Quick Hits Again

And here we go. . .

There should be some level of understanding of just how frightening it is for a small child to be separated and lost from their parents in a store.

Ok, hat hits:

Something has to be said, finally, about guys wearing golf hats with their glasses perched on the brim of the hat. For fuck's sake KNOCK IT OFF. No, you don't look cool, no you aren't hip looking. What you look like is a douchebag. See, the thing is, the glasses-on-the-hat thing is exactly like a woman picking out the right earrings. It's a piece of jewelry. I can almost imagine some jackass getting ready to go to the store (not golfing, mind you) and saying, "sure I look awesome with my nike golf hat, but what would make me look even better. . .wait! I know. Let me put my glasses right here on top. Man I'm awesome!" You're a dork, stop it.

Also, if you have a baseball hat, here's a couple of rules for you:
1. bend the brim. If you have a straight brim, you're an ass.
2. wear it straight. if the brim is offset, you're an ass.
3. no wearing yankee hats unless you're from new york. No exceptions. Or. . .you're an ass.

Have all the good chinese take-out places gone over to sushi? I can't find a good place to go. Panda Express has the worst noodles, so it's not an option. These things prey on my mind.

Why is it that the people shouting the loudest about the health care bill being 'unconstitutional' were also the ones trying to force children to pray in school which is almost the definition of unconstitutional?

There needs to be more chess on TV.

Legal or Not, that is THE question

I've been tossing around the relative merits of the Arizona Immigration Law in my head and have come to a few conclusions.

Ultimately, though, I have to say I'm in favor of it.

Now now, there's no need to yell and scream and make posters that say "racist" on them just yet.

Let's begin at the beginning, shall we?
There IS an illegal immigration problem. The KEY word being illegal. Now, I live in southern California and, unlike many of the hardcore 'wrong coast-ers', know and have known many an immigrant, both legal and illegal. I can say that, for the most part, they have been no more or less honest, upfront, hardworking and peaceful than any native citizen I've known. So, there's no internal hatred or distrust of those with slightly darker skin than I.

But, unfortunately, this issue of illegal immigration tends to devolve into the two vastly polarized camps of "they're all bad" or "you're all nazis." Once again, we've entered the land of "With me or against me."
Like most other rational people, I think that ILLEGAL should mean something. Perhaps following the rules and doing things the right way is. . .well. . .right. But what to do?

That doesn't mean I think that all immigrants are bad. Not at all. I've come up against the tiny-brained folk who say, emphatically, "they should go back where they came from", never once having the mental requisites to think that their ancestors once came from somewhere else to here. The United States is, and always will be, a work in progress.

But looking at the Arizona law, the language is not as inflammatory as the sign-holders would have you believe. After a much needed clarification addendum to the law, people can only be asked for their 'papers' if they do something wrong. Which, to be honest, is perfectly fine. If I do something wrong, I'm asked for my information, and I'm just fine with that. I won't cry harassment of 'bald men in glasses' because of it.

The clarification of the law states that 'papers' are a drivers' license, ID card, or legal permit to live and work in the US. And when you think about it, how often are you out and about and DON'T have your driver's license? If I don't have it, I get in trouble for driving, as will anyone in Arizona.

The big issue with the law comes down to human nature. That is, the problem of 'profiling.' You can't legislate someone's morality. If an Arizona cop sees someone of color and decides that they look illegal he could make an excuse, or "have sufficient reason," to check them out. This is an issue. But an issue, I think, that is much overblown, and I'll explain why.

Arizona, as with California, because of it's vicinity to Mexico has so many immigrants of the legal variety, that if you were to just start checking people because they looked mexican, then you'd never get anything else done. It's just not feasible to be as fascist as opponents of the law would have you believe. There's not enough time to do it nor is there the manpower to try to do something as silly as that. Logistically, it could not be done. Meaning, that the police, the vast majority ARE trying to do good, would have to actually do their job as specified by the law. Will there be abuse? Sure. But there's abuse everywhere and all through history. Failure to recognize that is asinine.


The LAW isn't the problem, what could be the problem is how it is enforced and implemented.

I'm fine with LEGAL immigration. Come on in, have a cookie. ILLEGAL immigration. . .not such a big fan.

Friday Quick Hits

Ok, another Friday Quick Hits.
(so it's Jennifer Love Hewitt, so what?)

Really? Seriously? Ok, this is going to rankle some people. It might even raise some cockles. But starting or ending an incredulous statement with "Really?" or "Seriously?" has got to end. Such as, "You're late again, seriously?" or "Really? A hat in the movie theatre?"
It was, at one time, slightly funny and had a certain level of clever shit-giving. But now, it's just overload. It's saturated commercials now, and that is a clear indicator that it's jumped the olde shark. So, stop it.

