When he passed, I heard a radio commentator quote an unnamed source from West Virginia saying that they would not know what to do now that he wasn’t in Washington to send federal funds back to them. It makes sense for them to think this way because he sent back billions to them during his tenure (Citizens Against Government Waste has a tally of Senator Byrd’s pork that will boggle the mind). So it is true, they just lost a major source of income. What’s a person to do?! I have an idea: start making your own way instead of swiping money from the rest of the country.

I am sure that the people of West Virginia are not the only ones. There are recipients of pork everywhere, and they should all be ashamed. This corruption needs to stop. We all know that politicians are self-serving, power-hungry individuals. Do not feed them your vote or willingly eat their pork! Does anyone think about the fact that the politicians are taking money from everyone else just so that they can remain in office? It seems like pork barrel politics could also be called much much worse.

In this day and age apparently people’s perceptions of human rights are changing. We are entitled to a good job (even if we do not deserve or cannot do the work), keeping our house (even when we cannot afford it), health care (even though it’s an optional service since our right to life is not an entitlement to a set number of years), and high speed internet. So while all of these things really deserve their own respective thoughts, I just have to say this: really, high speed internet? What an entitled and distorted society we live in.

But now they are getting despicable.

In striving for (or at least claiming to strive for) the best possible situations for its members, the power-hungry leaders of unions are wielding weapons that they seem ill-equipped to handle. They know only to grab all that they can at no expense. There are so many different groups reaching for as much as they possibly can that they threaten the very structures upon which they stand!

Unions make it easy for people to get as much as they can while also being protecting from punishment for not doing their job. Do you think that it’s a coincidence that the automakers in Detroit have huge unions and are also now going bankrupt? What about the education system (especially locally in southern California) that is floundering for money? Those teacher unions sure are big and powerful, aren’t they? I say that if they had just been reasonable about what they wanted and did (e.g., protecting from unjust terminations instead of deserved terminations) then perhaps we all would be a little bit better off.

In the United States of America, we stand for things. Our Constitution says that we have rights. But those rights do not include a guaranteed source of income nor a completely secure job. We are not entitled to a house nor do we deserve free health care, but I digress. Our rights do include the ability to work as hard as you can to achieve things. And in our current society, it sure seems like we could get ride of unions and let the best of the workers survive (because they will always be sought after as good workers).

Get this: Chinese people copied Disneyland. As in, they made a Disneyland park. Are you kidding me?!

I read an Engadget article about the fake Disneyland that got me to searching for more information. Amusingly, they have characters that closely mimic the Disney ones as well as rides that indicate how much of a fake it is. Their slogan (according to this other article) is that “Disneyland is too far.” Wow, that is unbelievable. I think that actually the most amusing thing about Beijing’s Shijingshan Amusement Park is that its website is http://www.bs-amusement-park.com. Haha you read that right, it’s the BS amusement park.

Although pretty humorous, this actually touches on a more serious issue (which was touched on at Even Worse Than At First Glance). And that issue is copyright infringement (or in this case complete disregard for copyrights whatsoever).

links:
The Standard (Chinese business newspaper) article – Touches the most on the significant copyright issues
Engadget article – Amusing pictures
Roller Coaster Database – Park information, list of rides, etc
Actual Disneyland-clone website – I don’t know Chinese (the language), but if you do then the story might get even more amusing for you

You’ve gotta hand it to the Bulls, they can roll. I enjoyed watching them tear up the Heat. Although I don’t think that I hold any ill feelings toward Shaquille O’Neal for leaving the Lakers, I’m not a big Heat fan. I’m not even sure what it is. I just don’t really care for them. I think that Wade is overrated (although good), and the rest of the team is just a bunch of cocky goons (namely Antoine Walker).

Golden State Warriors vs Dallas Mavericks

Though never really a fan of the Warriors, I’ve also never really been opposed to them. I’ve enjoyed watching their series against the Mavericks. However, I thought it quite disappointing that they couldn’t close out against them last night with a nine point lead with a few minutes left! That’s too bad. I’m a fan of how strong Baron Davis and Jason Richardson are playing. I’m not really a fan of Stephen Jackson because I think that he’s a crybaby. And Al Harrington? Forgot to show up. Here’s hoping that they close it out for real next time and send Mark Cuban & Co. packing.

