tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70227518061356420622012-02-16T08:20:36.080-05:00A blog dedicated to making people thimk.Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.comBlogger1261100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-48238404844989392692010-02-01T00:51:00.001-05:002010-02-01T00:52:37.966-05:00

Lately it seems everyone knows more than me about what an American is. Populists decry those greedy fat cat Wall Streeters as un-American, demonizing the corporate and political elite. Liberals decry hardcore conservatives, the evangelical “right-wing” capitalists as un-American. Republicans decry Democrats as un-American, and vice versa. Nancy Pelosi seems to know who is un-American, as does

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-31944093177177126622010-01-22T20:12:00.001-05:002010-01-22T20:12:12.519-05:00

So back in late October, I read an editorial by Arianna Huffington, published on her own webpage, the Huffington Post. It inspired me to write a "Mondays with the Bastard" reply, that I subsequently forgot to save. Frustrated with an hour's work down the tubes, I decided it wasn't really all that interesting after all, and tried to forget about it. That was until this Tuesday, when Scott Brown

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-77948559650067686842010-01-18T18:03:00.000-05:002010-01-18T18:03:31.971-05:00

So I’m getting a dog. A puppy to be specific, but I think there’s an important difference to be made in those two statements. “I’m getting a puppy”, or perhaps more specifically “I want a puppy” implies a certain shortsightedness. It means you want something cute and adorable, but slightly more animated than a stuffed animal. It does not mean you want to train the new pet, to clean up after its

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-59540907859005603752010-01-14T20:36:00.000-05:002010-01-14T20:36:32.756-05:00

Well my attempt to spark debate on each of these at once failed from the outset, so I've decided to just post the whole list in one go, and see if anything kicks up a response. So here it is in its entirety: The fact that world climate is changing is undeniable, regardless of the debate over the mechanism. So what is going to be our response when sea levels rise, flooding some of the low lying

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-18494841818038723452010-01-11T08:28:00.002-05:002010-01-11T08:28:54.581-05:00

So a few months back, the US Congress decided to strike a blow against Big Business in the name the common man. Those vile, greedy, unfeeling credit card companies we're cheating people out of their hard-borrowed money with all kinds of fees and rate changes. Wherever they did publish their fees and rates, it was in a manner so convoluted and contrived that you needed a doctorate and three

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-79101761561218792832010-01-05T22:46:00.000-05:002010-01-05T22:46:01.739-05:00

I was struck with an interesting thought the other day, one which I’d been nosing around and ruminating toward for some time, picking at it like that bit of nougat stuck in your teeth (mmmnnn nougat). It’s certainly not a revolutionary idea, and I’m sure it’s been well publicized before, but for me it was intriguing if only because I came to it on my own, rather than reading it in a book written

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-42718008704762727732010-01-04T01:15:00.000-05:002010-01-04T01:15:08.816-05:00

So on Christmas day, a disgruntled Nigerian man aboard a Northwest flight into Detroit effectively reignited the flames of controversy (literally and metaphorically) over airline safety and international terrorism. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s primary mistake was failing to understand that simply igniting the PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate, a relatively stable and commonly used explosive)

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-53057349131552496782009-12-28T02:22:00.000-05:002009-12-28T02:22:37.009-05:00

So, here we are at the end of the decade. The one that the news agencies have been struggling to characterize with a specific title, but all agree is the one “that changed the world”. But did it? I mean really? Or at least, more so than say, every single decade before it? What about the 1490s? Or the 1140s? I hear that the -40s were a pretty tumultuous decade themselves. So what about the 2000s?

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-66842379742792548462009-12-21T01:13:00.003-05:002009-12-21T01:20:14.728-05:00

So Copenhagen was a bust. Who knew? Well for starters, just about everybody. Sure the conference had expectations, in the same sense as every scratch-ticket lotto junkie does. Optimistic? Sure. Remotely realistic? Not even fucking close. So instead of solving all our world environmental problems, Copenhagen did what everyone didn’t want, but ultimately secretly suspected; bubkus. Now to be fair,

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-21891900938057067492009-12-07T14:06:00.002-05:002009-12-07T14:13:08.721-05:00

So A few months back I posted a slightly overlong diatribe on how I felt the Republican Party could… no, needed to change their perception, and recapture the American public’s faith and interest. It talked about rededicating themselves to real and effective education spending. I also advocated hedging the swarming and confusing briar patch that is the American tax code and engaging the public

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-10281129301370579632009-12-05T17:42:00.001-05:002009-12-05T17:44:38.148-05:00

It's nearly pitch black as my plane ascends out of Phnom Penh International, my six week visit to Cambodia complete. As the plane climbs and the lights of Phnom Penh shrink, surrounded by the black of rice patties that invisibly surround them, I find myself reexamining the way I look at the city. When the neon lights fade, much of what fascinated me about Phnom Penh, and the parts of Cambodia I

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-62806516509974080082009-12-05T17:40:00.000-05:002009-12-05T17:41:51.193-05:00

I spend my last day in Cambodia visiting the museums at Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek, memorials to the genocide perpetuated by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Not exactly the uplifting way to cap off an amazing trip, but I’ve been meaning to see them since I got here, and kept getting caught up with other things. So determined not to shy away from them, I set out in the early morning, starting first

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-37909290194281402822009-12-05T16:55:00.009-05:002009-12-05T20:27:22.872-05:00

A couple weeks ago, on the King’s birthday, I managed to meet a middle aged Australian couple, Barbara and Bruce, as I tried to elbow to the balcony of a restaurant to watch the fireworks. They had just arrived in Phnom Penh from Siem Reap, and I naturally engaged them to tell me everything. The fact that they were strangers is irrelevant; I’ve been told I could hold a conversation with a stump.