Emphasis. This may be a bit tangential, but here we go. I'm not sure where this inability to speak comes from, but let me vent, ok? When a person says, "Long Beach" the emphasis is supposed on the word "Long." As a speaker you are saying it's "LONG Beach" as opposed to "HUNTINGTON Beach" or "VENICE Beach." But I hear, all too often, the word that is supposed to be emphasized, due to it being the determining descriptive factor, ends up NOT being emphasized. I keep hearing "Long BEACH." As opposed to all the other places here in southern California that start with the word "Long." Oh, wait, there aren't any other places. It's a laziness in speech. Again, stop it.

Kobe Bryant. I am a basketball realist. I love the Lakers and always have. But I'm also a realist. (No, Kobe isn't as good as Jordan, stop saying it.) I can look at players and say "he's killing us" and STILL like him. Not myopic, I suppose. But a celtic writer on ESPN focused only on Kobe's bad shooting in game 7 and 4 turnovers to downgrade his performance. But, that's just idiotic.
If you actually watched the game, here's what actually happened. Kobe shot like shit. Horrible shooting percentage. But, he DID do other things. 15 rebounds is huge. Also his defense cannot be overlooked. Take a look back. When he was on Ray Allen, Kobe was running around and through picks and basically giving it his all. But since he's Kobe, it's ignored. And when he was on Rondo, who killed the Lakers by driving to the hole, Rondo was totally kept out of the lane. He made Rondo, in the half court set, irrelevant. Sounds critical to me. So if you look at the box score you see a bad shooting night and some rebounds. If you watched the game, you saw a guy giving it his all on both ends and being amazingly effective. Now if we can just get him to stop taking all those shots. . . .

(oh, just a note, he DID play most of the year with one, and sometimes two, totally fucked up fingers on his shooting hand. Nobody ever brings that up. Oh yeah, it's because it's Kobe. I'm not Kobe lover or hater, but give the dude some credit, geeez)

Your Vote Doesn't Count

Yes, your vote doesn't count. It doesn't matter. You're wasting your time.

Let me explain a bit.
Every four years there's the biggest sham in voting, called the presidential election. On the surface it's much like all the other elections we have. It possesses all the elements of state and local elections: accusations of lies, negative ads, a massive reliance upon fringe special interests. Yes, it's quite similar on those accounts.

Except except except. The presidential election, the MOST important election in the land, is the one that is LEAST likely to reflect the wishes of the nation. The reason for this? Why it's our old friend, The Electoral College. This fine friend of ours hails from the creation of this fine nation. And, to be fair, it was probably a good idea at the time. During this period, a majority of people not only had little access to a type of media (newspapers), but a great number of people could not read or write (as opposed to now, when people CAN read and write, but choose not to.)

In practice, here's how the Electoral College works. If the majority of voters in a state (the state: already an outmoded determiner of values and mores) vote for one candidate, then all of the votes for that state go to that candidate. Meaning, if, in 2008, you voted for McCain in California or New York, two of the most populous states, your vote meant NOTHING. And will mean nothing in the NEXT election as well.



Let's look at the 2008 election. Obama garnered 52.9% of the popular vote, but 67% of the electoral vote. So, the 7% that McCain lost by in the popular vote - a number of people slightly larger than the population of Los Angeles - actually ended up being a loss of 33%!

That's not to say McCain would have taken the country if there were no Electoral College, just that the votes of people would have actually mattered! The general election for President of the United States is certainly not proportional or representational on a fair level. You cannot argue that it is, in any way, an accurate depiction of the wishes of the voter.

Nebraska, strangely, has at least done something that no other state has had the guts to do, they have broken their 5 electoral votes down so that if a candidate wins 20% o the vote, he will receive one electoral vote. Far more fair than the current system.

And why would there be no outcry to rescind the article for the Electoral College? It's as simple as it is sad. Both parties KNOW they have states 'in hand.' The Democrats don't want to give up any of the votes from CA, NY, the northeast and the Republicans won't want to give up the bible belt and TX. Political self interest over what is RIGHT. What is FAIR. Slimy? Yes. Surprising? Nope.

Fans of the Electoral College claim that this system protects the 'rights of the smaller states.' Not really. It does nothing of the sort. You know what protects the rights of smaller states? It's called Congress. They have both proportional representation (the House of Representatives) and equal representation (the Senate).

