Issue Number one can take a new number

I hate abortion....

now before I get pro choice folks on my ass let me elaborate. I hate the ISSUE of abortion. It is a meaningless, pointless debate. I say this as a future father, in a country with an economy in the toilet, free speech constantly under attack by our government and our peers, war, strife, disease, poverty, and the Icecapades... I just do not see how and why this issue is the on e thing that will sway the vote of so many individuals.

The issue of abortion and its legality in this country is a distraction, and one that has been exploited by both political parties since the 1960s. there is some sort of delicious irony that the Republican party, who has an undeserved reputation of being uncaring about the poor, constantly wanting to wage war and kill criminals, is on the pro life side; and the Democratic Party who is known irresponsibly for being a peace loving humanitarian lot, favor a position that arguably eliminates human life.

and there foot soldiers in this little "culture war"... I do not care what side of the debate I look at, I see a bunch of rabid, dry eyed, shuffling idiots who drool out talking points without bothering to research what they believe. sometimes it is religious, sometimes political, very rarely you will find someone who knows two things about ethics, and forms their opinion on that.

Yet not one person, on either side of this 40 year old poo-flinging, can explain to me how permitting or denying Suzie Q. Knockedup to terminate an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy is a national emergency, worthy of IMMEDIATE action by my nations federal government above all other concerns. Not one.

It is not that I do not care about the issue. I have my own opinions and beliefs, and I keep them to myself. I do not demand people remain silent on the issue either. what I ask is some logic and reason behind why you believe the way you believe.

the world of my Geekery

My Wife and I found out we are going to have an evil genius....

oh wait you wanted the sex? We are having a boy.

on a less Serious note, I wanted to tell a story. I am a video gamer. I have been as long as I can remember. the funniest thing about my video game experience is that I was prescribed, by my pediatrician, a Nintendo. people always find it hard to believe, I know. but is true

when I was four years old, I was having difficulty with hand eye coordination and fine motor skills. I held chalk like Mr Bates held a knife, and I could draw rain... and that was about it. My parents were worried because I would not color or paint in Pre-school as a result. I am sure some kids made fun of me, and that was why,m but I honestly can not remember.

so Dr. Miller told them that a a good half hour playing Nintendo would probably help develop those motor skills, and he wrote on his prescription form "1 Nintendo, Super Mario Brothers"

22 years later, my handwriting still sucks, but I can probably kick your ass in Halo ;)

I am sure my love of Electronic entertainment is not unique, though I hope my method of entry is. Ever since though I have had a passion for the games. early on though I found a great deal of them frusterating. I could not get past the water level in Mario, games like Karate, Excite Bike, and Golf could not hold my interest for lack of understanding the controls. and as for Top Gun... can anyone really land that plane?

No, I was not truly hooked until my dad bought a 2 pack of games from Capcom. Megaman 1 and 2. now Megaman 1 was an absolute beast to get through... even today let alone when I was 6. My dad and I made it our personal Mission to beat 2 however, it was that game that convinced my dad to get a subscription to Nintendo Power Magazine, and one of the FEW times we called into the Nintendo tips hot-line.

Time has passed, Systems of come and gone. I can say I have owned every single Nintendo System at one point in my life. I even have a Vitural Boy locked in a briefcase in a closet somewhere. I spend time online with my friend Pete, or with my Wife playing two player stuff, and some nights, there is nothing like a cold beer and some heavy action game. And to think, it all started with a prescription.

Fat Bottomed Girls....

Laura Ingraham, who I respect as a pundit and speech writer, was knocked down a few notches. The toothpick queen of the far-conservative talk show cabal blasted the daughter of Arizona Senator John McCain as “a Valley Girl gone awry” and a “plus-sized model.”

Meghan McCain is my personal hero. Here is a young girl raised in the Republican Party who has the metaphorical balls to want to stay in the party, fix it, and challenge the orthodoxy. Her response to Ingraham... “Kiss my fat ass!”

Ingraham later stated that Meghan McCain needed to learn how to deal with “satire and Teasing.”

My Bullshit detector broke from that sentence. Lesson number one children, is the definition of the word satire. From Wikipedia

“Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although, in practice, it is also found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with the intent to bring about improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be funny, the purpose of satire is not primarily humor in itself so much as an attack on something of which the author strongly disapproves, using the weapon of wit.

A very common, almost defining feature of satire is its strong vein of irony or sarcasm, but parody, burlesque, exaggeration, juxtaposition, comparison, analogy, and double entendre are all frequently used in satirical speech and writing. The essential point, however, is that "in satire, irony is militant". This "militant irony" (or sarcasm) often professes to approve the very things the satirist actually wishes to attack”

By Definition, Laura Ingraham did not perform satire. This woman, who has never been above a size 3 in her life, blatantly made fun of a young woman’s weight in order to bring her down personally and publically. While an effective tactic to the weak willed, and certainly not one a censure, it is only something left to those who have no other avenue of disassembling another’s argument. Meghan McCain’s mass is a red herring, and a poor one at that. Maybe I am alone here, but I prefer women who have shape to them. When placed next to conservative sex symbols like Anne Coulter and Laura Ingraham, I would want to hand a sandwich to these two old maids and tell them to have a beer or two on me.

