Why

Is a there a reason for blogging? Yes, you guessed right if you look at the time of this post. It is late at night and I just got hope from a nice night out a local watering hole where myself and a great number of friends celebrated the Birthday of a common friend. It was great. It was an interaction of people out doing what we do. Drinking beer, eating food, playing pool, listening to the Violent Femmes really, really loud.

In the midst of it all I pondered why I blog, why I write, why I bother putting thought down in print. The answer: it is fucking fun! I live for this shit. Writing my ideas and thoughts and commentary on what ever the hell I want is one of the most free forms of expression known to human kind.

What is a more puzzling question to me is why people read my blog. I should not be asking this question. Does P&G ask why people buy Tide? Well, they do ask it, but they don't ask it in print on the box.

I am taking such a tact here. I am asking why. I ask why when ever I post on something, so now I am posting on myself. Think of it as the ultimate comment card from a Perkin's.

What do people like and what do you hate? Let me hear it.

Now, don't expect me to kneel down and partake in your suggestions with an open embrace. I will still do what ever the fuck I please on the blog. I do like having readers, and if your wishes coincide with mine, then I hope to give you something you will like reading, or at least like commenting about.

Generational Generalizations

As a card carrying member of Generation X I often wonder what is instore for me in relation to the other major generational groups: The boomers and Generation Y. Each of those group is vastly larger than us Xers, which causes me to consider that my generation will be lost in the game of influence as we enter into the 'prime' of our lives.

When I think about the generation differences, I define each group into crude yet descriptive terms:

Boomer Generation: The Fuck You generation - They are collective and very confrontational. The are greedy and altruistic, and yes they contradict themselves.

Generation X: The Fuck Off generation - We are skeptical and lack trust in anyone or anything. We are non-conformists, yet really just want to fit in, but are forced to fend for ourselves.

Generation Y: The Fuck Me generation - They are conformists, modernistic sheep that long to follow and get along, reacting to the older generations with quick remedies and easy answers.

Is this all bullshit, yea, as most generalities about generations are, but there are tones and commonalities which are true with the various generations on a macro-level. We certainly don't all fit into each mold. On a wide scale these are commonalities that are more true then we would like to admit.

What specific issues will cause significant generational conflict? Gay Marriage seems like one happening now. What else?

UPDATE: Via comments the idea for what we would call Generation Z: Oh, Fuck Generation.

Oh Sam? Oh Michael?

Will you guys get off your ass and appoint someone to council? Have you heard of telephones, email, paper and the US postal service? Stop the games, and bit the damn bullet. Either appease the bigots or piss off the bigots, that is your choice.

Crime, What Do We Do About It?

Stephanie Dunlap has a great column in CityBeat about a New Year's Eve violent crime. How do we rid the city of this type of crime where young adults, mostly black men and often drug related, use violence as a means to their ends? This is not a black thing, but most of those committing this type of crime are black and we can't understand why. I don't know why. Activists don't know why and are doing little to stop it. The cops appear powerless to stop it. The justice system appears weak. The local citizens who live in the area are either having their cars shot up for fighting crime, or they are sitting on their hands.

We are letting this happen. We have no solutions, only more questions as to whom do we blame for it. We are not doing anything about it, and yes, I am not doing a damn thing either, but I have a luxury of living in low crime area, so I have little motivation to do much. I really can't do much if I wanted. People like me, most people, can't change this. The people of Over-the-Rhine, City Hall, the local media, and the Police are only ones who can find and enact a solution.

Hi, I'm a Military PR Clerk and I have a Story My Boss Wants Told

This kid is the classic definition of a shill, and he is doing it for the Pentagon. His opening and the ending bio sum up all you need to know:

Something struck me as odd this fall as I watched a U.S. satellite news broadcast here in my Baghdad office.

and

Marine Cpl. Isaac D. Pacheco of Northern Kentucky enlisted in the Marines on Sept. 12, 2001, and arrived in Iraq last fall. He serves with the Combined Press Information Center in Baghdad.

This kid may mean well, and I am sure he is doing his duty as a solider, but sitting behind a desk in the Green Zone does not really put him in the best place to see life for the Marines fighting in the streets. More importantly, THIS KID WORKS FOR THE PR WING OF THE PENTAGON IN IRAQ. It is his job to make the Military look good and yet the Enquirer prints this? If it was from a Marine out in the field, then I would not have commented on it at all. This is propaganda, plain and simple.

The Cincinnati Harold

New local satire site. Have a read.

CincyBlog readers might find this story of big interest.

I can attest to having met one of the writers "Blaine Chowder."

Fog

Do you have a voice that only turtles and snails can hear? Do you have to scream to be heard over the rustle of the wind through trees? Well you may just have Fog voice, yes that's fog voice.

Ok, enough of the infomercial rip off. If you have ever talked to me in a bar, which I will say many readers actually have done, you will learn that I have a voice made for print (and yes a face for radio). I have a fairly low pitch and no volume. I have to really talk loudly in a bar, at least what I consider loudly, to be heard. I was Drinking Liberally last night and my many 'brilliant' tracts on maintaining Social Security were surely lost in the Latin music.

If you are ever talking to me a bar and can't hear me, scream at me to scream back. Then you might hear me.

In all seriousness, do not scream at me, I am joking. (This means you FunnelCake)