Pain is only temporary!!!

In light of the fact that I lost none of the weight that I planned on losing in time for neither an old high school friends wedding or my upcoming engagement pictures, I've decided to at least make a solid effort on slimming down in time for my wedding. That gives me about 7 or 8 months to stop being a fat ass. I don't think I'm huge but this body fat calculator tells me I'm obese. What a crock of shit. So here it goes. I've made several firm decisions to stop eating so much and exercise more but I almost always lose focus and help myself to some more cheese. You know why? Because cheese if fucking delicious. Anywho, I thought maybe if I put this in a blog it would help me focus better. Let's see how it goes.

We takes the money!!!

Working for a bank has given me some insight in to the current banking crisis that, unfortunately, is more bad news than good. On the bright side, I have the pleasure of being employed at an institution that has not required any TARP funds in order to stay afloat. We have suffered losses, obviously, but nothing to the extent where the business is suddenly in trouble.

It seems to me that the largest banks are the ones that have been hit the hardest and have needed bailouts the most. Now, if about 95 banks have failed as I read recently then a good chunk of them must have been small but most of this money has gone to financial institutions that have risen above the pack. Why is that? Why would the supposed "cream of the crop" be hurting the most? I suppose there are a number of reasons to account for that whether it's blatantly over-the-top executive pay, risky investments, poor accounting practices, or whatever. But these are the guys who have gobbled up most of the government money and, if this report is true, have not learned a thing from their recent struggles. Or perhaps they did learn. Maybe they learned that every time they fuck up the government will come and throw them another fist full of cash.

Where all banks are affected by this is by the FDIC insurance. This is the funding that makes sure we, the customers, don't lose our money when a bank goes under. Prior to the banking crisis the bank I work for had to pay something in the thousands for insurance. After the crisis we were hit with a special assessment fee that hit us up for a cool $2.5 million. Very soon they are getting together to find out about an additional assessment that could hit us up for about $10 million. I do a lot of peer analysis for the company and I've seen that these fees have knocked net income figures for a number of banks in to the red, taking what looked like a promising year in a time of trouble and change and wiping it out.

So here's the way I see it: we, the smaller banks are busy propping up all the failed banks and a good number of the big boys. The huge banks of the world get government cash injected which they are using to do everything but what they were told to do. These banks then go and buy out the little guys who are getting crippled by increased insurance costs. These banks then continue sketchy investment practices, albeit with less inclination to lend to their customers. They eventually fail again, people get laid off, government throws more money at them.

So who wins in all of this? The executives, obviously.

Why does it seem that everything is set up for the guys at the top? And when is somebody up there going to do something about it?

Ineptitude Defined

It's a sad state of affairs when you can consider your team dead with 81% of the season yet to be played, but I don't think there's any mistake that the 2009 Washington Redskins are finished. You take a team that looked ill-prepared in Week 1 against he Giants, looked pathetic in a 9-7 victory over the awful St Louis Rams, and then go on to allow the Detroit Lions to break their 19 game losing streak and you know that you are dealing with a far below mediocre team.

Michael Wilbon sums it up best here (keep in mind that this article came out before the game):

"We're talking about a franchise that undermined its starting quarterback over the summer, a franchise that sued financially strapped ticket holders during a recession while swearing to the longest waiting list for season tickets in professional sports, a franchise whose fans resorted to booing during and after the very first home game of the season, even though it was a victory."

The Redskins seem to allow themselves to be defined by non-football related things. For example, I heard all about how Dan Snyder's personal buddy, Tom Cruise, was chatting it up with the coaches and things like that. Who gives a fuck??!! Instead of celebrity appearances and throwing big wads of cash at every big name free agent, why not play some fucking football?

I know I've beaten up on Zorn and Campbell alot recently, but the problems with this team are deeeep. There's one solution to this: executive overhaul. Snyder obviously is not going anywhere. What he needs to do is get rid of his lackey, Vinny Cerrato, and find someone who actually knows how to assess talent. He needs to also stop this money thing he has going on. Selfish players on the downside of their career with big names come to Washington to get paid. They don't come here to win.

