Fool-iani

New York, New York....If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere....

Except Giuliani didn't really make it here. Yes, he rose from lawyer to DA, US Attorney to Mayor of New York City, but he is trying to rest his laurels for presidential office only on the fact that he was mayor of New York City. But not really ever a popular one. And the funny thing is, his politics aren't all that bad, but he's a real SLIME BAG. He cheated on his wife, his son is estranged, his choice in police chiefs left much to be desired, in Kerik and Kelly. He has this way about him of being horribly offended if you question him on anything. I have heard the saying that when Giuliani talks about his presidential bid, two things come out of his mouth: a lie and 9/11.

And about 9/11. What the hell is his problem? He acts like he single handedly brought New York City back from the brink of destruction. Hell ANYONE that would have been mayor of New York would have looked good by crying on camera, showing solidarity to the firemen (who by the way don't like Giuliani) and policemen, meeting with victim's families.... He was damn lucky that something of this magnitude happened toward the end of his term, which happened to have overshadowed the problems he was having with minorities clashing with the police at the time. He never did anything to alleviate the problem. He just stood on his soapbox, smug, basically saying that the police had every right to do every misdeed they did to the minorities of the city because they were the police and there was too much crime here. I think the only crime was letting that sleazebag stay in office after the shooting of Amadu Diallo. Or the vicious beating of Abner Louima. Both of which the city's residents were unsatisfied with the outcome of the punishment for the officers.

And now it has come to light that he billed small city offices for the security he used to go out to the Hamptons to meet with his mistress. His Deputy Mayor Joe Lhota tried to assert that other mayors of the city had done so, and when it was brought back to him that they did not, he backtracked on his statement, thus embarrassing Giuliani and his camp. And of course Giuliani has done his predictable, usual M.O.: he's denying, double-talking and once again taking the offensive stance that someone should even have the audacity to look into his past dealings.

And this right on the heels of his association with Bernard Kerik.

Now I think if Giuliani were smart, he would have used his term as New York mayor as a sort of model as to how people would react to him. And he hasn't. But then again, men like him don't think that people see him in a negative light at all. He seems to only focus on what he wants to about himself and nothing else. And he expects the rest of the world to do the same. This is hardly the kind of man I want in office as President of The United States. Far be it from me to rest this decision based solely on a man's personality, but he just gets under my skin. And I'm bleeding from trying to scratch out Bush....

UGH.....

I can't believe that my home state, my HOME STATE is out of control insane!! I have been wanting leave New York for a while now, and it seems the time is right, seeing as the outlandish craziness here is reaching new heights (or depths if you want to look at it that way) and driving the sane folk away....

First off, lets talk about Elliot Spitzer, or as I like to call him, damn fool that can't shut the hell up for two seconds to actually get any kind of task or job done and won't even compromise on issues because he needs to have his way. But let's call him The Howler for short. So between this whole ridiculous argument about Bruno's use of the state helicopter, not having the state's education budget released (now here it is two months after school has started) and his not so cool plan for having illegal immigrants get driver's licenses, I am ready to call for his swift and final termination. Granted, we need a LOT more Democrats with his kind of energy (sans the bullish brattiness), but he has turned out to be a real pain in the ass. At this point in the game, everything with him is an argument. Everything. And people are sick of him. He really doesn't seem to be getting much more done than his predecessor--he who cannot have his named mentioned for the sliver of a chance he may come back and eat our young and bring pestilence and plague. The Howler swore up and down thewre'd be change from day one, and the fool that I am that falls in love too easily believed him. And my heart has been broken. And now I'm pissed.

Now let's turn to the plight of the NYC cab drivers, if plight is a word you would like to use. Not me. Here is another case of people bitching and moaning, and it seems that here in New York, there is a lot of bitching to get your way. So the cab drivers are upset about the TLC having mandated credit card machines and GPS units installed into every car. Somehow this has thrown the cabbies up at arms. Let me tell you my take on it. First, the cabbies state that they will lose money if people use credit cards. I can't possibly foresee HOW that could happen. No, what I think is going on here is that the cabbies for years had probably been skimming the cash. You can't skim off credit cards. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't using credit cards bring down the crime rate of thieves mugging cabbies for cash?

