Hurricane Sandy.....Trick or Treat?

Happy Halloween Everyone :). As you know last Wednesday as I wrote my post I was patiently waiting for Hurricane Sandy to arrive and surely one week later this sweetly named Hurricane has done mass destruction. So in honor of today October 31,"Halloween" its only fitting that I talk about the true terror that  so many of us have faced this past week.

The Perfect Storm, Super Storm, Frankenstorm and Apocalyptic. These all sound like titles of a movie but unfortunately these were all used to describe the force and devastation of what we all know to be Hurricane Sandy. I have spent the past couple of days playing catch up with whats going on in the world and society as I have been out of the loop with the lack of Electricity and water for days. I literally felt like I was going mad, insane with boredom and just frustrated at the situation. No water and light was really rough and I was green with envy for everyday that passed and others got light before I did. I wanted so badly to feel normal again, to do normal things, to forget that this hurricane ever happened. But leave it to life to find ways to show you that whatever you think you are facing that is so bad, some people have it worse. Thankfully I escaped any serious damage from Sandy and was only inconvenienced by the lack of basic necessities.Driving home from work I can see some places still do not have power and I think to myself " what if that was me?" and I remember to be thankful.

When we all heard that Hurricane Sandy was heading for Jamaica I think we all took it very light because we have been fortunate to bypass many storms and hurricanes. However as the days drew nearer we all saw that it was inevitable there was no missing this one, it was headed straight for us. There was significant damage to homes, business' and especially our power lines and even death. With all that devastation though, it shows today that Jamaica is truly blessed.

Hurricane Sandy started with Jamaica but she certainly didn't end here. Sandy in about half a day of leaving Jamaica had managed to rip through, Cuba, Bahamas and Haiti, continuing to wreak havoc everywhere she went. It is said that the death toll for the caribbean currently is 58 and in some countries like Haiti people are still missing. After causing major damage Sandy made her way to the North East of the United States affecting New Jersey, New york, Washington, Virginia, Maryland and others.The hurricane had decreased to a storm or cyclone as they are calling it but the effects of Sandy were as devastating as one of the worst hurricanes you can imagine. Seeing one week later what it has done to the North East reflects the horrific nature of what a storm can do. To the rest of us who experienced Sandy in her early stages, we should be more than thankful.

Water, Wind and Fire is what sandy took with her to take lives, homes and entire neighborhoods with her. The death toll in the northeast is believed to still be climbing (50 people killed), 8.2 million households without power in 17 states, tidal surges, hospitals had to evacuate, homes burned to the ground, people marooned by flood waters and stuck in their homes, subways flooded and much much more.

Check out the links for pictures of the aftermath

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/10/hurricane-sandy-after-landfall/100396/
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/latest/article.php?id=40752
 

The images of the aftermath are so frightening they look like they are from any big budget movie but sadly this storm was real. For all of us who have power, water, food, clothes, a home and have returned to normalcy, we are the lucky ones. For the others, on this day "Halloween" there is no need for dressing up in costumes, going trick or treating and telling scary stories, because all they have to do is wake up and see that they are already in one. 

Lets hope that as many people can return to normalcy as quickly as possible and this devastating and historic storm can be put to rest. Feel free to comment and let me know how Hurricane Sandy affected you. Until next time.....

Witty Wednesday

Game Over!...Round 3 Forfeit.

Hey Everyone,

I'm a bit late today because I'm here waiting on Hurricane Sandy to get here and leave already. Seeing as she is taking her own sweet little time and I still have electricity,why not put it to use. I feel obligated to state this disclaimer.  This is not a political blog and I can guarantee that these topics will not continue for much longer. It just so happened that for the past couple of weeks the debates have fascinated me and so that's what I write about. With that said lets seriously talk about what happened Monday night at the final Presidential debate.

The Champ is here! "Round two Knock out"

Hey Everyone,

Ofcourse if you watched the Presidential debate lastnight then you know I am writing this with much satisfication. The Champ is here and came out swinging, as President Barack Obama stepped up to Mitt Romney Lastnight and held his ground. Obama did lastnight what everyone was looking for from the first debate. It is without question that Obama hands down won that debate lastnight. Well im sure republicans are still in denial about the Govenors performance but who cares what they think? We all saw it, so we all know it, Barack was the man of the hour.

Tensions were high as both men went head to head in the debate. I have to say that there were moments when i thought they would just say "The hell with it, im gonna knock you out" and start throwing punches. That didint happen in the literal sense but it sure happened with words. Thanks to Barack the Democrats are now on a high  which is well needed to get the spirits up again for the next debate and the impending election which is only 3 weeks away. I beleieve it was every democrats proudest moment to see the president, stand strong, attacked his opponents weak claims and solidified his plans for another 4 years. Barack is Back.

