Politics - Experience in Question

I'm very concerned with this country. Living expenses are rising, gas prices are going up, the cost of food, economy has been slowing down, and people are losing jobs. It's depressing living through these conditions when everything was so much better going back even 6 or 7 years ago.

As an American Citizen, I feel it's my duty to vote in this coming election for the better of this country. Two years ago, I knew little about politics and what's going on, but as the campaigns begun heating up, I started paying closer and closer attention to the candidates to learn more about them.

With that said, I will say that I have been doing my homework for this election. I will also say that I am a Libertarian when it comes to who I side with. I take a middle stance, and consider each issue on it's own, rather than deciding "liberal" or "conservative" before I even hear the issue. So after taking an initial, neutral stance, there are plenty of points to take consideration before deciding on a candidate. Such points include the candidate's: judgment, stance on issues, and their experience.

One of the big issues that people have against Barack Obama is his inexperience. From what I recall, it was made a big deal by Hillary Clinton when she started smearing Obama on his experience. Her whole point with that, was that she was in the White House first hand. Despite the fact that Obama has been a senator two years longer then her, he wasn't in the white house and didn't experience all that she did while her husband was the president.

Of course, it's expected from politicians to smear and throw mud at each other. It's just that Hillary brought that up so much, that it stuck in everyone's' heads. John McCain is now using that as well, that Obama is inexperienced. Is McCain saying Obama less experienced then he is? Or is he saying that Obama has no experience at all. We can assume the former of the two, since McCain has been in senate for what seems like forever.

Recently though, McCain has picked Gov. Sarah Palin as his running-mate. The same question has come up about her experience as well. McCain has been re-assuring everyone that no, she is not inexperienced and she is perfect for the job. So rather than believing Obama is just less experienced then McCain, we can now believe that McCain is saying Obama has zero experience.

Rather than listing off what who has done, let me share a couple of links that highlight both Obama's and Palin's history of experience.

Barack Obama - Obamapedia
Sarah Palin - Ballotpedia

I tried picking out sites that highlighted their careers rather than bashing each other, so hopefully those are sufficient enough to show their true experience.

I am not convinced that Obama is inexperienced, nor am I convinced that Palin has more experience then he. From what I've read, what I seen, and what I heard, I'm convinced that Obama is an intelligent man, worked hard on his education, and has his stances well thought out. Palin on the other hand, I don't think the same of her. She's educated, but not as educated as Obama. I also definitely don't think she has a clear idea or vision of all the issues and what's going on.

Let's take their latest big interviews for example. Recently, Obama has been interviewed by Bill O'Reilly, and Palin by Charlie Gibson.

O'Reilly was very demanding on Obama. Not only did he push hard on him on his issues and his character, but it was apparent to me that he was intentionally trying to get Obama to slip. He used tactics such a shouting down at Obama, interrupting him, and even asked questions to try to decive him that were crossing the line such as "give me a name" when Obama stated he had all sorts of friends, even friends on the right wing of the political spectrum. I personally thought Obama did a good job in this interview. He held on, and proved that he was strong. Overall, this interview shown that he knew what he was talking about, and that he isn't only charisma.

Palin's interview was a different story. Keep in mind, she hand selected Charlie Gibson and was only willing to get interviewed by him and him only because she's afraid anyone else would give her hard questions. That alone says that she's not ready for VP, contrary to her claims. Despite Charlie being nice to her, not interrupting, and keeping a low tone, she did abysmal in her interview. Many have compared her answers to that of a beauty pageant. For the majority of her answers, she looked nervous and it was very obvious, the complete opposite of Obama when he was being challenged by O'Reily.

But the major thing that I and so many others got out of those interviews with Palin and Gibson, is that she doesn't have a clue and completely lacks the knowledge needed for being VP. Here are some key points I'll highlight.

• When asked about her foreign experience, she said Russian land is visible from Alaska. Just the thought of that being put down on a resume for experience is laughable. I seen a full moon last night before typing this blog out. So according to Palin and McCain's logic, I have experience with astronomy. Sign me up for NASA.
  
