The Answers To Everything

Geez.

2009-04-16T00:17:00.000-07:00

Recent Jeremy Enigk solo/keyboard version of the best Sunny Day songs. This guy can do no wrong. Except for maybe in the hair growing department.

Not recent version of Sunny Day playing the same song

Lost nerds

2009-04-08T22:44:00.000-07:00

A few of my fellow Lost nerds have asked me lately where I get my vast wealth of knowledge from. I will direct you to the following webpages:

The AV Club's TV section. Here they review/recap each week, and have a pretty extensive message board section which usually have some pretty good insights.

Lostpedia. All you need to know. It has some theories related to each episode, but they're not great.

EW.com, specifically Doc Jensen's blog/analysis.

The Fuselage is Lost's official message board. I used to read it a lot, but it's fairly time consuming to find the good stuff on it, so I haven't spent a lot of time on it this season.

And I have recently been directed to (but haven't really investigated) these TV analysis oriented blogs: The House Next Door and What's Alan Watching?

Nerd it up my friends.

Dear Blog...

2009-02-16T23:48:00.001-08:00

Dear Blog,
I'm sorry I have been neglecting you. It's not you, really- it's me. You're great, with your cool colors, and classy font. And we've had some great times, you and me. Remember that one time we talked about how pathetic that American Office is? That was great. And remember all the great shows you've helped me to solidify in my memory? That was cool too.

But as you know, I've been seeing this other blog for a while, you know, the political-type one, with all the opinions. There are other people who write for it too, and I'd be letting them down if I didn't devote time to it. And I don't really have a lot of free time in the first place, which usually means my relationship with you gets a little, back burner-ish. I apologize. For reals. You're special to me, and I do want you in my life. I haven't forgotten you, and I promise to try and show you that I care about you, in little ways, and more often. We can make this work, I know it.

Love always,
J

Sanity

2009-02-10T23:04:00.000-08:00

American public, please learn about basic economics. It's really a much more simple subject than you are led to believe, and it's pretty interesting and applicable too. Your lack of even the most elementary concepts is what has brought us here today, and until you spend some time learning about more than MTV, the cycle will only get worse. This webpage/orginization is a good start.

Best Super Bowl Ad ever.

2009-02-02T17:43:00.001-08:00

Best Music of 2008

2009-01-01T15:55:00.000-08:00

Looking back at what came out this year, there really isn't a whole lot that I've been super excited about. Usually when I think about this type of thing it's hard for me to narrow it down to only 10... this year I don't even think I can even think of 10 that I feel genuinely belong on a "best of" list. Rather than a "10 Best Records of 2008" it's more like a "Better than the rest of the crap" type list. I guess I'll break it down into sub-categories to better spell out what I think. Seriously, a pathetic year for music.

Good:
Thrice- The Alchemy Index (half came out in 07, but the other half in 08, so it counts... sort of)
Sigur Ros-Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
Death Cab For Cutie- Narrow Stairs
Fleet Foxes
Sayvinyl- God Forbid
First Wave Hello- God Bless, Devil You
NIN- The Slip

Biggest Disappointments (should of/could have been amazing):
Damiera-
Mock Orange- Captain Love (but at least it's growing on me a little)

Get away from me:
Vampire Weekend
Coldplay
Guns N Roses (2008)
The Hold Steady

I have recently gotten, but I haven't totally absorbed yet (so maybe would have otherwise been on the list if I wasn't lazy):
TV on The Radio
Portishead
The Fireman
Amos Lee
Dead Confederate
M83
Ryan Adams

Songs I was obsessed with from time to time this last year (not necessarily released in 08):
Norma Jean- Robots 3, Humans 0
Paramore- Decode
Radiohead- All I Want
Leona Lewis- Bleeding Love
Owen- Never Meant
The Whigs- Right Hand On My Heart
Brighten- Love On My Mind
Mock Orange- Song In D
First Wave Hello- I Don't Want to Be Down
Fleet Foxes- Blue Ridge Mountains
Kings Of Leon- Sex On Fire
Thrice- Firebreather, The Whaler, and Broken Lungs
Jawbox- Mirrorful
The Beatles- She's Leaving Home
Alexisonfire- This Could Be Anywhere In the World
Saosin- Voices
Brand New- Jesus
The Life and Times- I Know You Are
Sia- Breathe Me

Guilty pleasures

2008-12-22T23:16:00.001-08:00

Maybe if the singer would somehow overnight become in her mid-20s it would make the huge crush I have on her less creepy.

