It's a Dog Eat Dog World

Why I have seen story after story over the past week involving President Obama, Mitt Romney and dogs? The stories I’ve seen have basically followed this pattern, Liberal attacks Romney over his treatment of the family dog, and Conservatives say story is no big deal and a distraction from issues.  Next story is Conservatives bring up event from Obama’s past involving dog and wonder where outrage is, Liberals say events from the past aren’t important and why are we talking about dogs?  It’s enough to make me wonder why I still read any political “news.” 

So first Romney is attacked because during a family vacation he put the family dog in a dog carrier and strapped it to the top of the car for a 12-hour drive to Canada. When this story starts getting media play, Romney aides pointed out Obama made mention in his book “Dreams From My Father” he had eaten dog while living in Indonesia as child.  Let’s see, a 30-year-old family vacation and a 40-year-old childhood story.  Do either of these events involve a federal crime? No? So why are they taking up air time and attention away from actual issues?

The United States has an 8.3% unemployment rate  (allegedly higher if you factor in people who have run out of unemployment benefits), 15.6 trillion dollar national debt which increases by over 3 Billion dollars a day, and $4 a gallon gas which shows no sign of lowering yet we’re wasting time talking about dogs.

As I said in the last posting, the 24-hour news cycle doesn’t mean we’re more informed. It means a lot more idiotic topics are given time to be talked about instead of devoting time to actual things that matter.  I urge you to tune out all the senseless ramblings and ranting about anything that takes the focus off actual issues.  The past is the past. Lets move towards the future.

Who Needs a Court of Law When We Have the Media?

There used to be a time in America where a person when involved in a crime had the protection of being presumed innocent until guilty in a court of law. Somehow, whether it’s because of the 24 hours news cycle that has to fill time or because of social networking giving people a continuous voice, the new philosophy has become guilty until proven innocent.  We saw it with O.J. Simpson, the Duke Lacrosse team, Casey Anthony and now with George Zimmerman.

I was on vacation in New York when the Trayvon Martin case broke so I missed the initial reports of what happened. I remember being in the hotel room on Monday night flipping through the channels. The talking heads on MSNBC were talking about how evil George Zimmerman was and how he should be moved immediately to death row.  A change of the channel and the people on Fox News were talking about Zimmerman was just trying to protect his neighborhood and Trayvon shouldn’t have been wondering around the neighborhood.

I have not followed the case in detail for reasons I’ll get to in a bit. I have however seen several tweets and some postings not about the events but about what should happen to George Zimmerman. I saw a flyer the Black Panthers were passing around with a picture of Zimmerman and a $10,000 “Wanted Dead or Alive” bounty. Spike Lee tweeted the address he thought was Zimmerman’s (that turnout to be an elderly couple who had nothing to do with George Zimmerman) and Roseanne Barr tweeted the address of Zimmerman’s parents. What reason they had for doing so other than inciting individuals to cause potential violence as “payback.” 

I’m not going to say George Zimmerman is innocent. He fired a gun that took the life of another human being. The big question though, is why did he shoot? Right now there are only two people who know what happened that night. Unfortunately one of those people can’t tell his side of the story. While Zimmerman may have been in the wrong for his actions, is it right to call for his life in retaliation without knowing the facts? 

In my opinion this should not have become national news. I don’t have statistics in front of me but I’m going to say it’s safe to say several murders occur across America on a daily basis. What made this one stand out? Was it just because it was Neighborhood Watch leader who had been advised by the police to back off? Had the victim not been a black teenager who was carrying Skittles would it have made the news?  Realize I’m not trying to trivialize Trayvon’s death. What I’m trying to get around to saying is we as a society need to stop the public persecution.

George Zimmerman has not had his day in court yet if you ask most people they’d probably say he should serve life in prison. What information are they using to base their opinion? From the, albeit limited, information I have read, there is no definite identification of whether George or Trayvon can be heard screaming on the 911 call.  Whatever eyewitnesses there are didn’t see the entire confrontation so they don’t cast a clear-cut sequence of events. If I’m correct, the police haven’t even finished their initial review of the case. So if a case hasn’t been built, why is the public condemning someone?

With the hypersensitive nature and demand for swift justice I can see this case ending much the same as the O.J. and Casey Anthony trials. The prosecution will rush to bring the case to court in order to appease the public’s demand for justice. In their rush to trial a weak case will be presented that includes enough holes to drive a truck through. The jury, if they do their job and don’t have their votes in place before the trial begins, will return a Not Guilty verdict based on reasonable doubt. This will lead to a public outcry and George Zimmerman having to constantly look over his shoulder for the rest of his life. Or maybe I’m finally learning how to speak in hyperbole.

I’m interested in seeing how this case progress once it gets to the courtroom. What I’m not interested in seeing is how the case continues to play out on TV before there are hard facts.  I’m also curious as to what it will take for the general public to stop jumping to conclusions and condemning people before they have their day in court.  

Back in the Saddle

Over the past week, I went back and re-read some of my old Myspace blogs. Remember Myspace? the early 2000s were such a innocent time. Well, if you don't take 9-11 into consideration.  As I was reading my past rants, I got the urge to start writing again. My big concern with starting to pound on the keyboard, besides my forgetting most of the rules of writing I learned in school, was what would be the purpose of the new blog?

My previous writings basically fell into three categories; political, rants on society and nonsense. The later of the group were done when I had nothing else to write about while the first two were done when I would get irate over events happening the world. I really feel as a society we''re heading down a self-destructive path from which there may be no return. It's these blogs that I describe as piss and vinegar writings due to the self-indulgent venom I tend to spew during the course of the writings.

Since I last blogged, I have had some changes in my life which have slightly changed my inner thoughts. Because of this changed outlook on life, I wondered if my writings would have the same impact. Not impact on the reader because Lord knows none of my writings had any effect, but rather are the same hostilities still lurking inside me somewhere waiting to be unleashed.  If not would my writing suffer? I wrote a blog about six years ago during a positive time in my life that noted I felt my happiness was hindering my writing. While I'm currently not at the place I hoped to be at this stage in life, I am leading a life I enjoy and have few complaints. The big question for myself then is do I have anything to write about?

Well thankfully we're in an election year and the media has continued to to turn its back on journalistic integrity so there are plenty of issues that make me want to scream. I stopped writing right after the election of President Obama so I find it somewhat fitting to regroup and take up writing again as we head towards his potential re-election.  For those who weren't around four years ago here's a little recap so you'll know what to expect. I was not a fan of Senator Obama (nor was I a fan of Senator McCain) and looking back on everything I wrote, I feel a lot of the reservations I had about a President Obama have been justified. Four months ago I would have thought a Republican victory in November would be pretty close to a sure thing. Unfortunately none of the Republican politicians who had very little baggage decided to run and we got Mitt Romney as the Presidential challenger. So much like 2000, 2004 and 2008, I am dismayed that America is for all realistic purposes a two party country and will keep wishing on stars for a viable third, fourth and fifth party to step up by 2016.

What can you expect from this blog? Well, besides tons of grammatical errors. You can expect a lot of ranting and moaning about things I find ridiculous happening in the world. I'd say I'm a mix of Andy Rooney, Lewis Black and Don Rickles with a splash of Dane Cook added to zap away the talent.  When I get bored of bitching about society, I'll write about things that no one should care about. Stuff like Brangelina getting engaged. You know, the important stuff.

If you've made it this far, I hope you stick around for the rest of the ride. If I haven't offended you or made you think you've wasted precious minutes of your life, come back tomorrow. I'm guessing by the end of the week you'll feel I've done one of the two.

And just to get this off on a good note, here a nice little video to get the ball rolling.