Tag: ‘murica

I don’t even like Clemson, but they deserve better than this

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

However, there’s kind of an appropriate metaphor in the imagery: College Football National Championship winning Clemson Tigers football team goes to the White House, Donald Trump serves them a gargantuan spread… of fast food

I don’t think it’s any new news that I don’t like Clemson.  For nearly the last decade, I don’t remember the last time that Tech has beaten Clemson in football, whether it’s been Tajh Boyd, Deshaun Watson or Kelly Bryant at quarterback.  I’d even root for Duke over them in basketball, and I’ve become way bigger of a supporter of SEC schools simply out of the necessity that someone’s got to be willing and able to stand up to them in their ascent of the college football ranks.

But that being said, champions are still champions, and should be rewarded for their excellence as such.  Now I’ve got plenty of words and opinions to offer about the whole government shutdown, but little good can actually come out of putting any of them in writing, but the fact that as a result of it, the White House basically has no cooks or chefs on site, relegating the champion Clemson football team to have a train cart of McDonalds, Wendy’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut and other fast food options, that’s kind of sad.

Even Clemson deserves better than this kind of spread, in the fucking White House.  But then again, given the current state of the political world, somehow it all seems kind of ironically appropriate, and the imagery that has come from this whole shit show within a shit show, have been nothing short of classic and iconic.

Still though, any team that even accepts an invitation to the White House in the first place, should probably expect some sort of luxury or opulence when visiting the home to basically who’s supposed to be the most powerful person in the world.  Even the Clemson squad that won the National Championship in 2017 had some sort of gourmet barbecue spread, and it occurs to me that Clemson championships have all occurred in years in which a particular guy has been in office, and that they’re both orange as fuck.

Despite the fact that many players and perspectives see this as funny, charming, or are able to roll with the punches, I’m definitely in the camp of people, players and perspectives that doesn’t really find it as humorous, except in an ironic metaphorical sense.  I get that elite athletes probably don’t have the opportunity to eat like retards as much as they want, unless they’re linemen, but for those athletic players that actually would like to have a future professionally, a buffet of fast food really isn’t the best idea, even in celebration.

When the day is over, this too, like many other absurd and ludicrous stories that come out of Washington D.C., isn’t really that big of a surprise.  There’s little reason to believe that Clemson won’t get (another) re-do in coming years, and maybe them or Alabama, will be treated to a nicer spread, a little more appropriate for future champions.

I guess all that’s left is, I wonder what the Boston Red Sox’s meal is going to be?  A truck full of Dunkin Donuts maybe?

I’m proud of Metro Atlanta

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Considering that at the time I’m writing this, the midterms were ten days ago, and the State of Georgia has still not officially declared a winner for the governor’s race, I was initially going to wait until the result was made official before writing anything about this.  But I’m leaving the country for the next week and change, and I just know I’m not going to want to bother retouching this subject after a long vacation, and frankly the result looks like it’s pretty much in the bag, in spite of the valiant effort put forth by the Democrats, so let’s go ahead and get this shit out of the way.

It’s pretty much a foregone conclusion at this point that Brian Kemp is going to be the new governor of Georgia, much to my dismay.  Color me part-mortified that the guy I ridiculed months ago for having a campaign ad where he’s basically holding a shotgun to a teenager is going to be rising to amongst the highest offices in the state, but at the same time, I can’t say that I’m the least bit surprised in this day and age; especially if you stop and think about who’s in charge of the United States at this current juncture.

I have several mixed feelings about the whole clusterfuck that ended up being the governor’s race, but I think the one that bubbles up to the very top of them all is simply put, fuck the Libertarian party.  Given the extreme narrow margin of victory that Yosemite Sam had over Stacey Abrams, I have this opinion that the presence of a Libertarian candidate on the ticket basically usurped votes that could have either solidified a Republican win, or swung the entire race in favor of the Democrats.  Considering the general ideals of the traditional Libertarian versus the perceived extremes between the Repubs and Dems, I feel like if a gun were to the head of a Libertarian, they’d probably swimg Democratic, and we’d have a completely different story on our hands right now.