• When asked about Russia/Georgia, she made it clear that she thinks Russia attacked Georgia unprovoked, which she's completely wrong about, and is willing to wage war if Russia would attack again.
• She had no clue on what the Bush Doctrine is. For you or me, that would be fine since we're not running for political office, but she's supposed to be the expert and is supposed to know these issues.
• She said we have to invade Iran just for the fact that they have nuclear weapons. She claims Ahmadinejad wont use them, but he'll let terrorists use them. This is an absurd statement just for the fact that she has no proof of it.
• On the contrary to the last point, if Israel attacks anyone with nuclear weapons, then it's "self defense."
  
• She said we need to do whatever it takes, even do cross-border attacks to Pakistan from Afghanistan to take on terrorists. In other words, ignore their government and invade them.
• She attempts to explain that we shouldn't pray that God is with us when we go into war, but that we're on God's side.
  

This interview really didn't help her at all. If anything, it severally hurt her and I doubt the campaign will allow another interview any time soon.

Earlier on the same day she did the interview, she made a speech to bid farewell to her son, who was being shipped off to Iraq. In her speech, she wanted to remind everyone that Iraq was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. The idea of Saddam being linked with Al-Qaeda has been dropped long ago, even by Bush himself.

So back to the original subject of experience. I really don't get how anyone can compare Obama's experience to Palin's inexperience. It's a trick that the McCain campaign is spreading, and it's working. People are still believing it. I know there are those people who are thinking it's unfair to compare Obama and Palin since one is going for president and the other for vice-president, but I disagree. McCain has a bad health record, and it wouldn't be a surprise that something would happen to him. The VP should be qualified enough to take place of the president, and I don't see Palin as experienced, qualified, or knowledgable for the position.

Sarah Palin is unfit for the position. She obviously was not picked for her experience. John McCain picked her in desperation to take those Hillary Supporters that only wanted to vote for her because of her sex. He could have easily picked Senator Olympia Snowe if he wanted a woman so badly. She's a woman who's highly respected, been in senate longer then McCain, and has even been listed in Time Magazine's Top 10 senators list. My only guess is to why he didn't pick her is because she can be seen as old and unattractive. I find it a joke when Palin mentions the "glass ceiling" that she wants to break. If anything, Palin is an insult to hard working women and the feminist movement. She's a prime example that looks will get you further then brains, and that is the sad truth that she's representing.

Peace be upon you
Stafa

Films - Max Payne

Max Payne, one of the better games of the last console generation, is now getting a movie adaption due this coming October. Playing the lead role as Detective Max Payne himself is Mark Wahlberg. I haven't seen too many movies with him. I thought he was alright in The Italian Job. In Four Brothers he portrayed a cool character and the movie was just bad ass. He also did a good job portraying a strong, calm and cool character in The Departed. The last movie I've seen him in was Shooter and I loved that movie. From watching those movies, I feel that Mark Wahlberg can do a good job playing as tough, hard as nails protagonists. So with that said, I feel that Mark Wahlberg is a great fit for playing a bad ass character such as Max Payne. The only better match would be if the producers of the movie built a time machine, traveled back about 10 or 15 years into the past, and got a young Bruce Willis.

Before I get back to the movie and the subject I want to write about, I want to share the trailer of this movie.



Honestly, this trailer makes me excited to see the movie. Video game to film adaptions really haven't had a good reputation at all, but I really have faith this I will like this one. Despite being enthusiastic about this, many people are whining and complaining about the movie and dismissing it as a failure, even before the movie is released. I read many comments in which people saying that they thought Max Payne was about shooting people in slo-mo. I also read complaints about "flying birdmen" or "the end of the world,"stating that the story is not following the source material at all.

Let me explain: Max Payne is not a game just about diving in slow motion and shooting people, it actually has a very deep, well-written story with excellent dialog. It's not just about a cop who comes home to his dead family and seeks revenge. The main character takes lots of pain killers, he gets drugs, hallucinates, and has lots of nightmares in the story. Lots of biblical references are placed in the plot of this game. Here is a sample cut scene group from the first Max Payne game.



Starting at about 2:20 into the above video clip, you can see where the character talks about "the flesh of fallen angels," "the devil's green blood," and it just keeps getting more biblical from there.

Other then that, people need to stop comparing the plot of the game to the plot of the trailer. No movie ever reveals the entire plot and story within it's trailer. So there is a possibility that this film has a completely different story, and there's also the same possibility that it stays true to the source material. There's no way to find out until the movie is released, because you can't know for sure just from watching the trailer.

