Adam J. Choit

It’s a brand new year and there’s more writing soon to come, but I thought for my first blog post of 2013 I’d create my first ever meme.

Here’s my original Facebook post as well..

Yes, your eyes and ears aren’t deceiving you.  I’m rhyming.  Yes.  Rhyming.  Sort of rapping.  Doing spoken-word poetry, a cappella style.

Call it what you want, but here’s a video about politics, and you guessed it — Dr. Ron Paul.  Believe me, rhyming, and rhyming about politics is not something that I ever expected to be doing, let alone sharing with the world.

As far as rhyming goes, I actually did go through a brief phase of my life back around 2004, when I was writing some spoken-word stuff.  So technically, I do have some (limited) experience with spoken-word rhyming.  In fact, years ago I actually performed twice at “Da Poetry Lounge“  Tuesday nights at the Greenway Court Theater, over on Fairfax here in Los Angeles.  I just remember being insanely nervous, and reciting my words a mile-a-minute.

In terms of politics,  I’ve always had some interest in that — but was never actively involved or even very passionate.  If the subject came up, I’d have go-to phrases like “I’m not active, but I try to be aware of what’s going on.”

But somehow someway within the last year, the more and more I watched and listened to Dr. Paul, I realized that he makes a lot of sense. I may not agree with all of his views (no one agrees with any candidate 100%) — but in my opinion, what separates Dr. Paul from the others, is that he’s really the only one going after our flawed system, which has gotten away from any semblance of a sane Constitutional government.

Believe me, I’m no expert on politics or the economy, but still feel I have something important to share with everyone that can have a positive impact.

Originally I thought I’d eventually just shoot some video blogs of me talking about political issues, but instead came up with the idea to do some rhyming — just thought it’d be a much more interesting and perhaps entertaining way to share information with the world.  And what better for my first rhyme than something about one of Dr. Paul’s core issues as a politician –The Federal Reserve system.

*Note – If you’re wondering why I titled my video “Jewish American Guy…” It’s because given how too often the mainstream media would like us to believe that Dr. Paul is anti-semitic, and that he doesn’t have very many Jewish supporters, I think it’s important that people know Dr. Paul has lots of Jewish support.

I have no problem recognizing and celebrating the lives and achievements of those no longer with us.  Often we (not us, but the media really) like to do this on and around the time when the dead person’s birthday would be.  For example, IF Princess Diana was still alive, she’d have turned 50 this year.  Well, the problem is that she’s dead, and is not 50 years old.

Now, Diana was supposedly a wonderful humanitarian, and probably deserves the recognition — even that which comes posthumously.  But let’s not kid ourselves here.  For someone like Diana especially, I’d have to say that much her relevance (especially in America) is a result of just a media push to sell magazines and generate TV ratings with specials.  In addition to the power of the dollar, we humans just love our dates and anniversaries and birthdays.  We have an obsession with these things, and we especially love numbers that are divisible by 5.  Our favorites!

In 2012, while there will be some mention, we know we’re just not going to care as much about Diana hypothetically turning 51.

My question really is, when do we stop celebrating dead people’s birthdays?  I’m sure they’ll be some hoopla for Diana’s woulda-been 55th, 60th, 65th, 70th, and 75th birthdays.  But when does it end?  Will Newsweek and the E! Network make their Diana decisions based on life expectancy in the future?  I mean, we’ll probably be recognizing Diana’s 100th birthday, but what about 110th? or 130th?  It’s not like she’s going to be any less dead in 2091.

The other day former governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura appeared on the Howard Stern radio show.  He talked about a lot of different (conspiracy) theories he has.

His theories have varying degrees of plausibility and validity, but nevertheless, he at least backed up his ideas with logical thought and research.  I appreciate him questioning what many people either accept, or don’t even think about at all.

A moment thing that stood out to me during his interview (and this is something I’ve thought of before as well), was when he was talking about how poorly we often treat our military veterans here in the United States.

Many of our soldiers returning from combat come home sick, injured, and/or with major psychological damage.  It’s not uncommon for our country’s veterans to end up as addicts, or homeless.

Our government commits so much sin in terms of wasteful spending, and wasteful military spending specifically.  It’s sad.

We present an image that our government cares.  We hand out medals, introduce soldiers at major sporting events, and we even spend money on flyovers — which is a “a celebratory display or ceremonial flight / an honorific flight of one or more aircraft.”

Wow.  What a complete waste of time, but even worse money.  It’s just one more example of how we attempt to present a glorious image of military service, and continue to ignore the realities of the nature of real combat and what happens during war.

Eliminating flyovers surely won’t ensure that every veteran gets taken care of, but can’t we at least try to get the money to those who need and deserve it the most?

Maybe the government ought to spend less money on TV advertising for recruiting purposes, and put more of that money towards taking care of those who’ve seen action.

I’m not even going to get into the whole health care/health insurance debate, but I’ll just let you know that I am fortunate enough to actually have both medical and dental insurance.  With an HMO setup, I choose the primary care provider, for both medical and dental.

When choosing a doctor for medical, I have almost no personal requirements, and the location of the doctor is pretty much the only thing I really consider — preferably that they’re near my home or office.

Maybe choosing a doctor for women requires more scrutiny, but as a guy I feel like as long as a doctor is competent, knowledgeable, and somewhat friendly, it doesn’t matter.  They all do the same stuff, especially that of which is routine — checking blood pressure, stethescope stuff, hitting your knee with the thingy, dealing with common stuff people get when they’re sick (in an ordinary sense).  Anything that goes beyond all those things I named, you’re gonna have to be referred to a specialist anyway, so what does it matter who your primary doctor is?