Until the guys in suits get a clue on how to assess players and put together a team, not a collection of individual talent, they are destined to spend their time in the basement of the NFC East.

"I'm Sure I Used To Be So Free"

Lost of new music for me to check out, kind of happy about that. We have new Pearl Jam, Chevelle, Muse, Mute Math, Collective Soul, and Mos Def. I might be forgetting a couple. The only one I've really been able to give a good listen to is Pearl Jam which seems to get better each time I listen to it. I'm curious to see how Muse is, though. A buddy of mine turned me on to them a few years ago when he picked me up on the way to the bar. I heard this bad ass guitar riff and asked who it was and he explained that someone had told him to check them out after hearing he was in to Radiohead. The Muse-Radiohead comparison is a popular one but I think their similarities are getting fewer with each successive album.

It turns out that the riff that introduced me to Muse was from "Stockholm Syndrome" which continues to be one of my favorites. That prompted me to get my hands on the album, Absolution, and I definitely was not disappointed. Songs like "Hysteria", "Time is Running Out" and "Apocalypse Please" keep me listening to the album again and again and what's great is that they, as well as just about every song on the album, are all different styles. If there's one thing that Muse is not lacking, it's diversity.

If i thought that album was good then I was very surprised to find that the one that was released prior to it, Origin of Symmetry, was just as good.

"New Born", super awesome.

"Bliss", awesome.

"Hyper Music", also awesome.

"Plug In Baby", awesome again.

And "Citizen Erased", well, that's the whole reason I wrote this post. I needed an excuse to post one of the most intense songs ever written. Hopefully you enjoy it as much as I do:



...I'll get to their last two albums later.

Dos Aguila Por Favor!!!

At some point I want to put up a post detailing the best week of my life. In April 2009 I visited my then-girlfriend/now-fiance in the country of Colombia where she was teaching on a Fulbright scholarship at a university in the city of Medellin. It was my first real time out of the states (Canada and Cancun do not count) and it was amazing.

The country is gorgeous, the people are friendly, I turned 30, and we got engaged. It's a shame that the country suffers from such a bad reputation but, on the other hand, fear of drug lords and murder keep the number of wandering gringo at a minimum. My only wish is that I had taken more pictures. I guess that means I will just have to go back someday...

Hail to the Redsk.... who am I kidding

This is going to be a long long year for the Washington Redskins and me. I had the pleasure of being able to attend the first game of the season with a buddy of mine which has become something of a yearly tradition. He's a Giants fan and his family has season tickets and so every year for that one game in the Meadowlands we trek out to New Jersey so that I can witness my Redskins get their asses handed to them in person. Except this game. That one was a joke. It was late in the season and neither team was relevant. No one was in the stands. It was fucking cold. People were making snow men. But Bruce Smith did manage to break the sack record. That made it all worth it.

Anyway...

That first game of the season was awful. The 'Skins game plan was to make Eli Manning beat them while they dedicated themselves to containing the running game. Well, long story short, the Redskins played like shit and Eli took what we gave him. Sure, the margin was 6 points, but of our two touchdowns, one was on a fake field goal and the last was in garbage time on a glorious diving catch by the dashing Chris Cooley. Needless to say, things were not looking good for a Redskins team looking for some success.

Luckily, the hapless St Louis Rams were the next opponent and they were coming off of an embarrassment at the hands of the Seahawks. The end of the day did end up being a victory for the fightin' Redskins, but I am far from happy. This team is awful. Three different times in the red zone resulted in 3 field goals. They do not have a single legit touchdown 2 games in to the season. It is looking like the defense will be solid, but the offense has nothing.

I have been one of Jason Campbell's biggest supporters so far, but at this point I don't know how much longer I can stay in his corner. He seems to play just well enough to not cause the team to fall apart. Last week in New York, all he had to do was step up in the pocket to avoid the strip and TD scamper from Umeniyora. He's starting to look better suited for backup work, a guy that won't throw away the game in a pinch, than a lock and load starter. Maybe I am being too hard on him. Last year I kept making excuses that the play calling never allowed him to stretch the field but I was able to witness first hand him missing Moss on a deep pass where he seriously overthrew. Make that play and don't allow yourself to be stripped on the other big one and you have a completely different ballgame.

