Fun Fact #27: Police without guns just look off

The weather has been horrible in Pittsburgh and I've been been feeling kind of sick, therefore I've been staying inside and watching TV. The current writer's strike has caused a total lack of new episodes of any of my standby shows, so I've been forced to turn to other sources. I get a few channels that randomly show British mystery/crime shows. The acting and writing is surprisingly good and they often play more like little movies (running about 90 minutes each episode) rather than TV show.

Anyways, crime shows will obviously have characters that are cops and those cops will inevitably spend some scene running after a criminal. And it's during these scenes that I notice the biggest difference between American and UK crime shows. This is because when the cop either starts chasing the suspect or catches up to him/her, he'll pull out his weapon and brandish it at them in an attempt to get the suspect of comply with his orders. But, the thing is, most UK cops are not allowed to use guns....

The weapon of most British cops according to Wikipedia and my TV

They instead use an extendable baton. A baton!! I realize that it can cause great pain (and probably even kill) when it's used to hit someone, but it doesn't really look threatening compared to a gun. I know some UK forces are armed with guns, but most are not. If I were a criminal I'd be a lot more likely to submit to a cop with a gun than a freaking baton. It honestly takes me out of the program when I see one of the cops whip out their baton and begin the chase.

I guess it can also be a sign of how much the media influences how I, and probably others, view things because I've never actually seen a cop pull out a gun on anyone, but it's still something I see as the norm. I'd bet that a lot of criminals in the US, no matter how much it could actually hurt them, wouldn't feel very threatened when being chased by a cop wielding a baton.

But of course, let's be honest. I'd be terrified of cop chasing me no matter what he was wielding, and probably submit pretty quickly (if I hadn't already tripped on my own while running). I'm not really a hardened criminal type though...

Fun Fact #26: There's an obession with being "PC"

I've always been a news junkie and I like being informed of what's happening around me. The news for the past days has either been focused on the recession we are probably entering (or, according to some sources, already entered) or the current primaries. Economics isn't really my strong point, so I tend to focus more on the political side of things. Though those are admittedly tied together as voters realize that, once again, "It's the economy, stupid".

But while all the candidates are trying to explain how they'll fix the economy, Obama and Hilary have also been engaged in mudslinging fight against each other. They've each brought up the issues of race and sex, and, though they claim they want to focus on the issues, the personal attacks don't look like they're stopping.

The Weekly Standard, a neo-con magazine, printed an article entitled The Wages of Sensitivity. I don't usually read The Weekly Standard, as I find their ultra-conservative rhetoric too extreme, but this article touches on some interesting points about the Hilary v. Obama battle we're currently witnessing.

The article argues that the Clinton's helped define the political correctness in the 1990s that now defines much of the party's rhetoric, but they're being forced to undermine their own ideals in this current race. As the article states:

"In its campaign season from hell, the party of sensitivity has found itself in a head-banging brawl between a black man and white woman, each of them visibly loathing the other, in a situation in which anything said in opposing one of the candidates can be defined as hateful, insensitive, hurtful, demeaning, not to say bigoted, and, worst of all, mean."

I don't agree with everything the article says, but it's a good read that deftly analyzes the cut-throat atmosphere of the Democratic primaries among both the candidates and their supporters. All in all, it seems that people can, and will, take offense to almost any comment if they realize it can benefit.

Fun Fact #25: I think I'm allergic to my new face lotion

It's super cold here in Pittsburgh, Monday's high was only like 15 degrees, and the heating units everywhere are going full blast. The cold weather plus the heat wrecks havoc upon my skin and I've never been more dry and flaky in my entire life. I constantly complain about it but it doesn't seem to really fix anything.

So I decided to by some super moisturizing lotion at Target in hopes of rectifying the situation. I slathered the lotion all over my face before I went to bed. It started to sting a little, but I ignored it and went to sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like my face is buring and I looked in the mirror and saw that my skin was all red and my eyes were almost swollen shut. It was quite the vision. I took an emergency shower and things looked slightly better in the morning, but it was still not a fun situation.

At my worst, I feel that I looked somewhat similar to Quasimodo. Luckily there was no one around to see me in all my hideous glory and I'm at work now looking like a human being, albeit a slightly red one.

This is a lovely rendering of the image I saw in the mirror last night

Fun Fact #24: I don't want to get burned

The upcoming election has caused a lot of attention to be focused on my generation, the Millennials (ages 18-29), as we make about 20% of the registered voters. People are saying that our participation in the election could make or break a candidate like Obama. And while that is certainly a notable fact, I find the articles that seek to analyze the various attributes of the Millennials to be far more interesting. I like to compare the overall analysis of the group to myself and other Millennials that I know; it's almost like reading a horoscope, some parts seem right on but other parts just are just painfully off base or seem like idealistic thinking.

One of the better articles I've read was one MSNBC, "'Youthquake' Shakes Up Electoral Politics". I personally feel that the article does a nice job of looking at the various anxieties that seem to shape our generations views. People often wonder why our generation is not taking to the streets to protest the war, but I think that the lack of extreme protesting (at least relative to the social movements of the '60s) can be partially attributed to the growing focus on domestic problems that we're just watching get worse. We've seen our parents get burned by the economy and we don't want that to happen to us. These excerpts from the article summed up a lot my personal feelings about the current state of affairs.

