2012: The Year in Review

Another year is over, and this year really had a lot going on. So many advances or discoveries in science were reported, the Girl Scouts tried to prevent transgender people from joining, Obama was reelected for another term, marijuana was legalized in two states, human rights made a huge win when three states legalized gay marriage, and we all survived the Mayan apocalypse.

So I thought for my last blog of the year I would review all the shit that’s happened, good and bad, so that we may reflect and remember how great (or not) the past 365 days have been.

This year has seen some great discoveries and achievements in science. The first photographs of DNA were taken, showing the double helix that resides in our bodies. It was an interesting process that required scientists to make some type of crazy looking microscopic landscape which looked like it was made up of tiny little mesas that were water resistant. When scientists had this landscape made they took DNA strands in water and dropped them into the “landscape” they made. The DNA strands stuck to the tiny mesas creating a “tightrope” if you will, of DNA that stretched from one mesa to another. They were able to take a picture of that strand. Simple, right? Uh, maybe not. Let’s leave science to the professionals.

The first man to ever sky dive from the edge of space happened this year, and it was all made possible by the energy drink company that brings us Red Bull. I still find it funny that in this day and age an energy drink company can help a man break a world record yet religion is still setting us back with nonsense. The jump reminded me of the 2009 Star Trek movie, where Kirk, Sulu, and a poor guy in a red shirt made a freefall jump from space to disable Nero’s mining device.

Water was found all over our solar system it would seem, as scientists discovered that water was in fact on Mars and even Mercury, which surprised the shit out of us all because Mercury is much closer to the sun than Mars. And while we’re on the subject or Mars, in August of this year the Curiosity rover landed on Mars. Also, another bit of interesting news is that Curiosity made it’s first Foursquare check in back in October. Wow, even unmanned planetary rovers get to check into the Foursquare. I bet Curosity will be Mayor of Mars soon.

Genome sequencing for fetuses was discovered as well. And unlike earlier techniques used to complete the sequencing this technique was completely noninvasive. The scans can pick up possibly fatal conditions earlier on in your child’s life as well as possible predispositions to diseases.

The SpaceX space shit named Dragon is pretty well known for those who keep themselves savvy on the latest space technology. One of my good friends actually worked on this project some years ago and is always excited when he hears news about it. Well in May of this year Dragon was delivered to the International Space Station. Score one for the private space exploration sector.

Remember walking around during 2012 and seeing all of those signs for Kony 2012? It was a documentary that was meant to show the brutality of Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. The movie, albeit went viral very quickly, backfired as critics said it had a very narrow view, lack of info, and was deemed to have a “white savior” mentality.

Let us not forget the horrible tragedy that occurred in Connecticut. On December 14^th Adam Lanza, armed with guns he stole from his mother not only killed his mother but twenty-six people at the Sandy Hook Elementary school. This shooting has reinvigorated the gun control debate with politicians, making us wonder what type of crazy world we will be entering in 2013 with the introduction of new, and useless gun control laws.

The Westboro Baptist Church was at it again, and this time they made a new friend in the hacker group Anonymous. WBC said they would travel to Connecticut to protest the funerals of the victims of Adam Lanza. Their reasoning is that God doesn’t like gay people and is punishing America for allowing tolerance of gays. They said they would be holding up signs which read “God Sent the Shooter” and “God Hates Fags”. The group Anonymous was tired of this shit so they decided to wage an all out war against the WBC by attempting to keep them off the internet. To this day the www.godhatesfags.com website is still experiencing issues which the site being reduced to just one page that is entitled “God Still Hates Fags”.

The people of America have spoken! Four more years of Obama have been decided, and let’s just say that the American people actually picked the right guy this time. The election was a scary time of course as we could have voted into office an extremely hateful man named Mitt Romney. A man who is against all types of civil rights, especially gay and women’s rights, who also believes we should be at war with Iran and things that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were going great. He is also a Mormon who believes that his undergarments are magical and protect him against car accidents and fires.

At the same time the people of Washington and Colorado voted to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Washington was also one of three states that legalized gay marriage, extending human rights to men and women whose love was deemed evil or unnatural by the religious right-wingers. It was a huge victory for human and civil rights and it just goes to show how overwhelmingly good the American people are.