It's looking more and more like Portis is in the twilight of his career. He's a small package who plays like a much bigger back and it's now obvious that all the abuse has taken it's toll.

All I can say is thank god for Chris Cooley and the woman who loves him.






Edit: Almost forgot, it appears that they may have lost their starting RG Randy Thomas for the season. At one point the Redskins had one of the most dominant offensive lines in the league. Nowadays their lucky to have 5 guys in uniform just to make it through the game.

The Original Birther

This Orly Taitz bird is a riot. Why they even give her airtime is beyond me but it might be doing her opponents a favor by showing that he's unhinged.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

This whole birth certificate thing is really quite silly. It was debunked a long time ago and the people who still believe can't even agree on what story to go with. Obama's a US citizen. End of story.

Renaissance Man

Long time no post. What's up with that? Oh that's right, I've been working. Slave to the man, that's me. I'm on my 4th cup of coffee and it's been a rough week but luckily I have the smooth sounds of one Kamaal Ibn John Fareed to help me get by.

Kamaal, or Q-Tip as the kids call him, came to fame as a part of the best, in my opinion, hip hop/rap/whatever group of all time, A Tribe Called Quest. That may not be the best praise in the world since I consider most rap to be garbage.

Fifty Cents? Garbage and borderline retarded.

Tea Pane? Pile of crap and I couldn't name a song he "sings".

Wayne Jr.? Who the hell is that?

Quite honestly I can't really think of any other rappers and I have no idea who's even current right now. I could care less. At one point I did go through a rap phase where I was into DMX, Ja Rule and maybe a couple others I'm forgetting. DMX I can still listen to now and then because at one point he got to co-star with the one and only Steven Seagal, but Ja Rule has since been exposed as a sucka MC.

But all through late high school and college it all I had one cd that has always been part of my collection, The Low End Theory. Since then I've since latched on to Midnight Marauders
but no matter what Tribe has always seemed kind of special and able to cross the genre.

Which brings me to Q-Tip. For shits and giggles I picked up a solo album he put out last year, The Renaissance. I can't even really explain it all. There's just something so chill about the whole thing, and Tribe in general, that makes it really easy to listen to. It's the type of disk you can throw in and before you know it you're head's bobbing and you've got a smile on your face. Want to get some things done at the office and mellow out after the boss has been riding your back all day? Listen to this album. Want to keep the buzz alive after last call? Crap open a nice cold PBR (can, if possible) and let Q-Tip tell you what's up. Want to rock out a set of squats at the gym? Um... don't listen to this album. Instead you might want to listen to some Slipknot and then punch a girl in the face.

Can I just say that at some point I hope to someday have a job reviewing albums at Rolling Stone? Looking back I see they gave Midnight Marauders 2 stars. Two fricken stars!!! This is the same magazine that heralded Franz Ferdinand as the next coming of Led Zeppelin and voted Jack White as one of the best guitarists of all time! Seriously people?

You stay classy

Joe Wilson is a douchebag.

Yeah, this guy


Not only was he a douchebag for heckling the Pres last night, some of his fellow Republicans think he's a douchebag as well. Sure, McCain doesn't actually say "Joe Wilson is a douchebag", but I'll just go ahead and say that's what he was really thinking.

But he's not the only douchebag. There were a number of Republicans that also joined in the douchebagery. There were two types: the ones who spent their time playing on cell phones and the ones waving around their bill. You know would happen if I was in a business meeting and I started playing with my phone? I'd get my ass handed to me. And as for the others, they look like the doofus who was waving around her birth certificate at the town hall meeting. You are now in the minority because the majority of USA voters thought you sucked. You should have come up with a meeting or two a couple years ago. So stop spouting to every media outlet you can find about how you know what the "American people" really want. If that was the case you wouldn't be staring at Nancy Pelosi hopping up to start the applause every 30 seconds.