They grew up during the greatest period of wealth creation in modern history, but watched their elders consume resources and run up deficits as if the party would never end. Then came the dot-com crash, terrorism, war, climate change. Epic uncertainty informs their world view. When asked to name the issues they care most deeply about, bread-and-butter concerns such as the economy, health care, and education routinely rank high.

As the government and employers shift more responsibility for benefits like health care and retirement onto the shoulders of individuals, many Millennials see themselves as unwitting victims. Although that trend has been building for decades, this may be the first generation to fully feel the great shift of risk in their bones.

Millennials, like many Americans, may have lost faith in the political Establishment, but they have utter faith in themselves and their wiki-inspired abilities to get things done.

People often ask me why I'm so "obsessed" with getting everything done so quickly and taking the most practical route (often at the expense of something more fun or exciting). A lot of people with a year to kill will travel Europe or do something exciting, I chose to work for a real estate company in Pittsburgh where I'd make good money but live a dull life. The article above discussed many of my reasons.

I've watched people get burned when they're too idealistic. I believe that I can achieve my dreams, but my dreams are based in reality. I'm not pretending that I could magically become a Supreme Court Justice, that just isn't in my reality. I want to do great things in my life, but everything is just so full of uncertainty.

People jokingly mock me for saying that I'd be willing to work for various "evil corporations", but I totally would assuming they offered me a benefits package and salary that would allow me the financial security that seems to be becoming more and more of rarity in today's world.

I consider myself to be a Democrat. I believe the health care and educational systems in our country are in dire need of repair and that we need to do something to revive the middle class. But I also believe we need to watch out for our own well-being because it looks like we're not going to have anything to fall back on but ourselves when the going gets tough.

Fun Fact #23: I'm going to Oregon!

I'm officially headed back to Oregon in mid-February. I'm super excited to see everyone and I wonder if my Pittsburgh experience will make me appreciate Eugene more. I got an amazingly good deal on the tickets...

Oh, and I mentioned that Obama seemed headed for a win in New Hampshire according to the polls, but Hilary managed to squeak by. I'm really getting into this race, both for the Republican and Democratic nomination, because there's no clear front runner.

Fun Fact #22: There's more than one "fun fact" in this post

So it's been forever since I posted a "fun fact", this is not due to a lack of "fun facts" but can instead be attributed to the fact that I've actually been super busy with various things. This will probably be a longish post due to all "fun facts" that I have to share.

1) I learned how to ski in early in December and I wasn't as truly horrible as I thought I would be. My biggest injury involved my toenail getting jammed into my big toe (thanks to some too small ski boots). It doesn't sound too bad, but it was really painful and gross looking. Even now, almost a month later, my toenail is dark purple/black. I was worried it was going to fall off, but I soon realized it was going to stay securely attached to my foot and decided to paint it dark pink to hide the hideousness. Sadly, the nail polish didn't hide it and the purple shows through making my toe look even weirder.

2)I've been flying tons since being in Pittsburgh, but my most miserable flight had to be the flight back to SD in December. My flight was delayed for hours in a barren section of the Milwaukee airport. There was truly nothing there and the people were so stereotypically Midwestern and nice that I didn't even have the heart to silent judge them. I've never been so bored in my entire life. But the airline somewhat redeemed itself by offering fresh baked cookies on board in place of the standard peanuts and pretzels.

3) I went to a Bat Mitzvah that proved to be the epitome of an NY Bat/Bar Mitzvah. It was super extravagant and over the top. I was sadly seated at the kids' table with my 13 year old sister. But I wasn't too annoyed because one of my other relatives, who is over 40, was also at the kids' table with me and my cousins. We were seated right next to some super loud speakers and I was basically deaf by the end of the party. But, on a more postive note, I was able to watch a bunch of awkward thirteen year olds do that stupid "Soulja Boy" dance. I feel as though it's becoming the Macarena of that generation.


4) The Bhutto assassination was probably the most newsworthy events that occurred during my vacation. I think it's horrible that Bhutto was killed and admire her for her courage in continue to campaign even though her assassination basically looked predestined. I think the media has made her into a martyr and, in the process, has glossed over a lot of her faults. Overly fawning obituaries of obviously flawed figures really irritate me.

5) The other major event was Obama's win in Iowa. I posted a few months ago that Hillary looked like the sure-fire Democratic nomination and it's amazing how much has changed in the past few months. Hilary has certainly fallen from grace and it seems like that it's just predicated to continue in New Hampshire, where Obama was leading by a significant margin in the last minute polls. Huckabee won the Republican race but I don't see that as such a big deal because it seems unlikely that he can carry it to a national win. I definitely hope that won't happen as he's one of my least favorite candidates.

6) Oh, and I noticed some graffiti on the way home from the gym. One wall had both "Vote for Kunich" and "Vote for Ron Paul" spray painted on it. I thought it was kind of cute their names were there together because though they are from different parties they do share some major similarities. Namely that they're both the total outcast in their respective parties and they have no chance at all of winning the nomination. And, most importantly, I dislike both them.