And the GPS units, they say, is an invasion of privacy. Oh really? So what job do you know, pray tell, that has any modicum of privacy? In fact, what aspect of life here in America has any iota of privacy? Again, no. What I think is that there are those who may be involved in illegal activities (and by illegal activities I mean terrorist activities) that can now be tracked. So in a sense, yes, that may so be an invasion of privacy, but in wartime, there is no privacy for potential enemies. Sorry. That's just the way it works for the safety of the greater good.

And the other thing is how the cabbies are protesting that the city has no right to tell them what to do with their cars. WHAT?!?! Are they seriously for real? In order to get a medallion, you have to pay FEES to the TLC, or Taxi and Limousine Commission. The TLC is who regulates the fares. Cabbies have to register their cars with the TLC. So what the HELL are the cabbies talking about? These people have messed around and lost their minds.

And this is only part of the mess I am neck deep in here in New York....

O.J. Gives Me Heartburn....

Wow.

So it's all come down to this. Orenthal James Simpson going to jail not for the murders of two people which we all know he did, but for the harlequin-esque robbery he committed in Las Vegas this month. And this after the circus show surrounding his supposedly fictitious book "If I Did It", of which I can't believe that someone actually published and is peddling this filth to the masses. (I won't even get into the morons that I think would buy the book...on tape because obviously retarded cretins like that can't possibly read.)

But wait, it gets better. I have recently found out that because of his loss in the civil suit to the Brown family, all the proceeds of the book go to the family. So the Brown family is making the money off the book that this idiot wrote about his crime.

Am I taking crazy pills?!?!

Is it normal for a family to financially profit off the untimely death of a loved one? Since when has it become that MONEY has substituted for justice? So instead of seeking an eye for an eye, we have come up with a "Civil Suit". Oh yes kids, we don't care to avenge the death of a loved one anymore, nor do we care to fight to get a violent offender off the street to keep them from committing the same or other crimes. No, we just seek to get money. Get paid, as it were. Because after all, doesn't the money make you feel better, assuage your grief, quell your tears? I mean, getting enough money will bring the loved one back from the dead, no?

So there we had it, the Brown family all broken up on camera, shrieking and crying over the slaying of their beloved Nicole. They vowed to make O.J. pay for his crime. And pay he is. Not with his time and freedom spent behind bars, but with money. And it seems to me a little too convenient that since he was broke after paying Johnny Cochran all his legal fees, he would hatch a scheme to make money the only way he knew how: sensationally. And then the vultures swooped in....the Browns, as we call them.

Now, I am not fooled in the least about this situation. This is not a story of an "American" tragedy, and we should pour our hearts out to the grieving families. Oh no. This is the story of lust and greed. Lust on the part of O.J.'s jealousy of his former wife dating around, and the greed of the Brown family in which they dumped the memory of Nicole for money. And shamefully don't even care that the money they are getting is off of peddled smut, fashioned from the blood and bones of the slain daughter and sister they once had. No, as long as they get what they deserve...

It's enough to make me bang my head on the desk. Again.

So what next? Will O.J. somehow, superhumanly rise above the law yet once again? Will he somehow be set free to once again commit other crimes--old as that mofo is--until we realise what a low-brow, oafish, criminally insane dolt he really is? Or will his charges stick? Will he go to jail and serve a sentence behind bars with all the other dregs of society? In light of my experience in this lifetime, fools usually slip through the snares of life that the rest of us seem to catch ourselves in.

More of the Same?

Hello kiddies - Baby Bear is back after a long hiatus. However, I could not stay silent forever you know. So today I am here to talk about Beyonce. Oh yes, that vixen songstress who is undoubtedly getting many scores of young ladies in trouble with her "Irreplaceable" song. Let's delve in, shall we?

So as many of you know the song is about her breaking up with a guy that's been cheating on her. And she's throwing him out. So the lyrics of this song are what she is saying to him as she's putting him out and calling a cab. Now, first off, she talks about how she had bought him a car and he was driving around town in this car she purchased for him. By my guess, it doesn't sound like she had been with him for very long in the first place, yet she bought the cheating asshole a car. Now I have always told women that I know that you know straight off the bat if a guy is a slime. You choose YOURSELF whether to go with your gut instinct or to ignore it. Obviously in this scenario, not only did she ignore it, but chose to buy him a car thinking that would get him to love her more. Uh, no. Sorry. He just uses the free car to shuttle around his flings. This is not good for young girls to be listening to. It's bad enough for them to see the video images of Beyonce scantily clad dancing pretending to be a strong woman - what strong women do you know that walk around with their tits and ass hanging out all over the place?