The final complaint I keep reading is that of Ludacris playing the role of an old, white guy. Half the complaints I see are the fact that his character is supposed to be old and white. So what? Optimus Prime isn't suppose to have flames on him, but Transformers was still a good movie. Having a character not look exactly the same will not ruin the movie, so give it a break. The other half of the complaints I read are stating that Ludacris is a horrible actor and so the movie will be horrible. The only thing that comes to mind when I read these comments, are that the people typings those comments up are just wanting this movie to be bad. Ludacris is not the main role, and the obvious reason they got Luda to be in this movie is to draw more sales.

Honestly, I think this movie will turn out really good. It has three big name stars in it: Mark Wahlberg, Ludacris, and Mila Kunis. I really doubt three big name people will cast in a movie that they think would end up being trash, unless they're really desperate for work. Overall, I think people need to quit whinning. If you're not hyped by the trailer, then that's fine, I respect that. Just don't whine about things such as the plot doesn't match the game, or say the movie sucks before it's even out yet. With that all off my chest, I'll end this blog. Thanks for reading.

Peace be upon you
Stafa

Update: I watched this movie and it's trash.

Video Games - Sword of the Berserk

I haven't posted a blog in quite a while. I'm not too worried about that since I highly doubt ANYONE reads my blogs to begin with.

To start this blog off, I use to be a huge fan of ScrewAttack. I was first introduced to them by watching The Angry Nintendo Nerd who now goes by The Angry Video Game Nerd or AVGN for short. Pretty much, I ordered his shirt he was advertising and found out he was a part of ScrewAttack's website.

I quickly grew to enjoy their site, especially their Video Game Vaults which they eventually started uploading onto Game Trailers.

As I said before, I became a huge fan of the site. They seemed to have a passion for the arts of video games and their methods seemed more laid-back and casual rather then a up-tight professional feel. I felt that the site started going down hill once one of the co-founders, Handsome Tom, left. I wont go into detail on why he left, but you can read about it here if you're interested. Not only do I believe it was going down hill, but the direction the site was going towards was more forced humor that basically came down to juvenile fart/penis jokes. I eventually deleted the site off my Bookmarks because of this video. (Disclaimer: The video can be considered a waste of time, you have been warned).

As bad as the videos were getting, I still kept up with ScrewAttack's videos on Game Trailers. Despite how bad some of their recent videos have been, the straw that broke the camel's back was their Video Game Vault on a Dreamcast game called "Sword of the Berserk." Before I will get into the game, here is the said video.


Now seriously, that is just a sad attempt to be funny. "Ho ho ho! This game sucks! I said BALL SACK!!!" Can we get more juvenile? He complains that you can't move because of the controls and how big the sword is, yet he says the game is too easy because of how big the sword is. Where is the logic in that? Then he complements the game on it's story, yet says no one would understand it unless they have watched the anime or read the manga. Finally, the jokes on the French name, Balzac.

First of all, the controls are responsive and I do not remember having any problem with the control scheme what-so-ever. As for the gameplay, he was playing the game wrong. Once you get past the learning curve, which wont take longer then about 10-20 minutes, you can figure that there are plenty of ways to attack the enemies. There are both horizontal and vertical slash attacks. Horizontal slashes will clang against walls, just like in real life. If there isn't enough room then vertical attacks is always an option. There are also other weapons, such as a crossbow-chain gun type weapon, throwing knives, and the sword can be sheathed to fight with fists. He mentions the berserk mode, yet fails to mention that the sword can go threw walls when in this mode. He also makes it sound like this mode will save you when you're about to die. This game is actually pretty hard, especially the boss fight with Zodd. Additionally, the difficulty level can be adjustable, so this game is not "too easy" as he makes it sound.

The story on the other hand does not require you to know background information. Yes, it does help to know background information, but the antagonist and the overall plot are not directly linked with the overall story of Berserk. My main complaint of this game is that you get a LOT of cut scenes in this game, more cut scenes then you have time to play. Although, it is very interesting. It was interesting enough for me to go online and look up information on the story. This game is what got me to watch the anime and start reading the manga. So his claim of needing background info is wrong, I was introduced to the game before introduced to the series.