I feel that the Libertarian party in this instance were being selfish and incapable of reading the room, and even they had to realize that Babytrump couldn’t possibly be in the best interests of Georgia.  And with that in mind, why would they bother to interlope in a critical election that was already expected to be razor thin from the onset, and usurp essential votes that could very well have changed history at this time?

Frankly, the Libertarian party disgusts me currently, and I kind of fucking hate their existence right now.  I’m not saying that their votes would have definitively all swung blue, but in a hypothetical, majority blue scenario, they’d not only have led the election to a run-off but probably a Democratic win.  And maybe with some modicum of change achieved, maybe they’d have a better chance for notoriety running in a not-red state.

Continue reading “I’m proud of Metro Atlanta” →

I wonder what the textbooks of tomorrow will look like

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

A few weeks ago, I was helping mythical gf clean out her classroom, and I couldn’t help but take a little bit of time to look through some of the textbooks that her students used.  Obviously, it’s been nearly 20 years since the last time that I had a county-issue textbook to learn from, so I was curious to see just what kind of stuff children are inundated with these days, since the world has for lack of a better term, changed somewhat over the last 20 years.

Now, not a tremendous amount of things were at all that different, since math is math, and the rules of math aren’t ever going to change.  However, including the math, the social studies textbook were giant explosions of color and photographic content, that I certainly don’t remember being the case when I was in contemporary education. The text is gigantic, the photos are bold, colorful and honestly visually captivating, as I am sure there are educational experts who do this by design in order for the eyes of young children to absorb them as much as possible.

Naturally, as an adult looking at elementary school-level content, it’s a little surprising to see how rudimentary the subject matter is, but then again I’m 20 years past this point in my education and should know this stuff and thankfully I do.  But I think things are meant to be way easier for the kids of today than they were back when I was a kid, with pretty much all key information and subject matter being pre-bolded, pre-highlighted and basically be given to students on a silver platter for testing purposes, without the kids necessarily having to study that much.

However, the point of this whole post really stems from the thought that despite the fact that mythical gf’s class didn’t have any U.S. history textbooks, it really got me thinking about how I’d be very curious to see one today, to see just how educators spin some of the more historic things that have happened over the last 20-30 years, as well as how they describe and try to educate of events that I remember learning about, like all the wars of American history.

This is of course, leading to the inevitable mentioning of the rise and regime of our current president, whom it doesn’t require a lot of imagination to see just how divided the nation is as a result of their ascent.  But I’ll admit that I think I’d be fascinated to see just how the educational field treats all of it from the standpoint of teaching children of what was happening in the United States during this time.

Continue reading “I wonder what the textbooks of tomorrow will look like” →

The America we live in

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Typically, I try not to write things that are remotely political in nature, but ultimately the point of my brog is to have a space in which I write out my thoughts, and whether six people read my words or zero people read them, it’s still an exercise in putting my thoughts into words and occasionally seeing if I can get any further clarity out of expressing them.

It’s hard to ignore and remain silent on the topic of gun control, considering the latest episode of American Massacre involved a bunch of high school students and faculty getting gunned down by a mentally unstable person who somehow had possession of an AR-15 automatic assault rifle.  I don’t mean to sound ignorant and uneducated in all the facts, but the truth is that I have not gone out of my way to learn more than the surface facts of the whole tragedy because frankly I don’t want to get too detailed in what I already know is a horrific incident that could probably have been prevented if not for the simple fact that firearms, and extremely deadly firearms, are just way too fucking accessible in America.

Ultimately, I’m fine with handguns and the general guidelines of the Second Amendment.  Believe me, I thought long and hard about acquiring a gun after some stupid shitheads kicked in my front door with the intent to rob my house, except that I was home when it happened, and they ran instead of seeing if I were packing or not when I came running down my hallway.  However, my thoughts were always a handgun, or a shotgun at most, and only one.  Not a weapon that a Taliban fighter would be carrying on their person at all time, or any weapon that would be available by default in first-person horde shooter.