Now the real beef I have with this song is when she states that she can replace this guy "in a minute". And in fact, he's on his way over to see her as she's putting the cheating boyfriend out. OK. Now, if she's putting this idiot out after what seems like a short while, she goes and replaces him with another guy that OBVIOUSLY she hasn't known that long!! So what is she doing? Replacing one asshole with another one? Showing that she can't spend time alone because GOD FORBID a woman be without a man for a while and work on getting herself together and realise that she needs to take time to meet a nice, decent guy. Or at least don't patrol the bars and clubs looking for Mr. Right. Again, young women are getting the message that guys (as well as women) are interchangeable, all you need is a warm body hanging off your arm and everything will be OK.

Ladies, let me tell you something: There is no woman in the HISTORY of women that likes men more than I do. I swear to God, men consume almost every one of my thoughts. And there's nothing wrong with that. But you have to understand one thing: men are incredibly STUPID. I'm not saying that to be mean or hurtful, but to lower yourself to their base level in order to get them is even more stupid. To tell a man that you can replace him in a minute is saying that you are a piece of ass and will offer it up to the next Neanderthal that comes down the pike. To not make a man appreciate the VALUE you offer other than your body is stupid. Thus, this song is just dumbing down our young women. We women are supposed to kick a man in the butt to get him to do something other than grunt, scratch, fight and fuck. We are supposed to be put together ourselves because, after all, we are mothers and have to teach the young how to act and survive in society. I can't imagine the mothers of these asshole men are proud of what they have become. So I realise that though I love these hairy bastards that are strong, smell good, muscle ripped, not-so-soft and pretty, I have to be SMARTER than them. And it's really not that hard. Just think above the base level and you'll be more than fine.

So ultimately what this song seems to fail to understand is that she may be putting out the loser boyfriend and she's all empowered for the moment, but she will be singing the same tune again because it doesn't seem like she knows how to find a good man. And that's why women seem to be so unhappy with men a lot these days - they don't know how to break out of their own vicious cycles.

New York's Finest?

The New York City Police Department has reached all kinds of lows in the past fifteen years, however, the lowest they have gotten is $25,000 per year. As in the starting salary of rookie police officers. Yes, that's right. The starting salary of people that are supposed to fight crime and protect the city in times of strife are only making $25K to start. It has come to light that the Department of Parks and Recreation is looking to hire three new puppeteers with a starting salary of between roughly $32K and $50K with complete benefits and union status. And what has the city done to try to supplement the low salary of starting rookies? Offer them a low interest credit card "to make ends meet". Is this the best they can do?!?! Put these poor cadets into DEBT?

**Parks spokesman Warner Johnston called the puppet job "a very skilled position."

"It's not just someone with his hand up a puppet," he said. "It's someone who has to create and maintain the marionette. It's an artisan position."

The new puppeteer will work at the Marionette Theater in Central Park - and also make rounds in the "PuppetMobile," doing performances in city parks and recreation centers. [NY Post, 13 March 2007]**

Oh my fucking god - this one is so wide open I CAN'T crack on it... but I can get $50K per year plus benefits for putting my hand up a puppet's ass? What's Condoleeza doing after she's out of office?

And it makes me wonder - where is all the money from my parking tickets going? What about the unusually high city taxes I pay? Lottery tickets? Parking meters? I wonder because if it's not going to pay the cops, it sure as hell isn't going to fix the potholes in the streets, repair busted parking meters that people get ticketed on anyway, more police video cameras on the streets (I will get into Big Brother in a later post), beefing up the 311 hotline (it STINKS Bloomberg), cleaner streets in Manhattan, more available parking, etc., etc. It leads me to believe that some fat bastard is getting fatter off of MY tax dollars!! And that pisses me off. This is the most expensive city to live in the country and we can't fix a fucking POTHOLE? Here Bloomberg, I have a suggestion for you. How about the new recruits can make overtime by filling in potholes on weekends? Or how about we give the beat cops brooms so they can sweep while on patrol? Oh I know, how about when on beat, we give them quarters to watch our cars for half an hour? Yeah, then they'll really rack it in and supplement that income, and not only that, will always have change for laundry!! Righteous!!

