From an early age, we're taught not to behave in certain ways. We're taught to always be polite and always treat people the way we'd like to be treated (ie "with respect").
This holds true until a person is introduced to outside influences. And then all heck breaks loose.
What we all learn, and forget, is that we CAN do whatever we want.
As children:
We CAN climb to the top of the tree. (We CAN fall out of said tree and break both arms.)
We CAN stay up past midnight. (We CAN still get up for school, and end up falling asleep at recess.)
As adults:
We CAN go out and have promiscuous sex. (We CAN get several STDs as we disrespect our bodies.)
We CAN socialise health-care. (We CAN wait six months for medical treatment we needed two weeks ago.)
Adults don't remember that there are consequences to their actions. Adults think for the 'long-term', so their thought process begins with "If I do this" and ends with "in twenty years, this will be the result".
(Personally, I think it's admirable that these people think that they'll be around in twenty years to see their plans -- particularly the health-care one -- fail so miserably. What imaginations they have!)
Children know better. Ask any eight year old: "Hey, why don't you play in the street?" 'Because mommy will yell at me.' "Well, why would she yell at you? You're only playing."
(And if you continue that line of speaking, the child will argue with his or her mother and their mother WILL shout at them, WILL tell you to get off their property, and very well might call the police if you persist talking to their child.)
We need to get back to "what is happening right now". Right now, our world is in turmoil.
We DO need long-term, SUSTAINABLE solutions for our problems.
However, we also have children being brought into this world RIGHT NOW who need somewhere to live RIGHT NOW. If we don't work on our problems for RIGHT NOW, we won't have a future. We won't have children, grandchildren, and greatgrandchildren onto whom to pass this world. Our descendants will inherit outdated "long-term" solutions, the way we're going.
I recently saw IRONMAN2. I thought it was spectacular. I loved the effects and I loved Robert Downey Jr's performance and I thought it was a fun movie. Those (other than the very last) are not what stuck with me.
What stuck out to me was the legacy (or the duty, however you want to look at it) that Anthony Stark's father, Howard Stark, passed onto him.
Not to give too much away, but Howard Stark never built his greatest invention because he didn't have the technology at the time, so he passed it on to Tony.
It was a very gentle reminder to us all living in the real world. What we can take away from this is that the plans of this time will not be completely effective in the long-term because the world is always changing, technology is always advancing, and we are always growing as individuals. Anything implemented as a long-term solution is not truly sustainable because there is ALWAYS going to be a tomorrow, there is ALWAYS going to be a future, and there is ALWAYS going to be someone out there who can do "it" better.
(Yes: there is always a future. Whether it's for the next five seconds, or the next five-hundred years, there is a future. We all have a past, and we all have a future. Time is a relative issue. In five minutes, the current time will be five minutes past. It's kind of a mind-warp.)
I digress.
We can do whatever we want, we just have to pay the consequences.
Yes, you CAN kill that person stopped in front of you on the expressway. (Yes, you CAN go to jail as a murderer, having just killed some mother's son, some sister's brother, and some daughter's father.)
Yes, you CAN implement a Socialist government. (Yes, you CAN have everything you own taken from you and redistributed to people who've never worked a day in their miserable lives, prompting you to slack off because, HEY, you'll get the same amount of money, right? And then nothing gets done because no one is doing anything.*)
In conclusion:
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction and you are responsible for what you do and don't do. And if you don't like it, I suggest you crawl into your own little cave where physics and basic principles don't apply, because this is how the world works, sweetheart.
*For end-game, see: Serenity (2005))
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Saturday, 1 May 2010
[WARNING] Graphic Language And Ideas Present.
Dear Weather Channel Hosts;
Do you enjoy shaming your mothers? I mean, you're reporting on the weather. So riddle me this, stupids: WHY ARE YOU DOING POLITICS?
I mean, I know you're run by NBC and stuff, but why can't you just let it be when I'm trying to figure out if I have to watch out for tornadoes or if my family is going to be in the way of foul weather. I don't want to hear about how Big Oil frakked up in their underestimation of the oil spill in the Gulf. Really, I'll watch an actual NEWS channel for that.
Whatever the heck happened to straight-out WEATHER FORECASTING on the weather channel? I don't give two hoots and a hollar about the goshdarned Kentucky Derby going on... I care about the goshdarned WEATHER when I'm watching the WEATHER CHANNEL.
I'm sure your mothers love you.
I'm sorry to have to tell you this... but you've shamed those mothers who bore you and reared you and, were I not a God-fearing woman of principles, I would be tearing you a new one using words I haven't uttered in years.
I hope you're proud of the shame you've brought to your families by sullying a channel supposedly about climate forecast with left-wing political forecast.
You, sirs and ma'ams, should be ashamed of yourselves. You should be lowering your eyes to the FLOOR when neutral parties walk into a room where a recording of you is playing on the television. You should be writhing in AGONY at the weight that should be present on your conscience.
I wish you no ill will. In fact, I hope that you go to church and pray for forgiveness for attempting to indoctrinate children hoping for a snow-day, or old men looking out for their travelling children.
Your mothers love you, and I do, as you're also a child of God.
Thank you.
Miss Cat.
Do you enjoy shaming your mothers? I mean, you're reporting on the weather. So riddle me this, stupids: WHY ARE YOU DOING POLITICS?
I mean, I know you're run by NBC and stuff, but why can't you just let it be when I'm trying to figure out if I have to watch out for tornadoes or if my family is going to be in the way of foul weather. I don't want to hear about how Big Oil frakked up in their underestimation of the oil spill in the Gulf. Really, I'll watch an actual NEWS channel for that.
Whatever the heck happened to straight-out WEATHER FORECASTING on the weather channel? I don't give two hoots and a hollar about the goshdarned Kentucky Derby going on... I care about the goshdarned WEATHER when I'm watching the WEATHER CHANNEL.
I'm sure your mothers love you.
I'm sorry to have to tell you this... but you've shamed those mothers who bore you and reared you and, were I not a God-fearing woman of principles, I would be tearing you a new one using words I haven't uttered in years.
I hope you're proud of the shame you've brought to your families by sullying a channel supposedly about climate forecast with left-wing political forecast.
