So, I'm at the bar the other day, and by the front door I notice this box of leaflets. Penny savers, you know, the kind that have a bunch of ads for local businesses and other semi useless crap. Well, this particular one grabs my attention because the headline is written in 1" high flames: "TOLERANT... YOU WANT US TO BE TOLERANT? TOLERATE THIS!." So I think to myself, this should be good, and I grab a copy on my way out.

The article is written by the publisher and presumably the editor as well, a Mr. Robert Beierle. This fellow goes on to complain about all the "liberals" in the world who are "demanding" that he, and his fellow "legal" American citizens, tolerate Muslims and homosexuals and "whacko environmentalists" and illegal immigrants. He spends two pages ranting about the Cordoba House project, a community center being built in lower Manhattan. He accuses Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf (a prominent NY Muslim cleric, who has not only spoken out against the radicalization of Islam, but also assisted the FBI in fighting it) of being a terrorist and channeling money to terrorist groups. He then goes on to call Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City, a "butthole" for supporting the First Amendment rights of Muslims.

Mr. Beierle does make one good point though: we have here a group of people who follow a religion that stones homosexuals, adulterers, and heretics (literally); and is so intolerant of other religions that they've been fighting holy wars for 1400 years, yet they ask us for the tolerance to practice their religion. Now, I know that this is the type of fanaticism that Imam Rauf is trying to downplay, but it does happen. Just like Christian fanatics bomb abortion centers, and Jewish fanatics build walls and camps. So maybe we should look at what we tolerate before we start pointing fingers at what others will tolerate, hmm?

Now, this whole "Ground Zero Mosque" thing has been blown way out of proportion by the media and certain politicians who can sense their 15 minutes expiring and are stretching them as long as possible. Personally, I think that anyone who doesn't live in New York or didn't lose someone on 9/11/01 should just keep their big nose out of it, because it has absolutely no affect on your life. I could write an entire post on the rest of what I think about this situation, but a nice man over at Cracked.com (of all places) has already summed it up pretty well.

The rant then veers off on another topic: gay marriage. Mr. Beierle seems to think that the recent ruling on Proposition 8 in California is a case of a judge legislating from the bench. His argument is that the people spoke, and a judge came in and changed the law based on his personal bias. Never mind that the law itself was unconstitutional, or that it discriminated based on sexual orientation. This is clearly another case of liberals shoving their ideals down the throats of God fearing, legal, Christian American tax-paying citizens!

Look, what it comes down to is this: Mr. Beierle says he's ok with "union ceremonies" (whatever that might be), which would probably be just dandy in the eyes of most homosexuals, if those "union ceremonies" carried the same legal rights as a marriage ceremony. But they don't. What we're talking about here is a legal definition, which has nothing to do with your religious beliefs, so I'll make you a deal here: I won't start a religion based on the American legal system if you won't write laws based on your religious beliefs, ok?

There's more here, about Michele Obama, and people in uniform, and illegal immigrants... it just goes on and on. I won't bore you with the rest, but suffice to say it's a rant that would have made Goebbels proud. What I'm really getting at here is this: I hope, Mr. Robert Beierle of Creative Insight (a most ironic name), that you have enjoyed your rant. I hope that you enjoy your First Amendment rights to free speech, religion, and press; rights you would deny others because they don't share your beliefs. I may not like what you say, and I think you are ignorant and sad, but I will tolerate you saying it, because it is your right, and to deny yours would cheapen mine. I would hope that you might read this, but apparently you haven't figured out the Internet just yet. That's ok, maybe someone will print it out for you.

"Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population."

Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

Welcome to today's episode of Profiles in Stupidity. On our show today, a man from Parsippany, NJ who was arrested by police after asking them to search his home. What did they find? Crack vials and hypodermic needles! Parsippany police give man a ride, bust him for drugs.

That's right. This dude was wandering around on Route 46, trying to get someone to let him use their cell phone, when the cops pulled up. He explained that he was trying to call a friend to get a ride home. They offered him a ride, as he was endangering himself walking on a busy highway. When they got there, he asked them to enter the house, because the back door was open. When the police entered the house, they found "several hypodermic needles on the floor, vials containing a white powder residue and a pipe normally used for smoking crack cocaine."

