now a movie coming out called "Moon" that actually looks a lot like "2001: A Space Odyssey", but not so realistically slow and dull (let's hope). It actually looked pretty decent. I haven't seen it yet, but I have to admit that the trailer peaked my interest.

"Moon" stars Sam Rockwell (Wild Bill from "Green Mile") and has Kevin Spacy doing the voice for Robot. So from the look of the trailer, Sam Rockwell's character is stuck by himself on the moon overseeing a mining mission that's gathering fuel for earth. His only companion is this computer/robot thing that reminds me a lot of Hal-9000 crossed with the personality of Wall-E. Then Sam Rockewell's character (Sam Bell) gets the SPACE MADNESS, or something, and starts hallucinating. Of course there will likely be some twist and he'll turn out to be sane and something really weird is happening, like aliens are doing something, at least that's usually how these things go. Anyway, here's the trailer and there will be a limited release for June 12, 2009 for the U.S. I hate limited releases for good movies!

I Was Libertarian Before It Was Cool

I've been watching a lot about these ant-tax tea parties lately and I got some steam to let off (for those who only buy their tea already made, that was a really horrible tea joke). Anyway, I guess some of these neo-con Republicans couldn't swallow defeat and had to wash it down with some tea (slightly better joke). Only problem is, THEY'RE CRASHIN' THE LIBERTARIAN'S TEA PARTY! That's right, by right, it's our party and we didn't invite them. Why aren't Republicans and Libertarians both against taxes and spending. Well, sort of. See the thing is that Libertarians ARE against taxes and spending, but Republicans JUST SAY they're against taxes and spending.

Before Obama was elected, all these Republicans that are now jumping on the anti-tax and anti-spend bandwagons were supporting big spending Republicans. Why? It was because these big spending Republicans were for "family values" and were for "defeating terrorists" and to most of these people, that was their main concern at the time. I'm sure that some of the people who supported them didn't like all that spending, but the thought of leaving Iraq, not securing an impossible to secure border, and not supporting a Christian nation was far more important that not ruining their kids' financial future. Sure, they cut taxes for the rich, but THEY INCREASED SPENDING! Spending is the big issue here. Taxes suck, but they aren't near as bad as they could be; however, spending is digging our grave. The real problem is we're going to have to pay off all this insane debt we've collected...because BOTH the Democrats and Republicans became corrupt with power and didn't know when to stop. They would spend our tax dollars on everything from bridges to nowhere, to (two) wars, to researching how global warming affects squirrels fucking.

Some of these people saying that the major issue now is cutting spending and reducing taxes actually laughed at Ron Paul when he was running for president and brought up these issues over a year ago. He saw this stuff coming from years back and tried to bring it to everyone's attention while the rest of Washington spent like they had an endless supply of cash. For God's sake, they're still spending like they got an endless supply! Now, the Republicans realize they were wrong. I'll be damned if any of them admit it, but I know, that they know, they fucked up. Do they do the responsible and smart thing and rally around the only guy among them that saw this disaster coming? Did any of them suggest that maybe Ron Paul should lead their party from now on. No, they just change their tune and make it seem like they were all libertarians all along. They're just the same, stupid, big spending leaders they always were, just now they're disguised in libertarian clothing. It makes me sick!

If you're trying to suck up and get the libertarian vote next time around, think again. You'll have to do better than that. The first thing you need to do is repent for your sins. I want to hear you say, "I was wrong. Ron Paul and the libertarians were right. We aren't going to waste time on wars and keeping gays from getting married. There are more important things and really, those were stupid things anyway. We aren't going to try to build an expensive wall along the border that will never work. We will stop the drug war that never works. We aren't going to give money to every company coming along looking for a handout. We're not just going to lower taxes for the rich, but for everybody. We're going to acknowledge that not everyone in this country is a Christian that thinks like we do and they deserve to live free from forced religious beliefs, just like everyone else. Christians don't need a country that supports their religion to believe in God and Jesus and practice good morals and raise a good family. All we need is a country to let us all be free to practice what we will as long as we aren't harming someone else without their consent. We're going to end the federal reserve and end the income tax. Most of all, we're not going to spend anything. Sure, we'll have to pay off that mess we helped create, but I'm going to take all my campaign contributions and prove that I'm a true patriot and pay off this debt that my political party has helped create over the years."