China launched its first jet off of its first and only aircraft carrier. The aircraft carrier was an old soviet ship that was gutted and sold to the Chinese after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Chinese were able to install what they needed in it and made it operational at the end of 2011. Their first successful launch and landing of a jet fighter on the deck of the carrier took place on November 25^th.

So many other things happened this year, there’s just too many to talk about so I just listen the ones off the top of my head. I think 2012 was a great year, albeit I lost my job, and I think 2013 will turn up being a great year as well. We just need to start thinking more rationally about the issues at hand that we face as a species, instead of jumping on the wagon of nationalist fervor and religion.

I hope you had a great year, and I hope you have a good New Year celebration. Don’t get too drunk….or do I don’t care. Just bare careful folks!

This is Reno, signing out for the year 2012. See you all on the other side!  

Obama’s Big Bad Benghazi Cover-up

On September 11^th 2012 an armed group of militants attacked a US Diplomatic consulate in Libya which killed four Americans and injured three Americans and seven Libyans. The next day President Obama addressed the people calling it an “outrageous attack.” And then the story was over with and everyone went back on with their lives. Well, not exactly.

Leave it up to the Republicans. John McCain came out blasting President Obama after comments he made at his Rose Garden address. McCain is blaming the Obama Administration of a cover-up in this incident in Benghazi, and rightfully so since Obama never actually told the American people that a diplomatic mission to Libya was attacked.

Wait a second…yes, he did tell the American people that a diplomatic mission in Benghazi was attacked. So wait, I’m confused about this now. What exactly was the cover-up? I’m looking as hard as I can to see it, reading between each line I can, but it is no where to be found. The more I think of it the more it boggles my mind. There was an attack on a US diplomatic mission to Benghazi…four Americans were killed…the next day President Obama spoke about it openly…what did he say?

TRANSCRIPT OF OBAMA SPEECH:

“Yesterday, four of these extraordinary Americans were killed in an attack on our diplomatic post in Benghazi.  Among those killed were our Ambassador, Chris Stevens, as well as Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith.  We are still notifying the families of the others who were killed.  And today, the American people stand united in holding the families of the four Americans in our thoughts and in our prayers.”

…

“It's especially tragic that Chris Stevens died in Benghazi because it is a city that he helped to save.  At the height of the Libyan revolution, Chris led our diplomatic post in Benghazi.  With characteristic skill, courage, and resolve, he built partnerships with Libyan revolutionaries, and helped them as they planned to build a new Libya.  When the Qaddafi regime came to an end, Chris was there to serve as our ambassador to the new Libya, and he worked tirelessly to support this young democracy, and I think both Secretary Clinton and I relied deeply on his knowledge of the situation on the ground there.  He was a role model to all who worked with him and to the young diplomats who aspire to walk in his footsteps.”

…

“No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for.  Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America.  We will not waver in our commitment to see that justice is done for this terrible act.  And make no mistake, justice will be done.”

OK yeah so he openly spoke about it, but where the hell is the cover-up part? What are John McCain and the GOP saying about the Obama Administration? As I searched for this answer I found a lovely piece at www.breitbart.com which features quotes from Bret Baier of the Fox News Network. “Oh boy,” I thought.

So it turns out that this cover-up the GOP and right-winged talking heads are going on about is that the attack was actually a terrorist attack and that the President is trying to cover it up. But wait a second…did Obama say “No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation”? Is it not clear that he is saying in this very sentence that the attack against US diplomats in Benghazi was in fact a terrorist attack? Not according to Bret Baier of Fox News, no.

As I said, I found this little piece from an article Bret wrote and posted on his own website. If you’re familiar with Faux News you can smell the BS spin job they use to try to say that President Obama is covering up the fact that the attack in Benghazi was a terrorist attack.

FROM THE ARTICLE:

These are two crucial answers in the big picture.  Right after getting out of the Rose Garden, where, according to the second debate and other accounts he definitively called the attack terrorism, Obama is asked point blank about not calling it terrorism. He blinks and does not push back.