It sickens me the kind of financial management we have here in the city. I just CAN'T hear officials bitch anymore about how the city is broke - because we're NOT. Someone is skimming that money into his or her own pocket. And I can't wait for the day that this salary gets so out of control, there will be a strike by officers - then New York will REALLY know the meaning of hell...

And I just have to put in here that I do NOT read the NY Post - I don't even line the catbox with it. NY1 (another example of "quality" journalism) pointed it out this morning in their "In the Papers" segment. Don't laugh. I like NY1 to listen to when I get ready for work in the morning. I mean, how else do I get my daily dose of violence, carneage, heartbreak, murder, rape and the fluff story?

Hot Tip

I just wanted to share my new recent passion - a question and answer site called Yahoo! Answers. I swear I have been so into that site!! What it is is a site in which you create a profile and then you go answer posted questions by the Y!A community and you can post questions yourself. As you interact with the site, you gain points which as you earn, get you to higher and higher levels within the site in which you get greater access to play around. In the higher levels you can rate questions and answers and participate more frequently. I believe they keep your participation limited in the lower levels because the darn thing is so addictive!! The questions are about everything you can think of - from computing and gaming and downloading to pets to romance to automotive queries. Personally, I tend to gravitate toward the moire personal questions. And the asker of the question can rate who has given the best answer and best answers give you about 10 points. They even link to your email so you can be notified when your questions are answered - and they tend to get answered pretty quickly - and also when you have received a best answer rating. Y!A has made me look forward to logging into my email everyday. Not only is it cool to see how many points you can get, but you also get that warm and fuzzy feeling when someone appreciates the time you pout into answering their questions. And that, my friend, is better than chocolate in my book!!

Just A Thought

Today I am cranky. I am in the mood for letting something out...

On the issue of Americans who are adamantly against gay people and gay marriage, let's be real for a second. What exactly is the problem? Because I don't buy the "it's against the bible" garbage because your hypocritical selves are doing so many other things that go against the doctrine of the bible. Nor does your argument that they are destroying society hold any water either. Gays aren't destroying society, WE ALL are destroying society. Perpetual hatred and torment of gays isn't making this a place where everyone is free. Period. If you want to call America free, then goddamnit, let people, let ALL people be free. Freedom isn't about your free choice to discriminate against whomever you choose - and I think people have fundamentally made that mistake here in the U.S. Freedom is free to be who you are, and if you can't deal with other people, then you are FREE TO GO. Now, personally I wouldn't want anyone to leave the country over such a matter as not being able to expand your horizons and opening your mind. It is sad that people are so unwilling to do so, and I know it's because they are told not to - just following some agenda that someone else is telling them. But I digress.

But what strikes me about all this is that I don't think that homophobes have anything substantially wrong with homosexuality other than their OWN shortcomings. Gays are a scapegoate for those that are shitty, insecure, unhappy people who feel they need someone to look down upon and tell themselves when they look in the mirror, "I am a little pissant, judgemental, approval whore but at least I'm not gay!!" And that is what gets them to step out of their doors and face the world. How pathetic homophobes are. They have some kind of defect about themselves they just can't get over so they try to put their hatred on gays rather than themselves. Because when you hate yourself, there is not much to live for.

So why don't you stop hating on gays and try working on yourselves - we'd all be better off for it.

Is Barack Obama Black Enough?

Uhhh....what the hell is that supposed to mean? Really, what the HELL is that trying to convey? What, is there a way that one acts to be "black"? Are there degrees of being black? And if so, why would he need to be MORE black in a racist country against blacks?

Oh I get it, so they figure that Obama will CERTAINLY get the black votes, so now they are trying to turn blacks against him by saying that he's not black enough, playing on black people's views of self identity. I see. So this is what it comes down to now. Absolutely NO trace of political value or affiliation, but rather Obama not being black enough and Hillary being a woman. I guess the Republican machine has tried to knock their political standpoints but know they won't win on that point because the country is sick of Republican bullshit, so they once again attack the candidates by something they cannot help about themselves, nor should it have anything to do with politics.

You know, the only thing that I like about the Republicans is that they give me so much to write about...

Fuckers.

Hospital As Stark Scary Death Box? Hardly

Well kids I spent the whole day today in the hospital waiting for my mother to get out of her triple bypass surgery. She is doing just fine now. But as I was sitting there in the waiting room, I had time to think - especially when the battery wend down on my laptop.