After you say that, I still won't vote for you, but I will forgive you. Oh, and one more thing; don't show up at a tea party waving your neo-con signs and spout off some stupid rant that makes you sound like a whiny loser because you lost the election. Unless you're comfortable bashing both Democrats AND Republicans for this spending spree, just stay at home. Any true libertarians there will know who you are and know you're just as responsible for this mess as the people in Washington. I'm not saying they'll beat you up, because libertarians don't use force to get their way, but you don't want to get verbally abused and heckled by the people you're protesting with. It would be rather embarrassing and a waste of your time to even show up. If there are any libertarians out there that see neo-cons around, please feel free to humiliate them! In fact, I would say it would be your duty to distance libertarians from these people by doing so. If you're still a neo-con and want to protest, instead of having a tea party, go have a baby shower so you can go whine like one.

I would like to remind people that not all these tea party protests are organized and attended by the neo-con Republicans and Fox News. I'm sure some hypocrites are there, but there are LOTS of Americans that aren't affiliated with any party, or group and are genuinely pissed off their money has been stolen from them and given to these big corporations. Taxation without representation is the real reason for a tea party and I think most people that are there get that. There's a lot of talk that these tea parties are organized by big political groups, backed by corporate interests. However, I bet AIG, Citigroup, Bank of America, nor any of those other corporations that got government bailouts (handouts) are sponsoring these tea parties. The American people didn't need some group to organize and back them with corporate funds to make a big fuss about this huge mess. All they have to do is get man, get some cardboard, make a sign, and stand out in public. It's not that hard to do; especially if you don't have a job to go to because you got laid off.

Besides me being mad at hypocritical neo-cons, I'm pretty pissed off right now about the mainstream media. Of course they aren't going to do a non-biased story on this to get the true feelings of the general protesters. I'm not really surprised though, because at any protest, they're going to go after the most insanely, radical looking guy there and use that one guy for ratings. Chances are, that crazy guy was planted there by an opposing group to make the protesters look bad. I give you video from CNN...who just earned the same reliability rating as Fox News. Congratulations CNN, you just got exposed for the big government propaganda spin machine you are!

Police Brutality Part 1

I'm going to post a "Police Brutality" topic every time I come across a story about our government using excessive force against our fellow citizens. I don't want to give the impression that all law officers are bad people, because some are doing their best to carry out a very stressful, and dangerous job, while not harming innocent citizens. However, for the safety and rights of the U.S. citizens and to ensure that law enforcement get rid of the bad apples, stuff like this must be brought to the attention of everyone. I know it's hard for some law enforcement not to take the side of their fellow officers when stuff like this comes up, but bad cops make good cops' job much more harder and more dangerous. If a guy sees his local cops beating up on some innocent guy on TV and nothing is done to get rid of these cops, then the next time he gets pulled over, he might decide to try to run away, or fight back, instead of being peaceful. It doesn't matter if you're wearing a badge, if you use unnecessary violence against someone else, you're a criminal.

The video below speaks for itself. There will probably be more videos of this surfacing in a couple of days since the guy said there were cameras there when the event took place. At least, I hope we get to see those videos.



(UPDATE): The video of the actual incident can be seen here.

Dressed To Kill

There are a lot of crazy/evil leaders and dictators in the world right now. Each generation has its own brand of villains. Now, I usually don't really care what people wear, but when it comes to evil leaders I think someone needs to give these guys a makeover. Have you noticed the way they dress lately? Seriously, most of these guys don't look evil. Maybe they don't want to, but how are you going to put fear into your enemies and be taken seriously if you don't look scary?

Let's start off with what's wrong with the current cadre of villainy...