You, sirs and ma'ams, should be ashamed of yourselves. You should be lowering your eyes to the FLOOR when neutral parties walk into a room where a recording of you is playing on the television. You should be writhing in AGONY at the weight that should be present on your conscience.
I wish you no ill will. In fact, I hope that you go to church and pray for forgiveness for attempting to indoctrinate children hoping for a snow-day, or old men looking out for their travelling children.
Your mothers love you, and I do, as you're also a child of God.
Thank you.
Miss Cat.
Sunday, 7 February 2010
I am not a necessary dissenter,
I just watched Sarah Palin's speech from the Tea Party Convention.
For those who are in any way unfamiliar with the Tea Party movement and what it really is, I'll attempt to summarise:
Tea Partiers (who the Liberal/Progressive/MSM [choose one, they're all the same] have wrongly called "teabaggers") are everyday American citizens acting upon their ideals and actively creating the change we were promised -- but did not receive -- when Mister Obama campaigned for the Presidency. The Tea Party movement is grounded in fiscal responsibility, Constitutionally limited government, and really going back to basics when it comes to the government and its role in the lives of those it is supposed to be governing.
It doesn't matter where you stand on Governor Palin, I personally think she's neat and a breath of fresh air in the stale cave that Washington and its politics have become.
But there are those who would call Tea Partiers "racist" or "hatemongers" or any number of slanderous and libelious things, simply because these anti-Tea Partiers either disagree or are ignorant to the mission, core values, and/or purpose of the Tea Party Movement.
This is taken directly from the Tea Party Patriot website's* mission statement page [emphasis mine]:
Tea Party Patriots as an organization believes in the Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally Limited Government, and Free Markets. Tea Party Patriots, Inc. is a non-partisan grassroots organization of individuals united by our core values derived from the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America and the Bill Of Rights as explained in the Federalist Papers**. We recognize and support the strength of grassroots organization powered by activism and civic responsibility at a local level. We hold that the United States is a republic conceived by its architects as a nation whose people were granted "unalienable rights" by our Creator. Chiefly among these are the rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The Tea Party Patriots stand with our founders, as heirs to the republic, to claim our rights and duties which preserve their legacy and our own. We hold, as did the founders, that there exists an inherent benefit to our country when private property and prosperity are secured by natural law and the rights of the individual.
Now, I'm not the smartest person in the world, but I'm pretty sure that that was Plain English enough for even an uneducated crazy person like me to understand:
The Tea Party Movement is about ground-level activism and going back to what was written on that piece of paper in 1787 when a bunch of men holed up in that building in Pennsylvania in the middle of Summer and banged that document out. You know... the Constitution? And the one that was written in 1776 that said that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable*** Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."**** The Declaration of Independence?
Anyone who has seen SchoolHouse Rock in school knows the Preamble to the Constitution, as well:
"We the People [of the United States], in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."*****
That right there? That is what this country was built on. That was the "Mission Statement", the opening remarks, of the Constitution. That was what the Founding Fathers were talking about when they established this country. And this country wasn't founded by men in suits who sought to make money or marginalise the citizens of this nation. Unlike the current administration (and many of those past, don't get me wrong) -- who only care about money -- and the Main-Stream Media (MSM) -- who seek to marginalise those who don't agree with Our Fearless Leader -- the men who laid the foundation for the next 200+ years of this country thought ONLY of making a better place for their families and neighbours and their descendants to live and grow.
So where did we go wrong?
Well, it all started with a little thing called "self-interest". I can hear the Necessary Dissenters now: "But Miss Cat, one could argue that the Framers of the Constitution were acting out of their own self-interest and were looking to make their own lives better. Besides, didn't Thomas Jefferson own slaves and weren't the Republicans of that day and age REALLY the Democrats? OMG ARE YOU SAYING YOU'RE A RACIST??? OMG SHE TOTALLY IS. SOMEONE CALL THE NAACP ON HER AND GET HER TO THE NEAREST INDOCTRINATION CENTRE!!!!!"******
(For the record: NO. The Republicans of Days Gone Past were ACTUALLY Republicans and the Democrats ACTUALLY have roots with the KKK.******* I want to know why it always comes back to race when I don't bow to lick Mister Obama's boots.)
Look, right? The Constitution was written as the base for all that this country stands for. We have a strong foundation there. But it seems that this administration, and those gone past*********, seem to want to build towers and turrets kind off off to the side and over that-a-way and really not attached too well to anything connected to the foundation upon which we're supposed to be building. We've got this tenuous connection to the principles upon which this great country was built, and it's not going to be too long until this tower we've allowed to be built (and helped build with our tax dollars and our bare hands) comes crumbling down and we're FORCED to go back to the main principles we should have been building on these many, many years, or it becomes an unrecognisable structure, bastardised and supported only by the once-grand, but poory-built houses of cards Mister Obama seems to value above his own country.
Is that what we want? Being shocked back into our senses when it's too late to salvage anything resembling order? Socialism under the guise of "Enlightenment"? Or falling so far that we lose all of our rights and are forced into servitude by nations we once counted as allies?
Or is there another choice? A choice that takes us back to where we came from? A choice that takes us back to the values upon which this great nation was founded and forged? A choice that strips back the overhead and over-complicated beauracracy to a place where the current status quo has no place?
Is there a choice like that?
Yes. It's called Doing Something About It. It's called getting off your bum and taking a stand. It's called talking. It's called activism. It's called getting together with people who are also Doing Something About It and letting the people YOU voted into office know that the unConstitutional principles which they are touting as "truth" and "hope" and "change" are unacceptable. Doing Something About it is We The People getting together and working toward a better world, and not waiting on the world to change.
We are the only ones who can change the world. If we don't change it, someone else will, and it may not change in the direction we want to go. It is, in fact, our own goshdarned fault that this country is in as bad a shape as it is in and is US who need to work toward the change that we need. Obamessiah? No. We The People. We The People of The United States need to fix this. We The People need to get off our collective bums and fix what's going wrong with our country and not count on the people in office to do it for us.
Who puts them in office? WE DO. They don't just magically appear there like the money in the Magical Pot of Money called The Federal Reserve. We are the ones who put the politicians we despise in office, and it's our fault, so we need to take responsibility for our actions and do something about it.
THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is what the Tea Party Movement is all about.
