Presidential Endorsement

SynFlux and Louis James, after careful thought and analysis, are officially endorsing Hillary Rodham Clinton for U.S. President in 2008.

Donate money to her campaign by clicking here!

Learn more about her and volunteer for her campaign by clicking here!

Go Team Hillary!

(Of course I may change my mind, so stay sharp Hill!)

CNN + YouTube + GOP = LAME!

Wow, this GOP debate on CNN sucks. There are far too many stupid questions from stupid people via YouTube. The star of this “debate” is YouTube, not the presidential election, the candidates, or the issues. The pure banality of watching the candidates answers questions about such minor issues like gun control, capital punishment, and abortion, — state and judicial issues to boot — while ignoring the major issues of foreign policy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the national and global economies is sickening and embarrassing.

Oh wait here’s a the first foreign policy question, about 90 minutes in, let’s listen . . .

. . . okay it’s 9:45pm now as I return to this blog entry. The foreign policy question went nowhere. Not much has improved in the CNN GOP debate. None of these candidates — with the possible exception of Giuliani — seem to have half as much intelligence as any of the Democratic party’s candidates. Also, there are commercial breaks during this debate? I don’t seem to recall that there where any commercial breaks during CNN’s last DNC debate. This is a real joke and a new low for CNN.

Oh now they are talking about gays in the military, another major national issue. It’s great to watch Anderson Cooper — who is actually gay — grilling the candidates about the issue. I bet this goes on for a long time.

Great, Mitt evoked Regan in an answer to a question regarding the nation debt. Oops! AC didn’t even call him out on it. Damn this is sad. This debate has not even touched the issue of heath care costs and health insurance in America. What is going on here? What is this debate’s intent? It feels like a huge ad for YouTube. CNN does not have the facilities to gather questions from Americans via video? Of course it does. So why call in YouTube? This whole thing is very odd.

I think the frequent choruses of “boos” from the audience say it all.

Well now it’s over, praise Lord. They never got to the health care issue. The GOP, whoever they pick, is going to be creamed by whoever the Democrats pick.

None of these topics were mentioned at all in the debate: America’s energy policy, health care in America, the war in Afghanistan, the Iranian nuclear situation, education in America, jobs in America, the mortgage crisis, global economics, global warming, the middle east peace process, the Pakistani political situation.

Generation L

At work this is typically the slow time, between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. I try to spend it on personal projects and getting the business administrative stuff all locked up. But almost every year I wind up getting very little done. I forward the office line to me cellphone, which I can also check email on. I go in when I have to. I know it’s a telecommute world these days, by I still feel guilty staying at home. Plus, video editing and encoding cannot really be done remotely, at least not at broadcast quality levels. I have at least three personal videos I should be editing. And then there’s the screenplay that rarely gets pushed along forward. I guess I’m kinda lazy. I’ll do the marathon edit session for a paying client — 36 hours straight is my record — but it can be so hard to push myself for myself. I write this from my bedroom, on my bed, iPod on, latop resting on my legs. All the while the tasks list in Outlook cries for attention. I dread the email that will call me out of this room and put me on the PATH train to the studio. I dread that the flashing light on my cellphone will change from green to orange, notifying I have a new voicemail. I’m like a heroin addict without the heroin. And I need to go to the DMV to boot. That was today’s reason to stay home. Half the business day is gone. But the sunlight is streaming through the window and onto the bed. My dog Holly keeps shifting her spot on the bed so she’s in the light. Our bodies are tending to stay at rest. There’s money in the bank to last a good long time if I spend wisely, but I still feel like I am on the verge of going broke. I fear I’ll never be hired for another paying project again. I don’t think I’ll ever know what comfort and security is no matter what the bank statements tell me. Why can’t I enjoy myself? I crave days like this one when I am stuck in the suite on a session with a tricky client. Now I’ve got one and I cannot fulfill the opportunity of this new day.

POTUUSOI?

George W. Bush, President of The Un-united States of Iraq

Apparently Bush cares more about the citizens of Iraq than America. His record shows he continues to divert American tax dollars toward improving the lives of Iraqi citizens, while cutting funding and proposals to increase funding of domestic programs geared toward improving the lives of American citizens. I personally applaud the U.S. Senate for recently stepping in to circumvent this behavior. On Thursday night, during the Democratic party’s debate held on CNN, we heard Joe Biden say that his father used to say (paraphrasing), “You don’t need to tell me what your values are, show me your budget and I’ll figure out what your values are on my own.” Bush scores low when held to this metric, hypocrisy revealed.

All evidence of recent history indicates that no amount of U.S. money and military will bring the Iraqi people and its government to ever develop the desire to create a better Iraqi nation. The U.S. cannot force its will upon the unwilling. There is neither a military solution nor a political solution to the troubles that Iraq faces. There is simply no external solution for Iraq’s problems. Change will only come from within, if at all. Iraq is destined for a horrific and protracted period of collapse and failure that is the only path that may lead it to a better state.

Apple and Windows

Sure, a new Macintosh can run Windows via Parallels Desktop, but the fine print says: “Requires Windows or other operating system (not included)”.

Wipeout!