• Osama Bin Laden dresses like some 3rd world beggar. I know the guy has a bunch of money and clothes probably have some kind of religious meaning, but he could do much better.
• Iran's president,Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, looks like a guy who works for Microsoft that got lost in the woods for a few weeks without a razor to shave with.
  
• North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il looks just plain goofy. If tomorrow I heard North Korea built a time machine, I would believe it. Why? Because their leader looks like he's gone back to a 1970's Salvation Army to get his clothes.
• Fidel Castro used to dress in military uniforms, which is kind of scary, but just doesn't really cut it. Lots of military dictators do this, but there's just no originality; however, that's not the worst thing he's done. He's recently been sporting a windbreaker outfit. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! Windbreakers don't make me think of evil dictators, just old people...breaking wind. It even has "Castro" written on it, as if somebody is going to forget he's Fidel Castro. Maybe he's afraid he'll forget. The guy is old, but he doesn't need to dress like he's in some retirement community.
  
• I wouldn't really consider Venuzela's president, Hugo Chavez, as an evil dictator...YET. He's probably getting there though. He looks like a typical, laid back poltician, but you can't do that, talk smack about the United States, and be taken seriously. This guy dresses like he works at Ace Hardware.
  

So what should a villain look like? Well, Hollywood and comic books have done a good job of creating villains, so I would look there for your look. G.I. Joe's Cobra Commander has a great look for a terrorist. He dresses in dark colors, like blacks and blues. Also, red is a nice color to use for emblems because it reminds people of blood and violence. Note that he's wearing a hood. This hides his face, creating mystery. This will get people talking about what exactly you look like. You will find that a lot of great villains have some kind of mask, or hood hiding their face. If your face is disfigured with scars, or burns, that's even better. Darth Vader is a good example of this and his outfit is equipped with equipment to help him breathe, giving him a creepy breathing noise. I'm surprised with all those cigars that Fidel Castro smoked, he doesn't need at least some kind of mask to help him breathe.

Hannibal Lecter is a great villain because he's charming and very intelligent and that is what's so creepy about him. He also has a mask, but he doesn't really need it. He is able to project fear by just the way he talks about things. He can say the most horrible things and not out of anger, but with joy in an almost poetic way. It's important to not only dress the part, but also act the part.

The Shredder from "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and Lord Humongous from "The Road Warrior" both have masks, but they also keep in shape. They are built for the part of villains. They aren't afraid to display their muscular physique. It's sad that most dictators today are in such bad shape. I'm sure that it's got to be hard to keep active and stay in shape when you aren't the kind of person to take orders from a personal trainer, or anyone else for that matter. These guys should at least work on their arms a bit and show them off. Another thing I'd like to note is that The Shredder has some weaponry built into his armor. This is a nice touch and shows that he is not afraid to get up close and personal and cause damage. Another thing to add to the look is a cape. You can't go wrong with a good looking cape.

This is all fine, but were there any real life people that dress like villains? Yes, as a matter of fact, there was. Blackbeard the pirate was awesome because he used to grow long hair and a beard and then when he was going into battle, he'd put slow-burning hemp ropes in his hair, under his hat, and light them on fire. The effect was that it looked like his head was on fire. Now that's just badass. What would you do if you saw a guy coming at you with a sword in his hand and his head was on fire? You'd piss your pants, that's what you'd do!

There is one leader today that would hands down win if I were giving out a trophy for the best looking evil villain. That guy is Russia's leader, Vladimir Putin. He dresses and acts like a James Bond villain. The guy was in the KGB! Like Lord Humongous, he isn't afraid to show off some of his muscles. In the picture I've included, he kind of reminds me of some evil poacher killing endangered animals for their hides. He also has this weird thing for tigers and even got a tiger cub for his birthday. I can just picture him sitting at his desk, petting a tiger cub, and plotting to take over the world. Plus, he practices the martial art of judo, so you know he can kick some ass. He might not be as evil as Kim Jong Il, Osama Bin Laden, or some of the other guys on here, but he sure looks like one evil SOB.

