TOP 13 THINGS I HATED ABOUT 2007 (OR REALLY ANY YEAR FOR THAT MATTER)

TOP 13 THINGS I HATED ABOUT 2007 (OR REALLY ANY YEAR FOR THAT MATTER)

1. "Victims" of foreclosure. Yup. You know em. They're a few cubicles down or hiding out somewhere in your Mom's house. People who were so desperate to buy a house that they took a dumb loan they knew they couldn't afford. Screw these whiny jerks. Whenever someone says the word "refinancing" I head immediately for the bathroom and escape through a ventilation shaft.

2. Salespeople. Magna cum laude jerk-offs from the school of "smile first and think later." I'm so tired of your condescending schtick and ruthless attempts at feigning common ground. I know you are the evil necessity of capitalism and you deserve more respect than, say, mob-pocketed union bosses. But I don't want to make friends with you simply because you're directly financially benefitting from my consumption. Sorry. Be polite and knowledgeable, sure. But simply facilitate the exchange of goods. Stop insulting my intelligence with that brutal pysch-out personality you learned from some book. I'd rather you nickel-and-dime me than pretend to like me. Trust me.

3. People with bumber stickers. These obnoxious roving masters of righteous over-simplification could be a lot smarter than you and I....if only they didn't try so hard to convince one hundred motorists a day. Its easy to tell me what you think when I can't reasonably respond and I'm trapped behind your intentionally shitty and/or fuel efficient car. Don't put your blog on your bumper, assholes.

4. Open Borders Nutjobs. Don't get me wrong. I fully understand how cliche it sounds to be pro-American. A lot of patriots can't seem to get past "America is the greatest country on Earth" or "Support Our Troops" bumper stickers. But at least they're right. Historical levels of immigration are proof enough.

But just because America is the greatest nation on Earth doesn't mean we can afford to accept every damn sob-story from all corners of the globe. Open borders assholes are often forced to describe the "opportunity" of America. But their minds refuse to acknowledge immigration policy as a factor in maintaining said opportunity. Almost every nation in the world has an immigration policy. Why? Because it makes sense to keep track of who enters your country. And to demand an educated desire for assimilation out of an immigrant.

Worst of this group are those unfathomable priests who harbor illegals in their church. What is with these guys? These wannabe celebrity priests. I'm telling ya, if this bullshit keeps up, then (at least Catholic) churchs should lose their tax exempt status. I'm serious. I'm tired of these flagrant law- and child-abusers.

5. Braggarts. The hilarious thing about braggarts is that they always look surprised when you tell them that they're jerk-offs. They start conversations by congratulating themselves and end conversations by favorably comparing themselves to you. In between there may be some thick sarcasm, but don't be fooled. When they talk they are too anxious to ever wait for context. And try as you might, you can't get an abstract topic out of them. You could bring up, say, big bang theory, and they'll tell you how they won a card game one time with a similar theory. Craving attention much like bumper sticker idiots, these people are unable to feel satisfied about any accomplishments without putting folks in a small-talk headlock. The equivalents of walking touchdown celebrations. Screw em.

6. People who describe something as "amazing" more than once a month. Typically these people are bloggers and/or artists who have an oddly difficult time explaining exactly why they like anything. So they overcompensate with hyperpole. Often personal ambition is the editorial compromise. Similar to networkers, criticism to them often becomes synonymous with negativity. They float around in a poetic sea of "non-judgmentalism." More interested in friends than being trustworthy, these people are somehow simultaneously adjective-challenged and adjective-obsessed. Some choose to explain themselves vigorously as opposed to convincingly. When something is good, it is undoubtably, objectively good. When something is bad, everything is subjective, "to each their own." I'm tired of these robotic boosters.

7. New England Patriots fans. Smugness has reached new heights. If Dallas makes it to the Super Bowl (as unlikely as it now seems), and beats the Patriots? Everyone will have to admit that Dallas is America's Team. Now imagine that. Even Eagles fans will be rooting for Dallas in such a scenario. Don't lie, bros.

8. Degenerate gamblers. These people are usually braggarts, too. And teeth-grindingly tedious. When these slotwhores are not breathlessly forcing you to celebrate windfalls they didn't earn, they are dejected and whiney or have DMV-like attitudes after another unnecessary loss of money they couldn't afford. Screw these emotional rollercoasters. Somebody please tell these mathematically-challenged losers that gambling is just like cocaine except that you can't record a killer album while you're gambling.

