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Episode #2

The Gnomebuddieshome Podcast Episode #2

Beyonce lip syncs, Prince Harry offends Taliban, kindergartner labeled a terrorist threat, illegal meat seized in raid, man can't handle a Spicy McChicken Sandwich, and Lindsay Lohan saves her career by not going on Dancing With The Stars.

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Week in Headlines

• Atari filing for bancruptcy - http://tinyurl.com/b6jc2p8
• Beyonce lip syncs the National Anthem at Presidential Inauguration http://tinyurl.com/abbnxtn
• Prince Harry says that gunning down Taliban is like playing the Playstation.  Taliban says they expect no less from a crazy person  http://tinyurl.com/a288vhv
• Ban on women in combat has been lifted, giving women the ability to die alongside men -  http://tinyurl.com/arzgam4

"What's in the Box?" - Weird news

• Kindergartener labed a terrorist threat, interogated, and suspended http://tinyurl.com/a2rgbwh
• Assasination attempt in Bulgaria gone wrong http://tinyurl.com/awz72rj
• illegal meat seized in raid http://tinyurl.com/b5r6vah
• man calls cops over spicy chicken sandwich at McDonald's that is too hot http://tinyurl.com/acp2yts
• inigo montoya http://tinyurl.com/addnuf3
• Ulises Rodela, Mexican Man, Confesses To Barbecuing Neighbor's Dogs http://huff.to/10E2ZLV

Sports 

• Manti Te'o girlfriend actually a dude:An Idiot's Guide to the Manti Te'o Scandal
  http://tinyurl.com/avhc5o8

Politics

• GOP decides that if it can't win an election the old fashioned way, it will have to cheat   http://tinyurl.com/aopdnrh

"Yeah, well, you know, that's just like, your opinion man"
Lupe Fiasco kicked off stage because of 30 minute anti-war song and saying he didn't vote Obama first amendment right, poor booking choice, he'd already said crap about the president recently

"I don't care!" - Worthless News

• Lindsay Lohan turns down 'Dancing with the Stars' offer, which means there is still hope for her career...right? http://tinyurl.com/ax39jld 
• Paris Hilton not welcome at Robert Redford's Sundance Film Fest because she brings down the sophisticated nature of the festival.  http://tinyurl.com/bc6gmbtparties 

Episode #1

This week I decided to start doing a podcast.  This podcast covers current events, news, politics, weird news, and worthless news - news that shouldn't be considered news.  I hope you enjoy it!

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Download this episode (right click and save)


Podcast Outline/Notes:

Week in Headlines

• Obama Gun Control http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/16/obama-to-announce-gun-control-proposals-shortly/

• NRA reacts to Gun Control http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/16/nra-obama_n_2488649.html

La Pierre "I warned you this day was coming and now it’s here," LaPierre wrote. "This is the fight of the century and I need you on board with NRA now more than ever. My strength, and the strength of our entire NRA organization comes from you and your strong commitment to our membership...

"The NRA sat in on a White House meeting that was sold to the public as an ‘open discussion’ about how to improve school safety," he continued. "But that was a dirty lie. They didn’t listen to gun owners’ concerns … they didn’t consider any real solutions on how we can keep our kids safe. Instead Barack Obama, Joe Biden and their gun ban allies in Congress only want to BLAME you, VILIFY you, BULLY you, and STRIP you of your Second Amendment freedoms."

Wrote LaPierre, "Right now, they’re steamrolling ahead with legislation that would ban your guns, register your ammunition purchases, and even force you to register the firearms you already own with Obama’s anti-gun bureaucrats."

Most of the actions are reinforcing existing laws and expanding mental health issues which are things the NRA has been calling for.  Including armed gaurds in schools which Obama said there will be funding for schools who want it.  So he gave them everything they asked for.

NRA released a game for smartphones to shoot any kind of gun and made it avaiable for 4 years+, yet say guns in video games are contributing to gun violence?

