Below is a video of over 40 youtube performers singing the 1985 classic charity ballad “We are the world” written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hhX0KkQBW4

What makes this post different from any other is that this case the people who contributed to the making and posting of this video are not idiots. This remake is absolutely terrific when you think about the hard work it took to edit this thing, the various recording methods, the sheer number of performers…etc. So why am I posting? This is why…

The incident in Haiti was terrible and is still a major problem that needs all the help it can get, but do we really need this? I swear I felt the foundation of my own house start to give way when Wyclef started screaming out his part of this awful rendition.

I know, I know. I should be celebrating the fact that over 80 of The United States’ so-called top performers took the time to contribute something to the Haitian earthquake relief effort but they could have at least made it sound good. There is some decent talent in this group, don’t get me wrong, but this became a miserable collaboration as soon as someone said “Not a problem at all Lil’ Wayne, you can have your own solo verse!” or at least that’s how I imagine it going.

After listening to that 8+ minute pile of crap I had to go back and watch the original just to reassure myself that it is better, and of course it is. Finding a decent upload of the original proved more of a challenge than I thought it would have been, but this karaoke video should suffice considering it doesn’t cut out anywhere randomly.

I’ll admit that Bob Dylan sounds a bit awkward amongst all of the other performers, but it works for his part of the song. Another thing I noticed is John Oates and his mustache just singing in the chorus along with several others who have the talent to sing their own verse. I wonder why… probably because the song would have sounded like shit if they tried to fit in too many parts. At least we have proof of that now.

Now my real complaint isn’t on the song, or how Wyclef shouldn’t be allowed to produce anymore, or even how much I love autotune; it’s about the general reaction to the obvious bad reaction any self respecting listener might say out loud after hearing it.

I won’t go comment for comment this time around, but it’s fair to say scrolling down several thousand times on the World25 video that the YouTube majority wants people like me to STFU and just appreciate what they are doing. There is some merit behind that, and I’m fine with the millions of Akon fans donating all of their money downloading copies of this song but doesn’t anyone want to do anything good anymore? You’re all idiots if you don’t think so.

I bet Dan Aykroyd walked up to Quincy Jones during the original recording and asked “Where do you want me” and Quincy replied “In the back, behind all of the good singers.” That’s what made Quincy Jones, his ability to spot and exploit talent not litter the television with famous faces. Wyclef on the other hand probably would have given Aykroyd his own vocal solo (with autotune of course, because it sounds so good… really).

The point is that in the 80′s things were thought about a little differently. The original “We are the world” took place after the success of the UK Band-Aid charity song and was probably open to a huge number of early 80′s celebrities. Problem is that they could only record a good song with so many people, and half of the big names had to get left out in the chorus. Now 25 years later we get a remake that follows the motto of the modern day entertainment industry; slap as many faces on it as possible, package and ship… that’s all I thought after watching the World25 video. But then I came across the YouTube performers video and had a change of heart, it is a better example of today’s culture. Over 40  people (mostly broke) using their own equipment to record themselves out of their own homes from all different parts of the country, coming together through the use of technology and the internet in 1 song for a good cause. If you ask me, the World25 video should go into the trash and they should put the YouTube video up for sale. Maybe it wouldn’t make as much money for Haiti, but they deserve a better song than what Wyclef gave them.

If you’d like to make a donation to Haiti using the American Red Cross, click here.

God puts the Mystery Method to shame in the Chick comic strip "Why is Mary Crying?"

Perhaps I should throw a disclaimer in here and make it clear that I have no problems with any major religion (Sorry all you Davidians out there). What I do have a problem with are those who go out of their way to distort the facts in order to get their point across. Nutty evangelists like Jack Chick belong to this category, along with the Atheist haters on YouTube who bash Christians or other religions.

I couldn’t help but get a few laughs reading Jack T. Chick’s biography over at the Chick Publications website. Here are a couple excerpts I found a bit entertaining.

After going home and drawing the art, Jack Chick’s very first soul winning gospel tract was completed. God miraculously used the owner of the company Jack worked for to pay for the first printing of this new soul winning book.

Sound a little sketchy? My first thought after reading that paragraph was what a bastard Chick is for not giving his old boss the credit for lending out the money. But then I wondered if this meant that Chick’s old boss never legitimately lent the money out and Chick just stole it and never got caught; hence why God gets all the credit.

