The Best Bands That You Don’t Know: Aloha

Aloha is a hardworking, crazy-touring mainstay of Polyvinyl Records here in the States. Started by long time members Tony Cavallario and Matthew Gengler while they were attending college during the summer of 1997 in Ohio; they have been working extremely hard for the progress of their band ever since. Matthew and Tony, joined by Cale Parks and later T.J. Lipple in the spring of 2003 make up the band as they are now.

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The Facts Behind The Gas Tax Holiday

So this whole gas tax issue has been popular lately; since John McCain and Hillary Clinton both stated that removing the tax on gasoline and other fuels would be something that they would do, and something that they believe would be good for Americans; while Barack Obama opposed the idea.

I’m not going to argue whether I believe John McCain, Barack Obama, or Hillary Clinton is correct in their stance and their beliefs on the issue. What I am going to address is what exactly all of these tax payer dollars in fuel tax revenue are supposed to be going to:

You may have seen the word hypothecation used in reference to the gas tax; what that means is that the revenues from the motor fuel tax are supposed to go directly towards the infrastructure used by motor vehicles, such as roads, bridges and highways; as well as to help with the infrastructure for the fuels themselves.

Many people’s main argument against both John McCain’s and Hillary Clinton’s idea to relieve the American people of this motor fuel tax for the summer has been that this money is indeed going towards the repair and upkeep of our roads, bridges and highways; and why would we not want better and safer roads, bridges and highways.

Yet just last summer we had two different bridges collapse right here in the United States; including the absolutely devastating Minneapolis I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota; which sadly cost the lives of 13 innocent Americans and hurt at least 60 more. A horrible and unnecessary travesty, that undoubtedly could have and should have been prevented.

Several independent research institutions have also pointed out several other bridges in need of repair; as well as vast stretches of other infrastructure that is in need of upkeep. So where is all of this tax money going if not on this very necessary infrastructure maintenance?

In fiscal year 2005, nearly 36 Billion Dollars in revenue from the Motor Fuel Tax was received by state and local governments across the United States. An additional 18.4 cents per gallon in Federal Tax is also currently charged; which is also the tax that the three Presidential candidates and their supporters are debating over. That is a lot of money that is supposed to be used to keep Americans safe.

The 18.4 cents per gallon Federal tax, if voided for the summer as John McCain and Hillary Clinton wish to do, would “cost” the government 10 Billion dollars. What “cost” actually means in this case is that the American people would be able to keep 10 Billion of their hard earned dollars over the summer, while the government would theoretically have 10 Billion less tax dollars to waste.

The argument of those against the tax holiday is, as I stated above, that this summer tax holiday is going to “cost” the government 10 Billion dollars, which would otherwise be going towards the upkeep of our nation’s infrastructure.

Yet from our recent history, as well as simply keeping our eyes open as we drive on, ride on, and walk along our roads, we can see that our infrastructure is in terrible shape. From this we must come to the conclusion that the Billions of dollars in taxes that are supposed to be going towards our nation’s infrastructure are actually being wasted. Which is not a surprise; the government wastes the vast majority of our tax dollars.

The other argument against the gas tax holiday is that it is not going to reduce prices at the pump at all. Those greedy oil companies are simply going to add another 18.4 cents per gallon to their bottom and top lines!

That argument is simply ignorance. Why? Because the Motor Fuel Tax is added onto the price of gas set by the oil companies, it has no impact on the price that fuel companies charge for their fuel. It is an added tax of 18.4 cents on every gallon of fuel sold in the United States.

That doesn’t mean that the price of your gasoline will not continue to rise over the summer, as it does every summer. That is simply due to the increased demand for the product during the summer months. The tax being there or not being there is not at all relevant.

If the tax was there, then the price for gasoline over the summer would be the oil company’s price plus an added 18.4 cents extra in tax. If the tax was not there, then the price of the gasoline would be 18.4 cents cheaper.

Hopefully that clears up the issue for everyone that was confused about it, and for those unsure of whether your candidate’s stance is intelligent or not: Simply look at the facts and come to your own conclusion.

The Greatest Songs of All Time: Neil Young’s “Don’t Let It Bring You Down”

Released on the 19th of September, 1970, on Young’s brilliant and now classic After the Gold Rush album; the song was written by Young and the album was written and recorded between the summer of 1969 and the spring/summer of 1970. Most of the album was recorded in the homemade recording studio thrown together in Young’s home in Topanga Canyon; a very popular and famous place to live at the time for musicians due to its populace, attitude, and location in Los Angeles County, California.