Weird

2008-12-22T23:12:00.002-08:00

Holy crap. This guy sounds so much like Steve Perry it's scary. Five singers later and they got the exact same guy, but Asian and without a mullet.

Calling all fans of me

2008-12-12T22:31:00.001-08:00

I was somehow able to secure a guest DJ slot on the FM 94.9 Coup D'etat Weekend. I will be on tomorrow night, from 2-3am. That's Saturday night/Sunday morning. So if you are a crazy person, don't sleep, do a lot of drugs, or are just a big fan of me (which wouldn't be hard to understand really) then tune in and hear the best selection of music San Diego's radio has heard in the history of our fair city.

J

Tired

2008-11-30T01:02:00.001-08:00

I always hate it when people say that they're too busy to do stuff, ie hang out with me. In my own lame, non-sympathetic way I'm always thinking, "yeah, yeah, we're all busy." So with that being said, I'm the jerk right now, and I'm really busy. It's not terribly fun. I get to the end of my day, or get to the weekend (if I get a weekend), and I'm usually too tired to do anything constructive like read, write, play music, etc. I really don't like it. My brain feels like mush. I usually just end up playing video games at night because they're mindless. In addition to trying to maintain friendships/relationships I am currently:

1) In full fledged busy/crazy/stressful season at work
2) Playing in Resonate a few times a month
3) Practicing for the Resonate Christmas program
4) Helping out with the McMillan Music School upcoming Rock Show
5) Trying (with moderate success) to write/read (well) for the new blog (www.boldson.com)
6) Thinking seriously about grad school, and the accompanying preparations required
7) Playing soccer on Saturdays

I guess it's ok then that the band is on hiatus, since I don't have any time for it anyway. I'm really not whining, I have entered into all of those willingly and have a lot of fun with most of them (not work). It's just a packed month. Thankfully a few of them will be done by the end of December. Either way, like usual, writing out a list makes me feel better. There's not much of me that's Type A, but the list making part is definitely there.

On a completely unrelated note, at least I get to go see the Pumpkins tomorrow night!

Grab your barf bags!

2008-11-17T22:52:00.000-08:00

This is a total cross post (I just posted something about it on the political blog), but I had to share this video from an upcoming documentary from my all time favorite radio talk show host, now turned documentary maker, John Ziegler. I felt ill after watching it.

Format change

2008-11-11T18:27:00.000-08:00

My few, faithful readers, (I think I have readers anyway...) I have cool news. At least I think so anyway. I have managed to convince a few friends to start a new blog, dealing primarily with Political/News issues. We also reserve the right to discuss faith issues, and will do so. The webpage is not totally new, we kind of took over a friend's blog he had already started, but the premise is new. At least to us anyway. They are all much smarter than me, so it should be informative and hopefully, entertaining for all. Please check it out at www.boldson.com. We are all operating under pseudonyms, so Obama's people don't use their gestapo tactics to hurt us (like they did to this lady). (Mostly kidding... some people have jobs/may have jobs that would require some anonymity) On this particular webpage I'll be Walter Galt. Please visit it. Thanks!

J

Terror

2008-11-05T16:18:00.000-08:00

It's pretty freaking scary to know that people who are so obviously detached from reality are allowed to vote:

Or that this guy is in our new President's corner:

It's even more scary that Obama thinks exactly the same him. Way to go America. I hope you get exactly what you want.

J

Gracious

2008-11-04T23:09:00.000-08:00

There's a lot that I can say, but I'll save it and allow you Obama fans your elation.