It's not about partisan politics. It's not about money for lobbyist groups. It's not about race, religion, or personal philosophy.
It's about tearing down the piss-poor construction job on this we have done in the past hundred or so years and rebuilding ourselves upon the foundation which we were given. It's about Doing Something About It when we don't like the way something is going. It's about hard work and working for something worthy. It's about believing in actual change, and not just nominal change.
Thank you.
*Tea Party Patriots: Official Home of the American Tea Party Movement.
**Read the Federalist Papers here
***Define:unalienable - "incapable of being repudiated or transferred to another" (source)
****Read the Declaration of Independence.
*****Read the US Constitution.
******I keep telling my dad that the only reason I haven't been black-bagged by the government is because they can easily write me off as a mentally unstable, undereducated, overprivileged middle-class white girl with a martyr complex.
*******Carter's Cover Up, Back to the Future - Racist Democrats, White Guilt 101, Black Legion of Superheroes.
Kevin Jackson is awesome. Read his site, TheBlackSphere.net, and marvel. He's also got a book out called The BIG Black Lie: How I Learned The Truth About The Democrat Party. Oddly enough, no one else seems to want to talk about that.
********Don't misunderstand. This "truth" and "hope" and "change" -y thing isn't just a Current Administration problem. As much as I dislike Mister Obama, he's not the first to betray the American people and do something stupid like Obamacare. Woodrow Wilson started the Federal Reserve. The Fed, as we call it around here, makes money out of nothing and is the reason we're broke. Franklin D Roosevelt started Social Security as a temporary measure. Social Security, if you read the Constitution, is unConstitutional. And then you've got Lyndon B Johnson who decided that Medicare and Medicaid would be nifty ideas. Those are also unConstitutional and really shouldn't be in effect. But they are because we've grown familiar with the status quo and allowed it to wrap its little wires and whatnot all into our nervous system like the Borg or the Matrix so we've come to accept Medicare/Medicaid/SocialSecurity as our due and as something completely normal. In point of fact: we shouldn't even be paying into them at all if we're reading the Constitution.
For those who are in any way unfamiliar with the Tea Party movement and what it really is, I'll attempt to summarise:
Tea Partiers (who the Liberal/Progressive/MSM [choose one, they're all the same] have wrongly called "teabaggers") are everyday American citizens acting upon their ideals and actively creating the change we were promised -- but did not receive -- when Mister Obama campaigned for the Presidency. The Tea Party movement is grounded in fiscal responsibility, Constitutionally limited government, and really going back to basics when it comes to the government and its role in the lives of those it is supposed to be governing.
It doesn't matter where you stand on Governor Palin, I personally think she's neat and a breath of fresh air in the stale cave that Washington and its politics have become.
But there are those who would call Tea Partiers "racist" or "hatemongers" or any number of slanderous and libelious things, simply because these anti-Tea Partiers either disagree or are ignorant to the mission, core values, and/or purpose of the Tea Party Movement.
This is taken directly from the Tea Party Patriot website's* mission statement page [emphasis mine]:
Tea Party Patriots as an organization believes in the Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally Limited Government, and Free Markets. Tea Party Patriots, Inc. is a non-partisan grassroots organization of individuals united by our core values derived from the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America and the Bill Of Rights as explained in the Federalist Papers**. We recognize and support the strength of grassroots organization powered by activism and civic responsibility at a local level. We hold that the United States is a republic conceived by its architects as a nation whose people were granted "unalienable rights" by our Creator. Chiefly among these are the rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The Tea Party Patriots stand with our founders, as heirs to the republic, to claim our rights and duties which preserve their legacy and our own. We hold, as did the founders, that there exists an inherent benefit to our country when private property and prosperity are secured by natural law and the rights of the individual.
Now, I'm not the smartest person in the world, but I'm pretty sure that that was Plain English enough for even an uneducated crazy person like me to understand:
The Tea Party Movement is about ground-level activism and going back to what was written on that piece of paper in 1787 when a bunch of men holed up in that building in Pennsylvania in the middle of Summer and banged that document out. You know... the Constitution? And the one that was written in 1776 that said that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable*** Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."**** The Declaration of Independence?
Anyone who has seen SchoolHouse Rock in school knows the Preamble to the Constitution, as well:
"We the People [of the United States], in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."*****
That right there? That is what this country was built on. That was the "Mission Statement", the opening remarks, of the Constitution. That was what the Founding Fathers were talking about when they established this country. And this country wasn't founded by men in suits who sought to make money or marginalise the citizens of this nation. Unlike the current administration (and many of those past, don't get me wrong) -- who only care about money -- and the Main-Stream Media (MSM) -- who seek to marginalise those who don't agree with Our Fearless Leader -- the men who laid the foundation for the next 200+ years of this country thought ONLY of making a better place for their families and neighbours and their descendants to live and grow.
So where did we go wrong?
Well, it all started with a little thing called "self-interest". I can hear the Necessary Dissenters now: "But Miss Cat, one could argue that the Framers of the Constitution were acting out of their own self-interest and were looking to make their own lives better. Besides, didn't Thomas Jefferson own slaves and weren't the Republicans of that day and age REALLY the Democrats? OMG ARE YOU SAYING YOU'RE A RACIST??? OMG SHE TOTALLY IS. SOMEONE CALL THE NAACP ON HER AND GET HER TO THE NEAREST INDOCTRINATION CENTRE!!!!!"******
(For the record: NO. The Republicans of Days Gone Past were ACTUALLY Republicans and the Democrats ACTUALLY have roots with the KKK.******* I want to know why it always comes back to race when I don't bow to lick Mister Obama's boots.)
Look, right? The Constitution was written as the base for all that this country stands for. We have a strong foundation there. But it seems that this administration, and those gone past*********, seem to want to build towers and turrets kind off off to the side and over that-a-way and really not attached too well to anything connected to the foundation upon which we're supposed to be building. We've got this tenuous connection to the principles upon which this great country was built, and it's not going to be too long until this tower we've allowed to be built (and helped build with our tax dollars and our bare hands) comes crumbling down and we're FORCED to go back to the main principles we should have been building on these many, many years, or it becomes an unrecognisable structure, bastardised and supported only by the once-grand, but poory-built houses of cards Mister Obama seems to value above his own country.