There is not much to see from Mitt Romney though. Once again we got a repeat of his 5 point plan that he highlighted at the first debate and what his VP highlighted at his debate. More of the same rubbish over and over again. It still amazes me how a man, a team can all believe that repetition is key. We heard you the first time and nothing has changed. He speaks a lot about what needs to be done but never the how? Am I the only who feels that the big picture is missing from Romneys claims. In his first comment of the debate he said and I quote "I know what it takes to bring the economy back" aahhhh......mmmmm....well....what does it take? We would all love to hear.

This question cannot be answered by Mitt Romney because Mitt Romney is just saying what he thinks people need to hear. Its all good to poke holes in your opponents claims but at some point you need to realize that you will have to do the work to solidify your own. Cant expect that President Obama is going to go down without a fight.

The highlight of the debate for me where I literally busted out laughing was when Mitt Romney was acting all pompous and self righteous, taking on the role of fact finder because he needs to educate the American people. He said and I quote "Mr President are you saying that one day after the attack you stood in the Rose Garden and stated the attack as an act of terror" President Obama smiles and said "Please proceed". I can only assume that the smile was due to the fact that he knew Romney was about to put his big foot in his big mouth. Romney then turned to the audience and said "I want to make sure we get that for the record. It took the president 14 days before he called it an act of terror." Moderator: "he did in fact call it an act of terror" President Obama: "Can you say that a little louder Candy?" This was the funniest moment as Mitt Romney had this dumbfounded look on his face as he realized that he got caught in the middle of his lie.

President Obama did the honorable thing which was to stand up as a leader and take responsibility for his team and the things that have gone terribly wrong. His comments on Hilary Clintons statement were true and displayed the genuine actions of a commander in chief.

The debate was aggressive, upbeat and very heated. There were a lot of high points and I have highlighted some of my favoruite quotes of the debate.

Quotes of the Night

• "Mr. President, have you looked at your pension?" -Governor Romney.
• "I haven't looked at my pension. It's not as big as yours so it doesn't take as long." - President Obama.
•  "I've got two daughters and I want to make sure that they have the same opportunities that anybody's sons have." - President Obama.
• "The suggestion that anybody on my team, whether it's a secretary of state, our UN ambassador, anybody on my team, would play politics or mislead when we've lost four of our own, governor, is offensive."
• Romney: "I want to make sure we get that for the record. It took the president 14 days before he called it an act of terror."
  
  Obama: "Get the transcript."
  
  Moderator Candy Crowley: "He did, in fact, call it an act of terror."
  
  Obama: "Could you say that a little louder, Candy?"
• Romney: "The president's campaign tried to characterize me as someone that is very different than who I am. I care about 100% of the American people. I care about our kids."
• Obama: "Governor, you're the last person who's going to get tough on China

There is a lot more but if I listed them all it would be like watching the debate which im sure you did lastnight. With anticipation for round 3 of the next debate I say thats all for now. Until next time....

Witty Wednesday

Political Showdown or Forfeit?

Hey Everyone,

Its another Wednesday and so of course i have to give my take on the next thing that i found interesting. Now i am no political analyst and i am definitely not a CNN Correspondent but i watched the Presidential debate last week and i have to say that i was in fact disappointed. Hands down Mitt Romney won that debate and that's not an easy thing for me to say but it appeared to be true.

Lets get something clear though. Mitt Romney didn't win the debate because he gave profound insight on the American problems and how to fix it He won the debate based on his performance, his ability to go out there and have all eyes on him. All eyes weren't looking at the important things but that wasn't relevant, just as long as they were looking.

To start lets look at where President Obama went wrong. He went to the debate and performed the role as President of the United states of America. Don't get me wrong he had every right to after all he is the president. But lets get real here people, he needed to remember that he is not only the President of the United states but he is also fighting to remain that way. What was missing from the debate was the fight. He left his boxing gloves back home and came to a fight with just his fists and got knocked the hell out. He failed to take advantage of the numerous opportunities that Romney gave him to make the huge holes in his claims big enough to fit the Grand Canyon. He did not mention, the most damaging video of Romney discriminating and discarding a huge chunk of the American population as being irrelevant then had the nerve to be at the debate attempting to speak for the people. I wont even bother to get into the others because this could go on all night.

With that said lets give credit where credit is due, President Obama Handled himself very diplomatic and he addressed the questions very well. He spoke to the specifics about his plan and that's just it, you can tell he has a plan.

