That's just wrong...

I've mentioned before that every Wednesday bands come and play in City Center during lunchtime. Today was a pretty good band that sounded like a sort of Punk/Ska/Reggae mix from what little I heard as I walked through.

They finished up their set with "No Woman No Cry" by Bob Marley and did a pretty good job of it. Yes they were white, but it worked. No slo-mo-Irwin happened on stage from what I saw.

What I did get to witness though were two obviously gay guys dancing along and enjoying the song a just little too much...

I'm not racist.

I'm not racist. Not by any means. I realize that every race has its fair share of idiots that makes it look bad. Me, I have to claim that idiots like the Klan and Hitler, among many many others make the "white" race look like a bunch of morons. That and the fact that we can't dance, but that's for another posting altogether.

Now the reason that I bring my non-racist mentality up is to pad the real point of this post. It was just one of my random thoughts that I had today that lead to another thought...

As I was walking to Starbucks this morning, I passed a black guy wearing an Obama sweatshirt. This isn't much of a surprise as I'm in Oakland, less than a block away from what I was told is Obama's campaign headquarters. (While I doubt it is/was his main headquarters, I don't doubt that he has/had an office here.)

It started me thinking; how many people are going to vote for Obama just because he's black? On that same note, how many people would have voted for Hillary because she's a woman?

I seriously think that we're going to see a large increase in votes from the black community this election. While it's awesome that people who have never been motivated to vote before are going to get up, go to the polls and make their voice be heard, I'm afraid it'll be for the wrong reason. I'm afraid that people won't be voting for him on the basis of what he stands for or what he hopes to accomplish, but that they will be voting for him because of the color of his skin.

For that matter, I worry about people voting for McCain just because he's white. Actually those people scare me.

The color of a person's skin says nothing about what they can do to help or harm our country. I honestly think that the United States might gain a little favor in the eyes of the rest of the world if we were to vote a black man or a woman (or a black woman!) into office, if for nothing more than showing our country's true diversity and equality among all people.

protest chants

Yesterday a couple friends and I went to Lucky & Lucky (Chinese, surprised?) for lunch.  Directly across the street is the main office for the University of CA.  The maintenance people are outside on strike.  I honestly couldn't tell what for though.

There was the obligatory call and answer chants being lead by someone with a megaphone.  What I heard went something like this:

"Mmhhmmfhala lada bladador!"

"We want Jews!"

Now, the croud was shouting, so they may have been thirsty and I didn't see any iron crosses or swastikas, so they may have been shouting "We want juice," but that's not what it sounded like.

I have nothing against voicing your opinion and making known unfair working conditions.  After all, that's what this country is about:  freedom and rights. 

All I'm saying is that if you're going to protest and have a mass group chant, you need to have a spotter.  Someone who can walk down the street a couple hundred yards or so and come back to tell you "We really need to change this up or we're not going to get a pay raise, we're going to get rabbis and yalmukas."

White people + reggae = funny!

Every Wednesday, City Center in Oakland, CA hosts a live band to play during lunch.  Today it was a reggae band from San Francisco.

Reggae music makes you want to move.

White people can't dance.

Fortunately I was able to escape with just a few taps of the toe.  Unfortunately there were several of my fair-skinned bretheren who fell victim and were ensnared by the rhythm.  It reminded me of Steve Irwin dodging the attacks of a dangerous pit viper played back at about 1/4 speed. 

I need to remember to bring my video camera on Wednesdays...

I survived...

I survived watching a whole episode of "I Survived a Japanese Game Show."  Honestly, I don't know how.  Or for that matter why.

I guess it was the same sort of morbid fascination that we all have when we pass an accident on the freeway.  You know the kind:  You're stuck in traffic for hours (more like five minutes, but it seems like hours when you're there), getting grumpy and thinking to yourself, "C'mon people.  It's an accident.  Quite looking and drive!"  Then when it's your turn to pass, you find yourself drawn to it.  You have to look.  Your frustration comes to a head when you realize that it's nothing more than a flat tire, there's no gory mess to make you gag, and there's no longer anyone ahead of you and that you've just become one more rubbernecker that's making the freeway look like a parking lot.

It was like that.

I hate "reality" shows.  I've never watched a full episode of Survivor or Big Brother.

Japanese game shows get to me too.  Added to the fact that I don't understand the Japanese language, I also fail to understand why they dress up like chickens or babies and run around falling all over themselves while the host screams like he just got bit in the butt by a rabid dog.

This show combines the worst of both.  You end up having American constestants dressed up like babies (diapers, bibs and all) running around like morons while the host screams in a language they don't understand.  Then when they're done with the game show part, they go back to their living quarters and whine about how great they are individually, but how bad everyone else on their team sucks, before they kick their best teammate out of the game.

The Japanese have an amazing culture, a colorful history and a beautiful country.  For their sake though, someone needs to mount some sort of raid by an elite covert military group to remove all video cameras from the country.  Forcefully if necessary.  For their own good.

I should get some sort of prize for making it through the whole episode.  I didn't even gag.