Listening To You

Well as it turns out we’re blogging hard core today. Awesome.

First things first… we really enjoyed this article from Fortune from a few weeks back which puts the facts before the BS that comes out of DC. For instance, “Whose Medicare prescription drug plan was bigger? (a) the one proposed by Al Gore in the 2000 campaign or (b) George W. Bush's, enacted in 2003 and now being rolled out.” The answer? B… W’s plan. And this fact, “What's more, two-thirds of stock market wealth is held by 5% of the population.” That’s right… if you owe stock, in all likelihood you’re at the mercy of those 5%. We call that “The Flaws of Capitalism”.

Awesome. Just awesome. Seriously, can we all just stop supporting the White House at this point (and basically I’m looking at the state of Texas and the rich CEOs right now)? I mean at what point to people just get so fed up with them that they demand they leave? NSA has probably been collecting information on your phone calls. And Mr. President… how is a program like this enhance our freedom? How does this increase my liberty? Why don’t you just go back to Crawford, accept the fact that not only are you one of the three worst Presidents of all time (and I know history could move him into the ten worst) and been a complete disaster. Go home… stop ruining this country and the freedoms we have. And stop putting Supreme Court Justices that want to take our individual liberties away and give them to the executive.

Basically this is the deal… they aren’t listening to what your saying (or at least that’s what they say) but they are collecting information on your calls just because you MAY be a terrorists. Of course this is a load of bullshit. But hey, whatever. Maybe we can just wipe the first amendment off the book and just move on with it all. Just give everyone what they want… a bizarre dictatorship that is more Stalin Russia than anything else yet we have ‘free’ elections between two parties that are more interested in money and their egos than your well being. And oh yeah, American Idol voting. Gots to have your American Idol voting.

When will the paranoia end? Will someone try to answer this question? Seriously, when will it end? When are we going to stop being afraid of everything? When will we start to realize that the terrorists aren’t an excuse to take away our civil liberties? Will it be when we have nothing? When we really are living under a full blown police state? Don’t be fooled by the terrorism talk, programs like this may catch a terrorist or two, though that is unlikely. And more importantly, it won’t stop terrorism. Programs like this won’t stop terrorism from being a threat, it’s sort of like using toothpaste to fix a leek in the Hoover Dam.

And why does the President that prides himself on freedom and liberty allow this to go on? And why is it when he’s asked this he’ll make some stupid comment that makes no sense and nothing will change. He love liberty so much, he’s will to take your liberty away. Go figure. Sort of like the dude that loved John Lennon so much, he killed him. That’s George Bush, he’s the Mark David Chapman of politics.

For all the love that the Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, the Killers, Bloc Party, and others have gotten in the last two years or so… I’m still really, really impressed with the Walkmen and probably would take ‘em over those four above.



This may be a rhetorical question, but… Why do people care if Barry Bonds is a jackass? Even the 'roids factor doesn't bother me considering that he was playing against a lot of guys who were juicing too. In a bizarre way it levels the playing field.Why do people care so much that Bonds is passing Ruth? No one in the media saw Ruth play. No one on this list saw Ruth play. I'm sure most people in the media weren't even alive when Ruth died. So why do they care so much? Ruth is more myth/legend than baseball player at this point. Babe Ruth the person has nothing to do with this. This is bigger than that. This is about a dislike of Bonds, but that still doesn’t answer everything. If this was A-Rod would the hate from the print media be like this? I'm sure if McGwire was the one about to pass Ruth everyone would be falling all over themselves to praise McGwire. If it was about Ruth, wouldn't we be going back and taking away the honor and praise we all bestowed on McGwire? In a way, if it was about the cheating, McGwire would be public enemy #2, maybe even #1, right now. It isn't about the cheating... that's the excuse everyone uses.

The cheating doesn't piss people off and if it does they're all hypocrites. I'm sure most were like me and cheering the beauty and power of that 600 foot home run that Bonds hiton Sunday. Just look at this.Instead we've got everyone saying that Bonds is a jackass... who cares? The guys a fantastic ball player and juiced like most major league players in the 90s and early 2000s. We shouldn’t turn our back on him just because he was doing what everyone else was doing. For instance, who are we to root for when he faces Derrick Turnbow? No one has ever answered this question when I and others have asked it. The problem is the Bonds isn’t the only guy who used steroids. He was one of hundreds of major league baseball players. Yet we make it out like he is the only guy who did steroids. That just isn’t the case.No, the problem isn’t that Bonds passing Ruth or that he used steroids, it is that the numbers don't matter any more. Or at least, that's what should be bothering people. The numbers mean nothing now. Either that or racism or nationalism or whatever ism you want to throw out there is the fuel behind this dislike of Bonds. Personally we could careless. He’s a good baseball player, really good.

If Neko Case’s Margaret vs Pauline and Jenny Lewis’ The Big Guns aren’t in the top five of our top songs of 2006 list, we’ll be shocked.

Words cannot express how excited we are about the World Cup. Seriously… less than a month until things kick off in Germany. The Guardian is helping us out with a World Cup Show that launched today… yay is us. Excitement all around. Expect near wall to wall coverage here at VFLOAB. That’s our silver lining right now… the White Sox and World Cup.