Of course, they arrested the man. My question for you, dear reader, is this: who is the real moron here? Is it the man who asked police to enter his home when he knew he had needles and other paraphernalia lying around? The police officer, who didn't stop to think that maybe whomever left the door open might have also left the drugs in this man's home, that maybe the paraphernalia wasn't his? Or the reporter who couldn't be bothered to research his story and actually answer some of these pertinent questions?

Go read the article. I'll post the link again : Parsippany police give man a ride, bust him for drugs. Nowhere in there does the author mention if the suspect was on drugs, tested for drugs, or even acting strangely. Other than being out on the highway, looking for a ride home, we know nothing of the man's behavior that seems out of the ordinary. Even that is not really odd, considering the man was on foot 3 miles from home. We don't know how he got there. Did he walk? Maybe his car broke down. Did he get off the bus at the wrong stop? Or maybe he was so hopped up on crack that he walked for 3 miles before realizing it, and as he came down decided he needed a ride home. We'll never know.

I like to think the police in my community are somewhat intelligent people, that they don't just go around arresting people without cause. I mean, at the very least, it's a lot of paperwork that needs to be filled out. When I see this a few days later, it really makes me think. Maybe there's something going on here. Maybe the police are just arresting people because they have nothing better to do. I try to give police officers the benefit of the doubt; after all, they're putting their lives on the line to try to protect people. But when my news source is so inaccurate, when the reporter can't even get the basic facts of a story, it makes me wonder who I can trust.

People wonder why newspapers in the US are dying. They wonder why more and more of our news comes from the internet and cable TV. I can't speak for most Americans. I think that cable and network TV news is a load of crap. These two articles are an example of a plague that is killing newspaper reporting. The more newspapers try to be like the cable TV news, to try and distill and distort the news into little sound bites, the more people will stop reading. The more people will come to blogs like this one, which is more editorial than actual news.

Oh, and then there's this.




"Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense."

Gertrude Stein

Here we are, day off in Liege, Belgium. What a boring town. There's a pretty park, but not much else. I think the most interesting thing I saw today was a guy eating a waffle. In Belgium. Get it? Compared to the last few days, it's a huge let down.

View from my hotel room in Liege.

First, we have Venice. Holy cow, what a beautiful city. Just awesome. We took a water taxi into the city, and it went directly to the hotel. It was so cool. The hotel was just amazing, all kinds of Italian Neo-Classical architecture, and about 200 yards from Piazza San Marco.

Oh my god, I am so small.

Which, by the way, was incredible. Intimidating, beautiful, wonderful, fascinating: I don't know how many more adjectives I have. There was more than one point where someone said that it was like a Disney ride, except real. Which is a hell of a compliment to Disney, I guess. Our drum tech, Simeon, knew someone in the city, so we got to see some parts that most tourists don't. It was fantastic. I had dinner on the roof of the hotel with Ben and the rest of the band, and some crew members. It was such an amazing view of the city, right on the main canal. There was a sea gull that sat right at the corner of our table the entire meal. All I could think of was Jonathan seagull and my grandmother. I get the feeling she was there, watching out for me.

From there, we went to Montreaux, Switzerland. The famed Montreaux Jazz Fest, where they booed Stevie Ray Vaughan. I ran into a couple of guys from Jupiter One, who are playing with Regina Spektor's band, which was pretty cool.

The festival was put together so well, and everything was great, until about half way through the set. The band was playing a song called "Keep it Together." There's a part in the song where it breaks down, and turns into a long guitar solo, and then blasts into a big restore and chorus. Well, right about the part with the big restore, the guitar rig decides to blow a fuse. Ben, in a most professional way, looks at the crowd and says "You gotta keep it together!" and cues off a drum solo. While the guitar techs run around and fix the problem, Jordan, the drummer, pulls out this fantastic drum solo, and the song conitnutes after the guitar rig gets fixed. One of the most incredible moments of live theatre that I've ever been a part of. And, it turns out, Quincy Jones came out to see the show. He was blown away by the set. He actually hung out with us until 4AM. At Montreaux. I'd swear it was all a dream, except for the photos and autographs that were still there the next morning.