That being said, good speech. I normally can't stand these things. This one I could actually handle. All I can say is Obama had better be ready to back up alot of his claims. There are two in particular that he best be bringing his A game. First, if he doesn't stay true to his claim about not signing any bill that doesn't have all the costs covered, this could be one of those signature administration wreckers along the lines of "No new taxes" and "I did not have sexual relations with that girl". Second, there was a lot of tough talk against the Republicans. They have been running roughshod all over him so far, and if it turns out that it was as all talk, then it's curtains for this guy. The USA citizens don't want to be run by a pussy. So man up and be true to your word, Barry. Your job is at stake.

edit: I forgot to mention that the illegal immigration issue has already been debunked.

The czars are coming! The czars are coming!

I won't waste too much time with this. Glenn Beck's latest issue is the number of "czars" that Obama has in his staff. His argument is, shouldn't the public be concerned with the number (he quotes about 37) of high office positions that are manned by individuals who are appointed by Obama and do not have to go through the vetting process.

He's right, that is a cause for concern. However, what he's leaving out is that he is a lying sack of shit. Most of the "czar" positions are not officially titled "czars". What reality tells is that there are a number of officials with long titles that are being nicknamed by the old Russian title. Not only that, these positions have been around for a long long time. Not 8 months long. But years and years long. God of conservatism, Ronald Reagan, even appointed a couple in his day.

...That's strange. It really seems like there is a lot of shit that has been going on for a very long time but only now do a number of conservative critics have problems with it all. It's almost a coincidence.

You have reputable sites like Heritage Foundation claiming that the czars are Obama's personal way of getting around the separation of powers. You have guys like Karl Rove complaining about Obama's expansion of power by using czars. That is especially hilarious as Rove was nothing if not a czar himself who's one job seemed to be to expand the power of Bush and attack his critics.

I have to say it was really entertaining to see Beck invite his good pal Michelle Malkin on to his show yesterday and talk about this. Anything that makes the time go by faster at Planet Fitness is a godsend.

"Find me a Steelers fan who's an actual fucking steelworker, and I'll put a unicorn in your driveway."

A good buddy, and soon to be best man, of mine recently turned my attention to the glorified blog world of Deadspin. They've been working on a pretty friggin hilarious serious called "Why Your Team Sucks". They've all been good but the one that takes the cake is the one for the Steelers. Read and enjoy.

"I threw a second punch and my fist ended up in his mouth"

I report, you decide. Neil Cavuto reports and tries his darndest to turn this guy in to a hero.



What do I think? Umm... a debate about healthcare should definitely NOT turn in to a punch and biting battle? Maybe?

Save the children!!

The audacity of people is sickening sometimes. I just found that the sick communist socialist Marxist FREAK in the oval office is planning on giving a speech to the children of this once-proud nation. So, not only do WE THE PEOPLE have to listen to this clown's rhetoric day after day he is now trying to bypass the buffer we provide and invade the children right in the spawning ground of liberal indoctrination, the public school system!

The Hitler-wannabe is currently trying to make it sound like he wants to encourage children to "work hard" and "stay in school" but if anyone believes that nonsense then they don't count anyway. It doesn't take a genius to realize that he will be pushing his commie agenda where minds are most impressionable.

When George HW Bush and Ronald Reagan addressed the schools in their time, that was a time to be proud of. When our children accompanied us to the Town Hall meetings bearing signs reading, "Don't kill my Grandma!", that was patriotism. But this... "message" the messiah wishes to send to the children is unwanted! Hopefully those districts in great states like Texas who are refusing to participate in this message will inspire others to do the same. The people have spoken!

...........?!?

What. The. Fuck.

I love my team but sometimes I swear to God I have my doubts about whether or not they are run by the antichrist.

World on Fire

So when I am not obsessing about politics it appears that I obsess about music. I'm proud to admit that I love me some Sarah McLachlan and this song has been stuck in my head for months. I had no idea that the video was so sappy, though. So watch it and then give some money to Africa. Or buy a PS3. One of my buddies told me during last nights fantasy football draft that the price was dropping.




While I'm at it, here's some more Sarah




Sarah McLachlan - Possession (Official Music Video) - Click here for another funny movie.

"Now who's the dragon at my door?"

Big Wreck! (and just some plain old Thornley)