Can you smell it? It smells like ‘Pure Grade A 100% Faux News Bullshit’. The spin tactic being used here is so out in the open and overt that a five year old could point it out.

First off, let’s go into this article that I found. It’s actually about Faux News man Bret Baier who says that he has proof that Obama is covering up the fact that the Benghazi attack was actually a terrorist attack. He states that a CBS interview with the President was recorded in October in which this was said:

KROFT: Mr. President, this morning you went out of your way to avoid the use of the word terrorism in connection with the Libya Attack, do you believe that this was a terrorism attack?

OBAMA: Well it’s too early to tell exactly how this came about, what group was involved, but obviously it was an attack on Americans.  And we are going to be working with the Libyan government to make sure that we bring these folks to justice, one way or the other.


He then goes on to say that the recording wasn’t aired for more than six weeks and that they still failed to air the interview even when questions about the incident were being raised during the second presidential debate. As I read, the author states that when asked if the Benghazi attack was in fact a terrorist attack the moderator, Candy Crowley, stepped in and spoke for Obama falsely stating that Obama in fact called it an act of terror on September 12^th 2012 at his Rose Garden interview.

Falsely stated? How did the moderator falsely state that Obama called the act an act of terror when he did in fact say it was an act of terror? The author goes on to make the argument that if this didn’t happen and the moderator didn’t step in and lie for Obama that Romney would have won the debate, and that CBS withheld this interview to assist President Obama cover-up any dishonesty about the attacks and assist him in his reelection campaign.   

So here is the spin. Obama says in his Rose Garden interview that “No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation,” essential labeling the attack as a terror attack. It’s not so much because he said it was an act of terror but because he can’t prove it’s an act of terror, and the GOP is using this as an excuse to call into question the credibility of the Obama Administration. Merely because there are different people with different opinions on what actually happened in Benghazi the right-wing political machine is using the incident to call the Obama Administration into question about an alleged cover-up on whether or not the attack was terrorist in nature or not. If Obama says in a speech that terror will never shake our resolve than isn’t it clear he is just covering his ass on both sides of the spectrum? Can’t he think to himself, “Well we don’t know if this is a terror attack yet, but either way terror will not shake us”? I am wouldn’t that be a very poignant thing to say to keep our spirits up? No, instead the GOP wants to try to call Obama a liar because there were conflicting reports on whether or not it was a terrorist attack and because he didn’t have to answer his question at the debate.

But the truth is simple, if Obama had come out during the debate and said, “Yes, terrorists did in fact attack a US Diplomatic mission to Benghazi” the Romney campaign would have turned right around and said, “See? There was a terrorist attack on Americans in Benghazi and Obama never saved them. He is weak against terror.” This is just another use of political spin and word play and they know it.

Word play and semantics are being used here heavily and lets face it they are simple tactics to use and they work for any argument you are in. You just have to change a word or the meaning or a word to make your argument. It’s not ‘Gun Control’ it’s ‘Preventative measures against violent crimes’, it’s not a ‘job’ it’s a ‘career’, don’t say the word ‘compromise’, don’t say ‘capitalism’ say ‘free economic market’, don’t say ‘taxes the rich’ say ‘takes from the rich’, they are not ‘middle class’ they are ‘hardworking tax payers’, ‘government spending’ is ‘waste’, ‘entrepreneur’ is ‘job creator’. And in this case we can also define what these are based on who is currently in office, Republican or Democrat.

And in this case of the Benghazi Terror Attack Cover-up the word terrorism is now redefined. You see if Bush were in office this case would be easy, it would be an act of terror, plain and simple, no need for investigation. Why? Because it happened to Americans in a foreign country, the attackers were Muslim (or possibly Muslim) and it happened AFTER 9/11/01. See that? Those are the ingredients for terror under Bush's watch. But the Republicans are willing to change their view when it's a Democrat in office. Now the definition has changed and we should investigate this to see if it was a terror attack, because terror attacks are so deeply thought out and largely complex and don't require just a few Americans to die by the hands of foreigners in a land where maybe there are terrorists. You see now for a terror attack to be considered a terror attack one needs to form a terror group and intentionally attack American interests.