Six Days in Fallujah

There have been a lot of controversial games over the years. When most people think about controversial games they think of Grand Theft Auto and other games that show sexual and violent content. With shooter type games, violence is surely going to be there. However, it's not the typical controversy that has got people up in arms about Konami's new game "Six Days in Fallujah". They are taking an accurate, historical approach to telling the story of the Battle of Fallujah, which happened only a few years ago. Some might say it's a little too soon for something like this. As open minded as I am about controvercial games, I can somewhat sympothise with the people who oppose this.

The developers are getting the support of some of the soldiers and civilians that were in the Battle of Fallujah, but according to a recent interview with Joystiq, they also interviewed insurgents that were at the battle also. This is likely to be the most controvercial aspect of the game. I don't know how they got interviews with insurgents that were there and I guess that's a story in and of itself. I have yet to really see the game, but the impression I get is this isn't meant to be an action packed fun game, but rather a historical simulation. From the sound of the interview, you might go on a mission, not find anyone to kill, and just find a puppy to adopt. What kind of game is this exactly? Is it even a game?

My main concern is with war vets and their families. While I would hope that they wouldn't pick this up out of fears it might bring about some kind of emotional reaction they aren't prepared for, I suppose it could happen. It's one thing to see a movie, or documentary about war, but a video game is very close to re-living the situation. I'm not saying it shouldn't be made though. People should understand what these people went through over there and if this video game can help put people in the shoes of Marines who fought there, maybe it can influence people and change some minds about the War in Iraq. I hope this will be a well done game that pays homage to those that were at Fallujah and inspires thought on the subject; not just some quick way to make a buck.

Arm Ships With Ninjas And Buckets Full Of Jellyfish

Obviously Somalia has gone apeshit over all of those Pirates of the Caribbean movies and now they feel they got to act out their movie fantasies in real life. After Navy Seals kicked their ass and saved Capt. Richard Phillips, these pirates have been pissed. They're now working overtime to seize ships left and right and do as much damage as possible if they can't get on board. You have to hand it to them; when they say they're gonna retaliate, they do, and they don't waste time about it.

So how exactly should we combat these pirates? Well, we could spend a bunch of money to send our Navy over there, patrol around, piss more people off, just to give protection, or we could tell these companies that they can arm their ships with weapons from now on if they'd like to, like .50 caliber machine guns and and grenade launchers. Then again, they could arm themselves with the natural enemy of the pirate...THE NINJA! That's right, and if ninjas don't stop them, get some buckets full of jellyfish and dump on their heads as they're boarding. That'll learn 'em. Got any other anti-pirate ideas? Post them in the comments section below.

Cuba's Embargo Limbo

Fidel Castro said today that the U.S. has done nothing to lift the decades old trade embargo on Cuba and will not beg for it to be lifted.

Source

As much as I disagree with communist leaders like Castro, he's telling the truth here. While President Obama has recently lifted some travel restrictions on Cuba, there is still a lot of progress that's left to be made. Embargoes are counterproductive to the goals we say we want. We use them to try to put pressure on foreign dictators and regimes we don't like in hopes that their people will overthrow them. However, this only gives them political ammunition to use against us.

The U.S. government has had an embargo on Cuba since 1962 and have tried numerous times to assassinate Fidel Castro in hopes that his regime would fall and a more modern democracy would take over. The funny/sad part about it is Fidel Castro had been the leader of Cuba for almost half a century before stepping down in 2008 due to health reasons. He's been in power longer than John F. Kennedy lived. If that's not an epic failure, I don't know what is.

There's a good reason why Castro does not want Cuba to beg for the U.S. to lift the embargo. The U.S. embargo is one of the main things that has helped people like Castro stay in power. If there's a shortage of food, or medical supplies, people don't have to look towards their flawed communist system, or their corrupt, "glorious" leader, to place the blame. Castro can simply blame it on the capitalists in the U.S. and their embargo. People in these countries suffer from lack of trade goods, but these embargoes end up helping the ones in power. We currently have sanctions against Iran, denying them airplane parts. The result is that civilian Iranian aircraft are crashing due to poor maintenance, killing innocent civilians. Iran is still going forward on building nuclear technology. How is relations with North Korea? They're probably the worst out of any country right now.