I don’t think assault weaponry needs to be available to the public in any capacity, yet here we stand, in an America where quite literally, anyone can somehow manage to get their hands on one, regardless of their mental capacity, or existing rap sheets with law enforcement.  If someone has enough murderous intent, they’re more than capable of acquiring an instrument of mass death.

Continue reading “The America we live in” →

What would Alabama be without college football?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I don’t really like to talk about politics, but I just read an article about how Alabama senate candidate Roy Moore was quoted stating something about how he believes that the last time America was great, slavery was still in existence.  The same Roy Moore who has also been in the crosshairs recently for alleged sexual misconduct with underage girls.

However, this is also the same Roy Moore, whom in spite of these discouraging associations, is not only not out of the running for the senate seat, but statistically neck-and-neck in the race with Democrat Doug Jones.

All I can really deduce from this absurd notion is that red state Alabama’s conservative voters are so against a Democrat gaining some measure of power, that they’d knowingly and willingly continue to vote for and support a pretty known sex offender and seeming racist Republican on their own volition.

This isn’t so much a discussion about politics as much as it is revisiting the frequent topic these days of where human values have gone, really.

So yes, the headline is a serious question: what would the state of Alabama be reduced to if college football were removed from the equation?  As fanatically blind and brainless as the voters are in the state, there’s no shortage of blind loyalty and prestige that the success of college football brings to the state.  But if the University of Alabama and Auburn University either bottomed out permanently, or ceased to exist, what would the state of Alabama really have left?

Continue reading “What would Alabama be without college football?” →

This is America, circa 2017

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Something that should never happen: a man is ashamed and full of regret because he decided to stand during the National Anthem, because it broke solidarity with the rest of his peers

Try to take a few steps back and look at the scenario as a whole: this is a man, a veteran, who served the country so that people could have the freedom to make individual choices – is full of regret, because he chose to stand for the National Anthem.

As an American, this is an absolutely heartbreaking story, and as I’m sure so many people say on a regular basis these days, just what the fuck is wrong with our country?

I’ll be honest: when Colin Kaepernick first refused to stand for the National Anthem last season, my knee-jerk reaction was disdain and vitriol for a player I didn’t care for as a player.  But through lots of deliberation and pondering opinions from all around me, I’ve kind of come around to a more neutral position that can see both sides of the argument.  Personally, I’ll never not stand for the flag and/or the National Anthem, but I can’t really say I’m going to criticize those who choose to peacefully protest the gesture, as long as they’re doing such because they legitimately believe in it and aren’t just being sheep, in light of current America.  After all, having the freedom to choose to stand or not is basically the quintessential point of American freedom.

Continue reading “This is America, circa 2017” →

This is precisely why my trust in white people is fractured

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Among the vast majority of nerds that comprise of the vast majority of my social media circles, there was an individual that many of us knew/knew of identified as having been present in Charlottesville during the weekend of hell there.  This was confirmed by commentary made by them that stated as such, and that’s pretty much all that there needed to be known by the community before the witch hunt began and the shit started to fly.

Typically, my go-to move on social media is to unfollow people but not outright unfriend people, if I don’t like seeing what people post.  Whether they post too much for my liking, post opinions that I don’t want to see, flood my streams full of narcissism and/or selfies, or all of the above, among other reasons, I’ll usually unfollow first, but rarely unfriend.  I don’t want paranoid people eventually discovering that they’ve been unfriended and to have an uncomfortable conversation later down the line, and if it can be avoided, I’d rather avoid it.

But it’s not every day that you find out that someone you know personally, have allowed into your home, and allowed to pet and carry your dog, with smiles and seeming sincerity, marched in a rally and chanted discriminatory rhetoric with known white supremacists.

This is why my trust in white people has taken a critical hit, and why I can’t feel like I can ever let my guard down with them.  Even those that I’ve known for a while, apparently.

Continue reading “This is precisely why my trust in white people is fractured” →