Just a crazy thought

California just recently moved up its primaries to February 5th. Our state has been known as the cash cow for elections. Essentially Californians contribute in hoards, and the point behind bringing our primary date up is to presumably have some of that money spent here. I say California is the cash cow not just for elections but for almost everything. We have the fifth largest economy in the world.(Our economy is larger then the country of France) As of 2003 Californians were contributing 12.3% of the nations federal taxes. We all know that federal tax revenues are not being spent here. California's political views are often at odds with the rest of the country. Our Republican Governor, Arnold Schwarzeneger could very well be a democrat if you take a look at his policies. Our ethnic makeup is also unique in comparison to the country especially "the bible belt". Our states topography is no different then one of a large country, and from a meteorological standpoint we pretty much cover a wide range of temperatures. With all that being true why can't California just secede from the Union. Yes I just said it, why isn't there a movement to make California, it own country. Wouldn't California just be better off as a country left to manage its own affairs. I know, I know I am a nut. Like I said in the title of the post it was just a crazy thought...

What Now?

The Democrats just won the election and that means that they see the election as a clear sign that the American people want change, and they should. What is change though? Is it withdrawing from Iraq is that even a possiblity. It's definitely not "staying the course." The President is hilarious, he is "staying the course" but his Secretary of Defense is resigning, perhaps someone should tell him what that actually means, "staying the course" that is. Maybe Condeleeza should actually work on making sure the President understands what he is saying; I think the pretzel that he choked on might have made him loose air for a little too long.

All jokes aside I think the Democrats have a real problem. Either we withdraw which would be a global nightmare or we stay which would be a national nightmare. It was great strategy to use the war as a tool to win the election, but I am afraid it will hurt the democrats in the Presidential election coming up. The democrats are faced with a president that is going to veto anything they pass which perhaps could work in their favor because if nothing gets done they can just point the finger at him. We are just in for a couple of really interesting years politically and the world is not going to stop and wait for us to catch up...

Haven't Written in a while

I haven't written in a while, haven't really felt the urge. Perhaps its been the lack of things to talk about, perhaps just the fact that I don't think anyone reads this thing anyways. Maybe its better this way. I have to say I am frightened. I am frightened by the state of affairs going on in the world around us. The war in Iraq, the problems in Darfur, and now the Israeli Conflict. The war in Iraq has been beat up on enough so I will just let that one be. Darfur is reaching a new level of conflict even with a peace agreement in place because of Chad's involvement. It's amazing how long the world has turned a blind eye to this segment of the world as a whole population of civilians is killed. The current state of affairs begs for a International United Nations force, one which has been refused entry from the Sudanese government. It's baffling what we are going to do to bring this conflict to an end.

I want to dedicate a little more discussion to the Israeli conflict. I believe this problem is bigger then meets the eye of most citizens in the US. I am going to forego a discussion on the Palestinian front.(like the Iraq war I think that has been discussed quite a bit too) So lets talk about Lebanon. There are a number of issues that scare me but there are one or two that make me feel like this is like no other conflict that we have seen in the past.

Let's take a look at Hizbullah, its a terrorist organization. One that is amazingly organized. The problem is not in their organization but in how the world and more importantly the United States is supposed to deal with them. It's a group housed primarily in Lebanon but funded mostly by Iran and Syria. That sort of structure begs the question who is to blame. Hizbullah attacks Israel, Israel attacks Lebanon. A minority Shiite' organization in the Southern part of Lebanon attacks Israel and the disproportionate response sets a whole country back twenty years. Israel is defending itself but not by curtailing the current threat. They are ensuring that they do enough damage to Lebanon to prevent the revival of the threat for years to come. In some senses with the perdicament that Israel is in they are within their rights to do so. My problem is that setting back Lebanon will not solve the problem. It will merely result in the funding mechanisms targeting their money to different organizations.

Let's take a look at Hizbullah, its a social welfare organization. One that is also amazingly organized. Hizbullah runs a couple of hospitals, a few schools and a variety of other social service type orgs. In fact Hizbullah in South Lebanon does a better job of social service then the Lebanese government itself. By bombing Hizbullah the Israelis are destroying a social service organization that is close to the people and therefore providing another reason for the people to hate Israel if there weren't already enough. The Israelis are creating a recruiting haven for Hizbullah for years to come as the youth of those lost and slain will harbor hatred for those that are responsible.

There are definitely many other facets to this discussion that I am omitting but just the two highlighted above, in my mind, make this a very scary situation.

Another one bites the dust

The time has come, when we have to realize that we are at the beginning of the end. Everywhere you turn soldiers are losing the war. You try to aid them in their effort keep them upbeat. You even offer a shoulder to cry on. Nothing seems to work. At the end the war is just to tough. The lure too strong for some. And that is how you lose them. This last weekend we lost another good soldier. He too gave in and laid down his arms. Atur decided it was time and proposed. It seems as though in the last few weeks the morale has been especially low as I have been hearing of more fallen soldiers then ever before. It has gotten so bad that there are circles betting on who the next soldier to fall will be. My money is on the Doshi brothers. Any takers. Well Atur you have ventured to the other side I wish you well. I say this with a heavy heart. Another one bites the dust....

Mother's day

Some of you may know this and others probably don't but I work mostly with teachers and their retirement accounts for work. Teachers are a very curious bunch, one of them asked me the other day when mothers day was for us culturally. Perhaps there is one but if so I don't know when. I relayed that to her following it up with, in our culture everyday is mother's day. It bugged me to think that we didn't have a celebration like mothers day or that even if we did we didn't celebrate it in our household except for the American version. I got solace in the fact that mothers in India and Pakistan are held up to a pedistal that in my opinion is not paralleled in American culture. In Islamic belief salvation is under your mothers feet, and in Indian culture from what I understand your Mother is revered like a god. Since I am a muslim of South Asian descent I get the best of both worlds. Basically I am a momma's boy and in light of that I just wanted to say to my mom and all the mothers out there HAPPY MOTHERS DAY.

I am getting old.

I am getting old; So it was Cinco De Mayo yesterday and a friday night and I spent it at home in front of my Tv. Is it just me or is it harder and harder to find things to do. I live in Corona which doesn't help cause I am quite a drive from anyone. On top of that everyone is so busy with their own lives that its so difficult for all of us to get together. So since I was stuck at home I watched the playoffs and then played online poker. Online poker can be addicting. It seems as though the highlight for every weekend for me is playing basketball. Since we play early on Sundays I don't go out on Saturdays and most of my Fridays are spent just like this one was at home.
The highlight of the night was the Colbert speech at the correspondent dinner(thanks Terrence) the shit was hilarious. I am just wondering who thought it would be a good idea for Colbert to speak at the event. He was right on point, after this bit he has surpassed Jon Stewart in my mind, although I think Colbert gets carried away sometimes. Were it not for Colbert the night would have been a complete bust.

Humanity Lost

I just finished reading Night by Elie Wiesel, it's a book about the holocaust. It's really well written and painfully elaborate. I wasn't even able to read large portions of it at a time just a little too much to bear. It was much easier reading little bits at a time. Although the whole book was a hard pill to swallow one fact in the book stuck out even more. Even when people are put to the limits of humanity they are still able to hate. I learned from this book that the term Jewish prisoners used to refer to their weaker compatriates that would be sent to the crematorium was "Muselman" the german word for Muslim...