It’s an acoustic song in the vein of Young’s work with Crosby, Stills & Nash, as is much of the album; quite possibly due to the immense popularity of their album with Young Déjà Vu, which was released earlier that year and quickly rose to the top of the charts.

No matter what the reasoning was behind Young’s decision to record the album the way he did, he still created a great album. Though it was originally panned by critics; it is now generally accepted as a great album, one of Neil Young’s best, which I tend to agree with; and furthermore, it has several great songs on it, including “Don’t Let It Bring You Down”:

Lyrics:

Old man lying
by the side of the road
with the lorries rolling by
Blue moon sinking
from the weight of the load
and the building scrape the sky
Cold wind ripping
down the allay at dawn
and the morning paper flies
Dead man lying
by the side of the road
with the daylight in his eyes

Don’t let it bring you down
It’s only castles burning
Find someone who’s turning
And you will come around

Blind man running
through the light
of the night
with an answer in his hand
Come on down
to the river of sight
and you can really understand
Red lights flashing
through the window
in the rain
can you hear the sirens moan?
White cane lying
in a gutter in the lane,
if you’re walking home alone.

Don’t let it bring you down
It’s only castles burning
Just find someone who’s turning
And you will come around

Don’t let it bring you down
It’s only castles burning
Just find someone who’s turning
And you will come around

It is a beautiful work with beautifully simple and extremely vivid lyrics; which are powerfully brought to the forefront of the song via Young’s voice and the simple playing of his acoustic guitar.

Increasing Food Prices Is A Serious Issue

Increasing Food Prices is a Serious Issue

People are going to suffer due to the rapidly increasing price of foods and other commodities. No, not American people, and not the people of any other of the more advanced countries. The people that are going to suffer are those truly poor and downtrodden people in our world; there is true poverty out there, people that simply do not have the opportunity to make their lives better.

These people aren’t able to farm their own lands to feed themselves; they have to deal with the current global commodity situation just as every one of us does. But sadly these people, millions of people, they simply cannot keep up with these rapidly increasing prices. These are people that live on the equivalent of one dollar a day, one single dollar each day.

Living on a dollar a day is known as extreme poverty. Just imagine having the spending power of one single dollar every day, you will easily be able to see why these people can barely survive, that they do in fact go hungry, often to the point of starvation. And it is only going to get worse as the price of commodities continues to rise.

When we hear the politicians and our fellow Americans complaining about the increase in prices through various forms of media, it’s them complaining about petty things such as Milk increasing in price and how outrageous it is. But the fact is that us Americans are not in any danger from this increase in commodity prices; no, we are going to just fine. It is the truly poor in our world that will suffer.

All of us have heard the various reasons given for the increase in prices: From the recent popularity of bio fuels to global warming diminishing the harvests. Neither of these is the real reason for the increase in prices, no matter what the politicians and pundits tell you and want you to think.

Demand is the main reason behind the increase in commodity prices. It’s as simple as that. Millions of people in both India and China, as well as several other emerging countries, are eating a much higher quality diet than they previously were. This is by no means a bad thing; we should all be very happy for these people that have brought themselves out of poverty through hard work. It is a great thing.

We can’t blame anyone or single thing in fact. From the increased demand in countries such as China and India, to bio fuels and global warming; we can certainly debate which of these things have a larger affect on the prices, but that is only going to lead us to continuing the avoidance of the real issue: That is the truly poor people in the world that are suffering now, and will continue to suffer as these elements weigh on the prices of commodities in the future.

Can we do anything about this? I’m sure that we can, yes. For example, I simply consume less and waste less. There is an incredible amount of waste in advanced countries; people don’t give it a second thought. I witness people wasting without care every single day of my life, it’s a terrible thing.

Knowing that our waste alone could feed millions of truly needy people is a very sad thing. We’ve all seen the studies, some saying that half of the food in the United States is actually wasted, never ingested by a human being at all. The first time that I read that I was shocked, sure; but I knew that it would be a staggering amount of waste.

The fact is that less waste, more efficiency here in the United States would dramatically drop the demand for commodities and as such, it would in turn drop the price of food throughout the world. This would allow more and more people to eat, to eat a better diet, and be healthier in general.