One day, Bob Hammond, missionary broadcaster of The Voice of China and Asia, told Jack that multitudes of Chinese people had been won to Communism through mass distribution of cartoon booklets. Jack felt that God was leading him to use the same technique to win multitudes to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why would you ever admit stealing the comics idea from The Communist Party of China? Maybe it’s for the better considering the commies also had an arguably more successful technique of converting people to communism by gunning down supporters of democracy.

“Chick Tracts” are Jack T’s preachy comic shorts that attempt to scare nonbelievers or followers of other religions to convert to Christianity by illustrating the worst possible consequences of people who make bad choices.

From the Chick Tract "Trust Me"

In the comic above a wimpy drug addict gets put in jail after getting caught selling drugs. The story ends with the wimp learning he’s contracted aids after becoming a cell mate’s bitch and chooses to accept Jesus as his lord and savior just before dying.

Other tracts blatantly take shots at Catholicism…

Superhero Christian Missionary saves the day in "Evil Eyes"

…and evolution of course.

From "The Choice"

I could go on posting my favorite snippets of these tracts but this post would go on forever if I did.

As I said before, a part of me fears that someone who doesn’t know alot about religion in general would read these and inevitably conform to Chick’s version of Christianity, and believe me Chick’s idea of Christianity is its own form. In fact Chick Publications has been banned from many Christian bookstores and he’s been described as sacrilegious by other Christians. This guy is no good and I hope anyone who reads their first gospel from a Chick tract will only be inspired to learn more about the Christian faith as a whole instead of just relying on Chick’s delusional concept of it. That’s not an endorsement for Christianity by the way, all I’m saying is a person should look at information from several sources before conforming to a singular belief.

For example, CBS News posted a generic AP article on the recent Washington D.C. subway crash. Nothing to get excited about as the article doesn’t give any theories on causes or push any ideological buttons; just describes the accident, the victims, the rescue effort and so on.  But somehow, some people out there thought this was the perfect opportunity to shout nonsense.

I think this kid got the wrong article. What the hell does a subway crash have to do with the alleged weapon shipment from Korea? Sigh…

Yes please! When in doubt just increase the number of regulations! If a train is crowded, you have the choice to get on and off. No need for Johnny Law to start holding people back and making people late for work. If any regulations need to be made they should be made to ensure the train stays on the god damn tracks and that’s it.

I’m pretty sure the only thing damning America are all these morons in the comment section of news articles.

Look douchebags and nozzles, just because Obama has his name uttered doesn’t always mean it has a political bias, nor is it the perfect opportunity to spout off some irrelevant point of view. Same goes for any member of any political party, this same type of thing used to annoy the hell out of me when Bush was president as well. As for idiots who think we need more regulations everytime an accident happens, please just move to Massachusetts where they are ten steps ahead of you to see how awesome it is.

Warning: the following video is actual footage of the death of Neda, a young Iranian girl just after being shot by sniper. So please, just continue reading below and do not watch the video if you’re not sure you can handle seeing this bloody awful scene.

Anyone with half a heart should be at a loss of words after seeing that. Unfortunately, that’s just not the case for almost 2,000 people on YouTube who still had the balls to type out some inane comment after watching this.

This is arguably the most insulting YouTube comment I have ever read. I called this man Moron #8 but really there is no set of words good enough to describe him.

About 3 or 4 other people made this exact fight club reference and it’s just not funny at all.

Now take these 2 idiots above and try to picture them standing next to you in real life when all of a sudden a sweet looking innocent girl is shot through the heart right in front of you. The young girl’s father cries in panic, holding his dying daughter. And just as all of this is going on you hear these two idiots crack a couple of jokes about it. Unfair scenario? Obviously nobody would say that right there at that moment, but why should it be easier to say in a public forum on the internet?

I can’t for one second put myself in the shoes of someone who can look at this girl’s horrified expression, watch the blood come out from everywhere and then make a fucking obscene joke about it less than 24 hours after it hit the net! I’m no virgin to tasteless humor but this is too real and too damn soon.

It’s not just the tasteless quips that bother me either. A good chunk of the morons responding to this video think this is the relevant place to give their opinion on the U.S. Government’s involvement with Iran or give their 2 cents about a country they don’t know squat about. There is a time and place for those discussions, but this isn’t it. I can’t say for certain, but I’m willing to bet that Neda had no plans on becoming an example of a corrupt Iranian regime, or the mistakes of current and former U.S. presidents. I feel terrible for the girl as I do her father and I am ashamed of everyone who gives anything more than their condolences.

