Alien Ant Farm - Wish

Premature Campaigning

One of the funny things about Philippine Election Law is the large gaping hole that is the prohibition of premature campaigning. Campaigning before the start of the official campaign period is forbidden but the loophole is that if you haven't filed your certificate of candidacy, you're not yet considered a candidate. Since you're not a candidate, you can't be considered as "campaigning" since only candidates can be guilty of it. You can appear in the most shameless and blatant ad where you hug  littlest kids and kiss ugly fat girls and it's all alright just as long as you file your certificate later.

Isn't it great?

Another Hitman Movie

Movies based on video games, as a rule, suck horribly. I saw the Max Payne movie. I never thought it was possible to make a movie where you literally got everything wrong, but there it was. Now there's a new Hitman movie. The first one wasn't that great but at least it tried. The next one looks to be just an action movie with "Hitman" slapped onto it. It's a shame. Hitman is one of my favorite video game franchises.

Did they have to butcher Hendrix too? It's bad enough that this trailer basically gave everything away already. Why do movie trailers nowadays do this? I've basically seen the movie already based on this trailer alone. Agent 47 is after a woman not to kill her, but because she was part of the cloning/super soldier program that made Agent 47. Now they're gonna team up and get revenge on Evil Organization X. Why give away the twist that she's a super soldier? Granted, Hitman isn't some thrilling mystery movie but come on, why throw away the only interesting bit that might hook my interest?

I hope, at the very least, this one has some nice tits in it like the first.

Black Stone Cherry - Change

Let Them Eat Cake

I don't know if I've written about this before but many years ago, I had the pleasure of attending a forum on "Good Governance" held in my old college. The guest speaker was no other than Jejomar Binay himself. Of course, he wasn't Vice-President then but the Mayor of Makati City.

Makati is one of the more successful cities of the Philippines due to the fact that it's home to many businesses and firms. It's the commercial hub of the country so to speak. Anyway, I was still a naive young Political Science student then and cynicism hadn't completely eaten out my heart yet. I was expecting an informative speech about governance and how cities could become attractive to investments and other such topics. Imagine my disappointment when, instead of an informative speech, what we got was a campaign speech instead. Binay went on and on about how many welfare programs Makati had for its residents. He went on about free this and free that. One particular slide of note from his self-aggrandizing and insipid presentation, was about how his administration gave free cakes to senior citizens on their birthdays. He spent an unusual amount of time on it too. I thought, "What is it with this man and cakes?"

Needless to say, I came out of that auditorium a slightly dumber person than when I went in. I was disappointed that he thought so little of college students that he'd give a campaign speech, free of any useful information, instead of something meatier for hungry minds. I was disappointed with the audience who lapped it all up with their applause and most of all, I was disappointed in myself for daring to expect something different. At that moment, Binay's character became clear to me. The man's a politician through and through and he thinks we're all stupid and easily impressed with free shit.

About that last bit...

I want to talk about cake; free cakes. Some time ago, the very same cakes Binay boasted about became an issue before the Senate. As usual, there were poorly substantiated allegations about how the cakes were a scam for kickbacks and so on. I didn't think the Senate, that supposed august body, could sink any lower but there they were speculating about the prices of your average cakes.

Recently, the same issue popped up locally. The mayor of the neighboring city of Lapu-Lapu is facing a "scam" regarding free cakes she'd been giving to seniors. Just like with Binay, the scandal was hardly a scandal at all. The defense is that it is within the government's discretion to decide how to spend the people's money and spending money on welfare for the elderly, in this case cakes, is perfectly valid.

I'm not going into the issue of whether there were any anomalies in the cake buying. What I want to talk about is this idea of just giving people free things, like it's what governments are supposed to do.

Governments should promote the people's welfare but when the national and political debates veer into the issue of pastries, you begin to wonder about how far this idea had come. There are priorities. To the average Filipino, the government is "good" when it gives you free stuff. People like Santa Claus and politicians love dressing up as Santa. Who wouldn't want to be the guy giving out gifts and candy to the people.

The Filipino people have become so base and weak that they buy into the what is simply bribery. So little is expected from the government that free gifts and cash is enough to win hearts and minds. Look around. Step out of the goddamn Starbucks for a moment and take a look at how they operate. You know, this is why I was so opposed to the Reproductive Health bill. The government wants to subsidize people's sex lives at the taxpayer's expense. Free cakes, free condoms, free cash, free for everyone! Hooray!

I'm not opposed to the idea of welfare. People need a helping hand once in a while to get on their feet. However, when it gets to a point where you're no longer helping a person up but just tossing stuff at him like throwing a fish at a clapping seal, something is wrong. Civil society has become to weakened and the opportunistic predators in barongs are all too happy to play the giver; like a pusher to a crack addict.

If anyone criticizes, call them heartless. If anyone says that our welfare focused governance is becoming unreasonable, call them "anti-poor". Yes, yes, the poor should be helped. They should be helped. Uplifted? No. We don't want them to not need us anymore. But we should help them. Help, yes.

Whether its "Conditional Cash Transfers" or free cakes, this is how it is now. This is what passes as enlightened leadership now. Maybe Binay was right all along to assume that we're stupid. Maybe all people really want in a leader is a guy who'll take care of everything and give us free stuff. Sounds comfy, not having to worry about where the money is coming from. Anyone can be suckered into the allure of a carefree dependency, even me.

The cold hard truth in all this is that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Government does not produce money; people do. Government taxes people and out of all possible things that tax money could have been used for, from infrastructure to education, it's spent on cakes instead. But cake is so delicious isn't it? 

Cake is bad but it tastes so sweet.

Stuffy

I'm prone to colds and pretty much all manner of sinus-related illnesses. Right now, I feel like some asshole is pressing his fist on my forehead.

I've doubled on the liquids and used those fizzy pop tablets you put in a glass of water to make you feel better. I dunno if its the tablet that works or the fact that you drank lots of water, but I could use a good placebo right now.

Maybe tomorrow won't suck.

Terminal Illness

No sooner had the piece of airplane wreckage been hauled to shore when the folks at CNN were all over it like buzzards on a carcass. Wolf Blitzer was absolutely salivating on screen, obviously overjoyed at the prospect of another week of nonstop speculation and navel-gazing over the missing Malaysian airplane.

I wrote about CNN's mental illness before regarding it's obsession with missing airplanes. It's a shame that its condition seems to have relapsed. Nobody watches CNN except those miserable people stuck in airport terminals waiting for their delayed flights. It makes sense for CNN to obsess over a story that air travelers would no doubt be interested in. It's merely catering to its captive audience.

Maybe one day, we'll obsess over other things.