So the next time you’re in your local supermarket, don’t complain about the increasing cost of your Eggs and Milk; instead think of the poor people that are going to go without due to you continuing your wasteful habits.

Rethinking the war in Iraq: Why we have to stay in Iraq

Why we have to stay in Iraq

The people of Iraq are depending on us. The population of Iraq is estimated at well over twenty-seven million; twenty-seven million of our fellow human beings that have had their country and their lives turned upside down by this war; twenty-seven million; twenty-seven million people that are only going to be affected negatively by our withdrawal from their country in its current state.

You don’t have to believe that us going into Iraq was a good idea in the first place, I certainly don’t believe that it was. But that does change the fact that we are now in Iraq and that those twenty-seven million Iraqi children, women, and men, both young and old and everywhere in between, are in a much worse situation than we are.

We are certainly going to be affected as well; there is a huge cost to us staying in Iraq for the long haul, a cost of many American lives and a large amount of American money. But it is the Iraqi people that are going to end up paying the greatest price, a far greater price than we could possibly imagine, if we choose to abandon them and their country, leaving them with the mess that we have started.

It doesn’t matter why we are in Iraq now, or why we went there in the beginning. Yes, we all know that Barack Obama voted against going to war with Iraq, we all know that Hillary Clinton voted to go to Iraq, and we all know that it was the idea of the Republicans, George Bush, and Dick Chaney in the first place, but none of the matters any longer. The reality of the situation is that there are millions and millions of innocent Iraqi civilians, people just like you and I, that are going to end up paying the real cost of this war. Think of those people the next time you are discussing, listening to or reading about the war in Iraq. Think of those people the next time you hear a person or politician say that we need to abandon Iraq.

The Real Reason behind Our Economic Trouble

The Housing Bubble

The drop in housing prices in many parts of the country is not necessarily a bad thing. The value of homes in many areas of the country was increasing at an unsustainable rate that had absolutely no basis in reality. It wasn’t demand, it wasn’t the cost to build those homes, the price of wood and labor did not rise with the price of the homes; it is because the prices were being artificially inflated by everyone involved in the sale of homes; from the builders, to the bankers giving the loans and in turn packaging them up and selling them to investors, to the buyers of those securities, to the buyers of the actual homes, likely some of you people reading this, we consumers that wanted our investment to continue to increase at such an astronomical rate.

It wasn’t real, and the reality is that if the bubble continued it would have made things much more difficult for future generations to buy homes in many areas of our country. It would be like a couple fresh out of school trying to buy real estate in Manhattan, except without any of the actual value that is derived from the huge demand for real estate in Manhattan. The truth is that everyone involved was at fault, including the consumer. It’s understandable though, of course the businesses and workers involved wanted to make as much money as they possibly could, and the consumer simply wanted a solid investment that they hopefully wouldn’t have to worry about in the future, something that they could rely on, something that would always be there for them.

Sadly most people didn’t see the bubble bursting, as is the case with all bubbles, so we now have to deal with all of the issues that are being piled on to the deflating price of housing in the United States; such as the credit crunch, the rapid devaluation of our currency, and a general lack of confidence in a majority of our fellow Americans with the economy and our country as a whole. Adding all of this to the numerous other political issues that the country is currently dealing with has made things much worse than they should have been. And then all of the problems are amplified once again due to it being a general election year.

We have to understand that all of us are at fault for the current economic issues; we can then come to the conclusion that the securitization of debt is a good and powerful tool for our economy, and as such it should not be overly regulated into something much less useful.

Why Are Atheists So Pompous?: The Problem With Atheism

From Various Thoughts

The Problem with Atheists

The problem with modern atheism is that its followers do not seem to have a firm grasp on the fact that religion is a part of our modern culture. We have people making outrageous claims and making attempts at refuting religious beliefs, and denying the fact that many religious values and concepts are ingrained in our culture as a people.

Many atheists are so against having a belief in God that they would infringe on the rights of others who do choose to believe in God. Many atheists will persecute any and all people who freely choose to follow a religion and have a belief in God. They will bring up petty, minor, nearly irrelevant issues such as whether or not the word God is used in our Pledge of Allegiance; or that In God We Trust is printed on our money and used as a motto; simply to continue their efforts to persecute and look down upon those that choose to believe in God and follow a religion.