Is that what we want? Being shocked back into our senses when it's too late to salvage anything resembling order? Socialism under the guise of "Enlightenment"? Or falling so far that we lose all of our rights and are forced into servitude by nations we once counted as allies?
Or is there another choice? A choice that takes us back to where we came from? A choice that takes us back to the values upon which this great nation was founded and forged? A choice that strips back the overhead and over-complicated beauracracy to a place where the current status quo has no place?
Is there a choice like that?
Yes. It's called Doing Something About It. It's called getting off your bum and taking a stand. It's called talking. It's called activism. It's called getting together with people who are also Doing Something About It and letting the people YOU voted into office know that the unConstitutional principles which they are touting as "truth" and "hope" and "change" are unacceptable. Doing Something About it is We The People getting together and working toward a better world, and not waiting on the world to change.
We are the only ones who can change the world. If we don't change it, someone else will, and it may not change in the direction we want to go. It is, in fact, our own goshdarned fault that this country is in as bad a shape as it is in and is US who need to work toward the change that we need. Obamessiah? No. We The People. We The People of The United States need to fix this. We The People need to get off our collective bums and fix what's going wrong with our country and not count on the people in office to do it for us.
Who puts them in office? WE DO. They don't just magically appear there like the money in the Magical Pot of Money called The Federal Reserve. We are the ones who put the politicians we despise in office, and it's our fault, so we need to take responsibility for our actions and do something about it.
THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is what the Tea Party Movement is all about.
It's not about partisan politics. It's not about money for lobbyist groups. It's not about race, religion, or personal philosophy.
It's about tearing down the piss-poor construction job on this we have done in the past hundred or so years and rebuilding ourselves upon the foundation which we were given. It's about Doing Something About It when we don't like the way something is going. It's about hard work and working for something worthy. It's about believing in actual change, and not just nominal change.
Thank you.
*Tea Party Patriots: Official Home of the American Tea Party Movement.
**Read the Federalist Papers here
***Define:unalienable - "incapable of being repudiated or transferred to another" (source)
****Read the Declaration of Independence.
*****Read the US Constitution.
******I keep telling my dad that the only reason I haven't been black-bagged by the government is because they can easily write me off as a mentally unstable, undereducated, overprivileged middle-class white girl with a martyr complex.
*******Carter's Cover Up, Back to the Future - Racist Democrats, White Guilt 101, Black Legion of Superheroes.
Kevin Jackson is awesome. Read his site, TheBlackSphere.net, and marvel. He's also got a book out called The BIG Black Lie: How I Learned The Truth About The Democrat Party. Oddly enough, no one else seems to want to talk about that.
********Don't misunderstand. This "truth" and "hope" and "change" -y thing isn't just a Current Administration problem. As much as I dislike Mister Obama, he's not the first to betray the American people and do something stupid like Obamacare. Woodrow Wilson started the Federal Reserve. The Fed, as we call it around here, makes money out of nothing and is the reason we're broke. Franklin D Roosevelt started Social Security as a temporary measure. Social Security, if you read the Constitution, is unConstitutional. And then you've got Lyndon B Johnson who decided that Medicare and Medicaid would be nifty ideas. Those are also unConstitutional and really shouldn't be in effect. But they are because we've grown familiar with the status quo and allowed it to wrap its little wires and whatnot all into our nervous system like the Borg or the Matrix so we've come to accept Medicare/Medicaid/SocialSecurity as our due and as something completely normal. In point of fact: we shouldn't even be paying into them at all if we're reading the Constitution.
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
I don't even LIKE going to parties.
I really don't like talking about politics. Really, I don't. Just like I don't like talking about the weather, and just like I don't like talking about religion with my non-religious friends. So I very rarely talk about politics because it seems that I surround myself with people whose views are the exact opposite of mine. When this happens, it's usually sheer numbers of liberal views against my very conservative ones and I just say "Whatever" so that we can all shut up and get back to being agreeable. The few conservative individuals I've spoken to in some capacity revile me just as much as strangers who don't share my views do. Which is kind of funny because we more than often have the exact same views on ninety-four percent of the issues.
I think that has something to do with the fact that I refuse to say "I'm a Republican". I tried that a few years ago, only to find out that there were just as many corrupt politicians in one party as in the other. Now (since I've been able to Google political parties and lay my eyes on an actual voter's card), I don't identify with either "major" party. If anything, I consider myself a Libertarian. A very conservative one, but a Libertarian nonetheless. And I don't necessarily agree with everything going on in the party, but I don't feel attacked when I don't readily agree with absolutely everyone-omg-isn't-it-great-we-have-this-party-guys? And I don't have to agree with everything going on in the party. I guess you'd say that I'm an Independent because I disdain all parties.
Everywhere I look, I see politics. I hear about politics. I turn on the news and there's coverage on Haiti (which is an absolute tragedy, please don't misunderstand) with both parties mudslinging. Grown men and women cat-fighting and sniping at each other and ignoring the fact that people are dead.
How much money do these politicians get paid, anyway? Enough to put up mistresses in some condo down in Florida, and more, I'd wager. Why not have every politician in Washington donate fifteen-hundred dollars of their salary this month to a Haiti relief fund? Oh... wait... they have to fund their self-righteousness with hybrid cars and siphon money into their off-shore accounts. I forgot. Silly me.
I don't put much stock in government aid. I don't think it's the government's job to provide aid to every Joe Somebody who puts their cap out. I believe in private charity, as it seems that the private sector and private charities are much more adept at the distribution of funds and goods. It also seems to be that non-profit private charities have more money than the government, and they're not funded by tax-payer dollars.
This is in contrast to the government, who get their money from the money that tax-payers pay. Funny, isn't it? Maybe they should do a bake-sale to raise money for the multi-trillion dollar deficit? Or a car-wash or something, I don't know. I just know that every time a "normal" group of People Who Need Money get together, they invariably do a bake-sale or a car-wash. Or they get actual jobs that pay. But that'd just be silly.
As it is, Washington itself is kind of like those clubs in high school who were constantly fundraising because they had an inadequate treasurer and president and they weren't upholding the club's constitution.
...Wait a minute...
