I read a nice article on the CBC web site today that said Egypt is denouncing "terrorism" as the death toll mounts:



What the hell is wrong with calling terrorism what it is? Is the CBC so horribly PC that they are afraid of offending militant Islama-fascists? lol

Jason

What an awesome game. Keel them Arabs ded! Bang bang bang! Run up to a tank, plop some C4 on it, and blow it up! Then go and hop into a Black Hawk with a bunch of your buddies and do some nice fly-over killing! Hop into a F-15 and bomb their communications tower! Creep up behind someone and gank em with your combat knife! How cool!

Jason

I'm glad (e:Paul) brought it up. Classism is something that I think permeates our society far more than racism, although people bark about that more than just about anything. Classism is one of those dirty, ugly little things that lives inside all of us to some extent. People deny it, people get mad, but that's only because they don't have it inside of themselves to admit they have this ugliness inside them.

Let's take (e:Paul)'s example of the educational system. Without a doubt it is set up so that certain schools are priced out of the range of the poor and middle class on purpose so there is a certain homogenous aspect to the student population. I've you've ever visited Cornell you know what I'm talking about. You don't exactly see too many poor minorities mixing in with the rich white population. The Ivy Leagues and other elites are set up in such a way that it promotes classism and the perpetuation of the upper class having superior learning and career opportunities. Anybody who isn't fortunate enough to have an upper class upbringing is saddled with debt that cripples them for the first 10 or so years of their post-educational life, again giving the upper class kids an advantage when it comes to living out some kind of comfortable existence.

Another way classism manifests itself is in the dating world. I'm about to say some things that are going to make people upset, but I'm willing to live with it. It is an indisputable fact that having plenty of money to throw around will bring in the ladies like a moth to flame. The more money you have, the hotter women you can attract. The sweet car, sweet clothes and the idea of a high class lifestyle are irresistable to women. If you don't have these things, you might as well be a leper. You are going to have a very hard time attracting (and more importantly, keeping) a good woman. There is the 20/80 rule - 20% of guys attract 80% of women, and women would rather be single than be with someone who wasn't a high roller. Yeah yeah, I know there is the ODD exception, and I know that it is something people don't want to admit to, but I know better. Classism is prevalent in the dating game, and I would rather be alone than be with a chick who was with me for more or less what I can provide for her. That's one of the reasons why the girl who won't take no for an answer from me doesn't have a chance in hell of being with me.

I think the most ugly and horrible way classism manifests itself is in how we treat people who don't look or act like what we are used to. More or less everyone who can read this is guilty. People who look poor, who don't wear certain clothes, or who are perceived a certain way are treated like social outcasts. I do have to say that Buffalo is much better about this than most places I've visited. Regardless of whether you are rich or poor, white or black or yellow or purple, we are all deserving of basic respect and dignity and we are exceedingly poor at making this play out the way it should.

Is there hope? I would say that classism is so ingrained in our social fabric that there is no turning back. We likely will never get over our classism unless something extraordinary happens, like some kind of cataclysmic event that unites us in a way that hasn't happened before. We won't get over it until we are FORCED to get over it somehow. All we can do is individually do the best we can to make ourselves clean of this evil.

Jason

My brother returns from Orlando today, which I am very happy about. I've come to realize that I don't like being at home alone all the time. Yesterday I didn't know what to do with myself. I decided against going to a movie alone. Looking back there were many things I could have done, but none of them occured to me at the time. Anyway it will be a very fun weekend because my pal Andy from college (and the infamous bachelor parties) will be in Buffalo. I may make my return to Chippewa! Or not. I don't know yet. No matter what I am sure it wll be mo fun. He's a cool guy like myself and a very good friend.

It is freaking storming outside again! How nuts! Yesterday I drove home in the middle of it. It was pretty intimidating but I had the new Weezer album to keep me company on the road. I watched as the beautiful jolts of lightning crashed down everywhere around me.

I'm really hungry. Normally I don't get hungry for some reason. I could go for some veggie curry, naan and samosa from India Gate.

Oh, and if any of you are interested in learning how judicial nominations and the following prededings actually work (not how we WISH they would work or how we want them to work when it is politically expedient), check out the following link. I've said it before, but if this nonsense keeps on going forward, we can expect more or less every nominee who isn't dead center politically to be torpedoed from now on!



Jason

My buddy Andy from Albany came to visit us this weekend, and he had a FEVER to go out and see chicks. So down to Chippewa we ventured. I hadn't been to Chippewa in a long time. Honestly it is jam packed with chicks who think they are way better than they are, and "tough" guys from the suburbs. But that is where all the chicks go, so the decision was made. I hadn't been out with my boys in a long while so really it didn't matter where we went as long as we were having a good time together.

The first stop was 67 West. I like that place probably more than any other bar/club on Chippewa. There weren't too many people there so it was pretty comfortable. We went to the patio and ordered up some legal beverages. The next thing to be hashed out was "What are our names for the night?" Jerry and Andy couldn't think of any good names for themselves so I made the choices. Andy was "Dash", Jerry was "Brady" and I was "Mason" - yeah I know not too original. At first I called them "Randy" and "Gary" but they hated those names. We don't use our real names when we go out together. I'm not sure why but it adds another dimension of fun.

We went back inside and immediately Andy found someone he wanted to talk to, so he started jabbering away. Her friends were sitting by her, but they weren't talking yet, so Jerry and I took the opportunity to go back and get another round. While ordering up our drinks we thought "What if Andy fucks up and uses his real name?" - this led us to concoct a contingency plan. We decided we would go and introduce ourselves to her friends, screw the consequences. We got the round and went back inside, and sure as shit Andy used his real name! We started calling him Dash and the girls started prodding, asking why we call him Dash. Jerry said "Well we used to get into a little trouble during school, and Andy would always be the first one to start running. He NEVER got caught." Of course I had to pitch in, so I said "And he never dropped his beer either!" They continued to talk to us, but eventually it broke down to just Andy and Jerry talking to the girl and her friend. I was left alone and out of the conversation so I took off. Eventually they came back and got me, then we made our exit.

Next we went to Sky Bar. I really like the place, although I'm sure someday it will end up being in the news for some kind of disaster. There were so many people packed in there. It was too packed in fact, so we checked out a couple of other places - Brink's, Liar's, and then we returned to 67 West. Again Jerry and Andy found two chicks to talk to and I was left alone. I found a nice cozy spot on the patio and put my feet up, listening to the rain and enjoying my Jack & Coke. Apparently the girls asked my buddies "Where is your friend?" but let's face it - Jerry is a tan, good looking Italian guy and Andy is a good looking guy too, brawny with big muscles. All night the girls wanted to talk to them, not me. I'm basically a white, blonde dorky looking guy. And honestly I wasn't about to bore myself listening to them talk about themselves. I was pretty satisfied sitting there by myself. There was never a third girl to talk to me all night and I was okay with that - we were there to show Andy a good time anyway. After a while they closed up the patio, and we decided to call it a night and head to Jim's Steak Out for a late night snack.

We got to Jim's on Allen Street, and as I was walking across the street this drunk asshole roared around the corner, forcing me into a decision. How do I save myself - do I dive over the top of the hood or do I try to run backwards. I ran backwards a few steps and kicked the fender as hard as I could, giving it a nice dent. That asshole almost maimed me. Looking back, if I had gotten hit I could have gotten a nice sum of money out of the whole deal. Oh well! Of course he drove off, probably thinking correctly that they shouldn't stop and talk to me. We got our food, went home and I drifted off into a drunken slumber. I had a good time and was happy to spend time with my friends. So how did you all spend your Saturday Night?

Jason