9. Networkers. Very similar to salespeople. These assholes ask you questions all the time like they just read a book called "10 ways to influence people, make friends and be an absolute nuisance." I'm tired of your scientific conversations, you wide-eyed space killers. Bring up something funny, make it quick and then leave.

OK, these guys are basically just like salespeople...off of a salesfloor. They're eventually going to sell you something, whether it be their shitty band, their shitty script, their shitty poor-me life or some absurdly inoffensive politics. I'll tell ya, I'm all networked out, people. Maybe its the 6 years I've lived in LA, maybe its that I'm getting close to turning 30. Either way. Please God sterilize the small talkers.

10. People who think everything is funny. Often the illegitimate child of a networker and a salesperson. An obnoxious ability to make people who are actually funny angry, frustrated and suspicious. Also...people who laugh all the time are usually not funny themselves. Sure, we all have social anxieties. But the walking hair-trigger laugh-track is right up there as probably the most distracting and annoying. Screw these faith-drainers.

11. People who don't leave voicemails. What the fuck?

12. People who leave 10-minute voicemails. Text me!

13. Ugly, angry, sarcastic, hate-filled blogs. Obviously I'm kidding.

Happy New Year y'all!

CAMILLE-IONAIRE

CAMILLE-IONAIRE

No, not this guy. This chick:

Yup, caught the latest Camille Paglia Salon column. Wanted to comment on it a wee bit:

Searching, for example, for online news about Italy in recent years, I've been dismayed by its near-total domination by soccer, with archaeological discoveries and the restoration of Old Master paintings coming in second. The pope flits hither and thither, but that's it.

I don't know what Paglia expects. Its so unfair to compare archaeological discoveries and restorations of Old Master paintings to sports. Sports creates, universally, so much shameless passion and analysis in folks...true, maybe to a despairing extent. But when has archaeology and painting ever enjoyed such fandom?

Don't get me wrong, I wish people were more interested in archaeology and classical paintings, too. But Paglia sounds either elitist, cynical or oblivious. We have to be realistic about the historical level of interest global peoples have had in athletics. Sports is high drama, heart-pounding, moreso than 99.9% of art and history. It brings many folks together who might otherwise have nothing in common.

Artifacts and Old Master paintings, on the other hand, are forever in the past and require a certain taste, sentimentality and intellectual curiosity. Whereas I agree we should all have such qualities (with a limit on sentimentality), they will never be found in folks as broadly as a passion for sports is.

I'm not going so far as to say Camille is a jockhater. But nothing is more lame than people who rail against sports. Well...with the obvious exception of people who are unable to discuss anything but.

More:

Is there nothing new in post-Fellini Italian culture? It's as if Europe, struggling to incorporate massive Muslim immigration, has retreated into a bubble where the beautiful artifices of the past float like a mirage. Secularism evidently cannot stimulate creativity as profoundly as religion does -- whether in the artist's soaring affirmation or angry resistance.

Bear in mind that Paglia is proposing that secularim is not as artistictally inspirational as religion...while complaining so strongly of the crosscurrents of religion and politics, as if the '08 presidential race is somehow exceptionally "religious":

Nevertheless, the pervasiveness of religion in American politics is becoming a tedious distraction from urgent social problems like healthcare. I detest sanctimony in any form -- from the unctuous piety of smarmy televangelists to ostentatious badge-wearing (such as the gold-cross necklace that Hillary Clinton was regularly flaunting around Capitol Hill). Religious protestations are now a rote formula for asserting family values and opposing moral relativism, with which the Democrats have been tagged since the hedonistic '60s. One reason religion is so intrusive in the United States is because of the mammoth institutional power of our mass media, which is unparalleled anywhere else in the world. Religion has become a prophetic voice crying in the wilderness against our Hollywood Babylon.

I just think this is nonsense.

First of all, Paglia is a self-described "Dionysian" feminist, which is an intellectually lazy stab at cementing herself as a subversive. How many family values would a "Dionysian feminist" truly advocate? What is "hedonistic" to a Dionysian? How does she expect Democrats who are notoriously pro-choice, entitlement-driven and gay-friendly to be seen as pro-family?