Lets get to Romney. He certainly did put on a show. It was the biggest level of hypocritical display that i had seen in awhile so much so that all i could see on his face were the words "liar and Fake". What he managed to do was get the attention of the people. He did his homework on President Obama's strategy and plans so much so that he was able to confidently stand there and just question everything the President said. I give him credit for that. The attitude and persona that he projected, that aggressiveness worked well as a smoke screen to distract the viewers from realizing that he really has nothing to say about his plans because he doesn't have one. For someone to stand there that night and manage to convince them self and the ignorance of the people following him that stating what someone shouldn't do and what you plan to cut or remove is not an action plan to make things better. He has yet to give the specifics of how he plans to accomplish half of the false promises that hes been offloading.

There is a saying "Mouth make to say anything it damn well want to say" this is in reference to Romney. I have come to the realization that Romney is a flake, a flip flop. He flips as often as a light switch. For the past 18 months he has been campaigning with a specific agenda and now in the last few weeks leading up to the election suddenly everything has changed. Are people to believe that somehow he had an awakening, a revelation as to what needs to be done, what is right, that he needs to care about all people, not just the people who can fund his campaign? I don't think so. What he started to smell was the failure and realizing that he'd been consistently slipping in the mess that he made by the the rubbish that spills out of his mouth. This was just a last ditch effort to change his image. Ask yourself this people, if he flipped just now, who is to say that he wont flip if he's to become president. I say how do you trust that?

To wrap things up it will most definitely be interesting to see if the democrats can start to save face and regain their position starting with the VP debate tomorrow. Romney was successful in getting people to think that maybe hes not stupid and has some sense after all. He just challenged the president and held his ground. People are now saying,"I need to start paying closer attention to this Romney". But guess what Romney, all eyes are on you and now people will get a closer look that all words and a lack of know how will not go far.

All things said and done, this is politics and hey people do crazy things and things don't go the way they should. Whatever happens will be another persons mess to try and fix and only the people truly feel the pain of the decisions made that affects their day to day life, their future.

All i have to say is.....May the best man for the job win.....

That's my take on what happened. See it my way or not, doesn't change a damn thing. Until next time....

Wednesday

Airing your dirty Laundry

Hey Everyone,

So of course since the introduction of all these social media sites, people have gotten more comfortable with putting everything and anything out there for everyone to see and read. A lot of people do it, celebrities and even us regular folks. But ever so often you can see people crossing the line and putting their foot in their mouth by saying things that they will one day regret.

I understand the desire to put your feelings out there, trust me i get it. I for one find it very therapeutic and calming to know that i have this huge outlet that i can voice my opinions and feelings. Knowing that someone or everyone, somewhere or everywhere can read my words and know how i feel. I do not desire A response nor am i looking for attention but simply wanting to be heard. See, i get it.

Some people however go way too far and start airing their dirty laundry for the whole world to see and know. Girlfriends cursing out their no good boyfriends, or cursing the woman that is stealing their man, and men you do it too. Point is we have to remember that when you post tings online you are setting yourself up to be subjected to public opinion. Now public opinion is not like having some girlfriends who will find a way to be objective yet still having your back. Public opinion is harsh and cruel, so don't set yourself up to be the butt of your own joke.

Case in point, Local Jamaican Artist that goes by the name Mr. Vegas, was allegedly tweeting today about how his girlfriend broke up with him and he caught her having unprotected sex with another man in front of their one year old daughter. Now i am not sure how true this is as i have not seen the tweets myself but this was all the buzz today on everyone's lips in Jamaica. It just got me thinking, "if this is true, then once again, why is he tweeting about this for the world to know?"

My guess is he was hoping that the public will see that this girl is no good and that she did a shameful thing and be sensitive to what he is feeling right now. But as i said before Public opinion, is uncertain, harsh and cruel, you may not like what you hear and you cant stop it. This guy officially set himself up to be the clown in his own life story. Listen up silly people, no one is sympathizing, you are simply there for another persons entertainment, what is deep and close to your heart keep it to yourself, its not any of our business. Don't make a mockery out of your life by creating a scandal for yourself, you  will only look like the fool you are. Better to go back to the days of digging your head in the sand to hide from embarrassment.

Once you put it out there you just cant take it back. We are all watching and waiting to laugh...LOL
 People have ruined a lot of lives and broken a lot of hearts through the use of social media sites. If you wont say something that you cant take back then don't write it either. Have we no shame?

That's all i have to say about our growing indiscretion as a people.Until next time everyone....