I know, maybe I’m out of line ragging on everyone who says more than just “sorry” but when did having a little good sense become a past time? Who are you to say that someone else’s daughter is a righteous symbol when the girl herself had no prior intentions of becoming that?

Too many people are looking lightly on this and saying whatever they want. The people who want to make this girl a martyr are no better than the people making Fight Club references in my opinion. Only those who were close to Neda have the right to remember her how they see fit, and everyone else can just pass their condolences and move on cause Neda probably doesn’t give a damn what you’re thinking right now, if anything she’d rather just be alive.

Theoretically Fresco’s ideas could rescue the world from economical malfunction, depleting sources of energy and natural disasters that are the direct result of environmental issues but could only work by restructuring society as a whole to live for the world around them instead of for themselves. In Fresco’s words The Venus Project is the restructuring of society through application of the scientific method.

People out there may have heard of The Venus Project via it’s activist arm The Zeitgeist Movement which has produced three internet movies attempting to scare people with nut job conspiracy theories into supporting Fresco’s vision of a scientifically motivated society. Funny enough these movies condemn the alleged use of scare tactics by the Bush administration to get the American people behind policies such as The Patriot Act. Perhaps the Zeitgeist movement would say they are fighting fire with fire, but I say it’s more like a pot calling the kettle black.

These movies are full of absurd contentions, especially in the first act of ZEITGEIST: THE MOVIE where it the reveals the shocking coincidence that the Christian Bible’s Jesus is actually a character representation of the sun; the supporting evidence behind this preposterous theory is that the words sun and the son of God are phonetically the same word, completely ignoring the fact that the English language didn’t exist at the time of writing the second testament. The rest of the movie (and the sequel ZEITGEIST: ADDENDUM)  focuses on accusing the Bush administration of orchestrating and covering up the 9/11 attacks and how the Federal Reserve is an evil institution run by the most powerful men in the world with the goal of  keeping the entire country in debt in order to secure their power and stay wealthy. All of the accusations, false claims and misleading bits of information contained in the Zeitgeist movies are mixed in with bits of truth on the pitfalls and consequences of living in a capitalist society to convince viewers of something they already know; capitalism isn’t perfect.

The ultimate conclusion is that The Venus Project would eliminate the possibility of ever running into these problems again… and in theory it would. That is if you forget the amount of work it would take to completely restructure  society, after all, somebody has to do got to do it. But what if someone decides they don’t want to do any work?  What would The Venus Project do with that person? What if there is a group of people who didn’t want to work? Do the people standing behind The Venus Project intend to just let that person sit around and live off the benefits all of the workers have provided? How many people are going to want to work hard to complete such an enormous task knowing that they don’t have to.

The only way to rectify that inequity is to get rid of the person who doesn’t want to work. That means punishing the person not doing his fair share. That means The Venus Project requires police or some type of law enforcement, someone to write the laws, a court system to judge those who break the law, a person or group of people to say what the law is and inevitably The Venus Project will evolve into a government no different from any other we’ve seen before. Jacque Fresco, followers of The Venus Project and members of The Zeitgeist movement are all idiots for claiming they can live without a government. All it would take is one person to screw the whole dream up.

Unemployment is capitalism’s way of getting you to plant your garden. – Orson Scott Card

Capitalism is the ruling form of government because it does not require laws forcing you to get a job. It motivates people to provide for society knowing that they will be rewarded for their efforts. Zeitgeist and The Venus Project were created by people so stupid that they don’t even realize their own idea is a form of communism. The Venus Project is not the answer to capitalism but instead capitalism is the answer to The Venus Project.

Still there are a number of people out there on the web who think Jacque Fresco and his Venus Project have a point. Here’s a few of them…

Moron #4, in this society you have the opportunity to be one of those fat cats so stop being such a dumbass and start devoting time and real effort to things you like to do, that is where you will find your way to earn success instead of having amenities handed to you.

Two of these morons are a perfect example of why neocons need to stop over using the words communist and socialist to describe opponents. Now when someone actually sees communism for what it is the people standing nearby assume the boy is crying wolf.

Moron #6 was more reasonable in his response, but obviously didn’t think about what he was saying. A resource based economy needs to provide people with things somehow. If a house is vacant you cannot just move in, what if the residents are just not home? Ownership needs to be established and that means somebody is going to be in charge of handing resources out or in other words decide what he has to give based on what is fair for everyone.

