Health Care And The Future of Our Humanity

This health care bill is the most important issue of the century. Debate over this represents a fight between corporate greed and the people who are taken advantage of by this greed. Whatever happens here will determine whether corporations can continue to abuse and murder or if they people will rise up and say enough is enough. There will be setbacks but the bill must be passed for the sack of humanity. The United States is the only developed nation that does not have universal health care, we live in a country where people are denied treatment because they do not have enough money so their lives are not worth an investment, how can you call yourself a citizen of a developed country when you will willfully allow your own people to die?

Thoughts on the wars

New Design

As you can see the design of the michaelkirschner.wordpress.com website has drastically been changed. I have decided to replace the newspaper design with a more new and fresh looking theme, this theme change represents a change in the direction of the website. I will not however abandon the political commentary, I am currently in the process of creating a whole section just for political posts. If this works I will be expanding the website even more, but that can only happen slowly and with careful thought and plan, if a website expansion were rushed many parts would be forgotten and the site would collapse. I hope that an expansion of the site will expand my readership, and who knows maybe this site will one day get its own domain and become one of the big shot websites like my friends over at yublog.org.

Common Sense Media should use some common sense

I want to start out this by saying right away that I do not want Netflix to be involved in this issue, though I have discovered this issue through Netflix I do not hold them responsible for what their rating partner writes, I hold Common Sense Media responsible for everything.  OK now I will explain what happened, so I was taking a look at the rating description for the Comedy, The 40 Year Old Virgin and here is one line that Common Sense Media, (a movie rating service for informing parents on the contents of films) had to say about the film under the sexual content section that really stood out to me, “Relentless and slangy discussion of sex, some comedic activity, including the appearance of a “trannie prostitute.” Non-sexual nudity and same-sex kiss.“  It seems as if Common Sense Media makes some kind of distinction between a kiss between a man and a woman, as seen in most family films and same-sex kisses which for some reason Common Sense Media considers to be inappropriate for children.  I really thought we as a society in the year 2009 was past this kind of backwards thought, I guess I was a little too optimistic.  When asked how they dealt with gay or lesbian content when giving parents guidance on which games and movies are appropriate for their children Common Sense Media stated, “Our philosophy is that all parents are different. We’re here to make you a better parent,” Marisa Connolly, Communications Manager of Common Sense Media told Ars. “We want to provide as much information as we can, just literally saying here is the content. Here is what goes on in the movie, how much, how explicit it is. Here’s how much drinking, those sorts of things.”  Connolly’s defense really doesn’t really hold up that well when you consider the need for actual human decency, if a movie portrayed an interracial marriage it would be quite inappropriate to include in the ratings description under sexual content “portrayal of interracial marriage” because our society has accepted the idea that race doesn’t affect what type of person you are, so an interracial marriage is a non-issue.  A kiss between two people of the same sex who love each other should not be considered inappropriate for young children, what is inappropriate for young children, however is teaching them to hate.

Lets talk about “That” Level

One of the levels of Modern Warfare 2 has recently caught some controversy especially in the wake of the recent terrorist attack in Ft. Hood Florida last week.  The game gives a warning and allows players to skip the level without penalty, however there is no cut scene or anything to explain what happened if you do skip the level.  In case you haven’t heard, the level in question puts you in the role of a C.I.A. operative infiltrating a terrorist cell, in order to prove your loyalty, you must participate in a terrorist attack on a crowed airport, which in the eyes of the mole is a price that must be paid inorder to get  intel from the cell and stop a much bigger terrorist attack and save more innocent lives than would be lost in the airport attack. I want everyone’s opinion on this issue, personally I feel that the attack is an important plot device and is essential as the entire game deals with the consequences of the airport attack.

Modern Warfare 2

WARNING!!! The following discussion could be seen by some as containing spoilers about a recently released game, use caution before continuing.

5 out of 5

Modern Warfare 2 doesn’t just pick of where Modern Combat left off it takes the game to a whole new dimension.  Set five years after the fist game in the year 2016, players will find Warfare has truly become modernized, borders have disappeared, uniforms are relics, the battlefields is called the world, war is fought everywhere.  Modern Warfare could in fact be seen as wake up call against war as players no longer fight in an unnamed, generic, Eastern European bloc, but instead are called to the front lines in suburbia.  Yes you read this correctly, the Russians have invaded the United States and your job is to defend the suburbs.  In one of the missions, called “Wolverines!”, a nod to the 1980s classic Russian invasion film Red Dawn players are tasked with defending a Burger King from the Russian army.  Of course the suburban invasion is nothing compared to the burning of Washington you will say and play later in the game.  While apocalyptic imagery is used throughout the game players are reminded by several soldiers that Washington has been rebuilt before and will be rebuilt again (the Canadian army invaded and burned down Washington in 1814)  Modern Combat amps up the imagery and packs a huge emotional punch the way only a movie has done before, I give this game a perfect 5 out of 5

How many people have their own websites?

I was thinking today that with all the advancements of the internet more and more people are now able to make their own websites. I remember the first time I created my first website way back in 2002, things have certainly changed since then, back in 2002 if you had your own website you would be considered very technologically savvy, now almost eight years later every one has at least some kind of version of a website. Broadband internet is becoming more and more available to more and more internet users, and websites like WordPress, Blogspot, and YuBlog bring internet publishing to the masses. I do not consider a twitter or a youtube account to be a website but I do consider it to be close enough and if more and more people are signing up with these services with ease then I as an internet publisher am really proud of that. I believe that everyone should have a website, granted those with websites will no longer be as prestigious as they were back when I started in 2002, but if people are able to share ideas in a democratic society, then I am alright with that. So I put out this question to my readers, do you have some variation of a website, and if so what is it? Also if you do not have a website do you plan on ever creating one?

Thank You Veterans

Although we may not always agree over politics or if a war is right we can all agree that all Veterans of all wars in all nations are doing are doing a heroic and brave task we should all thank them for their tireless and brave commitments to their respective homelands not just today but everyday.

Modern Warfare 2

I just bought Modern Warfare 2 when it came out last night on November 10th, 2009.  I did not want to wait until the weekend because I heard there would be a controversial scene in the game and I did not want to hear about it on the Today Show before I played it.   I just bought Modern Warfare 2 when it came out last night on November 10th, 2009.  I will post again with my full reaction to Call of Duty Modern Warfare Part 2 this weekend, until then I suggest you go out and get it initial thoughts are, “This game is awesome.”

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Further reading

I urge my readers to check out the websites I have listed on the sidebar, some of them are my friend’s sites some are from people I know in an online sense and others I have been to their sites and like what they do.  One particular site that stands up above all the rest is http://www.casinoskunk.blogspot.com This site is run by Ralph Appel former host of the DharmaLars and current host of the LOSTiles podcast, and is the most respected geek culture expert in his small niche.