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-83590468372951321082009-11-30T19:56:00.001-05:002009-11-30T20:14:53.388-05:00

So I actually got back into the country last weekend, but I was too jetlagged and busy getting ready for the holiday weekend to write anything. But now that I am stuck in Chicago O’Hare airport, I’ve got all the time in the world. So I figured I really should get back to my regular Monday posts, since my working vacation is officially over.And apparently I missed a pretty significant event while

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-48381760687921661052009-11-16T04:37:00.007-05:002009-12-05T16:32:29.964-05:00

Six hours later I awake to the chirping of my cell phone’s alarm. I’ve decided to take a friends advice and get to Angkor Wat before the tourist crowds converge. Devin manages a weak groan, enough to tell me he won’t be joining me, as I pack my camera and sunscreen into my bag. A few minutes later I’m gently cruising down the road in the back of a tuktuk in the black of predawn. It’s cloudy and

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-17065792642329786502009-11-13T07:37:00.006-05:002009-12-05T16:32:49.587-05:00

Having spent four weeks working and traipsing around Phnom Penh, I’ve decided to take a long weekend and get out of the city. My destination is Siem Reap, the small town outside of the Angkor Heritage Site, home to a myriad of temples built by a bygone Khmer Empire, some 900 years ago. I’ve managed to enlist one of my coworkers, Devin, to join me on my trip; the rest tend to balk at anything that

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-67790795410208291772009-10-31T22:54:00.010-05:002009-11-01T00:02:24.477-05:00

I set out around noon on another excursion into the city. Today’s destination is the Russian Market, which is not Russian, nor does it sell Russian things, nor is it run by Russians. Instead it took its name from the popularity it held with Russian ex-pats after Russian assisted Vietnamese forces beat the Khmer Rouge out of the city and back into the forests, some nearly thirty-five years ago.

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-4989626061049014412009-10-26T03:40:00.001-05:002009-10-26T03:42:01.227-05:00

So, I sat down today and wrote another serious blog about the economy. It was about how the government bailouts of the auto industry have simply perpetuated the existing problem of overcapacity rather than letting the industry trim its own fat. It was well argued, backed up by reported statistics, and I didn’t swear once. It was intellectual, and it was good.Then I sat down and realized, who

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-32944522135222640822009-10-19T06:54:00.002-05:002009-10-19T07:01:39.489-05:00

So as those of you who read my blog from the weekend can guess, I’m out of the country at the moment. The bastard is currently living it up in Cambodia, where happy hour drafts cost $0.80 and 90 minute Swedish massages are only $15 (that was a first time for me). Yes folks, I have learned the secret to weathering a recession, go and hide in economies with more favorable exchange rates. Then again

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-41238504753803311492009-10-16T08:10:00.001-05:002009-10-16T08:16:55.635-05:00

My first thought was: It’s like Ar Ramadi, only functional. Sure the architecture is slightly different, and the language is comprised of squigglies that look more similar to our own, though overgrown with vines (instead of Arabic’s snakelike right to left scrawl with its tendency to drag along the bottom line). But the streets here are of similar width, with the same star based layout for the

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-54140951734719737192009-09-28T09:21:00.000-05:002009-09-28T09:22:32.034-05:00

Last week, General Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of American Forces in Afghanistan, published his long awaited report on the situation in that country. The report focused on four pillars that would be the foundation for an American strategy that is working desperately to reverse the backward slide toward Taliban control that has gripped the nation. Succinctly put, he advocated that we must

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-58120553431682730502009-09-23T05:46:00.001-05:002009-09-23T05:47:39.562-05:00

Women across the country are celebrating another milestone as just recently women become the majority of the American workforce. Flush with pride of their most recent accomplishment, the feminists are vaulting onto the high horse and claiming to be the saviors of mankind; or perhaps more accurately, blaming men for the recent ills of the world. Now I’m used to being blamed for all the violence

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-39985094649910274302009-09-20T21:18:00.001-05:002009-09-20T21:20:19.096-05:00

It surely comes as no surprise to any of you that America is the most litigious nation on the planet (U S A! U S A! We’re Number 1! U S A! U S A!). We sue for everything. Everything. We sue for being sued. We sue for hot coffee. We sue cable companies for making us fat with their riveting entertainment, that coincidentally they forgot to turn off when we canceled our cable. We sue McDonalds for

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-7812605646449515872009-09-16T03:05:00.002-05:002009-09-16T03:08:24.124-05:00

I graduated high school ten years ago in 1999. Just before the spring of that year I was finishing up my application process for my ROTC scholarship. The majority of my peers seemed to think me a bit daft, and certainly less than ambitious, for entertaining a stint in the Army. But hey, it paid for college right? Around the same time “Office Space” came out. Now Mike Judge’s film was by no means

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-85168669579161231452009-09-14T05:38:00.002-05:002009-09-14T12:46:52.319-05:00