The Electoral College just ensures that a state such as Ohio or Iowa or New Hampshire has more say over who the president will be than the states with the majority of citizens! If anything, the Electoral college makes my vote mean proportionally less than someone from a less populous state. Fair? I think not.

Electoral College. . . it's time to go. Your usefulness has passed. It won't happen, of course, because of political selfishness, but there is no doubt, the continuation of the Electoral College is a detriment to the country and makes a farce of the idea that every vote matters.

Because it doesn't.

A fond farwell

I've been doing some cleaning. That in itself probably requires a whole post unto itself, but that's beside the point. But in the rush to throw things away, I had to do something I am loathe to do.

Over the years I have accumulated stacks and stacks and, dare I say, reams of books. History, geography, my old how to speak German and Russian books. Things I have read and kept because. . .. well, because they're MINE. I feel that is important. I value knowledge a great deal. And I suppose part of me believes that if I get rid of the books (or worse, throw them away) then part of me gets dumber and I'll find myself watching midday judge shows.

But when cleaning I found that I had 5 full bags of books to get rid of. Each one, oddly, has a certain memory. From the US and Canada geography book to "For whom the bell tolls," each one carries a memory. Will these memories disappear? No, but getting rid of the books is like saying goodbye to a friend forever. "Goodbye The War North of Rome, it was nice to have met you, but you need to go away now." Cruel to be sure. I've never thought of myself as cruel.

And so bag after bag I took downstairs. I put them near the trash. Maybe I don't have the heart to throw them out. Maybe someone will come and take them and enjoy them and read them through and let the knowledge continue. I doubt it, but perhaps.

So I say a fond farewell to these lovely things; these depositories of information.

(Until, of course, I rescue them and take them to the library. I'm such a softie.)

More Quick Hits

From time to time, lets say once a week, I'm going to do some 'quick hits' on topics I have on my mind. So there.

1. Baby Names. For the love of god, stop with the silly names. First rule is DO NOT name your child after a city, state, or country. In fact, keep away from geographic terms altogether and we'll all be happier. Naming your child something like "Dylan" or "Hunter" is just a try for attention. Stop it. Australia has a law where you can't name your child something stupid like "Apple." Let's all take a cue from those wacky Southern Hemisphereians. Viva la Australia!

2. Metro Rail in LA. I'm a fan. Easy, pretty quick and I've take it to a few places where I probably wouldn't go due to the traffic problem we have here. For a person who did not grow up with effective public transportation as a feature of life, I've become a big fan.

3. The WPA. I say bring back the WPA. I'm no far right wacko, but would it kill the unemployed to do a little work for my money? Let's build some dams, pave some roads, clean some beaches, dig some ditches and anything else that needs to be done. At some point in our recent history we lost our "pride in working" gene. There are people who CAN work that just sit home and get a check. Perhaps not a majority, but enough. Why not use that as labor to do something that might be menial, if we find them unfit for real work, such as picking up trash on the side of the road or at the beach? Could even limit it to 24 hrs a week so that it's not too harsh on those collecting. Easy. And maybe it helps people have pride in themselves and not their ability to watch TMZ.

4. I'm writing a play. Not a huge topic, to be sure. But a while ago, lets say a year, I actually thought to myself, "I should have written a book by now." Not sure why I thought that. Not sure why anyone else would expect me to have written a book by now. Lord knows I don't have, and never have had I'm happy to add, the stick-to it-ivness to complete something as long as a book. I suppose at some point I should have an idea that could hold together long enough to be a book.

True, I DID write a 75 page "History of Baseball in San Antonio" which, if expanded could be a book-ish kind of creature. But, alas, it is not.
But "the play's the thing", as someone more famous than I once wrote.
I used to write quite a bit. Not exactly prolific, but quite a lot of nonsense came from this tiny brain. I then went into a long period of not writing, during which ideas came, but nothing stuck.
I wrote the "History of Baseball in San Antonio" which I thought was brilliant, funny, and clever. It was received with a combination of silence and indifference. Somewhat unnerving. That's the kind of thing that can, and did, make me not want to do ANY writing.

But underneath it all was a small idea about a play. I then started seeing a few plays and was inspired by the writing and found myself coming up with some funny alternative dialog for them. Why not? I asked myself. And so, slowly and with caution, I've been collecting scenes and conversations and personalities of my characters. The pressure was minimal until I started telling people what I was doing. Now the pressure is on. Which is kind of exciting.
I haven't had to write since college, when deadlines helped me focus and work. Let's hope this will work now. (I now will wait for the flood of goodwill. . . .waiting . . . .waiting. . . WAITING .. . fuck)

Unaffiliated

Last Tuesday there was an election. Not that everyone knew it or really bothered to join in the ol' democratic process.

