Friday Fives

1. It has been a tedious week. What is your best advice to overcome self pity.

sleep. Only sleep gives me a fresh outlook on stuff. Sometimes I lie in bed with regret, sometimes stupid stuff... sometimes heavy stuff. In the morning, all is forgotten and my hound dog 'Rufus' is usually licking my nose. That is Rufus up above, instead of a mandala. You can't be mad at the world or yourself when a puppy is licking your nose to wake you up. You can, however, be mad at the Rufus

. 2. What is your favorite Trivial Pursuit category (real or imagined.)

Well, Tom, I have to go with an imaginary one here. Rock & Roll history.

3. Would you rather turn into Sammy Davis, Jr. when masturbating - or- have the AOL "You've got mail" guy announce your ejaculations?

the second one, because Sammy Davis had a glass eye. I can't masturbate to that. What if he pulls it out and tries to show it to me (the eye, I mean)?

4. What do you remember about your first day of school?

Strangely, I remember it quite well... even though I don't remember hardly anything after that. It was the first day of kindergarten, so I was about five. My mom took me and I begged her not to leave me there. I was convinced it would be people being mean to me and huge amounts of homework to keep me from my family and TV. You say 'but how would you even know what homework is if you were 5'? I have two older brothers, whose mission was to destroy me. I think we all had a bit of fun, in retrospect.

5. When was the last time you sat on a park bench? Describe the event.

Central Park, NYC... a couple of months ago for Thanksgiving. The wife and assorted fam went to go ice skating in Central Park. Because I was in between knee surgeries, I could not indulge. So, I did some wandering and some bench sitting. It was a fine fine day.

I have had it with you people

I know there are still two years left in his presidency, but what if something happens to me tomorrow? What if something happens to you tomorrow? That is why I just wanted to say about George Bush’s Presidency. I was right. I was right I was right I was right.

This is on the heels of the latest Wall Street Journal poll. Yeah, the Journal isn’t exactly hippie extremists, so I think their words carry some weight.

His ‘approval’ sits at 35%. American’s don’t want him guiding American policy NOR foreign policy. Their words, not mine. You (America) voted for this asshole… twice. TWICE. You need to shoulder the burden of this failure. This is entirely your fault, not the President’s. Why? Because by the second election we knew he was incompetent. We knew he lied about the Iraq war, and we knew his only legacy would be corporate cronyism. That is what he is and what he has done. You knew that in 2004, and still chose him. It is your fault that America is now weaker than any time in my life.

Guess what, Iran has nukes. We can’t do shit though because we don’t have the resources. The first term, I was mad at him. Now, I am mad at you. Here is what is super crazy. Several of my very good friends, people I would take a bullet for, are Republicans. I even have some in my family. When I ask them if they regret voting for Bush they say no. The prevailing sentiment about Bush in 2004 seems to have been (and remain to be) “I’d take the devil I know over the devil I don’t know any day”.

The reason for this tome is that when Bush won re-election, I swallowed my pride and admitted I was wrong. See here. For a week, I even conceded and changed the name of my site to ‘I was Wrong’. True story. Point being, I wasn’t wrong about Bush. Just about you, because you voted for him.

Sorry you have to see me like this. You know I am a happy and funny and passionate person. It just kills me that we have two more years of bad foreign policy and international relations ahead. Remember when America was the good guy? Remember when America spent all its time and resources bailing everyone out?

The President has made us weaker as a country in the eyes of our friends and enemies. That I can not forgive.

I did it

My cultural influence is finally cemented. I have eliminated a phrase from the lexicon that has troubled me. The term is 'African American'. I don't like it for a number of reasons. One is, it takes a long time to type. Second is, I know several black folks, none of whom were born in Africa. I understand generations ago they (black folk) came from African. However, unless you were born in Africa and moved to America... it seems silly to call you an African American. From Anthropology I learned we (all human beings) came from the Indus Valley region of India however long ago. So, if we are going back generations, couldn't we all call ourselves 'Indian Americans'. Or this, we came from apes, right? How about 'Simian Americans'?

Yes, these are eggagerations bording on stupid just to make a point. As a result, I refer to people of African heritage as 'black'. In fact, all the black guys I know also refer to themselves as black. I also seem to hear black guys refer to other black guys as 'black'. For some reason, the media has missed this boat. Just this afternoon for the first time in history, a black coach is going to the Superbowl. This is tremendous. If you watched the second came, you now know that both coaches are black... truly historic. On Fox, though, they would only refer to coach Lovie Smith as the first African American coach to go to the Superbowl. They could not, or would not, refer to him as 'black'. Just now, though, the story is the main page of CNN. It says:

For the first time in the Super Bowl's 41-year history, not one but two black head coaches will be on the sidelines. Lovie Smith became the first black head coach to make it all the way to the NFL's marquee game Sunday when his Chicago Bears won the NFC championship. About four hours later, his pal and mentor, Tony Dungy, joined him there when his Indianapolis Colts took the AFC title.

They did it, they used the black instead of African American . This is a victory that I take at least partial credit for.

So, I took a tour around the web to see who is using what. The local Denver NBC affiliate also is using the term 'black' coaches. It is pertinent to know that CNN's feed is the Associated Press. That is the same company that everyone gets their news from. I mean everyone. So, let's take a lookie over at the other news content provider... Reuters. This is the bomb I found on the Rueters site:

"Being the first black coach to lead his team, of course the players knew about it and wanted to help us make history today,"

Know what makes that a bombshell? That quote came from Lovie Smith himself. To be thorough, I even checked the local Fox site and they also used the term black. So, it is over America. I don't want to hear the term 'African American' unless you are talking about a real 'African American', like Dave Matthews.