Welcome back everyone. I hope your holidays were safe and the New Year is blessed. As we begin 2009, I took some time to reflect on current affairs, and came up with nine things I think I know for the upcoming year.
Well, nine, because I couldn’t come up with ten.
9. The Patriots would have made the Super Bowl this year if they made the playoffs, but they got screwed by Favre and the Jets. Just think: Miami got crushed in the first round, and the team playing in the Super Bowl, the Arizona Cardinals, got destroyed by the Patriots 47-7, two weeks before the season ended. I know I should get over it.
8. How bad is the economy? It’s bad when a homeless man asks me for a dollar and my comeback has to be to ask him to spare me some change to get on the bus. Will it get better? Eventually, but don’t thank the $2 trillion dollars worth of government bailouts to companies and citizens spent so far. 2009 will bring more government spending to save our economy, but as the New Deal, Japan’s lost decade, and the current spending escapade indicate, Keynesian economics never has and never will work.
7. Man, it is cold out here, where the hell is global warming? To those that subscribe to the religion of anthropogenic global warming and its leader, Albert Gore, good luck with it. Just as global cooling was a hoax in the 70’s, this is also nonsense. People can’t correctly identify a weather forecast in a day’s advanced, never mind accurately detect when the Earth will melt. I could write a book about this, speaking of which…
6. By year’s end I will be an author. I am currently working on a novel story based on my life. I’m comparing it to a scorpion bowl from a Chinese restaurant because it’s mixed with dysfunctional family, poverty, love, alcohol and drugs, hard work, redemption, and success. It should be a best seller.
5. George W. Bush will be looked as a decent president. He wasn’t great, but he wasn’t awful as the wacko lefties assume. Things that will be looked at as good: NCLB (by some), 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, response to 9/11, aid to Africa to fight disease and poverty, response to Georgian-Russian War, appointment of judges, and the surge. Areas in which he did not do so well: in not securing Iraq post-Saddam, with Katrina, higher government spending, socialist bailouts of industries and rebates, immigration, social security reform, North Korea, Iran, and the Israel-Palestine conflict. Although, he was never given a chance by the media or liberals, remember he “stole” the 2000 election, the man has compassion and gratitude for citizens. I’ve met soldiers, families, and ordinary people who were in awe of his character because they expected a cold man. What bothers conservatives is, Bush came in preaching “compassionate conservatism” but it was more like country club Republican liberalism, just like his Dad’s.
4. The New York Yankees will win the World Series this year. I hate to say it because I love the Sox, but the Evil Empire will be back in a big way. They signed three great free agents, and screwed the Red Sox doing it. They have a new stadium, which will bring in millions of additional revenue. Did I mention they’re the Yankees so they’ll pull some ridiculous move to make themselves better?
I hope I’m wrong and the Sox pull it out this year.
3. The coronation of Barack Obama: is it over yet? I enjoy reading history and I have never witnessed bigger cult of personality like Obama’s. The man ran an excellent campaign based on the man, rather than his policies. He can captivate audiences with his oratory, he has a beautiful family, and the media and citizens orgasm at the sight of him. Good for him. I hope I can elicit drooling from society during my run for President.
Personally, I like President Obama. He’s brilliant, personable, and likes sports. And unlike liberals, who, as I stated above, hated Bush personally (even if they didn’t know him), I may disagree with his policies, but I’ll never stoop to that level and besiege the man with sickening insults. I hope he does well with our security, but otherwise I’ll be there to oppose any policy that I don’t agree with civilly.
2. After this semester, our university will be losing a genius of a man, Dr. Ramon Borges-Mendez. Dr. Borges-Mendez is a professor in the McCormack Graduate School and is an outspoken advocate of community development. You can go online and read research reports written by him and the outreaching advocacy he’s done. You cannot find two people more on the opposite spectrum regarding politics and economics, but I’ll give up any day to sit in this man’s classroom and have a discussion with him. As someone with a Bachelor’s in Economics, I appreciate that Dr. Borges-Mendez has a Ph.D in Economics from MIT, which to obtain requires brilliance. It’s a shame he was not given tenure (I heard because of petty politics) because as a student of his, I know he delivers a lecture no holds barred that is entertaining and intelligent and he challenges his students to reach their full potential. I ask you to swing by his office in the Department of Public Policy and Public Affairs, within the McCormack Hall, and talk to him about anything because I’m sure he has an opinion for it. After that, call the department heads and Dean and ask them to reconsider tenuring Dr. Ramon Borges-Mendez because he is an asset UMB can’t afford to lose.
1. Now that we have a biracial man in the White House, can we treat one another as humans? I never have given a shit what color you are, what God you believe (or not) in, what kind of person turns you on, or whatever else identifies you. I don’t believe in special preferences for anybody because that symbolizes inferiority. Democrats, on the other hand, live by pitting identity and class politics. As people, we’re going to have different qualities, so let’s focus, as King stated, on the “content of character.” I understand this country’s past, as well as the world’s, has treated blacks, Hispanics, and Asians, as well as some whites, the Irish, Italians, and Jews, and people should be proud when a person of their origins succeeds. But, let’s understand this: the human identity unites us, no matter what differences we have with each other.