"What's in the Box?" - Weird news

• Woman got stuck between two buildings - http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ore-woman-trapped-buildings-article-1.1241165 3:45 AM between parking garage and apartment complex.  stuck 4 hours suspended above the ground
• Google denies running over donkey http://www.digitalspy.com/odd/news/a451773/google-denies-running-over-donkey.html
• Prankster Registers As Obama - http://www.heraldextra.com/news/weird-news/weird-news---detective-prankster-registered-as-obama-in/article_2a8558b4-6027-11e2-b5ad-001a4bcf887a.html 
  
  Roskovski said county elections records showed nobody tried to vote using the bogus registration card, though filling it out falsely could be a felony — perjury — or a misdemeanor of making a false unsworn statement.
  The handwritten card also lists the president's birth date — 8/4/61 — though whoever wrote it put '81 as the birth year before scratching it out. Roskovski said it's possible the prankster was born in the '80s and used the wrong digit before realizing the mistake.
  The address listed on the card used to belong to a former dormitory at Slippery Rock University, a state-owned school in the county, which is one reason Roskovski assumes it was filled out as a prank. Another reason: The voter's listed phone number was 555-5555.
  Because the card is from 2008, county elections officials have no recollection of receiving it or entering it into a statewide database of registered voters, which is where the last name is spelled with an 'n,' Roskovski said. He assumes the card was processed in good faith by an elections worker who was busy with a large number of newly registered voters.
• Woman holds her own heart after transplant - 
  
  “[Penny] is holding her own heart. She has survived cancer and crippling heart failure and never lost hope,” Kelsey wrote along with the image.
  “She wanted to keep it but they wouldn’t let her! I said the same thing. It had to be cremated but she kept the ashes,” she continued.
  
  Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/485875/woman-holds-own-heart-after-successful-transplant-in-viral-photo/#1k5m88VZVMj2tv2s.99 
• Man gets run over by own car after dog hits accelorator - http://www.eurweb.com/2013/01/bizarro-news-man-run-over-by-his-own-car-after-his-dog-hits-accelerator/

Sports

• Lance Armstrong - used steroids, stripped of medals 
• Fake girlfriend dies of leukemiahttp://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/17/16564736-9-baffling-questions-in-the-manti-teo-girlfriend-hoax?lite

Manti Te'o online and on phone relationship, according to Notre Dame he never met her in person or video chat through services like Skype.  Then died of leukemia.  Then while Te'o was at an ESPN awards ceremony he recieved a call from her: her voice, her number.  He was so embarrassed he kept quiet for weeks before saying anything, and Notre Dame hired private investigators to look into it.  Was he in on a prank, was he the victim of a hoax? Who knows.

Politics

• gov Perry says prayer is the solution to gun violence
• Santorum doesn't want to “make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/03/396428/santorums-racist-welfare-rant/?mobile=nc

It’s hard to say which part of the story is stranger — that Santorum spontaneously derided poor black people in response to a question about foreign money or his explanation of why he did it

CBS points out that only nine percent of Iowans on food stamps are black — and 84 percent are white. Nationally, 39 percent of welfare recipients are white, 37 percent are black, and 17 percent are Hispanic. So Santorum’s decision to single out black welfare recipients plays right into insulting — and inaccurate — stereotypes of the kind of people some voters might expect to want a “handout.”

"Yeah, well, you know, that's just like, your opinion man"
Gun Control - if US gov't attacked its citizens we're dead anyway.  armored vehicles, grenades, RPGs, artillery, drone strikes, bazookas

"I don't care!"  - Worthless News 

• Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson moving to Paris to rekindle their flame
• Kim Kardashian says "pregnancy advice can't help her"
• Pirates of the Caribbean 5 announced with J.  Depp

Controlling Gun Control

Had any talks about gun control recently?  I have.  Have you seen people suddenly hate you for not taking their side?  Crazy, huh?  Gun control is a sore subject for everyone, and it's a sure-fire way to make enemies. I've seen mostly two arguments: on one hand, you have the argument that our country was formed on the very basis that citizens have the right to protect themselves from their government and therefore have the right to own guns;  on the other, you have people saying there is no reason to own a gun used in combat by soldiers.


