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Popularity of Constitutional Amendments Ranked by Facebook Users

By Dennis Wyman on October 30, 2009 1:37 AM | Permalink | 1 Comment

Popularity of the amendments to the US Constitution's Bill of Rights as ranked by Facebook Fan PagesSocial networking has done a lot for us these days. We can more and more easily converse with distant friends, find new friends based on similar interests, or find new enemies to harass based on opposing interests. And no one website has proved itself more valuable to catering to people with a wide range of interests than Facebook.

The fan page feature is one of the more interesting areas of the social networking behemoth. Not only can you become a "fan" of your favorite things, but for journalistic types such as myself, it becomes an invaluable tool for instant polling results of your average internet populace. People of all ages and demographics are using the site, so you can easily cross-compare the popularity of various interests. I'll admit right now that it is far from the most accurate source of opinion data, but more times than not, it provides a decent snapshot. (Or, at least some very interesting numbers.)

So we decided to scour the Facebook fan pages to determine the popularity of amendments to the Bill of Rights, that lovely piece of paper that us Americans like to flaunt so proudly over other countries. But how exactly do we feel about the so-called "rights" the Bill of Rights provides? To Facebook!

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Keith Olbermann and the Health Care Debate

By Dennis Wyman on October 8, 2009 2:30 AM | Permalink | 3 Comments

Keith Olbermann gives his thoughts on Health Care Reform
For those of you who keep up with the political TV news channels, the latest buzz is Keith Olbermann's "Special Comment" on Health Care Reform. Rather than the typical airing of his Countdown show last night, the entire episode was devoted to Olbermann talking about the topic of health care reform, and more importantly, the preciousness of human life.

Now, it's probably good for the readers who don't know me to be aware of the fact that I absolutely despise political banter... especially anything that involves the "Big Three" of news channels. (Fox, CNN and MSNBC) Even more so, I absolutely loathe Keith Olbermann, whose paranoid tirades against the "other party" rival that of Glenn Beck.

But last night's show displayed a more human side of Olbermann, who rallied against the "health insurance cartel." For the first time I've seen on mainstream political television, somebody has finally come out to plead with the public that reforming our broken health care system isn't a political issue, but a human issue... a human issue about the value of human life before the supposed "priorities" of money.

Say what you will about how the health care system should be reformed, if at all. However, there is no denying that there is a serious problem in this country when people are dying because they cannot afford to pay for health care in order to prolong their life... a issue that the rich elite in this country never have to worry about. And Olbermann straight up admits that he can afford proper health care for his ailing father, and Olbermann also straight up admits that he knows that vast majority of this country isn't as lucky as he is. This is a kind of empathetic honesty that is rarely seen nowadays, and I give Olbermann a lot of credit for that.

The point where I disagree with Olbermann is the point of hope for fixing the current situation. He eventually goes on to talk about how to begin in fixing the system. The reality is we are all fucked. This country is putting its faith in health care reform on a league of politicians that were all bought out long ago. I guarantee you that any "reform" bill that happens to be passed will do nothing to address the problem, because the wealthy business owners that run this country do not want that to happen.

The first step to "fixing the problem" is not to put the solution in the hands of the people that put the dollar and their wealthy lifestyles before the lives of the people that "elected" them into office through fixed elections.

It's called futility to keep trying this way. It's futility to expect a corrupt system to regulate itself.

Hopefully, when the middle and lower class are shafted by the system once more when "health care reform" never happens on a meaningful scale, will people be outraged enough to finally do something.

Anyways, check out a video of Olbermann's rant after the jump.

Continue reading Keith Olbermann and the Health Care Debate.

Dear America: Please Shut Up About Swine Flu Already

By Dennis Wyman on September 23, 2009 6:27 PM | Permalink | 2 Comments

A mountain of pigs killed in reaction to ludicrous H1N1 Swine Flu fears.Granted this is kind of a late rant, but apparently people are still freaking out about swine flu.

Still freaking out about swine flu.

Freaking out about the same thing we get every year, only this time it is prefixed with "swine" and I guess that somehow makes it worse despite being no more deadly or virulent than regular flu.

Because it IS regular flu. It's THE FLU. It's THE GODDAMN FLU. IT COMES AROUND LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME.

Anyways, enough caps lock. The Minnesota Daily has an excellent editorial up, H1N1: A Case of Manufactured Panic Attack. And for those of you who missed it, Maddox put up a swine flu article of his own on The Best Page In The Universe. Both are worth checking out.

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Ill Conceived Marriage Proposal Of The Month: Jon Cardin

By Dennis Wyman on August 20, 2009 8:15 PM | Permalink | 2 Comments

Maryland State Delegate Jon S. Cardin
If you're from the Baltimore area, you have likely heard of this by now, as needless to say it has set off quite the firestorm of public outrage.

Jon Cardin, a member of Maryland's House of Delegates, had a glorious idea when it came to proposing to his girlfriend: Stage a police raid while they were on a date on a friend's boat.

During their little date, a horde of on-duty police officers swarmed the boat with both marine and HELICOPTER units, raiding it until they found a suspicious box, which was opened and presented to the girlfriend, engagement ring inside.

Besides the fact that these were on-duty cops, who probably would have been working elsewhere in the crime-ridden city, the Baltimore Police Department has also been facing funding issues and had recently turned to asking the public to donate money so certain programs could survive.

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Quit Waiting For A Revolution

By Dennis Wyman on August 18, 2009 3:54 AM | Permalink | No Comments

Inaction.

This one word pretty much defines the state of Western society, and it is one that most of you are likely guilty of as well. Pure inaction. There are not a whole lot of people out there willing to stand up for what they believe in, or live the words they preach to others. It has always been human nature to retreat to familiar safe surroundings, both in the physical realm and in terms of ideals. Do you want to know why there are so few radicals? Because everybody is too afraid to rock the boat or challenge their own worldview.

I know to some I will be preaching the obvious, but I hope this may serve as a wake-up call to others. Specifically, this little rant is for the people who already have started to think for themselves, but just are not really doing anything.

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How Different Are The "Right" and "Left"

By Dennis Wyman on August 13, 2009 5:06 AM | Permalink | 1 Comment

Left vs RightOne thing that I've really been railing against the past few years, as anybody from the chat can attest to, is people subscribing to party politics. I could spend countless articles describing my loathing of left vs right, conservatives vs liberals, Democrats vs Republicans, etc, etc... but for the sake of this one, I won't. Instead, I'd like to point you towards a post on Corrupt that asks the question: Are radical groups so far apart from each other?

While I've pointed out to many people that most differences between the Left and Right in America are purely superficial, Corrupt floats the idea that the main similarity between the two is their ideologies revolve around "not being the other guy." Not really a new idea, but one that bears repeating.

While I could go on for hours writing about my gripes with politics, this was more or less an excuse to link to a few choice articles on Corrupt. After all, we are still kinda easing away from being a gaming-centric blog, so lets just ease the transition, no?

Be sure to also check out So You Call Yourself An Activist? and Change We Can Make Happen.


Continue reading How Different Are The "Right" and "Left".