Second of all, is Camille truly blaming mass fucking media for the "intrusiveness" of religion? Give me a break. This is a ridiculous idea. Most mass media, in fact, promotes "our Hollywood Babylon." How much of the media is friendly to the church? How many pro-church adverts does Camille see compared to movie adverts? Please.

Thirdly. Whereas I agree that religious affiliation is irrelevant (with the obvious exception of any Muslims seeking to install sharia, despite our constitution which protects its advent), religion and politics are inseparable. Politics, with regards to public debates involving electable officials, should amount to a battle of ideas on how a country should be governed. Judgments need to be made during this debate. Who is right and who is wrong. These judgments are, just as often as not, based on morality, on God, on the Bible, on an idea of some objective moral power. Sure--the four horsemen may prefer the term "ethics."

The reality is that political ideas often have a religious foundation. Therefore a candidate's religion is contrasted against his voting record for the sake of establishing credibility. Folks (atheists included) deserve to know the religious background and conviction of the candidates and how it compares to the laws they write and/or pass.

And, inevitably, due to the church-going nature of America's voting populace, candidates will vie for their religious leaders' and constituents' advocacy. Its tedious, I agree. But necessary.

Religious "sanctimoniousness" (a constant unfair tethering from the left, people apparently more disgusted by proselytizing than anything else) is also more valid than proving you're "black" enough or that you grew up poor enough. At least a religious affiliation has ideas and beliefs behind it, however untenable some of them are. Having to prove you're of some racial or financial stock is irrelevant to debating policy.

Let's also look at other countries. Especially in the Middle East where, ostensibly, religion and politics are identical. In these countries, typically, one's vote is either nonexistent or tied to a particular religious faction. Is American presidential politics really bogged down in religious cred-battles compared to anywhere else globally?

Also, for someone who is so tired of dealing with religion, she spends so little time dissecting the policies of the candidates, preferring instead a mere mention of healthcare and a description of Obama's wife as "fierce." Who gives a fuck? If Paglia is so unwilling to discuss religion, it would be a much easier pill to swallow if she wasn't so otherwise pre-occupied with celebrity endorsements, photo-ops and fashion statements. Throw a paycheck on that.

Then again, as usual, Camille saves her reputation in my eyes with an insightful bookend, far more brave than what had preceded it:

Now here's Pattie Brooks last year introducing a new remix of "After Dark." She looks fabulous -- showing a ton of leg and a veritable ripe-fruit basket of bosom and butt. Whew! But what's happened to the song? It's been given the standard current gay club treatment -- an impersonal, mechanistic pounding. All the lyricism, romance, attunement to nature, and artistic touch are gone. Are we hearing the baleful influence of crystal meth on the gay male world? An obsessive focus on hard partying and status display? Just asking.

I don't really notice a difference between the two versions of "After Dark," except maybe that, presumably, without fully hearing each song, the latest iteration sucks a little bit more. But I love Camille's tone towards "gay club" music, which, in my opinion, is an oxymoronic term. And the "baleful influence of crystal meth" might be obvious in general terms, but I appreciate its application towards a musical genre. Paglia isn't "just asking." She knows.

And as usual, as with any pundits and intellectuals, when they are most critical of their own demographic, they are most easily trusted.

JULIA CHILD AND SEAL SPOTTED TOGETHER ON SECLUDED KENYAN BEACH EXCHANGING CASH MONEY

JULIA CHILD AND SEAL SPOTTED TOGETHER ON SECLUDED KENYAN BEACH EXCHANGING CASH MONEY

Well, maybe. I'm not saying Seal looked happy about it. And I'm not saying Seal is Kenyan.

Julia is pictured here cooking up some cash for an illicit liason where the lion sleeps tonight.

Seal is pictured here graciously denying that he received a kiss from a rose from anyone other than Heidi.

Check it out:

MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Bethan, 56, lives in southern England on the same street as best friend Allie, 64.

They are on their first holiday to Kenya, a country they say is "just full of big young boys who like us older girls."

Riiiiiiiiiight.

More:

Hard figures are difficult to come by, but local people on the coast estimate that as many as one in five single women visiting from rich countries are in search of sex.

Ehhh. I'm guessing more like 3.5 per every 5 single, rich-countried women. Come on. Why else are single white chicks going there?

More:

"It's not evil," said Jake Grieves-Cook, chairman of the Kenya Tourist Board, when asked about the practice of older rich women traveling for sex with young Kenyan men.

