Explosive Expressions

"I have serious doubts ... about the extent to which he understands and is prepared to do what needs to be done to defend the nation."

Posted by Jason Frisvold

Felicia Day, from The Guild, Dr Horrible, and more, sings and dances in this really cool music video from The Guild. Check it out. The song is pretty catchy too... You can also pick it up on iTunes or even Amazon.

Posted by Jason Frisvold

Seriously, are you people insane? Yes, you have every right to carry a weapon, assuming you have the necessary licenses. You absolutely have the right, and I fully support that right. But standing outside of a venue where the President of the United States is speaking, carrying firearms, including assault rifles, while protesting against the president is just antagonistic and irresponsible.

Think about this for a minute. The leader of our nation, who was elected by the people, is speaking in your area. You decide to go protest against him. And as part of that protest, you decide to bring along a weapon? What message are you trying to send? If he doesn't cow to your protests, you'll kill him? Are we that uncivilized?

Bringing a firearm, or a weapon at all, to a venue like this, where there are plenty of security officers, is just asking for trouble. First, you'll be targeted immediately. If anything happens, regardless of whether you're involved, you'll be first on the list of people they look at. Second, you're going to end up reducing the effectiveness of the security forces present. Why? Because you have a visible weapon and have automatically been ratcheted up the list of people that are considered possible dangers. In the end, this means security forces will constantly be watching you, reducing the amount of time spent on watching the crowd as a whole. Again, regardless of whether this is what you intend or not, you are an immediate threat, already identified.

And, even if you do have your head on straight, which I'm not quite sure of right now, you have brought a weapon into a venue with lots of other people. What's preventing someone else from taking your weapon and using it? And before you point out the hordes of police and other security personnel, realize that they are trained for these situations, whereas you are likely not.

You have every right to carry a weapon, and I fully support you. But please use your head. Let's not cause more problems than we have already. Antagonizing behavior like this will likely end up with the government thinking more about gun control, which I'm sure you're completely against.

Posted by Jason Frisvold

Healthcare. What a debate.. Seriously, what the hell. I don't see what the hoopla is all about, seriously. There's a lot of screaming and shouting going on, but no one seems to be talking about the issue at hand. Obama wants the government to provide universal healthcare to all Americans. This sounds like a really good thing to me.

Let's look at what we have today. First, according to different sources, we have several tens of millions of people without healthcare at all. Estimates seem to range from 40-80 million people. Compare that to the 250 or so million people that have health coverage. That's roughly 15-20% of Americans under 65 without healthcare!

But who are these people? Surely we're talking about the low-income, welfare cases, right? Wrong. In a 2003 paper on the relationship between income and health insurance, the writer found that more than 50% of those without health insurance made more than $25,000 per year. According to the 2009 Federal Poverty Guidelines, a $25,000 per year income is considered poverty when you exceed four persons in your family.

So universal healthcare isn't just for the poor, it's more for the average American who is a productive member of society. The government isn't looking to hand out free healthcare to those who don't deserve it, they're looking to provide a necessary service to those who try, but can't afford healthcare because of the insane premiums.

So what are we talking about? Is the government looking to kill off older Americans, provide free abortions, or put insurance companies out of business? No, I doubt it. In fact, I hope that Obama and the rest of the Democratic party can get this healthcare bill passed. Think about it, it actually makes sense.

First, the government needs to put together a basic healthcare plan. No bells and whistles, just your run of the mill healthcare that covers all the normal stuff. They should follow the same basic guidelines that current insurance companies follow. Set some fair deductibles, put in some reasonable ceilings, and let it fly. This means instant competition for the insurance industry since all of the basic care will now be covered by the government's free healthcare plan.

Yeah yeah, it's not really free, we pay for it with taxes... No kidding. I'm aware of that. But, to the average American, it seems free and sometimes perception is really important.

Anyway, as I was saying, the government plan covers the minimum benefits. Now the insurance companies can step up and start offering all the fluff and special features. They'll need to make it affordable in order to compete, but I'm sure they'll be able to keep the doors open.

In the end, I believe this will bring down healthcare prices, ensure competition, and provide coverage for those that deserve it. I don't believe this will be the downfall of America, and it won't result in the government choosing who lives and who dies. It will not cause healthcare prices to rise, and in the end, if you don't want to participate in the government insurance plan, and put your healthcare in their hands, just go and get your own insurance. It'll still be out there, and it will probably be better than ever.

Posted by Jason Frisvold

If you spend enough time trolling around on the Internet, you're bound to come across some pretty cool stuff. Here's a collection of some stuff I came across recently.

In the vein of dead celebrities, ala Michael Jackson, comes this beauty from Pictures for Sad Children. The sad part is how incredibly true this is:

Obama is said to be one of the most organized presidents there has ever been. I came across this via a twitter post by Ana Marie Cox. It combines the current presidency with the Getting Things Done methodology designed by David Allen.

Old WWII propaganda posters re-imagined for current Internet trends:

And to finish things off, some images from crazy4cult, an artistic tribute to classic cult films.

Posted by Jason Frisvold