I'll comment in a few days when reality sinks in.

On a related note, some good friends and I are planning on starting a new Politics/Culture/Faith blog, and at least we're now guaranteed 4 years of ammunition. It's just a shame he's going to forcibly take the money we make and give it to people who didn't earn it. Oops! That one slipped. :) Ok, I'm done now. Goodnight.

J

Well...

2008-11-03T22:50:00.000-08:00

Here we go. God help us all.

Pause

2008-11-03T17:43:00.000-08:00

Before tomorrow comes and everything (potentially) goes to hell, let's take a moment and reflect on how good Hum (one of my favorite bands, not to mention one of my biggest influences ever) was, and how awesome Matt Talbot's clothes/glasses are. Oh 1995, what an era you were, where some of the most amazing bands in existence looked like grad students studying nuclear physics who got out of bed 5 minutes before going on stage.

Read!

2008-10-28T23:04:00.000-07:00

Ha! The French don't even like Obama. At least their new president doesn't anyway. Who would have thought? Apparently, the

reports reaching Israel indicate that Sarkozy views the Democratic candidate's stance on Iran as "utterly immature" and comprised of "formulations empty of all content."

If you're an Obama fan, you owe it to yourself to listen to this (terrifying) bit of pure socialist gold, from a radio interview he gave in 2001:

Are you freaking kidding me?

"...the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society... generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. It says what the states can't do to you, says what the federal government can't do to you. But it doesn't say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf."

Here's some commentary on it from someone much smarter than me:

The government does not exist to determine the acceptable level of wealth of its individual citizens. For government to assume that role, it would have to end private property rights and assume all property belonged to the State. That is classic Marxism, and as Barbara West of WFTV noted, it runs in Marx’s classic philosophy of “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs”. That economic direction has been an abject failure everywhere it has been tried, and in many cases resulted in famines that killed millions of people... Barack Obama complains that the Constitution is a “charter of negative liberties”. That’s because the Constitution was intended as a limiting document, to curtail the power of the federal government vis-a-vis the states and the individual. The founders intended at the time to limit the reach of the federal government, and built the Constitution accordingly.

It's a shame that 95% of America probably has no ideo how far this stuff is from what the founders would have wanted, and are this close to putting this guy in office. It's like living in a parallel universe.

Something Obama would never read/study himself are the thoughts/words of our country's founding fathers, like this selection from Jefferson's inaugural address:

a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

Doesn't sound like "spreading the wealth" to me.

I bought a couple books (The Constitution of Liberty, and The Road To Serfdom) today by this guy. I'm pretty excited, in an extremely nerdy way of course. Also excited about learning more about the New Deal in this book, as soon as it comes in the mail. While I'm on the subject, I would also very much like to read Human Action, by this guy, an important thinker in classical liberalism (which later basically turned into libertarianism), but it appears to be way out of print and every copy I can find on the internet is like $60+. Lame!

Playlist:
Marvin Gaye- What's Going On
Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

Reading material

2008-10-25T00:33:00.000-07:00

US turns over control of 12th Iraqi province from AP. Wow, all this listening to Obama and I'd just figured the whole thing was done and we'd tucked tail and ran away. Good thing he hasn't gotten in there... yet.

Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights? by Orson Scott Card. A fairly hardcore (according to googling his name) Democrat ripping his fellow pathetic excuses for reporters a new one over their misreporting (read: lying) over Obama, McCain, the housing crisis, etc. Nice dude!

Best parts...

Isn't there a story here? Doesn't journalism require that you who produce our daily paper tell the truth about who brought us to a position where the only way to keep confidence in our economy was a $700 billion bailout? Aren't you supposed to follow the money and see which politicians were benefitting personally from the deregulation of mortgage lending?

I have no doubt that if these facts had pointed to the Republican Party or to John McCain as the guilty parties, you would be treating it as a vast scandal. "Housing-gate," no doubt. Or "Fannie-gate."

and

If you do not tell the truth about the Democrats -- including Barack Obama -- and do so with the same energy you would use if the miscreants were Republicans -- then you are not journalists by any standard.