I was actually a member of one of those clubs my junior year. I was one of the "executives". And then the president wasn't doing his job and no one else was doing their job, so I said "screw it" and that was the end of it. (I also had a pretty fantastic and emotional event take place and I basically said "screw life" and wanted to move to Iceland because I was fed up with everyone I knew, but that's not the point.) We even paid dues in this club! Alright, it was like ten dollars or something to join, but still... that was ten sodas from the machine, or money we could have used for lunch. Or at Jack-in-the-Box down the road. Or Starbucks.
I digress.
Politics is JUST like high school. Rumour fly, hair gets pulled, and (before you know it) someone is getting their trousers pulled down in front of the cafeteria and you've got the Sharks and the Jets about to rumble in the car-park and everyone is gathered to watch because this is the most exciting thing that's happened. Of course, the seniors and juniors are just like "whatever" because this crap happened their freshman and sophomore years and they've got more important things to take care of. Because this happens every four years. Or two years, depending on the size of your school and the cattiness of the student body.
...Wait a minute...
"Partisan politics" has become synonymous with "politics". It doesn't matter what your actual ideals are because we all know that "Liberal" means "Democrat" and "Conservative" means "Republican". Everyone is familiar with those two parties. When you ask someone their political affiliation, you're more likely to say "Are you a Republican or a Democrat?" than "Are you Conservative, or are you Liberal?" because the former sounds intelligent and the latter sounds too simple and frank.
I remember the commercial for the walkie-talkie on the phone. "If firemen ran the country"? Everything was straightforward and simple.
Not so with Congress. It doesn't matter if we don't WANT to watch the proceedings going on, but we'd like to have the option of knowing what the good-gosh-darned-heck our elected officials are doing when they're deciding how to spend our money and run our lives. No one ever says that they have "average citizens'" best interest at heart. That's something that we should be able to take for granted, but it's simply not true. The politicians in Washington care more about their political parties than they do abut the people who elected them.
In my opinion, we need more simplicity in our politics. No playing daes dae'mar, no manoeuvring for personal interests. It'd be great if everyone in Washington could just be quiet for a little while and get it together and do what's best for the citizens of this country. I really don't think that will happen, though, because everyone in office is secretly a high-schooler trying to get the popular kids to notice them so that they have a "better" place to sit at lunch.
Of course, what no one's telling anyone, is that the popular kids are cheating on tests and paying off the teachers to get better grades.
I think that has something to do with the fact that I refuse to say "I'm a Republican". I tried that a few years ago, only to find out that there were just as many corrupt politicians in one party as in the other. Now (since I've been able to Google political parties and lay my eyes on an actual voter's card), I don't identify with either "major" party. If anything, I consider myself a Libertarian. A very conservative one, but a Libertarian nonetheless. And I don't necessarily agree with everything going on in the party, but I don't feel attacked when I don't readily agree with absolutely everyone-omg-isn't-it-great-we-have-this-party-guys? And I don't have to agree with everything going on in the party. I guess you'd say that I'm an Independent because I disdain all parties.
Everywhere I look, I see politics. I hear about politics. I turn on the news and there's coverage on Haiti (which is an absolute tragedy, please don't misunderstand) with both parties mudslinging. Grown men and women cat-fighting and sniping at each other and ignoring the fact that people are dead.
How much money do these politicians get paid, anyway? Enough to put up mistresses in some condo down in Florida, and more, I'd wager. Why not have every politician in Washington donate fifteen-hundred dollars of their salary this month to a Haiti relief fund? Oh... wait... they have to fund their self-righteousness with hybrid cars and siphon money into their off-shore accounts. I forgot. Silly me.
I don't put much stock in government aid. I don't think it's the government's job to provide aid to every Joe Somebody who puts their cap out. I believe in private charity, as it seems that the private sector and private charities are much more adept at the distribution of funds and goods. It also seems to be that non-profit private charities have more money than the government, and they're not funded by tax-payer dollars.
This is in contrast to the government, who get their money from the money that tax-payers pay. Funny, isn't it? Maybe they should do a bake-sale to raise money for the multi-trillion dollar deficit? Or a car-wash or something, I don't know. I just know that every time a "normal" group of People Who Need Money get together, they invariably do a bake-sale or a car-wash. Or they get actual jobs that pay. But that'd just be silly.
As it is, Washington itself is kind of like those clubs in high school who were constantly fundraising because they had an inadequate treasurer and president and they weren't upholding the club's constitution.
...Wait a minute...
I was actually a member of one of those clubs my junior year. I was one of the "executives". And then the president wasn't doing his job and no one else was doing their job, so I said "screw it" and that was the end of it. (I also had a pretty fantastic and emotional event take place and I basically said "screw life" and wanted to move to Iceland because I was fed up with everyone I knew, but that's not the point.) We even paid dues in this club! Alright, it was like ten dollars or something to join, but still... that was ten sodas from the machine, or money we could have used for lunch. Or at Jack-in-the-Box down the road. Or Starbucks.
I digress.
Politics is JUST like high school. Rumour fly, hair gets pulled, and (before you know it) someone is getting their trousers pulled down in front of the cafeteria and you've got the Sharks and the Jets about to rumble in the car-park and everyone is gathered to watch because this is the most exciting thing that's happened. Of course, the seniors and juniors are just like "whatever" because this crap happened their freshman and sophomore years and they've got more important things to take care of. Because this happens every four years. Or two years, depending on the size of your school and the cattiness of the student body.
...Wait a minute...
"Partisan politics" has become synonymous with "politics". It doesn't matter what your actual ideals are because we all know that "Liberal" means "Democrat" and "Conservative" means "Republican". Everyone is familiar with those two parties. When you ask someone their political affiliation, you're more likely to say "Are you a Republican or a Democrat?" than "Are you Conservative, or are you Liberal?" because the former sounds intelligent and the latter sounds too simple and frank.
I remember the commercial for the walkie-talkie on the phone. "If firemen ran the country"? Everything was straightforward and simple.
Not so with Congress. It doesn't matter if we don't WANT to watch the proceedings going on, but we'd like to have the option of knowing what the good-gosh-darned-heck our elected officials are doing when they're deciding how to spend our money and run our lives. No one ever says that they have "average citizens'" best interest at heart. That's something that we should be able to take for granted, but it's simply not true. The politicians in Washington care more about their political parties than they do abut the people who elected them.