First thing I noticed is that the waiting room was nothing and I mean NOTHING like it is on TV and in the movies (goddamnit, duped again). There were two couches squeezed into a corner of a long hallway, edged out of the way of the passing meds, patients and lumbering hospital beds whizzing by. There was no actual room, there were no tissue boxes on nice end tables, hell we didn't even have a fucking water cooler. Nothing. It was pretty disappointing that the waiting room is not even really a room.

Also, the peple in the hospital looked really SICK. I mean, I know nobody wears makeup and has great hair in the hospital, but some of the patients I saw were really messed up. Hair all every which way, live spots, wrinkles, sallow faces, tubes all over the place, blinking and beeping, asleep, eating slowly, staring into space, watching TV... Duped again!! I had never seen such a sorry bunch of people in my whole life.

I won't even get into what the food looked like that they were feeding these sick people.

But with all this around me, I did realise again that the hospital was different than portrayed in Hollywood. It wasn't scary. There were warm toned tiles on the floor, the couches were warm toned too. Plants were everywhere you looked in the halls and lounge. There was no weird smell that I had always heard people speak of. I didn't feel like death was looming around every corner. It didn't seem over sanitized. I was taken aback by that. And the staff was very nice and informative, not cold and trying to run somewhere else rather than talk to you.

Granted I don't watch any of the popular hospital shows - god, the first and last one I watched was St. Elsewhere. Remember that? The only Hollywood hospitals I ever got was in movies - and in the movies it's a lot more graphic and scary. I guess that was my only frame of reference before sitting in the hospital today. And I have to say that I can't really bitch about the hospital like I do everything else I do here.

Besides. I don't have the energy to do so anyway - sitting in the hospital "waiting room" all day can wear you out!!

Tobacco Company Vs. The Drug Dealer

Now, we all know that tobacco is highly addictive, even more so than heroine. And it has been widely publicized that the tobacco companies have been adding MORE tobacco to their cigarettes, not less, even as they have paid out more and more money to smokers who have sued them. I even read in the New York Times that the tobacco industries stocks have gone up and continue to rise (perhaps, in my opinion because the state of our country is so FUCKED UP).

So why is it that the drug dealer on the corner is the one to go to jail for selling addictive drugs and the tobacco companies are not? Like I stated in my earlier post, it is partially because cigarettes cannot be made in your backyard, so these giant companies can make them and make a fortune on it. Cocaine, marijuana, heroine, meth, speed and ecstacy can all be manufactured relatively simply at home. An industry could not regulate it, thus not make billions on it so hey!! let's make them illegal because some fat bastard CAN'T make money on it. So there is the stark hypocracy of the all mighty dollar versus whether or not there really IS a "war on drugs", and the government is waging this war because they really, really care about you. (Insert snickering here.)

"War on drugs". Let's think about that for a second. What that is stating is that any drug that is illegal is being targeted by the law. And the legal drugs?

Alcohol - kills more people every day than probably all the other drugs, legal
Cigarettes - so fucking toxic, like Chris Rock says, it's killing people that don't even smoke!!
Sleeping Pills - addictive, psychologically dependent, legal
Antidepressants - they have convinced us all that we are depressed, so we need to not be depressed and buy this or that pill so we feel better - BULLSHIT
Caffeine - addictive, ruins your stomach, your nervous system, your heart, legal
Pain Killers - also highly addictive, psychologically dependent, legal
Asprin - the most abused drug in the whole country, we are told that it is safe, but it causes ulcers and other gastrointestinal problems, even death, people overdose ALL THE TIME, legal

I don't see the difference between cocaine and anything listed above. Nor heroine, nor marijuana.

So where's the war? The war they are fighting is against individual people or small groups cutting into their exclusive "addiction money". And in fact, the war is not really a fight. How can a drug dealer fight the system? We have been taught that he is breaking the law - what law? He is not forcing the drugs on anyone else like the ad campaigns by the medical/pharmaceutical companies, cola companies, cigarette branding/advertising, the USDA. The drug dealer is not subliminally making our children buy his drugs. The drug dealer is not in every store, in every neighborhood, ONLINE on every billboard. The drug dealer doesn't pretend to be anything other than what he is - trying to make money. Politics, medicine, religion and the law have all come together to mix into a nice hypocritical stew in which the little man is fucked. The only war that needs to be waged is the war on the lies....