So another week down, another 168 hours of mindless CNN / MSNBC / Fox News / CSPAN coverage almost exclusively dedicated to healthcare reform. Not in a meaningful or explanatory way, but just more vapid reporting on town halls fiascos and phantom death panels, briefly interspersed with self proclaimed industry insiders and politicians doing nothing to help make sense of the mess. Now there seems

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-91162716939294553192009-09-11T20:05:00.002-05:002009-09-11T20:09:12.375-05:00

So I was reading the New York Times this morning, because… well mostly because their editorials tend to piss me off, therefore giving the bastard writing material. This morning was no exception. In a Series dubbed “The Card Game” the Times has opted to attack Banks for their overdraft fees on debit cards. The article tells the sad story of one Peter Means who was surprised to find out he’d racked

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-44037385585225650882009-09-09T06:25:00.000-05:002009-09-09T06:28:08.481-05:00

So I bag a lot on a lot of different groups of people; on older generations and the youth of today, on evangelical right wing nuts and liberal ideologues, on racist minorities and sexist women. I think it’s high time I bear some of the responsibility for some of America’s ills. I’m certainly no innocent, and a large part of the entitlement our country feels rests most squarely on my generation’s

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-91664913125457705892009-09-07T01:25:00.002-05:002009-09-07T01:28:23.268-05:00

Tomorrow President Obama is supposed to be giving an eighteen minute address to the public school children of the country (and I presume anyone else that wishes to tune in). It’s be purported to focus on the importance of getting an education and not doing drugs. Now despite the fact that not one word of the speech has been uttered, there are already hundreds of pundits spouting their fervor over

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-78016276037463646762009-08-31T19:25:00.001-05:002009-08-31T19:33:19.634-05:00

Last week, I caught an interview on CNN with Congressman Joe Sestak, a Democrat from Pennsylvania. In the interview he championed the medical care his now eight year old daughter was given when she was diagnosed with brain cancer. As a serving member of the Navy, his family was entitled to the extensive coverage of TRICARE, the health care program of the US Department of Defense (formerly known

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-81511519901771728282009-08-21T09:18:00.001-05:002009-08-21T09:19:31.675-05:00

It’s Time To Join The ConversationMy last plank in the New Republican platform is the environment. The Republicans have to start talking, and not just loudly, but intelligently about this real issue. For too long the deniers have monopolized the party, which is why today the Democrats have been able to push through all kinds of convoluted and ineffective legislation on the issue. Republicans can

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-27600418986793062892009-08-20T17:46:00.001-05:002009-08-20T17:48:22.493-05:00

Simplify the Tax Code So Even the Democrats Can Understand ItAs last winter’s appointment fiascos demonstrated, our tax laws in this country are absurdly complicated. They are demonstrably difficult to read, and written in such an arcane language that almost no American understands them. Computers barely understand our tax code. To better explain my point, there are ways to test at what reading

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-52450991466359842472009-08-19T16:06:00.001-05:002009-08-20T17:45:29.549-05:00

I Smell BaconThe second issue that Republicans need to campaign on is spending. They need to get back to their roots of less government, less bureaucracy and less spending. Our country cannot currently afford the spending we already do, which is why our national debt is climbing at an ever-increasing rate. The economic stimulus packages, exponential Medicare costs and Social Security are all

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-26132215348568125452009-08-18T14:57:00.001-05:002009-08-19T16:05:51.494-05:00

Teaching Them To FishFirst up is education. While admittedly a thorny issue, it is probably the one issue the Democrats are most vulnerable on. Traditionally, most politicians avoid talking at length about it, not surprisingly given that there’s no 51% way to split the issue. Both parties are, after all, pro-education. At least that’s what they say.To get a real perspective on the way both

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-47547258954460699292009-08-16T20:39:00.002-05:002009-08-19T15:56:21.576-05:00

The Way AheadBefore we get into the meat of the ways in which I think Republicans can regain an American mandate, I’d like to backtrack just a bit. When I advocate that Republicans need to set aside their petty mudslinging, I am in no way naively claiming that the days of politicking are over. Politics has and will always be politics, and the formula was perfected long before even the Roman

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-58281511132462161992009-08-14T16:21:00.002-05:002009-08-19T15:51:08.216-05:00

The Moral Majority Needs A “Come To Jesus” MomentDespite their clever slogan choice, the “Moral Majority” does not represent 51% of the American voting public. As much as America is very much a Christian nation, devout evangelical fundamentalists are very much a minority in this country. This is a fact that the Republican Party has simply failed to wake up to, despite a mountain of polls, surveys

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-5457383593377277492009-08-13T18:55:00.002-05:002009-08-19T15:45:12.079-05:00

We Need To Talk About Your ImagePerhaps the most critical thing that the Republicans need to focus on is that, overwhelmingly, Americans voted for a simple slogan of “Change”. This means they didn’t so much vote for Democrats as they did against Republicans. Contrast this with the 1994 midterm elections where the Republicans swept the Congress and Americans voted for them, rather than simply

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-67595269257492551212009-08-12T17:20:00.002-05:002009-08-19T15:39:07.225-05:00

For the last several months the news outlets have been replaying a narrative about how the Republican Party is now searching for its new voice, its soul, its direction. They claim that this is a result of the loss to President Obama last November, though most pundits can easily point out that the Republican Party was searching for its voice even before the GOP convention, and that this inability

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-28808163036822011022009-08-10T16:34:00.005-05:002009-08-18T15:04:36.852-05:00