As I stood in the poolroom waiting for them to confirm that I'm me I was told, "you're listed as non-partisan, do you want to switch?" Well. . .honestly. I didn't know what to say. There I was, still somewhat sleepy and being asked if I wanted to, right then and there, select a political party to hitch myself to. What to say?

I'm one of those people, I suspect, that makes up a great majority of the American public. I'm someone who has elected to keep an open mind. I might lean to the conservative side a bit, but I demure from saying I'm a "republican." I have voted for democrats, but cannot throw my lot in with the democratic party.

Does that make me abnormal? A freak? Someone deserving of scorn? There has come to be a sort of dividing line in recent political culture. It's the "With us or against us" posture. If I don't completely denounce Obama and all he does, I'm an "Obama apologist" and a "lefty liberal." If I believe, as I do, that Bush was not a bad guy I may get sneers and have the pleasure of being thought of as ignorant and "not knowing the facts."

The world is, grandly, NOT black and white. I am not A 'conservative' nor am I A 'liberal.' I have some views which may be conservative in nature and some that may be liberal in nature. By saying that I mean 'conservative' and 'liberal' in the actual meanings of those words, not the venom spewing way the current myopic political wags mean it.

So, I stood there staring down at the junior college girl behind the polling table. Do I want to switch?

I prefer to use my own judgment and reasoning, not a political parties'.

No, I don't want to switch.

Even one will get you. . .

You are a nut if you:
Don't believe we landed on the moon
Think Obama is a closet muslim
Think Bush orchestrated the 9/11 attacks
Think Nostradamus could see the future
Are a conspiracy theorist

Onion Skin

I've become more and more disappointed in the thinness of skin that people have these days. You can't say or think or even look at anything without someone getting amazingly angry about it.

If someone says "I dislike Politician A's position on this subject" then the bitterness and vitriol spews forth with the fury of someone who's just experienced a physical assault upon themselves. Guess what? They haven't. The rational, reasonable, reaction is to say, "well, I disagree with that person, but that's ok." At the very worst, the reaction should be, "I see no reason to give credence to that opinion, as I feel it is silly." But, instead, we have people up in arms, screaming from the highest bough that this OPINION is not only wrong, but a danger!

Recently, Sir Paul McCartney made a silly/stupid statement about George Bush not even knowing what a library was. I'm a huge Paul fan. Great music. Does a lot of good things. He made a dumb statement, but that's HIS RIGHT. It's ok. God willing, we'll all live. I don't share his belief and feel he was saying it as a popular/bad joke.

But at least one person I work with was furious! Enraged! "How dare he!!! He's not even an American." (Of course, the person who was furious didn't vote in the last election, so there has to be a bit of hypocracy or irony or something along those lines.) Thing is, who cares what he says? So he didn't like Bush. . .and that's a crime now? I don't care. I'll still continue to enjoy the music. And so should you. (If you are predisposed to enjoy it at all.)

My point (a point, that would be nice) is that we need to calm the hell down and if someone has a different opinion than ourselves, that's a good thing. It's fantastic. I don't want everyone to be like me or you or the person I work with. I hate 80's music. My girlfriend loves it.

And I wouldn't want it any other way.

In the beginning there was. . . . Me

Yes yes, all of your have been wondering and hoping and fretting and wringing your collective hands in anticipation of the inconsequential ramblings of one Mike Heath.

Well, here you go.

I don't have tons to say, but will say it loud and with a slight lisp. Not because I have one, but because I think it might carry more weight.

What I will be doing:
I will NOT be typing things about how I ate a snickers bar and other bs.
I WILL be typing about my semi-confused thoughts about life, politics, sports, love, and pretty much things that annoy me or make me happy.

Quick hits:
--"Walk off" hits in baseball. Ok, stop with that term. Nobody is "walking." They jog. Was there something inherently wrong with saying "game winning hit"? We NEED to say "walk off single"? I say no. They are "jog off hits." Boo.
--"Medical pot." A joke. Sorry, a big fucking joke. There might be a small number of people who genuinely need the certain chemicals in pot to be inhaled. But the rest of the people who have the 'medical' card are, quite simply, losers. It's a farce. You want to treat it like an actual medical treatment, fine. . . . do it like chemotherapy. You do it, under direct supervision of a doctor, at an office, with someone to drive you home, or you don't go. Simple.