You're just the public relations machine of the Democratic Party, and it's time you were all fired and real journalists brought in, so that we can actually have a daily newspaper in our city.

McCain for President by Charles Krauthammer. He's really smart; I like his writing. A nicely written, easily laid out article about why Obama sucks.

If you weren't aware (maybe you live under a rock?), Obama raised an ungodly amount of money in the election, including (I believe) $150 million in Sep. alone. I'd be more impressed if George Soros and all of Hollywood weren't blindly in the tank for him, but who's surprised by that? Besides the fact that he lied through his teeth before the campaign when he told the world he was going to use public financing (like everyone else) and then didn't, his campaign has been fraught with charges of illegal money raising. As an experiement, Powerlineblog.com readers made donations to his campaign with obvious fake names/repeat credit cards, all of which worked perfectly. Which, as you might imagine, is illegal. Check out the stories here, here, and here.

His merciful Lord, Obama, who never deviates from the issues, has sure spent a lot of time the last week talking about Palin's clothes. Good article on how stupid that is here (aside from the obvious reasons), from Powerlineblog.com.

More on Obama being a possible member of an actual Socialist party here, and how the press completely ignores it here.

Chris Matthews, a class A idiot, gets owned.

We have little hope that MSNBC will take a more even handed approach in covering this race over these last few days, but it is outrageous that Chris Matthews would rely on an HBO mini-series as the basis for his condescending attacks on Governor Palin. If he wishes to pose as a Constitutional scholar, he should read the document. This campaign has sent a copy to his office.

How Palin Governed by Byron York. I know, I know, it's lame to bring actual facts into any kind of discussion about Palin, Obama, whoever, but I'm going to do it anyway. Or at least this guy is, who is smarter and a better writer than I am.

What is John Woo, Kevin Smith, and Wes Anderson made ads for McCain? They would be awesome, and look like this:

Obama on Abortion

2008-10-21T22:42:00.000-07:00

Recently I stumbled upon these two webpages/articles: "Put Away Falsehood" from The Matthew 25 Network and from there a link to Pro-Life Obama. I would encourage you to read them for yourself, especially if you fall under their target audience umbrella- Christians who are doubting whether or not they should vote for Obama, based on his extremist positions on issues like abortion. Then come back here, and read my analysis of their arguments. Or you could just skip ahead and have your view skewed by my opinion.

Done? Ok. So here's what I think. People are ridiculous and will tell themselves anything to make themselves feel better. Seriously. I am not at all a one issue type guy, though I do believe abortion as an issue crosses over into many extremely important categories (character, judgment, willingness to accept responsibility for one's actions, determination to defend life/the defenseless, etc). With that said, I don't think I would necessarily not vote for someone based solely on their abortion position. But trying to turn Obama's positions 180 degrees around based on one or two interviews where he used some slick lawyer talk is just stupid. His record on this issue is clear and public, and everyone knows it. This is the guy who won't take a position on when a fetus gains human rights because it's "above his pay grade." I don't know what takes bigger balls, giving an honest answer or giving that answer. As such, the main rationale that the Matthew 25 webpage uses to defend Obama is that he tells them so. Basically it works like this:

Big terrible lie- Obama is pro-choice and therefore will not defend the rights of the unborn.
Truth, as stated by Obama- "No way! I love babies, I'd never do that. But I am pro-choice, just so you know." See, it doesn't matter that he's pro-choice, he likes babies!

My favorite thing they repeat over and over again is that he choice to vote one way, knowing that it didn't matter anyway because the bill "wouldn't pass constitutional muster." Wow, that's convenient. Way to go with your conviction.

In conclusion, all I needed to do to find Obama's actual position on abortion was spend about 5 minutes on google. If abortion is not a big issue for you, then fine. But don't try to tell me that Obama is going to make things better just because he says so to a few magazines what they wanted to hear. Hey Prolifeforobama.com, why don't you try some actual research next time? I guess lying to yourself is easier.