"But it's certainly something we frown upon."

Jake's a real pro. Luckily the Kenya Tourist Board has someone with such moral clarity. Hopefully Jake confirmed that prostitution was not evil after being asked whether or not it was. If he just offered that opinion, we can all agree that he's wrong or hiding something, which means you're wrong anyway. Jake, buddy. Why are you so quick to frown on something that's not evil? If you just say its bad, does that make half the world sigh with that still-going-to-heaven relief?

More:

Also, the health risks are stark in a country with an AIDS prevalence of 6.9 percent. Although condom use can only be guessed at, Julia Davidson, an academic at Nottingham University who writes on sex tourism, said that in the course of her research she had met women who shunned condoms -- finding them too "businesslike" for their exotic fantasies.

Yeah, well, I guess after you hand a prostitute money for sex, the condom must totally ruin the mood. That shit is crossing the line. Total bummer. Oh, wait--maybe these ladies pay after the sex. Yeah, that's a smart prostitute. Well...male prostitutes are probably less worried about getting stiffed than their female counterparts.

More:

"We both get something we want -- where's the negative?" Allie asked in a bar later, nursing a strong, golden cocktail.

This argument is about as old as the profession. How come we're still dealing with it? Prostitution is extremely risky sex. Its extremely risky period. The lifestyle is incredibly lazy and damaging and addictive. I think we can all agree on that, even if prostitutes are way more respectable than porn stars. Fuck, even a real doll is more respectable than a porn star.

Yeah, male prostitutes will probably just brag about it for the rest of their lives, sure. But what about women and children?

These same beaches have long been notorious for attracting another type of sex tourists -- those who abuse children.

As many as 15,000 girls in four coastal districts -- about a third of all 12-18 year-olds girls there -- are involved in casual sex for cash, a joint study by Kenya's government and U.N. children's charity UNICEF reported late last year.

Up to 3,000 more girls and boys are in full-time sex work, it said, some paid for the "most horrific and abnormal acts."

...

"It's a social arrangement. I buy him a nice shirt and we go out for dinner. For as long as he stays with me he doesn't pay for anything, and I get what I want -- a good time. How is that different from a man buying a young girl dinner?"

Wait a second, isn't there a very real difference? I mean, call me naive, but when a man buys a young girl dinner, is he guaranteed sex? I mean, why do I suddenly feel Puritanical?

SUPER HUSH HUSH GYPSY TRIBUNAL IN CHEESY NEWPORT BEACH SHOCKS SURROUNDING HOLLYWOOD ANNEX AND UPPITY CATALINA YACHT PIMPS

SUPER HUSH HUSH GYPSY TRIBUNAL IN CHEESY NEWPORT BEACH SHOCKS SURROUNDING HOLLYWOOD ANNEX AND UPPITY CATALINA YACHT PIMPS

Man, you just can't get away from Borat, can you? Just when you think you've heard the last acne-and-braces "Yesh Manesh" impression or whatever it is, you're confronted with a near-Onion article about secret gypsy clan battles in southern California. Should "gyspy" really be capitalized? I think they just got capitalized last year or last week probably, and I'm not down with it yet. But, eh, I don't want to offend these hardcore OGs. Homies are above the law like Steven Seagal:

Quit bullshittin, dawg. This Native American ninja Bo Diddly bullshit needs to stop. Its so unbelievably shitty even Stephen Hawking is grappling with the precise amount of shittiness. GEEzus. Quit it.

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) - A dispute between two Gypsy clans over control of the fortunetelling trade in this Southern California city has spilled into court, offering a rare glimpse of an insular culture that has long settled scores according to its own Old World rules of honor.

The turf war in well-to-do Orange County has unfolded like a gangster movie, with allegations of death threats, a graveside scuffle, and nicknames like "White Bob" and "Black Bob" - details revealed in a police report and requests for restraining orders.

Now, I know what you're thinking: am I reading a blog or Harry Potter? Don't worry, you're still an adult and you're not reading a childish, useless ghosts and goblins piece of nonsense.

Please read on:

"The older Gypsies are pulling out their hair, not wanting the courts in our business because they'll find out too much about us," said Tom Merino, who is distantly related to one of the clans but has spurned his heritage. "Ignorance is the Gypsies' weapon against the outside world."

What? Is this dood talking shit about us or the gypsies?