As far as choosing a dentist is concerned, I don’t think a person’s choice ought to be made so haphazardly.  Much more sensitivity and care is beneficial with dentists.  A bad dentist can easily make your experience in his/her chair way more painful than it really needs to be.  Besides painful in your mouth, things can quickly get painful on your wallet as well.  Dentists will often attempt to convince you certain procedures are necessary, when in fact they might not be so urgent, or even necessary at all — whereas it’s much harder for a doctor to convince you to do a procedure that isn’t 100% necessary.

Most ailments you go to a doctor for, you can SEE the symptoms (evidence) on your physical body, or you literally can FEEL discomfort/pain.

With dentistry, just because you can’t see or feel something inside your mouth, you still might need dental work —- but then again you might not….so choose your dentist wisely!

This March Madness season I filled out two brackets — both of which are no longer in the competition, as far as I can see.  However, for one group I’m part of, last place at the end actually gets back the entry fee of $10.  Sweet.  A reward for being the best at being the worst.  Part of my issue is that I fill out my bracket based on emotion, not reality — which is why I’m always heartbroken (and poorer) every year because of my alma mater, Syracuse. (2003 being the exception).  I had Cuse winning the whole thing in both of my brackets this year. WHOOPS.

So anyway, the second group I’m in cost $5 to enter.  I didn’t pay the organizer the entry fee before the tourney began, but mailed him a check earlier this week — in fact, the day after Syracuse got knocked out.  In the memo line/section on my check to him I wrote “Cuse Sucks.”

This has got me thinking.  Why don’t I take advantage of this blank memo line more often?  I really should be writing more personal messages to the people I give checks to.  You’re probably thinking to yourself, “Who the hell writes personal checks still these days anyway?  I have a debit card and pay all my bills and stuff online.”  Well yeah, but you still have checks too — so you must be using them for something.

Perhaps I’ll try to have more fun with my check-writing in the future.  If I owe someone money from a bet I lost, I’ll write on the memo line, “You’re a dick” or “I hate you”.

Paying a Time Warner Cable bill and aren’t satisfied with the service? — perhaps writing on the memo line “You guys are assholes” could be good.  As far as I know, there’s nothing illegal about writing obscenities on a personal check.

Doesn’t have to be all negative either, consider offering helpful advice to others.

Giving your nephew a check for his birthday?  Write on the memo line “Don’t spend it all on drugs”

I wonder if such a thing really does exist for some people.

I find myself often purchasing bottled waters in 7-Eleven, and I notice that they have a few different brands.  There’s Poland Spring, Aquafina, and then I see the 7-Eleven brand bottled water — which is what I’ll usually buy.

With the waters at the same temperatures, I’m sure some people really can tell the difference between tap water and Brita, or the difference between bottled waters and Brita — but in a taste test, is it really possible to tell the difference between the different brands of bottled water?

I doubt it.   If you have brand loyalty towards a specific brand of bottled water, I do declare you a bit nuts.  To me,  all bottled waters taste the same.  The only loyalty you should have is to the option that’s most cost effective — which in this case would be the 7-Eleven brand bottled water.

The whole idea of tipping is something that encourages debate.  I’m all for generosity, but when it comes to how much to tip, there are no official rules of how much to tip, and even who to tip.  I guarantee that at one point in your life you’ve turned to the person next you, and have asked them each of the following:

- “How much tip should I leave?”

- “Do I have to tip this person?”

I’m also certain that someone, at some point has asked you those questions as well.

In terms tipping the delivery guy, in addition to the total cost of the bill, delivery time, overall service/courtesy, one must also consider some other external factors too, such as inclement weather.  Rain/sleet/snow/high winds/monsoon/hurricanes are all reasons you should give the delivery guy a little extra.

I mean, tipping 15-20% of the total bill is usually a safe bet.  But if you’re unhappy with the overall delivery service, it’s ok I think to give less than that.  HOWEVER, if the service sucked, but the guy who brought you your food had to get through a tornado to get you your pizza, definitely give him a little extra — perhaps to get him back up to that 15-20% range.

I really try not to judge people based on their jobs or careers.  After all, we all need money to survive in this world, and for the most part I have respect for everyone in the workforce, regardless of the position they hold.  It can really be a tough world out there.

However, I can’t say that I’d want to be one of those guys on the street with those advertising signs. You know, those signs that are often shaped liked arrows that those dudes sometimes spin and do tricks with.  I feel like within the past few years, we’re seeing more and more of these people with their signs.   Maybe it’s just me.

There must have been some research done that shows that these sign guys must bring in business — otherwise paying them is a waste of money, and the job itself would be a waste of time.

Like I said, work is work, and do what you gotta do for the money, but in addition to sign guys for Verizon or Wingstop, I actually saw a guy holding a spinning arrow advertising sign for a strip club.  Really?  If I was doing this, this might feel a bit humiliating, but I’m trying not to judge others.

But if I put on my marketing hat on for a second, I really think one of the strippers oughta be out there holding the sign to entice potential customers.

I have no idea what a marketing hat is by the way.

No, I’m not referring to prostitution.

With Black Friday having just passed, every year there’s always a few shopping horror stories that pop up.   You know how people (Americans) get when there are sales in stores.  People can completely lose their minds, and all regard for humanity.

It’s funny, because the whole point of this holiday rush is to buy gifts for other people, which is a generous act.  Yet, in many of these stores, people are pushing and shoving their way towards the merchandise, which is a completely selfish act.   People are stupid, lol.

Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh on the crazy shopper.  I mean, many people actually enjoy the hustle-bustle aspect of the holiday shopping experience.  In fact, injuries, just as in sports, could be considered part of the Black Friday shopping experience.   Just like an athlete can get hurt during competition, and still perform, so can a shopper.

The risk of injury is worth it anyway….because our economy needs more crazy shoppers like this.