Obama Statement on 35th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade Decision from BarackObama.com

Freedom of Choice Act from Wikipedia. (For you lazy people, this is what Obama says will be one of his priorities within his first few days of being in office.)

Freedom of Choice
Act (actual bill)

Focusing On FOCA: 'Freedom Of Choice Act' Would Harm Women And Remove Freedoms from The Family Research Council.

Obama's Abortion Extremism from Public Discourse.

Sen. Barack Obama's views on life issues ranging from abortion to embryonic stem cell research mark him as not merely a pro-choice politician, but rather as the most extreme pro-abortion candidate to have ever run on a major party ticket.

Playlist-
Otis Redding- Love Man (my record player is working again!)
Bob Dylan- Blood on the tracks

Good stuff

2008-10-20T22:47:00.000-07:00

In Green Jobs, John Stossel destroys Obama's claim that he's going to create jobs through government investment in the green sector. (Thanks Kerr!) Great article, and a good lesson if you want to brush up on your economics.

Obama's foreign policy -- Carter's ends through Clinton's means? from PowerlineBlog.

The Ayers Cover-Up Continues from PowerlineBlog.com

Also see Stanley Kurtz's continuing investigation of Obama's shady past, (this article is a little older, but more relevant than ever now) here at Obama’s Challenge, from The National Review.

Operation Destroy Joe the Plumber by Michelle Malkin. Michelle documents a number of the crazy attacks on Joe the Plumber from the media. If they spent half as much time investigating Obama or the people in his past this race would be over. But instead they attempt to bury some poor guy who had the audacity to ask the Messiah a question his teleprompter didn't have a response for.

Social Engineering Derailed Our Economy from TownHall.com

Tax cuts? Yeah right.

2008-10-19T18:50:00.000-07:00

This is a great article detailing how ridiculous (read: full of lies) Obama's "tax cut for the 95%" line is: Obama's 95% Illusion from the Wall Street Journal.

For the Obama Democrats, a tax cut is no longer letting you keep more of what you earn. In their lexicon, a tax cut includes tens of billions of dollars in government handouts that are disguised by the phrase "tax credit."

I cannot stress enough that perhaps the most terrifying aspect of a possible (though not inevitable) Obama presidency is his not-so-subtle Socialist leanings. And I suppose saying "leaning" is giving him far too much credit. He's not leaning towards Socialism; he's firmly and deeply rooted there. You, the casual American political observer might ask yourself, "why is that a bad thing?" I'm sure some people who don't think about might even think that it's a good thing. Isn't Socialism leveling the playing field? That's what the Democrats (and even a fair amount of current Republicans) would have you think. It is technically leveling the playing field, but rather than doing it by helping people at the bottom, it works by lowering the people at the top. Which, no matter how you spin it, is not what America is about. (Although some might argue it is now.) At least it is not what our country was founded on, anyway. The point is this: we don't need government intervention because the field is already level. Success in America is attained by hard work, ingenuity, and persistence. Period. It is not Obama's job (or any other politician) to decide how much money is too much for a private citizen to have.

This is the beauty of the whole "Joe the Plumber" hysteria over the past week. He was asking a question that should be on every America's mind. It certainly has been on mine. Joe the Plumber and I are the same guy. My family owns a small business, which we want to be as successful as possible. We want it to make lots of money, enough so that later, the hard work we are putting in now will pay off and we won't have to work as much. We want to employ as many people as possible. Where does Obama get the right to "spread our wealth around"? Are we going to be able to employ as many people when the government is taking a bigger and bigger chunk of our profits? Why should anyone else have the benefits of my hard work without me choosing giving it to them myself? They shouldn't. If I am putting in the work, in a free society, I should get the benefits. Is that rocket science?

I know these ideas are all completely foreign to most career politicians, especially ones who have spent their lives soaking up all the Marxism they can find. Yeah, that's you Obama. Keep your hand out of my freaking pocket.

For your enrichment...

2008-10-11T00:15:00.000-07:00

Here are two great articles by two people who are much smarter than me. You should read them. Thanks to BoldSon.com for the link to the Strassel article.