Alright, seriously. These palm-reading nutjobs want to exist outside the court system? FUCK EM. Yank em "out of the shadows." The American court system is half the reason why they're here in the first place. Why don't people understand that its the general law and order which attracts people to this country? When they try and circumvent it it doesn't make any sense!

Unless they're avowed criminals, of course. Then they shouldn't be here in the first place.

Get a load of this bullshit:

Gypsies have traditionally resolved disputes in front of a secret council of elders that can impose fines, make territorial decisions or order someone shunned. They don't like to involve non-Gypsies, who are considered impure.

WHAT? Fuck these guys and their bullshit council of beard-stroking costume-jewelry orcs. Who do they think they are? Immigrating amongst "the impure"? Please.

More:

That the dispute wound up in court reflects an erosion of tradition among the Gypsies, said Ian Hancock, an expert on Gypsy language and culture at the University of Texas.

"It used to be that the Romany world was absolutely insulated from the outside world," said Hancock, a Gypsy himself. "But it's very hard to resist the pressures of MTV, and people are beginning to see alternatives."

Unbelievable. How do we connect a dispute which "wound up in court" to the "pressures of MTV"? I'm nearly shocked. The fact that gyspies are now resolving their conflicts in a court of law is a good thing. And if their kids are hooked on MTV, then that's their fault, not America's. Turn off the fucking TV! Throw some palms in front of those kids and make em read! Its not like gypsies came to America, turned on the TV and were all tossed into helpless twitching stupors. MTV is like 30 channels now and all over the world. The gypsies knew exactly what they were getting themselves into before they came to America and if they didn't, they should've seen a Tarot card or something which would've clued em in.

More:

Things were calm for months until the Stevens patriarch died of a heart attack at age 53 last May. Edward "Davie" Merino showed up at the funeral, pulling up at the cemetery in a limo with what was described as a menacingly burly chauffeur.

Merino says members of the Stevens clan attacked him and screamed, "We will make your life a living hell!" But the Stevenses claim that Merino flashed a gun and threatened to "come back and kill all of you." Both sides agree that before speeding off, Merino shouted that he wanted to make sure "the mother-(expletive) was dead."

...

Stevens, who owns two fortunetelling parlors and a deli, added: "I feel like they've made me out like a character on 'The Sopranos.' I'm a businessman. I'm a family man. That's all I am."

Bro. Come here, dawg. Listen up. Let me give you some advice. If you're going to try to put some distance between you and the Sopranos, you can't sound just like the motherfucking Godfather. Dumby.

GUANABEE GETS AN A+ FROM A PUTO GRINGO

GUANABEE GETS AN A+ FROM A PUTO GRINGO

Pick your fetish, gentlemen.

I was a little late to this masterpiece cuz I usually get all my Latino-flavored news from immigrationwatchdawg.com. True, Watchdawg is pro-Ron Paul, but they also shoot a lot of good footage right near my apartment and I can't get enough of this clip of the webmaster reading his hate mail (good stuff starts at about a minute and a half).

The whole post is good, but here is the soda-commercial blast of refreshment:

So, because I was pretty anxious to drown the remainder of my evening in a plate of Wonderbread slathered in mayo, I’m going to go ahead and say, yeah, the currency of the term “Latina” definitely carries a lot of, uh, porny connotations. I’d even go so far as to say we’re fetishized, as in, we are often viewed as less “individual people with thoughts and feelings” and more” a series of holes and curves.” We’d go even further (After all, this is what? Our second date?) and say that all women are fetish objects, as far as the internet is concerned. Women of all races, of all ethnic groups, all sizes and ages are idealized and re-contextualized as sexual, interchangeable objects by whoever is their cultural or social “Other.”

Ah ha! What is this? No whining? No moaning? No racebaiting? I can't believe it.

No matter what you see, whether it be movies, plays, TV shows, or (online) pornography, you're going to be stereotyped. That doesn't make it right. And it doesn't make the stereotypes true. But it doesn't make you alone. Its not only blacks, its not only Asians, its not only Latinos and its not only whites. Stereotyping is simply impossible to avoid if you must indulge in fantasy (i.e. online dating and dumb-ass movies). You have two choices:

1. Shut the fuck up, write your own TV scripts and uptight online personals.

or

2. Shut the fuck up, turn off your TV, trade in your bullshit DVDs, stop Googling yourself (or your demographic) and go out and jog to a bookstore (STICK WITH NON-FICTION, WISEGUY).

