What Would Matt Do

How can I not be doing the happy happy joy joy dance when I see things like this:

“It became clear that no one was going home until they had the chance to discuss the resolutions and vote on them,” explained David Rosenberg, a political science professor at Middlebury College. “And being a good politician, he allowed the vote to happen.”

By an overwhelming voice vote, Middlebury called for impeachment.

So it has gone this week at town meetings across Vermont, most of which were held Tuesday.

Late Tuesday night, there were confirmed reports that 36 towns had backed impeachment resolutions, and the number was expected to rise.

In one town, Putney, the vote for impeachment was unanimous.

Just when you think no one is listening or cares, things like this happen. While it probably won’t lead to a damn thing, it is a lot like the christmas miracle in that at least I know I’m not alone. For the love of all.

Others are also noticing.

What Would Matt Do: Right now I’m wondering if I’d just get booed out of the place or tarred and feathered too for suggesting such actions in FL.

Ever hear those words growing up? I did, a lot. It was one of our favorite sayings growing up. The ultimate in irony as it were.

And this reminds me of it:

Wow. Just when you think Republicans can’t get any crazier, we find out that the powerful chairman of the Texas House Appropriations Committee, Warren Chisum, doesn’t even believe that the earth revolves around the sun.

Sure, that’s not the absolute craziest thing you can believe (thought it must be close), but the reasoning behind it, the Bible says otherwise, is so funny I can barely contain myself. Think what you will of the Bible, be it the gospel to you, or a book of lessons, or just junk, do me a favor…don’t try to use it prove that science is lying to you. It just makes me giggle.

From the site Mr. Chisum was pushing:

The solar eclipse tableau involving the sun, moon, and earth reveals a truly amazing fact about the universal acceptance of the Copernican Heliocentric Model of a rotating earth orbiting a stationary sun. That amazing fact is this: The Eclipse Tableau exposes as no other illustration does the bald truth that the Helio Model is built purely on assumptions that deny all observational and experimental evidence.

Notice these seven assumptions which are indispensable to the Helio Model in general and are so apparent in the Solar Eclipse Phenomena.

1) It must be assumed that the Sun is stationary in the “solar” system relevant to the Earth (and to the Moon) and that it has never traveled East to West daily across the sky as observed by everyone on Earth throughout all history.

That’s just the first “assumption” that science makes that any fool can observe must be false by watching the sky. Just like at night when you’re driving and you see the moon moving behind the trees…it really is following you.

What Would Matt Do: I can’t but wonder what the fuck is wrong with Texans. Presumably this guy got voted into office, right?

I don't have a lot to add to this story other than a hearty, Damn Fine Job!

From the Daily KOS:

Since this is Spocko's gig, I'm gonna pretty much use his words to explain what's gone down.  Before the flip, to give you something to chew on as you click to the full story, I can tell you this much:  you're gonna love what you read.  Spocko has actually cost Disney money - he chased away advertisers and forced them to pay a law firm to intimidate his ISP.  The story isn't all good though - Spocko's broke and can't afford to wage the legal battle, so he's shut down.  That said, maybe we can use this space to buck up his spirits a little bit and see if there are any lawyers that want to file a Rule 11 motion against Disney's unscrupulous lawyers…

It's a damn fine read. And the guy is in trouble. He needs some help standing up to the corporate fat hats. Someone give him a hand.

What Would Matt Do: Well, if I could do it all in about 10 seconds, I'd go to law school, ace the exam, get hired by a good, creepy organization, realize they are scary and kill people, turn them in to the FBI while getting away myself. Then I'd help Spocko. 

You remember the US Army, right? If you don't, here's a simple break down. Guys in the field? Don't ask questions, just do as your told and get it done fast and furious. Fair enough, that a bit too stupid for my taste, especially since you can be charged with war crimes if you commit them even under orders. Beside that though, you do need a force that will respond with hell going on around them. So that's what the Army is trained to do. They are direct and to the point.

Now, if you're recruiting guys you want to be able to follow orders without question and get it done even in the most dangerous of circumstances, do you want guys that will think on their feet or guys that love playing with really cool war machines? The army answered said they only care if the people like playing with high tech weaponry.

It's an impressive game, simulating weaponry the military is actually using or building, gamers say. But the gameplay is designed so it's hard to lose: The equipment holds up awfully well and the enemy doesn't learn from experience.

"They didn't ask for hole punchers," says Mark Long, co-CEO of Zombie, where the game was built under contract. "High tech has all kinds of low-tech vulnerabilities and they didn't want the vulnerabilities programmed in."

Now to be fair, hopefully this is something they would teach their guys before they sent them out in the field, but still, it does paint an awfully rosy pictures of how it works. It's pretty far from the real world if your weapons never misfire, jam, completely fail, get taken down by more mundane means or get messed up by the unexpected. Yes, it's just a propaganda tool and for that, it sounds pretty good.

But because this is a computer game, and they made it intentionally dumb, it annoys me. You do what you want with your website, your commercials, etc, but don't give me dumbed down games so you can present a rosier than true picture of warfare. That's insulting to me, the gamer, and to your potential recruit who you will be asking to risk his or her life with similar equipment. Don't send them in blind, for the love of all. 

What Would Matt Do: Make the US Army brass play games with really bad AI until they cried for mommy and promised to only commission realistic games in the future.

Do me a favor, would ya? Go vote tomorrow. Really. (Of course, that assumes you live in America. If you don't, it might be an odd day to vote in your country.)

Why go vote, you ask? Because you can. I could give you a whole spiel on why. It would over a wide range of topics from people in our past dying for the right to vote (some not to distant), to it being the one true inalienable right you have, to it being your duty and more.

But I don't really believe in any of that. I mean, I believe that people have died for their right to vote and everything else I said, but I don't think any of those are good enough reasons to vote. I don't you should vote because men stood up to a huge nation and told them to go to hell to found our country. I don't think you should vote because wars were fought to keep our freedoms and our right to vote. I don't think you should vote because women and minorities fought for the right to vote for years and years without success…but they kept fighting.

While those are good reasons and if you go to the polls because of them, more power to you. But at this time, in this election, in this year, tomorrow, you should vote because the President of the United States of American and this administration are liars. As are all (99.9%) of all politicians. And somehow, they managed to make the country worse in just about every way possible while being in it's office a relatively short time. This is about Democrat or Republican, this isn't about God, this isn't about our border security or the millions of illegal aliens in our country. It's about getting the people out of power that are in power now. Whether you're dyed in the wool neo-conservative or blue to the gills liberal, this is the time to come together and vote out a man, a administration and a rubber stamping congress who has had power for far too long. They have worked hard to destroy our lands, our agreements with other nations, our respectability, our jobs, our political process in general and basically worked the hardest to say, "we're doing this for you." It's a lie. You know it, I know it, most of the American people know it.

It's time to say it. This election shouldn't be about party lines, about who did what or who will do what. It NEEDS to be about stopping our current administration from using our country as it's personal play thing. It NEEDS to be about restoring the balance between the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of power. It is about your future. Right here and now, you're deciding your future.

Go vote. Not because you believe in the system. But because you want to change the system. Balance in power is always the first step.

What Would Matt Do: Vote.