If a regime is so bad, why not just leave them alone to fail on their own? There's no sense in us aiding in the suffering of the people in hopes they'll rise up and overthrow the regime. It only builds more hatred for the U.S. and gains more support for the evil dictators of the world. Just about everyone hated George W. Bush, but if China and other countries had decided to stop trading with us and people in this country started suffering from lack of food and medical supplies, we would have all rallied behind George W. Bush. Bush would have said we need to bomb these countries, that we would never give into their demands, declare emergency powers for himself, and he'd might even still be in power for a third term as president today.

If we want to promote democracy and capitalism, then the best way to do it is to trade. I'm not saying trade weapons to crazy dictators, but food, medicine, and other goods build friendships and promote the exchange of ideas. If the people could see first hand what can be done under a capitalist and free society, then that's what they'd want. The problem with embargoes is it denies them of seeing that first hand. They only know of what capitalism is from what their government tells them and the only thing they know first hand is that capitalists Americans are denying them of the stuff they need to live. Let's not forget that this also hurts American businesses by denying them customers. Embargoes are just all around a bad idea and I hope that we'll see an end to them soon.

Welcome To The Blog

For those that don't know me, my name is Brad Cossey and this is my blog. I'm 26 years old and am a native of Arkansas. You might be wondering what all is in this blog. It's gonna be pretty much whatever is on my mind at the time. Even though "BrAD NEWS OF THE DAY" is a play on "BAD NEWS", I'll post some good news every now and then and maybe some reviews. There are about four main things I like to talk about and that's politics, video games, movies, and art.

I'm a libertarian, so anything political on here will likely be from a libertarian point of view. What's a libertarian? Well, it's a person who believes strongly in individual freedoms, economic freedoms, and little government controls. As long as nobody is harming anyone else, they should be allowed to do what they want. I was once a Democrat and then later switched to be a Republican and neither party seemed to have the exact same beliefs I had. Eventually I gave up, but later found out what libertarians were and discovered that fit perfectly with my beliefs. If you think you might be a libertarian, or would like to see what politicial category you might fall in, take The World's Smallest Political Quiz.

I love video games. I mostly play on my Playstation 3, but used to play a lot of stuff on the PC. I play mostly first person shooters (COD5 and Killzone 2), but also play RPGs (Oblivion and Fallout 3) and strategy games (Command & Conquer). I really like games where you can build your own levels, like in "LittleBigPlanet". That's the main thing I miss about gaming on the PC, is nearly every game came with a map maker. Few console games let you do that. As a gamer and a libertarian, I'm opposed to censorship and laws aimed at video games. I'll be sure to post my thoughts and keep you informed on the latest assaults on gamer and developer rights.

I do find time to watch some movies now and then. I've been burned out on most of the huge summer blockbusters I use to like as a kid. It takes more than a bunch of CGI thrown up on the screen to make me want to see something. I'll try to write a few movie reviews if I see something I like. I don't get a lot of time to read actual books, but if I come across one that I really like, I'll try to give it a review also. I might give a review of any new music I come across also. Although, most of the music I like is classic rock and country.

Besides playing video games, watching movies, and posting on this blog, I also do some artwork now and then. I draw, paint, and sculpt. As far as painting goes, I did a few acrylic paintings, but I really like using oils now. I also do a few watercolors. I've done a little bit of figure sculpting a while back, but haven't picked up some Sculpey in a while. I'm also into photography and like to take photos of nature type stuff. Maybe I might get around to posting some of my artwork, or photos on here. I'm the same way on art as I am on video games. If anyone is trying to censor art, I'll be on here writing about it.

Anyway, that's pretty much what's gonna be covered here. I might have a hard time coming up with a topic, so if you have something you'd like for me to talk about, or have some news you'd like for me to pass along, or comment about, please feel free to e-mail me and I'll try to do something with it.