I always try to keep my posts light, funny and even though I do follow politics, I try not to write about them. With that said, I€™m going to just briefly talk about health care, which I think it€™s pretty absurd that the United States of America has finally passed a bill with the promise of providing its citizens with proper health care. Canada has it, United Kingdom has it, but the supposed best country in the world is just passing this now?

I am personally thrilled about it along with President Obama€™s work and I am also shocked when I hear some of the slander and lies spoken about it. Greater deficits, worse health care, etc. etc. Most of the people who vehemently bash the new health care bill have little to no understanding of it. Even if it did increase the deficit, which it won€™t, (it€™ll actually decrease the deficit by more than $100 billion in its first ten years and even more the following decade. Don€™t believe me? The Congressional Budget Office, a non-partisan, independent group, had this to say about the health care reform) and even if it did mean more deficit, so what? We all paid taxes that went to a war many of us didn€™t support, I€™d love if my taxes went to something as humanitarian as this.

I don€™t want to sway anyone into my opinion, I rather everyone develop them for themselves but I would like it if everyone did some research before talking out of their asses. Google stuff as simple as €œhealth care bill€ and please look at reputable sources. The ones below are obviously positive and in favor of health care reform but feel free to search for whatever you like, just become informed.

Here is a site that I found showing some of the benefits, broken down by year:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1914020220100319

Also read this article posted around 3 years ago, comparing our health care to other systems:

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/11/daschle_health.html

This article specifies the benefits dependent on your state:

http://www.healthreform.gov/

So in short, Fuck Yeah President Obama, keep doin€™ you.

I’ve posted an article already about my retro style eyeglasses but I would like to touch upon other iconic specs that everyone’s quite familiar with. Pretty much everyone has seen Ray-Ban sunglasses, they are worn by countless amount of people, on the street, in movies, tv, ads, and so on. I’ve had my Wayfarers for a few years now but about 2-3 years ago it seemed EVERYONE hopped onto the Wayfarer bandwagon, which isn’t bad per se, but I tend to shy away from the choices of the masses. So about two years ago I picked up what would be my sunglasses of choice for quite some time.

The Clubmasters are positioned in front of the Wayfarers, and have the gold accents. I love these browline glasses. While still being Ray-Ban’s and holding a firm grasp on the past, it invokes that old school cool while separating them from the sea of Wayfarer wearers out there. Nothing wrong with the Wayfarers at all, still very cool and stylish, just over saturated in my mind. If you like ‘em, by all means rock ‘em. BUT maybe instead of going with those, look around and find something a little more unique. Mix it up.Tons of cool sunglasses out there and with summer time quickly approaching, I’d love to see some wild specs on people. Just a thought.

Collateral Murder

Sometimes people ask me what’s a good movie to check out. Lately I’ve found myself telling them to check out this amazing documentary. I was really blown away by it when I saw it in theaters! I could go on and on about what I like about it but the reasons are all laid out below. Enjoy a real film.

Billy The Kid

Saturday night I went to see my friends band, Yo!Scunt, play. My band used to practice across the hall from Yo!Scunt a while back and have played a bunch of shows together over the years. I rarely find the time to make it down to see them when I’m not actually playing with them, so I promised myself and Chris, the lead singer and my good friend, that I would make it no matter what. So, I did!

Before they went on, a band called Bloodbeat played. I had no idea that they were celebrating their 20th anniversary. Another good friend of mine Tom, from an insane band called Seizure Crypt, is now playing bass for them. Tom does so much for the local scene, it’s pretty incredible, a true punk rocker at heart. When I heard the lead singer of Bloodbeat talk about how they’ve been around for 20 years, I was really impressed to say the least. I was really happy to see a bunch of guys get together and play music for the fun of it.

I could be wrong but I highly doubt Bloodbeat worries about much, other than playing shows. It just seems like the only thing they are concerned about is playing and that’s refreshing. In this MTV world it rarely is just about playing a show for human beings. It often becomes about the next big thing, the record deals, or the world tours. It becomes about image, rather than content. I guess that’s fine for some, but for a band like Bloodbeat these things don’t seem to concern them in the least. It really feels like just playing in front of people, anyone, every weekend is all they want and they are happy.

Watching Yo!Scunt always makes me smile. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve known these guys since I started playing in a band or because the songs are really good. Maybe it’s the sick bass playing of Andrew or the high energy of Ryan Nixon, or maybe I just like watching Chris cut loose and have fun in his own unique way. Chris is a dude that says what he thinks and it makes perfect sense that Yo!Scunt is the same in this way. I recommend giving them a listen!

Picture by Otto Yamamoto