Los Angeles Lakers vs Phoenix Suns

I’ll always be a fan of the Lakers. But they have been straight-up disappointing nearly the entire year! Kobe is pretty amazing sometimes (everyone has to admit that), but he both can’t do everything and can’t always be so amazing. Until they either get a real team or they learn to work together consistently, they won’t ever get very far in the playoffs. All of the other teams are just too good to monkey around every night. I’ll be cheering for the Suns in a week (even though they talked a little too much before the series started about how they’d steamroll the Lakers).

Cleveland Cavaliers vs Washington Wizards

I watched part of the game on Sunday. I fell asleep. That’s pretty much all you need to know about this series.

Denver Nuggets vs San Antonio Spurs

I thought the Nuggets could pull something off, especially after the first game. But the Spurs seem relentless. And Robert Horry must dream throughout the entire season about making those big playoff shots. The series isn’t that close, but it’s still fairly entertaining.

New Jersey Nets vs Toronto Raptors

I think the Nets should have been finished with the series already.

Orlando Magic vs Detroit Pistons

Why did they even have to play this series? I thought they would be better. But the Magic players never showed up at the same time. Something must have been wrong with their alarm clocks. Maybe they need five alarms.

Houston Rockets vs Utah Jazz

Rooting for the Rockets. They have showed glimpses of how far they could go with their 1-2 combo of McGrady and Yao. However, it hasn’t been consistent enough to knock out the Jazz yet. Chinese guy? I’m for the Rockets. Plus they’ve got Skip To My Lou! You’ve gotta cheer for that guy. Even if he does have the worst Field Goal % in the NBA.

They’re pushy, they’re slightly overbearing, and they only want to be your friends to make money off of you.

Case in point:

I read an article about an incident that outraged me. It also solidified my distaste for car salesmen. In the May 2007 edition of Car and Driver magazine, I saw an article about a man who went into a dealership to buy a car. He ended up buying a GMC Canyon. This man was mentally disabled (he was later reported to have had feces-covered pants on) with a reported IQ (from a relative) of 70.

To buy the Canyon, the man paid in cash (approximately $30,000) and ended up telling the salesman that he actually had a lot more cash at home. Granted this isn’t exactly a wise thing to do, but this man was also understandably mentally disabled.

Events proceeded and the man one day thought that his truck had been stolen (when in fact it turned out to have been towed). He called up his salesman buddy for a ride who then took him to the tow yard. While driving him, the other salesmen who had conspired together proceeded to go to the man’s home and steal the money. They ended up leaving with $70,000.

The police then came to the house to investigate the crime and upon finding feces throughout the house, had the mentally disabled man committed to an institute. A salesman kindly took the time to go to the institute, get the man to sign over the Canyon to him, and charged him for the time that it took to do so!

Subsequently, lawsuits were brought against many of the salesmen, the dealership returned the $100,000 to the man, and some semblance of justice was served.

Suffice to say, I am still not impressed with salesmen. Especially those of the car variety.

If you’d like, you can read the original article. Seen on Digg.

Granted, I don’t think that creating a facebook about the “Arian [sic] nation” is necessarily something great. But it’s obviously a joke and to make such a big deal about it is absurd. They were printed in the LA Times, for crying out loud! Ridiculous.

I’ll be honest with you. I can’t stand people that blow things out of proportion like that. They get hung up on the smallest things, but they have no idea that they are missing the big picture. How did this politically correct trend begin? Was it women’s suffrage, or black rights, or what? I have no idea because I’m no history buff or even well-versed in politics, but all I know is that it’s irritatingly everywhere.

I propose that these people just quit acting like their feelings were hurt and get a sense of humor. I’ve read that one (of two) of the worst things to hear is that you are humorless and cannot take a joke. Well that is what I’m saying to this Stefanie Gopaul. Live a little and quit living your life by riding off the lives of those around you.

Great, another rant.

*Edit*
Haha I can’t believe that I messed up the HTML so badly that the link wasn’t showing! People must think that I sounded crazy talking about an article that they couldn’t even read. How lame of me.