Having everything you want sounds good in this society because lots of things we don’t need are created, but in Fresco’s society creation is only based on need and what’s good for the environment. So yes, you can have everything you want but there will be no difference in cars, no difference in the homes, no variety of entertaining movies or books because jobs in writing and acting will not help to advance society. Individuality will be a thing of the past. Even if stealing is eliminated, what about drugs, sex crimes and murder? Even though the number of crimes will be much smaller they will still happen every once and awhile and there will need to be a system to punish those who commit crime.

Jacques Fresco, the others behind The Venus Project and the activists pushing the so called Zeitgeist Movement are all morons who are willing to say whatever it takes to convince those around them that a world where everybody can have what they want is possible. It’s a pipe dream people. Absolutely changes need to be made to ensure every American has the opportunity to make something of themselves, but you still need to go out and earn it on your own.

Legalize all drugs and criminals won’t have to steal anymore? Who the hell are you to call anyone stupid if your answer to the drug problem is to make them all legal? Do you think they are going to hand drugs out for free if they do become legal? People steal for one reason; they are broke. The Amazing Atheist even said it himself…

“Heroin makes people criminals because people who get addicted to it can’t afford it and they end up stealing… to pay for their drug habit.”

Do you think these people make just enough money to afford everything they need in life except for drugs and that’s why they go out a rob someone? No, nobody who manages their finances well gets desperate enough to knock over a liquor store. Poor people steal because they could use the money for anything, not just drugs. Nobody needs statistics to see that an wealthy neighborhood has less crime than a poor neighborhood. The Amazing Atheist just took what jezuzfreek777 said and came up with the exact opposite counter point without bothering to think if there was any merit behind the original statement.

Recreational drugs have done more harm than good in the world and to make the legalization even less of a possibility their are the junkies and the jobless hippies ruining it for everyone who has the luxury of getting a bit reckless from time to time. All of the medical marijuana cases in the world couldn’t fight that logic. Alcohol is bad as well, but that’s not the god damn point. Prohibition proved that we can not take something as popular as booze and make it illegal without suffering heavy repercussions and thus we’re stuck to restricting it as many ways as possible (in some states) but never banning it. I don’t care if you want to believe it or not, but legalizing drugs would promote the use of drugs (at least for a short time). And to add, with a country far behind in the economy and in public education, the last thing a politician wants is to do is give critics the opportunity to say that he has made it harder to dig ourselves out of the hole.

The argument could go on for days with statistics on this and that being pulled out of everyone’s ass but it would be all for nothing. In the end a politician is going to have to commit political suicide to legalize any form of recreational drug, and that’s just not going to happen any time soon. Jezuzfreek777 is arguing a mute point and The Amazing Atheist is kicking him down for the wrong reasons. Ignorance is breeding ignorance and I can’t help but wonder why I care to listen to either of them. Perhaps I’m a masochist.

To be real honest the article was a waste of 5 minutes I could have better used scanning for hotter topics, or at least that’s what I thought before getting to the comments section below the article.

Apparently this man took it to heart seeing G.W. and Bill all buddy-buddy like and was offended when Clinton didn’t take the opportunity to slug Bush in the face. Moron #2 also completely forgot that both of these guys are former U.S. Presidents and both of them sat in office for the maximum of two terms. After climbing to the very top of the ladder in U.S. Politics what more do you have to fight about? Neither of them hold an office anymore and anyone expecting to see a blood bath is being ridiculous.

“You have perfected political lying beyond your wildest dreams.”

What the hell does that even mean? I don’t know if it’s more ridiculous you think Bill Clinton dreams of lying or that you think the man who said “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” is perfect at it.

“Do you… hammer the play president or shut up and see if you and his dad can talk his mother into renting you Bandars old room. So which way you choose HONOR or MONEY. Bill Clinton chose MONEY.”

Could you be any more dramatic? What exactly would be the honor of demoralizing a president who is no longer in office? What impact would that possibly have on this country? It would be news for about a week and then everybody would go about their business and forget about it. As for Clinton choosing money, please buddy, like you wouldn’t accept a handful of cash to sit on stage for an hour and talk about the last job you had. Love or hate either of them, they are former leaders of the most influential country in the world and people want to hear what they have to say about their time in office.