I was run over by a dog. The dog was off its leash and running full speed down the sidewalk as I was rapidly descending the stairs of my stoop. I was taking Holly (my dog) out, and the other dog was going for her. The dog and I didn’t see each other, and the dog’s skull crashed into my right knee while in mid air before I had put it down. I lost balance, fell, and rolled over on my back and into the minivan parked on the side of the street. My knee kinda hurts, and I’m sure it will be bruised tomorrow. My right hip, which I fell on, is gonna be bruised too I bet. The dog seemed okay, a little stunned perhaps. Holly was fine. The minivan sustained no damage. The irony is that I had just finished a ride on my motorcycle and had been wearing “armored” pants minutes earlier.

Amber Lee & Amina Sade

Amber Lee Ettinger & Amina Sade at 58 Gallery for Hala Vintage:

Music: “Sister Caroline” by Pillbox, available on iTunes.

Rev. Donald Spitz leaves a comment!

Last night I wrote a blog entry about abortion, see below. Much to my surprise and delight, I received a comment on it by none other than the infamous Rev. Donald Spitz! Spitz is the Commander in Chief of the Army of God, a pro-life terrorist organization that advocates the use of deadly force against all those involved in the practice of abortion. (Click his name in his comment below to see the Army of God website.) On a good day, I’ll get ten hits on this blog. How the hell SynFlux got on Spitz’s radar I’ll never know! I must be doing something right if I got this freak’s attention!! I hope he doesn’t shoot me!!! Or bomb me, or send me fake anthrax by mail or FedEx.

Kids = CO2

Reduce your carbon profile by not having children!

I am sick and tired of all these eco-friendly yuppies running around, driving their Priuses, recycling their wine bottles, all while they insist on having children. What hypocrites! Children are the single most toxic thing that two human beings can produce. All these kids are going to want cars, shelter, and hot running water: kids are energy-hungry little fossil-fuel consumers. Some of them are going to even want more than one SUV when they get older. The last thing this world needs is more human beings. If you are really serious about being green, don’t have children. In fact, committing suicide is the greenest thing you can do. Lights out for you means lights out in your home too. Be green, be dead.

Abortion

Hey, it’s one year to the presidential elections! The abortion issue is coming up everywhere. People want to choose a candidate that fits their view(s) on abortion. A lot of people make this their number one issue in choosing a candidate. That’s just crazy! There are so many other issues that are far more important. And more issues that the President has direct control of. See that’s the thing, the President has no power to make abortion illegal. All he/she can do is appoint judges to the Supreme Court that he/she feels would vote for or against making abortion illegal if the vote were to come before the Supreme Court again. And that’s a big if. Huge. See the Supreme Court made a ruling, Roe v. Wade, that makes it a violation of the U.S. Constitution (i.e. makes it illegal) to pass a law at either the state or federal level that would make abortion illegal. So to change this, or “overturn” it, this is what would need to happen:

A jurisdiction would have to manage to pass an unconstitutional law making abortion illegal. This is extremely hard to do, if not impossible and illegal. But for argument’s sake, let’s say it happens. A woman would then have to get an abortion. She would then have to be arrested by the authorities in this jurisdiction for this illegal abortion. She would then need to defend her right to have an abortion in a court trial. She would have to lose her case. This would be an extremely hard case to lose with Roe v. Wade existing as it does. She would then have to appeal her case all the way up and through the state and federal courts, losing all the way. The Supreme Court would have to decide to hear her case. It would then need to ignore Roe v. Wade and uphold the decisions of the all the lower courts and make a decision based on the wording of the U.S. Constitution that would declare that abortions are illegal and unconstitutional.

In the Supreme Court, there is no formal overturning process beyond the usual process of hearing a case and making a ruling. Roe v. Wade cannot be tried and decided again. That would be double jeopardy, which is illegal under U.S. law. Roe v. Wade ran out its appeal process, made it to the highest court in the U.S., a ruling was made, and the buck stops there. The Supreme Court, like most courts, follows the principle of stare decisis, which means it makes its decisions consistent with previous decisions of the Court, or lower courts, irrespective of who may currently sit on the bench of the Court. It’s what’s called legal precedence, which we’ve all heard of. It’s designed to have court cases tried from the perspective of the rule of law, not from the perspective of personal opinion or whimsy. So even if you fill the Supreme Court with judges morally opposed to abortion, the Court could not ethically ignore the decision of Roe v. Wade. To come up with a compelling argument against Roe v. Wade that remains both constitutional and legally ethical is almost impossible.

See how hard this is?

If you are against abortion, don’t have an abortion.

If you are against gay marriage, don’t marry someone of your gender.

If you are against stem-cell research, don’t include stem-cells in your research.

See how it works?

More motorcycle stuff

I put stiffer fork springs and a new Zero Gravity Double Bubble windshield on my motorcycle. Big improvement in handling at speed. Much more stable. Better in the wind too. Also noticed that a tight fitting motorcycle jacket is essential. If your jacket gets blown around by the wind, you definitely feel that you and the bike are being blown around. A well fitting jacket makes it feel like you are slicing through the wind, which is what you are actually doing. The wind can mess with you, don’t get me wrong, but you sure don’t want to exaggerate it’s effects. The front fork upgrade has made such an improvement on the bike I now want to upgrade the rear shock too. This costs more than a front fork upgrade. I am worried that once I spend the time and money to get everything just so, that’s when I’ll decide to upgrade to an entirely new bike altogether with a larger engine. But right now I am not lusting for more speed or acceleration. Just better handling at highway speeds and in the wind. Hopefully these suspension upgrades will give me this, and keep me from getting a bike with triple the horsepower.