Yet again I see this as a sign that Republicans need to move away from certain things. Economic conservatism is a great platform, and it has its place. But when religious and media Cabals sunk their teeth into the party, all it became about were guns, gays, abortion, with mere lip service to those core values. Now we find ourselves in an economic crisis because those core values were traded away, and it was one group of schmucks spending plan versus another group of schmucks spending plan.

Republicans need to learn to reap what they sow. What were sown was an economic collapse, and the people pulling hard enough in the opposite direction that this country will have to look like Sweden for a while in order for it to be fixed. In the meantime the party of economic conservatism needs to shed the religiously conservative values that have served as nothing but a distraction for the past twenty years. Do that and a good strong party will be ready to take on democrats, and the nation can be more balanced again.

The pain of working the family farm

I work for a family business. Hey it's true, and with this economy I am clinging for dear life. one of the worst parts of working for a family owned business though, particularly how large this one is, is seeing people you know, respect, and even call friend, get fired.

That happened to me for the fourth time in my life. and I listen to my immediate colleagues talk about it, and how "deserved" it might have been I feel infuriated. Some bean counter in this company of a couple hundred decided that this position could be eliminated... it was not deserved, no matter how much vindictive pleasure some fuck sticks might feel.

Gods, some days I wish I worked somewhere else...

Pregnancy Can Lead to Violent Outbursts

My Wife is pregnant, due in August. The prospect of becoming a father is scary enough as is, and other people only make it worse. For the past four months, if I have not been bombarded with congratulations from people I can barely fucking remember, I am given stories anecdotes and parenting advice.

Just what I need… parenting advice from mediocre parents. You know who has given me the best parenting advice so far? My buddy Jazz, by that I mean he slapped me on the back, said “welcome to the club, you are fucked,” and handed me a beer. Of course the worst parenting advice I have been given has come from my own parents… I know how their advice turns out, and I am not impressed.

It has been worse for MrsArbiter. Since she is starting to show people have been rubbing her belly, and been flowing with their self important bullshit. It has given her fits of homicidal rage where she actually has managed to kick my ass in Battletech and Halo recently. It makes me want to turn her into the She Hulk of pro gaming.

So I must plead with you, my fellow miscreants. Do your preggy friends a favor. If she is past the first trimester, stop offering congratulations, stop telling stories, and stop giving out unsolicited advice. Offer support and encouragement, well wishes, and beer.

If you really want to do something for new parents, offer them money, cause I am finding out how just expensive kids can be.

Personal pet peve

I have this thing. Maybe the title lies, because it is not a pet peeve, so much as a psychotic hatred. I dislike it when people try to control what I say. Now I could be an asshole and delve into the political, constitutional issue of why you should not try to control or limit a persons speech. that is a rant for another day, and it steps beyond my PERSONAL purview. I am more interested when people personally try to alter my speech patterns.

let me outline this for you, by telling a story children.

It was the spring of 2002 or 2003. I was strolling downtown Columbia Missouri, enjoying the early warm weather, when a man walks up to me.

"Hi there, can you tell me how I can get to Brady Commons?" the man asks

"query/directions; University of Missouri student recreation center. 5 blocks north: 1/2 block east" my brain processes and I say

"oh sure, go strait up this ...."

I am interrupted

"please don't say that, I never would go strait. Tell me to go gayly forward." the man says. I wish to whatever Gods or Demons are in charge of this plane that I was kidding. GAYLY FORWARD.

"ERROR, ERROR, ERROR. reboot, rootcommand/access archive.repeatlastcommand" brain says

"err... OK, well you just go strait..."

"I told you I NEVER go strait"

"ERROR, ERROR, ERROR,. reboot, rootcommand/ access self-defense protocol. Select Lefthook. Run."

*POW*

asshole got what he deserved.

sorry ladies and gentlemen, that is the way it is with me. if I get my facts wrong, I will correct myself, if I screw up grammar, I apologise, correct myself and move on. BUT, when there are things like semantics involved, I get pissed off at you to the point where I can justify knocking you to the pavement. in this case this guy insists on me not saying the word strait, in order to protect his gay sensibilities. Again I must emphasize I am not making this up.

If you are gay that is fine. but if you get offended by the mere word strait, which has been in written language just as long as the word gay, then you have a major sensibility issue that needs to be addressed. that kind of crap does not even fall under political correctness, since a DIRECTION is not something that should be applied as a label to a person.

same thing applies to the Infamous Seven things you can not say on television. If I use the words Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cock-sucker, Mother-Fucker, or Tits, that should be my prerogative. believe it or not I try not to use such words whimsically. but if I spew an expletive from my mouth for whatever reason, the last thing that should happen in this great land is for another person to tell me NOT to use whatever language I see fit.

of course, that is just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Welcome to Arbitration, the only Blog that knows better, but does not care!

Hello Internet land! My name is JPArbiter and I have been an opinionated toss-pot for close to 20 of my 26 years on this planet. I previously held a Blog over on "Emo-space", and plan on transferring content down here.

Here at Arbitration you can expect to find me commenting on stuff that tickles me. this can be good tickles, or this can be very bad tickles. I may get political on occasion, and you have the right to disagree with me if you please.

other times I may make a post that makes absolutely no sense at all, such as discussing the checkers match i had with my Rice Krispees.

whatever is posted I do hope you enjoy. So strap yourselves in. it is time to get wet.