seth amicone

People can argue the finer points of the life debate back and forth for a long time. They'll ask questions pertaining to when life actually begins, who's rights should be upheld at the cost of whom, and what all this does for the greedy American's who pay taxes for it all, but I'd like to address a very important topic, and that is, what things like abortion does to the attitude of society as a whole. This discussion is a bit broader then some of the other debates on the issue, and lends itself to many different ideas, but I think the answer is the most clear and powerful argument against the practice of abortion.
The attitude that abortion is acceptable procedure devalues human life, and portrays human beings as disposable. It also fosters the perception that people are objects of novelty that can and should be planned at another human's discretion and convenience.
Many of the common arguments in favor of the practice claim that it is actually better to be killed in the womb then to possibly live a difficult life of abuse, either at the hands of parents or foster care.
The subliminal argument here is that it is more economical and convenient to allow people to kill their children than it is to try and force them to be responsible, respectful, civilized people. Another subliminal argument is that the only life worth living is one that meets society's standard of comfort and potential for economic productivity. These are dangerous ideas, the first one promotes irresponsibility and does not make an effort to hold people to any kind of elevated standard, and the second advocates that only people in the optimum environment for 'success' in life should have it guaranteed to them, all the rest are expendable. This is a typical 'survival of the fittest' state of mind, straight out of the heads of Darwin, Hitler, and Sanger.
Everyone in this world knows pain. Some people suffer such unbearable humiliation and torture that it's more than one can take, but mankind was not meant to avoid this pain, but to carry on through it, toward something greater. Abortion is only a small part of a greater ideology of this generation that pushes comfort and security as a masquerade for apathy and fear. Today, parents can make decisions of who lives or dies based on their idea of what makes a person count, but who's to say tomorrow it won't be the government? Who's to say that abortion is anything more then a first step toward complete social engineering?

Converse Chuck Taylor's have been around for a little over 90 years now, starting as the most advanced shoe in Basketball in 1917, and holding out long enough after that to become a permanent fixture among punk rockers everywhere, but I'm beginning to think that after being the most popular shoe in the world for such a long time, it might be time to put the Chuck's away with all the other great relics of the 20th century, and here are just a few reasons why.

1. Nike Owns Converse.
Most of us probably haven't even realized that back in 2003, Nike took another big bite out of American pie when they bought Converse for a whopping $305 Million, thus moving the production of Chuck T's overseas. Most of these bad boys are probably coming out of sweat shops now.

2. Kurt Cobain issue Chuck Taylor's.
Something tells me that putting the signature of a deceased person on a product isn't exactly the most ethical of practices, but that hasn't stopped Kurt Cobain's signature Chuck's. I wonder what other dead people have had their name on these shoes for too long. ;)

3. Drawing/Writing/Vandalizing Chuck's.
Well, what else can I say? It's in the spirit of good ol' Rock N' Roll rebellion to go against the grain, and I think the founding fathers like Kurt Cobain and The Ramones would agree, when something gets to be the most popular thing in history, it's naturally time to find a new one.

I never thought I'd find myself writing about shoes on my blog, but I'm trying to open myself up to different concepts. Chuck Taylor's aren't something I'm going to lose any sleep over, but hey, if you read this far, it didn't matter much, did it?

Well, I never bother with "Sorry for absence" speeches. I haven't forgotten about you, but I have been fairly uninspired, this in spite of aquiring a new keyboard, and a few other studio upgrades.
I decided to pick up reading after we were lucky enough to get a huge Barnes & Noble at La Cantera, and I've started George Orwell's classic '1984', along with another interesting book entitled 'Seven Men who Rule the World from the Grave'. Hopefully this will kick-start my creativity again. I've also been arguing with Colton a lot, but that's nothing new. Anyway, new posts to come, hopefully.

This is an open letter to a select few people, one person in particular. You know who you are.

First of all, I want to say once again how much I regret ever involving myself with people like you in the first place. It's quite obvious that you're all perfectly happy in your little half-witted, superficial world where everyone is either the same, or disregarded. I've made a horrible mistake in convincing myself that I could ever be understood by any of you.
That brings me to my second regret, that I've once again lowered myself to the level of petty insults and spite. Perhaps to gain the attention of the people who so clearly resent me, or perhaps to simply make myself feel better, either way, this is childish, and I am a fool to have allowed myself to become so insecure.
I don't need your respect, and I never have, even though I thought I did. I've realized that none of you seem to be in touch with who I am, or are even willing to try to be. That's fine, I'm over it, I'll leave you alone, but don't you ever even dare to think you know who I am, what I am, or what goes on in my mind if you're not willing to find out the hard way. If you think you know what I'm thinking just by looking at me and judging me, then you all you really are is an advanced form of ignorant. So in closing, don't get your opinions of me from anyone but me, and don't give your opinions of me to anyone but me, otherwise, just stay away from me.

There is a lot of talk going around concerning trade and economics these days. I've been doing a lot of thinking on that topic as well, but maybe not in the sense that most people are. To be honest, I'm very angry, and not for reasons that you might think.
Mostly, I'm tired of the idea that we as a country can compromise quality and ethics for the sake of cost-efficiency. We cannot continue to abuse our capitalist freedoms in this manner, we need to end our dependence on nations who fail to acknowledge human rights, such as China ($340 billion in imports last year) and Saudi Arabia ($50 billion in oil), to provide us with low-cost labor and oil, as well as stop the exploitation of developing countries.
We need the government to establish more trade restrictions, stop our reliance on foreign imports, take advantage of our own resources, demand our jobs be brought back home, and tell the American people that it's time to wake up, take responsibility for themselves, and be more conscious of the world around them.
My question is how? I can make an argument on paper, but how am I going to convince the people, and then the government to take action? I need all of your input.

Stop acting like changing Facebook means the world is coming to an end.
Facebook was started by a bunch of elitist yuppies who decided they were too good for the trashy MySpace population, so why do they pitch a fit when Facebook decides to give their layout a little bit more class? Furthermore, we have people who complain that the new layout is "confusing" or "hard to navigate", but it obviously hasn't slowed down the volume of complaints. If it's really that bad for people, heres a suggestion; Just leave. Stop giving Facebook a reason to believe the new layout is acceptable if it's really so bad.
I really do apologize for the rant, I don't know if it's justified or not, but either way, I needed some new material.

Talk amongst yourselves.

President Barack Obama seems to be having a lot of fun since he got elected. What, with filling out his March Madness bracket, to going on The Tonight Show, to inviting special olyimpians over to the white house to kick the crap out of him at bowling.
I'm really starting to wish I could be more supportive of our new President, after all, look at the man; he's bold, charismatic, intelligent, and still very down to earth. And right now all of his supporters will tell me that is exactly the point.
But of course, they and the rest of simple-minded America is sadly mistaken, those things couldn't be farther from the point.
It seems we mistook the presidential runoff for an early season of American Idol, and thought we were supposed to be electing an image for ourselves instead of a set of values. Now we've got a president who has the nerve to tell us we're in a crisis, and then turn around and spend his time on late night TV. This is another tragic example of how the media has ruined our sense of what is important in every aspect of life. So please Mr. President, at least pretend like you care.