Certainly some people are going to disagree with our feelings on religion and beliefs in God, and they should of course be free to do that without being persecuted for it. Just as you or I, or Richard Dawkins should be free to at the very least state our feelings, our thoughts, and our opinions on the subject. I just feel that a great many atheists are very invasive with their beliefs, and that stems from the more popular atheists in the world. People see Richard Dawkins being extremely arrogant with his opinion everywhere that he goes, increasing his popularity with these extreme atheists, and indeed they are building his ego up as they continue to follow in his footsteps, which is just going to make the issue worse. It’s a vicious circle.

Of course there is an issue if and when religious beliefs somehow change our policies and laws, in our free country, in these modern times. I do not agree with that at all, and believe it to be a much greater issue than the word God being in the Pledge of Allegiance, using the example above; or the fact that many of our and much of the worlds holidays take place on dates that are particularly important to various religions throughout history, or are for various figures of Christianity and other religions. Religion is an undeniable part of our history and culture as Americans and of humans as a whole, and it should be respected as such.

The top three reasons why Oil prices are so high

From Various Thoughts on Everything

Why Oil Prices are So High

1. The first reason that I will mention is that Oil is priced in US Dollars. That’s why when you see the value of the dollar fall; you see the price of oil rise. The people that produce the oil are generally getting US dollars in return for their product. As such, when the dollar falls, they are making less money on their product, even if the amount of dollars that they receive for their oil is equal, and so the price goes up. This applies to the people buying and selling the oil beyond the producers as well, who are also simply trying to profit. There are of course several other reasons why oil continues to rise, and why the dollar continues to fall. I was just pointing out why the dollar and oil currently move together.
2. The second reason is that many people are and have been investing in Oil as it has had quite a run up as the US Dollar has dropped like a rock. Investors, having a good feeling that the Federal Reserve would continue to cut interest rates, have continually bought into Oil to make some profit off of the amazing bull-run that it has had.
3. The third is an ever increasing growth in the demand for Oil. This isn’t the 1970’s where we can simply stop using as much Oil here in America, and prices will fall in relation to our drop in demand. No, these days the entire world is using more and more Oil. As countries continue to develop and expand into modern times, there is an ever increasing demand for Oil. This is the key reason that Oil will never again be as it once was.

2.

Those are the three main reasons as I see them. There are of course other factors behind the rising price of Oil, such as turmoil and lack of security in many Oil producing lands, to things such as the weather, which can cause rather large jumps in the price of Oil in its own right. But those three issues that I listed above are the key factors behind the current of Oil; they should be known and understood by everyone.

We all realize that Oil usage is a problem for us here in the US, and that we need to find a viable alternative, regardless of the current price of Oil. The heart of the issue is how we move from our high use of oil, to something better. Clearly the way that the US as a whole operates has to change, the whole car culture that we have built and glamourized to the rest of the world has to change. People need to realize how ridiculous it is in the first place, they have to realize that it is not sustainable in the long term, and that something has to be done about it, and the sooner something is done, the better off all humans will be.

I don’t have all of the answers myself. But it is clear to me that more public funds need to go to public transportation, and other, better forms of transportation. A huge amount of money is spent rebuilding roads in the US every year so more and more cars can drive on them. This is an utter waste of public funding and in reality should not be done. That money should be spent towards better forms of transportation for all people, not just those that own cars. Sadly a majority of people want better roads, so they can drive their SUV’s and other vehicles down the street.

Driving is a part of our culture and it’s what most people want to do, but that in no way makes it right or good for the future progress of our country, or humans as a whole. I realize that driving has given people much more freedom than they previously had, and that is not a bad thing in any way. But it is an undeniable fact that there are and were better options to allow all people the freedom that they want and deserve, that is completely sustainable for a very long length of time. I can’t blame past generations for wanting to drive and to exercise their freedom to travel around on their own will, as they didn’t have the insight that we do in our current time. But now that we do have such information and understand that driving huge vehicles all over the country on expensive roads is a waste of resources and is not sustainable in the long term, then something must be done about it.

Every day that passes wherein people continue to go with the flow and majority feeling is setting back humanity as a whole. It’s setting back our future generations by hurting our stability and our environment. We have to step up as a people and bring it to an end. We have to sit down and put our minds towards progress, rather than selfish deeds, for the good of our country and the world. We have to realize that suburban sprawl is not necessary and has only led to us having to rely more and more on our vehicles to get us away from and back to our homes.