So I gotta admit; I’m actually kind of enjoying this Health Care Reform push. Not because I’m in favor of it, but just because it’s good to stretch the muscles of Democracy from time to time, if only to remind you that they are there. It’s like the last forty years of politics have been fermenting and have suddenly come up riper than moldy French cheese. Some pundits are even claiming that if

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-75085558566884589992009-08-04T09:50:00.002-05:002009-08-04T09:52:57.449-05:00

I know I’ve already hit on this before but just in case there are any holdouts left out there in full blown denial, here’s a few statistics from the Center for Disease Control and World Health Organization:• Over 2/3 of American adults are clinically overweight, half of those are classified as obese.• Only one state has less than 1/5 of its adults recorded as obese, Colorado.• America has 3

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-35467397791936501212009-08-03T00:50:00.002-05:002009-08-03T00:53:11.554-05:00

Okay, so that’s two missed posts last month (though technically only one missed post as one of those was extra since I didn’t think I’d be posting for the 4th of July weekend). Last week could be chalked up to a lot of different reasons: reading extensively on healthcare reform, duty all day Saturday, or the fact that last week broke records for heat in a state that by and large, doesn’t believe

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-71082416319428415172009-07-20T23:59:00.003-05:002009-09-11T20:22:36.386-05:00

So back on the weekend of the Fourth of July, I tripped up to northern Washington to celebrate the holiday in the time-honored way with open fire barbeque, fireworks, and a beautiful lakeside cabin my relative was incredibly gracious to let me borrow. I hadn’t noticed until then, but it had been a long time since I’d celebrated the Fourth of July in anything that could be ascribed as festive or

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-83777370168473998952009-07-07T00:30:00.000-05:002009-07-07T00:31:56.365-05:00

Summer is in full swing, with beautiful sunny days in the typically dreary gray Pacific Northwest, or so they say. It’s been mostly sunny here since I moved into my apartment. I’m beginning to suspect it’s all a ploy to keep out Californians. With the summer sun comes more than just holiday’s on the beach, the smells of backyard barbeques, and long lines at the amusement parks. It also means

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-3432062426448656332009-06-29T22:32:00.002-05:002009-06-29T22:35:20.908-05:00

Okay so it’s late in the Monday, I know. No real good excuse for being late, just worked all last week so I didn’t sit down to write blogs on my weekend. I’m sure you all found some cute kittens on youtube to kill time with instead. Now you’ll just have something to look forward to on Tuesday. Oh, and while I’m at it, no Monday with the Bastard Next week; I’m on vacation.So I am glad I waited

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-90922546514047742402009-06-22T19:42:00.000-05:002009-06-22T19:44:33.070-05:00

So I’ve got XM Radio, or at least I will until the struggling company goes under. There’re literally about 200 radio stations dedicated to just about everything out there. Want a 70’s only radio station? Check. How about listen to BBC 1? Check. How about all Bollywood all the time? Check. They even have a Playboy radio station, and Cosmo, and Out, a radio station dedicated to gay talk radio (if

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-15918275081097918932009-06-15T06:27:00.001-05:002009-06-15T06:27:48.625-05:00

So I’ll be the first to admit it, I bag on Canada. Everyone does, because it’s so easy to pick on Canada. It’s not like it’s retarded, or known for heinously ugly women or anything. It’s just, well, awkward, overly friendly and tends to speak funny. Canada isn’t such a colossally infamous country like North Korea or even as foul smelling and depressing as Somalia. Canada is much like the

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-51363414719860284432009-06-08T22:40:00.001-05:002009-06-08T22:50:06.755-05:00

I know what you’re thinking, but it’s still Monday my time, so lay off. I had to drive the long way across the state of Washington and back in one day. Besides, you want punctuality, send some cash this way. As long as these blogs are coming to you free of charge, quit your bitching.Of course the sad reality is, you can’t. We humans are hard coded to bitch; it’s what we do. One of the easiest

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-26728346231080842622009-05-31T23:58:00.001-05:002009-06-01T00:02:34.575-05:00

So as I’ve written numerous times, I’ve never been keen on the idea of people telling you they are right, you are wrong, and you have to do things their way. I’ve always been very much in favor of a diversity of opinions, and as long as your view doesn’t infringe on another person’s freedoms, I’m generally okay with it. This is why I’ll probably never date a vegan. I’ve dated a few vegetarians,

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-55117749212847448232009-05-28T10:11:00.002-05:002009-05-28T10:18:46.048-05:00

The fundamental consequence of a capitalist mindset is that a person who adopts it will become competitive, indifferent and driven. He will view his fellow man as a competitor, a challenge, and every much a sum of both the decisions he has made and the luck he has benefited from. Fairness is not a naturally occurring quantity in the universe, but rather a human psyches invention much like value,

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-26748053875256124152009-05-25T11:12:00.003-05:002009-05-25T12:53:00.723-05:00

So not many of you know this, but the Army postal service is one of the most intensely scrutinized and rigorously run departments in all of Iraq. Sure there are mistakes, lost letters, damaged packages; all the fare you see at any post office. But they are not only rare for a service that must combat more than just rain, sleet and snow, but also has to try to pinpoint where individual soldiers

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-43297826200927798322009-05-18T01:23:00.005-05:002009-05-18T19:05:07.094-05:00

