Fuck politics. October 4, 2008

I hate talking about politics. Hate. Everyone gets so passionate, idealist, embittered or overly religious. After studying politics, you learn that no one knows everything and every argument has two sides. It is impossible to win or lose because you can always fall back on “beliefs”. Facts hardly ever play a role and that’s pretty sad. But I do believe that there are a few things to be said on this coming election. Well, more than a few but whatever because I’m not going to get dirty. Hell, I can’t even vote since I’m not registered by where I live. Doesn’t truly matter, New York is always and forever blue. If I lived in Ohio, different story. But I don’t. So, onward.

Sarah Plain and Tall is the devil’s spawn.  Shut the fuck up, the devil’s spawn. She is everything that every educated (read: blue state) woman does not want to represent them. If it were a man with those beliefs I guarantee most feminist would sit down and deal. Of course hate would be thrown his way but this outright anger that seeps from every knowledgeable woman is apparent and painful to deal with. I don’t even want to write anything about her because I feel like I would go on for days. How can you support individual freedom and independence…but only on an economic platform? How can you oppose the right to choose what to do with your own uterus? How can you take a woman in a bikini holding a gun seriously as your vice-president? I’m sickened that there are people out there dense enough to fall for this. To fall for what the Republicans are doing to win votes. That is not a woman! That is a shell of a human being that is being told what to say and do by her peers. She accepts this patriarchal society and isn’t even showing her own strength! She doesn’t even claim to have tried to achieve any office position in government..it just kinda happened for her. If I ever meet a woman that supports her I will slap her right across the face. Electing someone like her into office puts women back 50 years. Maybe even more.

Personally, I don’t like either candidate. Barack hasn’t even served a full term as a senator and yet feels able enough to run the country. He is way too idealistic for me and if he gets elected, a lot of this change he preaches about will never come to be. He has glossed over politics as an easy fix and he’s the guy for the job. I’ll admit I fell into it, but truth be told just about everything said on the campaign trail will never come to be. Radical changes don’t happen in this country and I don’t think much of it is ready for it, or even willing. McCain isn’t any better, he said he would fight this war for 100 years if he had to. Now I understand the statement is an exaggeration, he just wants to make sure we finish what we started but there has to be other ways that what he proposes. I don’t like his stance on a lot but fortunately (and unfortunately at the same time) we have a war to deal with and my bets are that not much else will transpire in the next four years.

I am so sick of moral and personal issues becoming a part of elections. While I am infuriated that Palin is a moron and probably didn’t even give her daughter a choice when it came to her pregnancy, who are we as a nation to decide that for her? Things like abortion and gay marriage don’t belong in politics. If it is something you can easily avoid by flipping the channel or turning down the block, then it is a freedom we all share regardless if everyone appreciates and/or tolerates those freedoms. Why do you care if gay people get married anyway? Because it’s against that thing you call a god’s word? That someone wrote 200 years after the fact from an extensive game of telephone? Well then, lucky you because there is a lot more free space in heaven for your discriminating ass. Maybe you can meet all those aborted fetuses up there too (or are they in pergatory?). Okay, a little harsh but abortion is a touchy subject because there are a billion and one ways that a woman could get pregnant in a heinous fashion and not want to have that child. How would you like to have a child and have it look up at you with the eyes of the man who raped you? That is so emotionally destructive that not bringing that child into the world would be better for both the mother and child. And even if it was illegal, that wouldn’t stop them. They would just become unsafe and take the lives of innocent girls who were scared and didn’t want to have a child due to their lack of responsibility. Outlawing this should be a crime within itself. If you don’t want minors getting pregnant you might have to start sewing some vaginas shut just to be sure. We’re mightily progressive for a “first” world country aren’t we?

I’m starting to get passionate and embittered so I think I’m done. I think the controversy and silliness of petty bipartisan fighting is why I strayed to study other countries and their progressive party politics and election systems. Don’t get me wrong, being apathetic towards politics is not right and I think everyone should be well informed. But this doesn’t not mean under any circumstances that you have to go against your own beliefs or make others believe in yours. What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours, including our thoughts. Be respectful and gracious of others opinions, even if you think they’re silly. Blogs are totally one sided but if anyone were to write to me what they believe I would respect it. As I would hope people would respect my words. I would never call someone’s opinion stupid to their face, that is, unless the facts are wrong.

So, I haven’t given up on learning about and electing a great president but this political system has got to go, and that is where change is needed the most. I really don’t think anything great will happen unless a big ole war breaks out. And what? Empires usually last for about 200 years. So if we use the end of the Civil War as a time marker, we’re in for a world of hurt sooner than later.

Let’s just say… October 4, 2008

I used to work at a cute establishment that is big among families. That doesn’t set traps to catch its mice.

My favorite part of my work day, bar none was my breaks. Not because they got me away from work, I mean it was hard to call it that, I loved my job. But I loved the break room/cafeteria. You could just pick a quote on the wall or stare at a movie poster and zone the fuck out for a good 30 minutes before returning to happy, charming you. There was a guy that worked merchandise in another area that at some point bought a universal remote to change the channel on the TV. For all us others sans remote, we would have to climb up on a chair and stretch to reach the buttons. I bring him up because I knew that it was him unknowingly ruining quite a few of my breaks.