Final thoughts; there were more than a few who, in less words expressed their discontent that Clinton didn’t beat G.W. to death with his bare fists and then commit seppuku on stage thus ending his life honorably and simultaneously getting revenge on neo-conservatives around the globe. If you need an example of why this wouldn’t mean anything, look back at the Frost/Nixon interviews. Whatever came of that besides a movie over thirty years after Nixon resigned from office? We showed that Nixon guy alright! Look, you Bush haters need to take a deep breath and relax, his time is over and there is no use in beating a dead horse.

One more thing…

CONSPIRACY ALERT! CLINTON TIES TO 911 SOLVED IN ANONYMOUS POST TO CBSNEWS.COM! CONSPIRACY!!!

I didn’t bother fact checking any of this, maybe I’ve been disillusioned by the  government or maybe it’s just that I don’t think the comment section of a completely irrelevant CBSNews.com article is a credible source of information. Still though, I applaud the effort this moron made attempting to reveal the truth. Too bad the only shocking piece of information I found in here was learning that Bill Clinton is the nephew of Jesse Jackson… who knew!?

In case you haven’t read one of the tens of thousands of articles, been listening to talk radio or watching any cable news programming; here is the Sotomayor’s quote from her 2001 speech.

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

LATINO SUPREMECY! VIVA EL LATINOS! KILL WHITEY! *Ahem*… Sorry.

Well after letting Sotomayor take a few whip lashes from those opposed to her nomination President Obama decided to chime in and say that Judge Sotomayor would rephrase the quote if she had the chance to, but her point would remain the same. For the sake of brevity I’ll just say her point was that growing up and living as a Latino minority gives her a distinct perspective on the world and makes her a better judge than those who have not suffered through the hardships of racially diverse society (perhaps I should have written her speech).

Now virtually the same article is posted up at every major news site but I found myself utterly dumbfounded by one reply in particular to the CNN article on Mixx.com.

Check out the article from CNN here.

Check out the comments on Mixx here

LET THE CAGE GATES OPEN! MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN RUN FOR YOUR LIVES HERE COME THE IDIOTS!

I have a sad feeling a lot of other people might share this same opinion, so here goes…

First off Moron #1, let’s rephrase that quote coming from a white man so everyone can see what a dumb point  it really is.

White nominee says: I would hope that a wise white man with the richness of his life experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a Latino woman who hasn’t lived that life.

Does that make any sense at all? No group of white people in this country have ever been victimized for their skin color in the same way a Latino, African American, East Indian, Asian or any other racial groups have. If a white person made this quote he’d only be talking to a handful of white people who have actually had a racially motivated bad experience versus the thousands of Latinos who have to put up with racism every day. This man wouldn’t make it on the supreme court because he is an idiot and he would be out before anyone uttered the word racist.

As for the Jaime Foxx and the Don Imus situation, this is completely different. See, Jamie Foxx is on satellite radio which doesn’t need to comply with FCC regulations and policies. Don Imus on the other hand is on public radio which does have to fold under FCC pressure. Public radio DJ’s, especially celebrity DJ’s like Imus need to pay special attention to what they say or else they are off the air. You cannot run a business on the radio getting hit with fines constantly. Hence what Howard Stern used to rant about everyday on the radio back before he made his move to satellite. And for the record, unlike Sotomayor’s statement, a white person calling a black person “Nappy” in any regard is without a doubt a blatant racial slur.

Finally you prove your way onto this blog with your final statement of “the racists in this country are Blacks and Latinos!” Come on now, get real. Yeah there are no doubt groups from different races who don’t like white people but I doubt you’ve ever ran into any. The most racism you’ve ever encountered is a Latino or African American kid who thinks exactly the opposite; that all white people are racists or think they are superior to other races in America. That’s not racism, that’s fear. That’s what happens when you walk down the street alone and have to pass four or five Black teenagers. They aren’t going to do anything to you, but you’re still out numbered. Guess what, that feeling is what it’s like living in white society as an African American or Latino; constantly outnumbered and wondering if the people truly see you as something more than just a white kid, or a black kid or a Hispanic kid.

In conclusion, the people calling out Sotomayor as a racist are intentionally using strong words to attract a large audience. The real problem with the wording of her statement is not that it promotes racism but that it shows an ignorance toward white people, forgetting that most of white America is poor and we’re not all white collar businessmen with 6-digit salaries. And if you read the article, you’ll see that’s what Obama is putting a spin on; rewording her statement so that it appeals to both the “Iowa farmer” and the “Corporation C.E.O.” So whitey, put your race cards back in your wallet and don’t feel bad that you wasted time dusting them off. Maybe someday you’ll get to use it.