There are better, more modern forms of transportation available to us right now. They are more efficient and are more sustainable in the long term, which will lead to a better life for our future generations. Anything at all will help; simply moving away from overly large vehicles that are completely unnecessary would be a huge improvement. And I do realize that we are beginning to move in the right direction, but there is undoubtedly resistance in many areas that we need to overcome. It has been too long already and it is time to help our fellow citizens along.

Barack Obama and Race: What is Barack Obama really going to Change?

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What is Barack Obama really going to Change?

Barack Obama is doing nothing other than getting the American peoples hopes up. He is using his oratory skills to give nice speeches that amaze his audience without giving them any facts about his plans for our country, without giving them any actual information behind his true feelings, without stating his true motivations.

Does he truly want to make the country a better place for all Americans? His history tells us no:

He is constantly bringing up race as an issue, but he never ever brings up race as an issue for all Americans, including White Americans. All he mentions are Black Americans when he talks about race. His mentor and religious leader is an insane madman, a racist, and Barack Obama and his family have associated themselves with this person for over 20 years of their lives, their recent lives. This isn’t some random black mark on their past, this is recent history and undoubtedly reflects upon their current feelings and beliefs.

All Barack Obama supporters need to face the facts. He would not have associated with Jeremiah Wright for such a long period of time, from before attending school to the current point in time, if he did not agree with this person’s feelings at least in some form. This feeling is only confirmed by the fact that Barack Obama has not and apparently will not address these issues. The speech that he made regarding race and other mentions of race in various interviews and speeches have done nothing but attempt to hide the fact that he is indeed a racist at heart.

Barack Obama would not have allowed Jeremiah Wright to marry he and his wife, baptize their two children, as well as provide spiritual and other guidance for him throughout his adult life – more than 20 years – he would not have credited and thanked Jeremiah Wright in his book The Audacity of Hope, he would not have used a reference to his friend and mentor as the title of said book, if he did not agree with the things that Jeremiah Wright stood for.

Many people don’t know the exact things that Jeremiah Wright said and that Barack Obama quite likely agrees with: This is a man that compared the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the attacks on our country on September 11^th, 2001. This is a man who believes that the U.S. government gives minorities, Black Americans, drugs simply to put them in prison and keep them down as a race. This is a man that has damned America in the name of God in front of over 10,000 loyal followers, including Barack Obama and his wife. This is a man that has called 9/11 White America’s wake-up call. This is a man that is at his heart an ignorant racist, preaching hate to anyone equally ignorant enough to listen to it. Barack and Michelle Obama were merely two of many ignorant enough to listen to and agree with Jeremiah Wright’s hateful rhetoric.

Ride a Bike?

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I’m very pro cycling myself. I have an extreme dislike for the car culture that we have here in the US in general. I absolutely feel that if mass public or self transportation without the use of a motor vehicle is possible, then it should be used in nearly all cases.

Personally I do not drive currently and I do not even own a car. Using mass transit and self transportation is environmentally sound and much more cost effective than operating a motor vehicle of your own. That’s why I don’t understand the car culture that we have, I don’t understand how it has spread and is generally accepted everywhere, even in our large cities.

That’s why I thought that Bloomberg’s tax was a brilliant idea for NYC. Having actually biked through New York on a regular basis, it’s not exactly the greatest experience that I’ve ever had, and certainly not something that I would want to do every morning to get to work. If there were less vehicles, less congestion and less hostility in general though, then I would be all for cycling to work most of the time. But still it isn’t a huge issue as we have a fine public mass transit system in our subways.

Anyway, I’m hoping that the recent housing issues in the US will make more and more people come to the cities, which should lead to less reliability on vehicles for people in general if they have a quality system for public transportation in place.

I have other huge issues with suburban sprawl and the whole suburban culture here in the US as well, a different topic, I know; but it has to be stated as it undoubtedly plays a key role in the want and need for motor vehicles by many Americans. If we didn’t live 20 miles away from where we go to school and work, then there would be much less of an issue and the car culture in the US would simply dissolve. It is honestly ridiculous to live so far away from the places that you need to go on a regular basis when you could just as easily live in the city, much closer to the places that you need to go.

Both are huge issues that people need to get over in my opinion. You don’t need an acre or two of land surrounding your home, really. There is absolutely no need for that, it’s wasteful and harmful to all of us in the long run. Living in the city is a much better option. Hopefully more and more people in our future generations realize this and stop moving into and building new unnecessary suburbs.