I read this in an article from CNN:

‎"Outspoken gun-control advocate New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the (NRA post-Newtown) statement "a shameful evasion of the crisis facing our country... instead of offering solutions to a problem they have helped create, they offered a paranoid, dystopian vision of a more dangerous and violent America where everyone is armed and no place is safe," he said. "Enough. As a country, we must rise above special interest politics."

The NRA spokesperson LaPierre gave a frightening speech.  He painted a "paranoid, dystopian vision" for sure.  He made it sound as though we were living in a post-apocalyptic world where everyone on our block just found out we have the only surviving box of twinkies, and they're all coming to gun us down to get it.  

Now I don't believe that we live in the crazy, paranoid society that he does.  I do understand the point that he, in my opinion, failed to correctly make.  That we are entitled to the means of protection for ourselves, family, and property.  If some crazy person breaks into your home and steals your stuff, and threatens your family, I believe you have every right to stand up to them.  And that if a tyrannical government ever arises, we should have the means to protect our freedoms.  That was the purpose of the second amendment: it gave Americans the right to form a militia.  But in the last five years, the Supreme Court has ruled that it means personal ownership of guns, not militia.

Going back to two of the most common arguments I hear: no reason to have military style weapons and the right to protect oneself from a tyrannical government.   If we have the right to own military style weapons to defend ourselves, shouldn't we be entitled to the same access to weapons as the government?  Meaning, shouldn't we be allowed to purchase Apache helicopters, bazookas, predator drones, and RPGs?  Because if I understand it correctly, a private citizen can't own an F-16 or artillery like the military has.  We don't have tanks.  So if the government decided to attack its own citizens, owning an AK-47 or AR-15 isn't going to do much when the artillery and drone strikes begin.  They aren't going to be effective on a tank.  So we're pretty much screwed anyway.  If there are already weapons that the government has that citizens don't, what's wrong with saying, "you can't get these ones either"?

The NRA says that violent video games and movies are to blame.  And yet, countries like Japan consume more video games each year than the US.  T hey're playing the same games.  Grand Theft Auto, Left 4 Dead, Mortal Kombat.  And they watch American movies.  And yet, last year, Japanese men and women did not feel the need to kill over 10,000 of each other like Americans did.  In fact, you can count on one hand how many gun related deaths occurred in Japan.


Do violent video games and movies warp young minds and create thoughtless killers?  I doubt it.  Do they contribute to the degradation of the perception of life?  Probably.  But what can you do? Go into every American's home and take away their movies and video games?  Ban the production of them?  Isn't that infringing on someone's first amendment right?  

Now, I understand that the vast majority of gun owners are responsible, law abiding citizens.  I understand that stricter laws will only punish the law abiding citizens, and a black market will be created for newly banned guns.  I understand that it is impossible to seize every military-style gun in homes across the country.  I understand that crazy people will find a way to get a weapon and wreak havoc on society no matter the laws. I also understand that everyone is considered a "responsible" gun owner until their kid finds their gun laying around and shoots his/her friend with it. So what are common sense measures that can realistically be done to bring down the gun violence in America?  

I don't know.  I don't think anyone really knows.  But isn't it worth trying something? Anything?  Hasn't enough American blood been spilt?  President Obama this week gave 23 actions that he intends to put in action to fight gun violence.  Most of the actions were about enforcing laws that already exist and reminding people that they exist.  Ironically, the NRA criticized Obama for ignoring all of their ideas they gave him after he did many of the things that the NRA has been calling for for years.  LaPierre believes "the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun."  Perhaps once it's escalated to that point, yes, he's right.  But was anything done to maybe prevent the bad guy from getting a gun, or from getting so upset that he reached for that gun?

Only time will tell if any of Obama's solutions will work.  I personally would say that increasing spending on education is worth a try.  Have better training for teachers to spot bullying in schools, or anger issues in students. Employ more school counselors.  Have programs that help children deal with anger and emotions.  Since parents are apparently not teaching their children about action and consequences and the difference between right and wrong, train teachers better at instilling students with a moral compass.  Every time spending cuts need to be made, education is one of the first programs to get passed through the wood chipper.  How about we cut back on all the wars we're raging and use that money to teach kids about peace.  We're already paying taxes for that, why not get a better return on investment?