Why do we always need a savior ?

Cafferty of CNN is talking asking "Are you better off than 8 years ago?"

Is this some kind of a kingdom where wellness and affluence of his subjects are the responsibility of the king ? In the past 8 years I have gone from doing well to doing really bad after 911 and then back to doing OK now. Yes this administration has screwed up in lot of fronts and failed in utterly in others. But what happened to this wisdom of keeping the government's meddling hands out of the economy. They have screwed up the value of dollar by giving MFN status to China and now by borrowing money for a bloody war and nation building in middle east. If some has to elect Obama or Mccain, expecting them to revive this economy they have their head stuck in the sand.

The best I can expect from the candidates is to stop the damage done by torture and unwarranted wiretaps and do some good by taming pollution and C02 emission. Neither one is going to stop the borrowing which is killing the dollar and causing inflation. Obama will not stop the borrowing because he has his social programs and McCain will still not stop the borrowing because he is not going to stop the war.

When will people start doing their part like Kennedy asked them to. Do every thing they can to stop sending $$$ to Putin, Chavez and Al (sponsors of) Qaeda. Do our part by being healthy and stop being the drain to the American medicare system. Making sure that the kids are getting the right kind of education and motivation, preparing their shoulders to carry America forward in ways that we haven't. Give them a chance at creating another Microsoft/Apple/Google, become another Phelps, Lebron James, Lance Armstrong, Michael Crichton, Erin Brockovich, General Swartzkopf .... I guess we do need a hero to lead us by example. Trade in the coke can for glass of water, beer and big screen TV for a Book or pair of running shoes or garden gloves, arrogance born out of ignorance to genuine care for fellow citizens and the rest of world. The question is are they listed on the ballot paper on election day?

Olympic size nausea

I could not pull myself to watch even a glimpse of the Chinese Olympics. Especially after 100s of people being "relocated" to make space for "flower garden" for the Olympics. This is just one of the N number of things the Commies have been doing to show how western their cities look. Disgusting. They have zero respect for their culture as well as the wests. Shiny roads paved on destroyed lives in their own countries and in other parts of the world like Burma, North Korea, Vietnam, Sudan and Pakistan just to name a few.

Not to mention how they have destroyed Tibet and how they have wiped out the promised one country two system and imposed Commyism in Hongkong. What they would not mind doing to Taiwan the moment they get to lay their hands on it. And then dear Mr. Bush flies all the way from here to attend this shameful event run by the most corrupt organization in the world IOC. And barely few minutes before the event makes lip service to human rights and then opens a brand new embassy in China. Go figure that logic.

Divided path to heaven

As per this CNN Why many Americans prefer their Sundays segregated

"Americans may be poised to nominate a black man to run for president, but it's segregation as usual in U.S. churches, according to the scholars. Only about 5 percent of the nation's churches are racially integrated, and half of them are in the process of becoming all-black or all-white, says Curtiss Paul DeYoung, co-author of "United by Faith," a book that examines interracial churches in the United States."

Blame my stupidity, but to me traditional religions appear more a part of the problem and than the solution. Do we have a seggregated football match. Seggregated bar, Seggregated college ? No. But when it comes to religion it exists every where. When it comes to religion or religious practices, be it New York, Alabama, California, communist Yugoslavia, liberal United Kingom, religious Saudi Arabia, India people seem to fall into these divisive traps. And see no end to this insight.

Absurd news of the week

Pakistani militants abduct 30 police

Lets face it. Can you really tell between Pakistani "security personnel" and terrorists (or if you want to address them nicely, militants). They are one and the same. They fought along side the terrorists against Soviet union (sorry rebels, coz they were with the west), they fight along side them in Kashmir, they now fight against NATO in Afghanistan. So they took the next logical step, simply go work for the real boss. In corporate lingo they where dotted line to the Jihadists, while the salary came from "the government", if you can call this mockery, that.

The non politically correct version of the news would read, "Scores (not 30) of Pakistani security personnel defected to Terrorist organization(s)".

Pakistani army killed by US and pak is crying foul

Act 1
Pakistani forces see enemy they start shooting. Then their friends start crossing the border to take care of their mission against enemy. In this case the enemy happens to be India and years was 1999. Then next day announce that Indian troops started the unprovoked firing and call uncle Sam to put pressure on India. India does nothing fearing larger war and bowing to US pressure. India pleads to US in the next high level meeting with US to stop there terrorists and US does not want to interfere in political problems and freedom struggle. Terrorists go scot free.

Act II - Deja vu.
Pakistani forces see enemy they start shooting. Their friends start crossing the border to take care of their mission against the enemy. But this time the country is Afghanistan and Enemy is US and year is 2008. US forces call in air strikes because they can and kill a bunch of "professional soldiers". Pakistani cries fowl and puts US on the defensive. Terrorists go scot free.

Is there a lesson to be learned here ..

'08 Candidates

I am quiet impressed by two very unlikely ie "unelectable" candidates who are in the fray. Republican/libertarian candidate Ron Paul and Democratic candidate Senator Mike Gravel. Not that I agree with them 100%. I am not eligible to vote but I wish I could. I really wish these people make it past the primaries and become real candidates. Even if one of them makes it to the final election that would do wonders. I am not sure if the democrats are smart enough elect Sen. Gravel.

Given that Bush/Cheney/Daschle effect will most likely drown the "electable" republicans in the election, I am hoping that congressman Paul's fresh (ie freshly old) ideas would rejuvenate the conservative base and get him past the primaries. Original conservative/libertarian ideas look especially fresh after the jolt people got for believing these neo-cons and neo-christian fundamentalists. Back down to todays realities of sound bite politics. I hope the presence of these gentleman in the race will have some real impact on the so called "electable" candidates. I am pray that the two put up a tough fight in the new primary format where multiple states go to polls on the same day. I am hoping that the so called "electable" candidates will be given a run for their money.

Smoking sponsorship in popular culture

I was watching an interview/grilling of one of the top Bollywood stars about smoking in movies. I was shocked by the well rehearsed "sound bite" that came out of his mouth. Obviously the Cancer stick industry has done its home work, taking a page out its lessons learned around the world. It is obvious that Bollywood gets paid well by booze and cigarette industries to promote their products. There was a even an article about the loss of revenue to ad industry and film stars when the government banned ads of these products.

Coming back to sound bite politics - here it is - "you see the indian people are smart enough to no know what is good for them", "they are not going to start smoking just by looking at a start smoking just by see a start do it in a movie". He is absolutely right. But the real targets are not "THE PEOPLE", it is their children stupid. They the ones who idolize these stars. They are the ones, who the cancer stick people are after. How many 40 year olds do you know that have started smoking vs the number of teen agers who do ? The young and impressionable ones, fall for the promotion that always surrounds the people behind the celluloid. And I could not believe that these people simply pretend like they don't know this.