A recurring meme throughout human history is that of the “End of Times.” At least once a decade going back for thousands of years somebody convinces a bunch of other people to sell all of their belongings, say goodbye to their families and off themselves in preparation of the inevitable calamity. Think back to the Hale Bop Comet cult “Heaven’s Gate”, Jim Jones’s People’s Temple and the entire

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-26100412604624260552009-05-17T15:55:00.001-05:002009-05-17T15:56:40.464-05:00

President Obama this week reversed a decision made previously to release photographs of the “enhanced interrogation techniques” used in the Guantanamo Bay detention facility Camp X-Ray. In doing so he has continue to walk a very fine political line which has left both political parties angry and dissatisfied. He has also done exactly what a president is expected to and in this case, what

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-54379026709808673652009-05-10T21:14:00.029-05:002009-06-22T20:10:36.031-05:00

So I was perusing the news last week and stumbled across a story I thought had died years ago. Turns out that the only Super Bowl Half-Time Show anyone ever wanted to watch more than onceis still in legal limbo. That’s right, there’s a recession on, Swine Flu, and Palin’s daughter without a husband, but we’ve got the time to keep wasting American tax dollars on the debate over Janet Jackson’s

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-84113874988628548832009-05-04T08:56:00.003-05:002009-05-04T09:03:54.419-05:00

NOW HIRING! JOB OPENING!Employer looking for highly motivated and hard working job seekers. The perfect opportunity for new college graduates to gain experience in their field of study.• Competitive pay scales with guaranteed promotion within the company• Full Medical and Dental benefits• Paid time off your first year• Potential for Tax Free Income and bonuses• Opportunity to effect real Change

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-86954736275411248782009-05-03T18:40:00.003-05:002009-05-03T22:26:10.956-05:00

Go fetch yourselves a piece of paper and pen. Come on, hurry up and don’t act all surprised and make excuses for not studying, it’s too late. Yes a pencil will do, and no it doesn’t have to be a number 2. Ready? No, it’s not going to be multiple choice, or true false. It’s fill in the blank.Write down the Ten Commandments. No looking it up in the book, or on Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo etc. You’ve

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-55998421457665155822009-04-27T02:02:00.000-05:002009-04-27T02:03:07.965-05:00

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but it can also be a really effective way to denigrate the original. So it is with one of our nation’s most groundbreaking and important founding documents, the Bill of Rights. Quite unusual for most written constitutions, the first ten amendments to the US constitution were appended just over four years after the ratification of the

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-27434475934638689612009-04-20T02:24:00.003-05:002009-04-30T16:03:28.827-05:00

Having shot down a disingenuous phrase last week, I figured this week we’d upgrade to a whole philosophy that has gotten enough social penetration, they decided to name a movie after it; this week I’m taking on the “Bucket List.”For those of you who haven’t seen the flick, it’s based on the relatively popular idea that you should create a list of things you want to do or see before you “kick the

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-65756022550652978462009-04-15T01:12:00.002-05:002009-04-15T01:16:44.245-05:00

Regardless of what many modern feminists will tell you, women in America have an unbelievable amount of freedom and equality these days. Pay parity is closing every year and only a handful of jobs are still male only. More women are graduating from medical and law school than men, and many of the top universities in the country have female presidents. Even the last election saw a female candidate

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-6736417631265100712009-04-13T08:39:00.003-05:002009-04-30T16:03:38.560-05:00

Feel free to continue spending your Tuesdays contemplating Buddhism and withering away from a debilitating disease. Monday is an asshole of a day better suited to me, so I’m going to start posting shorter blogs on each and every soul sucking one.Okay, even I know that I completely suck at regular posts, so the new recurring series, “Mondays with the Bastard,” is going to be weeklyish. God, I love

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-61822450117380769912009-04-10T20:02:00.009-05:002009-04-10T21:51:28.670-05:00

After several months of writing and posting serious and disheartening blogs about the economy, I’ve realized maybe I should lighten up a bit. I mean, just because the government wastefully siphoned off trillions of your tax dollars in a botched attempt to stop bad banks from failing, only to watch those bad banks continue to spend money in the fashion that got us into this mess doesn’t mean it’s

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-52039620480172799272009-03-27T18:45:00.001-05:002009-04-03T00:07:09.244-05:00

Grow The Fuck Up.For those of you with limited amount of time, that’s the long and short of it. The Army is all about the Bottom Line Up Front writing style, so any of you who are busy and might not have the time to finish the blog, that’s really all there is to it.When the hell did America become the nation of whiny politically correct hypocrites? Where the hell did our work ethic go? When did

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-44471664061388901382009-03-26T23:57:00.004-05:002009-03-27T00:01:43.565-05:00

How I learned to calculate risk (and perhaps why so many Americans suck at it)Risk calculation is big money, even in cash strapped days like today. Insurance companies pay large salaries for those gifted at it. This also might explain why former military members do well in finding jobs in business when they get out. After all, military risk management and assessment isn’t just taught in the

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-63721156899098243452009-03-25T23:44:00.004-05:002009-03-25T23:49:07.571-05:00

Nothing for SomethingCongratulations, we think you’re such a great manager that we’re going to offer you not only the highest salary the law will allow, but we’re going to provide you with a bonus. Only unlike that end of year bonus you’re used to, the one based on such archaic ideas as job performance, we’re going to give you this bonus regardless of your performance. Gamble the firm’s funds on

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-42065976431235708592009-03-24T08:45:00.003-05:002009-03-24T09:10:51.536-05:00