In my opinion, we need more simplicity in our politics. No playing daes dae'mar, no manoeuvring for personal interests. It'd be great if everyone in Washington could just be quiet for a little while and get it together and do what's best for the citizens of this country. I really don't think that will happen, though, because everyone in office is secretly a high-schooler trying to get the popular kids to notice them so that they have a "better" place to sit at lunch.
Of course, what no one's telling anyone, is that the popular kids are cheating on tests and paying off the teachers to get better grades.
Thursday, 24 December 2009
Love, actually.
There's a lot of pressure to say "happy holidays" or have a "holiday party" (vice the "Christmas party" of days past).
Am I aware that there is, indeed, more than one holiday that traditionally falls in December? Absolutely. Do I recognise that Chanukah and Yule and non-Christian holidays are, indeed, present? Yes, I do.
That does not mean, however, that I'm not going to wish someone a Happy Christmas after they wish me a "Happy Holidays".
Sure, chalk it up to my religion (Roman Catholic) or my political leanings (pro-life, pro-family, pro-military, pro-business, pro-job, pro-government reform with Libertarian principles somewhere in realm of "conservative"), or whatever helps you sleep at night.
The fact of the matter is that we don't go "holiday" shopping. Y'all, we go "Christmas shopping" and send out "Christmas cards" and buy "Christmas stockings". How many children are opening their stockings on Secular Reception-of-Presents day? Take out the sock and you've got a birthday! Take out Jesus and you've got... not much. (Spare the "Oh, but there's Yule!! That's a valid holiday! What about Chanukah? (And why are you spelling it with a C??? CNN TOLD ME IT WAS HANUKKAH!!!) Or Kwanzaa? (OMG ARE YOU AN ANTI-SEMITIC RACIST?? DO YOU VOTE REPUBLICAN, AS WELL????) And what about the traditional meals and exchanging of presents and the togetherness and the singing! DON'T FORGET THE SINGING! THAT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT PART! It's all about food, presents, candy, and the good ol' Festivus spirit!" for someone who actually really does care. Unfortunately for those holding the "but it's holiday spirit" sentiments, I really don't give a good-gosh-darned-hoot-and-holler.)
Christmas, though, IS a birthday. It's the birth of Jesus that most people are celebrating ("Christians stole it from the Pagans, yadda yadda yadda, Christians cause war, John Lennon said so... blah blah blah, DIE CAPITALIST/IMPERIALIST/CONSUMERIST/CHRISTIAN/MONOTHEISTIC [pick one] SWINE!!!" et al, ad nauseum) and it's this that brings people flooding en mass to churches around the world and it's this that causes that great surge of feasting and joy and... dare I say?... love?
There's a reason that there've been so many films made about Christmas, and why the best and most popular are about the Christmas spirit... not the "holiday spirit". Maybe the "spirit of the holiday", but that "holiday" is Christmas. It's not a dirty word, my dear, it's alright to say "Christmas". Really, no one will hurt you, you're safe.
So what makes Christmas?
Is it the presents, snow, and mistletoe? Is it the tree? Is it the really great fruitcake?
That's up to you. Everyone has their own traditions and beliefs. For every person out there, there are that many different systems of belief.
I don't really care about presents. I asked for a kitchen gadget this year, and that was it. I've also lived on islands most of my life. The only times I've seen snow were when I visited my grandparents. As for the mistletoe... No thanks. The tree I can do without (though it is mighty pretty once it's all lit-up and decorated) and the fruitcake usually needs a few days to properly soak and ferment before I'll eat it.
For me, Christmas is about love. It's about God's love and it's about the love I have for my family and extended family and network of friends. For me, Christmas is waking up on that morning and having that day with my family and that sense of love that permeates the day. It's -- to me -- about filling myself with love for my fellow man and for my (very tolerant, very forgiving, and all-around indescribable) God.
I guess when it gets down to it... to the bare bones... to the meaning of Christ's birth... Christmas is REALLY about love, actually.
I don't think I'll attempt to change that.
I've got Christmas to celebrate and scarves to knit and a house to clean.
Have a happy Christmas and a blessed New Year.
Am I aware that there is, indeed, more than one holiday that traditionally falls in December? Absolutely. Do I recognise that Chanukah and Yule and non-Christian holidays are, indeed, present? Yes, I do.
That does not mean, however, that I'm not going to wish someone a Happy Christmas after they wish me a "Happy Holidays".
Sure, chalk it up to my religion (Roman Catholic) or my political leanings (pro-life, pro-family, pro-military, pro-business, pro-job, pro-government reform with Libertarian principles somewhere in realm of "conservative"), or whatever helps you sleep at night.
The fact of the matter is that we don't go "holiday" shopping. Y'all, we go "Christmas shopping" and send out "Christmas cards" and buy "Christmas stockings". How many children are opening their stockings on Secular Reception-of-Presents day? Take out the sock and you've got a birthday! Take out Jesus and you've got... not much. (Spare the "Oh, but there's Yule!! That's a valid holiday! What about Chanukah? (And why are you spelling it with a C??? CNN TOLD ME IT WAS HANUKKAH!!!) Or Kwanzaa? (OMG ARE YOU AN ANTI-SEMITIC RACIST?? DO YOU VOTE REPUBLICAN, AS WELL????) And what about the traditional meals and exchanging of presents and the togetherness and the singing! DON'T FORGET THE SINGING! THAT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT PART! It's all about food, presents, candy, and the good ol' Festivus spirit!" for someone who actually really does care. Unfortunately for those holding the "but it's holiday spirit" sentiments, I really don't give a good-gosh-darned-hoot-and-holler.)
Christmas, though, IS a birthday. It's the birth of Jesus that most people are celebrating ("Christians stole it from the Pagans, yadda yadda yadda, Christians cause war, John Lennon said so... blah blah blah, DIE CAPITALIST/IMPERIALIST/CONSUMERIST/CHRISTIAN/MONOTHEISTIC [pick one] SWINE!!!" et al, ad nauseum) and it's this that brings people flooding en mass to churches around the world and it's this that causes that great surge of feasting and joy and... dare I say?... love?
