Killing ObamaCare

It has been said that the Republican party has no new ideas.  Today they proved it for us.

Rather than creating jobs, or helping us end the wars they started, or addressing some of the many problems of our society, today they launched an offensive on 'ObamaCare' trying to repeal health care reform, defund it and otherwise kill it before many of its provisions come into effect.

It is this kind of thinking that ensures I will probably always hate Republicans.  The fact is the country voted for health care reform 2008, the various branches of government voted for it, and now we have it.  But because it doesn't fit with their cut-throat capitalist system where poor people die because they cannot get proper health care, they now want to try and kill it (just like they want to kill poor people by blocking their access to health care).

I swear, I don't have time to address fully why this is so fucked up (if you can't see why, I don't this blog is going to change your mind), but when I see news items like this I just have to shake my head and wonder how America can ever move forward when for every forward step there are people out there demanding we take two steps back.

Even top Republicans who were interviewed said they know that it will be almost impossible to get this past the Senate, and if it did Obama would veto it.  But this is still a priority to these fucking idiots nonetheless.  Still with any luck these asshole moves will reveal to the public just what the Republicans are about, and in 2012 they will vote accordingly.  After all, people always review the facts and then vote in their own self interest right?

Saving Money With Redlaser

Today I purchased a movie and video game at Best Buy, and saved myself $20.  Now you can too with this helpful guide!

If you have an iPhone there is an excellent app available called Redlaser.  If you have another smart phone there is no doubt a similar app you can download.

Essentially, what this app does it allows you to scan a bar code on a product using the camera on your phone.  Once you have done this the app will then tell you where else the product is sold and at what price.  So all you have to do is spend a couple of seconds using this app, and before you go to the checkout you tell an associate that you've found the products cheaper at another store, and the price match guarantee kicks in and you can get excellent discount on all your purchases.

If you don't have a smart phone, the alternative is you can walk over to the laptops and Google the product you like, and then get the staff to match the price that way.  You can get some pretty stout savings, especially since if you are persuasive you can even get Best Buy to price match with Amazon.com or other online retailers.

Today was the first time I used the Redlaser app, and it worked perfectly, saving me $20 on just two small items.  Sadly one of those items was the horrific new Call of Duty game, which I think is a sick joke.  Ah well, at least I didn't pay full price.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Review

This weekend I decided to treat myself to Black Ops, the latest in the highly successful Call of Duty franchise.  So I went to Best Buy and picked up a copy for my PS3.

There were several issues that concerned me in reading the reviews, not the least of which was the reality that 700 users had given it only three stars on Amazon.com.

Ultimately the game is fucking shit.  Not the shit, just shit.

Now some might say that this statement is a little harsh, and well I don't much care.  I really feel like I just wasted $50 for no reason.  Because the reality of this game is that the ONLY reason it will sell is because of the name.  I strongly believe that if it was released on its own merit and with another name, the sales would be 80% less.

The franchise is owned by Activision who had two companies creating alternate versions of the game.  So each release to this point (and this is the seventh game in the franchise) has been created either by Infinity Ward (Modern Warfare 1 & 2), and TreyArch (World at War and Black Ops).

Modern Warfare 1 (CoD:4) was where I started playing, and certainly enjoyed that a lot, achieving my gold cross and various gold weapons.  Then I tried World at War, which had some serious flaws and a few nice touches.  Then Modern Warfare 2 came out and I spent many happy hours reaching prestige level 10.  My score ranks in the top 2% of players.

I resisted the latest TreyArch offering since I was worried about the reviews, but eventually curiosity caused me to make a purchase.  After an afternoon playing, I feel like TreyArch came and stole $50 from my wallet.

In any freeze frame, the game looks amazing.  The graphics are lovely.  But in playing the game it is horrifically defective.  The engine does render some great images, but once your player is in motion he lumbers around like he has some kind of birth defect.  And if the horrific movement isn't bad enough the sound effects of his feet on the ground are laughable.  Is he doing a tap dance or fighting a battle?  It's hard to say.

My first session left me cold and a little dirty.  I feel like I cheated on my wife with a $50 toothless hooker, and now I wish it had never happened.

I don't care that the game has a great new way to buy weapons with their CoD currency, because the weapons sound like shit, and half of them take half a magazine to kill someone.  It's so stupid when you start to shoot another player, and they turn around as their body is being riddled with bullets, and shoot you dead.

The maps are okay, although some are just too small.  But if they could be loaded into MW2, I wouldn't mind playing them.

In reading the reviews I believe that the single player version of the game is very linear, and the bad guys have stupid AI, and keep re-spawning, making the game utterly unrealistic there too.

The bottom line is that this is just a very average, very ordinary game that doesn't deserve to wear the Call of Duty logo on its case.  Activision should be ashamed of themselves putting out such a mediocre game and using the franchise name to sell such an inferior product.

How Many More?

This weekend, America got to see another fatal shooting of innocent people by a psychotic fucktard who found it so simple and easy to purchase a deadly semi automatic firearm and use it to kill.

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is now fighting for her life and six other people (including a child) are dead.  Dozens more will suffer the emotional scars for years.  And the tax payer will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the trial, incarceration, and who knows, maybe the execution of Jared Loughner, the gunman.

Within a few weeks, the NRA will probably have a rally to remind us that their incorrect interpenetration of the Second Amendment is that God Himself demands that all Americans arm themselves.

My first issue is with Sarah Palin and her band of trigger happy idiots who stir violent rhetoric that pushes psychopaths like Loughner over the edge.  Palin used gun crosshairs on a map of America to target the politicians she wanted out of office, and one of the crosshairs was aimed at Giffords' location.

In June of last year Republican opponent Jesse Kelly advertised on his campaign web site to, "Get on Target for Victory in November Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office Shoot a fully automatic M-16 with Jesse Kelly."

In the backlash over health care reform Giffords received death threats and her office was vandalized.  Now she lies in hospital with a gunshot wound to the head.

My question is this, how many more shootings will have to happen before Republicans stop with their dirty tricks, veiled threats, encouragement of violence, and love affair with guns?  Or maybe this is their strategy.  Rile up the base with threats, use of fear, lies, misinformation, cult like religious fervor, and easy access to guns.

It is truly sick that it is so easy to obtain a gun, and so abhorrent that those who assist in instigating deadly violent attacks are not brought to justice.  Jared Loughner did not act alone in this attack, his inner psychopath was encouraged by criminally irresponsible politicians, and armed by laughably lax gun control laws.