Learning to snowboard is a very fun, and simultaneously very painful process. It’s amazingly how subtle movements of your hips can translate through a semi-rigid board into wide agile sweeps across the snow covered slopes; just as it’s astounding how mere inches too far can translate into tail bone crushing falls. As you learn to ride a snowboard the first lesson is that of the falling leaf,

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-53418113644477691772009-03-24T02:23:00.002-05:002009-03-24T02:29:48.623-05:00

Teach Your Children WellChildren’s education is always a highly contentious issue, and justifiably so. I would argue that it is perhaps one of the most important issues a government can take up, and perhaps the only one that is simultaneously capable of firing up a population to protest, while simultaneously being worthy of such reactions. This is because public education is an investment in the

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-79991934147642671052009-02-26T22:59:00.002-05:002009-02-26T23:11:27.989-05:00

It’s All RelativeSo having picked on math teachers enough, it’s time to share the wealth among the educators of our country. I’ll start right out by saying that not all of my teacher’s were bad, and some of them found truly novel ways to get us to learn and more importantly, to enjoy learning. My senior year of high school I had an exceptional English teacher, Mr. Andrews (whom I stole the “thimk

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-31899692727057436832009-02-06T15:15:00.002-05:002009-02-06T15:17:00.428-05:00

So Who Cares?Okay so I’ve just wandered down a meandering path of my past, even reaching back to Elementary School. Other than to rub salt in the wounds of the economy and those suffering from it, what’s the point?Well the point is that I learned my lessons about finance from those parents I’d heralded as being one of the two greatest advantages life gave me. I also learned another one from a

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-79435935547719024082009-02-05T18:28:00.001-05:002009-02-05T18:30:23.381-05:00

Everything I learned about money…Money is one of the things that I can pretty easily trace the history of my education on. Figuring out how your parents taught you respect or subversiveness is tricky, but financial management can’t be taught until you can do math, so the memories are clearer. The first really important lessons I learned about money came from my mom and dad. I was sixteen when I

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-55284399465487584422009-02-04T19:08:00.001-05:002009-02-04T19:09:39.582-05:00

I’m Rich BitchAmerican culture as it exists today, simply cannot last. We’re too far mortgaged. The average American saved only .5% of their income over the last three years, not even one penny on the dollar. Economists today are worried because American’s in the last three months have been saving 3.5% of their income (still well below the 5% the average European saves), claiming that the only

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-78231193605824755062009-02-03T23:17:00.002-05:002009-02-03T23:31:29.478-05:00

Starting at the endToday I’m sitting in a tea shop in Tacoma. I’ve got money in my pocket, a job I like, a car that’s paid for, and life is good. I am not here by accident, but as a result of a myriad of decisions I’ve made, luck I’ve had and perhaps most importantly, the two facts that have gone the furthest toward setting me on a road of success in life. I was born in America, to two parents

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-23948634744928184532009-02-03T01:40:00.005-05:002009-02-03T19:44:23.711-05:00

I just moved to Tacoma, Washington. Okay technically I moved here last may, but when you ship out three weeks after first stepping foot in town, it doesn’t really count. Besides a 10’ x 10’ storage locker is not a home (though the rent is decidedly more bearable). Having just returned from adventures in Asia, I come home flush with riches and have begun looking into the idea of buying a home (I

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-31948970667122887872009-01-19T13:23:00.006-05:002009-01-19T14:35:01.538-05:00

Tomorrow, on the day of Barrack Obama’s inauguration, one of President Bush’s final acts will go into effect, making it easier for those in the medical field to remain true to their own moral beliefs. The Provider Conscience Rule, also dubbed the “right of conscience” rule, would change existing federal regulations to ensure that everyone from surgeons to your local pharmacist would be free from

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-65196298475658060612009-01-08T09:20:00.003-05:002009-01-10T05:30:08.396-05:00

The current economic downturn has just been met with even more grim news. Despite optimism throughout the holiday, all indications are that the next year will continue to sour as profits slump and job cuts increase. Many economists are predicting up to another 14% drop in housing prices over the next year, with no indications that the American economy will be back on its feet before the end of

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-1239506354162692022008-12-17T17:43:00.002-05:002008-12-18T01:21:33.529-05:00

That is perhaps the most important fact in the now infamous “Shoe Heard Round the World” incident. Sure it makes for a great punch line on late night television, sure there’s a plethora of web games already springing up across the internet, along with a plethora of viral videos; but there is a very key point in yesterday’s events that most news outlets are over looking. Muntazdar Al-Zaydi threw

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-42792777623445827922008-12-05T15:59:00.002-05:002008-12-05T16:29:55.427-05:00

For two months now I have been inundated with 24 hour news coverage about how the “greedy” fat cats of Wall Street have ruined our nation and plunged us into a blight from which only massive tax buyouts can even hope to help us recover. All the major news stations, and nearly every politician, never mind the overwhelming majority of Americans have demonized these idiot CEOs and their overreaching

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-67890904756339732272008-11-28T16:21:00.003-05:002008-11-28T16:26:56.471-05:00

delayed one day on account of turkey.Falling back to The Commanding HeightsDespite all the gloom and doom about the economy, there is a limit to how far the market can fall, and more importantly, it will go back up. The majority of the loss in the exchanges has been a result of the elimination of empty trading. The market crashed back down when everyone discovered that their shares weren’t backed