Here is what a REAL retrospective video on this game should be like.



Many say that Devil May Cry helped redefine and innovate the hack 'n' slash genre for video games. I disagree and say that Sword of the Berserk did to the Dreamcast as DMC did for the PS2. It provided an amazing package of action, with excellent gameplay and awesome characters. DMC definitely is a milestone to the genre and had excellent marketing, but Sword of the Berserk should be mentioned since it did come out before DMC. The creators of DMC even get inspiration from Berserk. Just check out how similar Beowulf from DMC 3 is to Zodd.

I really think this game took good advantage over the license to this franchise. I would like to one day check out the PS2 Berserk game, which I read is a much better game. If you're interested in checking out this series, I will warn you that the series is very adult orientated. The manga hold back no punches, and covers politics, action, blood and gore, nudity, rape, religion and cults, and just about anything that not suitable for children. There's my warning about the series. I also recommend the manga over the anime, since the anime is basically a teaser trailer for the manga. It leaves out main events, characters, and even ends off with a cliff hanger ending.

My final words, I no longer trust ScrewAttack. They apparently will do anything for the ratings. Rather than making videos on timeless classics like the Video Game Vault use to be about, they are now doing videos over games that no one has heard of just so they can do a minute of ball sack jokes. With all that said, I'm ending this rant.

Peace be upon you
Stafa

American Society - Pregnancy Pact

In Gloucester, MA, 17 girls made a "pact" together for them all to get pregnant at the same time. They go to Gloucester High School, and their ages are 14 to 16.

This is disgusting on so many levels. What makes it worse, most the girls don't have boy friends, so they slept with anyone just to get pregnant. One even went far enough to sleep with a homeless man.
One thing I kept hearing about is the school's choices in distribution of condoms and contraception. Whether they did distribute or didn't, it wouldn't have made a difference. These girls were TRYING to get pregnant. They weren't just like "ok, let's all have sex" and that's it, they WANTED to have UNPROTECTED sex. This is ridiculous. They are 14-16, they shouldn't be having sex.
I'm at a loss of words now....

Peace be upon you
Stafa

Politics/Technology - Net Neutrality

Here is a very important issue, our freedom of internet. Basically, the ISPs want to become the Gate Keepers of the internet, and start charging for each site we go to. Rather then having complete freedom of going to whichever site we want to, like now, they want to restrict our internet to certain large corporate sites instead. Here is a chart to better explain.


Also, I made a quick video on this as well.



Please check out these links for more in depth information, and pass them around as well.

http://www.savetheinternet.com/
http://ipower.ning.com/
http://www.wearetheweb.org/

Peace be upon you
Stafa

Introduction - First Blog

My name is Mustafa, but I go by Stafa for short. I use to have a MySpace, but eventually got tired of it. Got tired of the pornbots, no one ever messaged me on there, the site was just pointless for me so I closed it down. I have a Facebook site, people often message me there and I end up meeting some relatives from around the world, so I find a use out of that site. Although I use my Facebook, it still lacks a blog, or at least to my knowledge it does. I also have a Youtube account as well, but I hardly have time to make so many videos, plus sometimes I just need a place to type something up rather then sit in front of a camera for ten minutes and talk about whatever subject.
So here I am, here with a blogspot. I'll make an attempt to blog frequently. I also wont stick to one subject either, I'll end up talking about anything from politics, to the economy, to my day at work, to video games, to mixed-martial arts, etc.
To those of you out there reading, I will add a category to the title of each blog just to make things easier and organized. For example, on this first blog, I put "Introduction - First Blog," Introduction being the category. Another example would be "Politics - I hate Bush," Politics would be the category. Simple enough.
I also decided that whenever I make a video on YouTube, I will embed the video in a blog here, possibly even write something about it as well, and I will even put a link in the video description to link towards this blog. That way people watching the video can see this blog, and people reading the blog can check out my YouTube channel as well.
With that said, I will start typing up blogs soon. Possibly I'll put one up tonight or tomorrow, whenever I get time to think of a subject to discuss. Hopefully some of my friends will see these and get on here as well, and hopefully I will make some friends as well.

Peace be upon you
Stafa