Saturday, May 21, 2011

More tunes from the Replacements

So remember the other day when I told you I discovered the Replacements?  I liked them so much I wanted to post some more of their songs.  Here are three more of their songs that I liked a lot:

I like how he yells "YOU'RE MY FAVORITE THING!"

Bank accountability, or lack thereof

This post contains serious information, so I tried to include as many pictures/Raylan Givens videos/Sidney Crosby gifs as possible.  Enjoy!

Part 1:
Eric Schneider: For America!
There are some interesting articles over in the Rolling Stone magazine (hat tip to Dad for the article!) and the less flamingly-liberal New York Times about New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman opening an investigation of some of the major players in the financial crisis.  The AG "requested" documents from Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs.  Read the full post to see what the consequences could be...

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Progressive Values, Part 2: Universal Health Care

In the first post of this series, I outlined what a progressive tax system should look like.  I mentioned that fairly taxing the richest individuals and corporations among us would raise a lot of money for the US government.  One thing that this money should be spent on is a Universal Health Care or Medicare For All program.

Warning: This post is going to be intense!  If you get confused, just remember that health insurance companies are like fictional character Gordon Gecko in Wall Street (great movie, by the way):


 Gordon Gecko would argue that having private companies offer health insurance policies, is the best health care system.  That is what the US currently has.  Let's see how that's working for us:

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

This post is for mom

Because it was Mother's Day this past weekend, and because my mom did not care for the rap videos that I posted a while ago, this post is for you, mom!  Maybe you will like these videos better.

A year or two ago, I downloaded a few albums by The Replacements.  But I had never really listened to them.  Last week at work, I realized I was sick of all the things I usually listen to on my ipod, so I figured I'd give The Replacements a shot.  Turns out they're awesome!  Who knew?  Well apparently a lot of people, but not me.

My favorite song so far is Unsatisfied.  I like the sense of something missing - I think a lot of people feel this way about their life.  The lyrics are repetitive, but it works somehow:



My second favorite is Hold My Life.  I like the speed of this song, and the main hook is so catchy...It's been stuck in my head for days:



And finally, I also like this song a lot:



Happy late mother's day mom!  Thanks for taking care of me all of these years.

A ridiculous ride to the zoo

Last weekend, my girlfriend Anna and I decided that since we both like bike rides, and Anna likes zoos, we should combine both of these things with a bike ride to the Minnesota Zoo.  So I grabbed my new bike, and Anna grabbed her old one-speed, and off we went (click on any of the pictures for a bigger version):



I had a slight advantage, as I was riding a brand-new 21-speed touring bike, while Anna was riding this insanely heavy single speed bike.  It's about 40 miles to the zoo and back, and according to Google Maps it should take about two hours each way. Here's a map of the proposed route:
Notice how easy it is to cross the river on the map!