Seriously. Cuz you're never going to be happy with the way your demographic is portrayed unless you portray it yourself. And even then, someone will probably still be offended by it. If its at all unflattering.

And I'd also like to commend the author of the Guanabee post, Associate Editor Alex Alvarez, for being so apparently torn about the difference between a "fetish" and a "preference." I've always thought the difference was simple: men have fetishes and women have preferences. Hopefully we are getting closer to admitting that we both have neither. Or at least something in between.

Now if you haven't already, go get your preference. Why compromise?

ENGLISH BITCHES AND LYRICAL BABES

ENGLISH BITCHES AND LYRICAL BABES

Sorry, this isn't a post about the Spice Girls.

How many of you caught this article?

LONDON (Reuters) - A man has been convicted of racially aggravated harassment after calling a Welsh woman English.

Michael Forsythe was sentenced to 10 weeks in jail, suspended for 12 months, after being found guilty of racially aggravated disorderly behaviour, a court official said.

Forsythe received the sentence at Welshpool Magistrates Court on Tuesday and was also ordered to pay 200 pounds in prosecution costs.

The former lorry driver, who is originally from Northern Ireland, but lives in Powys, Mid Wales, called Lorna Steele an "English bitch" during an argument after he collided with her parked vehicle in the Welsh market town of Newport in February.

Unbelievable. I doubt this guy is going to jail for calling a Welsh woman an English bitch, but the conviction is still a ridiculous precedent. Shouldn't almost every African American rapper be receiving the same suspended sentence? Wouldn't Kramer and Don Imus be in top secret Polish prisons by now?

Coincidentally, Samina Malik, the lyrical terrorist, recently received a similarly suspended jail sentence, involving supervision and unpaid work.

But isn't the conviction of a racial epithet prompted by a car accident far more insidious than the conviction of a wannabe terrorist? Samina explicitly detailed violent fantasies against "dirty kuffars" (i.e. non-Muslims), advocated martyrdom and, according to Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, attempted to "donate money to a terrorist group."

I think we can agree that neither party deserves jail-time. But neither party deserves a holiday, either.

The problem I see is that folks around the world are so quick to come to the defense of free speech when it involves Muslims and other minorities. But when it comes to caucasians, no sympathy is labored over, no holidays are suggested. What about the non-stop racist/inbred portrayal of whites in the latest Harold and Kumar piece of shit? Where are the suspended jail sentences for all assholes involved?

Yeah, can you ladies please turn all the way around? Grrrrreat. Thanks.

Hey, wait....I didn't know Ho Spice and Skeezer Spice were Welsh.

RACEBAIT REPORT

RACEBAIT REPORT

So, I bet some people saw this article on Drudge today. I don't know. I think its irresponsible:

BOSTON — A Boston firefighter is mending from what could have been deadly stab wounds he suffered early yesterday morning when he was allegedly jumped in East Boston while off duty by a group of Hispanic males who told him they "don't want any gringo here."

Come on. Can anyone besides the victim corroborate the "gringo" statement? How many witnesses were at the restaurant who can stand by that claim? Do we have any video? Any security cameras at the restaurant or the firehouse where the alleged racist Latino gang chased the firefighter to?

This story just seems like a real leap of faith. All the events that supposedly took place are based on nothing but the firefighter's testimony. An especially sympathetic victim....non life-threatening injuries....one man against six and he was able to ring the bell at the station....all six attackers managed to disappear into the night. I don't know, its a stretch to me. I need more proof.

Now, I'm not saying the firefighter is lying at all. I'm not saying he wasn't stabbed and I'm not saying racist comments weren't made. But my gut reaction is that the Drudge Report wants to believe in the story too much. They just posted a firefighter noose hoax earlier in the week. Why are they posting a story so incredibly similar? Do they want to fall for this bullshit again? Who is an editor at Drudge now--Tom Tan-crazy? (credit: Medved)

No, don't get me wrong. I like Tom. I just think he's too far right on immigration and his most recent ad is a little over the top. Its absolutely foolish to stop all immigration. Its dumb. We need to attract big brains from overseas to develop our nation. We can't let our country stagnate like the Asian hermit kingdoms, like all the third world countries suffering from brain-drain. But otherwise Tom seems like a straight-shooter.