So as you can see, he Republicans have a back up plan for just in case not all of their criterion are met for a terrorist attack. See if there is no terror group that comes out and takes responsibility the right-wingers can say, “Oh see this doesn't fit the bill of what we know as a terror attack. This Benghazi thing was just some protest that went violent and unfortunately some Americans got caught up in it and were killed.” And BOOM, just like that Obama’s image is changed. He isn’t a guy who is weak on terror, he’s a liar who called a protest riot a terrorist attack. And how can the American people trust a president who can't tell the difference between a protest riot and a terrorist attack?

As usual I had a hard time wondering what the right-wingers are trying to get at. Are they trying to say that Obama is covering up the fact the the Benghazi attack was a terrorist attack, or are they are calling him a liar for calling it an attack. They can go either way with this issue and like all politics it is bunk. We shouldn't be worrying about whether or not it's a terrorist act by a politicians definition or not
  Let’s take time to step away from the TV for a moment and make our own decision without some talking head political pundit or politician. Lets think about the word terror and what it means, because in my view any act of violence is an act or terror. Violence is terrible, terrifying, and for lack of a better word, terror. Terror has no exact definition unless the word is being used for political gain. War is terror, being mugged is terror, flying a plane into a building is terror, and getting caught up in a violent riot is terror. It’s not that complicated folks, all of these things are terror so don't let the right-wing media change your view on what terror actually is. 


SOURCES: 

www.breitbart.com Proof Obama Refused to Call Benghazi Terror CBS Covered-Up

President Obama's Rose Garden Speech (VIDEO)

President Obama's Rose Garden Speech (TRANSCRIPT)

Re-Election 2012 Rant

I have to admit that November 6^th was a very scary day for me. November 6^th was the day we either progressed as a nation and moved forward or set back the clock fifty or so years back into the past. No, November 6^th was not the day that Marty McFly came to us in a silver Delorian as prophesied to either take us “Back to the Future” or leave us stranded in 1955. It was Election Day 2012 and as a nation we all came together and voted on a multitude of issues including the big one, who would be our president. This was scary of course because for the presidential race we had to choose from a man we have known for four years that we sort of like (but lets be honest he hasn’t made us too happy lately), and a man who believes that his underwear is magic.

I was sitting in front of my computer all day anxiously awaiting the results, counting down each electoral vote as our county’s fate hanged in the balance of each one. Imagine the horror, I thought, the horror of a Romney America. Roe V. Wade over-turned, gay rights ignored (same-sex marriage federally banned, the reinstatement of DADT), civil rights trampled, women being on the bottom rung of corporate America, creationism being taught in public schools as science, religious zealotries, etc. It was very scary to think of and my heart pounded the whole night.

But thankfully the American people can be trusted to know what is best for themselves and they have voted to keep Obama in office for another four years essentially saying, “we don’t want a religious fanatic in the white house, thank you.” When I saw the electoral votes for Obama when he won I was relieved at first, and then I thought to myself, “Don’t fuck it up, man. We’re counting on you.”

But truth be told not too much has been happening with Obama as president. We all voted for him in 2008 with high hopes and dreams because we thought he was pro gay marriage and pro universal healthcare and that he would pull us out of all conflicts. When he was elected he really pissed us off big time, enough for liberal commentator Rachel Maddow to take shots at him on her show on MSNBC back in 2009 when he said that he did not campaign on a public option for healthcare. Maddow went right to the video clips of him doing what; campaigning on a public option for healthcare. As far as gay rights go…well we must have had pied eyed dreams of the future that blinded us because Obama said back in 2008 that he was against gay marriage. I guess we just really wanted a democrat in office so badly that we were willing to make up stories in our mind (Yes, the 8 years spent with George W. Bush was enough to drive us that crazy). And sure, Obama did propose a plan to get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan, but it really wasn’t what a lot of us were thinking. But then again none of us regular folk can truly understand the complexities of withdrawing an entire military operation out of two counties, so who are we to judge? But then there is Libya. Who said Obama was against conflict? Did we have any right to be there? No. Why we were there beats the hell out of me.