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-47298256295667645782008-11-26T18:07:00.002-05:002008-11-26T18:52:18.684-05:00

continued from yesterday's blogThe Emperor’s TailorSeveral years ago, the banks went looking for a new way to make more money. 4%-10% over time is fine, but everyone wants to make a quick buck after all. So several years ago banks found a new way to trade loans around, which in turn made them appear less risky. This allowed for a sizable increase in the amount of available credit; suddenly

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-71918945745240289222008-11-25T15:56:00.003-05:002008-11-25T16:03:21.160-05:00

I’d like to preface this blog by saying, I am not an economist. I did take Econ 101 in college, but I did not take any other financially inclined courses, nor did I ever find the hobby fascinating enough to pursue in my free time. I also didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. So I am being upfront and honest about my lack of credentials on the subject. Of course it was supposed “

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-29753645149032180002008-05-01T21:01:00.002-05:002008-05-01T21:32:04.782-05:00

It was still dark out when I woke up in my car’s front seat at the truck stop. Grudgingly I stretched my whole body and slipped the blanket back into the backseat before the almost paralyzing need to take a piss hit me. A few seconds later and I’d bolted into a world of bright artificial light and located the bathroom with that alarming ability and intuition that comes to you when you desperately

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-86539703992234476032008-03-09T18:14:00.001-05:002008-03-09T18:33:51.469-05:00

Originally posted on 14 Oct 06Anyone who's ever heard of professional modeling has been subjected to a long winded diatribe of its negative influences on our society, most notably the objectification of women and the promotion of an unrealistic body image. Stories abound of poor women "forced" to subject themselves to anorexia and bulimia, so called "crippling diseases." While I personally can't

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-76976667328036817262008-03-09T18:08:00.011-05:002008-03-09T18:35:43.293-05:00

Originally posted on 08 Feb 06All over the news for the last two weeks you've seen images and video of Muslims protesting outside embassies. This week they began vandalizing and rioting, which in many cases progressed into violence, arson and destruction. Clerics the world over have issued damning statements, terrorists have issued new fatwahs, and Muslims the world over are fucking pissed.At the

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-69753624853768582662008-01-20T17:53:00.000-05:002008-01-20T17:56:04.141-05:00

In this year’s presidential campaign (as well as last year’s, to be more accurate) almost all of the candidates have been advocating that they will bring an end to the partisan politics that have been the norm in Washington of late; partisan politics that have paralyzed legislation and served only to further the divide between the American public and their dreams of a responsive and productive

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-89366190841456351362008-01-14T22:48:00.000-05:002008-01-14T23:02:51.967-05:00

The current Congress, the 110th in our nation’s history, is receiving the lowest Gallup approval ratings every registered since the popular polling firm started tracking their marks. Their approval ratings are so low they even fit under Bush’s, a fact that alone should spurn them to action. So what’s Congress focusing on in light of a public who has officially deemed them incompetent and

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-57238086229494188832008-01-14T11:30:00.001-05:002008-01-14T11:32:35.675-05:00

Originally posted on 28 March 07So I was rereading my older blogs yesterday, as I tend to do. Nothing keeps an overblown ego in check like finding obvious spelling errors in a blog you've edited and reread a hundred times. Anyways, I noticed a trend of late: I've been taking shit way too seriously. Sure there's the British hostages in Iran and a sinking real estate market, but now that we know

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-78548741914106281292008-01-14T11:26:00.000-05:002008-01-14T11:33:29.390-05:00

Originally posted on 25 March 07Preamble: At no point in this blog does the word communist or communism mean anything close to what Sen. McCarthy meant by the word. While the word has lost ground to the now more popular "fascist," it still carries a negative connotation so strong, most people not only don't even know what it means, they are scared to look up the word for fear of mental

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-86473016617762956592008-01-10T22:33:00.000-05:002008-01-10T23:18:25.348-05:00

While many people are quick to accuse the government of fear-mongering when it comes to its campaign to end global terrorism, few American’s seem to mind when these same techniques are used much more often and pervasively by their politicians. Just take a look at three oft touted “issues” facing America today: gay marriage, abortion and immigration. Having already addressed the first two, I guess

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-87147347610517130332007-12-31T17:10:00.000-05:002008-01-10T22:45:48.797-05:00

There is unlikely to be any issue in the last fifty years that can effectively polarize the American population with greater efficacy than abortion. It represents an ideological Jerusalem, an argument for which there is no middle ground. That said, it is ultimately a decision that nearly one half of the population will never directly face. I myself have never been placed in a situation where my

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-32875874853925417802007-12-31T13:19:00.000-05:002007-12-31T13:22:36.247-05:00

Originally posted on 09 Jan 06 I took a vacation from my Monday blog last week, while I coincidentally took a vacation from work and Colorado to go back to Virginia for a Christmas at home. It was great to be back in Portsmouth, and even better to spend Christmas with the family and friends. I even went to church.But to only tell you about my break would leave out by far the most mundane and yet

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-11519854976994453072007-12-31T13:16:00.000-05:002007-12-31T13:18:39.589-05:00

Originally posted on 05 Dec 05...which is going to make what I write sound a bit odd. Christmas is my least favorite holiday. It's even behind Columbus Day and Sweetest Day (which I didn't even know existed until I moved to Michigan). Christmas is probably my least favorite day of the year, or at least it's the only day I hate that always falls on the same date every year. I just want to make