There's a reason that there've been so many films made about Christmas, and why the best and most popular are about the Christmas spirit... not the "holiday spirit". Maybe the "spirit of the holiday", but that "holiday" is Christmas. It's not a dirty word, my dear, it's alright to say "Christmas". Really, no one will hurt you, you're safe.
So what makes Christmas?
Is it the presents, snow, and mistletoe? Is it the tree? Is it the really great fruitcake?
That's up to you. Everyone has their own traditions and beliefs. For every person out there, there are that many different systems of belief.
I don't really care about presents. I asked for a kitchen gadget this year, and that was it. I've also lived on islands most of my life. The only times I've seen snow were when I visited my grandparents. As for the mistletoe... No thanks. The tree I can do without (though it is mighty pretty once it's all lit-up and decorated) and the fruitcake usually needs a few days to properly soak and ferment before I'll eat it.
For me, Christmas is about love. It's about God's love and it's about the love I have for my family and extended family and network of friends. For me, Christmas is waking up on that morning and having that day with my family and that sense of love that permeates the day. It's -- to me -- about filling myself with love for my fellow man and for my (very tolerant, very forgiving, and all-around indescribable) God.
I guess when it gets down to it... to the bare bones... to the meaning of Christ's birth... Christmas is REALLY about love, actually.
I don't think I'll attempt to change that.
I've got Christmas to celebrate and scarves to knit and a house to clean.
Have a happy Christmas and a blessed New Year.
Monday, 30 November 2009
Where does that leave us, then?
It's kind of weird. I've been Writing About Myself On The Interwebs (as would be an appropriate way of putting it) for going on six years. In that time, I've met and spoken to some really lovely people -- people I'm glad to have met, or was glad to have in my life at some point.
I was going through my 'friends list' on LiveJournal and I realised I couldn't remember one girl's name. Going back through my files, I'm not sure we ever exchanged names.
Sometimes you have to wonder if heartbreak is ever worth it. Not just the 'romantic' type, either. The absolute devastation when you realise after a while that certain friends have outgrown you, or you've outgrown certain friends. This, I think, is one of the few things that really scares me. And it doesn't truly matter how old you are, or how long you've known each other when you've grown apart from someone... sometimes things just don't 'work out' the way you want them to. Sometimes it's best to let go of those people -- those emotions -- and sort of grab a tighter hold on yourself. Not because you no longer like or love these friends, but because it's what's best for you... or because it's what's best for them.
Then you have to ask yourself whether you really did ever love that person or those people. You doubt yourself because you don't want to admit that you can stop loving someone because that means that someone could stop loving you. That's not a fun possibility. To look at it another way, there's the "love changes" concept. There's the idea that love itself is an energy which can neither be created nor destroyed, but which may change when acted upon.
There will be times when I'll have to make decisions based on what's right for others instead of what's right for myself. There will also be times I'll have to be selfish in order to grow up or move on or whatever it is that I'm trying to accomplish.
The big 'issue' with that, I suppose, is this: where do you draw the line? Where does 'taking care of yourself' become 'selfishness', and where does 'helping others' become 'running yourself ragged'? When did we start putting a price on helping people who need help? When did we start putting 'minimum donation' on charity? When did that start becoming necessary? Why are any of these questions relevant?
Idle hands are the devil's playground and idle talk is the devil's doing. That's my opinion. Idle "I love you"s when you don't mean it at all, or talk for the sake of talk. Gossip and all of those nasty habits we learn from age-whatever don't ever help us. To me, that seems to be why we rely so much on technology. While the internet is so open and like a great big ocean of death and ruined reputations, everyone's here and everyone is technically anonymous. We can trash-talk our best friends and no one is going to say anything because it's none of their business, but then it's still everyone's business.
Something to ask people when you get the "it's not you, it's me" talk (or the "it's really you, it's definitely not me" talk), is "So what would you like to do about this?". If you honestly love someone, fight for them. You'd want someone to fight for you, so fight for those you love.
I was going through my 'friends list' on LiveJournal and I realised I couldn't remember one girl's name. Going back through my files, I'm not sure we ever exchanged names.
Sometimes you have to wonder if heartbreak is ever worth it. Not just the 'romantic' type, either. The absolute devastation when you realise after a while that certain friends have outgrown you, or you've outgrown certain friends. This, I think, is one of the few things that really scares me. And it doesn't truly matter how old you are, or how long you've known each other when you've grown apart from someone... sometimes things just don't 'work out' the way you want them to. Sometimes it's best to let go of those people -- those emotions -- and sort of grab a tighter hold on yourself. Not because you no longer like or love these friends, but because it's what's best for you... or because it's what's best for them.
Then you have to ask yourself whether you really did ever love that person or those people. You doubt yourself because you don't want to admit that you can stop loving someone because that means that someone could stop loving you. That's not a fun possibility. To look at it another way, there's the "love changes" concept. There's the idea that love itself is an energy which can neither be created nor destroyed, but which may change when acted upon.
There will be times when I'll have to make decisions based on what's right for others instead of what's right for myself. There will also be times I'll have to be selfish in order to grow up or move on or whatever it is that I'm trying to accomplish.
The big 'issue' with that, I suppose, is this: where do you draw the line? Where does 'taking care of yourself' become 'selfishness', and where does 'helping others' become 'running yourself ragged'? When did we start putting a price on helping people who need help? When did we start putting 'minimum donation' on charity? When did that start becoming necessary? Why are any of these questions relevant?
Idle hands are the devil's playground and idle talk is the devil's doing. That's my opinion. Idle "I love you"s when you don't mean it at all, or talk for the sake of talk. Gossip and all of those nasty habits we learn from age-whatever don't ever help us. To me, that seems to be why we rely so much on technology. While the internet is so open and like a great big ocean of death and ruined reputations, everyone's here and everyone is technically anonymous. We can trash-talk our best friends and no one is going to say anything because it's none of their business, but then it's still everyone's business.
Something to ask people when you get the "it's not you, it's me" talk (or the "it's really you, it's definitely not me" talk), is "So what would you like to do about this?". If you honestly love someone, fight for them. You'd want someone to fight for you, so fight for those you love.