Obama sure played his cards right politically though. When it came time he told all of us that he had a sudden change in heart and decided that homosexuals should have the right to marry one another and put his support into same-sex marriage. BOOM. If he didn’t have the gay vote then, he had it after saying that, and just months before the election too. He really started to do a lot more things once it got closer to election time, but lets remember that there are a lot of other tasks that the president completes on a daily basis that we really just don’t know about.

Mitt Romney would have certainly set this country back fifty years. No need for Marty McFly’s time traveling Delorian, Mitt Romney would have done it for us himself and with our own money too. Which is great really that is if you’re an out of touch, uneducated religious jerk that wants to go back to the days when homosexuals were unheard of or were arrested for public displays of affection, you think that life is just like “Leave it to Beaver”, and before America stopped being a “Christian Nation”. Back to the days where it was ok to look the other way and act like nothing else ever happened, boys only liked girls, Americans could never be wrong, women stayed at home and cooked and cleaned, and it was socially acceptable to call a black man a nigger, to his face, then order him to do something for you.

Here is why I don’t like Mitt Romney: Mitt Romney is in fact a religious zealot, as are most Mormons, he is against gay marriage and women’s rights because he believes they go against God’s wishes and thus those ideas unprogressive and in actuality set us back. That is how he would like us to see things, and by God he sure is going to make sure we do them, otherwise God’s actions against us as a nation (or him) may be severe.

Many years ago after the Mormon religion settled in Utah it was petitioning the US government to join the Union; however this never happened right away as the US government did not want Utah in the Union because the territory was being run as a theocracy, which obviously goes against what America actually stands for. Now imagine one of these people as President of the United States and think of what they would do. These people are so hell bent on making others follow suit to them the last thing they need is a man in their congregation who is president of the nation.

Romney actually believes in this Mormon dogma and even believes that the underwear he wears under his suit is actually more effective than a suit of armor and will protect him. This is another reason why a Romney presidency scares the hell out of me. I think this country needs a leader who is rational, not one who believes his underwear is magic and has the blessing of God himself.

When it comes to religion and the nation what would Romney have done to us in the long run? We would become a theocracy very quickly and I believe that hatred toward other religious groups within our own nation would grow as our own president tells the world that we are a Christian nation and we follow the only true religion, and all other religions are false, essentially persecuting all other religions. That right there is enough for some other religiously fanatic countries to want to terrorize us even more, but Romney would use that to his advantage saying, “See all these other people are trying to persecute us, we must fight back!” This religious dogma has to go.

Then there is the all too familiar argument that Obama is actually a radical Muslim and that he is trying to change the very foundation of America. But how is he trying to do that? Has he made any speeches decreeing that the country is a Muslim nation? What has Obama done that would prove these people like Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck correct? How is Obamacare or gay marriage or civil rights or equal pay and fair taxes a socialist plot to take over the country? People like to say that Obama has made sweeping reforms to this nation which have completely change us but what are those reforms and how are they changing us? When did these things happen and can any of these people actually cite one of these happenings? When we have a new president changes are always made. Do you think in 1990 we were the same country we were back in 1950? Hell no. Democrats and republicans alike have changed and shaped this country far beyond what it used to be, and each time it happens there is always someone on the opposing side saying, “Oh my God, he’s changing the very fabric of our society!” The reason it’s a big deal now though is because our president isn’t just any man, oh no. He’s a black man, and his father was from Kenya, and he was born somewhere other than mainland America, and when he was a child he went to a Madrassa (Muslim school), and the number one reason he isn’t just any man is simply because of his name: Barrack Hussein Obama.

I’m glad that the people of this nation are awake enough to see this, because this recent election really showed how Americans are starting to pay attention that they know what direction this country needs to go in. Romney said that the only reason Obama won was because of the gifts he gave to certain constituents like young and minority voters. What gifts? Oh I know what gifts Mr. Romney means, he means human rights, equal opportunity for all and a place to live where I don’t have to be harassed and told how to live by religious zealots.

I don’t think Obama is doing a great job, nor has he made me really happy with the way he has been playing politics. But I can say this, he is much better than Romney. Wow, I really hope for our country’s sake that the Republican Party gets back in touch with reality.