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-40262710501711248262007-12-15T14:32:00.000-05:002007-12-15T14:33:43.999-05:00

A friend of mine recently complimented one of my blogs by saying that if I “cleaned it up a bit” I could probably get it published as an opinion letter in a newspaper, and she even suggested the idea that the newspaper might be one people actually read. I’ve actually had a few letters published, but they were all back in college, in our campus newspaper. Now The State News may be the most read

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-23315169814921118982007-12-09T19:20:00.000-05:002007-12-31T13:11:58.132-05:00

So a few weeks back I posted a blog detailing both my antipathy with the current Army advertising campaign, and to suggest a few new ones (see "And now for a brief commercial break", 13SEP07). Over the Thanksgiving break I enjoyed a very illuminating exchange with a fellow alumni, wherein we discussed said topic. That we were both in a dive bar drinking several tall beers surely only aided us in

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-37959803017424434112007-11-22T11:44:00.000-05:002007-11-23T01:19:15.120-05:00

The New Jersey Legislature has recently taken it upon itself to challenge the currently prevailing method of capital punishment, lethal injection. Citing that the method can be unreliable on inmates with a history of drug use and can ultimately cause pain prior to death, opponents of the death penalty have rallied to again attempt to stop American courts from sending the convicted to death row.

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-13864144052529267432007-11-17T18:50:00.001-05:002007-11-18T09:22:46.975-05:00

A few weeks ago the New York City School Board announced the implementation of a new rewards program for students. In this new program students will be given cell phones and receive text messages drawn up by an advertising firm intended to encourage them to do better in school. Better grades will be compensated with simple things like minutes for their phones and ring tones, to more grandiose

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-66231123528868437072007-11-14T23:11:00.000-05:002007-11-15T22:59:31.634-05:00

Originally posted on 20 Jul 06I have fallen off writing my blogs in the last few months, mostly due to being away for training and moving back down to Columbus, Georgia. However, I cannot blame all of my laziness away on the Army, as they have now sent me to a school where free time is a bit more abundant, even if it is in.... Georgia. While I lack any evidence to support it, and a definitely

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-18142619754870523492007-11-12T19:37:00.000-05:002007-12-31T13:20:39.822-05:00

Originally posted on 04 Jan 07So there's been a long lull in my blog that's extended for over a month now. This has not been without reason. Initially it was because my last blog took a lot out of me. Instead of just writing what I thought and presenting opinions with such a force of will as to imply they were undeniable, I actually did research, which I discovered is a lot like flossing. Sure

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-49003351585637109012007-11-12T19:31:00.000-05:002007-12-31T13:20:44.000-05:00

Originally posted on 12 Dec 05Now I'm sure you're already pigeonholing me as a bigot and an ignorant homophobic conservative, but you'd be wrong. My Uncle Kurt on my mom's side is gay. I also had a gay great uncle before he recently passed. He'd lived with my "Uncle" Frank for over forty years (we don't go in for calling them "Aunt" in my family it just sounds retarded, and I personally think

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-20454236944584908732007-11-11T21:04:00.000-05:002007-11-12T19:11:23.719-05:00

No I don’t want to see any of your damn yellow ribbon “I support the idea of supporting the troops” bumper stickers. Personally, every time I see one of those stupid things I want to run your car off the road. Granted you’re talking to a cynic, and a grizzled one at that, so my opinion is not everyone’s, and surely not gospel. But what I’m trying to tell you is that I’ve found a better use of

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-11622973445331735352007-10-20T05:06:00.000-05:002007-12-31T13:20:49.561-05:00

Originally posted on 26 Nov 05There was this old couple, I'd say around fifty or so, sitting next to me on my flight home from Thanksgiving. The woman was sitting in my seat when I walked up, and I chalked her error up to the fact that she really wanted the window seat. An hour later I figured out that wasn't the issue at all.They were showing "March of the Penguins" on the flight. I didn't feel

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-24431704564602887692007-10-20T05:03:00.000-05:002007-12-31T13:21:13.930-05:00

Originally posted on 20 Oct 06 Since I've written more than one politically minded blog I'm sure there are a few of you out there who are interested to hear my take on the upcoming midterm congressional elections. Actually since only about four people actually read this blog, "a few" might be a strong word. How about at least 10% of the four people (roughly one whole leg) want to know?And

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-33120011849329332132007-10-14T20:24:00.000-05:002008-12-08T19:45:58.379-05:00

Originally posted on 05 Mar 07 Well it's official, the Baby Boomers are officially old. They've finally gotten past their mid-life crisis, the dot-com bubble and bust, and are now showing the classical signs of the elderly, most notably, their critique of today's values. Once the reprieve of Our Greatest Generation, the Baby Boomers have taken up the mantle "back in my day…" All over the

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7022751806135642062.post-55253957320966277762007-10-14T20:18:00.000-05:002008-12-08T19:45:58.565-05:00

Originally posted on 27 Aug 06 I picked up a cook book a couple of months back in an attempt to finally learn how to feed myself by a means other than MasterCard. Thus far it’s met with intermittent success; I can make an incredible Vodka Cream Pasta, but have a tendency to lightly burn chicken. One recipe in my book is for fillet minion with an exquisite red wine sauce. Anyone who’s had

Erikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09955134131300076546noreply@blogger.com1