Especially towards the end of my time there, I noticed the abundance of Nancy Grace in my life. I don’t believe that anyone should be subjected to that. One day while working a mid-shift I actually got my break before the cafeteria closed. I’m sitting there happily eating a dinner that was a rarity in my life at the time and this dude pulls out his remote and turns on Headline News. Oh no he di’nt. The TVs always start out on ESPN and ABC. If there’s a big sports going-on, that’s turned on. Plus everyone is usually too burnt from working to change the channel. So I’m convinced it’s this bitch making me watch Nancy Grace.

When the Texas Mormon Fundamentalists were big huge news, Nancy Grace couldn’t shut her face about it. One night I went to a smaller break room since those vending machines take credit cards. Nancy Grace is on talking about these kids and how they’re so young to be married and blah blah blah. Every person she had come on she would let talk for .5 seconds then tell them to stop because they don’t know what they’re saying and then bring out a expert on the subject to shut them down. Then of course she would question the expert’s facts because she’s a twat that can’t be wrong. So I had 30 minutes of arguing and Mormonism fill my break. Can’t say that left me in a good mood.

The next day, the next break, I go to the big break room, they have comfier seating. But how can you be comfortable when Nancy Grace is on yelling at everyone in this universe and all surrounding ones. 41 BROKEN BONES. 41 BROKEN BONES. BUT 41 BROKEN BONES! Everyone on the show agreed that that fact is astonishing but when they would try and be like “the fact that their was so much sexual abuse in young boys, is another thing that is outrageous too” she would shut them down. And not even with a “that’s not what we are discussing at this moment” she would start shouting at them 41BROKEN BONES! 41 BROKEN BONES! Until they eventually all fell silent to her scathing voice.

I went back to work after my break and couldn’t help but interrupt everyone with “BUT 41 BROKEN BONES!” for the rest of the night. I did think out loud a question that night though, concerning doctors on the Mormon’s compound and couldn’t really find a definitive answer anywhere later that night. But like some weird sign from above, on Nancy Grace the next day they explained who the doctor was on the compound and his credentials and everything. I don’t enjoy getting facts from Nancy Grace so I lie and say I forgot where I heard it from. So…this is between us.

The fact that a schmuck like Nancy can have a show is what makes it hard to watch the news. I love me some Anderson Cooper but find cable news hard to digest. So obviously left-wing or right-wing doesn’t make me tune in. Regardless of my stance on issues, I want some reporting that is facts. All the facts. I want the facts about McCain calling his wife a cunt. I want facts about Obama’s failings. And I want them on the same channel. Well, no I don’t really, that was just an example. Politics isn’t about past foibles and personality flaws. But politics is a whole other story that I will probably never touch because after studying other countries for years and earning a degree in their systems and relations, the US political machine is sickening and not worthy of time. It would be nice if others could realize this and then, and only then can a positive change be made. Idealism is stupid. I’m done on this.

And one more thing.Happy fourth of July.

Why so serious? October 4, 2008

It’s a tough life. I was smacked in the face today with an economic realization that I could be living a better, more independent, fruitful life elsewhere. I hate the thought of leaving here though. I’m not one of those change-haters, I did leave for nine months with minimal complaints. I’m led to believe though, where I find work, I’ll find contentness. Plus by next May, I believe most of the people I knew that left in January will be back for permanent jobs. It’s hard to make a decision, but after another month of gainful unemployment, I’m sure I’ll cozy up to the idea of moving to Florida like a 80 year old trapped in a 22 year old’s body. Suck.

But whatever, I’m [kind of] healthy and living [kind of] well. So the real world can suck it for now. Being a freeloader does nothing for my social life, but I’m not a deadbeat…completely.

My life is barely exciting enough to write about at this point. I wouldn’t even want to remember this time. I’m going those my Dark Ages. Waiting for the Renaissance to approach. That was an unnecessary metaphor. And not going to lie, I had to look it up to make sure it was a metaphor, not a simile and I was right. Snaps for me.

I was trying to watch E! today and that channel just fails at life. They interrupted E! News with a breaking news brief about Angelina Jolie’s babies. And it wasn’t about her having them, no because that’s real news (in the entertainment world at least), it was about her not having them yet. What the hell? I don’t need an update every hour about how she has yet to deliver twins. Especially after her doctor announced in a press conference that she isn’t due for another few weeks. Of course she isn’t having twins today. She’s having them NEXT MONTH. The media is so overwhelming nowadays that I can’t help but not watch it. Filled with meaningless shit that then fills up our minds. So that at dinner all anyone has to talk about is Angelina Jolie and nothing intellectually stimulating. Let’s all analyze a photo of Barack Obama wearing traditional Kenyan robes and assume that was taken when his father sent him to Islamic Fundamentalist camp back in junior high. Eat shit America.

Holy ranting Batman! I used to have a positive outlook and now I’m getting old and jaded. Gross.

I know what will cheer me up. New Kids On The Block.