Monday, 23 November 2009
Stranger's Perspective
Sometimes, it's difficult to view yourself from a stranger's perspective. Oftentimes, the reason is arrogance, or a "don't judge me" attitude. I usually look inwards, at what I think I'm doing, or where I think I'm going, or at what I can (or, likely, should) change about myself. It's "omg so hard!" to switch that perspective because you're so close to yourself (if that makes sense).
The best way for me to describe it would be for an artist to look at a piece of art. Whether you're a writer, painter, sculptor, musician... anything... you're always blind to your work. It doesn't matter how many people love it because you may think it's absolute rubbish. Conversely, you may defend your work with more voracity than you would another piece of work because it's your work. Do you see? You're 'too close' to the 'project'. In this case, the work of art is yourself.
Personally, I had a difficult time looking at myself honestly. I was never pretty enough, smart enough, or anything enough to suit me. I finally realised after years of angsting over myself that I was, in fact, pretty and -- if not actually 'smart' -- half-way intelligent. I had to convince myself that I was "good" enough to be happy. And that didn't bring me any sort of happiness, let me tell you internet.
Instead of feeling liberated, I felt naked. I felt wronged, in some way, because I had been so caught up on myself that I failed to see those around me, and how I affected them. This past year hasn't exactly been the best for personal relationships or familial relationships. I've lost more than I've gained. I won't say that it doesn't hurt, or doesn't make me sad. What I will say is that I have no regrets.
What is regret but wasted emotion? You spend all your time loving someone, making something, not loving someone, not making something... whatever it was that you were or weren't doing... and then you're expected to discount your actions to the point where you "regret". You can't change the past, but you can create a future. You can recognise what you did that wasn't on par with what you probably should have been doing, and you can learn from your past. That's what it's there for, that's why it's past. There's no use trying to change it. What happens, happens. Who are we to try to plaster those holes?
I talk about regret a lot. I talk about how wanting something else to have happened instead of what did is useless. Do I wish that things in my past hadn't happened? Absolutely. ("I wish that I'd listened to my maternal grandparents more before they passed away." "I wish that maybe I hadn't lacked the stoicity to be done with boys I've dated." "I wish that maybe I hadn't had that whole bottle of wine last night.") I'm sorry that things have happened the way they did. I'm sorry about a lot of stuff. I feel shamed about a lot of stuff, because it brings shame to my family, as well. But who I am, where I am, what I am... is all a product of my actions. And I'm in a pretty good place. It could be better, but without "better", what's the rest of your life for?
-
Sometimes, it feels like I put too much of myself out there. Sometimes it feels like not enough. Too much, because I have an overwhelming feeling of "being responsible" for others, and not enough because it still does no good. The only thing I can do for others is be there and keep them honest.
What is honesty, though? What does "keep them honest" mean? Is that supposed to mean that I stop people when they're talking and say "You're a lying liar who lies like a dog"? Or is that something more subtle? Is that an example others are supposed to follow?
It kind of reminds me of Carrot in the Discworld Series. He's got "bags of krisma" and personality and treats everyone "like they're jolly good chaps". In turn, even the most notorious of criminals in his city don't want to let Carrot down. Because CARROT is such a great guy.
What I think is that we should take this character and attempt to learn from his example. We should be fundamentally good people and be honest and kind and just good so that others will take that example and run with it.
That's the best way to keep people honest.
But what do I know? I'm a stranger.
The best way for me to describe it would be for an artist to look at a piece of art. Whether you're a writer, painter, sculptor, musician... anything... you're always blind to your work. It doesn't matter how many people love it because you may think it's absolute rubbish. Conversely, you may defend your work with more voracity than you would another piece of work because it's your work. Do you see? You're 'too close' to the 'project'. In this case, the work of art is yourself.
Personally, I had a difficult time looking at myself honestly. I was never pretty enough, smart enough, or anything enough to suit me. I finally realised after years of angsting over myself that I was, in fact, pretty and -- if not actually 'smart' -- half-way intelligent. I had to convince myself that I was "good" enough to be happy. And that didn't bring me any sort of happiness, let me tell you internet.
Instead of feeling liberated, I felt naked. I felt wronged, in some way, because I had been so caught up on myself that I failed to see those around me, and how I affected them. This past year hasn't exactly been the best for personal relationships or familial relationships. I've lost more than I've gained. I won't say that it doesn't hurt, or doesn't make me sad. What I will say is that I have no regrets.
What is regret but wasted emotion? You spend all your time loving someone, making something, not loving someone, not making something... whatever it was that you were or weren't doing... and then you're expected to discount your actions to the point where you "regret". You can't change the past, but you can create a future. You can recognise what you did that wasn't on par with what you probably should have been doing, and you can learn from your past. That's what it's there for, that's why it's past. There's no use trying to change it. What happens, happens. Who are we to try to plaster those holes?
I talk about regret a lot. I talk about how wanting something else to have happened instead of what did is useless. Do I wish that things in my past hadn't happened? Absolutely. ("I wish that I'd listened to my maternal grandparents more before they passed away." "I wish that maybe I hadn't lacked the stoicity to be done with boys I've dated." "I wish that maybe I hadn't had that whole bottle of wine last night.") I'm sorry that things have happened the way they did. I'm sorry about a lot of stuff. I feel shamed about a lot of stuff, because it brings shame to my family, as well. But who I am, where I am, what I am... is all a product of my actions. And I'm in a pretty good place. It could be better, but without "better", what's the rest of your life for?
-
Sometimes, it feels like I put too much of myself out there. Sometimes it feels like not enough. Too much, because I have an overwhelming feeling of "being responsible" for others, and not enough because it still does no good. The only thing I can do for others is be there and keep them honest.
What is honesty, though? What does "keep them honest" mean? Is that supposed to mean that I stop people when they're talking and say "You're a lying liar who lies like a dog"? Or is that something more subtle? Is that an example others are supposed to follow?
It kind of reminds me of Carrot in the Discworld Series. He's got "bags of krisma" and personality and treats everyone "like they're jolly good chaps". In turn, even the most notorious of criminals in his city don't want to let Carrot down. Because CARROT is such a great guy.
What I think is that we should take this character and attempt to learn from his example. We should be fundamentally good people and be honest and kind and just good so that others will take that example and run with it.
That's the best way to keep people honest.
But what do I know? I'm a stranger.
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