S0, yeah. Mom and Dad, Europe sucks, and I can't wait to come home. No, really.

"I can't complain, but sometimes I still do."

Joe Walsh

Wow. Europe. The Old World.

We started in Dublin, and it was pretty cool. I went to the Guinness Storehouse, which was the original brewery and still has some active distribution on site. I got there at about 6 pm, only to find that it was closed. Isn't that just my luck? Fortunately, I didn't have to be on the bus until 11 the next morning, so I got there at 9:30 am when it opened and made sure to have a good look around. It was awesome. Dublin itself was a pretty cool town. I think I could live there.

Next was Belfast. Didn't really look around much in Belfast, kinda scared to. I know that peace has come to Ireland and all that, but I still didn't really want to wander too much there. Great crowd though. And a fun show. This whole opening band thing is kinda cool: our show is finished by 9 pm latest, and then I get to watch Pearl Jam or just hang out.

On to London: first a ferry ride, for which I was way too drunk (I recall doing aerobics at some point, just trying to stay awake. It didn't work very well.) and then a half day off in London. Not too bad, I guess, but London can be so blah. Big show in Hyde Park tho, look for it on VH1.

Next to Amsterdam. Nice town, Amsterdam. Very mellow. Lots of Americans. All looking for pot. Weed and Heineken, it's like a frat boy's wet dream. Still, one of the crew guys knew a local, and so we found some real Amsterdam, and it was pretty cool.

Today: Berlin. I went to do laundry. The hotel gave me directions to a laundromat that was 2 km from the hotel; nearly a mile. Since it was a beautiful day, I decided to walk. I got to the place; the sign outside said "waschsalon". I walked in, and there were 6 old men playing dominoes or some other tile game; none of whom spoke English or could tell me anything about the waschsalon. Whatever. So I walk back to the hotel and hang out.

It wasn't until later tonight, as I was walking out of the mall that I had dinner in (at the Irish Pub, no less), and I walked past a piece of the Berlin wall that the real history of this place hit me. I think I need to bust out a map tomorrow and find Checkpoint Charlie and get a few good pics.

"Berlin is the testicle of the West. When I want the West to scream, I squeeze on Berlin."

Nikita Khrushchev (1894 - 1971)

Why is it that when we're children, we accept the world as it is; but as adults, we only see the world the way it's supposed to be?

In today's episode of stupid corporate practices, we turn the spotlight on NBC and Cablevision. For whatever reason, NBC has decided to take one of the most talked about ice hockey games of the year and air it on MSNBC. I'm talking about the USA vs. Canada Olympic matchup, which is taking place right now (US 2 Canada 1, 1st intermission). Now, I don't have cable, because I just can't justify paying $90/ month for 100 channels of crap that I won't watch just so I can have one or two that I might. Besides, I can get most of the entertainment I want from Netflix. So you may be wondering how I know the score, or the time of the game: I'm streaming the game, live, on my computer, from Russian TV. Why Russian TV? Well, you see, Cablevision has decided that since I don't pay for the basic cable package, I don't qualify to stream the game on my computer. Yeah. That's right. If I had the cable package, I could just watch the game on my TV. But I can't even stream the game unless I have the basic cable package. Stupid, right?

Here's where it gets even worse: NBC could be making a ton of money from ad revenue on the streams. All they would have to do is make it free, and put ads at the beginning, and between periods. Just like Hulu. But no. These Olympics could be a boon to hockey in the US. NBC would stand to profit from that, since they own the NHL broadcast rights. But instead, they'd rather bury it on a cable channel most Americans can't even find (have you seen MSNBC's ratings lately? )

Well, that's my rant. We'll see where my email to Cablevision gets me (probably nowhere, but at least I'll feel better). Way to drop the ball, NBC. Maybe by the 2036 games you'll be up to speed. If you haven't gone out of business by then.

"Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future."

Niels Bohr (1885 - 1962)