1) Obama & Friends: Judge Not? by Charles Krauthammer, from the Washington Post. Great article, describing why Obama's sketchy (at best) past associations are extremely important in understanding his character and judgment.

As a side note, I love when McCain puts out ads or stumps about this subject, and Obama's response is always to either a) declare how unfair and out of line these "negative" ads are, followed up by his own "negative" ads, stump speeches, or spokes person freakout, or b) blantantly lie about whatever the ad is. For example, in response to McCain's new attack on the Obama being buddies with William Ayers, Obama's camp spent a good amount of time this week talking about whether or not McCain saying "that one" was racist. And then Obama said he "didn't know about Ayers' terrorist past," followed up by today saying he "thought he was reformed." I couldn't make this up if I tried. Don't you love this guy and he "new politics?" I'm so glad he's beyond it all.

2) Obama's Magic by Kimberley Strassel. From the Wall Street Journal (via Real Clear Politics). Discusses how many of Obama's ideas/promises are completely outside of reality. Here's my favorite part:

To kick off our show tonight, Mr. Obama will give 95% of American working families a tax cut, even though 40% of Americans today don't pay income taxes! How can our star enact such mathemagic? How can he "cut" zero? Abracadabra! It's called a "refundable tax credit." It involves the federal government taking money from those who do pay taxes, and writing checks to those who don't. Yes, yes, in the real world this is known as "welfare," but please try not to ruin the show.

For his next trick, the Great Obama will jumpstart the economy, and he'll do it by raising taxes on the very businesses that are today adrift in a financial tsunami! That will include all those among the top 1% of taxpayers who are in fact small-business owners, and the nation's biggest employers who currently pay some of the highest corporate tax rates in the developed world. Mr. Obama will, with a flick of his fingers, show them how to create more jobs with less money. It's simple, really. He has a wand.

I'm currently working on a little write up to do my best to explain how we got into this financial crisis since neither candidate has a clue. Which is especially interesting seeing as Obama's buddies (and himself too) are mostly responsible for it.

Playlist-
Fleet Foxes
Mock Orange- Captain Love
Underoath- Lost in the sound of separation
Sigur Ros- Med Sud I...
The Beatles- Sgt. Peppers (no Nate, I did not steal your copy.)
Death Cab- Narrow Stairs
Norma Jean- The Antimother
Metallica- Death Magnetic
M83- Saturdays = Youth

Who would have thought?

2008-10-08T23:21:00.000-07:00

Wow, Obama is possibly a past member of an avowed Socialist organization? Now way!

Don't vote! Definitely don't think! Yay celebrities!

2008-10-07T23:12:00.001-07:00

Some good friends of mine beat me to blogging about this ridiculous new commercial, but here is my commentary on it anyway.

I'll decode the underlying subtext for everyone who is unaware:

1) They don't mean go vote. They mean vote for Obama. If you are voting for McCain (or anyone else) they'd all rather you not vote.

2) By this "get out the vote" crap, they certainly don't mean, "read, research, think, understand the issues, and then vote." They mean, "listen to your heart, maybe read a little US Weekly, and then go vote based upon who connects with you on an MTV level. Which in this case, means Obama."

3) Of course celebrities are smarter than us, and of course their opinions matter more than a normal civilian. And why not? A bunch of high school drop outs who get paid millions of dollars to work 3 months out of the year are obviously the pinnacle of societal prestige. They have the big megaphone of fame, which means they are entitled and obligated to use it as much as they can. (Oh, and if you didn't pick up on it, I can't stand 95% of celebrities in general. Of that 95%, I probably despise 99.7% of actors, and of those I pretty much hate 100% of any of them who open their mouths about politics. Seriously, shut up, and make your freaking movies. Maybe if you go to college and/or actually read a history book (Howard Zinn does not count) I might listen to you for like 5 seconds.)

I would really like for anyone who is actually persuaded by this video to show themselves, be banned from voting, and then be permanently sterilized.